Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Weekly Roundtable Discussion (Week Ending 3-8-04)
Not really a question, but I like the new quests and caves and the notes for Publish 7. *cough* BH droids *cough*
Impressed with the progress this month, and roll on publish 7.
DVader539 wrote:
First Link
Second Link
Third Link
Fourth Link
Fifth Link
Lets see what I have for yah this week....
1. There was a change to the spawn at Fort Tusken sometime in the last 2 months - specifically the lack of elite type spawns. Us players have no way of knowing if this is a bug, or intential change by the devs and threads like this one can never be resolved without a dev stepping in and providing some insight.
2. A similar pile of speculation can be found in this thread discussing the status of Treasure Maps. It seems like all tmaps are coming up as fakes since the last patch. Bug or intential change... Us players have no way of knowing unless you step in and say something (CSRs have been no help).
3. Word on the street (and the chef forum) is that Smuggler's delight is broken - that the icon timers are shortened but the effects of the downer remain for the base length of the spice's downer. Thought I'd bring it up here because I didn't see anything mentioned in the pub 7 notes and it seems silly to have to wait 2 or 3 patches from when something is put into the game before it actually works.
4. The spawn rates and corpse stacking/area attack bugs are totally out of control in the front of the Geo cave. Walking in the other night I got hit for 50k damage before I could engage, and then over the weekend I went back and there was a group of 10 or 15 people in the front room intentially not looting the corpses so they would pile up instead of vansih and they could all exploit the area bugs for xp.
And while I'm posting somewhere you are reading I just want to share my concern over the trend I see of "balancing" combat with the dabblers/stackers in mind. [With what we know about the end goal of the combat changes] You are making it even *harder* to play this game at a high level for those not paying the templates you're balancing. My specific problem is that each change we've seen (made or proposed) to the brader class of pistol wielding combatants (dot changes, special changes, cert changes) have made it very difficult to play this game as a Master Smuggler without also having some or all of the pistoleer tree. Perhaps some DF moves are too powerful in the hands of a Master pistoleer, but please be concious of what you're doing to the Smugglers who are not Pistoleers if the changes you make are in the DF line and not the Pistoleer tree. Also, while I understand the Rep. Blaster cert fix in general (way overpowered for an "everyman" gun) the move as proposed leaves Smugglers out in the cold with a very limited assortment of weapons - No AR weapon at all (cept for the SR Combat which noone makes for a variety of reasons) - and no weapon cert to call our own.
Star Wars Cybernetics
This is some Star Wars cyberntics from the Pen and Paper Star Wars RPG (WEG), is there any possibility of seeing something like this in the game? I think it could make a nice additon as a kind of semi-permanent doctor buffs, but much more expensive and with use-based decay.
- Neuro-saav Coporation cardi-muscular package - Should give increased stamina and strength by cybernetic enhancment of mucles and heart.
- Geneering Response-improvement packade - Replaces normal reflexes. Should give better quickness.
- Neurosaav Hifold sensory package - Improves eyesight and hearing. Would make it possible to see and detect enemies at larger distances.
- Neuro-saav Hi-sense enhanced eyes - IR-vision, makes vision better at night and easier to detect warm blooded opponents at greater distances.
- Bio-tech neuro-shock hand - Prostetic hand with extra unarmed stun damage.
- Control zone repulse-hand - Prostetic hand with built in repulsors making it possible to knockdown an opponent with a wave of the hand. Should give a bonus to unarmed knockdown moves, perhaps making it possible to make knockdowns every 20 sec in unarmed combat? Increases the range of unarmed knockdown.
- Biotech Borg construct AJ^6 - This is the thing Lobot has on his head in SW:ESB. It is a small computer linked to the brain, making thinking quicker and more logical. Also makes it more easy to communicate with computers. Should give Focus bonus and help when using slicing to slice into a base computer and other computer interaction. Could possibly give a bonus to droid engineering since it also make it possible to link with and work with droids easier and also make it possible to control extra droids simultaneously. Should give some extra datapad storage. One of the more expensive cyber-enhancements.
- Replacement prostetics - hard to implement. Perhaps it would lower the risk of wounds, but at the cost that wounds have to be repaired by a droid engineer instead of being healed or perhaps it could be used as a way for Cyberneticists to heal wounds.
- Swift 78B vessel courier system - A hidden built in data storage device made to carry information. Should increase the datapad storage of the owner.
It should take several professions components to build (droid enginer, doctor, bio engineer and master artisan) since they are so complex and should be assembled by bio engineers (maybe some parts first have to be assemble by a droid engineer) and later installed by doctors (at least a master surgeon). After being installed it cannot be removed other than by dying. If not insured they need to be reinstalled by a doctor againbefore being able to use it (you need to have it re-activated in your character by a doctor). Should possibly require that the character uses a small quantity of energy to keep them working and but still suffers slow use based decay making them useable only for a couple of weeks at most.All cybernetics should be very expensive in production and should be able to suffer critical failure at both creation and installation (at each installation if not insured and having to re-install). Failure at installation should give serious wounds, successful installation also gives wounds, but a smaller amount. Uses maintenance to give full buff.
An additional idea would be that cyborg could use energy to make the enhancments work in an "overcharge" mode and making them perform even greater during this short period but at the cost of additional decay during the "overcharge" period and at a high energy cost.
The more cybernetic parts a character have, the less he is affected by spice, food and doctor buffs since his mechanical systems are not affected by these organical substances. In essenace he has traded away the ability to get higher buffs for more semi-permanent lesser buffs. They lose it becausedoctor buffs, food and spice boost your biological body. Since your body is no longer only biologicalit will not work as well with bio-buffs anymore. The more cybernetics you have implanted, the less effect doctor buffs, food and spice will have. Too much cybernetics and it wont work at all. Cybernetics would be a longer lasting, but much less effective buff. This is more for the people who do not want to depend as much on others to be effective. Real powergamers, PvPers and people who want to be on the top of the power curve will not choose this, they would still go for the more powerful doctor, food and spice buffs. People who like to solo a lot and who do not like to have to re-buff every 2hours will get this. It is an alternative, not a substitute. This is for those who want a diffrent playstyle from what the system currently offers.
Wounds received while having cybernetics installed can hurt the cybernetic parts. If such wounds occur then the damage must be repaired by a droid engineers droid reapir kitor the wounds wont go away.
Many of these cyberntics should be illegal by the rules of the Imperial crackdown.
One could have a Cyberneticist profession for this, who builds and installs the, but better to give more use to the existing professions.
So, anyone have any ideas or comment on this? Any Dev comments? I did make several posts about this on both the beta boards and the now closed Discussion forum, but the only Dev comment I got then was in beta and that it could possibly be a nice future feature. So, would not this be a nice feature to add now?
TH last week you you wrote something about the FSCS, and most of us not getting something very important about how to unlock it.
You also said that you would ask if you could talk a bit more about it.
Did you get any answer from higher up on that?
Can you tell us a bit more?
And for that matter is there a definitedate (what publish)when the changes to the unlocking system will come?
RRS
P.S.- Yes, I have been very critical with the real world comparisons. This has been to draw your attention to a very serious matter that should NOT be a serious matter. This is a game, TH, and I would like to hold out