Development Cycle Archive
Thread: 19 answers (6-10-04)
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Thunderheart
Thu Jun 10, 2004 4:50 pm
#1
5th post in the series.
Just about once a week, we do a feature called, “19 answers”. Why 19? Well, we answer 19 questions on one week and 19 questions the second week. With each two-week cycle, we answer a topical question from each of the 38 correspondents. These represent current issues, interests and concerns of the community.
These answers are coming to you from a remote location since I am on vacation. The correspondents have said there will be some follow up questions to some of these answers so I’ll work on the follow up answers with the team next week.
Week 1:
Architect, Armorsmith, Artisan, Bio-Engineer, Chef, Core Systems, Dancer, Doctor, Droid Engineer, Entertainer, Image Designer, Medic, Merchant, Musician, Player Associations, Politician, Tailor, Test Center, Weaponsmith
Architect, Armorsmith, Artisan, Bio-Engineer, Chef, Core Systems, Dancer, Doctor, Droid Engineer, Entertainer, Image Designer, Medic, Merchant, Musician, Player Associations, Politician, Tailor, Test Center, Weaponsmith
Architect
Right now the only method players have of organizing their items inside their house is using Backpacks.. though this is effective it is not very realistic in the whole emersion aspect. Is there any plans on making already existing furniture have the capacity to have open storage windows. For example can the Chest be able to hold items in it. (note this is not asking to increase storage limits of a house but more or less giving Chest/ armoire/ cabinet type furniture the function to be able to replace backpacks as the only source of organizing items in our houses..)
Right now the only method players have of organizing their items inside their house is using Backpacks.. though this is effective it is not very realistic in the whole emersion aspect. Is there any plans on making already existing furniture have the capacity to have open storage windows. For example can the Chest be able to hold items in it. (note this is not asking to increase storage limits of a house but more or less giving Chest/ armoire/ cabinet type furniture the function to be able to replace backpacks as the only source of organizing items in our houses..)
There are no current plans to change this, but this topic is near and dear to my heart. I would very much like to see chests, armoire or other type of in-game cabinet act as a storage container. While researching the answer to this question, I discovered that all that has to be done is modify their in-game image so that it inherits its functionality from the container. I’m told this isn't hard to do and as a result, I’m checking into when this might possibly be sneaked (or snuck if you prefer
) onto the schedule.
Armorsmith
You keep saying “wait for the combat balance” - - is there any ETA on when the issues facing each profession are going to be made available?
Yes, once the Combat Balance sandbox server is activated and we have testers on it, there will be many focus threads and correspondent discussion threads. Those activities will happen on or before Publish 10.
Yes, once the Combat Balance sandbox server is activated and we have testers on it, there will be many focus threads and correspondent discussion threads. Those activities will happen on or before Publish 10.
Artisan
Artisan Mission fixes/enhancements: Artisan mission provide much needed income to crafters just getting started. We would like to see some changes/fixes in them. First, currently Artisan mission’s difficulty level scales with combat ability, not crafter ability. This requires the crafter to either be good at combat or to group with someone good at combat to increase their mission credit and XP payout. Artisan missions should scale on crafting skill in the same manner that destroy missions scale on combat skill. Can these any of these ideas and fixes be implemented?
Yes, these things can be implemented. The question is “when”. There are two main factors in play here. The first is that when trying to advance the cause of any profession, my first reference is the top 5 list. If the items listed here are truly a top 5 item, then it needs to be on that list so that when the opportunity arises, I have significant community input to demonstrate that this is indeed a top issue and that it is on the Artisan’s top issue report. The second item in play is that the GCW revamp is going to touch all professions to some degree and that work is going to come before any other changes. Any *major* changes will be considered after the Jump to Lightspeed.
Bio-Engineer
What type of damage do creature ranged attacks do and is it the same type of damage for all BE pets and wild creatures?
Bioengineered pets do kinetic damage. Wild animals do a variety of ranged damage types based on their creature type.
What type of damage do creature ranged attacks do and is it the same type of damage for all BE pets and wild creatures?
Bioengineered pets do kinetic damage. Wild animals do a variety of ranged damage types based on their creature type.
Chef
Will JTL add foods that improve piloting skills? Would the devs like a list of community suggestions?
Will JTL add foods that improve piloting skills? Would the devs like a list of community suggestions?
There are no new foods in JTL. Also remember that JTL is twitch-based. Skill is based on the player’s ability, not the character’s skills and abilities. That is the big difference between twitch and RPG skills. RPG skills control the level of ability of what a player can and cannot do with their character. Twitch based skills are a raw translation of a player’s hand-eye coordination.
Core Systems
Are there any plans to increase the amount of music and sounds for a more Star Wars feel? If so, when? (space expansion doesn’t count
There are plans in place to add more music and sounds, but the new items/sounds won’t be added until after JTL.
Dancer
If we can't get anything else right now, how about this one little bug? I am speaking of the /setperform bug. "You direct your attention to %TT." How hard would it be to go in and replace that obviously hard-coded %TT with an actual code that would print the name of our current target? I mean seriously. Please?
I will ask if we can do something about this when I get in on Monday and report back to you in this thread and follow up with the correspondent.
