Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Great Expectations, Major Schedule Changes and making SWG the finest MMORPG ever
Squidwalker
Fri Jul 16, 2004 12:58 am
#833
Well, I'm very dissapointed to hear the CB is getting delayed. I really really really hope you guys have learned, as you said, what the community is expecting for a game that is also a service. It has become apparent that your def staff is limited, and you can't have people working on everything that needs work, at the same time. Personally, I think with the apparent limitations of your staffing, putting everyone on a single "task" what ever it be, focusing on it to get it done quickly and well, is best. Having limited resources spread out over several projects and trying to get them all done at once, and done well, obviously has not been going as well as it could have. With this change of development resources, I hope this means future stuff, will come out faster then it would have(once it gets started) and will less bugs/nerfes etc to go back to and fix. With less, "going back to fix" means you can move to the next one quicker.
Seeing as I held off changing my combat profession, pistoleer, and even contemplated dropping ranger for a while, waiting for the CB. I guess I can wait a little longer. Maybe I'll be in the JTL beta to keep me distracted. I hope to at least give the helpful input to the professions/combat getting tweeked over time.
Korveater
Fri Jul 16, 2004 12:58 am
#834
This is...well...not good.
I´ve never ever commented on a dev post during all my time as a subscriber, having understood the difficulties involved but this is by far the worst slap in the face ever. Not only is the Jedi Revamp already a failure since you cant be an Imperial overt for 10 minutes without being killed/routed by Rebel jedis, now the completely insane pvp- and combatsystem postponed for almost 1 year?!
And that for JTL? Something that really should have been there for the beginning...but now since everyone is used to not flying spaceships it should be of higher priority to fix the problems of the already existing systems, not introducing new ones, with more problems attached.
I´m really, really disappointed and believe this is the wrong decision from a management pov. Lots of subscribers will leave the game.
Thunderheart
Fri Jul 16, 2004 12:58 am
#835
fatgit wrote:
Seeing as Jedi and CH got "balanced" (CH's MONTHS ago), can we expect these profs to be "un-balanced" until the balance ?
The Combat Balance will now be at least 1 year late if it goes live in November (we were told the CB would start in November 2003 for 3 months).
Yes. I'll be working with all of you and the correspondents to identify the most important changes and work with the team to add them.
AboveTopSecret
Fri Jul 16, 2004 12:58 am
#836
Hire more people. Duh. If you are that backed up and it is that big of a game then bring in some more devs. Its not like you guys dont have the funds. 500,000 active accounts x 14.99 per month = 7,495,000 every month you guys recieve. Thats almost 90 million a year. Even with maintaining the servers and paying the overworked devs and the managements deep pockets there are more than enough funds to hire an additional crew to help take the slack off. I think its time to hire a real management crew that isnt afraid to put the cards on the table and not bow down to office politics and focus on the game. In the end the faults in SWG may be the bugs and lack of direction but the ones behind this is the management. Think about it.
BlueCelt
Fri Jul 16, 2004 12:58 am
#837
Do you guys even READ the boards?
Do you know how desperately the Combat Balance is needed?
Raziel07
Fri Jul 16, 2004 12:59 am
#839
now im very curious by what u mean...
Thunderheart wrote:
downertool wrote:
so can we get a timeline kinda thing to show what is coming out when, like when JustG made a state of the game letter that showed what was in publishes and mini pubs
like this
The development cycle still has momentum and we still have some other important items, big and small, coming out of the pipeline.Here is what still lies ahead:
Publish 10 is slated for the end of August, but one of the reasons for these delays is to make as much room as possible for extra implementation and testing time.
Before publish 10, we plan on launching the character transfer system
In Publish 9.2 We’re publishing Wookiee armor sets #2 and #3, new crafting quests and the second swoop race
Publish 9.3 will bring us the third swoop race
Publish 10 will be the Jedi Trials.This will be the new gateway to the Jedi profession that will by a mysterious path to unlocking Force sensitivity.
Publish 10.1 is going to bring us an exciting surprise and also a list of Correspondent requests
Publish 10.2 is focused on the entertainers which features a unique new game experience where entertainers, Dancers and Musicians can perform for an NPC audience for the reward of a new song and dance.
Kylania
Fri Jul 16, 2004 1:00 am
#840
Kaessa wrote:
Tell yourself... "It's a video game. I'm having a fit.. over a video game." See how silly that makes you feel?
I spend more in amonth on coffee than I do on this game, and I have 3 accounts. Honestly. It's not like I'm spending a fortune on the game.
And I certainly won't rant about it for months on end before I go.
Ok Kaessa,
Lets assume for a moment that you love coffee, which you apparently do. You like to drink coffee every day. You hear about a great new coffee store with your FAVORITE type of coffee available. So you go and buy it and yum it's good. But.. there's some icky foam stuff in it that tastes bad. It's still good, and you still buy it but it's got this nasty foam in it.
So you sit there and sip your coffee with scum while the guy behind the counter says "Oh no problem, we'll have that scum taken care of next week." So you buy another week ofcoffee, your favoriate flavor, but it's still got scum in it? You ask and are told "oh, yeah we have a new machine coming in next week, have some more coffee, it'll be great!"
So you drink more coffee, still with this scum that seems to be getting worse. It's still the same scum from before when you started drinking your favorite flavor coffee, but now the cups are always dirty too. But still, you know they want to give you good coffee to you keep drinking coz you love coffee.
