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SWG is really starting to come around
Wepps
Member Posts: 1,322
The new proposed Ranger changes, and Squad Leader changes currently on test, are really fascinating.
They are adding a new dimension to this game which will allow certain freedoms of action that will make tactical thinking a mainstay in the game's play, and this is what is missing nearly entirely after the Combat Upgrade.
CU reduced the game to the same button presses around the board, no matter what profession you chose, with some exceptions like Rifleman that allowed for some greater unique activity.
But THIS....this is something new, and will be worth investigating in the future.
Personally, I'm going to wait until they add smuggling. This is where the game would really come into its own, and actually be an excellent MMO.
Consider a situation where crafters are making weapons, armor, ships...and selling them directly to their Rebel friends. Hmm, that's bad. The Empire knows this, and will bust up your shop.
However, what would happen if a Rebel player could purchase a set of bichin armor from their favorite guy, and a Smuggler could then take the mission to deliver that armor?
That would require a choice to be made on the crafter's part, whether to put it up on the terminals for Empire, Rebel, or Neutral. It would also allow for the Smugglers to actually be what they were designed to be in the saga.
What if a Bounty Hunter were hunting a Jedi? The Jedi escapes, calls up his Smuggler connection, and orders transport off-planet to a new location. "I need transport off this rock." They agree on a landing zone, which is done much like placing equipment. The Smuggler sends via email a new item, Landing Zone, that looks like an equipment deed. The Jedi quickly locates an area where it can be placed, and immediately the Smuggler has the choice at the space station of landing in that area.
He lands there, the Jedi is picked up, and off they go. This would place the Smuggler as TEF to the Bounty Hunter, and allow space battles to potentially take place. If the Bounty Hunter were nearby, he could attach a tracking device to that Transport. Perhaps that escape is monitored by the spynet operatives, or Rangers even.
There are a number of possibilities that these changes open up in the strategic game play, but tactically I see good things on the horizon.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
Comments
Until you cancel your subscription, you are only helping to continue the cycle of mediocrity.
*zzzzzzzzzzzzzz*
Wepps if I read one more of your posts saying "It's worth another look" right after you just said you're fed up with it I think I'm gonna puke. You flip flop on SWG more than Kerry did on Iraq.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
Shut up Elnator.
I'll tell you what, I'll recap my basic statements:
1 - SWG is worth buying, at the current rate, but the new expansion is not.
Still stands.
2 - It's better than it was.
That's true.
3 - SOE can't be trusted.
That's true. But lately, I'm getting the impression that....
4 - They are finally getting around to what they should have done 2 years ago.
5 - Koster still doesn't know what he's doing. Thank God he was promoted out of the way.
6 - Hayden Blackmon still hasn't defined the word continuity.
7 - Add Smuggling, and it starts becoming a GAME. It's not yet, it's interactive art because the professions aren't melding together like they should and there is not a whole helluva lot of content there where it belongs.
Each and every one of the above comments I made in the last 4 months or so, and each and every one STILL STANDS.
The flip flopping is in your head. Take a pill.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
Lol Wepps, I think you're bipolar.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
Wepps,
Whether you personally liked it or not SWG has always been a "game" and hundreds of thousands of people have enjoyed it. I agree that fixing smuggler the way they have written up 'in concept' will make the game much more fun for *smugglers* there are countless other people who play other professions in the game that have enjoyed it for the past 2 years.
Just because it doesn't fit your 'perfect world' vision of what it 'should' be doesn't make it a "bad" game.
I agree with your basic premise:
1) SWG is improving... then again it's been improving since this time last year when Jedi were taken off the holo grind and JTL came out.
2) LucasArts & SOE Can't be trusted to stick to 1 vision because they appear to have differing stances on the direction of the game.
3) That MAY be changing... it appears to have been changing recently... maybe LA finally said "ok SOE, make it better" and took their fingers out of the pie (I don't buy it though, not yet).
But you have been both praising AND condemning of this game. First you left when you were the BH Correspondent then came back in June and said the game was heading in the right direction. Then even more recently you posted that you had 'had enough' and were leaving again because you were mistaken, the devs still didn't know what they were doing. Then this post that is now saying it's going in the right direction again. It's just humorous that's all.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
See? There you go again.
