Personally, I'm still waiting for Bioware/LA to reveal something about TOR that actually strikes my interest.  Right now, I don't see alot to it that will keep me playing it beyond giving it a go.

As for the Clone Wars game, it's a casual game and I'm sure I'll play it here and there.  I see it as a bit like an arcade iPhone game actually. I enjoy the arcade like games I can get on my iPhone and often find myself taking a break from what I'm doing  for 20mins or so playing whichever I'm addicted to at the time (Angry Birds ftw!).   This new Clone Wars game will likely be a bit the same - something I play for short bursts of focused fun.

Overall though, I don't see my main choice of Star Wars gaming changing any time soon.  I'm still hooked on Star Wars Galaxies even after almost 7 years of playing it now and I don't see that changing anytime soon.  Doomsayers will continue to give the game a death date however with SOE's further involvement with LA (they now have 3 games with them, SWG, the Star Wars TCG and Clone Wars), I think it'd have to be some very special circumstances for SWG to cease to exist anytime soon.

Originally posted by TUX426

Originally posted by Obraik

Jaskell posted and confirmed that yes, he is still around, see this post, http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/list.m?start=150&topic_id=1090224#12160185

Millbarge posted asking for feedback on the Player City system, which implies that he must still be working as a developer on SWG (see the link I posted above.  Maybe this time you'll want to actually click it...)

I'm fully aware of the inhouse joke with DevH, however he's often involved in discussions with dealing with behind the scenes systems, even if he doesn't directly post about them.  Most recent was about a month ago when making modifications to the Factional Presence system.

Thanks for reiterating what I already posted in relation to the Artist, btw ;) 

Jaskell said he's "around" in that link...not "working on SWG".

You're link wasn't "clickable", but I did quote Millbarge above in my reply. It was just "/fixed". edit: You're correct, he did ask how they liked his update, again, not that he's working on SWG.

DevH references are proof to you of him being around? Not to me, sorry.

You're welcome. :)

I'm not gonna split hairs with you on how you interpret something.  I'm sure you're incorrect and I'll likely be proven right, but believe what you wish.

Originally posted by TUX426

Originally posted by Obraik

Millbarge still works on SWG as he was today asking for feedback from Mayors, http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/preList.m?topic_id=1090928&post_id=12158818

Deadmeat overlooks the entire Austin studio so while he doesn't work directly on SWG anymore, he does still have some involvement with it (from time to time he pops in to talk about how he's watching server loads, etc).

Teesquared and Hjal are obviously still working on SWG, as is Jaskell and HanseSOE.  DevH still seems to have some involvement in setting up server side systems.  Chrysalide has always been an artist for SWG, but I wouldn't be surprised if the entire Austin studio share an artist team across all the games produced there.

Jaskell didn't say he still did, in fact, his comment "It actually represents our relationship with SWG." leads me to believe that he doesn't.

Neither did Millbarge, who just said "/fixed" and a disclaimer.

Your "artist" is a SoE employee, not a SWG Dev. 

DevH is long gone mate...don't believe the quirky references to him they make. The real DevH used to play on Flurry and I ran into him almost nightly. He may still be a "systems" guy for SoE, but he most assuredly doesn't spend his time on SWG most days.

Hanse is the only one I wish WASN'T working on SWG tbh, but he does seem to still be there.

You people seem to be confusing a "Roll Call of who is in the office" (which is what sparked this reply by the many former Devs) as a "Roll Call of who still works on SWG"...don't confuse the two.

Jaskell posted and confirmed that yes, he is still around, see this post, http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/list.m?start=150&topic_id=1090224#12160185

Millbarge posted asking for feedback on the Player City system, which implies that he must still be working as a developer on SWG (see the link I posted above.  Maybe this time you'll want to actually click it...)

I'm fully aware of the inhouse joke with DevH, however he's often involved in discussions with dealing with behind the scenes systems, even if he doesn't directly post about them.  Most recent was about a month ago when making modifications to the Factional Presence system.

Thanks for reiterating what I already posted in relation to the Artist, btw ;) 

Originally posted by TUX426

Originally posted by damicatz

Millbarge is still working on SWG.

As is :

DevH

CancelAutoRun

Blixtev

SWG-Tunso

Shadowbrak

Deadmeat

Chrysalide

Torsion

Hjal

Teesquared

--

Someone just did a rolecall on the forums :

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/list.m?start=30&topic_id=1090224

 LOL!!! You don't think for a moment that that was actual Devs that work on SWG do you? People asked that specific question, and they didn't answer it lol. Don't fall for it for a moment. It's a stunt.

