Anybody playing Star Wars Galaxies?


Has anybody tried SWG? Any impressions?

I ask here because GC is a game I actually really like (so if you like GC and also like SWG....) , and any SWG forum I go to seems to be at least partially filled with lobotomized fanboys.

It's even worse than that Other Space Game's forums.

?
2,334 views 52 replies
Reply #1 Top
Yeah, I've been playing it. So far, I'm extremely impressed. I can't say much about it though, since I'm still fairly clueless. There's just so much breadth and complexity to it. The only other MMORPG I've played before was Asheron's Call 1, which I really liked. This game makes AC look like a Commodore 64 game.

btw, if you're expecting a jedi fest, you're not going to find it. The designers have said that they don't expect people to figure out and fulfill all the necessary requirements any time soon. They said that they'd be surprised to see any before the 4 month mark or so! Even if you do get it, supposedly it's hard to stay alive since you'll be hunted down by Darth Vader and his minions, which makes sense given it's supposed to be set around the time of Empire Strikes Back. I'd definitely recommend it (if you have the time.)
Reply #2 Top
I'm thinking Knight of the Old Republic seems like more fun for me.

Been awhile since I played an MMORPG... I don't miss the "camp monster spawn for 6 hours" stuff... I hear there's lots of wasted time in SWG. True?
Reply #3 Top
Well all time spent playing computer games is "wasted time". I did a short review on the ANZAC empire thread.

I played EQ for 3 years and just gave up in boredom. SWG seems to have managed to take some of the best features of a number of games. I suspect very strongly that the very juvenile players will migrate back to EQ or whevever very quickly when they find that it is very difficult to grief other players, almost impossible to powerlevel or twink.

It's been out for less than a week so anything you hear is premature. At this stage I think it is a pretty good game and is soaking up my leisure hours quite satisfactorily.
Reply #4 Top
Yeah, it's been a while for me to. I'm not familiar enough with the game to answer your question, but I think their experience system avoids some of that camping problem. To put it in precise mathematical terms, there are oodles of different experience types that you need to get to pursue the kazillion different skills and job occupations. For example, there's blaster experience, rifle experience, wilderness survival experience, dancing experience, trading experience, etc. So, I don't think you're as likely to do the same thing over and over again, but I could be wrong.

Also, there are several professions you can pursue that don't require any killing. The ones that I've been most surprised by are the entertainment professions. I'd describe it in more detail, but I think it will just sound kind of silly. Nevertheless, it actually works well and seems to be fun for a lot of people.
Reply #6 Top
KG,

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to copy your mini-review here, since the 20+ pages in the anzac thread might cause some people to not to look.

#477 by Citizen Kiwi Greg - 6/30/2003 10:26:34 AM

Hey SW

Yeah I spent all weekend playing SWG (and I mean *all* weekend). there were some initial log in problems and also some issues with the UI not remaining stable between log in and log (or crash) out.

The graphics are awesome, I mean really awesome. You *have* to spend R&R time watching entertainers to lower your battle fatigue, and some of them are really really good .

The designed player interdependency is also really interesting as is the experience system. You get exp for successfully using your skills rather than explicitly for killing things. Entertainers get exp when people watch them (you watch entertainers to lower your battle fatigue), healers when they heal, artisans get exp when people use the things they make.

Some of the animal mob AI is incredible. Like the ostrich type birds who keep following you around out of curiousity or th time I was ambushed by a bunch of cat-type creatures who worked as a team.

It seems very difficult to "grief" another player. The bazaar system is great. Most of the best equipment is player made. It is very easy to solo as well as group. Missions to get cash and exp and faction are essentially group or player specific so there is no camping.

What are the downsides?

Well I know some people are really disappointed that most mobs dont drop phat lewt. So if you kill an animal you can skin it or harvest its meat but you wont find a +18 vorpal sword of total death on it.

It seems very empty at times - it might be the server I am playing on but the universe is so big there often doesnt seem to be many people around.

There are some complaints (after 4 days!!) that there is not enough "high end" content. There are few dungeons.

