Well I played SWG from the beta and absolutely fell in love with the game. It was completely star wars!! Then they made change after change and those half a dozen professions because 32. It was horrible but I endured and made jedi after 2 years of work only to have it utterly ruined less than half a year later by the NGE. I was mortified, horrified, angry and outraged. I went back to the game a few times but god it was like dustballs in the old west. no one!! Well about four days ago i was reading my 10th or so bulletin about knights of the old republic coming out and then hunted for ages to find a release date and saw that its expected fourth quarter 09 1st quarter 10 which means a year at least to wait. so i decided to try swg again. I was so happy i did. I can't remember why i was so angry anymore after such a long hiatus and i immediately asked some fellow 'elder' players what had ahcnged and talked and learned quite a bit was the same but a lot had been added, cards, collections, areas. and i started playing and its now been three days and im totally hooked. i had completely forgotten how cool areas like kashyyk are and the ryatt trail with the massive trees that go down four levels. my jedi who was once uber is rather weak and im having to get more gear to get him back. the cities are busiers, not as busy as launch but mos eisley is full enough to make it fun and players play until late at night which i like. im on chimaera - majere naj - and also the canteen is about 50% as busy as the busy days of corellia. also restus has been sacked and is now a wicked pvp area. all in all i think i will be enteratined for antoher six months getting my toon back up to par. its really great being back in the star wars world and enough people to make it fun again. its taking a lot to get the swing of things but i love playing my jedi again. i hope more vets return as it seems are in wait for the knights mmo to come around. majere naj ganks quad alpha (formerly) chimaera server -- this is my first post ever here because it was so important to squelch all the bad mouthing (which was rightfully deserved for what they did to our beloved game)
Really funny how every couple weeks someone pops on here out of nowhere with a low post count and "enlightens" us with the exact same story about how they are an old player that just came back and the game is amazing now... There seems to be some kind of pattern here...
Ive noticed that also but its happening on a more frequent basis now.... thing is why come to the vet forum and tell us people that have quit the game even as most recent as me and yes i do use the vet trials to try out the new horrible content. Why cant they post on the O-boards on how happy and great the game is? Viral marketing at its worst.....
Yeah - what is wrong with those people! Posting on a SWG forum saying they like a game! Naturally all the Vets who hate SWG are entitled to this forum on MMORPG so they can all agree how much they hate the game! Valid point!
/sarcasm off...
You people make me sick... dear god.
Disregard my previous post. You're obviously not a dispassionate observer, you're a current subscriber pissed off that people don't like your preferred game. The trial would be of no use to you.
Well I played SWG from the beta and absolutely fell in love with the game. It was completely star wars!! Then they made change after change and those half a dozen professions because 32. It was horrible but I endured and made jedi after 2 years of work only to have it utterly ruined less than half a year later by the NGE. I was mortified, horrified, angry and outraged. I went back to the game a few times but god it was like dustballs in the old west. no one!! Well about four days ago i was reading my 10th or so bulletin about knights of the old republic coming out and then hunted for ages to find a release date and saw that its expected fourth quarter 09 1st quarter 10 which means a year at least to wait. so i decided to try swg again. I was so happy i did. I can't remember why i was so angry anymore after such a long hiatus and i immediately asked some fellow 'elder' players what had ahcnged and talked and learned quite a bit was the same but a lot had been added, cards, collections, areas. and i started playing and its now been three days and im totally hooked. i had completely forgotten how cool areas like kashyyk are and the ryatt trail with the massive trees that go down four levels. my jedi who was once uber is rather weak and im having to get more gear to get him back. the cities are busiers, not as busy as launch but mos eisley is full enough to make it fun and players play until late at night which i like. im on chimaera - majere naj - and also the canteen is about 50% as busy as the busy days of corellia. also restus has been sacked and is now a wicked pvp area. all in all i think i will be enteratined for antoher six months getting my toon back up to par. its really great being back in the star wars world and enough people to make it fun again. its taking a lot to get the swing of things but i love playing my jedi again. i hope more vets return as it seems are in wait for the knights mmo to come around. majere naj ganks quad alpha (formerly) chimaera server -- this is my first post ever here because it was so important to squelch all the bad mouthing (which was rightfully deserved for what they did to our beloved game)
Really funny how every couple weeks someone pops on here out of nowhere with a low post count and "enlightens" us with the exact same story about how they are an old player that just came back and the game is amazing now... There seems to be some kind of pattern here...
