Teras Kasi Archive

I was thinking about CH with another character, so on a whim I went to their profession boards. I read the "Designer Responses" thread, which was the DEV response to correspondant issues. The difference between that and our responses for TK was unbelievable. I was in fact sitting there jaw dropped. I can't believe how screwed we get, and my only hope is that our turn will come for this kind of attention.

Check it out:
http:// forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=creature_handler&message.id=46180

And, notice that in the patch coming up (or already in not sure) many, many of their issues reported have been flat out fixed. I'm not angry at them - I'm happy they are getting the attention to issues they deserve, but man does it make me feel sad to be a TK.

The worst part of this, to me at least, wasn't so much that they were getting everything they wanted (that is included of course) but also that they got explanations with all responses. If he couldn't give them something then he actually told them WHY he couldn't. He didn't just say "we are looking into this" or "don't bring a knife to a gun fight". If he couldn't give it to them because it was just taking him a while to get it fixed properly in the code, he told them that, flat out, AND he was willing to give them temporary fixes until he could track down the faulty coding. Also notice that they got responses directly from their dev, not just Koster by from the person that actually types the code. Also note: they had slightly more than just 5 topics + 1 pet project. They had a nice long list and got a description for ALL of them save only for those the got the even better response of "I will add this". Thanks for bringing this to our attention Selwynn.

I dont remember a single Star Wars movie where a there was a creature handler. Luke Skywalkermustof been one hell of a lazy slob for not becoming a creature handler because all he had to do was tameand train a dwarf nuna to kick Darth Vaders arse! Perhaps its the creature handling skill that brings so many people to SWG?

Thank you for the info Selwynn.

A now useless Expert Teras Kasi Artist,

DrBonzai

Well, i don't remember any TKAs in the movies, either, but anyway... I am a CH AND a TKA, and BOTH classes are broken. They are FAR from giving the CHs what we deserve/need/want. Same with TKA. CH and Melee classes are getting nerfed much more than any other classes, and i don't see that changing anytime soon. what can you do? Either suck it up and move on, or drop the class. i will wait and see, personally.

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StrychnineRictus wrote:
Well, i don't remember any TKAs in the movies, either, but anyway... I am a CH AND a TKA, and BOTH classes are broken. They are FAR from giving the CHs what we deserve/need/want. Same with TKA. CH and Melee classes are getting nerfed much more than any other classes, and i don't see that changing anytime soon. what can you do? Either suck it up and move on, or drop the class. i will wait and see, personally.

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The only thing "broken" with creature handlers is that they are in the game at all.

I have no problem with them being in the game. It's fun. If you don't like it, you have the wondeful ability to not take the skills. I'm looking forward to playing a CH because I let pets. They're cute, they're fun, I like the idea of taming stuff I see in the wild and watching it grow. I don't really care about whether it was in a star wars movie or not (though technically, you saw a CH in ROTJ).

However at the same time, I've been really trying to read and right now I'm having a very difficult time understanding the complaints of CH's. CH seems to be one of the most powerful things you can do, which is perhaps why a lot of people who are CHs and don't want to be don't like the class, I dunno. Anyway, I'll no more when I am a CH, but right now I'm finding it really hard to understand that complaints. It makes it harder when my two RL friends are creature handlers and tell nothing but stories about how great and powerful it is. Kind of hard to reconcile with the CH boards which are 99% complaints.

...but come to think of it, nearly every profession board here is 99% percent complaints, which begs the question whether or not members of these boards are just pathologically committed to complaining, myself included (this thread was afterall started as a complaint hehe)

Ok, the only typo that really irritates me out of all of that is spelling "know" as "no." I hate doing that... /sniff

Just out of curiosity, Vortex, how does someone else being a CH affect your gameplay? You don't have to duel them if you don't want to, and it's not like there aren't enough baddies for everyone... Personally, i think CH has it's flaws, and the complaints are valid, but i am having fun, regardless. Same with TKA. It's screwed, hardcore (more than CH, yes), but i still enjoy my time. I just dropped marksman today, as a matter of fact.

WAIT A SEC. i totally missed the link you posted. I take back the things i said about CH. looks like they ARE fixing it. I apologize for being so ignorant. ok, then. IT'S OUR TURN, DEVS. (TKA, that is)

I don't mind CH being in the game, but imho they should never have been able to tame vicious critters. It's not even about them being more powerful. Just the mere thought of a tame Rancor, Graul, etc is disgusting. Being a CH should have been about having animal companions, not gigantic beasts of death and terror running around on a leash. So the fact that they are in the game at all can ruin the immersion factor. Also the whole aging process is much too fast.

Just a few, all be it annoying, technicalities I would like to point out...

CH's are keeping within the flavour of the star wars universe...and you guys seem to be forgetting one of the Classic scenes of the Trilogy...Think back to Jabba's Palace in return of the Jedi...remember the Rancor?!? Yeah, that's right...the Rancor WAS a pet...fat sweaty guy crying over his death...you think he was happy about Luke taking out that terrible menace? NO! someone basically just ran over his puppy, Bingo...creature Handler AND it was a rather viscious species...as for their effect in the game, simply stated, don't like em, don't play em. I've no desire to be followed everwhere I go by some carnivorous beast, but if that's what people wanna play it, don't let it bother ya...just smile at your vibro knuckles and...move along move along. The galaxy will be much more fullfilling if ya don't worry about others bonuses and just enjoy your own. Besides, we're TK's...we don't NEED to hide behind a beast, we do just fine without em...

Just my .02 creds

Lorrion Malicstar AKA: TKA of Scyla

Not that this has anything to do with TKA, but... I've never played a CH and don't know much about it, but I would figure that the more vicious and wild the animal, the more likely it would be for the creature to turn on the handler. I seriously doubt that fat guy from ROTJ went in there and gave the rancor an occassional bath, or fed it Rancor Treats. I also don't think he put aleash on it and took it for walks through town. And if a creature can turn on its handler, turning on someone who just bought a creature should be in much, much more danger of being turned on.

It would add a lot to the game, I think, to see a novice marksman going through town with his bantha and have it start attacking him. Bio-Engineers, on the other hand, should be able to modify the genetic code of creatures a bit to tone down the danger of a creature turning on its owner.

Not to be defending the developers here, but reading that one thread without following Creature Handlers from the games beginning is a bit misleading. I started out as a Creature Handler/TKA and eventually dumped Creature Handler because of the bugs (1 box short of master) to go TKA/Doctor. CH's received a LOT of changes with little or no feedback to the community and over massive protests in some cases. (Not saying that some of these changes weren't necessary, just that CH's don't have some sort of massive favoritism with the devs).

The main reason you are seeing such a detailed response is that Creature Handlers received some major 'nerfs' (hate that word, but you get the idea) over the past 2 months. It was very obvious after about two weeks that something would have to be done and CH's were very high on the developer's radar screen. TKAs, like all other combat classes, were working enough that there was no priority to fix/tweak us. Hopefully once the get commandos squared away they can take a closer look at some of our issues.

Believe me, TKAs are receiving enough negative changes, we don't want the kind of attention that CH's received early on. Despite the wonderfully detailed response, CH's are not 1/2 the class they used to be. I would say however, that I think ALL feedback reports should include 'complete' responses to questions rather than 'We are looking into it'.