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So is SW:G buggy or is it in good shape?
anarkaia
Member Posts: 76
I would like to know, just for future ref.
This is my signature.
Comments
Nobody else has replied, so I will give you my opinion...
The game is buggy, VERY buggy. Exploits have been left unfixed, developer errors have caused more issues (double sockets) that are ignored and quests from 5 years ago still don't work correctly. To add in the "holiday" events they've removed key NPCs from old quests and have failed (for the past 3-1/2 years) to replace/exchange them. NPCs shoot through walls, floors, doors and will be 64m away one instance, and on top of you the next.
IMO, the game is in terrible shape. With only 3 part time Devs working on the game, don't expect it to improve any time soon either.
my 2¢
^^^This^^^
Also, most of the remaining servers (1/2 the servers have been closed) are ghost towns. Starsider is the most populated and has siphoned players from the dead and dying servers. The low player numbers attest to the shape SWG is in.
I strongly suggest you play the free 14-day SWG game trial and judge for yourself.
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/players/content.vm?id=62963
Thanks to both of you. I had given up on this question/post.
As of now, I'll wait until The Old Republic comes out.
Or when I'm online, I'll go with WoW.
This is my signature.
I just re-subscribed to play as a trader in the world, and I'm having a good time digging for resources and crafting stuff.
I also play the space game a lot because the crafting + space game makes a really engaging game if you're into the idea of a full space action simulator. Unfortunately, the space portion of the game has nearly no players in it and you will only be playing it for the PVE elements and not PVP.
Regarding the ground game, I'm pretty much staying away from any combat class since the combat seems buggy and super boring since the horrific changes made to the game in pre-CU and NGE.
Conclusion:
Great game if you just want to play the space part for PVE and are interested in crafting for the people still playing the game.
Not a great game if you want to play any combat role, since that aspect was butchered years ago and will never recover.
Final note: You must play on the STARSIDER server or the game will not be worth playing as a multiplayer experience. It is the only populated server.
If you read the SWG forums, you know it's bad enough the SWG regulars make cracks at how bad a state SWG is in.
There are bugs, with varying levels of annoyance. The ones that bother me most are related to the UI, specifically, options that reset on each login.
I can't think of anything hugely game breaking anymore though, most of the nasty new bugs get hit pretty quickly and older ones have been fixed over time.
What I think SWG Devs have really let players down on is not addressing "soft" exploits involving factional collusion such as "Baseclubbing" and various methods of unattended skill gain.
Badger...
Can you elaborate on the statement you made on the o-boards that SOE asked you not to discuss server merges/transfers on their forums any longer? Many seemed to have missed that statement but I found it quite astonishing that they would ask you to stop an obvious current game play hot topic.
Here is the source thread:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/list.m?topic_id=1184854
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Ten Golden Rules Of Videogame Fanboyism
"SOE has probably united more gamers in hatred than Blizzard has subs"...daelnor
Mustafar the planet of bugs. Trying to get inside as a full group to any instance on that planet is like impossible then you end up being locked out for hours cause of bugs. And the only way to actualy get everyone inside was to use an exploit which didint effect anything with the instance besides getting everyone inside and instead of fixing the bugs they just handed out bans. So the answer to your question is Yes SWG is still a big POS
Especially ground combat has loads of bugs. The reason my friends couldnt stick with SWG was because of the buggy (and especially at low lvl) boring PVE on ground. They liked the housing, crafting and space.
The annoying targetting issues, the shooting through walls, the 'cant see target' msg because a mob is standing with one toe in a ditch, the benny hill running animations and the slow applying of snare abilities which makes kiting kind of useless. You see ppl kiting, but its not even half as effective as they themselves believe because of the weird client/server timing issues.
I recently started playing again myself and tried to lvl a Bounty Hunter, but simply couldnt stomach lvling anymore. I actually like the Legacy questchain and the newer themepark additions, but the combat is just a snorefest. Untill lvl38 or so you only have 4 different abilities and they eat so much action that you cant really use them a lot, unless you want to turn the game into the waiting for action (stamina in swg) game. And not to mention that when a mob puts disease on you, it turns into a joke. Anyway, I went back to my older max lvl toons and having a blast now.
In fairness, the issues SWG players see with the game engine such as +Cant See Target+ and shooting through walls are not "bugs" but all part of the design of the game engine. SWG was built and launched with its own bepoke game engine, I don't know why the Dev team at the time chose to do that rather than use an engine that did support full collision and Z axis, seems like something I should try and find out.
Targetting does also pose problems, the default method is manual aiming and many players do seem to prefer it, especially new players to the game.
For those that don't, we have a ton of ways to customise the targetting with auto-aim toggled on that take all the problems away. Macros are used to target closest enemy, target specific professions by name of the opposing faction (such as medics, for example), assist a group member and pick up their target and just plain clicking on the person you want to shoot at.
Neither of the above are bugs really, although I have long asked for a New 'Star Wars Galaxies Veteran' Standard Keymap that would have familiar settings set up by default to help returning vets get up and running quickly.
When you understand the game engine and psedu-collision system SWG uses, you can start to use it to your advantage. someforumguy mentioned problems with kiting due to client/server sync issues and this is something I tested extensively to the point where I once solo'd an Ancient Krayt Dragon with a Combat Level 4 Smuggler soley using a single snare (this was pre Chapter 6 combat improvements, took about 40 minutes and is now not possible).
I was able to find out exactly where the server was calculating the Krayt to be, and no, it wasn't where my client was drawing it but in a location several meters behind it's current path. Once you know this you can plot the path of the Krayt and keep yourself out of danger (the client showed me running backwards inside the Krayts mouth for much of the time, but that's not where it was so I wouldn't get hit) and although the client/server sync has been much improved since I carried out those tests, there is still an element of being able to read the SWG "matrix code" and understand where things really are as far as the server is concerned.
When it comes to shooting through walls, this is a typical complaint as players can sometimes find that an NPC can hit them when the player is unable to attack back because the client says the NPC is not in an attackable location.
The NPCs dont have it all their way though, they are coded to rush the player if this happens to them so you can use a more sturdy piece of terrain or static object to break line of sight properly and the NPCs will start moving towards you until they are right next to your position. Players also complain about this behavior, stating that the NPCs "warp" on top of them, but it's something I use to my advantage in almost all PvE encounters.
Obviously not everyone is familiar with these subtle nuances of the SWG game engine which often reminds me of Neo deciphering the lines of code in the Matrix, and indeed there was one occasion when I explained them to a friend of mine and he found it to be such a revelation to see what goes on under the hood of an MMORPG like SWG that it completely killed his immersion in the game and he not only quit playing SWG, but all MMORPGs in general.
I tend to not go into too much detail on it anymore for that reason, for my friend the last straw was my explaination of how the mobile object hate generation system can be tricked into thinking you have run a long way away by just running in circles and not healing or doing damage.
SWG does have bugs, but the Devs do a pretty good job of tackling the really nasty ones.