Development Cycle Archive
Thread: AT-ST changes on Test Center
Thunderheart Wrote:
Going forward, DoT's are being balanced along with the rest of the combat system and after all of the combat changes are made, Faction Point costs will be reduced and brought into line with everything else.
Fair enough. Let me add that with the DoTs, it's important to either get some sort of healing mechanic implemented for the AT-ST or price its inability to be healed into the FP cost. The fire DoT does a lot of wound damage, the cumulative effect of which is to turn an AT-ST into a walking paperweight with blasters. Although the new HAM levels ease the pain of this, I still can't see one surviving more than a couple heated engagements without some way to repair its damage.
Thunderheart Wrote:
You are correct. The metric for an AT-ST is one. It was unclear at the time and I did a bunch of research today and verified it before we go to live with the changes. One AT-ST per Imperial player.
I realize that the topic at hand is the AT-ST balance, but when I wrote this I really had all faction pets in mind and not just it. I was having and still have some trouble accepting the idea that one's CH skill should dictate how many Dark Stormtroopers, Storm Commandos or what not one should be able to control. Doesn't faction rank make more sense for this, especially in light of faction pets' removal from non-factional PvE?
By the way, I personally agree on the "One AT-ST rule". I've seen players wielding 3 of them while Holocron hunting at the Force Crystal Caves on Dantooine and witnessed first-hand their ridiculous power. I do wonder what will happen to those who have spent the 30K+ FP to get 3 of them. Will they retain all 3, only being allowed to call one at a time? Will 2 of them poof? Will there be some kind of FP refund?
P.S. - Can you get Xahn to look into unrestricting the HTML tag "<p dir=ltr>"? The GUI editor generates these, but when you go to post the forum software rejects it. Unrestricting this tag should eliminate 90% or more of all "eaten" posts.
Thunderheart wrote:
Lexy wrote:
TH, just wondering if you've actually gotten an AT-ST like the rest of us imperials have had to, or if you just were given one. Because for those of us that had to grind for days or weeks to get one, we wince when we see one in PvP now as well. We aren't glad to have it on our side, all it does is bring out all the rebel flamers, literally. One shot, and it's dead. I wince when I see one, because I know that one shot will ruin a fellow imperial's hours and hours of gameplay. I know I never bring mine out in pvp, why risk losing it? I've had 2 one-shotted before, not going to lose my third.
Actually I've never had one myself. When Im an Imp, Im a Doc in combat and usually run around healing other players while my team mates handle the pets. But for the sake of discussion, when I play on live, I dont "give" myself anything. I actually spend all of time playing on live servers as a "regular player" so i dont get too far away from the issues.
Like I said, when it comes to PvP usage of AT-ST's, I agree that it can bepretty harsh in many situations.
Maybe you start to understand our ire, TH. Even you provide grand statements about how harsh it is but tell us that AT-ST earners have to pay the penalty in reduced usability of our perk for the past month to wait our this combat adjustment. In the mean time we continue to lose our perk to people with hammers in 3 seconds while the rebels whine about not being able to kill a tank with their CDEF pistol.
But hear me out. Right now, the combat system is being rebalanced and if we micro-manage specific issues like FP costs or other small issues, they will be out of whack again when the overall system is re-balanced. We have to wait for the combat re-balancing to take place and FP costs will come down once we can look at things in the context of a larger picture.
When it comes to DoT's though, there are changes being made right away because that's next on the list and you will get some relief their soon.
Remove that fire DoT and GCW is back on mate. Coming to Anchorhead!
Wait, so does that mean that a MCH won't control 3?
AT-ST's? Correct.
Is this ever slated to increase with rank?
And what about other factional requisitions, like stormtroopers?
For now, yes, but we think thats silly too. I don't know whenits slated to change yet, but it is.
Change to what?
What exactly does this mean?
I'll tell you as soon as I can. Its about a week too early for me to say. We have to finish a couple of things internally before it becomes a done deal and I can share the details.
I'm cool with that. I can wait. The mystery to me is what finally prompted some response after the previous 23 pages of comments seem to have been ignored. I swear it's harder to figure out feedback from devs than the FS slot!
