A Bit of Galaxies, Long Live Galaxies

I’m enjoying Draenor immensely and have now been playing World of Warcraft longer than I played Galaxies. I still miss it and my characters and the world and its adventures. Also, the community there was the best I’ve ever seen. Sigh.

Someone’s Guide to The Ancient Facility on Mustafar

Ok here is a little mini walk through of the place.

Its set up on three floors. Check out each floor and use every panel/box that you can find before progressing to the next floor. So you go 1, 2, 3, 1, (2), 1.

First floor you turn right, and then go downstairs.
On the second floor you clear out the bugs on the left, open the box and then move out the left door to the droid. Down that hallway are some more bugs and a Diary. Grab that and take a right after the next set of bugs. Circle back and head downstairs.
On the third floor head straight to the fusion room. Kill the bugs and to the left is the ventilation system. (Also in this room is the Crystal Shard Fusion Melter thing) From there go to the right a ways and I believe you hit another security panel. In that room should be a Ancient Tulrus whom goes down easily.

From there you go back to the stairwell to the first floor. Take a right at the hallway and you will hit the power thingy room. Go straight around the power thingy and you will take a left into the Ancient Xandak room. He is quite hard so I would take 4 people to deal with him. In that room is the Working Terminal you are looking for.

From that point you need to kill a droid that gives you a droid chip. You will know you get it because a part of your mission will complete. Thats why I say (2) up there because there are lots of droids on level 2.

Go back up to the first floor where you killed the Xandak with the working terminal and use it again. Mission Complete.

I have this saved as “Ask Me No Questions”

Do you have any plans to turn maintance back on to get rid of all the abandoned structures from players who quit long ago ?

we’ve had a plan to completely get rid of most of the structures in the game from players that aren’t around any more. It’s in limbo because it’s time-consuming and needs to be done just right (imagine the riots if we deleted active players’s structures by accident). The team just has other stuff they are concentrating on atm.

Smed

So what’s the new expansion going to be?

We are not currently working on or planning an expansion. Period. Our only job right now is to make this game better.

Smed

will we ever see a lock on target system agen? Will we ever get a skill sytem simmular, or like the one we had before? And do you think this gaem feel like Star Wars?

1) No target lock is planned or being discussed.
2) There will be additional skills for each profession, but not like the system before. I realize this is contriversial but there it is.

Smed

why can’t you do these things? (In responce to above question )

Target lock – Believe it or not we talked long and hard about this one. If you seriously sit down and think about the nature of the NGE style of combat, it means that people need to be able to use actual skill to hit. If you take that away you need to go back to the more turn based system we had before. It just plain wouldn’t work. Now you can make a legitimate argument that we shouldn’t use this style of combat. I have no defense against that argument because nearly every other MMO out there uses that style of combat and clearly it works. What we are trying to do here is create a new style of gameplay. Does it work? Well.. for some people it does, and for others it doesn’t. That’s the truth. For myself, I prefer it to the old combat system which I personally found dull. But that’s just my personal opinion. The reality is we’ve changed to the new system and we’re moving forward. It isn’t that we can’t add target locking.. it’s that wer’e not going to because there isn’t a way to do it that wouldn’t reduce the skill level needed.

The more rigid profession system we’ve switched to just doesn’t lend itself to a skill system that’s like what we had before.

Smed

OK…. i understand the reasoning behind Target Lock and the FPS programming/dynamic. I do not understand the The “more rigid profession system we’ve switched to just doesn’t lend itself to a skill system that’s like what we had before.”, reasoning at all. what advantage does lack of choice and individualization present/offer SOE to do this? ( In responce to the above question )

The answer here is it has the advantage of not being a min/max system. You won’t end up with everyone being one particular combination in order to play pvp.

Obviously this is in *theory* in practice.. we ain’t there yet.

Smed

Could you say if the “Secret Project” that several (rough est. 95%) DEVs are working on, has anything to do with SWG?

Secret Poject? Where do people come up with this stuff. ALL developers on SWG are focused on the publish plan you saw. We were in the preliminary planning/design stages of a design for an expansion pack a few months back. When we saw how much work the live game needed and the reaction from both the community and the focus groups we dropped those plans. We can worry about that later.

Smed

any chance to get a new dwb/vette style dungeon in the meantime, only harder?

part of “fixing the game” includes a ton of new content. It’s just going to be included in game updates, not in an expansion.

Smed

This is what I don’t get. You had 20 some servers running and that wasn’t enough to support the business? What were the plans that everyone in the universe would be a sub?
Was it actually a plan to focus on the target market of players whom want a simplified game?

1) Yes we had 20 servers.
2) Yes there were more people playing
3) No, they weren’t remotely full.. and they were getting less full by the day.
4) IMO we probably need a server merge at some point.

#3 is the reason we needed to make this change in the first place.

Smed

How can that possibly be achieved with a shallow profession system (the shallowest of any MMO, including WoW) and a combat system that puts strategy on the back seat behind specials and heals that fail and is so fast that the person who gets the first shot in wins 90% of the time?

The profession system is going to get a whole lot deeper as fast as we can.

Smed

its going to be hard as hell to make the game “better” if no one likes the combat system. Now only lag free computers can do well in pvp, which turned off many people. What is your take on this?

this IS something I think that needs addressing. It also had an interesting side effect that I have to say we didn’t think about (well at least not enough anyways) – this combat system got rid of a lot of multi-box players. That sucks.

Smed

now that the development time line often runs into snags, etc… that delay release of new content/fixes…but, is there any word yet on the status of Publish 28? Is it still a go, or has “new” material delayed its arrival even further?

I’ve asked the devs to jump in – Rogue 5 – go ahead and bust out your current target live date (I will now wait as the dev team sends someone to beat me up). Last I heard mid-April with it going to test in early April.

Smed

If you are not going to bring back target lock can you bring in mob collision detection so that we do not have mobs hiding in each other and such – that is where the lock on target is best but with the system the way it is now you fire ate a group and there is no way to keep on the same mob because they can travel within and through each other.

I actually think this is something that will make things a lot better. I’m not sure where it is in the pipeline of things to do, but I think having mobs not all bunch up will fix a lot of what people complain about. Unfortunately this is not a simple technical problem to solve. It sounds like it is, but on the server side the single biggest frame rate killer is collisions for a lot of reasons I won’t get into. We need to solve this problem. I don’t have an ETA yet though.

Smed

What i really like to know smed, is how do u feel about having people pay for beta.

Yes it’s a loaded question, but I’ll answer it. I think people that believe they are paying for a beta quit. Am I happy with the state of the game? No way. Do I think it’s entertaining for a lot of people? Yes, or we wouldn’t have subscribers. Is it good enough? Not yet.. no.

So no, I don’t think people are paying for a beta. Again, I’m sure by the very nature of the question that you’ll disagree.. but there it is.

Smed

John, what happened to your plan to reincorporate Creature Handler in some capacity?

it’s on the list.. but lower down than I would like. One thing I don’t get to do in my job is only have them work on the things that I want them to…. although I will be the first to admit that would be fun I suspect the bunch of really smart people that work at SOE wouldn’t enjoy it as much as I would.

I get my “Smed” list worked on once in a while when I **edit** enough.

Smed

Why are things taking so long?

we’ve lost some dev team members. A lot of new companies have sprung up in Austin and we lost some key people… new people take time to ramp up. Simple as that. NCsoft and others are losing people too. This is a competitive job market. Seriously competitive.

Smed

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.

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.

-Helios Titan

We are expecting to get Publish 28 to Test Center late next week. Right now it looks like Publish 28 will hit the live galaxies on April 18th.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

Reply to no specific question

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.

-Helios Titan

There has been an outcry on the forums for a roll back. As i understand the term Rollback it would mean rerurning to the old system and scrapping everything that happened since the NGE.

Please clearly state weather this is even possible and discribe what the end results would be if it were?

We are not doing a roll back. We are not planning a roll back. We are not discussing a roll back. Once again, we are not doing a roll back.

Message Edited by Dev-Vapor on 03-24-200603:26 PM

David Jones

as pvp has been mentioned here..can we expect a pvp system in which pvpers can advance, work together and spend their whole play time in if they wish and actually have fun and opponents .. so something drastic or will it be something like we had up to now again that is just a small part of the game not encouriging anyone to do it?

Yes, we have a large scale GCW battleground as well as a PvP leaderboard and rewards/advancement system in the pipe.

a major prob for traders now is loot is better.

in the old days i knew what rifle a new player needed, and what rifle an advanced player needed. I could stock both.

Now we have CL 88 CDEF rifles.

We don’t have any way to construct level specific weapons.

You’re right. The current loot game within SWG is in direct opposition to the trader profession. That’s why we’re changing what traders are and how they operate so that they operate in congruence and harmony with the current loot game. While no concrete plans have been made, I suspect schematics, mass harvesting, factory crafting and similar aspects of the current trading game to be adapted to something more suitable.

-Helios Titan

Why take away crafting spice? I enjoyed it and if some smugglers didnt they didnt have to.

Why take away slicing – same? I enjoyed it and if some smugglers didn’t they didn’y have to.

Why take away bases – I enjoyed grouping with friends on a regular basis for this and now vets are left with nothing execpt pvp for the “GCW”

Why take away faction pets? They werent that good anyway…but most enjoyed them.

Slicing type gameplay will return with the reverse-engineering game for traders. GCW bases (not to be confused with battlefields) will be making a combeback in an upcoming publish. One of the systems guys is looking into updating these as we speak. Faction pets are coming back as part of GCW expertise trees (see my post above).

-Helios Titan

You mentioned the possibility of guilds having their own capital starships such as star destroyers. I’d like to know what is the status of capital ships given that there is now no expansion on the horizon. Will we be seeing them implemented as free content? What about combat vehicles such as AT-ATs (which I’ve yet to see in a combat role in 3 years)?

If we got to the point where we had the time to do this, I suspect it would be an expansion. It was in the plans for the future. Right now we’re focused on the core game and making it better.

What you said would be cool.. and it’s a dream of ours and has been for a long time!

