Star Wars Galaxies

Originally posted by redcap036

ok, so what is NGE then?

and thank you all for your answers and post.

NGE= New Game Enhacements, SOE streamlined the game by decreasing the proffesions from 
32 to 9 iconic proffesion,an unforseen streamlining occured with the player base also, losing over 100k subscribers. And they introduced several annoying bugs  with the NGE.

Originally posted by Jenus1

Originally posted by Suvroc

The simple answer is pre-CU was the original philosophy behind the development of SWG where 2 things were central - community/interdependance, and choices.

With respect to community and interdepedence, it is pretty much self explanatory. But with respect to the choices we had to make it was in virtually every aspect of SWG. From character creation we had to choice a race that had inherant stats that worked well for the profession you intended to play (although it wasn't absolutely necessary). We had to choose our stat migration (HAM bar) to best suit what we thougt would work best. We chose a prof that suited our playstyle, and only took some of those skills from that profession if that's all we wanted. We chose weapons that either had a low encumberance or higher damage. We chose armor in the same way if we chose it at all. We chose our starting planet. We chose what foods to eat and when.

In making all these choices we had to know that no matter how good you chose your options there were still certain vulnerabilities that left you susceptable to others, and that grouping with a variety of profs helped to protect you. Essentially, combat created another level of interdependency that formed a very stronge community.

It was all intertwined, and quite remarkable.

But sadly, very bugged and imbalanced.

This is coming from a guy that only played the NGE?  You didn't even experience the NGE's predecessor, the CU!

I will say this about the Pre-NGE days.  It was bugged.

So, how goes the NGE's bugs these days?  SOE still has bugs from the old days on top of the bugs they introduced via the NGE.

And frankly, I would take the bugged, but very deep gameplay of the Pre-NGE days that gave me the freedom of choice how to play, how to choose my skills (and weaknesses), than being shoehorned into cookie cutter professions that offer very little diversity.

A Bounty Hunter in the Pre-NGE days could be very different from another BH.  One could actually be a master of melee combat (BH 4000 + Melee).  Another could be absolutely deadly with pistols (Master BH or BH w/ Pistol line + Pistoleer).   Or maybe he could have been a MBH with a bit of Carbineer AND Pistoleer, having a good range of specials to choose from.  Or maybe this MBH could eschew totally eschew short and medium ranged fighting for a focus on long ranged firepower... MBH + Rifleman

Or how about this during the CU days?  A style of fighting I acquired and stayed with.  Pure ranged that could practically do everything range combat oriented.  Master Marksman + Master Rifleman + Master Carbineer + a bit of Pistoleer.  I could literally do any style of ranged fighting that suited my group.  Single target, focused damage?  Check.  AoE damage?  Oh he** yes, thanks to Carbineer skills.  Target positional control via Snares, Roots, and Knockdowns?  Check.  Sniping?  Check.  I could do anything the group wanted, on the fly, during combat, per request or my own initiative.  If the fight took a drastic turn for the worse, I could fall back to skills from Carbineer and due Suppression Fires... wide AOE, low damage attack that snares all targets for a very short duration.  I keep that attack up long enough to buy time for my guys to retreat or recover.  The template however had definite weaknesses.  Melee attackers due to the moderate Melee Defense were a concern so they had to be watched for.  But my Ranged Defense was extremely high and this build easily let me strike down any ranged duels I came across.

These are just a few examples possible from the Pre-NGE days.  The CU had some controversial points but it at least still provided us choice, diversity, and population interdependence.  You could be a specialist like I was, Pure Ranged Combat.  Or you could be diverse in your skills, i.e.  Fencer + Pistoleer + Scout (for harvesting).  Or maybe even Master Weaponsmith + Master Pistoleer (for self defense or contribute to a group fight) + a bit more of Artisan.  The choices were there.  It was up to the player to make a Template to their taste with a bit of experimentation.

If you grew tired of that build / Template, you didn't have to pay for a stupid Respec or utilize a small number of free Respecs to try something new out.  You just dropped old Skillboxes to free up Skillpoints as you needed, learn for cheap the basic, Novice skillboxes to start your new road, then you're off.  Again, the choice was OURS back before the NGE.

Originally posted by Jenus1

enjoy , you may want to try www.tryswg.com aswell,

Originally posted by redcap036

Hi all, ok first of all, thank you all for your informative answers to my questions, I've just bought a mmo six pack , which included  SWG starter kit and a 30day play card for each game, so I'm very much looking forward to having a go at SWG, so I started reading up on the game and the community and was just wondering what those terms ment, thanks to your answers I'm still going to look forward to playing, just that now I'm going to be hoping that it's not to simple a game to play.

