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SOE is getting close.
pingo
Member UncommonPosts: 608
Since SWG went live, june 26th 2003, SOE has almost created an art form.
The art form, on how to destroy your game as much as possible.
When SWG launched it was a buggy game, but a very enjoyable game. A very different game. A very fun game. Not a balanced game though, but a game with solo players and a game with groupers.
SOE succesfully managed to almost destroy the games in game community when they put holocrons into the game. It was a nice way to wreck the entertainer proffesions too. AFK bots later also proved to be quite effective.
Jedi was another nice way, to make people depressed of grinding, and it was a very cleaver design phase for creating extreme unbalance, aswell as wasting peoples time. But SOE where smart. They knew that if they had to ruin it for the role players, they would have to hit them hard. Dancing Tuskin Raiders in a cantina or Bothans killing lairs of Rancor monsters solo with their fists, was not enouge to destroy the immersion. So they turned SWG into Jedi online.
SOE knew that they lacked content and most of SWG was lifeless land mass with no purpose. Player cities and Jump to lightspeed expansion was excellent ways to seperate the population and community even further.
Now SOE is getting really close to their goal. The CURB defintely is a very sad peace of code. At least SWG will be remembered in the history books.
Worst patch of all time.
Comments
I couldn't agree with you more concerning the Holocrons and the ruining of the entertaining professions, for me, it was beyond help at that point, because they made people sick of playing their game. I guess they never did understand what content is...
-MW
I guess about 10-20 % will cancel, but SOE is counting on getting back many more than that ... new subscribers riding on the media hype surrounding Episode III.
Although I dont like it that they pushed combat revamp onto live servers too early, but it took cohones to take such a hard business decision. I understand why they did it, although I dont agree with it.
Have fun (you still can, you know !)
Erillion
And the will get lots of new players, but will they stay? Uh no. :P It's all about retention rate, and SWg was already barren when I left, god knows what the servers look like now.
And no it dint take cojones. Apparently you're not too keen on MMORPG game design. The Rage of the Wookiees expansion was designed around the CU code, it could not be launched without the Combat Upgrade, thus its thrust onto live servers. They wanted to hammer out all the integration bugs and get it up and ready so all that is taken care of before ROTS is integrated with the game. That way most of the gating bugs, and issues are non existant when the 'new blood' runs into the game.
>>>
They wanted to hammer out all the integration bugs and get it up and ready so all that is taken care of before ROTS is integrated with the game. That way most of the gating bugs, and issues are non existant when the 'new blood' runs into the game.
>>>
Thats what i thought ... I guess they have a very tough week ahead of them ! 5th May ... DEAD-line ... true, so true ...
Have fun
Erillion
I doubt SWG will realize any real benefit from EP3. Those that do join will find that beyond name and a few graphic features, the game has little to do with the Star Wars mythology.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
IMHO there is a lot of SW mythology in it. But YOU have to live it too. SWG gives as much as you put into it.
Its the players that destroy the immersion feeling, NOT the game. So if you want SWG to be as Star Warsy as possible, live in a roleplayer player city !
Have fun
Erillion
I certainly agree to an extent. The largest lost to immersion is due to jedi.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
I would LOVE to see how many people are REALLY leaving. Because I keep seeing these doom and gloom predictions but....
Not 1, not a single person, not ANY person in my guild (100 members) has left the game.
We have, in the past 4 days, added 2-3, sometimes more, players to the guild per day.
Everyone in the guild likes the changes once they got used to them. Except we all sorta miss the Combat Queue.... It was nice to be able to spam out a bunch of commands and go braindead for a few minutes
Now ya hafta pay attention... owell it adds to the game actually... it's just annoying that I can't spam out a minute or so worth of commands and go grab a soda or let the dog out 
The RESPEC is fun, I got to fiddle with a bunch of templates I've always sorta wanted to try out. I wound up going back to the one I enjoy most though
You can still solo
)
You don't have to wait in buff lines
You can put armor on without a buff (Thank god)
Everyone looks different, gone are the hoardes of composite armor troops in PVP
Asside from some master specific weapons anyone can use any weapon (though it's dumb to use a sword if you don't have melee skills
Crafters are still extraordinarily useful. And armor/weapons are still selling like hotcakes.
