Ok seems I stopped playing SWG right around when they started making this NGE. What-ever that is? Will someone please enlighten me as to what NGE even means? So far all I know is that they did a complete overhaul on the Jedi class. Also that they changed the skill system. No idea in what way though. Thanks for any help.
It's all about the fantasy baby!
www.solsticeserver.com
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As for the changes, all professions have been removed, and in their place are nine(?) crappy replacements.
If you are serious about playing this again, I suggest you read the official forums and read about the classes and everything else there. It can probably tell you more then us haters can.
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SWG - Killed by $OE
WOW - Retired
Playing WAR
It wasn't for me but why not try the trial ?
Is JTLS still in the game?
It's all about the fantasy baby!
www.solsticeserver.com
Jump to Lightspeed is still there. It is about the only thing they didn't screw with and break.
NGE has 9 (actually 12) classes. Not "professions", I mean classes like every other MMO: you pick it up front and are stuck with it. You can't mix various skills to create a unique template; you are a near-carbon copy of everyone else in your class. (The recent partial exception is that they swiped WoW's talent system and call it "expertise". But you are still just getting some optional abilities, only available to your class.) Yes, your dancer/Jedi is no more. Non-Entertainers can use a slitherhorn to play Starwars1, and do the Basic dance, but that is not mixing Entertainer skills. Everyone can now use a survey tool (at the lowest resolution), and craft a small glass, spiced tea and a wafer, but that is not mixing Artisan skills.
Artisans are now called "Traders"; while nominally a single class, they are really 4 (which also can't mix skills): Domestic (Chef/Tailor), Munitions (Armor/Weaponsmith), Structures (Architect/Shipwright), and Engineer (Master Artisan/Droid Engineer/some Weaponsmith).
There are no trainers; you just level up and magically aquire the next special/ability/item. You have no choice about the order of the new abilities. It's a simplistic linear path, aside from the very minor expertise customization.
Oh I am glad I left when I did then. Just curious what my old character would be if I do get her when I log in again? I might just have to find out.
It's all about the fantasy baby!
www.solsticeserver.com
Decay is turned off, and nothing wears out. You can loot tons of weapons, clothing, and powerup items, and sell them to junk dealers for lots of money. There is no more player-run economy, and inflation is at Weimar Republic levels. Crafted weapons and armor are maybe better than looted, but quest-reward gear is always better. So without decay to remove items from use, crafters can't sell much. There is no death penalty, and the "Cloner Express" is a favored method of free travel.
Things they actually managed to do right: no more armor certifications. Even CL1 Traders and Entertainers can wear armor starting at the second phase of advancement. (Progression from CL1 to CL90 is in 4 phases, each looking like a speedometer.) There is no more hindrance or encumbrance from wearing armor (NOT saying that is something done right). Damage is again based more on the weapon used than on the user's CL. As a permanently CL1 Trader, I got up to Naboo on the Legacy Quest series, by leaving the fighting to my pre-NGE CL39 Probot. This worked out well as long as I was able to only engage 1 enemy at a time; even 15-20 levels above didn't one-shot me, and the droid dished enough damage to keep their attention even if I plinked at them.
It's all about the fantasy baby!
www.solsticeserver.com
Hi there Lai'ahna. The NGE is really a completely different game than the original SWG. It's very hard to explain how your old character might fit into the new system. For example we used to have skill points that you could put into different skills, and we used to see trainers to get our new abilities. We could put our points in many different areas and custom make a character. The new system is not at all like this. You have to pick one of nine character classes. For example you can click on an icon of Luke Skywalker and you are a jedi. There is no such thing as mixed professions anymore. For example, I used to be a Teras Kasi Master and a Master Doc. In the NGE there is no Teras Kasi. I chose the new "medic" profession because I liked healing. I then was basically just informed how many "levels" my new "medic" had in light of my previous accomplishments. I was then told what abilities a medic of that level has.
The player community asked, begged, pleaded for the ability to customize our characters again, so SOE has been giving each new "profession" some options when they get to a certain level. Now you can choose one ability, or another, depending on which path of expertise you want to follow. There is some limited customization, but nothing like we had before, and you still cannot mix professions. If you are a jedi, you can choose between two different force powers for example when you are able to get expertise.
