THIS PROPOSAL IS NOW ON THE LIVE SERVERS.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK PART IN ITS DISCUSSION OVER THE LAST 8 MONTHS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TC Bug & Feature Testing Section
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Suggested Bug testing
[X] Terminals, mission description, spynet operative only talk about "Rebel Jedi", "Imperial Jedi", "Neutral Jedi" without revealing the name. Passed
[X] Terminals and mission description show a generic payout around 50k, thus hiding the Jedi's skill level, but a full level-dependent bonus payout (e.g. 226k for a templated Jedi) is given on completion of the mission. Passed
[ ] Is a Rebel Jedi on leave shown on terminals correctly as a "Rebel Jedi"? Or is he shown as a "Neutral Jedi"?
[ ] BH TEF - in the past this could persist forever. If this happens with the "new" BH TEF, now that we cannot enter houses with the TEF active, this very old elusive bug will not be pretty. One "fix" until the bug is tracked down is to add a small routine to a BH's logoff procedure - clear all BH TEF's from all their victims if any are still up.
Known Bugs
BH's who complete a Jedi mission can receive jedi force progression boxes up to master??
Important Features for a Successful Implementation:
[ ] Kashyyyk! It is now too safe for Padawans leading to trivialized grinding to Knight (Ryatt Trail groups). As a side effect, the terminals will be flooded with Padawans who are grinding vs. NPC's on Kashyyyk, leading also to BH agony and distress as they keep wasting time and droids. The solution to this giant mess is simple: when the droid reports that the Jedi is on Kashyyyk, it should also report the zone name and instance number. This should not be hard to implement, just look them up every time the droid is used, and adjust the droid's text accordingly....
[X] If the Spynet operative reveals the name, bottom feeding on Padawans will continue. Name should be secret until waypoint is reached. Passed - name remains a secret until visual contact established and the mark is targeted! Only seeker droids return the name, which means having to be on the same planet as the mark to get the name. In addition, the exact skill level remains a secret until the mark is killed. Initial live reports show that bottom feeding has stopped and full templates are being attacked.
[X] It should still be possible, though statistically unlikely to happen, for more than one BH to attack the same Jedi at the same time. Passed
[ ] If Jedi can be tab-targeted the moment their mission is selected, various exploits by colluding BH / Jedi will continue (they'll stand next to each other, and the BH will accept / tab / drop missions until he finds the mission he wants). If this is happening, the fix is that it must be impossible for the Jedi to be targeted until after the BH has launched a droid or talked to the spynet operative.
[X] According to Blixtev, if Jedi go offline their mission stays on terminals. This is game breaking for BH because 24 hours after server up the vast majority of missions will be for OFFLINE Jedi! When Jedi log off, a routine must be called to remove their missions from terminals! Failing that at least a "Verify Mark's Online Status" button should be added at least on the mission description that the BH can hit at any time to query the online status of the mark. Passed - first reports following the July 27th hotfix indicate that terminals now only list online missions. A few reports of some offline Jedi still surface but even so this no longer game breaking.
[ ] With anonymity in place, the negative exp hole cap can be reduced, death penalty from BH can be reduced, mission payouts can be increased for Knights, mission payounts can be reduced for still-grinding Padawans, and some reward for a victorious Jedi can be put in place.
With anonymity in place, there is an increased risk that Jedi will show off in public places because immediate retribution will not come. In addition, now that virtually all Jedi are on terminals, there is safety in numbers as the fixed number of BH attacks per day are spread out over all Jedi instead of a few visible Jedi. This must be fixed so that the incentive to obey visibility rules is restored. This can be accomplished in different ways :
[ ] The best way by far is if only non-Jedi PC's give visibility to Jedi.
[X] The second best way is if group members don't give visibility to groupmate Jedi. In Live!
The result will be to reduce the number of different Jedi on terminals, thus increasing the number and frequency of attacks against them, thus increasing the penalty for being visible. The trick is to give every Jedi, whether a Knight or a grinding Padawan, a realistic option to lead a hidden existence out of sight of the eyes of non-Jedi. Only when that is done will the visibility rules and penalties really start to bite, and therefore actually start to work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Original Post follows .....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Assuming that...
(a) The probability of a specific Jedi being listed upon each refresh of the BH mission terminal is proportional to Jedi's visibility value, with zero probability if visibility is below a minimum (I recall someone tested this and this is already the case - which hints at a broken design intention, by the way)
(b) BH droids are stable and working, and there is no reason to expect that they will be broken again
...then by implementing the following simple changes:
(a) Do not reveal Jedi names or exact mission payouts on BH mission terminals or datapad mission descriptions. (Promised mission payouts can be approximate, so that the payout info cannot be used to identify a Jedi.)
(b) Ensure that Jedi missions listed on BH terminals are for online Jedi only who are not currently in Space and state the mark's faction in the mission description.
(c) When a BH logs off, all outstanding TEF he may have against any Jedi are cleared. The TEF for a specific mission can be reactivated by talking to an NPC, if BH still has the mission.
(d) Give the same, high payout, for all Jedi BH missions - do not link payout to Jedi skill level
... it becomes possible to enhance the game in the following ways:
(a) If the BH has no way to know who he is hunting until he has spent money and time on droids and travelling, it becomes completely impractical, and therefore impossible, for a BH and Jedi to collude to manufacture credits. (For this to work, the Jedi should not be attackable until the BH has travelled out of a city, fed bio-signature to Arakyd probe droid, launched the droid and waited for the result - otherwise the exploiters will stand next to each other and accept/abort missions until the Jedi turns red.)
