Ranger Archive
Thread: Update from Fan Fest
Page 1 of 6
SeanBlader
Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:29 am
#1
There's good news and there's bad news. First the bad news, there isn't going to be a "Ranger Revamp" persay. The good news is there isn't going to be a Smuggler Revamp either. They did say that Smuggler, Ranger and Squad Leader need attention, and that while smuggler will be the first to get attention, they were expecting to get to Rangers right afterward. What this means is that they will do individual system upgrades for the professions. So first thing they're expecting to go live is the slicing revamp, this is expected by publish 19. This will give us the opportunity to perhaps see traps get fixed and upgraded shortly after that. The downside is, we don't have an official set date for Rangers to be finished, but we should see some attention little by little before the end of the year.
Of course same as always, don't hold your breath for immediate red names showing up in our forum, other than TH to elaborate on what he'd LIKE to see for community relationsguidelines. But it does mean that we might have an opportunity to priortize our upgrades so that we get them in a sequence that we prefer. My preference is to see Placed Traps, Radar Camo, Modular Camps and then Tracking. I may try to pin down a Developer today and mention the trapping problems, and if I can catch one of the producers I'll see what the schedule looks like, and if we have the opportunity to effect what happens when.
BioEngine
Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:45 am
#2
Good to know, but did they actually say "there won't be a revamp anymore. These professions will be altered within future publishes?"
BioEngine
Sat Jun 04, 2005 9:02 am
#3
Mind if I post everything I find about Anaheim in here?
You don't?
Hehe, ok.
masselin wrote:
hey guys i sat in on 3 dev meetings today at the anaheim hilton.... julio torres, dallas, blixtev, a guy named dave and a few others were answering questions.
there was 1 hour of general discussion hosted by dallas, followed byone hour of'ranged combat' discussion with just dave and blixtev plus one more hour of 'pvp' discussion with dave and blixtev. there were more discussions afterwards but i left to go to work.
i didn't take notes but here are some of the things that i recall. please ask me about any issues i don't mention because they may have discussed them and i can tell you what they said.
smuggler revamp
now that the combat revamp is implemented, they are going to do a series of revamps starting with smuggler, ranger and squadleader in that order. smugglers are going to get a "mini game" to replace slicing and possibly quests...
creature handler tweaks
dave has been working on the creature handler profession. expect to see the results of his efforts in the next few publishes. creatures should receive adjustments to make them more effective.
mobs and levels
one of the things dave explained has happened, is that there is a new combat system, but the world and the creatures in it have remained the same. this has resulted in things like level 5 critters outside noob starter cities who incap level 1 players in one hit.... it has also let to areas with a wide range of levels of mobs. there is a content team going through the entire game world, adjusting levels so that instead of areas with mobs of a range of levels, you'll find instead mobs with all close to the same level... like 40-42 for example... so depending on you skill level, you will know where you need to go to grind... and be able to wander around with your group killing everything you see and getting go xp for it instead of having to pull missions to get good xp.
root
big news for root. the root code as it went live initially for the cu and currently.... has code that is implemented but is not working. they are going to fix what is not working to make it work as originally intended which will 'diminish the effectiveness of root'. i'm not sure exactly what the change will be, but root will probably not be as powerful after the fix as it is now.
jedi, houses andbounty huntermissions
right now a jedi who is agro'd by a bounty hunter can run into his house. according to dave, what he would like to see for jedi vs. bounty hunter is a fair one vs. one battle. he would like for the bh and the jedi to have the same options. he is very against more than one bounty hunter attacking a jedi at a time. when the bounty hunters asked if the devs would make it easier for multiple bounty hunters to find the same mission, dave responded that he doesn't want to make it easier. he would prefer if bounty hunters could not team up against a single jedi at all. his vision for jedi vs. bounty hunter is a one vs. one battle on a level playing field. jedi should be stronger than bounty hunters. but the bounty hunter has the advantage of deciding when and where to initiate combat.
