Smuggler Archive

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RankorCity wrote:

3) Is there another Star Wars MMORPG out there we dont know about? I cant imagine that WoW is going to introduce Hoth, Capitol Ships, or Mustafar (sp?)....

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Excellent point on #3 btw.

Doh, I had one question I really wanted to be answered in the Chat, but I could not make it...
Maybe you could answer it, although I doubt it falls wihtin the parameters of public information...


What does "Lava-Like" Lightsaber mean? And if it means what most of us are thinking... can you PLEASE not do it?



I really don't like to sound disrespectful, but after reading the available information, that is all that goes through my mind... it sounds very disappointing.

Not the end of the world, but not what I want to hear from this game at all.

Tell me it's just a reddish/orange color and nothing else Tiggs... but only if that's the truth. :/


- Omadda Szool
Kauri

May the force be with you.

Message Edited by omadnay on 08-25-2005 11:52 PM

It is estimated that 75% who have played swg have quit already. How many more have to quit before soe takes project management of the game seriously?

For you special math folks, that's 3 out of 4 people.

(1 million units sold, ~225k active accounts)




/

My concern with the expansion is from an RP aspect. What does a smuggler or Bounty Hunter (my two characters) care what an old ghost dude (Obi-wan) thinks of them. And my decisions reflect whether or not i go light side or dark side? My characters are not jedi, so what do they care? That is where the frustration comes from. And i know HK47 is making an appearance, but i dont think he is worth paying an extra $25 for.

The main problem most smugglers have is that Tiggs posted on the Smuggler forums that Smuggler missions were put on the long term so they can focus on bug fixes. And that they were not going to focus any on new content, just bug fixes. And just like that, 3 weeks later, they release info about a new expansion. As mentioned before, the jedi have their endgame. From what i hear you did good for the Creature Handlers with the mini revamp over the last few publishes (which is a good thing), but Squad leader, Ranger, Smuggler, and Commando are still dieing for a bit of your time and some information.

Here is what will happen (like it did with JTL and ROTW).

1. You will promise "Soon" after the expansion hits,


2. Then you precious expansion will have loads of bugs,


3. We will be told that you cant focus on new content cause you need to fix bugs


4. Just as you are nearing fixing the major bugs............A NEW EXPANSION


5. See Step One

No one can deny that has been the pattern.

Whether or not we see a break in this pattern... only time will tell.

I'll consult the Eye of Mesra...




- Omadda Szool
Kauri

May the Mesra be with you.

I'd like to drop another note here:
The topic was very narrow (the new Expansion and the XP Fiasko) which was a very understandable thing. A general chat would not be very effective focus is definetly needed, no complaints there.

But like others already said there are a few main issues with how you handled that event (that we all looked forward to because we are thirsting for information about this topic that is so important to us, about our game and its direction)

1. The question if Mustafar was only for the alpha class was answered a few times. That is nonsense. It was specifically stated that spamming a question would not get it answered but still the same question got answered again and again. That was a waste of precious time (in my opinion).
   
2. Questions focussing on the actual expansion content (like you asked for) were almost completely answered with "We cannot tell you anything right now but you'll love it". In the announcement on the LucasArts Homepage was more detailled information than yesterday. Why not at least throw in a hint or two, what new type of ships we'll be able to get, what kind of reward Obi-Wan may give out or how the quests will be. Why not throw in a thing like "You know how quests in SWG right now are almost all about killing the target? In the expansion you'll be able to solve matters more civilized, if you chose so!" That is the kind of information we'd all like to see.
   
3. The answer to question about the XP thing in the beginning was like this:
   

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   Aug 25 02:10:43 Brannoc *Erif* What are some of the goals for the new expansion? and. What was the Idea behind the expierence publish that was put out, why was it put into effect?
   
   Aug 25 02:10:56 Rogue_5 For the expansion we want to include more story driven quests associated with the Episode III movie. We thought that Mustafar would be a very unique and exciting setting unlike anything currently in our game.
   
