I think the ironic thing here is that all these "stickies" that need to be read to get a grasp of the game is totally against the Nancy McIntyre philosophy of "too much reading". Wasn't the NGE supposed to be "easy to jump into"?
I don't think people talk enough about how easy it is to jump into WoW because the interface is very well deisgned, is elegant, is intuitive, and actually does not require "too much reading".
Totally unlike SWGs utterly stupid UI, which has the "look and feel" of WoW without an atom of its utility.
Exactly. WoW didn't have to try and re-invent itself. They came out with a product, the player base for the most part like it, and it works smoothly. SOE saw this and tried to re-invent the wheel, but they did it half-assed, that's why SWG can't get back on their feet.
Riker gives his opinion of the game as a vet, being invited back on a vet trial. Of course his point of reference is going to be from what was. Obraik, your opinion is also important, but Riker is not wrong nor do your comments really help change what he feels. Riker is being pretty neutral I think. If the game is to be treated as "new", then I would say it would fare far worse than what Riker has posted because there are at least ten games I can think of that play better than SWG. Riker has given the game a fair chance to win him back and the feeling overall is one of neutrality, leaning toward loss. His opinion of the current game is relevant, just as your cheerleader point of view is.
I disagree. He's overlooked alot of things to get to the opinion he came up with. Most of what I posted wasn't really an opinion but solutions to the technical difficulties he encountered due to a conflict between the way the game used to play and the way it does now.
From what I read he couldn't get a straight answer from the players on line or lack there of to help him at all! In pre-CU you had players almost tripping over themselves to help out a newbie or fellow player. So why go to the official site so he can be flamed as a Newb or hater?
Restuss is generally not the place to ask people for help. It's a busy PvP area with the people there being focused on the battle at hand. It's not always because people "don't want to help" or the more stereotypical explanation of PvP'ers being "immature assholes." I consider myself to be pretty forthcoming with helping people in game, but if I'm in Restuss I'm generally not going to be able to help you at that time.
People on the forums are willing to help, as long as you've showen you've put some effort in and read the stickies relavent to the profession/system you're asking about. There's alot of helpful answers in there that does cover alot of the common questions new and returning people have.
Ok I'll give you Restus but IIRC he did say he asked around in other cities and got nada.
Let's be frank though. The majority of the solutions to the issues he had are infact in the stickies on this very forum he posted his review on. Isn't it a little ironic to complain about requests for help being ignored when he's ignoring the help right under his nose?
Not to dredge this up but shouldn't the UI be set up in default so that it is intuitive and easy to use? Never mind it being stickied anywhere. And the current player base points to the stickies to re-key map the UI, doesn't that mean that SOE should probably reset the default UI to the stickies in the forums?
Putting the pre cu UI officially back in place resembles an officially statement of "NGE is technically crap". Remember NGE hit us cause of the feeling of fast paced iconic combat . The pre cu UI isn't iconic. But because the UI was brilliant $OE and paid or unpaid shills want us to get it backhandedly.
What we would like is an officially statement "NGE UI is crap" and to throwing this faulty crap outa SWG.
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE-------------------------------------------------- $OE - eternal enemy of online gaming -We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
Telling someone they must read stickies to change the entire key-map to make a game playable is bull-shit. This is the exact proof of how dead and of a lost cause this game is yet you even admit it through your own denial.
this game is lost beyond repair. While I'm sure they have made imrpovements to the tic-tac-toe design implemented with the "new game enhancements" it does not take away that the game is still crap. If SOE isn't able to allocate time to make the game somewhat playable with a default control mechanism then EVERYTHING someone says in angst is proven true. You can polish a turd but it's still a turd. I've put the game to rest, now it's time for SWG to be laid to rest.
I've got to agree that if you MUST go in and alter the default UI to make the game playable (and this is the case with SWG...the "free fire" combat setup is stupid beyond the dreams of Pakleds) then the game has problems.
One of the reasons, I'm sure, that they haven't fixed the UI is sheer cussedness on the part of the devs, that the players are supposed to play the utterly lame pseudo FPS of the NGE instead of the target locked standard of every other MMO out there, to include the Holy Grail of the Greedy like Smedley, WoW.
It is just utterly idiotic that you have to modify the UI to make it usable. The game is tolerable for combat once you have replaced the NGE interface setup.
But still, not nearly as good as the game that the NGE is trying desperately to imitate, WoW. Because SOE does not do polished and bug free. They'd break out in hives if they tried.
A few months back they commented on this and it was commented that they can't remove the twitch based targeting as LucasArts won't permit it.
I don't completely disagree with you but I also don't agree that it's absolutely required that you modify it to make the game playable. Infact, I just asked the 10-15 people in my Ventrilo channel if they've modified their UI in major ways and the majority replied that they haven't. Some changed it to assign keys to their 5 button mouse or something like that but I don't really consider that to be major.
In regards to the issues with combat difficulty, yes, things are harder now and this is due to popular request.
Popular request? Then why is it known as the Chapter 6 Combat Downgrade on the official forums? From what I've read it's almost universally hated.
I think you're over-exagerating on an extreme level. There's some that dislike it because they don't like the idea of investing time into their character to improve it so it can take on those more difficult things. The majority of the people either have no opinion on it or prefer it. I see the opinions of people playing the game, not just those on the forums
In regards to the issues with combat difficulty, yes, things are harder now and this is due to popular request.
Popular request? Then why is it known as the Chapter 6 Combat Downgrade on the official forums? From what I've read it's almost universally hated.
I think you're over-exagerating on an extreme level. There's some that dislike it because they don't like the idea of investing time into their character to improve it so it can take on those more difficult things. The majority of the people either have no opinion on it or prefer it. I see the opinions of people playing the game, not just those on the forums
Just as you like to call BS on those who make comments such as "x number of players left the game" or "the game currently only has x number of players", I am going to call BS on you here. You have absolutely no idea what a majority of players think about the combat system. For all you know, most players hate the current combat difficulty. This is actually more possible than your suggestion that they like the increased difficulty because the ghost town status on most servers has only gotten worse, as evidenced by the increase in the number of server merge and free transfer threads on the official forums, since issues like this came about in the NGE.
A few months back they commented on this and it was commented that they can't remove the twitch based targeting as LucasArts won't permit it.
I don't completely disagree with you but I also don't agree that it's absolutely required that you modify it to make the game playable. Infact, I just asked the 10-15 people in my Ventrilo channel if they've modified their UI in major ways and the majority replied that they haven't. Some changed it to assign keys to their 5 button mouse or something like that but I don't really consider that to be major.