Another really big change is the way the game is actually played. There are essentially two control systems available to the player. One works a lot like a first person shooter game. You have to use your mouse to manually target enemies, and click either the left mouse button for a standard attack, or the right mouse button for one of many "special" attacks. This is a bit oversimplified because there are different ways to customize the manual targetting. I'm trying to avoid being even more confusing than necessary.
If you don't like the manual targetting, they restored a form of automatic targetting, once again after players asked and begged for a return of the game play we enjoyed. The new automatic system was very confusing to me. I kept needing to switch between manual and automatic to get things to work for me at first. Eventually I got a key set up to cause my charater to repeatedly do his standard attack, while I used f keys to launch specials. This felt a bit like the old style combat I used to enjoy, but not quite as intuitive.
Combat now is really over a lot faster than before. I could kill a Krayt dragon by myself for example in about 2 minutes. NPC's really die easily. There is much less time for strategy.
Weapons are looted with great ease and abundance, so crafting is much less necessary in the game at this point. I feel bad for crafters who make things that no one really needs anymore. Dancing or music buffs mainly either help crafting (already discussed) or help combat characters level up faster by giving them an xp boost. My Medic is level 90 (highest now) so I don't need a buff. I don't need to go to the cantinas anymore, and when I do, they are much emptier than they used to be.
Creature handler was deleted. People can call mounts again finally. But some people still stare at pets locked in their datapads that they can't call. All of the quests related to unlocking a jedi have been deleted. All force enhancements for those on the jedi path were also deleted. If you were a jedi, you're now an "elder jedi". They have a few perks, but many people mourn the loss of their custom jedi templates.
Lag is still a problem and so are bugs. Combat is more individual oriented than before, although there have been some recent changes made to try to bring back some level of player interdepdence. It's still not as interdependent as it was though. It seems that some people didn't want to "need" any other profession for anything, and that the NGE caters to that preference.
Some of my friends still play because it's star wars, and they've met nice people in the game. Most of my friends quit. Some return to check on the status periodically. I don't want to invest in a game again and experience so many losses again, so I keep myself and my time and money away from SOE. Hope that helps. If you try to play again, Ahazi has some great people on it. My old guild leaders started playing again, and they treat people very well. The guild is called CIA and the guild city is Crimson Island. Good luck and I hope you have fun in whatever game you choose
ARC3
Lets not forget to also tell you that it is known as the biggest blunder of a MMO game now. It also has actually proved to be the biggest mistake SOE has made I think in it's history.
The NGE was a mistake from the start, with more bugs, issues, bad press, bad gameplay... then ever... I will also share with you the awards it revieved from MMO game of the year from this site( based on votes).
What you should also do is go look it up on the web. Look up it's promise and future based on it's history and current track record.
Here is one for you from SOE's own producers... get ready-- hearing that the game your in is a mistake is hard for alot to handle.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10830
Understand that the maker of SWG quit, the creator of this NGE (or one) was fired --- also understand that there is now such a low playerbase that the game itself feels like a ghost town in most of the cities you would assume to be busy. In fact only one city is left that has any activity -- Eisley... now then also note that most of the game is bugged, or just gone... everything from CH to even the animations for Jedi or most profs..... they just whap whap whap.
Also know that money and crafting is shot... it is a wreck of sorts, SOE claimed they were going to have a crafting revamp... but --- um yeah as you might suspect... they pulled out and failed on making that dilivery.
All in all this product is now in a state of despair and pretty much is on it's last leg... download the trial and just walk around the planets... go look at all the player cities, go look at the game in a whole...from friends lists, to smoothness the game and the challenge is gone.
Here is the list of awards it has recieved:
Enjoy... Taken from the 2006 MMORPG awards based on votes and data....