Ive noticed that also but its happening on a more frequent basis now.... thing is why come to the vet forum and tell us people that have quit the game even as most recent as me and yes i do use the vet trials to try out the new horrible content. Why cant they post on the O-boards on how happy and great the game is? Viral marketing at its worst.....
Yeah - what is wrong with those people! Posting on a SWG forum saying they like a game! Naturally all the Vets who hate SWG are entitled to this forum on MMORPG so they can all agree how much they hate the game! Valid point!
/sarcasm off...
You people make me sick... dear god.
Well I would be more willing to believe they were genuine if I didn't know the game was such a huge steaming pile. And don't you wonder where all these people are coming from? I mean it isn't SWG, those servers are completely empty. Which would lead us to the assumption that it is the select few simpletons that actually somehow find enjoyment in that shadow of a game and must continually post about how great it is. And if this actually doesn't apply to the OP, well sorry, but he's an exception.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike Loved: Star Wars Galaxies Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
And you still seem to have no clue why I'm even posting here.
And lets assume you care nothing for the game nor want to see it shut down. Yet you're here telling everyone how empty and barren and worthless the game is.
I still don't understand what part of my post you can't figure out, since I still posted nowhere that SWG was like WoW, or that it was the reason for this particular post. I even repeated it countless times but I guess you set your mind to this one thing as your valid point for insulting me and claiming I got no clue what I'm talking about.
Lastly - I play LotRO,WAR,WoW and EQ2 at the moment. So no - SWG is not on my list nor will it ever be. But that you old "vets", if you are one, feel you own this forum is just sickening and pathetic.
I'm impressed though that your previous post was constructive and almost non-trollish apart from the fact that you had to insult me several times based on things you claim about me that I never wrote. You're headed one step in the right direction. You might soon learn to post full posts without insulting people too, while even being constructive and we can have a nice conversation about MMO's in general and the fail of WoW / AoC / WAR fanboys and haters that make out 90% of MMORPG.com's twisted core.
I've been quite capable of playing MMORPG's for 10 years without letting myself be influenced by people on forums who can't do anything but bash games, and I'll just enjoy the games I like as I've always done. I'll always be defending all games though from trolls, even if I like the game or not. I played EQ for 7 years. I don't play it anymore nor do I care about it, but when people start claiming it's a crap game, yet they play WoW themselves, I bring out my Bashbat. People are often clueless and spend way too much time degrading games they dislike than playing / enjoying games they like.
That's all I have to say. I'll leave you to your SWG forum now. I fear there's no chance for common sense to succeed in here.
Thanks for the Trial offer but I'll pass. SWG has nothing to offer me, that I can't already find in other games. I don't need everything in one game. I'm quite happy playing more than one MMO for diversity.
Well I would be more willing to believe they were genuine if I didn't know the game was such a huge steaming pile. And don't you wonder where all these people are coming from? I mean it isn't SWG, those servers are completely empty. Which would lead us to the assumption that it is the select few simpletons that actually somehow find enjoyment in that shadow of a game and must continually post about how great it is. And if this actually doesn't apply to the OP, well sorry, but he's an exception.
Fair enough. Just one question though and I'll be off your back. When was the last time you were online and checked the servers to see how many people are online? How empty were they? And define a "empty" server today? I'm almost afraid to say the word in case Obee jumps me again, but WoW server population is not comparable since SWG never saw those numbers anyways.
Reason I'm asking is cause I got no clue. I never installed the game so got no idea what kind of population people are wanting in SWG for it to be "valid".
