"Come tell me when you get Cantinas, towns, etc filled with players. When the likes of Mos Eisley, Theed, Bestine, Coronet are no longer ghost towns. Did it also occur to you that nobody (or more correctly, most of us) wanted to play a poorly implemented, half-ass designed, buggy, overly simplified, crafters-be-damned, poorly animated revision of SWG that became the NGE? The number of players that got up and left speak enough on the matter. Show me proof that the once thriving population of SWG is back, thriving as it did before the NGE. Show me this proof and I'll initiate a thread here and on the SWG official forum how great SOE is in bringing SWG back into it's true glory. Anyways, SWG's done for. I'm settled that the old days will never, ever come back. But damn, it feels good to come by and kick the festering abomination that is SWG every now and then. Because it deserves it!"
Mos Eisley, Theed and Coronet are certainly not ghost towns, there are many people running through them all day. And obviously the population of SWG is not what it used to be, but you also have to remember that the size of the galaxy is not what it used to be; new planets, new instances and quests etc. expand the galaxy and shift concentrations of the population. NGE when it came was exactly all those things you said and in some ways i dont forgive SOE for it because its the reason the population isnt what it used to be, but, having said that, I, now, am not playing in the NGE. I dont know what it is, but it is nothing like the NGE; Crafters aren't as negelected, many new features and content have been added and countless other issues have been resolved. Your last Paragraph simply tells me that you just cant let go, as others have said before - its creepy. You are vindictive, feeling you have to post on these forums to discourage those of us who are able to enjoy ourselves. Hate the SOE producers who decided to implement NGE, and keep it inside, but the game SWG does not deserve it, mainly because there is a large enough group of people who play it and thoroughly enjoy it, most of which played pre-NGE.
I'm sorry, but according to MY information (talking to 20+ people who recently played), the place is nowhere NEAR the population it had during the pre-CU era, even on the servers that still have something of a population (a.k.a. like Bloodfin and Bria). Most of the 26 servers are desolate. Most people who get lured back for a bit, leave within weeks, if not days. Most of the holdouts admit they are only staying because it's Star Wars.
The 'people are spread out more' excuse is old, and doesn't hold up by the way. People were spread out before too, and still player cities, starports and favorite hunting spots (there were more of those back then, even with fewer planets) were busier. All you need to do is count players per planet, and compare to the totals from back then.
The content is frankly a joke. I thought Kashyyyk and Mustafar were hideously boring, and the NGE 'content' was of the same ilk. (And yes, I actually DID the new quests on one of my 'elder' toons.) Linear, unoriginal drivel. Hell, the content of Tabula Rasa is better, and I don't exactly have a high opinion of that game.
As to the crafters not being so neglected: get real, it's a loot economy now. And the pure lack of choice of what crafting professions you can combine (and especially the lacking option for combining combat and crafting) takes the fun right out of it.
I'm forty years old, I demand some complexity in my games, something that actually takes some time to figure out. I got tired of Wolfenstein and text based computer RPGs 20+ years ago. Pre-CU did it for me, NGE never will.
"Come tell me when you get Cantinas, towns, etc filled with players. When the likes of Mos Eisley, Theed, Bestine, Coronet are no longer ghost towns. Did it also occur to you that nobody (or more correctly, most of us) wanted to play a poorly implemented, half-ass designed, buggy, overly simplified, crafters-be-damned, poorly animated revision of SWG that became the NGE? The number of players that got up and left speak enough on the matter. Show me proof that the once thriving population of SWG is back, thriving as it did before the NGE. Show me this proof and I'll initiate a thread here and on the SWG official forum how great SOE is in bringing SWG back into it's true glory. Anyways, SWG's done for. I'm settled that the old days will never, ever come back. But damn, it feels good to come by and kick the festering abomination that is SWG every now and then. Because it deserves it!"
