What Would You Have Changed in SWG?

khanstruct

It seems to be a fair assumption that many here think SWG (pre-NGE) was the pinnacle of what they want in an MMO. Personally, I never got to play it (may check out the swgemu), but I've researched it a lot. Assuming it wasn't absolutely perfect, I'm curious as to what you would have liked to see done differently.

Also, please tell me your favorite aspect of the game? What did you do most often in it?

I would post this in the actual SWG forum, but considering there hasn't been a post in there for the last 3 years, I don't suspect I'd get much of a response.

khanstruct

DMKano said:

The gameplay systems pre-NG were quite impressive, lot of ways of playing as you wanted. There was no wrong way to play SWG.

Combat was quite bad IMO, I'd rework that

Huh... it just occurred to me that, in all my research of the game, aside from the overt/covert aspect, I actually have no idea how combat worked.  O.o

HighMarshal

I would have never done two things.
1. Implemented classes
2. Used the trilogy time period. I would have set it after the movies by at least a few years.

Muke

khanstruct said:

It seems to be a fair assumption that many here think SWG (pre-NGE) was the pinnacle of what they want in an MMO. Personally, I never got to play it (may check out the swgemu), but I've researched it a lot. Assuming it wasn't absolutely perfect, I'm curious as to what you would have liked to see done differently.

Also, please tell me your favorite aspect of the game? What did you do most often in it?

I would post this in the actual SWG forum, but considering there hasn't been a post in there for the last 3 years, I don't suspect I'd get much of a response.

-No city building, only city templates with predefined houses to prevent Planet house spam clutter. Like Wayfar close to Jabba's Palace

-bug fixes

-Actual smuggler missions

-Bounty Hunter missions to hunt normal players

-no jedi players

-original trilogy, no 1000 years before/after era, I want stormtroopers, the emperor and Vader.

-GCW, a real one, no instanced pvp fights or some lame base spamming and guard killing.

-more (open) dungeons

-good expansions

-No customer cheating/lying by SOE.

-Better engine that can handle 40 vs 40 without a server crash

tawess

Oh my.... where to start... =P

First off i would have clamped down on macro abuse. 

Secondly i would have put in a better system för building cities. 

No Jedi.... 

Actuall PvE content for Entertainers

Working over the PvP system (and by that also the combat system)


... 

.. 
.

Or in short build a entierly new game.... 

warsaber1375

Update graphics if possible

nariusseldon

khanstruct said:

It seems to be a fair assumption that many here think SWG (pre-NGE) was the pinnacle of what they want in an MMO. 

many but not all.

I would much rather play TOR. 

khanstruct

nariusseldon said:

khanstruct said:

It seems to be a fair assumption that many here think SWG (pre-NGE) was the pinnacle of what they want in an MMO. 

many but not all.

I would much rather play TOR. 

Then I wasn't talking to you.

waynejr2

tawess said:

Actuall PvE content for Entertainers

What PvE content to you imagine for Entertainers?

khanstruct

waynejr2 said:

tawess said:

Actuall PvE content for Entertainers

What PvE content to you imagine for Entertainers?

Interesting question. Playing to a crowd? Having to maintain a balance of interest vs. energy?

NOTE: In X-Shift, we're designing an exotic dancer occupation, and you will earn money working at clubs, while players can tip you to gain small perks like street cred.

FrodoFragins

I would have bought it if it incorporated XWing vs. Tie Fighter style space combat at launch.  They missed the boat big time there

NorseGod

Assuming pre-CU/NGE

The mind bar attack abilities

Get rid of the village/old man

That kit that allowed your equipment not to decay. Either 1 per account non-tradeable, or take it out of game completely.

The rest I was very happy with. I miss JTL too.

sludgebeard

When I first started there was a player Mon Calamarian Chef on Naboo named "Grand Admiral Snackbar".

He uses to run around Theed yelling in /shout "LOOK OUT, ITS A SNACK!"

He was later banned from the server.

Sorry what was the question?

rodingo

Easy:

1) No Jedi

2) Instanced housing

3) Bug fixes

4) Profit...

jmcdermottuk

I think I'd have to agree with no Jedi. Before the CU or NGE, I think the holocron grind destroyed the game. All the really great Artisans suddenly disappeared as they all started grinding out proffessions to unlock their force sensitive slot.

We had a few really well known players on our server, known for their high quality weapons or armours, buffs and medpacks. They all just vanished over night. It had a very subtle but noticable effect on the server communtiy.