You know, the funny thing about all of this is when I bought SWG in 2003 I had to make 0 modifications to play the game. It was my first MMO ever and I found it incredibly easy to get into and play. Fast forward to two years later when they introduced the NGE, which was supposed to make the game "easier to get into", but now not only do you have to modify the default UI to play the game, you have to know how to keybind to do it. This wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have bugs (that have existed for years) in the game like the one that randomly resets your UI to the default after a CTD bug (which are far too common for a game that's been out as long as SWG has) or logout. So now, to play the game I constantly have to fix my UI. It's just not worth the trouble when I can play a game where the default UI is actually easy to use and really requires no keymapping or modifications.
I took up the challenge of the free trial recently for 4 days. My review... Population - very low on all servers. A few like chilastria and bria had some players around but nothing like a few years ago. I took my droid engineer out of retirement on Chilastria and restarted my vendors. I went out looking for a place to advertise my goods. Over 4 days and nights, I saw maybe 15 people max in Mos Eisely (and 8 were afk). I tried Theed, totally dead. Maybe 5 people max were around everytime I tried Restauss and this was where I found the most players. On saturday night I saw maybe 25 people total. Right now Im online and advertising my goods, I see maybe 10-12 people in Restauss. Ive also tried Kashyyk, completely dead. In 4 attempts over 4 days I saw a grand total of 1 other person I tried Mustafar, I think maybe the max I saw was 8 people. Granted there are probably some players in their cities and in space. But still the populations are much much worse than when I last tried a free vet trial a year ago. One person from my friends list came online once. I asked him some questions but he hadnt played in years either. He was just on to check on his houses and had no plans on staying past the free trial. Crafting - my review is limited to droid engineering and artisan. Artisan is dead. completely dead. since vehicles dont decay, i see little reason to even bother with it Droid engineering, they finally added some new combat droids we were asking for. That only took them what 4 years to implement. Anyway, while at Restauss I saw a grand total of ZERO droids being used. I asked a few players why werent they using a droid to give them a little more dps in their fights...i got no responses, they were too busy pwning each other. Im not even sure what a mining droid does since there is no addon component to put inside them. I ended up making one into a combat model. I guess surgical droids are obsolete considering I no longer see the component to craft med 110 bonus anymore. Not sure why the model still exists since I cant make the bonus part anymore. Since crafters are hard to find, I cant make musical playback droids or lvl 6 armor parts (they require components from other trader class) In one day I had 4 droid vendors up and running plus a resource vendor and a surplus harvester vendor. Each is well stocked with my goods. Ive also advertised with my merchant barker droid and my toon. In 4 days Ive sold 4 harvesters, 1 droid, and one ancient broken lightsaber (that always cracks me up, someone is always willing to buy one of those for 5 million because they dont know where to get it) No idea what this back-engineering ability is. I asked a few, someone thought I could break down some junk loot but wasnt sure. Combat - I have a lvl 90 jedi that I played around with some. First off, sometimes I would bug out and couldnt do any attacks at all. I would have to run away. If I took the attacks off my toolbar and reput them on, then combat would work. Also why do they even bother with so many specials. Since Im limited to left-click as standard attack and only right-click as my special, seems a waste to even have more than 2 (one to use and one to switch off to). combat plays like I need a 3rd hand. Maybe it was meant to work best with a gamepad ? I use arrows to move with left hand. I use right hand for mouse to attack and keep cursor on target. Okay so how exactly am I supposed to switch out a special so I can heal myself for example AND not lose target ? Since specials are not like the classic old way where Id click them and not lose auto-target and auto-attack, I cant do anything but shoot really. combat has been reduced down to a series of pew pew pews until someone drops. And if they run around at all, its game over for me. I cant keep that stupid curser on them when they jump around. There really isnt any strategy involved unless you consider running around strategy. Its just plain awful now. The effects are very strange now. someone I saw had what looked like a shield from City of Heroes on them. partical effects dont compare to the old animations we had. Player cities and structures - one improvement I saw was new elite harvesters which take more lots up but harvest much more resources. Cities are still abandoned and everywhere. I thought SOE did a purge of buildings ? A few were removed because I saw someone selling a plot of land near Theed but otherwise no spaces were available like I thought would be. I was stuck putting my vendors in my old house near Anchorhead. Every major city had hundreds of abandoned houses surrounding them still. I say abandoned because most had cute signs on the door from clearly cancelled accounts like NGE bites, and Never forget nov 05, etc Did SOE only remove houses that had run out of maintenance ? Mine werent removed on any of my toons on any servers despite me not having paid for the game since Nov 2005 with one free appearance a yr ago. Entertainers seem to a dead profession. They have buffs but not very useful for me considering I didnt need XP and assembly bonus does zilch for a droid engineer. The prof is mostly a chat room thing now. I saw the same 3-4 entertainers in Mos Eisely hanging out and chatting with friends. There was some cybering going on to which was disturbing. I never saw that in pre-nge days but I guess thats a reflection of the kind of player now in SWG. Overall - very sad state of affairs. combat is nowhere near as fun as before. Its extremely simplistic and boringly repetitive. remnents of crafting remain but sadly nobody seems to bother buying your goods anymore. populations are the lowest ive seen in the game so it was hard to do much. apparently theyve added heroic dungeons but i didnt get a chance to try them because I had no idea where they were, much less found a group looking for me to go. I would equate the game's remaining players now as similiar to what Ive seen in other MMO's that were about to close down. They know the end is near and seem sad about the game. But they arent going anywhere, those gamers are the types that will remain until the servers close. The game could be reduced to chat only and theyd stick it out. Some were in denial, hoping that SOE could somehow turn things around and the game would grow again. I'll admit it was nice to hear the music while hitting Lok again. And it was nice messing with harvesters and making a few droids. But ultimately it was pointless with the shoddy combat system and total lack of players around. The next time I will play this game is when they announce the servers are shutting down (so I can say goodbye)
I can totally understand why some people stay playing SWG. It is Star Wars after all and one of the few Sci Fi MMORPG's. The current devs are also adding nice features to the game, but it is all build on a rotten foundation.
It is simply not normal that a MMO of this age cant even get the basics of combat right. Ground PVE has serious targetting issues, line of sight issues and a confirmed bug with misfiring specials which is around since the release of chapter 6 (the OP experienced it). For Obraik, check the sticky from the new gameplay senator on the official forums.