You'd think SOE had pulled the plug if they had absolutely no subscribers or? We both know they're a hungry moneymachine, so can't be in SOE's interest to keep a game running with no people? Even I know SOE good enough to know they ain't that blind to a money loss.
@ Obee And you still seem to have no clue why I'm even posting here.
Nah, I get what you were trying to accomplish. It took a few posts, but you weren't able to keep up the facade. It came tumbling down when you started using the vernacular of these here forums (along with the OBoards).
A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well!
I played SWG from a couple months after launch up until last summer with only about 4 months of total break time in that time span (all during the NGE).
Why did I stick around? For some reason I honestly thought that the game would eventually revert back into a pre nge style system. Maybe not exactly pre nge, but something very close to it. Once I realize that was never going to happen (yeah...2 1/2 years of denial is bad huh?) I left and never looked back.
Pre NGE I had more fun that "work" (i even found solo group grinding fun because hell...I could socialize with 19 other people). Post NGE I felt like all I was doing was "work" with the occasional minor bits of fun (few and far between).
well i have to say im disappointed that it becomes a hurl of passions back and forth. but to give those really interested some idea of where i see the game after my fourth day back. mos eisely is the busiest port. i play usually between 7 pm uk time to about 2 am uk time. from about 7-midnight the cantina has i would say about 20-25 players in it most times getting buffs. the area around the port entrance has about 10-15. the bazaar area about 5 and then about 10-20 people running around. thats mos eisely.
the heroic encounters have come out and so i found if you join the heroic chat channel its the best way to find a group. these are all high level and difficult quests but SUPER fun. the hoth quest is awesome. you all start in at-sts and have to kill rebels (oh you can only go with your faction) then you gain entrance to the hoth rebel base and you have to slash your way through. i dont know if there is much strategy here besides being able to take down high level mobs really quickly which i suppose is the strategy you need. but i was rusty so did more following.
the other areas i found were quite busy were restus, which had about 10-15 people always there buffing up and going back into the city for pvp battling.
when i ventured out to mustafar to do quests i only noticed maybe 5 people on the base. same with dantoine. im not really completely familiar with the most popular areas now but tatooine seems busiest.
as to where the game is lacking that ive seen, i did a lot of combat yesterday and the level of strategy required is still less than pre-nge as a dps jedi im just concentrating more on maximizing my action points.
but yeah i would agree with the other poster above that said that sw is unique and thats good enough for some people. i dont think the game sucks and i dont think its the end all be all of mmo's i just made my initial post because when i got my jedi back and saw there were a lot more people around than six months after nge it was a nice feeling. its deifnitely not as busy as the height of the game, i would never say that but its busy enough for me to feel a part of it and not alone in the world, and the players are still quite cool (although there are more younger noob pwner types than pre-nge) but still vets that are easy to chat with.
the game is certainly not free but it is well worth the trial in my opinion to get a taste and see if its fun enough to come back and as i said earlier for me it is. also, to the poster who was curious about why people like me dont come back after a couple weeks. i have to say i would definitely repost as im as curious as you are about how i will like the game after say one month but so many posters here have said such one sidedly negative things that it doesnt really entice us to come back to be really constructive. if there were more posts that were and asked me pointed questions about my experience for the future i would aboslutely make a poitn to repost on how i feel later.
ah. i will add a negative. the biggest i have found so far coming back.
i play ddo and i LOVE how easy it is to search for a group or put a group together. its a simple panel and it tells you which groups are forming and what classes they need and what quest they are doing. i really hate this system in swg. it is not clear at all how to easily find a group. i had to find someone to tell me to join a chat channel which isnt all that easy. but that was more for heroic quests. i just wanted to find people to hunt force sensitive jedi on dant for holos for the collection quest or do mustafar quests for better experience and trying to find a group for these is really really hard because i dont know how to communicate to everyone on the server that thats what im doing without spamming /say messages and running around which i remember was the way on coronet back when the game opened. thats the biggest pitfall im finding so far.
I recently went back to SWG for about a month, and I really enjoyed the time I did play. I spent most of it entertaining folk with large fireworks shows in Mos Eisley.