Millbarge still works on SWG as he was today asking for feedback from Mayors, http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/preList.m?topic_id=1090928&post_id=12158818

Deadmeat overlooks the entire Austin studio so while he doesn't work directly on SWG anymore, he does still have some involvement with it (from time to time he pops in to talk about how he's watching server loads, etc).

Teesquared and Hjal are obviously still working on SWG, as is Jaskell and HanseSOE.  DevH still seems to have some involvement in setting up server side systems.  Chrysalide has always been an artist for SWG, but I wouldn't be surprised if the entire Austin studio share an artist team across all the games produced there.

What graphics card do you have?  What mouse do you have?  Try updating the drivers for both first.

Another thing to try would be turning off the hardware mouse rendering, forcing the CPU to render the mouse rather than the GPU.  To do so with Station Launcher, login to the Launcher and choose SWG as you normally would.  Before you click Launch, click the Games menu and then click Game Preferences.  Choose SWG in the list and then choose Game Options.  In the App that pops up, click the Graphics tab and tick the box "Disable Hardware Cursor".  Click Ok and launch the game and see if that fixes the mouse.

Originally posted by Kazara

Originally posted by Kost

Originally posted by Kazara

If you decide to reactivate your account, make sure you transfer your main toons to Starsider since it is the most populated and will be the most resistant to declining player populations. Flurry is a distant second population-wise followed by Bloodfin and Bria. There are two weeks left on the free vet trial, so you will have plenty of time to checkout the game for what it is now. Good luck.

 

I disagree.

I would not recommend transferring to Starsider, the server is way beyond overloaded and as such has been plagued with technical issues ever since the initial transfers. The lag is unbearable at times, and would only serve to make the OPs experience frustrating.

Starsider is going to see a decline in pop sooner than you think, everyone and there dog wants off of the server, and the only thing stopping them is that they cant have a free xfer to leave.

I recommend going to Flurry or Chilastra.

 

Nothing is more frustrating than playing on a server that has a poor population, which most of the servers currently suffer. I have logged onto Bloodfin and the population there has taken a serious nosedive since the earlier times that I have played, and it is more populated than Chilastra . It is just not group play, it is also about a good server economy, which a well populated server like Starsider will have. If this player needs to level, he will have more of an opportunity to find others to group with.

The free transfer off a closed server is a one time thing per toon, so if that player transfers his mains to one of the other marginally populated servers, and finds it not acceptable, it will be $50 per toon to transfer. I would recommend gambling on a well populated server than not. As it is, players are continuing to transfer or reroll onto Starsider for a good reason. Flurry is the only other server I would  recommend, but remember, it still doesn't have nearly the population Starsider has.

Anyone uncertain where to go that has a free character slot can roll a temporary toon to go take a look at some of the servers at his prime playing time and make a more informed decision himself.

 

 

I would disagree with your assesment of Chilastra vs Bloodfin.  Alot of the Bloodfin PvP'ers have moved to Chilastra ;)

Originally posted by metatronic

Well what happened was I had 3 level 90s.. 1 jedi, 1 Bh and 1 master dancer

The jedi/bh was on naritus and in the process of being moved. The dancer was on bria. I logged on the dancer found a respec npc in coronet and respecced out of the level 90 dancer into a level 5 smuggler. I was on the ground at level 5 with no proper weapon or guidance with where to go.

I had other characters essentially level 1 who I logged into working servers but they logged into a black void lol.. I could see the character and run around but nothing was there.. I assume they just have to be deleted and remade to get to the new tutorial but honestly Im not logging in to play to grind again.. Ive done jedi the old way and my grinding in that game is done lol.. I actually grinded my extra character slot bh to 90 aswell.. So ya I dislike leveling in this game especially in the new system.. At least the old system had nice animations to watch..

There's three classes of XP in SWG, Combat, Crafter and Entertainer.  When you respec, your XP total from you current XP class isn't transferred to the new one so in your case, respecing from Entertainer to a Combat profession means you will be set at the lowest level.  The game will always remember your XP totals between each XP class however, so if you were to respec back to entertainer you'd be a level 90.  If you want to start the quest series, go to Mos Eisley and talk to the Twi'lek to the left of the Starport as you exit.  Right or wrong, the game kinda assumes that if you're respecing you already know where the quests start and doesn't take into account those that are returning.
 

These days, there's quite a few different options for grinding compared to when you leveled that BH.  While you have that legacy quest option, there is also the option of terminal missions, player created quests, space and collections.  Of course, most servers also have an AFK leveling setup at various locations that will (legitly) do the leveling for you.  AFK leveling wouldn't be my choice as I think you miss out some important things but that's up to you...

Originally posted by DarthRaiden

$OE now brings MMORPG's to text browsers. Good to see they step back from real  games.

