This is what I've found new since I landed in SWG again some weeks ago, but there are more things in the Friday Features. I'm astonished by all the new things in the game, some are re-introductions (beat master and camps) but vastly improved (bioengineering is crazy!). Almost everything in teh list has been done since half 2007, cool producer and dev team, not like those in 2005 :l

Hope you like the resume:

PvE:

• Corellian captives (around lvl 35-45 questline).
• Ruins of Restuss (pvp zone) and it's rewards: weapons and armor.
• Rebel and imperial themeparks revamp, now for high lvl (80-90).
• Azure Cabal (lvl 80-90 questline).
• Aurilia village revamp, with Heroic instances: Axvka Min and IG88, Imperial Star Destroyer, Tusken raid, Exar Kun and rewards.
• Space station Nova Orion, with it's own space sector full of new tier 6 to tier 10 ships.
• Meatlump humour themepark (lvl 65-90, escalating depending in your lvl).
• Legacy (from lvl 1-45 questline, some boring some cool).

PvP

• Restuss city in Rori is a pvp battleground.
• A galaxy at war (static bases with pvp objectives and rewards).
• Freedom Station (little Deep Space revamp, with rebel station operative and pvp objectives).
• Galactic Civil War ranks and rewards (can be achieved solely from pve, but it's slower).

Professions (all of them got expertise revamps and tweaks)

• Entertainers: new buff system, new instrument and holograms.
• Beast master expertise: incubators and mutations.
• RE-engineering for weaponsmiths, armorsmiths and tailors.
• New weaponsmith system, with cores, levels and subcomponents.
• Camp crafting (from little tents to sofisticated stations).
• Smuggling system (with pvp ingredients).
• Three Gunboats and the Naboo N-1 fighter.
• Gimbal correction for stabilizing multiplayer ship turrets.
• Sabers, crystals and robes from Restuss and collections.
• New DoT system.
• Marauder assault and battle armor schematics (through quests)

Other features

• Collection system (like EQ2). Some give xp, some items, some schematics, some badges, etc. It's really a very important core part of the game right now (for example, gunboats schematics or the new jedi robes and sabers are part of collection system).
• Storyteller and schematics to store your creations for fast deployment.
• New guild interface.
• New profile and searching system.
• New rotation axis for decorating.
• Anti-spammer, player driven, system: wardens.
• Team pick up point.
• Integrated and stand-alone Collectible Card Game (free cards each months for SWG subscribers).
• Integrated voice communication system, free of charge.

Chapter 11 in november is the Battle of Hoth instance: 1 2 3 4 5

Game update 6 will focus on politicians, player associations and spies.

Game update 7 will focus on domestic and structures proffessions.

Chapter 12 will be Droid Commander expertise and droid engineering.

Yes they have put a lot in the NGE since it launch.  Most I would say is even an improvement relative to and for the NGE.  And to be honest for those that enjoy the game, I am glad you do.

Of the things you have stated I have tried many and liked some and found enjoyment.  I have tried some and disliked what was done.  Unfortunately for me the dislikes or indifference out weighs the likes.

The question I have is reguaring the "bioengineering"  you mentioned.  Are you refering this to the BM system or is there something seperate that I have missed since I tried BM in July 07?

BM was fun for me as I had supporting crafters to make everything I needed.  I never played CH and really can't compare the two.  What made it fun for me was the crafting as that was what I loved the most about this game.  BM was fun for me until the eggs started popping out of the incubaters.  I didn't know when I started BM that a newly created beast could not be "stuffed" into house decorations.  When I started BM I was planning on making a zoo.  When I found out I couldn't I promptly unsubscribed.

Not being able to create my zoo ruined BM for me and I left.  Maybe something has changed to allow me to do this.  I am willing to hear if something has.

Well I'm not into BM myself but I've been Master Creature handler in the past. I liked the possibility of having up to three pets fighting for me, but the new BM master has other cooler things like the "mood" of your beast (happy, sad, etc it's very tricky and it affects it's fighting skills). The bionegineering now is crazy, it's the process of "crafting your beast" with the incubator.

After "crafting" you can convert it to a fighting beast, mount or stuff it for decoration as far as I know so yes, I suppose you can make a zoo.

Maybe someone more qualified than me can answer, I'm just a returned vet with too many information to digest.

The other day someone said to me. "If you dont like your pink mando armour u can get the colour changed with a armour coloour kit thingy" (cant remember the name)

I replied. "Cool but we used to have that pre-cu"

 I think its been so long for us that somethings they introduce as NEW were there before. We just forgot.

