Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: The DEVs are as Tightfisted with Facts as a Bothan Courier
gametruth wrote:
I'm sure the devs don't want to wade thru pages and pages of flames - i know i wouldn't. Also, I know some ofus have felt that flames were the only way to get attention from the dev team. Since we now have most of them afraid to even post on our forum - it is time for a change of tactics.
Well, that is the Dev's job...like it or not. If you make a complete mess out of your real job and inflame your boss, do you ignore him hoping he will go away or try and fix your screw up ???
If you haven't noticed the vast majority of the 'Old Pros' have faded away.
Here are the Phases of life as a DE:
1). The optimistic gulibilty phase: This is the DE as he is climbing the skill tree expecting great things when he finally reaches that Master mark in the DE skill tree. Oh sure, he will have heard how horrible and broken the DE profession is, but is convinced that it will be fixed soon after he/she masters the profession.
2). The sad realization of truth phase: This is the phase you will go through after you have been a MDE for months and still haven't seen the "love" that the developers keep promising month after month. You toil on being content for the time being with what you can do.
3). The outraged shock phase: This is the phase you will go through as you see all the super cool enhancements that other classes are getting even in monthly patches that aren't aimed at thier class. Armor and weaponsmiths get new interesting things to make each patch it seems with the new quest item are added. DE's only patched in "enhancement" has been a broken tool belt that requires an extinct item. During this phase you will begin to rant about all these enhancements on the message boards and scare the devs away since they don't realize what their job is yet...which is to keep customers playing.
4). The 'Take a Break Phase": Being overly sickened with the state of your profession for months, you give up on the game for a while and take a break. You log in a couple times a week to see if you sold anything and re-stock the few things that may have sold. You pretty much ignore the message boards because you realize there isn't much you can say that will change the crappy direction your "love patch" is going in.
5). The "Screw It" Phase: This is where you wise up and change your profession, or become a real genius and hit the cancel button.
I happen to currently be in the Phase 4 and very close to phase 5 of this broken excuse for a profession. If you have been around for 8 or 9 months, you will realize that there is NEVER going to be much going for the Droid Engineer profession. They don't know what to do with us and never will. They will keep dangling carrots in front of your face hoping to keep that $15 each month from drying up. Each month they promise enhancments, you will actually get nerfs disguised as enhancments with double talk about how "you will see it isn't so bad when balancing takes place".
Read it and weep. This is the true facts of this profession and your deluding yourself if you believe otherwise. DE's get one more month of FULL ATTENTION, then they are moving on. That full attention sure seems to have been a wasted effort so far and I am sure pub 8 will be the same. We will get something next patch and some will think its just great. You want to know why? Because they have come to expect table scraps for updates and are happy with whatever meatless bone the developers throw at them. Enjoy....
Grib, I have been through stage 3, but I did not follow your prescribed path. I chose instead an alternative path: Learn from the experience and do something about it. I didn't give up.
It is an uphill task, but nothing is impossible. Gandhi didn't give up. Lincoln didn't give up. Einstein didn't give up. Edison didn't give up. All faced insurmountable odds, butfinally overcame them andachieved their goals.Imagine being told umpteen times that you are stupid, only to be hailed as a genius in the end? Imagine failing in your experiments almost a thousand times, only the create the greatest invention ever? Imagine going against an entire nation, only to triumph?
For DEs who are going to quit, don't. Let the others quit. Hold on and make your presence felt. Excel in your trade. Pretty soon, everyone will start coming to you for droids, because you are the only one left who can make decent droids. Laugh all the way to the bank, and enjoy making other people go "Wow, your droids are great! I'm gonna recommend all my friends to you from now on!"
