Development Cycle Archive
Thread: In-Concept Open Discussion (Week Ending 4-19-04)
I think there should be jetpacks and not be able to walk through streetlamps in houses and jetpacks
These should be in an update sometime
hello there.
Read and agree with all the improvements suggested about houses (higher capacity, more interior modules, colours, decoration etc) Even if I know ziltch about programming, I understand that all those changes needs new programming, and since you always made clear that SWG was foremost a game of combat rebels vs imps, I don't hope for making cocounning in our home a priority for the next year or so. BUT. What about simply giving us the choice of actual houses in the game? why 3 planets can accept all house styles and the others are limited to one or 2?? I personnaly think that generic and corellian houses looks like bunkers, and have doors made of tin normally used to make drum gallons. What a dreadfull noise in a HOME! Not only that, but those doors are hyperactive and open if we blink an eye at the other end of the room. As a citizen in a capitalistic galaxy, how come I cannot choose the home style I like unless I go in exil on Dantoine with the voritors I hate so much? These homes already exists, and u permit them on few planets. Why not the other ones? Discrimination in the USA?? Try to tell an american he cannot buy the home style he wants if he have money to pay for it....
Vyltan from Kauri
Ok TH -
I don't remember reading anything about it, but whats the status on the Giant Dune Kimo Scale drops for RIS Armor? Somethings obviously not right here, and I don't remember hearing or reading anything about if its "working as intended," which would be rather silly, or if there is a bug/problem with the drops. Fill us in, please. Thanks!
And please give us some more information on the Space Expansion, if that is what you want to do in May then okay, but I just can't wait anymore, I really hope the SE won't end like SWG at the moment as it is pretty clear that SWG was a letdown.
Oh, and please do something about the LOD thing, in order to play without lagging like hell (Radeon 9700 Pro with 512 MB Ram can't be THAT bad) I have to scale down the LOG settings very much, but please do something about these sudden changes to the terrain, I am sure that can be done nicer.
First, I thought this was a concept thread so I didnt make any reference to existing problems and fixes for them. However, since most posts seem to be about the state of the game I will add my two cents. I will also make reference to EQ alot since I figure you are the same company that made that great game, but appearently have missed something vital when making this one.
1. The mind ham bar - Change it to act like mana in EQ. Meaning it gets used up when specials are used. The more someone spams specials the faster it is gone and then oops cant do anything. There are only two professions in that game that can directly effect the mana bar, and that doesnt kill a character, it just cripples their ability to do things. We wouldnt have so many cries for nerfs or have so many people with stat migration towards mind if you eliminated the mind kill in pvp and in pve. Changing the way mind works would also eliminate mass spamming of specials - thus more strategy in pvp needed and teamwork.
2. Quests - Again, there have been so many people that left the game due to boredom. Even your quests are boring. Ex. Talk to jabba - go to waypoint - talk to flunkie - return to jabba - get 50 credits - talk to jabba - go to waypoint - kill some flunkie - return to jabba - get some ugly poster. etc etc. In EQ some quests are simple but most require alot of work and/or help with missions. In SWG most people have either already achieved mastery in 1 profession but more then likely in multiple professions. There isnt many things a master of any combat profession cant do - solo, let alone throw a doctor or combat medic into the mix for them. Where are the EPIC quests in this game ?, where are the Difficult quests in this game? where is a quest other then going to a waypoint and either talking to a flunkie and then immediately returning or killing a flunkie that even a non combat profession can kill. I could care less about a badge that said I have been to a cave....so what! and a reward of 50credits? you cant be serious? We all know a newbie cant even get into jabbas place till they build up so faction, by the time they get the faction they will have earned a heck of a lot more then 50 credits.
3. Variety - I feel I am playing Composite Wars. I know i said this previously...but it needs to be hammered home to you folks. In EQ there are penalties and benefits to wearing different outfits. Now I know your going to say but we have HAM penalties for heavier armor....ROFL any decent Doctor can wipe those penalties away in about 1 minute...AKA the buff. Where are the ability to move fast penalty? Where is the decrease in Combat penalty? Where is the benefit to wearing Tantel or Bone armor? Other then for looks there isnt any. Balance the pros and cons of armor.