Other then this, it still has the city building, nice and original crafting and harvest system, but its as if no one is using it anymore. Players are either doing heroic instances ( which are mediocre instances compared to the ones in current other MMO's) or playing PVP. Currently with chapter 8 just released, people are more in space. But this wont last , just like the beast mastery system. Pets are mainly used for afk grinding now.
New players who are used to the quality of current MMO's which work as intended ,will have a tough time in SWG. Just do some pre lvl10 quests for the mayor in Mos Eisley to see what I mean. I know there is a workaround, but this mob lvl bug (I say bug! ) is already around for a couple of months. I call it a bug, because they didnt change the waypoints for the quests. It is just a newbtrap at the moment.
Bugs - Okay I thought the rubberbanding issue was gone because I hadnt experienced it yet. I was wrong. I died twice from rubberbanding today.
First up, I went to Restuss to get a chance for the emp hand hilt drop. I got there right as a group was preparing to kill her. The 3 of us sat about 80m from her while waiting for some of their friends to arrive. Suddenly my lightsaber ignites as if Im in combat. I start taking damage but nobody is around me. Then I see why Im taking damage, the emp hand is now on top of us killing me.
I hit up Mustafar to see if I can find a decent place to farm for loot. I get on my lava ride and cross a lava river. I dismount as soon as I get across. Im busy taking out my droideka when suddenly Im rubberbanded back into the lave river. quick death
combat bug - as someone else mentioned, there is a bug that has your specials misfire. This explains why I was struggling against much lower level mobs. At first I thought it was just an animation bug where I'd fire the lightning but just didnt see it go off. However after really paying attention and reading the forums, its clear that specials dont work quite frequently. Ive died a few times because my heal didnt go off and I had to wait for it to recharge as an example. I dont see any mention of a fix on the forums coming and thats totally unacceptable as this is a game breaking bug.
On a personal note, if SOE knows that combat specials are not working why would they continue to allow the mobs to remain upgraded ? The mobs are too hard as it is now and thanks to combat bugs theyre impossible now. Seems reasonable that SOE would roll back the mob upgrades at least until they can guarantee your specials will always work.
Vendor bug - I found a tailor around and met them the other night. We went over clothing ideas and colors for my vendors. I have 6 vendors and I prefer to dress them in matching outfits. Anyway this tailor set me up with 6 matching outfits so I proceeded to try and dress my vendors. Only problem is it wouldnt work. I try putting the wookie smock on my wookie vendor but the vendor says its too small. I try and put an ithorian suit on my ithorian vendor, he responds with "i cant wear that, its for ithorians only". The only vendor that accepted any clothing item was the zabrak who took the wookie smock. I asked around in Eisely if it wasnt possible to dress vendors anymore. I was told you can but there is a bug but they thought SOE had fixed it.
more droid crafting issues - i had 3 factories running full steam trying to get my BH vendor well stocked. I cant sell any of the other droids since theyre useless so I figure Im gonna concentrate on bh droids. Anyway, I finish up my detonation MSE droids and head to Eisely to so some advertising. I get a few tells while Im there from BH's that let me know that they dont bother with detonation droids anymore. Im wasting my time and rather expensive resources to make em.
Droid Commander - Anyone that has played droid engineer recalls several years ago the devs proposing this droid commander idea. It was soundly REJECTED. DE's are crafters not combat professions with droid pets at their command for destruction. I find it offensive that these devs are going through with it anyway. Droids are pointless, buggy, and too weak but lets make a CH profession hybrid that uses droids instead of merely fixing the droids that we craft.
My final words...
I really gave the game an honest try. I did all the suggestions offered up both here and in-game. But it comes down to the same reasons this game has never been a major hit....it just isnt a quality product.
Combat is literally broken. When you cant count on a heal firing off or your best attack as well, why even bother ?
Crafting droids (and weapons) is completely pointless. The vets dont want them and the players who didnt play pre-nge dont even know what droids are for. And the devs idea for fixing this profession is to turn it into a combat class.
I have tried to find my place in SWG but there is nothing there for me. I honestly cant even fathom why anyone is playing this game when combat doesnt work properly. Can you imagine if the specials in WoW didnt work 1/3 the time ???
I could see rubberbanding issues and lagging when there were hundreds of players around but Im snapping back 300m when there isnt a single person around me (or in the case of restuss 3 people).
My review isnt from a disgruntled vet that hasnt touched the game in 2 years. This is my second vet trial and frankly the game seems worse than ever. Yes theyve added some things but they removed 100 times more great stuff with this nge.
Yes, there is an issues with heals not firing from time to time. They've posted that they hope to have this fixed with the upcoming Medic update (should be on TC this week). While it shouldn't happen at all, it's not an overly common thing, I generally only see it happen once or twice a day. I can force it to happen more if I try to "rush" my specials by hitting them all rapidly - but obviously I don't do that and try wait a second between specials
With combat specials, especially Jedi, do be aware that with Game Update 1 they added a new Animation system that stops animations from overwriting each other. So, if you hit a bunch of specials, it'll play the animations for them one by one. You can turn this off in Options under Graphics to make them play as you hit them. To be sure if stuff is hitting or not and you're not imagining it, check your combat log (make sure to turn the Verbose combat log on from the Combat tab in Options).
I have heard of the Ithorian vendor issue but as I don't really dress my vendors, I haven't experienced it myself. The wookiee issue might be due to a change they made a year or 2 ago that prevented vendors from wearing body suits, the smock might be counted as one so the vendor won't accept it.
I think you're missing the point of Droid Commander Droid Commander would be like Beast Master and be an expertise tree available to anyone. Droid Engineer's will have the role of crafting the droids for these Droid Commanders - the DE's won't be the Droid Commanders (unless they want to, of course), they'll be the suppliers. Depending on how this is done, DE is probably about to get the most business it's ever seen.
As for combat diffculty, the problem is, as always, that the SWG devs never just buff a llttle or nerf a little, they go overboard every single time. Subtle change is not something they do, they do dramatic change, taking weak mobs and turning them into overpowering.
Just last night a friend and I were on Dantooine mindlessly slaughtering FS type mobs NE of the Jedi Temple ruins in the hopes of finding holocrons for the Jedi themed collections, and while both level 90s, it was suicidal to take on the level 90 Dark Jedi Masters that spawn in that area. They've got like 110k hit points, do 5k damage, and because they're gold elite they take less damage than normal mobs. Yet they con "an even match" in the color system because SWG elites are cheat mobs.