Droids ARE Star Wars. The devs did a sucky job, but it's too late to change that fact. At least they've seen the error of their ways and are making an effort. Their results may not meet our expectations, but so what? Are we gonna keep pummeling them till they give up totally on droids? We have two choices: 1) Help them by persistantly throwing up more positive suggestions, or 2) Destroy droid engineering totally by flaming them to hell, till the point where even they throw in the towel and remove the profession altogether, thus destroying the game's continuity and ruining everyone's experience. Option 2 is the easier way and helps relieve stress on a bad day, but why bother to do that? Does destroying star wars for everyone really accomplish anything? Destroying DE = less work for devs, who are being paid anyway. So we are in fact helping them by giving them less work! You want the devs to suffer more right? Make them work harder by asking them to implement more good suggestions for DE! More DE suggestions = more work for Devs = more cool stuff for DE and other players = less complaints = everyone happier. Simple equation, really.
Do not be clouded by your feelings . . . clear your thoughts and reach out with the Force. We can do it people, have faith. By consistently checking the boards, you have shown that you still think droid engineering is worth something. There is unlimited potential, so let's harness it!
Shian_Tavkin wrote:
The communication channel from 'them' to us is whats broken, and thats Thunderheart's problem.
Actually, I view it as my problem and TH's problem. In that regard, we're working to solve it together.
The stickied "Marching down Gorantoth's list..." thread is the example of getting this solved. I've been able to get answers to those issue which have never been forthcoming (even since launch).
So, the info IS flowing better now...just not as fast or in-depth as we'd all like. I can assure you that the upcoming list for Publish 8 (should it hold out fully) will be happily greeted by most DEs that I can think of...
I guess you just have to trust me for right now, Shian. You do trust me still, do you not?
/bow
Respectfully,
Yeah, keyword . . . expectations.
Lower your expectations, and you won't be disappointed. =)
"Clear your mind must be...."
Obo_alCan wrote:
Don't hype it too much, or we might expect more than we're getting.
Expect nothing...and you will be very pleased with the outcome.
/bow
Respectfully,
Hey, i've posted probably some of the nastiest anti-dev flames on this forum. I was angry, frustrated, dissapointed, misled and disgusted all at the same time. That being said, i got over it, i'm moving on and I would really like to see better lines of communication both ways in this forum and all forums.
I'm sure the devs don't want to wade thru pages and pages of flames - i know i wouldn't. Also, I know some ofus have felt that flames were the only way to get attention from the dev team. Since we now have most of them afraid to even post on our forum - it is time for a change of tactics.
We must focus 3 fold on how to improve our profession and communicate better with the powers that be.
1) We must focus on the fixing of bugs and the fine tuning of our profession from within. TK has done and is doing an amazing job with this. (See his top 5 and top 20 threads - they are both awesome compilations that he updates and tweaks constantly - THANK YOU TK!!!!)
2) We must try to find new ways to improve our market with in the existing confines of the game architecture. I hope pub 8 will go along way to doing this, and agian TK has done a wonderful job of keeping this positive, constructive and informative. (See the thread on new Droid Modules - also updated frequently)
3) We must strive to add new content both for us and the entire community as far as droids are concerned. This is the one that everyone has dropped the ball on. We as a community tend to want things too quickly (stuff really does take an awfully long time to go from concept to live). While the Devs tend to keep us in the dark too much as to avoid resentment when / if something falls thru or changes. While TK may not have done the best job on this one - he has basically been stuck between a rock and a hard place doing what he can. Here is where we all need to step up, be mature, intelligent adults and all learn to work together. It is the only way to get anything done.
Now, i'm not saying we can't flame - but lets keep some of the threads positive and constructive - it is the only way we can get results. And if we are patient and dilligent I'm sure in the end we can be satisfied in knowing we did our best, and we did it in a postive way! Well, that's my 2 cents - enjoy!! Flame away if you will - but plz take a few minutes to reall think about it before you do.
TheRealTK421 wrote:
/bow
I amhesitant to crank up a factory for fear of having 1000s of obsolete parts on hand when P8 hits, just like what happened with the module clusters.
Yea...uhhh...don't start pre-crating anything (other than 'regular' parts you'd be crating anyway) at this point. I don't actually suggest that ANYONE do this prior to any particular publish. There's just too much possibility of that leading to strangeness. I know you all want to get a jump on things (hey, I do)...but it's far safer to wait until this stuff actually hits before you dive in deep.