Mos Eisley, Theed and Coronet are certainly not ghost towns, there are many people running through them all day. And obviously the population of SWG is not what it used to be, but you also have to remember that the size of the galaxy is not what it used to be; new planets, new instances and quests etc. expand the galaxy and shift concentrations of the population. NGE when it came was exactly all those things you said and in some ways i dont forgive SOE for it because its the reason the population isnt what it used to be, but, having said that, I, now, am not playing in the NGE. I dont know what it is, but it is nothing like the NGE; Crafters aren't as negelected, many new features and content have been added and countless other issues have been resolved. Your last Paragraph simply tells me that you just cant let go, as others have said before - its creepy. You are vindictive, feeling you have to post on these forums to discourage those of us who are able to enjoy ourselves. Hate the SOE producers who decided to implement NGE, and keep it inside, but the game SWG does not deserve it, mainly because there is a large enough group of people who play it and thoroughly enjoy it, most of which played pre-NGE.
I'd be surprised if posts like this were written with the intent of discouraging you personally as a fellow player. I tend to interpret them as venting the kind of anger you feel when you remember how someone gave you the shaft. It makes you wanna say "feh" all over again.
Now there was a guy who posted on here about a month ago that was very directly antagonistic towards other players. He said he comes on here to "poke sad pandas" on his time off for fun. I think that's a more accurate example of vindictive or sadistic behaviour I think. That was behaviour that I really couldn't respect.
In contrast, War's venting is directed at the game in general, or perhaps what was done to it, or what it has become. Just my opinion.
The 'people are spread out more' excuse is old, and doesn't hold up by the way. People were spread out before too, and still player cities, starports and favorite hunting spots (there were more of those back then, even with fewer planets) were busier. All you need to do is count players per planet, and compare to the totals from back then.
That's a great catch on a specious argument Linna; an argument I personally enjoy smacking around when it rears it's head around here. It simply can't be that the servers are busy, but no one is traveling anywhere. It doesn't matter how much tucked away content there is, if a server is busy with people, then quite naturally it will also be busy with TRAVELERS. Unless the game mechanics support insta-teleportation to the content on login (and it didn't last I checked) then this excuse is hogwash.
<p>Im not trying to suggest that the population is as it was anytime Pre-NGE; i'm simply pointing out that, at least on my server, its not a ghost town. Its obvious a lot of people here dont like the game anymore, and im not gonna try to persuade you its got better, its your opinion so fair enough. But, after over 2 years isnt it a little pointless to sit here poking at SWG when it clearly does have players who enjoy it (not just baring it) , of which a considerable number are returning vets, and yes there are also vets who come back and do not like it.</p>
<p>Im not trying to suggest that the population is as it was anytime Pre-NGE; i'm simply pointing out that, at least on my server, its not a ghost town. Its obvious a lot of people here dont like the game anymore, and im not gonna try to persuade you its got better, its your opinion so fair enough. But, after over 2 years isnt it a little pointless to sit here poking at SWG when it clearly does have players who enjoy it (not just baring it) , of which a considerable number are returning vets, and yes there are also vets who come back and do not like it.</p>
For the friends of mine that still play the game, some of the restored features have restored some of the fun. Everytime they fix something, restore something, or add something, a part of me feels good for my pals that still hang with the game.
Also, if you look at trends in the posts you could see that people have been "processing" what happened--trying to make sense of it, have some feelings about it (anger, sadness, incredulity), decide what to do with it, figure out how to move past it, remember fun times, remember funny times, keep in touch with old pals, find out where people are now etc.. A lot of the posting has served some valuable purposes in my view. It's certainly been a good thing for me. I'm at the look back at fun times and funny times stage I guess atm. I'm also still learning life lessons from my observations of what went on.
