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.
Got to agree on that one.
John, go look in the dev tracker, discount the posts that are there for one liner replies and 'locked as off topic' posts and see just how much genuine communication is going on.
TH is getting reamed by us forum trolls daily as he often doens't have the info we want and when he say she'll try to ind out can't come back with what he still hasn't got.
We've had a dozen devs post "Hi there" threads and then vanish after posting a couple fo "thanks, love you too"'s . Now SOME are carrying on discussion with players via PM's and that might be great for them but it gives the public impression that nothing is happening.
Others, well, they come in, ask us for feedback, we give it.... the next we hear from them "Oh I moved onto another project..."
Communication has to be a two way street and it has to be worth something to both sides. (qv your comment earlier in this thread about not replying to the 'go back to teh preNGE' posts. They're not valuable to you, they don't communicate anything that is going to help. etc)
My biggest beef on the communication issue is the fact that TH seems to be in the dark most of the time. I cannot even count the number of posts I've read that say somethign to the affect of
"I'm trying to get that information right now. Your concerns are being passed on to the dev team as we speak. And I cannot and will not post any information until I know for sure, without a doubt that there is no way in hell that the information can ever be construed as incorrect."
While that's all nice and good, this process of one guy who seems to be the gopher for a pack of programmers and developers seems a little flawed. Now don't take this the wrong way.......I think TH does a excellent job, but I would prefer to see more direct interaction with the team behind the scenes.
They can't spend all day every day on the boards guys. They poke their heads up.. engage in dialouge.. put their heads down to work.. rinse.. repeat.
Smed, why is it that the dev team and you are always avoiding this one question?
Will we ever see Clothing and Armor Attachments drop again? Crafters right now are getting screwed because they can't get any more experimentation points since they aren't dropping.
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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
Now it's the time to explain what is this so called "ton of content". Don't hide it right now! Realize that lots of us had a TON of hope into that expansion (also the game to be fixed). Give us something to look forward, details please! timeline advancement, capital ships, FRS, new dungeons, battlegrounds...and the other things people is really waiting for. Salute.
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
Now THAT is what I've been waiting to hear! That's EXACTLY what we need here, passion about SWG! Now stick to it Smed, because you know that the player base will hold you to it!
/cheer for Smed
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will we ever see a lock on target system agen? Will we ever get a skill sytem simmular, or like the one we had before? And do you think this gaem feel like Star Wars?
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
Thanks for responding Smed. Yes, some may not like it, but at least we know what the current direction is for these two topics.
Now I have two topics for you (and I'm really praying you at least answer these, irregardless of the answer itself)...
1. Will Traders be made aggro?
2. Will Milk or the ability to get Milk be reintroduced so we can make those food items?
3. Will BE tissues/additives me re-introduced so we can make those enhanced foods (or will the schems be chanaged so they aren't even listed as a component)?
Ok, that's 3 actually, but a big 3 that many Chefs have at the top of their list.
Thanks, Smed.
Just for the record here I've asked our devs to start jumping in on this thread. I'm only one man here and frankly you're asking some detailed questions I would need to get from them anyways. I'm also in and out of meetings all day so sometimes I can't respond quickly.
Also, I believe everyone and their mom is now on this thread and you can collectively outpace me on this.
Smed
LOL you got that right!!
I cant even finsih a slice of pizza before im behind on this thread!
Oh and BTW...as much as i dispise what the NGE did to my game and the friends who i USED to play with, i just hope you guys get in in line just to show us all up!
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Just for the record here I've asked our devs to start jumping in on this thread. I'm only one man here and frankly you're asking some detailed questions I would need to get from them anyways. I'm also in and out of meetings all day so sometimes I can't respond quickly.
Also, I believe everyone and their mom is now on this thread and you can collectively outpace me on this.
Smed
what the chances of getting real detailed answers out of them instead of the usual one liners we get?
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
I quote the Smed when i say, "Allow me to respectfully disagree with your point here." WoW has the same basic problem that the NGE does, it's a basic lack of diversity. You pick your prof, your best armor is this, your best weapon is this, you get those from here, run run little gnome and go work on it. Pre NGE SWG had a truly unique take on the best. With a diverse skill based system, the best was only the best until someone else found a better combination. The unlimited ability to add and drop skills allowed us to take our characters and change them constantly, for fun, to make them better, or just to try something new. Nearly every character in the game was essentially different, some just because they liked a certain style and others just because they wanted to be more effective. The point was, it was our choice. We had control over our character's abilities and advancement. There was no desire to all equip ourselves with the same basic gear list because we had a crafting system that allowed us diversity even in our equipment!!! You could keep your looted this and that because my crafted <enter name> with an SAC of <enter stat> and dps of <enter stat> was unique.
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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.
Smed
So Star Wars Galaxies has less subscribers than an 8 year old game called Everquest, which has a second game called EQ2?
No offense here but I find it odd to pull out a stat to brag and not consider that one of the games is that old.
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
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.
Never happen, they will never post sub numbers and if they did it would probably include station access pass subs as well.
Exactly which is what I posted earlier. You can pop up with padded numbers all day long, but nothing beats logging on and looking around. My argument is simple: I saw more people online before than I do now. (And yes I go all over the galaxy everyday.)
I remember days before the CU when I didn't have enough room to fart in the cantinas of Mos Eisley, Theed, and Coronet. The same could also be said for the MO on Dantooine, the Coronet Starport, the Theed Starport, Nym's Stronghold, and several other pvp hotspots.
Today they are barren and devoid of life.
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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.
Umm, yeah. you should probably visit the forum site that discusses the emulators and read up on where these things are going to be hosted
Certain countries couldn't care less about US copyrights. you can sue them all you want and they'll just mail you back a brown-stained copy of your lawsuit.
- I support keeping & balancing the Pre-CU combat system You can too
1) When can we expect the 'Ongoing Storyline', mentioned in the Gamespot artice with Nancy MacIntyre? It was supposed to start in Feb and go into the winter.
2) When can we expect to see collision improved? If you want to stick with the present combat system then you REALLY need to make sure that both players and NPC's cant stand on top of each other.
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Answered like 5000 times here. Not technically reasonable to do, don't have the resources to run 2 versions of the game. For the freaking love of god, get over it.
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