Doctor Archive
Thread: State of the Profession: November
November State of the Profession: Doctor
Overall Doctors are in pretty good shape. We have a fairly large set of issues, currently, sitting in the 90s, but only 27 of those are actual bugs and are 16 balance issues, the rest are primarily frustrating to folks in varying degrees, even though one or two of them have been consistently bothering the majority for a while, or they are content additions or changes which would help to improve the profession.
There have been several persistent issues over the months. There are still several issues with Enhancements, some of them have been acknowledged and are being looked into, some of them we are still waiting for an indication on, such as HAM Bars not resizing after a buff on oneself (or for the person receiving the buff, the personal HAM never resizes, while those on others do.) Mind Damage healing going to CMs at such a high level seems contrary to the damage healing for Health and Action and many feel that perhaps Master Medic would be a better location for the skill, Monetary issues in MANY forms, whether through the need for some form of secure trade for healing services, some kind of “insurance” option or even just through added content like Medical Mission Terminals, has long been a persistent issue that pervades and exacerbates many of the other issues, even to include the treatment of members of the profession by other players (generally very poorly for those asking for payment for services) even though the specific issue itself has not made it into the Top 5 of Doctor Issues previously. TEFs, Crafting, Experimentation, Faction Points for healers, and curing of AoE Poisons have all been long-standing issues often varying in their location on the issues list over the months but normally jockeying for the upper levels.
While few of these issues are totally game breaking for Doctors, the many minor bugs, gameplay issues and balance issues do add up. Many of the issues may even require an extensive period of time to cover and code and to get into the game. In all the Doctors are a very understanding and level-headed group of players and can be very patient when it comes to being told that some of these issues may take time to complete. However, one of their biggest issues has always been simply communication. Getting feedback from the Developers on acknowledging the issues and entering into a dialog with them, even if it is through the Correspondent position, about their issues. I believe the Doctors are willing to accept that it may take months for any particular item to be implemented, but knowing that the process is occurring and being kept up to date would prove to be of tremendous assistance in keeping the player base happy and their enjoyment of the profession in a hearty and healthy state.
Some commentary on the State of the Profession can also be found at http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=doctor&message.id=18139.
It should be noted on the following lists that this is a listing of all of the issues presented that have had at least some support from members of the Doctor community. However, the lower on the listing an item is, the less important and possibly less support a particular issue may have. In other words it is possible that for some issues lower down on the listing there may even be a majority of Docs who may actually be opposed to supporting that particular issue, although new issues on the list also end up at the bottom. Until a complete polling can be done at each level we simply cannot tell for certain what the situation is on those.
Detailed information for these issues will be available in separate threads on the Doctor forum.
Bugs
1.Enhanced HAMs Sticking
2.Experimentation Issues
3.Resuscitation Timer Issues
4.Enhances Dropping on Death
5.Enhances Dropping on Logoff
6.Enhances Lowering Stats when Combined with other Buffs and Wearing Off
7.Stat Drain/Stat Loss/Stat Stick Bug
8.Enhance Action -v- other Enhance Pack Resource Disparity
9.Factory Hopper/Inventory Window Refresh
10.Enhancements not Assisting Armor Wearing
11.Skill Enhancement Concerns
12.Droid Med Module Rating Overrides
13.Rooms/Dungeons and /DragIncap
14.Factory XP (or lack thereof)
15.Enhance Timer on Pets
16.Enhance Pet Radial Menu Request
17.Unable to Use Enhances Notification
18.Incapacitated Player Location Problems
19.Wrong XP on Some Schematics
20.Usage XP Inconsistencies
21.Food Factory Deed
22.Room/Dungeon Wound Healing Problems
23.Crafting Schematics with Unused Ratings
24.State Pack Schematics with Range
25.Multiple CRDM problem
26.Radial Menu and Heal Options Bug
27.Battle Fatigue Notification
Exploits
1.Resuscitation on Cloned Corpse XP Exploit
2.Enhance Stacking Exploit Bug
Gameplay Issues
1.Doctor Content
2.TEF Notification
3.Enhance Packs Variability
4.Combat Queue Heals
5.Enhance Griefing/Override
6.Resuscitation Pack Usage on Faction Pets
7.Target Friendlies
8./diagnose Refresh
9.TEF Documentation and Faction Healing (including Neutrals)
10.Droid Low Power Notifications
11.Target Self
12.Med Center Grouping
13.Enhance Drop Notification
14.Crafting Schematics Clarification and Documentation
15.General Inventory Search for Meds
16.Auto-Retaliate
17.Droid Crafter Rating
18.Factory/Harvester Status Notifications
19.Resuscitation Pack Usage on Battlegrounds
20.Accidental Cloning
21.Cure Pack Effectiveness Ratings
22.Power Selection for Factories/Harvesters
23.Droid Recharge Rate
24.Heal Pack Selection Methodology Clarification
25.Factory Identical Components
26.Healing Range/Distance
27./registerwithlocation Command
28.Heal Targeting Persistence
29.Droid/Pet Change Concerns
Balance Issues
1.Medical Surveying
2.Master Doc Benefits
3.On Fire Cure
4.Faction Points
5.Medical Harvesting
6.Mind Damage Healing for Doctors
7.AoE Cure State Pack and Poison/Disease Cure
8.First Aid Improvements
9.Money
10.Pet Stimpacks
11.Quickheal Uselessness
12.State Pack Persistence/Immunity
13.Medicine Use Skill Granularity
14.Pet Healing
15.Ease of Mastery
16.Crafting XP Speed Imbalance
17.Crafting XP from Complex Schematics –v- Components
18.Combat Medic Component Experimentation
Wishlist
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
Have you sent details of the exploits in a mail message to Taurin? If not, I suggest doing so, he is the point man for clearing those up and is one of the best devs about replying.
