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Strength of the Galaxy (forum repost)
Erillion
Member EpicPosts: 10,328
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| As we are sure you have noticed, Star WarsGalaxies has been getting a lot of attention in the press lately. We just wanted to send out a quick e-mail blast before the holiday to provide some information regarding some topics that have come-up in recent articles, features, reports, and other pieces, as well as share some of the recent updates and fixes and exciting new upcoming content and features! THE GALAXY REMAINS STRONG Today, 80% of active players in Galaxies are veterans who were in the game prior to the new game enhancements (NGE). Its true that many players reacted to the new direction of the game by clicking cancel in the days immediately following the NGE announcement and in fact, our unique usage dropped by 10%. The NGE has now been live for five weeks, the cancel rate has returned to average levels, and were seeing many former players return to the game and over 100,000 new players join Galaxies through the 10-Day Trial. Additionally, the third expansion pack, Trials of Obi-Wan, released November 1 is being enjoyed by tens of thousands of veteran Galaxies players. OBJECTIVE AND POSITIVE ARTICLES BRINGING BALANCE TO THE FORCE Check out the following articles from Slashdot and SWG Warcry for some balanced and objective commentary on the recent enhancements and changes to the game. Slashdot: http://games.slashdot.org/games/05/12/21/1729217.shtml?tid=209 "There just isn't any game that's attempted as much as SWG did. It started out as a game I considered to be UO 2.0, an update to an old classic with a narrow appeal but great promise. It has since grown far beyond that. It has done so with a combination of derivative features and innovative ones nobody else has. While the NGE is certainly the biggest of them all, it's still par for the course in a game that has added so many things." SWG Warcry: http://swg.warcry.com/scripts/news/view_news.phtml?site=13&id=51113 "All fun and joking aside I am going to make my prediction finally that this was a smart move on the part of SOE/LEC to do this massive overhaul of a very broken game and start providing us with a game that is actually starting to come together, I am putting my money down now that in 2006 SWG will be back as one of the biggest and most popular MMORPGs on the market as well I predict that many of the vet players that left will see that the change was for the better and will return to SWG and enjoy the new enhancements and fun." UPCOMING NEW CONTENT, FEATURES, AND ITEMS! New Weapons Systems New heavy weapons system including new features for weapons like the Flame Thrower, Acid Rifle, Launcher Pistol, Rocket Launcher all of which can be used without having to identify a specific target but used across an area. New Abilities New stealth and trapping abilities for Smuggler, Spy and Jedi § Spy's stealth high level abilities are being changed to give them almost infinite stealth abilities. § Smuggler will be granted the "Hide" ability. This will work similar to the Spy's Smoke Grenade in that you can't move or attack while using this ability to evade an enemy. § Jedi will be granted the "Force Cloak" ability. § Adding player traps & trap triggers into the game. § Introducing the concept of hiding & detecting traps as well as detecting hidden players. § Triggers are being added to the game and there will be two kinds that you can use to set off traps against your enemies: o Remote trigger: This allows you detonate a single trap or mine from a distance. o Timer trigger: This allows you to set a variable timer to detonate the trap or mine. o Spies, Bounty Hunters & Commandos will be able to hide their traps from view - nobody will be able to see the traps. New Jedi-Specific Abilities & Feature New Jedi abilities that strengthen the Jedi combat tactics including the Jedi Mind Trick. § Strikes and Sweeps Adding new sweep attacks that are similar to Strikes. Sweeps work exactly like strikes, but they will be 360 degree attacks. Strikes and Sweeps will require a Lightsaber or melee weapon to use. § Focus Buffs Jedi will be getting 3 new offensive buffs to complete the power progression through level 90. This will give Jedi increased damage (including melee) up through mid and high levels. § Force Throw Force Throw will be changed so that it is now a single ability that can be used with any Lightsaber or melee weapon. § Jedi Stances The Jedi stances are all being unified into one group of abilities that will all deliver strong defensive buffs. For example at level 22, Jedi will get an ability that will give them an immunity to Poison effects for the duration of the stance and cure any poisons that the character may have been suffering from. Another stance comes at level 54 which adds an additional chance to block or dodge incoming attacks. There are additional stance surprises up through level 90! § Force Lightning We have reduced the activation and cool-down timers to this group of abilities. § Force Run Terrain Negotiation will be added as a bonus to this ability. § Self Heals We have added another self-heal at level 14 so Jedi will have a complete ability progression. § Force Chokes Force Choke will be changed so that it uses the range of the special ability and doesn't rely on the range of an equipped weapon. § Jedi Mind Tricks Rounding out this list of changes to Jedi Abilities is the addition of Jedi Mind Tricks! This exciting and iconic new ability can be used to reduce the Strength and Precision of enemy NPCs, creatures and players. By using the Jedi Mind trick, a Jedi will be able to escape NPC's and Creatures with a wave of their hand. NPC's and Creatures