It was stated that within 6 months we would see a complete and working SWG with an ongoing storyline (ie: Cries of Alderan). I am wondering what happened to this?
The great communication you speak of would be great if they would not tell us these grandious plans and then just leave us in the dark thinking we will forget all about it.
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
Why EQ2 is so good while SWG is, IMO and alot of others, so bad ? If you guys changed the old system for something along the lines of EQ2, things would not be so bad around here... hell, maybe more people would play.
I played eq2 and let me tell you if they skinned eq2 with swg content this game would be back were it belongs at the top
DUS XOT
Dark Jedi
Imperial Ace
You close your eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone....
Smed wrote: I prefer it to the old combat system which I personally found dull. But that's just my personal opinion. Smed
Why didnt you have a poll about this, so as the players could tell you what they preferred? I think the best way to satisfy the CUSTOMERS would be to ask US. Dont you?
I support a rollback and keeping & balancing the old combat system. ...and making SWG a better place to be. Your voice counts!
--We go out and say, ‘'you know what, we want more of those players, we want that 3.5 million from that game over there.' So instead of sticking to the thing that our players really love, we start changing it. And now we’re alienating the players playing our game, losing our subscribers." - Jeff Hickmanstart
Thank you for coming in and putting yourself out there for us. Many of us wait patiently day by day, not knowing if anyone is listening. Your point about the Entertainers, of course, is near and dear to my heart.
Is it possible to know the vision you have for us? I know that Ents & Crafters really really need a reason to have faith. Adding combat when we're bug ridden and our profession has been stripped of purpose (for the player base) really has touched a nerve as you well know.
We've been promised so much, but with every major change, it seems more abilities are stripped away. I agree, battle fatigue *won't* work in the new system. However, there are so many things that *could* be done. Can you respond to these questions below? Maybe it will help keep us focused to the future and not stuck in the past. We're getting really tired of trying to explain why BF was removed. You folks should make a big statement about it if you aren't planning on putting it back.
At any rate....
1. Why can't crafters and enteratiners be involved in creating Player Event Perks?
2. Are there any plans to revitalize the NPC cantinas? One of the big themes at Fan Fest was the developers stressing the need to have a reason for players to visit NPC cities. This was asked in numerous forums (like why there are no starports in player cities or why we can't have ID tents) and everyone had the same answer. There needs to be a reason for people to stay in town. Currently, there's no reason to even visit the NPC cantinas...most of all for Entertainers. We're stuck trying to put on real shows and entertain, but we're croweded out by AFK'tainers.
3. Which leads to the next question. When, oh when, will you stop alllowing AFK grinding? I applaud that you folks made inspirations ATK only. That is the best thing that happened to our profession. If you were take out the ability in the UI to NOT show the AFK tag, why can't you remove that from the UI? If you are AFK, it should show you are AFK. And...if your AFK tag is up...the system should autolog you, regardless of what sort of looping macro you are running? If you don't want to do something drastic as auto-log afk, what about AFK = NO XP. If you've removed the option to not show your AFK tag, you can program it that if AFK tag is up = no XP. I guarantee if people can't get XP by AFK looping, they'll stop doing it. Which means, that when someone goes to a Cantina, everyone they see will be ATK. I think that will bring the social players back. Then you need to give other players a reason to hit the Cantina.
4. Which brings us to the next point. Inspirations. We don't sell much of them. Most of the player base doesn't use them. I haven't give one myself in a couple of months, with the exception of other entertainers. Ya know...the ATK ones who are working on their 2nd toons or new players. BF won't come back in its old form. But are we getting a new ability to replace the BF/mind wounds? Something which would bring people to cantinas and searching out ents? If you made this non-AFKable like Inspirations, more Ents would come back and BE THERE for the other players. People shouldn't be able to set up their own bots in a player city.
5. New hairstyles? Please? The majority of players us the same three. Most of them are just plain old butt ugly.
Thanks for your time.
Dani...who really wishes we could have another Fan Fest
Kcocemag wrote: So what's the new expansion going to be?
