Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in
admriker444
Member Posts: 1,526
Thats right, one of SOE's harshest critics returns. The exciting changes seem to finally have this game going where it belongs..to the top.
Latest fixes Ive seen or noticed in the 7 days since returning...
Lag - completely gone. Days after JTL launched the lag was awful...been fixed since then cause ive experienced zero lag even in Coronet at peak hrs.
rubberbanding - gone except for one spot, everytime I get to the same spot on dathomir (going to and from village) i bounce back a bit. Otherwise, one of SWG's more annoying bugs is gone.
stability - Not a single crash, even after a major publish. Knowing SOE's past history, each previous publish before always meant 2-3 days of major problems. Not this time, running smoothly afyer latest.
Mob spawns - my main complaint previously was the total lack of spawns and response from devs. SOE in latest patch revved up spawns and timers on static sites. Places now are less camped because the spawns are faster. Lord Nyax spawns every 30 min now instead of hrs between. Ancient Krayts are running rampant on Tatooine, more than enough to go around and keep kill stealing down.
With the combat revamp coming, I see SWG possibly becoming the #1 mmorpg on the market. However the issue is will any old vets like me give SWG one last chance ?
Comments
after about a year off from the game (give or take a month or two), i came back a couple weeks ago.
i've got to tell you, i'm impressed.
i left the game TOTALLY sick of it. i mean, to the point that i would actually get mad everytime i logged in (not like serial killer mad, just annoyed).
i came back to find the spirit of star wars a bit rekindled. sure, its not "true" to the world (there seem to be a lot of jedi), but seeing how the world itself isn't true, i can't justify being that fanatical about it.
it seems the majority of the part of the community that drove me insane, had moved on to ruin the next batch of mmos, leaving this one for dead. all the better
the game itself is less buggy, and seems to run much better on the same system i ran it on before. and with the new dev team structure, since i've been back, i have zero complaints. the devs were my #1 issue when i left last year.
granted, the still forever promised CU is still not here, but (and i never thought i'd say this) based on what i've seen, i have faith it will be done right. the devs are finally trying to take this game in the direction it should have gone in the beginning:
a war, where every combat profession served a different need. key word = WAR.
i look forward to seeing how all this will be implemented, and for the first time in this game, don't expect a letdown.
i'm right with you riker!
I really hope that *insert game name here* will be the first game to ever live up to all of its pre-release promises, maintain a manageable hype level and have a clean release. Just don't expect me to hold my breath.
Also I forgot to mention the economy. When I left, it was a complete disaster. Shortage of spawns had items very rare. Top that off with bilions and billions of credits floating around from solo/group missions and credit dupes and it was a recipe for defeat for any new player.
Now things are getting towards normalcy. With spawns fixed, rare items like flawless krayt pearls no longer sell for 10+ million credits. Today I saw a set of 4 sell for 10 million (2.5 million each). Big drop in prices there ! I also see skill tapes becoming much more common and therefore cheaper. Before a +13 or higher tape sold for 10-20 million easily. Those prices are dropping rapidly since static spawns like Lord Nyax now spawn every 20 minutes.
Demand is also going downward finally thanks to a few things...one the majority of jedi dont need armor anymore or uber krayt enhanced items since they dont use it. Also anti-decay kits mean many dont need to consistently replace that helmet with +18 rifle speed tape in it or more pearls to replace in a lightsaber from decay. And demand isnt what it was since players cant grind out 10 million credits in a week without solo/group missions (nerfed). Right away I saw blue rug adhesives werent selling for 2+ million credits anymore (250k). In fact all the junk loot kit items were way down in price. rugs that sold for 3 million now go for 750k.
Overall things are looking great. I got a sneak peak at the changes for the GCW and Im loving them also (see forums). This game might end up being the best mmorpg out there, just hope people give it a second chance or nobody willever know how much better it is compared to the so-called champs WoW or EQ2.
It's always going to suck no matter how many good features it has because it doesn't embody the essence of Star Wars. I'm a SW Nerd, I've been RPing Star Wars for like 10 years, seen the movies, read the books and comics, I've designed my own SW games including my own SW MUDs, and I spent over a year on SWG. It has never, in this time really embodied a SW experience. For a game centered around the GCW in its .....er..storyline? It's the most sorry attempt ever made. Even with all the IMMENSE creative liberties aside -- the game offers no continuing storyline whatsoever. The game hasn't change in terms of its story content sicne day 1 basically. We had the silly Cries of Alderaan nonsense, and then nothing, spent most of the year doing damage control on game breaking exploits and debugging horrifying and glaring bugs stemming from beta.