LEAST FUN:
STAR WARS GALAXIES
Star Wars has no trouble beating out the other games nominated in this field taking 37% of the votes when compared to Dark and Light (16%) and RF Online (11%). Obviously our voters are still a tad bit upset over the giant overhaul of the combat and class system last year. It is more fun than picking the fleas off a Wookie or potty-training an Ewok? Who knows, but I’m not in hurry to experience any of the three anytime soon.
MY PICK: DARK AND LIGHT
How much fun can you have in a game that crashes every ten minutes, has ridiculously poor design, and game breaking bugs? Not much, if any, I assure you. Why not hop on a Dragon and soar through the sky? Make sure to avoid looking at the ground if you enjoy getting more than 10 FPS. Take a hot air balloon ride across the massive landscape? If you do then everyone within 2 km will crash out as soon as you hop aboard only to be told they are already logged in when they try and restart! I wouldn’t recommend this ‘game’ even to a masochist.
MOST DESOLATE:
STAR WARS GALAXIES
Once again, the majority spoke and gave SWG another dubious award gaining 51% of the votes for this category. Coming in at second place was Dark and Light (23%) followed by Dark Age of Camelot (9%) at a distant third. In my introduction to the voting last week I suggested giving preference to game whose population had dropped rapidly rather than a game that never had the big numbers so I’m not too surprised at this outcome. Maybe by this time next year, everyone will be over it, or playing a new Star Wars game.
MY PICK: DARK AGE OF CAMELOT
It’s truly a sad state of affairs when even the mighty zerg army of Albion is reduced to a couple eight man groups in peak hours. While it never quite had the numbers the SWG enjoyed its demise is more significant to me because it represents the downfall of one of the best PvP games in the last ten years. All good things must come to an end though, so out with old and in with the new.
WORST USE OF A POPULAR IP OR LICENSE:
STAR WARS GALAXIES
Seeing a trend here? With 63% of the votes, Star Wars beat out Dungeons and Dragons Online (37%) and The Matrix Online (4%) for the worst of the MMOG conversions. I’m pretty sure that no permanent damage was done to the franchise, but for most of the voters SWG betrayed the original concept of the movie, much like the newest Trilogy did. DDO has fallen pretty far from last year when it won “Most Anticipated for 2006”. Shows how much you can trust award votes.
MY PICK: DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS ONLINE
This was a tough call since I was torn between DDO and Lord of the Rings. Being an old PnP gamer who still keeps 1st edition books I was appalled at the shallow gameplay and simplistic mechanics which are totally at odd with the flavor of the AD&D system. Why pay monthly for a poor mans’s Guild Wars when you can just log on to a NWN Persistent World for free and get better Modules to boot?
MOST SHAMELESS DEVELOPER:
SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT
With a staggering 77% of the votes SOE won in a blowout and the next closest was Dark and Light’s very own NP Cube (16%) and Turbine (3%). What can you say? When the gibbering hordes have spoken all you can do it stand aside and watch them play ‘Pin the Punk Card’. Keep your chin up Sony, at least the PS3 works great right?
MY PICK: NP CUBE
Sony may have their enemies, but for me I have to give the nod in this category to the guys from Reunion Island. Without comparing lies, mismanagement, and audience alienation stories, I can safely say that NP Cube has done more than anyone else to damage to the reputation of small time Devs everywhere and when you hurt the folks with little pockets it means a lot more in my book. Plan on dropping that NDA sometime guys?
MOST LIKELY TO BE CANCELLED IN 2007:
STAR WARS GALAXIES
Star Wars wins its fourth award tonight in a close fought battle of bargain-bin hopefuls taking 29% of the votes edging out it’s faithful runner up Dark and Light (17%) and Archlord (15%). The voters continued to vent their rage on their favorite meat puppet and SWG beat out other games on the chopping block with less than a tenth of their subscribers. I can only hope that by the time next year’s awards roll around we won’t have to look at any of the games that received votes here.
MY PICK: AUTO ASSAULT
How much longer can you go on with a handful of subscriptions and server merges before you call it quits? NetDevil may just choose to skate along on the razor edge of profit margin, but MMOs are only worth running if you love your own game. I don’t think any amount of extra work can turn this title into a money maker however.