Smed

John is it possible to have 6 toons per server this has worked well for me on eq2 i think it could work with in swg,

Could we have more (not syaing any specific #)? Yes. Soon? Not until we did the structure wipe. The database is massive as it is. This would make it a lot worse.

Smed

Can you see the game being bug free? I can’t.

Here’s a bold goal –

Let’s get all the bugs out of the game within 6 months. Maybe we won’t hit it, but that’s what we’re shooting for.

Smed

Will you ever make if so that we can respec without using kits/destroying toons…?

Respec NPCs are going with pub 28.

-Helios Titan

Could you respond to an Entertainer’s post then please? It would be nice to get a response on why our revamp was cancelled.

Entertainer Revamp scheduled for Publish 27

Entertainer Revamp is moved to Publish 28

Thunderheart clarifying that it’s not a revamp, meaning that there is no plan for an Entertainer revamp in the next seven publishes.

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.

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.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

what about mini expansions like eq2 get theres a vampire one it costs like 4 dollars

Not until we have improved this game by a lot. Will we do content like this? Yes.. although maybe not all in one bunch.. but you will get more content.

Smed

One of the more tech headed guys in these forums posted an explanation as to why FPS combat has NEVER been done by other MMORPG’s.

Basically he said that it’s impossible for the internet to send the combat information needed to every toon in the surrounding area in the speed needed for Real Time combat. This it seems is why we’re having so much trouble with our specials either not firing or miss firing because the data simply isn’t being transferred fast enough.

Your thoughts on this? (keep it simple please)

Specials not firing is entirely unrelated to this issue. FPSs use mostly UDP. SWG doesn’t really use UDP. UDP uses small, fast packets that don’t rely on being delivered 100% of the time, because they constantly get resent with updated information. You need a lot more bandwidth for UDP based gaming, generally because you constantly need to send updated about traveling projectiles, etc.

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.

-Helios Titan

If there was a city purge even tho we all worked to get our metropolis cities why not lift some of the restrictions on citizen requirements so we can keep our civic structures like shuttleports,and cloners If there is a purge i stand to lose ALOT of people in my city and will probably end up as a lvl 2 village.

We have had discussions about relaxing the requirements for civic structures. We have not made a decision on this yet, but are aware of the consequences involved in a structure clean up pass.

David Jones

Decay,I’d keep that pvp only like planned and away from quest rewards but make it on standard craftable items,Its not easy to get something like a Lava Crystal Per say and i definately dont want to end up running quests 100 more times to get the whole guild one again lol.

We are still investigating if/how/when we reintroduce pvp decay into the game.

David Jones

This new bounty system,Someone like me is purely pve except for big weekend pvp events isnt there some way possible where we can get an option to “Opt in” at a bounty terminal so we cant be hunted if we dont want to be,I know plenty of people who want to and this new system will still be very much used but I personally want to see an option to say no to it.

The only time you will be eligible to have a bounty set on you is if you defeat another player in PVP combat.

David Jones

You Eluded to guilds having a star destroyer,What is the status of this and when is it coming.

We do not have any plans for this to be implemented.

There are acouple issuse that I see. One thing is the lack of end game content to keep me busy. 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?

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.

Smed

John, what happened to your plan to reincorporate Creature Handler in some capacity?

No plans involving creature handlers are on the books.

-Helios Titan

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.

We are working on a fix for this. We understand this is an important community issue and are working to solve it as quickly as possible.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

Will you guys be able to add more quests soon for xp? Or can you just raise the xp for creature kills until more quests come out? So far it is impossible to level up. I have done all the worthwhile quests and am stuck at lvl 78. I dont see a real way to get 500k xp anytime soon.

We are looking into getting the xp for creature kills raised.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

PLEASE tell me this GCW content will be for both PvE and PvP GCW participants…

That is just the High End Content that will be coming out for Publish 29. We want to do alot of different types of content for people to do at the high ends. Some of them would be things like class specific story arc missions, new dungeons similar to the DWB, PvP battlefields, GCW ranks and rewards systems, etc. Basically, we really want to give our high end players a lot of different choices of what they want to do when they log in.

SpaceRancor

John, what happened to your plan to reincorporate Creature Handler in some capacity?

I’m going to elaborate on this one – the devs aren’t going to be adding Creature Handlers back to the game per se. They will at some point be adding a pet skill back to the game.. but it’s not on the priority list and is likely outside the scope of the current publish plan.

Smed

Smed I hope this sort of QA session is not going to be a one time thing its great seeing all this feedback.

It won’t be a one time thing. I will do more of it if the threads are as productive as this one. In the recent past it’s been a ton of anger and less feedback that’s useful. I can only say “no rollback” so many times.

Smed

So what u gonna do? Raise xp for quests? Add more quests? Or just raise xp for kills?

Short term we will likely be increasing the XP for kills. Long term we will be adding more quests and other content.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

can we make these Q&A sessions a fortnightly thing it would be a fantastic way to unite us all and grind out the right solutions.

Please join us for our Stratics HoC Chats, the next one is tentatively scheduled for April 19th.

David Jones

There’s a lot of discussion going on and I wanted to jump-in at a more basic level to address the themes I see repeated again and again on this thread:

‘Star Warsy’ Game: I think this is the principle issue driving all of the furor surrounding SWG. I’ll be honest, SWG wasn’t launched as a Star Wars game first and foremost. Instead, other priorities such as crafting, vast world space, non-SW activities (e.g. Entertaining) and player-created activities were pushed ahead of the essential SW adventure. The people who wanted an online SW adventure tried it out and left. The people who liked the sandbox nature and deep crafting game stayed. But the general direction of JtL, CU, and the NGE were aimed at adventure. Why? Because we wanted to shift the game to first and foremost be about SW adventure.

The question then becomes why, if you the community wanted a different game, did we go in this direction? To put it simply, we wanted to appeal to a broader SW audience. We wanted to play up the elements most people identify with from Star Wars. In some cases, this meant modifying or eliminating parts of the game that the existing community wanted. But, at the end of the day, we believe we can reach a balance between crafters and adventurers, between combat and non-combat professions, between those who want to live in a simulated world and those who want to live an online SW adventure. And that’s why we’re continuing to pursue the ‘Star Warsy’ direction we’ve established.

Rollback: People are asking for it. But, we aren’t seriously considering it. Why? Well, nostalgia tends to color your view of the past. SWG has advanced in a lot of ways a rollback is an all-or-nothing return to what was before. The strides we’ve made forward would be eliminated (e.g. the quest system). The expansions and additions we’ve built would be affected. To put it simply, going forward, fixing the game, building on what we’ve established and refining the direction at hand is the best way to improve your day-to-day experience in the game.

The Future: With a diverse audience come diverse demands. As developers with limited time and resources, we need to choose what we want to focus on. And, to be blunt, SWG’s has done a lot of things poorly in the past. There has been a lot of diversity, but very few of the options met the gameplay and quality expectations players expect. In fact, the posting history so regularly brought up by members of this forum (hello, Smugglers) shows just how diverse the ideas have been surrounding this game. And, to be honest, we can’t meet all of those expectations.

We are, however, staying true to the focus on the game we established. We’ve carved out a scope and direction that we can support and build. We’ve identified a core set of professions that we can grow and differentiate. We’re building the groundwork to deliver a more compelling GCW experience. We’re looking at solid solutions for crafting as a part of the future of the game. And, yes, we’re putting a Smuggling system into the game.

To put it simply, we’re going to keep pushing to refine and expand SWG first and foremost as a SW adventure. We’re going to differentiate professions, add adventure content, revamp crafting to be a core part of the fundamental adventure economy, tie-in alternate activities like Entertaining, and work each day to improve the moment-to-moment experience of every player through continued bug fixes and quality improvements. We’re not there yet, but as Publish 27 showed (and Publish 28 will continue to prove), we’re on our way.

Most of the loot isn’t rewarding, and the rewarding stuff is mostly easy to get. What’s more, there is no challenge in the getting the best weapon possible. It’s no coincidence players complain of the lack of things to do with the loot system that we have now.

You are also correct. The loot really isn’t where it needs to be. It needs to be exciting when you get a new weapon or piece of armor. I love it when I get an equipment upgrade, even if it is just a couple of points. But I think the problem that crafters have is the exact same issue that loot in general has right now. Items just are not important enough in SWG. That is something that we need to change, for both crafters and for loot in general.

SpaceRancor

Does this mean for example that the first 2 professions will have this edge over all other professions and then 2 more approx 2 months later until all are completed? If so, which 2 professions are first to be elite?

Yes. It’s either that or no profession updates for the next 6 months (or whatever the time frame is).

Jedi & Bounty Hunter are on the books for first pass.

-Helios Titan

I understand your position on the target lock issue. However, I would like to inquire if there might be any hope for some sort of target-lock or non-mouse cursor positional targetting in *NON-COMBAT* situations?

Yes. We are working on ways to improve targeting in non-combat situations as part of Publish 29.

Respec NPCs are going with pub 28. This needs MAJOR Clarification

NPCs will be stationed in some cities that allow you to change your profession for a price. As a gift for publish 28 everyone gets one respec from the NPCs for free. The NPCs work essentially the same as the respec devices.

-Helios Titan

Ok i finally fell beind on the posts so if this has been asked before Im sorry, but any word on the collision detection that was going to be finished in 6 months ( as of 4 months ago so only 60 days left) , we havent heard much about this.

We are still working on it. It is a huge change to the core game, so we want to make sure it is solid before we roll it out in a publish.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

How will the ground/space split be? I for one would kill for some new space content.

Right now most of our plans have to do with increasing the content on the ground.

The problem with adding in new space content is simply physical space. Right now our space zones are pretty full, except for the theme zones, like Kessel and Deep Space, which makes it really difficult to add new high end space content. We are working on some solutions to that problem but those are a ways off so there are no immediate plans (other then mission fixes and mission upgrades, like making escorts faster) to add more space content.

SpaceRancor

Can we get duel weilding weapons plz? I would love to have 2 sabers

We don’t currently have any of the animations or code support to implement this. Right now there are lots of other things we need to concentrate on.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

that is not the issue. the issue is specials act like they fired off (cooldown has started when you clickd or pushed the special button) but the effect of the special dosent happen. most ppl say its ‘jedi heals’ but its with any and all combat specials.

