Tailor Archive

If I can remember right, I'm pretty sure there was a Q and A with the devs a while back, but it happened this year. One was for Tailors and the question was like

"Will tailors ever get a nice yellow? What about wookie colors? There is also no true aqua or maroon" (as well as like 10000 other colors if i might add )

anyways, the answer was something like this:

"Oh tailors are in for a big surprise, very soon "

Yeahh...its been almost 6 months since I remember reading that. What happened? Devs making fake promises to us? Anyone heard anything on this? Besides the fact that tailors havent gotten a stitch of new clothing for one year is already disgusting, we were promised new palettes and we still havent even HEARD from the devs on this.

n'Jessi
former correspondent, former player
All your hawtpants are belong to me.
www.swgtailor.com
PLEASE REGISTER FOR THE SWGTAILOR OFFSITE FORUM (IMAGE DESIGNERS WELCOME TOO)

Okay, thanks NJ62. I was getting worried that everyone had forgotten about it or maybe they "took back" their promise. Anyways, I guess we will have to see what happens.

"This morning, the team made a decision to delay the Smuggler profession revamp to Publish 11." TH

Loot Shop (Painting, CAs etc...) Coronet/junction (860 -4724)
-- Kojirou Sasaki - Emperor's Eye (Black Epsilon Ace)
-- Chieko - Master StyleSmith (Master Tailor)
-- Aki'xianghua - Twilek Thug (Master of the LongPole - Rarities Collector)

The "Big Surprise" from this morning's publish was a reduction of starport times to 5 minutes from 10 -- Still no tailor love...

--
Raijen Ar'Desh - Master Artisan/Merchant/Tailor, Not Qute Master Yet Architect, Yellow Pen
Tolaris Ar'Desh - Master Medic. Doctor and Aspiring Fencer, Purple Pen
"Weesa pleased to bringya desa news dat mesa, JarJar, isa now da SOE Lead Producer."
- HalasterTheBlack

I want new clothes...... All you can do is think of mis matching to come up with your own outfit.... Here is my though.....

SIMS..... YES SIMS.... On their game... you can down load different clothes for your toons.... There are programs out there to make your own outfits..... WE NEED THAT PROGRAM.... IF THE DEVS won't make us new clothes BY GOLLY GIVE US THE JOB!!! We WOULD GET IT DONE!!!

------

Novice Lekku Stomper

*Dora's custom "Cynic"emote begins to flash again, only partly covered by her ranting helmet*

It seems to me that this is the same problem we have been combatting since day one. On game release, even aside from the bugs, there was tremendous disappointment from myself, my friends, and several noted reviewers (Penny Arcade, we love youuuuuu!) that the game really didn't fulfill even half of our expectations. I am willing to admit that some of those expectations were unrealistic, but not all of them. I know that our expectations of continuing support were not unrealistic, yet they have not been met. I'm the only one of my RL friends who plays anymore and the only reason I keep playing is the in-game friends I have made, who are all wonderful people for a vareity of reasons I'll make up later. It is through this community that we create the sense of immersion we expected the game to give us. (on vacation at stupid library with 30 minute limit, more later)

KittyKat and Dora: Tailoring and Salon
Proprietors: KittyKat and Dora'tilan --- Server: Ahazi --- Planet: Theed
City: Caserta---Coordinates: -579, 5559
*------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*
Specializing in custom orders, E-mail Dora't or KittyKat in-game for an appointment!
Image Design Available!

(continued, sorry for the double post)

