Doctor Archive
Thread: Species switches and a new market for doctors
Having reached a total of 3 pages on the bio-engineer forum and having had everyone say it was a fantastic idea (and in some cases saying it's perfect) I figured I'd post the information onto the other profession forums that are part of this new concept which helps solve an issue that is already starting to occour... people wanting to change their species without losing their current character and all that hard work. It's really a very simple request from the players which I put into a focussed idea which increases the markets for a number of professions while also providing a money sink which the develoeprs are always saying they need more of. On the whole the idea is almost flawless except for some things which need to be carefully considered but aren't issues that can't be worked around.
The full topic is at the following URL: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=bio-engineer&message.id=11553&view=by_date_ascending&page=1
The actual idea is quoted below, the reason why I'm posting this on all of the profession forums that would be involved is that this seems like the ideal solution to the issue and we want to rally as much support for this concept as possible. So please post your concerns and/or approval here and hopefully we'll get it submitted to the developers for serious consideration.
This wasn't an idea I proposed a while ago but some people rejected it because they felt it fell into the catagory of the image designer, I argued that it actually falls more fittingly into the catagory for bio-engineers but none the less I could see their point. As SWG expands to include new player species types I can see folks wanting to change to these new species without giving up all of the hard earned effort they spent on their current character. It's not unfair to say that you can change your appearence anyway in the game and that a species change is really not any different from a gameplay and balancing point of view. Also this idea will open up more business for imagine designers, architechts, master artisans and bio-engineers as well. Let me explain.
Lets say that Tosk Lightwalker is a transhodan who is sick of the alien penalties associated with being in the empire and wants to switch to being a human. However they have invested alot of time building their character into a master bounty hunter and doesn't like the idea of having to delete this character or play on another server away from their friends in order to be happy with being in the Empire. So in comes this new ability for the bio-engineer to change someone's species with the help of several of the other professions.
Step 1. First of all after the bio-engineer and Tosk have arranged to go through with this the bio-engineer needs to own a gene-sequencer device. This looks exactly the same as the clone template machines seen in the cloning facilities where people store a clone to be activated if they die.
Step 2. The gene-sequencer is a very complex peice of machinery which requires master artisan components and can only be put together by a architects who has tech furniture 4. The bio-engineer also needs to synthesize a human dna template for use in the sequencer.
Step 3. Tosk the transhodan goes into the house/lab of the bio-engineer. And steps into the gene-sequencer. The Bio-engineer then has to load the human dna template into the sequencer. Depending on the skill of the bio-engineer the process will either trasnform the transhodan into the default appearence of the human or they'll fail and have to try again.
Step 4. Assuming things work the transhodan now looks like the default human. In order to get allowing how they want they now have to visit an image designer to get their features changed. Tosk has also reverted to the default stats of a human as well. The change is 100% and they cannot go through another species switch for 24 hours (due to physical stresses on the body)
The market potential
On the whole you're looking at expanded business not only for the under used image designer but also for master artisans. Architects also benefit from the furniture line now having a higher perpose than decoration. Bio-engineers gets something other than tissues or clones to play around with. The gene-squencers would also require maintaince and alot of power each time they are used to change someone's species thus increasing the flow of money to people who sell the power sources.
The money sink
The developers are always saying that we have too much money and they'd like to introduce new money sinks. Well the gene-sequencer is the ideal solution to having money flowing out into the virtual abyss. The successrate for changing someone's species would be based on the quality of the dna tample made, the bio-engineer themselves plus the quality of the gene-sequencer as well. Thus there's alot which factors into the successrates meaning there's alot of risk for failures. Since the sequencer would need power, maintaince plus the template you're looking at something which can result in money flowing out with nothing in return. Something the developers are working very hard to introduce with the inclusion of the casino games, the gene-sequencer is just the same as the roulette wheel or someone trying to slice a locked container which then fails. The loss of the power, the wasted upkeep from maintaince and the dna template would be enough to slowly drain some of the money from the economy. As long as the process is suitable expensive.
The conclusion
Sooner or later the new player species are going to come in. Players are going to see something new they want to try out without the risk of deleting their character which they worked so hard to build. In the long run the majority of players will complain enough to make SOE allow for species changes and they know it's a reasonable request since they already allow us to drop skills and alter what our character is on a whim. Species changes which also add a market AND a money sink are an ideal solution to a very simple request.
Thank you for you time.
Just to summerize for you doctors, the main point here isn't covered in this initial post however it was looked into for the full topic if you look. Considering how drastic the process was many of us agreed that massive wounds should be caused by the process meaning that a doctor or medic would find great potential for exp and maybe a service charge for someone who has just been through the process. On the whole the doctors and medics would be part of the post-species change process along with the image designers. Since they are self inflicted wounds you could quite easily ask people to pay for the healing... especially since doctors can get them up and running faster than most.
For example, I know that its hard to get an AT-ST as a poor wookie, so I start out a human. After building up to 3 AT-ST's as a human, I trade them to a friend, who waits for me to become a wookie and trades them back to me.
