Development Cycle Archive

Thank you for the update - the timing is good as I was just starting to check my e-mail for my WoW beta notice. Honestly, it goes a long way to have something to look forward to.

Also, don't let the naysayers get you down. Keep delivering on the goods, keeping asking for our thoughts and feedback, and realize you can never keep everyone happy.

Ok, one last thing: Will you please fix the "armor hole" bug?

Be good.

Sounds great. I like that the Corellian Corvette is "instanced". It will be nice when another group can't take the loot and delay your group. I see bugs involved, but I'll keep an open mind.

The combat balance being put off.... why do I see that as just a saying. "Don't judge combat, we're doing a 'balance'". Yeah, right. Well, if it's going to take forever, then why the heck would I keep playing a BH? I've been holding on forthree months or so waiting for the balance. Some big things, like carbine ham costs, need fixes NOW.

JustG, TH, I only have one thing to say to you two: THANK YOU!

Ive been becoming more and more pessimstic lately, but seeing this schedule has me full of renewed optimism! Fixing pistoleer specials and revamping smuggler gives me something to look forward to the next two publishes. And the upcoming dungeons sound fantastic!

One question, is the next story arc going to in one of these publishes? I didnt see it on the list, which is the only dissapointing thing in that letter. The last two arcs have been a ton of fun (espicially part 3), I just wish they would proceed to the next act a little bit faster. Anyway, just curious I guess. Overall, this was a great bit of information.

Thanks!

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HawkinsofEforde wrote:

Sounds great. I like that the Corellian Corvette is "instanced". It will be nice when another group can't take the loot and delay your group. I see bugs involved, but I'll keep an open mind.

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I appluade JustG for posting that letter. I'm sure he won't get much slack, despite pointing out twice that things change, when things do change. Look at the response on this thread to the news that the Combat Balance isn't being fully implimented in Publish 8, as planned. Heh.

I feel very excited about all the upcomming changes and its refreshing to be able to take a peek so far into the future plans. It gives us a better "big picture" of where the game is going.

/applaud

The only thing that makes me nervous is the delay of the combat balance. It cannot come any sooner, we desperately need it! Im also worried that it may bring a whole new set of problems once the large changes come in. I know more time to work on making things right is a good thing, but over shooting your schedule by so much is also a sign of problems and major re-thinking.

I would like to know what is meant by: "We will be developing the Combat Balance separately in a Sandbox over a long period of time".

What is this "Sandbox" (a new term for TC?)andhow long is "long period of time"?

                          .=+.             ------------------
                  \`--._,'.::.`._.--'/   _/ May the CU       \
Acktu - Sunrunner   .  ` __::__ '  .   _/ \ be with you      /
Beta 3, JTL,          -:.`'..`'.:-         ------------------
ROTW & TOW Beta tester  \ `--' /
                          `--'

All I have to say is LOL. The one thing that is keeping me in this game was the fact that they were going to fix the combat system. Well that's out, but the Pistoleer specials are getting fixed, so I'll stick around for that. Once it goes through, I'll look at my template and see what I like and don't like and do my final grind if it is required.

I am HIGHLY OFFENDED that Jedi are getting2 publishesworth of fixes, while the other 99% of the population doesn't get much of anything. If this is done, then Jedi needs to be selectable profession by all people, not a uber hard grind.

I think stuff needs to be done in this order:

1. Fix the bugs that have been around for a long time (armor hole, despawning vehicles/pets, AOE attack bugs, the list goes on)


2. Fix the broken elite professions(Pikeman, Ranger, etc.)


3. Fix the combat system. How can you fix something when your baseline is based on flawed data?


4. Implement the new Jedi system and make sure is obtainable by ALL players.


5. Fix the GCW


6. Fix the Jedi Profession


7. Add more fluff and flesh out the game.

All I can say after reading that post is, come on World of Warcraft.

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Limbonik wrote:

And regardless of what sells more boxes now as opposed to everyone who wanted the game before the promise of everyone being allowed a Jedi, the bottom line is the Devs have always held the majority opinion over that of the minority. Now, you tell me that that's okay...as long as it doesn't interfere withthe hologrinders? Please. These guys don't even contribute to the game - they just want to play as a Jedi...just like you can in most every other LucasArts game already released. Hologrinders/Holocrons have ruined this game since the ass-tastic Christmas gift we all got. Seasoned players who you could always count on...afk macroing their way to Jedi...so they can then complain that Jedi isn't what they had previously expected.

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The scary thing is... the PERCEPTION of the majority is the number of (AFK) flags you see over people's heads. To me, that says they're still holo-grinding. Would be interesting to see a set of Astromech stats on THAT, but I imagine there's no good way to tell how many players are truly interested in (and working towards) becoming jedi.

I'm sick of rationalizing for the development team, I really am. I try to cut them a wide berth of slack for dealing with all 200,000 of us (or however many there are). It can't be the easiest thing in the world, going from coders-doing-their-thing to a group that gets yelled at by many and is silently (as far as players NOT letting off a burst of pi** and vinegar on the boards) reviled for their lack of action in addressing things we all know are or perceive to be broken.

