index
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language |
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| Shug's Expedition OutPost #6: Two for One Special! |
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2003-01-31 | L |
| Q’s Query #19 – Advancement |
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2003-01-30 | L |
| Weekly Wednesday Beta Update #28 |
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2003-01-29 | L |
| Some Screenshots Posted |
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2003-01-28 | L |
| Brot und Spiele: Das PA-Event |
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2003-01-24 | L |
| A new "face" on the boards |
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2003-01-22 | L |
| Letter to the community: Matt Higby |
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2003-01-21 | L |
| Friday FAQ - Size matters not... |
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2003-01-20 | L |
| How big should PAs be? |
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2003-01-19 | L |
| Board Fragments: More answers |
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2003-01-18 | L |
| Shug's Expedition OutPost #6: Two for One Special! | 
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Okay, it's been a while, but my excuse is that I've been in the game actually experiencing cool stuff to share with you. In the past couple of weeks, we've seen huge improvements not only in performance and stability, but also in the amount of content that's actually in the game. Today, Raph and I were chatting (in-game, of course), and both agreed that the game feels like, well, a game - we can see where it's fun. Obviously, we still have a ton of work to do, and there are areas that aren't quite as fun as they could be, but we're relieved that our focus is now on making the game fun rather than making the game just work.
Beware the Blaster For the past week, I've been playing a Trandoshan marksman (named, with a total lack of creativity, "HadenMark"). We've been aggressively testing the advancement process, so I've focused entirely on the life of a marksman, mostly using blaster pistols. Although I frequently jump onto the beta servers with a Twi'lek marksman too, all of the events described here took place on the QAServer. As Kevin noted in his weekly Beta update, there are a few things on the QAServer that we haven't activated on the Beta server yet, so the experience is still slightly different (although the two servers are converging rapidly). Death in the Desert I'm running out from Bestine, into the desert on a mission to destroy a rock mite lair. Evidently, the rock mites are making life miserable for some local farmers. So, armed with my trusty DL-44 blaster (the same model used by Jabba's least favorite smuggler, Han Solo), I've set out in search of the aggressive critters. However, as I near my mission waypoint, I see a Twi'lek running across the desert full-tilt. I turn and wave, but the Twi'lek just begins screaming, "Help me! They're after me!" As she nears, I see she's wearing an outfit that Bib Fortuna must have picked out… And, in fact, I quickly identify her as a "Twi'lek slave." Before I can speak, the slave girl falls to her knees at my feet, pleading for my help. It's not difficult to surmise that someone is pursuing her; I suspect Jabba's goons at work… Just as I'm about to offer my aid, blaster fire erupts from behind me. I wheel around to see a pair of Imperial stormtroopers tromping down a sandy hill, their blaster rifles blazing. I immediately drop to my knee and begin firing back, but I'm outclassed. Fortunately, the Twi'lek has produced a huge blaster rifle (!) and has thrown herself onto the ground to take aim. I'm emboldened by my new ally's courage… But sadly, courage isn't enough in this fight. The stormtroopers rip us both to shreds in a few seconds. I collapse into the sand, only a few meters away from the Twi'lek's corpse… Clearly, I wasn't up to this particular challenge. Oootiinni Ambush A few hours later, I'm on a delivery mission, running from Bestine to Mos Espa to pick up some… mints (I swear) for a Tatooine "noble." It's quite a trek, but I can barely run a few meters without spotting something to fight. The desert is crawling with danger… Still stinging from my earlier death at the hands of those Imperial thugs, I'm cautious about my next target. After avoiding a few rogue banthas and a giant worrt, I spot something more my size: a lone Jawa. The Jawa, which I identify as a "Jawa smuggler" (if I recall correctly…) is standing by himself under a tent atop a small hill. I'm in need of some credits and pistol XP and, hey, I'm supposed to be testing combat, so the Jawa becomes my next target. I kneel, get a bead on the unsuspecting scavenger, and open fire… But, I'm not as smart as I think I am… I didn't realize that the hill is surrounded by a deep trench. And had I bothered to glance at my radar, I would have spotted additional enemy blips around my target… Instead, I foolishly start attacking the Jawa, only to have three of his buddies emerge from the trench. The Jawas are armed with small blasters, and one is clearly a Jawa leader of some sort. It looks like I'm going to be luggage again… Who are we kidding? These are Jawas. After two or three well-placed blaster shots, the leader drops. I'm winged a few times and start to get nervous about my diminishing Health bar, but the remaining Jawas fall fairly quickly. I've definitely learned my lesson about who to fight on Tatooine. Notes -The first encounter is an example of a dynamic POI that can occur in the game. The Twi'lek slave and the stormtroopers were all NPCs. -As with all our POIs, there are a ton of variables that can be changed. In particular, the type and number of "victims" (the slave girl) and "aggressors" (the stormtroopers) can be changed. I could have just as easily come across a Rebel fleeing Imperials, or a farmer fleeing Tuskens. -The second encounter, with the Jawas, was actually just a random spawn. It was one of those happy coincidences where the geography and the spawns complemented one another extremely well. Haden Blackman LucasArts Producer Seen on SWG Boards |
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| Editor: Aysen |
available comments: verfügbare Kommentare: |
1 | 2003-01-31 |
| Q’s Query #19 – Advancement |
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Welcome to another round of Q’s Query, a thread where you get to play the part of a developer for an MMO. This week the topic will be on player advancement. Specifically, we’re talking about learning skills and gaining profession titles.
