Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Weekly Roundtable Discussion (Week Ending 6-7-04)
Dout this will get looked at or even talked about but still I'm sure someone else must have this problem.
I like to have music while I do things,and well SWG is lacking in music.The music in the game is nice and all,but could you add some more,or possibly let us upload our own music into our client side version of SWG so we can listen to it,I mean the combat music track was cool the first few months but sucks now.
This issue has gotten so bad that I mute my pc when im playing and just turn the TV on so I can have some kinda back ground noise or use my ipod,and I understand that those things are an answer to my problem but I don't want to be like that,and it shouldn't have to come to that.
It's small things like that that make games fun because you can personlise your game experince.
Oh and fix that stupid imp hat already.
My first ever "conspiracy" post 
The spawn rates were dropped because with the solo ability that buffs give people could master elite combat professions with lightning speed.
I remember when every planet was crawling with everything. If I were buffed in uber 80% composite in this situation I'd be in xp heaven. . .
If you can have the time and actually respond I think having a more focused thread of particular issues every week would be a great idea!
Issues for this week though!
- Factional pet still unable to fire on covert TEF'd enemy players
- AT ST has been "nerfed" with reasons of being of equal strength of other creatures at it's current level, with other "nerfs" such as unhealable because it's a tank.. this is quite confusing. The AT ST was introduced early yes but along with other factional pets it was nerfed at a time the game was in it's infancy. If the walker was restored to original state it would still not be the imposing threat it once was...
- group windows now giving incorrect info, such as giving the same player name more then once, showing incorrect group lead and of course the little arrow pointers leading tot he wrong person in that situation
- At times the nearest mission waypoint for group actually points to one that's not the closest, was 2 of us together at the same spot to check on this
Doctor buffs have removed so many balancing factors out of the game its not funny.
Buffs are at the core of a number of problems in PvP.
1) Buffs allow 90% armor to even be usable. With just spices and foods, you couldn't get some of this stuff on. We're talking armors with 1000+ encumbrance stats.
2) Buffs have turned special attacks into spammable attacks. This alone makes high end composite needed in the first place.
3) With ultrahigh resist composite now a functional reality, the only competitive professions are those which can bypass those defenses, ie professions with Stun weapons.
This gives rise to the current dominance of Fencers, Riflemen, and Geo Pistol toters.
If buffs are pulled, or dramatically reigned in, Stun dominance, uber armor and special spamming would self correct based on the fact that HAM costs would become a factor for consideration again.
So far so good...they seem to have fixed a TON of buggy crap in the six months I was gone. I do have one odd problem however, my XP counters seem to lag behind A LOT. In fact the only way I can seem to get accurate numbers on my XP is if I log outand log back on. I do not see this problem with a character on another server so what is going on with Shadowfire?
There are only two other things I regret. I still regret to see has not vanished is all the Jedi-crazed hologrindingnonsense. I can't wait for Publish 10, hopefully it will be a big help towards seeing Jedi portrayed in the game a lot more faithfully to the movies then what we have now. Back in beta days we were promised that Jedi would be something that you had to earn and prove yourself worthy of attaining. I am sure a large majority of the Jedi out there are more or less of thissort but I still get a little irritated when I see a jedi running around macro-shouting "I AM AN UBER L33T JEDI HAXOR, YOUR BASE R BELONGZ TO US". I hear that they will be implementing a jedi council? I know it will never happen but it would be so cool if the jedi council could strip the powers of a jedi that behaved so stupidly. Of course I suppose that is what /ignore is for!
My second regret is player cities...I remember back when the game first launched you could go to any of the NPC cities like Mos Eisley, Bestine or Keren and see tons of people. Now all of the cities except Theed and Coronet are ghost towns and it is a real immersion breaker for me. Even in Theed and Coronet I see way to much of the AFK Entertainer/TumbleBot/Buffbotnonsense. I think Everquest 2 has the right idea of integrating player owned building spaces into the pre-built cities topromote a more lively gaming experience. In fact I think if they want to fix things up in SWG they could allow Player Cities to continue but also add support for players to setup shop in some of the NPC cities as well to breathe some life back into them.
Oh well...like I said the game is sooo much better now then it was 6 months ago...I can't wait to see what other improvements
Too any and all that still care!!!
I was driving home for lunch today and I was pondering a weighty question.
What has happened to my SWG gaming experience?
Well Im a master bounty hunter so I have plenty of bruises from the nerf bat.
But that isnt it...
