Image Designer Archive
Thread: ID Top Ten Concerns Runesabre Answers Inside :)
SWG-Runesabre wrote:
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.
a) Are any of these under consideration for the future?
b) How soon might we see any of these features?
Kwee wrote:
2/ Cosmetic/Body Timers
Both Image Designers and customers feel that the current timers for cosmetic and body changes, 2 and 5 minutes, are unbearably long.
a) Why were such long timers chosen?
b) Are timer reductions being considered?
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?
Hmm... I just started my third character on the same server (read third account). For the change of things I wanted to make him more a social character since my other characters are mainly combatants. Musician has always been interesting me and reading about the new changes to the ID profession, I really wanted to give that profession a try, since it looks quite interesting for a secondary character (at least to me, no offense to other players with different priorities).
Since I live in a player city, I do not really feel inclined to move to an NPC city, where I know nobody, and can becertain to getalmost nocustomers, since the existing master Image Designers will probably get them. To be honest: Why would I go to a newbie, if I could get the service of a master with a much broader range of products.
Now I started to ID a bit, the first 1000 XP went nicely enough and took me about 30 minutes total. Now I look at the prospect of 5000 XP required for the second level, with not much more to do but hairstyle and haircolor. Not too funny a prospect. Especially if I consider that it now will take about 150 minutes. Taking for granted that I actually find a victim. The next levels become appaling considering this.
Also I have to admit I am inclined to compare this with the novice combat professions, where there certainly isn't a timer as interesting as this one. I certainly am willing to concurr that a profession should be an achievement and take some time. But this is already feeling slightly rediculous and very frustrating for a new player. There are only so many hairstyles, colors or patterns to try out and we have seen most of them in the game already. Furthermore somehow this waiting already looks excessively boring compared to the thrill of combat. And seriously how many customers with whom you can have chit-chat and a cup of coffee while designing their new outfit can you expect.
I will continue to give this a try, but I cannot abide the thought that for a casual, non hard-core design-around-the-clock player, any progress will be excessively slow. Most other professions can be grinded either without other players or at least be aided and abetted by macroing. Considering all the afk entertainers and tumble-to-standing medics, I guess not many players like endless boring grinding.
Furthermore, considering the notes of Runsabre about player interaction, I have to admit I am somewhat confused. This game mostly revolves about combat. Levelling in combat can be done alone or in groups, but usually is most effectively done alone or in a very small team, using buffs. The social interaction is a very important issue, considering the long-term attraction of SWG as a game, but it is by all means not the focus. If I consider the role-playing conclaves on the servers, they are an astute minority. Enforcing interaction for a few classes, while other can progress entirely on their own is an awkward prospect. Especially if you consider that the classes needing interaction already are at a disadvantage to those without those requirements.
To finally come to a conclusion: You made some very nice improvements on the ID profession, but you made the profession very hard and unattractive to achieve. It is uncomprehensible to me, why you try to make one of the rare social professions so much harder to achieve then the very common combat classes.
SWG-Runesabre wrote:
I don't have very high hopes for the hip/rump slider for female characters. That change requires a re-export of every female model and most likley many many wearable changes that would result in a very large patch download and take literally months to accomplish.
SWG-Runesabre wrote:
5/ ID’s Cannot Migrate Their Own Stats
Other than the three Entertainer professions, all other professions benefit from every single one of their abilities.
a) Why was the decision made to not allow Image Designers to migrate their own stats?
b) What is the difference between Image Designers, Dancers, and Musicians (who will now all have an ability they cannot use on themselves) and other professions who get the full benefit of all of the skills they worked hard for?
In order to preserve the market for Image Design services as well as create a valuable service that even Novice Image Designers could provide to all players and profit from while they are learning their profession, it was imperative that Image Designers could not stat migrate themselves. Allowing Image Designers to migrate their own stats would immediately give all players seeking stat migration a means to perform the task themselves and avoid bothering with the services of those players playing the Image Designer profession. Considering you only need Novice Image Designer to migrate your stats, the demand for Image Designer services would have been greatly reduced from the get-go as many players would decide to augment their characters to migrate their own stats and the whole point of giving a game function such as stat migration to Image Designers would become largely moot.
As Lead Designer, it is one of my most important goals to stimulate and encourage player interaction and set the stage for players to form lasting relationships and dependencies with each other. Player interaction is what MMOs are all about. Self-sufficiency is my greatest nemesis in striving for this goal and it is human nature to try to become as self-sufficient as possible. In my6 years as an MMO developer I've seen the extremes players will go to in trying to avoid interacting with other players. In many cases, it is these same self-sufficient players that later quit because they got bored with the game. If you ask any veteran gamer of an MMO as to why they still play their chosen game after many months (or even years!) invariably the answer is "because of the people I know in the game and play with". I made a design decision to disallow Image Designers from migrating their own stats to preserve the social environment of this game and ensure the Image Designer profession can't be reduced invalue and damage the appeal of the profession much like AFK macroing has done to Dancers and Musicians.
