Development Cycle Archive
Thread: IT 7-4: Experimentation Resource Quality
No one asked for this change. No one needs this change. No one wants this change.
Simple enough? Get it together, or you're gonna find a LOT of empty servers soon, as your players migrate to games with developers that LISTEN to them.
TouYuan wrote:
And for some reason it is ok for you all to insist, expect and feel you deserve reports from the unpaid players on TC... and you do not see that as a problem? Also, the players Audio is asking for reports from, just happen to be the same ones he comes by and flames on a rather constant basis in their own forum, what wouldgive him a inkling of a clue that these people would want to even take part in the same community as him, nevermind something more?
Yes, it's okay for us to insist on getting reports from people who play on TC. Forget that Audio has flamed people he's ONE person, he's not the entire contingent of board followers. The point of playing on the TC is to TEST game aspects, I can't reproduce my character on TC, I'm not going to grind him out again.
Does that make me less than you? Because I'm not a full time Tester? Does that make me part of an inferior community to you?
We're ALL the same community SWG players, and if you'd come around to that point of view maybe the interactions between Testers and those people who feel the final affects of your testing, would be smoother.
SWG-Runesabre wrote:
Greetings!
I have reviewed this thread thus far. From what I have evaluated, here are the top concerns with the changes to experimentation in Publish 7:
1) Quality and frequency of certain rare resources. Certain resources spawn very infrequently and when they do they are usually low quality.
2) Variety in the crafting market. There aren't enough meaningful attributes that people buying crafted goods care about thus making it so every crafter will be experimenting on the same attributes for weapons, armor, etc. producing clone products.
The crafting designers will be evaluating the experimentation changes next week. I would greatly appreciate feedback based on actual testing on Test Center; that will provide the most meaningful feedback we can use for our evaluations.
Thank you!
annnddd....
the half dozen or so multi billionaire master 12 point armor and weaponsmiths will simply stock up on "pre patch" items... and the stuff they already sell for 750k will inflate further...
making the disgustingly rich get richer and the poor get poorer. New crafters just wont have a chance at all.
I haven't been on test and tested how this is going to change armorsmithing. I am not quite a master (4/3/4/4) on live and -hate- a never ending grind so am not rising to armorsmith in a day even on my main character (novel concept, I want to -enjoy- playing her). If I could copy her as she is to TC, I would happily run the not quite master tests and see how it stacks against what I am doing on Live.
Without exact duplication of resources and skill level (including any cloth attachments) between a Live armorsmith and a Testing armorsmith, there really is no substansive way to quantify how the changes to experimentation will really affect final quality. The resources on TC are different than the ones on the Live servers. Under the present system, the armorsmith skill levels would likely be different as well since it is highly unlikely a single player would have gone through the expense of getting clothing attachments on both servers.
From all I have read, this crafting system will reward the character with more money, the one which has been in game longer or the one whose player has spent real-life money to purchase in-game credits and/or resources.
I recently left another SOE game because of my utter disgust at the prevalence (and complete disregard for the presence of) RL money running the game, not just in the guise of "dedicated" vs casual player (and I was one of the pretty obsessive players, playing on average probably close to 80 or 90 hours a week) but in the specific of what one player is willing to pay in RL money for items, currancy, and even characters or their "skill" increases.
The thing I have enjoyed most about SWG has been the crafting system. This will likely destroy a large portion of that enjoyment because I will (again) refuse to compete with the RL money thrown around and thus will be relagated to a very very very small portion of the game (and in-game will likely only have those customers come to me out of A) pity and loyalty to a friend or B) because they can't afford any better (and I would reduced to pricing at about the cost of acquiring the resources to make my goods even attractive at all). It would be more lucrative to harvest resources for the "real" armorsmiths, those whose only virtue is having been around longer or using RL money to augment their in-game economics.
-Tess Ainwyn
Temenos Island, Naboo
Kettemoor
I wish SOE could do something other than nerf.... nerf.... nerf.... nerf.... nerf..... What really makes it disgusting is they nerf then use Blunderheart to try and convince us that WE asked for said nerf and as is Thunderduds habit, usual, he uses ZERO evidence to support the claim.
