But what about a "lock on" system like what is already in place for space? It doesn't prevent you from missing a shot at all, it just makes it a LOT easier to tell if that's really your target in your sights. This would also fix the "non-combat targeting", as it would let you move the specific object you're locked on to when decorating.
You have this system already for space, I'd think coding something similar for ground would at least have a basis to start from.
QFE!!!
I don't think target lock is what we really need... It's taget SELECTION lock... I'm not saying 'lock my gun to the target so I never miss..' but nothing pisses me off more then to get a mob 99.9% dead and have the target SELECTION change because something like a mob or player or object came between you and the selected target. You could even make it an option panel check box... "target selcetion with toggle key or taget selection on mouse over"
I have one major problem with the nge. I was done grinding!!
I have come back for a bit and the grind is the same thing take my time away from the game.
Jedi pr-cu full temp smuggler bounty hunter mcarbs mpistols tkm combat medic doc ranger on and on and on 38 prof mastered over 3 toons
Now this one gets me mad my yt-1300 same bugs as when I first got it and the firespray nothing like what i saw in the movie come on smed. did you see ep 2 and 5 ??
Rant off I do like some parts of the game fps yeah but not this. It has a long way to go to be BF2 type fps.
Smed - What are your comments on the low server populations? Sometimes I wonder if I'm playing an online game..On Radiant I have never seen more than 5 people in most starports during the week (Most are AFK). I went to every city on every planet last monday and only saw 4 people in the ENTIRE galaxy. My friends list has 268 people on it, and since the NGE only 10 people have ever been online at the same time.
Smed, here's an idea on what you can do *yourself* to EASILY fix a major problem we are all experiencing RIGHT NOW:
- Act more professional. - Learn better grammar. - Lose the sarcasm. - Lose the attitude. - Practice CYA - Cover Your Ass - Get all your facts straight about plans before you post them so you don't wind up hurting yourself even more.
The truth is the community morale won't improve until the game does. Communication can't fix this. Improvements to the game can. The fact is our communication has improved.. people don't neccessarily like the message is all. I get that. So do our community folks. My preference is that all the posts in the gameplay forum are discussing gameplay balance.. and in-game issues.. but they won't until we get the game to a baseline fun level. We're not there yet. We know that. We're working to fix it. There is no other answer.
Smed
Wow. An offical representative saying the game is hurting. This does give me hope. Not much. But some. We have seen in the past that what is said may not come to pass. Be aware Smed, the community will hold you to the above statement.
The SWG community has been voting with it's feet since the NGE came about. Either we end up being right about our ability to turn the ship around and make a game that's BETTER than it was before, or we were wrong and we fail. Either way we were losing subs before the NGE and believe it or not, we are losing them at a slower rate than before. I'm not going to pretend we didn't lose a bunch of subs from this. We did. And I don't think the game is where it needs to be yet to aquire new subs. But it's getting there with each and every publish.
At the end of the day there are a lot of people in this community that wonder why we did this? Why did we "deliberately" try and piss people off. Obviously that wasn't our intent. This is a business and we needed to improve the results of the business. Did we make a mistake? Maybe.. but only time is going to tell on that one. One thing is certain. We made a mistake with how we presented it to the community, and for that I'm sorry. I still think it was a needed thing though. It's not as simple as "you should have just fixed the things we were complaining about". That doesn't address the very real fact that what we had was a hardcore game that wasn't going to attract the mass audience that the Star Wars IP brings to the table.
Smed
It is not getting there and never will whilst the NGE is here and as for slower sub losses that makes sense considering the low number who are paying.Also the people who paid a year in advance have been hung out to dry as you laid no compensation package to refund them.
You will never turn this around unless you work in the old system and accomadate it with the current content and that sir is your only option,you also might want to consider completely closing the servers down for a week and fixing them compensate people with free playtime and for god sake purge the servers.