No really, that is the issue. The client pre-emptively shows you animations for stuff that it thinks the server will approve. When the command gets to the server it can get denied because of the timer issue I mentioned.

-Helios Titan

Right now, the game is in poor shape. I can understand this to a degree, since you guys just pushed a major game mechanics overhaul. The major thing I have an issue with is the game animations. I’ve heard that there are new animations being planned for the game, but other than the announcement of “new animations”, I’ve never heard anything beyond that.

Animations – We will be doing some significant work on our animation system in the upcoming months. The collision system we are working on will allow us to get jumping into the game.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

please no more timed spawns. I have just spent 3 hours waiting for Commander Razor to Spawn so I can complete one of my final Mustaphar mission. How is that supposed to be fun.

We need to remove those timer spawns on Mustafar. They were originally put in to stop people from camping the mobs and item farming them. Looking back on it, that wasn’t really a valid enough reason to have them spawn like they do.

SpaceRancor

Starts 100k credits and goes up to 25 million i think.

-Helios Titan

Basically your saying, sorry entertainers your just food.

No, I’m saying that they aren’t one of the heroic roles from the movie. There were a lot of other entainters in the movies, but, again, they were not the focus of the films. We want to, first and foremost, deliver on the SW fantasy.

Any word on when the Entertainer and Trader quest starters in our inventory will be working? We’ve been waiting since NGE launch for those little suckers to work.

We’re looking to get all of the unfinished profession quests completed. That will be part of our ongoing effort with the content path, though some of it might also be handled by Eli’s team. I expect we’ll target professions as Kai’s team is enchancing them so that we’ll follow his team’s efforts with content.

Michael

Does this mean the new GCW themepark will be for PvPers only? Are CL90 PvErs not considered High End Content?

The GCW to me is setting up conflict between Rebels and Imperials. This doesn’t always mean PvP content. Sometimes it will and sometimes it will not. The current plan for the upcoming themepark is to give PvE missions in a PvP environment. For expample, players might be asked to stop the enemy forces from taking a piece of land. When they enter the area where this is going to take place they are flagged PvP. They may or may not ever fight other players but they are put in that situation. But this is one of the aspects of the upcoming GCW themepark, it will have other aspects. Of course, future publishes will focus sololy on the PvE players and some will focus completely on the PvP player.

SpaceRancor

So you are bringing back battlefields?

Yes. Expect to see something different than what we had before though.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

will ever come back ?

We have no plans to re-introduce camps.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

why did you wait to tell us? Rogue_5, Julio and Th have promissed us communication for over a month and FINALLY it is being given.

Honestly. It is because the final decision to cancel the expansion just happened less then two weeks ago. Since that time, we have been figuring out what it is that the game needs out of its high end content, and then trying to come up with fun, cool ideas for that content. The first draft of the GCW themepark design document was just finalized a few days ago. So you are actually hearing about these changes pretty quickly.

SpaceRancor

Any chance of ever implementing a cross-server space zone ?

No. I actually asked some of our server programmers about having cross-server battlefields once…I was lucky to make it out alive. I will never forget that haunting, souless looks in their eyes. It was like looking into the face of death.

So…um…yeah…no.

SpaceRancor

You guys have missed the boat on one of the most Star Warsish things: Droids. Ask GL how important R2 and 3PO are to his saga. Now, ask yourself, “what have we done to droid engineers?”

I’ll agree with you here. Droids are a key part of the SW fantasy. But droid engineers are not. What we should’ve done was implement droids as a player race and really give players the opportunity to experience them as part of the game. I know this may be misunderstood so let me be clear: we’re not adding droids as a playable race. In the grand scope of things, however, it’s as you said. We missed the boat on them.

We’re going to keep looking for ways we can build on what we do have in SWG that meets the SW adventure criteria.

About content – will we witness the return of the Force Sensitive village quests?

No.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

Can you get rid of the old battlefields then?

Eventually. We are using those as placeholder for some of the new content we will be adding.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

Even as a type of themepark for high end content? The stuff is already there it could be great to keep for a themepark with a badge after you go through all 4 phases helping every npc (This is for the force sensitive village )

Honestly, the village was some of the most broken content we ever introduced into this game. We can get better content into the game now if we start from scratch.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

Atomspheric Flight/Combat Vehicles, any plans for either, I think it’s not “impossible” if you use an instance?

Not right now. We have too many other things that we need to concentrate on first.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

Space content, out of room, shouldn’t adding new zones fix this?

We need to concentrate on fixing what we have now, rather than adding new big areas to this game.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

Why the switcheroo from FanFest showing a capitol ship under control to saying no plans, couldn’t this be “free” content?

This was a technology demo. It would still require a substantial amount of work to get this content developed.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

Why were Characters given 10 more levels and high-end creatures not, this makes reason of why the game is too easy now?

There are level 90 creatures in the game.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

GCW Themepark = Hoth anyone?

No Hoth.

SpaceRancor

Who do you think makes the droids? You think they built themselves in the movies? Just because Anakin made one as a little kid doesn’t mean that’s how they were made. Droid Engineers were IMPLIED. Try looking that word up..not everything in this damn game has to have been shown prominently on the stupid big screen!

“Droid Engineers were IMPLIED. “

We’re going to focus on the roles that were defined first, the roles that were clearly represented and important to the stories told. Again, this isn’t an issue of what could potentially be put in a SW game. The SW universe is just too large and robust to represent in a single game.

This is an issue of priorities and direction. And, in SWG, the nine iconic roles we’ve identified come first.

Are Politicians and Player Citiesfactored in any future plans for SWG? Right now, both are a mess. Everyone is a Politician. Player Cities are absolute ghost towns. Politicians have very little control over their cities and no content to speak of.

I don’t think there should be a profession to deal with player structure placement. The only place I see politictians in the future is the part where they are assassination targets for GCW content. I’m just talking here – nothing’s set in stone.

-Helios Titan

The problrem is that you havent supported them. You have ignored them for the past 5 months as it is. At least as far as the crafters and entertainers are concerned. Heck your idea of a fix for entertainers was to give them combat. Copout anyone?

You’re right. We haven’t supported Traders as we should. This is a key part of our publish plan going forward.

I want you to inundate me with more content than I can manage. i challenge you to give this game more quests than any other MMO out there.

Honestly, that’s the goal. I want to add as much fun content to the game as my team is able. And then some more.

But to be even more honest, we’ll be hard pressed to even remotely keep up with the rate at which you guys will consume any content we add. We’re already way behind and there’s no rubberbanding like so many console racing games. But be that as it may, we are going to keep adding more and more content with every publish.

Michael

Will we see Secondary professions such as rifleman,pike,tk,sword,carbineer,pistols,fencer incorporated into Iconic speacialization?

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

Jedi has been seperated by dark and light in the movies and same pre-nge is there a timetable in which we will see light jedi/dark jedi? Will the enclaves have purpose?

Light/Dark will start coming into play with the expertise system, somewhere around publish 30 for Jedi.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

Will we ever be able to use the old UI layouts where we can resize our radar, add a second toolbar?

Currently there are no plans for this.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

Will there be a new system in which we can change our professions without the use of respec or deletion?

No.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

Can we be given polls so we can have an alternate means to communicate to you, as well with more dev chat sessions so the players arent ignored and the Devs are not bombarded by questions like this and can focus on certain aspects that need changing?

We have been doing new polls and will continue to do so.

Grant “Rogue_5” McDaniel

So, you are going to force people to PvP in order to participate in the GCW. That still seems wrong to me. While I do PvP, alot of other people do not, and do not wish to be forced into it.

We will get back into the “gank squad” days where a group of people will camp these spots to harass people of the opposing faction when they are trying to complete their quests.

Sometime we will make players PvP in order to take part in the GCW. Sometimes we will not require it. It will all depend on the type of content we are creating. I would like to see a good mix of PvP GCW content and PvE GCW content.

SpaceRancor

We only tear through it because we’re so darn starved for the content, so we tear it up as soon as you release it.

What you may concider is making a large number of quests and content (way more than ToOW) and release it all at once in a publish, that way it keeps us busey for a while. WHile we’re busey with that, release content more gradually, that way most of us won’t feel the vacuum of things to do.

Basically, start with a huge lup, then pop out regular smaller lumps. this should begin a steady flow of content that will keep most of us busey.

It works in liquid dynamics dangit!

Yeah, I understand that starved feeling, because I share your hunger for more content in this game. I think that between Eli’s team and my own, we’ll be able to added a good amount of content in each publish. But I hesitate to wait and not add any content until we have a large number to add, because I don’t want to have such a large period of time without any new quests. As it is, I’d like to find faster ways to get content into the game rather than wait until we have a full set.

Micheal

Although not directly answering a question, the answer seems to be a direct response to the question “Will we lose our free respecs, if we have any left”

Those of you have respec items will not lose the free respecs you have left.

-Helios Titan

Helios,

Let me be crystal clear on this subject with you. Politician and Player Cities are the number one reason that I still play this game. I enjoy the sense of community that it has built and I enjoy the time I get to spend questing with my citizens and guildmates.

If this comment was ment in some sick jest, then I’d like to see an appology. You and the rest of the Dev team left us all to hang when you yanked maintenance adn the ability for a structure to remove itself from the word. If however, this is SOE’s official stance and “to hell with Player Cities” is SOE’s position, then you my friend have just pressed the cancel button for me.

No, I wasn’t trying to be funny. Everyone should have similar structure placement skills. Having structure placement hinged on a profession is more like a world simulation than a game. SWG is no longer striving to be a world simulation. I was serious about politicians being targets for assassination. In an early battle ground design draft, politicians were responsible in some way for directing war efforts on the ground. Opposing team bounty hunters could take them out to cripple the enemy. I don’t know how much of that will make it into the final spec, but that’s where it currently is, in my mind.

None of this implies player citites, guilds or the resulting communities going away, mind you.

-Helios Titan

Will you be adding Bio-Engineer, or at least their abilities to one of the trader professions?

