A bi weekly or monthly Q&A session such as what is happening here, with yourself and the developers on the fourms will help alot to answer alot of pressing questions and concerns of the player base and to squash the rumors as you just have.
I hope you will implement this with your developers.
___________________ Kanariya 06.29.03 Vendors @ -5595 1075 on Talus.
Well off to find a better game cause this one blows you refuse to hear what the players want. You say your fixing the nge to make it better. but its just a stall tactic to keep players playing, just like you used in EQ2 and pre cu SWG with Jedi. Promising us a better game. Well thank you for the last 3 years of play, it was fun.
SWG was like a drug (I need to play to get my fix) and the NGE was the cure. I guess I have to thank you Smedley for giving me my life back
SINGER ======================================================================= 7NUKE % PAVE8 Saepe Exertus | Semper Fidelis | Frater Infinitas -Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers Forever-
Smed I think that calvary you called fell to the gunfire a little quick, wasn't even willing to accept some responses. You need to hire Chuck Norris...
1) No target lock is planned or being discussed. 2) There will be additional skills for each profession, but not like the system before. I realize this is contriversial but there it is.
Smed
If you are not going to bring back target lock can you bring in mob collision detection so that we do not have mobs hiding in each other and such - that is where the lock on target is best but with the system the way it is now you fire ate a group and there is no way to keep on the same mob because they can travel within and through each other.
Sliht Hinden - Veteran from Beta who has semi-retired until the game has content instead of redoing Sher Kar and HK-47.
PS TH never answers his PM's or updates issues that he said he would back in Jan and Dec.
that's funny, instead you come up against 6 professions in pvp. To be honest, yeah there were flavor of the month templates before, but that didn't mean that EVERYONE had the same template. I knew a TKM that was quite effective against Pre-cu Jedi. I knew a carbineer that would be deadly with the states he laid down, one guild on our server showed the benefit of a talented Squad leader in PVP. You played to your desires and you played what was right for you. Pre-nge this was even truer, NGE just killed this diversity. It was up to you if you knew how to win. I had a fight with a bounty hunter that lasted an hour while we were working each other down, now the fights last 3 mins tops. Not very fun PVPwise.
Unfortunately your point here is currently valid and we need to work on differentiation of the professions and differentiation within professions if we're going to succeed. That's being done now.
Smed
How is that being done now? By the passovers of the various professions, as outlined in the Publish Plan? If so, that's not profession diversity. It's profession tweaking and polishing, and has nothing to do with balancing for PvP purposes. Take a look at the plan for Smuggler. Do you really think the average Smuggler will be able to take on a Bounty Hunter after Publish 31? Jedi got a pass, and it's still the same ole FOTM. Wielder, Healing, Powers, Lightsaber, etc. were differentiation. Do you plan to bring something like that back for each profession? If so, why did you bother consolidating all the pre-NGE professions in the first place? I keep hearing about profession diversity and differentiation, but honestly don't know what you intend to communicate to the community.
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
To quote you Mr Smedley, "Allow me to respectfully disagree with your point here".
SWG is becoming more and more like WoW and EQ2 with every publish. Being someone who has played all 3 of the MMO's in question, there seems to be one thing that SWG does that WoW and EQ2 don't, and that's totally ignore it's player base. For over 2 years now smugglers have been hanging on a ragged thread with the promise of being able to smuggle using game mechanics. But wait, that mythical "smuggler" revamp is on the horizon yet again.
The biggest question on my mind at the moment is, Why did you make such drastic changes to a game that was only in need of minor tweaking and some bug fixes?
Yes, pre-cu had good and bad points. The biggest downside pre-cu was way the HAM system. The ability to attack but not heal a pool was a bad idea. But overall, the good outweighed the bad.
