Rifleman Archive

I don't know how many of you were able to log into this, but here it is. I know I my part for the Riflemen related questions...

[19:01] --Global-- Please join us NOW in #swghoc for a House of Commons Chat with the developers of Star Wars Galaxies!
[19:01] {Wolfgang} Greetings and thank you for attending tonight's Star Wars Galaxies House of Commons Chat.
[19:01] {Wolfgang} Tonight's chat is focusing on "mounts and the recent update"
[19:02] {Wolfgang} I will be our moderator for this evening.
[19:02] {Wolfgang} Before I continue, I believe Den has a special announcement to make. Den? =)
[19:02] {Den} Thank you Wolfgang
[19:02] {Den} On behalf of Stratics, I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate two very wonderful people on their wedding, which is beginning as I write this.
[19:02] {Den} They've already gotten married in SWG and have now decided to transfer their nuptials to real life - crazy kids! In order to commemorate your union, this HoC is dedicated to you!
[19:02] {Den} To Ryan James "RJO" O'Sullivan and Tammy "Thalia" Davies, I wish you a very happy life together and wonderful memories yet to be made. *toast*
[19:03] * [QT]Ghosty chears.
[19:03] {DV539_} *toast*
[19:03] * Q-3PO toasts
[19:03] {[QT]GrayRed} Wewt!
[19:03] * Wolfgang toasts
[19:03] * [QT]Ryu_KnT cheers
[19:03] * [QT]Snake cheers
[19:03] {Wolfgang} In order to submit questions please /msg or /query [QT]Snake, [QT]Ghosty, [QT]GreyRed, or [QT]Ryu_Knt. Please /msg different question-takers at different times, in order to balance the load and speed this process up. Do not msg anyone from Dev. Team or myself. These questions will be ignored.
[19:03] {Wolfgang} Remember that the Dev. Team may not have the opportunity to answer all of your questions. In addition, some questions may not be answered if the Dev Team feel that it is not appropriate or that it has been better answered through some other question.
[19:03] {Wolfgang} The log of this chat will later be posted on http://swg.stratics.com so be sure to tell your friends if they missed it.
[19:03] {Wolfgang} We'll start with a quick introduction from everyone, we'll then begin accepting questions.
[19:04] {Q-3PO} Hello everyone, I'm Kevin O'Hara the Community Relations Manager. I'm just here to keep the rest of these guys in order.
[19:04] {Blair} I'm Blair, or J. Allen Brack. Associate Producer on the project.
[19:04] {oodBnar} Hello everyone- I'm Jake Rodgers, art director of SWG
[19:05] {Thunderheart_} Im Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl Assistant Community Manager
[19:05] {ronda_lucasarts} And I'm Ronda the Community Relations Specialist at LucasArts.
[19:05] {Blair} Greetings, and thanks for being here tonight.
[19:06] {Blair} Just wanted to spend a few moments talking about how we implement new systems these days. When we identify a new system, we form a strike team. They generally consist of a designer, an art lead, server programmer, client programmer, and a producer. In the case of mounts, Jake Rodgers was the art lead, as well as the owner of the strike team for Mounts.
[19:06] {Blair} So Jake is on hand to field most of the mounts questions tonight.
[19:06] {Q-3PO} But feel free to ask art questions too.
[19:07] -} *[QT]GreyRed* All the recent updates and added content is fine, but what about some of the basic flaws this game has suffered form day one. I.E. There has been a thread int eh Discussion Forum for over 6 weeks now with over 900 posts requesting the broken Riflemen profession to be looked into, and yet nothing has been done to even answer that constructive and factually supported thread. Shouldn't something like this take priority over new content?
[19:07] {Wolfgang} {synnarc} Is there any plans to give wookies some kind of armor or composite wookie gear? In PvP we get incap'd in about 2-3 hits.
[19:08] {Blair} Great question. We are planning on addling lots of wookiee wearables in the future.
[19:08] {Blair} I think everyone agrees we didn't go far enough with the wearables for the first release.
[19:08] {Blair} So look for more wookiee stuff in the future.
[19:09] -} *[QT]Ghosty* All the recent updates and added content is fine, but what about some of the basic flaws this game has suffered from day one? I.E. There has been a thread in the Discussion Forum for over 6 weeks now with over 900 posts requesting the broken Riflemen profession to be looked into, and yet nothing has been done to even acknowledge that constructive and factually supported thread. Shouldn't something like this take priority over new content?
