Image Designer Archive
Thread: Image Designers: 10 Answers
It means a lot to us, and speaks volumes of your commitment to the players. Image Designer is another “brand new” player activity. It has never really existed in online play before and represents “new ground” in terms of game development. Its tougher to develop. As far as seeing benefits as “Entertainer” or “Image Designer” benefits per se, I reject that notion. SWG professions are not meant to be played is “Im a this and not that” or “Im a Warrior and not a Cleric”. SWG professions are meant to be mix and match. Pick what you want. The issue of content is difficult though it is a player issue. We want to make it easier for ID players to be able to do what they do best. We also have plans to beef up the profession in the very near future.
That’s 3 questions =P
3. Many professions in SWG require interactions with other professions to gain the best benefit. ID is currently not dependent on any other professions nor are any professions reliant on ID—is there any intent to change that, and if so how?
I don’t know. It’s a good question. What kind of involvement would you like to see? (Keep in mind “Disguise” is a tricky issue. If ID’s could “disguise” players visually that is one thing, but there is the challenge of giving griefers a tool to be mean and then hide their identity…)
We’d also like to be able to provide buffs not available through other means. We actually had discussed some of the buffs recently given to chefs as possible ID buffs.
I don’t think the SWG team would be against it for sure. They are always eager to add “crafting consumables” to the game. One thing I would ask in return is, “Crafting is a particular playstyle. Do you think you would want crafting to be added to the ID profession?”
Yes actually. That’s come up from both Merchants and ID’s and I am pursuing it.
Tatoos covered up?
NEVER...well..if I had a Imperial logoo tattooed on my biceps or chest, I surely would be proud of it, and show them in various moments....Altho, the biceps would be the one shown the most,,as I'm an avid Tee fan
I did ID for fun and Holo -
Why not add a player city structure like a hospital or cantina - Where we can find a Master ID - The sole purpose I see for ID is to help people get a new look or fix a look you dont like.
Add the following:
1. Player stucture
2. Adjust armor and wearables to look a certain way or fit better - Ya may make crafters upset
3. Add concel - like a mild face surgery to hide from player bounties - Like 20% chance to evade IMP Crackdown or Bounty Hunters
4. Add a fade like the Colors on Bots - So you have to keep going back - Example You go from 4 ft tall and fat to 6ft tall and BUFF - You need to hit the gym to keep it stable
5. Player tattoos - You know flaming Jedi swords across you back
6. Craftables - Hair color - use it like Spice - but lasts longer or Dye for wearables
7. Special outfits like ---- IMP uniforms PA Uniforms Rebel Uniforms - The ID buys items from crafter and they make them all look the same - Like fasion designer
8. Reduce the Grind aspect of it - Without grinding you would take a year or more to find the people to skill up on to reach master.
9. Make a better preview - One where the client can see as you work and say yes....Took me over an hour on one person - I needed the exp or I would have asked him to hit the bricks.
10. More looks to change.
Is it me or does TH's post not answer much in a specific way? What I see him saying is ,,that he doesnt really understand our profession, hasnt ever played a id and might if he has time try to learn some skills. If this is true, I would think that only after being a master for2-3 months or so, would he finally truly understand how shallow this profession is. From what I understand therearen't any changes coming soon and the only change that might even be on the horizon is the idea of imaging a vendor..woot how fun and interactive that will be,,,NOT!!
The specific comment I disagree with is the one regarding mix and match,,,that's true to a degree but by allocating points to master id, you essentially gimp your character as a truly effective combat type and mix and match is being specifically reduced as a template with the new concept of damage mitigation. So once you enter a social profession such as id or entertainer, you either have to go 100% crafter or you have a template that is only partially effective in combat. My point is that you really cant be a id / bh,,nor can you be a very good CH and its even more true since they are limiting dabbling now. Either way, there really is no content at all for the id profession specifically ,,not one bit!!