If you're having fun, really I'm glad for you. I hope the powers that be treat you alright, and communicate with you honestly about what's going on so you don't get any unpleasant surprises.
p.s. I still think it's really cool that this site set up a forum for vets to process things like this. It's been very helpful. /tiphat
After responding to some recent posts asking about the state of the game, asking what it would take to get people back etc.. I have to question the decision not to rollback or provide classic servers. The reason I'm questioning that NOW is that SOE seems surprised that they've added some stuff from pre-nge and still the vets haven't come back to the game. What I want to say to the decision makers is that vets by the thousands told you in 2005 they didn't want the NGE with bits and pieces of their old stuff thrown back in. They said the same thing in 2006, and people are still saying in now. If you ask people what they want, and they tell you pre-cu servers, when you don't listen, why are you surprised that they haven't come back? Someone must have thought that adding back pre-cu bits to the NGE was a winning strategy. The problem with that is the players you want back told you they didn't want that, and you didn't listen, again. The more I think of the whole track record of this game, the more convinced I am that I'm just going to continue enjoying myself elsewhere until someone else comes out with a StarWars MMO.
For those of you still playing SWG even after all the crap they have thrown at you, you deserve this. Leave that turd of a game and get on with your lives...
As for the notion that the NGE player population is still significant because it's strung out, especially in comparison to Pre-NGE days?
Pre-NGE: Coronet, Theed, Bestine, Mos Eisley were packed. Medical Centers, Cantinas, Starports, all having lots of players hanging around. You could find players at Player Cities scattered about the game. You also had many, many hunting grounds frequented by numerous groups of players. Dantooine, Lok, Yavin IV, and especially Dathomir. Get to a starport on those places and you'll see a bunch of people about, forming groups, preparing for missions, etc. "Enraged Rancor hunting group forming, 2 slots left, PST if interested!" Also, remember how laggy Coronet, Theed, and Mos Eisley could be upon arrival at a starport... due to the spamming / advertising of the crafters?
NGE? The towns are desolate, very few inhabit the core travelling hubs. Player cities I passed through were devoid of activity. Forming groups was the exception and not a normal thing. The Medical Centers are no longer used due to the NGE (no wounds to heal). Cantinas are pitifully empty. You'll probably find a newbie or two AFK'ing, and that's it, a far cry from the packed, night club atmosphere Cantinas used to have. Many crafters are out of business due to the importance of loot / reward gear compared to crafted gear, especially since Decay was removed. Weaponsmiths were the hardest hit from this. Foods / Drinks aren't important to do the majority of gameplay, so Cooks were shafted. So many Crafters left the game.
Simply put, there no longer is a crowd in the NGE. Just some people spread out here and there, not like the old days, where there were large numbers of people all over the place.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Warmaker, im not sure when you are describing or what server, but now, on any server, let alone the more popular ones, grouping is not the exception at all; DWB, heroic instances, Musty quests, PVPing etc all require groups and i partake in all these things regularly, usually with different people each time.
Once again, I'm not saying that the population is at the level it used to be, however SWGs towns are NOT in any form ghost towns. In any of the significant player cities there is activity, and all the more so in NPC cities and pvp areas.
Weaponsmiths have been hit hard, its true and im hoping that soon something will be done to fix this, but AS's are still in constant use, as are domestics (people still need foods and meds etc), architects (still people decorating) and shipwrights (most definately still a thriving space community). On top of this, the RE system heavily involves AS, WS, and tailors.
I can understad and sympathize with people using these forums to share fun times and remember etc but theres no need to constantly pick holes and insult SWG when a great deal of those proclaiming such statements havent played in a long while, and much has changed.
Warmaker, im not sure when you are describing or what server, but now, on any server, let alone the more popular ones, grouping is not the exception at all; DWB, heroic instances, Musty quests, PVPing etc all require groups and i partake in all these things regularly, usually with different people each time. Once again, I'm not saying that the population is at the level it used to be, however SWGs towns are NOT in any form ghost towns. In any of the significant player cities there is activity, and all the more so in NPC cities and pvp areas. Weaponsmiths have been hit hard, its true and im hoping that soon something will be done to fix this, but AS's are still in constant use, as are domestics (people still need foods and meds etc), architects (still people decorating) and shipwrights (most definately still a thriving space community). On top of this, the RE system heavily involves AS, WS, and tailors. I can understad and sympathize with people using these forums to share fun times and remember etc but theres no need to constantly pick holes and insult SWG when a great deal of those proclaiming such statements havent played in a long while, and much has changed.