Let's get this out of the way right now - SWG in no way has a low sub base. That's just not the fact. The truth is it's still the #4 game in North America (WoW, EQ2, EQ, SWG). I'm sure this will bring the naysayers out of the woodwork, but it's just a fact.
I also totally disagree with our assertion that we can't make this game the biggest and best MMO out there. We still have a full dev-team on this game and we're going to absolutely push ourselves until we achieve our goals. Noone is going into coasting mode on this game. Period.
Smed
When somebody posts something like this, we always ask for proof. So since you did, I ask you to prove it.
................... = Rups Kcocemag = ................... =Clubbing baby Ewoks since 1985= ................... If you can read this, then you don't need glasses.
First I've seen of that.. but the truth is we were in the beginning stages of a new expansion.. we did the focus groups.. you guys clearly said "fix the game before you talk to us about an expansion" we listened and pulled everyone off that expansion. Is that direct enough?
Smed
im surprised in that case, im a bit worried about end game content since theres aparently a lot of time being invested in fixing the quest gap.. any chance to get a new dwb/vette style dungeon in the meantime, only harder?
part of "fixing the game" includes a ton of new content. It's just going to be included in game updates, not in an expansion.
Smed
Smed, easy question for you....what's the status on cap ships? will they be part of this "fixing the game new content"?
Smed wrote: The truth is the community morale won't improve until the game does. Communication can't fix this. Improvements to the game can. The fact is our communication has improved.. people don't neccessarily like the message is all. I get that. So do our community folks. My preference is that all the posts in the gameplay forum are discussing gameplay balance.. and in-game issues.. but they won't until we get the game to a baseline fun level. We're not there yet. We know that. We're working to fix it. There is no other answer.
Smed
So now that we have it established and both the player base and yours truly are in agreement with the above highlighted statment, Mr Smedly, when do we get a refund for the time period between "activate game overhaul" and "game status = Fun"?
It's not as simple as "you should have just fixed the things we were complaining about". That doesn't address the very real fact that what we had was a hardcore game that wasn't going to attract the mass audience that the Star Wars IP brings to the table.
this in fact is very true, but just because your hardcore doesnt mean you can attract the masses. ffxi does it very well. and you know why, cause they actually take the time to put in quality systems into the game instead of half arsed systems. just look at the bounty hunter system smed. your devs are adding a bounty hunter system that is totally exploitable. why do i feel its exploitable, because as soon as a person gets killed there will be a ton of bh's bounty checking whoever killed that person and kiling him quick cause they only have ten minutes. thats not very enjoyable fo those who are in the middle of pvp. oh and dont let me forget the fact that your introducing a bounty hunter system based on the gcw pvp system that you havent even fixed yet. now smed im not trying to get in you train of thought, but dont you think that if you goiung top make a bh system based off of the gcw, then the gcw should be fixed first so that people can enjoy pvp and be ok about bh's coming to kill them immediatly while in battle. i mean you guys just arent making sense with that.
the same thing with crafting and the same thing with gaining xp. you guys are fixing things in the wrong order and thats why were are pissed now.
Allow me to respectfully disagree with your point here - Star Wars as an IP is every bit as capable of delivering a WoW level audience. The reason it isn't is the game needs to be that good. No, not the SAME game.. but it needs to be that good and polished. Everyone thinks we are trying to make SWG like WoW or EQ2. That's completely not the case. Yes, we're going to a more rigid class based system and are doing more linear content.. but that's where the similarities end IMO. In theory we still have an incredibly deep and rich system based MMO that can deliver some world class gameplay once we live up to your expectations.
Smed
Smed
And while we're waiting for all of these so far empty promises why on earth are we paying full price for a game that is clearly beta. Its unfinished, there is NO polish at all. But we shell out $15 a month just the same as when Pre-CU was in its prime. I'm quickly finding it hard to justify paying on my last remaining account, due to the bugs, the lack of communication (yes, I said it because its true, nothing meaningful is conveyed to us on a regular basis) lack of content and SOE's blatant disregard for its veteran playerbase.
