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There certainly is a lot of discussion about the details on what
will be happening with SWG in the upcoming days, weeks and
months. We've been looking over all of the issues and we wanted
to share the latest information with you.
This first post is going to go over the top issues
themselves. As we prepare these changes for upcoming hotifxes and
publishes, we'll be seeing the team post the details as they are
available.
General Lag and Choppiness (Ongoing - will have something in each hotfix and publish upcoming)
This is a top priority and we are working on a fix for this.
Combat Targeting (Ongoing - will have something in each hotfix and publish upcoming)
We are working on a better way for combatants to know
exactly what they are targeting in combat and while this may not
include a target locking feature, it will allow you to be more
selective and efficient in combat.
Now, there are other issues that are part of the targeting
frustrations in the community. For instance, the mobs that are
hard to target because they are all clumped together is a known issue
that is being worked on; we can expect this to be fixed and MOBs won't
bunch together. Once the bunched up spawns issue is cleared up,
targeting each of the individual creatures/NPCs will be easier.
The other key part of this issue is that NPCs and creatures are
moving too fast and erratically. This is part of a separate issue
that is also currently being worked on. Once this issue is
solved, it will help with the targeting issue.
Targeting objects and items in the world will be covered in one of
the following sections. We will call this "non-combat targeting".
Overall Balance Pass (Thursday, 12/1 for Combat Difficulty; Special Attacks and XP will come later)
We have been reading all of the feedback and we agree with
you. There are three basic categories that will be improved with
this work:
- Adjusting Combat Difficulty for all levels.
- This will help with creatures and NPCs much lower than you that are way too difficult.
- Adjust the Power / Effectiveness of Special Attacks.
- Adjust the overall XP rates and widen the level range for creatures
so that you can attack a wider variety of enemies for experience points
(XP).
Modal Chat and Keyboard Mapping (Publish 26, 12/13)
The first community issues we are going to address with the
keyboard controls is going to be re-enabling the option for modeless
chat and giving you the ability to re-map your specials to function
keys (F Keys). To be clear, the function key will not activate
the special, but it will queue up the special.
Shoot-Through-Friendlies Functionality (Thursday, 12/1)
We have been working on a feature that will improve a player’s
ability to continue damaging a combat target even when a friendly
(non-combatant fellow player) runs between you and your target.
This should improve the experience when fighting in a group, both for
combat and for healing.
You can find more details on this change here.
Global PvE Combat Review (Publish 26, 12/13)
Make sure we have NPCs and Creatures available for all levels of players to hunt.
Artificial Intelligence Improvements (AI) (Ongoing)
- Adjust the difficulty of creatures and NPCs so that players can
fight against appropriate level enemies and win (currently, creatures
and NPCs in many cases are way too difficult).
- Make sure that all creatures and NPCs are moving at the right
speeds (currently, some of them are moving way too fast and make it
difficult to target and attack).
- Make sure that creatures and NPCs are using the appropriate special abilities.
Non-Combat Targeting (A few publishes out)
Currently, non-combat targeting (furniture, instruments, etc.) are
difficult to target and interact with. We will be doing a
system-by-system review for non-combat targeting to come up with better
ways to target and interact with these items.
More Profession Specialization (A few publishes out)
This is something that is important to everyone. We will put
together an overview of what you can expect and update you as things
develop.
Jedi Armor (Thursday, 12/1)
This change is currently being worked on and Blixdev will be posting some details on the change in the next couple of days.
Armor Certifications (A few publishes out)
We want to change the way the armor system works so that all
players have access to a wider variety of armor. The armor system
is part of many game systems and will take some time to change.
Radial menu (A few publishes out)
With regards to using the tilde "~" to pull up the radial menu
instead of right-click, we understand that this is a functionality
change to the way the game worked. The solutions for this will
not be focused on re-introducing the radial menu, but will be focused
on making the game easier to use in different ways. Essentially
you won't need the radial menu as much as in the past, because we'll be
making it easier to interact with world objects.
Missing Animations (Publish 26 and Publish 27)
There are instances where people are not seeing animations. This is being worked on right now also.
Entertainer Profession (Publish 27)
The Entertainer profession will have some new abilities in an
upcoming publish (and also all of their old abilities). When the
plan is approved, we will make a development post to the
community. You can expect to see this post in upcoming weeks.
Trader Profession (A few publishes out)
The crafting community has many questions and requests regarding
the Trader professions. When the development plan is approved,
we will post the developments to the community. There is no
ETA for this information yet, but it is currently in progress.
Message Edited by Brenlo on 11-29-2005 05:56 PM Message Edited by Tslothrop on 11-30-2005 08:21 AM
Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl
Community Relations Manager
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