Doctors play a vital role still, they just need to learn it. HINT: It's not "Buff master" anymore
Entertainers actually are going to make out BETTER than before... I ALWAYS grab an inspiration buff now because it's quick, painless and gets me more xp, more loot and other neat benes. I also tip better because most of em aren't AFK anymore.
Resource gatherers will be ok as long as they have a couple master boxes in SOMETHING plus at least novice in 1 combat profession. Hint: NONE of the NOVICE PROFESSIONS GIVE MUCH CL so QUIT WHINING. ALL ELITE PROFESSIONS GIVE CL.
CL HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN THE GAME, QUIT WHINING. It just SHOWS now. That's the only real difference. You didn't SEE it before so you didn't know it was affecting anything. But back when MBH were getting ganked by Jedi to increase their FRS rank we found out that they were doing it because MBH and Master Commando had the highest CL of the professions (and were typically easiest to spot).
Yes the game is a bit more 'level' based for combat but it really always was, buffs just made level meaningless is all. If you tried to take on a red con unbuffed you'd get slaughtered, like you should have. With god-buffs high con mobs just took longer to kill. Now if you face a high con mob you're going to die if you're alone. Deal with it.
The Overall GAME hasn't changed much. The BIGGEST impact people are whining about is DIRECTLY due to the fact that buffs have been reduced.
Matter of fact I dissagree completely with your evaluation of how the game has "declined"
Fact: In BETA this game SUCKED. It sucked so badly that almost NOBODY who played in Beta bought the game. We all waited for JTL to be released.
After release they added Jedi: More suckage
Then they added hologrinding: More suckage
Then last June they started loosening up requirements for some of the professions that were overly restrictive: More coolness! MBH didn't have to master TWO novice professions just to unlock it anymore.
Then in August/September they REMOVED hologrinding and replaced it with a whole new jedi system: Much better. The new system required people who wanted to be Jedi to *gasp* play the game, not grind. Very cool.
Then in Late September another Jedi revamp that added the new Jedi system that stopped the insanity of the Holo Grind. And the Force Villiage was added with new requirements that got rid of hologrinders completely (Thank god). It also made it take MUCH LONGER to get a jedi, thus reducing their numbers dramatically. It also broke their tress up so that a Jedi couldn't be a god with 1 or two trees... they actually had to think about how best to spec their character.
Then JTL hit: SMASH HIT!!!! AWESOME ADDITION!!!! Most of us who played in the beta came back at this point.
Then they started revamping PVP: Much better, the PVP game is much improved now
Then the CU hit, many folks are whining about it but overall I'd say things are better. Sure there are some tweaks that need to be made but that is true with any major update to a game, and trust me, this is major. Within days my entire guild was up and running and we're having a BLAST. We all agree that the game is MUCH more fun now. Not 60% of us, not even 80% of us. 100% of us think the game is BETTER. And more people join our guild every day and NONE have left so that tells me that the game is growing, not shrinking. At least at this point.
As to retention?
I've been playing for almost a year now. And I played in beta before that. The game is more fun now than at any other time for me, and everyone else I know asside from a couple people (like 1 or 2) who probably should have left a while ago, they're just flat burnt out on the game imo.
As a 'hunter' who used to provide (and still do) meat/hide/bones etc to doctors, chefs, etc my contact list is HUGE (over 500 people at last count) in game. And lately my list has been showing a WHOLE LOT MORE people ONLINE than at any time before now.
Will it die? No.... I suspect SWG is going to grow, a lot, because of this update and because of the new expansion.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
Just my 2c..
If SOE thinks that the release of the expansion along with EP3 coming out will do anything for them, then they are forgetting the #1 thing that will prevent anything happening from it.
That is word of mouth, and the general public sentiment and understanding considering the game. Look at AO, nothing could bring it out of the state that it's now in, because of it's horrible launch. It is a similar thing with SWG.
And the CU will remove most of the diehards from the game, so it's got nowhere to go but downhill from here.
There may be some people who join without ever having considered playing the game before, but those who have considered it in the past are probably 90% of the people who would think about starting up now.
And word of mouth will keep those away, or once they play they will leave, or may stay.