Distiler wrote: "I'm going to call you out on this - I'm going to say you are flat out incorrect on this. Our communication has been terrific. I can't say you neccessarily like what we've been saying, but I think our community people and our devs have been much more active than before. I never liked that system of correspondents before (they did a great job..don't get me wrong) but I prefer direct communication.
Smed"
Who is giving you the reports about how is community going ? cause it's really lying to you. Salute.
The truth is the community morale won't improve until the game does. Communication can't fix this. Improvements to the game can. The fact is our communication has improved.. people don't neccessarily like the message is all. I get that. So do our community folks. My preference is that all the posts in the gameplay forum are discussing gameplay balance.. and in-game issues.. but they won't until we get the game to a baseline fun level. We're not there yet. We know that. We're working to fix it. There is no other answer.
Smed
Mr Smedley,
Advice, if you will allow me the imposition.
In terms of communication, perhaps the best thing to do would to stop with the usual 'Friday Firebomb' in the forums. It has been the habit, of late, to post topics that can be seen in an incredibly worrying fashion, like the bazaar poll, trader aggro, new armour and the like, on a later Thursday or Friday and then disappear for 3 - 5 days. If the Friday Firebomb must be thrown, please ensure a prompt level of interest and response. For example "I'm interested in your opinions. I'm going to let this thread run until Monday, at which time I'll make a post responding to as many issues as I can". On Monday, cull the posts for all the unhelpful yelling and distill out the main points.
And another word of caution, distill out everyone's main point. There has been a real effort of late not to speak directly to the traders, and not to respond to them in any fashion other than a pat on the head.
If you open a dialogue, for goodness sake, make it a dialogue. Talk with people. Respond to questions. The phrasing of dev comments at this time, is setting the community at each others' throats. The once vibrant and supportive community is reduced to squabbling in the dirt, each of us trying to defend our patch of mud.
Once we were kings.
I applaud your effrot, but a lesson in group psychology would not go amiss, nor would some senisitivty training. It might also behoove you to give some thought to potential interpretations, and misinterpretations of your ideas before the Friday Firebomb is thrown.
Ele.
x Has mastered the Shipwright profession x Has mastered the Armorsmith profession x Slayer of Sher Kar x Has mastered the Tailor profession What? You thought I needed combat levels for content?
The SWG community has been voting with it's feet since the NGE came about. Either we end up being right about our ability to turn the ship around and make a game that's BETTER than it was before, or we were wrong and we fail. Either way we were losing subs before the NGE and believe it or not, we are losing them at a slower rate than before. I'm not going to pretend we didn't lose a bunch of subs from this. We did. And I don't think the game is where it needs to be yet to aquire new subs. But it's getting there with each and every publish.
At the end of the day there are a lot of people in this community that wonder why we did this? Why did we "deliberately" try and piss people off. Obviously that wasn't our intent. This is a business and we needed to improve the results of the business. Did we make a mistake? Maybe.. but only time is going to tell on that one. One thing is certain. We made a mistake with how we presented it to the community, and for that I'm sorry. I still think it was a needed thing though. It's not as simple as "you should have just fixed the things we were complaining about". That doesn't address the very real fact that what we had was a hardcore game that wasn't going to attract the mass audience that the Star Wars IP brings to the table.