[19:09] -} *[QT]Ryu_KnT* All the recent updates and added content is fine, but what about some of the basic flaws this game has suffered from day one? I.E. There has been a thread in the Discussion Forum for over 6 weeks now with over 900 posts requesting the broken Riflemen profession to be looked into, and yet nothing has been done to even acknowledge that constructive and factually supported thread. Shouldn't something like this take priority over new content?
[19:10] -} *[QT]Snake* All the recent updates and added content is fine, but what about some of the basic flaws this game has suffered from day one? I.E. There has been a thread in the Discussion Forum for over 6 weeks now with over 900 posts requesting the broken Riflemen profession to be looked into, and yet nothing has been done to even acknowledge that constructive and factually supported thread. Shouldn't something like this take priority over new content?
[19:10] {Wolfgang} *Markarian|Eclipse* Will the “extinct” pets ever come back, for example the Arachne Webmaster? And what about those pets who doesn’t have babies, such as the Fambaa?
[19:11] {Blair} We don't allow all creatures to become pets for balance reasons.
[19:11] {Blair} Also, some like the Fambaa are quite large.
[19:11] {Blair} We will add more creatures as pets as time goes on.
[19:11] {Wolfgang} *TheRealTK421* Question: Will mounts take up one of our 5 PCD (pet) slots in our Datapad or will you be extending this number to 6 (to include one 'mount' spot)??
[19:13] {oodBnar} Yes- a pet which becomes a mount will take up a slot in your datapad just like other pets. Number of stored pets will remain tied to skillmods.
[19:13] {Wolfgang} *Avatar* Do the devs honestly think it is fair that the holocrons drop off very challenging mobs that crafters and/or entertainers have no real chance in killing without joining a large group where ninja looting will be running rampant?
[19:14] {Blair} It's true that the current plan favors the combat classes. We are working on adding new ways to drop holocrons that I can't really comment on at the moment as it is top secret! But We do know that it is unfair and have a few ideas for solving this problem.
[19:16] {Wolfgang} *Eter* Why didn't the devs planned on releasing Mounts craftable for bioengineers? Their market is limited to selling only pet medicine and tissue cause the animals they make are either bugged or not really better than the ones CH can tame themselves, BE could have used the help by letting them craft at least one of the types of Mounts
[19:17] * Guest is now known as Guest5830960
[19:18] * Q-3PO pokes Jake to make him type faster.
[19:18] {oodBnar} mounts are craftable by BE's - I've been making Kaadus all day. . Bio engineers will get several new creatures to craft soon. The creatures that are bugged are being fixed.
[19:19] {oodBnar} and soon there will be a much better demand for their skill
[19:19] {Wolfgang} *BlindTyldak* Question on SWG Art: is there any chance that we may see the current creatures get new art so they are not such copies of one another? (Example, gurrek/wrix)
[19:20] {oodBnar} The creatures that exist now are hued different colors and scaled- that's all we have planned at the moment- but we have several ideas about making more changes, and adding several new creatures.
[19:21] {DV539_} No wonder this game is so slow to be fixed! These guys type like they haven't any fingers!
[19:21] {Wolfgang} {TimTheSloth} It has been over a month since the smuggler profession has had a specific developer comment directly or through our correspondent. When will smugglers and other neglected proffessions (SL, DE, Chef etc.) be able to hear specific answers to the issues and known bugs we have to deal with? Is there a program set up for regular reports from developers to correspondents?
[19:21] {Thunderheart_} I am currently working on a program with the Player Correspondents. The Correspondents gave me their feedback on reporting and we will have something in place by the end of next week. Once we get the process in place I encourage you to work with the Player Correspondents to get all the issues to the forefront.
[19:22] {Wolfgang} *Fionn* will there be a way to move objects in houses up or down without using stairs
[19:23] {Blair} The house placement interface is one of the worst in the game.
[19:23] {Blair} In fact, it may be the worst.
[19:23] {Blair} We are working on a new placement system that will make it a nice experience to place things in game.
[19:23] {Wolfgang} {Baredor} What is the status on the wildly unpopular death/incap penalty now on TC?
[19:23] {Thunderheart_} On the Death and Decay issue, we here your cries and the changes that are CURRENTLY ON TEST are: NO DECAY for incapped, 1% decay on death IF YOU ARE INSURED and 5% on death if you are not insured.
[19:25] {DV539_} Hey, they do listen!