In WoW, you get more XP for taking out an elite at level 10 than a normal mob at level 10, because elites are harder. Not so in SWG...you get the preprogrammed level XP, and the elite status is ignored. Another thing that is wrong with the game...failure to reward greater risk, danger, and difficulty.
Contrast this wih some stuff I was doing with a lowbie toon on another server around Mos Eisley, where he as a level 5 could take on level 12s that conned purple (instant death) without a great deal of danger. True, this is at the low end, but the thing is, "noob mobs" are springing up around Mos Eisley as high as in the mid 20s, and these are n00b quest mobs.
The game is broken in multiple ways due to inattention and poor dev supervision.
Not to mention the bugs that have been around since beta, such as mobs spawning inside objects (world objects and player placed structures) and being unattackable.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Originally posted by Obraik I think you're missing the point of Droid Commander Droid Commander would be like Beast Master and be an expertise tree available to anyone. Droid Engineer's will have the role of crafting the droids for these Droid Commanders - the DE's won't be the Droid Commanders (unless they want to, of course), they'll be the suppliers. Depending on how this is done, DE is probably about to get the most business it's ever seen.
From what I can see they haven't said that DEs will be involved in the Droid Commander system. I have a sneaking suspicion that DEs (like all the crafting professions) will get shafted.
As for combat diffculty, the problem is, as always, that the SWG devs never just buff a llttle or nerf a little, they go overboard every single time. Subtle change is not something they do, they do dramatic change, taking weak mobs and turning them into overpowering. Just last night a friend and I were on Dantooine mindlessly slaughtering FS type mobs NE of the Jedi Temple ruins in the hopes of finding holocrons for the Jedi themed collections, and while both level 90s, it was suicidal to take on the level 90 Dark Jedi Masters that spawn in that area. They've got like 110k hit points, do 5k damage, and because they're gold elite they take less damage than normal mobs. Yet they con "an even match" in the color system because SWG elites are cheat mobs. In WoW, you get more XP for taking out an elite at level 10 than a normal mob at level 10, because elites are harder. Not so in SWG...you get the preprogrammed level XP, and the elite status is ignored. Another thing that is wrong with the game...failure to reward greater risk, danger, and difficulty. Contrast this wih some stuff I was doing with a lowbie toon on another server around Mos Eisley, where he as a level 5 could take on level 12s that conned purple (instant death) without a great deal of danger. True, this is at the low end, but the thing is, "noob mobs" are springing up around Mos Eisley as high as in the mid 20s, and these are n00b quest mobs. The game is broken in multiple ways due to inattention and poor dev supervision. Not to mention the bugs that have been around since beta, such as mobs spawning inside objects (world objects and player placed structures) and being unattackable.
Silver or Gold symbols next to the name of the NPC indicate that you'll probably need a group for that NPC - these symbol have been around since the CU. It's not too hard to put two and two together to realise that it's not going to be an easy battle....and it shouldn't, gold elites SHOULD be a difficult fight. Those particular NPCs are not all that hard to take out - if I'm on my Medic another person is enough, with my BH/BM I can usually take them on my own. Silver elites are killable solo, depending on how large the level difference is.
You can't compare your Elite experience to your friends experience in Eisley with his non-elite level 12's. You could quite easily do that at any level - non-elites are snareable and lack large amounts of health so kiting them is not really an issue.
Entertainers seem to a dead profession. There was some cybering going on to which was disturbing. I never saw that in pre-nge days but I guess thats a reflection of the kind of player now in SWG.
hahhaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaah
Ex SWG Precu player Ex Guildwars player Ex WoW player Ex VG player Waiting for AOC
Originally posted by Obraik I think you're missing the point of Droid Commander Droid Commander would be like Beast Master and be an expertise tree available to anyone. Droid Engineer's will have the role of crafting the droids for these Droid Commanders - the DE's won't be the Droid Commanders (unless they want to, of course), they'll be the suppliers. Depending on how this is done, DE is probably about to get the most business it's ever seen.
From what I can see they haven't said that DEs will be involved in the Droid Commander system. I have a sneaking suspicion that DEs (like all the crafting professions) will get shafted.
Here's hoping your "sneaking suspicion" is wrong
If it's done like Beast Master, it's possible various core components will be distributed amoungst the other crafting professions so the entire thing isn't monopolised by the DE's. It'll be up to the DE's to take those components and make them into whatever droids they have available.
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE-------------------------------------------------- $OE - eternal enemy of online gaming -We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
As for combat diffculty, the problem is, as always, that the SWG devs never just buff a llttle or nerf a little, they go overboard every single time. Subtle change is not something they do, they do dramatic change, taking weak mobs and turning them into overpowering. Just last night a friend and I were on Dantooine mindlessly slaughtering FS type mobs NE of the Jedi Temple ruins in the hopes of finding holocrons for the Jedi themed collections, and while both level 90s, it was suicidal to take on the level 90 Dark Jedi Masters that spawn in that area. They've got like 110k hit points, do 5k damage, and because they're gold elite they take less damage than normal mobs. Yet they con "an even match" in the color system because SWG elites are cheat mobs. In WoW, you get more XP for taking out an elite at level 10 than a normal mob at level 10, because elites are harder. Not so in SWG...you get the preprogrammed level XP, and the elite status is ignored. Another thing that is wrong with the game...failure to reward greater risk, danger, and difficulty. Contrast this wih some stuff I was doing with a lowbie toon on another server around Mos Eisley, where he as a level 5 could take on level 12s that conned purple (instant death) without a great deal of danger. True, this is at the low end, but the thing is, "noob mobs" are springing up around Mos Eisley as high as in the mid 20s, and these are n00b quest mobs. The game is broken in multiple ways due to inattention and poor dev supervision. Not to mention the bugs that have been around since beta, such as mobs spawning inside objects (world objects and player placed structures) and being unattackable.
Silver or Gold symbols next to the name of the NPC indicate that you'll probably need a group for that NPC - these symbol have been around since the CU. It's not too hard to put two and two together to realise that it's not going to be an easy battle....and it shouldn't, gold elites SHOULD be a difficult fight. Those particular NPCs are not all that hard to take out - if I'm on my Medic another person is enough, with my BH/BM I can usually take them on my own. Silver elites are killable solo, depending on how large the level difference is.
You can't compare your Elite experience to your friends experience in Eisley with his non-elite level 12's. You could quite easily do that at any level - non-elites are snareable and lack large amounts of health so kiting them is not really an issue.
