The problem with specials not firing has to do with a timer on the client. It's essentially a problem with trying to fire a special while another attack is still executing (like a default left-click attack). That's why you can let off the mouse for a short while and the special will fire.
As you see, we have identified the issue and the programming staff is investigating a fix.
Woot! And how about using AoE's with looted weapons equipped, oh and all "unarmed" weapons currently do no extra damage over your fists when equipped.
Another big one is mobs that spawn unattackable for anything up to five minutes, any joy with that one?
We recognize that the current profession system doesn't allow for any real level of character differentiation. As such, we're currently working on an "Expertise" system, that grants the players "points" to spend on specialization. The expertise system gives the profession system a similar feel to what we had pre-nge as far as character customization goes. The tech for this system is being developed for the next publish (this won't be visible to you guys). The publish after that, we're looking at pushing out the first two professions's worth of expertise trees, with two professions targeted for every publish after that. Generally speaking, we'll have three trees for each profession to choose from, including a GCW tree and a "path" tree that will hold things like "dark" and "light" side powers for Jedi, for instance (or droid specializtion, vs poisons for Bounty hunters - for instance).
That's the plan.
call me cynical if you like but it seems to me that SOE are very slowly moving back to how SWG was before NGE, every month or so they hint at what they are thinking of 'introducing', which just happens to bear a remarkable resembalance to what was already in-game prior to NGE. So in say, I don't know - 6 months, SWG will almost be back to pre NGE - in that time everyone who remained a subscriber will more or less have the same game as they paid for and were playing about a year ago.
SOE can boast about 'improvements' and 'additions' they have made to bring the game to a point it was at 12 months earlier - not necessarily any better, just the same point (more or less). However in that time they kept people teased enough to hope that things are improving...they are improving to what they were a few weeks ago, but in another 6 months will the game be better than it was preNGE? Not that I can see.
so Cynic that I am, I've cancelled my 2 remaining accounts (I used to have 3), just waiting for my last one to expire (May this year).
SWG was my first ever MMORPG, I'm supposed to be your target audience (30-ish affluent male) it's very doubtfull that SOE will ever get any more of my money - not for online games, nor singleplayer games.
However I am hooked on MMO games
I would submit to you that just because we're adding back elements of the pre-nge gameplay that what we'll end up with at the end of the day is a WAY better game than we had before.
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
Ok -
If the game isn't "there" yet for new subs - why don't you lower the price of subscription for the players that are still staying on this "ship"? I mean, from your response here, it seems to me you are using us to "test" and "improve" this game.
"Test" and "improve" is alot like "beta testing". Which one should not be paying to play.
Now with that said -
You said in a previous post that you couldn't have two seperate servers running SWG (pre-nge/nge) because of exploits.
Well - it seems, in the NGE version of the game right now, there is a MAJOR exploit, that I have personally reported over 10 times to a CSR.
and it's still in game. I'm talking about the multiple - droid exploit. Player will call more than one droid (usually a combat chassis) and basically swarm other players. (game mechanics - only one droid should be able to be called) - and the droids - if destroyed, either pop right back up, or slide around damaged, still doing damage.
It kills PvP when you have a few idiot players ruining the fun of alot of players.... Happened last night - 10 v 10 pvp - two showed up doing the droid exploit - all the other players left the game because of being pissed.
CSR's state - "we know about it - but it's going to be fixed..." yada yada yada. And it still goes on.
Yet - you have a CSR send an email to a player, threatening them with BANNING - because this player was using the terrain to prevent damage...... *yes - Thunderheart said this was resolved*
Do you see the problem?
"A great game cannot be destroyed from the outside, it can only be destroyed from the inside..."
JetStrike wrote: Smed, could you increase the XP made off of killing creatures, OR add quest xp to terminal missions?
at least until there are more quests added to the game, it would be very nice for us all, the xp nerf on kashyyyk was a kick in the teeth for all player's below lvl 60.
Smed please take a look at this post.
please smed, also consider Quest XP for space quests.
sorry to bump my own post again
Although this isn't the fix you guys are looking for, it at least makes the game bearable until there is enough quests in the game
PLEASE respond to this..
SOMEONE PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS
I know you guys are swamped, but we really would like to know this.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - I support a rollback and keeping & balancing the old combat system. ...and making SWG a better place to be. Your voice counts!
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.
I have to call you to the table on this one Smed. This argument was the argument that you guys made when releasing the CU. You said that the old system was fundementally flawed and the CU was going to fix it. Then 6 months later the NGE comes and you are saying that the system was still fundementally flawed. What you are doing is substituting one fundementally flawed system with another, and the NGE is just another fundementally flawed system. I am of the mind set that pre-CU could have worked, CU could have worked and I think the NGE can work, but if you guys keep giving up on a system, you are only slowing down your development process and reintroducing bugs that a mature game like SWG shouldn't have.
