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Impressions from the SW:G Trial.
retrospectic
Member UncommonPosts: 1,466
I've made a few posts in recent weeks about an interest in playing SW:G. I recently quit WoW (May) and I have been floating around playing free trials and free games.
Instead of waiting for news on the trial reopening I decided to go ahead and try the spaceship only trial.
Here are my impressions:
- First and foremost I really need to express how long the download was. It took me a day and a half to get all of the patches. The patcher just broke at one point while I was out and the downloader said "331hrs left" at one point. This was after I started my trial. This meant that I actually had a 12.5 day trials considering I was participating in the trial while I tried to download the 4 gig "trial". If the company is going to attempt to change the trial they really should have released a smaller download for the time while the trial is so restrictive. That really bummed me out since I started the trial on Friday night and hoped to be playing it during Saturday. Sadly it didn't finished until Saturday late night and I didn't get to play until Sunday.
- The missions are poorly labeled and way too easy. Every quest marked "group level 10" was easily soloable by a level 5 bounty hunter. Also, the blue light which showed me where even the easiest quests were allowed me to mow through quests without even figuring out the layout of the space station. I really wish the quests would have been more descriptive and the layout of the ship a little more understandable. Perhaps putting the quest locations on the overhead map and allowing me to access that instead would have at least helped me understand the layout of the station and a bit about navigation of the map.
- The missions were fun, though. I really enjoyed the missions and leveling seemed rather easy as quests were back to back and easily accessible. I just wish they would have had a bit more depth to them. NPCs spawned a bit too fast in some quests. The inability of my character to pop out of combat made NPCs spawn before I could even loot my kills.
- Looting system needs some work. I am not sure if there is an auto-loot button, but there needs to be. It really sucked having to click a target and then the loot button in order to loot 5 credits from someone who died on top of his spawn point. This usually led to respawn and a buggy mob.
- Space missions were buggy. A lot of the missions either didn't work or had to be reacquired to activate. It was very frustrating loading to find out that I had to reload the space station so I could get the quest again. I really wish the flight sim would have been a bit more in depth. The tutorial on the side should have been fleshed out in a series of quests. The lack of direction usually led me to clicking the tutorial while trying to fight ships or running smack into the station. Also, a booster on the training ship would have been nice. I spent way too much time going from location to location. If the mission was bugged it was utterly frustrating having to fly all the way back to the station just to reaccept the mission.
- There was no real tutorial on some aspects of the game. Although it was easy to figure out I still had trouble figuring out some specifics. Luckily my background in MMORPGs gave me the tools I needed. One example is the way to look at quest rewards. The hover time was very long before the item would display. I think this can lead to players accepting rewards based on name alone.
- Mobs are buggy. I experienced a lot of rubberbanding and other mob bugs which made combat seem a bit unrealistic. Mobs would often run past me through a wall and then bounce back. It was very difficult to target these mobs and I found myself continually running away in order to get them to reset or finally bounce out of a wall.
- No real tutorial on how to identify what weapons I should use/what exactly new abilties did. Although I figured it out, a lot of the items and weapons in the game really didn't come with instructions. This was very hard to understand with items like paintings, wanted posters, and stim packs. If I didn't already know that housing existed I would have wondered why the hell I kept getting a bunch of posters in a Star Wars game.
- Video lag. This had a lot to do with my vid card, but I experienced a hefty loading time whenever I ran past a door that led to a group of mobs. I have the setting very low and still had trouble loading the cantina and other hot spots in the tutorial
- The trial seems like it should still let you land. While the trial is being reworked there are several opportunities to get off the station. These all lead to a dead end which asks you to either subscribe or watch a video.
- The combat system is interesting. I enjoyed the ability to switch to other kinds of shots. The "snare" aspect never really helped, though. Mobs in the tutorial either died instantly from it or bugged to the point that a "snare" didn't really matter. I have yet to try a Jedi or other melee, but I'm assuming that might be even more buggy.
I've gotten to level 10 on my Bounty Hunter. I've completed almost every quest within the tutorial in the first night of playing. From what I've heard the trial is nothing like the real game. In the trial I felt very confined. The mobs seem to respond in the same matter. The mob's pathing and other bugs seem to favor a wide open space. The corridors and walls in the mini-dungeon seems to trap mobs more than hide them.