To avoid the “level treadmill” we are putting less emphasis on “finishing” the game by maxing out a profession. We’re figuring that the average (and I use the word loosely) player could fill up his learn capacity in about 3 months of steady play. We hope that players will realize there is much more to do in the game than just “leveling up” (so to speak) and are giving many avenues for enjoying the game beyond watching your xp bars go up. In other words, you may have a couple professions mastered, but have you tried the other 20+ professions? Have you earned all the badges? Have you explored all the planets? Done all the theme parks? Took part in a P.A. war? Spent lots of Faction points? Seen all the POIs? Built a house? Took part in a player run event? Encountered every creature? Located the holy shrub? Etc. But this thread is about what you would do if you were making a MMO game and it specifically revolves around professions How long should it take to “max” out a character in terms of profession? How would you cater to the “power gamer” who plays for more than 40 hours a week? How would you cater to the “casual gamer” who plays for less than 15 hours a week? How do you deal with the inherited perception that “Level 50” (or whatever) is the “point” of the game? I realize this Query is similar to my one on Professions, but that one dealt more with what you wanted as a player. This one should focus more on what you would do as a developer who doesn’t want people to leave the game because they felt they “finished it too quickly” and also don’t want people to get frustrated by the game because “it takes forever to get anywhere.” Plus it is relevant to where we are in Beta right now. -Kevin O'Hara Community Relations Manager Seen on SWG Boards |
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| Editor: Aysen |
available comments: verfügbare Kommentare: |
0 | 2003-01-30 |
| Weekly Wednesday Beta Update #28 |
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I think we’ve made significant strides in Beta this past week. The servers have been fairly stable and we’ve had them up for a lot more time. Beta testers are really starting to get into testing some balance issues such as advancement. Effectively they are playing the game (though we still have a few systems that are only turned on for the internal testers). Most of this week, we’ve just told them to take missions and get new skills.
Behind the scenes the dev team has begun a major shift from implementing designed systems (though there is still plenty implementing to go around) to focusing on the fun factor. Design emails are shifting from “When will this system be working?” to “We just had a great play session, but these are the areas that we have to make more fun…” Yes, all of this means we are getting closer to Beta 3. However, I still don’t have a solid date for you yet. How about this, I give you a different solid date? On February 6th from 6-7 PM PST we are going to hold another Developer’s Chat. This one will focus on answering questions about Beta and about our initial release. There are certain questions we still won’t have answers for (like subscription price and international release), but there will be lots of things we can talk about. Once again, here is a glimpse in to a few of the patch notes the testers see. The difference this time? The Beta Testers haven’t seen these notes yet (they’ll probably get them tomorrow or Friday). So today, you get to see something about beta before the beta testers do quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ART AND WORLD Added new female sitting chair idles Fixed bug where females would slowly scoot off their chairs while sitting Facial emotes now work in postures other than standing Updated player footstep sounds GAMEPLAY Lowered payments on missions Changed max player group size from 8 to 20 Fixed creatures so that they assist each other Doubled all creature/NPC damage UI Datapad icons now correctly reflect mission type, and name matches type accordingly Datapad capacity is now 100 Made names popup over furniture after 2 seconds of hovering Made close buttons work on options screens -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shh, don’t tell them I told you this… -Kevin O'Hara Community Relations Manager Seen on SWG Boards |
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| Editor: Aysen |
available comments: verfügbare Kommentare: |
0 | 2003-01-29 |
| Some Screenshots Posted |
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We posted 11 Screenshots (8 of them are panoramic). Most of them were used in magazines last month (PC Gamer and Star Wars Insider). Because magazines tend to crop the screenshots to match their layout, you’re probably seeing a little more of the image here. Additionally 04, 06, and 07 are new today.
