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So is this what people are complaining about?...
Lanmoragon
Member Posts: 994
I recently decided to try out SWG since it was cheap and I have the station access pass. So far it started out ok, pretty much the same kill missions as most MMORPG's, and I liked the different Star Wars style.
But now after playing for a few days I realize its VERY boring.
Im almost level 20 and so far ive stayed on Tatooine with the exact same boring, drab, desert environment. It seems that for each new missions I travel 8000m to a location, kill x number of "insert mob name", and then travel 8000m in the TOTAL opposite direction, rinse and repeat, go back to the mission giver who then refers me to another guy who then gives me a mission 8000m away...you get the picture.
Is this what older players are complaining about? I have never played SWG before so I dont have the pre-NGE experience or whatever it was that caused all of the hate towards the game. But honestly even though the missions are kill quests just like other MMORPG's, they are the most boring quests ive ever done.
Is there anything to look foward too? More interesting looking planets near level 20 that I can travel too? Different type of missions rather than travel for 10-15 minutes, kill mobs, then travel another 10-15 minutes?
But now after playing for a few days I realize its VERY boring.
Im almost level 20 and so far ive stayed on Tatooine with the exact same boring, drab, desert environment. It seems that for each new missions I travel 8000m to a location, kill x number of "insert mob name", and then travel 8000m in the TOTAL opposite direction, rinse and repeat, go back to the mission giver who then refers me to another guy who then gives me a mission 8000m away...you get the picture.
Is this what older players are complaining about? I have never played SWG before so I dont have the pre-NGE experience or whatever it was that caused all of the hate towards the game. But honestly even though the missions are kill quests just like other MMORPG's, they are the most boring quests ive ever done.
Is there anything to look foward too? More interesting looking planets near level 20 that I can travel too? Different type of missions rather than travel for 10-15 minutes, kill mobs, then travel another 10-15 minutes?
Comments
How poorly written the legacy quests are have been a big complaint yes. The SWG dev team doesnt' know how to write content and they should stay away from it at all costs. Making Han Solo sound like a redneck is another thing they should avoid but choose not too.
Actually the biggest thing everyone is complaining about is the removal of 3/4 of the professions and they being completely traded out for those cheeseball iconic ones. That and combat now is horrible. If you are a ranged class it's tolerable however if you are a melee class it's just downright deplorable. Lack of target lock is another complaint.
As for is there anything to look forward too? About 70 more levels of "high quality" content just like the content you have done this far. That is the only fairly efficient way to get your level to 90. However you cannot currently do that yet unless you buy the last 2 expansions for the game because they released the NGE without finishing the content.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
But yes, the content is what got me. I was having a decent time at first. I found somebody who is a veteran that I started talking to, and so the first 15 levels passed pretty quickly without me having to dedicate much time to travel. Then once I started getting near level 20 the travel time is taking MUCH longer, sort of like EVE but worse because I cant go afk during the time...
After the traveling became tedious, I realized the combat was starting to wear on me. I always thought that it would be cool to have a system other than where you lock onto a target and then hit the hot keys....but hell, at least that type of system has cool animations, strategy, and more than the 3 "specials" ive manage to get at level 19. Its not even really FPS style combat, because FPS involves the need to move around and such. And watching my character just stand there and shoot...and shoot...and shoot the same red laser beam over...and...over...and over without any type of different animations happening sucked.
I guess ill give it a few more levels, but like I fear if the "content" continues to be traveling, kill some mobs, travel, kill mobs, then this is another failure of a game.
Fadeus: I always loved those screenshots you took of SWG and I guess they where taken during a better time in the games history?
********************************
SWG pre cu - never forgotten.
The usual seems to be an MMORPG that has little content but possibly gets better over time with the developer adding alot of content.
SWG's story looks like they had a great, working sytem and then dropped all of the content. Combat is bland and boring to watch and look at, the quests and story line so far is bland and some of the most boring content ive ever experienced in an MMORPG.
Just seems wierd.
How poorly written the legacy quests are have been a big complaint yes. The SWG dev team doesnt' know how to write content and they should stay away from it at all costs. Making Han Solo sound like a redneck is another thing they should avoid but choose not too.
Actually the biggest thing everyone is complaining about is the removal of 3/4 of the professions and they being completely traded out for those cheeseball iconic ones. That and combat now is horrible. If you are a ranged class it's tolerable however if you are a melee class it's just downright deplorable. Lack of target lock is another complaint.
