Development Cycle Archive

Thanks for info like this JustG. It's really good to see you guys (devs) communicating with us and telling us what's on the horizon.

I can't wait...

Why is the combat balance being put off?

The combat balance is another massive overhaul. We want to get a lot of player feedback from it, and make sure we have it right before we put it in the game (to avoid another Crafting Experimentation situation).

Although it has already been touched on, myself and other creature handlers would like an honest answer as to our plight now. We have been put in a poor position by this announcement as you will see.

In some ways I am glad that you are taking your time to consider the balances and listen to player feedback. That is wonderful. However, revamping creatures and thus the Creature Handler profession, was done with Publish 5. This was a massive change that in conjunction with the excellent re-arrangement of skills, severely underpowered us. We had time to comment on the skill distribution and for the most part liked the changes.

The creature changes, however, were sprung on us suddenly. It was a drastic change, but we were told that it would all make sense in the terms of the combat balance, which was only a few months away. That was four months ago. Because of this announcement, we are now many publishes, and at least six months, away from being brought back into balance with every one else.

What I find sad is that the Creature Handler profession has always been one of the better working professions. We received a lot of attention when there were professions that needed it more. Our skill revamp is an excellent model for fixing others. But because we have been balanced while no one else has, one of the best working professions is essentially useless and broken under the existing combat system.

What we would like an honest answer to is where do we fit in all this? Is there some way to re-balance us until everyone else can be made to match? Thank you.

There is some very good, and not vitriolic, discussion in this thread.

Thanks for the update JustG, but what about crafting?

Presumably the issues that resulted in the changes tot he crafting system (quickly removed) are still in the game.

So Assuming that you still want to fix the underlying problem are you:

- Planning on modifying the changes you had planned to make in order to incorporate player concerns?
- Planning a completely new crafting change that will better fit your goals and player feedback?
- Some combination of the above?

While the response of the devs to remove a hugely unpopular change was very good (aside from creating a 12 hour mad craft-a-thon) we have heard nothing since except that you do not want a repeat with the combat re-balance.

So what is the story? Do you have plans in the next 3 months to revisit crafting again?

No offense, but you just admit to having a very buggy game we all pay retail for and although being buggy may be acceptable but compensation to paying customers is not.

I just finished reading the current state of the game letter from Gary, Bravo!!

It is a welcomed outline of things to come and I am looking forward to the implementation in the comming publish's.

Sky,

You know you're a CH. The rednames probably all one-starred you themselves. It is the last and final way they nerf us to nothingness.

JustG, you are going to reply to the CH's today right? Then tomorrow will be the unnerf. Giving us back our pre-December stats. I mean you do say that the combat rebalance should be done properly if going to be done at all. Since you have "rebalanced" us we want to see some compensation. Give those of us who have been master the Master Nerf Herder Badge. And if you think two new undesireable mounts was compensation you are a bigger fool than I believed possible. You have little remaining credibility. How will you fix the CH's being nerfed? You call it a rebalance, but its been close to 4 months. With anyactual rebalance being 6 months to a year away you have some 'splaining to do Lucy.

JustG.

Answer the most popular question. WHY ARE YOU SCREWING CH'S.

Ok JustG,

4 days and waiting for your reply. NADA, nothing and you know what this means? We are right! Let the revolution begin!

Devs = Cowards

Yep and all the CH related posts no matter how polite or respectful (admittedly most aren't but, hey ignore a profession for 4 months then tell them ther are gonna be ignored for another 6 what do you expect?) are getting 1 stared to oblivion!

Here is a new concept also seeing that almost everything on this thread is getting 1 stared, eliminate the rateing system, I am seeing a lot more abuse of it then finding useful posts by it.


BTW are CH's gonna get an answer? Cause guess what this still effects everyone, creatures (wild ones) are way to weak now and I personally am getting bored when I can kill most thing in 2-3 shots.

We shouldn't need to resort to PvP to find a challenge or the dungeons, we should be able to go to the so called expert planets and get our Heads handed to us, not the other way around.

I have to add my voice to the other CHs. I started CH after the nerf, and I was mostly ok with it the way it was (except for the bugs). It totally stinks in PvP, but I knew that would be addressed once the combat balance was finished.

Now we are told that the combat balance is being indefinitely postponed. That's fine, except that we weren't at the beginning of it, we were in the middle of it!

Something needs to be done to address this problem. At the very least, acknowledge that it is a problem.

Many professions and/or game systems already got the nerf end of the "upcoming" balance. If the balance is going to take any longer, these professions should be un-re-balanced. The wild animal nerf/CH nerf is the most obvious example. When all the wild critters got weakened (and their tamed counterparts), all combat professions (except CH) got strengthened relatively. Creatures are still too easy to kill--both wild and tame. Not following through with the combat balance after large changes like this that affect all players that go outside the city boundaries.

-

I also am concerned about ending hologrinding without giving a very early warning about the timing of it. It was a very poor choice for the "Jedi path" and it damaged the game community a great deal--I'm glad it's being dumped, although it shouldn't have been implemented at all. However, now that the easier grinds have already produced Jedi, those who are still working very HARD grinding to jedi risk having the game mechanics changed on them. They HAVE to be informed how long they have left. I can imagine a pretty large exodus of players if there isn't adequate warning or some sort of "JediPathCompensation" for players who have mastered many many many hated and unpleasant professions to open their slot and find it suddenly pointless when they have almost made it.

-

That this forum allows users to rate each other is ridiculous. Note we cannot rate devs. They don't like it either. Why do they think WE like it? This feature should be disabled, or at minimum, the default profile setting should allow for viewing all posts, regardless of rating.

Thank God the Devs are opening up and getting communication to us. If this CONTINUES it will be great. A once in a half year update equals squat, the communication has to continue. That's what us wookiees were stressing when our crusade for armor was in effect. They never talked to us and that does nothing but breed resentment. In reply to why the Jedi revamp aces the GCW revamp/fixes: the lure of Jedi is what brings people to this game. It boils down to what make them money. Plain and simple. They'll spin and weave another tale but it's money folks. In my opinion, those bugs that have been in existence since the start should be the priority hands down. The Devs acknowledge them (and there are some serious fun-breaking bugs there too) but let them continue, it boggles my mind. Hotfixes that truly "fix" something of importance are a rarity now days. Each publish breaks something new or even fails to fix what it was supposed to. Look at shifting stats and ineffectiveness on PSGs. Been around forever and it's the wookiees only means of protection (so far). Never fixed and won't be for awhile. This collection of Devs SAY a lot but have yet to produce what they say. The last 2 publishes, in my eyes, were failures. Some good came from them (the Chef revamp was astounding in my view), but a whole lot of let-down was in high order on those publishes. The Crackdown was pathetic (rebel faction farm it was...) and the Invasion has yet to be seen (I know it's a 2 parter but come on...). As a wookiee I currently can't even enjoy these between-publish dungeons so for the most part they are also a let-down. I also predict the Expansion will be a bug-riddled let down but certainly hope not. Although, I'm not sure I'll last with this game to find out...