Erillious and Fadeus, ur about the only 2 that like the stupid CU=Downgrade which there is nothing good about it.

Fadeus u said i didnt like being able to solo Kimo in 15 minutes or con reds, or being godly with buffs.

U should have shut up and left the game if didnt like so much but for some reason u didnt> probably because u like doing it and now that u have EQ2=SWG with Downgrade ur a happy idiot.

1 thing is no 1 should have to group with idiots like u 2, and u have to split all that stpid money thanx to the stupid Revamp they did with the Looting rights. They went to far on that. And ppl should be able to solo like Crafters without fearing of getting killed while getting resources like if i did and, as anyone else should not have to worry about being alone all the time, even if ur fully Combat u'll still get killed way to easily.

By the way their are some of us who can make other Star Wars games and i used to help make maps for Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 so if any1 wats maybe, we could make our own smaller game

Ok, as for JtL u shoulnt have brought that up as i know every lie and count over a Thousand times.

1) They promised 8 to 10 NEW explorable Planets with JtL not scenic ones

2) They promised 10 to 12 New species with that expansion, but only 2 came out. They said it was to difficult my ass i could do better and my old peers at GameSpy Arcade did.

As for Rage of the Wookies look at the above as they promised so much more than just another stupid planet.

The Death Watch Bunker.............. what about the GCW storylines that ppl loved to get into more and had more to do with Star Wars growth, wheres the Rebel Tank. Did u know there is 1.?

James Pratt - UI Designer

Hi everyone! I am the new user interface design lead for SWG. I have been brought on board here at Sony to design and manage changes and updates to the interface for the game. This includes things such as updating the look of buttons on the toolbar, the layout of examine windows, the colors in the Health/Action/Mind bars, and even the way the mouse and keyboard work to move around in the game.

While I have been an avid MMO player for many years, my experience comes from outside gaming industry. I received my doctorate in Human Factors Psychology, and I apply knowledge of human characteristics to design in order to make the experience anyone has with a system a good one. Before coming to SOE, I worked in the international consulting industry creating software interfaces for a variety of different businesses. I also worked in the defense industry designing software interfaces for some of the most cutting edge military applications being developed today.
My high-level goals for SWG are simple:

* Enhance the fun of the game by making game controls easier to use and more intuitive
* Design the interface so that it is easier to learn for newer players
* Assure the option to keep existing interfaces that work for current SWG players gaming style
* Develop a more consistent look and feel for toolbars and windows
* Usability test new and existing interfaces so assure quality of interface designs

All of this takes time, and we will be rolling in interface updates as soon as we can make them ready. In the meantime, I would like to hear your comments about the current SWG interface, both good and bad.

the bad thing is we replyed to this and most of us didnt want the new ui but they have statded that we didnt have to fret do to the old interfaces and icons would work with the new system these are all posted under the Archives notes. on the official swg station pages .

a few things sorry i dont post alot on fourms just read alot how ever notice here that in the list of things to acomplish it states ASURE THE OPTION OF KEEPING EXISTING INTERFACES THAT WORK FOR CURENT SWG PLAYERS !!!!!

also notice the TEST useabilty of new and existing interfaces for QUALITY OF INTERFACES !!!!
i agree the new look is very fanticy and realy not something that belongs in a si-fi style game.

now in game on live severs the icons stick the actions are not all working the anamations are barly working in some fights most of the main good skills are broke ,
things like being rooted for the time it take a bh to kill a jedi or when hit by a cm .

just woundering what happened here and when given feed back why didnt they listen to us?

this was posted last dec 2004 pre cu jsut befor alpha plan
what are some other goals for next year?

* Add more directed content in the game that enhances our Star Wars experience.
* Make the gameplay experience well paced and rewarding throughout advancement
* Help players understand goals and have directed experiences to achieve those goals
* Concentrating on more bug fixing
* We want to make combat faster, exciting, and rewarding.
* Work on improving all the non-combat professions.