The "exploits" have been floating around with the Devs for a while, really. The Corpse one is pretty common knowledge, and probably is not a high priority to "fix". Not like you find a ton of Docs sittin in the cloning center on Lok trying to Farm XP. 
The stacking one I'm not having an easy time replicating. Is the stacking happening using the same methods as it was before? They fixed it once, so they SHOULD already know about this one, but I don't really ahve the details to pass along to Taurin, only that it is happening again.
DariusDarkstar wrote:
now dont flame me for this. but why should doctors have mind healing over entertainers? more a medical skill then a entertainer skill? in the real world doctors cant really heal the mind. oh sure, they can prescribe medication for mental illnesses, but doctors cant heal your mind. usually they tell you relax, do things to take your mind off what it is that is bothering you. i'm not an entertainer in the game, just so you know. but in the real world i suffer from type 2 bipolar disorder and depression. doctors cant cure me. sure, i can take medications to be "normal" but a doctor cannot cure me. so it seems more like a doctor wanting complete control over the healing in the game, which as doctors im sure you would like since you are the healers. but if you take the ability to heal the mind, what good are the entertainers for? now all they do is look pretty and take down battle fatigue. you have rendered their skill tree worthless for anything other then social reason. they can now not make any money at all other then the entertainer mission terminals.
The real world doesn't really apply to the mind pool of the game very well. People can't hit you in the head in an attempt to make your depression worse (although getting hit in the head does suck).
Game mechanics wise, healing *damage* has never been the role of either entertainers or doctors. Both professions focus on wounds and fatigue for entertainers. damage healing is the realm of medics and combat medics. It just never really applied to the mind pool before (except for that 5 charge starter damage stimpack).
good point gallion, alot of real world things dont apply in this game even tho there are attempts here or there to make a realistic virtual world. one thing that must be considered tho is balance in the game for characters. one of the few things going for musicians is the ability to heal players minds and make mind buffs. you take away the things that they can do that are unique to them, you make them a less useful character class. much like if artisans could craft first aid kits. they cant heal you but they make something that can heal you, much like buying medicines and bandaids, thus taking away the need to find a doctor if you have wounds(granted inthe real world some wounds can only properly be healed by physicians but has noted the real world doesnt apply well to aspects of the game)
there needs to be balance in the classes, since it is a game based on interdependency between character classes, every class needs something that makes them important to the other class. medics are already highly needed by combat orientated people for two out of three stat bars. i think before before something can be taken from one class and given to another alternatives for what is being taken should be thought up.
if the doctors get the ability to heal mind wounds, what can entertainers have that makes them just as important in their own way? it all comes down to balancing it so one class isnt a worthless time killer.
For folks who may not be noticing, the wording of the Mind Healing issue directly proclaims the healing of Mind Damage NOT Mind Wounds. Until recently NOBODY had the ability to heal Mind Damage on others. Please make sure we are clear on the terminology here. It is definitely not an issue that Entertainers have, and should keep, Mind WOUND healing.
The issue is that CMs have been given the ability to heal Mind DAMAGE, on Test Center at least, and Docs are wondering why not in the Doctor tree as well.
My personal opinion is that it needs to be spread out a bit more. Such as make the /healmind (or /tendmind, whatever the heck it is, since it acts like a /tend command in effects) available at Master Medic. Providing something in the Dancer/Musician trees and possibly some form of Mind Damage resistance, boost or equilibrium type of command for Squad Leaders.
This is the first time I've been in gth Doctor forum, so I have to first say that the State of the profession is well written and easy to follow 
That said, I'm entilted to agree that a /tendMind at Master Medic would be a better choice, but also add that Entertainers should be abe to craft mind stims of some kind... but that's my opinion and off topic
Looking forward to continuing my quest for Master Doctor (if I can ever get past the slow rate of growth on crafting) and reading the forum more often.
There's one thing I'm very surprised to see no mention of anywhere on the Doctor's forum (my apologies if i just didn't look hard enough), but primarily being a master combat medic, this issue was clearly relevant to me and surprising to not be addressed.
Combat Medics have received a change in their schematics for components to measure the resources on DR instead of PE because of the lack of PE on some of the resources.
Am I the only one who noticed that liquid suspension, and advanced liquid suspension call for PE, yet water vapor has none?
This would be a quick and easy fix that would increase the strength of all Doctor medicines.
Crimus wrote:
[snip]
Am I the only one who noticed that liquid suspension, and advanced liquid suspension call for PE, yet water vapor has none?
That's under the Bug's list, #26, Crafting Schematics with Unused Ratings. (PE being an "unused rating"in this instance. ) I might add, though, that the problem is not PE in that instance, it's actually UT (because berries havea PE rating to make up for the missing stat on Water Vapor based on some of the things we've been seeing on how crafting seems to work.) The funny thing is that I'm starting to think that the hubub on TC may have to do with the fact that anytime a schematic sees an unused rating it should be putting a 0 in there, not a null like we seem to have been seeing. In which case ALL of our schematics suffer from this problem because there are no resources with both a PE and a UT rating.
At any rate, LSs are actually Medic Schematics so those are really more of a Medic Issue, but we also have the same problem with all of the high-level Enhance and Cure schematics.