Doctor Archive
Thread: State of the Profession: November 11/06/2003
(This is primarily just a slight change in format per Thunderheart request as we work on standardizing these. This should be the final one, though.)
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. 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.
Economic Status
Overall Doctors would appear to be a fairly week profession, economically. The primary methods of making money entail the crafting of high-end Stim Bs for those picking up Novice Medic for self-healing and the selling of Enhancements, both of which are only fully viable as money makers at Master Doctor. In other words, Docs make money as either a Pharmacist (and crafter) on one particular item (more so than any other) and as a hawker of a particular service like a street vendor. The primary skill of wound healing is very low on the chain of money making opportunities for Doctors because of the occasional difficulty in getting tips. 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. As such I would say that in general Doctors are one very strongly viable economically.
Profession Interdependencies Status
Doctors tend to be a fairly sought after profession (odd, considering how they are not often paid for their services). In fact in some cases they are so sought after that many Doctors have taken to not wearing their title at all because they often get many /tells to provide their services, especially on adventure planets, but too often little or no reward for providing that service is forthcoming. The need for Doctors in some ways is actually a hassle to Doctors.
On the other side of the coin Doctors are overly-dependent on Artisans, especially for surveying skills. They also rely heavily on Scouts and Rangers for Avian and Herbivore meat, which leaves us in a position of really wanting to get larger amounts of those resources, but without a strong ability to compete with the Artisan need for hides and bone. Otherwise there seems o be an acceptable level of dependence and/or symbiosis on most of the other professions in the game.
Gameplay Status
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.
Issues in Progress
Bugs
1.Enhanced HAMs Sticking
2.Experimentation Issues
3.Resuscitation Timer Issues
4.Enhances Dropping on Resuscitation
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.Enhance Ease of Use=
10.Factory Hopper/Inventory Window Refresh
11.Skill Enhancement Concerns&
12.Enhancements not Assisting Armor Wearing
13.Droid Med Module Rating Overrides Location Ratings
14.Rooms/Dungeons and /DragIncap
15.Factory XP (or lack thereof)
16.Advanced Resilience Compound Not Loading=
17.Enhance Timer on Pets
18.Enhance Pet Radial Menu Request
19.Unable to Use Enhance Notification
20.Incapacitated Player Location Problems
21.Wrong XP on Some Schematics
22.Usage XP Inconsistencies
23.Food Factory Deed
24.Room/Dungeon Wound Healing Problems
25.Crafting Schematics with Unused Ratings
26.State Pack Schematics with Range
27.Multiple CRDM problem
28.Radial Menu and Heal Options Bug
29.Battle Fatigue Notification
Exploits
1.Enhance Stacking Exploit Bug
2.Resuscitation on Cloned Corpse XP Exploit
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
30.Removing Items from Crates as Default Action+
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 XP (or lack thereof)
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
Notes:
+ - 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.)
& - Denotes an Issue acknowledged by the Developers that should be fixed at some undisclosed time in the future.
[Edit: Added date to title.]
Message Edited by Zarlor on 11-19-2003 12:23 PM
Carbineer/Doctor here, and I'm having the same resource gathering troubles.
TEF notification, Droid low power notification, and healing mind damage (not wounds) are the top on my list of things I'd like to see done ASAP. Everything is definitely important though.
Love this new format for the status report. Nice, clean, easy to read. Good work Zarlor.
Thanks Zalor. But I wish the Dev Team will look into the excessive "critical failures" since the last "adjustment". I now get one or more crit failure every 3 or 4 stim Bs I make. Not really sure what the "optimal" crit failure rate *should be*, but anything greater than 10% seems excessive.
I read on this very forum, a few weeks ago, that crit failure is set at about 3%. If this is true, then something is really wrong with the process.
Anyone else seeing this?
That's been an ongoing issue for us, really. And for the other crafters as well. We're all pushing to get a better dialog going on that one.
Great job Zarlor! Seeing as I had to drop most of my scout skills to get Master Doctor so I can place a hospital in player cities, I'm even more attuned with the Master Doctor benefits.
I'd be happy if we just got our Enhance E packs like we are supposed too. 
-Jorr Doomslayer
My second problem is with my bio cloths. I have a robe that is +25 to med use, med skill, and something else. I have master wound treatment so my reg med use is 90. Then with the +25 that brings the total to 115 med use. On my skills page it shows it as med use +90/+115 But when i try and use enhance D with med use of 94, it says i have insufficient med use.
I along with everyone else also want to know about hte enhances going up from 70 something to 90 something for enhance d as well. When will these 2 problems get fixed, and will i be able to recover the lost skill enhancements from the multiple enhance skill tapes?
Thank you
ChaosAD00 wrote:
I posted these here since i am doc and these are all related to medical problems. I have been having problems with skill tapes for cloths. Ones with multiple skill enhancements, only 1 of the total gets applied....and of course i never get the med skill enhance as the one used lol.
Definitely a known bug that tends to get brought up on, I think it was the Tailor list. At any rate they do know about the problem it appears tobe a really hard one to work out the conde on. They are working the issue, though, but we have no estimate for a fix
My second problem is with my bio cloths. I have a robe that is +25 to med use, med skill, and something else. I have master wound treatment so my reg med use is 90. Then with the +25 that brings the total to 115 med use. On my skills page it shows it as med use +90/+115 But when i try and use enhance D with med use of 94, it says i have insufficient med use.
You'll find LOTS of threads herea bout this. Med Use modifiers have not, do not and will not work. There were some hugely exploitable problems wtih allowing them. That is only for Med Use. Injury Treatment and WOund Treatment and all those other skills do not ahve this problem.
There is also a bug on the skills display. Skill mods will cap out with a total modifier from all sources of +25. THe display, however, will actually add up all the modifiers you may have that may add up to more than +25 to your base skill and display that. We've got confirmation that they are aware of this problem and it is being worked on. (That response is also on our Bug list, so be sure to help out and vote in those threads if you geta chance. 
)
I along with everyone else also want to know about hte enhances going up from 70 something to 90 something for enhance d as well. When will these 2 problems get fixed, and will i be able to recover the lost skill enhancements from the multiple enhance skill tapes?
There is a thread sticked up hee with the Dev responses we have so far. Also you can fvote for this issue as well on the BugList thread.
I have no real problem with the med use problem as long as they drop the med use needed for enhance D's. It sux though cause they allowed the bios to make those cloths, then to sell them, so why shouldn't they work. There has been ppl with pre nerf t21s and other items, so why make the bio cloths with med use on them worthless pieces of cloth?!