And yes, many people watched. Several would come out of the cantina from hearing the booms outside. I was on Bria.
The only reason I stopped playing was because its more or less the same as any other MMO out there. Grind to end-level, find a group of others and grind end-level things. So I quested for a new flavor of the month mmo instead.
well i have to say im disappointed that it becomes a hurl of passions back and forth. but to give those really interested some idea of where i see the game after my fourth day back. mos eisely is the busiest port. i play usually between 7 pm uk time to about 2 am uk time. from about 7-midnight the cantina has i would say about 20-25 players in it most times getting buffs. the area around the port entrance has about 10-15. the bazaar area about 5 and then about 10-20 people running around. thats mos eisely. the heroic encounters have come out and so i found if you join the heroic chat channel its the best way to find a group. these are all high level and difficult quests but SUPER fun. the hoth quest is awesome. you all start in at-sts and have to kill rebels (oh you can only go with your faction) then you gain entrance to the hoth rebel base and you have to slash your way through. i dont know if there is much strategy here besides being able to take down high level mobs really quickly which i suppose is the strategy you need. but i was rusty so did more following. the other areas i found were quite busy were restus, which had about 10-15 people always there buffing up and going back into the city for pvp battling. when i ventured out to mustafar to do quests i only noticed maybe 5 people on the base. same with dantoine. im not really completely familiar with the most popular areas now but tatooine seems busiest. as to where the game is lacking that ive seen, i did a lot of combat yesterday and the level of strategy required is still less than pre-nge as a dps jedi im just concentrating more on maximizing my action points. but yeah i would agree with the other poster above that said that sw is unique and thats good enough for some people. i dont think the game sucks and i dont think its the end all be all of mmo's i just made my initial post because when i got my jedi back and saw there were a lot more people around than six months after nge it was a nice feeling. its deifnitely not as busy as the height of the game, i would never say that but its busy enough for me to feel a part of it and not alone in the world, and the players are still quite cool (although there are more younger noob pwner types than pre-nge) but still vets that are easy to chat with. the game is certainly not free but it is well worth the trial in my opinion to get a taste and see if its fun enough to come back and as i said earlier for me it is. also, to the poster who was curious about why people like me dont come back after a couple weeks. i have to say i would definitely repost as im as curious as you are about how i will like the game after say one month but so many posters here have said such one sidedly negative things that it doesnt really entice us to come back to be really constructive. if there were more posts that were and asked me pointed questions about my experience for the future i would aboslutely make a poitn to repost on how i feel later.
Good post, and the number of players you seen in the Cantina and Mos Eisley are the same number i have seen everyday since i came back 2 month ago.
Idont know how thoose numbers compares to Pre-cu and i dont care, its enough to make me have the feeling of a living town. Im a trader so havent really seen thoose other places you mentioned, but iam also leveling an Commander and currently doing the Legacy quests so i will be there soon enough:)
As i have sad before, i have been trying and playing for quite some time many of the other "big" mmorgs out there, WAR, Tabula Rasa, Guild Wars, a tiny bit of WoW,Entropia universe, LOTRO, Saga of Ryzom, COH,COV. You can compare every game to each other and everyone of them will have something that makes just that game better then one other, But i feel that i do get more gameplay with SWG, and that is the most important for me.
As someone whos been in game since beta, except for a 9 mos hiatus after NGE hit, I can absolutely guarantee that many, many vets have come back and enjoyed the game so much that they are still playing today. As you noticed, the cities aren't as full as it was at launch and shortly thereafter, but the major poulation centers do not have that empty feel that they did when I came back after my NGE-imposed break.
Again, it all depends on the server - you're lucky that you played on a server that became one of the core servers.
Regardless of SOEs past transgressions, SWG remains the most sandboxy of games available that support the widest range of playstyles. I barely launch into space, I craft very litle these days, i have no idea what to do with the TCG, and I dont RP. However, when pvp is slow and pve isnt doing it for me, I know I've got several options to fall back on.
