Disclaimer: I do not work for SoE, nor have I ever, nor will I ever.  I once was part of a player volunteer program that SoE ran but that was about it, I have no say in what SoE does.

With that out of the way, I thought it would be interesting to discuss how SoE could go about Origin/Classic SWG Servers, if they ever had the time, resources and inclination to bring them up.

I discussed this with SWG Developers long ago and they seemed keen on the idea, but the live game always takes presedence so this was always a pipe-dream.

It's fun to talk about dreams though, so what would you like to see in the way of Origin/Classic SWG Servers?  They would likely be brought up as part of the Test Center servers and receive only maintenance updates, no additional content.

Which patch level would you want to play, if at all?

Patch Level

Pre-CU: Pre-publish 9

Pre-CU: (Literally just before the Combat Upgrade)

CU: Just before the NGE.

Hmm, I would play any of them up to the NGE......I would prefer up to, but not including, the CU.  The lvls kinda made it dumb.

Not sure what update 9 did....is that the old man and force sensitive stuff?  If so I actually liked that.

If SOE were to make such a server, I would cancel all my other accounts and jump in....I am serious.  There was no other game that allowed you to do whatever you wanted.

This has already been talked about. SoE won't do it because they feel the NGE was a step forward in the game.  This interview says t just can't be done

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/gameId/6/setView/features/loadFeature/461

Honestly Badger your attempt is commendable but I'd say the time has long past for SoE to repair the rift between them and their ex-customers. For this to appease me they'd have to prove that they're worthy of my trust, and I'm not going to be blindsided with any trading card games/MRT's, or unwanted "refinements" - and I cannot see this happening any time soon. Also a change in leadership at SoE would be the first requirment for my satisfaction, and I do feel this will be the case soon enough.

But if SoE could be trusted again I would choose pre-publish 9, however as you say this is only a dream.

As an old fan of the game I would not really care what version was put up.  I would prefer anything without holocrons and grinding force xp as I think that was the true downfall of the game.  

As a current gamer it doesn't matter what versions soe might try to revive, I would not play it.  At this point, changing the version of the game will not change the company itself. 

Since the company has not changed I see very little reason that a different version of SWG would not just end up being mismanaged in the same fashion. 

If I had to choose a version it would be pre-Publish 9. The old man irritated me... But honestly anything pre-NGe would be good.

However, as you said, pipe dream. I have long since given up on SWG and on SOE. It would take alot more then just a classic server to get me back into the game. The NGE didnt only take away the feeling of the game, it took away all the stuff that I had worked so hard to get in the game. Rare drop weapons with nasty dots on them, the composite armor I spent a ton of money on because of the high resists on it, etc. This stuff is small, unimportant to anyone else, but I still remember it fondly.

The other thing SOE would have to do is bring back all the friends I made over the years. All the people I interacted with. The merchants, the dancers and musicians, even the enemies that became like friends. The people were the biggest asset SWG had, and SOE cant recode those back into the game.

Originally posted by mmcguire2

This has already been talked about. SoE won't do it because they feel the NGE was a step forward in the game.  This interview says t just can't be done

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/gameId/6/setView/features/loadFeature/461

Woah, that was in 2006?  I spoke to the Devs about this a lot more recently than that, I think they could do it and that they would probably enjoy doing it, but whether it's worth doing at this point?  Not sure.

As said, it was pretty much the community and the fact that it was such an innovative game at the time that made SWG what it was, time has certainly marched on.

I pretty much moved on and can't see pre-cu being anything more than a novelty for me. I did my grinds in that game, played the content I wanted to play, unlocked Jedi, I don't think I would want to do it again, but that's just me.

Originally posted by BadgerSmaker

 

Woah, that was in 2006?  I spoke to the Devs about this a lot more recently than that, I think they could do it and that they would probably enjoy doing it, but whether it's worth doing at this point?  Not sure.

As said, it was pretty much the community and the fact that it was such an innovative game at the time that made SWG what it was, time has certainly marched on.

Exactly that.  And SOE destroyed that community.  I seriously doubt they could ever get it back and I would never trust SOE enough to try to help them get it back.

No community, no SWG.

I can only speak for myself when I say- Too late.  Way too late.  Even if SOE did a 180 and suddenly offered preCU servers, I would not touch them.  Way too much bad blood.

The only reason I ever found this site was because of the NGE...

for a long time I was a very vocal supporter of classic servers.  Simply because for the people who actually played the NGE I didn't think it was fair to lose everything again.  Meaning I would have started over..

I think for quite a year (few years) that a community could have been reformed over time.  I'm not really so sure about that anymore.  Even tho there still really isn't anything like Pre-CU .. I'm a huge fan of skill sets, skill trees etc rather than levels and set classes.

I came to SWG mostly because Raph Koster (among others) had worked on Ultima Online.

I honestly just don't even care about classic servers anymore.  I finally stopped playing EQ2.. deleted most all the MMOs off my hard drive.

I still don't understand how I could walk around on servers... where every NPC city was packed with 5 (or more) lines of people waiting for buffs... where every cantina was packed...  people spamming to form grind gruops (just to push up their mission payouts) ... selling tons of resources etc etc etc

Yet it was "bleeding subs"

And with the basicly dead servers of the NGE they decided to stick with that.

I'll never understand it... but as much as I've been vocal here I think the idea of classic servers is pretty much past any chance it had to succeed.  Altho honestly that's about when SOE would decide to do it... thus when it epic failed due to lack of interest.. they could claim the NGE was the right thing to do.. in typical soe logic.

