Is it true?

[Revis Xizi]

Okay, so Smedley made this little update here:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/boar ... ing&page=1

After some posts bashing Smedley's comments, he posted another comment on page 3:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/boar ... ing&page=3


Now, does this mean that rolling back is FINALLY one of the options they are considering, or is it a response from one of the other posts that was made? I'm definately crossing my fingers that it's about rolling back! (Then again, the more account cancellations, the more they might actually do it!)

[Jabe Adaks]

Don't give me false hope... LOL... /cry

Jabe

[Sai'nu]

I'm a little skeptical.

Since he says 'assume' the combat stays the same. I think he's talking about bringing back Tab Locking targets.

If he is talking about Server Rollback. Well, at least that'll satisfy more than half of you here.

[Rankyn]

Based on the time his post was made and looking at the content of his "update" statement, I would assume that he is referring to the targeting issues as being considered.

He's just a forum n00b and a lot of posts got made between the post he was replying to and his post before he could hit the submit button.

After several discussions with the developers I can almost guarantee 100% that they will NOT be abandoning the NGE.

[Jabe Adaks]

Lets pretend he meant rollback.

Jabe

[Zannon]

Lets pretend he meant rollback.

Jabe

/target Jabe

/comfort

[warsloth]

Lets pretend he meant rollback.

Jabe

I know I am...

/sulk

[Revis Xizi]

After several discussions with the developers I can almost guarantee 100% that they will NOT be abandoning the NGE.

Then everyone will abandon SWG. From the polls I've seen, approximately 80% of the people that play(ed) SWG says that the NGE sucks. SOE needs to wake up.

[Rankyn]

SOE isn't behind this change.
This was the result of a directive from Lucasarts.
SOE had no choice but to suck it up or lose the license.

It's no surprise that EA chose to pull out of the deal in Japan.

[Sai'nu]

Well, look at it this way...

Either:

A) He did, in fact, mean roll back is being considered; In which case at least half of this community will be tickled to death again.

Or...

B) He didn't, and they'll continue to develop what they have (possibly implementing yet another core system down the line) and keep some of us wanting to see where it goes and have to try and get new customers as well.

It's a gamble no matter what they do now though because I'm sure some of you won't even trust it if they did do a rollback now. Same reason why I've generally not gone by polls on the starwarsgalaxies forums... while they do use those for feedback I've always heard that the number of forum users don't scratch the surface of the number of non-forum users.

I'm staying optimistic about it though. NGE has just as much potential as the CU did. What would make me upset with a rollback or staying with the system they have now is...

A) A rollback with lots of scrapped development and time they'll have to spend picking up the pieces from the NGE development. (I think they've got a lot of red-tape proceedures they can't just bypass given the two companies and the product)

or

B) Continued push of the NGE with no focused development being actively worked on. (and personally I think they are working on it. But, it's a Beta game again... so I expect for them to take months implementing things again that they already had polished.)

[Jerrel]

I'm hope he ment roll back. And what you've forgotten Sai'nu is that:

A) Lucas Arts is also a company that wants to see this make money so if a majority jumps ship and says they want a roll back, LA may consider it if the guys at SOE say that it would be possible to do.

and

B) The only way for SOE or LA to know what their players feel is via the poles and the responces on the forums. With this they use statistical mathmatics to guestimate what the total population feels. If there are more people out there that like it than what is posting on the boards then erge them to speek up or they'll be left out in the cold...

OH WAIT!!! I was thinking about a company that would really give a rats ass about what their players wanted. Never mind carry on.

[Sai'nu]

No, I didn't forget. And here's why.

It comes back to what they've said and what we've screamed for countless times... balance. Balance they finally realized they could not do with 32 professions. So, in that, your right... they did listen to the boards. But they seem to have a rubber band effect in how they listen and implement things into the game. I'm still not changing my stance that their PR with us is horrible.

What I am saying is... I wouldn't go by those particular forums too much because it spawns about as much faulty information as a polotician trying to get re-elected. And I don't mean just on the Dev's end... on the communties end as well. No matter what they do, what they say, there will always be a cry of foul from some part of the community.

Server roll back; would it be a good thing? Yes, it most likely would. But I don't think it'd solve the kind of balancing problems their wanting to fix with the game. There are those that have given the NGE a good try or at least a glance in game and already know they don't like it. I for one support it because I think they are trying to fix things for the whole of the game. Problem is... they gambled in some of the wrong areas.

I have a feeling we'll know for sure before the year is out what they, indeed, plan on doing. But I highly doubt SWG is finished. We'll either gain back or lose, and miss, some good game buddies over this.

And your right... their going to do what stands to make the most money. And if they think NGE will attract more gamers on a broader scope while losing ALL of their current customers; I believe they'll stick to their blasters on it.

[Revis Xizi]

Personally, I don't see why it would have been so difficult to balance the old combat system. It's all mathmatics anyway, isn't it? Let's look at this for example. (Now, everyone agrees that Jedi should be the Alpha class. After all, they are the most powerful)

Melee Professions:

Unarmed + High Speed - Low Damage * Class abilities
Two Handed - Low Speed + High Damage * Class abilities
One Handed = Medium Speed = Medium Damage * Class abilities
Polearms - Low Speed - Low Damage * Specialized abilities

Ranged Professions:

Heavy Weapons - Low Speed - Low Damage * Specialized abilities
Rifles - Low Speed + High Damage * Class abilities
Carbines = Medium Speed = Medium Damage * Class abilities
Pistols + High Speed - Low Damage * Class abilities

See? That's not so hard. The specialized abilites are abilities that can speed up attacks or damage, but must be activiated and have cool down timers and such besides the regular attacks classes are given.

All professions should have standarized HP, Action, and Mind.

For creature handlers, apply these abilites to the creatures and not the player.

For jedi, allow them to have high damage, speed, and specialized abilities. Jedi should be EXTREMELY difficult to obtain. +30% to all abilities.

For bounty hunters, give them increased damage and speed, with specialized class abilities. Bounty hunter should be more difficult to obtain than smuggler, but not to the point of jedi. +20% to abilities.

Smugglers should have low damage and low speed, but one field may be changed based on their spices or other tricks they can use. Smugglers should also be more difficult to obtain, not as difficult as bounty hunter. +10% to abilities.


This is only an example, and I know all the professions aren't here...yet.

[Sai'nu]

Your right, Revis. But the problem was (and keep in mind we liked that we could mix and match) it was next to impossible for them to balance out all possible mix and match full templates and pure skill line templates. Of course, by the time they had a system in play where it was actually fun to mess around with different things and still be able to succeed in different areas.... we got NGE.

They might have been better off giving us 32 professions to pick from... but limiting us to one class from the get go. And... not everyone agrees that there should be only one alpha class. In fact, many gamers would have played jedi from the start had it been offered. different gamers want different things don't forget.

/shrugs

I do think he is referring to the target lock though. The new system can succeed. A rollback can work too. Either way... I think the game will still be around.

[Revis Xizi]

Exactly! By removing the ability to have more than one profession at a time, they could easily balance the system. It was always the hybrids that messed up the balance. (BH / MCM template for example). This way, you could still have all of the old professions, but not allowing players to merge them together. Then all that would be adjusted is the damage outputs and a couple other things to...make the circle complete.

35 some professions still beats out 9 "iconic" profession in terms of variety.

Someone want to try to get me a job with SOE/LA so I can show them how it's done?