Development Cycle Archive

Hi TH, was wondering if the Wookie race could get a response on our issues, I know that this is a hard issue to decide on. I sure it is a major balance issue, whether to give us armor or not, but just want to know if it's being considered or not. Thx for your time

TH are we going to see an in consept thread regarding the SE? if so when? Im very eager to add some input =)

(would love to see things like PC cap ships that require mulitiple people in coordination to pilot, but that is for another thread)

TH,

"Welcome to the In Concept Forum"

"Here, SWG developers will post new threads announcing planned changes and the dates in which conceptual suggestions will be included in the process." -Q-3PO

Gee..I kinda thought "In Concept" is where the Dev's would be postingtheir ideas for us to comment on. These threads seem to be asking for Player Input on Professions which seems would be more something you would expect to find in the Profession Forums.

Please quit suggesting that your customers don't understand the software development process. Some of us have gained a little coding experience after doing it for 28 years. Poor planning is at the root of many software delays and that poor planning usually involves more than the programmers. Asking your customers to help you plan, while noble, will not always lead to a workable solution. On the other hand, not listening to them and fixing the bugs they report will drive them away. You need a bug list and a posted plan. Droid Handler was never really explained in a clear manner anywhere. Skill chart? How can you write the code without a detailed plan for the profession? Where will you post it for comment?

Edsoni

Wanderhome

As Smugglers didn't got a "combat threed" of their own, and seeing they will soon get some major loving from the devs (we can only hope )

Here goes something I saved for just this. It's a "what can be fixed" post, like many, many others have been seen over at the Smugglers forum, but my points aims at what can be done within the given skills that makes the smuggler profession.

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First, short intro. Been playing West End Games: Star Wars - The roleplaying game for over 14 years, I own pretty much that has been released (70+ books, supplements, sourcebooks, all of the (c) Lucasfilm) and I am currently almost a finished Industrial Design Engineer. My real name is Lars, and I live in the northen parts of Sweden.

Many post about how to improve the Smuggler profession is great, full of ideas, and in most case totally unusable for more reason then one. If I were to "improve" the smuggler profession, drawing on years of playing them, tons of material about them & numerous sourcebooks, just dealing with smuggling, I would scrap the whole profession and rebuild it from scratch. This is however not something that can be done, as we are stuck with what we got. The main goal is to do as much with it as we can, and improve the things that has been given to this profession within the skilltrees that exist. Therefor here comes my own thoughts about what can be done to make it a funnier to play, and generally improved profession.

- Skill trees.

- Underworld.

Works pretty ok, however is besides that you get a lower cost of FP equipment, it is not that used. Many Smugglers buy and sell FP which is pretty ok I guess, but as the limit is you can only buy FP if your Faction rating is under 500FP is a very, VERY tiresome way to ern money, especially since even with macros for it, it is a hassel, and with slight lag, your most likely to resign from your Faction.

Fixes.

First of all, you should be able to buy more FP. Be it 1-2k max, move it to Master Smuggler or something like that: Fine - being able to buy up towards 1-2k before the recruiter says "we have had enough donations allready" would improve the sale of FP and the skill over all.

With the upcoming Imperial Lockdown, a possibility would be to let smugglers have a better chanse to "hide" contraband from scaning Imperial patrols. Call it "Stealth", "Smuggling" or anything like that, the skill would fit under the Underworld tree.

- Slicing.

Beside spices, this is your main income if your a non-combat player. Works pretty good, however...

Fixes.

...Sure, we can expermient with the clamps & laserknifes we use, but it doesn't mather, the results doesn't improve abit. Pretty sad when you might have blueprints of 99% Clamps, and you can use 1% clamps from low-low-low grade copper ore to do them. Also, as being Master, you should have the ability to choose what type of slice it will be. I think that is what _alot_ of ppl that play the profession at a master level wants.

- Dirty Fighting.

Good if you mixes it with a true combat profession like pistoleer (which is to weak on it's on), however, I feel, as alot of others do, that last ditch might be better off moved up to Master.

Fixes. Well it is working good, good tree for the combat oriented player, like myself. A wish that I really would see come true, is to have a Pistol Certificate for just smugglers (like Bounty Hunters and Commandoes for example). More about that lower down in this post.

- Spices.

Spices is another good income source for a smuggler as the Spices IV variants is good as a lifesaver, most of the time, moun gold saves me from trubble.

Fixes: Experimentation & quality of resources _must_ be added otherwise is a very boring tree for a non-combat smuggler, and even a combat smuggler for that matter. perhaps a few "Master" spices variants would be nice also, just to make it another reason to go for master, and just not go up in one tree.

This is some small, and in my eyes, pretty easy changes, if we are to belive on Galaxies said "spankingly good game mechanics". Overall i feel that the smuggler in galaxies has _nothing_ to do with "true" and EU canon smuggelers due to the facts a) smugglers don't slice weapons and armor. Slicing is made by hackers, slicing into computer and security systems. Weapon & armor upgrades is made by armor & weaponsmiths. Same with spices, smugglers doesn't produce it, they, and you might not know, _smuggle_ it (yes some irony in that . Canonwise, not all spices are illigal, many is used for medical purposes, some as minerals in electronic parts. The main reason they become illigal is that the Empire want to control the market for themself, but of course, many of them is classified as drugs. (like rhyll)

As said before, this is not the Smuggler in galaxies. Even thought another name like "rouge" would purhaps have been a better name for the profession, so be it. It is what we got, and we need to make the best of it.