FreeRealms isn't really a browser game and if this new game is based on the same engine, neither will it.  FreeRealms simply uses the browser to launch its client, which it installs locally on your PC when you first try and launch it.  I believe there's some type of streaming done with the client, so you're not downloading the full client when you run it and only download what you access.

Originally posted by Malickie

Originally posted by Bob_Blawblaw

I checked earlier, and it was there. Checked again just now, and it's gone.

Plus the thread on the O-board about it just got locked.

Cat out of the bag SOE. WTG.

 

Okay I'm putting my tinfoil hat on for this:

What better way to let the cat out of the bag, when they might not be allowed to? We all know how LA is with secrecy over anything SW related. They rarely announce a project until it's a few months away (ready for hyping and airtime).

SOE seems to be trying to remind people they're still around in any way possible, giving away game time (months worth) to compete with STO. Now this, why would they put it there in this manner in the first place, if they didn't want people to see it? They seem to be trying to build up hype and nothing more IMO. They're using an "accident" or "slip up" as an excuse for doing so it seems, its hilarious..

 

 

Basically, what you're saying is that they "Pulled an Apple" ;)

I don't necessarily disagree.  It seems to be the latest style of marketing.  Even Bioware has done it.

Originally posted by ironfungus

 How can that be? I thought Lucas Arts banned them from making another Star Wars game?

That's what most on these forums wanted to believe, because it was easier to believe that LucasArts was just an innocent victim as well, heh.  That claim was never actually made by anyone official, however.

Originally posted by Sirocc0

Just verified it myself, it's definitely showing under the games offered.

 

It appears based on this articlehttp://www.massively.com/2009/09/04/rumor-soe-to-launch-casual-browser-mmo-for-clone-wars/ that it is of the same ilk as Free Realms.

Yep, that would be the rumour I was referring to :)

This game does indicate that LA doesn't hold an grudges with SOE in regards to SWG ;)

No announcement has officially been made, but this has showen up on Station Launcher when you sub to an SOE game:

You might remember that there was a rumour going around towards the end of last year that stated that SOE is possibly making a Clone Wars MMO in the same style as Free Realms.

Originally posted by sookster54

Good luck, I only lasted shy of 2 weeks back in Dec during the free vet reactivation.

Pretty sure there wasn't a free trial in December...

Originally posted by Malickie

Originally posted by elocke

So I decided to fire up SWG again for old times sake, and because they have this play for a month free for vets deal. And WOW, I'm having a blast. Partly due to the fact that after mindlessly grinding Klingons in STO for the past 3 days, and being bored to tears by the quest pop up dialogues and no true interaction, playing SWG feels like a breath of fresh air in comparison.

I am very impressed with the sheer amount of stuff to do in SWG now, what with leveling, collections, quests, Jump to Lightspeed, housing, crafting, player created questing(whole new system to "level" up) expertise trees, mounts, etc. etc.

Just wanted to say, anyone looking to try this again after so many years, you may be surprised, I know I am.

Now, to find which server has the most people on it and find some new friends.

 

I completely agree, came back to SWG after the same boring game-play in STO, SWG is a breath of fresh air, compared to most games on the market today. The sheer amount of variety found in SWG is lacking every where else in the MMO market.

My favorite new additions are the appearance tab and chronicler system. They just add to the choices SWG has always had over other games. Look how you want, play how you want and do what you want, if only it had  a skill based leveling system :).

Funny thing is,  I just made a fanboy post, I really can't find much to complain about in game YET. I was an on the fence hater of SWG for years to.

 

Welcome back ;)
 

Originally posted by TUX426

Originally posted by Kazara

At least you didn't return to a closed server.

 

This! 

Unlike players on 12 other closed servers, at least you got to be reminded of the game you played without having to spend $50 to transfer your toon. I'm curious...would you have paid the $50 to play your old toon?

Actually, for now, if you come back and your character is on a shutdown server you can put a ticket in and a GM will usually transfer it for free.

Originally posted by Burntvet

Originally posted by kobie173

Originally posted by Varny

This makes me so sad.

The actual game gets no new content again but the TCG gets everything and frigging you just know when the game finally gets something, then it's reused art and it sucks.

The notion that "the game gets no good new content" and "the TCG gets everything crafters should" is fallacious true to the core.

 

Fixed for you.

The so called "new content" of which you speak, the instanced zombie fiasco and much over hyped "chronicle" system has been so poorly received, that even more people have been leaving the game. Both were poorly implemented and loaded with "no trade" rewards, making it a chore for players to do, according to the official boards.

6 servers of the remaining 13 servers are now all but dead, causing more people to quit. And most of the "populated" servers have taken significant hits, in the last 6 weeks, as well.