And they f**ked up Creature Handlers too. Fix them.

Plus the usual, bugs, lag, better missions, more dungeons etc.

Kalafax

Came out a couple years later with no changes and I think the game would have been great.

Stormsone

Made the combat into a fps hybrid similiar to fallout and its space combat into xwing series arcade style. Star wars is and action adventure series not a fantasy series. I wish dungeon and dragon nerds would stop making it into one.

Hatefull

All I would really do is fix bugs.  No expansions until as many bugs as possible had been squashed.

Speaking to what someone said earlier, there were bounty missions to get other players.  If you had actually played you would know that.

I would have made becoming a Jedi harder, yet once you were a Jedi you only get one death but would be hard as a raid boss to kill.  Those that say no jedi are soulless creatures that have no place in SWG.

And mostly, I would not have listened to anyone on the forums as it was their whining and crying that ultimately killed that game.

Octagon7711

It was a great adventure game.  The combat was good and some crafters had such good reputations you would go to their home planets to buy their stuff.  At the beginning you picked a profession and class because you like it.  It was the perfect RP game with lots of fun just hanging out at the local bar in between missions.  Scenery, music, weather effects, player cities, and housing was nice.  There were also some very good (and bad) player made videos of the game.

The game wasn't perfect.  It had lots of bugs.  Constant cry's on the forums for nurfs and buffs and players scamming players if they weren't careful. 

They should have stayed with the original and not listen to players who wanted to play a Jedi.  Or they should have started at the end.  Right before the end, the devs did a good job with community events and making the game fun again but by then it was to late.  But overall, good times.
 

NorseGod

Hatefull said:

All I would really do is fix bugs.  No expansions until as many bugs as possible had been squashed.

Speaking to what someone said earlier, there were bounty missions to get other players.  If you had actually played you would know that.

I would have made becoming a Jedi harder, yet once you were a Jedi you only get one death but would be hard as a raid boss to kill.  Those that say no jedi are soulless creatures that have no place in SWG.

And mostly, I would not have listened to anyone on the forums as it was their whining and crying that ultimately killed that game.

I think those who advocate for no jedi where just people that couldn't do what it took to become one. In my experience those same people become BH out of jealousy.

Jedi was really fun to play.

cerulean2012

khanstruct said:

DMKano said:

The gameplay systems pre-NG were quite impressive, lot of ways of playing as you wanted. There was no wrong way to play SWG.

Combat was quite bad IMO, I'd rework that

Huh... it just occurred to me that, in all my research of the game, aside from the overt/covert aspect, I actually have no idea how combat worked.  O.o

So you never played the game?  If so then why this thread? 

Konfess

waynejr2 said:

tawess said:

Actuall PvE content for Entertainers

What PvE content to you imagine for Entertainers?

I think what he is saying is that they should have been a combat class.  What I am doing with my Entertainers is keeping the base skills and abilities but adding appropriate additional combat abilities.  My Dancers are a melee combat class, think combat dance.  My Musicians being instrument users are ranged weapon combat class, think Tommy Gun in the violin case.  My Image Designers are Bladed weapon melee, Healers, AOE CC.  Think Dual Wielding Scissors, and a makeup bag that can Heal or Throw Explosives.  

Here is the thing with SWG pre-NGE combat.  It was turn base, the follow link is from a beta discussion of it.  The combat system in SWG.  It seemed real time, except it went in turns.  It was tab targeted, exactly like most MMORPGs at the time (EQ2 also a Sony game).  So you targeted and hit your specials, Four would queue up.  I guess the order the server got the specials determined who went first.  Then the mobs would get their turn and back and forth until one side won.  There were no cooldowns, weapons had a speed or rate associated with them  Weapon Rate may also be taken into factor on order of turn.  I had no problem with this.  I didn't start using combat macros until after I mastered Carbineer and Creature Handler.  But when I did, to level a Commando, it was beautiful.  Like watching a movie.

As a programmer I want to assure everyone that all combat is resolved sequentially (imo turn based).  No programmer is going to split combat resolution (calculating the result of combat) over multiple threads.  As I sit here and think about it, a way comes to mind.  But that would take an order of magnitude in processing power.  And it would still take a thread to decide that Han shot first.