BIGGEST STINKER:
STAR WARS GALAXIES
For some reason space opera games seem to win all the awards, good or bad here. Once again, Star Wars crapped its way past the competition gaining 40% of the overall votes. In a close second Dark and Light claimed 29% followed by Dungeons and Dragons Online (10%). This year the old school Pre-CU/NGE gangstas came out in ‘force’ and sent a message. Are they just Rebel scum without a cause? Will something good ever come of this franchise? Will I ever stop causing trouble by provoking die-hard fans? Difficult to answer, these questions are...uncertain the future is.
Pretty much what the reviews and mass majority of players that left say is pretty dead on.
Sure it is a different game... but that seems to be the excuse vs what it really is.
(Sorry most people use common sense and consider this somewhat of a BIG RED FLAG OF "OH CRAP THERE MIGHT BE SOMTHING WRONG WITH THIS GAME" type concept... just maybe lol.
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I usually picture the Career builder commercial with the room full of monkeys and upside down sales chart when thinking about the SOE/SWG decision making process.....
SOE's John Blakely and Todd Fiala issued a warning: "Don't make our mistakes." Ref NGE
Winner of the worst MMOS goes to.... the NGE and SWG..!!! http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm?loadFeature=1034&bhcp=1
This is a pretty good sum up of things
This is a pretty good sum up of things
Thats scarey to see Obriak agree with this in any form lol...
______________________________
I usually picture the Career builder commercial with the room full of monkeys and upside down sales chart when thinking about the SOE/SWG decision making process.....
SOE's John Blakely and Todd Fiala issued a warning: "Don't make our mistakes." Ref NGE
Winner of the worst MMOS goes to.... the NGE and SWG..!!! http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm?loadFeature=1034&bhcp=1
Hey there Iskareot . Np re. what you added to my initial post. I think you really just added some of the emotions a lot of people feel when looking at the issues I was highlighting. You also do a good job of communicating how ugly some of the problems are and how bizarre the thinking behind the NGE seems to be. When I made my post I was in a helpful, mellow frame of mind and was sipping mint tea lol ^_^.
Come to think of it, I'm having another mint tea right now 0_o (starting to wonder if it has mood altering and addictive properties).
To the OP, as Iskareot seems to highlight, their is a lot of pain and frustration (maybe outrage is a better word) in the player community in response to SOE's style of dealing with people and the Star Wars game. There are pockets of health I suppose, and some players that are really decent still, in spite of the fact that they've been frankly abused, but there is a fair amount of grief and animosity present as well.
Some new players tell vets to stop whining and get over it, showing a real lack of understanding and empathy for all the losses and frustration. Some vets basically say that anyone who likes the NGE must have the intelligence of a bowl of fruit. SOE moderators also tend to delete and lock any forum posts that paint SOE or the NGE in a bad light. I don't want to generalize here though, many vets are very respectful of and helpful to new players, because they're people with class, and are able to keep their frustration focused on SOE. LIkewise some new players have understanding and empathy, and wish they could have seen SWG when it had so much more to it.
As for bugs. There are a number of threads highlighting them on the forums. You may want to check them out before paying for this product. A couple of months ago I copied a post that highlighted all known bugs and issues, and converted it into a word document. The document is 17 pages long, single spaced.
The bugs that were a real bother to me, that I posted about beginning in Nov/Dec 2005, are still in the game today. SOE has said that they're "working on" them. In my mind, after over a year, a medic's ability to target and resurrect a dead player should be working properly. Also, the new heals don't function if you are in auto-target mode. They used to heal enemies as well when they first came out, but at least they fixed that. Now they don't heal enemies or friends in auto-target mode, so once again you'd have to switch between auto and manual target modes repeatedly to get the game to work for you. I'd rather develop a hemorrhoid.
Now I'm feeling angry again lol, time for more mint tea -_^
ARC3
Yeah man... like I said, your dead on and I did not hijack your post... it is smooth and calm. BUT I had to add some harshness to it so that this person can at least get the idea that there MIGHT BE SOMTHING WRONG WITH IT.
Lol....
Frustration is not even the word anymore, I think most went to "disgust".. I know I did.
