Doctor Archive
Thread: An idea to make both docs and de's happy.
Here is the listing of Wishlist items for the Doctor Profession. (These are from the old Big List of Doctor Issues, now broken out by category.) Please feel free to help me out with your comments and suggestions. If you ahve a wishlist item you would like to get added, please post it into a seperate thread. Those suggestions which get enough support from the Doctor Community will be added to this list.
Below is a summary of the Wishlist items to follow:
1.Medical Bag/Inventory Search for Meds
2.Resuscitation Consent Request
3.High Level Wound Pack Consolidation
4.Medical Vendor Type=*
5.Factory Completion Timer
6.Factory Speed
7.Medic-looking Clothing
8.Crate combining
9.Window Persistence
10./registerwithlocation Terminal Request
11.Surgeon or other Elite-Elite Medical Profession
12.Med Center Crafting Station
13./diagnose Damage Level Display
14.Groupmate Numbering
15.Groupmate Highlighting
16.Factory Crate Size Selection
17.Factory Email Notifications
18.Factory Input Hopper Access During Operation
19.Correspondence Response
20.Non-Combat Diseases
Notes:
* - Denotes Issue has had some change or addition made to it since last posting.
+ - Denotes New Issue since the last posting. (These will always be at the bottom of the listing.)
= - Denotes Issue is listed by Devs as being fixed in either this publish or the next (generally, 4-8 weeks.)
% - Denotes some part of Issue will be fixed in either this publish or the next (generally. 4-8 weeks.)
Please note that items listed as (*To be Fixed*) refer to the fact that the Devs have acknowledged the issue and expect that the issue will be fixed in either this publish coming up, or (more likely) the very next publish thereafter. In general this will probably mean a minimum of 2 weeks before such a fix will reach the Live servers but that it will more likely be closer to as much as an 8-10 week delay. Few of these items, if any, will rate a Hotfix so in order to ensure complete testing these kinds of delays are necessary. Be sure to check the date the statement was posted for a fix and add 8 weeks to it before considering if there is a problem with the fix not getting out. Please do not mistake the wording of a Dev that states “Fixed such-and-such” in these cases to mean that the item is actually fixed. It is simply a patch note method and the problem may not actually be fully fixed or even ready to go out in the next publish yet. Add the words “Will probably be” before that “Fixed” and you’ll have a better idea of how it should be read for now.
(*In Test*) refers to the next step where the issue has been placed onto Test Center for public testing. In general this means a 1 to 2 week test period before the issue will actually make it out to the Live Servers, presuming there are no undue problems. Again, please check the date of when the fix went to test before considering if there are any undue delays for getting the fix out.
(*Fixed*) Means the issue has been fixed and the fix is currently active on the Live servers. Items marked as Fixed will be removed from the very next issues listing if no further issues arise with the fix.
[Edit: Added date to title.]
Message Edited by Zarlor on 11-19-2003 12:22 PM
1.Medical Bag/Inventory Search for Meds
It has been suggested that some kind of equip-able Medic Bag exist that would allow a Doc to put all of their medicines (and only medical items) in that allows sorting and that would also be searched, alongside of type level inventory, for the purposes of finding medicines with the use of some medic-related commands. Presumably this would be in addition to the wearable Travel Pack. Another possibility was mentioned of consolidating med-packs into single types. Like having a Healpack-C instead of one each for Action and Health, or a Curepack-A for curing ANY state, not just dizzy or blind, and so on. This last suggestion may also help the Developers in greatly reducing database bloat. Even changing the naming conventions of Medicines to a more standardized form so that all Med Packs and Stims, and so on, can at least be sorted better alphabetically. Shorter names wouldn’t hurt either (after all, why are there Small Stimpacks, when there are no Large Stimpacks? Why waste putting the word Small in there?) Stacking of meds in some way or putting things back into crates has also been suggested.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=doctor&message.id=9797
(*Dev Response:
Possibly addressed in part according to Holo’s response presumably as a response to our initial Top 5 issues on 8/22/03:
“Healing tasks that aren’t making it in this update, but are on the list as high priorities:
…
·Add smarter find medicine code.”
[Z’s note: This “update” likely refers to the October Publish, meaning we likely should not expect this until the November Publish at the earliest]
Ref:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=394421)
2.Resuscitation Consent Request
A request has also been made for a pop-up box to appear to the player of an unconsented corpse telling them that a Doctor is attempting to Resuscitate them, would they like to give consent for this action to occur? It was also suggested that a short delay, perhaps 30-60 seconds, would not be to out of line as an acceptable penalty for death before cloning is allowed. This also gives a Doctor a bit of time to get to a player and at least let them know that they are willing to Resuscitate them, if they prefer not to clone.