The CU, again, had good and bad. It got rid of the grossly overpowered DoT weapons, but it opened issues of it's own. Attaching a CL to characters was a bad move in my opinion. Prior to that, good gear and proper tactics allowed players a chance to kill certain high level mobs. By attaching a CL to players, no longer did it matter that a player worked hard to get the best gear. And it all but forced players who didn't go all out combat to remove themselves as a viable part of pvp. Overall with the CU the good still outweighed the bad.
The NGE, well, as you can see. The majority of players are not happy with the changes. The only real good I can see that came from the NGE is the spy profession, and the removal of the alpha class. The fps style ground combat is best left with FPS games. This is an MMORPG, not a FPS. Turn based combat is, in my opinion, better for a MMO for the simple fact it doesn't rely totally on who has the best computer with the best connection. At the very least, some form of target acquisition like space combat has would be leaps and bounds better. Overall, the NGE has done one thing, space pvp has picked up greatly on alot of servers. But now, the good doesn't really outweigh the bad.
SWG, in case you missed it Mr Smedley, was different from EQ, EQ2 and WoW. It was the only game I've seen that allowed you to change professions on the same character, the avatar customization was amazing. Even more was the ability to make changes to your avatars appearance once in game. The clothing, armor, and weapon choices created true diversity. But perhaps, the single thing that set SWG apart from the rest of the MMO's was it completely social side. If you didn't want to do combat, instead wanted to hang out in the cantina and dance, play music or both. If you wanted to craft, you could. But not just craft the same thing as everyone else. The multitude of items you could make was nearly endless.
And please Mr. Smedley, tell your people to stop using the term "Iconic" and "Star Warsy" when referring to the new professions. If they were truly iconic, based off of the characters we saw in the movies and books, we would be able to mix and match skills. Luke Skywalker wasn't always a jedi, he started out as a moisture farmer (crafter). Over time he found that he wanted something different, so he went on to learn about the force and hone his skills as a jedi. Han Solo wasn't always a smuggler. Even if all you looked at was Ep 4-6. Han went from being a smuggler/pistoleer to being an officer. And later on, he becomes more of a politician the Leia. Speaking of the Princess, she transformed from nothing more then a politician/marksman to an officer, eventually becoming a Force Adept. And for the last example, the guy who is probably the most feared in the galaxy. Darth Vader. But we all saw how Anakin started. He was a mechanic who dabbled in pod racing, who eventually worked on honing his skills with the force, to becoming the single most feared man in the galaxy. So, if you truly want us to be iconic and star warsy, give us back the old skill system where WE, the players, decide our characters skills and abilities.
Glyndo Malina, Retired Elder Smuggler Married to the Hawtest Twi on Valcyn, Lunah Alpha class make the pvp'r good it does not
Can every Friday or every other Friday be "communicate with the community" day? I remember that the Dev introduction day was a Friday and that was a fun time by most. This way, the Devs can focus on their respective projects throughout the week, knowing full well they need to spend a portion of Friday interacting with the community. Furthermore, the community hopefully wouldn't write 10,000 post about "where are they" and "they never listen".. yada, yada, yada.
To me, this would mean less non-constructive post for everyone to troll through and more informative communication during these allotted days.
/Salute
Major Jamil Luck of SLNH Elder Imperial Squad Leader now Imperial Officer
Katch's Loot and Stuff Vendor Iron City Mall - Iron City, Corellia @ 3434, -5360 "Yeah, you all know where it is"
Thank you for continued feedback with the community. Obviously this has taken a large part of your day. It isn't easy to read through all these posts and respond to the appropriate ones. As i'm reading a new page is added every time I reach the bottom. To top it off my replies aren't being picked apart and reworded (usually). I will say that this is what we want to see. If the game isn't perfect and is going somewhere we would like a picture of where things are going. The publish plan was great for this.
