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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.
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:
- Remote trigger: This allows you detonate a single trap or mine from a distance.
- Timer trigger: This allows you to set a variable timer to detonate the trap or mine.
- 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. 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.
- 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.
- Melee attacks will hit more frequently against moving creatures and NPCs.
- Melee combat speed for respec'd characters should be improved.
- Added Jedi Robe armor.
- 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.
- 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
- Spy's can now get closer to other creatures before the special ability Sneak "breaks" and they are revealed.
- 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.
- 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. |
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
Comments
I can just say....
LOL
"This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force"
Thats smart, base your numbers on a free trial period. If there is no pinch and everything is back to normal, why even throw out the numbers and make the Ahaaa comments. If things are hunky dory then what is there to prove.
i can say that the American servers are practically empty. Most that are seen are using the free game trial time.
These tools post like" oh we showed you". Yet the game has serious problems. I don't care how you dress it, a mortal wound is a mortal wound. Your buddies can tell you it ain't as bad as you think but once you experience it you'll know differently. What makes it more comical for me is the fact that it was a self inflicted wound.
No $$$ from me ever SOE. Company without honor makes it nothing more then a lie teller and a thief.
FoE Fist of the Empire
I find it funny that the first thing right off the bat was oh 80% of the vets are still here !
why even mention that tidbit unless 80% of the vets in reality left and you are trying to con us to coming back?
If we didnt F over the vets to start with we wouldnt have to mention this bit o information now would we?
all i have to say to that 80 vet thing is...
Yeah Right.
Spin some more baby, spin some more.
still losing 60 a month from me smedo, deal with it.
But im sure the dumbed down game you have now will have 5 million plus, by months end.
$oE are so brazen, John Smedley needs shooting. I htought I had it bad all those months ago when EQ2 was realised and the awful way they treated splitting up servers (I was on Runnyeye). I actually feel sorry for those still playing.
You can pretty much bet that every MMO that boasts it's "high subscription numbers" uses the same tactics, now why SOE actually explicitly said they do is beyond me. It's a fairly well agreed upon conclusion that most, if not all, MMO companies fudge their numbers to boast and try to attract more business and/or acclaim though.
"Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received
with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him."
- Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce
Im just totally lost fer words at this utter pack of lies
I mean, we all have been on the deserted servers with the sad empty houses and empty vendors - those which havent yet decayed so we do know its swg rip - cant even control characters after nge - bah!
LOL!! This is just so completely untrue its laughable..if it weren't so pathetically sad. A once great game is now just a sad WoW wannabe. Except Blizzard doesn't piss down your back and tell you that its raining. I also find it extremely hard to believe that any self respecting vet would go back to a game that takes 2 1/2 years worth of playtime, character building and in-game achievement and chucks it out the window so you can take a ride on the millenium falcon...and only if you are a noob toon to boot.
SOE...Puuuuuhhhhhhllleeaaaasee stop layin the BS on so thick. The game is dead and you know it.
Signature, I don't need no stinking signature!!!
Its just a spin on the numbers:
"Today, 80% of active players in Galaxies are veterans who were in the game prior to the new game enhancements (NGE)."
It just says of the 80% poeple who are actively playing now are vets. So if we had for example 300k players before, we might only have 50k players now. So 40k of them are the 80% but they still lost the majority of players. (not actual figures, just an example of the word play).
It's all good SOE! Let me go be a clickin the subcribe button now!
pffffffft
ESAD SOE
"Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard drive?"
From the Classic Tag Lines collection.
Propoganda if i ever saw it. Myself and my fiance had 4 accounts that we have not renewed, as well as A LOT of my SWG friends that quit are not going back either. I know of 2 cities and 3 guilds that went under and MAYBE 25% of those players went back for the 15 day trial, from what i heard most of those still wont renew. This just sounds like a lot of SOE's pre CU pre NGE propaganda to me. Wait look what we MIGHT do in Jan or Feb or (insert month/year).
Funny how even IF SOE were serious about making changes that the players want, after 2+ years of waiting for them to listen the players, nothing sounds promising IF TRUE !