will lose all interest in attacking the Jedi so he can "move along". At higher levels, this ability will affect all NPC's and Creatures in an area! § Jedi-Specific Tool Tips A lot of Jedi abilities have different sorts of restrictions, so with that in mind we will be including all of these details in the tool tip for each of the Jedi abilities, the effects and the restrictions are clear and easy to understand. FIXES, ADDITIONS, AND IMPROVEMENTS As with the introduction of changes of this magnitude, there were several bugs and issues present at the launch of the New Game Enhancements. However, in the past month, the development team has successfully resolved the following issues mainly in response to player feedback, as well as with the help of quality assurance and customer support teams: Mouse-Only Play Feature Our new fast-action combat control scheme inadvertently presented a hardship for some players without the use of both hands. For this reason we introduced mouse-only play which allows all movements and abilities to be controlled through the mouse exclusively. This feature is currently available in the game and can be accessed through the options menu. Mouse-only play was implemented around the Thanksgiving holiday, mainly intended for those players only capable of one-handed play. How to enable Mouse-Only Play: 1. Open your Options menu (press "O"). 2. Click the button that says, "Keymap". 3. On the bottom half of the Keymap window, you will see a list of options. 4. Check the boxes that say: o "Middle mouse drives movement" and o "Scroll through default actions with mouse." 5. Click the button that says, "Apply" and then "Ok". Now your mouse-only play feature will be enabled! Here's how it works: 1. Left click is still used to fire your weapon. 2. Right click is still used to trigger your specials. 3. The middle mouse wheel will scroll through the abilities on your toolbar. 4. Holding down the middle mouse button will move you in the direction that you are facing. 5. You can use the "+" and "-" keys to control your camera zoom. Game Content-Specific § Targeting through friendlies (anyone you are not attacking) you can now target through them even if they are in your direct path. § Experience Points for quests up to level 20 have been increased. § Now you will earn ground combat XP while fighting in space. o Players with characters who have combat professions can earn ground combat XP while playing in space. Example: A kill in space earns you 400XP in space and also 400XP towards your ground profession. § Improvements to the targeting system making it easier to target enemies that are moving. o Melee attacks will hit more frequently against moving creatures and NPCs. o Melee combat speed for respec'd characters should be improved. § Added Jedi Robe armor. o Added various new Jedi Robes to provide Protection from levels 40-80 § Greatly improved server stability and performance and reduced over-spawing issues. § Multiple characters per server all active accounts may have two characters per server up to 8 total characters. § Added the ability to play strictly with a mouse (one-handed control scheme), using the left mouse button for combat moves and the right mouse button to initiate special abilities. Moving can be accomplished by holding down the center button of the mouse. § Creatures from levels 80 - 90 have been added to Yavin 4, Endor, Dathomir and Dantooine. § Added new Jedi powers including the Jedi Mind Trick (see specific list below). § Significantly increased the power of Officer. o Officer abilities Paint Target, Called Shot & Fix Target now show a targeting visual effect on the de-buffed enemy while the buff is in effect. § Increased the duration of the Spy stealth abilities o Spy's can now get closer to other creatures before the special ability Sneak "breaks" and they are revealed. o The Spy's sneak & smoke grenade abilities now take the "Camouflage" skill modifier into account when determining the size of the bubble that determines how close you have to get to another NPC/creature before stealth breaks. § Improving lag o Extensive server optimizations have been made to help reduce lag players have been experiencing. § More content for high-level players in the core game, not just Trials of Obi-Wan. o We have placed additional high-level spawns on Yavin 4, Endor, Dathomir and Dantooine. § More profession differentiation o We are beginning the introduction of more specialization and differentiation with heavy weapons, stealth, new Officer abilities, the addition of traps and triggers, and new Jedi abilities all added in Publish 27. We will continue evaluating further elements to help drive more specialization and differentiation within the professions. All of the fixes listed above are scheduled to be implemented into the live game (if they have not already) in Publish 27, which is scheduled to go live in late-January 2006. Please note, we reserve the right to adjust the timing of any publish into the live game as needed with notice. For more information, please visit the Star Wars Galaxies community and news site at: http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/players/. In the final analysis, bringing our game more into alignment with the adventure and excitement of the movies is the right decision for a game named Star Wars Galaxies. We are working hard to respond to the concerns of the current veteran player base and eliminate unintended bugs, but it may take some time. Casey Keefer Keefe Community & Press Relations Manager Lucasarts Star Wars Galaxies |
Comments
*After read the first four or so paragraphs*
Well that's good to hear. You hear a handful of naysaying complainers and it sounds like the entire game is collapsing. Nice to know it actually isn't.