Personally I quite like it. It seems to be a game designed for adults and I suspect all the L3w7 folk from EQ and other games will tire of it quickly. This is a good thing
End of quote
Reply #7 Top
a friend of mine who lives in US and playing it atm tolds me that the game is very buggy. Server crashes a lot. but than again, thats his opionion and he has been playing it since beta. He also mentioned that they released the game even though the developers know that there were still bugs needed to be fixed but they still put forward the released date and released the game....

Again, only one person opinion so im not too bothered, considering this game won't be released until christmas, so they have plenty time to ironed out all the bugs :)
Reply #8 Top
You're saying that it won't be released where you live until Christmas? So where is that? I'm just curious b/c I thought I saw something about several servers being designated as regional-specific, for e.g.,a "recommended european server."
Reply #10 Top
One minor irritation is a bunch of folk in my PA ("guild" for EQ people) arent really into combat - they are frantically building vast mining and power complexes or being entertainers (the graphics are pretty good and some skilled entertainers are, well, pretty graphic :) )
Reply #11 Top
I used to play eq alot. I'm one of those players that caused alot of grief. Usually to those groups that thought they ran the show. One got banned cheating trying to get rid of me.
Reply #12 Top
I played EQ for 2.5 years as well. I basically quit because it took too much time to really accomplish anything, and it usually had to be big blocks of time.

I'm not surprised SWG looks good though, VI/Sony created an excellent product in EQ, and I'm sure they learned what to improve upon for this next project.

Now I'm back to strategy games (what I used to play before EQ), and I love the non-multiplayer form of GC. It's perfect for where I'm at now, I can get up from the keyboard immediately, whenever I want, and not miss anything, and I can login/logoff to the game in less than 2 minutes =)

Keep the SWG info flowing, though, it's nice to hear about what they've done. Someone above said it's good for solo players, too. If so, I may have to get it at some point (GASP! did I just say that?)

Anyway, a little humorous memory for the former EQ players here. There was a cartoonish posting on one of the EQ-related boards about a year and a half ago, about the release of SWG. It basically was still frames pulled from Star Wars, with text balloons added. One of the Empire soldiers just went around hailing everyone in each frame ("Hail!"), Luke was always looking for a group, and Darth was spouting off his mouth in dude-speak. It was a real hoot!
Reply #13 Top
TERRIBLE GAME is what everyone tells me. If you ever wanted to see a game full of bugs released solly for the purpose of milking the players for money, do play it! I would never play a game don't doesn't give a squat about players or bugs.... agian.
Reply #14 Top
As I noted it was difficult to get in on the first day...that's not a bug. There was a near game-destroying problem with hotkeys not being saved which has been fixed. Other than that I am not sure what all these bugs are that you refer to.

The game is well designed for solo or group play. Groups can be up to 20 members (but they are in my experience something of a clusterfuck at that level as people are still not sure of there roles (MT, puller, etc) and there are a lot of people playing who have never played a MMORPG before. I can log on go to a mission terminal, get a coupleof missions and complete them in an hour. Missions are durable so if you log they are still there when you come back. If you chose a non-combat character (bearing in mind that you can maaster at least 2 professions so you would really have to WANT a non-combat character) you will probably need to group although there are a range of non-combat (mostly delivery and artisan related) missions which yield cash and sometimes faction.

Few other things that might interest ex-EQ players:

- there is no exp loss for death. Death is still a pain (unless you can afford insurance you will still have to do a corpse run to get your stuff, however looting your corpse is a one-click affair). Many animals will simply beat you unconcious rather than kill you.

- there are no zones (like DAoC in that regard) so you cant game the system by camping at a zone in

- player animations need to be seen to be believed, they are excellent; my character has learned a whole bunch of combat rolls - they are wat cool

- there are in fact speech bubbles above characters heads - I find them a litle annoying and so have turned most of them off

- you can send in game emails to characters who arent logged on

- the waypoint system - ah bliss - basically you can waypoint everything. If you die the game logs a waypoint to your corpse. No more running through WC shouting "has anyone seen my corpse?"

- you can buy or build houses and guild halls and factories.

