Re: New schedules and priorities

On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 18:37:23 GMT, "Oalan" <Spam_Sucks@I.hate.it>
wrote:

>How do you guys/gals feel about the announcement last week about the new
>sequence of events? In effect, Publish 10 will come out at the end of
>August. After that we will be getting bi-weekly fixes to address
>correspondent's top issues while the bulk of the design team finishes
>Jump to Lightspeed. After that, we will be getting the Combat Revamp
>(which will start showing up in the 'In Concept' forum soon) and the
>Galactic Civil War Revamp.
>
>What are your thoughts?
>
>I don't know how to feel or what to think. They are trying to convince
>us that, suddenly, correspondent issues will be addressed. Most of the
>issues have been ignored/unimplemented since laun The They are trying to
>convince us that they will suddenly start listening to what we want
>fixed, while we've been telling them what we want fixed (and mostly
>ignored, sometimes not) since launch.
>
>We've been told that all the broken professions would be fixed in the
>Combat Revamp, which started in November with CHs getting the crap
>nerfed out of them. CHs were going to be competitive and useful again
>after the revamp which would be used to bring everybody to the same
>level. Everybody was going to have a chance to compete, and you
>wouldn't have to rely on a few templates to participate in 'content' or
>PVP. Delaying it is kind of like kicking the CHs, even though they were
>already bloodied from the previous encounters with the Devs.
>
>Back then, TH was posting figures around 35%-40% of the people playing
>would benefit and needed the Revamp. He stated that the Combat Revamp
>was the most single needed fix in the game, and they (SOE) recognized
>it. There is a great compilation of quotes that we were told in the
>forums about the Revamp and how important it was, pretty sad to read it
>all :P In the interview yesterday, Hayden said that everybody loves the
>game and there are no problems except from the vocal minority.
>
>We are now being told that we've been lied to for quite awhile. Even
>though they told us that an entirely different team was working on JTL,
>it turns out the team came from the core SWG team. Instead of working
>on the Combat Revamp since November, or earlier, they haven't been and
>it will just now appear in the 'In Concept' forums.
>
>The good news is that Wookiees will be getting two new sets of armor.
>Hopefully, they will be able to complete with the rest of the population
>in terms of what they are able to accomplish. I would love to see one
>of their sets of armor have great stun resists, so teaming up with
>someone in Composite would make a great tactical team. That would be
>fun to watch =)
>
>JTL should be good for the game. With any luck, it will bring an
>infusion of new players, and space is something that is noticeably
>missing from a game based on Star Wars. Is it more important than
>fixing what you've been promising you were fixing for over eight months?
>That part I don't know.
>
>What gets me is that suddenly, we are suppose to trust them, even though
>they just admitted to lying to us. "Oh, yeah, I lied to you before, but
>this time I'm really telling the truth." That doesn't sit right with
>me. Near the beginning, correspondents were providing the Devs ways to
>improve their professions. Some of them were great ideas, and one I
>particularly liked was for Rangers. It was to give them traps that you
>could lay on the ground and entice either critters or people to walk
>over them (while in combat) to be affected. That was expanded to
>provide a defense against the (at the time) incredibly powerful AT-STs.
>It would've given Rangers something to do in combat, and provide an
>amazing use (as a counter to the AT-STs). We were told that it was a
>great idea, and they would try to implement it. Well, you can guess how
>far that has gone, Rangers are permitted to wear BH armor and
>Mandalorean to make up for their lack of usefulness :P Now, we are
>suppose to believe them that they will be implementing improvements
>every two weeks to make for a better game until they can focus all their
>efforts on it.
>
>Bleh... I'm just not sure what to think. One of my accounts expires in
>five days. I think I am going to just cancel that one until I see how
>things turn out. It is probably for the best, that is my combat
>character - and now I won't have to worry about getting a TEF and trying
>to have fun just to get mowed down by a Jedi hellbent on increasing his
>status/rank with player kills My other account is a neutral (no
>TEFs, no dealing with Jedi =)) non-combat character. Just a simple
>musician and chef. Using him will still allow me to keep an eye on my
>friends list and see how things turn out.
>
>Any thoughts out there? Am I looking into this too deeply and it really
>means nothing? At the very least, I hope during the JTL Beta they
>listen to us more than they did during the SWG Beta. Heck, I hope they
>listen to us more during the JTL Beta than they do on the 'In Testing'
>forums :P
>
>- Oalan
>

No you are dead on Oalan on all counts. Those of us from the old EQ
(Pre-luclin, pre-soe) world were hoping Lucus would be involved enough
to force SoE to change its ways a bit. No need to state the obvious on
this misconception..

Well it has its benefits, I wont be adding a second and third
accounts, thats a first for me. I wont be buying JtL till they make
good on the revamp and I see what the revamp does to the game. I wont
be buying EQ2 on a bet so Im saving money here.

