Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Breakfast Report
Jenden wrote:
In all fairness about the smuggler revamp, he also said that the new slicing system would be going to live "very soon" as he was almost done coding it, though the actual smuggling quest type content would be a little longer since he started on slicing first.
Well of course, Jenden.
The slicing benefits the combat players, so of course they had to redo the system for the CURB. Those poor combat players wouldn't know what to do if they couldn't have teh ub3r and then get it sliced...I'm sure in six months or so they will throw some generic deliver-style missions to Smugglers and call it "smuggler content".
I'm not even holding my breath for that, though. Two years of promises...and all they have done is make the proffesion WORSE over time by wrecking the few specials it had.
AO
I'm soooo tired from a 11 hour drive back from Indianapolis, but I couldn't resist comming here to see what got posted, and read through the changes from the last 5 days I was at C3.
First of all, Iwould like to mention that the whole quasi -"combat droids certed for non-combatants" was in direct response to a question I possed to them asking about how we should be finding our products more usefull to the general playerbase. It was kindaan interesting responseconsidering they could have said something allong the lines of revamping many of our utility products. *I* see thisimplemented moreas a inverse-relationship to the "combat level" you achieve in the CU. Meaning: if you are a lvl 1 -non-combatant, you are certified for a level 55 combat droid (notice this doesn't infringe on CH's use of a lvl 70 pet). However, as your combat level increases, you become "less-certified" for using a combat droid (because, at that point the droid is getting in your way).
In addition, there were MANY smugglers at the breakfast. The way GM spoke about thier "revamp" was like he was talking about a existing implementation on a "sandbox" server they have in the office. I definitly got the impression that work had been done on both the slicing and "smuggling" (of spice) gameplay parts very similar to what was described in the "in-concept documents." One of my friends said to me afterwards that they got the impression that he was "hell bent on fixing the smuggler profession even if it killed him."
As far as we're concerned, that was pretty much all that got covered. The only other thing that Jenden didn't mention was that I managed to corner Julio Torres after the breakfast with some of my main concerns with the CU and hybrid-"com/non-com's." I put forth a couple situations where the hybrid would be dragging the group down due to what I call "babysitting." We also had a small discussion on the damage multiplier vs. higher level creatures. So we'll see how things go over the next week or so....
Handsnake wrote:Did they explain why they shoved the level system on top of the skill/profession system? It wasn't in the original released info of the CU and I truly doubt it was ever in the original design docs either.Did they say what prompted the quick-n-dirty slap-a-level-system-on-it HACK of the CU (money or time)? Did they in any way confirm that they borrowed EQII devs with no experience in SWG or packaged quest code?Did anyone there mention how if they change it to a level system, that equipment (crafted stuff) won't matter at all if you're fighting someone 5 levels lower than you? That you can kill them with a cdef pistol if they're wearing full armor and wielding a legendary T21? Tell me someone tried to explain to them the implications in full, please.I can't believe they are just brushing off the fact that all pure crafters are going to be one-shotted by low end mobs on starter planets.Message Edited by Handsnake on 04-24-2005 01:05 PM
My guess (and this is just a guess) is that things got rushed because LA said it had to be out by the 5th. Adding damage multipliers to the existing levels was the only way they could get things balanced in time on the combat side of things (I imagine the profession system is a complete nightmare to balance), but that obviously isn't working out so well for non-combat.
As far as "borrowing" EQ2 devs, I highly doubt that. They already have as big a team as they can really use on something like the CU, borrowing more devs would have just meant some people would be sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
/bow
Straker_Atrella wrote:
Blistex just made a comment on the Tailor forums about the difficulties of crafters in the wild being looked at.
What I'd take from this is that a 'solution' would be some time coming.
"Looked at" = 'haven't-even-started-coding-a-solution-yet'.
Anyone here in the IT/development area knows (basically) what "we're looking at it" means, in terms of a timetable.
It's not like we'll see them rush in another whole profession or anything. If anything, probably change pet/droid certs to scale differently for non-comm toons.