Vets, this isnt the game you left and it never will be - but it IS a fun game.
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
I've been back in SWG for a few months now, and I'm enjoying myself. It's not the same as the old days, but there's enough things to do to keep me busy.
The sad truth is that I've gotten tired of all the other games out there. SWG has some good features that I've yet to see replicated in any other game. Nostalgia brought me back, and those features will keep me for awhile.
SWG has its problems, and always will. Calling it crap is a matter of opinion, Compared to some other, more popular games out there right now, I'd consider SWG a gem. For me, it is a place to pass the time while I wait for something of quality to be made again. I haven't felt fully at home in a game since EQ and pre-NGE SWG.
For anyone who may be reading this forum who wants to try SWG, do it. Try the free trial. Get a feel for the game. Don't be fooled one way or another. Some will paint it much better than it is and some will paint it much worse than it is.
The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. It is my opinion that SWG is not worth paying to play. Most seem to agree with me. I will admit that it functions much better than it did in November of 2005 and there is more to do.
However, core systems like combat and the economy are broken to this day and likely cannot be fixed. Combat changes are not suited for the engine, that is not easy fix and SOE isn't going to spend the resources to do so. It isn't worth it.
Crafting is broken by the CU/NGE. Plus, the game is so old and so few people have been playing for a long time that the economy suffers from hyper-inflation. Loot drops have also taken their toll. While it isn't nearly what it was, crafting is still better in SWG than in most games.
So taking all that into account the game is offered for free and I would advise any newcomer to take advantage of that offer.
For anyone who may be reading this forum who wants to try SWG, do it. Try the free trial. Get a feel for the game. Don't be fooled one way or another. Some will paint it much better than it is and some will paint it much worse than it is. The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle.
That is about as accurate as it gets and the only way to know is to try it for yourself.
Altho much of the issue is people who paint a picture (mostly negative) do so because they paid for and played a different game.
If you never played the game pre-cu you have no reference point.
However, since the game is what it is.. what people think of it now is all that really matters. I actually wonder what someone who plays the game for the first time thinks. When they get to some of the planets that are covered with "ghost towns" or the ghost towns that are missing large chunks from the house pakcup.. yet still cover most of the planet.
Do they have any concept that the area used to be packed with players... or is it just annoying because they can't place a house.
Even if you don't argue about the game mechanics.. would someone that plays the game for the first time today... even be able to imagine how many people used to be in the cities.. in the cantinas?
That's why I can't play ^^ It makes me to depressed that I know how those things used to be (gameplay or the mechanics of it.. aren't even a factor with this issue).
If you never played the game pre-cu you have no reference point.
If the NGE was a good game then that would be fine but just saying that people will like the game because they never played it when it was actually fun is a bit misleading.
Sure it's worse for people that played pre-cu and have a reference point but anybody in the reality based community will see the NGE for the mess that it is regardless of whether or not they played the earlier version.
Comments
Really funny how every couple weeks someone pops on here out of nowhere with a low post count and "enlightens" us with the exact same story about how they are an old player that just came back and the game is amazing now... There seems to be some kind of pattern here...
Ive noticed that also but its happening on a more frequent basis now.... thing is why come to the vet forum and tell us people that have quit the game even as most recent as me and yes i do use the vet trials to try out the new horrible content. Why cant they post on the O-boards on how happy and great the game is? Viral marketing at its worst.....
Yeah - what is wrong with those people! Posting on a SWG forum saying they like a game! Naturally all the Vets who hate SWG are entitled to this forum on MMORPG so they can all agree how much they hate the game! Valid point!
/sarcasm off...
You people make me sick... dear god.
Disregard my previous post. You're obviously not a dispassionate observer, you're a current subscriber pissed off that people don't like your preferred game. The trial would be of no use to you.
Really funny how every couple weeks someone pops on here out of nowhere with a low post count and "enlightens" us with the exact same story about how they are an old player that just came back and the game is amazing now... There seems to be some kind of pattern here...