My wish list is mainly this: Fixes for the tools needed in slicing, so that they mather towards the end result, same with spices + expermientation, this needs some fixes. For underworld, "smuggling" to have a bigger chanse of getting out of Imperial scans of contraband unharmed, and how about the possibility to change planetbanks WITH all items in the bank, now that would be smuggeling.

As for the pistol certeficate for Dirty Fighting, this is just what I really really really would like to see: Hold out Blaster. Sure, the Blastech DL-44 i a very common weapon within the smuggling profession, but a hold out blaster would suit the ingame profession pretty good. Small, fast, doesn't do to much damage, but perhaps, and this is what I would like to see: it gives bonuses to the dirty fighting tree. I know, perhaps abit diffrent then most want to see, but hey, that is just me.

Good reading material about smugglers, for the regular player, or the devs should be:

Platt Smugglers guide
Gundarks Fantastic Equipment: Personal Gear
and just about any old WeG supplement/sourcebook, IF you can get hold of them as they are out of print.

//Hawi Carrod. First goes to whoever can state from where my handle is taken.

Thunderheart is there any truth to this?

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=jedi&message.id=230451

Please let us know?

Thanks

hey, after looking at the website over at lucasarts.com, i noticed the high profile that you are giving Jedi in the game. i was thinking, that you might want to make Jedi more prominent in the game. i know previously that there have been several breaks in continuity for the sake of smooth game play, game mechanics, or just plain fun. Now i ask you this: PLEASE SERIOUSLY consider making Jedi more prominent in the game for the sake of fun and interest. there have been Jedi on Eclipse for a long time, and i STILL haven't met one.

I think there have been many Jedi for some time, and many complaints for just as long. i hope in my heart of hearts that you guys already have some major change or revamp cooking up for us with respect to the Jedi. i think that this might be a great time to either drop a hint at it, or tell us that you're GOING to start changing/revamping. ESPECIALLY if you are going to sell them this hard to new players.

Sorry TH. As much as I respect you....

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Thunderheart wrote:

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.

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Wrong. Low Blow, Panic Shot, and Last Ditch are the most useful pistol specials in the game. To say nothing of the spices that a well-trained Smuggler will be bringing along and....providing.

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Thunderheart wrote:

It wasnt added in the "Combat Role" profession because its not purely a combat profession.

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Agreed. Smuggler is a hybrid profession of both crafting and combat. But you can't say, with a straight face, that Scout and Ranger are. That's totally bogus. And, unlike Scout/Ranger, Smugglers have 2 useless trees - the Unarmed tree of Brawler (we have no Unarmed Dirty Fighting moves...something that must change) and the Underworld tree (that's 900,000 Pistol experience that I would much rather have gone towards my future run to Master Pistoleer.

Smugglers need dev love, badly. Perhaps not as badly as some others (Droid Engineers, I feel for you...really, I do). Give us something to the extent you gave Bio-Engineer - a clear and definitive purpose in this universe. Right now we're nothing but a combination of Pistoleer (with better attacks, I might add) and Chef, not counting the Slicing tree.

Note that I'm certainly not a "voice of the Smuggler forum". I'm not a correspondant and I don't much want to be - but I do get a very good sense of how the Smuggler community, as a whole, feels. And they aren't happy. We want to be able to slice more things. Let me slice my speederbike, to increase its speed but also increase its rate of decay! Let me slice travel terminals for reduced travel fees! Let me slice those Lockers, MagSeal Containers, and the like in dungeons like the Warren!

Give us a flag for "Sliced" or "Unsliced" on weapons! I hate having to tell my slicing customers something along the lines of, "You need to trade me your weapon so I can tell if it's sliced or not." Also, let Master Smugglers choose their slices. Maybe a Master could guarantee a high percentage, but a random stat, or a specific stat, but a random percentage. Not both. But certainly not neither, like we have now.

Give DE's a "Slicing module" for droids. When installed on a droid (like, for example since I think they make sense for a Slicer to have, a WED Treadwell droid), they give a bonus to the minimum percentage of the slice. Leave the max where it is - but I hate getting 14% slices as a Master Smuggler. And believe me, I get them.

Give us spice experimentation! Right now, someone with Spices IV makes the same spices that a person with Master does. Give Masters the ability to improve the buff, decrease the downer, increase the buff time, etc. Give us a reason to seek out high quality resources. Also, spices should do more than just make you puke on the downer. Make them Dizzy or Stun you, or perhaps make it like being drunk in EQ (I have never played EQ, so I've never experienced this- but I've heard tales of it).