4. GCW - what war? I know on the two servers I am on its almost non existent. And when it is going its a race to see how many combat medics and doctors can get into the mix. I should know I am both. whats the point of earning faction points? To build Bases? Turrets? Buy crappy armor? buy a weapon that cant hit a player standing still? Or how about some meaniless Tool chest? you get the idea. Where are my benefits for going out and taking on the opposition? For instance, someone mentioned earlier about 1 time schematics for armor to be crafted - now thats a great idea. Now I can actually fight a stormtrooper or whatever a rebel is.(a marine?). How about different schematics....you have the models for scout troopers already built, add snowtroopers and space troopers and How about for 100 million faction points Imperial Guard armor...now there is something to shoot for...something EPIC. Use the rank structure for alternate advancement. For instance a private gets squat..rofl...but a Sargeant.... can use points to boost their ranged defense or sniping ability or combat healing speed or etc etc. much like skill tapes, but permanent...then maybe we can have variety in the game instead of TKM/Rifleman templates or TKM/doctor or etc. you know the drill. this will get the war started back up, but please make the faction points needed high so it takes people along time.
5. Mastery of professions and new skills - ok seriously you people need to make it harder to master stuff.....Its sad when i see people hologrinding their 23 profession, and they did the previous 22 in the last two weeks. In EQ, except for the hard core gamer it takes a year or so to attain mastery. There is no incentive for me to play this game right now. I am at the top of my professions respectively, the only incentive is money or to help people hologrind. And to make it worse, when you do introduce new stuff you plop it in already acheived skill slots..AKA the speederbikes. Please tell me when the space expansion comes out you arent giving spaceship design to architects and plopping the Star Desroyer schematic in Buildings 1(extreme example, but you get the point). Again what would be the incentive if you do that? to go harvest more minerals? rofl...please.
6. Honesty - You really need to work on your human resource department. When you Hype a big deal about a publish, please make sure the product lives up to the billing. I prefer to hear from you that A. you are tryig something new B. You're not sure it is what we asked for C. it's only a stop gap measure while we get the real thing worked through. Then what you are currently force feeding us. AKA the droid publish, LMAO - so artoo can shoot a laser now. Oh but Artoo only has 1200 hitpoints - hmmn artoo goes up againt savage quenker - savage quekers eats artoo - artoo is now parts all over the ground - player cant believe they spent 120k on artoo with laser. In the wall paper you dont show artoo shooting lasers you show COMBAT DROIDS. Where are the combat droids? Talk about major community disapointment. Have you guys done a poll checking on suicide rate for DE's? Does someone in your dev department have a personal issue with droids and their makers? Heck I feel so bad for them I randomly tip them 100k just for advertising their title. Note any Master DE's on my servers come see me for handouts - poor little engineers.Devs do the right thing and give them and the community what we asked for. How hard is it for you guys to watch the star wars movies and go hmmn...IG-88, a bounty hunter droid...we can do that.
7. Tools - You stated to the community that this game was going to be player driven, i.e. the economy, the cities, etc. etc. Well the economy is excuse my french...Whack, the cities are empty and not used except two. Theed becuase you dont have to wait 10 minutes to shuttle and Coronet to get to the planets you cant from theed. Meanwhile there are any number of afk people spam shouts come here to my vendor at such and such creating the worst feeling a game can have, short of the Old Tunnel in EQ spamming. And now you have decided to make it worse with spam bots. Who is the genius that thought that one up?. Does SOE own stock in a RAM manufacturing company? Because if anyone haslower then 1 gig of ram walks out of those starports with all the new spam bots coming they will be stuck there for 20 minutes. Please give us the tools to make player cities more attractive to use, more mayoral controls, maybe starports for metropolis or larger cities. See my previous post for some of those ideas. Let us make them look more like cities too, with the limited enhancements to our cities they look like crap.
8. Color - Ok we can change color on our armor and tailors can change clothing colors and now Image designers will get more options too, thats a good start. Now how about you let architects in on that game too? I would like to see different color furniture, houses, plants, etc. etc. And while your at it , lets add more plants, more variety to that...I applaud those of you that have found graet ways to use existing pieces to make your homes nicer, but I think colorization would go along way. And plese allow the color mods and bikes, droids to be permanent. Allow Bio engineers to alter the DNA of a rancor to be blue if they want...Variety = less boredom more money for the crafters etc etc. Someone mentioned new clothing or variations on existing stuff. Please listen to them. I am sick of trying to make the same outfit look different from every other female I encounter...Its very hard to be honest.
