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14 day trial
Dark_Lord_13
Member Posts: 248
Lately I have been longing for the days of old, and wanted to go ahead and try SWG just to see if it wasn't as bad as it was when I quit, or if it was just that I really didn't want it to change at that time, and it was actually a pretty good game all in all. I'd heard points from all sides, and I hate to take sides anymore without gaining my own opinion first, I guess it's old age getting to me.
I played for about eight of the fourteen days, because of work and such I don't get to play every evening as some people do. Out of that I played 2 saturdays, 1 sunday, 1 monday, one tuesday night and one friday night. I saw a total of exactly 31 characters during the probably 27ish hours I played. 5 of which were in tutorials, I went to all major planets Corellia, Tatooine, Naboo, and Dantooine, and some of the lesser planets where I saw no one. I had difficulty figureing out why I couldn't kill an even level enemy since I was playing with a level 80 character. I even had trouble with some 50's. There wasn't anywhere it seemed to buy a decent weapon or set of armor and since there wasn't anyone in the game, I couldn't exactly ask someone.
I recieved veteran rewards for the time I had been inactive and found that all the old vet rewards I had accumulated years ago had disappeared and I don't know why, because I believe they were in my backpack when I logged off, but h*** that was 4 years ago, so how would I know. I found I was carrying a ton of stuff that seemed pretty much useless now, and I couldn't figure out what half of the stuff I looted was useful for.
The Lag was worse than City of Heroes in Atlas Park on the Freedom Server. And there was NO ONE in the game. Unless they were useing a cloaking device.
I decided to create a new character, but found the tutorial annoying and once I got out of the tutorial, I was pretty much lost for what to do so I did what I did when I first started playing SWG and started killing the little rat creatures that are outside of Mos Eisley (which 4 years ago I would have found it appalling to not remember the name, but today it really doesn't mean much to me.) After killing about 4 I died, and quit playing,.......again.
All in all, SWG is the lost cause that everyone has been claiming it was. I have used that phrase but it was years ago, but now I once again feel comfortable saying it. $OE still sux.
Would it have been better if there were people actually playing? Yes. Are they going to? Unfortunately for the faithful, that answer is a resounding NO.. SOE has dauntlessly destroyed a fan base that was so faithful that after 20 years of waiting they still ran out and paid eight dollars for tickets to see Star Wars movies that were simply Digitally remastered. Then continued to go see them after George Lucas added computerized images. And then finally after two re-releases of the originals, he finally started releasing the new trilogy, which we watched all the way through to the end. And yet, SOE only took 3 short years to destroy that fan base by destroying a game that was once so populated that you'd only have to yell a question to recieve three answers as well as start an arguement between those that answered you.
Final Rating, -3 out of 113
Comments
Thanks for taking the trial and coming here to explain it. Now I won't have to waste my time.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Yeah thank you and really crediteble information, to bad you failed to share with us what server you played on, asuming you made a new character on a new server, why didn't you pick a medium pop. server. Then for starters you wouldn't have to inform us of the situation on the low pop server (they called "low pop or very low pop" for a reason), sure wish it was different but we know this for along time now.
Try EU Farstar, nice population, sure far from what it was the first 6/8 months release>pre-cu, but better then between CU/NGE, and a good thing most playing have this same playstyle what most of us got pre-cu, you know that sandbox feel, not to be guided by the hand with quest but exploring yourself what it is we can and cannot do in the game, exploring our powers, our profession, now we see people that do not want to explore, they want to log in and BAM be king without even giving it a gamers try, i say gamers try as we gamers try things differently then we would try things in rl. For me a gamers try is trying to addept and see how that works out, if it can be fun so be it, if addepting means not fun then well like any mature gamer we go and look for our next game, or better yet step away from the game.
(monitor broke down last week so running on a old monitor 15"
till hopefull somewhere next week my new order gets in SamsungSM245B/24" 
)
Yes it is true that when you visit some other places they are somewhat deserted, but to come here and tell us you have not seen more then 30+ people in the time you have played loooks like you made a bad choose in server and come hear to complain about it. Have you forgotten that when we first entered SWG we also had to explore our skills, our way of life in the galaxie, many things where a mystery, most of it is known by now, but a new start and aprouch can make a difference when being open minded about it. And sorry i couldn't see anything apart from your first sentence that you decie'd to go open minded into the game as you did not want to take the intro which would have introduced you to some things you now seem puzzeld about, also would have gotten you to atleast lvl 10 where you would ahve had no problems killing some rats, just like pre-cu Tatooine outskirts of hte city are a good place to start ( that is if you indeed have run thru the tututiol and went down atleast lvl 10) The game is different, the community in some way's is different, i wil say this the atmosfeer between Bria or Farstar is very VERY different, could be that i'm EU myself and aprouch these things differently..dunno what makes us so different some times.