3.High Level Wound Pack Consolidation
A request has been made for a set of low level wound packs (assuming no consolidation is done based on the Inventory consolidation issue) that would heal, say, Health and the Health secondaries all at the same time and another pack for Action and the Action secondaries. Perhaps limiting them to a comparable A, B and possibly as high as a C-pack, but no higher, at the highest of Doc crafting levels.
4.Medical Vendor Type=*
(In Test, added Test Center Patch Notes)
Food vendors appear to be available on the Vendor lists along with other types like Junk and Armor, but there are no options for Medical Vendors.
(*Dev Response:
Test Center Patch Notes on 11/3/03:
“Added 'Pets / Pet Supplies' and 'Medical Supplies' categories to vendor planetary map listing and area barking.”)
5.Factory Completion Timer
Requests has also been made for some kind of Time-To-Completion timer being added to the factories radial menu, or even in an email sent at production start. Obviously game time is not always going to be accurate, but an estimate at the beginning of production would still prove useful, nonetheless.
6.Factory Speed
Some suggestions have been made to speed up the rate of production in a factory. This may be more noticeable for medicines than some other items where the absolutely lowest complexity on an item is 10, meaning it would take 80 seconds (not quite a minute and a half) to produce 1 item in a factory, whereas by hand crafting the same items they can often be produced faster. It has been noted that factories do allow for a more consistent product run (as well as being an alleviator of the tedium of hand crafting) and that factory components are practically a requirement for upper-level meds, so the current rate may have been considered acceptable in that manner. Considering the requirement, in many ways, to have a factory some increase of speed would generally be appreciated (or perhaps just the lowering of the complexity ratings on many meds and their components). There are, however, many dissenting arguments on this issue.
7.Medic-looking Clothing
There is a white coat, but other types of red, white, or white with red patterned-clothing for medics has been requested.
8.Crate combining
The ability to combine crates in inventory would be a very welcome addition.
9.Window Persistence
We’d like to see persistent windows and persistent sorting. Far too often we can set up our multiple inventory windows just the way we like/need them, with items sorted in a particular order so we know exactly where to look for them in a hurry (and we ALWAYS need them in a hurry, it seems) but as soon as we clone, log or take a shuttle all the windows close down and the sort order is completely lost. We have to go through the trouble of reopening all the windows and resorting everything in order to be useful again instead of jumping right back out there. Please provide some method of persistence.
(*Dev Response:
Response by Holo on 9/13/03 to some UI issues:
“Organize/reorganize the inventory window, so that you can keep things where you want them, instead of the seemingly arbitrary and random method that's currently used. This might be done by use of a ‘Lock in place’ radial menu addition to any/all UI windows, for example. < or > How about a grid system for this where we can simply place the item in any square of the grid?
·I could swear that at one point we were working on this, and I don't know what happened to it. I'll inquire for sure.”
Ref: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=533754#M533754)
10./registerwithlocation Terminal Request
Some have indicated that having a terminal prominently located in the Med Center buildings (it appears that SOME med centers do have such a terminal?) would also make using the command easier for Medics/Docs by drawing their attention to this new object that they can use. It also adds a certain amount of in-game interactivity with turning on the sign, so to speak, beyond simply typing a command.
11.Surgeon or other Elite-Elite Medical Profession
Suggestions and ideas have been bandied about for the concept of a Surgeon profession as a form of elite (or even elite-elite) medical profession. Varying suggestions have been made for what this class might entail, including such ideas as the addition of bio-electronic enhancements (such as Luke’s replacement hand) but that such replacements have some negative costs associated with them, such as slower XP gain or permanent reduction of some stat or skill or some permanent amount of Battle Fatigue. The relevant threads below would provide far more important details.
Several ideas can be found here:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=doctor&message.id=3831
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=doctor&message.id=9776
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=doctor&message.id=16025
12.Med Center Crafting Station
The Doctors would also like to see a Public Food & Chemical Crafting Station in Med Center. The inconvenience of having to leave the Med Center to craft more packs for patients who want healing “right now” to both the Doctor and the Patient seem a bit much for such an easy fix. Admittedly this is more important as an issue for Medics, but the Doctors have brought this up as well and would like to see it implemented.
13./diagnose Damage Level Display
Adding in the HAM Damage levels (not wound levels, but damage levels) and the max level of a stat (to make it easier to check buff status) to the /diagnose display has been requested.
