CUEmu - Thread Posts

Ufgood-Zep

Wed May 12, 2004 2:45 pm

SWG-Runesabre wrote:
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?
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.

Point taken but the biggest problem you have is the 10 minute wait that the ID has to sit around for while not being able to help any other customer. Because of the forced 10 minute wait you annoy the customer that has to sit there, you annoy the ID that is kept from doing anything else for 10 minutes and you drive up the price for such a basic ability that everyone has had the ability to do because the ID cant afford to sit there and charge 5k to wait around for 10 minutes.

"You wana paly with fire, be my quest." - Hakan
*sig edited by admin*
Received Badge For: "Master of all things obvious"

AudioOrgana

Wed May 12, 2004 2:48 pm

#93

SWG-Runesabre wrote:

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.

I think you guys have taken care of this by giving IDers such a valuable tool in speed.

Isn't it better to make people want to visit an ID than to make them visit an ID?

Doesn't that make the social interaction that is your goal much more authentic when it's not forced with an iron fist?

I really think you guys had such a great idea in ID's doing instant-migration that it's desirable enough without taking out the very slow personal stat-migration mini-game.

AO

Kwee

Wed May 12, 2004 2:58 pm

#94

We could have been the Decorators of the Universe?

*weeps*

PS. That was my vision for ID's back in beta

I wanted it soooo badly. I spend 1/3 of my time in game decorating my home or buying decorations for it

Message Edited by Kwee on 05-12-2004 05:59 PM

Kwee Glitterwing of Starsider
Ex Image Designer Correspondent ~ Elder Tailor
& Kwee-kwee ~ Master Image Designer
Gamer Girl Columnist ~ swg.warcry.com
Ivory & Topaz of TC ~ Elder Dancers, IDs, Musicians

Syzygy-Gorath

Wed May 12, 2004 2:59 pm

#95

SWG-Runesabre wrote:

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?

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.

Suited to our play style. And yet, when we protest loudly that forcing us into static cities would radically change our play style you turn a deaf ear. When we tell you that we (justifiably) fear a backlash from other players when they discover we're their only means of migrating stats, and that that backlash would negatively impact our play style you turn a deaf ear. When we tell you that the timers are rediculously overlong for many, if not most, of our sessions you turn a deaf ear.

At what point in time did you do anything with these "bonuses" that fits our play style? To continue beating the dead horse to a pulp, if you wanted to inplement changes that fit with our play style you should have inquired about our play style—or maybe you should have listened to poor, overworked, underapreciated Kwee when she relayed our wishes. The fact is, you had no interest in our playstyle or you wouldn't have done anything involving stat migration or timers. But you did. Because you either didn't ask, or you didn't listen to the answer. Bravo.

Message Edited by Syzygy-Gorath on 05-12-2004 06:23 PM

œ Slone Varnillian œ Eicia Obai œ Panda-Sy œMost of the universe's problems can be solved by the application of a brick to the side of the right head.The problem is if you don't have a big enough brick or can't find the right head. The devil is in the details.œ Galena Varnillian œ Ammon œ Gwrtheyrn œ

Ufgood-Zep

Wed May 12, 2004 3:03 pm

#96

Kwee wrote:
We could have been the Decorators of the Universe?
*weeps*
PS. That was my vision for ID's back in beta I wanted it soooo badly. I spend 1/3 of my time in game decorating my home or buying decorations for it
Message Edited by Kwee on 05-12-2004 05:59 PM

Honestly I think that would be a damn good idea and still would of given ID's a damn nice perk if done right.

"You wana paly with fire, be my quest." - Hakan
*sig edited by admin*
Received Badge For: "Master of all things obvious"

wf

Wed May 12, 2004 3:08 pm

#97

SWG-Runesabre wrote:
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.

Your error is in assuming that there's something wrong with a "novelty profession".

Is it good for every player to have a vital mechanical function? Yes. But guess what?

We all have enough skill points for multiple professions.

- wf

SWG-Runesabre

Wed May 12, 2004 3:08 pm

#98

8/ Outstanding Bugs

A big concern of the community is whether bugs will continue to be fixed at a rapid pace following the Mini-publish. The ID profession has been plagued with what to us are game breaking bugs and there has been much concern at seeing the most nasty bugs rampant on Test Center. The ones brought up the most often are the hair color bug (new hair colors cannot be seen unless customer zones/re-logs), the hairstyle color bug (hair defaults to a certain color after a hairstyle change), and the “so-and-so is already in the process of an Image Design” bug (not able to ID until the server resets), though of course all bugs are of concern to the community.

a) For how long will bug squashing resources be able to be devoted to fixing bugs accompanying the ID mini-publish?
b) Will the elimination of the most ID-game-breaking bugs be a top priority as part of the ID enhancement package?