Prior to the NGE, perhaps prior to Pub 6, it was indeed possible for a player to solo a double gold elite. I know, because BH missions prior to the NGE had double golds and BHs were taking them down, albeit that it took a long time to do so, and you might well ruin a perfectly good suit of armor doing so. The silver elites were no problem for my relatively gimped level 80 MBH/MCH. BH was by its very nature a solo profession then, and it was possible.
Of course, just prior to the NGE there was a bug of some sort in BH mission marks that rendered them in one of three possible states, all at random: total pushover despite appearances, normal in line with appearances, and next to impossible despite apperances. You never knew what sort of mark you were going to get...one that was as weak as a kitten, one that put up a fight, or one that was secretly a buffed krayt dragon.
Now, admittedly my friend and I are both level 90 Jedi, and Jedi is the poorest DPS prof in the game, but it would be absolute suicide now for a level 90 to take on a level 90 gold elite. Two of us stood no chance, admittedly we did not have a full set of buffs, but really.
I note you didn't address the risk/reward issue, particularly in regards to elites being the same XP as non-elites. WoW addresses this; SWG does not. The devs can't be bothered with such detail, I suppose.
My lowbie toon wasn't even kiting the supposedly "instant death" mobs around Eisley; he was taking them on toe to toe and winning. The issue is that mobs around Eisley shouldn't be in the 20's and 30's. They should be in the low teens at most, because most new players arrive at Eisley at level 10 after finishing the Tansarii Point station quest series.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
If you wanna go that route, it would be quite easy for me to simply say that you're loading into the game with a jaded view and creating your own bad experience
Tweaking your keymaps and even appearances doesn't really mean much. I tweak nearly everything I buy to make it just right for me, from Windows, to SWG to my car. The fact that you can personalise things to match the way you operate is a bonus, not a negative.
Except when you have to do that to make that game comfortable or minimially usable. That's when things get dicey. It's even worse when the key mappings grant significant advantage, like in the case of AutoAim.
SWG initially wasn't that hard to use and learn right off the bat, but the NGE system made the game incredibly awkward and clunky. Plus some functionality included in the base set, jump for example, is completely ineffective.
Yes, I did approach my vet trial with an open mind and found there was minimal guidance. I really did want to jump back into the sci-fi fantasy mmos again last year. But I found the control scheme for the game made no sense, and was fairly quickly turned off to the game again.
I really think some of you guys underestimate just how big of a problem and barrier to entry that is, but of course, it comes easier for you guys since you all followed the game since nge got launched.
-- xpaladin
[MMOz] AC1/2, AO, DAoC, EQ1/2, SoR, SWG, UO, WAR, WoW
Last night I participated in the Tusken King Heroic Instance, and did some fishing for the first time in years.
The TK instance was pretty decent. You of course still had the problems with targeting (the blue reticule/green reticule nonsense) that you have in any other multiple target environment, with the NPCs being on top of each other, and with the Tuskens and the Mos Espa civilians both being targetable at any given time. Still, I have to admit, it was fun. The challenge of course of the Heroics is to assemble a group to take it on, and I can see how low populations would make that pretty difficult.
Fishing, on the other hand, has been made tedious to the point of tears. I don't know when it changed, but the control system for "catching" the fish seems to be broken in that after 10 seconds the action menu automatically defaults back to "tug up", making directing your actions very frustrating. Then, once you've "caught" the fish, you lose all control of actions, and then it takes up to 3 minutes to reel in the fish. This is just tedious. Why can't the SWG asshat devs copy WoW's vastly superior fishing system, which manages to be relaxing and not frustrating as you watch text scroll by that you have no control over whatsoever? Fishing in SWG didn't used to be like this, but some idiot thinks that it's an improvement over the way fishing used to behave, I suppose...
I'll also add that the new treasure maps are vastly superior to the old system, in that you have a much higher probability of getting some decent loot.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Last night I participated in the Tusken King Heroic Instance, and did some fishing for the first time in years. The TK instance was pretty decent. You of course still had the problems with targeting (the blue reticule/green reticule nonsense) that you have in any other multiple target environment, with the NPCs being on top of each other, and with the Tuskens and the Mos Espa civilians both being targetable at any given time. Still, I have to admit, it was fun. The challenge of course of the Heroics is to assemble a group to take it on, and I can see how low populations would make that pretty difficult. Fishing, on the other hand, has been made tedious to the point of tears. I don't know when it changed, but the control system for "catching" the fish seems to be broken in that after 10 seconds the action menu automatically defaults back to "tug up", making directing your actions very frustrating. Then, once you've "caught" the fish, you lose all control of actions, and then it takes up to 3 minutes to reel in the fish. This is just tedious. Why can't the SWG asshat devs copy WoW's vastly superior fishing system, which manages to be relaxing and not frustrating as you watch text scroll by that you have no control over whatsoever? Fishing in SWG didn't used to be like this, but some idiot thinks that it's an improvement over the way fishing used to behave, I suppose... I'll also add that the new treasure maps are vastly superior to the old system, in that you have a much higher probability of getting some decent loot.
Glad you had fun on your first Heroic. The Tusken invasion is a nice calm instance to start off with. Conversing with the Experts can be a bit of a PITA, just remember to use the radial menu on them rather then clicking to converse (you can't hurt them though). Organising instance groups can be time-consuming currently due to the lack of group organisation tools, however this is meant to be addressed in around Chapter 10.
I did some fishing for the first time ever a couple of weeks ago to work on the collections that come with it. The window will default back to Tug Up but you can still double click any of the other actions in the list and it'll do that. As a tip, fish in shallow water then when you catch a fish walk up to where you see the red floating thing and in the next update your catch will appear in your inventory. Don't do this until after the action menu dissapears though or it'll complain that your line is too short and you'll stop fishing.
They are ALL about, ultimately, the brainless killing of the million HP "Foozle". ALL of the heroics end up in that point. Stupid, not engaging at all, non immersive, and not at all Star Wars. Basically instances like this represent the lowest common denominator of noobdev 101 training in the post WOW world. Once again, I apply the ultimate word to the devtard efforts: F A I L.
You're showing how out of touch you are with the game. All instances are more then just "kill and win", if you go in with the idea of just killing everything you WILL fail the instances. With some you need to guard and protect other NPCs, others you'll need specific weapon damage types and others you'll need to keep an eye on what the NPCs are doing to prevent being effected by whatever they're trying to do. Of course, yes, you will be killing NPCs at the end of the day just like in any other game when you break it down into the basic points.
Comments
Totally unlike SWGs utterly stupid UI, which has the "look and feel" of WoW without an atom of its utility.