They're taking the game on the right track in terms of gameplay mechanics and features at the moment, but whether or not Gordon Walton steps up to the plate about infusing a Star Wars experience into this game is where its future success is hinged on. The crowd that just played it because it was the hot tamale on the market has moved on as they always do. All thats left are players who cant let go, those who were previously too deluded to notice the games flaws, and Star Wars fans clutching at a hope that the game will give them a SW experience (or for those who are crazy enough to believe a SW experience = the appearance of Stormtroopers and whatnot)
This games only hope is if it can bring SW into it (not back into it, because it was never there to begin with) -- it needs to draw on what should have been its biggest key to success, the massive pool of Star Wars fans looking for a definitive virtual SW experience. Most of which have alienated this software, due to the reasons I mention above. (Trust me I've spent more time trying to convince them to try SWG than I have trying to get people to try MXO [sidenote: Im a MUCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH bigger fan of SW than I am of the Matrix])
Ever find it ironic the most lethal weapons in the game were two of the most notoriously non lethal weapons in the SW universe? A stun baton and a jawa ION rifle.
Their dev team is simply inept, they lack vision, and have blatant disregard for SW Continuity. Both in their utilization of Jedi (of course this deserves a mention) and the way they've raped the rest of the storyline. (Geonosian Cave on YAVIN IV? Wtf) Their half ass attempts at trying to create a lil SW context through how they convey the latest patch updates on the loading screen in a quasi "In Character" manner adds more salt to the wound.
Prior to leaving the game there was a FRS update which rolled back all Jedi to rank 0. This was conveyed on the loading screen as a encrypted Alliance transmission saying the Jedi Council has desolved and restarted itself or somesuch. Funny -- the Jedi Council never existedi n this timeline. In fact the entire SW trilogy was basically a story about the galaxy's future hinged on the success or failure of one lone Jedi, the last of the Jedi, the last hope.
If you so easily can acknowledge there is not only one Jedi, but a whole damn council. Kind of rips the context right out doesn't it? Prequel content is prevalent in SWG -- which makes no sense to me because Prequel stuff sells well even if it sucks (read: SW Bounty Hunter) they could have just designed the MMO around the prequel, put all the prequel garbage in they wanted and sold tons (they sold tons anyways, but not anymore.)
Lets not forget that like 90% of the planets in the game don't even belong in it. They should have just went and used the homeworld for each race in the game as the planets. Dathomir? Hi, its under Imperial Blockade, and has absolutely no reason to be travelled to by Joe Average. Oh, ofcourse hes there to grind rancors. Tatooine was rarely frequented, was wayyy too outer-rim. Corellias fine. Naboo I can live with. Endor is a big wtf, who the hell would want to go to Endor? It again, has the damn Death Star II in orbit there, under Imperial control shouldn't be openly accessible. Just so much nonsense.
Even mechanically the game is a failure -- (they acknowledge this with the whole notion of a Combat 'Upgrade') -- many professions to this day are still useless (read: Ranger? Smuggler?) geez..I could mak a laundry list and lets not even discuss Jump to Lightspeed.
Yeah, you keep playing SWG Admriker. Enjoy cantina dancing in hawtpants. What a Star Wars experience...
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, George Lucas never envisioned this day.
P.S. Lets not forget the massive retarded naems like Darth Rimjob and Cockbacca (I actually saw both these names at launch, obviousoly the name filter has been upgraded since then but its worth mentioning)
ehm.., Think u'd missed something
"Experiance the greatest Saga Ever told"
"Yours!"
Blawrf
I missed a lot but the res of the board could likely fill in the rest :P
As all you lurkers, and readers, and posters can now see....
Me and admriker444 are really the same person! Muhahahaaaa LOLOL!
"Just when I think I'm OUT...."
Dude, based on your actions you never ever were out. LOL! *rolleyes*
hehe...well actually I was pretty sure I was done this last time (3+ months ago). Spawns were broken and not working. JTL was going to be priority over revamp and the community was a bit too content for me. All the so-called whiners demanding for changes had finally left and I felt like I was the last beta tester around asking for things to get fixed. So I gave up, deleted SWG from my PC (never did that previously) and signed up for any beta i could.
