Image Designer Archive
Thread: Runesabre's questions, all ID's please voice your thoughts
What could we do that would make us an integral part of SWG while keeping our unique playstyle, and would not be reliant on crafting or buffing?
Please share all of your ideas. Brainstorming is about building off of each other's thoughts no matter how crazy. This is not the time to be timid. Sure your ideas might get shot down, but they might spark or inspire better ones. And we might be able to work out something VERY cool together. Think beyond what we have discussed so far, Runesabre and Thunderheart have already seenour current wish listsand they're asking for somethingmore. That doesn't mean our other wish list items are out the window, not at all. They just really want to nail down a way to make us a part of SWG and not our own little game within the game. And they are asking for OUR input.
Here are Runesabre's questions:
Message Edited by SWG-Runesabre on 02-15-2004 06:34 PM
Message Edited by Kwee on 02-15-2004 09:28 PM
A2) I know almost nothing about the play style of ID's. What I do know is that for and ID to change my appearance, I need to meet the ID. Face to face meetings would thus be a play style (as opposed to the craft-and-put-up-for-sale-on-vendor play style). Speeding up stat migration should require a face to face metting where the ID grants increased stat migration speed, a change that lasts for a number of hours dependent on the skill of the ID.
There is a programming challenge to this proposition, though. If I had written the stat migration code it is likely that I would have introduced a constant (or variable) that defined the number of ticks between each one-point stat change. I would not have made this tick interval unique to each character, but rather a global. Implementing differentiated stat migration speeds would require this variable to be character specific, or require the introduction of a "stat change size" variable that could be set to 1 (for normal stat migration) or 3-4 (for ID introduced stat migration) on a per-character basis, as well as a control mechanism to determine when ID introduced stat migration ends.
B1) I also thought about ID's being able to grant limited buffs to the health- and action secondary statistics, i.e. Strength, Constitution, Quickness and Stamina. Such buffs could perhaps be randomized on a normal curve around 20+/-7.5 points per skill box in the ID tree (statistically: mean 360 for master with a standard deviation of 7.5 points per skill box, i.e. SD 135 for master), giving an average Master ID buff of 360 points, with a maximum of 495 points and a minimum of 225 points. The ability for newbie ID's to buff makes ID interesting a an earlier stage.
B2) These buffs should not stack with doctor buffs, or it would cause balance problems. Let the applying of the buffs take 1 minute for a full set with a 1 hour duration and 2 minutes for a full set lasting two hours -- faster than the dancer and musician buffs, but not immediate. While this is just a weak duplicate of doctor buffs, it would engourage ID's to stick around in one place for a longer time, making them easier for other people to find as well as giving them more business. Preferably it should be possible to get both ID, dancer and musician buffs at the same time. One could introduce an action drain similar to the one for musicians and dancers during the buffing. The value of secondary stat buffs will probably be greater after patch 7, making these a cheap and worthwhile buffing method, especially for new characters.
3) Requiring people to come back to touch up on their appearance is in my opinion not a good idea. It is harde enough to find an ID as it is and I already think that the droid customization fading is a bother. I am not satisfied with the way I initially made my char and being penalized for this by having to re-visit an ID every week would not be fun. Making changes to appearance happen over time is a good idea, though. One does not go from obese to muscular in a second, it takes time. The change could work like stat migration, happening gradually. I still think the effect be permanent (until changed again by an ID), though.
Phew.
--Leshyn
1) What critical function can Image Designers perform in SWG? Someone above mentioned speeding up stat migration and i would be all for that. Stat migration is the only thing that cant currently be sped up and would truly give something unique and functional to SWG while not making us soley just another combat support class (SOMETHING I DONT WANT), all classes can benefit from rapid stat migration. How to implement this? I dont really know, maybe a massage function that would make us more useful in cantinas?
2) How canyou and I accomplish adding this function while preserving the unique playstyle of the Image Designer? Just put it in and dont take anything away from us that we already have WHILE still adding new art.
And I'd like to throw one more in of my own:
3) About the idea of say food making people plumpy (just to have an example)...what if it only affected weight and happened slowly over time? So people would need to come in for a touchup now and then rather than daily? That would not make them avoid food, and they would be likely to ask for other changes while already at our salons for some personal training, thoughts? No. Let me make myself more clear HELL NO. I already get flooded with requests for image designs on top of requests for other things, why add this hassle? This is not a critical function and would only serve as an annoyance. There arent tons of Master Image Designers running around. We already have plenty of customers, we just need more things to give them (styles, colors, etc.).
I would now like to address something Runesabre said- "The Image Design profession tends to be a rather art and programmer intensive profession in order to be done properly; it's much easier to convince the powers that be to spend resources on a profession that is considered an integral part of SWG and not simply an interesting diversion to the rest of the game." This is a roleplaying game. As an image designer its possible for me to spend an hour or more on one client just so they can get "the look". Image Designers allow players in this game a chance to look like they want, they get to be unique. The look of an avatar IS integral to SWG, how could you imply otherwise? That quote from you Reunesabre is borderline offensive (easy tifer, i said borderline). I did not spend all those skill points on a waste of time.
Give our profession a breath of fresh air just like you gave to Artisans with vehicles, NEW CONTENT. If you can add vehicles to the game, you CAN give us new hairstyles. If you can add vehicle coloring kits (yet another "interesting diversion" you CAN add more colors.