I think I realized the mess this was going to be at the Summit meetings, when the crowd stood up and BOOED the devs damn near off the stage for what they did to Jedi -- I could tell this was going to get worse.
Then when only 15 or so people showed up at the San Francisco Summit meeting -- (about as much Devs that were there) I could see that the game was in trouble... 15 or so people????lol... At one time they had to turn people away from Fan Fests and WE HAD TO PAY... this was free with food... and people still said "Nope not worth it".. ---
I just think at this stage people need to (Like ARC did) tell them the truth... make sure they see the big picture on this product.. before they even waste the HD space on thier computer.
It's just not worth it.
(I still think the people that are left still playing actually do not know there is more polished products out there)... I just have to.
______________________________
I usually picture the Career builder commercial with the room full of monkeys and upside down sales chart when thinking about the SOE/SWG decision making process.....
SOE's John Blakely and Todd Fiala issued a warning: "Don't make our mistakes." Ref NGE
Winner of the worst MMOS goes to.... the NGE and SWG..!!! http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm?loadFeature=1034&bhcp=1
It's all about the fantasy baby!
www.solsticeserver.com
Hey there Lai'Ahna. I've found myself having a lot of fun in City of Heroes, since leaving SWG. A lot of my guild-mates also made the same move. I like it because, well lol, it works . That's a big plus coming from SWG. There are very few bugs, and customer support if you do find a problem has really been excellent. In SWG I sent a bug report that an NPC (the sith commander) wouldn't follow me. About six months later I read a post saying that this had been corrected. That was waaay too late for me I'm afraid. I had the exact same problem in City of heroes once. I sent a ticket and got a response in 5 minutes 0_0. I couldn't believe it. The staff person then corrected the problem on the spot, and the NPC followed me to safety, ending the mission successfully. I was sure not used to that kind of helpfulness.
I also like City of Heroes because I was a TKM and Master Doc. My character build was really suited to combat with groups. The team combat in CoH is really exceptional. Professions are called "archtypes" and they are all very wonderfully complimentary of each other with regard to their powers, heals and buffs. I also like the fact that you never have to camp a spawn. All important mission areas are intanced, so you and your team can go in at anytime and enjoy. There are also a number of areas where many teams can work together to go after huge monsters and villains. Some archtypes can solo easily, others are better suited for team play.
For PvP there are designated zones that are very clearly marked. PVP zones have different themes to them. One has you complete a quest to unlock a missle strike. Villain players can harass you as you attempt to complete the quest. Another PvP zone has villains and heroes competing for bunkers that are portected by turrets. Still another allows you to take out bounties on villains in the same zone. You get paid when you take them out
The one down-side of CoH that I've heard, and felt to a small degree, is that the instanced missions can be repetative. This can be true if you do the same kind of mission over and over. One thing about CoH though, is that we get free content expansions on a fairly regular basis. They try to keep adding variety to the game through these, and I think they are successful. The latest content expansion for example now has heroes picking up new missions from police scanners . Once we complete a number of these, we get what's called a safe-guard mission. It's very different. We enter a zone, and have a set amount of time to prevent a bank robbery, a jail break, an arson attempt, a jewlery store robbery and random acts of vandalism lol. Every time you complete an objective, you get more time in the zone. It's big fun.
Also, like SWG used to have, there is a great opportunity to build a custom character. You can choose from many power sets in each archtype, and in each power set, you can choose any number of different power combinations. You can also customize your appearance completely. If you make a mistake in your character build, you can do a respec mission to make changes . Unlike SWG the respecs also actually work without bugs. I still remember the respec "gift" that SOE gave everyone. When you respeced, you started at level one, even if you had been a level 90. Nice gift lol. At first SOE said they couldn't restore levels, but I heard they eventually agreed to do this. I had a respec device, and that was also bugged. SOE provided a work around for the bug, but I never trusted it, so didn't use it.