Either way, the game is basically like an animal with an abusive owner. It's lived through most of its life so far, and there's no way it can bounce back from the abuse that has been dealt to it through the years, no matter how well it's treated from here on out. And it's not like it'll change owners (at least, anytime soon.)
_______________________________________________________________________
Looking forward (cautiously) to: Age of Conan, Dark Solstice, Armada Online.
Will soon try: Guild Wars
Overall: Amazed and bewhildered at the current sad state of the artform of gaming.
poopee
Check my families accounts on Radiant:
Grimly Trick (Master TKM/Rifleman)
Anita Trick (Jedi)
Zurie Morte (Master Fencer/Swordsman)
Zina Trick (Master Merchant/Master Doctor)
Daemain Trick (Jedi in Knight Trials)
Ashlar Trick (Master BH/Master Pistoleer)
Kiyla Trick (Jedi)
Malachi Trick (Master Dancer/Master Entertainer)
Lissandra Trick (Master Doctor/Master Smuggler)
We have all been playing since BETA. Our guild is Exile on Radiant. Check it. Empty. At least 50% cancelled accounts.
I suspect that in the AstroTurf guild (the one that you belong to)... all 100 devs will be happy playing their game. But I am telling you... over 50% in our guild have already cancelled. Most cancelled after a day or 2. Some of us stuck it out and used to the changes... like I did. Then I quit.
I am not worried about soloing, or XP, or being uber, or PvP. Respec is fun. But the new combat system sucks. Every profession, attack and weapon does about the same damage. Plus all you can do is hit health, special attacks like dizzy don't do anything. The toughtest monsters like krayts are only 10 times harder than a kreetle (as opposed to 1000s of times like before). Comabt never takes more than a few minutes now.
If you like to be able to not plan, get no enhancements, wear no armor, use no weapon, have no cool gear, use any attack, with any prof, against any monster... by mashing your key for 3 minutes (or clicking ctrl once) be my guest. I don't care if you get XP or not. That is not fun in my book.
Why not just click the monster... if your number is higher it dies... if it is higher you die... collect your uber XP... get your loot...
Wrong
I routinely take on yellow cons and win. It's called playing smart. Use tactics. And Dizzy, Stun, KD, Stoppingshot, disease, poison and other attacks all work fine. I don't know where you think that. Also I DO wear armor, a full set of composite actually... and my best friend uses battle armor and his wife uses scout armor. Our armor works fine thanks.
And Krayts are about as hard as they were before. I don't see where you get off saying they aren't harder than Kreetles, you are on crack if you think that.
There are no devs in my guild, thanks. We're just a bunch of players who happen to like the CU just fine. We DIDN'T at first but then we learned it and we like it. JTL is as good as it's always been and the ground game REALLY isn't all that different. Every one of us enjoys our characters a great deal and it's nice to see all the TKM/Fencer/Swordsman stackers vanishing. Ranged combat is a lot more fun and LOS being required now is sweet too. (no more shooting through mountains).
As far as 'dying' we just added two more people to the guild tonight who left the game 11 months ago and are coming back to try the CU. Both like it. Both are glad the buffs are gone. Both said they're thrilled that people actually group to hunt again.
As far as not having special gear? How do you figure. Gear can still be sliced and quality of components still matters when making things. There will still be various grades of equipment and the DE10 is still the best pistol in the game and a krayted laser carbine still rules the day in Carbine Land, etc.... I fail to see how the changes are all that drastic. The BIGGEST change I've noticed is that 1) you can't go solo giant krayt dragons anymore and you can't go solo 9-10 yellow con nasties at a time while spamming the lair to make more come out.
I'm sorry you considered it fun to go to a quenker lair and spam it till all the quenkers come running and then kill all of them at once... to me that kind of killed any sense of reality in the game. I am GLAD that you can't do that anymore. It was silly that people would stand right in the middle of ARMIES of badguys and just mow them down. Jedi I could see.... but joe-schmo with a knife? Nuh uh.
If the game loses players so-be-it. It will get more who like it. But I guarantee that it's in no danger of being shut down
I've heard this doom and gloom so many times for so many different games and every single one is still out there being played today.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas