Ranger Archive
Thread: SOE FILES
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Tsalmaveth
Fri Jul 02, 2004 6:41 pm
#1
10:20pm Friday July2nd,2004
Deep in the heart of the underground Sony SWG Programming Bunker
Programmer Ed "Big Widget" Hasskel (assistant programer in charge of Nothing Useful To The Game) was running through lines of code for the initial planning phases of the Combat Rebalance to be started in the summer of 2004, when much to his shock he ran across a section of programming on the server that he had not previously seen before.
"Oh crap! I think we'v been hacked!" exclaimed Ed as he quickly printed out the suspect block of code and dashed for the staff lounge.
Lucky for Ed, the rest of the Development Team had just started the beginning of their contractually agreed upon 2 hour coffee breaks, and everyone was present.
"Guys, I think we havea big problem! It seems we may have been hacked!" exclaimed Ed.
"What the hell are you talking about Ed?" roared Lead Programmer Hank "Respect my Authoritiiii" Blubowski. "What makes you think we have been hacked?"
Thrusting his print outs into Hanks hands, Ed explained that he had been going over older code on the master server and had found a block of previous unknown code.
"Sir, I have been pouring over all of our older code as ordered to make preperations for the initial discussion of the purposed Combat Rebalance and I have never run across this particular block of code before." Ed explained.
Hank put down his big gulp extra hot double latte half and half and began to pour over theprint outs while speculations and finger pointing broke out among the rest of the developement team in the lounge.
Finally after 20 minutes and much background tension, Hank raised his head. "No need to worry Ed. You ran across old code for a profession from Beta we never deleted prior to launch. It's ok though, we never finished the coding of the profession and it should never have shown up on the live servers." Hank did another quick check of the print out. " Yep, Rangers sounded like a good class, but it was eventually felt that the basic Scout class was more than enough to handle the player based economic aspect of the game."
With abit of frustration at the lack of understand on the part of his boss, Ed flipped the last page of his print out. "Sir, I don't think you understand....This profession got out!!"
Silence decended on the lounge as the implications of what a half realised poorly coded profession released into the live environment could do to the dynamics of the game.
"Damn it!! Calm down everyone. Granted, this looks bad but what are the chances that anyone would want to play a profession that is not much better than a scout and cost alot more? Throw in the "How much you want to bet I can cut the arms and legs off this rancor before it can turn around?" aspect of our newly designed Jedi systems and we have nothing to worry about I'm telling you!" shouted Hank.
"Sir, maybe we should do a quick check?" suggested Ed
"Fine, waste your time if you like" frumped Hank
At this point, Ed and a couple of the other junior programmers in change of "Nothing even remotely related to the live game" went to the master control room and queried the server to get a print out of professions and the percentage of subscribes devoted to each.
"Frell!! I knew it!!" exclaimed Ed.
Running back to the lounge, Ed presented the profession breakdown report to Hank. "See, it shows that there are 4 people currently holding the title of Ranger sir!" Ed announced while pointing to the numbers. " What the hell are we gonna do sir? These people have been paying 15 dollars a month just like everyone else and we have been pushing them a defective unrealised product."
Shakely Hank sat down to contemplate the hole that the development team had fallen into...
"Well, there's only 4 of them" reasoned Hank. "If we just pretend we don't know there is a ranger profession, then maybe they will get bored and move on to Bounty Hunter or something."
At this point there was much nodding of heads around the break table as most agreed that with Jedi in the game, all other professions where rather uninspiring anyway. The general concensus was that the fact of the unintended release of the Ranger profession would hence forth not be spoken of. Ed was given the task of scripting an automated response system for the forums regarding any mention of Rangers.
Later that evening, Hank stopped in the act of turning out the lights before heading home. Looking around at the office, Hank shook his head and shuddered as he thought of the catastrophy that had been averted. "Thank God noone in their right mind would care about a Ranger class. " Thought Hank.
With a shake of his head, Hank silently closed the office door and made his way down the hall to the elevator. "Wouldn't it be neat if Jedi could fly through space without the need for a ship using the force alone?" was his last thought as the door shut...........
Message Edited by Tsalmaveth on 07-02-2004 10:00 PM
Message Edited by Tsalmaveth on 07-03-2004 08:23 AM
Message Edited by Tsalmaveth on 07-03-2004 11:07 AM
Tsalmaveth
Fri Jul 02, 2004 6:42 pm
#2
Sorry, I was bored and abit tired. This was more of a way of keeping awake. Hope you enjoy. 
Jabourn
Fri Jul 02, 2004 7:23 pm
#3
Nice. I like it very much.
There's just something about ranger though. I had it mastered back in Septemberish, and dropped it to do guild stuff. Just bought a third account, and am halfway back through it now.
Ranger is a great profession... as long as you aren't counting on anything happening for us.
Oh, and as long as you are content with what we've already got too 
Ehope
Fri Jul 02, 2004 11:20 pm
#4
Very nice. You are good at storytelling, would make a perfect Ranger. (and so you are)
AgonThalia
Sat Jul 03, 2004 6:26 am
#6
Very Nice!
(I happen to be even happier with the gratuitous use of the word "frell")
(I happen to be even happier with the gratuitous use of the word "frell")
Tsalmaveth
Sat Jul 03, 2004 7:16 am
#7
Agon,
You can take the scape off the tv,but you can't take it out of the viewers....
Tsalmaveth
Sat Jul 03, 2004 7:53 am
#8
I also want to say that this is not ment as a rant towards the Devs. I concider this more of a good natured tweak on the devs concerning the ranger profession. If any of them read it, I hope they get a chuckle as well. Everything that could be said about how patient we have been and the quality of our suggestions and tone of our post has been said. I think they realise that our forum is one of the few that actually goes out of it's way to maintain a sense of decorum and maturity..
Darth_me
Sat Jul 03, 2004 9:06 am
#9
Tsalmaveth wrote:I also want to say that this is not ment as a rant towards the Devs. I concider this more of a good natured tweak on the devs concerning the ranger profession. If any of them read it, I hope they get a chuckle as well. Everything that could be said about how patient we have been and the quality of our suggestions and tone of our post has been said. I think they realise that our forum is one of the few that actually goes out of it's way to maintain a sense of decorum and maturity..
Great post and I agree with your comments. The Devs are doing good work (fixing bugs and adding content to the game). I would have quit if ther have been no changes to SWG.
There are other professions that also need some help (Smuggler comes to mind) and I hope we are in line for some good changes for Ranger.
Good Hunting
Randonb
Sat Jul 03, 2004 10:26 am
#10
It's more of a secretunderwater base than an underground bunker.
...there are also unconfirmed rumors of a secondary base underneath an active volcano.
biwan:
Almagill
Sat Jul 03, 2004 11:44 am
#11
ROFLMAO
now, where can I get some universal solvent to clean the coffee off my monitors and keyboard?
now, where can I get some universal solvent to clean the coffee off my monitors and keyboard?
VeriBeri
Sat Jul 03, 2004 3:20 pm
#12
LOL, very nice...hope that second chapter is in the making. I hereby humbly propose the title: "Rangers: were they on the Grassy Knoll? The untold story of why camo is no longer working on the NPCs and why we are never going to get Stealth!"
MonsofoLexius
Sun Jul 04, 2004 12:07 am
#13
LMAO!!!!
Don't Dev's get in trouble for posting internal inforamtion?
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