So I guess whatI am saying is,,,Arent these answers mostly political and not really of any substantial value ,,I dont see anything in his answers that would even suggest they have really started doing anything about enhancing our profession ,,plus they dont seem to even want to tackle the hair bug problem,,,
Or am I just not understanding what he really meant to say,,,??
5) I want a timeframe on this. Pursuing it before or after combat changes?
9) I realize that programming is difficult, and that bugs are difficult to fix, but this answer doesn't explain whether anyone is even assigned to fix our bugs, and what progress, if any, is being made. I feel like this is on the back burner.
10) I remember hearing months ago (from Rilawyn?)that wacky hair colors were in the works. Now it's too difficult? I was under the impression that colors were going to be the first items pushed through because they are relatively easy.
In general, I get the impression from this that the devs think that ID is ok, and it's working as intended, and don't see any reason to give new contentto ID. Yes, our changes are mostly art, and have to go through the art department, but I hardly see that as a bottleneck. It's the nature of an aesthetic profession that we give the art department more work than a combat profession.
- We're tired of being a proxy for character creation.
- We're fed up with our job being to correct mistakes, rather than to do new, creative things.
- We're tired of bugs, particularly when these things can be done in character creation - why should character creation have an edge over an image designer?
- We're tired of being put on the back burner because we don't affect game mechanics.
- We're frustrated because we don't know whether the bugs are being worked on, even, or if anyone is bothering to try.
New hairdos are not enough. We want more. And the fact that there are currently no plans to address any of our top 5 wishlist items, 6 months after release, 2 "state of the profession"s latermakes us feel like this is not a real profession at all. We've been asking for these things for months!! Tell me, please, that one person in the art department has been working on hair color, or anything related to our profession. Because otherwise it means that we have been yapping and yammering and compiling on this board for months, only to have our correspondent report tirelessly on the correspondent boards, and it's come to.... nothing?
If you asked any image designer what he or she wants: the top two would be 1) new content which is not available at character creation and 2) bug fixes. And neither seems to be in the works for us.
Ok. I will try posting this with no special formatting and no quoting to see if it gets through. This is a response to Thunderheart's response to question 1.
The mix and match idea is a nice one and it make the game more fun, but what you really should say is "I am a cleric but I better be a warrior too if I want to participate in most of this game." Why is it that in order to have access to any new content in this game I have to become an elite fighter class? I find most fighting boring (and yes I have tried it). Right now I play a tailor and an image designer, but in order to get things like some of the upcoming lootable schematics I need to be able to kill things and loot them! Something tells me that a nightsister is not going to hand over this stuff if I promise them a pretty dress and a dye job. Yes, I know that I can wait for a commando or someone to kill things and bring me this new content, but I want to *participate* and do it in a playstyle that I enjoy. I don't want to gimp parts of my characters that I like to become an elite class fighter to get the new content and I don't want to have to sit in the background of the game and look pretty until someone kindly brings it to me.
Thunderheart,
The main problem I see with ID is that we have little if any repeat customers, once a player is happy with there look it's unlikely we will see them again. So adding stuff like vendor IDs and more hairstyles is great and will make a lot of players happy, and ID building and better UI, also will help and is greatly needed. But it does not fix IDing long term need for repeat bussness. Temporary ID's and crafted goods would be the best bet for repeat bussness. The problem is buffs are becoming over done and each profession is competeing with other, and don't see adding anther to the list of buffers as the anwser.
Temporary ID's for Parties (IDs that last only 24hrs or until canceled by customer also comes in wild colors and designs) and Disguise IDs (IDs that would hide your faction standing, and/or maybe betied to a mission) would give us the repeat bussness IDing needs to be a true active profession.
One thing to keep in mind is that one of the goals of SWG is to tap into the un-tapped female gamer market, and overlooking ID's importance because it's not currently the customer's big draw would not be best for the long term goals.
Thanks for your time.
P.S. When Hairstyles are talked about that includes stuff like Trandoshan ridge colors, Zabrak hair/horns, lekuus, etc, etc.