You have no insight whatsoever into what Smuggler changes would do to improve the game....for everybody. You have a very limited intellect in my opinion.
It's not only for Smugglers, it's HOW they interact with the rest of the game play that matters. But alas, I get to read yet another shallow interpretation of Elnator Theory lol.
I still think you're on the wrong pills.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
I like the first smuggler idea of getting equipment, though I personally dont feel its thought out enough. It sounds way to one sided, and the empire as is cannot destory someones shop as far as I know. Also, do you really think that seperating items for each faction is a wise idea?
I entirely dislike the call for transport idea as the smuggler would literally just be on hold until someone called upon him/her. Youd have an option to be reliable for that and do nothing else, or you could participate in other smuggler affairs and not be reliable for such instances (ie; JEDI: "Yo come get me" SMUGGLER: "I cant im doing such and such"). Also, if the jedi has already escaped then why does he need a smuggler to get off the planet? Just sounds totally unessesary to me, maybe I am missing something but cant he go to a starport to get off the planet? I could go on and on with scenarios here.
No it's not well thought out mad.
I'm just tossing ideas out there.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
See? There you go again.
You have no insight whatsoever into what Smuggler changes would do to improve the game....for everybody. You have a very limited intellect in my opinion.
It's not only for Smugglers, it's HOW they interact with the rest of the game play that matters. But alas, I get to read yet another shallow interpretation of Elnator Theory lol.
I still think you're on the wrong pills.
Err? ok wait
I point out why I said you need to pick a stance and you claim I have no understanding of smugglers? I didn't even address the proposed smuggler changes so how could you even begin to think about my stance or lack thereof on smugglers? Frankly I agree with most that smugglers are key to the game but I also say that LOTS OF PEOPLE LIKED THIS GAME ALREADY so it wasn't a 'bad game' or anything like that. The smuggler changes will certainly make it *better*
As to my intellect? I'm sorry but you aren't qualified to judge me. Not by a long shot. Especially not over a damn message board.
As to pills? I think one should be careful about hurling personal insults here. I made an observation that you seem to be changing your stance on the direction of SWG a lot. You're not insulting me with the 'pill' comments much. Although when I was a kid I was on ritallin till I was 19... If I hadn't been I'd never have made it through high school. By the age of 19 I had learned to deal with my ADD/Hyperactivity without medicine so I was taken off it. So... if I were the sensitive type I would probably have beaten you senseless for that comment had you made it in person...
In general SWG has been slowly improving, in fits and starts, since last June. It's suffered a couple minor setbacks but, overall, if you compare the game today with the game last June, it's improved. I like what I see in concept from the Devs. If all that (or even a good portion of it) goes live I may even come back finally though I still strongly feel they need to do SOMETHING about the Jedi issue. Till that happens this game will remain broken and jedi will continue to suck the fun out of PVP as more and more of the playerbase unlocks and becomes Jedi.
My response to your post was basically because I find your stances pretty funny. One week you're saying the game is improving. The next week you're saying it's going in the wrong direction, then a month later it's improving again. With as much knowledge as you claim to have about game design, development and growth I would think you'd have a bigger outlook than 1 week at a time when regarding a project the scope of SWG.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
I criticize everything Elnator you should know that by now. If it were perfect, I would figure a way to make it better, and be critical about it. I'm never satisfied with what is presented before me.
That's me personally.
Now go back and look at the post in which I recently cancelled and commented on what was right and wrong in my opinion. "Was an interesting run..."
I don't hate SOE. I don't hate Galaxies. Both can surely use a punt up the backside, and that's what I've always done.
A lot of these problems exist not only in SWG, but in other SOE products, because management got complacent a long time ago, just about the time that there was talk of EQ2 being developed, and SWG started their development.
I've tried everything from reason to ridiculous behavior to wake them up and get them to realize that this is all about quality and trust, and it's only recently that industry-wide these matters are starting to take precedence.
