General Discussion

We mainly just want our old system bac, true it want perfect but it was a hell of a lot better than it is now and i have to disagree about the wind up Cool down things actually take lees time and is better than Pre-CU Downgrade, as HAM goes within less than 15 seconds sometimes if ur a TK and ur trying specials.

But  u also agreed the the Wind up and Cool Downs could take to long so thats double talk leading me to believe u guys r in trouble and had to maybe do some of this. if thats true, tell us something that we can do to get our game back, it just needed to be tweaqued. Not remade.

Well being that there were only 7 max Jedi testers, I must say as a Jedi Padawan, that the CU so far has hit rock bottom!  Not being able to group and being an untested toon in this time has made anything very difficault and there respec finishes, just as they are now addressing some of the Jedi problems!

It would be nice to see the jedi respec extended for 2 more weeks so we can now try differing templates for this system, planets are only today being set to the new LEVEL system and so far I've been unable to do very much in the way of PVE and as for PVP, I can't try it at this time or I'd have a Bounty Hunter chasing me!

Come on Julio get your head out of the clouds!!!

I have been a player since day one along with the other players of our guild (whats left of it after CU) well we took the advice tried it on test center you needed more time to fix it there, but to release the new Cu in it's stage was totally beyond us WHY!!

You didn't listen to anyone on the forums in fact the censorship that you implemented was totally disgraceful to delete posts and ban players for voicing their concerns about the CU was unjust!
Well as i said we all tried it and the result was a BIG NO!
So we did what we all said and left the game and canceled our accounts and i mean that we had a average of 3 accounts per player (you work out the sums)

As i live in Australia I made a lot of good friends in the game, so we all went and got Matrix and now thats where our cash goes

Goodbye forever SWG

Gargoyle Naritus server

Personally, I feel completely ripped off by LA/SOE. I am very angry that they have completely ruined my toons. I have seven accounts, all of which I am in the process of cancelling. SWG is a service I and every other player paid to subscribe to. We aren't allowed to play the game unless we pay 24/7/365, yet they can shut the server down at will and not even credit our accounts with the down time or service interruption, so basically, I'm of the opinion that they have stolen time from my subscription, which is the same as stealing my money. I eagarly look forward to the class action law suit against LA/SOE. I have toons that can no longer equip any weapons, doc that has/had millions of credits worth of buffs, all of which have been ruined. Chef that is no longer playable as well as entertainer that is useless. I don't want to be "forced" into grouping or "forced" into solely combat role. I can't imagine the Board of Directors or Stockholders sitting still for all these financial losses. It is beyond to late to change things. The only way I would consider staying with this game is if they completely rolled the servers back to pre-CU. Why don't they make two sets of servers, a set for those interested in playing pre-CU and a set for those interested in playing under the CU version. That would solve the problems currently underway. And for LA/SOE to sit there and think they don't have a problem is nothing but laughable. I used to want to see them succeed because I wanted to continue to play the game. Now, I hope they fall flat on their faces. As for me, I will NEVER buy anything again that carries the Sony label. Mostly because I have seen through this game that they have no customer service and could give a flip if a customer is satisfied. Companies with that type of mentality deserve to be put out of business. LA/SOE think they are to big for the public to impact, well I have news flash...it took the public to put you where you are now and it will take the public to bring you back down. I was going to go see the Star Wars movie coming out, not any more. Not going to give you one more penny of my money. Pretty basically, You suck the big one.

Alright, I have a few comments to make which I hope are helpful in one manner or another.

First of all, I question the expertise of your interviewee. No offense meant to Julio, but since when did his title become "SOE Programmer" or "SOE Star Wars Galaxies Head of Community Service?" What I see is that he works for Lucas Arts, which means that I doubt he truly knows everything that is happening in the coding of the game. And in point of fact, I know he doesn't from his answers to some of your queries, because I have faith that people do not outright lie to large communities of people--isn't that right, Julio?