Ahh well im still having fun.

Well I've tried to not write about old re-introduced things except for those greatly improved (camps and bioengineering). About the re-coloring kits, i remember those broken for a lot of time, before NGE I mean, so old that it's like new when they fix it yeah XD

It's just a summary for veterans returning, so they don't feel like lost or like nothing has changed. Not meant by any means for steering up disgrunted veterans feelings. Just a "guide".

Originally posted by Distiler

Well I'm not into BM myself but I've been Master Creature handler in the past. I liked the possibility of having up to three pets fighting for me, but the new BM master has other cooler things like the "mood" of your beast (happy, sad, etc it's very tricky and it affects it's fighting skills). The bionegineering now is crazy, it's the process of "crafting your beast" with the incubator.

After "crafting" you can convert it to a fighting beast, mount or stuff it for decoration as far as I know so yes, I suppose you can make a zoo.

Maybe someone more qualified than me can answer, I'm just a returned vet with too many information to digest.

Thanks for the reply Distiler.  But I would like a hard firm yes or no to the stuffing in today's game.  A year ago you absolutely could not on a newly created pet, only the pre-NGE pets people had locked in their datapads.

So maybe Obraik or some other current player can chime in on the definate yes or no of newly created pets being able to be stuffed into house decorations.

Ahh yes you might be right, I just tried with my pre-NGE pets but not with new created ones. But I've read somewhere pets created with the new system and made mounts can be stuffed, but no those made for fighting. Let's wait for some vet for a good answer.

Game update 5 will introduce a method of pet stuffing...

And pre-cu you could NOT recolor anything but Comp armor. Mando could definately not be recolored back then.

Originally posted by blondeh

The other day someone said to me. "If you dont like your pink mando armour u can get the colour changed with a armour coloour kit thingy" (cant remember the name)

I replied. "Cool but we used to have that pre-cu"

 I think its been so long for us that somethings they introduce as NEW were there before. We just forgot.

Ahh well im still having fun.

You could only re-colour Composite armour.  From memory, I believe this was due to a bug with factory crates of composite where they would come out of the crate at the default colour rather then the colour they were made as a schem.  So to make up for the bug, they made them able to be re-coloured.  Not sure, but I also think it was a one time thing - once that peice was coloured I don't think you could then re-colour it again, it's been a while though so I'm not too sure on that part.

As for pet stuffing, yes, with GU5 all pets will be stuffable, no matter if they were pre-nge or not.  However, BM pets that are stuffed only come out the size that they were when they were "live" pets - if you want a max sized deco pet then you'll need to level it upto 90 before you stuff it.  BM stuffed pets will also have a base under them.

Originally posted by Obraik

Originally posted by blondeh

The other day someone said to me. "If you dont like your pink mando armour u can get the colour changed with a armour coloour kit thingy" (cant remember the name)

I replied. "Cool but we used to have that pre-cu"

 I think its been so long for us that somethings they introduce as NEW were there before. We just forgot.

Ahh well im still having fun.

 

You could only re-colour Composite armour.  From memory, I believe this was due to a bug with factory crates of composite where they would come out of the crate at the default colour rather then the colour they were made as a schem.  So to make up for the bug, they made them able to be re-coloured.  Not sure, but I also think it was a one time thing - once that peice was coloured I don't think you could then re-colour it again, it's been a while though so I'm not too sure on that part.

As for pet stuffing, yes, with GU5 all pets will be stuffable, no matter if they were pre-nge or not.  However, BM pets that are stuffed only come out the size that they were when they were "live" pets - if you want a max sized deco pet then you'll need to level it upto 90 before you stuff it.  BM stuffed pets will also have a base under them.

Cool, good to know. Thanks.  Do you know if mounts can be stuffed or just trainable pets? Also on what date do we expect GU5 to roll along?

Originally posted by Obraik

 

You could only re-colour Composite armour.  From memory, I believe this was due to a bug with factory crates of composite where they would come out of the crate at the default colour rather then the colour they were made as a schem.  So to make up for the bug, they made them able to be re-coloured.  Not sure, but I also think it was a one time thing - once that peice was coloured I don't think you could then re-colour it again, it's been a while though so I'm not too sure on that part.

Yeah, I think you're correct on this. But this was also a great opportunity for them to introduce paint kits for armor. I simply never understood why they didn't do that as it seemed like an appropriate time to add it to the game. They did with vehicle paint kits, why not armor?

