SWG Timeline Moves Forward 36
Rumours have been working their way through the Star Wars Galaxies boards about the possibility that the timelines of events will be moved forward past the current "post-New Hope, pre-Empire" point. Darniaq writes on this possibility, and links to a post on the boards where the Community Manager confirms this development. Unfortunately, the posts have already been removed. Fortunately, an individual at Sony Online Entertainment was able to confirm with LucasArts that there are plans to make this change to the game. Here's hoping the timeline change will be a breath of fresh air for the beleaguered game.
A new Ho.. er... Expansion (Score:4, Interesting)
Anyone want to bet that they still won't fix outstanding game bugs before new expansions come out?
Re:A new Ho.. er... Expansion (Score:2)
Anyone want to bet that they still won't fix outstanding game bugs before new expansions come out?
I will go one step farther. I will bet they will release another expansion before they are anywhere near done to finishing the majority of the content and issues for the NGE.
Noob (Score:2)
Fix outstanding bugs. Tsk, you have much to learn young one.
Granted some bugs are being fixed by just removing the game mechanics behind them. One long lasting bug was that vehicles were not repaired properly wich was finally fixed shortly before the CU. The fix now? Vehicles don't get damaged anymore. Repair was a much needed money
Re:Noob (Score:2)
I haven't played any Sony MMOs in some time (1 year (or less) stint back when SWG came out, 3 month stint when EQ2 came out).
Hopefully this isn't more flailing (Score:3, Insightful)
Whoa, there are people still playing that? (Score:3, Interesting)
Still, on a scale of "pretty cool at least at low levels" to "its _only_ merit is the franchise name", WoW would be at the first end, SWG seemed _the_ poster child for the latter.
SWG, after all this time at it, has pretty much any problem you can imagine.
E.g., design problems, such as classes whose only source of income is hoping that someone would drop by and give them a tip. (Try making any money a
Too little too late (Score:1)
Re:Too little too late (Score:2)
* Tons of Content added, even a system for players to create content!
* Majority of the bugs that have been logged since the inception of this game and were never fixed... have been fixed!
* Development and CSRs, now recognize players as customers and fellow human beings.
FU SOE (Score:1)
Re:FU SOE (Score:1)
Re:FU SOE (Score:1)
I actually tried playing it... (Score:3, Interesting)
1) The tutorial is wrong. This game has been around, what, 2.5 years now and even the TUTORIAL has bugs in it. To be specific, when piloting a spaceship, the tutorial says that the mouse controls the ship's movements when not in pointer mode. What it doesn't mention is the rather important fact that if you have a joystick plugged in, the mouse doesn't do SQUAT, only the joystick does. So despite the game knowing I had a joystick plugged in, the tutorial was giving me the wrong controls, lying to me. I was stuck in my little ship outside of the training base for about two hours before it occured to me to try the dusty old Logitech joystick hidden behind my monitor. And to make things worse, while you're stuck here, you can't put in a ticket for the help system because of (I presume) another bug where the Help button doesn't work.
2) During the non-ship sections, my framerate slowed to 1 FPS twice for no apparent reason, and I had to re-log to fix it both times. (The second time, I actually died because some NPC shot at me while the framerate was screwy, and I didn't even know it until I logged back in.
3) Even after I was done being stuck in my starship, I couldn't figure out how to open a support ticket for the above two items. I found where the game listed open tickets, so I know it's possible, but I couldn't find how to make a new one.
4) The game is generally crude, ignoring the bugs. The creatures didn't have death animations, instead just going from standing to being dead in 1 frame. Many items had no visual appearance, so they appeared as a huge featureless cube around my character. There were (get this) clipping errors in the *pre-rendered* videos describing the classes! If you're pre-rendering the movie, pick a camera angle that won't show obvious clipping errors!
Anyway. The game is losing players because it's crap. Other than the Star Wars brand, I have no clue why anybody started playing it in the first place. I used exactly four hours of my 10-day demo before giving up for life.
Re:I actually tried playing it... (Score:1)
But that's just about the latency issues. The game itself is still riddled with bugs and holes that have existed since launch, and the new combat system is all fighting the old socioeconomi
Re:I actually tried playing it... (Score:2)
And dodging the bugs might be harder than it sounds, seeing that you don't even have to do much to be bit by one. E.g., you only hav
Re:I actually tried playing it... (Score:2)
Don't blame this game for that -- it happens in other games. For example, I couldn't aim straight at all in GTA:VC, until I posted on a BB and someone clued me in that my gamepad was taking over...
Re:I actually tried playing it... (Score:2)
Re:I actually tried playing it... (Score:2)
Well one is fixed with the full download (Score:3, Interesting)
While this problem is trivial by itself (just wait for the game to completely download) that is exists at all just goes to show Sony has mismanaged the game to an extent that can not be believed only experienced.