We are not currently working on or planning an expansion. Period. Our only job right now is to make this game better.
Smed
This goes against what has been posted here on the boards. When the Devs introduced themselves to the boards it was stated that they were working on a expansion. They even went as far as to say it should be announced during E3 and that we could expect it shortly after. Until your post nothing has been stated otherwise.
Not denying that. I'm saying things have changed. It's that simple.
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
What were the fundamental flaws?
I'm asking because the original Combat Balance that was 90% complete and put on hold to release JTL seemd to have fixed the large majority of balance and combat problems players were complaining about. A number of reports about the Combat Balance(The original on, *NOT* the CU) showed all testers fairly happy with everything and we were under the impression that a few non-balance bugs had to be worked on before releasing to TC.
Between the tme just before JTL becoming the Dev focus and the CU, what exactly happened that caused the Proffession System to go from 'just about balanced/perfect with the CB' to 'the profession system has fundemental flaws'
I'm really curious as that when the downfall seems to have begun.
Was it just the fact that you couldn't arbitrarily assign a "Level" number to the players based on the randomness the profession system provided?
Remeber, we *did* see somethign along the lines of "WoW has 60 levels, we now have 80, so that's better than WoW".
- I support keeping & balancing the Pre-CU combat system You can too
Smed stirkes me as the type of guy that when this game finally shuts down due to poor numbers will scratch his head and say he doesnt understand what happened. He has not a clue as to what is going on. Just for the record I wouldn't take to heart much of what he has said so far. He is going to say exactlly what everyone hears with little or no substance/action behind it. They have had plenty of time to make smuggelrs smuggle, improve crafting, enhance entertainers, but they havent why? Because most of the playerbase is in a few professions and every other profession that snot mainstream will slowly be whittled away until they can focus on just a few.
I find it hilarious that he says hes going to stick with his original point about better communication. Hey smed read some of the other posts and give us a eta on pub 28, gives us some specifics about it beside general ideas, gives us examples of what is being done to improve crafting/entertaining, fix bugs in the specials, increase diversity and give us then info by only using what is posted so far. Try it and you will see exactly what we are talking about.
Its long been a pattern of talking with no action and it doesnt seem to be improving in the slightest.
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
how is hack hack stab slash fun????
we miss all of the old animation this game had to offer...The NGE is a Down graded version of BattleFront
and by the way what do your kids think of SWG????
SINGER ======================================================================= 7NUKE % PAVE8 Saepe Exertus | Semper Fidelis | Frater Infinitas -Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers Forever-
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.
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
so baisicaly what your telling us is that you created the NGE to star the game over and build on it?
Smed wrote: I prefer it to the old combat system which I personally found dull. But that's just my personal opinion. Smed
Why didnt you have a poll about this, so as the players could tell you what they preferred? I think the best way to satisfy the CUSTOMERS would be to ask US. Dont you?
the old combat system dull now that sir is an insult it was original and unique.
DUS XOT
Dark Jedi
Imperial Ace
You close your eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone....
Kcocemag wrote: So what's the new expansion going to be?
We are not currently working on or planning an expansion. Period. Our only job right now is to make this game better.
Smed
This goes against what has been posted here on the boards. When the Devs introduced themselves to the boards it was stated that they were working on a expansion. They even went as far as to say it should be announced during E3 and that we could expect it shortly after. Until your post nothing has been stated otherwise.
Not denying that. I'm saying things have changed. It's that simple.
Smed
Which goes to highlight *some* of the lack of communication between YOU (SOE / LEC) and US (the players). Yes, the communication has improved 200% since this time last year, but we still feel we are left in the dark. This just proves it a bit more.
STEN EX-Leader of SMEG, RIP Proud ex-member of EEVIL, RIP
Smed wrote: There is absolutely no truth to these rumors.
Why did I respond on FOH and not here? I just happened to see that thread last night... simple as that. At some point I can only deny nonsensical rumors on so many websites before it just plain becomes frustrating to me. It's the old "when did you stop kicking your puppy" trap..