Not likely,

-Helios Titan

Why not do the same thing for crafter right now? I know you have plans for the trader professions that you dont want to disclose at the moment, but it would those people with crafter be able to do something. It would also make sense for a CL90 Trader to go with a group into the DWB since now they can defend themselves a bit until help arrives. This just makes sense to me.

Because it doesn’t make sense to spend time on creating systems now that would just get ripped out a couple of months down the line. I’m not saying this is happening, but what if crafting became an expertise tree that you could take on top of your normal profession? Like you could choose Politician, or Munititions Trader, or whatnot on top of being a Spy, etc. Then all that system work we did on making trader a combat class would have been wasted. Trader is still server months out to draw any kind of conclusions on. It would be a disservice to everyone to spend resources on at this stage.

-Helios Titan

when are you guys going to FINALLY fix the Kabuza Beetle Hitbox BUG???

if you can tell me what you mean by “does combat level matter”. And what’s the Beetle Hitbox bug? First I’ve heard of it.

-Helios Titan

1st off, sorry that you were B**ched-Slaped for saying that this was the 1st you heard of the Kabuza Beetle Hitbox Bug…. But as Psychopyro80 has mentioned, you have to aim above them, at their Nametag… which at times tends to be ANNOYING… and needs to be fixed, so that you just have to aim at them (their Body) and not their Nametag…

Thank for you for the reasonable explanation. I’ve never heard it called a “Hitbox” before and had no idea what was being said. I hear things like “collision volume” around the office, with all the 3d programming nerds about. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I’ll look into it.

-Helios Titan

and with the CL thing, does the Respec NPC considers

1. CL 83 ____ becomes a CL 83 ____ – Via how the Respec Devices work, the ones that we got with the NGE (those that are Elders) where it records the CL at time of conversion from Pre-NGE to Post-NGE

2. CL 83 ____ becomes a CL 1 _____ – Via how the Profession Respec Device (those that were once Anti-Decay items) & takes them down to CL 1 after use

3. Master Entertainer (CL 90) becomes a Master Officer (CL 90) – Via a Master is a Master regardless of the Profession ie Master ____ = Master ____)

4. Also, how would a Master Trader (any Sub-Prof.) becomes a CL ## ______???

It works exactly like # 1 (the NGE respec tools).

-Helios Titan

You need to give the players the tools to ‘BE THE CONTENT’. I would like to see level 90 being just the start of the game. I would like to see the content being 100% GCW driven. Quests are fine, but in my old pre NGE guild I.O.I. (may she rest in peace, or be resurrected some day), we made our own content by taking down rebel bases, coordinating attacks on multiple bases, had backup plans in case one fell through. We had defensive operations and plans in case out bases were attacked. People would drop whatever they were doing to answer the call of a base raid or to defend the home territory.

That’s where you need to focus our efforts for content. Endless possibilities!

In addition to level 90 content, we also need the pre-90 quests. Getting to level 90 needs to be much less of a grind and much more fun. That’s where the quests come in.

Once you get to level 90, you’ll have the high-end content that SpaceRancor was talking about. At that point, things can go in many different directions, including the kinds of things you describe.

Which isn’t to say that there won’t be any pvp events prior to level 90. Just that there won’t be any pvp that will be required as part of the main pre-90 content path.

Michael

Anali wrote:

Hear me out devs.. im not a entertainer.. but i was when i first joined SWG way back pre-cu. Battle fatigue is what brought combat and entertainers together and made entertainers usefull .

I know for a fact this couldnt be that hard to be reput into the NGE. Maybe a slightly different system of BF but im serious this would give entertainers more of a “Job for entertaining”

entertainers that dont know what this means.. maybe you came to SWG after it was taken out.. Battle fatigue you get over time from combat and death. and the more battle fatigue you had the less er.. man its so far back i forget even rofl . i think it braught down your health and stuff..

But in this system it could still bring down health but it should lower the armor and attack damage to to make this system affective again…

come on devs this i am sure of could save the entertainers.. because what you just gave them to me. is a bit of a joke its all the same… could have at least gave them a new hairstyle to wip up on someone lol

It’s highly unlikely that such a system will make it back into SWG. Combatants generally don’t want to be forced to socialize any more than socializers want to be forced into combat (which is not to say that both groups may not enjoy the activities of the other group to some limited extend under the right circumstances).

The reason BF was originally part of the game design was to artificially inflate the number of people socializing in the cantinas – socializing tends to be more interesting as more people are participating.

Entertainers need a content solution that doesn’t involve penalizing other people for engaging in their profession’s activity set (fighting, in the case of combat professions).

-Helios Titan
-Lead Systems Designer, SWG
“I find your lack of faith…disturbing.”

03-27-2006 06:43 PM

Lastly for the nonce, I have this saved as A Disturbance in the Force

Our Servers can not repel a lag of this magnitude!

A SWG forum thread in honor of the Restuss Event on Live Servers

IT’S A TRAP!

TH: We won’t get another chance of this, Helios.
Helios: We have no choice, General Thunderheart. Our servers can’t repel lag of that magnitude.
TH: swgmod001 will have that thread down. We’ve got to give him more time. /Voyle

Concentrate all firepower on that Super Server Destroyer! /SigmaE

SOE will have the lag down!!

C’mon ol’ budy don’t let me down! /Haydekk

Concentrate all firepower on that Super Server Destroyer!

INTENSIFY THE SERVER CLUSTERS, I DONT WANT ANYTHING LIKE IT WAS ON TEST CENTER!!!
IT’S TOO LATE!! /Voyle

an Imperial Officer says, “You rebel (fanboi)scum. /Revamped

The more you screw up your grip, Sony, the more subscriptions will slip through your fingers. /Voyle

Your game is lost. I feel the lag swelling in you. Release your RAM and your path towards the “NGE Side” will be complete! /Amoteiu

Your lack of content disturbs me /Voyle

SWG: That face you make… look I so crap to young eyes?
Fanboy: No. Of course not.
SWG: I do. Yes, I do. Sicker I become, old and weak… When nine hundred Ping (ms) YOU reach, move very much, YOU will not, hmm? /Revamped

Well, the Devs dont consider a small one-man playerbase to be any threat, or they’d have a better game. An analysis of the plans provided by Princess Leia has demonstrated a weakness in the NGE. /Voyle

Listen, I can’t get involved. I’ve got work to do. It’s not that I like the NGE; I hate it. But there’s nothing I can do about it right now… It’s all such a long way from here.

That’s SOE talking. /Voyle

With each passing months you make yourselves more , our alpha tester servants. /DarXav

Twisted by the DEVS, young Star Wars Galaxies has become. The game you played, gone it is… Consumed by Darth NGE. /darthazrael74

Twisted by the DEVS, young Star Wars Galaxies has become. The game you played,

Once more the lag , will rule your galaxy ! /DarXav

The Lag will be with you, always. /Voyle

Helios, he can’t stay here forever, most of his friends have gone. It means so much to him.

Well, I’ll make it up to him next publish, I promise.

Luke’s just not a credit farmer, Helios. He has too much of his Pre CU father in him.

That’s what I’m afraid of /Voyle

Devs: Uh, everything’s under control. Situation normal.

Playerbase: What happened?

Devs: Uh, we had a slight server malfunction, but uh… everything’s perfectly all right now. We’re fine. We’re all fine here now, thank you. How are you? /Voyle

SOE why arent you at your post. SOE why dont you copy? /TheHellrazer

It is here.

The lag? What makes you think so?

A spike in my ping. The last time I felt it was in Pre-CU buff lines.

Surely it is down by now.

Do not underestimate the lag. /Ewockman

Forgot one:

Get on board the falcon, kid! This place is gonna blow! /Voyle

The ping is what gives a player his lag. It is a spike created by dev stupidity. It surrounds us and makes us move slower. It makes the whole galaxy stop. /Ewockman

Han: Good against JFreeman and smedly is one thing. Good against the playerbase, that’s something else. /Voyle

“This party’s over!’ /AntiXryst

2 gigs of RAM and a Geforce 7900GT are no match for a good lag at your side kid. /Ewockman

Torres: I’m Julio Torres, I’m here to ruin your game.

Players: We hate you! /Ewockman

Smedly: You don’t believe in the Devs, do you?

Playerbase: Kid, I’ve grinded from one side of this galaxy to the other, and I’ve seen a lot of strange nerfs. But I’ve never seen anything to make me believe that there’s one chance to save the game controlling everything. There’s no hope of a rollback that controls MY destiny. /Voyle

Devs: The players thoughts will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that Smedley has come up with more nerfs. The last remnants of a good game have been swept away.

Players: But that is impossible. How could you ruin what was once so good? /Ewockman

“Sir, the odds of this thread successfully surviving a mod navigation is exactly 3,720 to 1!” /AntiXryst

Server: Strong am I in the bandwidth, but not that strong /XepTide

Luke-Aww, Uncle owen, this event had a bad developer.

Owen-Hey, what you tryin to push on us here?

C3P-0 – That emulator is in top condition, ive worked with him before. /TheHellrazer

How did our game die?

A young Developer named Julio Torres, who was a pupil of mine until he thought of the NGE, helped the devs destroy NGE. He betrayed and murdered the gamers. /Ewockman

Smedley: Tell the forum mods to prepare for immediate threadlocking and account banning.
Julio: Yes, Master.

Smedley: I sense the NGE is in danger. /darthazrael74

Julio Torres, nerfer of SWG. TH here tells me you’re lookin’ for your old game back.

Yes indeed, it was really fun.

Fun game? It was not star warsy and iconic! /Ewockman

Smed: I will not let this game, which has stood for three years, be split in two. My NGE will not fail.
Julio: If it does, you must realize there aren’t enough Devs to protect the corporate office… we’re game developers, not soldiers. /AqinAkan

Tiggs: Listen to them, they’re canceling, Torres. Curse your NGE. It sucked too much. It’s all your fault. My poor playerbase /Ewockman

Devs: The game is not going to die in beta, Players. I promise you.