As for is there anything to look forward too? About 70 more levels of "high quality" content just like the content you have done this far. That is the only fairly efficient way to get your level to 90. However you cannot currently do that yet unless you buy the last 2 expansions for the game because they released the NGE without finishing the content.
I'll admit, doing the legacy quests a second time round for my latest alt isn't exactly entertaining. The first time around was ok, but I think it does spend too much focus on Tat and alot of "go there, come back here, go here, come back go back there." Visually, being a desert planet, Tat is pretty boring too. A few improvements that could be made was making the stuff you need to kill and gather more central to where you're getting the quests from (ie. around Jabbas, not directly on the opposite side of the planet).
However, leveling up in SWG has never exactly been an exciting and thrilling experience. Pre-nge it consisted of going to Dant, getting Bol/Piket missions and killing all of them at the mission and repeating until you have enough XP. You can still do it this way if you like and it can be somewhat effective, it's just not all that "fun."
You are not restricted to planets based on your level, you can travel to any of them if you want, but don't expect to survive out in the wild of many of them for very long heh.
Yes most of those screenshots were taken during the first combat upgrade but there were many of them before that during the original game as well. Alot of what was in those shots you can't even do anymore, including some of the locations and such being different or gone.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Actually I never got any of my experience pre or post CU like that O. If you look you will see me doing corsair pirates without a mission to get my TK Mastery and then later during the CU I switched that to Carbineer after trying alot of others and got my Combat Medic Mastery during the CU doing some missions on Lok and such. I have to say I DID have fun getting both my final masteries. With the original system it only took me about 2 weeks to get TKM once I understood the system. Combat Medic was easy, anytime Cygnia and myself faught I was getting healing experience since I was the group healer. It just came naturally so to speak.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
How poorly written the legacy quests are have been a big complaint yes. The SWG dev team doesnt' know how to write content and they should stay away from it at all costs. Making Han Solo sound like a redneck is another thing they should avoid but choose not too.
Actually the biggest thing everyone is complaining about is the removal of 3/4 of the professions and they being completely traded out for those cheeseball iconic ones. That and combat now is horrible. If you are a ranged class it's tolerable however if you are a melee class it's just downright deplorable. Lack of target lock is another complaint.
As for is there anything to look forward too? About 70 more levels of "high quality" content just like the content you have done this far. That is the only fairly efficient way to get your level to 90. However you cannot currently do that yet unless you buy the last 2 expansions for the game because they released the NGE without finishing the content.
I'll admit, doing the legacy quests a second time round for my latest alt isn't exactly entertaining. The first time around was ok, but I think it does spend too much focus on Tat and alot of "go there, come back here, go here, come back go back there." Visually, being a desert planet, Tat is pretty boring too. A few improvements that could be made was making the stuff you need to kill and gather more central to where you're getting the quests from (ie. around Jabbas, not directly on the opposite side of the planet).
However, leveling up in SWG has never exactly been an exciting and thrilling experience. Pre-nge it consisted of going to Dant, getting Bol/Piket missions and killing all of them at the mission and repeating until you have enough XP. You can still do it this way if you like and it can be somewhat effective, it's just not all that "fun."
You are not restricted to planets based on your level, you can travel to any of them if you want, but don't expect to survive out in the wild of many of them for very long heh.
These missions were not so bad when done with friends and guild members. You had someone else to talk to and enjoy your time with and you all earned a decent amount of XP and credits along the way. It's not so bad on mustafar at higher levels, but being forced to buy an expansion or two to level better is not the right way to go. Besides, they have to stick around long enough to get to those higher levels.. and they aren't.
I did my leveling/grinding via solo groups, and then killed vor trackers to complete a jedi template (mls/mh/4004 enhance). What was nice about it was, I wasn't forced to do trackers. I could take a break and go kill NS or Krayts or any number of mean mobs and still get decent XP.
The "linear" way of learning is just not something that will stand the test of time here. Very few people like being led along a single line to advance at a decent rate. I'm not sure how I can explain that in more detail.
There are just no other options good enough to level other than "silly" quests (kill 10 womp rats, kill mob boss, go get goats milk). And that cycle seems to repeat over and over and over.
Because of this narrow view, SWG will continue to fail to keep new players. Old players like myself will just stay away due to everything else the new players didn't experience... AND the lame level/quest system.
At least I got my 99 bucks back for my 3 Mustafar purchases. That's one thing they did right. Gave me a refund.
How poorly written the legacy quests are have been a big complaint yes. The SWG dev team doesnt' know how to write content and they should stay away from it at all costs. Making Han Solo sound like a redneck is another thing they should avoid but choose not too.