Even today, there are pieces of the game that have been broken or have useability issues since launch. I think that you need to step back and start fixing this product while you still have a chance. Useability bugs, broken content, lag, non-combat features that are lacking are all things that are driving people to other games. If you like to have a high rate of attrition, then you are definately doing the right thing, but that won't make SWG successful, only SOE. And truthfully as a member of the SWG community, I could care less if SOE is successful, I want SWG to be successful.
Can you plz define what a hardcore player is and why you think they are bad for SWG?
Thx, Ms. Miller
A hardcore player - hmm. Ok. I would define it this way - The first 300k people that bought SWG were probably hardcore players. They are people that tend to buy more than one game a year. They are typically people that have tried other MMOs.
And in no way do I think they are bad for SWG. I don't believe a game can ultimately last 7-8 years by only appealing to people like us (yes, I am one of them). My son is 11 years old. He plays MMOs with me. He's hardcore too. He knows about every new game that's coming out. His friends.. they are all playing a game called RuneScape that I'll bet most of the people on these boards have never even heard of. It's at www.runescape.com - I urge you to go check it out. It's got a playerbase as large as WoW's... but you've never heard of it because they don't advertise. The only way kids hear about it is from their friends.. but half the kids in my son's class are playing it.
Hope that helps
Smed
Runescape has double the playerbase of WoW.
Hell, runescape is possibly the best Free MMO Ever.
00000000000000000000 Andross Xavier 00000000000000000000Rebel Jedi 00000000000000000000 00000000000000000000 'Motoko Kusanagi 00000000000000000000 Master Munitions 00000000000000000000 00000000000000000000Talca-Ra Inasto 00000000000000000000RETIRED 00000000000000000000 00000000000000000000 NTHR - SWG Division President 00000000000000000000 "Got himself a serious case of megalomania, huh?"
Please enlighten me as to WHY you think anyone with more than 3 or 4 years of experience in Networking or Programming wouldn't instinctively know SQL inside and out?
Oh, and Smed. I'm getting the feeling you are cherry-picking posts. I'd very much appreciate a response to mine.
Not what I was saying. I know SQL/Oracle, it's hardly "easy stuff" and anyone who thinks they can recreate the pre-cu game (and for more than 4 people playing at once) is high. Seriously. Good luck with that far fetched dream though.
"cherry picking" posts? you've got to be kidding me. I should only answer the "this game is great.. keep up the good work posts"
Smed
Could you respond to an Entertainer's post then please? It would be nice to get a response on why our revamp was cancelled.
2+ month Publish cycle means I am waiting over a year before Entertainers are scheduled to even have a use again. Not before they DO. Just before they are scheduled to.
I don't think that's right. And more than that, I do not think that my profession should be an AFK grind mechanism to help people exploit respecs and get to level 90 in hours/days.
Devs? Can someone answer this please.
Smed
The entertainer revamp that was being worked on would not have addressed the issues that you all are asking for. We could have released what we had worked on, but you wouldn't have liked it. We delayed it so that we could do it right.
Very Good Answer IMO. I've only dabbled in Entertainer in the past, so what one would enjoy or not enjoy I can't speak to. My question is more along the lines of how do you determine what we will and won't enjoy? It's been my experience (your perception may be different) that changes are made with only a reactionary input from actual players and worse massive changes (the hardest to fix/rollback) are often dropped with little warning to reduce negative reaction.
Maybe more polls to get a quick feel if you're on the right track (just off the top of my head thinking about the bazaar poll). Without getting into too many flame wars, you could get a gut check feel to see if you're really moving in the direction the player base wants.
We gather information using polls, feedback on the forums, and focus tests.
Grant "Rogue_5" McDaniel SOE Producer, Star Wars Galaxies
I am also one of those customers who would respectfully disagree with you. In answer to your question "Is it entertaining me" the answer is NO. I come here and post. Lot more fun then current NGE game. Or I play WoW etc. During PreCU I palyed WoW just enough to get a feel for it then came back to PreCU SWG and stayed here. Till the CU. Started playing WoW more. Then the NGE and my play of WoW went up and I restarted my play of EQ2.
I do want SWG to become big again so I continue to subscribe even though I could cancel and still post here because I also have a all station pass with my old EQ account.