I really wish the trial would allow me to attempt parts of the true game. I feel as if the tutorial lacks even a basic knowledge of the game's points. The trial has a trade goods dealer, but my bounty hunter can only make a glass and a drink. There is no quest for this (there should be), or explanation of the way to level tradeskills.
I wish SoE would have just muted all trial accounts. Allowing players to level for 14 days and participate in every aspect of the game is always going to result in spam/ads/exploiters. I would have been happy just running around in the real cities doing quests that showed me how to actually do things in the real game. The trial only shows me basic mechanics and allows access to the fundamental uses of the UI.
So, how does all of this compare to the real game?
I still want to try the whole experience before I pass judgment. A lot of the aspects I encountered were very cool. The ability to look for a bounty on an NPC and collect more cash was very cool. I have a few questions.
How is space combat?
Are ships upgradeable? What about armor?
How long before I stop looking like I found my clothes in a dumpster?
What about guns? Is there a gun crafting system which bounty hunters can participate in?
What about droids? It seems like a lot of my BH skills are focused on droidish stuff.
Is bounty hunter fun? Is it over played?
What about race? I picked a human because I didn't like the look of any other race besides the Tran lizardmen guys (name escapes me) Is there any drawback/benefit to these races? The creation guide doesn't really hint at any drawbacks to any races.
What about the economy? It seems very easy to get credits. I heard about people using harvesters to make a lot of money. How hard is it to break into the game and get my foot in the door? I really want to take part in the game as a whole instead of just making a tiny splash as I try very hard to get some armor and weapons that don't look like they came from GoodWill.
I'll think of more questions while I'm in class today. Cheers.
Comments
I tried the trial and bought the game a month or so ago. I was looking for a new game, as I have been playing Ryzom for a few years and wanted a change of scenery. I didn't buy the game thanks to the trial, but in spite of it. I have seen some pretty outdoor screenshots and the trial had only these claustrophobic indoor spaces And I hated the trial's blue arrows showing which way to run, I almost felt insulted.
There are some really neat planets to visit in the real game and I liked how detailed the game was. That was great. Flying spaceships was fun, but not enough for a subscription.
An annoying thing was how mobs seemed to spawn as I visited the area. So, when I drove around in my vehicle and stopped it, mobs popped up from nowhere. That was a minus in my book. And the towns could feel a bit laggy, maybe I just had too high settings.
I can't say much about the combat, it felt standard except that I had to aim at the mob.
The game with all expansion comes quite cheap so I didn't feel to bad after just doing a test drive. But, I felt like going back to my old game again. I might even subscribe another time... guess I'm just not a Star Wars fan and compares it too much with Ryzom.
How is space combat?
Alot of fun. Especially if you group up and either fly in one ship or several ships
Are ships upgradeable? What about armor?
Yes. Each time you level up, you unlock new skills, which lead to new armour and ships
How long before I stop looking like I found my clothes in a dumpster?
You can purchase stuff from the local bazaar or vendors. lots of clothing around
What about guns? Is there a gun crafting system which bounty hunters can participate in?
Bounty Hunters can't craft weapons. Looted weapons are good but weaponsmiths can make decent weapons as well in game.
What about droids? It seems like a lot of my BH skills are focused on droidish stuff.
As a fellow BOunty Hunter, droids are used to locate and track your target. You can also buy combat droids when you reach higher levels which assist you in combat.
Is bounty hunter fun? Is it over played?
BH is not as good as it was pre-nge still. Although a new fix is on the way but what this has in store for the BH, who knows. However, I still do get a rush when tracking a target and trying to find the best way to kill them. If my target is a commando, they are still powerful so I wait to see if they attack anything or pvp and their health level is low...then i go for the kill. FAST!
What about race? I picked a human because I didn't like the look of any other race besides the Tran lizardmen guys (name escapes me) Is there any drawback/benefit to these races? The creation guide doesn't really hint at any drawbacks to any races.
No Species/races benefits yet but the devs ARE working on bringing these unique skill sets for races back into the game.
What about the economy? It seems very easy to get credits. I heard about people using harvesters to make a lot of money. How hard is it to break into the game and get my foot in the door? I really want to take part in the game as a whole instead of just making a tiny splash as I try very hard to get some armor and weapons that don't look like they came from GoodWill.
Quests are great at getting money, loot and xp. A good source of income would be hunting the various creatures and harvesting their hides, bones or meat to sell in large quantities to Traders.
Traders sell, buy and trade - just like in Star Wars. Anything is possible. The worlds are extremely vast. If you do decide to get the game, The Legacy Quest is probably the best way to start off.
