Smuggler Archive
Thread: Wes the critical issue for the Smuggler profession?
MISTagent01 wrote:
Jaspor wrote:
HOTDOG wrote:
How difficult is it to install something that is "already completed except for the dialogue"? How difficult is it to insert something that has already been through several stages of the QA process and is near completion? This is what they told us- right?
I think it's fairly safe to say that whoever said this was blatantly lying.Where did this info come from again anyways, the FanFest? Anybody got a name we can lynch.. errr... I mean hold accountable for claiming this?As far as our Critical Issues go, I think Wes got them right considering he's discouraged from using the S-word. One other I might throw in there would be putting Knockdown back on Low Blow (like it is supposed to be, no?) to give our Crowd Control ability a tiny boost that it needs to get closer to a 5.
It was E3, it was me, and I spoke to GreenMarine. Since he's not with the company anymore, I suppose I'm the one to lynch.
So lynch away.
Instead of a lynching, how about some good old fashioned bondage?
There will be beer and pie of course!
And, yes, it was nine (9) days before release that the patch to allow trainers to teach Novice Smuggler was pushed to beta Bria and Ahazi. The decision to go ahead with launch was the reason I decided not to play at release. I waited until December, and the problem (obviously) was still there: Smuggler was incomplete. Here we are two years after release, and smuggler still is incomplete.
WesBelden wrote:
EEMAN wrote:
This was the original concept. The fact of the matter is "The games original design did not include smuggling quests" is only a half truth. The whole truth is the smuggling design/development never launched. The game was a year behind in development and LucasArts made the announcement that the game would go live Jun 26th which was as late as possible a date and still have a sales boost for the 2nd quarter earnings report. Two weeks before the game went live was the first time a smuggler trainer even showed up in beta. It was never beta tested, it was never alpha tested. It was never even designed. Some programmers put in some serious overtime just to get slicing and spicing out the door and thats why quality of tools never mattered.
Can you remember where that was discussed? Was it by devs in the forums/in the game?
it was in the forums.. it was also on their website for complete public viewing. Not written by someone off the street but actually in the FAQ section. In fact it was trumpeted to the extent that it bragged greatly of the interdependancies of the professions. Crafters werent a soup-to-nuts operation.. they were to be interdependant. Manufacterers and designers were independant since the empire restricted trade everywhere those sort of things had to be smuggled back and forth. I remember telling everyone I knew about the concepts when they were discussed and how wonderful this game was going to be. Two of my 3 accounts are friends that tried the game based on my feedback and then got really upset with it because it didnt live up to anywhere near the FAQ's and forum feedback.
Hey Wes, I think you may want to ask Keck if he can find anything from the pre/beta boards. He's come up with a couple things from back then somehow a couple times.
I too remember them discussing it. Back then they were constantly bouncing things off the the people on the boards to see what they thought. They'd refine an idea until it was something they could implement and was still reasonable to code.
As another person said, the launch got pushed and that stuff got cut back big time. They had to go with what they had, with what they could get done in time, and Smuggler was definitely on the short end of the stick on that one. But yeah, it was discussed by developers back then.
SmugglinZane wrote:Hey Wes, I think you may want to ask Keck if he can find anything from the pre/beta boards. He's come up with a couple things from back then somehow a couple times.
I too remember them discussing it. Back then they were constantly bouncing things off the the people on the boards to see what they thought. They'd refine an idea until it was something they could implement and was still reasonable to code.
As another person said, the launch got pushed and that stuff got cut back big time. They had to go with what they had, with what they could get done in time, and Smuggler was definitely on the short end of the stick on that one. But yeah, it was discussed by developers back then.
Thanks, I'll drop him a line.
I'm pretty sure it was him, but if I'm wrong, someone correct me. If anyone knows how to get ahold of anything from back then please let us know how.
WesBelden wrote:
Thanks, I'll drop him a line.
SmugglinZane wrote:
Hey Wes, I think you may want to ask Keck if he can find anything from the pre/beta boards. He's come up with a couple things from back then somehow a couple times.
I too remember them discussing it. Back then they were constantly bouncing things off the the people on the boards to see what they thought. They'd refine an idea until it was something they could implement and was still reasonable to code.