9. Content - I know I mentioned quests earlier but I feel I need to speak of it again. In EQ every 6 months or so you guys add so much new content for both young and advanced characters that there isnt a player in that game that has done it all. Hmmn in SWG, i would say over 50% of the population has done everything they can do. And if they only get back on the game to hologrind or if they are like me to talk to friends, guildies or try and role-play. Bringing in new instanced dungeons will help, but serously you need to sit down with your programmers and hammer out 100 dungeons and 100 quests in one publish to keep long term players around. In EQ when you brought in Planes of Power expansion, there was still only a handfull of guilds and I am talking big bad guilds that could enter Vex thal. ROFL I can enter Geo cave with my two characters alone. The reason there was only a handfull was because it was very hard to get all the componets for the keys to enter....and once you were in your life span was counted in minutes if your groups werent ready for it. You put 20 pople in a group in Geo cave and I dont care how fast the spawns pop...The only thing achieved by those spawns is to ruin the economy of the server and allow everyone to have a Dxr6b weapon or whatever is dropping. Where are the big bosses? where is teamwork required to achieve a goal? Why isnt a legion of stormtropers overwelming my group of 20 rebels who want to go see the emperor? you get the point.
10. Player content - As mentioned in my previous post and has been mentioned by others as well - giveus a true PVP free for all arena schematic which can only be built in metropolis size cities or larger. allow the area inside of it to be completely everyman for himself/herself, allow owner of building to charge entrance to watch. This will allow us to host contest better and create player content. Let players post Bounties, to insure that it is not exploited make sure, there is no decay from BH bounty death. Allow us to post help wanted signs, other then in these forums, for services needed, like the poor Ranger class - so I can hire them to go get me a bunch of avian meat or whatever i need for them to track down for me. Allow the owner of a cantina to bump macro entertainers so they can have bands that actually play as a band in their cantina - which brings meto aside note allow bands which perform together as a band w/dancers to give better mind buffs or longer lasting ones at least. Player cities should be allowed to have npc's which can give quests. Also Player cities should be allowed to be all wookie or Mon Cal or whatever they like. Imp declared PCcities would of course be all human so anyone using their facilites would suffer a penalty if non-human. These are tools to be given to the mayor. Make the polotician class more intriguing - all they do know is allow people in the milita and make sure the city doesnt burn down from inactive player houses dissapearing. Which is obviously a problem otherwise you wouldnt have released a patch extending inactive player houses from destroying PC cities.
If any of this sounds too hard or impractical to do, or there arent enough people to sort through the ideas and respond properly to the community, why don't you hire a bunch of the people playing this game at minimum wage. Heck alot of these people dont have jobs and would love to work on the game that they play so passionately. I bet you can even get volunteers. And dont say you already have this with the corespondents in place...becuase apearently there is a communication breakdown between you. Feedback is welcome and wanted. I have yet to see some ideas from these open discussion made into a a thread where you say....hmmmn...that was a clever idea....Ok people we want to try and make this work.....now lets discuss the best way to implement it - since you are the paying and playing customer - how would you implement such and such idea. OK great.....here is response from dev such and such he is working on it....such and such dev says......no can do my Tandy 2000 computer cant make the models work without serious game bugs crashes etc......maybe we can try something else. OK mr. dev....lets try this. Now is that so hard to do? Or are all of you using the SWG as a testing model for EQ2.......If so let me know now so I can stop playing this game....Reopen my EQ account so I can go get all my uber loot and create my legacy item for EQ2.
Lastly, If you are going to make an apearence on these boards, try and answer something meaningful and not something that is a lame announcement like this...
Jansem wrote:
The E3 expo on May 12th will show off the space exapnsion? Will we get to see it at all? They showed off the space exansion at last years E3 and you really had to work to find footage of it. If E3 is in a month, shouldn't there be quite a bit of hype and rumors around it by now? I haven't heard anything.
You will get to see big chunks. There are no rumors because we havent spoken about it. Its all going to happen at E3.
What the heck is that? How does that improve the thread or address the underlying problems which are causing people to leave the game left and right. Why are you even acknowledging that post in a IN-CONCEPT thread. If anything, shouldn't that be answered in Announcements or even....and this is a stretch....IN DEVELOPMENT thread.
P.S. Please forward this to Skywalker Ranch, I am sure George would be very interested about the state of this game which is built upon his franchise.
