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Star Wars Galaxies & JTL Expansion


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Impressive is the word of the day for that game.

Being an ex EQ addict, soon to become ex-dark age of camelot junkie (there, that be my credentials for MMPOG's hah!)...

I can say this is one of the games with the most potential in online games of its type.

Firstoff, lets ignore the fact that its star wars. Look at the elements that make this one 'impressive':

-Character development

For the first time, players are not ostracized by 'levels'. In EQ and DAOC, etc etc, a level 1 had no chance whatsoever against a level 10 or 30 or 50. In this game, there are no levels. The characters do not 'increase' in stats as they 'grow'. SWG has a skill based 'leveling' system. and those skills will serve the player in certain areas and situations only, leaving them wide open and very vulnerable in others. For example, a player with high creature handling (for those who have played EQ/DAOC/ETC, think:pet class) can tot around 2 or 4 npc creatures that can rip anything apart quick... but that doesn't help him much if a player with only 2 certifications in ranged weapons blows his head off. Same applies to someone with very high ranged weapon skills that is killed by someone with just 2 certifications in creature handling when the creature handler spotted him and sicked his pets on the guy (melee combat, where ranged specialists suck).

Also, unlike EQ or DAOC and the likes, you can 'forget' skills you dont want to free up your point pool whenever you like. Unlike EQ/DAOC, where 'respecs' involve horribly long quests or spending a boatload of 'money', in SWG forgetting a skill does not give you back the experience you had in those certifications. And thats because each certification type has its own 'skill point' type..you cannot use rifle experience to get a unarmed combat certification for example.

-Terrain

As with any new generation game, the graphics are drop dead gorgeous. But what makes SWG really special is the interaction of the terrain with the player vs player AND best of all: Player vs NPC.

In player vs player, terrain of course is used to hide and get the best advantage you can (aka, hills offer better shots to ranged weapons)... but what really impressed me was that against NPC's the terrain worked just as well.

For example, in DAOC or EQ, if i took an archer class and made him stand in a *thick* brush that completely covered the player's character and fired, the NPC mob would instantly make a beeline to kill the player.

In SWG, if you stand in the open this will be the case. But if you kneel/prone inside cover (bushes, behind trees, etc), the MOB will run in small circles for about 3 seconds before it 'finds you' and rushes you. And even more amazing is that if the NPC has 'seen' you previously (when you run by a mob you see '?' or '!' icons pop over their heads that lets you know they see you), and you go into cover and shoot, those mobs will beeline for you..because they know you were there.

friken awesome!

terrain also affects the speed of your character.. uphill you literally walk depending on the steepness, downhill you gain speed.

-Animations

As said above, new gen games have it better. but this time its overboard better. the fluidity of the animations, the emotes being tied to what YOU type (aka, if you say 'bye' to someone, it automatically makes your character wave goodbye, without you having to type /bye ... same goes with using emotes in chat text).

MOBS are beautifully rendered too. there's this camp of *HUGE* dinosaur like NPC's outside the city im in.. and they look like the bronto's out from Jurassic Park. Its that good. And wait till you see them get shot at. whooohoo.

-Interface

The interface needs some work in the game, particularly the chat interface. But so far the menu interfaces and tool interfaces are very good and user friendly.

Camera Views: At first I almost cried at the camera & player movement system. It seemed very hindering and disorienting. This is because ive been accustomed to DAOC/EQ style of either 1st person or 3rd person above and behind your character POV.

But after playing it for an hour i realized the camera and player movement system was pure genious!. You pan the camera around with the mouse and with chase camera you can have the above-and-behind locked camera view..BUT it locks your character to run in the direction the camera is facing. And Keyboard inputs ovveride the mouse movement, so you can be running around steering with your mouse , suddenly get attacked from behind-left.. you can keep running by pressing up arrow in keyboard but you can also move mouse sideways to get a view of what shot you..while you move foward. Extremely useful because in this game, you can run AND shoot backwards (or as much as your character's torso can twist..there are some limits).

Combat:

Those of you who have played Dark Age of Camelot will notice that SWG's melee combat system is almost identical.