I keep coming back to the issue of creature handlers. At one time it was mentioned that a form of creature handling will return but not what we had previously. I am anxious to see this implemented. Creature Handling was my first attraction and one of the big "hooks" for me. I only dropped the profession over time because it wasn't the most effective for some of the content (buggy pets indoors and what not). I would love to see BioEngineer return in some form (and a return of crafted stims to the game) but I will settle now on having the ability to handle (and hopefully tame and mount) creatures. I won't bother asking more details about this because I don't see it in the publish plan but I hope it is still in the works and will show up in the announcements thread soon.
Abema Conan - Elder Jedi Rebel Ameba Conan - Engineer Shailah Securra - Spy Rebel Mapialir - Medic Rebel Ovauf - Munitions Trader Ysu - Commando in training Imperial The Official Funniest Clip On The Internet I'm a vampire! Click HERE to be bitten!
LangaNor wrote: Uhh... Well Mr. Smedley, it's fairly obvious what the bottom line is here (and I give you kudos for setting your opinion, and holding to it). It seems the talking point for yourself and SOE is "this is our direction, and you have the choice to accept it, or not". I like it when I'm given clear indications. The NGE will stay, a rollback is not an option, bringing back turn style combat is not an option, and bringing back skills instead of profs is also not an option. And as nobody from your end will commit to a Pub Plan with any kind of timeline, even a rough and vague one, I'm left with 2 options:
Either I accept the way the game will be proceeding, or I don't. I never thought I'd hit that cancel button, but until changes come that make SWG my home again, I guess this is "so long". I'll miss this game for sure.
Good luck in future endeavours Mr. Smedley, I wish you well.
I'm only trying to be blunt in saying "this is our direction". I do still think engaging in the community and being a part of the change for the better is a good thing too.. obviously my message isn't "accept the NGE or quit.. we don't care". We absolutely care. Do you think it's fun for our devs to read these boards? Don't you think they want to make this game the best that they can? We all take pride in what we do. I would like nothing more than to be reading stories about how amazing the NGE is and how we've turned the game around. I expect to read those stories someday. Until we're there though, it's nothing but hard work and long hours with everybody examining every decision we make with a microscope. Fair enough.
Smed
in a round about way we dont have a choice the community is saying it doesnt want the NGE and yet we have no choice to accept it i appluad you for logging in answering questions but your not going to change the way the games runs if you think the NGE is better for the game why not make a poll on launchpad - if it proves the NGE is best then fair do's you will probaly be less likely to demand pre NGE but i have a feeling it wont what you got to lose ?
LangaNor wrote: Uhh... Well Mr. Smedley, it's fairly obvious what the bottom line is here (and I give you kudos for setting your opinion, and holding to it). It seems the talking point for yourself and SOE is "this is our direction, and you have the choice to accept it, or not". I like it when I'm given clear indications. The NGE will stay, a rollback is not an option, bringing back turn style combat is not an option, and bringing back skills instead of profs is also not an option. And as nobody from your end will commit to a Pub Plan with any kind of timeline, even a rough and vague one, I'm left with 2 options:
Either I accept the way the game will be proceeding, or I don't. I never thought I'd hit that cancel button, but until changes come that make SWG my home again, I guess this is "so long". I'll miss this game for sure.
Good luck in future endeavours Mr. Smedley, I wish you well.
I'm only trying to be blunt in saying "this is our direction". I do still think engaging in the community and being a part of the change for the better is a good thing too.. obviously my message isn't "accept the NGE or quit.. we don't care". We absolutely care. Do you think it's fun for our devs to read these boards? Don't you think they want to make this game the best that they can? We all take pride in what we do. I would like nothing more than to be reading stories about how amazing the NGE is and how we've turned the game around. I expect to read those stories someday. Until we're there though, it's nothing but hard work and long hours with everybody examining every decision we make with a microscope. Fair enough.
Smed
Perhaps the player based would get behind the devs if the changes that are instutited showed an understanding of the game mechanics - the profession processes.
You make a change to the professions - such as trader. The system in places is dependent upon experimentation points and resources. The division of the "crafting" professions removes the possibility of the trader having enough experimentation points to craft a decent BER harvester for example.
