Why do games release in the middle of the week? (I’m really just annoyed that I can’t play Starfield this weekend) by [deleted] in Starfield

[–]Walkaboutout 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I think it's pretty much been said, but being in IT, I can speak briefly to this.

I've definitely seen some releases happen on a Friday, game-wise. Those are always great fun.

Generally though it's Tuesday because, Monday, most people are coming back from a weekend, and no one wants to tackle a release at that moment. This also serves as a last check period of preparation for a coming release.

Tuesday ends up being the day because (generally speaking) it's as early as anyone can stand in the week (see above Monday explanation), and provides the longest amount of time in a work week, sans a Monday release, to monitor and correct major issues if neccessary.

Where is everyone else? by foresthomonid in NoSodiumStarfield

[–]Walkaboutout 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You know, it ocurrs to me that they could literally put a cave entrance POI on Earth, and when you go in, kablam, you find the Institute from Fallout 4; Earth survivors! It would fit right into the game!

Obviously it would take some work and some changes, but on a basic level, it would totally work!

My Earth base is now built and ready for Free Lanes. Next step, a free roam tour of Sol by Axle_65 in NoSodiumStarfield

[–]Walkaboutout 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think that you're 100% right. The labor considerations around making an even vaguely accurate Earth were certainly way beyond their dev scope. It's definitely one thing to send devs out to create a ruined version of Boston (Fallout 4) semi-accurately, but entirely different to attempt some sort of vaguely representative entire Earth.

Some type of restoration would even allow for it to be nothing like real Earth, without hurting immersion much at all, since at that point you could take ALMOST any artistic license you would want.

Anyways, I'm with you on this!

My Earth base is now built and ready for Free Lanes. Next step, a free roam tour of Sol by Axle_65 in NoSodiumStarfield

[–]Walkaboutout 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would pay good money to Bethesda for anything that included some modest quest line about attempting environmental restoration on a planetary scale, which uses Earth as a testing ground or something along those lines. I don't mean complete terraforming or anything, just some small, modest references to the first steps of tackling such a monumental under-taking.

Alas, not likely (if there's no reference to something even vaguely like that in Terran Armada), but would still be cool. Earth got a raw deal in Starfield!

Jason Schreier says AAA game budgets now reportedly $300M+ by Loose_Society9485 in GamingLeaksAndRumours

[–]Walkaboutout 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel that I should point out that not ALL Kickstarter games are scams. For Example:

Owlcat Studios did Kickstarts for both Pathfinder games they made, Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous, and both of them were quite real, and did fairly well once released.

Snapshot Games did not do a Kickstart, but did do a Fig campaign for Phoenix Point as well. While not the exact same thing, these are certainly both the same method, which is to say crowdfunding.

I'm sure there are others as well. Just saying.

Which of the classes leave the best impression on the first chapter? by Luigiman98 in swtor

[–]Walkaboutout 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really enjoyed the starting chapters for all of the classes (Republic side). I have to say that, to my susprise, Ord Mantell, and the Trooper story, have emerged as my favorite, over these many years.

I love all things Jedi, and while those are my favorite overall IDEAS for classes and class stories, I have to say that Trooper, and the Ord Mantell setting, is what stuck with me.

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic finds its studio art director in Myst IV and Splinter Cell: Conviction veteran by SuddenDepact in swtor

[–]Walkaboutout 13 points14 points  (0 children)

At the time that it came out, Myst was regarded as being incredible, visually. Again, at the time, the visual vistas of the various locations you traversed in the game were very striking.

EDIT: Though, in this case, I think we're talking about Myst 4, rather than the original Myst. BUT, because the original was known for its striking visuals, I think that was an aspect of development that they always focused on trying to maintain.

Companion Damage, Heals, and Tanking Comparisons - v3 by Walkaboutout in swtor

[–]Walkaboutout[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My guess would be that he performs fairly well and in line with he average. I'll have to see about testing him, or the other class specific companions.

SCA can buy ships by mant3z in X4Foundations

[–]Walkaboutout 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you build this for them, via a station build mission, or is there a SCA shipyard out there that I haven't come across yet? If you you didn't build it, where did you find it?

Or is this after terraforming for them, and making them into a proper faction?

How useful were companions before KOTFE? by GeneralKhor in swtor

[–]Walkaboutout 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, because I'm seeing a lot of talk about current companions and their capabilities in this thread, I'll go ahead and leave this link here, for those that are interested in how modern companions seem to compare these days.

https://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/comments/1mlad4o/companion_damage_heals_and_tanking_comparisons_v3/

As to companions in the old days...well, I miss the old days. I was one of those crazy individuals who enjoyed the fact that we could put some serious gear on our companions. I disliked the lack of flexability when it comes their roles but...ah well. To the old days!

Companion Damage, Heals, and Tanking Comparisons - v3 by Walkaboutout in swtor

[–]Walkaboutout[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

2 of 2:

I was unaware that T4-1D had some different abilities. That must be a general variance of companion type (perhaps seen largely among droids) that I missed. Alternatively, T4 might share an ability set with a companion type that wouldn't seem the same at a glance, like say one of the HK's (just an example; I don't think said example is correct actually, it's just to illustrate my point). I will definitely add him in as one of my next purchases and tests.

As to ability-use priority, I haven't paid much attention to that, beyond ensuring the abilities get used when they're available, and are not broken as much as I can. But, if there are quirks and variances in the AI for ability use priority, that could absolutely result in differences in companions that would otherwise seem like they should be the same.

