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How SWG currently plays (5/18/06)
mindspat
Member Posts: 1,367
Upon logging in last night I proceeded to check out the current state of the game. After checking all the mail and deleting the spam I promptly joined a few friends on a Dark Jedi hunt upon Dantooine. Of course I had to change out of those filthy disgusting jedi robes; who needs armor?
I did not like how Jedi can engage targets then remove themselves by using /cloak without harm being done. It seems like an intended exploit since that's how it's functioning. Having no risk to a failed action which does not support tactics and strategy removes the excitement of success and allows combat to feel hollow in comparison. It took me a good 30-45 minutes of PvE to learn how to break it. Way too easy.
Watching my character "sliding" around was a distraction from the Star Wars experience more then anything else. Character movement is behaving very odd, has it been like this since the NGE? Being hit from 40m away from a melee NPC without any message to what attack was used and the inability to see a combat log is a VERY poor feature. (I recall a REDname saying they could not display a combat log due to lag (?) and that the game is currently operating on a client side UDP form of communication which would prevent such reporting. Someone then apparently used a packet sniffer to determine this was not the case and the information presented by a lead developer was false.)
The first 20 minutes were spent with a single shot attack function using a rifle. Once I had witnessed how things were playing out I proceeded to fill my tool bar with commands and noticed there’s not enough room. Having only 12 slots for commands in a tool bar for an MMO is a terribly faulty design. I would have easily been able to fill up 3 tool bars within my first 45 minutes of game play. The single tool bar was not capable of displaying all the items I would have used which led to many things being omitted from a player’s arsenal of attacks.
The graphics were definitely different to me. I had upgraded my card after I quit, due to the NGE, and the new card is far superior although the graphics processing ability was not. It took me close to 60 minutes of tweaking settings to get something smooth enough to play while presenting enough detail to experience the lush graphics I recall when first playing SWG. Something isn’t right. My old card, Geforce 4 ti4200 128mb, operated just as good as my new ATI x850PRO 256mb. I used to get 15fps on full settings with the old card and the new one is about 9-12fps. They still looked nice although were less enjoyable due to the increased lag.
The combat mechanics are a far cry from what should be expected from an MMO and I'm amazed that the players paying/playing the game have stayed as long as they have. The beauty of it is this is proof that no matter what destruction is beset upon the populace a community will survive through determination and compassion for their fellow gamers.
Pub 29 will likely be known as CU 2.5 and a CU 3.0 should be due around November/December 2006. 3.0 should be the conclusion of the revamps for Traders and Entertainers although there's a fractured blueprint showing how SOE may rush out the new combat system prior to completing crafting and entertainment to get a product on the shelves for the next holiday season.
I would like to get a broader feel for game play after publish 29. Currently the game has an almost hysterical outcome from combat which leaves little skill to play the game other then having to fight with the clunky UI and POV point&click_combat system.
I don't think I've ever played anything with combat as dull as currently implemented in Star Wars Galaxies. After John Smedly’s proposed 6 month road map to a "polished" game I was stunned to see SWG in an extremely similar state as when the NGE was rushed to the live servers and hardly a product to sell to Star Wars fans.
*
Edit: My SWG game started out as a Smuggler/Weaponsmith in 2003. I later progressed into Swordman/WS to assist with my prefered stlye of chaotic_brink_of_death_gameplay I whole heartedly enjoy. I used a few holocrons for "kicks" and never fully intended to unlock Jedi. When publish 10 hit I was given 3 free unlocks and completed the quests for the content. Other then the first 2-3 weeks you would have never seen me with Jedi robes although I had intentionally placed myslef upon the BH terminals to partake in the "content".
I was the likely the only player who performed most of the Jedi grind without using buffs. I was totally agasint them and many unsuspecting players recieved naughty words by me for buffing me out of curtosy.
Comments
Humanity would survive nuclear war as well.
Of course, the survivors might not be pretty.
Hah.. this made me laugh. Nice one
Plus they more than tripled mob strength.
My understanding is weapon damage is being reintroduced now that SOE's current developers learned how to code it and combat speed is being reduced to something around 50% of the current pace in NGE.
Maybe wildcat didn't read my post but a new player should not be able to break NPC's during PvE and solo the bosses with ease.
Playing SWG last night felt more simpler then playing Diablo2. If I could only run PindleBot with SWG.
Wanted to add in that no, it's not just you. The graphics in the game are essentially hard capped to a specific framerate (30FPS). Plus I tend to think that SWG always had better support for GeForce than Radeon, but it's hard to say. You might check your drivers -- a friend of mine started using some non-catalyst drivers and said that the results were mindblowing.
What's especially disappointing about this is that SOE claimed that the graphics for SWG and EQ2 were "laggy" like that because they were meant to evolve with time. I tend to think that SWG's engine fails that test. The graphics cards of today (GeForce 7 series and equivalent Radeons) are complete *overkill* for most modern games, but they still run SWG and EQ2 on their highest settings with noticable lag.
-- xpaladin
[MMOz]
AC1/2, AO, DAoC, EQ1/2, SoR, SWG, UO, WAR, WoW
I just recently came back as well and quit after 4 days. I keep wondering to myself if I gave the NGE enough time to settle in and see and every time I think about going back I get this upset stomach feeling. I just didn't like how the NGE came about and the features it has.
Regardless of what Pub 29 will have to offer, I don't believe I'll return again.
