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General: The List: 5 Interesting Launches of 2009
News Discussion « General Discussion 9/12/09 6:26:13 AM
Haven't played the other MMOs but I'm heavily invested in Free Realms these days. I thought I was done with SOE but the casual approach and the collection of mini-games has kept me interested since launch. I don't know if this is a testament to the game's playability or the fact that I'm pretty burned out on the traditional MMO formula? Who knows. |
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Star Wars Galaxies: Exp. Complaints Lead to the Dark Side
News Discussion « General Discussion 8/18/05 9:24:38 PM
Apparently SOE is changing the XP system back to what it was before Publish 22 because of the overwhelmingly negative response of the community. It just hit TC and it's going to be on live soon. http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=in_testing&message.id=79882#M79882 They also admit that there was some miscommunication regarding the changes making the patch notes. Here's a thread with some Q&A from Tiggs. http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=in_live&message.id=79137#M79137 Just thought y'all would like to know before you got pitchforks out. ;) |
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Dark Age Of Camelot: Mythic Reactivates Accounts
News Discussion « General Discussion 7/14/05 11:08:02 PM
I've haven't been able to get in the game. First my account showed up as 'cancelled', and then when I tried to verify my credit card it attempted to charge me the $14.99 for one month's subscription. Luckly I used a Check Card that didn't have that much money on it, as I wasn't planning on paying for a subscription. I'm not entirely sure what's going on. Has anyone else had these kinds of troubles? Support hasn't given me any useful answers yet. |
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I'll admit that I'm disappointed by this announcement. It does seem as if its being cancelled. I've always enjoyed the Roman Empire, and the concept of it extending far into the future seemed intriguing. With the amount of Fantasy saturation there is in the MMORPG industry, you would think that there would be a greater reception for new Sci-Fi titles. |
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Well, I think my top six would be: 1. KOTOR I & II I see I'm not the only one who looks at the KOTORs as one game. :) meth - Redguard isn't numbered. Its more like a separate side adventure. Beth calls Morrowind TES 3. But technically you have a point. ;) |
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Star Wars Galaxies: Our Look At The Combat Upgrade
News Discussion « General Discussion 5/14/05 4:52:52 PM
"Tell me, how does adding horse pictures add to a more Star wars experience?" The horse pictures have been changed to Taun-Tauns, but if you read my article you could see that was also a gripe of mine. "Then there is the issue of state effects, rings around lairs" I agree that particle effects are over the top, although I cut that from my article because it ran past my allotment. "doctors being able to magically heal" Doctors use bacta now, which I find to be more star-warsy. How they are able to heal without medical supplies does warrant explanation, which I agree with. But ultimately I feel it was a good choice. As a doctor meds always filled up my inventory, not to mention there was a lot of times where I was missing certain meds. I believe the changes have made the doctor experience more enjoyable. "Gone are the realistic sounds of blasters and weapons" That sounds like a comment I made during beta. All of the sound effects for weapons were removed from beta, and the only thing people could hear was blaster bolts hitting their targets. Many people assumed these were new sound effects, when in fact they were not. Before the CU went live the sound effects were added back in. Many weapons have their own distinctive sounds to them and in my humble opinion they all sound like variations of the Star Wars blasters. "In regards to the HAM system, sure there could have been problems with it. If you remember, part of the talk about the Combat upgrade was to make it so that you had to drain all 3 pools before you could incap someone. This would require strategy. Such an innovative concept would've maintained SWG's individaulity, and this was the plan they were going with for quite some time. This was dropped, and there was no explanation as to WHY this was dropped. The goal of the Combat Upgrade again was to make Star Wars unique. On this note, the HAM system failed miserably as well, as it is now just like every other game." I personally feel the current system works well. The old system had a fundamental flaw where healing could be pulled from the mind pool. That originally made it so professions that specialized on the mind attacks would have an advantage. They eliminated this problem by introducing the 'uber' buffs, but ultimately negated any penalty cost for using specials or healing and introduced spamming. It my opinion, with each subsequent patch they took away from the original grouping experience that was so central to the game when it first launched. It is possible that waiting for all three pools to drain could have worked with the system. Of course that change might have made it impossible for some profession that cannot effectively target certain pools to have a fair chance, thus leading to what I believe would have been