The CU did away with macro-Combat and tab-targeting.  Replacing it with twitch.  This is the reason for the demise of SWG.  That and the fact that WoW emptied the servers of all MMOs the first three months.  When players did come back, only 1/4 of the population returned.  This was the case on ALL other MMOs at the time.  I could name three others I was subscribed to at the time and say the same thing.  But their fans on this site like to believe that their MMO was immune to WoW, and didn't lose 75% or more of its population to WoW.

People really complained about the combat auto facing.  Characters would spin 180 degree, especially ranged classes to attack targets on their turns.

I was there from day one until February 2007.  I had eleven subscriptions at the time, ten other MMOs.  Eventually I had 5 subs just to SWG.  I wanted to name the subs I dropped and the order.  But that would blow the lids of people on this site still playing those games today.  The fanboi'ism is strong on this site (said in Obi Wan voice).

What would I changed?  The ability of some random scrub to walk up and start attacking someone else's mission spawn before they got there.  We would form a party of six or eight.  Grab two mission each and head out, following the waypoint arrows.  The mission waypoints would recalculate and respawn elsewhere.  Because some scrub grinding, would take them.  Because they spawned next to him.  We would be running or riding in circles, until we found one that was unharmed.  "Lair" is an unclaimed lair available to anyone.  "Mob Name Lair" is a mission quest and is owned by another player if you don't have a way point for it.

In a game with mission terminal, there is a claim of ownership.  If we were close when the mission lair was destroyed we would get the mission xp and reward.   But it would have been cool to roll up and waste the mission poacher.

Konfess

cerulean2012 said:

khanstruct said:

DMKano said:

The gameplay systems pre-NG were quite impressive, lot of ways of playing as you wanted. There was no wrong way to play SWG.

Combat was quite bad IMO, I'd rework that

Huh... it just occurred to me that, in all my research of the game, aside from the overt/covert aspect, I actually have no idea how combat worked.  O.o

So you never played the game?  If so then why this thread? 

They are working on a game called XSift, as seen in their signature and avatar.  This game seems to have element in common with SWG and Matrix Online (MxO), possibly others.

I too am working on several games.  I am trying to develop a world over an extended time period, with a unified lore.  I'm working on Rogue Type(hack and slash), RTS, single player RPG, and MMORPG.  All done in three time periods Past(Fantasy), Present(Steampunk), and Future(Cyberpunk, Sci-Fi).  I'm also working on an Open World FFA PvP twitch game with a development title of "Game for Douchebags."  No sarcasm intended.  I just want that segment to shut up about there not being a game for them.  

Konfess

NorseGod said:

Hatefull said:

All I would really do is fix bugs.  No expansions until as many bugs as possible had been squashed.

Speaking to what someone said earlier, there were bounty missions to get other players.  If you had actually played you would know that.

I would have made becoming a Jedi harder, yet once you were a Jedi you only get one death but would be hard as a raid boss to kill.  Those that say no jedi are soulless creatures that have no place in SWG.

And mostly, I would not have listened to anyone on the forums as it was their whining and crying that ultimately killed that game.

I think those who advocate for no jedi where just people that couldn't do what it took to become one. In my experience those same people become BH out of jealousy.

Jedi was really fun to play.

They also wrongly believed that Jedi had been eliminated from the universe.  For more than thirty years I've been trying to drill into the minds of these obstinates that Jedi can't be eliminated.  Because they are naturally occurring.  Every child born has the potential to be force sensitive, excluding those raced defined in lore.  But even that lore doesn't apply in this world of Star Wars Disney.

Your point is true.  Player Jedi were added to the Bounty Hunter terminal.  Only Friends of maxed out Jedi hunted them.  Master Bounty Hunters only hunted Jedi Padawans.  Any BH that claims otherwise is lying.  SOE reviewed the game data.  When they saw how the system was being exploited they removed it from the game.

Wizardry

Graphics.I would change many more things but if asked for one major idea to start,it is graphics.

Would i play it right now if graphics were modern,that is a really tough call,i think the game had too many ideals that maybe not horrible but not great either.

Konfess

Stormsone said:

Made the combat into a fps hybrid similiar to fallout and its space combat into xwing series arcade style. Star wars is and action adventure series not a fantasy series. I wish dungeon and dragon nerds would stop making it into one.

They did, it was called the Combat Upgrade (CU).  After WoW stole 75% of the population.  The CU confirmed that leaving SWG as the right one for them and most of those that remained.  Twitch (FPS) combat has always been a failure for MMORPGs.  When Tera implemented CU combat I knew and wasn't surprised by what happened next.