Message Edited by Sir_Voor on 02-16-2004 09:45 AM
Kwee wrote:
Note that not all Image Designers are basking in being overwhelmed with requests from customers. The reason we have been asking for new contentis that many have been seeing decreases in customers seeking them out.Demand will vary with server size and age, your location, and level of ID skill. Not all Image Designers hang out at big city starports or are established enough/play often enough to have a steady customer base. What might be annoying to a busy Image Designer is a needed and welcome boon in business for another.
A good point Kwee. I tend to be a pessimist about things.
I have a house west of Theed and rarely ever leave it. There is a steady stream of traffic going from my house to theed (and sometimes back again). I just wear my title and i get business. There were several threads not too long ago from very prominent members of this community BEGGING for an anonymous feature so they wouldnt get hounded by tells. Many people want the ability tohide badges so that people cant /examine and see that they are Master ID's. Now with all the Jedi popping up, business has almost doubled.
I ses your point tho, but the same example can be applied to almost any profession. Being a Master Image Designer/Weaponsmith/Armorsmith/Rifleman doesnt make you sucessful by having the title alone. Should every other profession be given some mundane task to make the less successful members of that community see an increase in customers?
If the rest of the community is for this weight gain thing, there's nothing i can do about it. But im stating now (and in every other thread when this topic comes up) that im against it. Its not going to make me quit ID or anything silly like that, but im a member of this community and im trying to be heard
People are very particular about their looks.... those that use the services of an id to begin with. But then i look at naked people running around because they dont like decay and i wonder if those people (that just dont care) would start to care about weight gain. I wonder if those people would just get fat and deal with it. They havent used the services of an ID before, so why start now? They dont even wear pants! 
I also would like plastic surgery to remove my burns too!One thing that would be better, rather than having weight gain be based on how much food you eat, allow the game to clock how many times the food bar reaches full. The more it occurs, the fatter you get. That way you wont starve to death but you'll remain healthy.
MarinhaTiga wrote:
If the rest of the community is for this weight gain thing, there's nothing i can do about it. But im stating now (and in every other thread when this topic comes up) that im against it. Its not going to make me quit ID or anything silly like that, but im a member of this community and im trying to be heard
1) Critical function. There are 2: Aesthetics and possibly new functionality.
Our Aesthetics leave something to be desired because there is nothing "new" we can do except a few hairdos. More content will lead to more business.
Disguise would also fit into our motif of changing the appearance. Kits that will prevent detection by npc's could prove to be a valualbe product
2) fitting with playstyle
Aesthetics: More permanent content will lead to renewable income. However, forcing people to renew changes will not increase business.
Notice what has happened with the vehicles: people are not buying new colorization kits. They just stop colorizing their vehicles, because the hassle outweighs the benefit. The renewable income idea has not come to fruition.
The same goes for ID changes. If a change requires constant touch-ups (whether by an image designer him/herself or by a kit) people will eventually get bored touching things up and just stop caring, because the hassle outweighs the benefit. If people are forced into ID changes by doing excessive spice, etc, they will become resentful at the change (see it as a nerf). They may cease to care about their appearance because correcting it is more of a hassle than just running around ugly. This sort of thing may affect the spice business because people who care about appearance may not use spice anymore, because they don't want to track down an ID either to fix them up or to sell them a kit.
Permanent new content will create demand and renewable income. If there are many desirable hairdos, people will want to change theirs often (as opposed to now, when there are 2 or 3 desirable hairdos). If there are many desirable hair colors andtattoo patterns, they will also be changed often.
You will catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Instead of the stick of "if you don't visit an ID you'll look ugly" let's offer the carrot of the new and exciting changes. The customer's desire for change is what will bring in repeat business.
Aesthetics II: We didn't sign on to this to decorate the world
Many of us, myself included, feel that it would be inappropriate to expand our role to interior design or colorization of crafted products. We are masters of the physical form, not anything else. One profession's boon is another profession's nerf. Let the architects do the interior design. They would not appreciate us taking that away from them.
Aesthetics III: Expertise matters, so let us do our job by interacting with customers and using our judgment.
Don't change our interface to let the customer use us as a character creation tool. Don't reduce us to a crafting profession and take away our ability to make changes according to our judgment.
A little story: a customer of mine became a master ID for a holocron. He played around with himself. And, of course, now he contacts me. He's distraught. He says he looks like crap and he can't get himself back to looking good. He's amaster image designer and he wants me to fix him up.
Lesson: the customer shouldn't be the one making the changes. If he had done a good job at character creation when he was totally in charge of the changes, he wouldn't be at my salon in the first place.
If you put the customer in total control of his appearance, whether by an interface or by craftables, you lose our expertise in the process.
- we don't have to run off to help someone who is having a stormtrooper emergency
- it would separate the functional from the aesthetic, and preserve the uniqueness of our face-to-face salon encounters
- it would separate it such that image designers would have the option of not making craftables and simply saying "I don't do that." Image designers would have the option of not entering that market, just as tailors have the option of not entering the BE market.
- Making these things craftable would put a "value" on them, and would provide respect for our profession from fighter types.
In terms of TEF's - I didn't sign on to this to get shot at. Many of us didn't. If we get a TEF for performing a service, many of us won't do it.
Once again n'Jessi basically wrote my post for me! She always seems to do that!