Well that's my experience with CoH anyways. I've been playing it for about 10 months now. We've received 2 expansions in that time frame. Another friend of mine has had a great time playing Ryzom. She says that you can really customize your charater there too. Apparently the areas you can explore are really cool as well. I haven't tried it, but I've heard good things about it. So if you're looking for online fun, there are some neat options available I think. I hope you find something you enjoy
ARC3
ArcAngel3 , CoH sounds fun. Is there player housing? How about non-combat professions? I love fluff too. Is there fluff in CoH? Thank you
It's all about the fantasy baby!
www.solsticeserver.com
We did the COH thing too, it was fun and makes good on what it is supposed to be. It delivers what it promises no doubt about it. It also is a smooth and polished product.
We liked it but we needed some more depth... so we did the WoW thing... at least I can fish and craft... and it is polished and busy-- very busy.. maybe too busy.
EvE is cool, deep and has some killer points to it, although no ground... grr.
None the less Since Obriak has blocked me I'm sure it's ok to say that he missed the boat on the common sense law of not buying somthing that is broken. I guess you just have to ask yourself what you will ALLOW yourself to tolerate.
That is what this comes down to now.
So since he blocked me I guess I can call him a "Boob" as well now lol...... or somthing along the lines of "I must be doing somthing right"... Oh Obriak how fun you are at times, how fun you are.
Man if you came to the summits they may have used tar and feathers on you though lol....
Hey if I was wrong about this product, it would be doing well... and people would be flocking to it... it would have great reviews, and a good rep.... Looks like I'm not far off the mark though lol.
______________________________
I usually picture the Career builder commercial with the room full of monkeys and upside down sales chart when thinking about the SOE/SWG decision making process.....
SOE's John Blakely and Todd Fiala issued a warning: "Don't make our mistakes." Ref NGE
Winner of the worst MMOS goes to.... the NGE and SWG..!!! http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm?loadFeature=1034&bhcp=1
There's no individual housing in CoH. Your supergroup (aka guild) gets to build its own base or batcave so to speak . You can customize it as you like. While doing hero missions you collect something called salvage. You need specific salvage pieces to be able to make certain things for your base. A base can have some functional things like teleporters to all the different game zones (like planets in SWG). Without the teleporters you need to take an L train like in Chicago lol. Within zones, travel is by using superpowers like fly, self-teleport, or superjump. You leap tall buildings in a single bound . You can also make decorations for your base, and have many different rooms with different themes. There are statues and plants, furniture etc. We did our base like an ancient temple or something for a while, but now have a more space age look. Other functional items in our base include a temporary buff (called inspirations) vending machine, and some clone tubes. We also have storage containers filled with power enhancements and bits of salvage.
In addition to crafting things for your base, salvage can also be used to create temporary power enhancements for yourself. If I can find the right salvage, I can make myself resistant to hold powers for an hour for example.
Other "fluff" would be going to the tailor for a makeover. As you progress in the game you unlock new costume slots, so that you can create a number of different outfits for yourself. In the next free expansion, there are plans to include salvage that will allow us to custom make our own costume pieces. That should be fun.
As for other fluff, this game doesn't really have anything like the old SWG camping or fishing. I used to love SWG for camping, fishing and for playing the horn in the cantina. I was a Master Musician for a loong time before focusing on combat in SWG. There really isn't anything comparable to being an entertainer in CoH. My friend says that Ryzom has more of that kind of thing. People say that WoW has non-combat stuff also, but I don't know anything about WoW really. I might have tried it, but I like the Super hero genre better, and most of my SWG guild friends didn't want to become elves or something like that lol
Anyways, if you want the base building, power crafting code for CoH, you need to buy the good versus evil edition. The original game didn't have it. City of Villains has the base features also. If you get the good versus evil edition, you can create and play heroes or villains and build bases for both, so that's what I'd recommend. I've read on forums that EVE also has some interesting fluff, but haven't tried that either.
Hope that's useful info.. Gives you some options anyways . If you figure out the new SWG stuff though, and have friends there, and find yourself enjoying it, don't feel guilty ok? lol -_^. I'd just advise that you try to avoid getting too attached to things in that game, cuz you never know when SOE might wreck it either by design or by accident.
ARC3
It's all about the fantasy baby!
www.solsticeserver.com