Many (how many? A figure we'll likely never learn. I wouldn't release it if I was an SoE bean-counter either..) have pulled the lever on their "vote of 'no confidence'" by cancelling their accounts. Part of me understands that. Another part of me says its a cop-out. I'm conflicted on my opinion of folks that just get fed up and take off. I can't tell them what they should get fed up with and what they shouldn't, that's a call only they can make. I know for myself, I'll be sticking around, through nerf and revamp, "well done!"s and "that sucked!"s. Why, when the professions my characters are involved in (musician, artisan, architect, bio-engineer, droid engineer) have seen some combination of no love at all, love in the form of "we don't know where else to put this", undocumented secondary leftover-love, and more swings of the nerfbat than your average turn in a batting cage? Because I have faith that this too shall pass. Its a process, one we as players don't always see eye-to-eye on with the Devs, but that's how these things work. Look on the bright side, they can't screw us all over at the same time, that'd take more coordination than they've managed to show us so far.

But they're trying. Man are they trying. Profession correspondents pull just as much hair out as the grunts they serve down in the trenches. JustG's on the right track, communicating the development team's intentions to the player base. Where they fail is in addressing the comments to these letters. Responding to threads on the boards in general really. There just isn't quite enough communication going around to give the appearance that things are being done. Many players feel they're spitting into the wind with their posts on the boards, and given the lack of dev response to many of these threads (even the ones Devs start themselves) says a lot of these players are RIGHT in that feeling. The devs would do themselves a service by giving us a pat on the head, a note of thanks in some of these "hey, help us make this better" threads. We interact with a small number of them on the boards, rest assured there are many, many more behind the scenes. Whether or not those that don't creep out into the limelight are any better at "public relations" than the current set we see regularly remains to be seen. Fact is, we'll always outnumber them, and they'll never keep us all happy all the time. Can you just imagine being picked by a lottery to "go deal with that mob out there complaining about .. well.. EVERYthing"? It'd take dozens more than we have access to now.

Ever notice a lot of Dev threads get started around quitting-time on fridays? Five or six pages of responses get generated over the weekend without a dev reply, and that gets irritating from a player perspective. If the devs are going to ask us questions, and many of us jump at the chance to speak to what appears to be a "live body", we'd appreciate a little evidence that the message was received. JustG will be sitting at his desk tomorrow flipping through some of these responses I'm sure. His eyes will probably glaze over about a third of the way through, he'll go grab some lunch, and promptly forget about responding to any of it. Can't say I blame him some of the time. Others though.. well thought-out responses, even the ones that ARE full of pi** and vinegar but have valid concerns and offer some constructive response.. when those go unanswered, it makes me angry. Can't expect them to respond to EVERYthing, but a little more visibility can't hurt.

Show us our concerns are at least being heard. Thunderheart, bless the man, he tries. He tells us he'll bring things up in meetings. That's great, but I can only imagine how thick his stack of notes are for each of those meetings at this rate. Have you guys fed him since the superbowl? We need three or four of him. One to take the notes, one to give us the "I'll bring it up at the next meeting" lip-service, one to go to the meetings, and the fourth one.. this guy's key, the fourth one gets to tell us what actually HAPPENED in the meeting. That fourth TH has been missing for a long time.

Erm, that got a bit long. Anyway, back to Limbonik. I couldn't agree more that hologrinders don't contribute to the game. One of my characters is a master musician, has been since the middle of August, and remains one. I don't care WHAT they're working towards, the AFK crowd has ruined what I used to call the most entertaining part of the game; hanging out in cantinas. They were given a bad system to attain a lofty goal. Players cried out that holocrons were too hard to obtain and the Devs caved in and gave them to us for Christmas. They regret the error, I'm certain, but regrets don't fix it. According to JustG's letter, the fix is on the way. The only date attached to any of that timeline is associated with the wookiee armor. They might just surprise us and push harder on the development cycle so the rest of those things happen sooner, rather than later. Yeahyeah, I'll believe it when I see it, just like you.

Thank you, JustG, for shedding a bit of light on the schedule and the process. We need more of this, and more often. Set an example for the industry and TELL us MORE. Its not like we have an SWG Construction Set to take your paychecks from you. Blow the industry away with an innovative and informative communication process with your paying customers and who knows, maybe it'll give Blizzard and iD and Epic and Atari and whoever else you feel you're in competition with lately.. something to think about. Force THEIR development teams to develop new methods to attempt to surpass your own (hopefully) improved record of customer feedback, communication, and support. Yeah, the great majority of the team needs to keep their noses to the grindstone, but we as players need a bit more communication than you're giving us. Deal?

(Now tell me why a post this long doesn't launch me into Community Veteran status and 100 '/bump' posts does?)

wow bout time you guys gave us some feedback instead of us having to wait for tidbits and fretting over whats going on. now keep that list up to date with things as your schedule changes. once a month would do it.

/applaud gattis. bout time.