And those of you who played X-COM (especially X-COM3 with real-time combat enabled) will find the ranged combat system is very similar (but has the DAOC's queue attack system too).

For those of you who have not played either, melee combat has your character swing his weapon automatically at a target, and you can tell the game to use 'styles' or 'special attacks' on the next swing. For ranged weapons, you also get that ability of special attacks and such, but you also get benefits in accuracy by having your character KNEEL, go PRONE or stand UP (as well as camouflage benefits).

In player vs player and player vs mob, combat is, i could say, very realistic. This is not DAOC where people just whack each other head-to-head or ganging up, but rather a game where the terrain and team tactics are vital. Players using guns (aka rifles, pistols,carbines) have to fight by firing, moving, firing... and when in melee they usually have to make sure its the last resort (because someone with a gun can shoot them down as they stand there melee'ing another player).

-Player Vs Player

Ah this is the best part. The game is like EQ in that you cant be pvp unless you want to.. meaning if you dont want to pvp another player who is pvp cant just come and cut your head off. like EQ basically. However, this game splits the pvp into rebel and imperial factions. Thus, griefers cant just go around killing peeps all over, they have to find opposing faction players.

The game also has set 'battlegrounds' in areas in the game world. these are set as places where rebel and imperial forces are duking it out. You can enter the areas and you are instantly asked if you want to be imperial or rebel (if you have not declared your allegiance). Once the side you'll fight for is determined, you can pick missions that happen inside that war zone..missions which can be to take out opposing side's forces or installations.. which may or may not be defended by players and NPC's of the other side.

Gaining good faction also gives you perks. For example, my bothan marksman has good rebel faction. He can get inside a zone and he can be given 4 rebel commando NPC's to use as pets. And they shoot, blast, melee at your command.

-Crafting

Short and sweet, you can make anything in the game and even improve it and twink it. Got a rifle? you can make and attach improved scopes, barrels, grips, etc to make your weapon even better. You can build your own houses, factories, etc.

The game is still fresh out the factory, but for a game that basically just came out, it has very solid gameplay features which are almost bug-free for the most part. There is the usual mission bugs and item bugs but those so far make an extremely small list.. and i say small compared to the hundreds of bugs ive seen still rampant in EQ and DAOC , years after they were released.

In conclusion, i highly recommend this game. Its like playing WW2OL but with a class system that works, on a terrain that is infantry heaven and to boot you can change your character whenever you want, however you want, as many times as you want. The XP grind that so kills the gaming experience of EQ and DAOC and even WW2OL is elegantly avoided in this game..it avoids being quake while keeping the RPG type game fun.

Those of you with this game, contact me, we should go hunting together

[ 10-28-2004, 01:31 PM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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Its a great game.. loving just about every minute of it. However, there are still some imbalances and little things here and there they should work on. I play on Lowca, and got a few buddies of mine to play with along with a ex g/f... Name is Kenada, im usually found on Naboo.

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what i want to know is, is it worth the money for this game?

should i buy this or planetside???

i heard all good things about planetside

and this is the first good review i have ever heard about SWG

which is better to buy?

PS Yes i know i havent been around for a while... ive been too busy programming and stuff to come here that much (i know html javascript some perl and a bunch of other languages now )

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Someone in my PS outfit said he quit SWG because of the downright horrible framerates (and PS runs faster, while both games use the same graphic engine) and the fact that they put in perma death for creatures.

TehBunneh - i can't say for you. I enjoy PS but PS and SWG are complete opposites....

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gotta agree with everyone.. Horrible Frame rates..

Plus with people whinning about certain classes it won't be long before the SOLO perspective of this game is gone for good!

Hell there where players complaining that about people killing reds... its EASY to kill a red... KIT them.. I did it.. its hard to do but once you master it its preatty simple.

Or the one I like most "He killed me so you must 'nerf' his weapon" funny thing is... these EQ *yes EQ* devs listen to all these cry babys.

I can almost gurrentee that this game will have less than 9000 players by the end of the year.. and all due to the changes made to the game that only came cause of players whining

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"the skill tree works to slow , in doac the leveling up was fun to do .. but that lackes in SWG"

I disagree with that.