Ive noticed that also but its happening on a more frequent basis now.... thing is why come to the vet forum and tell us people that have quit the game even as most recent as me and yes i do use the vet trials to try out the new horrible content. Why cant they post on the O-boards on how happy and great the game is? Viral marketing at its worst.....
Yeah - what is wrong with those people! Posting on a SWG forum saying they like a game! Naturally all the Vets who hate SWG are entitled to this forum on MMORPG so they can all agree how much they hate the game! Valid point!
/sarcasm off...
You people make me sick... dear god.
Well I would be more willing to believe they were genuine if I didn't know the game was such a huge steaming pile. And don't you wonder where all these people are coming from? I mean it isn't SWG, those servers are completely empty. Which would lead us to the assumption that it is the select few simpletons that actually somehow find enjoyment in that shadow of a game and must continually post about how great it is. And if this actually doesn't apply to the OP, well sorry, but he's an exception.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
Glad your back have fun and don't listen to the whiners still hoping for a rollback that will never come.
Ajax
@ Obee
And you still seem to have no clue why I'm even posting here.
And lets assume you care nothing for the game nor want to see it shut down. Yet you're here telling everyone how empty and barren and worthless the game is.
I still don't understand what part of my post you can't figure out, since I still posted nowhere that SWG was like WoW, or that it was the reason for this particular post. I even repeated it countless times but I guess you set your mind to this one thing as your valid point for insulting me and claiming I got no clue what I'm talking about.
Lastly - I play LotRO,WAR,WoW and EQ2 at the moment. So no - SWG is not on my list nor will it ever be. But that you old "vets", if you are one, feel you own this forum is just sickening and pathetic.
I'm impressed though that your previous post was constructive and almost non-trollish apart from the fact that you had to insult me several times based on things you claim about me that I never wrote. You're headed one step in the right direction. You might soon learn to post full posts without insulting people too, while even being constructive and we can have a nice conversation about MMO's in general and the fail of WoW / AoC / WAR fanboys and haters that make out 90% of MMORPG.com's twisted core.
I've been quite capable of playing MMORPG's for 10 years without letting myself be influenced by people on forums who can't do anything but bash games, and I'll just enjoy the games I like as I've always done. I'll always be defending all games though from trolls, even if I like the game or not. I played EQ for 7 years. I don't play it anymore nor do I care about it, but when people start claiming it's a crap game, yet they play WoW themselves, I bring out my Bashbat. People are often clueless and spend way too much time degrading games they dislike than playing / enjoying games they like.
That's all I have to say. I'll leave you to your SWG forum now. I fear there's no chance for common sense to succeed in here.
Thanks for the Trial offer but I'll pass. SWG has nothing to offer me, that I can't already find in other games. I don't need everything in one game. I'm quite happy playing more than one MMO for diversity.
Enjoy your day Obee, and happy Xmas / New Year.
Fair enough. Just one question though and I'll be off your back. When was the last time you were online and checked the servers to see how many people are online? How empty were they? And define a "empty" server today? I'm almost afraid to say the word in case Obee jumps me again, but WoW server population is not comparable since SWG never saw those numbers anyways.
Reason I'm asking is cause I got no clue. I never installed the game so got no idea what kind of population people are wanting in SWG for it to be "valid".
You'd think SOE had pulled the plug if they had absolutely no subscribers or? We both know they're a hungry moneymachine, so can't be in SOE's interest to keep a game running with no people? Even I know SOE good enough to know they ain't that blind to a money loss.
Nah, I get what you were trying to accomplish. It took a few posts, but you weren't able to keep up the facade. It came tumbling down when you started using the vernacular of these here forums (along with the OBoards).
A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well!
I played SWG from a couple months after launch up until last summer with only about 4 months of total break time in that time span (all during the NGE).
Why did I stick around? For some reason I honestly thought that the game would eventually revert back into a pre nge style system. Maybe not exactly pre nge, but something very close to it. Once I realize that was never going to happen (yeah...2 1/2 years of denial is bad huh?) I left and never looked back.
