Droid Engineer Archive

Please read on, past the first paragraphs. I took out alot of initial anger, save the need to ackowledge the work of an individual and my perceived source of his frustration. I have added a great deal of constructive ideas which I hope you can think about.

I apologize ahead of time for the repetition of this message on the board, but I wanted to try and put forward a constuctive suggestion and see if this is the kind of thing that correspondants were expecting to be be doing when the volunteered and if the ideas are ones that the devs think will help them with their work.

With some time by devs, this is something which can start productive results over the weekend, even.


Sintrosi, the Droid Enginner Correspondant, a non employee who took up a taxing position without pay per request of you, has basically been snubbed over and over again. Attempts to keep an issue thread results in thread locking. Do you know how hard it is to keep a message on page 1? By the time you hit the send button, you are already down 1/2 the way on the page.

Constructive Criticism: Make use of those who you have selected for correspondant positions and try not to blow them off. Don't want to read the entire DE message board. Guess what : YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO. Have your correspondants do the correlation of data, both issues and options for enhancements, especially in classes where YOU EXPLICITLY ASK THE COMMUNITY FOR SUGGESTIONS. Short handed? Not hiring 32 additional people? Guess what: a large number of talented individuals from the community are eager to help you in any way shape or form they can, but you are totally ignoring them. You have a large number of people who can break down class items, could poll people on relative importance, and present you with concise, constructive data to reduce the message processing load.

We know you are overloaded. We know you cannot watch the boards 24 hours a day. All the same, it is insultive to invite conversation and establish correspondants only to completely ignore them.

My suggestion
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Approach each established correspondant. Make sure they are alive and not burned out. Ask them to do the following:

Examine their own message board. Most of the issues on the main board are also on the class board, if not from misfiling, but desperate attempts to get heard if there were no responses on the class board.

Ignoring flames, spam, crap, generate a list of bugs, issues, and constructive enhancements. Bugs would be anything broken, issues would be balance concerns with existing material within the class or lack of usefulness in existing materials. Constructive enhancements would be well developed concepts on how the class can be improved, noting the difference between 'improve' and 'overpower'. This last correlation, of course, requires a degree of trust in the lack of bias in the correspondant.

For bugs, gather information from the message sources/pms about the details around the bugs to better isolate the issues. In addition, if there are identified workarounds, note them so it can be shared with the community while the bug is being fixed.

For issues, detail the believed imbalance or problems with usefulness. Provide whatever material you can, including dps compared to other combat classes. Not all classes are made equal and the developers are the end say on which class is superior in which forms of combat. Compiling the information, however, allows the devs to determine if the actual game effect meets their expectations and allows for an easier reply if the end design is intentional. For items which lack use (aside from bugs), detail the concerned lack of use based on the messages and offer constructive ideas on improved usefulness. When possible, also try to include comparative information like you would from 'imbalance' to show that you understand its final role in the balance. If the improvements are excessive enough, they should be treated as enhancements.

For enhancements, the more detail, data, and smooth construction the better. Identify top construction concerns and mold them in a fluid method. In example: the droid combat bot line. Given it's state, one may conclude it would qualify for discussion at am enhancement level. A short paragraph is needed, based on the correspondant's expertise or from the message community, detailing the need for enhancement. The new concept should be presented, including details on placement in balance (to save dev's combat number crunching and object analysis time) to show work on maintaining balance.
In example: Droid Combat Robots. Identify where you believe they play a role in the combat tree. The work would involve identifying the different models, their stats, and how they compare to CH creatures, MOBs, and other classes. It would also identify which skills are required for their construction and how the master title affects the construction or selection.
In example: Droid Non-Combat Modules. Identify how you believe robots can play a support role with a revision of modules. Compare exisiting module designs and rational on how they should be altered to support a new line, including usage info or reference to usage info (in example: if the robot chassis were to be redesigned). Compare the new capabilities against player capabilities for any overlap or support. Include, when possible, comparisions to other objects which may provide the same effect. In example: Medical Module bonuses vs other medical bonus items.

For each category the initial pass of the item needs to be established so as to not waste developer time. This can be done by a competant correspondant (especially for simple things) or provided for review to the community for input. In addition, it should be assigned an importance rank, 0 being minimal 9 being highest importance. The correspondant needs to keep in mind that a huge number of 9s will defeat the quality of his input into this process by neutralizing the ranking scheme. His '9' do not compare to other classes '9's and so removes any real importance to his rank. While there will always be people to cry about his ranking, like devs he needs to make some hard choices.


Once the correspondant is satisfied, they post it in their class board. I have seen messages at the top, so perhaps they can lock it in there. Bugs, I can see, possible grouped in 1 thread document, updated each day based on corrections or input from developers (even if it is just a stamped 'still looking into this' to insure against staleness). Based on the number of items, he may want to group items/initially keep out items which would create too much 'visual noise' on the main page of the class board.


With well organized information, the devs have a responsibility to work with the correspondants, keeping a healthy flow of communication even if there is little to report.
The devs only need to talk with the correspondants about the class items if they want, with the correspondant responsible for updating all the information and providing it to the class.

Using this method, you effectively gain an organizer and throttler for each class to reduce the repetition of information and misinformation and to organize material for you. You hand off some responsibility to the community. People will complain about 'we should not have to do this!'. Ignore them. There are many in a focused community who eagerly want to help, otherwise there would be no EQ boards. While handing off some work, you retain always the final say, and the correspondant needs to always remember this; they are not part of the core decision making team: they are a critical interface to help the team do its job properly. It is alot of work, but there are those willing to step up to the plate.


Examples:

Bug: Building Doors Non Functional
Started: After last path 8/19/2003
Affects: visual affect
Importance: 2
Details: After the last patch where objects cannot overlap, the visual door opening effect disappeared. This was reproducable by many different people for different building styles. It does not prevent people from using the buildings, however.
Workaround: None needed since it does not impare the actual use of the building, just the visual effect.
Status: [this is where the correspondant would enter any dev info such as 'investigating']

Issue: T21 Weapon Imbalance
Started: After recent reduction in capability
Affects: Classes x,y,z
Importance: 5
Details: [list details about why it is an imbalance, comparing combat results/calculations in a before/after manner, including comparing other weapons which require a similar rank to obtain]


Enhancement:
Well, hard to say to start. This will probably evolve as useful styles arise.