Saay, no offense, but this is the forum set aside for us to bitch about what SOE did. A lot of us HAVE been back, some even recently, and we STILL don't like it. So please, if you don't like us complaining, just go to the GENERAL forum, where the current players hang who actually like the game.
Warmaker, im not sure when you are describing or what server, but now, on any server, let alone the more popular ones, grouping is not the exception at all; DWB, heroic instances, Musty quests, PVPing etc all require groups and i partake in all these things regularly, usually with different people each time. Once again, I'm not saying that the population is at the level it used to be, however SWGs towns are NOT in any form ghost towns. In any of the significant player cities there is activity, and all the more so in NPC cities and pvp areas. Weaponsmiths have been hit hard, its true and im hoping that soon something will be done to fix this, but AS's are still in constant use, as are domestics (people still need foods and meds etc), architects (still people decorating) and shipwrights (most definately still a thriving space community). On top of this, the RE system heavily involves AS, WS, and tailors. I can understad and sympathize with people using these forums to share fun times and remember etc but theres no need to constantly pick holes and insult SWG when a great deal of those proclaiming such statements havent played in a long while, and much has changed.
Sorry but I play on Scylla and most of the server is a ghost town... the most common conversation in the cantina is how dead things are.
I have yet to see any city npc or player ever have as many people as we used to have every night just in the cantina In cnet.
And as for people being spead out...you can travel only from planet to planet via NPC's cities so there are still travel hubs
Sorry but I play on Scylla and most of the server is a ghost town... the most common conversation in the cantina is how dead things are.
I have yet to see any city npc or player ever have as many people as we used to have every night just in the cantina In cnet. And as for people being spead out...you can travel only from planet to planet via NPC's cities so there are still travel hubs
With the exception of servers such as Bloodfin (which has seen a lot of transfers to it due to PVP), most if not all other servers are probably sporting an active player base of less than 1000. This estimate is counting in alts and people who play on multiple servers. So the # of human bodies actually playing on any given server is approximately 500 to 700.
Sorry but I play on Scylla and most of the server is a ghost town... the most common conversation in the cantina is how dead things are.
I have yet to see any city npc or player ever have as many people as we used to have every night just in the cantina In cnet. And as for people being spead out...you can travel only from planet to planet via NPC's cities so there are still travel hubs
With the exception of servers such as Bloodfin (which has seen a lot of transfers to it due to PVP), most if not all other servers are probably sporting an active player base of less than 1000. This estimate is counting in alts and people who play on multiple servers. So the # of human bodies actually playing on any given server is approximately 500 to 700.
Yes, the populations are that bad.
I play on Chilastra and Euro-Farstar and this is not the case on either. To me it just sounds like you're picking numbers out the air to try to prove a point; give me hard evidence. However I can understand you saying these things playing on scylla; to be honest, ideally, SWG should merge servers because 26 (or whatever the number is) is a lot for any game, especially one with the player base the size of SWG's.
I came aboard SWG February 2004. I left the game maybe 2 months after the NGE hit. I have played on Ahazi, Chimaera, Bria, and Wanderhome. Of the servers I played in, I played the most in Ahazi and Bria. My original home and where I played the most of SWG was Ahazi, even after I started deleting characters when the CU hit.