"Today, 80% of active players in Galaxies are veterans who were in the game prior to the new game enhancements (NGE)."
Yeah like 80% of the content of this post are lies.
OMG! This is so comical. My entire guilde quit and not one has resubscribed to SWG, free trial or not. How can I be so sure of this? Well we are all playing on another MMORPG and have re-established our old guilde. We continue to talk about SWG and what a piece of crap it has turned into.
As far as I know players are still cancelling their accounts. Just go by the forums and see for yourself.
How sad that they not only lied to the players about the NGE but now they feel they must lie to the media. How very sad.
Hopefully they will pull the plug on SWG and let it die peacefully.
I am not impressed by the 100k playing the free trial either. I think you get higher numbers then that when crappy Asian mmorpg #27 goes into open beta. I think if a nebulous game like Dark and Light would go open beta now, 300k people would want to give it a go, no matter that they won't be able to log in. A trial is a Demo, nothing more.
Nothing is easier today then download a client and give it quick peek to see if it's to your liking, and 100k is peanuts, I'm afraid. They may rub their hands if even 20% of those 100k will actually subscribe.
They worded carefully, so some might not read it entirely. They said: "80% of active players are veterans". That could mean like 5000-10000 ppl, but this number is just a guess.
Also, i'm unsure what veteran means. How much days you need to become veteran? I guess this word is also part of their spinning by naming veterans 30 day old players or something...
That's some very meaty info and I'd like to give it a very meaty reply -baloney!
SOE/LA are digging the hole deeper for themselves with crap like this
PIRATE LORDS
Wow, what a desperate cry for help. 100% lies and B*llSh*t. SOE is the mother of all lies and deception.
This game is horrable now. Go to any site that sells the game or reviews it, don't take my word for look for your self.
People are desperatly trying not to get fired over messing this game up so much,
DO NOT FALL FOR IT!
Here's the stupid thing about what *THE DEVS* are saying.
Vets - even when the NGE came out, if you had started an account and a character the night before NGE came, you were a vet in their books. So think about it... only 80% of those that were there are still there. The only reason they're still there? Because they have time left on their cancelled subscription. I know I'm stuck around till March 2006 on one account, and the other expired Dec. 19, 2005. With SWG, changes happen suddenly, and they should have offered everyone a refund the day they announced the NGE was coming out, not just for the Trials Of Obi-Wan purchasers.
Fixes and Additions - that's all they seem to ever do with SWG, patch, patch, patch, etc... Most of my guild moved to WoW, the biggest thing we've noticed so far? Few bugs!!! Infact most of us haven't seen any. And it's not getting *PATCHED* every second day. Now, add to that, all the additions that have been promised for pretty much... forever. Like the Player owned Capital ships. First we were told we'd get them when JTL came out (didn't happen), then for the next expansion RoTW, there was no mention of it for Trials of Obi-Wan... that was just a cash grab expansion anyways.
Right now all I can think of is... how the heck can we organize a class action lawsuit against SOE for the BS they gave us with the NGE? Some of us were locked into the game because of our subscription plans and even though we've cancelled, SOE still has our cash from our long term subscriptions. What do they expect us to do, sign into the game and play something that's not enjoyable? We didn't pay for this NGE crap.
"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."
Will these people ever learn ?????
Who would be stupid enough to pay 15$ a month to beta-test a game, full of "unintended bugs" that "may take some time" to fix ????
Devs, stick your fingers out of your butt and do what you're paid for, develop the damn game and test it before putting it live !
I played SWG for less than a year, so I dont consider myself a vet, but I survived through the Combat Upgrade (the game started to lose some of its uniqueness at that time, like the level-less feature, but it was still playable and enjoyable so I didnt quit), but the NGE was really too much for me (and for all of my friends, we all tried to stick to the game for as long as possible after the release of the NGE, but now there is not one person I know who hasnt cancel).
There is not much to say that hasnt already been said, SOE turned one of the best and unique MMORPG into some stupid first person shoot 'em up for 10 year old XBox playing kids...