In DAOC leveling consisted of pure, drudging, repetitive kill the same mob until you lev up or it becomes too easy or gives too little xp then move on to yet another camp and repeat process. Not to mention that DAOC's 'rewards' for leveling up are merely stronger versions of the same dang skill/spells you have. in 95% of the DAOC classes, once you hit lev 20'ish, you dont get a single new skill/spell, you have them all and from then on its just get the stronger hitting version until level 50.

In SWG, you get a huge variety of skills, 'leveling' up in the skill tree gives you different (and yes, sometimes just stronger versions of, but mostly you get new abilities) skills and abilities. Not to mention that 'leveling' up the skill trees require you to do actions of that skill tree, so you are constantly required to kill vastly different mobs (different in how they attack you, defend against you, and in how they react to you (aka, run away from you,call for help, etc. In DAOC every mob, from lev 1 to lev 50, act the same..they are just harder to kill and hit a lot harder.. and they look different. But in reality there is no difference between a level 10 fighting a level 20 Parthanan and a lev 40 fighting a lev 60'ish Succubus... the mob just looks different but its the same crapola)... in different ways depending on what you want to skill up.

As far as frame rates, i havent had a problem with them. Sure, when theres like 50 people in 1 place they drop significantly (as it does in any other game), but ive been in terrain cluttered with NPC mobs, cluttered with terrain so thick my character was not visible most of the time, with my graphic settings to highest and so far its been a smooth game for me.

I dont have a set server yet, my first character in SWG i think i'll delete and start over now that im more familiar with the game's workings. Ill start a character in LOWCA and join up with kenada.

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I hated the SWG beta with an intense passion reserved for few games. Mostly because it was in such a poor technological state that it hardly functioned on my computer.

Now let me explain a few things before I state my shocking conclusion... I've played virtually every MMOG since Ultima Online. That's a helluva lot of bad gameage (Esp EverChat). And of all those MMOGs, I still maintain that Asheron's Call was the best. Many of my reasons were arguble matters of taste... but there's one thing noone can argue with... Asheron's Call had a living, breathing, ever-evolving world. Landscapes would change, volcanoes would erupt, giant floating pillars of death would wreak death and destruction, during the winter it would snow. You could throw snowballs. At Halloween you could collect masks, dress up, and go trick-or-treating if the fancy hit you. To date, it is the only-only-only game that offered such a believable and changing world to play in.... and unlike *some* RPGs, these updates were almost always free. I kept my subscription until Asherons Call 2 was released (Which I promptly returned to the store) and the updates slowed and stopped.

1) Ultima Online - One of the best all-time MMORPGs. When the devs started running out of ideas, the updates started getting a little weird (rideable beetles).

2) EverQuest - The worlds biggest, most expensive chat room.

3) Asheron's Call - Already stated my case.

4) Dark Age - Not much new content, thus no staying power beyond a certain point. RvR gets old.

5) Shadowbane - The entire game is dominated by large guild mafias. Some good ideas and epic battles, but no new content and no fun without friends in high places.

6) Anarchy Online - One of the more diverse and developed online worlds. Anarchy had a lot more staying power than many other games in this group.

Alright, the shocker... I really like Galaxies... it incorporates (some would say 'steals') a lot of AO's more successful ideas, but the developers seem intent on making sure the world evolves like Asheron's Call. Power struggles, politics, invasions, and the monthly story update on the status of the world. Each month the story advances (just like AC) taking into account all that has happened in the last month. Darth vader has even been seen wandering around on Tatooine with a small army.... killing anyone who dares address him as anything but 'Lord Vader.' (Try calling anakin, see what happens). Yes, Galaxies can run very poorly if you get feature happy... but the graphic settings are scalable to the point where I can run it on my weak little laptop. Turn down vis, turn off shadows.... turn off bump maps. Etc.

IMO, Galaxies comes HIGHLY recommended. Just cancelled my Anarchy online account...