14.Groupmate Numbering
Additionally it would be helpful to list a number next to all of the group member names making it easier to know which one is associated with which Crtl-#.
15.Groupmate Highlighting
It has also been requested that a selected group member be made to stand out more than with just a blue box outlining them and their blip on radar. Something like a flashing name and/or radar dot in order to better locate the targeted individual in a clumped up group.
16.Factory Crate Size Selection
We’d like to see a slider or box that allows adjustment of the factory crate sizes produced. While 50 is a decent size for something, many times it would be nice to make 10 crates of 10, instead of 2 crates of 50, for example.
17.Factory Email Notifications
Factories currently, when sharing or providing admin rights for another player character to use the factory, sends all email about what is happening at the factory to the Factory owner only, not including whomever loaded the schematic and pressed the start button. Is there some way to grant this notification method? Continuing to notify the owner is fine, but adding in the individual doing the crafting is also very much needed.
18.Factory Input Hopper Access During Operation
A request has been made to be able to open the input hopper during the factory run (to add resources if needed, or remove crates or at least see how much has been used) would be a big help and provide some ease of mind that things are working as they should be. (It should be noted that the Output hopper can be opened, and is refreshed automatically, simply by selecting the Option item from the radial menu on a factory during the run.)
19.Correspondence Response
(To be Fixed)
Many Doctors feel slighted by the lack of direct response to our correspondent issues. We are most interested in providing what input we may into improving the Doctor profession, and the game in general, by whatever means we can and since the correspondence program is the most official method provided, it is felt that a more timely, and thorough response to the issues the correspondent forwards is needed. Such responses should be public and posted directly to the forums and address the issues as presented. Without proper input on Developer considerations on the issues we cannot provide better feedback in the continuing development processes.
Threads of interest:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=418706
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=515848&highlight=#M515848
(*Dev Response:
Holo wrote on 8/29/03:
"We don't see you as a red-headed stepchild, but as a key part of the combat loop, because, duh, you are.
Every profession is going to feel like they're being ignored at some point. (In fact, I am pretty sure that every profession already DOES feel that way! ). We're not doing it on purpose, and to say that we're intentionally trying to neglect a given profession is to just muddy the waters and stir things up, to no real purpose.
I tend to agree that the medical profs didn't get too much from this round of profession updates; we simply ran out of time. I'll try to make sure you guys are a higher priority on the next pass."
[Z’s note: The “updates” referred to likely refers to the October Publish, meaning we likely should not expect to see the higher priority ratings until the November Publish at the earliest.]
Ref: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=443645#M443645
Holo wrote in a thread of PM responses in this case to a question about if the DE designer reads their forums on 9/4/03:
“Any given profession should definitely not feel like they are being intentionally neglected because they haven't gotten a dev post in their forum. We don't have specific devs assigned to forums. Instead, we're trying to rely on the correspondents (I know, I know. We have a long ways to go on that front).”
Ref: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=476567#M476567
Holo wrote in a thread asking for assistance in how to improve communication on 9/10/03:
"One of them is the challenge of even listening. No day goes by when I don’t get someone complaining that we haven’t posted in their profession’s forum, or that we’re not current on the issues for that profession. After all, “there’s dozens of threads on the front page right now about it, open any of ‘em.”
The fact is, we’re hard-pressed to read just the threads we do, and then follow-up on our posts—much less skim every forum. The detailed answers people want to both correspondents and to their own posts take a sizable amount of time to research and then answer. When I say sizable, I mean anything over ten minutes.
This is of course what the correspondent program was intended to address. But what we found was that in the correspondent’s lists, around half the list or more were line items that could EACH take three or four hours to discuss, much less arrive at an answer. And the result was, we blew it. We blew it bad, because we invited the commentary and the input, and then failed to uphold our end of the bargain.
Ref: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=514535#M514535
Holo wrote in response to the above thread on some of the items he bulleted that needed work on 9/10/03:
"Better direct communication between the devs of a given profession and the correspondents--and less of me, since it isn't really my job anyway. -- have to figure out how to best do this. We may not want to have the email address for individual devs leak out, so we may have to create special correspondent email addresses or something...
Weekly IRC chats with the correspondents (log posted later?) -- need to get them coordinated with a bunch of folks, so this might take a bit."
Ref: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=517019#M517019
Holo wrote in a thread about the communication comments he asked for above on 9/12/03:
"That the discussion the other day has not been forgotten. I'm working on what we can do. Some, we're already doing (mostly, the stuff I said "easy, done" to). But today and yesterday we've had visitors at the office, etc, so I haven't been able to read one word on the forums in the last 24 hours, and probably won't today either since I will be at the Austin Game Conference--no, not just hanging out and having fun. 