Smed
This is what I don't get. You had 20 some servers running and that wasn't enough to support the business? What were the plans that everyone in the universe would be a sub? Was it actually a plan to focus on the target market of players whom want a simplified game? These are the kind of players that are fickle and wouldn't have lasted. To me Smed this system may be better and probably would have been fine to the players that left, but you are right sir...presentation is everything in buying and selling of goods...you took our full Coke you sold us and gave us back just the can. Whatever happened to finishing something before presenting it to your buyers. How could a game actually make it live that didn't support the largest profession SWG had (crafters)?...and then to put it off some 6 months? Why not just have finished it, marketed it to the new players with nice rewards, Beta it all over again...and then put it to live. I thought you said you had kids? I hope your tactics with raising them is a little smarter than the approach to the CU/NGE. I have only been a parent for 2 years and I know that I have to approach my son a certain way about things he doesn't want...make it fun, reward him for his actions...only then will HE get involved in things he may be suspect of or not like. I still love this game, but we need to do something faster than the current plan. The tourniquet is filling full of blood and a lot of players on our server are either only complaining or only PvPing. Can't we come up with some fun things to do in the mean time to reward those of us whom have stayed. WE are your best tool for getting the word out that this game is going to be better and to drive players back and/or get new recruits. Let us help SMED, but it will take possibly some fun Events in game to have it happen. Think outside of the box. They don't have to be the typical "meet here and fight oppossing players...and hey, look there is Darth Vadar". The one thing I am sure of is that your building is FULL of creative minds that could use a break...maybe this might be what they all need to get their feet below them again and attack your TO DO list for this game. LETS HAVE SOME FUN.
1) Yes we had 20 servers. 2) Yes there were more people playing 3) No, they weren't remotely full.. and they were getting less full by the day. 4) IMO we probably need a server merge at some point.
#3 is the reason we needed to make this change in the first place.
The truth is the community morale won't improve until the game does. Communication can't fix this. Improvements to the game can. The fact is our communication has improved.. people don't neccessarily like the message is all. I get that. So do our community folks. My preference is that all the posts in the gameplay forum are discussing gameplay balance.. and in-game issues.. but they won't until we get the game to a baseline fun level. We're not there yet. We know that. We're working to fix it. There is no other answer.
Smed
Wow. An offical representative saying the game is hurting. This does give me hope. Not much. But some. We have seen in the past that what is said may not come to pass. Be aware Smed, the community will hold you to the above statement.
The SWG community has been voting with it's feet since the NGE came about. Either we end up being right about our ability to turn the ship around and make a game that's BETTER than it was before, or we were wrong and we fail. Either way we were losing subs before the NGE and believe it or not, we are losing them at a slower rate than before. I'm not going to pretend we didn't lose a bunch of subs from this. We did. And I don't think the game is where it needs to be yet to aquire new subs. But it's getting there with each and every publish.
At the end of the day there are a lot of people in this community that wonder why we did this? Why did we "deliberately" try and piss people off. Obviously that wasn't our intent. This is a business and we needed to improve the results of the business. Did we make a mistake? Maybe.. but only time is going to tell on that one. One thing is certain. We made a mistake with how we presented it to the community, and for that I'm sorry. I still think it was a needed thing though. It's not as simple as "you should have just fixed the things we were complaining about". That doesn't address the very real fact that what we had was a hardcore game that wasn't going to attract the mass audience that the Star Wars IP brings to the table.
Smed
Mr Smedley -
With all due respet, you have ALREADY failed. One only needs walk through any starport in the game to realize this. What you call "rhetoric" is the community outcry of seeing an exemplary MMO essentially scrapped and replaced with a pale imitation. This isnt "counterstrike" - there's a reason that 99% of MMO's use "turn based combat" - its because it makes the game accessible to people of all ages, people who dont have lightning reflexes or flat out dont enjoy the "FPS" style of play.
The old interface system was INTUITIVE - this one is not - i shouldnt have to press 3 keys to open a radial menu on an inventory item in my back pack.
Your general message seems to be "yes, we hear you. We know you dont like what we are doing and we are going to continue with it anyway so shut up" we wont. Period.
I understand completely - you did the math under the CU and pre-cu systems and saw that the game was losing more players than it was taking in - and you decided that you needed a major change to bring in new players. While thats a well thought out plan, the implementation leaves MUCH to be desired. If your people can't market Star Wars - then perhaps they shouldn't be in marketing. This is a built in audience. You fail to realize that MOST Star Wars fans are 30 and older we saw the originals in the theatre the FIRST time. Yet you are marketing to the wrong age group. The last 3 movies didnt have anywhere near the cultural impact the first three did.