I agree with Reklaw in that it didn't sound like you went in with an open mind or take the time to try to learn this completely new game. It might not have made any difference in the end, but would have been better use of your time.
I don't think you should have to make a new character in order to find a player population. Returning vets should expect to be able to use their veteran characters and find viable populations, regardless of servers. This is the single strongest reason I don't return as a paying customer. SOE must develop a plan to consolidate populations.
wow reklaw how impressive i see 6 people in there the games alive again lmao. Give me a break as for him bieng open minded lag and bugs no matter what your view or mindset is are there and as for the rest hes right on. Hell Han solo says it best lets get out of here kid this place is gonna blow enough said
kinda had it with these "KIDS" if you can't act mature you better hide your age, besides lag is trust me the system one playes the game on. It's people who seem to be expecting more from their rig then the rig can handle. Get a better system but don't act the fool in pretending a good system lags with SWG as that would mean such system is older then 2 years. And sorry for those who do not upgrade. I even hardly lag when i'm on a US server and i have a ping of 210 there LOL.
kinda had it with these "KIDS" if you can't act mature you better hide your age, besides lag is trust me the system one playes the game on. It's people who seem to be expecting more from their rig then the rig can handle. Get a better system but don't act the fool in pretending a good system lags with SWG as that would mean such system is older then 2 years. And sorry for those who do not upgrade. I even hardly lag when i'm on a US server and i have a ping of 210 there LOL.
My system is over 2 years old. I've never had a problem with lag anytime I tried the NGE, except when loading into ME starport (spammers). Me thinks the lag claims are a bit exaggerated.
kinda had it with these "KIDS" if you can't act mature you better hide your age, besides lag is trust me the system one playes the game on. It's people who seem to be expecting more from their rig then the rig can handle. Get a better system but don't act the fool in pretending a good system lags with SWG as that would mean such system is older then 2 years. And sorry for those who do not upgrade. I even hardly lag when i'm on a US server and i have a ping of 210 there LOL.
My system is over 2 years old. I've never had a problem with lag anytime I tried the NGE, except when loading into ME starport (spammers). Me thinks the lag claims are a bit exaggerated.
Go get into a AV-21 and just run around. My trader farmed Lok and rubber banding since C6 increased by 100 fold. And my equipment is pretty good. Dual Core, 3K ram, 6800 vid card, wireless broadband connection, etc etc.
They are right that Bria is 1 of the larger servers. There are 3 and they got that way from the paid transfer system which SOE will be glad to move u for $50 - $100 bucks.
What you are describing is exactly what I experienced on Kauri. I spoke with a player still on tonight and he said he logged on last Wed. and there were 3 people he found going anywhere. Some transfered off, most left for a break or for good.
And if you want to see the results of the C6 Combat Downgrade, read what people in game are saying.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/list.m?topic_id=338849
Last time I cked it was a long read. Somewhere around 74 pages, all since the inception of C6 COmbat Downgrade.
When I was playing a couple months ago, there was a surge of returnees.
But by the time I quit in August, most of them had left again, and even my guild, which had stuck around literally vanished within a 2 week period, and while the Bloodfin population was staying fairly high, it was doing so at the expense of other servers, whole guilds were transferring over. That was part of the problem, our uniqiue community was dying off and being replaced by floods of carebear and pvp'er wannabes from even places like Wanderhome
intolerable for a 3.5 year Bloodfin vet.
I'd say that there aren't more than 3-4 servers with a population worth playing.
Reclaw,
Your screen shots show about a dozen people in the starter town like most peoples screen shots do. Is there life beyond the intro city like the original poster couldn't find?
You say there are 3-5 populated servers and offhandedly suggest the population problem is somehow the fault returning player for not picking an appropriate server. Odds are pretty good that someone returning is going to hit one of the 20-22 low population servers.