And despite what they're trying to sell us, they lost hundreds of thousands of players, so much that even this Smed guy (CEO of SOE or something) posted a letter on the SWG forum trying to keep us from cancelling ! Too bad dude, next time try to think a little bit before upsetting your paying customers ! Maybe they thought this would be just like the CU, some of us would complain but wont quit, but no, this time they changed the game so much that its not even close to the one we played before, in any way, combat, classes, everything !
So the devs can post whatever they want on their forum, release publish 24587, sign a contract with their blood saying that SWG will be the most "StarWarsy" ever, there is absolutely no way I'm coming back to this game, unless :
A. They put target lock back (if I wanted to play Battlefront II, I would have bought it)
B. They put the Jedi class back to the way it was, kinda like a "prestige class" in Dungeons & Dragons (its very "StarWarsy" indeed to see Jedi running everywhere, but Jedi carrying rifles because their powers are so weak... if George Lucas ever plays this game, he's gonna have a heart attack...)
There would be still a lot more to do of course, but at least if these 2 things were corrected, maybe I would think of joining again.
Or, one good option would be for Lucas Arts to take the Star Wars licence away from Sony Online and give it to some real MMORPG studio, like NCSoft or Blizzard...
Until then, I'll be playing some other real MMORPG, and keep an eye on this Star Wars MMOFPS to see if it becomes playable again one day...
This is highly misleading. The veteran players who enjoyed Trials of Obi Wan were given the option to get their money back. I didn't meet anyone who didn't get their money back. They left the game! So they misrepresent those veteran players, the NGE didn't even start till early November, so of course the players were veteran -UP UNTIL THE NGE LAUNCHED AND THEY ALL LEFT!
"...the enchantment of error that you put on me I must wear forever in your eyes. We are not always what we seem and hardly ever what we dream."
The thing they don't tell you is that for every one item they fix, they break 4 others my characaters on Chimaera Server now can not play because when I try to get into my factories I get a repeating message flashing across my screen that wont stop till I go back to my home and go inside. My characters also have many quests that are locked and can not be finished.
I send in a ticket and when their answer does not cure the problem I cant let them know because it wont allow me to add a comment to the ticket so I have to start all over again with a new CSR. You also can't go to the SWG chat pages because they are completely moderated now and you can't ask a question.
SWG needs to quit worring about new content and fix the game first, it is broken in so many places that most of us are just hanging on to see if they can fix it. I myself have change my subscription to monthy so that if they don't get it under control they can't get any more than 30 days of my money.
This game still has the problem that it has always had NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT. Most service tickets, unless it is a very simple and quick fix, get a condesending reply that they are working on it and that is it, you have to file over and over again in hope of getting a CSR to actually look at your problem.
Above all what hurts the most is this could be the best of this type of game ever, but untill they realize that what is a small problem to them is a very big problem to the player that is trying to report it, SOE and LA will just be running a second rate game.
Jyd Soren, Chimaera Server, 518 days logged and still hoping
Give me back SWG at sunset and keep adding to it and I would pay twice what it was costing.
ROFLMAO!!!
MeG@ LoOoL
$OE = liars
This post from SOE is NOTHING more than lies. I logged on 2 days ago and the server was worse off than before Christmas. Theed, Coronet, Mining Outpost, and Mustafar were all but empty. When you create a new toon you choose the server you want to play on. ALL the server showed a lower server population than just before Christmas. Of my 181 people in my friends list, I only see no more than 5 on at any given time. Usually there is only like 2 people. Prior to the NGE I would see about 30 people online playing the game. HUGE difference going from 30 to 2 or 3.
What was once a thriving community has been destroy by this experiment called the NGE. Make no mistake about it, SWG will not survive this latest revamp. The game as it was originally designed is GONE. So are the subscriptions/playerbase. All this is (post from SOE) is a feeble attempt to save the game they destroyed.
Smedley and the ENTIRE management including the lead developers need to be fired for ruining what was once the best MMO ever.
Sago Mactow
Former SWG 2yr 7 month Vet
6/26/03 - 1/26/06
Jedi, Master Shipwright, Master Architect
DFR Councilman
Tarq Server