I've gotta hand it to SOE for having the nerve to implement nerf after nerf after nerf in the face of growing MMO competition. City of Heroes out soon, Lineage 2 out next month, and of course the big daddy World of Warcraft out sometime this year.
There is nothing wrong with the current crafting system. Itis very fun, enjoyable, rewarding, and allows each crafter to produce unique custom made products which gives individual crafters a sense of pride in their work. Many of my close crafting friends areplanning to leave the game shortly after this nerf goes live because they forsee crafting to no longer be fun. By the way, the patch notes say nothing of fun or better crafted items, it says "more interesting, challenging, and easier to understand." - sugar coated wording for NERF.
I'm really dissapointed with all the nerfs I've seen in this game. This crafting nerf serves one purpose, to reduce the power of weapons and resists of armor all in preparation for the upcoming combat revamp -and just the sound of "revamp" scares me. I imagine masters of elite combat professions shouting "kaadu hunting party forming" in theed. Groups of 15+ elite members just to solo the borgle bat cave, and krayt dragons? Impossible. It seems like with each balance and revamp comes MOBs with higher HAM and players with weaker weapons & armor.
I'd suggest leaving the crafting system alone, with a few exceptions. Keep the reduction of critical failures for masters as stated in publish 7. Crafters keep any and all components from a critical fail; so only thing we'd lose is the resources.
Utess is not a good representation of craftspeople, TH. I mean, Artisan experimentation for swoops is a single line craft! That means, I only have one thing to put all my points in!
...and, it relies ononly 2resources (non-Fe and Fe metal) and...those resources need to haveonly 1high quality! Shock resistance! That is not a great representation of every other crafting profession! Sub-components? Multiple resource stats? Those are the epitome of most crafts.
Scrap this "enhancement" to the crafting system. You've done a GREAT job with other aspects of combat to prevent people from doing things like soloing Krayts. Ham increases, resistance changes, to name 2 (although the bleed nerf sucks - I mean, 4 years ago, Verant was able to program DoTs so that druids couldn't kite for full damage. In this time, you've actually LOST the ability to create coding where people running from bleeds cause the bleed tohave 1/10th the effect? Impressive. Mos...nfm.)
I am sure you can find another way to equalize the game without resorting to destroying the crafting professions. Please?
-Snift
vonbloodworth wrote:
maby they want to bring the #'s on weapions and equipment down to a more reasionable level?
the #'s in this game are starting to read like some FF title....
"you have hit for 99999"
im starting to think this is for one reaion only...to lower the bar.
thuss making content more challanging...and i bet they have some more changes comming to better the game to.like armor...could this be step one to making comp NOT the end all be all of armor?
im thinking yes....
I can't really comment on how the new crafting changes actually work because I hate grinding and I really don't feel like grinding a master crafter on testcenter. What I do know is that all of the sweeping changes every patch are horrible for the player economy. It sounds like the experimentation changes are going to make creating good pets almost impossible for me, but I should be able to make even better tissues. The vendor changes are going to make it so that I have to rely almost completely on doing special orders, and I won't even be able to put those special orders on a vendor because I won't be able to group things together in a bag and put them on a vendor anymore. Since publish 7, the tailor economy seems to be dominated by quest schematics and the loot which is required to make them. Both of these are impossible for many of us to get ourselves and those who were not rich before the patch have no chance of participating in this part of the economy. This is what I see happening with the experimentation changes too. Those who have old pre-patch items and people who have been able to stockpile the best resources will completely dominate the market and no amount of grinding to master will be able to help new players. For the majority of crafters, it is like going through a great stock market crash every publish and they have to struggle to survive until they see how the market settles out (which only usually lasts a week or two before the next big change). The "big time" players with huge stockpiles of cash and resources have enough of a buffer to smooth out some of the instability, but most crafters don't. I guess what I am saying is that is impossible to have a workable player economy when it is drastically and forcibly changed so often.
Jumas wrote:
Some (not so) quick notes (apparently) :
I dont play on test center, so I haven't tested anything myself . . .