Actually the biggest thing everyone is complaining about is the removal of 3/4 of the professions and they being completely traded out for those cheeseball iconic ones. That and combat now is horrible. If you are a ranged class it's tolerable however if you are a melee class it's just downright deplorable. Lack of target lock is another complaint.
As for is there anything to look forward too? About 70 more levels of "high quality" content just like the content you have done this far. That is the only fairly efficient way to get your level to 90. However you cannot currently do that yet unless you buy the last 2 expansions for the game because they released the NGE without finishing the content.
I'll admit, doing the legacy quests a second time round for my latest alt isn't exactly entertaining. The first time around was ok, but I think it does spend too much focus on Tat and alot of "go there, come back here, go here, come back go back there." Visually, being a desert planet, Tat is pretty boring too. A few improvements that could be made was making the stuff you need to kill and gather more central to where you're getting the quests from (ie. around Jabbas, not directly on the opposite side of the planet).
However, leveling up in SWG has never exactly been an exciting and thrilling experience. Pre-nge it consisted of going to Dant, getting Bol/Piket missions and killing all of them at the mission and repeating until you have enough XP. You can still do it this way if you like and it can be somewhat effective, it's just not all that "fun."
You are not restricted to planets based on your level, you can travel to any of them if you want, but don't expect to survive out in the wild of many of them for very long heh.
These missions were not so bad when done with friends and guild members. You had someone else to talk to and enjoy your time with and you all earned a decent amount of XP and credits along the way. It's not so bad on mustafar at higher levels, but being forced to buy an expansion or two to level better is not the right way to go. Besides, they have to stick around long enough to get to those higher levels.. and they aren't.
I did my leveling/grinding via solo groups, and then killed vor trackers to complete a jedi template (mls/mh/4004 enhance). What was nice about it was, I wasn't forced to do trackers. I could take a break and go kill NS or Krayts or any number of mean mobs and still get decent XP.
The "linear" way of learning is just not something that will stand the test of time here. Very few people like being led along a single line to advance at a decent rate. I'm not sure how I can explain that in more detail.
There are just no other options good enough to level other than "silly" quests (kill 10 womp rats, kill mob boss, go get goats milk). And that cycle seems to repeat over and over and over.
Because of this narrow view, SWG will continue to fail to keep new players. Old players like myself will just stay away due to everything else the new players didn't experience... AND the lame level/quest system.
At least I got my 99 bucks back for my 3 Mustafar purchases. That's one thing they did right. Gave me a refund.
Since they trippled the amount of XP you get per kill now, it is possible to level in this way again, right to the point of solo groups. I actually took a break from the quest series tonight on my alt and did some solo-group missions and went up 4 levels in 2 hours
But you have to ask yourself after all the outrage from the 2 times they have tried to nerf experience now and THEN going back and adding feesible experience to mobs back yet AGAIN how can the dev team possibly pull off a fun game anymore?
They have no vision nor direction, they sit and continually waffle on what the game should be.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
But you have to ask yourself after all the outrage from the 2 times they have tried to nerf experience now and THEN going back and adding feesible experience to mobs back yet AGAIN how can the dev team possibly pull off a fun game anymore?
They have no vision nor direction, they sit and continually waffle on what the game should be.
It's fun for those who play it currently
Personally, the XP rate they have it at now is what it should have been in the CU. Taking only a week to get to lvl 80 (max at the time) was kinda absurd and people had no idea what they were doing as they blew through it so fast.
Maybe, I have a hunch many are there because it's all they know and have. They don't want a fantasy MMO and EVE isn't for everyone.
I would say the fun factor is WAY down from the CU or Pre-Cu for the game myself.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Never heard of getting to 80 in a week from the CU unless they were using the respec point exploit. As a matter of fact I recall most complaining that experience had gotten too slow with the CU, people couldn't grind out a profession in 2 weeks anymore. You sure you didn't mean pre-cu?
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Well I did say many and not all :P
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Never heard of getting to 80 in a week from the CU unless they were using the respec point exploit. As a matter of fact I recall most complaining that experience had gotten too slow with the CU, people couldn't grind out a profession in 2 weeks anymore. You sure you didn't mean pre-cu?
I know plenty of people that got to 80 in a week just from doing Bol and Piket missions during their gaming time. This is why Jedi populations sky rockted after the CU.
I'm pretty sure I remember you were agreeing with me at the time that the XP rate in the CU was far too high.