The drastic hit in the population was immediately noticeable when the NGE hit, at least it was for me, in such a heavily populated server as Ahazi was. It only got worse as time progressed. I hopped around the different planets, jumped on my speederbike (f**k the BARC and whatever else came out. An Imperial Trooper doesn't look right on anything else), and cruised around. Corellia: Nothing. Coronet was completely dead. Naboo: A handful of people at Theed, but nobody anywhere else. Tatooine was shamefully low on players, considering that Mos Eisley became real busy when it was made the only starting place for newbies. I recall going on Imperial recruiting drives in my Stormtrooper Armor there (back in the day of 90% Stun Composite while ST armor got 30% with tons of vulnerabilities). There were always a good influx of new players to meet and recruit into the Empire. I had a ball showing the new guys the ropes, helping them level a bit. I had a great time training them up over a few days until they knew how to handle themselves on a "medium difficulty world" such like Dantooine. But Tatooine was bonafide dead in any town.
Lok, Dathomir, Dantooine, Yavin IV, showing no players after my expeditions there. No groups to be found.
With Trials of Obi-Wan, Mustafar was where one found the most players at the time (Nov-Dec 2005). But even then, the traffic of players at the starport / facility gave me no indication that many of the players were there. In the old days, starports at places such as Dathomir were loaded with people, groups coming in and out all the time. Not so in any place I visited since the NGE hit.
Crafters and Vendors. I compared the amount of crafted items being searchable from the Bazaars and actual visits to player vendors from the Pre-NGE days to the NGE. Nothing short of a disaster, especially for certain ones such as Weaponsmith. So few crafted items of any type are being sold. Even Armorsmiths, who can provide still useful goods to combat players, had very, very few items for sale, and the selection was poor.
One more thing about Weaponsmiths: In my opinion, SOE will never, ever allow Weaponsmiths to make viable, desirable weaponry. Why? The loot & reward based gaming that permeates the NGE-era of SWG. Most of the desired rewards and loot items out there are weapons. When I left the game, the general feel I got from the forums and from the few people I find in-game will want it that way. Development has gone 100% that way. Because of this, Weaponsmiths will not get schematics or updates to allow them to make great weapons that one would be proud to live and die with. Compared to the old, Pre-NGE days where Weaponsmiths and Armorsmiths were both absolutely essential for combat players to work with, it's a shame.
Superior Loot / Reward Weapons + Player Population that wants it + Devs that drive for it = No chance in hell that Weaponsmiths will ever craft great, desirable weapons
They might as well delete the aspect of Weaponsmithing altogether, and quit pretending like they're going to give it much needed love.
My account I let my Sister have. I introduced her to SWG in late Summer 2004. She saw me playing it all the time and I kept asking if she wanted to try it. No, she said, but she finally got curious enough to try. It was a bit to learn, especially back in the Pre-CU days. But eventually she became a better player than me in the late Pre-CU stages and onwards, since she also made her own account. More importantly, she was a die-hard Imperial just like I was.
I miss those days when I could log on with her and we'd do missions, using our "pets," namely the faction troopers. Storm Commandos were the best, and I on occasion would bring out my AT-ST, which I never lost. My Sister would get one also eventually, and not lose it.
Well, anyways, I left the game after the NGE. I let my Sister take over the account, so she has 2 of them. My old account still has my original character from 2004 and my Sister won't delete it. She even runs a few missions with him to ensure the maintenance fees are kept for my house, which was on a mesa Southeast of Mos Eisley.
I visit my Sister as much as I can. Since she still plays SWG, I do watch out of curiousity. She plays on Sunrunner now, and kept an alt on Ahazi to play with me when I was a player. She's an avid PVPer ever since I showed her the ropes in the last months of the Pre-CU days. She even made a mad rush to become a Jedi and even fully templated after I showed her how (I had no desire to be a Jedi... I was an Imperial Stormtrooper... but I taught her how to do it since I knew the game well). Sunrunner back in the day had a reputation for being relatively light in population compared to the behemoths like Bria and Ahazi. Many left even small Sunrunner. She did mention that a bunch transferred in from different servers into Sunrunner to make up for some of the shortfalls, but it's quite nowhere near the old numbers.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
There is obviously another SW mmo in the works from someone. Bioware, SOE even. There wont be classics until swg shuts down and the emu is allowed to go "live" if you will, if they are allowed, though it seems they will be IMO.
