Image Designer Archive
Thread: My 2 Cents on the wonderful id timer :)
Just a note, it took us MID's that began at or around launch and did the grinding thinga loooong time to master ID (3wks to 3mo), which is why we have so much sympathy for those trying to master under the new system
Drygo wrote:
So, some people didn't want others to be able to master ID in such a short period of time (even tho, they did it themselves!), and I realize that appears to be a minority of people.
Even among those MID's that were able to powergrind in a few hours with the later benefits of macros, spice, and buffs, many are concerned about the profession dwindling in numbers if the current exp system remains in place.I have great respect for anybody that did ID from the beginning of SWG. I think they should be proud of being a part of this from the beginning. I, unfortunately, did not start the game that early. I don't think that many of those folks, though, are at all empathetic. My impression is that since the "old-timers" had to suffer so should we. I'd think that they wouldn't want us to go through what they did but I honestly see a lot of "quit whinning" and "suck it up, *we* really had it bad".
I think that most of the recent changes directly address issues that IDs, old and new, had about the profession but that the timers fail to address the respect-via-a-longer-climb-to-the-top issue. It certainly does put a stop to the hologrinding but I think it has brought with it more problems than it solves. Unfortunatley, without the support of the current Master's, I don't think this issue is going to chane for the benefit of the newer folks at all and the whole thing is really making me rethink my desicion to come back to ID.
Whew, I'm getting tired I reading my own writing (ha, and I'm sure some of you are too)... I think I need to stop posting or reading about this stuff for a few days! 
Kwee wrote:
Just a note, it took us MID's that began at or around launch and did the grinding thinga loooong time to master ID (3wks to 3mo), which is why we have so much sympathy for those trying to master under the new system
There are some of us in the middle too. It took me a few weeks to become a MID,but all that was really available was spice. You would get a small buff for a few minutes to grind, and then have a few minutes down time. When they added mind buffs and especially brandy, people could make the most mind intensive changes possible as fast as they wanted and regain all their mind immediately. Suddenly you could master in just a few hours. I think that a minority of us career IDs did it that way, though. Most of us were around before then. I really feel bad for people who are trying to master right now. It is close to impossible, but I know that it *will* change. It pretty much has to. I just hope that it doesn't swing completely in the other direction again and there is a balanced way to gain XP.
One of my problems (and the one that has put me into semi-retirement for awhile until things calm down) is that every time I log on, everyone wants stat migration! This is not what I became an image designer for! I thought that the idea was not to change the nature of the image design profession and not make us just another set of buff-bots! Well, it seems to me the nature *has* changed and people are constantly asking us for their stat migration "buffs" before and after battles and hunts. To make it worse, we are tied down to those tents in order to do our new primary function! It seems to me that one way to fix a lot of problems would be to limit the number of stat migrations someone can have to a few times a day (to prevent too much grinding) and make stat migration give a lot of XP! Then maybe novices will have a motivation to do cheaper stat migration for all the extra XP, people who want their stats migrated will have a motivation to seek non-masters and the entire workload will be more distributed amoung image designers so that some of us have more time to do th ID that we all *really* like to do.
See, this is a problem I see cropping up more and more. The devs instituted and all encompassing afk macro system into the game. Now, they, as well as many of the "purists" (of which I am one), have decided they don't like the effects of this all encompassing afk macro system. So, they continuously put in nerfs, such as the most recent ID timer to try to curb the quickness of the afk macro system that they instituted. When, what they should be doing is taking away some of the afk macro abilities. I'm not saying get rid of macros, because they can be quite useful at times, even among the purists. But, the new ID window should not be allowed to macro. I'm not sure if it is or not because I'm not really an expert at macros. But, that would have simply been enough. Require at the keyboard gameplay and most of the afk overnight grinding stops. But, no, instead, they decide to go with the timer, which is way too long. Instead of requiring at the keyboard buffing among master dancers and musicians, they make a minimum buffing time and make it so dancers and musicians can't buff at the same time.
The devs made this afk macro system which allows both fast levelling, and afk services such as buffing. They decided they don't like it. So, instead of mandating at the keyboard play for certain things, they decide to increase the amount of time sinks, thereby making gameplay even less enjoyable. Poor decision making, if you ask me.
