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Melvil
Village Leader
Joined: 08 Nov 2003
Posts: 80
Location: Austin, Tx |
Recently I've been researching SWG and was pleasantly surprised by their progress. Player Cities, Mounts and Vehicles are enough to get most people interested, but I still have lingering doubts. You see, I played beta for a bit and was just plain bored. I felt that AO already had a mission based progression system and went with that for awhile (great game btw, underrated). Now I'm back again heh, and I read some thoughtful posts on this board moments ago. The posts really peaked my interest and I'm within minutes of returning Call of Duty (or should I say, call of death) to pick up SWG for atleast a month. Any reason I should stay far away for the time being?
Melvil |
Thu Jan 08, 2004 12:35 am |
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Moriendor
Black Ring Leader
Joined: 19 Jul 2001
Posts: 1306
Location: Germany |
Depends on why you were bored  . In case you are hoping that they added tons of new content since release (and I mean content, not just vehicles/mounts which are only faster means of transportation), you will be very disappointed to find out that they have just added two more dungeons to the game (one of them is impossible to solo, the other can be solo'ed but it's tough).
Player cities are nice but the real content behind them is reserved for the mayor. As a citizen, all you have to do is pay taxes (automatic deduction) and vote 1x per week. There are also too many player cities IMHO. The devs even raised the limit because there was a huge outcry from the PAs who lost the first race for the best city spot. Well, result: Mostly dead player cities... ghost towns.. except for the times your city is raided by an enemy faction.
What's on the plate for the first three months of 2004 is profession updates (esp. Droid Engineer, Chef, Smuggler etc.) and a more or less complete overhaul of the combat system (first changes have been in the last monthly publish). The combat system changes will be pushed out in stages. I think there are 2 or 3 more stages to come. Combat will be a bit unbalanced until they are done (it's currently slightly harder than before the last publish). No idea why they are not doing it all in one large chunk. Hope they have good reasons for that.
They are also planning to make the GCW much more meaningful.. even talking about an "imperial crackdown". No further details on that yet.
Hmm.. so in case you are planning on a combat career, it may actually be a good idea to wait until they are done with the overhaul of the system to avoid frustration (or subscribe now if you anticipate to level slowly anyway  ) . Aside from that... why not? Must be exciting to see what has changed since beta and if you don't like it the 'cancel' button ain't too far away  . |
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Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:10 am |
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Melvil
Village Leader
Joined: 08 Nov 2003
Posts: 80
Location: Austin, Tx |
well, I do like character development and there is plenty of that in this game. I've heard about theme parks, dunno what they are beyond quest grounds. Combat changes would be nice, remember it being sorta odd in beta. You worked up to new weapon certs and the occasional new skill. Seemed sorta limiting, but when combined with other skill sets, it's not. I may have to try this game at this point. Once an online game gets in my head it doesn't leave. 
Was thinking of being a Wookie Scout with brawling for combat. That's all the planning I've done because I don't want to ruin the fun before I start.
Oh yeah, have to admit being a Jedi sounds really fun.
Thanks for your advice and the info btw Mor.
Melvil |
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Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:19 am |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by Melvil
Combat changes would be nice, remember it being sorta odd in beta. You worked up to new weapon certs and the occasional new skill. Seemed sorta limiting, but when combined with other skill sets, it's not.
I think Moriendor already put everything in perspective. And while I have no idea what the combat changes will be, after coming back to the game after being absent for three months or so I can say that SWG has one of the better combat engines of the genre.
I don't know how it was during beta (and it probably depends at what stage of beta you were in too), but it goes a little beyond "just" having new skills and certifications. Where moving is usually impossible during combat other than to sidestep around your target in other mmorpgs, swg actually offers tactical options in movement (for characters using ranged weapons anyway). Overall and after looking it from a different perspective, not many mmorpgs have as much combat depth as this one does, certainly not AO (although I agree by now it's an underrated game).
Overall I would say SWG is a safe try now that they've implemented player mounts and vehicles. Player-run cities are nice, but as Mo already said it is mostly reserved to those who have already built themselves cities to really enjoy. Although having new shuttle ports on the map certainly is nice when trying to intercept a moving bounty as a BH
One thing that they still need to fix asap is the pet-war issue, which kind of kills the Star Wars feel. Animal pets are far better than combat droids, and by now it's impossible for them to simply nerf pets to make droids more powerful. They have a really hot potato in their hands over that one. Still, that doesn't change the fact that SWG is fun. Just don't take the weird things too seriously
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Thu Jan 08, 2004 2:46 pm |
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Melvil
Village Leader
Joined: 08 Nov 2003
Posts: 80
Location: Austin, Tx |
I'm not generally a pet enthusiast, but from what I've read CH is one of the most popular skill sets. My question is, can anyone use a tamed animal or built droid? I've heard of people using AT-ST's, but I thought it was a faction reward for killing lots of rebels (would be nice if it was).