riflemen, pistoleers, commandosand carbineers
the audience brought to the attention of dave and blixtev that right now pvp consists of jedi and riflemen. there is no incentive to use pistols or carbineers. players use skills from those trees, but not the weapons. the main reason is because of the range. rifle range is up to 65 meters whereas pistols and carbineers are limited to around 35. the concept of "minimum range" was discussed which means that a rifle would not be able to attack at less than 35 meters. it was explicitly stated that this "minimum range" concept was tested and rejected and will not be implemented. they said it was too confusing to players who did not understand why they could not attack something right in front of them.
the only mention of a fix to the imbalance of rifle, was blixtev mentioned that he could slow down the rate of fire of rifles. he said 'its' slow now but we can slow it down more' and smiled.
the issue of commandos was brought up when someone asked that heavy weapons actually be heavy and do real damage. the devsexplained that commando weapons have utility to them that prohibits making them compete with rifles to be the most damaging ranged weapon. one utility of commando weapons is the area attack on some. they said it would not be a good idea to combine for instance "sniper attack", which is the most damaging ranged attack in the game, with an area attack from a weapon that is the highest damaging in the game.
ships
dallas mentioned in one passing comment that there will be new ships and he smiled. someone asked if space resources would replace terrestrial resources and the answer was no they will coexist like they do now.
spawns, the spawning system
it was explained by dave that currently in game there are something like 40 different ways to trigger spawns in the game. this system is being looked at and hopefully will be replaced by a system that uses far fewer triggers like 3 instead. the result of this improvement would cut down on times when a player for instance travels across dathomir only to find themselves instantly surrounded by 8 rancors and dead. remember, that what you see on your client is not necessarily what is happening on the server.
dual weilding
the devs would love to incorporate dual weilding into the game. dave mentioned that initially there was discussion of adding a duel weilding profession but they decided that was not a good idea that what they should do is incorporate dual weilding weapons into the existing professions. he said there are a few programmers who would love to make it happen. unfortunately, dual weilding would take too much time and resources to incorporate, and it is not a high priority. therefore, due to scheduling and prioritizing, do not expect dual weilding anytime soon.
bounty hunter droids on kashyyyk
the issue of bounty hunters not being able to track jedi on kashyyyk was raised to dave and blixtev. they responded that initially, there was a technical problem that caused droids not to work correctly so they took them out. since then, there has been a favorible response overall to this decision and droids were not planned to work on kaskyyyk anytime soon.
states
the states dizzy, stun and blind were discussed. here is the breakdown.....
dizzy --- dizzy lowers your defenses a lot and your accuracy a little
blind --- blind lowers your defenses a little and your accuracy a lot
stun --- stun should STOP your action regen as long as you are stunned
mezzes --- mezzes like snare that affect movement SHOULD break on receiving damage. not root.
food and be clothes
the ranged and melee defense benefits from clothes are capped at +25. the benefits from food are not capped. clothes were capped because of the old system, and possibly the cap on clothes could be removed in this new system.
force drain
the cool down timer on force drain will probably be extended to slow down how often it can be used.
elemental damage
dallas mentioned that they were going through the code and found an entire section regarding elemental damage commented out. they fixed it and elemental damage should be working soon.
entertainers, dancer and musicians
the entertainer professions are being looked at to see how they can adapt to be more useful now than they were before the cu. currently, they aren't very usefull regarding battle fatigue or of course healing mind wounds or buffing mind and musician is no different from dancer.
armor break
the problemcausing improved armor break to not work as intended was discovered and the fix should come along soon in one of the publishes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
there may be more that i am forgetting but i am going to post this now so i don't lose the post... i'll add more as i recall it and also answer any questions you guys have....
i'm going back tomorrow for more. tomorrow i'll be able to sit through the jedi hour which i missed today.
the biggest impression that i got today is that there are devs, dave and blixtev to be specific, who have a clue and have ideas about how to make the game the way we would like to see it, and are responsive to good ideas.... the trick is to find correspondents for the professions who have the ability to relate accurately what the problems and solutions to issues are. these guys are on our side. i have a lot of hope for the game over the coming years....