another massive profession restructing. So my question is, why build off a complicated, flawed system when you can just redesign the whole system up from scratch, start with something simple and go from there? Its the difference between building on an old cracked foundation and a new one. The editor is certainly right on this one. There is a restrictive feel to it. There is no tactical strategy involved. Simply find an equal or lower level, and you will win. Anything one or two levels above you cannot defeat because of damage multipliers. "This was not mentinoed in the editorial, and this is one of the largest criticisms of the combat upgrade. Simply put, you take more damage from a creature that is one level above you, even if you are 500 times larger than the creature. Meanwhile, those creatures 500 times larger than you, if they have a slightly lower level, you can pwn em easy. No longer is their individuality amongst the creatures you fight. The game loses more individuality and innovation, one of the goals of the CURB. Whereas before, you had to have some tactic involved in your fight, now there is less, and the battle is decided really before anything even starts. This was excactly what they stated would not be done. " There is only so much I can say to indicated the restrictiveness of the system. I did spell it out in more detail when I first wrote the article, but in turn it ended up sounding redundant with a lot of technical data that 99% of the readers would not appreciated. I believe saying the system is restrictive sufficed for my purpose. I disagree with your assement on tactics, however. I find that applying states is crucial to survival for the soloer. Before, the CU I hunted ten hours straight because I was afraid that my leveling would be incredibly slow once the CU hit. Most of the time I spammed just one attack, occassionally a knock down. However it wasn't crucial that I should do so. I was soloing five red mobs at a time and essentially all I had to do was spam my best attack and I would still survive with most of my health intact. In the new system it is much clear cut on what you should fight, but if you've played the CU for any amount of time you might realize that a blue con mob can still obliverate your health if you are not using some strategy. As a BH I use a combination of blinds, knockdowns, dizzys and other effects in my arsenal to minimize the amount of damage I receive, not to mention having to pop stims when the time arises to keep alive. Similarly crowd control professions, which are not great at tanking have a number of rooting attacks which they will need to keep the enemy at bay so they can effectively solo them without getting obliverated. I find that the game now requires more strategy than it did before the CU. "Why that level increase matters is because now the damage multipliers will be less. That is absolutely unrealistic and not tactical at all," It does not count for your total health, or your modifiers. All it does it keep you from getting instant-killed. If you've played the system for any amount of time you'll see that a level 10 person grouping with a level 80 still cannot damage much, and cannot take hits. Maybe its not realistic, but it works suprisingly well in application. "Hence a crafter cannot leave the city, because a noobie kreetle can one shot him. They can't even run from a fight." This isn't any different than how the game was when it launched. There was no uber armor or buffs to protect crafters who ran out in the middle of Lok to check harvesters, and yet they still did it. If I may remind you that crafters still have the options of: a) Having a ranger applying camo (creating profession interdependancy) This is a classic example of players getting comfortable with a certain method and grumbling when they are forced to figure out new ways to play. "Of course this doesn't involve player development. It's like the FRS gank squads with Jedis from before. You will see max groups walking around all getting 2 or 3 hits involved, just for their xp. Again, no real strategy." That hasn't been my experience at all. When I've gone out on missions with a large group we get a TON of spawns from lairs. Most fights I've been in have had many, many creatures. I've seen people jump in the group thinking they can just get experience by sitting in the back and popping off a few shots, only to get aggroed and killed because they didn't know what they were doing, nor did they know how to properly utilize their profession. If anything I believe that if everyone is doing their part and using their specific abilities, then combat goes rather smoothly and that takes coordination and tactics. "Replace some with the overwhelming majority and that might be an accurate statement. While doctors might have some limited use in the field, in the new SWG, entertainers, ID's, etc, have no purpose whatsoever. " Need I remind that IDs did not want stat migration. I played an ID as my first profession and I watch their boards closely. Entertainers did get the shaft. I stated that. You're preaching to the choir. "This is of course a slap in the face to a very core constituient of players, those who roleplay, and those who craft." You're taking insult where no insult was intended. I meant unless you've never picked up a gun before, chances are you're going to like new guns. "There is also the point that certain professions simply no longer matter. " I disagree. My experience is that profession now have unique roles in