Exactly. WoW didn't have to try and re-invent itself. They came out with a product, the player base for the most part like it, and it works smoothly. SOE saw this and tried to re-invent the wheel, but they did it half-assed, that's why SWG can't get back on their feet.
I disagree. He's overlooked alot of things to get to the opinion he came up with. Most of what I posted wasn't really an opinion but solutions to the technical difficulties he encountered due to a conflict between the way the game used to play and the way it does now.
Restuss is generally not the place to ask people for help. It's a busy PvP area with the people there being focused on the battle at hand. It's not always because people "don't want to help" or the more stereotypical explanation of PvP'ers being "immature assholes." I consider myself to be pretty forthcoming with helping people in game, but if I'm in Restuss I'm generally not going to be able to help you at that time.From what I read he couldn't get a straight answer from the players on line or lack there of to help him at all! In pre-CU you had players almost tripping over themselves to help out a newbie or fellow player. So why go to the official site so he can be flamed as a Newb or hater?
People on the forums are willing to help, as long as you've showen you've put some effort in and read the stickies relavent to the profession/system you're asking about. There's alot of helpful answers in there that does cover alot of the common questions new and returning people have.
Ok I'll give you Restus but IIRC he did say he asked around in other cities and got nada.
Let's be frank though. The majority of the solutions to the issues he had are infact in the stickies on this very forum he posted his review on. Isn't it a little ironic to complain about requests for help being ignored when he's ignoring the help right under his nose?
Not to dredge this up but shouldn't the UI be set up in default so that it is intuitive and easy to use? Never mind it being stickied anywhere. And the current player base points to the stickies to re-key map the UI, doesn't that mean that SOE should probably reset the default UI to the stickies in the forums?
Putting the pre cu UI officially back in place resembles an officially statement of "NGE is technically crap". Remember NGE hit us cause of the feeling of fast paced iconic combat . The pre cu UI isn't iconic. But because the UI was brilliant $OE and paid or unpaid shills want us to get it backhandedly.
What we would like is an officially statement "NGE UI is crap" and to throwing this faulty crap outa SWG.
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE--------------------------------------------------
$OE - eternal enemy of online gaming
-We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
Obraik, why dont you just get a sticky where it says "I dont agree with any bad criticism about SWG:NGE"
90% dont agree with you anyway, so what the heck!
Starwars Galaxies, An Empier Diveded, That's what it says on my box anyway.
Popular request? Then why is it known as the Chapter 6 Combat Downgrade on the official forums? From what I've read it's almost universally hated.
I've got to agree that if you MUST go in and alter the default UI to make the game playable (and this is the case with SWG...the "free fire" combat setup is stupid beyond the dreams of Pakleds) then the game has problems.
One of the reasons, I'm sure, that they haven't fixed the UI is sheer cussedness on the part of the devs, that the players are supposed to play the utterly lame pseudo FPS of the NGE instead of the target locked standard of every other MMO out there, to include the Holy Grail of the Greedy like Smedley, WoW.
It is just utterly idiotic that you have to modify the UI to make it usable. The game is tolerable for combat once you have replaced the NGE interface setup.
But still, not nearly as good as the game that the NGE is trying desperately to imitate, WoW. Because SOE does not do polished and bug free. They'd break out in hives if they tried.
A few months back they commented on this and it was commented that they can't remove the twitch based targeting as LucasArts won't permit it.I don't completely disagree with you but I also don't agree that it's absolutely required that you modify it to make the game playable. Infact, I just asked the 10-15 people in my Ventrilo channel if they've modified their UI in major ways and the majority replied that they haven't. Some changed it to assign keys to their 5 button mouse or something like that but I don't really consider that to be major.
Popular request? Then why is it known as the Chapter 6 Combat Downgrade on the official forums? From what I've read it's almost universally hated.
I think you're over-exagerating on an extreme level. There's some that dislike it because they don't like the idea of investing time into their character to improve it so it can take on those more difficult things. The majority of the people either have no opinion on it or prefer it. I see the opinions of people playing the game, not just those on the forums
Popular request? Then why is it known as the Chapter 6 Combat Downgrade on the official forums? From what I've read it's almost universally hated.
I think you're over-exagerating on an extreme level. There's some that dislike it because they don't like the idea of investing time into their character to improve it so it can take on those more difficult things. The majority of the people either have no opinion on it or prefer it. I see the opinions of people playing the game, not just those on the forums
Just as you like to call BS on those who make comments such as "x number of players left the game" or "the game currently only has x number of players", I am going to call BS on you here. You have absolutely no idea what a majority of players think about the combat system. For all you know, most players hate the current combat difficulty. This is actually more possible than your suggestion that they like the increased difficulty because the ghost town status on most servers has only gotten worse, as evidenced by the increase in the number of server merge and free transfer threads on the official forums, since issues like this came about in the NGE.
You know, the funny thing about all of this is when I bought SWG in 2003 I had to make 0 modifications to play the game. It was my first MMO ever and I found it incredibly easy to get into and play. Fast forward to two years later when they introduced the NGE, which was supposed to make the game "easier to get into", but now not only do you have to modify the default UI to play the game, you have to know how to keybind to do it. This wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have bugs (that have existed for years) in the game like the one that randomly resets your UI to the default after a CTD bug (which are far too common for a game that's been out as long as SWG has) or logout. So now, to play the game I constantly have to fix my UI. It's just not worth the trouble when I can play a game where the default UI is actually easy to use and really requires no keymapping or modifications.
But other than all that how was it?
I can totally understand why some people stay playing SWG. It is Star Wars after all and one of the few Sci Fi MMORPG's. The current devs are also adding nice features to the game, but it is all build on a rotten foundation.
It is simply not normal that a MMO of this age cant even get the basics of combat right. Ground PVE has serious targetting issues, line of sight issues and a confirmed bug with misfiring specials which is around since the release of chapter 6 (the OP experienced it). For Obraik, check the sticky from the new gameplay senator on the official forums.
Other then this, it still has the city building, nice and original crafting and harvest system, but its as if no one is using it anymore. Players are either doing heroic instances ( which are mediocre instances compared to the ones in current other MMO's) or playing PVP. Currently with chapter 8 just released, people are more in space. But this wont last , just like the beast mastery system. Pets are mainly used for afk grinding now.
New players who are used to the quality of current MMO's which work as intended ,will have a tough time in SWG. Just do some pre lvl10 quests for the mayor in Mos Eisley to see what I mean. I know there is a workaround, but this mob lvl bug (I say bug! ) is already around for a couple of months. I call it a bug, because they didnt change the waypoints for the quests. It is just a newbtrap at the moment.