As for the revamp, if CH is an example of what to expect omg are we
screwed (Reminds me of the PoP Monk nerf in EQ, see a pattern?) . I
still say they shoulda left things alone, in which case the revamp
would be moot. Sony fine-tunes games with a sledge hammer and it
always fails.

As it is I may keep my one account open as long as the game amuses me
which wont be one nano-second past Wow going live UNLESS they really
really REALLY surprise me or Wow is a total bust. But we know better
than that.......

Its long past time for someone to finally do a game right, lets hope
its soon.

<SNIP>

>>
>
>No you are dead on Oalan on all counts. Those of us from the old EQ
>(Pre-luclin, pre-soe) world were hoping Lucus would be involved enough
>to force SoE to change its ways a bit. No need to state the obvious on
>this misconception..
>
>Well it has its benefits, I wont be adding a second and third
>accounts, thats a first for me. I wont be buying JtL till they make
>good on the revamp and I see what the revamp does to the game. I wont
>be buying EQ2 on a bet so Im saving money here.
>
>As for the revamp, if CH is an example of what to expect omg are we
>screwed (Reminds me of the PoP Monk nerf in EQ, see a pattern?) . I
>still say they shoulda left things alone, in which case the revamp
>would be moot. Sony fine-tunes games with a sledge hammer and it
>always fails.
>

That is because SoE always listens to the loudest whiners. That's why
combat is so screwed now. It started with the Knockdown shot for BH's
and it's been one constant PvP whine after another and one massive
over reacion after another. And where are we going to end back up???
Probably just about back where we started in the beginning.

> As it is I may keep my one account open as long as the game amuses me
>which wont be one nano-second past Wow going live UNLESS they really
>really REALLY surprise me or Wow is a total bust. But we know better
>than that.......
>
>Its long past time for someone to finally do a game right, lets hope
>its soon.

Don't count on it. The first thing these games are all about is money
in the pockets of the company that runs them. That means that gameing
decisions are going to be less about fun and more about what will
insure continued subscriberships! The standard logic at work right now
is "Friends and relationships, peer pressures will help keep those
waivering on the verge of leaving subdcribing to the game longer."

Let's face it, If you get lousy service at the local bar, but that's
where all your friends hang out, then you are more likely to overlook
the lousy service so you can continue to hang with your friends!

Ringo wrote:

> On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 18:37:23 GMT, "Oalan" <Spam_Sucks@I.hate.it>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> As it is I may keep my one account open as long as the game amuses me
> which wont be one nano-second past Wow going live UNLESS they really
> really REALLY surprise me or Wow is a total bust. But we know better
> than that.......
>

I went to read WoW's web site last month. Do you know what I saw? I saw
the same non-committal promise style used in SWG. I read the forums and
saw the same complaints. I looked over the materials, and saw the
responses, and I saw the same overly-high expectations for the game from
the fan community.

WoW may turn out to be a great game, but I expect the players to exploit
it, dupers to dupe, griefers to grief, testers to complain that they
warned the devs about this, bug fixes on bug-fixes, and lots of
complaining.

CH

Since the subject of CH came up from Oalan, who is right on the money as far
as I have seen, I do have a question maybe you folks can help me with.

I am 4/3/3/4 CH atm but when I pull pets they have a tendency to just
disband on me, usually in the middle of a pull or similar. Could one of you
shed some light on this for me? 15 bug reports and 2 unanswered tickets
later I am stumped still =(

--
Obitrotzu Ossko
Packmaster / Novice Ranger
Warrant Officer I - Rebel Alliance
Corbantis Server

"Oalan" <Spam_Sucks@I.hate.it> wrote in message
news:I1B7DB.7no@news.boeing.com...
> "Ringo" <Ringo@noon.com> wrote in message
> news:9bq0g011hqbea0gp8dks1hn4t92lsm3tue@4ax.com...
>
> <Snip>
>
> > As for the revamp, if CH is an example of what to expect omg are we
> > screwed (Reminds me of the PoP Monk nerf in EQ, see a pattern?) . I
> > still say they shoulda left things alone, in which case the revamp
> > would be moot. Sony fine-tunes games with a sledge hammer and it
> > always fails.
>
> The scariest part is that now we are getting away from fixing things as
> a whole, and back to rush jobs that just look at a microcosm of the
> entire system. Those rush jobs on small parts that the Devs treat as
> isolated when they aren't are the reason we are in this mess to begin
> with.
>
> > As it is I may keep my one account open as long as the game amuses me
> > which wont be one nano-second past Wow going live UNLESS they really
> > really REALLY surprise me or Wow is a total bust. But we know better
> > than that.......
>
> My second account is one I got off a friend - it is paid up until March.
> The last several months, my friends list of 47 has been lucky to hit 6
> online at the same time. If this trend continues, its going to be a
> long time until March :/
>
> - Oalan
>
>

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 08:46:11 -0400, Clawhound <none@nowhere.com>
wrote:

>Ringo wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 18:37:23 GMT, "Oalan" <Spam_Sucks@I.hate.it>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> As it is I may keep my one account open as long as the game amuses me
>> which wont be one nano-second past Wow going live UNLESS they really
>> really REALLY surprise me or Wow is a total bust. But we know better
>> than that.......
>>
>
>I went to read WoW's web site last month. Do you know what I saw? I saw
>the same non-committal promise style used in SWG. I read the forums and
>saw the same complaints. I looked over the materials, and saw the
>responses, and I saw the same overly-high expectations for the game from
>the fan community.
>
Our expectations are NOT overly high. I expect someone to do what they
say, now is that expecting too much much? I dont expect them to listen
to me, or cater to me. But for crying out loud dont just lie, what an
insult.

