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Gallael

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Posts posted by Gallael

  1. OK, so let me get this straight:

     

    1) As a heavy armor user, I still can't use vendor sets like the pilot set without gimping my armor rating?

     

    2) Even if I could use it as heavy armor, I can't take the mods out of my existing (or new) Rakata gear and keep the set bonuses?

     

    3) Assuming I eventually get some armoring in my vendor set with set bonuses intact (from either campaign or war hero gear), I still can't get an augment slot on it...so I'm

    still gimping myself.

     

    3) If I want the augment slot on my newly acquired campaign gear, my only choice is to...gasp...not roll on the campaign gear drops in the first place so the armortech crafter in the group (assuming there is one) gets it and can then RE it?

     

    4) So then the only thing I'm running OPS for is to farm crafting materials that I can then trade to my crafter for gear?

     

    5) Once I have my campaign gear, I can sell excess crafting mats on the broker so everybody else can essentially just buy campaign OPS gear off the broker?

     

    6) "Campaign" and "Black Hole" were the best names for PVE gear you could come up with?

     

     

    What parts of this am I not getting right?

  2. I think it's pretty obvious that these things were put here to be used as money sinks. They're trying to drain some of the credits from the servers to pave the way for a legitimate economy in 1.2. Starting the economy over (a bit) if you will...

     

    Yep, that's the way I see it.

     

    FYI, based on the videos of the test server I saw - hardmode OPS stuff like black/blue crystals and the dessler turbo speeder (or any dessler speeder) are not available from the new vendors.

  3. TDD is great and all, but testing a multi-threaded client/server GUI application with a custom backend isn't just a simple little matter. You'll be able to apply TDD principles to a certain percentage of your codebase (and fix a corresponding % of potential bugs), but the rest...meh.

     

    TDD is best when applied to code that is easily testable in isolation. Throw in multi-threading, callbacks from the kernel, and a whole host of other problems related to testing a GUI and you'll see that it's not always one answer to all your QA problems.

     

    TDD is also great for affirming that what you expect to work...actually works.

     

    But you know what 20 years of software development have taught me? Programmers (at least those with a few years experience) are pretty good writing code that does what they think it should do. Likewise, they'll write their tests to test for exactly that (or manually interact with the application to test it). What they aren't always good at is anticipating the "unknown unknowns" (thanks Rumsfeld). I guess that's why they are called "unknowns". If you don't know what the problem is going to be, how can you test for it? You have to have a larger awareness of how that code you wrote is going to be used. You do this through integration testing, ad hoc/chaos testing, performance testing, etc. You do it by getting out of your silo and looking at the big picture.

     

    Do you think TDD would have prevented the bug that allowed more than 8 people in warzones? The ability to use /stuck as people are using it?

     

    Does TDD fix bad design? Most certainly not.

     

    The problem with SWTOR is not the quality of code (I would bet their bug count / kloc is pretty low).

     

    Another large bucket of bugs is a result from changing and/or misunderstood requirements. TDD won't help you here, but Agile can - sometimes. I've been using various forms/flavors of Agile for quite awhile now and would recommend it over any other development methodology out there. But it won't miraculously fix all your problems for you.

     

    Suggesting that TDD or Agile might have made the game better is IMO a little naive. I'm not saying that either or both wouldn't help, but their problems are larger than simple code quality problems.

     

    Basically their problems all boil down to this: They made too many bad decisions.

     

    Simple, huh?

     

    Rep/Imp balance? They decided not to manage the balance during launch. They only managed load.

     

    Ilum? They decided not to invest the money in a real endgame open PVP system.

     

    Lack of enough endgame content? They decided to launch without it.

     

    Exploiters running rampant? They decided not to invest in enough GM support to handle the problems.

     

    etc, etc.

     

    In the majority of these cases, I can almost assure you it wasn't the design/development team that made them (I do blame the time it takes to get from 1 planet to another on them though). Most of these "bad decisions" go higher than that, and the pressure to make said decisions goes even higher. You can figure it out from there.

  4. OP needs to get a life. Bioware, please stay chill... us casual gamers will keep you and TOR fully funded if you continue to release quality over quantity with minimal endless time sinks.

     

    Endless time sinks? You mean like the 5 minutes it takes to get from 1 planet to another?

     

    Quality? Like Ilum? Like the bug/exploit/hack free PVP we have now?

     

    Quantity? Since when has Bioware given us quantity over quality (and when has anyone asked for this)? Maybe you're talking about the whopping 2 endgame operations that take < 1 hr each? I guess that's too much for the casual gamer to handle. Perhaps Bioware should just have something for you to click on and you'll get a random 1 in a 100 shot at getting a piece of rakata gear mailed to you. Of course, with their known "quality" it might take a few clicks before your click actually registers... :)

  5. The only place I really have a problem with sorcs are in huttball. I think they just need to make some adjustments when in that wz (more restrictive rules for moving/passing with the ball, etc.) and/or restrict the # of them to say...less than 1. :)
  6. I had a mod remove one of my posts mentioning it...thanked me for making them aware of the "exploit". Bioware must all play imps since they run their company like the empire, trying to control the flow of information and all...
  7. Better instanced PVP: Warhammer

    Better open world PVP: Warhammer

    Better population balance: Warhammer

    Better character balance: SWTOR

     

    Better overall PVP: Warhammer

     

    Mythic > Bioware

    Bioware == Mythic

    Therefore both < Toilet.

  8. 1) Cross-server warzone queueing (because my server doesn't have enough people to get a q pop more than once every 30 minutes during prime time). And when it does its always against the same set of battlemaster imps.

     

    2) More types of warzones.

     

    3) Overhauled Ilum/world PVP system that actually means something.

     

    4) Some sort of ranking/tournament system for warzone PVP. Give a reason above and beyond gear grinding to continue to play.

     

    3) Higher rated PVE gear (along with harder OPS).

     

    4) Gear that drops with random stats (within reason).

     

    5) Some sort of guild system other than just a roster (accomplishments, levels, etc.)

     

    6) Crafting that actually means something

     

    7) An economy that makes it seem like an accomplishment when you make/buy/sell something of value.

     

    8) Different leveling worlds/zones for different classes (to make leveling alts more enjoyable)

     

    9) More high level space missions with more rewards that are actually desirable

     

    10) More datacron like activities (exploration related, etc.) with rewards that can help improve your character in some way (either stats, passive/active abilities, or whatever)

     

    11) Improved mechanism to get from location to location that doesn't take so much time.

     

    12) Ability to swap out skins on armor, more skins available (perhaps this is coming with the change to purples).

     

    13) Ability to retire a character and pass down an enhanced piece of equipment or ability as a reward (a la Torchlight).

     

    14) Speeder racing mini-game

     

    15) Cross-faction teams in warzones. Having imps/reps on both sides would help offset the balance problems between the two sides.

     

    16) More titles for high level achievements, and add stats to titles.

     

    17) Endgame content that utilizes companions (give us a reason to grind gear for them). Maybe a single-player flashpoint that requires multiple companions or something.

     

    18) Remove ability to have rep/imp characters on the same server with the same game key (overly abused to farm valor).

     

    19) PVP gear for valor ranks > 60 (minor stat increases, but different/better looks)

     

    20) More bug/balance fixes.

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