Development Cycle Archive
Thread: I'm out of my cave!
Shug_Ninx wrote:
We're always upset about any changes to our schedule, and we recognize that you're upset too. With that said, the (formerly known as) "combat balance" and Galactic Civil War revamp are going to come after Jump to Lightspeed (which launches in October).
I've yet to make my decision about what gamewill be for me,but after reading your post, I can say that I'm starting to swing one way more than the other.I'm glad you had an opportunity to talk to us about these things.
I was disappointed that the combat revamp was being pushed back. What made it infuriating is that the communication in your interviews seemed so contradictory to what we had been told over the last several months. Then we didn't get any communication about it.
I hope something can be done so that everyone stays on the same page better to prevent this from happening again in the future.
I've never quit playing the game, although I have taken breaks. I think the Devs do a good job in general, even if I disagree with some of the decisions. Before I wrap this up, I do have to admit that I am very impressed with the fixes we have seen in the last two weeks. Nicely done.
The famed 20% who post to these forums are arguably more populous and more important than your Jedi and yet the community at large has had their complaints ignored and sidelined in some cases for over a year now.
The fact that you are pulling *anyone* off the Live team to work on JTL is a direct contradiction to what was previously posted to the forums about there being 2 completely distinct and separate teams. This statement was made to put down a rumor, started by your employees' postings, that JTL was pulling resources from the Live team and that we would see significant content and fixing delays to the extent that we might see the Combat Rebalance and even JTL delayed. The players opposed the sharing of resources because it would rob this game of badly needed attention and were quieted by the *false* news of 2 teams.
And the Combat Rebalance has always *been* the Combat *REBALANCE*. This "Revamp" nonsense is doublespeak. The suggestion that the Combat Rebalance has not been thought out in detail is completely contradicted by the fact that you and your colleagues set out a 4 step balancing plan in these forums and proceeded to patch out the first stage of the plan, the Creature Rebalance. If it hadn't been planned out, then obviously you were wrong to begin the changes and they would best be revoked immediately until a comprehensive solution is closer at hand. If it had been planned out and then delayed then that would mean the Combat Rebalance has been in active development longer than JTL in opposition to the statement Thunderheart made telling the community that now that JTL has been in development for so long it can't be delayed to begin a *new* project.
That said, it's a given that you won't respond to this post. I've cited incontrovertible facts and no one on the Dev side is willing to admit to being wrong, misunderstood maybe, but not wrong. Just keep this in mind as the billing cycles end and renewals are not forthcoming.
Okay, I'm adding this bit after the fact since now TH has posted more on the little game you guys are playing. If my character is cancelled on a 6 month purge that'll make it right about the time that the Combat Rebalance is supposedly happening. The timing is just a bit suspicious is it not? You give us roughly 6 months of warning that our characters will be deleted if we cancel our accounts before the Combat Rebalance happens? You've just turned a lot of "hiatus until fixes" characters and accounts into "permanently cancelled".
Message Edited by Matsubaa on 08-02-2004 10:14 PM
IGilligan wrote:
I hate you Haden.
I am encouraged by the post and hope that we, like a previous poster said..ok it was Jan, can get back to daily dialogs, or at least an every other day post by a Dev just to blow air if nothing else. It makes us feel like we are being listened to and feel somewhat appreciated to be a part of the SWG family.
Well, my thanks anyhow...
D,D,D & L <------ I know I could make a sig for my profile, but this is short and sweet now, maybe I will make this a sig
Message Edited by PlayeroftheDay on 08-02-2004 05:22 PM
Message Edited by Moriendor on 08-03-2004 02:27 AM
All I say I sure feel sorry for the staff working this boards. Watch your tounge and think it thru 10 times and then run it thru 2 others atleast before you dear posting it becouse someone can missunderstand it and always think the worst. Then the conspiracy theorys starts, the roumers, the whining kids and what not. I realy started wondering sometimes how ppl can understnad "this like that?!" and a lill further down a dev say in "baby language" how the above dev post was to be understood.
Anyway, i'm more fond of a "spit it in my face" kinda comunication instead of all the "wooly" talk. HIT MEH!
Haden is a politician - you either buy this garbage, or you don't.
I don't.
We are not all stupid, Haden. Many of us work in the entertainment, gaming, and/or public relations industries and know how things like this work; and even we are constantly amazed at the transparent nature of the attempted community manipulation.
AO
"I've played a Star Wars game for over a year now, and Vader still stands in the same spot…"
Totally agreed. We've talked about this a lot internally and none of us are happy with the way the named NPCs are being used. We're trying to prioritize updating them against everything else, though.
"Some people are wondering about the validity of the focus testing and the so-called in-game interviews. As far as I can tell from the stratics polls (mostly forum readers) is that 80% of the players (in the forums) want the CB before JTL. Now instead of debating these facts I ask you this: Can we institute a launchpad poll system in which the players who never visit the forums must click an answer to the poll question after the EULA agreement? This will give the devs some hard data on what players want."
