Doctor Archive
Thread: Dev Response to Top 5 Issues for September
This is the response I got from Ben “Marvelin" Hanson on 9/30/03 on the Correspondent Forum that i can share with everyone.
On Issue #1, Doctor Surveying/Medical Forage:
“I don't want to make it like sampling since I feel that undermines the artisan skill tree. If as a medic you want something that works just like sampling, you should grab novice artisan. So the trick is, that it needs to be different from sampling but not more efficient than sampling for the artisan (I don't want /medicalForage to become a staple skill for non-medics). If you have some suggestions pass them along.
You can tell the players that this is on the radar for a complete revamp. I'd love to hear their ideas given the restrictions that I outlined above.”
On Issue #2, Mind Damage:
“We are considering putting some sort of limited mind healing ability in the game. We're still hammering out the specifics so as to not make it overpowering. Suggestions are welcome.”
On Issue #3, Heal/Enhance Consistency:
“Part of the reason for randomization is to put more emphasis on the higher-powered meds. Character advancement not granting additional hitpoints has made making meaningful healing power increases a little tricky. In most games, a healer's low level heal ability of 50 points is very effective for a low-level character with 100 hitpoints, but pretty worthless for a high-level character with 5000 hitpoints. That big hitpoint increase gives plenty of room to ratchet up healing powering as the healer advances. In SWG, however, virtually all characters have hitpoints in the 800-1000 range. Therefore, there's not a lot of maneuvering room when even the lowest level medics have to provide some reasonably effective healing. The average value of a StimC will more or less do the trick in most situations. StimD's and StimE's average value tends to be overkill. The low end of the range after randomization, however, is about 50% of the average value. Therefore, Stim E's no longer become overkill if you want to be guaranteed a high probability of getting a complete or near-complete heal.
That being said, I will agree that this reason doesn't hold true for enhancement packs. Enhancement packs are randomized simply because they use the same code pipeline that healing does. I'm more than happy to remove the variance for enhancement packs. Since the randomization as a net 0 effect on the base value, this will not affect the average power of enhancement medpacks. It will, however, eliminate the chance to get extra high results. Of course, on the positive side, you won't get extra low results either. I'm fine with doing this as long as everybody realizes that this will significantly drop the high end of the buff range.”
On Issue #4, Master Doc Benefits:
“I'm open to ability ideas for master doctor.”
On Issue #5, TEF Issues:
He stated that he would need to pass this issue on to the folks who would more directly work with and handle PvP issues.
Or shall we simply regurgitate our arguments for his entertainment?
Zarlor wrote:
On Issue #4, Master Doc Benefits:
“I'm open to ability ideas for master doctor.”
Res w/o kits? I certainly feel this would be justified for Mastery.
agghh... no kits = magic.... /cry.
Texxie buy me a drink.. I need one bad... I still need a bottle of Vodka to cope with /tends.
Personally, I'm very interested in the TEF stuff... invisible TEFs are driving everyone nuts.
-T
But what do they want us to do? We've already discussed those issues ad nauseum...
That being said, I will agree that this reason doesn't hold true for enhancement packs. Enhancement packs are randomized simply because they use the same code pipeline that healing does. I'm more than happy to remove the variance for enhancement packs.
Umm, how about, instead of 'removing' the variance, we reduce the variance for enhancements? That is, say, instead of my 750 Enhance Dsbuffing for 750-2500, they instead do like 1100-2000 or there abouts (Why do I think my Enhance D's that have a stated power of 750 should 'start' buffing at 1100? Simple - I'm a Master Doc so I have +100 Wound Treatment, which should give me that kind of bonus - and usually does).
Traigus wrote:
agghh... no kits = magic.... /cry.
Texxie buy me a drink.. I need one bad... I still need a bottle of Vodka to cope with /tends.
Personally, I'm very interested in the TEF stuff... invisible TEFs are driving everyone nuts.
-T
Well, I tend to agree - but I don't have somuch problem with /tends. . . it stands to reason that a good medic or doctor could do 'crude' field dressing of wounds and such with whatever he happens to have around him, even if he doesn't have sophisticated medical equipment. You know, sharp sterilized knives and clean rags (bandages) can go a long way toward savinig people's lives. I've even heard of doctors, in real life, 'improvising' things to save people's lives.
Texxie: I passed on the links. I wouldn't worry about it, unless you feel like you hae something to add.
Just to let you know my response so far has been to list all of the stuff for Master Doc BenefitsI found in all of those threads for him. Looks like I gotta do ALL the work for these guys sometimes. 
And yeah, I'm not surprised you're doing most of their leg-work for 'em... lazy devs
I think all survey tools should provide stats...just in general (still against medics getting the skill without nov. artisan).
Save everyone a lot of silly running about.
-T
Overall good responses, and they're keeping a balanced perspective, which I'm happy to see. We have an open invitation to provide him with suggestions, so I'd like to think we'd jump on a chance to provide them. Don't make him comb through the threads for ideas when we can put something direct and to the point in a list for him.
#1 - Although I agree with him on the Medical Forage response, it would be best to come up with alternatives that he is asking us for. This would be quite a coding challenge, but what if we had the ability to identify the best materials for a chosen medicine. So, you would be prompted to select a med or component, say a CRDM, and it would present to you the name and classification of the resource best suited for it. In this example, it would tell you that a type of Lube Oil was the best fit for the chemical you need and that the Tubers on this planet would be the best match for the Organic requirement. This would allow you to quite easily place an order for a 'miner' to gather the materials you need. You would have to, of course, be on the planet itself to find the resource fit.
#3 - Hah, you get what you ask for. If the average has to hold the same, I would like to see a narrowing of the range. Won't get as huge a heal as before, but you won't get as many dogs either. A static value wouldn't be terrible as it would be nicely predicatable, but I'm sure some would bemoan the loss of the 3000 HAM boosts that can be given now.
#4 - Need to comb through our theads for some ideas.