Scout Archive

Sorry if that seemed a little aggressive, Delta. That wasn't my intent... Your post really did come across as doom and gloom to me so I sort of had to focus on why I don't feel that way. This issue needs to stand or fall on its own merits in my eyes, so I sort of went off when a lot of your supporting arguments were how worthless we were. I'm passionate when my beloved profession is called worthless, I hope you can understand. My apologies.

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Back to vehicles - I have seen lots of supposed-Scouts on discussion board posts say they don't like the requirement, and even more non-scouts. Maybe you missed that thread Holo recently responded to. It was a very strong call for removing the requirements for vehicles and was enough to make Raph rethink his position (not necessarily support it, but actively look into it). While he is open-minded, he can be stubborn about changing in-game systems if good reasoning is not presented to him.

I also don't think it has strong support within the Scout community. Our profession board gets so little traffic (because we work too well compared to many broken professions) that you cannot get a consensus here. (I haven't seen this consensus you claim anyways.) You have to move out to the other boards on this issue because it affects so many others.

Those have been in the game since launch - and apparently the Devs thought that it was a good idea. So good, that it's still in the game 7 months later.

Between player cities, mounts and vehicles, many things good or bad have been in the game for 7 months. For all but creature handlers, this is a new issue as well. Length of existance isn't really a valid argument considering we still have plenty of bugs and balance issues that need addressing.

While reducing bugs would lessen the impact, they also serve to highlight what could be a problem in other situations. Logging out, disconnecting, having your vehicle trashed (when we can have more), or the (hopefully) rare auto-store. These would still exist and be just as annoying to the few it happened to.

No one had a problem with needing a camp to pull out a pet.

Before vehicles, people did have a huge problem with calling pets and droids. The creature handlers have been up in arms about it since the game went live. It was considered a handler issue until now though because it only invovled them. When everyone got mounts it became a general issue. With vehicles it became even more general. Most people don't even consider it a "Scout" issue so they never post about it here.

And I was definately wrong about one thing. You don't need to re-evaluate your stances on anything. You're entitled to your opinion as much as myself or the next Scout.

You do need to re-evaluate OUR stance on this issue, however, because I do not think it has near the amount of support you feel it does.

Oh, and kaspers, I don't want it all without paying for it. I am a Ranger which requires I master scout. I can make any camp in existance and have the crates to do so on a whim. I paid the price a long time ago.

I am discussing (ranting about) this based purely on the FUN and necessity of a game mechanic.

I have to say, this has gotten quiet out of the original post. My problem is not the scout profession at all, it is the fact that it is required to have access to a major in game item. I am already a Scout, so those of you taking my post as whining need to re-think your arguments.

So far, we have come up with only three solutions:

One is removing the vehicles from camps completely (making them only generate from garages, or even only cities) The garage idea, while a good one to a degree, doesn't fix the problem, andwould cause an insane amount of lag at the cities, and possible crashes, because Everyone would be required to pull out their speeder at the garage. I already have lag out in the wild pulling out my speeder alone, imagine 50 or so people doing it at the same loc, at the same time.

Another is the creation of a new camp, which non-scouts could use. This camp would have no benefits at all, and would only give the user the ability to generate their vehicle, and probably pets. This is an interesting idea. However, it WOULD take away from scout. For example, Dr. Snuffy pulls out this camp, then pulls out his droid, he can now heal anywhere in the wild - I don't want this to happen because then the scout camps become useless.

The last one, is the lifting of vehicle generation from camps and cities, to anywhere outside. It would fix the problem, without hurting anyone's profession, and it would cause less trouble when someone gets kicked, or a bug causes their speeder to auto-store.

Any other ideas?

Mighty Rufkin (lol - mighty is good btw)

Master Scout

Master Marksman

Bounty Hunter - second holo

Master Commando - retired

Master Musician - first holo, retired

Master Entertainer - retired

Ruf,

That's a good synopsis of the issue as it stands right now.

Personally, I'd like to see them fix the auto-storing bug first, and then we'll see what impact that has on the game. If it's still annoying, then we can go back and start from there.

B

I think the whole idea of whipping pets and speeders out of thin air... CAMP or NOCAMP is a lame idea in whole 8 ) I think you should have too keep your pets at home and park yer speeder in a garage just like they have too in rl and in the Starwarsmovies.. this isn't BEAM ME UP Scotty!.. this is LUKE I AM YOUR FATHER we are talking about..
#! If you're on a speeder, u can't have a pet out, if you have a pet out, he can't be dissintegrated and reintegrated in the middle of nowhere.. sounds like a good idea too me. I also think it should apply too atst's also so that in the middle of a firefight in Bestine some1 cant just say weeeee and have a Giant Killing machine pop out of nowhere and kill like 10 ppl lol!
Also I think having related skill sets should give a bonus too the whole package for instance if some1 has ranger skills and ch skills he should be able too tame and control better and more numerous pets..

rant concluded lol

While an interesting thought D3adman, if you're going to cripple one profession, cripple them all. You shouldn't be allowed to carry more than one rifle and one pistol at all times. And forget taking armor on and off instantly. Inventory space of sixty items, nah you can only hold two or three at best. The list of annoying mechanics that could be added are endless.

Make things too annoying and no one will bother to play.

In a game, realism must sometimes be sacrificed for feasibility, balance, and FUN. While I can be a bit aggressive in regards to camps and pulling things out, I am doing it with an understanding that these three things are key. Defining the lines for these three things needs to be decided first before we try to make it feel realistic.

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As many of you may recall, you guys had a really big long thread on this in “Thunderheart and why camps are required to call mounts" back on December 4th. (I know because I do keep track of this stuff.)

It’s an important issue and it’s a really fundamental design issue. It’s not a small issue. Some of the biggest exploits are pet calling and storing in strategic combat situations (which is bad) and there are some other problems to consider, but you folks kept at me. There were many positive, well thought out posts and that is always what sways me.

So what I did was go back to the source and sent Raph an email and we challenged each other. After our email dialogue, Raph took some time, logged into the forums and read through the thread. He reviewed the existing design and his exact words were, “yeah we should probably remove the camp requirement because of the post-launch changes made to the game”. I brought the issue to the team with compelling arguments and I stressed that this is a very very important issue to the community and we are changing it for Publish 7 (that isn’t this publish, but the next).

A player will not be able to call a pet/mount/vehicle while incapacitated or dead.

A player will not be able to call a pet/mount/vehicle if they are at or exceed their max level limit or number of type limit for that classification of follower.

A player will not be able to call a pet/mount/vehicle while indoors.

A player will not be able to call a pet/mount/vehicle during combat or 60 seconds after combat is concluded (For technical reasons, it has to be 60 seconds to prevent certain kinds of grief).

So there you have it. You said you wanted it changed, it’s a change that’s good for the game and its changed

(Expect this change to go in effect in Publish 7 which will be mid-to-late February)

Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl
Assistant Community Relations Manager

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Well, there it is. Our voices can make changes in this game. Although it might take some time a month is what they seem to think, I can't wait to see it happen.

Rufkin

Yes, and if camps improve because of it the scouting profession will be better off.

We hope.

B