Players: No, I promise you it will. /Voyle

Every single player in those galaxies is now an enemy of the dev team! /Ewockman

Gamer: I sense a plot to destroy the Playerbase. The Dark Side of the NGE surrounds the Developers.
Gamer: If they do not roll back after the destruction of the game, they must be removed from office. /Voyle

*Dev jumps in front of an SWG Elder, saber drawn*
SWG Elder: Lord Smedious…promised us an Iconic ™ and Starwarsy (c) experience…we only wanted…
*SWG Elder shrieks in pain as Dev cuts him down with his lighsaber* /AqinAkan

That’s always been a danger looming like a shadow over everything we’ve built here. But things have developed that will insure security. I’ve just made a deal that will keep the playerbase out of here forever /bluejanus

Darth Vader: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo /Voyle

Helios, what about the playerbase?
They must never again leave this city.
That was never a condition of our EULA, nor was giving the server to this lag!
Perhaps you think you’re being treated unfairly. /bluejanus

Gaffigan: There’s the Restuss Event. I don’t even want to know what’s in there.
*audience laughing*
Gaffigan: Imagine the directions: Take out of box, place directly in toilet.
*audience laughing*
*Gaffigan imitates flushing a toilet*
Gaffigan: Flush Pockeeeeeeeet! /AkinAkan

Gold Two: The bans – they’ve stopped!

Gold Five: Stabilize your rear deflectors… Watch for enemy moderators.

Gold Leader: They’re coming in! Three marks and 2-10! /StarNick

Playerbase: That’s no moon. It’s the NGE. /saxguy986

We’ve got to give Helios more time. He’ll have those servers down.”

“And this will be the shortest event of all time” /Wepps

Helios: All right, Fanboy. Ready for light-speed.
Playerbase: If your people fixed the servers.
Helios: Start the event!
(Engine sputters then lag)
Helios: They told me they fixed it. I trusted them to fix it. It’s not
my fault! /bluejanus

“stay on topic, stay on topic”

” I can’t the lag is to bad”

“stay on topic, we’re almost there”

” I can’t quit spamming”

booooooooom

” I’ve lost dallow, I ‘ve lost temper, they came…… out ……of …..the ……lag……..aaaarrrrrrgghhhhh” /lighthorse19

Do you know what’s going on?

Maybe it’s another NGE. /saxguy986

Wonderful NGE. Either i’m going to quit, or i’m beginning to like it /saxguy986

Tiggs: NGE is not going to work

Helios: Why didn’t you say this before?

Tiggs: I did say this before. /saxguy986

“You said it Chewie. Where did you dig up those old files?”

“Well I don’t see you online.”

“Anything’s better than just lagging around here.” /Wepps

The lag is strong with this one /saxguy986

Use the lag Helios…. /saxguy986

“Run this restuss event will you?”

“I’ll try”

“no. do or do not, there is no try”

*tries to run event*

“i can’t run it…it’s just too big”

“and that is why you fail” /human_error

Is there anything i can do?

Not unless you can turn back time to before November 15 or speed up the reimplination /saxguy986

I feel a great disturbance in the player base, as if thousands of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced /saxguy986

Smed: Today will be a day long remembered. It has seen the end of the CU, it will soon be the end of the NGE complaints. /saxguy986

General Willard: You’re safe. When we heard about the CU, we feared the worst.

Princess Leia: We have no time for sorrows, Commander. You must use the information in this R-2 unit to help plan the attack- it’s our only hope. /StarNick

General Tagge: What of the Playerbase? If the Players have obtained a complete technical reading of this NGE, it is possible, however unlikely, they might find a weakness and exploit it.

Darth Vader: The plans you refer to will soon be back in our hands.

Admiral Motti: Any attack made by the Players against this NGE would be a useless gesture, no matter what technical data they have obtained. This NGE is now the ultimate power in the MMO industry. I suggest we use it. /StarNick

SWG Players(C3PO): We seem to be made to suffer. It’s our lot in life. /StarNick

Obi-Wan: Mos Eisley spaceport: You will never find a more wretched hive of newbies and credit beggers. We must be cautious. /StarNick

C-3PO: Listen to them, they’re dying, R2. Curse my metal body. I wasn’t fast enough. It’s all my fault. My poor playerbase. /StarNick

It shall soon see the return of the pre-CU one way or another. /JackGil

The rangers are extinct. There fire has gone out in the universe /saxguy986

Dev: Splendid! We have been without a good combat system since our master (smedly) got angry with our last CU and nerfed it
CP30: nerfed? /Voyle

What kept you?

I had to load the NGE. /saxguy986

TH “Sir, we’ve looked at the population numbers and have identified a danger, shall i have extra hardware ready?”

Smedley “and spend money? – i think you overestimate their numbers” /human_error

“Evacuate, in our moment of triumph?” /AntiXryst

Helios: I tell you, this event will be operational as planned.
Tiggs: The Playerbase does not share your optimistic appraisal of the situation.
Helios: But they ask the impossible. I need more gullible fanboys.
Tiggs: Then perhaps you can tell them when they arrive.
Helios (aghast): The Playbase’s coming here?
Tiggs: That is correct, Developer. And they are most displeased with your apparent lack of progress.
Helios : We shall try to doubly lower our lag.
Tiggs: I hope so, Developer, for your sake. The Playerbase is not as forgiving as I am. /bluejanus

Smed: Your rants will not stop me. The NGE will become more powerful than either WoW or EQ. /darthazrael74

Playerbase: Faith in your rising subscription rates misplaced may be. As is your faith in the NGE.

TH- “I got a baaad feeling about this…” /LeeRydersRevenge

“Evacuation comp…comp…comp………………………………………Evacuation comp……………………….Evacuation complete.” /AqinAkan

“You are going to do a massive PVP event in that”…”You are braver than I though”…. /Odin_Kauri

Playerbase: Search your feelings, Helios, you can’t do this. I feel the conflict within you. Let go of your hate! Roll back the NGE!
Helios: It is too late for me, players. Smedly will show you the true nature of the NGE. He is your master now.
Playerbase: Then my gameplay is truly dead. /Voyle

Yoda: Told you, did he?
Luke: Yes
Yoda: Unexpected this is, and unfortunate
Luke: Unfortunate that I know the truth?
Yoda: No! Unfortunate that you rushed the NGE… that incomplete was your game. Not ready for the playerbase were you. /StarNick

“Beware of the dark side. Anger…fear…aggression…whining. The dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight.” /StarNick

“Well, you can forget your troubles with that hard-to-learn and unstar-warsy gameplay. I told you I’d revamp ’em.
[Nobody is listening]
Don’t everyone thank me at once.” /StarNick

Now you will witness the nature of this fully bugged and shoddy combat system. /Ewockman

Smedly: And now, young playerbase… you will die. /Voyle

Obiwan: These blast points are much to precise for sandpeople. We are only meant to think the sanpeople did this.

Luke: You mean game devs did this…oh wait…the creature handlers….

Obiwan: Luke it is to late, Stop! /DarkLord1986

Emperor Smedley…”You want this…Don’t you…/taps Pre-CU backup tape…”Take this tape…Strike me down…I am unarmed”… /Odin_Kauri

*launches Restuss Event*
“It’s away!” /AkinAkan

Smedly:
Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design. Your friends, up there on the forums, are walking into a trap*, as is your community. It was *I* who allowed the Players to know the location of the EMU. It is quite safe from your pitiful little rollbacks. An entire legion of my best developers await them. Oh, I’m afraid the Combat system will be quite operational when your friends arrive. /Voyle

Darth Julios: The circle is now complete, no I am the master!

Playerbase Kenobi: Only a master of Evil Darth. If you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can possably imagine! /DarkLord1986

Han: I think my graphics are getting better. Instead of a particle effect system, I see a big light blur.
Luke: There’s nothing to see. the animations suck.
Han: You’re going to get nerfed here, you know. Convenient. /Voyle

Smedley: I suggest you try it again, Playerbase.
(Smedley places a devastating helmet of lag +2 con on Luke’s head which covers his eyes.)
Smedley: This time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct.
Playerbase: (laughing) With the lag up, I can’t even play. How am I supposed to fight?
Smedley: Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them. /bluejanus

Player: “You’re wrong your highness, soon i’ll be playing, and you with me”

Smedley: “I suppose you are referring to the imminent player event”

Player: *looks worried*

Smedley: “I assure you, we are quite safe from your playerbase here, a ping spike of my best lag awaits them”

Player: *looks even more worried*

Smedley: “i’m afraid that the awful gameplay will be quite unimporved when your friends arrive” /human_error

“Everything the developers say is true . . . from a certain point of view.” / AntiXryst

Look sir, lag. /bluejanus

A sister? If your parents will no longer pay your subscription then perhaps she will. /Epono

Watch you mouth kid or you will be rubberbanding home! /DarkLord1986

Luke “Look! he’s heading for that small moon!”
Han “Thats no moon, thats the devs giving us the finger. Chewy, get us out of here!” /LeeRydersRevenge

Helios: (studying the event on the console screen) That’s it. The Playerbase is there.
CSR: My lord, there are so many sandbox player events. It could be roleplayers, it could be…
Helios: That is the player event. And I’m sure Tiggs is with them. Set your course for the Restuss system. General TH, prepare the lag. /bluejanus

vet talking to a new player on his first day)

“If there’s a bright center to the gaming universe, you’re in the game that it’s farthest from. ”

Newbie: You don’t believe in the NGE, do you?

Vet: Kid, I’ve gamed from one side of this galaxy to the other, and I’ve played a lot of strange stuff. But I’ve never seen anything to make me believe the NGE will one day be a success. /DarkLord1986

With all due respect master is the NGE not the chosen one who will bring balance to the game?

So the prophecy says.