On a side note I am one of many SWG players that would REALLY like to have our SWG accounts under all station pass but couldnt because of software bugs in the origional login and the transfer options offered by customer support are to delete either our EQ,EQ2 accounts or our SWG account and start over under the all stattion access
Last Thank you all for taking time to talk to us in this thread and to actually try and read and keep up with all the questions.
-Indene-
The irony of this situation is that I think YOU are the best example of why we need to make this game better. You should be in the game enjoying it.. not out here complaining about it. Obviously you're not enjoying it enough so we have to make it better! I'd love to see a ghost town on the forums and in-game see so many people we need to add 100 servers. We need to make the game better for that to happen.. and we're working on it.
Smed
Our mission and goals seem to be the same This is good. I would much rather be ingame playing with you, my pets and others at my side then out here dueling over how to make the game better.
Your open presence here speaks well for the possibility of accomplishing our mutual goals. You will not please all of us all the time as we all know. When you are succeding you will know long before even we know cause you will see the shift of power back to the game itself.
-Indene-
Master Creature Handler - Kettemoor Nov 2003, Radiant Nov 13, 2005 http://www.swgcreatures.com/forums/phpbb2/index.php Once Happy contented successful Master Merchant. (RiverBend, Naboo.) Then came the dark times. The NGE "its as if i heard a million pets cry out in terror...and they were suddenly silenced...i feel a great disturbance in the force" We're the few, the proud, the Creature Handlers. Creature Handler Memorial at -1419 283 Mos Mesric, Tatooine, Kettemoor BE and CH museum at 6627 5365 Tatooine, Chimaera Find me on MySpace
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.
Someone from the dev team please answer this question.
Smed
The reverse engineering system planned for the trader revamp will replace things like clothing and armor attachments. In the mean time, it's unlikely that we will add content that will be replaced with an upcoming publish. So the short answer is we don't plan on adding too much to trader until we do their revamp.
JetStrike wrote: Smed, could you increase the XP made off of killing creatures, OR add quest xp to terminal missions?
at least until there are more quests added to the game, it would be very nice for us all, the xp nerf on kashyyyk was a kick in the teeth for all player's below lvl 60.
Smed please take a look at this post.
please smed, also consider Quest XP for space quests.
sorry to bump my own post again
Although this isn't the fix you guys are looking for, it at least makes the game bearable until there is enough quests in the game
PLEASE respond to this..
SOMEONE PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS
I know you guys are swamped, but we really would like to know this.
Devs
Smed
I look forward to hearing the response, thanks for your time smed.
There are acouple issuse that I see. One thing is the lack of end game content to keep me busy. It seems the publish plan is going to take some time to complete. Without this plan finished there isnt much point in playing my character, as I mainly play games for the PvP. Right now its just a zerg sysytem with no point/goal. It would be nice to see some kind of temp. point system or some kinda goal to accomplish for PvP. If we can get anything in the realistic near future, why cant we have more character slots? This would atleast keep me busy maken and LvLing alts.
Another issuse related to the first is the publish plan itself. Classes being reworked one at a time leaves alot of people toward the end frustrated. Couldnt you toss a bone for some of the other classes prior to their scheduled revamp? If you are 90 and have all your items, and want to PvP and your class falls at the end of the cycle your outta luck and will get owned in PvP.
One more point I would like to make is the buffs, they need to stack better. Right now there is little reason to do all the mustafar quests due to the fact you can only use one wearable item buff. I cant see the reasoning in not being able to use, lets say, the mining necklace and a crystal that adds to offensive attack, like the distance globe.
There are other questions but I feel these are more of my top ones
this is a tough problem. We have X # of resources on the team. We can only work on so much at any given time, and some of the things we're doing take a long time (multiple publishes). It's just not realistic for us to do it this way.
Please enlighten me as to WHY you think anyone with more than 3 or 4 years of experience in Networking or Programming wouldn't instinctively know SQL inside and out?
Oh, and Smed. I'm getting the feeling you are cherry-picking posts. I'd very much appreciate a response to mine.
Not what I was saying. I know SQL/Oracle, it's hardly "easy stuff" and anyone who thinks they can recreate the pre-cu game (and for more than 4 people playing at once) is high. Seriously. Good luck with that far fetched dream though.
"cherry picking" posts? you've got to be kidding me. I should only answer the "this game is great.. keep up the good work posts"
Smed
Could you respond to an Entertainer's post then please? It would be nice to get a response on why our revamp was cancelled.
2+ month Publish cycle means I am waiting over a year before Entertainers are scheduled to even have a use again. Not before they DO. Just before they are scheduled to.