I want to avoid any suggestions for anyone that will paint them into some kind of corner (and repeat some of what happened in P7).
I'll get you in the know ASAP on these sorts of things when I can...but only if I have a very high degree of confidence that it is 180% safe for you all to do so.
Respectfully,
Uh huh.
GDMSC anyone?
Gribnitz wrote:
gametruth wrote:
I'm sure the devs don't want to wade thru pages and pages of flames - i know i wouldn't. Also, I know some ofus have felt that flames were the only way to get attention from the dev team. Since we now have most of them afraid to even post on our forum - it is time for a change of tactics.
Well, that is the Dev's job...like it or not. If you make a complete mess out of your real job and inflame your boss, do you ignore him hoping he will go away or try and fix your screw up ???
Actually it isn't the DEV's job to wade thru days on end of negative posts - it is the correspondents and CSR's job. The dev's job is to make the game and keep it running.
If you haven't noticed the vast majority of the 'Old Pros' have faded away.
Here are the Phases of life as a DE:
1). The optimistic gulibilty phase: This is the DE as he is climbing the skill tree expecting great things when he finally reaches that Master mark in the DE skill tree. Oh sure, he will have heard how horrible and broken the DE profession is, but is convinced that it will be fixed soon after he/she masters the profession.
2). The sad realization of truth phase: This is the phase you will go through after you have been a MDE for months and still haven't seen the "love" that the developers keep promising month after month. You toil on being content for the time being with what you can do.
3). The outraged shock phase: This is the phase you will go through as you see all the super cool enhancements that other classes are getting even in monthly patches that aren't aimed at thier class. Armor and weaponsmiths get new interesting things to make each patch it seems with the new quest item are added. DE's only patched in "enhancement" has been a broken tool belt that requires an extinct item. During this phase you will begin to rant about all these enhancements on the message boards and scare the devs away since they don't realize what their job is yet...which is to keep customers playing.
4). The 'Take a Break Phase": Being overly sickened with the state of your profession for months, you give up on the game for a while and take a break. You log in a couple times a week to see if you sold anything and re-stock the few things that may have sold. You pretty much ignore the message boards because you realize there isn't much you can say that will change the crappy direction your "love patch" is going in.
5). The "Screw It" Phase: This is where you wise up and change your profession, or become a real genius and hit the cancel button.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt even. But i invented step 6 - actually try to make a difference. (ooo now we just need 6 more steps . . . . ) But this is very hard when everyone wants to be horridly negative towards any comment made on the forums other than "SCREW THE DEVS".
Oh and Galantor, TK, and a few others - it appears we all have the same 1 star bandit stalking us. LOL - hope he is having fun - i'm gonna start posting as many as i can everyday just to keep him busy.
TheRealTK421 wrote:
Shian_Tavkin wrote:
The communication channel from 'them' to us is whats broken, and thats Thunderheart's problem.
Actually, I view it as my problem and TH's problem. In that regard, we're working to solve it together.
The stickied "Marching down Gorantoth's list..." thread is the example of getting this solved. I've been able to get answers to those issue which have never been forthcoming (even since launch).
So, the info IS flowing better now...just not as fast or in-depth as we'd all like. I can assure you that the upcoming list for Publish 8 (should it hold out fully) will be happily greeted by most DEs that I can think of...
I guess you just have to trust me for right now, Shian. You do trust me still, do you not?
/bow
Respectfully,
Yes, I do trust you still.
Publish 8 is the make or break though..really TK its just been too bad ..our treatment I mean. As for marching down the bug thread, well not a lot has been posted there since you put it up..so you have to keep getting results..and thats not an unreasonable request is it? The Devs have to prove they care, and as one famous quote says 'words are cheap' so I'm waiting and hoping..I havn't logged in for over a week now. This is the last chance they will get from me, not that I suppose for a moment they care if I stay or go. I an definitely near to stage 5 of Gorantoths DE progress, and I think it will be a miracle if they actually come up with goods that make a difference to that. I want my fun back, and I don't want our profession to be the source of pity that it is.
So, Publish8.....we shall see eh?