Droid Engineer Archive

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Thunderheart wrote:

...this team is spending a lot of money and effort on these changes and...

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MachineZed wrote:

I changed my mind. It had to deal with the fact that BLLs now have one Module

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"It is my opinion that a new profession should be a unique, interestingaddition to the game that is not merely a copy or derivative of an existing class. There are already too manyprofessions in SWG that are similar with each other; I did not want to add to that problem. The Droid Commander profession would have needed a lot more development time than I had to spend in the schedule to ensure it was not simply a "metallic CH" profession. Finally, as mentioned before, it is my goal to ensure that all existing professions have their own unique, viable identity in SWG before thinking about adding new professions to the game."

Message Edited by Virtanis on 02-17-2004 03:33 PM

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Thunderheart wrote:

I was able to change the course of game development based on the DE community's requests against the better wishes of the devs

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Virtanis wrote:

I don't know about anyone else but Thunderheart's post really sounded like the the length and breadth of the "blame" rests with us even thougha lead designer of the game agreed with us almost completely. It just didn't (and doesn't) sit well with me.

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I dont see any "blame".

while it does sound a bit egotistical to me, lets be real here. He took the flak from us, he took what we said to the devs, and he kept the issue up to the point of getting it to runesabre. I really doubt he cared one way or the other the outcome, but he did what he was supposed to do, tell the devs what we were saying, and the fact they changed midstream after work had been started/partially completed, _is_ an impressive statement. It would of been far easier for SOE to do the DH. He took the flak, he should share in the credit as well. In the end we got what we asked for, no DH.

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Lonkley wrote:

I really doubt he cared one way or the other the outcome...

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Squegul wrote:

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Lonkley wrote:

I really doubt he cared one way or the other the outcome...

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Well, he needs to care. That is his job.

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Good god..how many times does the man have to say he does care?? I swear too many of you read FAR too much into every single post and every single word. Its almost like you're looking for things to complain about and can point at and scream "Look!! the Dev's are screwing us over just because they hate us!!"

Get Real!

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Squegul wrote:

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Lonkley wrote:

I really doubt he cared one way or the other the outcome...

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Well, he needs to care. That is his job.

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but i suppose he better care the same way you do about an issue, otherwise he's not listening.

No, its not his job to care. His job is to find out what the userbase is asking for. Otherwise every issue would have an unfair bias. As it is, being human, its impossible to remove 100% bias. But you still try.

Lonkley wrote:

I dont see any "blame".

TH wrote: "I was able to change the course of game development based on the DE community's requests against the better wishes of the devs and to that end, this team is spending a lot of money and effort on these changes and we need your help to make these changes as effective and as fun as they can be."

That sure sounds "blamey" to me, for something 85%+ of us didn't want in the first place..... your mileage may vary.

while it does sound a bit egotistical to me

I don't disagree with you here...

lets be real here. He took the flak from us, he took what we said to the devs, and he kept the issue up to the point of getting it to runesabre. I really doubt he cared one way or the other the outcome, but he did what he was supposed to do, tell the devs what we were saying, and the fact they changed midstream after work had been started/partially completed, _is_ an impressive statement. It would of been far easier for SOE to do the DH. He took the flak, he should share in the credit as well. In the end we got what we asked for, no DH.

Like the saying goes about "an ounce of prevention", had they begun dialogue and "in concept" discussions on this whole thing prior to the start of the big DH debate, we wouldn't be in this mess. My biggest beef with this whole debacle is that Drashk gave them a flat out and on target warning about howthe DH ideawas going to be received by the community, yet they still pressed on with their pitch.

If Drashk didn't level with them beforehand and they didn't have a clue about how the community felt about the DH idea, then they'd have my sympathy about spending "a lot of money and effort" on these changes.

But because they didn't.... I don't.

In order...

• Thats correct, The Droid Commander (handler)

• ok, ok, Im getting to work...

• We're going to hook you up mang, but its not a "glorious" or sexy update. Thats really the big divide here in terms of the thinking. The combat droids are a big, sexy change to the game. The problem is, regardless of what Holocron said in the past, the design of the game has changed and we cant add the droids in via the certification system. The combat system that was in place when Raph was here has been tweaked and changed. The new members of the live team have altered it to the point where its just not reasonable and requires the Droid Commander.

However, we did agree that it was important to address the DE top issues.Look at the reality:If JustG (Senior Producer) and Runesabre (Live Lead Designer) were here on these boards, they must have though it was really important. We had lots of very daunting meetings talking about this and we are going with the DE requests and fixes.

Im doing a write up on the overview now...

Before I go, lets address this whole blame game thing.

When we talk about issues and changes to the game,lets stop looking at everything as "blame". No one here plays the blame game and niether should you. Successful teams never do. You debate the issues with the group, make a decision and act on it. Done. No bias. You commit and move with strength and with honor.

Blaming is a natural human response in an attempt to attribute responsibility for something perceived as unjust and threatening. When a situation is seen as threatening to us, our loved ones,our familyor other things that are related to our real life health and welfare we may experience fear, anger, betrayal and hurt. Blaming is an attempt to bring some control into a difficult situation that seems unacceptable and unfair. However, this is a virtual environment and when our hard work in game seems threatened, that natural reaction is transferred onto our daily expressions. Sometimes its even amplified if we're having a bad day at school or work or whatever.

There is nothing here that is a threat folks...

As a community, we need to act together as a team. To be a good team, we need to move past these ideas of threat and stabalize our community. We are not here to ruin the game or make your virutal lives miserable, we want to make a fun game for everyone. We're on a good path and making progress. The biggest challenge is the perception of change. This stuff happens in spurts. Its like any other kind of development: periods of waiting and planning followed by massive spurts of production in shorts amount of time.

We really need to focus on the good communication part while the development team is planning. We can put together good ideas and kick it around and discuss it and put a good plan together. That way when the right times, we can strike with well thought out requests that will enrich our gameplay experience.

In a negative environment, what happens is we all get side tracked in frantic side issues that are way off target and that doesnt serve anyone well. We'll get it done. We just need to keep this a fun and interesting place and in the process create a great game and a great community

*scurries off to finish*

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LeBob wrote:

I agree that it seems that TH is blaming the DE community.......... I don't think it was his intent.......... but as we all know TH is quite proficient(sp?) at being ambiguously cryptic

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