Originally posted by GrandAm

Originally posted by Obraik

Originally posted by blondeh

The other day someone said to me. "If you dont like your pink mando armour u can get the colour changed with a armour coloour kit thingy" (cant remember the name)

I replied. "Cool but we used to have that pre-cu"

 I think its been so long for us that somethings they introduce as NEW were there before. We just forgot.

Ahh well im still having fun.

 

You could only re-colour Composite armour.  From memory, I believe this was due to a bug with factory crates of composite where they would come out of the crate at the default colour rather then the colour they were made as a schem.  So to make up for the bug, they made them able to be re-coloured.  Not sure, but I also think it was a one time thing - once that peice was coloured I don't think you could then re-colour it again, it's been a while though so I'm not too sure on that part.

As for pet stuffing, yes, with GU5 all pets will be stuffable, no matter if they were pre-nge or not.  However, BM pets that are stuffed only come out the size that they were when they were "live" pets - if you want a max sized deco pet then you'll need to level it upto 90 before you stuff it.  BM stuffed pets will also have a base under them.

 

Cool, good to know. Thanks.  Do you know if mounts can be stuffed or just trainable pets? Also on what date do we expect GU5 to roll along?

Not sure if mounts can be...I don't think it's been said if they can or can't yet.  At a guess, I'm probably thinking no :/  As another guess, I would expect to see GU5 on TC this week...hopefully, really wanna check out the new WS revamp :)

The other day I did notice on my pet radial a STUFF PET option. This was a mounted pet aswell. I'll have to log in an check.

Thanks for the info.  If you have the time on TC aside for WS check and see if mounts can be stuffed.  Either yourself or see if another there is willing to try.  Of course that is if you desire to.

I am not inclined to try my self as the last time I tried BM I had no reason to believe I couldn't stuff the pet.  And was dissapointed when I couldn't.  Now I wouldn't try this game unless I know exacly what features I am interested in work as I expect them to.  Not that expect them to program the game the way I want.  But I wish it was clear back then that the only stuffable pets were pre-nge ones.

TIA

Originally posted by blondeh

The other day I did notice on my pet radial a STUFF PET option. This was a mounted pet aswell. I'll have to log in an check.

Any pre-nge pet, whether it was a mount or actual pet, can be stuffed.  They may do the same for BM made mounts too, but I know they're restricting the new pet re-colour kit to only work on beasts rather then mounts, so it's possible they'll do the same for the stuffing thing too.
 

I'll be testing out the BM related changes too as I'm rather into the whole BM thing with my BH :)  while they're not making any drastic changes to it, the things they will clean up some of the issues I've had with BM (such as not being able to call your pet in combat, despite sacraficing over half your expertise to have a pet).

Originally posted by Distiler

Ahh yes you might be right, I just tried with my pre-NGE pets but not with new created ones. But I've read somewhere pets created with the new system and made mounts can be stuffed, but no those made for fighting. Let's wait for some vet for a good answer.

they are adding in a stuffed pets thing I think in this next update.   Its not in the game now however but it is coming.    Presently the only thing that can be stuffed are the pets that are on your datapad before they revamped the system.  

Originally posted by GenieWH

Game update 5 will introduce a method of pet stuffing...

 

And pre-cu you could NOT recolor anything but Comp armor. Mando could definately not be recolored back then.

Yep, That is the way it was.

Originally posted by Suvroc

Originally posted by Obraik

 

You could only re-colour Composite armour.  From memory, I believe this was due to a bug with factory crates of composite where they would come out of the crate at the default colour rather then the colour they were made as a schem.  So to make up for the bug, they made them able to be re-coloured.  Not sure, but I also think it was a one time thing - once that peice was coloured I don't think you could then re-colour it again, it's been a while though so I'm not too sure on that part.

 

Yeah, I think you're correct on this. But this was also a great opportunity for them to introduce paint kits for armor. I simply never understood why they didn't do that as it seemed like an appropriate time to add it to the game. They did with vehicle paint kits, why not armor?

Gotta agree with you here! That was always a real head scratcher for me as well. I have never understood why there was not a greater emphasis on customizing in the game, especially with armor, clothing and weapon skins...

BioEngineering sure is crazy. Have you tried leveling a pet ? Not for the faint of heart !