Hi Arc!! Hows COX? Still playing? I gave that game a shot. Really fun if you got some friends. Kinda repetative around level 25+. Leveling up anyways. They also dont allow you to roleplay a proctologist gone mad called Dr. Stinkfinger. My buddy was dissappointed, he put alot of thought into that toons bio.
Comments
The 'people are spread out more' excuse is old, and doesn't hold up by the way. People were spread out before too, and still player cities, starports and favorite hunting spots (there were more of those back then, even with fewer planets) were busier. All you need to do is count players per planet, and compare to the totals from back then.
The content is frankly a joke. I thought Kashyyyk and Mustafar were hideously boring, and the NGE 'content' was of the same ilk. (And yes, I actually DID the new quests on one of my 'elder' toons.) Linear, unoriginal drivel. Hell, the content of Tabula Rasa is better, and I don't exactly have a high opinion of that game.
As to the crafters not being so neglected: get real, it's a loot economy now. And the pure lack of choice of what crafting professions you can combine (and especially the lacking option for combining combat and crafting) takes the fun right out of it.
I'm forty years old, I demand some complexity in my games, something that actually takes some time to figure out. I got tired of Wolfenstein and text based computer RPGs 20+ years ago. Pre-CU did it for me, NGE never will.
Linna
Currently residing in PotBS and COH
I'd be surprised if posts like this were written with the intent of discouraging you personally as a fellow player. I tend to interpret them as venting the kind of anger you feel when you remember how someone gave you the shaft. It makes you wanna say "feh" all over again.
Now there was a guy who posted on here about a month ago that was very directly antagonistic towards other players. He said he comes on here to "poke sad pandas" on his time off for fun. I think that's a more accurate example of vindictive or sadistic behaviour I think. That was behaviour that I really couldn't respect.
In contrast, War's venting is directed at the game in general, or perhaps what was done to it, or what it has become. Just my opinion.
That's a great catch on a specious argument Linna; an argument I personally enjoy smacking around when it rears it's head around here. It simply can't be that the servers are busy, but no one is traveling anywhere. It doesn't matter how much tucked away content there is, if a server is busy with people, then quite naturally it will also be busy with TRAVELERS. Unless the game mechanics support insta-teleportation to the content on login (and it didn't last I checked) then this excuse is hogwash.
SWG Team Mtg.
<p>Im not trying to suggest that the population is as it was anytime Pre-NGE; i'm simply pointing out that, at least on my server, its not a ghost town. Its obvious a lot of people here dont like the game anymore, and im not gonna try to persuade you its got better, its your opinion so fair enough. But, after over 2 years isnt it a little pointless to sit here poking at SWG when it clearly does have players who enjoy it (not just baring it) , of which a considerable number are returning vets, and yes there are also vets who come back and do not like it.</p>
For the friends of mine that still play the game, some of the restored features have restored some of the fun. Everytime they fix something, restore something, or add something, a part of me feels good for my pals that still hang with the game.
Also, if you look at trends in the posts you could see that people have been "processing" what happened--trying to make sense of it, have some feelings about it (anger, sadness, incredulity), decide what to do with it, figure out how to move past it, remember fun times, remember funny times, keep in touch with old pals, find out where people are now etc.. A lot of the posting has served some valuable purposes in my view. It's certainly been a good thing for me. I'm at the look back at fun times and funny times stage I guess atm. I'm also still learning life lessons from my observations of what went on.
If you're having fun, really I'm glad for you. I hope the powers that be treat you alright, and communicate with you honestly about what's going on so you don't get any unpleasant surprises.
p.s. I still think it's really cool that this site set up a forum for vets to process things like this. It's been very helpful. /tiphat
As for the notion that the NGE player population is still significant because it's strung out, especially in comparison to Pre-NGE days?