A prophecy that misread could have been. /Amoteiu

Obi won, when we last met I was but the intern. Now I am the developer. /LukeWRS

I’m altering the game. Pray I don’t alter it any further. /Amoteiu

It’s not impossable, I used to bullseye loyal players with my T16 back home. The’re no bigger than 2 meters /DarkLord1986

Who’s more revamped, the revamp or the 5 revamps that follow. /Amotei

Well, you can forget your troubles with those MMO competitors, I told ya we’d outlag em’. /Epono

obi wan and luke at soe headquarters

luke: i feel a strong sense of the darkside here, what is in there?

obi wan: only what they took from you… /MOoTAa

I’ve been waiting a long time for this…my little…laggy…friend /Amoteiu

Sorry about the mess /TeamGambale

Smed:Julio doesn’t like you.
NGE Playerbase: We’re sorry.
Smed: I don’t like you either. You just watch yourself. We’re wanted men. I have the NGE on 26 systems.
NGE Playerbase: We’ll be careful.
Smed: You’ll be dead!
Pre-NGE Playerbase: This little one’s not worth the effort. Now come, let me get you the Pre-NGE (pulls out twin-crystal light saber with 4 speed prem’s to whack evil Smed’s arm off has he attacks). /Zotat

“The Restuss Event is the event that crashed the server in less than twelve parsecs, she’s fast enough for you old man” – Thunderheart to Helios”

“There will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the playerbase. You are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them alive. No disintegrations.” Helios to the Mods /Drksensei

NGE player: Get on board the game, Kid! This server is about to blow /soloaway

Han Solo         ” I dont care what you smell , GET IN THERE!! “
3PO         “We’re Doomed”
Eeeeeee CHUTA!                     /GeneralMayhem

“You were the chosen event!

You were supposed to save the playerbase, not destroy it!” /Xalya_Shadowwalker

“Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed. The ability to destroy a SERVER is insignificant next to the power of the NGE.” /n0b0dy

“Come, players, see for yourself. From here, you will witness the final destruction of the playerbase and the end of your insignificant game.
“You want this, don’t you? The hate is swelling in you now. Take your mouse. Use it. I am unarmed. Click the cancelation button. Give in to your anger. With each passing moment the lag increases.” /Boba-Fett30
” No.”
” It is unavoidable. It’s the games destiny. The NGE, like Pre-CU and CU, are now gone!”

Smedlous:
Uh, we had a slight combat upgrade malfunction, but uh… everything’s perfectly all right now. We’re fine. We’re all fine here now, thank you. How are you?
[winces]
Julio: We’re sending a stealth patch up.
Uh, uh, negative. We have lag here now. Give us a minute to lock it down. Large lag, very dangerous.
Julio: Who is this? What’s your customer number in World of Warcraft?
Smedlious: Uh…
[shoots comm]
Smedlious: [mutters] Boring combat system anyway. /no-pedifef

TIGGS: What of the Playerbase? If the Cancelled Vets have obtained a complete technical reading of this Event, it is possible, however unlikely, they might find the lag unbearable in Restuss.

HELIOS: The Event you refer to will soon be back in our hands.

SMEDLEY: Any attack made by the Playerbase against this station would be a useless gesture, even if there’s only 50 of them in Restuss. This NGE is now the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it as PR. /LangaNor

With that last explosion all was destroyed in restuss, the nge has killed us all /Vincent-

But this thread, disappear it will have. Come now to the search engine, and find the wayward thread we will.

HELIOS: And now, young Playerbase… you will experience lag. Muhaaa! *Presses a button labled “LAG”* /ArchonII

You were my brother SWG! I loved you!!!!!!! /Amoteiu

CSR-JeremyC: The PlayerBase is coming here?
Helios: That is correct, CSR. And, they are most displeased with your apparent lack of progress.
CSR-JeremyC: We shall double our efforts.
Helios: I hope so, CSR, for your sake. The PlayerBase is not as forgiving as I am. /ArchonII

‘Supporting a massive player event ain’t like dusting crops, boy.’ /PryvateDancyr

Most fun this thread has been to read, begun us all, enveloping our anger and dissatisfaction.

That lag came from the NGE! That thing is operational! /Amoteiu

Luke:What is it whats wrong?

Ben:Its like a thousand Vets cried out at once and were suddenly canclled. I fear the NGE has happened.

Vader: Dont underestimate the power of the NGE

Vader:The NGE has taught you well.

Emperour:By now you must realise the NGE can not be turned back /dark_agent

Look I can’t resubscribe. I can take you as far as log-in, from there you should find lag.

Of course you must do what you think is right. /Amoteiu

The shroud of the NGE has fallen. Begun the lag war has /dark_agent

I sense the NGE in you….

Is he rly the Chosen One?

Haxxor. /DoggySpam

She’s rich.

Yeah?

The reward would be…

What?

Well more lag than you can imagine.

I can imagine a lot. /Amoteiu

Devs : ” In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, swg will be reorganized into NGE, for a safe and secure society which I assure you will last for ten thousand years “

Player Base : ” So this is how swg dies…with thousands of cancellations “ /darksider222

What about the lag spike on the wookies? /dark_agent

Around the lag, a server create! /Amoteiu

The circle is now complete. When we met last I was but the beta. Now I am the server.

Only a server of lag. /Amoteiu

Bring balance to game, not nerf it into darkness /XepTide

“Almost there!”

“Pull up!”

“Aaalmost there!”

“Pull up, you’re not gonna make it!”

“**edit**, I lagged out!” /Buzzbot

Helios, I thought that I detected your foul stench, when I was brought on board. /Darvus

SOE: Unfortunate that Restuss failed?

PLAYERS: No. Unfortunate that you rushed to hype the players… that incomplete was its testing! Not ready for the lag were you…. /hanshadow

SOE Server: (Beeping and Whistling)
SOE Developer: The server said that the old Pre-CU and CU code has short-circuited his system. He suggests that if we update have a focus group and change the game to the NGE, the game will play alot better and there will be less lag.
Playerbase: Hmm? Oh, yeah. Well, I guess we don’t have much of a choice. Okay, there you go
(8 Months Later)
Playerbase: Wait a minute!!! Where did my game go!!! Bring the Pre-CU back. Bring back this entire Game!

SOE Server: (Whistles)
SOE Developer: What Game? This is the game you’ve been playing! The one we are playing inside our trusty servers. . /Daedenilus76

“…many Bothans died, to bring us this event…” /Darvus

A few hours ago, on a server far, far, away…

It is a period of civil war. SOE Devs, striking from a hidden base,
have won their latest victory against the evil lagged forum trolls.

During the battle, Player spies managed to steal secret fraps videos
of the Dev’s ultimate weapon, the Death Lag, an unprecidented ping rate
with enough power to destroy an entire playerbase.

Pursued by the Dev’s sinister agents, Tiggs races home aboard her Lava Flea,
custodian of the stolen videos that can save her people
and restore movement to the galaxy… /Carason

“In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, SWG will be reorganized into the NGE, for a safe and secure playerbase which I assure you will last for ten thousand years.”
“So this is how gameplay dies … with lagging explosions!” /darkk1138

jabba the Dev: ohh ho ho ho ha ho, aah ha ha ha haa.… /wookieeholer

Player1 : You cant go out now, the lag is increasing to fast.
Player2 : Thats right and my friend is in it.
Player1 : You’ll lag out when you log into the Starport!!!!
Player2 : Then ill see you in WoW /STSKiller

SWG: That face you make… look I so bad to young eyes?
Playerbase: Omg, what have they done to you?
SWG: I do. Yes, I do. Laggier I become, old and revamped… When nine hundred Ping (ms) YOU reach, move alot YOU will not, hmm? /Revamped

The NGE approach will not be easy.
You are required to maneuver straight through this thread
and skim the flames to this point. The target player base
is only 12 years old. It’s a small group of lazy noobs,
right below plankton on the food chain. Our ‘shaft’ leads
directly to the veteran players. A precise publish will
start a chain reaction which should destroy all hope. /ROZM4N

Tiggs: Helios, the NGE is evil!
Helios: From my point of view, the pre-NGE is evil!
Tiggs: then you truly are LOST! /Epoke_ehit

Helios: It’s over, Smedley. The playerbase have been routed and they’re fleeing into the woods. We need marketting to continue the pursuit.

Helios: In the NGE you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly numbed over a thousand days.
Playerbase: On second thought, let’s pass on that, huh? /Zade_Taerin

Playerbase: The odds of succesfully pulling off Restuss and the NGE are 3720:1

Devs: never tell us the odds. /hyjaxx

Thunderhart: He made a fair move. Screaming about it won’t help you.

Tiggs: Let him have it. It’s not wise to upset a Playerbase.

Thunderhart: But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a Playerbase.

Tiggs: That’s ’cause a playerbase doesnt change the game around when they lose. Smedley is known to do that.

C3PO: I see your point, sir. I suggest a new strategy, Smedley. Let the playerbase win. /NuclearDevil

Leia to Han: “You came with only a cable modem? you’re braver than I thought”. /Phenix1050

Thunderheart: “Are you there, sir?”
Helios: “Kurt!!”
Thunderheart: “We’ve had some problems…”
Helios: “Will you shut up and listen to me? Shut down all Restuss Events on the SWG Servers, will you? Do you copy? Shut down all the Restuss Events on the SWG Servers!”
Smedley: “(Grrs)”
Helios: “Shut down all the Restuss Events on the SWG Servers!”
Thunderheart: “No. Shut them all down! Hurry!”
Rogue5: “(Beeping and whistling)”
Thunderheart: “Oh no.”
Rogue5: “(Beeping and whistling)”
Helios: “What? (Indistinct yelling and screaming)”
Thunderheart: “Listen to them! They’re lagging, Rogue5. Curse my metal body! I wasn’t fast enough. It’s all my fault! My poor master!” /Ninyania

WOULD IT HELP IF I GOT OUT AND PUSHED?? /Ninyania

Terrible lag has entered the game, Terrible lag has e……………..(server crashes) /wasj2004

DEV waves hand
“These are not the servers you are looking for”

playerbase

“These are not the server we are looking for” GeneralMayhem

R2D2: (beeps and boops)

Tech Support to Thunderheart: “Sir, he says we have to remember to turn on ALL the server resources”.

TH: “Well OF COURSE we have to turn on all the server resources.”

TH aside to Helios: ” I think..uh…we may need to turn on all the server resources.” /Phenix1050

players to the DEVs

“Wait this wasnt part of the deal.”

Lord Helios

“I have altered the deal, …pray i do not alter it further”

players

“this deal is getting worse and worse. /GeneralMayhem

Torres: Told you did they?

Helios: Yes.

