Development Cycle Archive
Thread: State of the Game Letter from JustG
Thunderheart wrote:
From time to time, Gary Gattis writes a letter to the community to go over the details of where we are and where we are going.You can findJustG's State of the gamehere.
Kudos to gary on an informative letter 
!
Is there any chance on "from time to time" being say moreregular (not saying every month etc) as this outlook on where we are going is really helpful in forming that ever elusive picture of what is intended by you guys in red! Note I am not really fussed who does it (as long as they live up to the standard that has been set 
)but a bi-monthly state of the game letter (or quarterly if you are really pushed for time) would be really useful to keep us up to date with how you think things are going to pan out 
Tathir wrote:
Astromech stats would say otherwise. The Pvp Crowd is very vocal, but they by no means make up the largest majority of the playerbase. In fact, Astromech states something completely contrary.
Well Tathir, when you have a poorly designed PvP system and an even poorer designed GCW, you could well expect the numbers to be grim.
Most potential PvPers were waiting for the combat patch, which is basically on permanent hold. Since I do not intend on grinding any other professions, it would seem in my best interest to cancel my subscription every other month. I can say with extreme clairity, that many of my guild friends feel the same way and on a daily look at our online roster, the fact is the numbers are dwindling.
Death Watch Hideout Opens
According to Shug, the Death Watch are an offshoot of the Mandalorians, the ancient group of mercenaries who were all but wiped out by the Jedi long ago. Fortunately, the Death Watch still survives, and thisadventure will allow players the chance to battle these rogue Mandalorians and collect some very special loot!
Star Destroyer Opens
The second of our "space-based" adventures. This time, players will be able to explore the interior of a Star Destroyer! Details are still being worked out, but the interior is already pretty far along and looks great.
These dungeons look great and i look forward to them. However, they look like they won't be addressing my main dungeon issue: solo content.I love group dungeons and am all for them, but you have to strike a balance. The Devs have said that they want the game to be accessable to the casual player who doesn't have much time, and groups can take a very long time to put together. I'm not saying every dungeon should be soloable (most shouldn't), and I'm not saying the ones that are should be easy. I think a good policy would be every third dungeon being soloable by a high-end character with moderate buffs. (meaning it could be done fairly easily with a group of 2 or 3). Again, you just need a balance between the two.
A better solution would of course be scaling based on difficulty, but i advocate the former because it requires no new coding.
Last year we finished getting in several key systems after Launch (Player Cities, Player Mounts, and Player Vehicles).
As Opposed to Chris Mayers'
and finally the excitement of finishing up the systems we wish we had launched with (namely player cities and vehicles).
Again, thanks for mentioning mounts. I guess at least some of the dev team considers them (/glare).Now go fix em!
We have made a decision to address major combat issues only and not do the full combat balance at this time. After the Crafting Experimentation experience, we realized that we need to spend more time than a single publish to truly accomplish our goal, which is to make combat fun and engaging. To have the depth to combat that I think everyone wants in the system we want get much more player feedback and balance on these types of things. We will be developing the Combat Balance separately in a Sandbox over a long period of time, with plenty of Test Center and correspondent participation. We will release this one when it is ready... and not before.
And more importantly, DO IT ALL AT ONCE! One reason given for the massive CH nerfs is that the other professions will be brought in line with them with the combat balance. "Balancing" (read: nerfing) one class before you do all the other is wholly unfair, and I don't want to see it happen again. (although it might give some people sympathy towards CHs...)
Death Watch Hideout Opens
According to Shug, the Death Watch are an offshoot of the Mandalorians, the ancient group of mercenaries who were all but wiped out by the Jedi long ago. Fortunately, the Death Watch still survives, and thisadventure will allow players the chance to battle these rogue Mandalorians and collect some very special loot!
Well, well, i wonder what that special loot is..... hmm......
I'm not against Mandalorian Armor being added to the game, but it really has to be done right. It should be VERY difficult to get and VERY rare. I can easily see 90% of high-end players having a suit within a month after the dungeon opens. Don't let that happen. (this should NOT be one of the soloable dungeons :smileywink
Death Watch Hideout Opens
According to Shug, the Death Watch are an offshoot of the Mandalorians, the ancient group of mercenaries who were all but wiped out by the Jedi long ago. Fortunately, the Death Watch still survives, and thisadventure will allow players the chance to battle these rogue Mandalorians and collect some very special loot!
Well, well, i wonder what that special loot is..... hmm......
I'm not against Mandalorian Armor being added to the game, but it really has to be done right. It should be VERY difficult to get and VERY rare. I can easily see 90% of high-end players having a suit within a month after the dungeon opens. Don't let that happen. (this should NOT be one of the soloable dungeons :smileywink
OMG! I saw smuggler revamp! Woohoo! lol I'll maybe be back into my smuggler profession be then..lol
I give SOE a dificult time and knocked the letter earlier this week as a complete waste of time, but I'm definetly willing to give people their due
Great letter, JustG.
This is the sort of thing the community needs more of, and I'm glad to at least have more of a general idea of where things are going.
It would, however, be nice to have a bit more specific information on certain things you listed such as "Combat Profession Bug Fixes" which is a bit vague of course. Also, it would be nice if we could hear some official comments on the Jedi Bounty system and what plans you guys are developing (I hope) to fix it, along with the worsened base vunerability time shifts still hanging around unanswered from last publish.
It is nice to see your goals but 3-4 months before we see revitalized combat now? I have been keeping my friends ingame by telling them combat is being redone and not going to be a spamfest of specials and now almost a half year before we see anything from it?
I am just curious how the jedi population gets precedence over most everything else? There are plenty of non fun things in combat now, and while I thought the grind was dumb as well as you guys, why cant that wait 3-4 months and give us our combat revamping and GCW fixes sooner?
You realize soon as something is released with combat that is fun your going to see a mass exodus ingame.
Dont get me wrong, I stick up for the game when can but why are the goals so out of whack? Whens the last time any crafter got some new items that werent parft of a limted use schematic and its requirements werent rare drops being sold for half a million credits.
I still see plenty wrong with the game for jedi's to get that much loving already when its basically the newest class out the door.
There are 2 reasonI wanted to play this game.
1st)To be a jedi
2nd)To partipate in the GCW.
It seems all the next publishes will be fluff. What i mean by that is added content. That may have been a good formula for everquest. But this is a universe based on conflict, good vs evil. I want to see the combat balance first and foremost and then the jedi revamp. Then you can add all your fluff. Its really simple take all of your people who are programming the fluff and have them spend a week testing and making the rebalance. Im sorry but this game is more like a FPS than you think. I get a rush out of fighting another player. To be dismissed by every other class out there is dishearting(im a commando). We have been told for 3 months now, wait for the rebalance and now your saying another 3. I dont think so. Fluff works for games with no story or background. I want to see Imperials in force wreaking havoc on rebel bases. I want to see large rebel counter attacks. This all has to be done before some new dungeon thatIll goonce too,gets into the game. I pvp almost every day, a dungeon at best is a 2 time event, not something to keep me interested. Work on whats important, and stop listening to all the fan boys. You could tell them "we are removing your class" and they would be like " woopie ya we love ya guys, good job". Im serious contemplating quitting the game and never coming back, just as I did with everquest. The serious lack of communication between the REAL community members and the Devs was definately a major reason why i quit. If these changes go in the order as proposed it will also be the reason I quit this game.
Ranelan
Master Commando - Colonel in the Imperial Forces