combat. As a squad leader I provide damage modifiers. Creatures go down faster and our tanks have more health at the end of a battle. One of my specials paints a target on a creature which makes a good firing focus for the groups, and helps prevent mistargeting (which incidentally seems to kill a lot of people in groups). I know some profession (BH / TKA) are good for kinetic tanking and having them up in front taking the blows is great. Other profession like Pistoleer and Smugglers have specials which root the targets. Very useful when agros are out of control (which happens a lot with all the spawns a large group gets). "The editor does also not touch upon the most important part of why people left, the way SOE treated it's playerbase. " Which really doesn't have anything to do with the combat upgrade and how it plays. If it bothers you how SOE runs their business, then why has anyone played their games for so long? SOE has always struggled with community relations. What has changed now that suddenly made the players feel so different? The game was pushed live too early full of bugs. Many of their publishes introduced new bugs. Their community relations guys have had their fair share of incredulous statements. They ban and delete posts, but they've always done that. I find it amusing that some players act as if SOE suddenly changed into this monstrosity over night. They've always been this way. To me there is no point in dredging up this again. Everyone knows already. What is important to me is if the CU is fun. I reported it how I saw. I had fun. I'm not affiliate with SOE in anyway, I'm just saying it as how I see it. |
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Star Wars Galaxies: Our Look At The Combat Upgrade
News Discussion « General Discussion 5/11/05 11:54:42 PM
Can you elaborate on what deeper issues I should have reported on? I would gladly comment on all of them to your satisfaction. I have many different opinions on various aspects of the combat upgrade, many of them unfavorable as you might have noticed in the article. I'm trying not to take any 'sides' but report it as I see it. |
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Star Wars Galaxies: Our Look At The Combat Upgrade
News Discussion « General Discussion 5/11/05 11:23:37 PM
SOE paid me ten million dollars to write this article. Thought I would answer that question since it seems to be a popular one. |
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Star Wars Galaxies: Our Look At The Combat Upgrade
News Discussion « General Discussion 5/11/05 9:28:13 PM
Generally I find community relations to be unsatisfactory. I think the devs tend to alternate between listening to those who whine the loudest and not listening at all. I can't say I blame them though. Most players unconsciously ask for an easier game and get bored when they get it. In the past when they focused on a particual profession it tended to create very tipped FOTM profession, until they 'balanced' rifleman and then chose not to touch combat for a VERY long time. I don't appreciate hurried patches OR bugs, since some bugs tend to not get resolved for months in the future. Sadly SWG has always been this way. Fortunately my experience with bugs has been tolerable the entire duration I've played the game, and the stuff that hasn't been gets resolved. I think the nature of MMORPGs is to have bugs, bugs, bugs and sadly I've becomed somewhat hardened as I enjoy these types of games so much. |
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Star Wars Galaxies: Our Look At The Combat Upgrade
News Discussion « General Discussion 5/11/05 8:56:18 PM
Just a few notes about this article: 1) I was against the CU in beta. You will find plenty of things in the article that I am not too thrilled about. I also wanted to cover the pros of the CU since obviously no one else did. New gamers and returning SWG players might not have the same opinion about the game that most veterans do. I had to think about them. My general experience is that a lot of gripes veteran players have with the CU are only appreciated by veteran players. A new player would not know about simplifications, nerfs and other aspects that veterans find distasteful simply because they do not know any different. I had to present whether the game, in its current form, would be fun to someone who quit SWG out of disgust or had never played. Disagree with my stand point, if you will. 2) I cannot deny that I have a lot of fun grouping in SWG now, and still do. I would recommend the grouping experience in SWG to anyone. 3) The article was much longer but was cut for readability. Obviously, like Lepidus said, much has already been covered. I realize also I couldn't please many vocal people as many are against the CU for the above mentioned reasons. 4) It has been my experience that the way SOE deals with the public and release patches has been the same since the day SWG launched. If you didn't find it acceptable then chances are you won't find it acceptable now. Nothing has changed in my opinion, only people's patience and tolerance. 5) I am still able to solo fine with acceptable experience. My only gripe has been down time. I am a Master Bounty Hunter and Master Squad Leader, and one of my profession is geared entirely towards grouping and I am still able to solo. Thank you to everyone who read this article and I apologize to those who felt it wasn't up to par. |
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Dark Age Of Camelot: 107 Banned, 167 Suspended
