Image Designer Archive
Thread: ID Top Ten Concerns Runesabre Answers Inside :)
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Kwee
Tue May 11, 2004 6:42 pm
#1
Disclaimer - While I certainly compiled this list with intentions of passing it along to the devs, there has been no promise made that it will all be answered (publically or otherwise). I am requesting feedback on whether you feel these comments and questions adequately express your concerns about the profession. I will most likely use some form of this for our quarterly top five list to Thunderheart, but with some voting to prioritize the items after we have all had time to play with the changes on live. The items below arelaid out roughly according to how often they came up intoday's poll but all are of great importance to the community and have been discussed at length in the past week, weeks or months. The ordering was a necessary evil to make the list look organized 
~~~Image Designers’ Top Ten Concerns~~~
1/ Player City ID Tents
a) Why was the decision made to limit the ID tents to five NPC cities, only on the three main planets?
b) Are there plans to make ID tents available for crafting by Architects and placing by Master Image Designers in player cities?
c) If so, when could we expect to see them in the game?
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.
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?
3/ Stat Migration Timer
Both Image Designers and customers feel that the current timer for Stat Migration is torturously unbearably long (10 minutes). We are assuming that the long timer was put in place to limit how quickly stats can be migrated. We can however conceive of ways in which being able to migrate stats that often could lead to various game-play issues. A way to kill both birds with one stone would be to have the Stat Migration timer happen after the ID session, allowing the customer to be stat migrated only so often.
Both Image Designers and customers feel that the current timer for Stat Migration is torturously unbearably long (10 minutes). We are assuming that the long timer was put in place to limit how quickly stats can be migrated. We can however conceive of ways in which being able to migrate stats that often could lead to various game-play issues. A way to kill both birds with one stone would be to have the Stat Migration timer happen after the ID session, allowing the customer to be stat migrated only so often.
a) What is the reason behind the 10-minute timer?
b) Is 10 minutes between stat migrations seen as enough time to avoid abuse?
c) Couldan enforced delay be put in place between initiating stat migration sessions on a player, regardless of which ID does it, removing the need for the ID to keep the UI active?
4/ No Timers for Master ID’s
Master Image Designers no longer have to get experience and have few perks for their final skill-box.
Master Image Designers no longer have to get experience and have few perks for their final skill-box.
a) Why were Master Image Designers given timers for cosmetic and body changes?
b) Could these please be removed?
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?
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).
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?
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.
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?
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?
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?
10/ New Art Content
Getting new color palettes and holo-emotes of course has brought on floods of questions about whether and when the most requested art content might be added. Extended color palettes were one of the top five wish list items for new art content (as voted on by ID’ers). The remaining four are: new hairstyles, tattoos (and scars), hip/rump sliders for female characters, and 3D facial hair (for all male species, but most often requested by Bothans).
a) Are any of these under consideration for the future?
b) How soon might we see any of these features?
Message Edited by Kwee on 05-11-2004 11:42 PM
Message Edited by Kwee on 05-12-2004 09:12 AM
Message Edited by Kwee on 05-12-2004 01:34 PM
Carynne
Tue May 11, 2004 7:01 pm
#2
That looks great to me! Thanks for all your hard work on our behalf, Kwee. (and thanks for showing me some of the ID stuff on Test Center a couple of days ago too!)
Carynne Taalei
Master Image Designer - TCON
Consortia, Lok, Wanderhome
Vrykolakas
Tue May 11, 2004 7:06 pm
#3
I think player city tents should be moved a little ways down on the priority because a lot of the other requests would just involve changing some numbers and therefore are much more likely of getting done.
Breestan
Tue May 11, 2004 7:13 pm
#4
I like it, though I think that the ID tents should be moved down just a tad in priority. Our bugs are more of a concern.
MarinhaTiga
Tue May 11, 2004 7:19 pm
#5
Ill have to second the tents being moved downa couple of numbers as well, but otherwise i like it.
