1. A complete revamp of the combat system, changing the way the game plays for everyone;
2. A revamp of what should be the crown jewel of this game - the GCW;
3. A complete reimagining of the system by which you become Jedi - a profession choice that a huge majority of the playerbase desires to take in one form or another;
4. A complete reimagining of the way Jedi play and interact with the world - including their rarity in the game.

This list constitutes nearly a completely new game from the ground up, yet as far as I've seen there has been little attempt to involve the community in the planning phases.  The smuggler rollback is yet another instance of no information coming back to the community as to why or how these things are happening.

Smugglers have been asked for list after list, and many members of the community have devoted significant amounts of time to producing these documents.  What would help immeasurably is if you or Runesabre or someone would come back to each of the affected communities and say "Look fellas, this is where the Dev team is on the issue.  This is what  we are thinking of doing - does it make sense to you?  Is it what you want?  Are there some holes that could be filled?  How do you suggest we fill them?"

We are still at the point now where we are throwing ideas into the void, hoping they will be read and implemented.  This applies to the Smuggler revamp as well as the list above.  Based on past history - we then expect that there will be a Friday Feature or a set of patch notes telling us what is changing and that will be it (for example:  the crafting revamp, the switch of the FS slot to the main rather than the secondary, etc).

If the community feels involved - really involved - in the changes, they will more than likely support you when they are implemented and will understand if they need to be pushed back (because there is hard information that we can look at and say "That will be really cool - I can see why they need the time to implement it").

For the mood to improve throughout the forums, you need to get someone from the team involved out here, doing the "here's where we are thinking of going - what do you think?" back-and-forth discussion with the Smugglers, the GCW forum, the Jedi, the Combat players, etc.  Sure the signal-to-noise ratio might be lower than you'd like, but in the end you'd forge a dedicated core of players that believes in the changes being made to the game. 

It may be a little dramatic to say, but this is the most crucial hour for SWG.  So many fundamental changes to the game in a short period, each with the potential to drive away a large proportion of the core subscribers.  I'm pleading with you to make use of the collective gameplay expertise on these forums and include us in your thought process when designing these fundamental systems.

Thank you,

Message Edited by BabyRancor on 06-04-2004 09:57 AM

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JustG wrote:

Folks,

 

I totally understand how angry you are right now. I can't tell you how difficult it is for us to have to move your revamp back... but I really do feel that it is the right thing to do for all parties concerned, and for the overall state of the game. The large systems we are revamping really need our full attention. We have been absolutely killing our designers, and they need to have a life. This means not crunching them 7 days a week for months at a time.

 

We did not want to rush out some crappy revamp for you in order to fulfil our commitment. We also strongly feel that some aspect of smuggling should be done in space, so it makes sense to do it after JTL. I am so sorry, but I think it is better to be straight up with you guys than to mislead you about what we can do, or put out something that we, and you, are not going to be proud of.

 

We are at the FF right now, so TH and I are going to be fairly unavailable at this time, but we will spend some time with you next week.

 

Again, my apologies, but we want to make your profession all it can be. We can't do that right now, but we will.

 

thx,

 

- Gary

 

 

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Geaux Darkcloud

Bounty Hunter / Horrible Pilot / Tobacco Spitter / All Around Cajun/Tapoh's Alt

One of the Last Survivng Members of the O-o-D

N

It's cool with me, as long as after JTL launch Smugglers get priority.

I Think that the two most important things we need after JTL is the Smuggler Revamp and More Multiplayer ships like the YT-1300.

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Ipseck wrote:
ya know there wouldn't be so much hostility and anger if thats what you would have said to begin with... in the immortal words of adam sandler


"once again.. something that COULDA BEEN BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION YESTERDAY!!!!"

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I am confused.

We already knew that the Smuggler Revamp was being delayed......... are you saying it is being delayed again?

tsk tsk

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Thunderheart wrote:
This morning, the team made a decision to delay the Smuggler profession revamp to Publish 11.

As it stands, we have a heavy amount of resources dedicated to the Combat Balance, the Jedi Revamp, Space, and new content. That leaves us thin on resources for something as massive and as important as the Smuggler Revamp. Because the core of smuggling is mission based, it really is a big project. In order to incorporate elements of smuggling for PvE and PvP elements, it and enhance slicing, large amounts of code have to be done to make this happen.

I know many of you are eagerly awaiting this revamp and I'm sorry it is going to be delayed, but looking at all the different aspects of this situation, this is simply the best choice. By doing this, we will be able to make the Smuggler's experience more of what it should it be and work with you to find out what your ideas are and how we might incorporate them.

Myself and the developers involved in this portion of SWG development will be reading this thread and we will be talking internally about different courses of action, so we are looking forward to hearing your feedback and in helping to organize the smuggler community ideas on what you think smuggling should entail.

Again, I know what this means to you and how important it is, but to do the Smuggler revamp the way it needs to be done, this schedule delay has to happen.

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Message Edited by Ragnaat on 06-04-2004 12:41 PM

Is there anyway we can have a temporary fix to some of the obvious issues.  We need something.  For over 9 months we've been told that fixes were on the way but all we've seen are nerfs to Dirty Fighting tree?  Can you understand the mixed message we as a community are seeing?

Why nerf Panic Shot if it wasnt hurting anyone? 

If we are going to have to wait (again ) for a revamp can we have some short term fixes that would at least make playing SWG semi-fun again.