[19:25] {Wolfgang} *Anaconda* Question to Devs: I have been on the Test Center recently to observe and test mounts. I feel quite uncomfortable about the idea of others having the ability to get on and ride off on your mount if you have gotten off of it. Will there be an option or improvement to make sure that your mount will be private to prevent theft?
[19:25] {DV539_} LOL
[19:26] {oodBnar} Yes- that is a bug that has been fixed, but isn't up on TC yet. You will only be able to ride your own pet.
[19:26] {Wolfgang} *[Avian]Warnel* Pets are slow when moving up hills, will mount use the terrain skills of their owner to help them keep a strong pace going up mountains?
[19:27] {oodBnar} They won't use the terrain skills of the owner, no
[19:28] {Wolfgang} *[Avian]Warnel* Are you going to relax the placement of buildings so that more space can be uses and we don't have to worry about small dips or ditches?
[19:28] {Blair} We can relax the placement of structures at any time, but don't have any plans to do that at this time.
[19:28] {Q-3PO} no worries
[19:29] {Blair} We have a lot of map area to lay structures out on, and with the introduction of player cities will help structures that are far away from designer cities.
[19:29] {Blair} We can always relax the limits though.
[19:29] {Wolfgang} *Onemanarmy253* What will happen to holocrons after jedi start appearing? Will you make them stop dropping or just make them much rarer?
[19:30] {Blair} Great question.
[19:30] {DV539_} Actually, I'm beginning to understand why the basics dysfunctions of this game don't get fixed. Because all the kooks who play it are interested in the unimportant things. Only three good question so far tonight...
[19:30] {Blair} We see holocrons as a part of the game now and have no plans on removing them.
[19:31] {DV539_} Then again, I'm only seeing the questiosn the Devs/QT's see fit to be answered...
[19:31] {Wolfgang} *Tecker* will mounts be banned from entering buildings while mounted (would make a noisey room) and also will mounts take damages while in battle?
[19:32] {oodBnar} You will not be able to enter a building while mounted
[19:32] {oodBnar} Yes- mounts will take damage- but they will not be able to attack
[19:34] {Wolfgang} *Sumer* Ronda, thanks for being our community relations specialist. Are you in charge of organizing SWG Conventions much like UO and EQ have had? Or is that still a bit far off? Thanks!
[19:34] {ronda_lucasarts} Hi Sumer. It's a great job to have And yes, I will be working with Q3PO on organizing
[19:34] {Q-3PO} We really looking forward to doing them. Player events are always fun.
[19:34] {ronda_lucasarts} the first SWG Fan event.
[19:34] {ronda_lucasarts} (well a series, actually)
[19:35] {DV539_} Sweet Fates, this is why the Internet should have never been publicly available!
[19:35] {Q-3PO} It won't be in this calendar year though
[19:35] {ronda_lucasarts} We're putting a lot of thought into the planning stages now.
[19:36] {Q-3PO} and looking at potential locations
[19:36] {Wolfgang} *Ossoi* can you ask if "are holocrons 100% essential to unlock force slot, or can you do it without them"
[19:37] {Blair} Holocrons are not essential to unlocking the slot.
[19:37] {DV539_} WEll duh
[19:37] {Wolfgang} {Csavin} with mounts coming in game, are there any plans to skew the game back to star wars and away from **edit**? CH's being so prevelant is starting to ruin the "starwarsiness" of it all
[19:37] {oodBnar} oohh..
[19:37] {DV539_} LOL
[19:38] * [QT]Snake chuckles
[19:38] {oodBnar} Well, we believe vehicles are going to help that a lot - and the fact that droid engineers will be much more powerful soon.
[19:39] {Q-3PO} Actually I hear George is going back and adding CG pets behind all the main characters in the special special edition of the original films... I'm kidding (don't kill me Ronda)
[19:39] {oodBnar} We are actively working on vehicles.
[19:39] {ronda_lucasarts} sigh @ Q3PO
[19:39] {DV539_} Well there's a ray of hope for teh DE...
[19:40] {Thunderheart_} Tomorrow, I will post the first first stage of our Droid Engineer plan
[19:41] {DV539_} Do I see progress? I think I do...
[19:41] {Wolfgang} *Cloudrak* What are you preparing for AFTER you put mounts and player cities live?
[19:41] {DV539_} How about fixing the game?
[19:41] {Blair} Great question. Vehicles is our next big priority after Player cities and mounts.
[19:41] {Q-3PO} The final act of The Cries of Alderaan story arc.
[19:42] {Q-3PO} and then prepare the prologue for the next story arc
[19:43] {Wolfgang} {Ranger_Richard[Sunrunner]} Why did you decide not to make Mount taming and training a master CH ability?
[19:45] {oodBnar} It is at a very high level-
[19:45] {oodBnar} but no it isn't a master level skill.
[19:46] {Wolfgang} {Riya|Naritus} Are there any plans to make ATSTs more than just a FP sink, I mean they get diseased/poisoined, can't be healed. No way to heal wounds. Soon won't be allowed in PvE and in PvP they die in seconds... they are just huge FP sink... any plan on making them not suck?