Continuing my Review...
Bugs - Okay I thought the rubberbanding issue was gone because I hadnt experienced it yet. I was wrong. I died twice from rubberbanding today.
First up, I went to Restuss to get a chance for the emp hand hilt drop. I got there right as a group was preparing to kill her. The 3 of us sat about 80m from her while waiting for some of their friends to arrive. Suddenly my lightsaber ignites as if Im in combat. I start taking damage but nobody is around me. Then I see why Im taking damage, the emp hand is now on top of us killing me.
I hit up Mustafar to see if I can find a decent place to farm for loot. I get on my lava ride and cross a lava river. I dismount as soon as I get across. Im busy taking out my droideka when suddenly Im rubberbanded back into the lave river. quick death
combat bug - as someone else mentioned, there is a bug that has your specials misfire. This explains why I was struggling against much lower level mobs. At first I thought it was just an animation bug where I'd fire the lightning but just didnt see it go off. However after really paying attention and reading the forums, its clear that specials dont work quite frequently. Ive died a few times because my heal didnt go off and I had to wait for it to recharge as an example. I dont see any mention of a fix on the forums coming and thats totally unacceptable as this is a game breaking bug.
On a personal note, if SOE knows that combat specials are not working why would they continue to allow the mobs to remain upgraded ? The mobs are too hard as it is now and thanks to combat bugs theyre impossible now. Seems reasonable that SOE would roll back the mob upgrades at least until they can guarantee your specials will always work.
Vendor bug - I found a tailor around and met them the other night. We went over clothing ideas and colors for my vendors. I have 6 vendors and I prefer to dress them in matching outfits. Anyway this tailor set me up with 6 matching outfits so I proceeded to try and dress my vendors. Only problem is it wouldnt work. I try putting the wookie smock on my wookie vendor but the vendor says its too small. I try and put an ithorian suit on my ithorian vendor, he responds with "i cant wear that, its for ithorians only". The only vendor that accepted any clothing item was the zabrak who took the wookie smock. I asked around in Eisely if it wasnt possible to dress vendors anymore. I was told you can but there is a bug but they thought SOE had fixed it.
more droid crafting issues - i had 3 factories running full steam trying to get my BH vendor well stocked. I cant sell any of the other droids since theyre useless so I figure Im gonna concentrate on bh droids. Anyway, I finish up my detonation MSE droids and head to Eisely to so some advertising. I get a few tells while Im there from BH's that let me know that they dont bother with detonation droids anymore. Im wasting my time and rather expensive resources to make em.
Droid Commander - Anyone that has played droid engineer recalls several years ago the devs proposing this droid commander idea. It was soundly REJECTED. DE's are crafters not combat professions with droid pets at their command for destruction. I find it offensive that these devs are going through with it anyway. Droids are pointless, buggy, and too weak but lets make a CH profession hybrid that uses droids instead of merely fixing the droids that we craft.
My final words...
I really gave the game an honest try. I did all the suggestions offered up both here and in-game. But it comes down to the same reasons this game has never been a major hit....it just isnt a quality product.
Combat is literally broken. When you cant count on a heal firing off or your best attack as well, why even bother ?
Crafting droids (and weapons) is completely pointless. The vets dont want them and the players who didnt play pre-nge dont even know what droids are for. And the devs idea for fixing this profession is to turn it into a combat class.
I have tried to find my place in SWG but there is nothing there for me. I honestly cant even fathom why anyone is playing this game when combat doesnt work properly. Can you imagine if the specials in WoW didnt work 1/3 the time ???
I could see rubberbanding issues and lagging when there were hundreds of players around but Im snapping back 300m when there isnt a single person around me (or in the case of restuss 3 people).
My review isnt from a disgruntled vet that hasnt touched the game in 2 years. This is my second vet trial and frankly the game seems worse than ever. Yes theyve added some things but they removed 100 times more great stuff with this nge.
The game is really just awful
Yes, there is an issues with heals not firing from time to time. They've posted that they hope to have this fixed with the upcoming Medic update (should be on TC this week). While it shouldn't happen at all, it's not an overly common thing, I generally only see it happen once or twice a day. I can force it to happen more if I try to "rush" my specials by hitting them all rapidly - but obviously I don't do that and try wait a second between specials
With combat specials, especially Jedi, do be aware that with Game Update 1 they added a new Animation system that stops animations from overwriting each other. So, if you hit a bunch of specials, it'll play the animations for them one by one. You can turn this off in Options under Graphics to make them play as you hit them. To be sure if stuff is hitting or not and you're not imagining it, check your combat log (make sure to turn the Verbose combat log on from the Combat tab in Options).
I have heard of the Ithorian vendor issue but as I don't really dress my vendors, I haven't experienced it myself. The wookiee issue might be due to a change they made a year or 2 ago that prevented vendors from wearing body suits, the smock might be counted as one so the vendor won't accept it.
I think you're missing the point of Droid Commander
Droid Commander would be like Beast Master and be an expertise tree available to anyone. Droid Engineer's will have the role of crafting the droids for these Droid Commanders - the DE's won't be the Droid Commanders (unless they want to, of course), they'll be the suppliers. Depending on how this is done, DE is probably about to get the most business it's ever seen.
As for combat diffculty, the problem is, as always, that the SWG devs never just buff a llttle or nerf a little, they go overboard every single time. Subtle change is not something they do, they do dramatic change, taking weak mobs and turning them into overpowering.
Just last night a friend and I were on Dantooine mindlessly slaughtering FS type mobs NE of the Jedi Temple ruins in the hopes of finding holocrons for the Jedi themed collections, and while both level 90s, it was suicidal to take on the level 90 Dark Jedi Masters that spawn in that area. They've got like 110k hit points, do 5k damage, and because they're gold elite they take less damage than normal mobs. Yet they con "an even match" in the color system because SWG elites are cheat mobs.
In WoW, you get more XP for taking out an elite at level 10 than a normal mob at level 10, because elites are harder. Not so in SWG...you get the preprogrammed level XP, and the elite status is ignored. Another thing that is wrong with the game...failure to reward greater risk, danger, and difficulty.
Contrast this wih some stuff I was doing with a lowbie toon on another server around Mos Eisley, where he as a level 5 could take on level 12s that conned purple (instant death) without a great deal of danger. True, this is at the low end, but the thing is, "noob mobs" are springing up around Mos Eisley as high as in the mid 20s, and these are n00b quest mobs.