Playing on Bria server, Imperial Wookie Artisan. Go by the name Veraxus and usually hang around on Tatooine.

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for the time being there are transports that go to and from the planets.

and it costs money, right now a trip from Corellia to Yavin4 is over 3000+ credits = not a place to go if your a n00b trust me

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nine planets at the moment AFAIR. More promised to come soon (and more playable species too and vehicles toooo!)

And nope there is no way to download it online and start playing(have to say loved that feature of Anarchy online) and I don't think there will be an option either(but I may be wrong)

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  • 8 months later...

In case some of you hadn't seen this news about the space expansion, here it is.

Anyway, shortly after I made this post over on GG, yesterday, quite by surprise, we got a phone call from a delivery guy asking if we had moved. I said yeah and gave him the new address. He had stated that he had a delivery of cookies(!) from the Star Wars guys.

When he left, I read the card and it was from the Star Wars Galaxies Space Expansion Team with a rather cryptic message. It read,

quote:


Keep Smiling,

Fondly

The Star Wars Galaxies Space Expansion Team


OK, I have no clue what this all means, but I guess I'll find out tomorrow when I call over there.

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Old post revisited!

I wouldnt touch those cookies if I were you Derek

Since I was the one who started this thread, I'll give y'all an update on SWG:

They screwed it up. Bad.

as in, REAL BAD.

The proffessions in the game, when I first posted here, only had a few minor issues as far as some specials not working correctly (and in some cases at all) but it was not a crippling issue... and pvp gave victory to the one who used the best tactics.

Now, their dev team has patched and fugged up the whole pooch. The game has become yet another everquest, where the only people who can hope to have the slightest chance in PvP are those who have the most money in the game to buy the best 'buffs' and superweapons. Its no longer who's the best player in the fight, its who has the most playtime or ebay purchased money to buy the stuff to win. No fun at all anymore.

Their costumer service and the communication between the development team and the players, went from being bad to being insulting.

Player Volunteers known as 'Correspondendts' had been tasked since release with gathering all the concerns and requests, reports of critical gameplay bugs and overall balance of each proffession. After a year of the game release, practically every correspondent has given up and quit the position because SOE just ignored their reports. The most hurt by this was the Commando proffession, who out of their 3 correspondents, 2 quit from this and the 3rd is now feeling what the previous 2 went through. To make a long story short, correspondent reports that 10 out of the 12 weapons this proffession has dont work and after a YEAR of the same report being handed to them... SOE comes along and makes it so 11 out of the 12 weapons dont work. Correspondent report for a YEAR that the above mentioned 12th weapon, while it does shoot and do damage, is of no use for the commando because it was a pistol...and commando has NO abilities or specials to use pistols with. What does SOE do? They go and practically hand the 12th weapon to the Pistoleers (another proffession).

I cancelled my account back in january '04, its just amazing how a game which had so little issues and so much potential upon LAUNCH was so, so, SO royally turned into an ALPHA version of the game in just a year. If they are getting fired its perhaps because they are just outright incompetent imo.

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I disagree, I just turned my account back on a couple of weeks ago, and I've got to say I'm impressed. In January I do remember that it was really unbalanced however. They've fixed most of those issues.

As for it not being buggy at release did you EVER play as a bounty hunter in the first 4 months Tac? Nothing for the BH worked right, except the carbine skills. They ripped it apart and put it back together, but now its a decent game. It feels a bit like EQ, with buffs and everything, but you know what they say; If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I'm enjoying it a lot more than I was when I cancelled it in Febuary. I canceled for basically the same reasons you did Tac, and I've got to say that having just returned, I'm impressed. Finally they added in the "Imperial Crackdown" stuff... spice buffs aren't nearly as common in PvP now since you can get in deep crap with the imperials for it. Plus, just because you have buffs doesn't mean you can't get owned bad by another person of the same calibre. Trust me, I know.

Thats cool that it sounds like they might want you on the space expansion. That would be awesome if you actually helped make an expansion for my second favorite game (Has been, Is still, and will be. Even with all the issues. SOE knows what they're doing.). Good luck SC, hope the best comes out of this.

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