[19:46] {oodBnar} We're talking about reorganizing some things about the CH skill tree- I believe TH is going to post about it tomorrow...
[19:46] {Blair} Great question, this is something we struggle with a great deal over here.
[19:46] {Blair} When we started out, ATST ruled and essentially nothing could kill them.
[19:47] {Blair} We have a balance plan for the atst that I'd like for Thuderheart to post next week and get your feedback on.
[19:47] {Blair} We haven't completed the design yet.
[19:47] {Blair} So stay on the look out for that soon.
[19:48] {Blair} Lots of things need to happen to make them balanced though.
[19:48] {Wolfgang} *TomtheBitx* How will the winner in the Cries of Alderaan Act II be determined?
[19:48] {Q-3PO} The community had an excellent suggestion for us that we are implementing for Act 2. The winning side will be determined by which side gets more badges in ration to how many total members they have (covert and overt)
[19:49] {Q-3PO} So if there are more rebels than Imps on a server, your individual contribution is just as valuable to your side
[19:49] {Q-3PO} I hope that makes it seem more fair
[19:49] {Wolfgang} {ShadowLight} Are all 6 mounts the same speed or are some faster than others? How will the initial vehicles compare speed wise?
[19:50] {oodBnar} Mounted creatures typically run faster than a player, and their burst run speed will be relative to their natural run speed, but capped at some reasonable level.
[19:50] {oodBnar} Vehicles will typically be faster than mounts.
[19:50] {DV539_} *bangs his head into the desk*
[19:51] {Wolfgang} *[Avian]Warnel* I saw some old concepts of creatures in different armor and some in different saddles then what is shown in your creature update page. Is there any plan to allow mount owners to buy armor to protect their mounts? Or different saddles other then the default? Maybe a saddle that has storage space in it like a droid storage mod?
[19:51] {DV539_} *BAM!*
[19:51] {DV539_} *BAM!*
[19:51] {DV539_} *BAM!*
[19:51] {DV539_} *BAM!*
[19:51] {DV539_} *BAM!*
[19:52] {Blair} We've talked a lot about how armor would work for creatures.
[19:52] * Q-3PO apologizes that we have taken three questions from one person. It is not intentional, just didn't realize until it was live.
[19:52] {Blair} We've done some internal work on it to figure out the technical challanges as well.
[19:52] {DV539_} You mean how it might work if armor worked properly, along with AP?
[19:53] {Blair} I'm sure you will see armor on creatures at some point in the future, but it isn't on the plate at the moment.
[19:53] {oodBnar} Creature armor is too cool to not have in the game! We will do it eventually. (sorry J)
[19:53] {Wolfgang} *Boba* Question: Currently loot is terrible in SWG. Are there any plans to add more items to the loot tables to make hunting more worth the effort?
[19:53] {Wolfgang} [20:50] {Wolfgang} blair which one? avian?
[19:53] {Wolfgang} gah
[19:53] * [QT]Ghosty smacks wolf.
[19:53] {Blair} Good question.
[19:53] {Wolfgang} ignore my booboo =P
[19:53] {DV539_} LOL
[19:54] {Blair} We are working on adding lots of additional loot to the game at the moment.
[19:54] {DV539_} six minutes left to go...
[19:54] {Blair} One of the issues we have is we don't want to undermine the crafting market by adding loot that is better than what players can make.
[19:54] {Blair} However, getting cool loot from creatures and npcs is cool.
[19:55] {Blair} It is a difficult problem.
[19:55] {DV539_} You do realize you could make loot parts to craftable items?
[19:55] {Blair} We are working on adding different types of loot that isn't player crafted for one.
[19:55] {Blair} And we have a lot of ideas for non-weapon and armor loot as well.
[19:55] {Wolfgang} *Ramir* When players are riding a mount. Will there be any way to attack the mount in order to knock the rider off?
[19:55] {DV539_} Despite weapons and armor being a narrow choice to begin with?
[19:56] {oodBnar} You will be able to seperately target players and mounts, so effectively, yes.
[19:59] {Wolfgang} What's the status of the mounts and player cities publish on TC?
[19:59] {Blair} Good question.
[19:59] {DV539_} *BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!*
[20:00] {Blair} We have had a few TC stability issues getting this stuff working right.
[20:00] {Blair} We have a handful of issues we are working through, but expect to have this update live within the next 2 weeks.
[20:02] {ronda_lucasarts} And for those who want to see more of the coming mounts, some of our fansites will soon be hosting
[20:02] {ronda_lucasarts} short videos and concept art
[20:02] {ronda_lucasarts} check out swg.warcry.com and swgvault.ign.com and starwarsgalaxies.nl