DMUK
www.swgalaxies.net
get your 7 day FREE sub to SWTOR
http://www.swtor.com/r/7DDKjQ
If I'm not mistaken the trial only recently confined you to the station. Apparently SOE was having problems with gold sellers creating trial accounts and spamming everyone. There was a post on here not too long ago that said the trial would let you leave the station again. It didn't have a date though.
Well, there is so much to this game that it is hard for me to begin. I will defer to a veteran player.
However, I think the game is outstanding; it is an extraordinarily fun game and world is very authentic. You feel as if you are playing inside of the movies with the environmental effects, various sound effects, the music, the character models, graphics, etc. I love it.
Unfortunately, you should be aware with Chapter 6 some one who works for SOE decided they did not want all of these new players to experience the game. If you visit the Refuge section, my theory is that a decision-maker in SOE with considerable power is trying to sabotage this great world through NGE, CU, and now Chapter 6. The game is outstanding, but there have to be SOE employees that seek this wonderful game's destruction. You can read this here: www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/137465
I love it. I am having a total blast. It is my favorite game right now. However, I have not spent a few hours LFG or LFM, yet. I am sure I will gradually come to dislike the game, for that reason alone. You have cities run by players, they can be mayors. You can join crews of ships and fight in the galaxy. You can explore the fascinating galaxy. It is a great world.
-----
WoW and fast food = commercial successes.
I neither play WoW nor eat fast food.
I am a vet. You might be able to find some posts where I'm bitching about the combat upgrade. I am the classic "I want my old game back" vet swg hater.
That being said a couple of months ago, my son saw it in the store and wanted it. When I told him I had it, he was pissed like I was holding back on him. Rather than try to explain any of this, I decided to re-activate on a trial and treat it like a new game, learn it and have some fun with my son. It's star wars for crying out loud. Who am I to deny my son this game if he wants to play and I already paid for it.
Yea I worked hard for my jedi and jedi is no longer an alpha class. It took me over 9 months to unlock and get to the knight trials, at which point the CU (the first one, not NGE) dropped, it sucked and I quit.
At first I was like "yep still sucks" because the default control layout is horrendous. With some help from a couple of guild buddies that still play, I was able to get the layout comfortable to the point where I could actually fight things and the game was playable.
That being said, I'm having a blast now. I think the overall game is actually better than it was before the CU. Provided you don't think about all the hours spent grinding 10:1 xp because it was combat xp that needed to be turned into FS XP etc... If you can let bygones be bygones and play the game for what it is, it really is a great game.
PvP in today's game is probably the most fun I've ever had in any game. The quests are really a means to an end which is CL90 end game pvp and pve.
I think removing jedi as an alpha class, while it definitely alienated all the jedi vets who spent 10x as long building their character as any other class, was necessary. At least now you don't need to grind for 6-12 months just to get into the same league and be able to pvp. Plus some people don't want to be a jedi. It's not really fair that the only way to be competitive in pvp was to spend a year of your life working your butt off and be a jedi when you prefer to shoot guns or do other things besides jedi.
I think sony's mistake was ever bringing jedi in in the first place, then making you work so long for it. When they removed that barrier it just pissed everyone off. It never had to be there. Having an alpha class in mmorpg's just doesn't work. However when you give that to people, make them work for it, and take it away, you are losing some subscribers. Who can blame them?
Water under the bridge.... today's game is really fun if you let it be. For a new player I highly recommend it. For vets, I can understand why you'll never come back. I've felt the same feelings. Today's game is a damn good one though and I'd recommend it to anyone.
It's still better than any other mmorpg I've played outside of DDO, and ddo doesn't have any kind of real mass pvp, which is something I really love. I just love ddo's combat system, though swg's isn't bad. I just don't like the fact that in swg, agro can run right through a tank and there's no way to control it. In ddo you could actually block them up in a doorway or whatever.
That's my 2 cents for what it's worth... I agree with this poster, I'm having the time of my gaming life playing swg... It really is fun.
-Viz
Update: I found a way off the space station.
Thanks for all of the comments. I have a few updated impressions to relay.