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Originally posted by Distiler
Hope you like the resume:

PvE:

* Corellian captives (around lvl 35-45 questline).
Rehash
* Ruins of Restuss (pvp zone) and it's rewards: weapons and armor.
Just another time sink it is what the devs feast upon.
* Rebel and imperial themeparks revamp, now for high lvl (80-90).
Destoryed the idea of themeparks long ago, this lvl shit killed SWG, the immersion stopped because of this, ask yourself what really is a themepark? Fun and excited and loved by the majority, this is not.
* Azure Cabal (lvl 80-90 questline).
Have no damn clue what this is but I can guarantee it was made with the same textures and the same rooms as some other area.
* Aurilia village revamp, with Heroic instances: Axvka Min and IG88, Imperial Star Destroyer, Tusken raid, Exar Kun and rewards.
all rehash junk, with broken controls and more problems than the current dev team can handle, Aurilia village didn't need a revamp it needed to be whipped off the face of SWG.
* Space station Nova Orion, with it's own space sector full of new tier 6 to tier 10 ships.
Space is the only that keeps this game alive and I'm sure they caught on to that already, they really haven't fucked up on space.
* Meatlump humour themepark (lvl 65-90, escalating depending in your lvl).
I heard about, I always heard about how buggy and broken it is, leave it to those awesome devs, eh guys!
* Legacy (from lvl 1-45 questline, some boring some cool).
The Legacy quests pissed me off the most, not only did they turn a vast sandbox game into an Everquest circle jerk but they wanted it to be more like WoW as well with quest after quest of the same objectives, the same textures and then stopping at lvl45. Talk about lazy, we'll just stop here guys that's enough, turn off the lights!

PvP

* Restuss city in Rori is a pvp battleground.
Empty, has been after a little more than 2months after it was designed.
* A galaxy at war (static bases with pvp objectives and rewards).
Wonder what happened to those big ass red battle circles we used to have, yep thats right just a rehash of a broken feature.
* Freedom Station (little Deep Space revamp, with rebel station operative and pvp objectives).
Pffffffff rehash of every other station
* Galactic Civil War ranks and rewards (can be achieved solely from pve, but it's slower).
There always was ranks and rewards, and the points would be gained from pve as well, so what did they do brain washing you into thinking this was a new feature too? *sigh*

Professions (all of them got expertise revamps and tweaks)

* Entertainers: new buff system, new instrument and holograms.
Rehash!!!! Let's kill the entire profession and then bring it back saying it's brand new! Genius!
* Beast master expertise: incubators and mutations.
See Entertainer, The incubators are no different then the crafting panel but the mutations is something new I'll give them that, but for completely destroying a profession I would want more than one bullshit feature.
* RE-engineering for weaponsmiths, armorsmiths and tailors.
Terrible system, was at JTL Beta, it was screamed upon to be more useful and still isn't. Turn junk into junk, sweet deal!
* Camp crafting (from little tents to sofisticated stations).
REHASH!
* Smuggling system (with pvp ingredients).
I wouldn't call this a system and uh where's that smuggler revamp?
* Three Gunboats and the Naboo N-1 fighter.
Skins of ships already in the game, would you like some more hash with that re.
* Gimbal correction for stabilizing multiplayer ship turrets.
Correction? SOE corrects things now, nooooooooo blasphemy!
* Sabers, crystals and robes from Restuss and collections.
Junk that can easily be added in a couple secs, same art, different name, same results.
* New DoT system.
You can't say new, when the system was already in place long ago and trampled upon by the mighty feet of SOE.

Other features

* Collection system (like EQ2). Some give xp, some items, some schematics, some badges, etc. It's really a very important core part of the game right now (for example, gunboats schematics or the new jedi robes and sabers are part of collection system).
Laughable, I thought this was the biggest pile of shit they wasted their time on, when they could be fixing the damn game they decide to put you guys on a scavenger hunt!
* Storyteller and schematics to store your creations for fast deployment.
Indeed this is new but useless.
* New guild interface.
New? There wasn't even one, so I think "A guild interface" is better to say.
* New profile and searching system.
Reintroduced bs once again.
* New rotation axis for decorating.
Not new, just broken and reintroduced
* Anti-spammer, player driven, system: wardens.
Still doesn't help, but you guys barely have gold sellers anyway I mean the 3 or 4 that bother you guys everyday is laughable at LotRO hundreds a day.
* Team pick up point.
As the Canadian's say, Eh?!?

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So as you can see barely anything new or vastly improved. They done more harm then good and yet still have a few players trying to catch the carrot on the stick. I wouldn't say the guide is good for vets in fact the guide will just criticism from vets. It would be better shared for the new unaware players.