Anyone out there use pets extensively?
Melvil |
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Thu Jan 08, 2004 7:51 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by Melvil
I'm not generally a pet enthusiast, but from what I've read CH is one of the most popular skill sets. My question is, can anyone use a tamed animal or built droid?
Anyone can use pets up to a certain creature level (15 I think), which means that you can't have the better pets unless you have trained in CH a little. The higher the CH skill, the more advanced in level of pets you can tame and use.
Droids can be used by absolutely anyone, but they are absolutely not as powerful as pets. They might be better than the low-level pets anyone can have, but that doesn't make them much more useful. They can't take much of a beating, and they do not deal nearly enough damage to be effective as a companion. They need to fix that because that's why you don'T see people use combat droids as much as pets. Most people that want pets will train a few boxes in CH to get some decent ones that are around level 25, and stop it at that.
quote:
Originally posted by Melvil
I've heard of people using AT-ST's, but I thought it was a faction reward for killing lots of rebels (would be nice if it was).
Anyone out there use pets extensively?
You can use an AT-ST if you are Imperial, and you do get to buy them by using your faction points. To get faction points you need to kill rebels (player or NPC). As far as I know it does cost a lot, but being a rebel I wouldn't know for sure. 
I use pets extensively. I am 2/0/3/3 Bounty Hunter and a 2/2/1/2 CH. But as my skills go up in BH I find myself relying less and less on my pets which used to be a tremendous help. Now I just get one out and let it hang back while I shoot at my bounty, using it only in extreme emergency. In PvP they can also be a huge help if you're the type of player that likes to hide behind big things so you won't get targeted Soon I'll be starting to trade my CH skill points to medic, and I'll get a combat droid to watch my back even though I know that won't help me much.
One thing is certain though, they will do something about droids because they know (and have admitted it before) that there's a problem. Once Droid Engineers get some love, I think the whole SWG community will benefit.
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Thu Jan 08, 2004 10:10 pm |
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Melvil
Village Leader
Joined: 08 Nov 2003
Posts: 80
Location: Austin, Tx |
Thanks for all the input guys. This post has really helped me with my decision and I will most likely pick this game up in the next few days.
Melvil |
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Thu Jan 08, 2004 10:18 pm |
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Moriendor
Black Ring Leader
Joined: 19 Jul 2001
Posts: 1306
Location: Germany |
Melvil, trying to save you from quitting after three days here . You will not want to make a Wookiee character with brawler skills. Wookiees can't wear armor and a good brawler never leaves his house w/o a decent set of armor on him. I think they are still trying to find a way to give wookiees better defenses but it seems to be a low priority item on their long list. Wookiees make good scouts, CHs, and rangers but anything melee you'll want to avoid like the plague.
BTW, the CH tree has been completely replaced with a new tree recently. They have moved skills around and more importantly made dabbling very unattractive (by spreading the points you need to control pets throughout all skill trees in CH). It has had a huge impact on the game. It's not that pets have become a rare sight but there are A LOT less pets than there used to be.
I'm a master CH myself and considering to drop it. Pets have been nerfed badly. They don't last long in a fight.
A master doc buffed, well armored Teras Kasi Artist will last longer than any creature in most fights plus they deal some serious damage and have nasty specials like the dizzy/knockdown combo. They are actually a little overpowered in PvP atm since they can also hit you from 20m. If you don't have a ranged knockdown to stop them you better run if you want to live.
In general, melee classes have gotten a huge boost. Some of those classes have awesome defenses and since you can master several professions, Pistoleer/Fencer has become very popular. It's almost god mode because it's impossible to hit someone who dodges every shot .
The only thing that keeps me from dropping CH is that it would be very hard to relearn the skill if I ever wanted to for some reason. You only get XP once per pet now. Must be a tough grind to the top and the low level pets (starting at CL10 for non-CH .. CL15 for novice) are extremely crappy.
In fact, you are more or less forced (not meant in a negative way) to cooperate with Bio-Engineers now. They can make much better pets at the moment than those critters that can be found in the wild even at master CH level (except for the extremely rare wild pets for which you have to milk 100s of lairs) .
Another reason that CH has become unattractive is that they have made it impossible to solo high level mobs. For example, Nightsisters which could be easily solo'ed by CHs now have 100-250K HAM (hit points). They used to have 8K-20K. Add to that that high level mobs use very nasty specials now. They have really beefed up the AI. Nightsisters do use their force powers now like e.g. force-lightning. There's no way to kill them 1 vs. 1. CH is a welcome support class for these fights (the way it should have been from the start, really) but you no longer see any CHs taking them on solo.
