Development Cycle Archive

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JustG wrote:

(I posted this in the original thread, but I am afraid it will get overlooked.)

Folks,

I have to step in, as Senior Producer, and take some responsibility here. The 1% decay removal was communicated to TH. We then revoked that change without telling him. He posted erroneous information to you, and it is my fault. I have apologized profusely to him, and now I am doing so to the community.

Here is why we revoked that change:

We want the GCW to be everything it can be. We want factional PvP to be fun and exciting. We understand that as players, you don't want the 1% decay. We think it is an important game mechanic in the right situations, but we want to remove it from factional battles.

Our plan is, in the next publish (NOT Imperial Crackdown, which is due soon, but the following publish) to have a factional perk that you can purchase with faction points. This perk will give you 24 hours of no decay on insured items for factional deaths.

Now as to your harsh words and attitude towards Thunderheart... I understand your frustration. But you have to know that every morning, the first person I talk to is TH, to find out about the current hot issues. He comes with us to almost all of our high-level meetings and represents "the voice of the players". He has tremendous passion for the game, and for you, and for his job. He fights for your issues, heart and soul, day in and day out. His job is to know your desires and represent them to us. And I think he does his job **edit** WELL.

It kills me to see how harsh some of the player population is towards him, because I know in no small part, we are responsible for any misinformation that you receive from him. No one is perfect, and things happen very rapidly from time to time. Miscommunications are going to occur. Don't kill the messenger. Please be forgiving, or direct your wrath towards a more guilty party (me).

Again, my deepest apologies for any misinformation regarding item decay from PvP. I take full responsibility. We love this game, as you do, and want it to be everything it can be. With your help, we will get there.

Best,

- Gary

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Number of points here.

1) This publish is forcing a number of people to PvP, yet the decay will continue. I think it would be (or have been) better to introduce this practically forced PvP at the same time as the solution to the decay problem.

2) Runesabre has said that his job is to put what players want into the game (Team Comments link on SWG homepage). It has been shown, time and time again, that players do not like decay. They didn't like it before it was put in, and they don't like it now. Yet it is staying...why?

3) Yes I agree, some players were too harsh toward TH. However, now that it's been shown it wasn't TH's fault, we ask another question...why revoke such a good change at the last minute? Essentially the dev team promised us no more PvP decay. Whether or not it was TH who told us doesn't matter. He was only the messenger. What does matter is that the dev team promised something and then broke that promise. I'll say it again as I've said on other threads: if we are expected to be honest as players, is it so much to expect that promises we are given be kept? We just want to be treated honestly if we are expected to behave so honestly.

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JustG wrote:

Herein lies the main problem with telling the players anything. Things Change. Things change based on the current state of the game, and the desires of our publisher. And the second that they change, you drag up old posts and start screaming LIARS!!!

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Good point Ebonfire

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DeQuosaek wrote:

Does ANYONE realize that a master armorsmith can REPAIR armor?

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another pro decay post from a guy that apparently has never had armor.

and btw anyone can repair armor, I along with many many people arent convinced armorsmiths actually get a repair bonus or not

For gods sake.. GET RID OF THAT DAMNED 1% DECAY! No one wants it, can't you see?

What makes it such a vital game mechanic when armors decay no matter what? And clothes still let you wear them after they hit 0 condition. ARGH!

I hear the two of you defending yourselves, but I don't hear you ANSWERING ANY QUESTIONS. Ok a communication error was made. Do you not see from the reaction of your player base, that they were highly anticpating that change. Do you think it is wise to tell them to wait yet another month while you figure it out. In the last five minutes you have told us that sometimes you can't keep promises because priorities change. Why should we believe this promise of "the next publish we will take care of it" will actually occur? Do you not think that perhaps it would be better to remove decay NOW. Somewhere in your code there is a function thay decays items on death. It either takes off 1% or 5% based on whether or not the item is insured. Change the freakin 1 to a 0. Five minutes of work = Happy Player Base.

I hope you didn't take my posts from yesterday as destructive towards TH. I thought I was just making a point and I was trying mybest to keep it non emotional.

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JustG wrote:

Now as to your harsh words and attitude towards Thunderheart... I understand your frustration. But you have to know that every morning, the first person I talk to is TH, to find out about the current hot issues. He comes with us to almost all of our high-level meetings and represents "the voice of the players". He has tremendous passion for the game, and for you, and for his job. He fights for your issues, heart and soul, day in and day out. His job is to know your desires and represent them to us. And I think he does his job **edit** WELL.

It kills me to see how harsh some of the player population is towards him, because I know in no small part, we are responsible for any misinformation that you receive from him. No one is perfect, and things happen very rapidly from time to time. Miscommunications are going to occur. Don't kill the messenger. Please be forgiving, or direct your wrath towards a more guilty party (me).

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Hey JustG & Thunderheart... I think both you guys are doing a bang up job! Don't let the b***ards get you down! Before SWG was released, it was touted as being a revolutionary MMORPG in many ways. But one of the post-release aspects of this game that has turned out to actually be revolutionary is something few people were talking about or expecting. I am referring to the way the live development team has maintained such an open dialogue with the player base, and designed and developed the game in response to player feedback and ideas. As a software developer myself, the thought of even attempting to sift through ad hoc feedback from such a huge user base and distill that down into actual design decisions is frightening at best. I believe that the work you are doing to this end therefore is quite impressive and praiseworthy.

I don’t post that much on these forums, unless I really feel strongly about a subject or have an idea that I haven’t seen anyone else mention previously (which is pretty unusual :smileyvery-happy, and I bet there are a lot of other players like me that approve of your design decisions and understand the difficulties inherent in arriving at these decisions. I Just want to make sure you both remember that there IS this ‘silent majority’ of SWG fans that respect and support the work you are doing, so you can keep the negative words and flames from the ‘vocal minority’ in perspective.

Keep up the good work, and I can’t wait to see what great things you are going to accomplish with SWG in 2004!

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Ebonfire wrote:

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JustG wrote:

Herein lies the main problem with telling the players anything. Things Change. Things change based on the current state of the game, and the desires of our publisher. And the second that they change, you drag up old posts and start screaming LIARS!!!

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I don't mean to be rude, but its the player base that is paying your pay checks. Its pretty obvious that the desires of the players differ from the desires of the publishers.. you can only bite the hand that feeds you for so long before...

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But if the players had the say in everything the game would be too easy, out of balance and most likely no fun for everyone.