Resources required for creating many of the chef products were dependent upon resource harvesting (i.e. milk). It is currently near impossible to garner enough milk to make a tiny batch not to mention a full factory run.
Merely eliminating professions without thought to how they enteracted with other professions sends the message that a) the devs could careless about the existing player base; b) have no understanding of the game itself; c) total lack of quality control; d) total lack of a process mapping system and quality (read Black Belt) project manager.
Cin or do you say Sin~ Master Dancer/Master Bio-Engineer ~
~ Let la lune de miel begin ~
"You know you're loved if you've been *pillow*'ed."
I have what I think is a non-inflamitory question. What is the posibity of accelerating the previously given Publish Plan?
What Rouge_5 wrote sounds really good to me, and I think a lot of Player comuntiy lies the sounds of it as well - but with Publishes seeming to take 1-2 months per, general frustration in having to wait a year to get to Pub 34 is going to kill ya more than anything.
It was mentioned for Pub 32 the Item Differentiatio system and the Trader revamp, which were said to be intertwined. Are there dependancies on other systems that would prevent these 2 items from being moved up to an earlier publish say 29 or 30. Enhancing the Traders would not particularly cause balance issues with either the Bounty Hunter or Officer revamps, but combined with the IDS it would pay dividends.
While I can't speak for everyone, I think a lot of the player morale would improve quickly if we got what the IDS promises, and there is signifcant player support for getting Traders fixed sooner than later.
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
We are all here to help this game improve a complete system change was not needed. Changing crafting, yes the starter kit, yes adding quest based system, yes but not a complete system change.
Message Edited by RKO on 03-24-200609:47 AM
I respectfully disagree with your position on this. The profession system had fundemental flaws that couldn't be corrected and still be able to both balance the game and add meaningful content that made each profession really matter and be differentiated from the others. Was crafting absolutely the most amazing part of the game? Probably IMO. Can it still be a major part of the game? Hell yes.. and it will be. BUT that needs to be balanced with the fact that adventuring and killing things needed to have meaningful rewards as well to reach a more mainstream audience. I really hope you can see this point even if you don't agree with it.
Smed
can you elaborate on this more, i dont understand what about the old profession system you found to be flawed. to me it just looked liek you wanted to simplify it. honestly smed i know your sticking with your guns but we are all telling you that it was a bad idea to simply the profession diversity. if your gonna stick by it, its on you but we are telling you. noone that played the old versions like this profession system more then the old. the old one was a better system. im not saying bring the whole thing back, but i just hope you guys have a positive compromise coming soon.
Sure - I'll elaborate.
What exactly was the difference between most of the combat professions? There really wasn't one unfortunately. Adding meaningful content for over 30 professions just wasn't something we were capable of. We bit off more than we could chew. Also, the fact that a person who had seen the movies won't know what most of those professions were presented a real problem for aquisition.
I'm a developer myself. Oracle and SQL Databases are some pretty easy stuff. The only hard thing would be wading through the layers of buggy C++ code.
And honestly you ought to be worried. You are hemmoraging players daily. This game as it stands is barely on life support. Alot of the players you still have left are here to get their Star Wars fix. If another option surfaced, they would be out of here in a heartbeat.
Seriously, how can you guys think that ripping out the accomplishments and professions of people who invested up to 3 years of thier time, emotions, and energy in this game is acceptable. There are a ton of ex-players that will never come back just for this reason alone.
lol now I know your full of it. Please.
vJoodah Macabeev Spy/Elder Carbineer
Leader - Safe Haven, Corellia and all around nice Bothan
Glyndo Malina, Retired Elder Smuggler 
Ameba Conan - Engineer 
Shailah Securra - Spy Rebel 
Ovauf - Munitions Trader 
Ysu - Commando in training Imperial 
what you got to lose ?