There was one more question about Holocrons, but my window wouldn't let me highlight it for some reason.

Oh well, onto plan B.
email me for plan B.
|
V

You are a rifleman, you should be used to being ignored I am. If the changes to our defenses on test go live without ANY nerfs to us we should be ok.

Since there is a new pet nerf in the works, that is why I think we are getting some luv. They just won't talk to us for some reason.

Yep....completely ignored in the chat. My questions were never even acknowledged by the channel ops.

I think they also ignored it because if you notice the focus of the meeting was on mounts and housing, and that is pretty much what they talked about. If it was a meeting on classes and balancing and then you are ignored that is a different story. Think about it, if you came into a meeting planning on talking about one thing then a group of people try to scream out other things that had nothing to do with why you are here, what do you do?

I would have had said something along the lines of that is a legitamit question, but the people we have here today are working on other aspects of the game, and could not answer your question even if they want too...etc. Ignoring the question did seem a bit rude, but it was not why they were there.

I'd agree with you except for the following things... (quotes)

---

[19:01] {Wolfgang} Tonight's chat is focusing on "mounts and the recent update"

---

Is there any plans to give wookies some kind of armor or composite wookie gear?

---

Will the “extinct” pets ever come back, for example the Arachne Webmaster? And what about those pets who doesn’t have babies, such as the Fambaa?

---

is there any chance that we may see the current creatures get new art so they are not such copies of one another?

---

It has been over a month since the smuggler profession has had a specific developer comment directly or through our correspondent. When will smugglers and other neglected proffessions (SL, DE, Chef etc.) be able to hear specific answers to the issues and known bugs we have to deal with?

---

will there be a way to move objects in houses up or down without using stairs?

---

Are you going to relax the placement of buildings so that more space can be uses and we don't have to worry about small dips or ditches?

---

Are you in charge of organizing SWG Conventions much like UO and EQ have had? Or is that still a bit far off?

---

Are there any plans to make ATSTs more than just a FP sink?

---

Currently loot is terrible in SWG. Are there any plans to add more items to the loot tables to make hunting more worth the effort?

---

Not very focused on the topic, eh? And that was more than half the questions asked!

Plus, these chats do little for the development if they don't reveal the true problems. Their priority list muct be scrambled.

Wow it was like you guys wernt even in the chat. That hasnt happened to me since highschool prom a decade ago. lol

I don't understand..... :?

AWWWWW

THE POOR BHS ARE SAD THEY GOT IGNORED TOO

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=bounty_hunter&message.id=83733

So? **edit** them, they have eyeshot, they should be gratefull. Stupid bastards...