Cafa Asia
I am NOT a wookie!
You just made being Imperial and everything about it more worthless then it was before. The game will be full of rebels more so then it already is, making it less balanced then already so. You make decisions based on the user community? That seems a bit harsh since it’s very biased with the number of rebels. The rebels want it easier and the imperials want it easier, and since the rebels out number the imperials I wonder who gets what they want. I think you should fix so many things before you break things that actually work. Almost every post I see here is negative and almost everyone I talk to in the game is mad about one thing or another. I’m not sure the last time I seen a positive post or comment about any of the recent changes that were not bug fixes. Having a Creature Handler control NPC pets is one of the dumbest things I ever heard, not like someone with three grauls needs anymore pets or help. I think that is completely backwards. There are way too many creature handlers out there and it is by far the fastest way to level another profession. This isn’t balance this is silly and **edit** near stupid. You know how many people you see outside Mos Eisley on Tatooine on auto pilot for 12+ hours using some external program to make their pets attack things? If you are going to make this profession so powerful at least make it harder to acquire.
Good luck with your balancing act, but my bets are on you falling flat on your face.
Carbineer/Doc/Neutral
Anyone else think Imperial seems more like rebel then being rebel?
I think it is funny as I read this thread and here people complaining about the Rebels being so under powered and the Imperials doing the same as they are upset over the ATSTs.
What Thunderheart said about the Empire getting a boost sounds exciting to me. I play as a Rebel and I think it would be far more entertaining for life to suck as it did during this time period for the Rebels. I think all the Rebels need to remember the point SWG is taking place in the Rebels were not doing well still. The Empire still has far more resources at there disposal. They were still in control of far too many systems and still had a large army and fleet.
Things I'd like to see is make Rank mean something. Also perhaps display your rank by your name when your Overt. I'd also like to see things be more complicated for Rebels and easier on Imperials. That would help shift at least some more people to the other side making the intergalaxtic war far more interesting. I'd like to see more rebel bases attacked, less static rebel bases they should move around so they don't get caught by the empire. Also get rid of all the silly Rebel recruiters and mission terminals sitting openly in cities. Why havn't the Imperials killed them yet? It should be inconvient to be a Rebel.
Bring it on Thunderheart !
For the Devs. Let me tell you a little story about STAR WARS.
A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far Far Away...
Episode IV ( A New Hope )
--Fast Forward through Scroll--
IMP STAR DESTROYER (State of the Art) Takes over an out dated Corellian Cruiser (Rebels are poor)
(Rebels sorta win because 2 droids escape to continue mission) Fair? Unfair? Where there's a will, there's a Way. Not Equipment. (Don't Nerf AT-ST's)
--Fast Forward--
IMP DEATH STAR Destroys a Planet (State of the Art) Over Powered (Tons of Faction Points to get)
(Rebels blow it to crap with outdated X-Wings) Fair? Unfair? Where there's a will, there's a Way. Not Equipment. (Don't Nerf AT-ST's)
--EJECT--
--INSTERT EPISODE V--
--Fast Forward through Scrolling--
Thousands of Probots search the Galaxy for Rebel Base (State of the Art)
--Fast Forward--
AT-ST and Many AT-AT's walk HOTH. (State of the Art) Over Powered (MAJOR TON of Faction Points to get)
(Rebels tie a string around one and it falls. Luke Puts a Grenade in another. It Falls. Standard Rebel Weapons, uneffective) Fair? UnFair? Where there's a Will there's a Way. (DON'T NERF AT-ST's)
--EJECT--
--INSERT EPISODE VI--
--FAST FORWARD--
2nd Death Star (After Grinding for even MORE FP's) Blew no less than 3 Rebel Cruisers into space dust. (State of the Art)
(Rebels destroy with 2 easy shots to the center of core) Fair? UnFair? Don't NERF the AT-ST's
--EJECT--
---------------------------------------------
Overall, Imperials have High End State of the Art weapons and equipment.
Rebels have always found a way around them with their outdated equipment and lack of armor.
