Image Designer Archive

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SWG-Runesabre wrote:

That concludes today's Q&A session. I have enjoyed my time today in the Image Designer forum and hope you have found the answers I've given informative and helpful.

You should all be proud of your correspondent. Kwee works very hard for you all and has been a wonderful Correspondent to work with and help out with the Image Designer changes.

Nice work, Kwee, your efforts are greatly appreciated!

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Your answers to the stat migration issue were rediculous at best. Why not actually answer the simple question of why you had to remove non-ID stat migration entirely, instead of putting in the faster method and seeing if players responded to it? Speaking as a player, I'd've been happy to hunt down an ID for fast migration every time I got a new weapon and needed to tweak my secondaries, no need to force me. As it stands, you have nerfed the ENTIRE PLAYER BASE OF THIS GAME when you could have added the same ID ability and made people happy at there being a better way.

Congratulations, btw, to the image designers for getting some really cool new content to play with. Sorry it had to come at a price...

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Morwen wrote:
Forced? Hardly.

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Leana_Txorana wrote:

Personally? I will *never* visit an ID in the future if you *force* me to do it

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So you are a Novice Entertainer to heal your own BF and Mind Wounds

[ Idle in cantina. BF heals slowly. ]

You are a Novice Medic to heal your own wounds

[ Idle in medical. Wounds, including mind wounds, heal slowly. ]

You are a Doctor to self-buff

[ Not needed to play. ]

You are a Smuggler to slice your own weapons and armor

[ Not needed to play. ]

Yuo are a Weaponsmith and Armorsmith // or just purchase bone armor and CDEF weapons from bazaar

[ Not needed to play. ]

You are a chef to make your own food

[ Not needed to play. ]

You are a creature handler to train your own mount.

[ Walk. ]

Each of these areas you are FORCED to go to. If you are not an Entertainer YOU CANNOT GET YOUR BF HEALED unless you go to an entertainer. It is now the same for Stat Migration. If you have enough points after being all of the above professions you can now add Novice ID and not be forced to do anything.

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I don't know what game you play? I guess your idea of fun is sitting in the cantina and medical center for an hour in between chuba hunting sessions.

For the record though stat migration is not needed to play either. In fact if you do it right at character creation, there is no reason to ever visit an ID.

The point is though that this is really a fairly minor item that people are blowing out of proportion. The reality is 95% of the players only migrate their stats every blue moon, and with the removal of holo-grinding hardly anyone will have a need to do it, but every once in a while. It will be good that ID can become a viable profession. On the flip side, if ID's don't want to have a functiont that is required by others, well just suck it up. If you don't want to be an ID for everything they do, then don't put your tag on. Same as doctor, armorsmith, dancer, etc.

The change is good for everyone. I think anything that makes the Flavor of the Month templates harder to aquire is good.

Runesabre conveniently skiped from Concern #5 to Concern #7.... Hmmm...

Guess he doesn't want to go there

I think he should have asked the players first if it was a good idea to nerf Stat Migration.

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Leana_Txorana wrote:

Personally? I will *never* visit an ID in the future if you *force* me to do it

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So you are a Novice Entertainer to heal your own BF and Mind Wounds

You are a Novice Medic to heal your own wounds

You are a Doctor to self-buff

You are a Smuggler to slice your own weapons and armor

Yuo are a Weaponsmith and Armorsmith // or just purchase bone armor and CDEF weapons from bazaar

You are a chef to make your own food

You are a creature handler to train your own mount.

Each of these areas you are FORCED to go to. If you are not an Entertainer YOU CANNOT GET YOUR BF HEALED unless you go to an entertainer. It is now the same for Stat Migration. If you have enough points after being all of the above professions you can now add Novice ID and not be forced to do anything.

I PAY you to play the game, I don't PAY you to tell me how I should play.

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I know what you are talking about. When Doom III comes out, they wont force me to search for a BFG, I will get that when I want it so I can play how I want to play. In fact, I want to use the Force while playing Doom III and they know how to make a game. I can do anything I want because they understand I PAY TO PLAY DOOM III.

Interaction should be in encouraged "choice" ... not a "forced march".
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Changing your stats is a choice. Having to get trained to level is not a choice, that is what you need to boycott. Never visit anyone for training since this interaction is being forced on you.