Art: Here in the tailoring world we tend to see the worst of it, the most derision from both players and admins and the least attention paid to our desires (in the case of the necklaces I would almost say needs. They are fixed at least). Even those combat classes which are lavished with attention are never happy because combat is uninteresting to say the least. Step 1: pick up an uber weapon and composite armor Step 2: Get the best buffs you can buy Step 3: Join a solo group and mission, mission, mission. You'll make money but can anyone honestly say that this is enjoyable at all? How many missions does someone need to run to master one of the basic combat classes? Much less a commando or a bounty hunter. It's tedious. As a tailor I feel like I have a second job which is rarely more enjoyable than my RL job (although when tailoring is enjoyable it can be VERY enjoyable, most of the time it's just a hassle). The climb to the top in any profession takes days and even weeks of tedious work but if you aren't a master you can forget about having worth, on the battlefield or in the market. Then we have the problem of new content. We're pushing Jump To Lightspeed through next season. And yet: we tailors have no new schematics save for the loathsome limited-use schems. We haven't added one since launch, in a field where new and trendy is the order of the day. Look at how weaponsmiths are limited:2 gun schems at each level (give or take). In the continuity there are HUNDREDS of weapons, each with different capabilities and shortcomings (Read the Arms and Equipment manual for the RPG, hundreds of ideas right there). Architects get it too, the styles are limited and there are very few floor plans. Though it would be difficult and time-consuming to program, I would give architects the ability to choose from five floor plans for each style and select permanent lighting for said styles. And armorsmiths have it even worse. Let me start off by saying I think most armorsmiths must/will hate me, but honestly, the only people in Star Wars to wear armor were gamorreans, bounty hunters, and stormtroopers. Outside of that people just don't wear armor. The closest that rebel fleet troopers get is that incredibly dorky helmet. Even so, there is more variety out there than the standard composite. Enter any of the busy spaceports like Coronet or Theed and you'll see a veritable SEA of composite armor. If you look closely, you'll see it on FENCERS. I play a fencer, and honestly it feels WRONG fencing in armor like that. Modern-day fencers do wear armor, but it's a hard, tough cloth that allows for freedom of motion, save for those stylish helmets which are a thin, inflexible mesh face-piece and a tough cloth hood. I'm not saying tailors should get to make this, I think armorsmiths should be able to make armor that makes more sense, and yet is competitive with, or in many scenarios superior to, the heavy clunky composite armor. Something far less conspicuous and far less restrictive, and there are any number of rule methods to make that possible, including an encumberance system that penalizes skills when heavier armor (composite, padded with really good segments) is in use. All these new schems would need to be supported by a first-rate art team, and while I know we have an art team it is either under-utilized, under-appreciated or understaffed because their only post-launch addition to the game in my memory is the ID tents (which I must admit are really cool in appearance, if not in function).

Immersion: I had to sit and think for a good minute before I knew where to start. Let's talk about basic NPC interaction. "Somethin' I can do fer ye?" is about as close as we get to interaction where someone is not giving us a mission. NPCs only congregate in the cantinas and transport hubs, and when they do there is no story to them. I mean that human might be a commoner and that bothan a diplomat but that's as close as we get. There are no families with little children and over-worked parents, no fugitives trying to avoid detection, and most of all no interaction, NPC to NPC or NPC to player. What avenues might we open in this vein? We have wonderful theatres, but no plays. We have luxuirous cantina/casinos, but no NPC gambling. We have empty boxes that are supposed to be housing or office space, but no one ever enters or leaves. Even if it is solely NPC to NPC, it seems writing some macros for NPCs to go out for a night on the town in fabulous Coronet would be, if not easy, certainly manageable for the right creative team. Give these people homes, give them jobs, give them lives to be disrupted when the war comes to their home. Form a team whose job is to "play" NPCs with some real power in these static cities. From the director of a play to the local arm of Black Sun, any of these positions should be filled by human beings for some real immersion. I would not reccommend this extreme for all servers however. Many people simply aren't roleplayers who don't want to be bothered with these niceties. So, divide the galaxies. Make some galaxies for non-roleplayers (about 1/3) without this personnell support, make another 1/3 for casual roleplayers where breaking character is a common fact, but provide a little deeper environment through the methods listed above. Finally make 1/6th for moderate roleplay and 1/6th for serious roleplay, where there are even penalties if a CSR or one of these human-operated NPCs catch you acting out of character in the spatial channel. Fill these with opportunities for immersion, from a strong mission/story to simple day-to-day interaction. Everyone could then play their way, and it wouldn't require a team to be playing NPCs when no one will use them. I honestly think that the non-roleplaying servers will fill up fast, but the more supported and immersive enviroments will draw back many who have left the game for whatever reason.