Message Edited by masselin on 06-03-2005 09:31 PM
Iseult
Sat Jun 04, 2005 9:08 am
#4
Hi guys - there's a lot of really interesting stuff in here. Thanks for posting it!
Iseult
Master Ranger / Mediocre Carbiner
Bloodfin
Iseult
Master Ranger / Mediocre Carbiner
Bloodfin
LastEE
Sat Jun 04, 2005 9:20 am
#5
no scout/ranger only forum on Saturday now... just the smuggler/ranger/squad leader one. We definately could have used another hour and they don't want low-level discussions at the morning Q&A's
DaveG
Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:55 am
#6
elemental damage
dallas mentioned that they were going through the code and found an entire section regarding elemental damage commented out. they fixed it and elemental damage should be working soon.
Is it me, or is this a really grossly incompetant mistake, even more so that they feelso comfortable admitting it that they don't think it reflects badly on them?
They're a multimillion dollar set up, when you're at that level you have quality auditing measures in place so you don't make such "noobish" mess ups like this.
Even I don't make this sort of mistake and I'm not evena very experienced programmer!
SickSix
Sat Jun 04, 2005 1:41 pm
#7
masselin wrote:
riflemen, pistoleers, commandosand carbineers
the audience brought to the attention of dave and blixtev that right now pvp consists of jedi and riflemen. there is no incentive to use pistols or carbineers. players use skills from those trees, but not the weapons. the main reason is because of the range. rifle range is up to 65 meters whereas pistols and carbineers are limited to around 35. the concept of "minimum range" was discussed which means that a rifle would not be able to attack at less than 35 meters. it was explicitly stated that this "minimum range" concept was tested and rejected and will not be implemented. they said it was too confusing to players who did not understand why they could not attack something right in front of them.
the only mention of a fix to the imbalance of rifle, was blixtev mentioned that he could slow down the rate of fire of rifles. he said 'its' slow now but we can slow it down more' and smiled.
Um, W T F??????? i will quit. if they slow down rifleman more, and snare breaks on damage, Ranger/Rifleman will be utterly usesless. And Rifleman will be useless all together.
the issue of commandos was brought up when someone asked that heavy weapons actually be heavy and do real damage. the devsexplained that commando weapons have utility to them that prohibits making them compete with rifles to be the most damaging ranged weapon. one utility of commando weapons is the area attack on some. they said it would not be a good idea to combine for instance "sniper attack", which is the most damaging ranged attack in the game, with an area attack from a weapon that is the highest damaging in the game.
spawns, the spawning system
it was explained by dave that currently in game there are something like 40 different ways to trigger spawns in the game. this system is being looked at and hopefully will be replaced by a system that uses far fewer triggers like 3 instead. the result of this improvement would cut down on times when a player for instance travels across dathomir only to find themselves instantly surrounded by 8 rancors and dead. remember, that what you see on your client is not necessarily what is happening on the server.
This sounds good.
bounty hunter droids on kashyyyk
the issue of bounty hunters not being able to track jedi on kashyyyk was raised to dave and blixtev. they responded that initially, there was a technical problem that caused droids not to work correctly so they took them out. since then, there has been a favorible response overall to this decision and droids were not planned to work on kaskyyyk anytime soon.
Uh, just wanted to ask where this "overal favourable response" came from? Is it just me or is there alot of Jedi favoritism going on?
states
the states dizzy, stun and blind were discussed. here is the breakdown.....
dizzy --- dizzy lowers your defenses a lot and your accuracy a little
blind --- blind lowers your defenses a little and your accuracy a lot
stun --- stun should STOP your action regen as long as you are stunned
mezzes --- mezzes like snare that affect movement SHOULD break on receiving damage. not root.
Like i said, if that happens, and rifleman is slowed down even more than it is now, I'll have to quit because i will be completely ineffective.
food and be clothes
the ranged and melee defense benefits from clothes are capped at +25. the benefits from food are not capped. clothes were capped because of the old system, and possibly the cap on clothes could be removed in this new system.
Sounds good.
elemental damage
dallas mentioned that they were going through the code and found an entire section regarding elemental damage commented out. they fixed it and elemental damage should be working soon.
wow, what a bunch of idiots. do they not check their work at all??