Many say the game mechanics are broken and/or unbalanced
which is certainly true but I enjoyed it before and it was more broken then
Others will point to the lack of content
But as a Bounty Hunter and a Role Player I have to say there really is a lot to do in the game
So my only conclusion is that there is no reason to do. No story no real effect on the world around me.
It seems like the game has degenerated in Loot Wars not Star Wars.
Say what you like about Lucas. The one thing that is true is he knows how to tell a story.
That is why Star Wars is popular not because Luke's saber was AP2 or did more damage than Vaders.
As I pondered this I was thinking when was the last time I felt that anything my char did mattered.
Well it was the final days of Act 3. The imperials were actually in the lead for a change and as a
loyal subject of the Empire I went out to try and keep the Rebels for getting the dreaded Dead Eye formula.
I also convinced my friends to do the same. What we did made a differnce. We lost but hey that was
an engaging story line.
Now as a programmer myself I can only guess at the difficulty of the story arc publishes and I guess they are
very demanding!!! So my alternative is to ask that more of the coveted data be shared on the forums.
For instance which side has more land area (lots). Or have the faction mission payout come from a pool of
support funds. (ie to simulate supporters funds drying up if too many of one side are killed of) and when funds get too
low penalties are involved. Or any other creative method to show that what we do matters. I think one major thing
missing from this game is statistics. Others DAOC for instance have a pvp ranking systemwhich theypublish daily.
Wantto see how many faction points the dreaded FIGHT guild got this week just login to holonet.starwarsgalaxies.com and
see. Things like these give weight to a players actions. Another example is the news system in Earth and Beyond.
That game got lame quick but they had an in game news system that kept you update on the goings on in the galaxy
in character not alt tab www.starwarsgalaxies.com and read forums. We all have an inagme holocron why not use it to
add meaning to the life of my character.
Well that is all I can think of for now.
If you bring a reason for being to the game people might not sweat the smaller stuff.
Re: The Ewok Tree Villiage near the Smuggler Outpost on Endor
I've been playing since launch and I've been loving the game and the fixes and enhancements to it that keep coming, until the Corvette. (after it was changed) Having Super Battle Droids all over it ruins it.
I hadn't been to an Ewok Tree Village in all this time, since I'm usually busy doing other quests, gathering resources, hunting with my guild or other stuff, so I decide I'll go check it out. I get there, and it's really cool! I like the look and feel of it.
Then I notice three or four Super Battle Droids up in the Ewok's Tree Village!!! This is ridiculous! I am one of the biggest supporters of the developers, but this is the most disappointingthing I've seen in the game so far. I'm hoping beyond hope that this is some kind if bizarre bug.
How about we just rename the game Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Overrun With Super Battle Droids? 
Were there too many people solo-ing the Ewok Tree Villages? 
ChaadLosan wrote:
The lag on Dantooine is intolerable on Starsider. It's like walking in syrup all day long. It's Cnet on a global scale and I have DSL! 4 seconds to see words appear in spacial. The ENTIRE planet lags. Delays in everything you do no matter where you go. This needs to be fixed. That planet needs a lot more servers.
im starsider, i go on dant all the time.. besides a very long loading time, i almost never lag, only when i first enter the smugglers outpost again....
Why are we all even here?
We all came hereto take part in the greatest saga of all time, the one commonly referred to asStar Wars.
I'm willing to bet 99.9% of us are here for this very reason. We didn't come here to take part in this massively multiplayer online game. We're here because of the "Star Wars" in the title. We can get an exceedingly well MMO experience with at least a handful of other games on the market.
The last 2 days, this very post by TH has been on my mind, and making me question the very existance of my subscription
We agree, but the problem is that this isn't a crafted script where everyone stays on cue within the context of a larger picture. Its an MMO and everyone has a strong desire to do what they want. As has been clearly demonstrated, no matter what the designers do to prevent lots of Jedi, players will overcome that obstacle to become what they want.
When all the players lashed out at the professions system, which was designed to minimize the total number of Jedi in the game, it didn't matter, because...players will still achieve what they want to achieve. So rather than replace one painful system with another, the team sat down for many long days and nights to talk about the shift in continuity. In this case, it was decided that the fun factor was more important than continuity in this game.
It certainly was a difficult decision and it was decided that this path was healthier for the overall game.
Hello developers and gamers,
I would first like to say that this game is shapping up nicely so far, but there are a couple of things i would like to suggest:
Master crafter shop-a reward for the master crafters, something open and roomy
Holocrons- being a person who faithfully did my holocrons professions i find it unfair to reward people the same for holo professions as for regular professions when the jedi revamp comes, could we please get a bonus for the holo professions we did this is only fair
Armor nerf- I dont think this is a good idea but i see where you are trying to go, what about adding another stat to the crafting combine, this would make it harder to get the uber armor stats but it would still be possible.
