Star Wars Galaxies

I want two honest opinions here; one from someone who played Pre-CU and someone who started Post-CU. I've only ever played the Newbie Station as I don't know if it's worth buying. Give me some insight on how the game expands.

Population?

Game World Size / Creativity?

End Game?

Content?

PvP?

Originally posted by D3mis3

I want two honest opinions here; one from someone who played Pre-CU and someone who started Post-CU. I've only ever played the Newbie Station as I don't know if it's worth buying. Give me some insight on how the game expands.

Population?

Game World Size / Creativity?

End Game?

Content?

PvP?

No reason why you shouldn't be able to get off n00bie station and see Tatooine (and the other worlds) for themselves.

Keep in mind that PvP is basically reserved, for the most part, for level 90 toons.  There are no level regulated battlefields as you have in WoW.

The end game is PvP, ongoing collections, and the heroic instances.

Game world size: deceptively huge, because the brutal reality is that planets have been stratified by level.  As you grind your way through the levels, via the Legacy Quest series, you'll move from Tatooine through Naboo, Corellia, and Talus.  The worlds are huge, but they're irrelevant to your level grind.  The collections system does send you all over the various worlds to kill 200 klickniks, 150 devil gulginaws, etc.  Some of the old feel of the original sandbox game can be percieved through collections.

Population depends on the server.   A few are better populated than others, but none are populated as they once were before the CU and NGE drove away the original player base.

I will give you 100% honest breakdown as I played Pre-CU/CU/and NGE.

I had the most fun towards the end of the CU, believe it or not.  Clearly the NGE is a big step in the wrong direction for any game but it is all we have.

1.)  Populations:  I don't care what anyone tells you, they are bad, real bad.  I play on Bloodfin, which is one of the most populated servers, and the MOST I have EVER seen on the entire server at any given time in the past 6 months is 60-70 players.  Players generally hang out in Mos Eisley and Rustess.  Pre-CU there were players on all planets and most cities, as well as in the wild.  Today they are few and far between.  The total population of SWG, though unconfirmed, is around 10,000 players spread out over 20+ servers.

Like I said, I don't care what anyone tells you, that is the honest to God truth.  Lowca, Flurry, Kauri, and others are simply dead, less than 50 - 100 active players on the entire server.  Ghost towns from Pre-CU and CU are scattered all over the place.  It's very depressing.

2.)  Game World:  This is a BIG plus for SWG.  The worlds are vast and cool, especially if you are into Star Wars.  The problem is that as I said before there are ghost towns all over the place, which really hurts the scenery.  Another negative is that they are adding instanced zones to the game now for a cheap and easy method of programming.  Still, a very good set of planets.

3.)  End Game:  There really isn't any.  There aren't enough people to have large PvP, and the combat was sped up 5X to simulate FPS (though it is simply RPG combat) and it causes combat lag.  The combat is really the downfall of this game, it's bad, very bad.  There really isn't any end game to speak of other than sitting around Mos Eisley or Rustess with the same 40 people day in and day out PvP'ing.  That is 100% truth.

4.)  PvP:  Like I said, the combat in this game really isn't up to par.  It's a BAD version of Tabula Rasa.  Pre-CU had really cool animations and motions for melee combat which has now been replaced by bad particle effects.  There just aren't enough people on the servers to enjoy variation in PvP, most are Jedi and Boutny Hunter, though Bounty Hunter was just nerfed so I figure you'll see more Jedi now.

Other than that the economy really is inflated and dead.  It's a typical loot-based game now so the true need for player crafted items isn't as vital.  The combat stinks, especially if you've played AoC.  The quests are some of the WORST in any MMO I have ever seen, so bad it's painful to grind up.  There is no creativity in the questing.

Overall the game has never been GREAT, Pre-CU had a lot of issues but had a great skill system and a sandbox world with really cool crafting and community.  The CU started off really badly but got better, however it did remove some of the sandboxy feel of the game.  The NGE removed all that felt "free" in the game and essentially copied WoW, in a bad way.  It's slightly better now than it was when the NGE launched but it's not up to par with games like AoC, WoW, or even for the population level -- Vanguard.

I would suggest trying Vanguard over this game as the populations are about the same and it works much better now.

Originally posted by AveBethos

I would suggest trying Vanguard over this game as the populations are about the same and it works much better now.

I was looking into Vanguard only to realize you need somone who has an account to send you a code. I asked for one many times on forums but never got one.

Originally posted by D3mis3

Originally posted by AveBethos

I would suggest trying Vanguard over this game as the populations are about the same and it works much better now.

 

I was looking into Vanguard only to realize you need somone who has an account to send you a code. I asked for one many times on forums but never got one.

Yeah that's a strange deal there with the buddy system.  If you go to the official Vanguard boards I'm sure you could probably find one.  If not, if you lurk here as well you might get one. 

Don't get me wrong, Vanguard isn't a great game either, however having played both relatively recently I can say it is better than SWG.  I much prefer AoC to both because the questing and combat are head and shoulders better.  SWG is just too lacking, buggy, and the servers are just too dead.

Originally posted by AveBethos

 SWG is just too lacking, buggy, and the servers are just too dead.

I can say the exact same thing about AoC (except the dead servers).

i played for 2 weeks before the NGE and for 1 week after (lucky me)

population?  it was good (on my old dialup it was killer...the most (on my server) populated city is the start point for all new players...that was murder on my system).  PvP was crazy and was everywhere.  i saw 3 bounty hunters take out targets in the middle of a (packed) Cantina to the shock of everyone inside.   endgame did not exist as the game was basically all about your (everyday) life in the game. 

now for the NGE

very small population,  most people you see are inside cities and they are basically there spamming trade stuff (or have robots doing it for them).  bots are out in the wilderness (but they wont trouble you, there is plenty to kill out there).  Player cities are everywhere (its bloody annoying to try and drive across the planet with cities every 500m or so).  PvP is more focussed (only happens in a few locations).  i never got to the endgame but it was pretty much raids for better gear.

Originally posted by AveBethos

I will give you 100% honest breakdown as I played Pre-CU/CU/and NGE.

1.)  Populations:  I don't care what anyone tells you, they are bad, real bad.  I play on Bloodfin, which is one of the most populated servers, and the MOST I have EVER seen on the entire server at any given time in the past 6 months is 60-70 players.  Players generally hang out in Mos Eisley and Rustess.  Pre-CU there were players on all planets and most cities, as well as in the wild.  Today they are few and far between.  The total population of SWG, though unconfirmed, is around 10,000 players spread out over 20+ servers.

Yesterday Bloodfin was in heavy status (that was around 900 players, pre-NGE), thou usually is in medium but the free account time helps. Using the new searching tool I was able to count around 800 concurrent players (not including those that play in /anonimous mode, and lots of pvp vets play this mode, so easily count around 1000). Bria was also in heavy, then 5-6 in medium and the others in light/ very light. I hope something is done with those. But anyway there are around 8-10 healthy servers.

OP,

Just curious, is it SWG alone are you looking at or are you interested in any MMOs or specific genre?  You mentioned you wanted to try VG.

Is it SW that prompted you to try it or is it the Sci-fi genre?

I am not trying to recruit for other games or disuade you from SWG if you enjoy it.  But if you haven't made up your mind and are trying trials and like Sci-fi, you may want to try the EVE trial and see what you think.

Just like this game there are those that love and hate EVE and of course every one is entitled to their own opinion.  One negative of EVE I see new players complain about is th