I'm starting to see it in SOE too. The knuckleheads that have midirected them all this time, they were promoted out of the way and the new blood seems to be out to prove a point.
It also seems that every time JFreeman comments about things being impossible, the dev team goes off and does it anyway!
After they recently announced yet another expansion in a whole warehouse of them at SOE, I was openly critical. It's time they knock off the expansion-happy nonsense and get back down to the basics. I WILL NOT accept their statements that development of a new expansions isn't going to interfere with the great things they starte. If it doesn't and they can continue at this pace, SWG will be awesome by Christmas. It will finally become the game that most of us expected to be at release.
From there, who knows? Hopefully they will get around to making it THE game, as I describe it.
But you know what, this has never been about ME as Wepps. It has always been about ME as the customer.
I know what I want, now take me there. It's all about THIS.
Telling me it's impossible is BS. ANYTHING can be accomplished if you have the will to do it, and I am seeing that in this new direction SOE is taking. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE, regardless of what the boss just told you, and we are out to prove it.
I hope they do it.
One thing's for sure, the instant that Smuggling is put in this game I WILL be back.
Smuggling CAN be implemented (and should be) in such a manner that it effects a lot of other players in the game, not just smugglers. I've commented in other posts as to how that thinking applies to game play, and especially in this case how it applies to Star Wars. THAT IS HOW TO THINK ABOUT A GAME DESIGN. See in your mind what would be really cool, then make it happen, to put it simply.
The SOE teams are making it happen, and that really DOES impress me given their failures in the past to overcome their management incompetence.
I guess we will see, but I have to say it, for the first time since beta...I have a feeling of confidence in this development team. This is new to me, so if I sound like I'm flip flopping, sorry about that. I'm really not.
I can prove, just go read my cancellation post. I just think you are mixing me up with somebody else is all.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
HEHE
You do realize that many of the members of THIS development team are from the dev team that's been making all the improvements to EQ2 up till now? The one that basically fixed all the problems with EQ2. They're doing a great job, by anyone's measurement. I have high hopes that they can fix the game. The question is whether SOE/LucasArts will let them balance Jedi... if they won't then in the end everything else won't matter. Because Jedi are the biggest problem in the game. Bar none.
I have a feeling that this team (or members of it) is going to work on MXO next LOL! Maybe they created an "MMO TRIAGE" team to go around fixing the problems in their games?
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
You could be right. I just hit the employment button just for giggles at the website, and found this:
REMEDY DEVELOPER
Technical Operations
San Diego, CA
hmmmm
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
I've just taken a log at the SWG website, in particular what is in Dev and what is in Concept. I like the changes they are currently Developing but I especially like what is coming with teh smuggler update.
I want to try it again for 3 months or so but I don't want to come back too soon and miss out on the smuggler changes so when do you think this is likely to go live? I would guestimate around December for the "In Concept" stuff to reach live???? anyone? I've not been in game for a long time so I don't know how often they are pushing new publishes out.
The word on the grapevine is that the smuggler update makes Live in November; also confirmed by a developer.
Noooo.
The word is, the Smuggler changes are beginning in November. The first content is tentatively scheduled to go live then. They never promised it would all be done by then, you have to read it closely.
And you have to learn to read SOE.
Smuggler missions are only in-concept right now. It's unlikely they will come before Thanksgiving, or even the end of the year.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
Actually all they've said about Smugglers are they would be getting some attention in November. Then later posted an in-concept document on spice changes (i.e. missions instead of crafting). They certainly didn't say "being in November", they said "in November". No other changes to Smuggler have been mentioned, in fact they have stated Smugger won't be seeing a revamp.
As for these missions going live in Novmeber. Its simply an assumtion, as its currently the only visible activity from the devs and correspondants.
With them you have to read everything.
First came the Smuggler proposals. They announced they would be making changes to Spice.
They then commented that the "first Smuggler content would be coming in November. You will see that content live then..."
Then, JFreeman comes out and says there would never be any smuggling, because it would be impossible to do. I love it when they say it's impossible lol. After all, there ARE Bounty Hunter missions. Right?