Message Edited by SWG-Runesabre on 05-12-2004 01:46 PM
Nice dog and pony show Runesabre, now quit being assinine and tell us the real reason. My character is set, and there aren't enough skill points left over for novice entertainer, let alone the next 20pts needed to get to novice ID, so I wouldn't be migrating my own stats. I'm not going to go buy the game again and pay the subscription again so I can have a novice ID character to migrate my stats whenever I want to.
What I really want to know is why the old, slow system of letting everyone migrate thier own stats was unilaterally scrapped. You haven't come close to a satisfactory explanation for that. Leave the system as it was, with IDs having a perk of being able to migrate stats in minutes instead of days. That way I'm not held captive to some tent or a jerk that's demanding alot more than what I think it's worth to pay. I could wait 4-5 days instead. That would be a nicebalance toID's trying to price gouge everyone because they have something everyone is going to want at one time or another. They'd have to be reasonable because people could just wait the 4-5 days. Then there's the problem of what if there's never an ID around when I have time and want to get my stats migrated? I'm not going to waste my valuable play time sitting at a tent for 3-4 hours praying an ID comes along to migrate my stats, and your state of mental health becomes extremely questionable if you think players should have to waste time like that. Smacks of an artificial timesink with the sole purpose of making people spend more time to accomplish goals, meaning longer overall play time, and more $$$ into SOE's coffers. Same thing with the timers..
And speaking of these timers, the correspondent seems to be trying to tell you that they're "tourtously, unbearably long", yet you seem to not understand that and give us a bunch of smoke and lights as an incomplete explanation. Yeah, something needs to be done about being able to master the ID proffession in 30minutes... but not turn it into the 60hours (in ideal, perfect circumstances) someone calculated earlier in the thread. That's worse than the current Jedi trees. Not to mention that if I know exactly what I want I'm forced to stand around wasting my time because you're trying to force-jump start some kind of social circus. If I wanna stay and talk, I'll stay and talk. If I wanna get my look changed and go, I don't wanna be forced to stand there with nothing to do. I get enough of that crap at the space ports.
And by the way, you're NOTstimulating and encouraging player interaction, you're ramming it down our throats.
that sounds great, kwee
also there's one concern i had with the new UI..... i can't notice changes very well that are rather slight
today i was getting my eyes fixed (FINALLY! thank the lord it's here!) and i could barely notice that my ID was even doing anything
could you add this question: is there any way that i could hit alt and look at my avatar and see the changes?
Except Image Designers won't be treated as vending machines with the 10 minute wait... they'll be seen as annoying vending machines that take 10 minutes between dispenses. Being stuck at an interface screen for 10 solid minutesis not an impetus for increased business. It's an impetus for being irate and afk for both client and designer.
SWG-Runesabre wrote:
At the same time, I didn't want Image Designers to be treated like vending machines where players would stop by, pay their credits, get their stat migrations and then leave in the blink of an eye. The Image Designer is a social,face-to-face service provider style of profession and I wanted to preserve that environment going forward. Finally, while it wasn't a major rationale, I felt the residual gain with the 10 min timer is players will perhaps decide to check out other things that the Image Designer could do for them and hopefully stimulate more business and interaction for the Image Designers.
Players really working towards accomplishing a cool, unique look shouldn't notice the timers since the timers start counting down as soon as the Image Design session begins ...
MarinhaTiga wrote:
You said yourself that "The timers exist to ensure advancing as an Image Designer is not considered a trivial accomplishment and couldn't easily be macroed in any way to gain a significant advancement advantage"..... Masters do not need XP, so there should be no wait at all for a master. I have the perfect timer amount for a master image designer for you... 0. Zero is a wonderful number for masters. Why am i being "punished" for someone else's abiliti to master my profession in a matter of hours?
Bingo. What's the purpose of a timer for Masters, when the driving philosophy behind the timers was to limit XP gain? Seeing as Masters no longer need XP, the only purpose of these timers that remain is to cause annoyance and inconvenience. Having their timer as a "perk" only says that the design is committed in forcing this inconvenience on players to some degreefor some reason, one that's hard to fathom as being beneficial to "gameplay".
In fact, timers should be tied to XP gains alone, not to how often one can provide a service... or how long one needs be stuck at an interface screen long after they've made thier adjustments and changes.