Maybe he has a point.
few months back i played few weeks in EU-Chimaera server(my old server)
yes there was lots of people at Mos Eisley but not in anywhere else just few random people at Theed and Coronet and while i was doing the Legacy quest line i met about 5 peole doing it (all on trial) and thats about it
Originally posted by Reklaw
"Yes it is true that when you visit some other places they are somewhat deserted, but to come here and tell us you have not seen more then 30+ people in the time you have played "
Doesn't mean there is no one elsewhere, doesn't mean i'm saying every where else they are in hiding, its different. And not sure what you meant with offhandedly, but i thought i was clear that yes a VET returning should know better. And as you see i only try and give advice and try to show how it can looked at differently, cause first of all when people decide to pick a server you will see what is low or medium or heavy so isn't that a easy pick?. It's not like the 22 or what servers are cloaked. And i also spoke of peakhours which is the time you will be seeing a decent population on Farstar. I do not try to decieve people i'm being honost. For example if i would act like some of the "haters"do i would say each server has that amount of players as in my screenshots, would i even be more like the "haters" i would say the game is packed 24/7, i mean why shouldn't i?...the "haters" speak and when they do they speak for the whole game, for all servers, what they persieve is like that everywhere. See the difference.
And yes a few months ago we had a surge of new players, but again this is so logical, a few months ago VET trials where release's so there is a part of what we experiance as more people coming into the game, another logical thing is holiday season all over hte world, people are bound to try out games they might not have played before so again a very logical reason to see more people coming to SWG, just like other mmorpg have notice'd this aswell during htis period. And yes i have met some new people and yes also most of them left cause somehow they just couldn't dig SWG as they mostly saw it as grind they didn't understand that you don't have to have your handhold to accomplish thing, like i said before the gamers community has grown but also has become somewhat lazy when it comes to giving it a gamers try. There are 3 people i met from who really where new to SWG who still play and really enjoy themself, a few old friends some of which never left still play, some other VETS i knew from the old times are making there comback. But its not like thousends and thousneds of players are flocking back. Keep in mind i do not have to play with 3214343214 people to have fun, allmost every mmorpg i played i mostly settled knowing 10/15 personaly and well (even with large size guilds i just like few more personal and have fun with them), which is more then enough for me, maybe its age, maybe its my expiriance in these type of games, maybe i simply choice to play it my way and not the guided way. Use to do that but alway's felt much was missing with the game i played. Maybe someway i'm being more realistic into what to expect from these type of games. I know it aint perfect and wish many things where different, but then again is this such a perfect world? I just look very different to games
It's funny how they think that posting smiley's will make their comments any more valid or friendlier when they're clearly just out to snide vets, I remember in the starter areas I would see hundreds on some servers, not just a dozen, this is really proving nothing sadly, there are a few on the NGE as we have said a thousand times but for the most part the vast majority have left.
The OP has given you an unbiased opinion as you can get for a vet, I'm amazed that you still intend to shoot even the ones that try to be decent about the NGE down.
Quoting people doesn't make you clever, in fact, it makes you all the more stupid for not bothering to read the quotes you post in the first place.
Get some perspective please, you make things seem differently then they are, learn to read and understand before you reply the next time. Thanks
0k21 If you do not like it that people discus matters then you should not be on a forum.
And that's the kind of reply most people give when they've run out of arguments to back their comments up, I like discussing matters, I just don't like it when people act like arrogant bastards when they go about it.
Quoting people doesn't make you clever, in fact, it makes you all the more stupid for not bothering to read the quotes you post in the first place.
When I say offhandedly, I mean you are placing blame for the bad experience in SWG on the original poster for "making a bad server choice".
Seeing that he obviously has played before and has an exsisting character what other choice was there to make? Are you saying that because there are pretty much only 3-5 servers suitable for playing prime time where you can find population that choosing one of the other 20 servers is somehow the fault of the player? Perhaps you think a returning player must give up everything they have and more to a new server to give the game a chance?
What is the point of offering free trials to entice players to return if 20 out of the 25 servers are going to be bad choices that should be avoided?
Hehe, Reklaw.
Several of the people in the screen shots are the same people.
I absolutely loved this game when it came out. I was a Rifleman/Doc and anytime I needed money I could go to town and buff people for 30 minutes and have all the cash I needed. Then came CU, then Came NGE.
There were lots of people, but serious imbalance issues, especially with the poison chuckers. That was what did it for me the first time I quit. Shooting through walls and serious PvP balance issues were what made me leave the first time. $OE didn't listen to the player base and was slow to respond to glaring issues. The community was strong though and there were lots of people playing. PvP battles with 20 or more players on each side were not uncommon.