Timak : Master Doc / Master combat medic - corbantis
Eppi : TKM / Commando -corbantis
Ev-so: Master doc / Master Tailor - scyilla
Epi : Master BH - scyilla
Tavian_McMaster wrote:
Shadowtalker wrote:
I'd like a holocron comment on that one tavian.
I think the problem here is TH has a different understanding of what his job is than we do. We seem to come to these threads looking for answers because TH is the only one that talks to us. The thing is, he sees his job as this: "My deal is here is to represent what you guys envision for yourselves (within reason =P)"
If his job is to take info from us and give to devs, someone should be charged with the job of taking info from the devs and giving it to us. This is why we have petitions that go on and on for 25 pages and no one ever bothers to acknowledge it. That would fall under the category of communication, which is at an all-time low.
This post is well said and should be rated by all as a 5.
Tavian, if I may be so bold as to respond to your response as SOE would have TH reply:
This will all be addressed in the combat rebalance.
(Errrrr...guys, whatI really want to tell you that i do read your post and would love to answer them and address them...but unfortunately 3 things would happen if I did. 1. the powers that be would once again make me look stupid as it all comes down to the bean counters as far as fixing the game. 2. The truth would probably drive whats left of you hopefully diehards away. 3. I would get fired and replaced by someone who will say the same things the bean counters tell them to say - so whats the point.)
Check out the latest at E3, its all hush hush - but all the cool graphics (minus the bugs - cause we are only showing small clips and screenshots) will make it worth the wait.
Thanks, Thunderheart
Does that sound about right?
Timak / eppi - corbantis (what can I say - 2 account die hard )
Dear Concept Team,
In order to make a Jedi look more Jedi'ish, could it be worked out to put a robe on OVER a vest? Also, I've noticed capes are listed in the bazaar tab under clothing. Is there any way that cape schematics could be introduced as loot?
I'm aware that these requests are minor compared to the major changes taking place in the game. These are just two things that would increase my personal enjoyment
Hello. First off I know you guys mainly hear flaming, and while there are bugs that need attention, I want to say i think you are doing a great job. I have beta tested many of the MMORPGs (AO, Earth & Beyond, EQ and SWG just to name a few) And I have to say I love the little details in the game, things I think many folks overlook.
That being said, I would like to offer my thoughts on some things that Bug me. =)
First off A comment on the Tailor Profession. I LOVE that it is not as complex as other crafting professions. To be honest if it were I would have quit the game awhile ago as I compleatly burnt out on combat classes while hologrinding (I gave up on a FS slot after 10 professions). I like that I can be a part time player and not spend all my time looking for named resources or the best quality resources. There needs to remain at least one casual crafting class in this game.
I also like that you brought experimentation back in one small area, armor parts. I will never bother with those but its not something all tailors need to do. I have a job in real life, I dont want my game play to be one too. (hats off to you folks who enjoy the tedious crafting professions, I dont know how you do it but I am glad you do =) I wouldnt mind seeing experimentation back for number of slots on cloths as well.
I would really like to see more clothing options that take combat mods though. The choices are FAR to limited. Everything takse Synth but almost nothing takes the Reinforced by comparison.
I think you really need to add 2 optional parts on Tacticle Skinsuits and Infaltrator Suits. Both imply combat use but take no mods. Make it optional unlike the other cloths. Also allow them to take DOUBLE combat mods and No Heal Mods. It will not stack any worse than shirt and pants, in fact it is more limited because with pants and shirt you could have double combat mods and still heal mods. I get so many complaints about them not taking combat mods. The Tac Suits are my favorit suit as well, but you wont catch me in one... for that reason. Use a ration of parts needed like slot 1 - 1 tissue, slot 2 -4 tissues or 2 x 2 or even 2 x1 5x1. Just make it possible. and they Must take double mods. I want to hunt in them and not be fully gimped. I am not the only one either! =)
House storage needs to be addressed. I dont understand why a Medium house has the same amount as a small (which has to little if you are a crafter and you want to make it look nice) give med houses 200 and add 50 to anything with 200 (like guild halls. Hay they take 9 lots give em MUCH more room! guild halls could really be fun places with much more space). Do not dare lower the space on a small house though.
Speaking of guild halls, why does the naboo PA look just like the generic one and take up 9 slots? The Tat one is so diffrent and cool and only takes 7. Give us a Naboo one like that.