I will ask if we can do something about this when I get in on Monday and report back to you in this thread and follow up with the correspondent.
Janson
Thu Jun 10, 2004 4:54 pm
#2
Looks good man...thanks for the answers!
Hoping for that Architect change with the furniture actions, etc.
TRDB
Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:22 pm
#5
Thanks, TH... Hope you are having a great vacation. And I think you owe R5 lunch when you get back.
Why not until after JTL? As it is... there is around 10 hours of SW music that could be use (and REALLY needs to be). Even a condenced version of a portion of that is not something I want to download. What about adding a CD into JTL with music (perhaps could be implemented later)? Or, even a "colectors edition" with the added music CD. I would gladdy hand over a few more $ to have added music.
Thunderheart wrote:
Core Systems
Are there any plans to increase the amount of music and sounds for a more Star Wars feel? If so, when? (space expansion doesn’t count
There are plans in place to add more music and sounds, but the new items/sounds won’t be added until after JTL.
LLJK_Griz
Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:24 pm
#6
It is unlikely that this will be considered. There are a variety of techniques whereby a player or players can set up a scenario to farm faction points at dramatically increased rates. However, Runesabre plans to have the GCW revamp touch all professions. If the community had suggestions on how to involve medic types in the GCW and earn Faction Points, I’m sure they would be considered.
Isn't there currently a system that grants combat exp to medics based on their healing during the fight? It seems like it would be fairly easy to apply this to faction points, and I don't think this would create any specialized FP farming situations.
SomeUser
Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:35 pm
#8
Thunderheart wrote:
Bio-Engineer
What type of damage do creature ranged attacks do and is it the same type of damage for all BE pets and wild creatures?
Bioengineered pets do kinetic damage. Wild animals do a variety of ranged damage types based on their creature type.
Huh?
You're telling us that BE clones do kinetic RANGED damage while wild creature do a variety of RANGED damage???
I'm sorry TH but did you understand the question because this just doesnt seem to make sense that the DEVs would implement such a system.
It seems much more likely that ranged damage for all creatures are of a specific type (IE acid).
SomeUser
Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:41 pm
#9
Just to clarify, you are aware that BE clones can be given the option to do a RANGED attack VS a regular kinetic attack.
Since I can edit the above, I'll re-state that:
You're telling us that a BE clone with the ability to do a ranged attack does kinetic damage while a wild pet with the ability to do ranged attack does a variety of damage types based on the creature type????
LeBob
Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:44 pm
#10
Musician
What force skills will you be implementing for specific advantage to the musician profession? Will they be implemented with the Jedi system, or how soon after? If the answer is "NONE" may we provide a list of suggested skills that would be specific to this profession for developer consideration?
The answer is “none”. Please work with NewJedi to develop a reasonable list and I will work with the team to see what is possible and what is not.
What force skills will you be implementing for specific advantage to the musician profession? Will they be implemented with the Jedi system, or how soon after? If the answer is "NONE" may we provide a list of suggested skills that would be specific to this profession for developer consideration?
The answer is “none”. Please work with NewJedi to develop a reasonable list and I will work with the team to see what is possible and what is not.
nothing new......... you guys don't give a #$%^ about us...
DarthVillanus
Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:45 pm
#11
Thunderheart wrote:
Weaponsmith
Are stun weapons going to see a major rebalance within the future?
Are stun weapons going to see a major rebalance within the future?
Yes. Stun weapons (particularly stun batons) were never intended to be “the weapon” that everyone wants because it is the most effective. SWG’s weapons were always supposed to have a variety of useful and efficient weapons available, but here again, with all the tweaks and changes over the last 8+ months have caused a series of imbalances. This is definitely something that will be looked at during the combat balance.
The imbalance is that composite armor's only vulnerability is stun. Even specially layered the resists can only go up to 45%. If armor had multiple vulns then people would use multiple damage types and stun wouldn't be the end all.
Templatesrevolve around weaknesses. Rifleman, fencers, and pistoleers have become the staple they are today because they all have weapons that do stun damage. It's what makes them the most desirable.
It's not the rifleman's, the fencer's, or the pistoleer's fault though. Stun weapons don't need a nerf...armor needs a total revamp. You need to lower the resists on high-end composite significantly to around 50-60%so that using weapons other than stun isn't futile.
What bh wouldn't love to go back to using the scatter instead of the geo? What pistoleer wouldn't love to go back to using the fwg5 or dx2? What fencer wouldn't love going back to using the gad stick?
So to recap what I'm trying to say:
Armor has caused such imbalance. Armor is why the diversity of weapons used in pvp are so limited to stun.
torsoccer04
Thu Jun 10, 2004 6:08 pm
#12
sorry to be pessimistic...
TH, I know you aren't actually making the game so you can relay this to the Devs if you want. You guys keep giving us BS answers all the time saying "we thought about it once and it's no longer scheduled, etc" or "wait until AFTER JTL". That's utterly rediculous. You should FIX the CURRENT game instead of bringing out an expansion which will be exactly like SWG was at launch. Why don't the Devs actually start programming instead of talking about programming?
This is stupid. SOE has the slowest response time to fix a bug than ANY company I've had experience with.
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