Again thanks' everyone

 

 

Also, the game as it was in no way affects the game today.  Be fair to yourself and examine the game without considering what "we" claim it was.

One last piece of advice: If you like the game, great -  enjoy.  But it's best if you don't come back to this forum and try telling the vets why the game is "good."  You've been warned.

Originally posted by JestorRodo

 

Originally posted by Jenus1

enjoy , you may want to try www.tryswg.com aswell,

 Or you may heed our combined warnings and don't asswell.

 

 

As soon as people started trolling this was moved to the refugee forum, it's good to see mods doing their jobs.

Anyway , OP you should do the trial first then add the game-time, so i believe its 14 days + 30 days :) instead of just 30 :D

What server will you be joining?

Originally posted by Jenus1

Originally posted by JestorRodo

 

Originally posted by Jenus1

enjoy , you may want to try www.tryswg.com aswell,

 Or you may heed our combined warnings and don't asswell.

 

 

As soon as people started trolling this was moved to the refugee forum, it's good to see mods doing their jobs.

Anyway , OP you should do the trial first then add the game-time, so i believe its 14 days + 30 days :) instead of just 30 :D

What server will you be joining?

I'm quite sure it was moved to the refuge forum because it was a discussion on pre-CU. If it was trolling then I'm sure that it would have been locked or deleted.

But nevertheless I have to wonder why you're impling that it was moved to the refuge forum because it was trolling?

Since you didnt play obviously pre-cu, allow me to link you some information about the history of SOE and SWG...

http://www.rlmmo.com/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=0ddf987d44313bd3a1a477bb1e513657

Folks tend to have short memories and some werent around for all the lies. So here's a list of lies SOE has told us. Also please consider sticking this

1. SWG wont launch until its ready - SOE repeatedly told us this game wont launch until its ready to go. This early on was to include space, JTL wasnt ever supposed to be an expansion. Lets also not forget key components not included at launch like player cities, vehicles, and jedi. As a beta player, I still remember the notice in beta forum that the game was going gold in 2 weeks. Everyone agreed it was a huge mistake but SOE ignored us.

2. Jedi - We all know that jedi was NEVER possible at launch. Yet SOE made post after post dangling that carrot and offering encouragement. They told us to get married, explore every world, build a home, etc. It made some think that jedi was some random amazing quest to be discovered. Soon though we learned the truth when SOE patched in several .tre files with obvious jedi implications 5 months after launch. Then the day after a patch several unlocked all at once.

3. Rebel Theme Park - Sorta ties into # 1 as it wasnt ready either. However SOE repeatedly lied about the theme park. If you recall, it was broken after Han's quests. Han tells us to seek out Lt. Lance on Dantooine, but there isnt any Lt. Lance anywhere. SOE tells us its working as intended despite nobody having found Lt. Lance after months and month of looking (my guild personally had several major expedition searches done over many weekends looking for him). Suddenly we learn the truth after a patch...Han now tells us to seek out Ackbar on Dantooine and the once empty abandoned rebel base now has several rebel nps in there. My guild who had followed the game for years in development was soooo pissed off they immediately disbanded and quit.

4. two part lie -

A. The Combat upgrade (curb) was top priority - Remember how SOE told us over and over again that the CURB was its number 1 focus. It would be first to get completed over the JTL expansion.

B. There were two separate teams working on JTL and the CURB.

We later learn both are lies. JTL gets pushed over the combat fixes AND we find out the CURB team has been merged with the JTL team. Whats really insulting is SOE goes on a PR campaign and tells the public that we players demanded JTL first. Another fat lie as every poll posted strongly stated we wanted the CURB first.

5. Combat Revamp - whatever you want to call it, this was meant as a reward for the vets who stayed around and played a broken game. Talk about a slap in the face when SOE announces the CU...a system as the devs told me at Celebration 3 was meant to "have a more broad appeal". This was SOE's 1st attempt at screwing over its current community for the wow crowd. All the promised fixes never happened. The armorsmith rep quit and was banned after he started a massive protest over changes they never asked for. In fact the CU brings in many more bugs than it fixes and never balanced anything.

6. The CU is here to stay - Smedley comes and makes his first post on swg forums asking for calm and patience. He states that in 6 months the cu will be working as intended so give them time to make things right. FAT LIE...during that time the NGE is either in design stages or already being worked on.

7. FRS - CU disables the end-game for jedi, our force ranking system. SOE tells us its being worked on. Later they state its al most done and just awaits final approval from LA. Of course we learn there wont ever be a FRS system and the nerfs we've been getting oover the past 6 months were done on purpose to weaken jedi into a regular class. For me personally, this is one of the more disgusting lies as it was obviously done to keep us jedi players paying.