Part of hiring is finding out who else is out there. 
The mods have sent me a string of threads to reply to and I promise I will pop in on them either tonight or tomorrow."
Ref: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=526944#M526944 -Note: no responses have been forthcoming to the Medical Professions as of yet
Holo wrote in a thread about Pistoleer issues on 9/16/03:
"We've asked the designers to try to keep up with the forums for the professions they are in charge of, but generally they don't have time. The correspondent program is supposed to help with that, but as you know, it ain't going so great. We're trying to fix that."
Ref: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=553309#M553309
[Z’s note: A private correspondent forum was created on 9/18/03 to facilitate communication between the Developers and the Correspondents and this step may at least partially address this issue. You may note that some of the responses from there have already been added to some of the issues throughout this list. On 9/30/03 we actually received a full response on the Top 5 Issues, further indicating that this issue is being worked on. On 10/14/03 the Assistant Community Relations Manager, Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl, who is supposed to help facilitate the communications issues started work.])
20.Non-Combat Diseases
Some folks think it may be interesting to add spreadable diseases that are not like the combat diseases but do other things, such as making temporary image changes, stat reductions or mood changes. Such diseases would be curable by Doctors.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=doctor&message.id=12242
would like to see :
stacking meds of identical serial #'s maybe have a max on what it can stack to ( 100 ) We have way to much to carry in ways of materials.
6 differnt types of wound packs ( 3 variety's, only 2 carried after a while )
6 types of enhance packs ( 3 variety's only one carried after a while )
4 Different types of Stims ( only 3 carried after a while )
3 types of Poison Heal
3 Types of Disease heal
Res packs
Dizzy packs
Stun Packs
Blind packs
and by golly pray that you dont have to carry anything else with you to craft for orders or things to sell. A doctor should be prepared to treat any patient at any time. A doctor doesnt give a person with a headache morphine ( spelling ? ) he gives him asprin ( well 9 out of 10 prefer advil )
But with limited space in inventory we are forced to cary only the higher end things, so its either use a wound C on someone with 30 wounds or less or incur damage to yourself, OR take up all of your inventory.
I like to be prepared to heal anything that arrises, but I am limited to things due to lack of space, or hurting myself.
I just want some cewl clothing that can only be worn if you are a master of one of the levels of doctor....
differnt clothes for novice medic, master medics, novice doctors, surgeons....master doctor..............
I want to be able to see how cewl I am as a surgeon......
Oh yah one last thing nerf coverts
Of all the things I have seen addressed about doctors, space is the biggest issue I seem to agree with.
As it has been stated:
Carrying woundpacks, stims and cures are only a small portion of my needs. When I am sitting in the medcenter with no one to heal, I dont waste that time with trying to have a one sided conversation with the dumb NPCs there. Rather, I kick out my droid and work on crafting items to sell.
My top level inventory stays at a steady 55+ and my travel pack almost never gets below50 items. That leaves mewith maybe5 slots to make items. Most of the time, I dont even have that much. If someone asks me for something orI split an item to sell a portion, I barely have room to make the deal.
On a slightly different idea that seems to be more of a nusance than anything else:
Organization! I agree that we need to maintain some form of organization in our inventory. (this goes alongside the space issue) Since we can only carry so many items that are necessary at any given time, it is hard to track how many of each item you have left in surplus. I hotkey Health and Action woundpacks, all my state/cures and all 6 enhancements, so I know when that one item runs outbut making sure I have a backup when they run low is harder. Stam and Str packs look the same, many of the woundpacks look the same. Distiguishing this without making your inventory screen take up the entire UI is a pain. I would suggest a medical belt.
This would be able to hold 2 ofthe following:each type of woundpack (12), each type of enhancement (12), stims (2), states (8), curesP/D (4), res kits (2) =40total items. The belt would affect25% of the top level inventory based onits max capacity(10 slots). This is no more cumbersome on the databasethan travel packs and acts like a satchel with a capacitycompression factor. This would give the doctors an average of 30 or more slots to carry components and the ability to craft on the fly.
The belt sort would lock to alphabetical order on reload. This would mean that the only time the inventory ever changed was when something was added or depleted. Items could be hotkeyed to work out of the medical belt the same as the top level inventory. Also, /healwound or /healdamage would search for usable meds in thebelt level first, then thetop level second. We could actually carry lesser stims in our top level inventory without worry of it being used up in the natrual course of healing.