Originally posted by tillamook

I pretty much moved on and can't see pre-cu being anything more than a novelty for me. I did my grinds in that game, played the content I wanted to play, unlocked Jedi, I don't think I would want to do it again, but that's just me.

I have to agree with Tillamook, I unlocked jedi pre-patch 9 and played before holos were available, ran a guild, built a city, did 31 profs and moved on.

Tillamook is this the same that was in the Dark Paladins?

Originally posted by Suvroc

Honestly Badger your attempt is commendable but I'd say the time has long past for SoE to repair the rift between them and their ex-customers. For this to appease me they'd have to prove that they're worthy of my trust, and I'm not going to be blindsided with any trading card games/MRT's, or unwanted "refinements" - and I cannot see this happening any time soon. Also a change in leadership at SoE would be the first requirment for my satisfaction, and I do feel this will be the case soon enough.

But if SoE could be trusted again I would choose pre-publish 9, however as you say this is only a dream.

^^ This (well said)

The rollback SOE needed to make needed to happen within 2 weeks of the NGE going live, the damage is long done by now and SWG is but a distant, unhappy memory to the huge majority of pre-nge players (be they CU or Pre-CU vets)

That said, I'd go back if they could toss together the CU combat with all the content that's been added later in the NGE. The CU combat system before the squad leader update was the second best combat I've seen in an mmo, that combined with the legacy quest and other quests added since and the instances would have given SWG a very healthy playerbase even now I think. It is just a shame that they've had to spend almost 4 years rebuilding it, and even now the NGE combat is the worst of any mmo I've ever played.

Even though im a Pre-cu vet, i see the CU doing a better if you were to recreate anything. Pre-cu has been so gloryfied over the years. Well, im sure Pre-cu would be cool as hell if it were to come back as well, but im not really sure. I did most of the stuff and so on. Thing is, they had to make some choice with the gameplay back then, i think people were getting bored. CU might not have been the smartest move, but before the NGE it really took shape and i had a blast tbh. If you pass it out, CU had some improvements over Pre-cu, and the other way around. I think most people flipped beacsue it was a level icon in left corner.

Either way, if they turned it back to either CU or Pre-cu, obviousley i would give it a shot. But im not really sure if i would enjoy it or not.

Originally posted by BadgerSmaker

It's fun to talk about dreams though, so what would you like to see in the way of Origin/Classic SWG Servers?  They would likely be brought up as part of the Test Center servers and receive only maintenance updates, no additional content.

Which patch level would you want to play, if at all?

Patch Level

Pre-CU: Pre-publish 9

Pre-CU: (Literally just before the Combat Upgrade)

CU: Just before the NGE.

None of the above.  If I had to pick from this list, it would be the one right before the CU.  Going with pre-pub-9 would lose too much of the late-game content, like JTL.

Ideally (the really far-out unlikely option), I would like to see a fusion of Pre-CU and some CU mechanics (NO LEVELS!!) with conversions of as much CU and NGE content as can be made to fit.  This would never happen, of course.

My second fallback position would be late-pre-CU content, 5-minute shuttles, Apprenticeship XP, JTL trainer ships that lacked hyperdrives, plus the CURB.

Adding levels in the CU was a disaster, because it affected most of the game's systems, not just combat.  People with full combat templates may not have noticed the effects so much, but they were truly dire to a jack-of-all-trades in the shallow end of combat pool.

None of the above.  pre-CU had the most promise and the player community I enjoyed, but it was an ineptly managed and supported product even WITH developers that understood it and believed in it.  What would it be today?

That potential was thrown away years ago and the things that made it enjoyable DESPITE the technical incompetence are long, long gone.

I doesn't reall matter but i think that JTL took the game to another dimension. Everything was there. From ship flight to inviting your friends and join your ship as its crew.

SOE may provide the server source code to other developers that are interested to revive SWG. Some devs have done a really good work by reverse engineering part of the server logic and the results thus far are just enough to guarantee the longevity of our "small" community since these volunteer devs have the skills to evolve the game.

Originally posted by phlay

Originally posted by tillamook

I pretty much moved on and can't see pre-cu being anything more than a novelty for me. I did my grinds in that game, played the content I wanted to play, unlocked Jedi, I don't think I would want to do it again, but that's just me.

 

I have to agree with Tillamook, I unlocked jedi pre-patch 9 and played before holos were available, ran a guild, built a city, did 31 profs and moved on. 

Tillamook is this the same that was in the Dark Paladins?

Not that I know of, is that a guild?

Interesting post...and even more shocking were some of the replies. CU just pre-NGE was, IMO, one of the best times - but as others have pointed out, parts of pre-CU would have to be worked back in to make it a GREAT game. SoE had no idea how close they were with a mix of the 2 (pre-CU/CU)...they had a dedicated playerbase, loyal & lifelong customers that no MMO (ToR, EVE, STO, AoC or whatever)  would have been a threat to.

Sadly, I think they missed their opportunity. Had this been done years ago, who knows...but to do it today would be silly. SWG lacks the basics of a modern MMO (3 axis & collision) that I don't think it would be even slightly worth their time.

However...release ANY version as a F2P MMO + TCG (or microtransaction) mix and maybe they could capture a share back. Whatever they do, they need to realize SWG is a 6+yr old game...no version is worth $15/mo any longer. $5 maybe...but not $15 and not with the pathetic (not a flame, just my opinion) staff they have.

I would play anything prior to the Cu.

None. I have finally gotten over this game and quit permanently. It is too little, too late for them to bring in Pre-NGE servers. That ship should have been sailing years ago.