So at least we have more reason to think it is being looked at. He said there were a few solutions on the table.
Interesting. I wonder why we don't know what they are...(well, maybe J. does but he's gotta keep his yapper sealed to us about us things).
I am glad they are looking at it, I jsut don't understand why it took so long for them to acknowledge there was a problem.
Probably because they had much bigger fish to fry.
Respectfully,
Message Edited by TheRealTK421 on 04-25-2005 08:00 AM
TheRealTK421 wrote:/bow
Straker_Atrella wrote:Blistex just made a comment on the Tailor forums about the difficulties of crafters in the wild being looked at.
What I'd take from this is that a 'solution' would be some time coming.
"Looked at" = 'haven't-even-started-coding-a-solution-yet.
Anyone here in the IT/development area knows (basically) what "we're looking at it" means, in terms of a timetable.
It's not like we'll see them rush in another whole profession or anything. If anything, probably change pet/droid certs to scale differently for non-comm toons.
So at least we have more reason to think it is being looked at. He said there were a few solutions on the table.
Interesting. I wonder why we don't know what they are...(well, maybe J. does but he's gotta keep his yapper sealed to us about us things).I am glad they are looking at it, I jsut don't understand why it took so long for them to acknowledge there was a problem.
Probably because they had much bigger fish to fry.
Respectfully,
Well, we do know what one of them was, that was the combat droid cert thing they tossed out.
X = 'regular' CL level system (for hybrids & and pure combatants)
Y = 'non-comm' CL boost
Then they can set the numbers for pet/droid use separately for PvE and PvP.
I know I'm simplifying the fix, but I suspect it might well be something similar to that above.
I wish that it could be something much more immersive, elegant and 'Star-Warsy' but...
/shrug
/bow
Respectfully,
Jenden wrote:
TheRealTK421 wrote:
/bow
Straker_Atrella wrote:
Blistex just made a comment on the Tailor forums about the difficulties of crafters in the wild being looked at.
What I'd take from this is that a 'solution' would be some time coming.
"Looked at" = 'haven't-even-started-coding-a-solution-yet.
Anyone here in the IT/development area knows (basically) what "we're looking at it" means, in terms of a timetable.
It's not like we'll see them rush in another whole profession or anything. If anything, probably change pet/droid certs to scale differently for non-comm toons.
So at least we have more reason to think it is being looked at. He said there were a few solutions on the table.
Interesting. I wonder why we don't know what they are...(well, maybe J. does but he's gotta keep his yapper sealed to us about us things).
Respectfully,
Well, we do know what one of them was, that was the combat droid cert thing they tossed out.
May as well have Non-Combatant ---> Combat Prof free respec on the table as well as considering 250 combat skill points/250 crafter skill points for everyone.
TheRealTK421 wrote:Yea...I assumed some sort of pet/droid CL level tweak is the likely short-term fix.
X = 'regular' CL level system (for hybrids & and pure combatants)
Y = 'non-comm' CL boostTweak: 'If %TU_combat_professions = 0, then %TU CL = X + Y"
Then they can set the numbers for pet/droid use separately for PvE and PvP.
I know I'm simplifying the fix, but I suspect it might well be something similar to that above.
I wish that it could be something much more immersive, elegant and 'Star-Warsy' but...
/shrug
/bow
Respectfully,
As do I, but we need something fast.
Handsnake wrote:May as well have Non-Combatant ---> Combat Prof free respec on the table as well as considering 250 combat skill points/250 crafter skill points for everyone.
A redesign of the skill point balance would probably take more work. I thought maybe a partial split of the skillpoints might be nice... 50 crafting skill points, 50 combat skill points, 200 anything skill points..... something like that would be nice, but it would raise the problem of where do you draw the line with crafters... is it anything artisan? what about entertainers? or BE?
There are a lot of balance issues with tweaking the skill points to allow crafters to pick up some combat skills to beef them up in the new system. Not to mention the damage to crafter/combatant interdependability, which is something we, as crafters, definately want.
Jenden wrote:
As do I, but we need something fast.