Smugglers need real smuggling missions. The crackdown is fun, but it is no replacement for a good Smuggler mission. My thought on a Smuggler mission might spawn a team only indoor adventure in one of the static buildings in a city. Something that would involve Slicing locks, and smuggler skills. Done like corvett where the Smuggler (solo or team) each spawn their own mission... but random like normal mission spawns.
I would also like to see a Smuggler only weapon. doesnt need to be UBER weapon, but unique to smugglers and worth using. Perhaps a Cold pistol with a 200ish top end.
Only one type of spice Sells and that is Gold. everyone pays heafty for doc buffs and smuggler spice is a joke. Give Smugglers more Spice choices, like chefs but Diffrent. Something they dont have. Not every spice should have a major downer either. Give smugglers a break and let folks use some of maybe the lesser spices with no down time or with a minus to stats for a short period but not something that incs ya.
Weapons in general... I would like to see more. They dont really have to be so diffrent than existing ones, but it's rather boring seeing every commando with a flame thrower. Diffrent visual choices would be nice even if there is not that much dif as far as the actually stats go.
Armor... Well... first off make some of the lower end stuff have a use. Make Tanieal(sp?) stun resistant. Nothing major but say 35% but dont change any of the other types of damage. So it would be light weight, offer decent stun protection but be paper for most other things thus not really throwing off balance but adding some more actual armor choices. No point in all the armor that no one will ever wear. Give em a lil reason to wear it.
Padded armor... it's i think the coolest looking armor in the game, but you have to be mad to wear it because the ENC is worse than composit! Drasticly reduce the ENC of this. Again why have diffrent types of armor if almost no one wears it. I mean be honest, we have Composit and Ubese no one searously wears anything else. (ok I am sure one of those rare few will speak up and say 'Hay I wear it' But look at hunting parties and see what most are really wearing when they wear armor).
Composit... I only have 1 complaint with it... Where are some of the colors? I want orange! And I want a real orange like can be made with cloths. I want to see Bolder Blues (hay you have bold red why not the other colors?) I want to see a Bold purple like I can have in my shirts. I want to see a REAL gold! I also dont care about having 50 diffrent subtle variations of the same color... most folks dont use just a hair darker or lighter.
Droid Engies... when I was in beta I had a bad feeling about Droid Engies... there was so little attention paid to them compaired to CH. Think about it when you think starwars, do you think Droids or Creature handlers? But look at the game. Animal pets and CHare all the rage ...and Droids, well even with the new combat ones...
You get the picture. Make Droid Engies master of Droids like CH. Allow them and only them to control 3 at master. Allow droid engies to make some more powerful Bots that only Droid engies with experience can use. Treat them More like CH. If a droid engie is in combat, why would he use his gun as his main weapon? He is Master of Droid programming and building, he should know how to use them like none other!
Make the tracker Droid have more HP give them 700 at least. Again there is another item in game no one will ever use. Even newbies dont use em. Allow Load lifters to have twice the storage of other droids.
Bountyhunters... They should be the only other class that coud have higher than normal level of combat droids. They should maybe have a max of 2 droids or one powerful one... but still keep in mind that a DE should have much more when it comes to droid toughness than a BH. I would also like to see a BH specific carbine... something diffrent and cool. I always thought the Tangle pistol should be a BH only weapon and have been what the Geno pistol is now... I mean... BH dont always have to kill their target, they out of all of the classes should have good class specific stun weapons.
KitsuKlhorr wrote:
I dunno if anybody else has suggested this or thought a bout it but I think an increase from 250 to 300 skill points would be great. This would allow people to master 4 professions and have a few left for something else rather than 3. I don't think this would make anybody too powerful especially if there is going to be more professions added when the expansion comes out.
I don't understand why you would want that. The whole idea of limiting professions is so you can Role-play a certain profession. I find it rediculous already that a master rifleman can be a master Doctor at the same time. I don't have a problem with a Master Rifleman / master Medic as, there are many medics in combat who use a weapon. How many Doctors to you see on the front lines of any war? Going by your idea - why dont we just let everyone master every profession all at once - becuase I can assure you, that after everyone gets 300 skill points - you or someone like you will be on these posts saying well you might as well give us 400 skillpoints so we can master 5 professions. Try role-playing your character instead of always trying to build the uber template. Maybe you will enjoy the challenge.
Timak -master Doc/ master combat medic -Corbantis
Eppi - master TKM / Commando - Corbantis