Joe
Yeah when I read that I was unsure myself ,I logged into Tc to try . He is totally wrong I went to dant to test it found a few Force sensitives and It works fine to run around and use special attacks .
Three things I noticed off the bat , Combat was smooth Animations looked good and it feels like pre-nge . It actually feels like an MMO to play now , I actually think these changes may keep me around a little while longer .
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I guess they meant it when they said "you cannot saberhit while running" lol in live.
Did you like the NGE before you played on TC2? Be honest because we really want to hear news and updates about TC2 and those changes from people that hated the NGE. That would give us a more clear idea of how things are changing.
Honesty is upmost importance here.
But as for NGE it is an improvement as far as I can tell so far , as I said it feels like an MMO again .
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Hmm interesting. I wonder if I should try out TC2 just to see if it's any different. It's not that I don't WANT to play SWG, it's that I don't want to play the boring NGE. I'd go back if it was pre-NGE time where us bounty hunters were hunting jedi daily and killing double gold chevron marks for good loot.
Those are the features I miss and want back.
I cannot deny the fact that I _am_ a slight bit biased towards SOE although I _do_ attempt to appriach things with open arms and refrain from bias during testing. I did however comment about a few things I liked: Graphics and community.
I've been hearing more and more that the non-catalyst drivers are far surperior. I still haven't done much with my ATI other then OC it to see it's potential (500core 500mem(1000) // oc: 567core 612mem(1224)) I'm going to toy around with a few other driver sets this weekend. I am using the latest catalyst drivers and feel they are not as good as they should be.
And I must express the appreciation that xPaladin is capable of identifying some bias without flaming me for it. It's good to know there's still mature members of the community floating around.
You know, I play EVE Online now as my primary game and CCP has spoiled me. There's not many development studios out there who are actually part of the community. The SWG developers presented that view once although it hasn't felt sincre since the CU in May of 2005.
I would love to see SWG advance forward to becoming a viable title again. Not for myself but for those firends I've made over the 3 years of playing it that are insistent upon continuing the experiance.
SWG had one of the best gaming communites prior to all the mess (CU & NGE) that's become of it...
I actually tried a Jedi then respec'd to BH, then respec'd to Medic and I never really came out and said "it sucked". I just found that it didn't have the "fun factor" for me as it once did for me pre-NGE. I just got bored not to mention that the community had taken a nose dive and there weren't many players in the game even on the Bria server. Just left a bad taste in my mouth, but of course this was just my observation as I can't speak for other players.
Joe
It's just you.. many of those that want things back include Rangers, Creature Handlers, Doctors, and Bio Engineers.. Then you have me Carbineer/Squadleader for most of my swg career and for me the current game leaves a lot to be desired.
I am hoping the changes on test actually make it live, this backwards step forward will be a good start. The damage is done and can't be undone regardless of what they do, so now all they can do is try and find a good blend of all 3 systems to keep new players and maybe bring back some of the old players, do I think they can do it?? I have my doubts
, but it does look like that is what they are going to try and do, it's just to bad they didn't have the forsight to start making all these changes on a dedicated test server so they could release it finished instead of piecemeal.
In order for SOE to bring back the old players, they need to do 1 of 2 things:
1 - Make either a pre-CU or pre-NGE server.
2 - Keep the NGE but they will have to do more fixing than what is on TC2 right now. It's a step in the right direction, however it's not really enough to appeal to the old vet players. Not to mention how many bridges SOE burned. They would really need to shine to bring back those pissed off players which would probably lead back to fix #1 - Make pre-CU or pre-NGE servers. *shrug*
Look at the numbers on top of your keyboard. See the 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0 then the - and =
12 slot toolbar is explained. 12 slots is also standard to WoW, EQ2 and other games.
And change your default font. Although in reality your comment had no relevance and shouldn't have been read by anyone.
My character was a full template Jedi prior to CU. After checking out the "NGE" on the test center immediately after the open beta for "Trial of Obi-wan" I cancled my account. I have never used any respect abilities to change or alter my characters class other then initially chosing the same class I had when the NGE went live. My last day of game play was December 5th 2005.
My account had been in use for the last 2 months and the latest changes seemed intresting enough to warrant a second glance towards SWG. Imediately altering my character's class, profession, what_ever_they_call_it, would not have given the same experiance since I had been more familar with "melee" tactics pre NGE and unfortunetly Jedi is the only melee class to play in SWG.
Even then, to contradict myself and add support to our question, I used ranged weapons and never used the jedi robes. I eventually equiped the lightsaber about 2 hours into game play last night and was not impressed with the animations; poke, poke, poke, swipe, poke, swipe, etc. Even pre NGE (yes, pre CU too) you would have NEVER seen my character wearing Jedi robes since I found it the greatest offense of SWG's timeilne.
If my character were a commando prior to my leaving the game I ensure you I would be trying a commando. If I were a Carbineer, Pistoler, Rifleman, Combat Medic, Bio Engineer, Image Designer, Pikeman, Brawler, Fencer, Swordman (which I actually was), TKM, Ranger, Scout, Marksman, Politician, Droid Engineer, Weaponsmith (I was one of these too), Armorsmith, Architech or a Creature Handler what would you then recomend me to try?
SOE knows what you like... You don't!
And don't forget... I am forcing you to read this!
"There's no star system Slave I can't reach, and there's no planet I can't find. There's nowhere in the Galaxy for you to run. Might as well give up now."
Boba Fett
SOE knows what you like... You don't!
And don't forget... I am forcing you to read this!