My wish for doctors:
Proactivity. Doctors, in our present incarnation, merely run around from one wounded to the next, curing one thing after another. We can't plan for a battle. We have no strategy. At best, if there are two doctors (or a doctor and a CM) we divvy up the party so we don't duplicate efforts and waste charges.
So I want --
Coagulant Booster. Gives the player a short-term buff against bleeding.
Antivenom Booster. Gives the player a short-term buff against poison.
Immuno Booster. Gives the player a short-term buff against disease.
Adrenaline Booster. Gives the player s short-term buff against stun and dizzy.
Or better yet, they can tell us which freakin' stats provide the basis for these resists so we can buff 'em with regular enhances! At the moment, we can do little more than treat the injured. Why can't we plan ahead?
If the doctor goes down, and his team is fighting venemous or diseased creatures, the party is doomed because the doctor can't plan for the encounter.
Just my two cents.
Escia
How about Area of Effect Disease and Poison antidotes? This would (1) encourage PvE and PvP'ers to bring their local Doctor along their hunting groups and (2) quiet the Combat Medic nerf-criers.
Regards,
-=H=-
What do you guys think of a "medic droid" which operated under the following prinicples:
1) You'd have to have some sort of specialized medic skill to use one (exactly what can be subject to debate) and the droid can only heal whatever you have skill healing.
2) The droid uses an item storage module to hold medicines, once the droid is out of a particular kind of medicine, no more healing until it's refilled.
3)The droid automatically (either by targeting, or just general "heal area") runs around a finite distance from the medic (expands with more skill maybe) healing people as needed. Types of heals can be ranked in priority through the
programming panel (if you want to heal state first, then health, then action, fine. Or maybe state, then most damaged or something).
4) THe droid has little or no attack but can take armor (to keep enemies from shooting it down)
5)Aside from medicines, there should be some sort of DE built consumable (droid needles for instance) that are used with each heal (market for lower level DE's) and DE advancements should give the droid skill mods above the user (heal faster for instance) creating a market for "premium" droids from master DE's.
I think this would help generate renewed interest in droids within the game and would also make the medics alot happier cause then they could potentially
actually participate in battle. Any thoughts?
AtamarAsimov wrote:
What do you guys think of a "medic droid" which operated under the following prinicples:
1) You'd have to have some sort of specialized medic skill to use one (exactly what can be subject to debate) and the droid can only heal whatever you have skill healing.
2) The droid uses an item storage module to hold medicines, once the droid is out of a particular kind of medicine, no more healing until it's refilled.
3)The droid automatically (either by targeting, or just general "heal area") runs around a finite distance from the medic (expands with more skill maybe) healing people as needed. Types of heals can be ranked in priority through the
programming panel (if you want to heal state first, then health, then action, fine. Or maybe state, then most damaged or something).
4) THe droid has little or no attack but can take armor (to keep enemies from shooting it down)
5)Aside from medicines, there should be some sort of DE built consumable (droid needles for instance) that are used with each heal (market for lower level DE's) and DE advancements should give the droid skill mods above the user (heal faster for instance) creating a market for "premium" droids from master DE's.
I think this would help generate renewed interest in droids within the game and would also make the medics alot happier cause then they could potentially
actually participate in battle. Any thoughts?
You're a DE, aren't you? Don't worry, I am too. 
Great idea, and one that's been brought up. As far as crafting stations in med centers, as a Doc I think it's pointless, as a DE I think it would kill. Get a droid, it's one of the few things they're useful for at this point (I'm sure a low-level DE would be happy to sell you one at an extremely reasonable price.)
Maarek_Steele wrote:
Great idea, and one that's been brought up. As far as crafting stations in med centers, as a Doc I think it's pointless, as a DE I think it would kill. Get a droid, it's one of the few things they're useful for at this point (I'm sure a low-level DE would be happy to sell you one at an extremely reasonable price.)
Actually I seriously doubt it woudl kill anything. A station in the Med Center would only be a public station, not a personal one like the ones in droids are (or at least are supposed to be again after this morning's hotfix. ) So they are only partially useful for C-level and lower packs. There is no way a public station with as low a rating as they have could compete with a droid crafter that acts as a personal station and usually rates as a much higher crafter as well (thereby lowering chances of crit failures and improving the chances for Great Successes.) Plus the need for a crafter out in the field is far too great. In all only the lower level medics will primarily use a station in a Med Center.
In fact you will likely begin to see possibly even private stations in Med Centers in player cities since they are just buildings that can have player-placed furniture in them. I bet those still won't provide much competition when it comes to the need for droid crafting stations for any self-respecting Doc, though.
very thorough. would like to see something simple like this : a time remaining on buff indicator.