Smuggler Archive
Thread: Smuggler delay
JustG wrote:
Folks,
I totally understand how angry you are right now. I can't tell you how difficult it is for us to have to move your revamp back... but I really do feel that it is the right thing to do for all parties concerned, and for the overall state of the game. The large systems we are revamping really need our full attention. We have been absolutely killing our designers, and they need to have a life. This means not crunching them 7 days a week for months at a time.
We did not want to rush out some crappy revamp for you in order to fulfil our commitment. We also strongly feel that some aspect of smuggling should be done in space, so it makes sense to do it after JTL. I am so sorry, but I think it is better to be straight up with you guys than to mislead you about what we can do, or put out something that we, and you, are not going to be proud of.
We are at the FF right now, so TH and I are going to be fairly unavailable at this time, but we will spend some time with you next week.
Again, my apologies, but we want to make your profession all it can be. We can't do that right now, but we will.
thx,
- Gary
Mr. Gattis, as the Sr. Producer, I hold you personally accountable for the failings in this game, and make no mistake about it, this is a failing of the greatest magnitude. You have lied to us, you have failed to maintain open and honest communication with us, and you have failed to provide a profession (several, actually) that is by your own admission not viable without the purchase of an expansion pack. In September of 2003, Blair outlined the minimum fixes to our profession, and Raph Koster added specificity to them on his way out. And now you're telling us that you are incapable of providing those fixes until 14-16 months after you received them. It's that kind of incompetence that has caused your division's operating profits to drop 40% over the last year and is driving your customers away. You should be ashamed.
I just want to know why Image Designers were revamped before Smugglers.
I would like to see a logical explanation for that one.
Sapperlight wrote:
Mr. Gattis, as the Sr. Producer, I hold you personally accountable for the failings in this game, and make no mistake about it, this is a failing of the greatest magnitude. You have lied to us, you have failed to maintain open and honest communication with us, and you have failed to provide a profession (several, actually) that is by your own admission not viable without the purchase of an expansion pack. In September of 2003, Blair outlined the minimum fixes to our profession, and Raph Koster added specificity to them on his way out. And now you're telling us that you are incapable of providing those fixes until 14-16 months after you received them. It's that kind of incompetence that has caused your division's operating profits to drop 40% over the last year and is driving your customers away. You should be demoted or fired.
Fixed.
This is ridiculous. I can't even begin to express how I feel about this in the face of everyone else having spent so much time doing so. I'd just be echoing the same thoughts over and over.
I will, however, blurt out what comes to mind first:
**edit**. JEDI.
This game was CREATED in the ESB timeline. Your complete failure to provide content and solid game mechanic to support and envince that timeline is reprehensible. Is this just a game? Yep. It's just a game I've spend hundreds of dollars on since launch, and I'm getting god damn tired of doing so.
You're using eye-candy publishes to keep up a sense of "attention" to professions, and it's all been nothing but bull**edit**. The Jedi are cash cows. They weren't a planned part of this game (in the sense that they're now going to be overused far too present for an enjoyable gaming atmosphere), and you've just exploited the crap out of a player base's desire to play these characters. The problem here? You've never listened to a god damn thing the playerbase has ever wanted, unless it guaranteed money.
I fully expect to find this post modded in the morning, and not because it's blatant disregard for the rules, but because we're all **edit**ing livid, and SOE's SW:G boards have a long history of squelching negative feedback.
What I want from the dev team: (And am NOT going to see) a complete restructuring of priorities, pushing Jedi out of the way of the CORE GAME PROBLEMS, and letting whatever players willing to grind to do so, and move back to fixing the professions you've left broken for MONTHS. Hire more staff. Spend the damn money we're sending you. Push of the JtL, because you ARE NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO IMPLEMENT IT WITHOUT IGNORING THE BASIC GROUND GAME STRUCTURE.
It's not a secret: With your coming combat balance, there will be bugs and weeks(months) of fixes to publish. Same for your vaunted Jedi revamp. Hell, it's ALREADY a complete failure on TC. JtL is an entirely new gaming engine, and you think we're going to buy into the unbelievably thin lie that you have any intention of working a ground-based class into an unfinished game design?
Where does your bull**edit** end?
Basically like everyone else, Ill be quitting this game now as well. Wanderhome is almost deserted as I am sure many other servers are as well. This game is done for, and their lack of any vision but JEDI is obvious. So unless you all want to play a JEDI only game with 100s of gay jedi's runing around, im sure you will be quitting too.
Well i'm glad the jedi system is getting fixed, while i agree they're focusing too much on them, we all have to be realistic here, jedi, like it or not, are a big part of Star wars and its mythology. So we just gotta deal with it. Hopefully things will get better in the future
as for myself, i cant quit... tried all the other mmo's out there and they're all horrible in my opinion and i at least still have some fun with my PA so for now i'll stay... really couldnt leave over a year of working and my smuggler out in the dust to get deleted... besides i paid for a year in advance in march so since i already paid the funds... why not ride it out?
Better not hold your breath for EQ2 either. That is from sony as well, you actually think they would destroy a cash cow with another cash cow? Sony is here for money not your entertainment. EQ2 will never be realeased as long as EQ is making steady money. Just wont happen.
I'm very sorry to hear this. I am not presently a smuggler, but was hoping Publish 10 would give me a reason toreturn to the profession and stay with the game. Now that won't happen.
I am finished with this game. The clock is winding down.
JustG,
To be honest, I understand the decision to put off smuggler until after JTL. It does make sense to spend the time to so the rvamp right and get the tie-ins available with JTL. However, I would expect to see something really spectacular for the wait. Also, please don't comepletely drop this on the back burner. Keep up some discussion about features that are being kicked around, listen to some of the ideas in the smugglers forum and make sure you leave time in the schedule to get them implemented. This will make everyone happier in the long run.
Off the cuff ideas:
Special smuggling missions (like BH missions, but with smuggler skills involved and given by NPCs instead of terminals).
Some more tie ins with the GCW, more than just getting coverts past the scanners.
Advantages in pilotting with additional risks: "I know a few manuevers... We'll lose'm." Han Solo Remember, he also charged a star destroyer after unsuccessfully using an astroid field to lose said destroyer- not what one might consider "safe" courses of action. 
Ability to "temporarily" fix/boost machines. Great if they don't blow up in your face (which should happen with repeated attempts).
Message Edited by ScDarkKnight on 06-05-2004 02:16 AM