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I wanted to post that I appreciate and approve of the transparency of the devs in describing the reasoning behind their decisions, and hope they continue to do this.SOEis taking a large risk by exposingits decision making processes (and saying candid things like "due to time constraints, we did not look at adding a perk for master image designers"), which I am not convinced everybody here realizes.

Those who are critizing Runesaber whenhe or she isbeing evasive, or does not answer a specific question (for political reasons, or because they really don't know) are not helping and encouraging this behavior. I think it is enough for the devs to answer what they can. I foronewould prefer half an answer to a two-part question than no answer at all. I also think this is a good thing to do, as explaining of the reasoning behind decisions will hopefully allow the player base to provide better suggestions on to how to improve the game, as well as challenge assumptions which the developers might have made.

Thank you for the information, Runesaber.I like to hear the reasoning behind the decisions made (even when I don't agree with them), I appreciate the time and risk SOE is taking to discuss the decisions and vision for the class, and hope that you and the other devs continue this kind of corresponance with the general forum in the future (as opposed to just with the correspondents behind closed doors).

Not everybody is looking at your posts with cynicism and criticism...

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jfang wrote:

I wanted to post that I appreciate and approve of the transparency of the devs in describing the reasoning behind their decisions, and hope they continue to do this.SOEis taking a large risk by exposingits decision making processes (and saying candid things like "due to time constraints, we did not look at adding a perk for master image designers"), which I am not convinced everybody here realizes.

Those who are critizing Runesaber whenhe or she isbeing evasive, or does not answer a specific question (for political reasons, or because they really don't know) are not helping and encouraging this behavior. I think it is enough for the devs to answer what they can. I foronewould prefer half an answer to a two-part question than no answer at all. I also think this is a good thing to do, as explaining of the reasoning behind decisions will hopefully allow the player base to provide better suggestions on to how to improve the game, as well as challenge assumptions which the developers might have made.

Thank you for the information, Runesaber.I like to hear the reasoning behind the decisions made (even when I don't agree with them), I appreciate the time and risk SOE is taking to discuss the decisions and vision for the class, and hope that you and the other devs continue this kind of corresponance with the general forum in the future (as opposed to just with the correspondents behind closed doors).

Not everybody is looking at your posts with cynicism and criticism...

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Great Post, On those very rare few times we are critcal we do it because we care about the game and know few games the players care enough to post and none that has so many players posting.

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jfang wrote:

[snip]

Those who are critizing Runesaber whenhe or she isbeing evasive, or does not answer a specific question (for political reasons, or because they really don't know) are not helping and encouraging this behavior. I think it is enough for the devs to answer what they can. I foronewould prefer half an answer to a two-part question than no answer at all. I also think this is a good thing to do, as explaining of the reasoning behind decisions will hopefully allow the player base to provide better suggestions on to how to improve the game, as well as challenge assumptions which the developers might have made.

I think if they can't answer for whatever reason, say so. Don't just ignore the question. And as far as the partially answered question, what Runesabre posted was an evasion. Not an answer. The same as all of the "we're looking into it" and "wait for the combat balance" answers. I don't have a problem with certain information being unavailable to the public for whatever reason, but I do have a problem with being lied to. SOE has made a commitment to better communications, and further, Runesabre himself posted saying that when a direction was chosen for the Image Designer profession a detailed document would be made available. Neither of these have been honored, and I refuse to roll over and say "Oh, thanks for an evasion…that really cleared things up." All I ask is for consistency—if you say you're going to communicate, do it. Don't expect me to be placated by a half-answer that comes far too late.

As to you last point in this paragraph, I wholeheartedly agree. Which is why I am so upset with Runesabre's inadequate answers and with his timing on the issue. Many of the most upsetting changes presented in this publish had been discussed previously and rejected for various reasons. Despite that fact they are implemented without so much as two days notice before reaching TestCenter. This failure in communication has led to an incredible amount of upset not only within the image designer community, but within the playerbase as a whole. For this I lay the blame as Runesabre's feet, and again, I will not accept a half-assed, day late and dollar short "explanation." This patch has introduced brand new, and quite serious, problems to the profession and I want a clear, straight answer as to why it was done in such a shoddy, ill-conceived manner.