The droid engineer changes (and combat droids too AFAIK) will be in the next publish, i.e. 2-3 weeks from now. If droids are decent in combat then there goes my master CH . |
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Thu Jan 08, 2004 11:29 pm |
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Melvil
Village Leader
Joined: 08 Nov 2003
Posts: 80
Location: Austin, Tx |
I ended up choosing a different race and starting out with Marksman. Will either go scout after I master Marksman or maybe train up medic for Combat medic master. Unsure atm really, but have to say, what an improvement. I was in beta towards the end and quit after literally 3 hours of play. Now the game seems like it could hold me through the first month. Joined Bria because it had the highest pop, any suggestions on servers? I'm not far into my character and could start over really.
Thanks again guys,
Melvil |
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Fri Jan 09, 2004 8:12 am |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by Melvil
I ended up choosing a different race and starting out with Marksman. Will either go scout after I master Marksman or maybe train up medic for Combat medic master.
I hope we're not spoiling your experience of discovery (or re-discovery ) but I would suggest you go see a scout trainer and enroll in the scout profession right away if you plan on having it. Waiting until later will only lead to frustration.
The Scout profession is a great complement to Marksman, and you can easily train both at once without hindering either of them at all. If you stick to hunting animals in the first few days, you'll gain weapon xp (marksman) by killing them, then earn scouting xp by harvesting their resources. On top of this, you can use the very valuable traps that come with scouting to hinder your targets and make them easier to kill, and earn trapping xp (scout) at the same time.
The real frustrating part of scouting though is Wilderness Survival xp gains (although I understand it is not much better than when I went through that skill tree...). You gain that mainly by seting up camps and spending time in it.... LOTS of time.
If you still decide to wait to take up Scout, then make sure that when you do you take something like artisan with it so that you can do some basic crafting while camping. That way your time won't be totally wasted
quote:
Originally posted by Melvil
Joined Bria because it had the highest pop, any suggestions on servers? I'm not far into my character and could start over really.
I think we're a little all over the place. I'm not sure if anyone else here is still playing besides Mo and I. I play on the Chilastra server while I think Mo plays on Starsider (?? not sure, let Mo confirm this).
If you go to Chilastra look me up as Eekim. I could certainly help for your training since as a BH I had to master both Marksman and Scout 
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Fri Jan 09, 2004 2:36 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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I haven't logged on in a week or two but I suspect my account is dead because my credit card expires 01-04 and the company is being wretchedly slow in issuing new cards. If I do exist I'm on Chilestra still and demolishing things as a TKA/Fencer/Scout
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Fri Jan 09, 2004 4:16 pm |
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Toaster
Bread Alert
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Posts: 5475
Location: Sweden |
I you're European, the Chimaera and FarStar servers are both highly populated. I play on the Chimaera server.
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Fri Jan 09, 2004 4:27 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by EverythingXen
I haven't logged on in a week or two but I suspect my account is dead because my credit card expires 01-04 and the company is being wretchedly slow in issuing new cards. If I do exist I'm on Chilestra still and demolishing things as a TKA/Fencer/Scout
I was away for almost 3 months and all my characters were alive and kicking, complete with all skills and items as I had left them. I don'T think you need to worry
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=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild=
=Worshiper of the Written Word= |
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Fri Jan 09, 2004 5:02 pm |
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Moriendor
Black Ring Leader
Joined: 19 Jul 2001
Posts: 1306
Location: Germany |
I have a holiday holocron whore character on Starsider but have been playing on Eclipse since release. It is the server with the highest population AFAIK. It has always been ahead of Bria (regarding forum posts) but some immature folks on both sides have recently started a posting race and that's when Bria passed Eclipse by a small number of posts (they made a "longest thread ever" post and spammed it like crazy at Bria).
If you look at Galaxy and Trade forums combined though you will find out that Eclipse still has the highest number of posts overall. Can't be said for sure, of course, whether the post count reflects the server population but it may be a good indicator. The reason I joined Eclipse is that it is the unofficial Euro server. It's basically busy 24/7 because of the US and Euro players. Didn't want to play on Gorath (unofficial German) because I always liked the idea of playing with folks from all over Europe and the US better than with my native fellows plus US players.
Anyway, I don't think you will notice a big difference between Bloodfin, Bria, Chilastra, Eclipse, Intrepid (west coast) or Starsider. |
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Sat Jan 10, 2004 1:25 am |
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