These missions were not so bad when done with friends and guild
members. You had someone else to talk to and enjoy your time with and
you all earned a decent amount of XP and credits along the way.
"You had someone else to talk to" - that's one of the big things that I really miss. They took our planet chat away! Unlike the OP I loved being on Tat (something to do with it being cold, grey and rainy where I live IRL) and would spend the evening stooging around looking for spawns of ronto and bantha, wild spawns of squill and playing hide-and-seek with the Tusken/Akuan before they were put on Prozac and stopped being aggressive.
I'd keep planet chat open and watch for lowbies looking for help or regulars just wanting to chat/brag. That and playing a ranger it was good for keeping an eye open for tracking requests.
But presumably it wasn't iconic or starwarsy enough and planet chat went the way of the dodo.
I did my leveling/grinding via solo groups, and then killed vor
trackers to complete a jedi template (mls/mh/4004 enhance). What was
nice about it was, I wasn't forced to do trackers. I could take a break
and go kill NS or Krayts or any number of mean mobs and still get
decent XP.
They have increased the XP on wild spawn kills recently, but the con system is so screwed up that it's pointless. A purple conning double gold boss should have you running to guild chat with a "I'm gonna need a hand here..." while stoking yourself full of food and drink buffs. ATM, with the exception of the expansion bosses (oh what a surprise) you can pretty much go toe with anything and solo it.
Taking on three NS elites is fun. But the tenth, twentieth, fiftieth time... C'mon, even the dimmest of devs would have to notice that *something* wasn't quite right there.
The "linear" way of learning is just not something that will stand
the test of time here. Very few people like being led along a single
line to advance at a decent rate. I'm not sure how I can explain that
in more detail.
Players enjoy the experience of something 'new' even when doing the same task repeatedly. It's human nature. It's why the first few times you drive to work at a new job it takes a while then after a few days you start to realise that it feels like you're arriving almost as soon as you leave the house. You are engaged with the process of driving, but it's become partly automatic and you're filling the time listening to the radio, thinking, occupying yourself with pretty much anything else.
Same when you 'kill ten rats'. First time "Hey that was fun". Next time... less so, next time... see, you're already spotting the pattern and leaping ahead. Same ingame. Now when Bib's pasty face pops up and goes "Oh hey, like, y'know I forgot to mention while you were out, could you like, y'know kill ten more.." and then he does it again, and again, and... wow you're good at this! Yep, he does it again. It gets old fast.
But you're locked into a linear progression, you have to do his rat-killing to get to the next guy, and his for the next, and his for the ne.... Oh creepy, it's like you're reading my mind! The lack of variety and alternatives results in it becoming a treadmill. You're just mindlessly plodding along till something out of the ordinary makes you go WHOAA!!!
And sadly that's usually when you've found something broke or inconsistant, such as Jabba's right hand gimp popping up and telling you to 'oh, yeah Jabba, he like had this shuttle sht down and there's y'know, some prisoners... could you, y'know, kinda just kill them... don't want any witnesses, eh...?' and you're thinking 'okay, I'm a light side jedi' or 'Im a rebel commando' / 'I'm an Imperial officer...' this goes totally against any RP ideas that I might ever have had. I've got no CHOICE but to kill all these guys (yeah, kill ten rats) and then it turns out that you only need to kill 'some' of them, it's just another KTR token to add to your tally.
In a more sandbox environment you'd be able to find an alternative mission from another giver or be able to hit wild spawns to get the XP that'd allow you to level, skip the crummy prisoner thing and then rejoin the mission chain at a higher level.
There have to be more 'routes to the loot' in an MMO, and you have to be able to make choices, for better or worse. You choose NOT to do Jabba's dirty work and find yourself locked out of that mission chain for now, but another should open with either the Imps or Rebels or Valarians that takes you in the same general forward direction progression wise but let's your character do it in a believable and consistant way.
But of course, all that involves 'complexity' and the NGE team are averse to that kind of thing. They had kind of honourable reasons for going for a simpler system, it'd make the coding slicker, let them develop faster and we'd eventually get 'more' from the game as they added new stuff. But reality bites and now we see them floundering in a cesspool of their own making, desperately trying to introduce replacement mechanics for things that were already ingame (it's called reinventing the wheel) and being disappointed by the fact that what they THOUGHT would be cool is looked at by most players as just more rats to kill or isn't fun enough when it gets beyond the vapourware stage and into the game environment.
Heck, sorry, this has turned into an essay, lol. I'll just draw a halt about.... here.
