Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Weekly Rountdable Discussion (Week Ending 1-18-04)
Since this is a community discussion..
Um.. will the voice of the community ie, 60+ pages of those against capping merchant vendors at 150 be heard and their concerns and the general consensus of the community regarding this issue translate itself into 1) keeping things as is 2) make you all reconsider your decision to cap them at 150 3) coming up with a whole new soluition ie, taking a stand on vendors being kept by players without the skills to manage them anymore and removing them from game or maybe fixing your Dbase problem with a hardware/application solution rather than merchant nerf???
Thanks
I've read one too many posts and gotten one too many questions from customers asking whether Master Smugglers get a slicing bonus. Better than a forum sticky, which only reaches a small number of new Smugglers and potential customers, we need the Devs to finally (and simply) add the following to our generally empty Master Smuggler box:
Drawing upon their broad knowledge ofshadydealings and improved manual dexterity, Master Smugglers exceed the abilities of even skilled Slicers when improving weapons and armor.
And then throwa short blurbinto the 'bonus' section that sayssomething like:
Improved slicing percentages
Devs, one small change like this will eliminatehours of unneeded Q&A sessions from potential customers and new Smugglers about whether this is true, how we can prove it, etc. You need to update that Master Smuggler description and give consumers something to rely on when they decide what path to pursue and which Smuggler they should be looking for.
Please do your job, Devs,and fix this up ASAP!
[And FYI to all the potential customers and new Smugglers out there - Master Smugglers get a 5% bonus to their slices, meaning that they can get up to 45% on armor encumbrance and up to 35% on armor effectiveness and weapon speed or damage. The minimum slices also increase, meaning the odds of hitting a low slice go way down (the lowest possible slice by a Master is still often better than the best possible slice from a tier 2 or 3 Slicer).Also note that the maximum slices by Slicers (tier 4 of that tree) are 40% for armor encumbrance and 30% for everything else, and their minimum slices are lower than those of Master Smugglers.]
Thanks!
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=38822&highlight=#M38822
Manogr wrote:
Hello TH ! You have many things to do this week so I wish you good luck
I will again ask you about any info regarding the communication plan for the Space Expansion... when we will have some info ? You plan to open a Expansions forum ?
As you may know for many of us the Space Expansion is the real game! This is what we want...this is our dream!! Please give us something !!
Thanks 
I am pushing all the time. As soon as I canpresent something on Space, I will.
Vigeant wrote:
so how about that jedi correspondent ?
Ill beselecting one today or tomorrow. Its been an impressive set of applicant's and a difficult choice to make.
Bongabonga wrote:
Good day TH.
A while back you said you would post some kind of a "State of the profession" of each career path once you would be done with top 5 and some other things. Anything coming about that? Or should be keep reading the proffesion board and try to guess what is coming.
Thanks
For the time being, Im cutting all the fat in my daily efforts, so Im working directly with the correspondents a lot. Please feel free to check the professions forums, but in terms of what's coming, Im trying to post it as much as possible. We'll have some patch notes In-Test this week, some In-Concept Items, some In-Dev items and as much else as I can dig up 
What is the status on fixing BH droids?
In progress...
Twopbinx wrote:
SUGGESTION: Why can't the devs make it so the Empire takes special orders from crafters for resources or items. Like have a tailor make 500 uniform boots for the Empire. They could pay per resource unit used. This could be a reward for accomplishing an Imperial NPC mission or for just being factionally aligned with the imperials.Artisans could make droid detectors,power conditioners etc. DE could make mouse droids.
The core objection is going to be "credit farming" and having a massive money fawcet, but Ill ask.
What type of reward amount would you suggest?
The 'new' forums suck. The posts in this thread alone are all over the place. So, I'm sure that many others like myself gave up reading the thread even before the end of page 1. I guess this is the plan. Just add something yourself. Don't worry about what anyone else has to say. The only people who need to read these threads are the Devs.
I have nothing to add. I have no concerns dealing with the game. I hardly play anymore, and I certainly don't play enough to be able to point out anything of interest to these boards. In fact, it was this forum that kept me around for so long. I have to admit that the unconstructive threads on the FORUMS were the most enjoyable thing about SWG for me. That and I'm starting to believe that I am something of a sadist.
I didn't start this post with the intention, but I guess this has become a farewell post. I've said before that I was leaving, but that was with the old forums, so I suppose that I'll be much more likely to go through with it. I would say goodbye, but no one will miss me. I figure only one person will even notice that I'm gone. Everyone else I knew in SWG is long gone. I guess I should have left with them.
So,... I guess that's it.