Dont buy it? Look at the servers! Where once you could stroll through Cnet and see 20 or 30 players - you dont see ANY.
Its time for change. again. If you cannt go back, then go forward and give us a workable turn based combat system. I lead a guild that boasts 400+ members - of which maybe 10 are left - the significant majority of whom left because of these changes. and please- be aware - its not only HOW you presented the NGE - its WHAT you presented that casued the upraor. If you had rolled out a more workable system, a more accessible one - you would not be where you are now.
Please, admit that you have to "make the game better" - by doing what the commuinty wants.
Earlier in this thread you "called out" one of the other posters. Well I;m calling you out. My challenge is - email EVERY user who EVER had a SWG account with a poll - which of the three combat systems do they prefer? GO from there. It may not bring a flood of new players into the game but you would certainly get back a loot of what you lost. PLEASE - do this - or .. resign. Really. Its time.
Apologies in advance - not intended as a flame or troll - just one man stating his opinion.
Let me address your point head on. - SWG never attracted the size audience that the Star Wars license delivered in the first place. One of those reasons was combat wasn't exciting enough. We have done enough research on the people who quit or people that didn't purchase the game to know this is a hard, brutal cold fact. Could we have gone a different direction with the combat? Yes. Could we in the future change this direction? Yes. Do I think we will? No. Why? Because I don't believe that this will be an issue if we solve the other half of the equation - making the professions feel different... and making the content really exciting. If we asked you all to rank Combat vs. the loss of professions, I'm betting the loss of professions will "win" every time... I don't think the new combat style is the main thing that people are bothered by. It's the broad strokes changes to the rest of the game. What we've done is to get the game to a much more basic level that we can build on. I submit to you that if we achieve our other goals, this style of combat won't be an issue. The fact is the data we have suggest that for the people that DO sign up for the game they like the combat. For the people that don't, combat isn't the main issue we're losing them.
Smed
most of the people who quit though now, say combat is too boring, I personally despise click all the time, and speacials not firing, duels are way tooo short, lag causes people to lose duels, and professions are boring, but why should we have to wait to play a game when the profession speaciliazation could have been adressed prior to the NGE going live. You should have had the pofession speacialiaztion built in from the get-go
ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg _______________________________________________________________ --------This spot for Sale-------- --------Checobacca k Ice-man' -------- ---I came back for the community--- ---Ill leave again when the EMU servers go acive--- _______________________________________________________________ gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
The truth is the community morale won't improve until the game does. Communication can't fix this. Improvements to the game can. The fact is our communication has improved.. people don't neccessarily like the message is all. I get that. So do our community folks. My preference is that all the posts in the gameplay forum are discussing gameplay balance.. and in-game issues.. but they won't until we get the game to a baseline fun level. We're not there yet. We know that. We're working to fix it. There is no other answer.
Smed
Wow. An offical representative saying the game is hurting. This does give me hope. Not much. But some. We have seen in the past that what is said may not come to pass. Be aware Smed, the community will hold you to the above statement.
The SWG community has been voting with it's feet since the NGE came about. Either we end up being right about our ability to turn the ship around and make a game that's BETTER than it was before, or we were wrong and we fail. Either way we were losing subs before the NGE and believe it or not, we are losing them at a slower rate than before. I'm not going to pretend we didn't lose a bunch of subs from this. We did. And I don't think the game is where it needs to be yet to aquire new subs. But it's getting there with each and every publish.
At the end of the day there are a lot of people in this community that wonder why we did this? Why did we "deliberately" try and piss people off. Obviously that wasn't our intent. This is a business and we needed to improve the results of the business. Did we make a mistake? Maybe.. but only time is going to tell on that one. One thing is certain. We made a mistake with how we presented it to the community, and for that I'm sorry. I still think it was a needed thing though. It's not as simple as "you should have just fixed the things we were complaining about". That doesn't address the very real fact that what we had was a hardcore game that wasn't going to attract the mass audience that the Star Wars IP brings to the table.