Eventually, a year later, you're drinking out of a crumbled paper cup since people who purchased the special Jeebee Cups get their coffee first. The scum is just as bad, but now there's a long line you have to wait in because the 3 people with Jeebee cups infront of you keep complaining that thier coffee isn't hot enough, or doesn't have enough cream in it yours is white (with scum..) why isn't their coffee whiter since they have Jeebee cups! During all this your scum keeps getting worse, your coffee keeps getting colder and the guy behind the counter keeps saying "Have more coffee, we have a NEW flavor coming with your favoriate topping soon, and we promise we'll get rid of the scum real soon now, why don't you buy a Jeebee cup! All our customers want Jeebee cups!"
Then the store mananger says they only have enough people to make one type of coffee, a flavor you don't like but those with Jeebee cups seem to like. You look down at your cold, hard, scummy, leakey paper cup, then up at the sign advertising the great new flavors in the special Jeebee cup and you wonder.. and you complain. You scream at the manager that you've been drinking coffee here for a year, but it's still scummy WHY! Them some cute little girl next to you says, "hey, if you don't like the coffee, go across the street and try some other brand" as she sips from her crusty mug of scum smiling at you. You really want this coffee though, not across the street but THIS coffee you've been drinking for a year and want more of, you just want it to taste better.
Would you still think there's no point in telling the manager what you want?
Xrool
Fri Jul 16, 2004 1:04 am
#841
BossOG wrote:Kaessa, I despise people like you.
Hey, lay off Kaessa. You have no idea how much she loves SWG or how much effort she puts in at the fansite at the SWG Vault on IGN.com. Check it out sometime, you just might find that she really does have the best intentions for this game at heart.
Worldmaker2k4
Fri Jul 16, 2004 1:07 am
#842
Kylania wrote:
Kaessa wrote:
Tell yourself... "It's a video game. I'm having a fit.. over a video game." See how silly that makes you feel?
I spend more in amonth on coffee than I do on this game, and I have 3 accounts. Honestly. It's not like I'm spending a fortune on the game.
And I certainly won't rant about it for months on end before I go.
Ok Kaessa,
Lets assume for a moment that you love coffee, which you apparently do. You like to drink coffee every day. You hear about a great new coffee store with your FAVORITE type of coffee available. So you go and buy it and yum it's good. But.. there's some icky foam stuff in it that tastes bad. It's still good, and you still buy it but it's got this nasty foam in it.
So you sit there and sip your coffee with scum while the guy behind the counter says "Oh no problem, we'll have that scum taken care of next week." So you buy another week ofcoffee, your favoriate flavor, but it's still got scum in it? You ask and are told "oh, yeah we have a new machine coming in next week, have some more coffee, it'll be great!"
So you drink more coffee, still with this scum that seems to be getting worse. It's still the same scum from before when you started drinking your favorite flavor coffee, but now the cups are always dirty too. But still, you know they want to give you good coffee to you keep drinking coz you love coffee.
Eventually, a year later, you're drinking out of a crumbled paper cup since people who purchased the special Jeebee Cups get their coffee first. The scum is just as bad, but now there's a long line you have to wait in because the 3 people with Jeebee cups infront of you keep complaining that thier coffee isn't hot enough, or doesn't have enough cream in it yours is white (with scum..) why isn't their coffee whiter since they have Jeebee cups! During all this your scum keeps getting worse, your coffee keeps getting colder and the guy behind the counter keeps saying "Have more coffee, we have a NEW flavor coming with your favoriate topping soon, and we promise we'll get rid of the scum real soon now, why don't you buy a Jeebee cup! All our customers want Jeebee cups!"
Then the store mananger says they only have enough people to make one type of coffee, a flavor you don't like but those with Jeebee cups seem to like. You look down at your cold, hard, scummy, leakey paper cup, then up at the sign advertising the great new flavors in the special Jeebee cup and you wonder.. and you complain. You scream at the manager that you've been drinking coffee here for a year, but it's still scummy WHY! Them some cute little girl next to you says, "hey, if you don't like the coffee, go across the street and try some other brand" as she sips from her crusty mug of scum smiling at you. You really want this coffee though, not across the street but THIS coffee you've been drinking for a year and want more of, you just want it to taste better.
Would you still think there's no point in telling the manager what you want?
That is sincerely the most appropriate, hilarious analogy I've ever read concerning this game.
Sivol
Fri Jul 16, 2004 1:11 am
#843
This thread just brings out the hate in everyone. People who usually never flame are joining in on the fun.
Ldwater
Fri Jul 16, 2004 1:12 am
#844
Wow, huge thread, looks like I have 0% of getting seen, so ill say it anyway:
TH: Didn't you guys forsee that the CB would need so much man power? Surely if your saying that the balance has as much code as a console game, that SOMEONE would have said "Gee, this is gonna take us alot longer than a month"?
Personally, the only reason why I (and maybe others) are sticking around is because of the very promising JTL, I hope that this isn't a distraction tactic so JTL comes out, the ground game gets much less attention and the heat is off to fix it?
Malicious1
Fri Jul 16, 2004 1:12 am
#845
the trueth is its really our fault for trusting a corperation folks,they do what they do,and we keep payin.
whose the idiots here?
soe has no track record for delivery of products,ontime,as portrayed,and working adequately.
they have a perfect track record of,misrepresenting future content,not fixing current bugs,not sticking to schedules.
and we still pay
jtl is just soe trying to ring another 50 bucks outa us to fund the current low level of game development....
you want to continue being sheeple please feal free to continue lining soe pockets,but sheeple you are,as long as you let them treat you like this on a continuing basis