The work I've seen so far shows that the team is focusing on the fun factor of combat and content. You will see us pick on the pace next year and provide rapid changes to the game. We look to you for your feedback while we continually improve the game. Have a safe and happy holiday.
See you in the game!

Rich Vogel
Executive Producer
Star Wars Galaxies

next question is the work on improving the all the non-combat profesions just fall off the face of the game if so just get rid of these types of classes if they dont want to take the time to add content and dit them in to the combat som how. they more or less have made all crafting not worth doing

and in my opion the warm up cool down is not faster than the old system in my opion its a lot slower i find my self waitng for the skills reset since the all have the same reset time.

was courious when are they guna concentrait on fixing the old bugs ?

dont get me wrong i and all players of seg wanted the game to be balanced non broke profesions stupid head hit s dizzy kds for example, but what the old core game hade was star warsy just dint have much content add to inhance it and make it more imersive a simple balancing of old profs and fixing the flaws in buffs and so one could have made it cheeper faster and way easer to do ,

i do want to say i am enjoying able to group and get the fullest out of it now thatwant likethat befor they did thos right and several outher aspects of the cu was good but they could have done this with out changing the base game to how it is now iam geting used to it but i didnt pay for this month a good friend did b/c they didnt want to be alone while they waited pacently for the devs to clean up there mess they have made. so i amguna give them this free month to see if they can keep up wiht the every outher day bug/balanceing they need to do till the end of themonth if things pan out so be it the day is saved and i can keep playing a SI-FI game not a EQ style game the effects are a bit much but then agin they hade to also please the wow toons that will be filling up the exchange severs as whell.
at times i feel i am a noob agin at the begning of the launch with this upgrade its easy to find waht skils are broke and exploit them but the real challange is to find the hard way to play and make it work as no one does that any more i they made the game much more challanging but they dint have to make the mobs thataggro all over that take over 3 mins to kill in most cases do to the wind up cool down worth 1 xp
100 xp or a stupid good pice of loot would be at least beter.

oh whell my 2 cents good luck happy hunting and safe journey what ever game you play just rember the games we play dont define us , are play styles and the abilty to be different and imersive does so find a game that has alot of adversty oh that was swg at one time heh .

U guys r saying 2 different things almost u agree with this but not that. Its almost as if ur about to be fired and don't care that much what u say.

So, i want to know who the hell is doing this if it wasnt exactly ur ideas because it wasnt ours.

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

Muahahaha , Thanks for banning me SOE , The CU that I witness ( in GOD MODE no less ,) at Celebration 3 and Muhahaha the SWG breakfast  is your undoing and the past 5 months I have been WoW and I just picked up Guild Wars.  No /Pizza or Search for Evercrack whores ( and I don't care , My Jestor's banned anyway )

  Maybe I should post this in the Rumor Room - but I have round trip tickets to San Diego - no Lie , I going fly. For Fanfest ( Hell I have the t-shirt already)? or perhaps a day in court? ( Hmmmm class action?)

Love that Jestor - SOE Doesn't!

I, like everyone else feel ripped off by SOE/LA. I "had" 5 accounts myself. Between myself and my friend we had 10 accounts. From my guild alone SOE/LA lost 42 accounts. They had an original game and blew it all to hell. Now its a clone of WoW and EQ2.

My guess is they're expecting a large push due to Episode III. From reading the SWG forums and this forum, I would guess that they lost at least half there customer base. I just don't get it. I don't understand what they are thinking. I'm not the most intelligent guy, but wouldn't the serious lose in $$ make them realize that they made a grave error?

to all SWG people leaving,

I have been reading for the past week about this so-called combat upgrade for SWG.  I have not been unable to find ONE person, who likes the upgrade.  I have also look at the SWG petition website and figured that SOE and starwars galaxies has lost about 3.5 million dollars in revenue due to "customers" ( which I thought we were the ones was paying for it ) leaving.   If this keeps up there will be the end of SWG by next month.  I am very saddened by the way all the players are being treated as a whole.  I believe the people at SOE need a lesson on how to handle customer relations.  I believe this needs to be brought up to the people at sony online entertainment and even George Lucas himself.  After this I will never buy or join another SOE game again, because of they way this is being handled.  Further more i incourage all players to boycott starwars new movie and all associated products and anything that further coincides with SOE. 

