Development Cycle Archive

how about some "in concept" wookiee armor

then maybe in test and then maybe in the frickin' game.

I like the idea of the Mining profession. I think the special feature of the Mining profession should be the ability to combine two resources to make a whole new resource with a slightly better set of stats than the average of the two original resources. I think other resources should be gatherable in a crude form through harvesters, then the Miner would be needed to turn the resource into a pure and usefull form.

Database Integrity (Hoping this gets to JustG @ company)

Okay, to start off, pardon the rather lengthy post but I don't know a better place to post this. I started thinking about this issue when I read that players who don't log in for 3 weeks will no longer be considered residents of cities.

I think most of the live servers are becoming more unstable all the time. On Chilastra, it's fairly common to find signs hanging in mid-air with no building attached. I'm guessing that this is an indicator of an orphan object. At one time there was a house there and it was re-deeded or decayed.

At a wild guess, the sign was on another server from the house, and thus the sign stayed in place after the house vanished. The BEST (least worrisome) possibility is that the house is still there, but hasn't loaded yet.

We hear stories of 300 buildings being administered by a single player. Somehow I suspect that quite a few of those are on lots belonging to characters that haven't been on the server in more than a month.

What I think needs to be done is have a database verification done periodically or a slow continuous one (maybe only when server load drops under a certain margin).

EVERY account and object needs be scanned periodically. At minimum, they need to be verified once every Major Publish.



Symptomatic Related Problems and Suggestions

Lot adjustment.
This can get out of whack either way. I've had structures get stuck in 'marker' mode -- but taking up a lot. Every time I see one as I travel around I wince in remembered pain for the first time it happened to me. A month after it happened to me the first time, I got a CSR response and was fortunately able to locate the bug'd structure to delete it with the slash command.
I've placed structures just before a server crash and ended up with missing lots.
I know of a few characters that have ended up with 11+ lots on a single character. Don't know if they're lost if you ever have it display 11+ or not, somehow all those characters have been careful to NEVER pickup every structure on their lots.
Every so often, the lots need to be verified. The database and programming must be able to handle negative numbers of lots. In extreme cases, it should be flagged for CSR and/or Dev review (and lost account if done maliciously?)

Orphaned / Legacy Structures.
I'm in a guild that has a well-planned city. Our planning committee spent probably 100+ hours thrashing out ideas and planning where everything should go, etc. Surprise, in the middle of our 'mall' area, there's a house. No one knew whose house it was, no one has seen anyone enter or exit it. We finally have decided that it probably belongs to a guild member who quit the game several months ago.

I don't know if he's paid-up to Sony or not, we assume he placed 100k+ in his house before he logged out for the 'last' time.
My solution to this would take a fair amount of coding time, but I think would be usable in MANY areas that are giving tough problems to CSRs, Towns, and Dev plans. A new type of 'deed' needs to be developed. A 'composite' deed. Allow mayors to place on a voting terminal the option to redeed a structure with all items in it (when placed, all items inside the structure return as well). 60% of the residents have to vote for this to vote to carry. This allows guilds to handle griefers with existing structures in their city boundaries.
To reduce database performance issues, items in 'Composite' form are: 1) relocated to a backup database after verification. 2) redeeded only during server resets. 3) stay in 'marker' form until another server reset when placed.
Now, to reduce griefing by mayors, I think this option should be such that the flagged structure(s) will have some highly visible sign for say a week before they get deeded, and an email sent to everyone on the target structure’s admin list when the issue is first placed on the voting terminal.

Cities obstructing starport and POI access
The mechanics from the above could be used iteratively to remove most of these problems. If a city hall is too close to a POI, etc, force it to 'composite' deed form. HOWEVER, make sure that their slot as a certain level city is retained for several days so they can relocate w/o loosing their status.
Sending all civic structures into composite deed form at the same time would be a logical move imo. Best timing on this would seem to be when a city is examined for growth status. Give them their growth for the week, pay maintenance, etc. After all that is done, check locations and redeed. They have till the next growth cycle to replace their city so as not to loose their city status.
IMO, any structure that was w/in city limits gets the option during that week to be placed into composite form as well. That way residents can 'move' w/o the worst of the grief.

City hostile taker-overs and other griefing related tactics.
This isn't really a database bug, but is a problem (imo). Someone standing just outside the edge of a player-city boundary can use a deed and then scroll over and drop a structure w/in the city limits -- w/o having any building rights. I'm not certain, but I see no reason these same people couldn't then proclaim their residency in the new structure...
The main bug here is that the placing structure interface needs to examine zoning rights. If a player is standing w/in city limits, he needs everything outside the city limits to be a gold no-place code.