A few days later, the in-concept forum showed Smuggling Missions coming.
It appears to be a constant and ongoing fight between the management who think everything is impossible, and the development teams who are therefore doing it anyway.
To be honest, this new internal intrigue has me fascinated hehe.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
Until you cancel your subscription, you are only helping to continue the cycle of mediocrity.
You could be right. I just hit the employment button just for giggles at the website, and found this:
REMEDY DEVELOPER
Technical Operations
San Diego, CA
hmmmm
*snickers*
You don't work in the IT industry obviously. Remedy is a help desk/technical tracking database system that also handles asset management. A remedy developer is someone who works with the database and reporting tools to develop interfaces for it.
I work extensively with Remedy all the time
Actually I'm surprised that SOE uses it.... impressed actually... it's one of the best ones out there. Remedy developers make pretty decent money too, usually. It's not exactly an easy system to work with since you need to know scripting and database structure as well as SQL and other aspects specific to Remedy itself.
HEHE.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
I believe he said specifically, "We are no longer promising a smuggler revamp that we could never deliver." It's somewhere on the main boards.
Yeah, they could never deliver it. According to him, then, it's impossible for them to deliver. Which, of course, is not true.
Just because they might have a reason not to doesn't mean it's a good reason, or that it changes what he said.
Really, what SOE is saying on the one hand is...this all constitues a MAJOR rework of the ENTIRE GAME. In other words, an expansion that they should get money from. The teams themselves are saying, we can do it anyway.
One hand - it's not cost effective to make the changes, we get nothing out of it.
The other hand - it's about trust and quality, and customer retention follows. If we do it anyway, they will come and we get revenues by default.
It's the teams that are doing it anyway that get my vote. I think they clearly see that SWG IS revivable, even after all this time. They therefore have dropped it in the bacta tank and are hard at work changing the face of the game - so that it's actually a game.
The business managers just don't get it. It's impossible for them to predict the results of all this, especially since after the great Combat Upgrade it had the complete opposite effect on the community that they expected, and I honestly believe...they are afraid.
However, I maintain that although it's impossible to deliver a report on expected revenues for taking the proper actions in this case, I sense a disturbance in the market. IF they start making it a game, that is adding smuggler missions (and every other profession), they will come, and the resulting revenues generated could be those that exist out on the Warcraft rim....IF THEY BUILD IT FINALLY.
So just because Mr. Business Manager can't predict the outcome, doesn't mean shouldn't do it anyway.
I guarantee you, if they do this right, if they add professional missions, a game comes into being that never existed before except in Bounty Hunter. If they then tie all these together into PLAYER missions, Smugglers smuggling for other players for example and having a danged good reason to do so...
They could still realize that 1 million plus customer base they anticipated at release.
It may not be possible with Horizons...but this is STAR WARS. Star Wars breaks all the known rules. You can easily throw the book out the window where Star Wars is concerned. They've just never gotten around to realizing this truth.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
They didn't say the first changes would occur in November.
What was said (which is some time ago now) was that Smugger would not be seeing a revamp, further than what they received in the CU. However, they would see attention within some publishes.
The first change was to slicing, which was a few publishes ago. Then upon being quizzed they stated there would be some attention given in November. No further changes, aside from those in-concept have been stated.
edit: specifically he said "Julio Torres: We are aware and sensitive to the fact that Smugglers need content to enjoy. We are currently working on this, and players should be able to enjoy the new content in November."
It was after this statement that the in-concept forum showed Smuggler Missions back on the board.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
Yeah, which probably means the assumtion people are making about these missions going live in November is correct.
I'm still lost as to how his statement translates into "we will begin work on Smuggler in November". All he's saying is content will be added during that month and ties in perfectly with what they have said in the past.
I didn't SAY they would be BEGINNING work in November. I said that you would start seeing the content in November, assuming Torres is right.
He never said MISSIONS would be coming in November, he said CONTENT would be coming.
The missions concept has only recently been readded to the in-concept for the Smuggler, which suggests to me that Smuggling Missions are out in January at least. That doesn't mean to say that the other changes aren't coming in November, this is just about the missions.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo