Smuggler Archive
Thread: An open letter to the Devs about Smuggling. (Have a heart :( )
Nicely put, Saarek.
Cryptic (City of Heroes) just blows SOE away. Sure, the game has it's (relatively minor) problems, but honestly... the Lead Designer, himself, gets his hands dirty. All the time. I still play CoH, and I always feel valued as a paying customer and as aplayer.
SOE: bigger doesn't always mean better. You'd be wise to realise that....
SpinningCloud wrote:
Taln2 wrote:
As I see it, the sooner devs finish Jedi, the better for the rest of the game.
This is software. I can tell you positively that 'finished software' is an oxymoron.
Seriously, do you really think they're ever going to "finish Jedi"?
One thing to consider is the reason for all the nerfs and "Jedi-centric publishes." SOE is tryingto make the FRS a level playing field before implementing it, rather than putting it in and having it be dominated by a single template. Effectively, the 5 Jedi trees are a star schema, in which each treecan effectively (at least in theory) counter another tree or two. Defender to counter saber, saber to counter powers, powers to counter defender, and so on. The actual implementation is not as clear as the definition SOE gives, as anyone who's played a Jedi will tell you (IMO SOE's conceptual design is and has always beenvery, very flawed with SWG for some reason).
Taln2 wrote:
SpinningCloud wrote:
Taln2 wrote:
As I see it, the sooner devs finish Jedi, the better for the rest of the game.
This is software. I can tell you positively that 'finished software' is an oxymoron.
Seriously, do you really think they're ever going to "finish Jedi"?
The answer is convoluted: yes, and no -- at the same time.Yes, because the Jedi framework is not in place. The FRS is missing thus cutting off half the total profession from it's functionality. It's much like how we're missing smuggling, although in our case we can still master the smuggler profession, whereas Jedi will be stuck at "Master Padawan" until they get a functional FRS.
One thing to consider is the reason for all the nerfs and "Jedi-centric publishes." SOE is trying to make the FRS a level playing field before implementing it, rather than putting it in and having it be dominated by a single template. Effectively, the 5 Jedi trees are a star schema, in which each tree can effectively (at least in theory) counter another tree or two. Defender to counter saber, saber to counter powers, powers to counter defender, and so on. The actual implementation is not as clear as the definition SOE gives, as anyone who's played a Jedi will tell you (IMO SOE's conceptual design is and has always been very, very flawed with SWG for some reason).Thus, no, they'll still need to fine tune it once the FRS is in. However, those will only be minor tweaks and modifications and NOT revamps, which is a much preferable situation for the rest of the game overall. Small balances are much easier to patch in than completely rewriting professions.
That's a larf if you think the FRS being reimplemented will be the end of jedi publishes.
And, they had an FRS. Sure, it sucked, but they had their class content. BH's have their class content. We have yet to get it, EVER. Two years this game's been live. And they've been talking about smuggling for at least FIVE years.
Someone else needs to go on the back burner for once, because WE are almost "finished" too.
maxtheusher wrote:
Force Ranking System. When you hit Knighthood, you enter the FRS, in which you have to compete with other jedi for Ranks within the council. These ranks give you extra skills and stuff. And knowing the devs, when it's brought back into the game, will give you access to like, new lightsabers and money and godlike powers and a giant tyranosaurus or something. Probably spices too
Right on. Maybe Jedi ireally is the right path...
maxtheusher wrote:
Taln2 wrote:
SpinningCloud wrote:
Taln2 wrote:
As I see it, the sooner devs finish Jedi, the better for the rest of the game.
This is software. I can tell you positively that 'finished software' is an oxymoron.
Seriously, do you really think they're ever going to "finish Jedi"?
The answer is convoluted: yes, and no -- at the same time.
Yes, because the Jedi framework is not in place. The FRS is missing thus cutting off half the total profession from it's functionality. It's much like how we're missing smuggling, although in our case we can still master the smuggler profession, whereas Jedi will be stuck at "Master Padawan" until they get a functional FRS.
One thing to consider is the reason for all the nerfs and "Jedi-centric publishes." SOE is trying to make the FRS a level playing field before implementing it, rather than putting it in and having it be dominated by a single template. Effectively, the 5 Jedi trees are a star schema, in which each tree can effectively (at least in theory) counter another tree or two. Defender to counter saber, saber to counter powers, powers to counter defender, and so on. The actual implementation is not as clear as the definition SOE gives, as anyone who's played a Jedi will tell you (IMO SOE's conceptual design is and has always been very, very flawed with SWG for some reason).
Thus, no, they'll still need to fine tune it once the FRS is in. However, those will only be minor tweaks and modifications and NOT revamps, which is a much preferable situation for the rest of the game overall. Small balances are much easier to patch in than completely rewriting professions.
That's a larf if you think the FRS being reimplemented will be the end of jedi publishes.
And, they had an FRS. Sure, it sucked, but they had their class content. BH's have their class content. We have yet to get it, EVER. Two years this game's been live. And they've been talking about smuggling for at least FIVE years.
Someone else needs to go on the back burner for once, because WE are almost "finished" too.
Right - the operative phrase being HAD a FRS. And it did suck, so much so that it wasn't worth more than titles (the bonuses derrived from FRS rank were less benefit than even force sensitive boxes - they were straight bonuses to some force related attributes, that's ALL). Right now,the FRSiscompletely disabled. Again, it's much like our ability to smuggle, at least, according to the developers.They have it as bad as we do at the moment, that's why I cut a little slack. Once the FRS goes live, then future publishes won't beAS Jedi-centric as they are now, aside from the occasional tweaks (even if they're every publish, they'll still be "minor").
If thedevs really wanted to do it, they could put in whatever they had for smuggling right now, and then we'd be on par with what Jedi had in the old FRS -- a bunch of crap, albeit "functional" crap. Frankly, I'd rather them complete what they need to do first. FRS is a prime issue especially with how many Jedi are currently "running amok" and "destroying star wars." I believe FRS is the devs' answer to the "Jedi problem" that so many (including myself)complain about on a frequent basis.
But, all that aside,should we (the customers) continue to whine, complain, beg, murder, maim, and kill for our revamp? Absolutely! That's our job. =)
MISTagent01 wrote:Well....I basically got b****ed out after I called SOE last week. I won't say who, I won't say what was said....but I can't call there anymore.But needless to say.......if that person was as irate as they sounded on the phone, the future of the Smuggler is looking really bleak.
Wait, I don't really understand what's going on. Were they mad because you called asking questions, or because smuggler stuff had been gutted? Or what?
Taln2 wrote:Right - the operative phrase being HAD a FRS. And it did suck, so much so that it wasn't worth more than titles (the bonuses derrived from FRS rank were less benefit than even force sensitive boxes - they were straight bonuses to some force related attributes, that's ALL).
I somehow doubt that most of the Jedi Knight population was up on their guildhall roofs 24/7 for something that "wasn't worth more than titles"...
riotcontrol wrote:
Taln2 wrote:
Right - the operative phrase being HAD a FRS. And it did suck, so much so that it wasn't worth more than titles (the bonuses derrived from FRS rank were less benefit than even force sensitive boxes - they were straight bonuses to some force related attributes, that's ALL).
I somehow doubt that most of the Jedi Knight population was up on their guildhall roofs 24/7 for something that "wasn't worth more than titles"...
It's true though. I forget the exact numbers, but each level up the ladder only gave really insignificant amounts of force power (IE the pool they draw from) and regeneration. That's IT. The smart ones fight clubbed it, and just said 'forget about it' after they got up to about rank 4+ which was too difficult to maintain without daily PvP. I was among the few that helped out.
In retrospect, it's a humorousstory so I'll share two small anecdotes about it.
The first one was with the first of Bloodfin's 'Jedi Death Squad' (not naming specific names here, just in case). In order to rank them, they found out that the system effectively recorded 10 kills and reset their kill list on the 11th. That was SOE's first attempt to stop "fight clubbing," and a miserable one at that. The guild and friends of the guild gathered in the cloning station(about 15 people overall), lined up to duel and get db'd by a trio of Jedi, one by one. It was like a FRS factory in there since we did it for hours. In retrospect, I'm really saddened I don't have pictures or a fraps'd movie of it. It was hilarious.
The second anecdote is equally as apalling: again, another jedi figured out the "11th kill reset," but he hated the idea of having to db other people. So, he went out and bought 11 accounts, named each character 'victim # X,' and effectively ran a multibox macro togrind his way to rank 7. He was eventually disappointed with the lack of power that came with rank 7 and gave up the accounts (especially after FRS maintenance went UP - he would have had to do that for about an hour each day to keep his rank intact).
Needless to say, it was a good thing that fight clubbing and the various other extents people went tocame out while the FRS was borked, otherwise we'd have a REAL mess on our hands.