(b) Following the major nerfs to Jedi healing coming in Publish 19, and the improvements to Doc, CM and Smuggler, which together amount to a drastic change in the balance of power, the proposed changes become even more important as they would lead to fairer one-vs-one fights, because BH can't cooperate to choose missions for the same Jedi.
(c) Because the credit exploit is gone, it is now possible to reduce the negative exp hole cap (from 10 million to, say, 500k) reduce the exp penalty on death blow by a BH (from 2000x skill points spent on the Force, to something more sustainable for young padawans - say 50k) and it becomes possible to increase the payout on BH missions by removing the artifical reduction of the payout to 50k for three days
(d) Jedi will no longer be able to check with an alt or a friend if they are on the BH terminals, so the element of tactical surprise is strengthened in favor of the BH and there will be less house-hiding of visible Jedi and more content for BH's
(e) Jedi who are listed on BH terminals and are on several BH friends lists will no longer receive a BH visit within a fixed time of logging on (a product of the use of friends lists by BH). Instead, the timing of the BH visit will be a function of the Jedi's visibility value, shorter for those with very high visibility, much longer for those with very little visibility.
(f) Young padawans will not get picked on so much, and a BH can't hunt and harass the same Jedi over and over, because BH will not know in advance who he will be hunting or how many SP they have spent on Jedi skills.
(g) All bugs with leftover TEF's will be fixed by brute force, since a BH who logs off loses all TEF's against any Jedi (BH can reactivate TEF for active missions by speaking to an NPC when he logs back on). SOE can then take its sweet time tracking down the sources of these bugs.
(h) If a BH can't pick which named Jedi to hunt, it becomes possible to provide for rewards for Jedi who can defeat an attacking BH. This reward can be a few thousand Jedi or FRS XP and/or reset or reduce the Jedi's visibility upon the death of the BH. This cannot be exploited in practice because of the anonymity and it satisfies a long-standing request of the Jedi community.
(i) Many more Jedi will choose to stand and fight rather than play safe and flee because (1) Jedi anonymity randomizes the match-ups, reducing the chance that the BH can target specific Jedi because of their specific known weaknesses (2) after tracking a mark halfway across the galaxy, there is a subtle pressure on the BH to attack anyway, even if he discovers that the Jedi might be too strong - especially now that doc buffs are no longer essential (3) negative exp is reduced and exp penalty on deathblow is reduced per (c) above, (4) there are non-exploitable rewards for defeating a BH per (h) above. This makes it more fun for all involved, and satisfies a big concern of the BH community - that most Jedi run instead of standind to fight)
(j) If missions can't be picked by name of Jedi, Jedi will be less anti-social, for example they will respond to tells from strangers without fearing that the stranger is a BH.
(k) If missions can't be picked by name of Jedi, Jedi in large guilds will no longer be able to have their BH alts and BH friends to hold their missions so that bona fide BH can't find their missions on terminals.
(l) If missions can't be picked by name of Jedi, Jedi in large guilds will no longer be able to direct their guildmate BH's to grief specific Jedi in other guilds taking a lot of hatred and venom out of the game.
(m) Under the proposed system, even highly visible Jedi (such as a PVP'ing Knight) are statistically unlikely to draw more than one or two uncoordinated BH attacks at the same time. Therefore, for most Jedi, BH encounters in practice will be one on one affairs, something that is currently considered desirable by the devs as per statements made at the FanFest.
I think this is a set of changes that provides net benefits to everyone, Jedi, Bounty Hunters and also to the game designers because it frees their hands to adjust death penalties and mission payouts without having to worry about credit manufacture, FRS farming, or mission hogging exploits. I hope the suggestion receives the attention it deserves.
Respectfully,
Zorron
(Note to (a) above regarding shutting down the credit exploit: the BH mission selection process should be thoroughly fine-tuned and all loopholes closed, e.g. do not reveal exact mission payout because the exact skill points help narrow down to a specific Jedi, or, if the cooperating BH and Jedi are standing next to each other and the Jedi is tab-targetable the moment the BH accepts the right mission, the exploit is still possible...the idea is to require travelling, time and money before the BH can learn the name and gain a TEF on his mark, even if the mark is standing next to him in the first place....)
Edit Note: Edited on Nov 22nd, to incorporate critical feedback to date that I agreed with, and to clarify language which has led some people to get confused.
Edit Note: Edited on Dec 18th, to incorporate new benefits suggested in other threads
Edit Note: Edited on Feb 1st, 2005, to incorporate a detailed technical suggestion to ensure that the system cannot be exploited for credit manufacturing (thanks DeadlyTedly and riptor).
Edit Note: Edited on Feb 27th, 2005, to correct wording regarding mission TEF and BH droids that was misunderstood.
Edit Note: Edited on Mar 19th, 2005, to rephrase wording in proposed change (a) and place equal emphasis on the need to hide exact payouts as well as hide Jedi names.
Edit Note: Edited on May 4th, 2005, to add new benefits (yellow text so you can see the additions).
Edit Note: Edited on June 2nd, 2005, to review the CU-related changes I had made in light of actual experience playing the CU!
Edit Note: Edited on June 4th, 2005, to update some points after hearing FanFest news that Devs are considering to implement the anonymity!
Edit Note: Edited on June 25th, 2005, to highlight the important of implementing, given the upcoming changes in Pub. 19
Edit Note: Edited on July 5th, 2005, to mention that this proposal is now on its way to the Test Center!
Edit Note: Edited on July 7th, 2005, to add a summary results section for bug testing and feature testing from TC Message Edited by Zorron on 07-28-2005 07:24 AM
==============================================================
I collect deliveries from my Spacecraft and Components vendor at
location 1470 -3574 in Phoenix Heights, Tatooine - Infinity. Thanks, Chenoa.
==============================================================
|