*********************
So, you all sat in camps and that was fun?
*********************
don't recall that but that don't mean you aren't right, I may have. Perhaps the problem wasn't the experience gain itself but them never balancing experience properly on some mobs. I think I remember the Bol thing now that you mention it...
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Ironically, i think there is less content now than there was pre-cu. I mean, you can only add so many quests into the game, people are going to finish them quicker then you can add. With pre-cu, for me anyways, the professions themselves were the content. If you got bored of one, try another, and another etc, you cant do that now. If you were tired of combat, you could run your own crafting business and make a name for yourself, or become a well-known dancer in a crowded cantina, cant do that now. You cant even decorate a house properly now.... its so sad.
I know im probably a minority when i say that i enjoy grinding more then questing. I had a blast solo grouping (when groups allowed TWENTY people, not 5) on Dathomir, dodging nightsisters and making friends with perfect strangers as they joined the group. I didnt just run a macro. I liked that when i got tired of Dath, i went to endor or Dantooine. I loved running across a jedi master and gathering the solo group to help kill it. I *liked* buffing in coronet and tipping the doc a little more then he asked, it was a chance to "see" other people in a crowded city and maybe duel or just act silly. I liked heading to the cantina to buff and clear bf and maybe do my novice dance just for kicks and make up a dumb song to sing with my friends while i was at it, I liked shopping for my armor and food that i consumed while grinding. And if i was in the middle of grinding fencer, i still had my tkm in case someone invited me to kill krayts or do the corvette or help take down a city's base. I always had something to do pre-cunge, but i know other's prefer the questing games. It just seems to me so detatched and restricting and very hard to keep occupied unless there are billions of quests to do (like wow) that arent all the same.
Thats mostly why i hate the game now, it took everything i liked doing away.
For the Horde!
don't recall that but that don't mean you aren't right, I may have. Perhaps the problem wasn't the experience gain itself but them never balancing experience properly on some mobs. I think I remember the Bol thing now that you mention it...
I remember training up one lad as a Ranger. It'd taken me months to get my MR tag but they'd just killed the camping thing and it was all combat XP based now.
He popped up on the Thursday evening when his school went on a weekend break. On the Sunday night I tagged him MR. /boggle
He got bored with rifles, went off and mastered Swords in what felt like, to me, a couple of days. Next time I see him he's Master Pistols and working on MBH....
OK OK OK I know he was spending freakishly long periods of time atk and just grinding, not badge hunting or even doing missions, but, sheesh...
*********************
So, you all sat in camps and that was fun?
*********************
Ironically, i think there is less content now than there was pre-cu. I mean, you can only add so many quests into the game, people are going to finish them quicker then you can add. With pre-cu, for me anyways, the professions themselves were the content. If you got bored of one, try another, and another etc, you cant do that now. If you were tired of combat, you could run your own crafting business and make a name for yourself, or become a well-known dancer in a crowded cantina, cant do that now. You cant even decorate a house properly now.... its so sad.
I know im probably a minority when i say that i enjoy grinding more then questing. I had a blast solo grouping (when groups allowed TWENTY people, not 5) on Dathomir, dodging nightsisters and making friends with perfect strangers as they joined the group. I didnt just run a macro. I liked that when i got tired of Dath, i went to endor or Dantooine. I loved running across a jedi master and gathering the solo group to help kill it. I *liked* buffing in coronet and tipping the doc a little more then he asked, it was a chance to "see" other people in a crowded city and maybe duel or just act silly. I liked heading to the cantina to buff and clear bf and maybe do my novice dance just for kicks and make up a dumb song to sing with my friends while i was at it, I liked shopping for my armor and food that i consumed while grinding. And if i was in the middle of grinding fencer, i still had my tkm in case someone invited me to kill krayts or do the corvette or help take down a city's base. I always had something to do pre-cunge, but i know other's prefer the questing games. It just seems to me so detatched and restricting and very hard to keep occupied unless there are billions of quests to do (like wow) that arent all the same.
Thats mostly why i hate the game now, it took everything i liked doing away.
I'm with you on this one. I can't stand the questing, it's too boring and anti social.
As for the rest of your post, I miss those times so bad.
********************************
SWG pre cu - never forgotten.
I hate quests, that's why i loved SWG. I want my sandbox back.
Not to mention once you hit 80 you can solo Krayt Dragons. Something you should never be able to really do even at 90. I could understand the occasional lucky kill but to go out there and systematically kill krayt after krayt like you were popping womp rats is a down right shame.
Kai