Pre NGE I had more fun that "work" (i even found solo group grinding fun because hell...I could socialize with 19 other people). Post NGE I felt like all I was doing was "work" with the occasional minor bits of fun (few and far between).
Ah, thx god for the Block-button:D And funny that it is the same people as i always see write the same shit:D
Hihi they are funny though, so i guess i will Unblock theme now and then and see what they have wrote:)
well i have to say im disappointed that it becomes a hurl of passions back and forth. but to give those really interested some idea of where i see the game after my fourth day back. mos eisely is the busiest port. i play usually between 7 pm uk time to about 2 am uk time. from about 7-midnight the cantina has i would say about 20-25 players in it most times getting buffs. the area around the port entrance has about 10-15. the bazaar area about 5 and then about 10-20 people running around. thats mos eisely.
the heroic encounters have come out and so i found if you join the heroic chat channel its the best way to find a group. these are all high level and difficult quests but SUPER fun. the hoth quest is awesome. you all start in at-sts and have to kill rebels (oh you can only go with your faction) then you gain entrance to the hoth rebel base and you have to slash your way through. i dont know if there is much strategy here besides being able to take down high level mobs really quickly which i suppose is the strategy you need. but i was rusty so did more following.
the other areas i found were quite busy were restus, which had about 10-15 people always there buffing up and going back into the city for pvp battling.
when i ventured out to mustafar to do quests i only noticed maybe 5 people on the base. same with dantoine. im not really completely familiar with the most popular areas now but tatooine seems busiest.
as to where the game is lacking that ive seen, i did a lot of combat yesterday and the level of strategy required is still less than pre-nge as a dps jedi im just concentrating more on maximizing my action points.
but yeah i would agree with the other poster above that said that sw is unique and thats good enough for some people. i dont think the game sucks and i dont think its the end all be all of mmo's i just made my initial post because when i got my jedi back and saw there were a lot more people around than six months after nge it was a nice feeling. its deifnitely not as busy as the height of the game, i would never say that but its busy enough for me to feel a part of it and not alone in the world, and the players are still quite cool (although there are more younger noob pwner types than pre-nge) but still vets that are easy to chat with.
the game is certainly not free but it is well worth the trial in my opinion to get a taste and see if its fun enough to come back and as i said earlier for me it is. also, to the poster who was curious about why people like me dont come back after a couple weeks. i have to say i would definitely repost as im as curious as you are about how i will like the game after say one month but so many posters here have said such one sidedly negative things that it doesnt really entice us to come back to be really constructive. if there were more posts that were and asked me pointed questions about my experience for the future i would aboslutely make a poitn to repost on how i feel later.
ah. i will add a negative. the biggest i have found so far coming back.
i play ddo and i LOVE how easy it is to search for a group or put a group together. its a simple panel and it tells you which groups are forming and what classes they need and what quest they are doing. i really hate this system in swg. it is not clear at all how to easily find a group. i had to find someone to tell me to join a chat channel which isnt all that easy. but that was more for heroic quests. i just wanted to find people to hunt force sensitive jedi on dant for holos for the collection quest or do mustafar quests for better experience and trying to find a group for these is really really hard because i dont know how to communicate to everyone on the server that thats what im doing without spamming /say messages and running around which i remember was the way on coronet back when the game opened. thats the biggest pitfall im finding so far.
This whole post is just Un-Fucking-Real.
Let us all drink a steaming cup of reality, k?
I recently went back to SWG for about a month, and I really enjoyed the time I did play. I spent most of it entertaining folk with large fireworks shows in Mos Eisley.
And yes, many people watched. Several would come out of the cantina from hearing the booms outside. I was on Bria.
The only reason I stopped playing was because its more or less the same as any other MMO out there. Grind to end-level, find a group of others and grind end-level things. So I quested for a new flavor of the month mmo instead.
Good post, and the number of players you seen in the Cantina and Mos Eisley are the same number i have seen everyday since i came back 2 month ago.