8. Jabba Palace disappears - The last patch before the NGE garbage makes Jabba's palace completely disappear. SOE acts surprised and promises a fix is coming..another fat lie as we learn why after the nge hits. Jabba's palace was taken out to implement th new nge quests.

9. village breaks - Same patch breaks the village and the old man stops visiting people. SOE again lies to cover its tracks and tells us its being looked at. Of course it was just a cover for the nge.

10. Expansion - SOE presells an expansion with several promised features. One desired item is a creature handler necklace that will allow for the taming of higher lvl pets. Im not sure if that necklace was ever found but it didnt matter because 1 stinkin day after the nge launched Torres of LA announces the revamp of the game and removal of over 24 professions.

11. starter kit - SOE tells us the starter kit is an eroneous listing and will be removed. They deny the rumors of impending changes.

12. SOE tells us fixes will be faster. SOE says the whole reason behind the nge was to make balancing the game easier and would allow for faster publish fixes. In fact, it has slowed the game down to a crawl as publishes now seem to come every 4 months as opposed to almost monthly before the nge.

13. smuggler revamp - this one could have its own page on broken promises and lies.

14. Capitol ships - a dev at a fanfest shows the players capitol ships he has been working on. Later on SOE tells (months and months later) that it was just a dev fooling around with his laptop and this was never being considered. Of course SOE could have tol the players this months earlier rather than ignore the posts asking for more information. To flyboys, the capitol ship dream was their FRS system...ie end-game content they so very much wanted. It didnt hurt SOE to once again lie a little and let people keep paying while they waited for features that would never ever happen.

15. profession revamps - ranger comes to my mind foremost because my alt was a master ranger for years. It was painful to see rangers slowly dwindling in numbers as the profession remained broken forever. I still recall one of the camo kits (i think it was for Lok) required a type of meat to contruct, only problem was that meat didnt even exist ! And the final tease, SOE says ranger is the next revamp coming in the next publish...oops the next publish turned out to be the NGE.

Then there were the professions that got sorely needed revamps weeks before the nge hit. Why did SOE even bother to revamp squad leader if they were going to turn around and remove the profession entirely a few weeks later ? Maybe it was a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing.

16. Broken quests - How many times did SOE tell us a fix was in the works and it either never came or it took a year to do. And even when they finally did fix something like the Hermit quests, they turn right around and re-break them weeks later. My personal pet peeve for broken quests was the ones at the gungan sacred place. It pissed me off that not only were the quests incomplete, one of the npc's chat bubble was blank ! How tough would it have been to code in some simple words ? These quests were broken in beta, remained busted through launch right up to the nge.

The NGE broke several old quests as well. When I tried the 21 day free trial I started the krayt skull quests, some of my favorites with a great storyline. I got to the last part where I needed to talk to Darklighter only to my surprise he has no chat option. The NGE is 1 year old and Im assuming this quest remains broken, pathetic.

17. 6 month promises - Smedley has repeatedly made the 6 month promise for fixes. His very 1st post following the CU debacle asked the players to give SOE 6 months to get things fully working. He then makes the same promise after the NGE launches, needing 6 more months. Ironically, the post after nge is almost identical to the cu one (asking for time to fix things) and yet somehow the gullible desperate players buy into it AGAIN. Later SOE promises major revamps to each profession each coming within a month or two o each other. Later after MONTHS of no publishes and silence (the swg forums were literally rioting), SOE announces yet ANOTHER series of profession revamps. Typically, the pathetic player base thanks SOE devs in posts for answering their concerns. A year into the NGE, it remains broken, unfinished, with no end in site.

18. Item Conversion - Recall that the players were very concerned over losing their gear with the coming CU. We were repeatedly told that everything would convert properly. If you had an exceptional weapon with amazing stats, it would convert to an equal type of weapon for the CU. They were full of crap though and not only did our exceptional weapons and armor NOT convert properly, in many cases we now couldnt even equip them anymore !!!

CA's and AA's didnt convert because SOE took out several stats like dizzy, knockdown, the poison and disease resists, etc. Players that spent years and millions of credits to collect were overnight ruined. The final insult in classic SOE fashion, SOE adds in melee def and ranged def clothing that tailors can craft. They didnt even bother to take into account the thousands of players who spent their credits by the millions to get these things as ca/aa drops. A +12 melee def tape would possibly sell for 15-20 million, 1 day after the cu and a player now can buy a shirt with +17 melee AND ranged defense !!! So much for really being concerned with ca/aa conversions.

RIS Armor - Not only did the conversion for this armor become crap, it also got very common. I and some friends of mine were the few around who had even had any ris armor. Before the revamps, R