Torres: Unexpected this is and unfortumate.

Helios: Unfortunate that I know the truth? That we can’t code crap?

Torres: No. Unfortunate that you raced to push the event live. Incomplete was your testing. Not ready for the burden were you. /Zenobiah

Smed: Liar!

Playerbase: No!

Smed: You’re with Tiggs! You’ve betrayed me! You brought her here to ruin the NGE!

Playerbase: NO! Smed. I swear…..I….

Tiggs: Let them go Smed.

Smed: What have you and them been up to?

Tiggs: Let them go!

Smed: You turned them against me!

Tiggs: You have done that yourself.

Smed: You will not take them from me!

Tiggs: Your nerfing and your belief for the NGE have already done that.

Tiggs: You have allowed this Dark NGE to twist your mind until now . . . until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy.

Smed: Don’t lecture me, Tiggs. I see through the lies of the Playerbase. I do not fear the dark side of NGE as you do. I have brought peace, justice, freedom, and security to my new SWG.

Tiggs: Your new SWG?

Smed: Don’t make me fire you.

Tiggs: Smed my allegiance is to the Playerbase….to the people!

Smed: If your not with me…..your against me.

Tiggs: Only SoE deals in absolutes. I will do what i must /saxguy986

Thunderhart: Victims of the almighty Lag: His Excellency hopes that you will go LD honorably. But should any of you wish to beg for mercy, the great Smedley the Hutt will now listen to your pleas.
Tiggs: (arrogantly) Thunderheart, you tell that slimy piece of…worm-ridden filth he’ll get no such pleasure from us. Right?
Cancelled Veteran growls his agreement.
Playerbase: Smedley! This is your last chance. Free us or find another job. /bluejanus

Helios: Oh. The illustrious Smedley bids you welcome and will gladly pay you the reward of shinies and trinkets.
Playerbase (in Ubese): I want to play. No lag.
(Smedley flies into a rage knocking Helios off the platform)
Helios: Uh, oh… but what, what did I say?
(to Playerbase)
Uh, the mighty Smedley asks why he must let you play?
(The bounty hunter shows his launchpad menu)
Helios: Because he’s holding a cancellation bomb! /bluejanus

Other MMOs: Just relax for a moment. You’re free of SWG.
(Playerbase touches his face with his hand and moans)
Other MMOs: You have lag.
Playerbase: My computer locked up. /bluejanus

Smedley: There will be no bargain.
Playerbase: We’re doomed.
Smedley: I will not give up my favorite decoration. I like my servers empty.
(Smedley Jabba laughs hideously and looks across from the corner office toward an alcove beside the throne. Hanging high, flat against the wall, exactly as we saw him last, is a pristine SWG server. /bluejanus

Helios: (to Thunderhart) Why do you take this apart now? I’m trying to get the player event up and you pull both of these.
(Thunderheart grumbles in irritation.)
Rogue5: Excuse me, sir.
Helios: (to Thunderhart) Put them back together right now.
Rogue5: Might I have a word with you, please?
Helios: What do you want?
Rogue5: Well, it’s Princess Smedley, sir. She’s been trying to get you on the communicator.
Helios: I turned it off. I don’t want to talk to her.
Rogue5: Oh. Well, Princess Smedley is wondering about the playerbase. They haven’t been at the player event. She doesn’t know where they are. /bluejanus

Dev: Hang on, playerbase.
Playerbase: WOW system…
(Dev restarts server and thinks up new painting)
Dev: (reeling from the lag) Whew…
Playerbase: WOW…
Dev: This may be laggy, kid…
Playerbase: (moaning) Tiggs…
Dev: …but it will keep you playing…til I get the next NGE built.
(struggling to get the player in the server) Ooh…I thought they were laggy on the outside! /bluejanus

Playerbase: I don’t like this.
Garva: Well, what would you like?
C3PO: Well, the client did load up.
Garva: Look, don’t worry about the player event. Everything’s going to be fine. Trust me. /bluejanus

INTERIOR: SECRET CONVENTION CENTER — MAIN BALLROOM.
(Smedley climbs out of his X-wing and is cheered by a throng of E3 2007 attendees. Smedley walks to the podium, as they all welcome him with laughter, cheers, and shouting.)
(Princess Gamespot rushes toward him.)
Gamespot: Smedley! Smedley! Smedley!
(applause)
Torres: (laughing) Hey! Hey!
Smedley: (laughing) I knew the playerbase would come back! I just knew it!
Torres: Well, we had so many people turn out that it crashed the server. That’s the kind of loyalty that we see in each in every one of our customers. /bluejanus

Dev: Don’t blame me. I’m a programmer. I’m not supposed to know a power socket from a computer terminal. /bluejanus

Locked for trolling.

Message Edited by GarVa on 07-07-2006 12:40 PM

Draenor Diaries: Playing With the Blues

Thursday there was an in game Beta event where they were testing PVP Variances and Pre-Made Dungeons.

I joined one Pre-Made group and Formed one to see how they actually work.

We had no Blues in either group which seriously bummed the participants. Some people were staying up till 1 and 3 in the morning in the hopes of playing with a Blue.

Connectivity Issues:

PVE 100 Realm was completely down for the event. Since those folks are testing the high level content and dungeons pretty exclusively it had to be a bummer for them to not be able to play unless they did a quick Pre-made or Transfer character on the Beta Leveling Realm. That’s ten levels of skills and experience down the hole for those folks.

There were constant Disconnects and World Server Down problems throughout the Event, making a two hour event what? Forty five minutes worth of play time?

Blues Staffing

They didn’t say how many of their staff were participating but clearly they could have used many more.

I wondered if most were working on the PVP aspects, which made me think if they do more events they should split what they’re testing. Certainly Dungeons and PVP should run separately.

There were only 4 to 6 Pre-Made Groups at any given time looking for members, so I think if staff were spread out they could easily have put a staffer in each group.

People reported that as they entered a group if they were not a Blue they were kicked right out.

There were apparently “Streamers” running groups and I suppose you wanted to be in one of those if you were staff so you could advertise the awesomeness of the event.

The Pre-Made Dungeon Interface

You can Name Your Group Whatever Your Want

Say What Dungeon and whether Normal or Heroic

Choose what ILevel you want people to have

People ask to be invited to the group and the Leader sees the Character Name, Class, Ilevel and you can invite them or reject them

Everyone can see looking at the main list what roles are already filled in the group. (Another suggestion, since every group needed a tank Blizzard should load their staff with tanks to help fill the groups).

There is an element here for people to feel shy about putting their name out there, and getting accepted or rejected. Also it seems when someone makes their own group like this they may feel more empowered to just boot people, which on a social level isn’t so pleasant.

I think over time it may be that people will get reputations good or bad running these groups and it would useful for all if the Group Leader’s name was included so if you know you like running dungeons with this person or hate it, you are fairly warned.

I’ve seen the suggestion that you be allowed to also ask for people from your own realm or any realm in this interface and I think that would be excellent.

You need to be in your garrison or in front of the Pre-made Dungeon Teleporter NPC in Stormwind to enter a dungeon in the pre-made group. Really inconvenient.

The Group Runs

Group Onewas in the Bloodmaul Slag Mines. It was run by someone else. We just wiped then wiped again pretty early on and needless to say the group broke up. Lots of problems with disconnects that didn’t help either.

Group TwoI took my teeny ego in hand and put a group out there. This is an ego problem because it can be that nobody asks to enter your group and it’s a little daunting. I honestly didn’t care if we had a Blue or not but felt bad for those folks who were so excited about it.

I turned the group over to the tank when they came in which turned out to be a mistake because he immediately rolled for a random dungeon and we ended up in the #$@^&*% Everbloom. I have been trying to go in all of the dungeons and I officially hate Skyreach and Everbloom.

So die die die. Tank leaves, I get group back. The group finder allowed me to look for a new member and re-list the group. I could edit the name anytime.

This time we go to Upper Blackrock Spire, my original dungeon request. I keep the leadership this time. We get a Tank, right. Sigh. I was paying attention to a variety of things and did not see that although the guy rolled in as a tank, he somehow was in there as DPS. And he wouldn’t move or tank and he was all about his live stream. Nightmare.

We only got as far as the spot where all the eggs usually are but they’re gone now and just a boss who needs to be dispelled and two adds and death death.

Mr. Stream ducks out. I no longer have access to the dungeon finder interface to replace him so we are done.

Why would you use the Premade Dungeon?

You can choose classes you want for your party.

You can Choose Ilevel

In theory (mine) it should be that if you want to swap out a character…say you want to bring in one of your other toons or someone from your guild who will step in, you could just invite them to the group and voila away you go. I asked people if they thought that was how it could work but no one had given it any thought or trial.

In theory if they let you choose from your own realm you could get to know players and develop some good teams over time.

Shadowmoon Garrison Invasion: Nightmare

I had a rough evening in beta last night, but the Shadowmoon Invasion Scenario (I haven’t done many scenarios and didn’t realize it was one doh) was the worst experience I have had in an online game that I can recall.

I’m level 93. I go back to my garrison after wandering around Frostfire and catching enough fish to make some Crescent Oil.

Sgt. Crowler has a quest. Hmmm I should see what it is. It’s beta, right? Try everything.

I’m picturing that some sort of interactive map will come up and my Followers and garrison staff will be fighting it out under my direction. Sort of an RTS thing, right?

Freak no. Level 100 orcs pile into my garrison, slaughtering everyone. Phase 1.

Phase 2 is EIGHT MINUTES LONG and you are to “endure” the invasion. More orcs then a level 101 Elite Worm.

Those blood drip things are your garrison staff lying dying. You can trot over and heal them, but I saw someone on the forums say this makes the invaders more interested in you. They could not possibly be more interested already.

I spent most of the invasion at the graveyard I didn’t know I had. My Alchemy Lab, Storehouse, Mine, and Lumber Yard were all under attack.

I thought I could just wait for the timer to run out on the Invasion but once it did, that’s when my buildings all came under attack. During the phase called “The Calm”.

While I was lying dead in my mage tower a Traitorous Looter showed up and apparently pillaged whatever he could.