The game is broken in multiple ways due to inattention and poor dev supervision.
Not to mention the bugs that have been around since beta, such as mobs spawning inside objects (world objects and player placed structures) and being unattackable.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
From what I can see they haven't said that DEs will be involved in the Droid Commander system. I have a sneaking suspicion that DEs (like all the crafting professions) will get shafted.
You can't compare your Elite experience to your friends experience in Eisley with his non-elite level 12's. You could quite easily do that at any level - non-elites are snareable and lack large amounts of health so kiting them is not really an issue.
hahhaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaah
Ex SWG Precu player
Ex Guildwars player
Ex WoW player
Ex VG player
Waiting for AOC
From what I can see they haven't said that DEs will be involved in the Droid Commander system. I have a sneaking suspicion that DEs (like all the crafting professions) will get shafted.
Here's hoping your "sneaking suspicion" is wrongIf it's done like Beast Master, it's possible various core components will be distributed amoungst the other crafting professions so the entire thing isn't monopolised by the DE's. It'll be up to the DE's to take those components and make them into whatever droids they have available.
UI mod also should recognised as against EULA.
The reference in the sticky could be problematic in regards to this part of the EULA:
"You may not use any third party software to modify the Software or to change game play"
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/en_US/players/content.vm?page=Policies%20Eula&resource=tos
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE--------------------------------------------------
$OE - eternal enemy of online gaming
-We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
Silver or Gold symbols next to the name of the NPC indicate that you'll probably need a group for that NPC - these symbol have been around since the CU. It's not too hard to put two and two together to realise that it's not going to be an easy battle....and it shouldn't, gold elites SHOULD be a difficult fight. Those particular NPCs are not all that hard to take out - if I'm on my Medic another person is enough, with my BH/BM I can usually take them on my own. Silver elites are killable solo, depending on how large the level difference is.You can't compare your Elite experience to your friends experience in Eisley with his non-elite level 12's. You could quite easily do that at any level - non-elites are snareable and lack large amounts of health so kiting them is not really an issue.
Prior to the NGE, perhaps prior to Pub 6, it was indeed possible for a player to solo a double gold elite. I know, because BH missions prior to the NGE had double golds and BHs were taking them down, albeit that it took a long time to do so, and you might well ruin a perfectly good suit of armor doing so. The silver elites were no problem for my relatively gimped level 80 MBH/MCH. BH was by its very nature a solo profession then, and it was possible.
Of course, just prior to the NGE there was a bug of some sort in BH mission marks that rendered them in one of three possible states, all at random: total pushover despite appearances, normal in line with appearances, and next to impossible despite apperances. You never knew what sort of mark you were going to get...one that was as weak as a kitten, one that put up a fight, or one that was secretly a buffed krayt dragon.
Now, admittedly my friend and I are both level 90 Jedi, and Jedi is the poorest DPS prof in the game, but it would be absolute suicide now for a level 90 to take on a level 90 gold elite. Two of us stood no chance, admittedly we did not have a full set of buffs, but really.
I note you didn't address the risk/reward issue, particularly in regards to elites being the same XP as non-elites. WoW addresses this; SWG does not. The devs can't be bothered with such detail, I suppose.
My lowbie toon wasn't even kiting the supposedly "instant death" mobs around Eisley; he was taking them on toe to toe and winning. The issue is that mobs around Eisley shouldn't be in the 20's and 30's. They should be in the low teens at most, because most new players arrive at Eisley at level 10 after finishing the Tansarii Point station quest series.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
SWG initially wasn't that hard to use and learn right off the bat, but the NGE system made the game incredibly awkward and clunky. Plus some functionality included in the base set, jump for example, is completely ineffective.
Yes, I did approach my vet trial with an open mind and found there was minimal guidance. I really did want to jump back into the sci-fi fantasy mmos again last year. But I found the control scheme for the game made no sense, and was fairly quickly turned off to the game again.
I really think some of you guys underestimate just how big of a problem and barrier to entry that is, but of course, it comes easier for you guys since you all followed the game since nge got launched.
-- xpaladin
[MMOz]
AC1/2, AO, DAoC, EQ1/2, SoR, SWG, UO, WAR, WoW
Last night I participated in the Tusken King Heroic Instance, and did some fishing for the first time in years.
The TK instance was pretty decent. You of course still had the problems with targeting (the blue reticule/green reticule nonsense) that you have in any other multiple target environment, with the NPCs being on top of each other, and with the Tuskens and the Mos Espa civilians both being targetable at any given time. Still, I have to admit, it was fun. The challenge of course of the Heroics is to assemble a group to take it on, and I can see how low populations would make that pretty difficult.
Fishing, on the other hand, has been made tedious to the point of tears. I don't know when it changed, but the control system for "catching" the fish seems to be broken in that after 10 seconds the action menu automatically defaults back to "tug up", making directing your actions very frustrating. Then, once you've "caught" the fish, you lose all control of actions, and then it takes up to 3 minutes to reel in the fish. This is just tedious. Why can't the SWG asshat devs copy WoW's vastly superior fishing system, which manages to be relaxing and not frustrating as you watch text scroll by that you have no control over whatsoever? Fishing in SWG didn't used to be like this, but some idiot thinks that it's an improvement over the way fishing used to behave, I suppose...
I'll also add that the new treasure maps are vastly superior to the old system, in that you have a much higher probability of getting some decent loot.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
I did some fishing for the first time ever a couple of weeks ago to work on the collections that come with it. The window will default back to Tug Up but you can still double click any of the other actions in the list and it'll do that. As a tip, fish in shallow water then when you catch a fish walk up to where you see the red floating thing and in the next update your catch will appear in your inventory. Don't do this until after the action menu dissapears though or it'll complain that your line is too short and you'll stop fishing.
They are ALL about, ultimately, the brainless killing of the million HP "Foozle". ALL of the heroics end up in that point.
Stupid, not engaging at all, non immersive, and not at all Star Wars.
Basically instances like this represent the lowest common denominator of noobdev 101 training in the post WOW world.
Once again, I apply the ultimate word to the devtard efforts: F A I L.
You're showing how out of touch you are with the game. All instances are more then just "kill and win", if you go in with the idea of just killing everything you WILL fail the instances. With some you need to guard and protect other NPCs, others you'll need specific weapon damage types and others you'll need to keep an eye on what the NPCs are doing to prevent being effected by whatever they're trying to do. Of course, yes, you will be killing NPCs at the end of the day just like in any other game when you break it down into the basic points.