Pre-NGE: Coronet, Theed, Bestine, Mos Eisley were packed. Medical Centers, Cantinas, Starports, all having lots of players hanging around. You could find players at Player Cities scattered about the game. You also had many, many hunting grounds frequented by numerous groups of players. Dantooine, Lok, Yavin IV, and especially Dathomir. Get to a starport on those places and you'll see a bunch of people about, forming groups, preparing for missions, etc. "Enraged Rancor hunting group forming, 2 slots left, PST if interested!" Also, remember how laggy Coronet, Theed, and Mos Eisley could be upon arrival at a starport... due to the spamming / advertising of the crafters?
NGE? The towns are desolate, very few inhabit the core travelling hubs. Player cities I passed through were devoid of activity. Forming groups was the exception and not a normal thing. The Medical Centers are no longer used due to the NGE (no wounds to heal). Cantinas are pitifully empty. You'll probably find a newbie or two AFK'ing, and that's it, a far cry from the packed, night club atmosphere Cantinas used to have. Many crafters are out of business due to the importance of loot / reward gear compared to crafted gear, especially since Decay was removed. Weaponsmiths were the hardest hit from this. Foods / Drinks aren't important to do the majority of gameplay, so Cooks were shafted. So many Crafters left the game.
Simply put, there no longer is a crowd in the NGE. Just some people spread out here and there, not like the old days, where there were large numbers of people all over the place.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Warmaker, im not sure when you are describing or what server, but now, on any server, let alone the more popular ones, grouping is not the exception at all; DWB, heroic instances, Musty quests, PVPing etc all require groups and i partake in all these things regularly, usually with different people each time.
Once again, I'm not saying that the population is at the level it used to be, however SWGs towns are NOT in any form ghost towns. In any of the significant player cities there is activity, and all the more so in NPC cities and pvp areas.
Weaponsmiths have been hit hard, its true and im hoping that soon something will be done to fix this, but AS's are still in constant use, as are domestics (people still need foods and meds etc), architects (still people decorating) and shipwrights (most definately still a thriving space community). On top of this, the RE system heavily involves AS, WS, and tailors.
I can understad and sympathize with people using these forums to share fun times and remember etc but theres no need to constantly pick holes and insult SWG when a great deal of those proclaiming such statements havent played in a long while, and much has changed.
Linna
I have yet to see any city npc or player ever have as many people as we used to have every night just in the cantina In cnet.
And as for people being spead out...you can travel only from planet to planet via NPC's cities so there are still travel hubs
With the exception of servers such as Bloodfin (which has seen a lot of transfers to it due to PVP), most if not all other servers are probably sporting an active player base of less than 1000. This estimate is counting in alts and people who play on multiple servers. So the # of human bodies actually playing on any given server is approximately 500 to 700.
Yes, the populations are that bad.
With the exception of servers such as Bloodfin (which has seen a lot of transfers to it due to PVP), most if not all other servers are probably sporting an active player base of less than 1000. This estimate is counting in alts and people who play on multiple servers. So the # of human bodies actually playing on any given server is approximately 500 to 700.
Yes, the populations are that bad.
I play on Chilastra and Euro-Farstar and this is not the case on either. To me it just sounds like you're picking numbers out the air to try to prove a point; give me hard evidence. However I can understand you saying these things playing on scylla; to be honest, ideally, SWG should merge servers because 26 (or whatever the number is) is a lot for any game, especially one with the player base the size of SWG's.
I came aboard SWG February 2004. I left the game maybe 2 months after the NGE hit. I have played on Ahazi, Chimaera, Bria, and Wanderhome. Of the servers I played in, I played the most in Ahazi and Bria. My original home and where I played the most of SWG was Ahazi, even after I started deleting characters when the CU hit.