As another person said, the launch got pushed and that stuff got cut back big time. They had to go with what they had, with what they could get done in time, and Smuggler was definitely on the short end of the stick on that one. But yeah, it was discussed by developers back then.
EEMAN wrote:
This was the original concept. The fact of the matter is "The games original design did not include smuggling quests" is only a half truth. The whole truth is the smuggling design/development never launched. The game was a year behind in development and LucasArts made the announcement that the game would go live Jun 26th which was as late as possible a date and still have a sales boost for the 2nd quarter earnings report. Two weeks before the game went live was the first time a smuggler trainer even showed up in beta. It was never beta tested, it was never alpha tested. It was never even designed. Some programmers put in some serious overtime just to get slicing and spicing out the door and thats why quality of tools never mattered.
Can you remember where that was discussed? Was it by devs in the forums/in the game?
EEMAN wrote:
Makris wrote:
SmugglinZane wrote:
WesBelden wrote:
It was strongly put that just bugs of a serious nature should be listed, along with an emphasis on not including feature requests... and given the last time I submitted one of these (not too long ago) I included "we can't smuggle", I thought I might abstain from doing so this time
And that sir, is the fundamental problem. They look at it as a feature request, we look at it as game breaking bug that's over 2 years old.
Maybe you can post a follow up to them that asks how we get them to change their attitude regarding this. The fact that we cannot make smuggling our number one issue is a huge problem. Right now, you'd be much better to convey this than I would. Hearing this, even though I already knew it, really pisses me off.
How do we change this attitude? When are they going to hear us that this is game breaking, not a want for a new feature? When are we going to see them actually follow through with their stated intentions for us?
We are now going to have the "features" of other professions worked on when we have never had ours, and we can't even make an issue of it. Nothing against the BH community, but they've had more work done to their bounty system than we've seen done to our slicing system... which isn't even what Smuggler should be about, and now they get to list a "problem" with their "feature" when we can't even list our lack of a "feature" as a problem.
This is some serious BS, and someone needs to come explain all this to us. No double talk. No changing their wording because it sounds less inflamatory. They need to come here, spend more than a couple days and explain where the disconnect in their perception of our profession is. It's gonna take a serious IRC chat or a good couple days of honest talking with us through the forums to clear this up.
THIS IS WHY PEOPLE ARE CANCELLING THEIR ACCOUNTS SOE SO FIX IT!!!
I want to agree with you, but I can't. The games original design did not include smuggling quests. So the fact that we still can't smuggle is not a bug, but a change request or an update. If Wes or any of us would log that as a bug, they would immediately close it as WAD (Working as Designed).
I am agreeing that this is a HUGE HUGE HUGE problem, but it's not a bug that they need to fix. My understanding of this report that correspondants need to submit is for break/fix issues. I may be wrong.
I do, however, agree that the waiting for content is unacceptable. I guess I'll be flamed, but oh well.
Actually it WAS supposed to be part of the original game design. There was a lot of pre-alpha discussion about roles and the concept that one person made items and another person had to smuggle them to other planets for distribution was definitely in development. In fact the original player bounty system was specifically targeted for THIS not for jedi. It went like this.. Design planner A needs plans smuggled to a factory on Yavin IV so he hires a courier (aka smuggler) to take the plans to said factory. Said courier, in order to take the asigned task, must put up a financial retainer in order to transport said data. If the transaction is successful the courier (smuggler) recovered his retainer along with payment for delivery. If the courier failed or the courier decided to keep the plans for himself to perhaps make more credits on the side, the retainer was used as bounty for the death of said courier.
This was the original concept. The fact of the matter is "The games original design did not include smuggling quests" is only a half truth. The whole truth is the smuggling design/development never launched. The game was a year behind in development and LucasArts made the announcement that the game would go live Jun 26th which was as late as possible a date and still have a sales boost for the 2nd quarter earnings report. Two weeks before the game went live was the first time a smuggler trainer even showed up in beta. It was never beta tested, it was never alpha tested. It was never even designed. Some programmers put in some serious overtime just to get slicing and spicing out the door and thats why quality of tools never mattered.
I hope you're right. To play devil's advocate, I think we need some evidence that this was part of the design and not just a concept. I would think if that were the case, we could bug this.