We are monitoring the service for any critical issues that crop up now that the Image Designer changes are live. Please report all issues you find in the "In Testing" forum so our QA can get the bugs into the systemto the developers.

The developers did a lot of fixing for the "already in the process of an Image Design" bug. There may be some cases still left where the bug will crop up but should only be temporary. At the very least, relogging should resolve the issue should you happen to get into that state. If you know how to reliably cause this bug to happen, please post a report with detailed steps on how to reproduce it in the "In Testing" forum.

Unforunately, the default hair color bug is a nasty problem that reaches deep into the bowels of the server architecture. It's a general problem thatis certainly most noticeable to Image Designers but affects other areas of the game as well. We spent some time analyzing the core issues causing this problem but have not been successful yet in coming up with a solution.

SokoyaGul

Wed May 12, 2004 3:16 pm

#99

When I started this game, or rather, when I started moving up the boxes in the marksman profession, I realized something very quickly...

The different weapons and their specials drained different types of HAM from me, and to be effective I needed to shift my stats to get into whatever weapon I was testing out at the moment...
This was when Crafters was testing their abillities, and a set of Bone Armor was the best you could get...

So I migrated my stats around a couple of times until I got the feel for what I wanted and of what the weapons demanded of me...
Then Composite was the big hit and I had the good fortune to know an armorsmith that would make me a good set (Best damn Armorsmith on Eclipseeven today)...
So I needed to migrate my stats again...
Switch them around to fit witht he armor and my playingstyle...

But then...
Being a Bounty Hunter is all about different weapons...
So it's kind of tricky to get your stats -exactly- where you want them...
You don't want to overdo it in one end, because then you will fall to the ground on some other bar...
Incorporate different armors for PvP, PvE and Jedi-hunting and you got a pretty complex equation...

But that's ok...
Because I know what I need...
I know what 20 more points in Strength will do for my setup...
My point is...
A Newcomer doesn't know that...

And you don't learn that in shifting your stats a couple of "free" times...
You don't know wether or not shifting 50 points around will increase your effectivness, or leave your action bar dry...
You learn that by carefully setting them where you think they should be...
Then correct your error...
Then pick up a new weapon with higher damage and higher HAM costs...
Then correct your setup...
And then fix your errors once more...

I feel sorry for the newcomers under this system...
They won't be able to mess around with one of the most important systems in the game mechanics, their own HAM bars...
And if they want to do it, then better be ready to grind those Credits, not for new equipment...
Not for better Armor...
No, they must grind credits to rectify their mistake of getting a big Action bar when they where working with a Carbine...

Maybe I'm exaggerating...
But I still feel I got a valid point when I say that the Newcomers won't get the feel of their most important feature; Their Lives...

Added: Sorry for jumping into your thread,butthis issue isimportant also to me...
And to "wf"...No we don't...

Message Edited by SokoyaGul on 05-13-2004 12:19 AM

mln,

Yup, they nerfed my signature...

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Masen

Wed May 12, 2004 3:18 pm

#100

My personal biggest issue is lipcolor. It annoys me no end, I'm obsessive about getting my characters 'just right', I'll admit it, as much as I love this game, and the folks in it, first freakin game that don't make every male look like a chapstick poster boy, I'm gone man. I mean, the code is all there, and I still don't get WHY the devs decided to make every freaking male look like he's dying of dehydration here. Goths don't get black lipcolor unless they make a female. Heck, een Arnold has a little pink color to his lips, sorry guys, but they're supposed to be human, and there's that whole silly blood thing goin on..You know..the red stuff that makes peoiple a bit pink in some areas, like it or not?

Gah. Sorry to rant here, but holy crud, been nearly a year, people have asked about lip color quite often (Not just me on this one here), and the devs refuse to even address the question. No answers as to why they seem so paranoid about it (what..guys can marry eachother, just as long as we don't wear lipstick? come on man). Not one response as to how much coding it would take (personally, i'd think ONE dev could do it in a freakin weekend, tops. The textures might take a bit more, but frankly, they should have been in there from launch. It's always come up at least once, and rarely from me actually (this is the second time I've mentioned it in the forums) and we can't even get an answer. How longdoes it take to type 'Lucasarts says no to that, we've asked a couple times, will let you know if we change their minds' or a simple 'We have too many issues right now. We'll look into what it would take after the launch of Jump to Lightspeed'. There, I even wrote out the two most likely answers, feel free to cut and paste whichever one it is. LOL.