Idont know how thoose numbers compares to Pre-cu and i dont care, its enough to make me have the feeling of a living town. Im a trader so havent really seen thoose other places you mentioned, but iam also leveling an Commander and currently doing the Legacy quests so i will be there soon enough:)
As i have sad before, i have been trying and playing for quite some time many of the other "big" mmorgs out there, WAR, Tabula Rasa, Guild Wars, a tiny bit of WoW,Entropia universe, LOTRO, Saga of Ryzom, COH,COV. You can compare every game to each other and everyone of them will have something that makes just that game better then one other, But i feel that i do get more gameplay with SWG, and that is the most important for me.
aren't you glad you gave it another shot?
As someone whos been in game since beta, except for a 9 mos hiatus after NGE hit, I can absolutely guarantee that many, many vets have come back and enjoyed the game so much that they are still playing today. As you noticed, the cities aren't as full as it was at launch and shortly thereafter, but the major poulation centers do not have that empty feel that they did when I came back after my NGE-imposed break.
Again, it all depends on the server - you're lucky that you played on a server that became one of the core servers.
Regardless of SOEs past transgressions, SWG remains the most sandboxy of games available that support the widest range of playstyles. I barely launch into space, I craft very litle these days, i have no idea what to do with the TCG, and I dont RP. However, when pvp is slow and pve isnt doing it for me, I know I've got several options to fall back on.
Vets, this isnt the game you left and it never will be - but it IS a fun game.
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I've been back in SWG for a few months now, and I'm enjoying myself. It's not the same as the old days, but there's enough things to do to keep me busy.
The sad truth is that I've gotten tired of all the other games out there. SWG has some good features that I've yet to see replicated in any other game. Nostalgia brought me back, and those features will keep me for awhile.
SWG has its problems, and always will. Calling it crap is a matter of opinion, Compared to some other, more popular games out there right now, I'd consider SWG a gem. For me, it is a place to pass the time while I wait for something of quality to be made again. I haven't felt fully at home in a game since EQ and pre-NGE SWG.
~grayknyght
For anyone who may be reading this forum who wants to try SWG, do it. Try the free trial. Get a feel for the game. Don't be fooled one way or another. Some will paint it much better than it is and some will paint it much worse than it is.
The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. It is my opinion that SWG is not worth paying to play. Most seem to agree with me. I will admit that it functions much better than it did in November of 2005 and there is more to do.
However, core systems like combat and the economy are broken to this day and likely cannot be fixed. Combat changes are not suited for the engine, that is not easy fix and SOE isn't going to spend the resources to do so. It isn't worth it.
Crafting is broken by the CU/NGE. Plus, the game is so old and so few people have been playing for a long time that the economy suffers from hyper-inflation. Loot drops have also taken their toll. While it isn't nearly what it was, crafting is still better in SWG than in most games.
So taking all that into account the game is offered for free and I would advise any newcomer to take advantage of that offer.
Tecmo Bowl.
That is about as accurate as it gets and the only way to know is to try it for yourself.
Altho much of the issue is people who paint a picture (mostly negative) do so because they paid for and played a different game.
If you never played the game pre-cu you have no reference point.
However, since the game is what it is.. what people think of it now is all that really matters. I actually wonder what someone who plays the game for the first time thinks. When they get to some of the planets that are covered with "ghost towns" or the ghost towns that are missing large chunks from the house pakcup.. yet still cover most of the planet.
Do they have any concept that the area used to be packed with players... or is it just annoying because they can't place a house.
Even if you don't argue about the game mechanics.. would someone that plays the game for the first time today... even be able to imagine how many people used to be in the cities.. in the cantinas?
That's why I can't play ^^ It makes me to depressed that I know how those things used to be (gameplay or the mechanics of it.. aren't even a factor with this issue).
If the NGE was a good game then that would be fine but just saying that people will like the game because they never played it when it was actually fun is a bit misleading.
Sure it's worse for people that played pre-cu and have a reference point but anybody in the reality based community will see the NGE for the mess that it is regardless of whether or not they played the earlier version.