We've also discussed putting polls outside of the forums. No decision yet, but the launchpad would be nice. I can tell you that the focus testing is really just another data point for us. We do it for lots of reasons, including accessibility testing and to test marketing communication (is the logo cool, for example). We don't make any hard decisions based on focus testing alone - it's really there to validate data we get through other sources, including these forums andvarious polls and surveys we do.In terms of "in-game interviews," that really consists of us talking to players in-game just to take a general read on how things are being received. Again, it's not something we use in a vacuum to make decisions. As mentioned before, I think that the forums influence us more than focus testing or other sources of data.
"It doesn't seem as though you have enough programmers writing code."
There are more than 15 people who write code on the Live team. For example all of the designers code in that they write game scripts. We'd like to be getting more changes in but testing takes a fair amount of work given the complexity of SWG. Also, it's not simply an issue of adding more programmers - we need the *right* peopleworking on the right systems. In somways, this is alsolikeworking on a carengine - you can only get so many peopleunder the hood before they start getting in each other's way.
"counting their silence as approval is a mistake…"
This sentiment was repeated throughout the thread, and I totallyagree. That's why we actually seek out comments from people who don't actively participate on the forums, through surveys, focus tests, in-game chatting, etc.
Some further clarifications:
"IGNPC: It seems that you're neglecting the MMO side of the game in order to introduce a radically different style of game. Even though Jump to Lightspeed completes the Star Wars experience, it seems that MMO-oriented players would be more interested in seeing the ground combat revamp before getting their hands on the expansion.
Haden Blackman: That's completely not the feedback we're received from the bulk of our community. The bulk of our community has been waiting for this and, though not necessarily upset, frustrated that they haven't been able to jump into the cockpit of a starfighter and go into space."
I still stand completely by this statement. When we launched, we were absolutely blasted by press and players for not having some form of starfighter flight and combat in the game. That (along with the fact that you couldn't easily become a Jedi) came up as a negative again and again and again in reviews, exit polls (surveys we ask people to take when they quit), and on the forums. If you could hang out with me at events like Comic Con, you'd hear 99 out of 100 SWG players say that they've been waiting for JTL since they started playing Galaxies and that they feel it will finally make the experience complete. This isn't meant to be a "brush off" of those who want to see a Combat Revamp; as noted, we're working on the Combat Revamp simultaneously. Is JTL "needed" more than a combat revamp? I honestly don't know and I bet I'll hear a lot of different answers (in fact,just to show that everyone has their own opinion,I talked towell over a dozen people at Comic Con who felt that the current combat system is great and doesn't really need any changes). There are some fundamental changes we want to make to combat, but adding starfightersis also critical to the experience.
Haden Blackman: Really what’s happened here is that we realized that perception about combat balance in the community really started to encompass more than what we had originally intended. So we’re stepping back from it and saying, “OK, how can we actually do that?” and meet the community’s expectations with the combat balance, which again we are now calling the combat revamp. So really what’s happened is that we’re looking at increasing the scope of the changes and the updates and additions that we were going to make with the combat balance and make it more creative.
"Here it appears you are blaming the players for raising the expectations of the combat revamp. We were not the ones who had "Wait for the combat balance" tossed at us as a response to nearly every one of our core concerns... We were not the ones who raised the expectations, we were given the expectation. What were you meaning by this comment?"
You're totally right about who is to blame for the misperceptions about the combat balance - we are. If expectations and perceptions were overblown, that's completely our fault. Even at Fan Fest, we were answering questions with things like "We hope to tackle that in the combat balance." That's something we have to watch carefully in the future.
Blackman: First I’d apologize that we were misleading at all, if that was the case, or if he was misled and had expectations for a Smuggler revamp.
"I'm not a smuggler, but after all the talk of a Smuggler Revamp, this comment was bordering on infuriating. What about Greenmarine's posts on a Smuggler Revamp? What were you meaning by this comment?"
If I recall correctly, the original question involved smugglers, specifically, being upset over the combat balance coming after JTL. I personally don't know if we ever promised that the combat balance specifically would include a Smuggler Revamp, but I wasn't aware of that being part of the plan. We have talked many times about a desire to do a Smuggler Revamp. I was apologizing if any smugglers out there were upset because we confused the two. We dostill plana Smuggler Revamp. I don't have an ETA.
"Is there any possibility of classes that have been overlooked since launch to receive a "Scooby Snack" within the next month to hold them over until larger changes could be made?"
We're looking at a bunch of things we can do to give the community more love over the next few weeks. We don't have a final list yet, but we'll post what we know when we know it.
"2. Under promise, Over deliver. Do that and we'll have nothing to complain about."
I'm having that tattooed on my forehead.
"Any one else catch that little note where Shug is now trying to take the word Combat Balance out of the community lexicon and replace it with Combat Revamp?"
AudioOrgana wrote:
I had a really long reply, but I thought better of it.
Haden is a politician - you either buy this garbage, or you don't.
I don't.
We are not all stupid, Haden. Many of us work in the entertainment, gaming, and/or public relations industries and know how things like this work; and even we are constantly amazed at the transparent nature of the attempted community manipulation.
AO
On many levels I agree AO, it's as if he though we were all stockers at an Office Supply store (sorry if I offend anyone) or some such. I've met people in this game, via my guild, that work for the UN to big wig lawyers down to me: a database programmer.
Most of us are into Star Wars, and most people into Star Wars are geeks with geek jobs. You all may want to take notice to that.
Message Edited by PlayeroftheDay on 08-02-2004 05:40 PM