GDK drop rate- come on this is a little ridiculous how bout upping the drop rate and reducing the spawn rate?
Combat rebalance- I am really skeptical about his quite frankly, but i hope yall will push it back some to coincide with the release of the space expansion as this would deflect most of the critisizm and allow us to wade into the new system while busy with space, just a thought but i think a good one.
On the space expansion- I hope to god you guys are using a 3d map instead of a 2d one, a 2d system will be a dealbreaker for the expansion in my opinion.
Veteran bonus- i would like my force slot please seeing as i am a good loyal player that doesnt ask for much or complain much.
Rank- faction rank should show to fellow faction members it was supposed to from day one, what's up with this?
Faction penalty- what up with the Zabrak penalty, we arent supposed to have a imp faction penalty, could you fix this?
Anyway i am done good work keep it up
Orier Yraisi
Corbantis
Blair wrote:
Smuggler
We are going to look at and probably revise the Underworld skill set.
We'll fix bugs with slicing 4.
Spices will get experimentation values (for withdrawals, etc).
Feign death causing the player to take too much damage and to be unusable when moving will be fixed.
We'll add more stuff to the master box. (Probably additional slicing features)
The bug with not being able to eat spice will be fixed.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=417746&highlight=smuggler#M417746
9 September 2003 - Devs promise action aftera 1,010-post filibuster by Smugglers on the old SWG Discussion Forum
Holocron wrote:
On his way out the door, he tossed this over his shoulder:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=19942&highlight=smuggler#M19942
1. Underworld Branch
- I think we are going to try and replace most of these skill boxes with something more usable, since these just aren't very fun. The main issue is finding the time on the schedule to implement some new smuggler skills.
2. Slicing
- We'd like to add slicing code to more types of terminals.
- The problem with weapon slicing giving better results than advanced weapon slicing has been fixed. Slicing 2 had a bonus that Slicing 4 was supposed to have.
3. Dirty Fighting
- Some unarmed moves would be good to add and probably fairly easy. We will look into it.
- We will look into adding combat bonuses to this tree.
- We'll fix last ditch to be balanced with similar moves and we'll look into the other smuggler moves to improve their usability.
4. Spices
- Experimentation never had any impact on spices, so the UI stubs for these were removed. Adding experimentation systems to crafted items takes time, but we'd like to add one to spicing at some point.
- The effects of spices still need to be balanced to other buff consumables. Also, effects like burst run, etc, can be added, but require more development time.
5. Master
- 25% off faction perks is very very useful to any smuggler in PvP, but we will look into possibly adding nonPvP bonuses to this box.
Q-3PO wrote:
We're dedicating a designer (Green Marine) next week to looking into fixing some of the bigger issues of the smuggler. (Yes, we are also looking at issues with the other professions, the smuggler just seems to be the one needing the most love at this moment).
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=552985&highlight=smuggler#M552985
JustG wrote:
There is a lot on our plate, and we are regularly going to provide you with as much information as we can about what is going on. Our priorities and tasks feed in from a variety of sources, and there are very many items on the design priority list. We will not be able to get to all of them with the next few pushes, but we want to take on a number of things that will make the game better, immediately. These include:
- Professions Augmentations
Droid Engineer
Smuggler
Merchant
Chef
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/team_comments.jsp?id=59306&page=Team%20Comments[look for Gary Gattis's Letter to the Community" at the bottom of the list]
Thunderheart wrote:
Smugglers are getting some attention soon. Everything is getting more attention now that Player Cities, Mounts and Vehicles have been added.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Developers&message.id=15023&highlight=smuggler#M15023
Thunderheartwrote:
Both San and I agree that you guys need more of an answer and here it is. The smuggler isn't going to be just "fixed". Its in re-development. Smuggler is an important profession and needs more than a little attention.
Here is what I need from you folks. Since Smuggler is "In Development", I hope you folks can work together to put together some reasonable ideas togetherfor the types of directions you would like to see the Smuggler profession change/develop. . . .
. . .I will take that information to the producers so that your desires and ideas can be accounted for when the development process moves to the next stage.
The best recommendation I can make is to keep your ideas realistic. Come up with ideas using the system as you know it as opposed to inventing things from a "blue sky" approach.