In this game, Rebels already outnumber Imperials. One Rebel taking out an AT-ST with a friggin' Flame Thrower and a Doctor nearby to buff 5x their normal HAM is BULL! Unless you're a Jedi/Jedi Trainee.
In The Movies/Books. The Imps were the Threat. In The Game, Imps are the Joke.
Don't Hose Us! Stay WITH the Movie/Books. Creature handling should be Removed if this is to be true to books. 1 Ugly sucker in RoTJ in Jabba's Palace doesn't mean the Galaxy was full of them. --Off Topic, Why are all the Hutt's ))Something the Hutt(( We don't say Han Solo the Human or Greedo the Rodian.... Anyway.
DO NOT NERF AT-ST's MAKE THEM STRONGER!
Sorry for the Quality of the Above as It's only available on VHS and not DVD.
Oh yeah, DON'T NERF the AT-ST's
This is certainly somber news for the minority of the galaxy (Empire).
How about just giving the Recruiters permission to requisition old used up AT-STs and Troopers by giving some of our faction points back...I'd settle for 75%.
Then I can purchase furniture for my home and forego the AT-ST paperweight.
Kudos to Dyseman on your rendition of SWG...came in crystal clear from my end. ::grins::
The other night because i honestly just dont care about the game anymore because of changes i decided to use my at-st's pvp because of town ban and not enough time to get out was killed multiple times. causeing major decay on everything. figured screw it. Went back with at-st's. One comando after dying 2 or 3 times and comming right back destroyed all 3 of them in a matter of 2 minutes. Someone needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Then the csr's have no way of communicating with the dev's? to pass on info of bugs i was told. Not even complaints go from csr's to dev's. csr's say to post feedback here but it is hard to believe that these posts are even being read if they keep killing the game. I am done with this game "uninstall" and pulling all my friends off this game as well untill I hear from the little birdie that something has been changed. "refuses to hold breath" Peace out all you players, eventually all the dev's will be out of a job because all the imps will quit and rebels will get sick of the game.
I do not think limiting any kind of action because the devs made a mistake, to be fair. ( Faction units ) And the CH connection is so wonderfully short-sighted, because the power vacuum these AT-ST's now leave behind, will be filled with MORE Creature Handlers. How many CH's do you want in the game?
As for the agonizing stories of the poor CH's and their oh so hard earned points, that must have made the devs cry their buckets full. No less than a pet PvE monopoly was enough for them!!! And the devs played along. Marvellous. Where are the droids engineers, now, I guess dead men cant cry???
People have suggested that Rank should limit the AT-ST availability, but who want to listen to people who plays the game, if they are no CH, eh? Oh, and have you noticed these few faction unit disadvantages?
1. Permadeath. ( One life )
2. Owner can and WILL be attacked BY OTHER PLAYERS. ( And their pets )
3. Faction Unit can and WILL be attacked by other players. ( And their pets )
4. They actually do cost something, especially the AT-ST.
5. Not an disadvantage, but worth mentioning: Any CH could ALSO join the Empire and have an AT-ST.
6. At-ST's cannot be healed/repaired.
7. Weakness in AT-ST protection against certain damage. Players don't dare to use them in amny situations. ( Look at Point 4, and 1. )
8. AT-ST not used in PvP because of nerfs, now limited mostly to the field where it hardly was used. HAHA!
9. Now the number of faction units shall be ONE! Thanks to the cry babies!
I don't want to hear about how bad it is for the CH's, they are the DOMINANT player group. Of COURSE CH's make noise. Even I want to be a CH, for there are hardly anything else left now.
If the devs can limit the faction support uses today, it means they can make more funny rules the next time they throw in some game mechanics that blows up in their face.
I would not blame the AT-ST users in the end, I blame the devs who chickened out, because they could not handle the situation.
Sorry to be so negative, but when people go... "I can understand the AT-ST had to be restricted to faction missions and PvP", it means the war was already lost. One restriction today, unchallenged. 20 tomorrow, because THEY CAN.
Oh yes, and if we say Creature Handlers should have disadvantages in PvP, since our faction units is nerfed to kingdom come, that is unrealistic. Of course. They have earned their right to destroy balance in SWG! Not bad, for one profession. The one profession to rule them all.
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