I've also asked the Lucasarts folks to comment on this which you should see today some time (not sure when or where exactly).
I also want to say - I'm happy to discuss things that need to be done to make SWG better. What I will not do is respond to "go back to pre-NGE" threads or "please make 1 pre-nge server" threads. I've commented on those before.
Smed
Smed,
Please post your top 5 concerns from the player base.
Thunderhart has posted his, we would like to see if you understand what the main problems are in this game.
ok. Here are my top 5. Keep in mind, this doesn't mean this is the order things are being done.. just my personal ones and what I see being big issues with the community.
1. Crafting - I know crafters are pissed.. we're working on a system that I hope will be a good balance between the crafting centric system we had before and the loot drop system we have now. The truth is this needs to be balanced.
2. New quests for the mid-levels - there's not enough of them now. The team is cranking on it.
3. PvP - Not nearly enough of it - I don't like what we've done to faction bases. Personally I think this is a big part of what this game needs to be about. Then again, I'm personally a PvPer so that's a big deal to me.
4. Entertainers - I realize a lot of people don't like the idea of entertainers being in combat. To a lot of people this IS why they went into entertaining in the first place. I like where we're going with it and want to make sure it's balanced properly.
5. Higher end content - There's a lack of really interesting high-end content in the game. A lot of the vets have maxed out and we need to make sure there's still enough to do.
Smed
Ok, These fall in line with what i'm thinking. I'm a business owner and know that everything cant be done exactly in that order. Understandable. But this list is where im at. I'm a pvper mainly, thats why i joined the game. Thats a big priority on my list. I say good job to this post.
ok. Here are my top 5. Keep in mind, this doesn't mean this is the order things are being done.. just my personal ones and what I see being big issues with the community.
1. Crafting - I know crafters are pissed.. we're working on a system that I hope will be a good balance between the crafting centric system we had before and the loot drop system we have now. The truth is this needs to be balanced.
2. New quests for the mid-levels - there's not enough of them now. The team is cranking on it.
3. PvP - Not nearly enough of it - I don't like what we've done to faction bases. Personally I think this is a big part of what this game needs to be about. Then again, I'm personally a PvPer so that's a big deal to me.
4. Entertainers - I realize a lot of people don't like the idea of entertainers being in combat. To a lot of people this IS why they went into entertaining in the first place. I like where we're going with it and want to make sure it's balanced properly.
5. Higher end content - There's a lack of really interesting high-end content in the game. A lot of the vets have maxed out and we need to make sure there's still enough to do.
Smed
It's a good list, though I find it a little discouraging that the #1 community issue is the complete lack of diversity in Skill Sets that the NGE brought. In every post out there, Diversity (lack of) within a professions is always an issue. This does not mean more professions, it means being different within a professions.
For example. Every Bounty Hunter is the exact same. Seems to me you need to add a more indepth level within each professions. I don't think every player in this game should have access to using pistols, carbines, rifles, and melee. You should be able to specialize what weapons you use which would give you different specials and sills.
So that you could have Bounty Hunters (or any of the ICON professions execpt Jedi, entertainer, or crafters) that specialoze in Pistols or Carbines or Rifles, or even Melee and/or Creature Handling. The content you add for the professions would be the same, but the means you use to acheive that content would be different.
See Sig for details.
Fair Point. To me, this IS the #1 issue overall.. but I consider it such an all-encompassing point as to be above everything else.
Smed
Yes, but is in the STILL the biggest problem with the NGE, We can live with out target lock and fast action combat, but to not be able to specialize really stinks.
I just hit a bunch of buttons and hope everything works out.
Nomatter what changes or improvements are done to SWG they will NEVER bring the number of people back that you are looking for Smed. This game's reputation has been tarnished beyond repair saddly. The best that I think could be done is to shut SWG down, clear out the servers, and let us BETA test this NGE system propperly. Then you can Re-release this game as SWG2 or whatever. Just paying to play this in it's current state is Outrageous.