Aynianu
Tue May 11, 2004 7:20 pm
#6
1/ I would move the current bugs to number 1 slot, especially if the hair colour change bug still exists
2/ id have the holo emotes second, asking about our origional top 5 basicly and if there are plans for hair glitter, accessories and such
NJ62
Tue May 11, 2004 7:32 pm
#7
Although many of us did not vote for ID xp as a top 3, being masters, it should be very very close to the top. The fact is that under the system new ID'ers are essentially blocked from the profession, and this profession is more-time consuming than other professions almost four-fold. This is unbalanced and game-breaking. Maybe masters don't care about it now, but they will care when there are no new ID's for months.
Syzygy-Gorath
Tue May 11, 2004 7:38 pm
#8
Kwee wrote:
3/ Stat Migration Timer
Both Image Designers and customers feel that the current timer for Stat Migration is torturously unbearably long (10 minutes). We are assuming that the long timer was put in place to limit how quickly stats can be migrated. We can however conceive of ways in which being able to migrate stats that often could lead to various game-play issues. A way to kill both birds with one stone would be to have the Stat Migration timer happen after the ID session, allowing the customer to be stat migrated only so often.
a) What is the reason behind the 10-minute timer?
b) Is 10 minutes between stat migrations seen as enough time to avoid abuse?
c) Could the timer be moved to happen between ID sessions on the customer end?
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 the not allow Image Designers to migrate their own stats?
b) Why are Doctors (for example) allowed to buff themselves?
Looks great except for these two items:
3c is unclear in its wording, and may not be understood correctly (you mean an enforced delay between initiating stat migration sessions on a player, regardless of which ID does it, removing the need for the ID to keep the UI active, correct?)
5b sounds suspiciously like asking for doctors to be nerfed—given that the entire playerbase was just nerfed in our name this may not be the best thing to do…perhaps phrase it in a positive manner rather than a negative ("We would like to gain the full benefit of the skills we worked hard for, in the same way that doctors do" or the like)
Edit: wouldn't mind seeing tents moved down and XP up in priority…but I don't know how much of a difference that'll make. *shrugs*
Message Edited by Syzygy-Gorath on 05-11-2004 10:41 PM
Sir_Voor
Tue May 11, 2004 7:43 pm
#9
That is Good a Good Top Ten Concerns
I only haveimput on two of them, for now 
1/ Player City ID Tents
Ithought they alreadystated thatit's a wait and see matter for now, so I say lets focus on tent content and leave PC ID tents alone until they get the imput on them they want.
10/ New Art Content
c) We know hairstyles are a lot of work, but could you explain the work that would go into adding a new area of color and is more or less then hairstles? For example: male lips, trandoshan ridges, eye-shadow for those fish ladies (Do you divide the skinsor addnew ones that overlap the main skin?)
Kwee
Tue May 11, 2004 8:18 pm
#10
The items are ordered as to how often they came up in my poll today. I could move them up and down depending on who wanted them where but really this is organizationally the best way for me to do it. All of them are items I've brought to the devs' attention in the past, and I will stress that all are concerns that have come up again and again. Thanks for all the input I'll tackle rewording the ones Syzygy suggested in the morning. They were two I wasn't too happy with (wording wise).
I'll tackle rewording the ones Syzygy suggested in the morning. They were two I wasn't too happy with (wording wise).
TooVeeOrahno
Tue May 11, 2004 8:31 pm
#11
I think this looks great. The only think I would change is to move the ID timer closer to the top. Masters should in no way be subject to a timer or any kind.
*edit* I'm an idiot...I see that my concern is number 2 on the list. Well done Kwee!
Message Edited by TooVeeOrahno on 05-11-2004 08:32 PM
Gyopi
Tue May 11, 2004 9:37 pm
#12
NJ62 wrote:
Although many of us did not vote for ID xp as a top 3, being masters, it should be very very close to the top. The fact is that under the system new ID'ers are essentially blocked from the profession, and this profession is more-time consuming than other professions almost four-fold. This is unbalanced and game-breaking. Maybe masters don't care about it now, but they will care when there are no new ID's for months.
I have to agree with this. This is something that needs to be fixed as soon as possible, not a month down the road.
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