   Aug 25 02:11:09 Rogue_5 Our changes in Publish 22 to the group experience went too far. We were trying to fix an unintended gameplay mechanic which we introduced with the Combat Upgrade. However, players liked the rapid pace of advancement that existed in the game and were enjoying the more casual play it offered. We heard your feedback and worked to quickly revert out the change.
   

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   Notice the timestamp? I believe Rogue_5 is a fast typer but not that fast. Most other questions took some time to answer (which is normal) but that one was just copy and pasted (IMHO).
   If you just wanted to pick up an easy question about XP fiasko and throw in a repeated excuse, why not just start the chat with the excuse and be done with it?
   I only know my questions (I mainly asked about my on your ideas how to improve the community involved testing process to make it better for the players and especially more effective for the developers.) but was that all you had to say about it? Where was a statement about your future intention? Will you slow XP gain down? Change it? What are your plans? That Chat would have been a perfect place for a statement.
   

While I had to smile about a few of the names, admittedly some were not really "funny" but definetly ban-worthy and I guess we're all sad that that had to happen and maybe even poisoned the athmosphere a little, there's not excuse for some /nicks.
But you Tiggs and the other developers will have to realize that we have heard enough corporate bull****. Talk to us in plain english without trying to say nothing in many words.
Speak normal English with us. Be honest. Throw some hints in so we can all speculate and guess what it really means (cause that actually is fun! ), but don't give people the feeling much of the time they waited in the chat was wasted time.

Edit: made it a little more readable.

Message Edited by Tante on 08-26-2005 06:08 AM

Thanks for the posting of the HoC logs. Frankly, I gave up on them as an utter waste of time well over a year ago. I am much better off reading 5 minutes worth of logs than waste time watching people answer only the questions they want to answer.

Tiggs, I think it ludicrious that the people answering the questions are also the ones deciding which questions to answer. If you couldn't tell by this thread and many like it, the answers the players really want are not to the questions the Devs are willing to accept. Imagine you had the opportunity to sit down and talk with the leader of your nation for 20 minutes but were only allowed to ask the questions they wanted to answer. How frustratingly useless do you think that would be? The HoC session would have been better served to have posted the URL to the press announcement and told people good night.

I gave up on this game being Star Wars a long time ago. There are stars. There is a war (mostly jedi wars). But it is not following in the time line. It is (IMO) the best space based MMORPG though. That's what I am playing until I see another come out I like better. But, the jedi genie is out of the bottle. As time goes on, more and more of the player percentage are jedi. That is because the more they focus on jedi to the exclussion of other classes, the more the game appeals only to those interested in jedi. The sad fact is that it is to do anything to curtail massive numbers of jedi. Just look at who were the most vocal, and therefore listened to, complainers of the borked XP change. It was the jedi who got it reversed. It was the jedi who got the unprescedented apology.

I have three accounts. I am currently transferring the characters from two of them to my oldest. I have already started the process of getting padawan on my main so I can get the second character slot without paying for the second account. I will be proud to have no boxes in anything jedi. And, the sad thing is I enjoy playing jedi in other Lucas Arts games. But then again, they fit into the storyline/timeline where they are placed.

(A side note: I just found out that SWG is not recognized by the forum spell checker. How silly is that?)

You know what the saddest part about this whole thing is?

In one question, you or one of the devs said that we could get feedback across to you guys by telling our profession correspondents.

I know two of the correspondents as friends and both of them tell me the same two things:

1. You never listen to them.


2. You never tell them anything.

Being a correspondent is nothing more than an overglorified forum title with access to a forum where they can post ideas that will never come to fruition.

SWG is truly in a sad state of affairs.

Do you know what i like most about this lack of non Jedi content info in the expansion? If you look at the press release as it is on the Lucasarts website it as a link saying for more info on the expansion click here, which sends you to the starwars galaxies website which has no info at all except the exact same press release. lol (and if you did not know where to look you would be hard pushed to find that.)