How would you prevent this? This is assuming that the devs would delete any imperial faction pets, hence the trade to get around that.
They would have to delete all faction pets and disallow trading of faction pets for this to work.
Its not true to the SW universe, hence cant be in the game (its a license)
Other than that I dont like the idea anyway, you are what you are, male/female Trandoshian/Twi'lek.
Ofcourse they like it one the BE board, most people would love for more content to their classes, its like asking a kindergarten if they would like some candy =)
I choose human because I wasnt sure which profession I would end up in and the humans are the jack of all trades master of none, in retroperspective a Mon Calmar would probably have been the better species for me to choose, but its about choises and sticking to them.
This is the 1 thing you cant change in SWG, gender and species, all the rest you can alter as much as you desire, and I think its perfect as it is, and it makes sense.
It's a game and I for one like this idea. Sometimes you have to be lax witht he source material to make an overall enjoyable game with nice content.
While this is an interesting proposal, I hope this idea never gets implemented. First of all, where in the Star Wars universe has anyone ever switch species? Secondly, this eliminates the faction penalties associated with joining the Empire if a wookiee could just switch to human to trade in FP then switch back. And finally, there's no reason a player would have to delete their character to play a new expansion species unless they had used their alotment of 10 characters.
Its not true to the SW universe, hence cant be in the game (its a license)
So are public cloning facilties, spices being sold out in the open, civilians getting hold of thermal detonators and the fact that the bio-engineer profession itself exists and clones animals at will. The licence can't be allowed to get in the way of gameplay nor simple but functional mechanics which make the game more enjoyable.
I hope this idea never gets implemented. First of all, where in the Star Wars universe has anyone ever switch species? Secondly, this eliminates the faction penalties associated with joining the Empire if a wookiee could just switch to human to trade in FP then switch back.
Please read the full topic if you are going to post, this issue was addressed and the solutions we agreed on were:
- the player has to be nuetral to go through the process
- the process resets your factional points to zero (like a new identity)
- there would be a cool down time of perhaps a month so it can't be abused as a quick switch
So as you can see the issues with the factional exploit and the GCW have been addressed so please don't toss away this idea because you didnt properly look through the entire topic and see that the original idea was expanded upon.
Tal-N absolutly awsome idea!
Here are my thoughts and ideas which I think will help make this more robust and appealing to the devs.
Schematics: i think each player will have to either have a schematic for how they are going to look personally made..or say bought off a vendor. When looking at the schematic at the vendor..they actually see what the end result will be like. Instead of seeing that odd square looking thing that you see for most deeds. This ensures the player gets EXACTLY what they want and would bea major bonus.
Stats: I think that during the process, the BE and the patient must decide on exact point distrubution of HAM and it's secondary stats. Since each species has different advantages/disadvantages stat wise..it would not work to carry the old ones over. As sort of a drawback and not making this a perfect solution (at time of the procees) upon completion, the player recieves the base stats for that type of species. Then must undergo a full stat migration in order to get their desired stat points.
Failures: i think failing to change the species needs to follow suit with slicing. Not exactly because offering it as a 1 time only deal just wouldn't work...but maybe if it fails, or succeeds a timer is activated for the next time they may able to try again.
Inherint Species Skills: when you first start with your species you get certain bonuses that character has...i'm a twi'lek so i got dancing bonuses. To not make this equivalent to starting brand new, and make somewhat a penalty, those skills get erased and the new species ones DO NOT get placed back. So if i wanted to become a wookie to get that CH benifit...i would end up just being a wookie minus the CH beifit...thus fixing exploitation of getting the skill you want.
You mentioned this in your last post but i absolutly agree that faction would need to be reset...to allow people to really start anew
I think that'll do it..I love this idea...i'll try to think of some more stuff to make it work and better!
Drengen, killing folks then being able to clone a new you isn't exactly true to the starwars universe either. When Obi-wan died he didn't wind up in the Bestine cloning center did he ?
It's a game and I for one like this idea. Sometimes you have to be lax witht he source material to make an overall enjoyable game with nice content.
Ofcourse he didnt, there is perma-death for Jedi
But you are right, no need to be too fanatic (SOE is bound by contracts on what they can and cannot add though that I amsure of that since it is a license) But when you look at it that aside, it wouldnt make much sense, looking like a human doesnt make you human, i.e trandoshians come from a totally different environment, they would be like wolves in sheeps clothing =)
Please read the full topic if you are going to post
You're a fool if you think I'm going to waste time sifting through 3 pages circle jerking on an idea that will never see the light of day. The point of new species is to make you start anew and hopefully keep you grinding away long enough that you don't notice the lack of content in other areas or the drain on your pocketbook.
This is an MMO*RP*G in an already established universe bound by certain restraints. Where is your RP backing and source material forthis idea and where does it stop? Why can't a BE make agorg into a kimogila by the same process? It's just as ridiculous.