If he's not in a city limits, he needs to have anything inside city limits colored gold. This is also a problem with NPC cities to a lesser extent. If you try to place just outside the no-build zone, you have no graphical way of knowing if you are trying to drop it inside the no-build or not. Trying to place inside the no-build will just cause a failed drop.

Legacy structures in No-Build sites / planets.
Forcing these into composite form allows the player to relocate w/o as much extreme strain. It sucks for them, but it does allow the Devs to enforce the rules fairly. I'm suspecting that towns placed on the edge of the imperial / rebel bases with starports can grant zoning rights that allow folks to build inside no-build zones.... Forcing the city to move would ripple down. Obviously, you need to make a bit more stringent checks when a town hall or 'composite' town hall is placed.
Something like this would also allow city-warn to be returned in some form. I've visited a few POIs that are entirely w/in a player city's limits.

Orphaned structures part two.
If you're verifying the structures, items, characters, and lots, you have the opportunity to remove more of the cross-server trading, or at least make it more fair. Any structure that is owned by a character that hasn't been logged in for a few months should be forced into a 'composite' form. To reduce the angst of this, I think everyone on the structure's admin list should get an email a week before it goes composite. So I guess it only gets archived if they don't log in for 5 weeks.... This also makes it easier for folks to unexpectedly loose access to their characters for real-life reasons to return to the game. As long as they have a month and a half maintenance (or a friend on admin), they will be able to retrieve their items and structures. Perhaps to reduce exploiting this, make it that no 'normal' structure can be placed while the player has a 'composite' deed in his inventory. And of course, such deeds are no-drop, no-trade, etc.
Database issues will be reduced in the long run because the archived 'composite' items get placed into another database during normal play.

Lost Items from vendors
I don't have a 'good' solution for this. I personally know several crafters from the beginning of the game who are / have cancelled their accounts after their vendors ate their stocks. Quite a few people keep their most valued items on their vendors. CSRs have replied: 'Vendors were never intended to be used for item storage.' Okay, but you're totally destroying their character's trade if you don't let them have their items back in some form. One weaponsmith lost over 1 million of the best reactive gas, crates of pre-nerf weapons, etc. I think this happened when he got busy IRL for a few weeks and didn't tend his stock room frequently. Is there any second court of appeal via email, or should he just finish canceling 2 of his three accounts?

A new skill tree for the expansion or just to be added on. The Assassin. it would be perfect for a skill that would envolve the GCW. it would reqiure rifles 4 and one-handed 4 and MAYBE some scout skills (an assassin has to be able to run around by himself) to become a novice. then there would be a sniping tree (to take out a target at long range), a stealth/concealment tree (to sneak upontargets or around thier guards w/o notice) a stabbing/slaying tree (cant think of right word; to take out a target at close range) and a sabatoge tree (for explosive dealings in your missions as either distractions or means of termination). there could be assassin terminals or, more realisticly, NPCs that would give the missions. this would be an AWSOME proff as it would greatly effect the GCW with the killings of rebel/imp generals. even players that have very high ranks in their faction good become availible to master assassins and given a TEF to the assassin. Not sure about this but if the space combat is like the rest of the game (based on xp and skills earned) then the 4th tree could have something to do with space comabat and evasion instead of sabatoge as that would make more sence in the expansion.

Not sure if this is already on the armor smith forum or not....but heres my idea

give master armorsmith a schematic that allows them to make any type of armor with the same stats as composit....also give each armor there own special bonuses to resistant....its getting kind of old watching every1 run around in composit armor all the time.

-thoughts on this?

One of the best things in this game is that you can shape your charter to be self-sufficient in combat. Master a weapon, toss in some medic and a little scout and you have no need to depend on anyone else in combat.

One of the worse things about this game is the way grouping comes into play. Most PvEers are pretty much self-sufficient. They have some scount and medic skills along with a weapon skill. This means that most PvE players have no, or very little idea how to work in a group. Most groups I have been in have been nothing more then mass chaos and confusion.

One reason for this is that the /assist command is so weak. Here is what I would like to see. Typing /assist with a player mate targeted will change your target window to that players target. Typing /assist {Name} will change your target window to {Name}s target. Targeting a MOB and typing /assist will put the target of a MOB in combat in you target window. /assist should not open fire on your targets target. (I hope this makes sense)

What will this do for group combat? Manny things! First having the /assist command put your targets target in your target window, without opening fire, will allow you to target a group mate that is in trouble, /assist, and then use some type of knockdown, or poster change to buy your group mate a little time. Having /assist {Name} will allow you to have a true tank in a group. Letting the tank take the MOB, then the group can /assist {Name} and all open fire on the right target. Last, having /assist MOB change your target window to the MOBs target window will allow you to easily determine who the MOB is attacking and heal that person.