First of all, Julio states that the combat upgrade has increased the speed of combat. That is incorrect. From Teras Kasi Master to Rifleman, this CU has slowed the game's combat down. Not only do attacks take longer to get off, enemies take longer to kill, and the decrease in melee range distance been applied only to characters not to creatures, creating a need to constantly close within range of an opponent (slus slowing combat down further, and icnreasing running-around time), but the manner of gaining experience for all combat-based professions and hibrids (such as Force Sensitive and Jedi) has gone up, as well. Now, I believe that Julio is saying this because he is ignorant of the game-play. I don't expect everyone to have played the game to know the truth, so I don't mind correcting him on this. Julio, ask players, programers, or run time-tests of combat on the old-server backup I'm certain is available, and on the new. Then you will find that your words were in error, and when next you are interviewed, you can be accurate in your statements.

The definition of combat roles is another notion touched upon which is only partially true. While the CU was supposed to define combat roles more clearly into three different segments, it has failed. Enemies attack whomever does the highest damage to them, even disregarding advanced taunts. Thus, the problem arises that "tanks" cannot take the damage and keep an enemy's attention and allow more high-damage ranged players from fighting unaccosted--as was the design. In this manner, their is no separation to define combat roles, only a failed attempt ruined by flawed coding in a hastily assembled system.

As for the time frame of the game drawing out the Galactic Civil War, I'm afraid you're mistaken there as well. Currently not only are places like the Weapons Depot closed, but in adding cybernetic limbs which are nothing like what Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader had, but rather cheap toilet-bowl-scrubber rip-offs of Episode 1 Battle Droid arms, the CU has created an anachronistic throw-back of which one of the largest flaws (forced cybernetic limbs on character who die off of core-planets which are purposefully shoddy) was repealled. By the way, I thought that in your answer to what SOE failed at you might have stated that, as you repealled it days into the CU because it was a complete and utter failure. Instead, you did not mention this error which was publicly repealled at all, and only stated things might have gone more smoothly. It was interesting.

The notion of Respecing solving players' problems is almost laughable. The fact of the matter is that the gameplay has changed so notably that people are having to play characters they do not enjoy (such as the shift form melee to ranged weapons and from combat medics who can no longer heal wounds) and Respecing is neccessary so that their long-standing characters are not destroyed--not to make gameplay more fun, simply barely functional oncemore.

In regards to the UI comments made, I'm afraid Julio is istaken oncemore. You see, where he states that this system allows players to not see "you cannot do this for x seconds," it actually makes some special abilities ahrder to judge, time-wise. Equilibirum may only be used once per hour. Currently that Zabrak ability is bugged and does nothing, however under the old system, if you ahd used it within the hour, you would be informed as you how much time you had left before you could use it again (15:30 minutes, 15 seconds, et cetera). Now, you watch a box which functions under the same strategems as a sun-dial, waiting and estimating the time. Thus, taking away the exact time and reverting to an archaic sun-dial system actually makes characters less aware of how long abilities will take. Peripherally, You get even more vague pop-ups on the screen now, such as with Mask Scent. The Mask Scent ability can be attempted to be used, and instead of an explanation--such as the time, which was stated before under the old system--you are only told "You cannot mask your scent at this time." I do not think elucidation is necessary in expressing how unclear, uninformative, and unhelpful that message is, nor do I need to detail how this goes directly against Julio's claimed perception of the game.

Julio's words regarding crafting changes were notably bound by fallacy. Rather than answer the question, he digressed into speaking in broad terms regarding the place crafters play in the game, rather than the question, which concerned if crafters did have massive new problems which changed how their characters operated. The answer is yes, Julio, yes. It is not "this mildly associated topic's answer is no," the answer to the question asked to you was yes. Do be more direct in interviews, dodging questions draws distrust form an audience, and makes us believe the worst, even if the worst is not true.