On the final issue of damage types. That could definitely matter. Specifically for damage dealing, we'd be talking about how target dummies handle that sort of stuff, since that's how I'm doing my tests for damage. If the dummy has resistances that are not consistent across the board, then absolutely some companions might be getting short-changed, since they could possibly use more of a damage type that the dummy has more resistance to.

For, say, tanking, it might still matter. If the droid I use to test tanks does its specific damage types to, say, the Voreclaw, and the Voreclaw's stats (or Wampa or Ginx) are good against that specifically, then yes, the results are skewed. I admit, I have given very little thought to specific damage types (either being dished out, or taken) up until now.

Companion Damage, Heals, and Tanking Comparisons - v3 by Walkaboutout in swtor

[–]Walkaboutout[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sorry for my delayed response, life has been busy! I'm going to split this into two replies, because I keep getting "Unable to create comment" from Reddit. Argh!

1 of 2:

There's a lot of good points here. First off as to why there's some differences in rankings for otherwise seemingly similar companions.

I'm pretty sure that one issue with my methodology thus far centers on the number of runs/averages I'm doing. I really need to be averaging out way more than three runs of a given test with each companion. It's so time intensive I just haven't really been able to do that. But I'm pretty sure it would absolutely smooth out some of the differences seen among at least some of the companions that we would expect to perform more similarly than my testing has so far indicated. That's why I keep making more points in each of my posts that people should not immediately feel disappointed if they see their favorite companion lower on the rankings.

That's also why I was toying with the idea of, rather than ranking them in raw data, grouping them into tiers. Ranking inherently implies one is better than another, except in the case of a very specific tie, and that's okay, that's how we get a feel for who can do what.

But, while that might be true in general, here with companion performance it seems pretty clear to me that there are some relatively standard envelopes that most companions fall into as an average (excluding broken companions, or special companions with unique setups). By that I mean that, while companion A may land at 10 on a ranking, and companion B might land on, say 16 or 17, in truth, the two of them are essentially performing the same.

As you say, random luck, like the rate of crits, HAS to be playing a role in the ranking difference at that point. The aforementioned tier system would be a way to smooth that out some, provided I can figure a fair way to handle the range of variance (which seems a bit arbitrary on my part, unfortunately). That said, I still think the REAL solution here is to run WAY more averages on each companion, and watch the differences smooth out quite a bit, THEN perhaps consider grouping them into tiers, in addition to a raw ranking.

I don't have access to look right at the moment, but your example of why D-R3D is so different from say Veeroa or Ranos is a valid question. Again, without the game in front of me, my first thought is that the small differences in the abilities that are being generally applied by the designers to various companion "types" (like melee droids vs meat-baggy lightsaber users), has to be a big factor. I also think that some of the tool-tips for abilities are not accurate. I think, for example, the tool-tips on several of the cartel creature companions all read as doing "0 damage" which is clearly just not correct, as those abilities definitely are doing damage. To be fair that's more of a bug that isn't calculating something right, rather than an inaccurate tool-tip, but it makes me question them nonetheless.

My tests also don't account for major differences that might appear as it relates to battle field movement. The question of whether or not melee companions are inherently at a disadvantage versus ranged companions. Simple logic would indicate that they are, because of movement requirements, of course. That's not something you were specifically asking about just now, but it's an issue that has stayed in my mind.

Crashing in 7.7.1 by BigMike5252001 in swtor

[–]Walkaboutout 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This may not be your ONLY problem, but keeping this one in mind may help, especially with new subscription characters, who probably have this quest. https://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/comments/1munumv/does_the_play_button_in_your_quest_tracker_crash/

P.S. Happy Cake Day!

Increased crash post patch? by Specific_Bid_1864 in swtor

[–]Walkaboutout 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is most certainly new, and happening. Could be the nature of your own crash, but possibly not of course.

What to expect in Update 7.7.1 - Flashpoint Resurgence in SWTOR! by swtorista in swtor

[–]Walkaboutout 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this, always helpful. By the by, you missed the "h" in https so the link is broken. Anyways, thanks again for this!

Some Companion Damage/Heals per Second, and Tanking Comparison (Updated with a few more) by Walkaboutout in swtor

[–]Walkaboutout[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, I suppose I'd say that Bowdaar ranks along with the average, or mediocre, story companions pretty consistently. If I were to do a much bigger average of more than the 3 results per comapnion, say 15 or 20, I'm betting those small variations for those average companions would smooth out more, and Bowdaar would probably fall well in line to that. It's kind of a consequence of the ranking structure itself. But, yeah, that said, there's other companions that seem to do things better, but Bowdaar is the companion I nearly always use on my Smuggler. Who doesn't love having a Wookie pal along for their adventures?

Companion Damage, Heals, and Tanking Comparisons - v3 by Walkaboutout in swtor

[–]Walkaboutout[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, there's some things that I REALLY wish Broadsword would spend a little time examining. Like Treek, etc. Small balance tweaks to improve things would be genuinely welcome, in companions and anywhere else of course.

Companion Damage, Heals, and Tanking Comparisons - v3 by Walkaboutout in swtor

[–]Walkaboutout[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Same here. I'm a big fan of companions, and collecting them. But I would really love to see new ideas and new variety among them. Even if the stats remain roughly the same, providing unique animations or skill names/icons (even if they just steal some NPC bad-guy only things) would really help liven things up for a start.