Star Wars Galaxies: A Pre-CU Character goes back.

Wankler

I left SWG just before the CU (Combat Upgrade).  I was tired of all the bugs, the lack of spaceflight and most of all was just plain dissapointed by all the broken promises of Sony.

I was so angry that Sony had taken a movie that I enjoyed so much and trashed the whole thing by their lack of attention to the paying customer, I haven't been back since.

A couple of my guild-mates had re-activated their accounts and were having a good time with it, so after a long time of not playing, and getting bored with all the other offerings, I logged back in and this is what I found:

1. Creating a new character is vastly improved.  Even if you have an old character if you haven't done it, create a new chracter and go through the tutorial.  Han Solo saves you and you jump into the millenium falcon and shoot tie fighters to escape, very well done.

2. I like the new combat targeting.  You can run in and spin around and wack everything or you can select one target focus your damage with auto-target/auto-attack, which works alot like the old targeting system.  They also fixed the line of sight problems, i.e. no more shooting through hills.

3. It appears they have really borked the crafting.  I started a crafting character and at lower levels all you can craft is pretty much useless stuff that won't sell, but all of the lower level "dings" add vendor skills.  I can have lots of items on a vendor that nobody wants to buy.  Crafters need to be able to make at least one thing that is useful all the way up the tree and get new items at each level.

4. Space is very well done, nice explosions and lots of things to blow up.  Also a good way to get XP and make money.  Flying around in space and blowing things up should have been in this game from the start, it makes this game 10 times more fun IMO.

5. It's mostly bounty hunters and Jedi running around, but so what, I always wanted a lightsaber in SWG but didn't want to make a gazillion sandwiches to get one.  I say lightsabers for everyone!  Being able to get a light saber if you want one.

6. Still no droids to collect resources, and since they borked crafting it appears that the droid crafting profession is dead, as are other crafting lines.   Once placing a harvester you need to be able to have a droid that can collect your resources and place them in your bank, add power and pay maintenance.

7. I still haven't done much PvP yet, so I don't yet have much input there.

8. I like the fact that cities change over from rebel to imperial based on actions by the players.  I haven't looked into it too much, but noticed that the guards in towns change from Rebel to Imperial and I've been attacked in towns that were previously safe.  Good work there.

9. Customer service still appears to suck.  One of my guild-mates had an issue and instead of getting it resolved got the standard canned responses, so nothing appears to have changed there.

I'm sure there are many things I've left out, but those are my thoughts as a pre-cu player returning to the game.  I'm having fun and my guild-mates are having a good time, so I'll give it a whirl for a bit.   I have a lightsaber and a space ship and having a good time.  I haven't found anything that I would consider game breakers yet, but when I do I guess I'll move on again and find something else.  For now though this NGE just may hold my interest.

royalpenalty

..give it a couple weeks.  the mind numbing boredom will set in.

jrscott

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Originally posted by Wankler


1. Creating a new character is vastly improved.  Even if you have an old character if you haven't done it, create a new chracter and go through the tutorial.  Han Solo saves you and you jump into the millenium falcon and shoot tie fighters to escape, very well done.  This won't help you enjoy the game a month from now. 

2. I like the new combat targeting.  You can run in and spin around and wack everything or you can select one target focus your damage with auto-target/auto-attack, which works alot like the old targeting system.  They also fixed the line of sight problems, i.e. no more shooting through hills.  Unfortunately, the MOBs can shoot through hills, doors, and floors. 

3. It appears they have really borked the crafting.  I started a crafting character and at lower levels all you can craft is pretty much useless stuff that won't sell, but all of the lower level "dings" add vendor skills.  I can have lots of items on a vendor that nobody wants to buy.  Crafters need to be able to make at least one thing that is useful all the way up the tree and get new items at each level.  Always been that way, but yeah, I think they made it even worse.

4. Space is very well done, nice explosions and lots of things to blow up.  Also a good way to get XP and make money.  Flying around in space and blowing things up should have been in this game from the start, it makes this game 10 times more fun IMO.  Enjoy this while you can, they are making noises like they are going to start messing with it.

5. It's mostly bounty hunters and Jedi running around, but so what, I always wanted a lightsaber in SWG but didn't want to make a gazillion sandwiches to get one.  I say lightsabers for everyone!  Being able to get a light saber if you want one.  One man's trash is another man's treasure here.  A lot of us hate this fact.  There is nothing special about being a Jedi anymore.  Yes the grind in the past was silly, but giving Jedi-hood away from the get-go makes it cheap.  Not to be hateful, but if getting Jedi as a starter class with no effort appeals to you, then the NGE was written just for you.

6. Still no droids to collect resources, and since they borked crafting it appears that the droid crafting profession is dead, as are other crafting lines.   Once placing a harvester you need to be able to have a droid that can collect your resources and place them in your bank, add power and pay maintenance.  It looks like soon they will be replacing harvesters with crafting droids.  I have always thought that maintenance should be payable from anywhere, and that there should be consumable droids you can send anywhere in the galaxy to maintain power and retrieve resources.  This would give Droid Engineers another market.

7. I still haven't done much PvP yet, so I don't yet have much input there.  You should be happy, as it seems to be the focus of the day at SOE.

8. I like the fact that cities change over from rebel to imperial based on actions by the players.  I haven't looked into it too much, but noticed that the guards in towns change from Rebel to Imperial and I've been attacked in towns that were previously safe.  Good work there.  It would probably be better if it actually worked predictably.  Imperial Flags and Rebel Troops are a common sight (unless they fixed that in the last 2 months).  But yeah, it's cool to change control.

9. Customer service still appears to suck.  One of my guild-mates had an issue and instead of getting it resolved got the standard canned responses, so nothing appears to have changed there.  I never understood the need a lot of people had for "Customer Service" in a game.  I got stuck on Kashyyyk once, and saw an egregious act of verbal and emote abuse by some turd against a female player once, but other than that never had to use it.  I know people that contact CS once a week or more.  That's absurd.  You CAN play a game without CS, it is possible.

I'm sure there are many things I've left out, but those are my thoughts as a pre-cu player returning to the game.  I'm having fun and my guild-mates are having a good time, so I'll give it a whirl for a bit.   I have a lightsaber and a space ship and having a good time.  I haven't found anything that I would consider game breakers yet, but when I do I guess I'll move on again and find something else.  For now though this NGE just may hold my interest.

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Glad to hear you are having fun.  But like one poster said before me, give it a month.  There is only so much poke...poke...poke fall down you can take before a yawn begins to form.  If that does not happen, have fun!

grimboj

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Originally posted by Wankler


9. Customer service still appears to suck.  One of my guild-mates had an issue and instead of getting it resolved got the standard canned responses, so nothing appears to have changed there.

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Everyone on the server appeared to be faction farming so I respeced, set up a macro and left it running.
90 minutes later I get kicked and get a mail "You have been reported for repeated violating the T&Cs by playing afk". I did it once in 3 years and I couldnt farm atk as everyone else was afk farming. I reported this guy to another mod, didnt get a reply. Worse customer service I have ever seen in my life.