I don't think that's right. And more than that, I do not think that my profession should be an AFK grind mechanism to help people exploit respecs and get to level 90 in hours/days.
Devs? Can someone answer this please.
Smed
The entertainer revamp that was being worked on would not have addressed the issues that you all are asking for. We could have released what we had worked on, but you wouldn't have liked it. We delayed it so that we could do it right.
Then where is it on the Publish Plan? I do not see it, so I had no reason to believe it was anything but dead in the water. The fact that no one has put up a "Post what you'd like to see in a revamp" thread as Helios and others have considerately done for Commandos and such makes it all but unbearable to be an Entertainer right now.
You guys have ANOTHER Commando Publish before you have one Entertainer Revamp scheduled. Why?
And again, please respond to the concern of respecs and the Master Entertainer -> level 90 concern. Lots of players are currently respeccing their alts to Master Entertainers in order to become instant level 90 when 28 hits. Even more are planning on doing so by grinding Entertainer after 28 hits live. Will Respec NPC's affect this?
The publish plan is still evolving.
We are working on a solution to prevent the respec issue. The NPC's will not impact this.
Thank you for the response about the respec issue.
As far as the continuing evolution of the publish plan, my point was this: We were not included in the first iteration. What do I hang my hat on in the meantime to tell myself "Okay, they will get to us eventually" if you guys don't even put us up in a cursory manner like you did Medics? Could you put us in there somewhere reasonable please?
Alternatively, would it be too much trouble to ask that an "In Concept: Entertainer Revamp" thread be put up for us in the Development Discussion or Entertainer forums? All it has to do is say "We're trying to get feedback on what you guys would like to see in your revamp. Please post your top 5 issues and how you would like to see them solved, and post what direction you would like to see the profession go. We will be monitoring and discussing in this thread. Keep things constructive, please."
I fully respect that you guys want to hold off on releasing a change for us until it can be the change we want. I think the problem is, we have no direction right now. We don't know who to talk to about our issues because we don't know who is working on or will be working on Entertainer in the future. We don't know when or if we're having a revamp, because you guys didn't put us on the Publish Plan and are giving us something unrelated to our primary purpose as Entertainers.
The first thing you guys did for Commandos in the NGE was give them back their huge guns.
The first thing you're doing for Bounty Hunters is give them back player bounties.
Why isn't the first thing you're doing for Entertainers addressing our largest in-game need?
ﾚｲﾗﾆ ｷﾙ'ﾘｱ Who decided every addition to SWG should be a rutabaga?
Please enlighten me as to WHY you think anyone with more than 3 or 4 years of experience in Networking or Programming wouldn't instinctively know SQL inside and out?
Oh, and Smed. I'm getting the feeling you are cherry-picking posts. I'd very much appreciate a response to mine.
Not what I was saying. I know SQL/Oracle, it's hardly "easy stuff" and anyone who thinks they can recreate the pre-cu game (and for more than 4 people playing at once) is high. Seriously. Good luck with that far fetched dream though.
"cherry picking" posts? you've got to be kidding me. I should only answer the "this game is great.. keep up the good work posts"
Smed
Could you respond to an Entertainer's post then please? It would be nice to get a response on why our revamp was cancelled.
2+ month Publish cycle means I am waiting over a year before Entertainers are scheduled to even have a use again. Not before they DO. Just before they are scheduled to.
I don't think that's right. And more than that, I do not think that my profession should be an AFK grind mechanism to help people exploit respecs and get to level 90 in hours/days.
Devs? Can someone answer this please.
Smed
The entertainer revamp that was being worked on would not have addressed the issues that you all are asking for. We could have released what we had worked on, but you wouldn't have liked it. We delayed it so that we could do it right.
Very Good Answer IMO. I've only dabbled in Entertainer in the past, so what one would enjoy or not enjoy I can't speak to. My question is more along the lines of how do you determine what we will and won't enjoy? It's been my experience (your perception may be different) that changes are made with only a reactionary input from actual players and worse massive changes (the hardest to fix/rollback) are often dropped with little warning to reduce negative reaction.
Maybe more polls to get a quick feel if you're on the right track (just off the top of my head thinking about the bazaar poll). Without getting into too many flame wars, you could get a gut check feel to see if you're really moving in the direction the player base wants.
We gather information using polls, feedback on the forums, and focus tests.
Hahhahaha come on plz you know you never ever cared what the player base thoguth or the game would be nowhere near the mess it is now
This post was brought to you by; -Bastiges of the old skool!- Courtesy of either;
Swiss, Caleso, Tephros, Dervin, or Iroth! -=Its Crowded In Here=-
please smed, also consider Quest XP for space quests.