Owen-Lars
Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:52 pm
#8
Cheers Sean
Message Edited by Owen-Lars on 06-04-2005 10:52 PM
Cango
Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:38 pm
#9
DaveG wrote:
elemental damagedallas mentioned that they were going through the code and found an entire section regarding elemental damage commented out. they fixed it and elemental damage should be working soon.
Is it me, or is this a really grossly incompetant mistake, even more so that they feel so comfortable admitting it that they don't think it reflects badly on them?They're a multimillion dollar set up, when you're at that level you have quality auditing measures in place so you don't make such "noobish" mess ups like this.Even I don't make this sort of mistake and I'm not even a very experienced programmer!
No, it's just you. Programmers for games arent always in the best of working conditions. I dont mean that they are up to their ankles in filth, in 104 degree heat with no A/C, whiel a slave driver beats them. What I mean is staying up for well over 24 hours at a time doing as much as they can under stressfull deadlines. A quick /* is easy to do and hard to miss, especially since it wouldn't show up as an error in debugging.
Vupos
Sun Jun 05, 2005 2:49 am
#11
Cango wrote:
DaveG wrote:
elemental damage
dallas mentioned that they were going through the code and found an entire section regarding elemental damage commented out. they fixed it and elemental damage should be working soon.
Is it me, or is this a really grossly incompetant mistake, even more so that they feel so comfortable admitting it that they don't think it reflects badly on them?
They're a multimillion dollar set up, when you're at that level you have quality auditing measures in place so you don't make such "noobish" mess ups like this.
Even I don't make this sort of mistake and I'm not even a very experienced programmer!
No, it's just you. Programmers for games arent always in the best of working conditions. I dont mean that they are up to their ankles in filth, in 104 degree heat with no A/C, whiel a slave driver beats them. What I mean is staying up for well over 24 hours at a time doing as much as they can under stressfull deadlines. A quick /* is easy to do and hard to miss, especially since it wouldn't show up as an error in debugging.
I don't care what type of conditions there are, that type of shotty programming is not going to fly in any other company the size of SOE, especially where such shotty codding affects your costumers in such an immense way.
Vupos
Sun Jun 05, 2005 2:51 am
#12
yeah this is just crazy what they mean is "the amount of money from jedi buying ROTW is a very favourable response"
SickSix wrote:
bounty hunter droids on kashyyyk
the issue of bounty hunters not being able to track jedi on kashyyyk was raised to dave and blixtev. they responded that initially, there was a technical problem that caused droids not to work correctly so they took them out. since then, there has been a favorible response overall to this decision and droids were not planned to work on kaskyyyk anytime soon.
Uh, just wanted to ask where this "overal favourable response" came from? Is it just me or is there alot of Jedi favoritism going on?
Temujin23
Sun Jun 05, 2005 4:03 am
#13
Vupos wrote:
Cango wrote:
DaveG wrote:
elemental damage
dallas mentioned that they were going through the code and found an entire section regarding elemental damage commented out. they fixed it and elemental damage should be working soon.
Is it me, or is this a really grossly incompetant mistake, even more so that they feel so comfortable admitting it that they don't think it reflects badly on them?
They're a multimillion dollar set up, when you're at that level you have quality auditing measures in place so you don't make such "noobish" mess ups like this.
Even I don't make this sort of mistake and I'm not even a very experienced programmer!
No, it's just you. Programmers for games arent always in the best of working conditions. I dont mean that they are up to their ankles in filth, in 104 degree heat with no A/C, whiel a slave driver beats them. What I mean is staying up for well over 24 hours at a time doing as much as they can under stressfull deadlines. A quick /* is easy to do and hard to miss, especially since it wouldn't show up as an error in debugging.
I don't care what type of conditions there are, that type of shotty programming is not going to fly in any other company the size of SOE, especially where such shotty codding affects your costumers in such an immense way.
Based on rumors I've heard around naritus... Cagno's knowledge of debuggery is not to be questioned.
al-djinn'i
Master Ranger
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