I very much look forward to seeing your input.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=42882&highlight=smuggler#M42882
Thunderheartwrote:
The thing is that smugglers essentially are a "space based" profession (at least the way we think of it)and giventhe inherent client/server limitations, its atough proposition any way you look at. For instance, lets say Imperials do a search for contraband at starports. Can you imagine the lag if we even did an item check for everything inevery player's inventory as they entered and exited a starport? And then there are the guys that run back and forth across that threshold just to lag things out. This is one tiny piece of a larger puzzle. It has to be a cool game mechanic and work in the game system and in a big MMO environment.
The key here is that while I was in beta and I knew everyone (I actually have almost all of it saved on my hard drive, but doing a search on "smuggler" with 12 gig of materials would be insane). Further still, that was a while ago. I want to hear YOUR ideas and Ive worked with the devs and correspondents to focus communication so that correspondents can get me information and also in a way that I can both share it with the devs AND catalgoue it.
Its all a process and we're working on it and its going to take time. The devs want to make a good game, you and I want to play a fun game and as a community, I believe we can make this whole experience very cool.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=43562&highlight=smuggler#M43562
Thunderheart wrote:
"Smuggling" really is a spacey kind of profession and doing something on the ground really needs to be thought out.
With that being said, Im working on the Smuggler and Squad Leader profession revamp posts this week. Im just taking the time to put together some really nice posts so that the answers that players put forth can be easily handled and used by the dev team.
Currently, people don't say, "hey we're going out hunting, lets make sure we have a smuggler". That shortfall is something that needs to be included in the revamp thread.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dev_archive&message.id=19680&highlight=smuggler#M19680
Thunderheart wrote:
... I pushed very hard (I spent a couple of days pushing this issue) and the devs added bonuses to the Smugler Underworld Tree
A small victory, but you asked and its in. Here's how it works:
1. The system counts up your contraband and does the "scanning roll".
2. If the system "sees" the contraband (having made a successful scan roll), it checks to see if you are a smuggler. Depending on what level of Underworld a smuggler has, they get a progressive chance to "escape the scan". If the smuggler roll succeeds, then the player will get a message that reads, "You have successfully avoided the scan."
So if you want to get spice or sliced armor and weapons from one place to another and not get harassed by the Empire, then smuggle it
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=51541&highlight=smuggler#M51541
Thunderheart wrote:
Based on community input, we have made the following changes to the Imperial Crackdown penalty schema. Thanks go to San Tsu and the Smuggler community and Jester and the Galactic Civil War community.
[Thunderheart then proceeds to describe the system --hugely controversial and now known to Smugglers as "Imperial Immunity" --whereby anyone who invests some Imperial Faction points is able to bypass contraband scans better than a Master Smuggler. I would post it all, but Thunderheart used a strange script and it takes forever to clean it up for posting purposes.]
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dev_archive&message.id=801&highlight=smuggler#M801
Updated on 11 February 2004:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dev_archive&message.id=22484&highlight=smuggler#M22484
Thunderheart wrote:
One neat new addition to Publish 7 is with the Junk Dealers. Smugglers who have underworld can now take their Junk to the Jawa Traders camp and they can sell their junks to the Jawas up there.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=game_guides&message.id=137614&highlight=smuggler#M137614
Thunderheart wrote:
... the change to smuggler's [adding the Fred Sanford Trashman minigame] was a small one. Its just me working with the team to fit smuggler stuff in where we can until the revamp - - thats when the beefy changes will occur.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=game_guides&message.id=138096&highlight=smuggler#M138096
Thunderheart wrote:
You can expect pretty high visibility from the Smuggler thread. Ill do a takeaway and work with the correspondent and the community when we move to In development with it...
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dev_archive&message.id=30240&highlight=smuggler#M30240
"We've been burning the midnight oil to come up with a few more surprises. In the next 60 days you will see announcements on:
- A Veteran's Rewards system that will allow you to earn a bunch of cool things, up to and including an exclusive starship when "Jump to Lightspeed" launches!
- In-game leader boards.
- New mission types for player cities.
- A preferred "Jump to Lightspeed" beta program for existing subscribers/veterans.
- A Character Transfer System to move between galaxies.
- And a few other crazy things along the way!
As mentioned in the last State of the Game, things can and will change with our schedule. Accordingly, I would like to present you with our current development plans:
Mini Publish 8.1
- Image Designer Enhancements
- Improved Line of Sight calculations (no more shooting through walls etc.)
- Jump to Lightspeed Beta announcement
Mini Publish 8.2
- Death Watch Bunker This is a Major adventure w/ integrated profession requirements and some amazing new loot:
- Bounty Hunter Armor
- Mandalorian Armor
- Jetpacks (Yes, Jetpacks!)
- New weapons
- New art
- Bounty Hunter Armor
- Veteran Rewards system
- Badge Display system
- Loot enhancements"