I am afraid that "Star Wars relaism," as Julio put it, is rather lost in the new CU. Bounty hunters (such as Boba fet) worked alone. Han Solo had one partner. Jedis fought in groups, and Vader used his Force Powers publicly. Lightsabers lopped off limbs like butter, and one solid torso shot ended omsone'es life from a laser, even through storm trooper armor. Rather than focus on making Jedis more realistic, making weapons mroe movie-realistic, we sacrifice these things for "game-play." In the CU, we see less game-play help (armor being literalyl next-to-useless, for example), and less realism as well. How can an unarmed humanoid using martial arts have a 6 meter attakc range, and a humanoid armed with a polearm or two-handed weapon have the exact same reach? How can a creature strike in a peck-motion and connect from 12 metres away, but the person not strike their head when the creature attacks, because the character is 9 metres away from the creature's body? How can a rifleman be shooting at a pistoleer from 40 metres be fired back upon while running away form the NPC with burstrun (thus increasing the distance between them) and a 35 metre-ranged pistol shoot the rifleman, who is supposed to have greater range? No, Julio; no, MMORPG.com, no, readers: this is not more realistic "exciting" "in your face" Star Wars. This is a less realistic, less game-play oriented, more turn-based (which by its very nature is unrealistic) game than the previous program.

Fighting alone is more difficult, as Julio stated in a round-about, indirect fashion, and he is correct. The game is much easier in groups, and even Jedi are forced to have incredibly difficult times fighting proper level creatures alone--much harder a time than two non-force sensitive carbineers. Soemhow, Julio, that doesn't seem more like Star Wars to me. Jedi--even Padawans) always seemed to be better in a battle than 2 gunners. Maybe I'm not recalling the Corvette, Jabba's Palace, the Endor Bunker, or the entire theme of Episode I properly, though. You could answer that though, Julio. Was a Jedi Padawan at least equal in combat to 2 gunners, or would you rather have two pistol-users at your side than a Jedi Padawan witha  light saber? I suppose the accuracy of your previously given answer in the interview hinges on that response.

Finally, we reach a point where I become very disappointed in Julio. Julio, I mentioend rpeviously that dodging questions with Red Herring Falacies was a weakness in argument, and undermined your reliability of character. I am afraid I must call attention to this occuring oncemore. As I noted in the section concerning cybernetics, SOE has made significant errors which they have pulled back. SOE has told some crafters that they must use literal hours pulling stock off of vendors and replacing it to fix a bug SOE put into place. SOE has closed some gameplay areas (such as the Weapons Depot) because they made errors. Pre-orders of Rage of the Wookies and accounts alike have been cancelled. Due to this, I would say that SOE did make errors--and admitted some and fixed some. Thus, how is it you could not be honest, forthright, and up-front with your customers (who in some small indirect way pay for you and your family to eat) and tell us that you made mistakes? Instead, we see a spin-doctored deflection of a direct query posted by MMORPG.com's Dana Massey, and are forced to question whether you are being honest with us--or hiding something to try and save face and lure more players into the game with deception, rather than appropriate product quality and information. In fact, I believe that claiming somethign false about a product, or a repair of a product (such as stating that combat is made faster if it cannot be proven to be so) is in business called a fraudulent claim. I, of course, am not stating that you have made this error, Julio, I am merely hoping to insure you know how seriously your words meant for the public can be taken legally, and by your public.

As a final note, whomever is transcribing this dialogue should use more appropriate grammar. While I am not perfect (especially in typos) I am not an online publishing company, whose professional, or unprofessional, editing and presentation reflects upon the entire wide-spread "blog" or internet news and publishing genre as a whole,"There will however be an emphasis on grouping for the higher level content in the game," for example is grammatically incorrect, and should have a comma before and following the however, as it is a perinthetical statement.

Most sincerely,

Joshua Holbrook

Aka Brennus Gaillard of the Flurry Server