>WoW may turn out to be a great game, but I expect the players to exploit
>it, dupers to dupe, griefers to grief, testers to complain that they
>warned the devs about this, bug fixes on bug-fixes, and lots of
>complaining.
>
>CH

This is always to be expected however there are big diferences between
the companies. Funcom (Anarchy Online) takes customer service much
more seriously than SoE does. Not perfect by a long shot but they do
try. THe biggest problems arise when companys just flat out lie to the
player base. This is standard/prefered practice at SoE but does
happens at other comapnies just not nearly as often. As big as SWG or
EQ are they would be easily twice that size if Sony would get its head
out of its ass. When someone realizes that, they will make a ton of
more money over there.

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 06:38:28 -0400, Skinner1@hotmail.com wrote:

><SNIP>
>
>>>
>>
>>No you are dead on Oalan on all counts. Those of us from the old EQ
>>(Pre-luclin, pre-soe) world were hoping Lucus would be involved enough
>>to force SoE to change its ways a bit. No need to state the obvious on
>>this misconception..
>>
>>Well it has its benefits, I wont be adding a second and third
>>accounts, thats a first for me. I wont be buying JtL till they make
>>good on the revamp and I see what the revamp does to the game. I wont
>>be buying EQ2 on a bet so Im saving money here.
>>
>>As for the revamp, if CH is an example of what to expect omg are we
>>screwed (Reminds me of the PoP Monk nerf in EQ, see a pattern?) . I
>>still say they shoulda left things alone, in which case the revamp
>>would be moot. Sony fine-tunes games with a sledge hammer and it
>>always fails.
>>
>
>That is because SoE always listens to the loudest whiners. That's why
>combat is so screwed now. It started with the Knockdown shot for BH's
>and it's been one constant PvP whine after another and one massive
>over reacion after another. And where are we going to end back up???
>Probably just about back where we started in the beginning.
>
>> As it is I may keep my one account open as long as the game amuses me
>>which wont be one nano-second past Wow going live UNLESS they really
>>really REALLY surprise me or Wow is a total bust. But we know better
>>than that.......
>>
>>Its long past time for someone to finally do a game right, lets hope
>>its soon.
>
>Don't count on it. The first thing these games are all about is money
>in the pockets of the company that runs them. That means that gameing
>decisions are going to be less about fun and more about what will
>insure continued subscriberships! The standard logic at work right now
>is "Friends and relationships, peer pressures will help keep those
>waivering on the verge of leaving subdcribing to the game longer."
>
>Let's face it, If you get lousy service at the local bar, but that's
>where all your friends hang out, then you are more likely to overlook
>the lousy service so you can continue to hang with your friends!
>

Let it be about the money then. Whats the best way to make money long
term? By keeping the respect and loyalty of you customers! As much as
SoE thumps its chest over the size of its player base, can you imagine
how much bigger it would be if they ran the games well and didnt keep
pissing off large portions of players?

In your example above sooner or latter one of the friends says" This
place sucks lets go hang out somewhere else" then they all leave. In
the end its all about the game.

For awhile they actually were fixed it seemed then about 2 months ago while
going after Sandpeople they started poofing again. Say hello to the ugly
green stain on the sand =(

--
Obitrotzu Ossko
Packmaster / Novice Ranger
Warrant Officer I - Rebel Alliance
Corbantis Server

"Oalan" <Spam_Sucks@I.hate.it> wrote in message
news:I1KIHM.6LD@news.boeing.com...
> "Brian Kincaid" <bkincaid@chartercom.com> wrote in message
> news:dMbMc.20$M96.6@newsfe01.lga.highwinds-media.com...
> > Since the subject of CH came up from Oalan, who is right on the money
> as far
> > as I have seen, I do have a question maybe you folks can help me with.
> >
> > I am 4/3/3/4 CH atm but when I pull pets they have a tendency to just
> > disband on me, usually in the middle of a pull or similar. Could one
> of you
> > shed some light on this for me? 15 bug reports and 2 unanswered
> tickets
> > later I am stumped still =(
>
> Pets disappearing, disbanding, autostoring, and when they stop following
> you are all old bugs. I was under the impression that they were fixed,
> but that just might be because I don't have any friends that are CH any
> longer.
>
> - Oalan
>
>