Development Cycle Archive

here is a very heatfelt post from the Eclipse forums,

please, take the time to read it a hear what it's author had to say,

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Eclipse&message.id=317042

Haven't had to much time to play with all the changes but:

Badges - disappointing in a way. Yes it's nice to see what ones I don't have but the list is kind of long in some places and needs headers to split apart different types of badges. For me it was kind of overwhelming to sift through the ones I wanted and didn't want since it went on and on with no breaks... The part that frustrated me more was that the badges when you examine another player I had hoped would be on a second tab or something. I'd much rather see people's bio's then scroll through that mass of badges. That little bit alone would make a huge difference in some people's desire to get in to character instead of showing off their great grinding abilities.

GUI/Keyboard - Loved the new red on items.... I had no idea that some of my less used stuff was that bad. Makes going out and shopping much more fun because I can just glimpse at my inventory and say "Hey...need to replace that."

Prof: ID - Loved the new tents...awesome job! Now...when do we get some of those cool deco items.

Vehicle/Mounts: The new enter/exit system is great. Haven't had one problem and found that I am cursing at the screen as I try to enter the bike that I am trying to get off...for such a little change it makes a huge difference.

And though you didn't ask...love the new AFK feature but can you add in emotes too? Now all I see are people smiling over and over again for no reason...hehehe.

--Cardo

Omni City Undertaker

Weapon and Armor delays are worthless, over-nerfs that burden players for no legitimate reason. They need to go away now, and the devs need to find new solutions to the "ants they are trying to kill with nuclear weapons."

If I might offer 2 suggestions:

(1) Stacking of Weapon DOTS: Limit each HAM pool to one (and only one) DOT...whatever the latest dot is is the one that sticks. The most DOTs you can lay on a person is 3...one for each health/action/mind pool.

NOTE: I am talking about dots of a single type...a later bleed replaces an eariler bleed, but has no effect on a poison or disease. The latest dot of a single type wins.

(2) Jedi Armor: Take it away. Give jedi robes resistances that get higher as you get better robes. Jedi ALREASY have high defenses, and don't need full composite to survive. Jedi shouldn't be wearing armor anyway...that is why you and other devs said robes were intended to "replace" armor.

Players are REALLY mad about these delays, devs failure to tell us about them before implementation, and devs unwillingness to talk about them now (as evidenced by the fact that despite primal screams by players, you didn't even include the topic in any of your discussion threads). You need to fix this!

These are solutions that are narrowly tailored to the problems presented, and do not stupidly overnerf the game without regard to the 99% of players that are not effected by the unbalancing problem you are trying to fix...

_________________________________________
Yec O'Lar - Retired - WoW 4tw
Damage Incorporated
ban liam again!

I heard that vehicle speeds had been slowed down with publish 9 but I retested speeder bike and swoop and they are still going 15m/s and 16m/s. (300m in 20s or 18 s)

If they were slowed it is too little to notice.

-Indene-

Master Creature Handler - Kettemoor Nov 2003, Radiant Nov 13, 2005
http://www.swgcreatures.com/forums/phpbb2/index.php
Once Happy contented successful Master Merchant. (RiverBend, Naboo.)
Then came the dark times. The NGE
"its as if i heard a million pets cry out in terror...and they were suddenly silenced...i feel a great disturbance in the force"
We're the few, the proud, the Creature Handlers.
Creature Handler Memorial at -1419 283 Mos Mesric, Tatooine, Kettemoor
BE and CH museum at 6627 5365 Tatooine, Chimaera
Find me on MySpace

problems regarding the jedi revamp and ideas to solve them:

as is after publish 9:

- after publish9 there are tons of jedi around. at all starports one can see them in their
robes wielding lightsabers.

exampe given:
In Theed 2 jedi even fought 30 meters besides the imperial branch. Sorry, but this is wrong.
We are in a timeline were jedi are hunted down. Jedi have to hide. They may not use their

powers and reveal themselfes as jedi in public (even see them running around in robes and

wielding a light saber does offend a lot of people).
As devoted Star Wars fan I have to say that this destroys my and other peoples fun and
above all the Star Wars Feeling.

We do not want to see jedi all around and have the Empire standing next to them doing
nothing. It does not fit into Star Wars at this point.

Our passion for the game comes from the passion for the movies. It sad to see that with
every update you move further away from the movies.

The Jedi Trials made things much worse! Why? How many dungeons or interesting fight spots are there in SWG? Not many:
- Nightsisters, Elders
- Genosian Bunker
- Death Watch Bunker
- Tusken Fort
- Krayt Graveyard

to name the most. The Jedi trials have all these locations as target. E.G. Kill Ackley!!!
Now thats great having like 20 Jedi sitting in the Geno Bunker and killing everything.
How will a normal class be competitive to the jedi? Everyone has to become jedi to be able to keep up.

What will happen to the other30+ classes if everyone is about to become jedi? Who will need armor, weapons, etc.?

Ideas:

- Don't allow jedi to wear robes and sabers in cities (at least not in big or Empire
controlled cities) - Peple hate to see 10+ jedi at star ports

- Have unbeatable Commando Troopers or maybe even Vader himself spawn when a jedis offends
against this points (wearing a jedi robe and saber in big cities)
These troopers may teleport off the scene to prevent having xxx troopers standing around.

- make a filter, a "whole character filter" so one can enter the jedi name and does not have
to see or read/hear something from that char. may give problems if one fights an enemy were
also a filterred-out jedi fights but thats a smal issue.

- make a role-play-only server and allow people to move with items and cash (except jedi).
This may cost a fee (like moving everquest accounts)

- reintroduce the TEF. Every jedi running in big cities wielding a saber +wearing a robe
will get a TEF. Using force powers will give them a TEF.
It does not work to rely on people behave mature. You have to force them to not ruin the fun
of the majority.


For my part I have canceled my account. So did 2 of my friends. You will loose a lot more
customers because they want to play Star Wars online not KOTOR (Knights of the oldRepublic) online.

It is only a game but the feelings are real and I am really demotivated. I dont want to play a game which makes me angry and

sad.

A look into the future:
Add-on 2 "a gate to the past". The jedi council discovered an ancient gate to the past. Now jedi have the possibility to jump

back to the old republic and fight great wars. --> Welcome to EQ plane of time for all the jedi

kind regards
alex

I recently Experienced a PvP kill after which I received a system message stating...

(sorry,lol, i got an opposite faction member to db me so i could clone away from my location)

Soooo...

I'm really glad this made it into the game...I wish I could fight with wookies all the time...and can a Dev Please explain how this system works, and all other things associated with this...

-- can T'doshok females see my rating (gulp)

-- do i get a title or anything (i wont be taking the cloning express anymore)

-- Whaa, WOOT, holy crapola and other such suprised noises!!

I have a Jedi Character and wish to play the game in the spirit in which Jedi are portrayed in the films. Prior to Publish 9 I was therefore able to walk around in plain clothes unobserved by all, and this is how Jedi should be. Non jedi players therefore never realised that they interacted with Jedi on a regular basis and have been for some time now, but were unaware about it. I am tired of seeing Jedi dueling at starports brandishing sabers, wearing Jedi robes, and generally just becoming a common every day scene.

As such post Publish 9 I continued to play Jedi in the low visibility way I had pre Publish 9, wearing normal clothes 90% of the time and never wearing robes in the prescence of others, certainly not in populated areas. I attempted (with some success) to avoid combat in popular areas such as caves while other players were near, and when I did have to use my saber I made sure nobody had a line of sight to me (seemingly straight forward in a cave structure).

Imagine my surprise therefore while in the medic center at Theed (not wearing robes, saber unequiped) sat down, calmly awaiting a heal, when a Bounty Hunter comes in behind me and in 7 seconds kills me outright. No time to defend myself, no warning, no chance, 200k Jedi XP loss and stunned as to how the hell visibility must be working if I am on the Bounty Hunter Terminals after all my care and consideration of the spirit of keeping into the shadows!

Now I am not saying that I disagree with 200k XP loss in principle, but if the developers are not going to publish exactly how and what raises your visibility to the point of placing you on the Bounty Hunter terminals, then how can they expect the serious minded, visibility conscious Jedi to play the game in a way that would be appreciated by non Jedi players (ie staying unobserved and not drawing attention to yourselves)?

I subsequently find out that NOT wearing your robes actually makesyou more visible (whether by Bug or Design I know not). So I am now in the position where (assuming wearing robes makes you less visible) I have to wear my robes all of the time, and because of potential attacks by Bounty Hunters I must keep my saber equiped. I can not change robes and equip weapon quickly now because of the nerf to equiping armour by macro, by the time I equip my robes and draw my saber I would be dead.

All of you people complaining about how visible jedi are in the game now, I sympathise with you, but by bug or design the very code implemented by the developers has forced Jedi into their robes, sabers equiped, treating every blue dot approching them with caution or even outright hostility. We are prevented by the visibility system from playing the "hero to the rescue" role of the film, and if asked for assistance we have to ignore it and walk away.

This is not how Jedi should be.

Jedi should be made more visible by wearing robes and having sabers equiped in the confines of a populous area. Jedi who duel each other while waiting for a shuttle in front of a crowd of people should immediately suffer a penalty, whether that be TEF, a penalty of 15k or whateverforce xp, an amount of XP deducted based on number of onlookers or whatever. If you wish to avoid penalising Jedi who are just defending themselves then just penalise the Jedi who instigates the fight.

As Developers, if you do not publish the visiblity system rules, or at the very least, a list of do's and do not's then you run the risk of alienating the very people playing Jedi that you are trying to encourage to become Jedi.

I hate criticizing the Dev's on SWG, for the most part they are doing a great job under difficult circumstances. I am now however one Jedi who is effectively having to play an overt Jedi character (which is not for me and not within the spirit of the film Jedi), and am wondering how I can progress. If I am to become hunted so easily, and forced into PvP combat so frequently then under the present system I have only 2 choices. I can carry on wearing my robes in public, brandishing my saber at all (which most non Jedi players seem to dislike) or I can quit.

There is a third option. I can voice my concerns on these forums and pray that enough jedi and non jedi alike agree with me that something must be changed. If not the few ideas I have referred to above then something else.

Any Ideas anyone? Comments Dev's?

My son just signed on, he logged off wearing his new Ubese, and logged on wearing ST Chest and legs. The Ubese was gone. He had had problems in the past where he was displaying ST armor when that was not what he was wearing (I could see the ST armor, and I could see the non-ST stuff he was wearing on his own screen).

After one year you guys really ought to have suff not disappearing in the game. There are few things worse than running around getting new stuff (even lower level stuff like 100k 70% Ubese), and having it gone when you log on.

I finally have more than just me playing this game in my household, but that won't last if it's just one frustration after another (I've put in a fe tickets about the random Overt/Covert changes myself).

Vehicle warping is back, and with a vengeance.

---

Crowne Morril
12pt Droid Engineer - 14pt Artisan (Retired)
Lorde Morril - "He'll zerg your Cloudsong"

Thunderheart help!!!

So what is the deal with the Giant Kimo Scales. A friend of mine looted 8 at one time. Everyone is telling me they are bugged. They list a serial number and no stats. Are they bugged or is the drop rate increased!!

Please answer!

Rorakk
-Seals-
You kill our family and take us from our home.
You train us to be one of you.
But all you did, is teach us how to kill and give me a reason to live! Death to the empire!