Combat: I know we are undergoing a combat revamp soon. I can't imagine it will be any good. ("Cynic! Cynic!") Combat in the game resembles nothing like combat in the movies. Combat in the movies is very fast paced with decisive conclusions. Even in protracted lightsaber battles, a quick fake/slash can end the duel immediately, one winner, one decapitee (if that's not a word, please don't tell me, I like it too much). Leia gets shot in the shoulder on Endor and can barely move for the pain. How many of us take arm shots and shrug them off, making our next attack. This isn't the difference between Counter-strike and Quake, this goes far deeper. In Quake if you are hit 5 times with a moderately powered weapon you are still down. There are good reasons for a system of longer more protracted battles, I just don't like or agree with any of them (you are welcome to argue the point, I'd really like to get more opinions on this one). Combat needs to be shaped more like the movies, quicker and more decisive. Also, we need to get away from so much monster-hunting, which means providing better rewards for faction missions and also providing many more non-monster missions.

Crafting: If combat is boring in this game, crafting is 50 times worse. You can make ribbed shirts till your eyes bleed, be bored out of your mind, and have one tree to show for it. My solution here is not as elegant as some. I like a method proposed here on the tailor boards where you set the tool to practice mode at the beginning of a crafting session and it feeds your materials in automatically. Another solution I came up with involves broadening the crafting experience. Using tailor as an example: to reach Field 1 you must craft 15 Novice Tailor items. That doesn't mean you make 15 shirts. That means you need to make three of one kind of shirt, 4 of a type of pants, one of a type of boots, and so forth. You never know which you have to craft so you just start out making a whole bunch of things and eventually you get your next level. "But Dora, there are so many ugly schems, I really don't want to make this!" Send it to the art team. I am sick of so many ugly and over-textured schems. It seems like heavy textures were the rule of the day for the creative art team pre-release, and I would do away with that. With attractive schems, this would allow a tailor to build a wardrobe of many different items/outfits for when they are ready to start selling on their own. "But Dora, what about armorsmiths where they only get one or two schems a level?" See my above section on Art.

The Devs: If the Devs do not have a superior attitude and serious communications problems, I don't know what problems they have. One answer is to expand the team. The other is to create a system of communication wherein the correspondants are actually listened to, and every profession is treated with the respect deserving of someone who pays 15$ a month to play this game. Now I've already talked about expanding the art team, so with this we're talking about a serious increase in labor expenditure for SOE/Lucasarts. My excuses:

A: This is what we should have had all along, instead we've been somewhat cheated.

B: If I had Lucas' money to play around with I would have started doing this, to make the best MMORPG possible, if not the most profitable

C: It WOULD be the most profitable, with the Star Wars name and the best team in the business supporting it, people would flock to play it once more and we'd finally get the respect we deserve

D: After EpisodeI and the lackluster Episode II, George owes us.

I don't have all the answers, but I do know what I would do to fix this game and give us back some respect if Geoge Lucas flew to my house tommorrow and named me President of Star Wars. Dora in 2004!

KittyKat and Dora: Tailoring and Salon
Proprietors: KittyKat and Dora'tilan --- Server: Ahazi --- Planet: Theed
City: Caserta---Coordinates: -579, 5559
*------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*
Specializing in custom orders, E-mail Dora't or KittyKat in-game for an appointment!
Image Design Available!

*Riding a wave of vindication, Dora takes her Rant Helmet off and surveys the carnage behind her*

Wow, that was really long, um..... sorry?

KittyKat and Dora: Tailoring and Salon
Proprietors: KittyKat and Dora'tilan --- Server: Ahazi --- Planet: Theed
City: Caserta---Coordinates: -579, 5559
*------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*
Specializing in custom orders, E-mail Dora't or KittyKat in-game for an appointment!
Image Design Available!

Maybe fixing the necklace bug was our big surprise? I was certainly surprised to see it finally fixed.

Not exactly what I would be touting as a big surprise, though

Oh, I want more colors....