Great Keefer, let us know when it all "works as intended" in the year 2010 otherwise nice fluff for a game still in beta.
PIRATE LORDS
"Dont piss down my back and tell me its raining"
-bloody bill, The Outlaw Josie Wales
Underlind the important part for everyone else. Propaganda is in full effect over at Lucasarts these days.
We are in control. They are in a state of hysteria. Losers, they think that by whining and trying to distort the feelings of the people they will win. I think they will not win, those bastards.
"I know I said this was my last post, but you my friend are a idiotic moron." -Shadow4482
The person who is about to offer you a ticket to ride and enjoy the newly enhanced cruise ship, The Titanic 2!!!! now only $19.95 for the full experience and for just $14.95 a month I'll personally peg you with lucky rocks that you get to keep!!!!!
PIRATE LORDS
"Hope is mankind's greatest weakness, yet simulateously his greatest strength."
I forgot where that comes from, but oh well.
What bright eyed disillusioned cheerleader wrote this? No - SWG is doomed and thousands have join the previously discarded players and have confirmed they self-imposed destruction .
Check here or any player game rated websites , information or sales. three is a loud voice of of upset consumers have been created by SOE and really there is absolutely nothing save for a roll back or a sale of the game that would appease them.
Unaware of the Jestor?
http://about.me/JestorRodo/
Friends enjoy his classic Vblog - https://www.facebook.com/GoodOldReliableNathan
Sorry, Jester, but the facts disagree with your opinion. Losses are not as high as expected it seems. And they HAVE lured quite a bit of newbs into the game - if they stay is another matter.
I assume here that SOE is not lying out of their ass, but I think they cannot afford that right now.
Have fun
Erillion
It's so funny... Back when the CU hit, all the people that were pissed off about it where pointing to a few articles who were "objective and balanced", yet SOE and their fanbois dismissed them because they were not from "Main Stream Media" and their were unfair and unobjective. Now the tables turn and "Main Stream Media" dishes it out to them, and they reply with just a grand total of
2 articles that come from pretty questionable backgrounds. Funny indeed!
And the numbers seem kinda funny to me. The last time they released some numbers, their subscription rate was around 200,000. They claim to have 100,000 new players, their "unique usage" (whatever that means) dropped by 10% yet their player base consists of 80% veterans??? I don't think so! Anyway, it's not like SOE is famous for their ethics and honesty right?
About these changes, I've been in this game long enough to have seen posts with new and exciting ideas that sounded great. But notice this part: "we reserve the right to adjust the timing of any publish into the live game as needed with notice." Why does this part give me flashbacks to the Loot Revamp, the Smuggler Revamp, the Galactic Civil War, Aldeeran, etc?????
In the end, we've heard this song and dance before and it's the same hand-waiving and spin control you can expect from a PR person.
SOE knows what you like... You don't!
And don't forget... I am forcing you to read this!
Counting trial users as those who "joined the galaxy" is just pathetic.
The same with vets who are "coming back". Yeah, right. What I'd like to know is how many of them used the 15-day vet offer. And how many will leave the game before these two weeks pass. For me one evening was enough.
My personal favorite soe speak.
Today, 80% of active players in Galaxies are veterans who were in the game prior to the new game enhancements (NGE)
What does this mean? Ok. So 80% of the game playerbase is veterns. What is so informative about that? If I used soe logic that would mean that 100k trial members are 20% of the games base and that they actually have 400,000 vets.
All the postive press is really funny to considering its not all to positive.
Did anyone else notice what profession swg continues to focus the majority of there attention on?
Yea jedi is getting to be an uber class again!
Now they can hide like spies, heal better then the medic, move faster then anyone else, attack in 360 arcs and by the time they are down over powering the tank class you will all be jedi running around.
ROTFLMAO!
Great. Just wait see and watch. This game will be 100% er... factually 99.8% jedi players all the time. What a joke.
I imagine that "unique usage" refers to players who subscribe only to SWG rather than StationAccess subscribers. It's likely that many vets had SA subs, so the actual figure may be much higher but harder to measure as people cancelling SA subs may not have been active SWG players. Also, 100,000 new players does not equate to 100,000 new subscribers. If it did, then the 80% vet population would indicate a total of 500,000 players. Similarly, tens of thousands of people playing ToOW could actually mean as few 20,000 players. So I dont think the figures are necessarily incorrect, it's just a matter of spin. The one thing I dont question is the claim that many former players are returning, partly because no specific figures are quoted and partly because the evidence of these forums suggests that "many" people just can't seem to let go.