Personally, I'd much rather have had my character's freakin lips fixed than been able to have some stupid hologram over my head 20 times. I loved the rest of the publish (Even the timers are bearable. keeps one ID from taking away a whole room's worth of business in a day actually). The new colors are cool, to say the least (I'm now all black and red, to match my clothes and comp armor, lol). The interface rocks, no more getting stiffed by a customer. But instead of a halloween mask (maybe you guys should have saveed that for Halloween, made a bunch of monster heads that appear over a player's head, just for giggles, or wearable helmets that look like monster masks or something. But in all honesty, with so many requests for new hair, new tatoos, lip color, ridge colors, moncal eyelid color, yes, even wookie and Bothan nose colors, why not that? And yes, I am aware of the time to make a hairstyle in a game like this (I've modded morrowind, it takes one guy a couple days to do a really good hair mesh and skin usually). And with the adjustability options, figure a few days to tweak that. So why can't SOE, with all their money, hire ONE freakin 3D artist/programmer, who can do the game code AND the modelling, and make one new hairstyle a week to put in the weekly updates? It wouldn't seem alot, but that's 52 more hairdos a year, it adds up.

Sorry for the long post/rant/whatever you want to call it, but this publish they just seems to waste half their dev time, on making me look like I got shampoo bubbles ( and come on...Where's the glowing golden halo for those 'I didn't do it' moments?). I am glad they fixed so many issues we've had, and gave them a real use (Stat migration, about time a physical trainer did his job!). Man, I was just so looking forward to this, logged on, changed my color, migrated stats with the help of Kauhee, and logged out. Didn't even try out my new comp armor. I've spent less and less time ingame, and, beleive it or not, a good part of that is I freakin HATE how my characters look, and this ID publish didn't even adress that, heck I don't even got a RESPONSE yet about it, from anyone. Gah. i'm gonna go play Morrowind. later.

No I don't have a freakin sig. Just make something up and pretend it's here man. woman. umm...Whatever.

Vrykolakas

Wed May 12, 2004 3:19 pm

#101

wf wrote:

SWG-Runesabre wrote:

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.

Your error is in assuming that there's something wrong with a "novelty profession".

Is it good for every player to have a vital mechanical function? Yes. But guess what?

We all have enough skill points for multiple professions.

- wf

Well, to Image Designers, changing someone's appearance IS a critical function. Just because all the leet combat dewds like Runesabre can't understand that is no reason to go screwing around with the profession, not to mention the entire playerbase.

Everseeker

Wed May 12, 2004 3:20 pm

#102

Mini Publish 8.1

1. Image Designer Enhancements
2. Improved Line of Sight calculations (no more shooting through walls etc.)
3. Jump to Lightspeed Beta announcement

OK, #1 is done... wonder what happened to 2 & 3?

Xhenn

Wed May 12, 2004 3:22 pm

#103

Just a thought, don't know if this idea was ever mentioned before.

I made a thread of this post but couldn't get replies, hopefully i can get comments here.

How about giving the ID professions a viable reason to participate in the GCW by giving them skills that Disguise people.

Imagine you are a group of Rebels trying to infiltrate a base or Player City, but you need a disguise. You visit the local Image designer and he says he can hook you up with a temporary disguise that can change your name and make you a overt or covert Imperial. You say "Great. What do I need to do?", he says "You'll have to see a Smuggler and buy a fake Identification card and Passport then come back to me."

So you do what the Image Designer tells you and come back with the fake documents. The ID is then able to give you a 30 minute disguise that tags you and your group with being Overt Imperials. The disguise is complete with a fake name, fake imperial symbol next to name, and fake Stormtrooper armor (Can be worn over equipped armor, but will have no armor value and stats what so ever). The Image designer warns you that your disguise can be comprimised if an Overt rebel attacks you or you are identified by City Spy Counter-Measures (device that, if previously caught spying, logs your picture and profile in a central database). If succesfull you will be able to attack, any overt imperials at any time.

SWG-Runesabre

Wed May 12, 2004 3:24 pm

#104

9/ User Interface

The interface is absolutely stunning and knocks out several of our wish list items and issues in one fell swoop. Nevertheless three UI requests have cropped up again and again: The ability to resize the UI so that it covers less of the screen (we can’t see our chat window unless we scrunch it up against the side and have no hope of seeing anything going on around us); Better visibility of the bigger color palettes (perhaps by allowing us to select one at a time when two are displayed at the same time, or by adding a scroll bar); and Replacing the numbers on our sliders as well as adding numbers to the palettes (Numbers being added to our sliders was one of the few modifications made to the profession these past long months since launch).

a) Could these UI perks be added (particularly the slider numbers which were already there)?
b) How soon might we expect to see UI modifications if so?

I really don't have any good answers for this question. UI programming is something I don't have direct scheduling control over. Many development tasks, both for Live and Space, require UI programming and all of those tasks have to be prioritized against each other.

Image Designer Archive

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