The solution the devs should have taken is the xp granted for grinding ID so it would be nearly equal an accomplishment as the other professions which is all us ID's asked for, the timer has a root word in that is also in the word "timesink" Seriously it doesnt bother me much I dont use ID for customers I use it on myslef only for quick changes and it sucks to have to have a timer when Im roleplaying that my character is shapeshifting on the fly to escape some rebel commandos, but I have to ask them to stop and wait 5 minutes now and chat with them about the social politics behind their cause, so in a sense Im fighting the war on a more peaceful front now.
*a crowd member places a flower in the end of a bothan's blaster barrel that doesnt go away for 5 minutes*
*quoting the guy who quoted me on page 1 who talked in all caps*
lmao you are so far from the truth. I been playing since the day after launch (first day the registration servers were too crowded) and I have been trying for ID and TKA since then and ID was my first profession mastered which was about three weeks ago. Im still just a Novice TKA with no TKA boxes yet, and a novice musician. I spend almost all of my time roleplaying and socializing, but I am not one of those ice cream or brandy grinders. I grinded on myself in my house every single night before going to bed and occaisonally I dropped by Coronet Cantina and visited my friend Paaweh and I varied between dancing, playing music and doing ID. I never once used that mind spice cause I seen someone else use it and didnt like the whole downtime thing plus it would be OOC for my character to use any drugs,he hates them. I only used the brandy and ice cream to grind Body IV and I already had markings IV, Facial IV, and Hairstyling IV...that was my last box and I didnt even know about that stuff my PA Leader and Politician of our city gave me the brnady and told me about it.
I do think it is horrible that anyone should have to go through this now. If this feature was in since the get-go, Me who took over 6 months to master his first profession, being Image Designer, would still be a novice ID...if that.
Message Edited by CM_Ronin on 05-19-2004 04:47 PM
xspi wrote:YOU DONT MIND IT CAUSE YOU DONT HAVE TO SUFFER 60 HOURS OF YOUR TIME BECAUSE YOU LIKLEY WERE ONE WHO GOT IT IN 30 MINUTES.. OF COURSE A MASTER IS HAPPY.. A BIT OBVIOUS I WOULD SAY.. and SOON FOR MASTER NO TIMER.. ITS JUST PATHETIC... YOU STAY HAPPY BUT LETS SEE YOU DROP IT AND START NOVICE LOL!
Pfft. It took me 2 weeks to get through ID. I had a partner and muon gold. No macro.
I hate the timer.
Istov wrote:
I like this timer because it gives me time to help the customers on other stuff, but now ID ( if I did the math right) takes almost as long to grind as armorsmith and thats just creepysince I grew up hearing Oh ID is so easy to master... Blah blah blah... But 4 mins just to take half a click of wait seems kinda riduculos.
Armorsmith takes 8-16 hours to grind from novice to master depending on which route you take.
Image Designer takes 60 -120 hours to grind from novice to master depending on which route you take.
I don't think "almost" was the word you intended to use.
Yes, armorsmith can be done quickly, but they dont even want that to be done as fast as it is currently possible. I think that because of all of the hologrinding that the timer was put in. without grinders this would have never been an issue. I guess we can hope that in the future the timer will be lowered because there will be no need to grind.
MutantSquirrel wrote:
Armorsmith takes 8-16 hours to grind from novice to master depending on which route you take.
Image Designer takes 60 -120 hours to grind from novice to master depending on which route you take.
I don't think "almost" was the word you intended to use.
Well what difference does it really make now that they are removing hologrinding?
MMRadiation wrote:
Yes, armorsmith can be done quickly, but they dont even want that to be done as fast as it is currently possible. I think that because of all of the hologrinding that the timer was put in. without grinders this would have never been an issue. I guess we can hope that in the future the timer will be lowered because there will be no need to grind.
MutantSquirrel wrote:
Armorsmith takes 8-16 hours to grind from novice to master depending on which route you take.
Image Designer takes 60 -120 hours to grind from novice to master depending on which route you take.
I don't think "almost" was the word you intended to use.
Message Edited by MutantSquirrel on 05-20-2004 04:16 AM