The drastic hit in the population was immediately noticeable when the NGE hit, at least it was for me, in such a heavily populated server as Ahazi was. It only got worse as time progressed. I hopped around the different planets, jumped on my speederbike (f**k the BARC and whatever else came out. An Imperial Trooper doesn't look right on anything else), and cruised around. Corellia: Nothing. Coronet was completely dead. Naboo: A handful of people at Theed, but nobody anywhere else. Tatooine was shamefully low on players, considering that Mos Eisley became real busy when it was made the only starting place for newbies. I recall going on Imperial recruiting drives in my Stormtrooper Armor there (back in the day of 90% Stun Composite while ST armor got 30% with tons of vulnerabilities). There were always a good influx of new players to meet and recruit into the Empire. I had a ball showing the new guys the ropes, helping them level a bit. I had a great time training them up over a few days until they knew how to handle themselves on a "medium difficulty world" such like Dantooine. But Tatooine was bonafide dead in any town.
Lok, Dathomir, Dantooine, Yavin IV, showing no players after my expeditions there. No groups to be found.
With Trials of Obi-Wan, Mustafar was where one found the most players at the time (Nov-Dec 2005). But even then, the traffic of players at the starport / facility gave me no indication that many of the players were there. In the old days, starports at places such as Dathomir were loaded with people, groups coming in and out all the time. Not so in any place I visited since the NGE hit.
Crafters and Vendors. I compared the amount of crafted items being searchable from the Bazaars and actual visits to player vendors from the Pre-NGE days to the NGE. Nothing short of a disaster, especially for certain ones such as Weaponsmith. So few crafted items of any type are being sold. Even Armorsmiths, who can provide still useful goods to combat players, had very, very few items for sale, and the selection was poor.
One more thing about Weaponsmiths: In my opinion, SOE will never, ever allow Weaponsmiths to make viable, desirable weaponry. Why? The loot & reward based gaming that permeates the NGE-era of SWG. Most of the desired rewards and loot items out there are weapons. When I left the game, the general feel I got from the forums and from the few people I find in-game will want it that way. Development has gone 100% that way. Because of this, Weaponsmiths will not get schematics or updates to allow them to make great weapons that one would be proud to live and die with. Compared to the old, Pre-NGE days where Weaponsmiths and Armorsmiths were both absolutely essential for combat players to work with, it's a shame.
Superior Loot / Reward Weapons + Player Population that wants it + Devs that drive for it = No chance in hell that Weaponsmiths will ever craft great, desirable weapons
They might as well delete the aspect of Weaponsmithing altogether, and quit pretending like they're going to give it much needed love.
My account I let my Sister have. I introduced her to SWG in late Summer 2004. She saw me playing it all the time and I kept asking if she wanted to try it. No, she said, but she finally got curious enough to try. It was a bit to learn, especially back in the Pre-CU days. But eventually she became a better player than me in the late Pre-CU stages and onwards, since she also made her own account. More importantly, she was a die-hard Imperial just like I was.
I miss those days when I could log on with her and we'd do missions, using our "pets," namely the faction troopers. Storm Commandos were the best, and I on occasion would bring out my AT-ST, which I never lost. My Sister would get one also eventually, and not lose it.
Well, anyways, I left the game after the NGE. I let my Sister take over the account, so she has 2 of them. My old account still has my original character from 2004 and my Sister won't delete it. She even runs a few missions with him to ensure the maintenance fees are kept for my house, which was on a mesa Southeast of Mos Eisley.
I visit my Sister as much as I can. Since she still plays SWG, I do watch out of curiousity. She plays on Sunrunner now, and kept an alt on Ahazi to play with me when I was a player. She's an avid PVPer ever since I showed her the ropes in the last months of the Pre-CU days. She even made a mad rush to become a Jedi and even fully templated after I showed her how (I had no desire to be a Jedi... I was an Imperial Stormtrooper... but I taught her how to do it since I knew the game well). Sunrunner back in the day had a reputation for being relatively light in population compared to the behemoths like Bria and Ahazi. Many left even small Sunrunner. She did mention that a bunch transferred in from different servers into Sunrunner to make up for some of the shortfalls, but it's quite nowhere near the old numbers.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
i luled! epic!