To clarify, the demo is a partial download of the full game. Why? Bec
Updated hyperlink (Score:4, Informative)
I could see it working... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I could see it working... (Score:4, Interesting)
If they ever made SWG 2, probably going the Guild Wars route is probably going to give the people more of what they actually want for the Star Wars Experience.
I loved SWG though, the 30+ professions all the planets. The problems before the CU and the NGE have all been outlined many times before, but the Devs never seemed to listen, even the smugglers had to wait what 2 years for a revamp or something, and they still can't smuggle.
I started out as an artisan, and moved to a rifleman, ranger. Then the nerfing started.
Re:post New Hope? (Score:3, Interesting)
In the former profession system, you got to be able to get a Jedi character by mastering professions, there was 30+ some professions so mastering them was no easy matter. Thus started the hologrind. Which made the economy in SWG go boom becaus
Re:post New Hope? (Score:2)
Yeah. My idea, way back in the early days of Ultima Online, was a massive strategy/combat/trading game set in the Star Wars universe. Sort of a blend of Master of Orion, Privateer, and the X-Wing games. Unfortunately, I think even with broadband, the latency of the Internet is too unpredictable to make a game with real-time combat involving hundreds of players work.
Re:post New Hope? (Score:2, Interesting)
there are some games that keep inching closer to the 100 player mark but none of them can manage to stay up long enough for it to fully work (either the games owner shuts it down cause it's a hacked server or the server just crashes from the load).
if anything consoles would be the first place that it could happen, since everyone would have the exact same setup (seeing as it would be an MMORPG everyon
Re:post New Hope? (Score:2)
The answer is not to set it in any time period, just bring in the best bits of Star Wars from all the films. The hardcore geeks will bitch and moan, but most people will just get on with e
Re:post New Hope? (Score:2)
Thats what made Star Wars. Thats exactly what Star Wars Galaxies didn't have, nor did it have plans for it. They did do a short storyline quest at one point early on. The thing was it was over to long a period of time, and you had to be a member of Imperial or Rebel faction. Which I know I didn't join at all because it was the PvP part of the game. And the old parts of the quest disappeared, so it added no new content to the game whatsoever. Specifically what was needed o
That's awesome (Score:2)
To those who do not understand people care (Score:3, Interesting)
This makes a huge difference. For many SOE games are the only MMO games available appart from the fee free Guild Wars.
But apart from Sony being the only MMO company willing to take my money, SWG was the most open and free of the games out there at the time.
It wasn't D&D and while bugged it wasn't as crappy as Anarchy Online. It also had rancors and before the doc buffs arrived they were actually scary.
But when you first started the game it showed a lot of promise by actually allowing you to design your own character. You could easily create a very balanced character dabbling in all the proffesions in the game. Use the pistol you made youreselve from materials you gathered to shoot a critter then switch to melee once it close heal yourselve, rip the beastie apart for its skin meat or bones and then dance your worries away.
Mid level you had to make some choices, specialise and give up certain jobs OR just not be able to move on.
It was the end level that was the bitch that killed SWG. You either had to give up all the freedom of making your own character OR just resign yourselve from never being able to do the high level stuff unless you found a large group willing to drag you along.
SOE in its infinite wisdom made all new content exist of dungeons that only the leetest combat specced characters could complete. Had a sideline in say Ranger? Scout? Entertainer? Beast Handler? Crafter? Bio-Engineering? Useless mate. Only non combat characters that were of use in say the corvette or death watch bunker were the doctors as they could revive the dead.
SWG had something but sadly it was ruined when you moved on from the fun midlevels when Dathomir was a place of nightmares to the end game when you were engaging in 20 minute slap fests with 1million hitpoint enemies.
The sad thing? In a way the Death Watch Bunker and Corvette missions were exactly what people on the forums had been asking for. SOE has a lot to answer for but so have the players themselves. If you doc buffed, if you solo grouped, if you spin-attacked a rancor lair, if you armor holed, if you stacked resists THEN you are one of the people that killed SWG. I did it myself and know that. SWG never had a chance. SOE and the players raped it up the ass and then called it a whore.
Re:To those who do not understand people care (Score:2)
Riiiiight
You never heard of Ultima Online [ultimaonline.com] right?
Credit card (Score:2)
The age old problem of needing a credit card. I made this very clear in my post. SOE for all it does wrong just understands that in order to get peoples money you must make it easy to for them give you their money.
UO didn't get this. try signing up for it without a credit card.
Original time period choice was a design flaw (Score:2)
First, having the game take place in the middle of the story in effect puts the game in a very small box from a story, event, & content perspective. They were limited on what ships, items, etc. they could have, how much the in game universe could change and what events they could do, and how much the players could affect things. To stay true to the story and fit everything in the "little box" they would have
So the new player tutorial is out of timeline now? (Score:1)