Cut to today. I played with my guild for a couple of months after NGE, tried the space expansion (I left before they rolled that out, IMO they never should have released a Star Wars game w/out space combat.) But the place is a ghost town. I logged into my old server that was filled to the brim before and now empty. PvP was great fun and there were sometimes battles with 20 or more players, but it was in one place, on Restuss, kind of like arena combat with only one arena and the same people every day. There are some people still playing, but nothing like the numbers of old, and given that so many people feel burned by $OE, I don't see them coming back, even if they give out free working lightsabers with every sub.
If all this stuff had been there at launch, and $OE was more responsive to their paying customers, there would probably be alot more people playing this game, as it is, most people have moved on, and I don't blame them a bit.
What happened to this game and the server populations is the same thing that SOE has done over and over and over and over again. They continue to change the game, giving it a full feel of beta even after 4 years. Each time they change, they lose subs. They leave that change on long enough to have a small recovery and make yet another player base that actually likes or tolerates the game at that point and again, in an overnight patch, they change it again. Even for the die-hard IP fan, one can only take so much.
Why can't SOE understand that if they want to bring in more subs, without destroying their existing player base, additions are the way to go? They seem to be copying WoW to the max but can't get it through their thick heads that WoW makes additions. New content, new levels, new, new, new. They don't go back into existing code turning up the volume knob on all existing content and call everthing new. They don't revamp their existing professions. They don't change the combat stats from mitigation of damage to "a chance to parry". They don't destroy their customers toons by a patch. They add to. Personally, I tried WoW, didn't really like it, but you can't argue with success.
If SOE devs would have done C6 right, they would have added the new content that they are adding in C7, making that the new difficulty and leaving the core game alone. They would have been called conquoring heros, but instead, they took the CUNGE way of development and again, drove people off. Cabalist is exactly right, they had a upsurge after C6 but only from the free vet trials. When they were over, the population fell even more. Most of the vets went back to where they were before and alot of the existing player base were not going to put up with another massive change. Vets, of any of these changes, are not going to put up with "something returned", they want THEIR game back, not just a slice of it. And again, the Producer and the Head designer are left scratching their heads as to "what happened'?
Now they have people that want classic servers for pre-CU. They have another group that would like classic servers for CU. They have another group, of NGE that want the old GCW back as some lost a lot of rank when they decided to change all of that. Now, there is another group that wants pre-C6CD back and this IS NOT their customers doing by any sence of the word. So SOE ends up with almost no1 satified with the game and they have no1 to blame cept themselves and their "hap-hazard" method of development.
I once heard the laymen's definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result from the same action.
FYI
My 80 Character was on Kettemoor
I used a character on Tempest, one on Chilastra, created one on Farstar, and one on another server (sorry don't remember, it was the last one I created.)
I admit, I wish I had seen population like which was in those screen shots Reklaw posted.
As far as Low population server.....etc. I saw none of the servers at anything larger than Medium population, and those were the servers I chose, yes, I may have been on a Low population server, but part of it was so I could try the mechanics of the game without lagging trying to get out of the cities. I did include these as part of my search for other players, but I assumed since they are also a part of this game I could include them as general game population without having to defend it as being a Low population server. I believe my point was that the game it self is running on low population, in comparison to when I played pre-CU/NGE.
As for the need to defend my "Exaggeration of Lag" I'm playing on the exact same system as I did when the game come out, which was what Dell referred to as a Gaming computer 5 years ago, using well above the recommended requirements for this game. If playing this game which is how old now? 5 years or more? means I have to go out and buy a brand new computer built for gaming every year after, until the computer catches up to the game. I'm sorry for being rude, but you're out of your D%#^ mind. Most of us don't make that kind of money.
Ok, so maybe I didn't make the post clear enough for you fanboys. and since I posted this on the VETERANS REFUGE, there's a reason for that. I didn't post it on the FANBOY section for a reason, because I know you people love the game. but just because you do, don't mean I have to. Yes, I still want it to be a similance of what it once was, which was the reason I played the trial to begin with. I hoped it was. I believe I said that somewhere in my original post, and if I didn't, well I did now.
Just because you think you have a great thing, and share what you think is great with someone else, doesn't mean that someone else will think it's great also. But if they're willing to accept that you think it's great, why can't you accept that they think it's crap?