So it makes you wonder if they know whats in it either. lol

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Tiggs wrote:

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Rhu wrote:

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Tiggs wrote:
Nope it is all done for free.

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So it is just being used as another marketing outlet for canned replies to predictable questions on narrow topics, then?

At least that's how I read all the, "We can't answer, but believe me, you can't wait!" replies. :/

Edit: What I was hoping that the HoC chats were were an opportunity to discuss and understand the nature and direction of the present and future of the game.

Message Edited by Rhu on 08-25-2005 05:13 PM

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HoC chats are an opportunity to discuss the topic at hand. Last night's chat discussion was based upon the new expansion announcement and experience changes from last week.

We can only answer questions that pretain to those chat discussions. Players submit the questions to question takers and they are forwarded on to us during the chat. There will always be certain topics we can't discuss due to trade secrets so to speak.

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Tiggs, regarding the sentence I bolded in your statement above this -- the following is directly from the announcement about the HOC chat that is still on the home page for SOE/SWG (and this is what Wes was trying to explain in his reply to you):

Stratics: House of Commons Chat - Wednesday, August 24th

Stratics is pleased to announce a House of Commons chat with the developers of Star Wars Galaxies on Wednesday, August 24th! It will be at 5pm PDT / 8pm EDT in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

Wednesday's topic'sare: Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan (TOW) and a discussion about current and upcoming content publishes and updates.

I think this is partly why we are upset. The community anticipated a discussion about Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan (TOW)and current and upcoming content publishes and updates. Naturally, many thought that questions regarding the future of the game, future publishes and updates were germaine.

I think we are also upset because we don't know anything more about "TOW" than we did before the chat. There was... no new news regarding the expansion (New gnus? Gnu news?)-- really, nothing was divulged that was not already available via other channels.

And -- a huge part of the SWG community has some very real concerns regarding the future of this game (I could list out the issues, but I'm sure you are fully aware of them). I think it is safe to say that more than anything, the SWG community want these concerns addressed -- by an SOE or a LucasArts representative.

I'm sure, given all this context, that you can understand why many of us are terribly frustrated.

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Tiggs wrote:

Mustafar is not a Jedi expansion. The primary focus of Mustafar is for combat classes but there is still content for non-combat oriented professions as well.

I will also pass on the other concerns you posted above.

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Okay... Mustafar is not a Jedi expansion - Then please tell me how to resolve the following dilema;

1. I am a RPer - I know - We're not very popular in this RPG. My character (like his profession-sake) does not believe in the Force, the Jedi, or anything that goes with it. The GREAT NUMBER of folks running around with glow sticks are nothing more than religious fanatics. Why, if this expansion is going to force me to interact with a Force Ghost would I want to purchase it? The very concept goes against my character.

2. I am a MAJOR SW geek/historian/etc. Why in the world would Obi-Wan's spirit - Which never even appeared to Leia Organa (even in the EU) - want to contact a smuggler/bounty hunter and lead him on a quest(s)? Having personally dealt with LFL's continuity before, I can't believe they're even allowing this to happen. Even so, please help me resolve in my head why Obi-Wan would personally get involved with every single person, good or bad, Force-using or not, in the galaxy? Did the person responsible for making this game feel like Star Wars suffer a tragic anneurism?

I love the idea that there's a team working on new content... And while I think Mustafar is a bad choice for an additional planet to the galaxy, I'm okay with it... It's there at the very least. But the spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi? That's pushing things WAY too far for this fanboy.

Please. Why should I buy this expansion (other than the uber-loot I'll no doubt need to compete on any sort of even playing field)?

"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side..."
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####################################################}} Ramsey Lanclo
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####################################################}} Captain of the Chicanery
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####################################################}} "Quiet, Jedi...
####################################################}} Grown-ups are talking."
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