First of all: I took some of your advice and tried harder to understand the space missions. I remapped a few keys and found that things were still a bit buggy, but missions that required targeting were not doable. Although this did fix one issue I had a completely new issue with the next mission. I was told to go and find some spies hidden within a bunch of miner ships. I read the quest directions carefully and found that I had to inspect the ship's cargo before I could extract it. Sadly I couldn't seem to figure out how to get the ship to allow me to dock with it. Every time I got the ship to low life another ship (npc) would blow it up....-sigh-
After a bit of frustration the game crashed and as I restarted it dawned on me. I can play the test center and experience the real game!!!!! I logged on to TCPrime and proceeded to play for to level 5 while fixing the Falcon so I could land. After much requesting I hit Tatooine.
Oh mother of sweet laggy jesus my computer sucks. Upon landing my computer spent the next five minutes grinding like a drunken bar girl. The architecture loaded, the textures loaded, the PCs and NPCs loaded, Han's head popped up in the corner, grass sprouted, etc. Finally the grinding halted and I was able to see exactly where I was head. Then I moved. 30 second spurts of grinding computer halted me from doing even the most simple quests. I was told to run around to collect speeder parts. Let me tell you that took a while.
After completing the speeder quest I was able to "launch" the speeder, but every time I tried to mount it I got the message "Cannot mount while sittting on chair". Oddly I wasn't sitting on a chair. Eventually I got on and rode as fast as my computer would let me to the destination to get it customized. On the way I was shot down by some Tusken Raiders that I didn't see and probably mowed right through.
I finally got back to town....5 more minutes of grinding like Ricky Martin in Livin' La Vida Loca. I met the mayor before he fully loaded and he sent me back outside. About this time my computer pretty much took a dump and SW:G crashed to desktop.
Hopefully today's patch allows me to take my BH onto the main land. I suspect that my computer needed a fresh restart and I need to practice being calm as the city around me loads. I also need to upgrade my computer.
Doktar - 70 Troll Priest - Perenolde
What are the specs of your PC?
the OP isn't far off, nice job so far
On 'puter performance, you NEED 1GB RAM to run this game reasonably. There's no way around that at all. I burned out a hard drive with thrashing with 512MB RAM.
You'll find that there is a lot of server side lag, and there's no way around it. I'm convinced that old code running old processes that no longer show up in the game is still eating up cycles both client and server side with SWG. You learn to live with it.
Have fun, and just be prepared to run into old time vets who will tell you about the way things used to be.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
After the patch today my trial account could access the main game. My bounty hunter (level 10) plopped down in the middle of Tatooinea around 1:00p.m. There were three people AFK about an inch away from the drop point spamming for cred sites. The lag died down a bit after rebooting and turning other pointless processes off.
One thing that struck me instantly was that I got a "mount" about five minutes into spawning. I basically followed the map to specific locations and picked up loose parts. Although I really liked the free ride I felt like it shouldn't have been such an easy quest. Mounts are a big part of most of the MMORPGs I've played, and none of them come cheap. I would have rather had a real chain of quests that led to the vechile. Perhaps visit different outposts or places around Tatooine which allowed me to feel like I actually created something of worth. A lot of what keeps me playing MMORPGs is the sense of accomplishment which comes from completing quests. When you take that away items and other rewards seem too easy and are easily deleted and forgotten. One example in WoW is a trinket that I still have at level 70 from a level 35 quest. The reward was so hard for me to get with my first character I just can't delete it.
Another thing that bothered me was the spammers. SoE could easily fix this by allowing only one message per 5 or 10 minutes on trial accounts. Although it is a bit harsh new players don't really have to converse heavily to get a sense of the game. It really takes a lot out of the game to be bombarded with messages for a website that helps you cheat.
Also, I am currently still dealing with video lag. The game is very hard to enjoy on my machine. The game literally freezes on my computer in medium population situations. Now, this is not a big concern for most people, but I am not a very financially stable person. My income is pretty slim as a part time worker/student, and my computer (one of my favorite hobbies) is very out of date. That being said I am almost 100% sure that this will keep me from playing and enjoying the game. Many features seem very cool and I am a big star wars fan. The idea of housing, pets, droids, rebels vs. imperials, and speeder bikes all appeal to me. Sadly all of these features take a back seat when I am unable to see them or participate in them fully. Lag especially concerns me when dealing with PvP situations. I REALLY think the idea of hunting real players down as a bounty hunter. Oh well.
In short, the game is a winner in my book. Sadly, the feature that counts the most in my situation was the one drawback which could kill all the promising aspects.
Goodluck to everyone and totally check it out if you haven't (with an open mind)
Doktar - 70 Troll Priest - Perenolde