Like I said I am not sure the game will hold my interest for years on end; the jury is still out on what the high end game will be like; some of the missions can be repetitive. Time will tell.

Reply #17 Top
I played UO for a year or so.
I quit 'cause a guild broke into our keep by cheating and ruined it.

I played EQ for maybe 6 months. I had a level 30 bard... but it was too hard to level (the "treadmill") and took too long to really do anything. I ebayed my character and got ALL the money I invested back, though.

I'm strongly considering at least trying it though... esp. if you can find something do in 30-60 minutes of playtime.



The main thing that is making me consider SWG is the STar Wars Factor. I was never an SWG geek, but I've been overcome with nostalgia or something lately (hey, Jedi Outcast is FUN).

If it's just Everquest with Chewbaccas, I figure I should pass. Or if it's an online game that requires massive time commitment (college is over, sigh) I should probably pass too. Wifey is still pissed at me for 1 notorious UO day where I "logged in for 15 minutes" and spent 4 hours helping friends out of a dungeon.


[Message Edited]
Reply #18 Top
TERRIBLE GAME is what everyone tells me. If you ever wanted to see a game full of bugs released solly for the purpose of milking the players for money, do play it! I would never play a game don't doesn't give a squat about players or bugs.... agian.
End of quote


If this is the case, who is really surprised? MMORPG's are going to be buggy when released. The question is, do you think they will just say, "oh screw the customer and the untold millions we could rake in if we fix this", or do you think they will say, "Okay, lets make this better so that we can pull in the mainstream gamer and make ourselves rich beyond our wildest dreams."

I'm guessing the latter, since this is such a high-profile, well funded project.
Reply #19 Top
That would be an interesting question. Is it merely and everquest with chewbacca's or something totally different? If it's the former, I'm everquested out. If it's the latter, I'd be interested in hearing how it's different.
Reply #20 Top
Read up a few posts Pont and you will see my views on why it is different. I am not at all sure what all these bugs are people are referring. I have /bugged twice since release and both things have been fixed.

I think they will need to introduce more content, at the moment it feels a little like DAoC in terms of content, although in fairness I have spent most of my time on a single planet, and indeed around a single city.

i plan to travel some once I get my skills set - really keen to get to creature handler!
Reply #21 Top
And Miguel

You really found someone who wanted to buy a level 30 bard???? Why would they do such a thing? Bard is one of the easiest classes to PL; takes under 4 hours to level 20 and thats just using a druid to do the PLing.
Reply #22 Top
Yeah I found someone to buy my bard. Got the price of the game and all the monthly fees back. A necromancer guy I played with got a huge profit from his guy on ebay, I was envious.

It's been awhile, but I remember that after level 20 the XPs slowed way down. I didn't powerlevel though, it took me a long time to get there.

The game hadn't been out that as long, maybe powerlevelling wasn't so common.
Reply #23 Top
Kiwi Greg

As in not enough content, does that mean not enough fun stuff to do?

What activities have you been doing during playtime?

Just get missions and kill vermin spawns?

I keep changing my mind as to whether I want to get it or not. KOTOR seems more to my liking.
Reply #24 Top
I also cant decide wether or not to get it. On the one hand I realy wana get it. Its gottenmany bad reviews and I dont want to get burned again like I did with MOOO3. :( I looked at the boards on the official site and 90% of the comments were bad. While theres always a bunch of bad coments on boards, its still a lot. From what I can tell sevral of the cooler class are broken and in general there are some major balancing issues among the fighter classes. Also right now the xp system seems to discourage group combat. However after I say all that, its STARWARS and part of me just wants to run out and get it.
Reply #25 Top
I'm gonna wait on it. Things will certainly get better over time, k3w1 d3wd5 will migrate back to eq and the cost of the box and cd will come down. I think I'll give it 2 or 3 months. But Mr. Pink's gotta good point:

its STARWARS and part of me just wants to run out and get it.
End of quote


What little disposable income I have these days is burnin a hole in my pocket right now. But I'm gonna force myself to wait.

idle

~SDC~