During The Calm stage, a huge number of skeletons set up a portal in my garrison and they killed me way too many times and my armor was completely shot. They were at the graveyard camping me and killing me as soon as I rezzed. 😦

As if the skellies weren’t bad weren’t bad enough a Horde Opportunist shows up at the graveyard and runs down to my garrison 😦

In theory I’m supposed to get to a bonfire in my garrison to complete things but the skellies inside the gate detect me even stealthed so there is no way to finish this at all.

I go to my quest log, rattled to the core. Abandon scenario. Get Garrison Debug Scenario Shutdown text….agh you have to be kidding, the shutdown is bugged?

You can see a Traitorous Looter level 100 remains. The orcs and skeletons went away. My buildings and town are empty except for townspeople crowded and cowering in my town hall.

The Traitorous Looter kept running back and forth between my town hall and herb garden. Although my armor was busted I cracked and hit him with a few shots and he went down to minimum health, shook his finger at me then disappeared.

I had to log out them back in to have my fort returned to normal.

There is no housing in the game, but my garrison feels like home. Having this awful invasion, I was so mad.

Do not push that quest button and activate this nasty mess. Bah.

Draenor Diaries Sunday August 17 2014

I ran all three of my characters to some extent. My Cat was once again stuck in Lag Heck for quite awhile so I sent my Warlock out for a bit then ran my Death Knight through the Golgrond quests I had just done with the Cat.

I sent her into Bloodmaul Slagmines, this time from the beginning of the dungeon. I think this dungeon will feel familiar to players who have done the various Blackrock Dungeons.

My gnome Death Knight has a different point of view, everything looked so incredibly LARGE.

The feel of the place is very fiery, as if you’re in some monstrous furnace.

The group I was in seemed to know the dungeon and the fights well.

Crescent Oil

I noted a couple of threads on Crescent Oil, a reagent Alchemists need but something they have no recipe for.

Someone said non-alchemists could make it via an alchemy building in their Garrisons, though an Alchemist couldn’t.

Since I had that small open building slot I put in an Alchemy building and sure enough, the Vendor opens and the recipe for Crescent Oil is right there, as if you were looking at a recipe list you know, only you can only see it via the vendor.

So, everyone is now stopping to fish hoping to send her the fish to change to Oil.

Frostfire Ridge

After a few sessions of slogging along, I found the passageway to Frostfire Ridge. The Pass is jammed with bad guys.

If you get through You’re at the Iron Siege Works, with level 100 NPCs and tank like things waiting for you to give them a try.

My Cat is only level 93 since this time around I’ve spread time between three characters.

She slid on by those guys and comes to Thunder Pass (I think that’s what it was. The pass appears closed with a big tank in front of it but you can just tuck behind it and the path wends it way to the others side. Very narrow passage.

To my relief the mobs and npcs on the far side of this pass were level 90-93 so no problem.

I stopped at the Pit of The Devourer. Tempting for another time.

I was trying to make my way to the closest of two ! points denoting a quest that you can see on the map of Frostfire even from Golgrond.

I didn’t get that far because I found a nice lava pool which is supposed to be a source for Fire Ammonite (used for the Fisherman’s Quest at your Garrison).

Sure enough, I caught Fire Ammonite large and small, and some Fire Ammonite Bait.

Well worth the trip. I still need to reach those quests.

Draenor: Scribes Quarters

The Scribes Quarters at Level 1 looks just like the Level 1 Alchemy building with different insides.

Your Work order Requires 10 True Iron Ore and 10 Blackrock Ore!!!! No herbs of any kind. I’ve seen people say only Alchemy is really in place as a Trade skill.

I hope they’re right because that sure is maddening.

Luckily my busy busy little Death Knight had plenty of ore to send over.

The Work Order gives you War Paints and Sorcerous Water.

There were no Draenor Recipes available from the Scribe Vendor. I checked again after completing Your First Inscription Order 1 & 2, nothing.

Then I noticed I had a Treatise on the Inscription of Draenor still in my inventory. Although it says it requires Inscription L1 to learn it, my Inscriptionist with 600 Inscription got FAILED! The Spell is not Available to You! Noooo.

Tsk. Stink Stank Stunk.

Draenor Diaries Saturday August 16 2014

Not much time to play today. When I did go in my main character was in some weirdo lag warp where nothing was moving, nothing to interact with, blah blah.

Spent a bit of time doing the Migrant Workers quest line with my Warlock and also came upon her quest giver which granted the Blueprint for her profession bulding. It takes an hour to build these in real time so I won’t know till tomorrow what it looks like or what the Work Orders for it require.

No dungeons today, alas.

Draenor Diaries Friday August 15 2014

Friday August 15 2014

Reagent Bank Tab!

I went to put some things in the bank and there was a new tab : Reagent Bank “Additional storage for raw profession materials”

For 100 Gold you get one hundred slots!

Better yet, there is a button “Deposit All Reagents.”

When I clicked it all of the Herbs and Sumptuous Fur in my bank and in my inventory slid right on over.

Wow, this in addition to the new stacks of two hundred items (Not crafted goods). Man oh man.

I asked in General Chat if anyone with a Guild there could say if the Guild Bank had a Reagent Tab, but as often happens no answer.

Dungeons!

I was eligible to go in all of the dungeons (need an item level of 500) so I checked off everything but Skyreach which I’ve been in several times with two different classes of character.

Everbloom

A huge outdoor dungeon that is like the Gorgrond area of the world.

The first group I dropped into was really your dungeon PUG nightmare of bad behavior. They kept saying how good they were and how bad WOW players are. Yet…they were dead every couple of seconds.

Going in again with another group things went pretty well till we got to Winterbark. He’s a huge tree who silenced me for the whole fight somehow every time. In addition to that, snowy looking balls (actually water is probably what they were) started coming out and they did “party wide damage”. I popped a few in the few moments I wasn’t silenced. That all ended badly, but there was a guy who had a “Repair Mammoth” one of the those huge expeditionary mammoths like something out of a movie. Too cool.

Bloodmaul Slag Mine

I just came in at the end. It was an underground cave/fiery looking place with huge ogres and orcs. Good smooth group.

Was interested in seeing more types so rolled in again and I got

The Grimrail!

Coolest dungeon ever. It starts out in the Grimrail Depot then you fight your way to a spot where you grab a chain and you’re smoking along on the train.

Fights advance through the rail cars. You can see the scenery pass by between cars (but don’t spend too much time looking or dead dead dead).

There were lots of deaths but really super group and we just kept going along.

I’m in Gorgrond now, an area I like, lots of jungle, interesting quests, quite a variety of terrain in this area.

Once again I chose the Logging Camp over the Sparring Arena for my Outpost.

Draenor Diaries Thursday August 14 2014

Draenor Diaries August 15, 2014

Verified that the Migrant Workers quest line gives you access to a Level 2 Garrison.

Otherwise at this time you need to be level 93. These things change constantly, however.

My alchemist needs Draenic Stone for her mine work orders. I sent my Skinner/Miner out to get her own mine activated, and she of course also needs the stone.

My Dk’s Mining skills make the mine a motherlode of ore spawns, every time I go back to my garrison I see more has spawned and I can’t resist going in after it.

The non-miner who is interested in mine work orders has to have the Draenic Stone given to them, but the miner character gets the work orders plus a bonanza of ore, which does include the Draenic Stone. There are even “rich deposits” of ore which just makes my gathering/hoarding instincts go whacko with pleasure.

My Skinner/Miner chose the Mage Tower as a replacement for the Barracks in her garrison because once she finds the Ogre Waystones etc she can have portals around the world.

I also picked the Lumber Mill because it gives her the ability to do logging out in the world and work orders give you garrison resources.

I picked up the Storage Building for personal bank access.

She has one small open plot, but the small plots are all profession specific and she really doesn’t have one.

Salvage, which might be useful to any character is greyed out. If it turns out to be something useful for any character, that would be her good use of a small plot.

I’m disappointed to see the level 3 garrison is only available at Level 100 L

Having had the level 3 garrison in two prior builds, I really want it, and because there is a lot more land in your garrison map available, I wanted to see more levels of the Garrison.

I suppose leaving that open allows them to add features in future content patches, which will be okay if that’s the plan.

These are actually notes from yesterday. I’m going to write up my daily diary after playing each day because you how it is, I can’t find a thing in my notes…

Draenor Announcement Day

I am really looking forward to today’s “street date” announcement. This lets me know how much time I have to play in the beta and how much time I have to get my Live Server characters ready to head on in to Draenor.

Just playing in the Beta has given me a whole new view of the game and which characters are most important to keep leveled, and which are most enjoyable to play.

Oddly enough, people comparing Garrisons to Farms on Pandaria has made me actually start working on my farms and on Pandarian Cooking.

I find myself paying more attention to the fish and the game and what creature drops what that I can use in cooking.

I’m working the characters through Pandaria on Live with notebook in hand and instead of just powering through this (still!!!) most unpleasant place I’m seeing it differently.

Having been in Draenor, I want to get all of my Trade skills to 600, even the dread Archaelogy, which looks as if may be much more interesting and puzzle based in Draenor. What a relief.

I like Fishing in all games, though I wouldn’t touch it in the real world. It seems in Draenor you can fish up all sorts of useful and interesting little treasures. Yes!

Treasures, treasures everywhere is how Draenor seems so far. I love it to death. 🙂

Wipe !

Lots of exciting new stuff but once again it is International Kill Stealers R Us

Whap!

Things I did not say today (so far):

You’re hoarding more than camels, bud.

Let’s all stand on the quest npcs and make farting noises with our hands under our armpits.

The Last Chapter Gaming Blog

A large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life, by her who interests her heart in everything-Laurence Sterne

Monthly Archives: August 2014

A Bit of Galaxies, Long Live Galaxies

Draenor Diaries: Playing With the Blues

Shadowmoon Garrison Invasion: Nightmare

Draenor Diaries Sunday August 17 2014

Draenor: Scribes Quarters

Draenor Diaries Saturday August 16 2014

Draenor Diaries Friday August 15 2014

Draenor Diaries Thursday August 14 2014

Draenor Announcement Day

Wipe !