What about the TEF boot for player owned hospitals? Whats the point of having a hospital if I have to pull my droid out to heal while sitting outside my own hospital? It was fixed for player cities, can't we fix it for player city structures as well? I'm not saying houses, but Cantinas, theaters, med centers, cloning centers, etc. I see the chance for the hit and run of the past, but something clearly needs to be done about this.
Group TEF: My suggestion for this is allow either side to have first strike and covert TEF'd can be tab-able. First strike does little damage whatsoever. This way you cant spam an eyeshot on an overt to take him down in one shot. Either side will have an option to attack at the same time.
Watto's Junkshop - make it an Artisan Theme Park and/or Master Artisan quest
You can waltz right into Watto's Junkshop, which is listed on the map in Mos Espa on Tatooine.
Trouble is, there's nothing to do there.
Put this on the long to-do list for the Devs, but I'd like to see the place get turned into a special Master-level quest (like Master Armorsmiths get RIS Armor)and/or theme park for Artisans. It makes absolute sense to me that a junk shop would be a backdrop for Artisan-related missions and new perks - it's a place where low-level crafting happens, not an elite workshop.
What could be the focus of the quests/missions? I'd like to read your ideas, but here are a few of mine:
- Special schematic for super-powered droid components. Make them available only to Master Artisans, make the resources rare, and make the component truly empower a droid.
- Special schematics for optionalspeeder components. Make them go faster, give them shields, give them extra orgamentation, etc.
- Special schematic for an extra speeder/swoop. Offer a unique schematic accessible only via quest, which is expensive to make and maintain, and which looks unique.
- Special schematic for powerups. Allow one to be made for Combat Medic poison range, make an additive that boosts overall powerup effectiveness by 10% when you assemble it, etc.
- I think that maybe Watto's is still dark because he'll play a role in Episode 3, and that George Lucas may have blocked the Devs' access to using him in SWG. If not, though, I'd like to see the place get fixed up and used as something useful. Quests and/or a theme park would be a great addition to the game.
- Neimodian Birdcage, version 2
If you've got any feedback or further ideas, please post it. Thanks!
Well your first one was 14 pages of community posts and what kind of communication with you guys did we see?? VERY LITTLE!
Oh well i quess thats just "WORKING AS INTENDID" right? 
I want to know what is going to be done about the FAILED JEDI SYSTEM!
VolatileMan
Here's another repost from the GCW forum. Maybe the Devs actually read this thread . . .
PLATOON - factoring Rank and Squad Leader skills into Faction pet allotment
I think that commanding troops in the GCW makes the game world feel more Star Warsy.
Assuming that the Devs instituted other changes, like preventing loot and XP when using Faction pets for non-Faction combat, I'd like to see the following things happen:
Ranks:
- Every Factioned player in SWG starts with the ability to call one Faction pet.
- Earning higher ranks allows players to call more powerful Faction pets, much like the Creature Handlers have CL spread around the entire tree. As you increase in rank, you are able to deploy more powerful troops. Call it "Command Level."
- Earning higher ranks also allows players to call more pets at a time. Perhaps allow an extra troop as a Master Sergeant or Warrant Officer I (basically halfway up the ladder) and then another one as a Colonel (the highest possible rank). Allow combinations of troops to add up to the officer's "Command Level," so that an ImperialColonel could possibly use a pair of high-end Dark Troopers and a low-level Radio Operator, three mid-level Stormtroopers, one top-tier ATST, or any other combination that fell within the permitted number of troops and "Command Level."
Squad Leaders:
- Novice Squad Leaders in a Faction get an extra Faction pet.
- Specializing in either of two of the branches of Squad Leader (not sure which branches)earns you the ability to call one extra Faction pet per branch.
- Working your way up either of the other two branches earns you the ability to call Faction pets of higher abilities, much like the new Creature Handler changes spread powers around the entire profession. This is still "Command Level."
- Mastering Squad Leader earns you the ability to call two more Faction pets, for a grand total of six Faction pets as a Master.
With this system, rank would matter, and Squad Leaders would be able to command formidable platoons of Faction pets. A Master Squad Leader who is a Colonel could potentially call out 9 Faction pets to fight - and with so many pets, they would almost certainly have to be garden-variety grunts. No way should anyone be able to command 9 high-level pets, but a platoon of basic Stormtroopers, sure, sounds Star Warsy to me.
This is the roughest of rough drafts, but I hope you'll add your ideas on how this could work.
Thanks in advance for your input!