[snip]

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Lunatic Fringer For Possibly "The Last TIme" Posting:

I'm sitting on a letter that states that I can expect orders to report back into the Army for who knows how long. That horrible topic aside though, I'd like topre-pare to sign off of this game with my final thoughts to the playing community.

To me, your messing up this game SOE. The entire beauty of Stat Migration was that it gave us the opportunity to use your beloved and new system of 'switching professions' in such a way that we were able to individually adjust for it ourselves. Now your 'forcing' us to deal with someone else to do it. And your adding things contentwise that just make no sense. Did Emperor Palpatine or Darth Vader go walking around with an Imperial Emblem floating over their head in the movies? No, I don't think so.

This may well be a game, but it's one that deserves to be a little more realistic to the movies and not catering to an internet messenger generation. You either want to play 'Star Wars' or you don't.

Perhaps after deployment, and maybe after you hear from enough of us gamers, you'll figure out that most of us don't want 'forced' enteraction... we have nothing against 'enhanced' enteraction.

My final thoughts, watch Episodes 4-6 again and forget the rest of it... 'That's' what we want to see and play. Peace and May The Force be with all of you throughout these troubled times. Wish me and the other soldiers of the U.S. a safe deployment and a safe return home.

Sincerely,

The Lunatic Fringer

Vreese Sai'nu---Gorath

Jalen' Storm---Chilastra

Roun Parteego---Ahazi

SPC Jacob Allen--- Illinois. To qoute my favorite character, "It's been.... fun!"

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SWG-Runesabre wrote:

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6/ ID = Only Way to Migrate Stats
There is of course much player concern over Image Designers now being the only way to migrate stats (from both players and Image Designers).

a) Why was this decision made?
b) Would you consider slowing down the current method of doing stat migration (a frequently voiced suggestion) to increase incentive to visit an ID instead of removing it completely?

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It has been my goal since taking over as Lead Designer to ensure all professions in SWG provide a vital game function suited for their profession and play style. While I agree the Image Designer profession is an incredibly unique and creative profession, I felt it needed more tie-in with game mechanics so the general playerbase would view the Image Designer as an important profession in the SWG universe like I personally do and not merely a novelty profession that could easily be ignored if one should choose to.

At the same time, I didn't want to turn the Image Designer into yet another class that buffs or crafts items and certainly wasn't going to suddenly force Image Designers to be a necessary group member for PvE or PvP activities. The game mechanic I was looking for needed to be something befitting an Image Designer. I originally was planning on turning them into the Decorator of the Universe and give them the ability to create and place interesting house decorations, paint droids and vehicles and other interior and exterior decoration type functions. It didn't feel right so that idea was scrapped. After thinking a while about it, Stat Migration fit the bill perfectly. Image Designers are all about personal modifications and stat migration fit right into that. It was also something that most players don't do on a frequent basis but still most players probably eventually alter their stats at some point, so it was a great game mechanic to tie the Image Designer into and create a broad market and demand for the Image Designer profession.

Stat Migration was given soley as a function of the Image Designer for much the same reasons as I gave to answer #5; to ensure the goal of the new changes are met and not circumvented from the start by players simply migrating their own stats to avoid having to interact with another player.

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SWG-Runesabre wrote:

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7/ Exp Gain Too Slow
The ID community is very concerned about the current rate of gaining exp. At the very bare bones minimum it would currently take someone roughly 60 hours to master, and that’s under ideal conditions (willing friend to click at perfect intervals for at least 60 hours). Those of us who are casual players and did not make use of mind-altering substances or buffs under the old system know from experience that the ID exp grind is a mind-numbingly-boring carpal-tunnel’s-inducing nightmare. We wanted our profession’s exp gain to be non-trivial, but not torturous. 60 hours or more might be reasonable if the process of getting the exp were fun, but sadly it is not.

a) What is considered a minimum amount of hours a profession should take a casual player to master?
b) How many hours a week is a casual player assumed to play?
c) Is the exp system under consideration for major tweaking?

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I will be evaluating the xp gains over the next few days as the system settles and players have a chance to work with the changes on their own server.

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