News Discussion « General Discussion 4/26/05 4:23:29 PM
That's classic. |
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EverQuest II: New "Station Exchange" Announced
News Discussion « General Discussion 4/20/05 5:03:43 AM
Wow. What a bomb shell. It's hard to tell how this will pan out. I mean, seriously, if you have a good item are you going to try to cash from it or in-game money? Is there going to be a day where 99% of the transactions of items are going to be done with actual currency, like Project Entropia? I noticed on the Exchange site that SOE is taking a cut out of each sale, much like E-Bay. Does that mean that games will be able to last longer? I'm pretty sure that there is some unspoken bottom for the number of active accounts needed to make a game profitable. Would the extra revenue insure the longevity because the bottom of profit could be lowered? That's what makes this so tough to call. I see possible good and bad coming out of this. |
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Star Wars Galaxies: Coming Soon: The Total Experience
News Discussion « General Discussion 4/18/05 6:10:33 PM
I think people from other games will not notice the new restrictive CU, but veteran SWG players feel like they're getting kicked in the pants at this point. I don't want to scare anyone away from the game, unless, of course, you like the old SWG combat system then keep far, far away. Oh, and if you want the BARC speeder don't do the digital download. You'll get a mount instead. Get the boxed set, its only 5 bucks more. Mounts are, eh, not that great because you have to gallop to go fast and you can't even gallop all the time. |
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I just started this game today and I love it!
General Discussion « Star Wars Galaxies 4/16/05 7:45:09 PM
I also enjoy space. It is a nice alternative to the ground game. I switch between the two often to get more value out of my playing experience. |
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Star Wars Galaxies: A Look at Rage of the Wookiees
News Discussion « General Discussion 4/13/05 7:52:19 PM
Actually, that's not entirely true. There was an Everquest trailer before the theatrical showing of And don't let this guy rile you up. He obviously has a chip on his shoulder and apparently has an endless list of things that bother him, most of which I find to be trivial. Every MMORPG I've played has had its share of problems and it really comes down to personal taste. I just came back to SWG after a five month break and was amazed to see the amount of new content and features added, as well as fixes to MANY outstanding problems. SWG is far from the game it started out to be, and doesn't deserve it's bad rap. Like Anarchy Online the game had a shoddy release, but its a much better game now. I'm not saying it's the game for everyone, but I'm having heaps of fun by no small stretch. |
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Star Wars Galaxies: A Look at Rage of the Wookiees
News Discussion « General Discussion 4/10/05 8:21:14 PM
They are focusing on Episode III content because there is going to be a surge of new players who 'saw the movie and want to play it'. It's a logical course of action - in fact it would be illogical not to take advantage of the frenzy the movie is going to cause this summer. Bash SWG all you want, but SOE is playing it smart here. |
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I don't care about the methods. Its the results that matter. People in SWG setup leveling macros ALL the time. You'll see bots hunting, bots gaining doctor xp, bots buffing, and just about every other bot activity. And its sanctioned, because of the fact that you can loop macros in the game. External program, internal loop, it doesn't make any difference to me. The results are the same. If anyone is going to take SOE seriously they need to remove the looping ability in SWG. Like they promised, months and months ago. You may disagree with me because the bots are done with external programs in EQ2 and internal systems in SWG, but that's your opinion. |
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That's kind of funny since SWG (another SOE game) is FULL of bots, all of which are created entirely from in-game macros. I say its funny because they crack down so hard on one game because people use EXTERNAL programs, and yet its been so clearly tolerated in another one of their games. They've been telling us for a long time that they would remove the ability for macros to loop and yet they are still a game. Now they've payed the price - bots have become and everyday tool in most SWG player's lives, whether they realize it or not. My point is, if they are going to take a stand bots in one game, then they should take their stand in all their games and be consistent. |
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Star Wars Galaxies: Interview With Dallas Dickinson
News Discussion « General Discussion 4/05/05 5:16:17 AM
Interesting - so you won't be able to use cybernetics and armor in conjunction. Good read. |
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Dark Age Of Camelot: Exclusive: DAoC Battles On!
News Discussion « General Discussion 4/04/05 8:56:58 PM
You can always count on Mythic to keep their graphics up to date on DAoC. I wish all MMORPG developers would put this kind of attention into their old areas--it really keeps the game fresh. |
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