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=GCW&message.id=59124&highlight=#M59124
Every time I log in I have to 'ok' through a window telling me that my computer is 0 MHz. If you can't fix the underlying problem, at least give us a "do not show this message again" toggle on the window. (post-beta)
BEs get no xp for tissues made in a factory. Even worse, we get no usage xp unless we are online when the tissue is used by a tailor or chef. (post-beta)
Cannot play in windowed mode. Has not been a problem in the 5-6 other MMOs that I played. (beta)
When I alt-tab out of SWG, I get no cursor and can do nothing but read whatever I had up behind the game window. (beta)
There is no documentation whatsoever for the revolutionary creature creation system. We have no way to know if it is 'working as intended' as we do not know what was intended. (post-beta, though there was no documentation for the old system either)
When I try to /follow a target, my character instead runs straight ahead no matter where my target is and continues until I stop following. Very ugly bug for meleers! (beta)
DNA Sampling takes too much mind pool and is incredibly dangerous. (beta)
BE DNA and creature creation does not give adequate xp to reflect difficulties in obtaining resources (see previous entry). (post-beta)
Creature resources are too difficult to obtain in bulk for mass production, handicapping those crafting professions that use them in favor of those that can get what they need from harvesters. Bring back creature resource harvesters and gate them to scouts/rangers. (beta)
Still nowhere near enough eggs on market, number gotten from each lair needs to be at least doubled. Same with fish, need more units of fish per catch. Fishing system also needs to be made 'fun'.(beta)
Milk, Crustaceans, Horn, and Mollusks are virtually unavailable. Need to be available for mass production, not through a hokey system like eggs are. (beta)
More solo creatures in the wild, fewer lairs. Solo players (e.g. casual gamers that you were supposedly designing the game for) have trouble finding hunting because everything is in lairs and so much socials. (beta)
Dynamic, spawning POIs! Everybody loved these in beta, they are badly needed to add to the SW feel and remind the player that they aren't playing EQ. (beta)
Polearm skills give fewer defensive bonus than other Brawler boxes. (beta)
The lack of reinforced fiber panels in Wookie clothes means that they can't make use of as many BE buffing tissues as the other races. (beta)
The FS unlocking system is simplistic, painful, has nothing to do with the Star Wars universe whatsoever, and is quite frankly not fun. It is undoubtedly the most important system in the game and stands out as an example of lack of effort on the part of the game designers. (post-beta)
Now that the main source of criticism has been cut off, be proud enough of your creation to let non-subscribers read your official forums. (post-beta)
My vehicle often tells me that it is out of range when I am mounted on it and trying to store (and I'm a very short bothan...). (post-beta)
Player cities need garage options. (post-beta)
Add a marketplace channel and make spamming shouts a punishable offense. (beta)
Crafters need more storage space, especially BEs who have to gather massive amounts of unstackable DNA. At least make large houses able to store the amount they are supposed to based on the number of lots they take up. (beta)
Stop dropping CDEFs and broken stuff as loot. We know you have supposedly been working to improve loot tables (since beta, I believe), but until you do take that stuff off the market. You have handicapped your players right and left because of the weakness of your database system yet you still insist on dumping massive amounts of completely useless materials on us. Stop giving us crap and you will solve your own problems, including your more recent bazaar storage problems. (beta)
Give all starting characters the ability to make a camp (not craft it, just pitch it), survey resources, sample resources, Med Use +5, harvest creature resources. All at the most basic, Novice level. These are basic, survival abilities and having them at the basic level does not hurt the interdependence that you so dearly cherish. You gave CHs the creature stims so they didn't have to waste 15 points in medic, now how about doing something similar for all of us? (beta)
Smoke lags up many systems badly, give us the option of turning off this particular graphic. (beta)
All for now, I'm sure I'll think of others before next week.
Thunderheart wrote:
For the time being, Im cutting all the fat in my daily efforts, so Im working directly with the correspondents a lot.
That's great to hear...as long as the Correspondents are allowed to impart that information to the masses.
The Correspondents, I understand, are not allowed to discuss the issues/comments and items in discussion that occur 'behind-the-curtain'.
So, while checking profession boards is okay to hear about current issues/rants, it hardly addresses the issue of feedback on those reported items.
/bow
Respectfully,
remove the need to use CAMPS to call Vehicles & MOUNTS..
This thread is the worst idea i have seen yet in the current unwanted changes. It does not promote a good discussion or exchange o ideas but is a hodge podge of to many different subjects.
Do wee need one each week. Nothing from last weeks thread has yet to be addressed.
Also give us back a general discussion forum. You can still keep these current useless forums but at least give players/ CUSTOMERS a place where they can discuss what they choose.
Sad to see Thunderheart becime a tool for SOE as opposed to the player advocate he was billed as