Thanks

---

Originally posted by sean96
to all SWG people leaving,

I have been reading for the past week about this so-called combat upgrade for SWG. I have not been unable to find ONE person, who likes the upgrade. I have also look at the SWG petition website and figured that SOE and starwars galaxies has lost about 3.5 million dollars in revenue due to "customers" ( which I thought we were the ones was paying for it ) leaving. If this keeps up there will be the end of SWG by next month. I am very saddened by the way all the players are being treated as a whole. I believe the people at SOE need a lesson on how to handle customer relations. I believe this needs to be brought up to the people at sony online entertainment and even George Lucas himself. After this I will never buy or join another SOE game again, because of they way this is being handled. Further more i incourage all players to boycott starwars new movie and all associated products and anything that further coincides with SOE.

Thanks

---

Well I think your post has alot of merit but I don't think a month will close their doors, even if your math was flawless. IF its as bad as you say by this point I think Lucas would be doing anything it could to get its players back, I do however beleive a large number of the players are leaving. And I mostly agree with your statement about no players liking it, I will say MOST don't. I feel it has potential but some key things need to go away on it.

As for George Lucas himself, I highly doubt he has any control over it anymore and he has "sold out" just as much as anyone else involved in the Star Wars franchise.

There is something else you must remember. This is an MMO, old people leave, but new come in and right now star wars is at its peak, I am quite sure they are counting on ALOT of new sign ups over the next 4 months.

I think the new simplified HAM system is MUCH better than the old, convoluted 9-bar HAM system.  I just thought it was rediculous to try and chase down Doctors who didn't have all of the wound packs to heal me up.

Plus, using the Action bar for, well, actual ACTIONS makes the most sense.  So that your health bar can be for, well, HEALTH (or hitpoints).

Another advantage is that you can actually wear armor now.  Before, you had to shoot steroids before you could wear a full set of composite, but now you don't need to worry about the Encumbrance factor.

The old HAM system was probably the worst thing I've ever seen in a MMO. :)

The cobat upgrade is the worse thing ever done to a game. There is a web site that has a petition with well over 15000 signuters www.swgpetition.com . Sony online entertainment has choosen not to listen to their playes and have chosen to respond like this

1. any thing posted on the forums that is anti CU is deleted

2. protesting players are killed by droidekas that magicaly apear

3. e-mails are ignored

4. protesting players are warped to places out in the middle of no where

5. they also ignore the fact that multiple people are canceling there subscribtion like me "my acount ends on may 7th and will not be renwed"

I agree with you Fadeus it won't be a Month.  More like 6 to 8 Months before things will start falling apart.  Revenge of the Sith will bring in new members who are getting on the Star Wars Hype bandwagon.  Those "Hyped fans" will leave in about 3 months when the adrenaline is gone and they realize "I'm paying $15 a month for a Video Game".   Remember the "True I'm staying forever" die hard Star Wars / Role Playing members are (or should I say "were") playing Galaxies.

After which Sony will have to consolidate the servers due to lost revenue and lack of people on several servers (which i am seeing now).  My personal opinion is that this will happen in 2 to 5 months from now but knowing the DEVS they will wait until the end of the year. 

In the 10 to 12 Month time period Sony will send an announcement to all old players (who have quit the game) of the changes that have been made to try to get them back.  There will be a special offer if you re-subscribe.  Unfortunantly for Sony everyone who left will be playing another MMORPG and remember what Sony did to everyone.  They will not re-subscribe.

In 12 to 14 Months will be the end of Star Wars Galaxies.  Without a new movie to piggy back revenue from Star Wars Galaxies will fall to the wayside.

Thanks for an adult post.

See Ya,

DMalice