Give us a reason why we should have Brawler skills as a prerequisite for Smuggler. An earlier poster suggested a Crotch Kick, or Eye Gouge, or Finger Break. That's a wonderful idea - who'd expect someone to gouge out your eyes when in close combat with a blaster? It'd add much more of a feeling of being a Smuggler. Oh, and fix Feign Death. If you ever stand up from it, the MOB instantly re-aggros you. This ineeds to be fixed.

Give us smuggling content! Have it so we're scanned when taking a shuttle for contraband. Make some spices "controlled" (low level ones like Giggledust or Grey Gabaki) and make some "illegal" (Muon Gold, Neutron Pixie). If a person in caught carrying these substances, there should be a fine or imprisonment, or something of that nature. Perhaps the smuggler could bribe the customs officials? Or maybe the Smuggler can prepare things in advance, using some of his "underground contacts" to let him through customs without any fuss, regardless of what he's carrying.

Put something in our Master boxes. The only reasons right now to spend that extra skill point are for (A.) the title and badge, or (B.) the slicing bonuses. There is no other documented bonus at Master Smuggler. Unless you count /tells from people saying "hey d00d slice my gun plzzz!!!!!111". I certainly don't.

There's so much...so much you can do to make Smuggler a more interactive and more enjoyable class to play, TH. Please take a look through the Smuggler forums sometime, read through some of the threads. Send me a Private Message, I'd be glad to provide you with several links to discussions I found fascinating regarding the future of the Smuggler class.

Thanks for reading. /tiphat

SWG takes place during the Original Trilogy. As such. Jedi will NOT be as prominent and if you want alot of jedi, go play Jedi Outcast, Jedi Knight or Jedi Academy. Or even Knights of the Old Republic. People work hard (or some do) to open their FSS. The devs aren't just going to HAND you a FSS and say "here you go!" - if you expect handouts, go play another game.

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Starskin wrote:
hey, after looking at the website over at lucasarts.com, i noticed the high profile that you are giving Jedi in the game. i was thinking, that you might want to make Jedi more prominent in the game. i know previously that there have been several breaks in continuity for the sake of smooth game play, game mechanics, or just plain fun. Now i ask you this: PLEASE SERIOUSLY consider making Jedi more prominent in the game for the sake of fun and interest. there have been Jedi on Eclipse for a long time, and i STILL haven't met one.

I think there have been many Jedi for some time, and many complaints for just as long. i hope in my heart of hearts that you guys already have some major change or revamp cooking up for us with respect to the Jedi. i think that this might be a great time to either drop a hint at it, or tell us that you're GOING to start changing/revamping. ESPECIALLY if you are going to sell them this hard to new players.

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SWG takes place during the Original Trilogy. As such. Jedi will NOT be as prominent and if you want alot of jedi, go play Jedi Outcast, Jedi Knight or Jedi Academy. Or even Knights of the Old Republic. People work hard (or some do) to open their FSS. The devs aren't just going to HAND you a FSS and say "here you go!" - if you expect handouts, go play another game.

you could not have misread this more. i'm somewhat insulted by these implications, but i intend to reply in a civil manner to this. my intention is that i should know that ppl have unlocked FSC slots AT ALL other than by hearing it. i would like to see a jedi, i would like jedi to be part of the game, the player experience. although jedi WERE INDEED rare at this time, no on tells stories about boring everyday life, and no one wants to play a game based on it. well, some ppl do, but they can play "the sims" ^_^. i was thinking that we could make it so that people could experience the Star Wars Story, which consists of exceptional things in this universe.

this IS NOT a proposition to change the criteria for opening the FSCS at all, and neither is it a suggestion for radical changes to the current tree. i am suggesting game balance. i have an in game (and RL) friend who thinks that you should remove perma-death from jedi, and instead apply the loot system. if an animal kills a FS player, then he should get to his corpse soon, before it's looted. and if he's killed by a BH or other PC, then he's short his light-saber and his robes, etc. Said friend also recommends loosing all the loose XP you have gethered every time you die. i don't know about that, but the idea sounds like it offers distinct advantages to BHs(and other non FS players) in the form of loot and more interaction with jedi, and gives jedi a chance to interact with ppl all be it in a covert manner, but like they did at this time in the story. I don't think the jedi talked to no one, and trained to kill animals. i think they interacted with ppl and fought the empire etc.

don't stick to this particular example too much, but consider game balance. i think it will be good for the Force sensitive and the regular player alike.

/whisper and i'll most likely never unlock my FSCS. i don't have enough time with school and all. i'll just have to enjoy it like the masses. by ALL MEANS keep the FSCS something rare and cool!

Starskin I have to agree with you. While i don't want to see a replay of Attack of the Clones, Force Sensitive characters are a lot more common in this time frame than what we see in the movies. There are Dark Jedi, they aren't the focus of the movies, but they exist and play their role.

Perhaps one of the problems with the current system is that as soon as you unlock you get a sabre. Well the light sabre is the pure sign of a Jedi. It would be a lot easier to be a force sensative character if you didn't have to do everything with a sabre. Could a commando on a raid be a force sensitive? He gets an edge in doing his job, but its not all about the flashign sabre and killing animals.