I imagine that "unique usage" refers to players who subscribe only to SWG rather than StationAccess subscribers. It's likely that many vets had SA subs, so the actual figure may be much higher but harder to measure as people cancelling SA subs may not have been active SWG players. Also, 100,000 new players does not equate to 100,000 new subscribers. If it did, then the 80% vet population would indicate a total of 500,000 players. Similarly, tens of thousands of people playing ToOW could actually mean as few 20,000 players. So I dont think the figures are necessarily incorrect, it's just a matter of spin. The one thing I dont question is the claim that many former players are returning, partly because no specific figures are quoted and partly because the evidence of these forums suggests that "many" people just can't seem to let go.
/agree
I'm numerically challenged...
So I couldn't put it well what I felt was wrong with the numbers, but your post and haxjoo's above yours says it exactly. Don't you think that if they'd reach the 400k-500k subs they'd be touting that horn all over the place? In the end, it's just more spin and hand-waiving!
SOE knows what you like... You don't!
And don't forget... I am forcing you to read this!
Kasey, YOU'RE FIRED!
Faxx
I am constantly astounded by the quality of SOE's propaganda and those that always seem completely willing to fall for it. I'm in no way biased on or about SWG but I think it's time to call it for what it is, instead of buying SOE's fuzzy image.
Important Information regarding Posting and You
Just think about the people who chose medic for instance, spent hours leveling them up, sought medic enhancing gear because it was a great jedi ass kicking class and then the next publish comes out and all the medics get it handed to them by all the other classes especially jedi and to compete with the other newly changed(or tri-monthly changed) proffs that person then has to delete his toon and waste all the work put into it and restart from level 1 as jedi (or whatever the flavor of the month is that will change again soon).
Keefer 2010 .let us know ..we will be here maybe And please the ol number spin at this time? Just after or during a free trial and free 15 days for vets, come back and report that in February provided your not paying people to play by then.
PIRATE LORDS
The release is crap, but most press releases are. You can't very well expect them to come on and say "well, we screwed up big time with this one! We're doomed, so pass the cyanide capsules, will you?"
It's clear they're sticking to their guns to the bitter end, though. Virtually all the upcoming content is aimed at jedi, which reinforces to my mind the impression that they've totally turned their backs on doing anything meaningful for the other 8 "iconic classes." Jedi is where they see the money is at, and this management team will drop their drawers for anyone who waves a buck under their noses. Since I enjoyed playing an entertainer/crafter, it's clear to me that the part of the game I really enjoyed, and that was so innovative and different from other online games, is dead, and they don't even feel any concern that they killed it.
I know its schadenfreude, but I do hope the game fails and they all get thrown out on their asses. It's shameful and petty of me and something I shouldn't feel considering some people are actually enjoying the game since the changes. But it's like watching someone else going out with your ex. You just hate them for it and hope to god they both have a rotten time.
I don't think it will fail, though. Both LA and SOE have deep pockets and neither will admit any kind of error. They'll subsidize the game until this all blows over and the subscription numbers drift up to close to where they were before. But I don't think the game will be truly popular along the lines they wish for--it's never going to be anywhere close to WoW, partly because they just went about the whole NGE in about as bad a way as was possible, and that's something no one will forget, but mostly because LA/SOE can't design or implement games worth a poop. It's still game design that's totally driven by market concerns, not by standards of quality.
--Chastity Nightdancer
Until I hear fact from the opposing side, I'm going to believe the people in charge. How do you know SOE is lying? You don't. It's all just the opinion of jaded players. You don't have a statistic sheet in your hand that comes directly from the servers that keeps details on each and every player in SWG. They do. They have the resources. And where do you learn your "anti-SOE" things from? That's right, other forms of media. Whether it be CNN, MMORPG.com or word of mouth, you only know what people tell you. Since you're obviously not playing the game anymore, you don't have physical proof either.
The most negative voices are always the loudest. There are thousands of content player on SWG, veteran and new, but you don't hear about them because they're too busy playing the game! The whiners have nothing better to do except post anti-SOE posts on forums because they cancelled their accounts.
Heh, believe what you want to believe, the "anti-SOE crowd" as you put it arent making you believe anything, they are just voiceing an experienced opinion after dealing with this company for close to 3 years now and are quite aware of how SOE does things and spins things.
If SOE was so proud of their customer base why not just post the actual numbers instead of PR spinning them to desperately try and fool the public as to think they has some gold they are polishing for you to share? It seems that WoW has no real problem sharing their customer base...why....they are not desperate.
PIRATE LORDS
Everyone is desperate. That's something you'll learn as you grow up. I've been playing SWG since the first day of it's release and I've never had a problem with SOE. I guess that's just because I don't treat the game like it's mine, which it isn't. I let the company do whatever they want. Hasn't ruined the game yet.
In fact, all of the complaints I hear are aimed toward SOE. I never hear a complain about the actual game, other than the whining of people who don't like change. Everything changes in life and it's those that adjust to the change that become content. Those that don't always want more and more and more.