I tried EQ2 and right away saw some things that it didnt have that SWG did. Where were the npc merchants I could hire to sell my goods like in SWG ? Why was my house some itty bitty apartment and instanced (yuck) ? I discovered my template I chose wasnt that great for solo play (well none are actuallly) and wasnt really sought after by groups. Again, I though gee in SWG I could just dump my prof like a job and do another one. I quit after 3 weeks of boredom and grinding.
I then tried WoW. Fun game, lots of neat quests to do. Saw many friends from SWG there and we all got into the same guild. However, after reaching lvl 56 (60 is max) I thought okay what else is there to do ? With SWG I always found some aorta goal to attain, whether it was getting loot for RIS Armor or trying to loot BH armor, etc I had something to do at the end-game when my toon's prof was set. The game was great like COH was but lacks the social aspects and other things. Combat can only take a game so far.
I got into beta of Matrix, talk about a bad game. It had none of the great features of SWG. This game made me gratful for SWG. I quit after 2 weeks into it and now get to wait for my preorder box to come in the mail because gamestop wont let me cancel it (cause i received beta key)
I still wasnt convinced to try SWG at that point. It wasnt even on my radar. Then a friend of mine at work was playing it. He told me how Sony had hired new staff, basically doubling them and were working on stuff. Then I saw the notes for publish 13 and was sold. The game is truly great now and just wait till the GCW and revamp. Its going to bring back some great pvp action and make the game feel a lot more like Star Wars. Like I said before though, I just hope the old beta vets give it another shot
He has a hard on for crafting and dancing and hes come to the realization no MMORPGs in the not too distant future will be coming out to truly support this endeavor of his. So he goes back to SWG so he can click click click his life away crafting shit, or dance in a cantina wearing pink hawtpants with wings. Because its 'oh so star wars'
It's not the game thats good -- it simply fits his interests, which is fine but no amount of his preaching is going to change anyoens minds. Many of us have been on the SWG train and we're not getting back on. I /AM/ coming back on a GameCard after the Combat Upgrade. I owe it to myself to see what I basically paid 1 1/2 years for but never got, im just not paying in the interim.
I also have come back to swg after seeing the enhancements, i played for about 1 year, then left right before JTL came out, and yes i am impressed and haveing fun again! woohoo! I am uber excited about the combat revamp too
)
-=<VlaDrak>=-
www.sugarfist.com
Yeah because SOE's idea of challenging NPCs is increase their HAM :P
P.S. Spawning NPCs so players can zerg kill them doesnt = content. It's a cop out attempt at it. It changes absolutely nothing of the story and if no one attacked them they'd despawn eventually, theyh ave no mission, they are simply there for everyone to own. And it doesn't show that the improvements are great just because you went back. Many of the latest improvements are good but not game changing, nor has the community bounced back. (Population has dropped in sharp spikes) It just shows you need to play a MMO and this is the only one that can provide you with dancing shoes.
Dude lighten up. It's a game you don't like it, we get it. We know the game has issues, they know the games has issues, and the Dev's know the game has issues. They are taking steps to fix those issues.
Be skeptical? Absolutely with the track record so far, you'd be silly not to be very skeptical, but you're just down right negative. More things have come out in the last few months than have come out in the last year since the release, but you still refuse to admit that SOE MIGHT have seen the light.
What comes across in your posts is that SOE can't do anything right. They could force the second coming, and you'd still find something to complain about.
SOE tried something new, they tried giving the players the tools to create their own content. It didn't work, most players hated it, so now they are taking steps to fix it. You never know, I mean if you go to DDO online, people are trying everything they can think of to try to get Turbine to accept player created content, so why are they excited about the prospecft of it, but the people who play SWG think SOE copped out by not adding much official content? It was a gamble, it failed, the last few months have proven they are at least trying to fix things, and have earned them, in my eyes at least, a little slack.
Sygmas, if you look back at my previous critical comments you'd see how angry I was as well at SOE. I was totally disgusted at the wasted potential. However, even I who was so jaded have seen the light and hell yes it was good. The game is so much improved and getting better with each publish.
One of the chief complaints was lack of a civil war. Now devs are giving it to us. Tonight there was an actual battle on a battlefield on corellia and probably had 100 players total there going at it.
Futher down the line, another promise from beta is gonna occurr. Players wil actually be able to change control of cities and planets based on battles. Conquer enough bases and control of that planet will belong to your side ! Too cool, and will give total meaning and purpose to the war.
If I can give SWG a second chance then surely anyone can and should. The game went from a 4 to a 9 in my opinion and i see 10 soon.
Admriker -- even if the game was as broken as it was when I quit, if it was Star Wars I'd still be there. It's of no concern to me about the game mechanics, I am that much of a SW Nerd I will buy it and continue to pay for it if it were just a genuine SW experience. For me it both lacked in the mechanics / design department and was totally devoid of a SW experience.
I just want it to go away already so maybe in a few years from now someone good can score the SW license and developed a much better SW mmo. Because I don't see them saving this one. Look how much capital theyp ut into EQ2, while good on many levels, it suffers so many simple design flaws. I just don't think SOE can hack it anymore. (If ever) The only innovative / well designed games I've played are both City of Heroes and Matrix Online. Both are a combination of a wealthy publisher and a small / moderate developing studio.
I think thats the formula for success. A patron publishing studio willing to drop the capital on the ideas of a studio that still has vision. SOE is all corporate.
Just because you don't like something doesn't make it a flaw. You think Matrix and CoH are well designed mmo's, I think CoH is a single player game they make you pay monthly for, and since Matrix is still in beta and I did agree to an NDA, I won't get into the pile of heaping dung I think that game is.
I'm not saying that to be argumentative (you can look back on my posts about CoH, they've been pretty consistant, and I've hinted that I think Matrix is crap) just people's taste differ.
What would make it more SW in your opinion? Some say that Wookiees shouldn't be Imps, or aliens shouldn't be Imp officeres etc, but this was nixed for game play. City of Heroes did the same thing. If you pick a Natural background that is supposed to represent a normal human that trained themselves. So how can a normal human train themselves to shoot fire from thier hands? In the begining each origin would limit the choice of powers you had. Now anyone can be anything.
I have to say I agree with sygmas as you can probably tell by my moniker alone I too love all things star wars it's just that this game isn't star wars and never was.
If you want to have jedi running through the streets of coronet it can't be set in this time period. I know you just can't hear that one enough..... They put it in this time period because that is what it took to sell games. They tried to have thier cake and eat it too and it worked for a while but the lack of a GCW in the GCW timeframe and an overabundance of Jedi where there should be about five total was ludacris.
I couldn't buy into it anymore and without that the game mechanics which were faulty in thier own right I I paid too long just trying to wait it out thinking this next patch is going to be the one the combat revamp is going to be the one. It would take quite a bit to get me to try it again. I doubt I ever will.
I love star wars always have but I hate galaxies. JMO so no offense if it's your thing good gaming!
Porkins .. play in one of the many roleplayers only player cities on Starsider. Suspension of disbelief will come much easier there ! However, no one can guarantee that you will never see the things you dislike ... which is simply impossible in any MMORPG.
Have fun
Erillion
I played on Starsider from launch till December 04. Thats my main server, my home. RP sucks on Starsider -- the only community in ALL OF STAR WARS GALAXIES to pull off an incredibly (and I mean REALLY really great) RP community was/is The Mos Eisley Community @ Europe-Chimaera.
(They're currently at www.mosentha.net or .com I forget)
Not sure how active the community is now, but I was there are its peak and it was a REAL REAL Star Wars Experience. I loved it. But the Euro hours made it hard to meet up with people really.
Anywho, Starsider RP is laughable at best. 75% of the RP community are neutral/crime RPers. 15% are Rebel RPers who dont RP as Rebels they are just factioned that way, and are 'sympathetic' to the Rebellion, I.E. no Rebel military players really. Then you have a small amount of Imperial RPers generally in the same boat, and a few who actually at least try to RP really Imperial -- but of course it doesn't work. Oppressing the public = 'griefing'.
Game just isn't Star Wars, throw in the towel and let someone more competent handle the license. Maybe if Bethseda would get into an MMO. . .
They've designed their Elder Scrolls game pretty much like MMOs, just without all the real players. I think they could handle a MMO. (Aren't they doing Fallout Online or something?)
But SWG won't be gone for a good while. All we can hope is for a SWG2 where SOE magically learns from some of its mistakes, but what're the odds of that? They really lack vision. It's so blatantly obvious too.
You know theym ade us swallow the Jedi crap and they completely ruined the Jedi experience too. It's not true to Jedi lore at all, and mechanically sucks ass. Being a Force Wielder is useless. You know how incompetent they are when they can't realize simple design flaws.
Force Wielder is currently set up so that you sacrifice defense mods for powers basically. So naturally, in terms of balance, the waiving of defense should translate to extreme offense capapbility to compensate. But no .. Saberists are MORE powerful. Costs less force points to do moves, do more damage, AND they get like 2 or more forms of defense in the tree!
So who would take Force Wielder? No one. All Jedi are, are basically mages with glowing lightwangs that slaughter animals all day.
So yep, they can't even get basic balance right in a class they spent months and months trying to set up and fix. They put all their focus into Jedi and couldn't even put their mind past that simple logic. So you think they could handle the res of the game? Nope.
The new GCW changes are two steps forward and one back, now with no TEFs, you can have even more immersion breakin because PVE Rebel and Imperial players can kill opposing faction NPCS in plain sight, in their capital cities, and no one can intervene. Makes a lot of sense..
Please do yourselves a favor and do NOT go back to this game.
The problem with Sygmas is you put too much emphasis on role play and storylines. Sure its nice to have them, but they arent the most important part of a game. Most important is gameplay first. RP and stories are just nice little bonuses. They certainly shouldnt be the center of any game.
Take a look at Matrix...the gameplay stinks but fans of it keep saying "but wait for the story" Im sorry, but 99% games today arent going to have a good story or fit the timline or break cannon (i cant wait to see flames about star trek). The days of great gameplay AND great story died with Fallout 2. With the exception of KOTOR, most games rely soley on one thing.
Frankly, I could care less if there should or should not be 1000000 jedi running around in SWG. All I care about is the gameplay, and its dam good. I'd say the best mmorpg out there now.
Yeah RP and storyline dont belong you know in a MMO R P G
ROLE
PLAYING
GAME
Makes a LOT of sense. You just accept mediocrity -- that is why you are ok with the lack of these features. I don't have a problem, I set my standards high, you set them low. My 15$ takes a lot more to earn. And SWG can never do it.
Secondly the gameplay sucks, it doesnt even do that right, what other games warrants the entire combat system be overhauled? Professions that have existed since launch are still utterly broken. Entirely entirely broken and useless.
There is no gameplay. You are an extremely jaded player to think storyline has died in games. Your opinion that MXO's gameplay sucks is the exception, not the rule. For most people who can view the game objectively, they know it brings a LOT to the table. You just have absolutely no idea what you're talking about -- the game in quesiton is always irrelevant. Your ideas are ludicrous.
You're a carebear. Thats what you are. You think its good you can blow up opposing faction NPCs while untouched? Thats totally immersion breaking. Thats like MXO billboard ads in EQ2. RP isnt just getting into a ST uniform and talking shit at people that pass by. SWG has the weakest attempts at RP I've ever seen besides the Europe-Chimaera community.
You think the game rocks because the only gameplay options it got right were tradeskilling. All you probably do is dance, sell crap at a store, etc. Obviously, since MXO isnt bot / vendor city, it doesn't fit.
I bet if they put Interlock Dancing in, you'd run back at it MXO drooling. Ridiculous.
You lack the jewels to respond to me in PMs I have to flame you in public to get any response out of you. You'll say such blatant lies as MXO doesnt have crafting yet I PM you with a link proving exactly otherwise. What do you say to that? I can prove you wrong 500 times and you'll never get it through your thick skull.
Enjoy your game im sure they appreciate your 15$.
The idea of non-humans being able to be Imperials had always been in. It was never ever "nixed for game play." In the official Star Wars cannon, there are many examples of non-humans becoming Imperials, working for Imperials, and being Imperial officers.
And if you actually played SWG, especially currently, you would also know that SWG further kept with cannon aka being "Star Warsy" by making sure there are handicaps for non-humans who decide to become Imperial. It is a sliding scale, depending on how non-human the species is. A Twi-lek Imperial for example recieves a tiny handicap... all the way to Wookiee Imnperial which recieves a sever handicap.
The Empire was controled and run by the Emperor. The Emperor is first and foremost an oppertunist. Whatever works, is what he uses. If using a non-human will further his plans, then he will do it. If being xenophobic aka anti-anything non-human, further his plans, then he will do it.