Smed
Mr Smedley -
With all due respet, you have ALREADY failed. One only needs walk through any starport in the game to realize this. What you call "rhetoric" is the community outcry of seeing an exemplary MMO essentially scrapped and replaced with a pale imitation. This isnt "counterstrike" - there's a reason that 99% of MMO's use "turn based combat" - its because it makes the game accessible to people of all ages, people who dont have lightning reflexes or flat out dont enjoy the "FPS" style of play.
The old interface system was INTUITIVE - this one is not - i shouldnt have to press 3 keys to open a radial menu on an inventory item in my back pack.
Your general message seems to be "yes, we hear you. We know you dont like what we are doing and we are going to continue with it anyway so shut up" we wont. Period.
I understand completely - you did the math under the CU and pre-cu systems and saw that the game was losing more players than it was taking in - and you decided that you needed a major change to bring in new players. While thats a well thought out plan, the implementation leaves MUCH to be desired. If your people can't market Star Wars - then perhaps they shouldn't be in marketing. This is a built in audience. You fail to realize that MOST Star Wars fans are 30 and older we saw the originals in the theatre the FIRST time. Yet you are marketing to the wrong age group. The last 3 movies didnt have anywhere near the cultural impact the first three did.
Dont buy it? Look at the servers! Where once you could stroll through Cnet and see 20 or 30 players - you dont see ANY.
Its time for change. again. If you cannt go back, then go forward and give us a workable turn based combat system. I lead a guild that boasts 400+ members - of which maybe 10 are left - the significant majority of whom left because of these changes. and please- be aware - its not only HOW you presented the NGE - its WHAT you presented that casued the upraor. If you had rolled out a more workable system, a more accessible one - you would not be where you are now.
Please, admit that you have to "make the game better" - by doing what the commuinty wants.
Earlier in this thread you "called out" one of the other posters. Well I;m calling you out. My challenge is - email EVERY user who EVER had a SWG account with a poll - which of the three combat systems do they prefer? GO from there. It may not bring a flood of new players into the game but you would certainly get back a loot of what you lost. PLEASE - do this - or .. resign. Really. Its time.
Apologies in advance - not intended as a flame or troll - just one man stating his opinion.
Let me address your point head on. - SWG never attracted the size audience that the Star Wars license delivered in the first place. One of those reasons was combat wasn't exciting enough. We have done enough research on the people who quit or people that didn't purchase the game to know this is a hard, brutal cold fact. Could we have gone a different direction with the combat? Yes. Could we in the future change this direction? Yes. Do I think we will? No. Why? Because I don't believe that this will be an issue if we solve the other half of the equation - making the professions feel different... and making the content really exciting. If we asked you all to rank Combat vs. the loss of professions, I'm betting the loss of professions will "win" every time... I don't think the new combat style is the main thing that people are bothered by. It's the broad strokes changes to the rest of the game. What we've done is to get the game to a much more basic level that we can build on. I submit to you that if we achieve our other goals, this style of combat won't be an issue. The fact is the data we have suggest that for the people that DO sign up for the game they like the combat. For the people that don't, combat isn't the main issue we're losing them.
Smed
i agree with you smed, but combat is still al little lame.
i would trade cool, turn based animations for simpleand fast hack, slash and shoot animations any day. and i bet if you do a poll on that you will see my point.
umm, you *do* realize that the whole planet isn't under the jurisdiction of American copyright law, correct?
And it's also kinda hard to "put out of business" a volunteer organization that charges no fees and generates no income from said IP.
Umm, you *do* realize that the US is not the only country with copyright laws, and that copyright treaties with others countries *do* apply?
Whether or not anyone charges for it is immaterial. If the "Star Wars" name is on it, and they don't have a license from LA, they're going to be sued.
============================== “It is not advisable ... to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.” --- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
in that case, im a bit worried about end game content since theres aparently a lot of time being invested in fixing the quest gap.. any chance to get a new dwb/vette style dungeon in the meantime, only harder?