Enjoy! -Kevin O'Hara Community Relations Manager  Seen on SWG Boards |
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| Editor: Aysen |
available comments: verfügbare Kommentare: |
0 | 2003-01-28 |
| Brot und Spiele: Das PA-Event |
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Wir bekamen die folgende Info herein:
PA-Wars: Round One Wer interessiert ist, sollte sich da mal umsehen. |
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| Editor: Raknar |
available comments: verfügbare Kommentare: |
0 | 2003-01-24 |
| A new "face" on the boards |
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Hello all,
My name is Jake Rodgers, art director of Star Wars Galaxies. I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself, because you’ll probably see me here responding to questions, or asking some of my own. We are slowing the production of new visuals for the game, and we’re putting our energy into polish, to make sure it all works together beautifully. Feel free to post comments or questions that you think would be relevant to SWG visuals, or re-post relevant issues that were never addressed. Thanks, and talk to you soon! Jake Rodgers Seen on SWG Boards |
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| Editor: Aysen |
available comments: verfügbare Kommentare: |
0 | 2003-01-22 |
| Letter to the community: Matt Higby |
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Continuing our every other Monday tradition of giving you an closer look at one of the team members, this week’s dev comments come from Lead QA Tester Matt Higby.
Enjoy. -Kevin O'Hara Community Relations Manager |
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| Editor: Aysen |
available comments: verfügbare Kommentare: |
0 | 2003-01-21 |
| Friday FAQ - Size matters not... |
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Aw, what does that old toad know? Size does matter and as requested, today’s FAQ is about Player Association sizes.
quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12.27 What are the maximum and minimum sizes for player associations? When you first establish a player association hall, it's allowed to have only one member: you. But within 7 days, your PA must have at least 5 members, or the PA will be dissolved. We repeat this check every 7 days thereafter. The maximum size for a player association is 500. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Additionally, we’ve updated FAQ 12.22 to reflect that we’re changing the maximum group size from 8 to 20. Enjoy your weekend; spend time with friends, lots of them. -Kevin O'Hara Community Relations Manager |
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| Editor: Aysen |
available comments: verfügbare Kommentare: |
0 | 2003-01-20 |
| How big should PAs be? |
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That's what Holocron asked on the SWG Boards - a short question and a lot of answers, ranging from 50 to infinite.
Read it all |
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| Editor: Aysen |
available comments: verfügbare Kommentare: |
0 | 2003-01-19 |
| Board Fragments: More answers |
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Kevin O'Hara answered some more questions on the boards about Beta 3 and additional screenshots/videos:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. How many people will be used for beta testing in the Beta 3? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We’re looking to release 50,000 disks. That number may increase. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. What is the criteria that will be used for selecting people (I think it should go first to those people who have been signed up from day 1, have past Beta exp, meet the system and internet requirements, and have MMO exp. The majority of these people -including myself-, will be providing the necessary Beta feedback, documentation and realistic creative input that would help the Dev's and the game). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the number of people we need to select, the vast majority will be randomly selected. We’ll filter out some applications (like ones that are way below our minimum specs). We will also hand pick some people. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. What criteria will the Beta 3 testers be responsible for (Beta testing is a job and responsibility). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our standards are a little tougher in beta than here on the boards. Disruptive people here will usually get 3 warnings. Disruptive people in Beta may only get one. During testing, we just don’t have time to deal with people who require, um, extra attention. Also Customer Service won’t be at full capacity until we release the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. What game mechanics/systems will be tested in Beta 3 (at least include a differential list in comparison to Beta 1 and 2, but try to include a complete list) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beta 3 will be testing the whole game with everything turned on. It will focus on balancing larger scale systems. In beta 1 and 2, we’ve been focus the testers on certain tasks to really hammer out all the bugs. Beta 3 will be much more about playing the game the way it is meant to be played (meaning however players want to play it). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. What game systems that you originally said would be in release will not be in the initial release? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We’re going to talk about our complete initial release feature set in early February. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Exact dates for a new video and more screenshots. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More screenshots – next week. More in early February. New video – we haven’t scheduled time for this yet. We will likely have one before we release the game. We have shot some footage that may show up elsewhere. I’ll let you know when and where as soon as I have solid information. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Can we have another Dev Chat (which has not happened in a long time)? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, we’ll do one of these in early February as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Will the NDA be lifted starting with Beta 3 or sooner (which would give us plenty of information about the game)? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The NDA will likely be lifted when we start Beta 3. Seen on SWG Boards |
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| Editor: Aysen |
available comments: verfügbare Kommentare: |
0 | 2003-01-18 |
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