Frankly, the current game would have been better off without the "new content", because it only seems to make people quit faster.

 

P.S. And I also got a big laugh when I saw a picture what SOE put in for the 75 month vet reward, the TCG gets 20 good new items every few months, and people who have played for 6 years+ get an ugly ass plant that does nothing. That is SOE for you.

 

 

 

 

Death Troopers is instanced?  Where's this evidence that it and the Chronicles system has been "so poorly recieved"?
 

Originally posted by kb056

3 million created quest, seems like alot, doesnt it?

Think Sony made a mistake here. If someone knows how long it takes to "create" a quest, I think they have given us enough info to peg the number for the maximum subscriber base currently ingame.

 

If every single person playing did nothing but created quests, depending on the time needed to create a quest, you can peg the max number of possible subs.

 

They say 1 person created 6k quests? 60 minsX24 hrsX30 days=43200 mins. 43200 mins/6000quests=7.2 mins.

This equates to a maximum of 200 quests per day per person with everyone playing 24 hrs a day for a month. 3M/200=15,000 players....

 

I.m betting SWG doesnt have more than a few thousand players still playing, sad.

Kinda drunk, atm, so please recheck my math...I may be wrong but not by much.

Your math doesn't make any sense at all, tbh.  I don't think it's even possible to derive anything from that info...

Originally posted by m240gulf

Originally posted by Hauken

If you look at Microsofts trackrecord regarding Vanguard they have a near perfect trackrecord. Heck MS pulled out of Vanguard long before Beta when they saw where that piece of shit project was heading. Management and cost controll where all but absent at Sigil. So the numbercrunshers at MS did what they had to do. Leave the sinking ship early and cut their losses.

 

 

Good point...

 

I will hold my opinions on if this is good or not until I learn a little bit more about how MS runs games.  I can't recall them creating (other then VG)  any MMOs so I can't really give a good opinion.  I do like some of their games, but in this case they aren't creating a game, rather just buying a game company.

 

Good find though, thanks Obraik.

Other then Vanguard, they've had at least two other attempts at MMO's, both of which they pulled the plug on before they were released.  Marvel Universe online (what would have been a competitor to DC Universe) and True Fantasy Live Online.
 

It is surprising that MS still hasn't made a serious push at the MMO market, even for the Xbox considering they like to keep close to Sony.  Sony now has three MMO's on the way for the PS3 (DCU, The Agency and FreeRealms) whereas the Xbox has nothing on the way.  If Microsoft were to get involved and take over EA, I wouldn't be overly surprised if they made a push for TOR to be playable on the Xbox as well.

Rumours have started that Microsoft is looking to aquire EA, http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/212227/rumor-microsoft-to-buy-ea/ , which would mean TOR would end up being published by Microsoft.  Microsoft is denying the rumours, http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE58N1EK20090924, but denied rumours sometimes end up becoming a reality (the existance of this forum is a good example...).  It's something to keep an eye on, though.

Whether this would be a good thing or not for TOR is debatable and will likely depend on your opinion of Microsoft but so far they don't have an overly good track record with MMO's - look what happened to Vanguard, for instance.  SOE had to step in and save the game from being scrapped before it even launched due to Microsoft ditching it.  Personally, I don't really blame MS for ditching Vanguard - based on the amount of work SOE had to do on the game to get it to a playable state it probably should have been left to die.

Originally posted by greed0104

Originally posted by Obraik

For the record, I don't like the Jedi profession (hence why I don't play it, nor did I persue it during the pre-nge days) and I despise the Spy profession (for the others who mentioned it).

As for the claim of TOR being Jedi centric, indeed, it is just my opinion.  My opinion that is based on the the previous two KOTOR games, the fancy game trailer that they did for TOR featuring a stack of Jedi and the majority of their screenshots and what not of the game as a whole featuring Jedi.  You're perfectly within your right to reject my opinion, just as I was yours ;)

 

So your opinion is based off of KoTOR, a Single Player RPG where you had no other option then to play Jedi . You also probably arn't thinking about the many charactes you encountered in KoTOR, which actually made the game far more enjoyable then playing a Jedi, Canderous Ordo being my favorite. Given the option, you don't believe players would have chose something other then Jedi, if it had a deep story behind it, like ToR will? And to add on top of that, most of the screen shots feature Jedi and Sith because it was the first classes to be known to ToR. After that it was Bounty Hunter which got a good amount of Screen Shots to follow it's announcment and the same for every class since then. The only reason you see more Light Sabers currently is because Sith Warrior was announced, and like I said before, screen shots follow the announcment. And just from glancing at the screen shots, most of them are scenery such as cities and creatures you encounter.

Then I look forward to being pleasently surprised when TOR launches.