Star Wars Galaxies Update Preview

"Unfortunately, Creature Handler was not one [the nine iconic professions] (and was played by less than 1% of the SWG community)."

They mention that in every interview.

As of Oct 31 2003 it was the most popular elite profession in the game: http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/content.jsp?page=Character%20Metrics

Many nerfs and nearly 2 years later, it is still more popular that commando, but commando made the cut.

http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/content.jsp?page=Friday%20Feature%20-%20Profession%20Popularity

Does anyone even play this anymore?

These changes were made to save the game alright ... by moving it to the consoles. The 2 button attack scheme should be a dead giveaway.

Additionally, the procuder guy claimed SWG was too difficult for most people? Good to know he thinks so highly of his customer base. The truth is the game was flat boring for most people. Luke didnt decide to save Leia after visiting a mission terminal (ok ok, R2 was close to a mission terminal but you know what I mean :).

THe bottom line, imho, is this radical simplification is a stab at compying WoW's simple format, and possibly a prelude to moving this game to the nextgen consoles. Maybe an infusion of new blood will help this game along.

i feel sorry for all the hardcore SWG players that liked the old system but from my perspective this is a very good thing, i absolutely HATED SWG in beta and said id never play this game agian... but i have to admit these changes have peaked my interest

i keep hearing about a free trial coming up i think ill give it a shot

One last comment on this before I'm done with the subject. Today SOE fired their community relations spokesperson one week before the changes themselves go live. This same person had been working until 4am in the morning on a regular basis trying to answer community questions to the best of her ability.

Whether people thought she did a good job or not aside, this kind of move right now really does not say very good things about what is going on internally on the eve of such a drastic shift in the game.

Other rumors floating around include a possible full forum wipe before the launch of the NGE to everything from a total Lucasarts takeover and shakeup *shrug*. Regardless, firing the person in charge of communicating with your customers when you are about to do a transition like this is really a stupid move.

Most people who have tried this new system all generally have the same conclusions:

The good portion of the change is there is now a lot more *real* star wars content. Something that has been sadly needed since the launch of the game. Most people have responded positively to the new quests and interactions with characters from the Star Wars movies.

Thats about where the good news ends. There are numerous problems with the new system.

First, the claim that almost every profession can be rolled up into these new 9 iconics is a complete falsehood. As gamespy mentioned, Creature Handlers are completely left out in the cold. Also, for many of the professions, only a few revamped skills survive in the new "iconic" professions. The new professions, on the whole, play completely differently.

Second, one of SWG's few strengths was the fact that under the old system it was a skill based advancement game. That meant players could be any combination of professions that they chose. A player could be part entertainer, part combatant, a rifleman and a medic, a Squad Leader and a fighter. You picked what interested you and made your own unique combination of skills. Under the new system all that is gone. Everyone picks their own cookie cutter class and sticks with it. The majority of variety in the game is now gone.

Third, transition into the new system is going to be horribly awkward at best. Lets say you were a master entertainer who also has some combat skills in the old system. Guess what, if you decide combat is what you would prefer to play(since entertainers are non-combatants in the new system) then you are screwed. Despite spending all that time mastering another profession, if you try to change to a combat profession, you will only gain a few skills. The same applies to crafting classes. This means crafters and entertainers who want to switch to something combat oriented will have to start over almost completely from scratch.

Fourth, the game economy is going to be shattered from this transition. Weapons, items, etc no longer have decay under the new system. This means that the market for crafters is going to die a quick and sudden death. When your armor and weapons no longer wear out, what is the point in buying more than what you need? The whole concept of a player driven economy, which has been fundimental to SWG from the begining is being tossed into a trash heap.

Finally, in terms of gameplay itself, most people are not happy with the change. It is this weird blend of FPS and RPG that satisfies few people. Those looking for an RPG game won't find it here. You can't walk(only one run speed) and the FPS-like nature of combat means that many who don't play those types of games will be very uncomfortable. Dizziness and disorientation complaints are widespread. If you are a FPS player, you also will be unhappy with the new system. Targeting is very "soft" and very much a clickfest. It just doesn't feel right at all.

And, of course, all this doesn't even touch on the countless existing content that is going to be broken with this change. Several expansions worth of content in a total mess, a force sensitive village the developers spent months working almost exclusively on being tossed out completely, several existing quests and/or rewards worthless, tons of items that no longer have any purpose, etc.

In the end, it seems the developers are attempting to make a new game(something akin to a Battlefront Online) using the existing SWG framework in order to save costs and time needed to make a proper new game like they should. The result is disatisfaction by everyone, and a total disregard to the desires of the existing playerbase.

All these combat changes.. who gives a rat ass!!

People wanted this MMORPG to be about the Galatic WAR..
Hell! thats when its called STARWARS...

not farking STARQUEST, STARGRIND, STAR-WoW-Wannabe!
or STAR-I WANNA BE A JEDI

it was supposed to have an intergrated PvP system where when people pick sides and there is actual reason and purpose to fight, and take control of cities or planets!!

Rebels vs Empire.. stupid SOE stick to what Starwars is supposed to be about...

I think this is the first time this is not sarcastic. "Is this the patch that makes it fun?"

WoW obviously dominates and tells the MMORPG world we would rather have hack and slash diablo2 then 6-12 months of grinding. And with WoW adding in another 10 levels we see that they might be screwing the people who poopsocked their last four months grinding for small upgrades.

I had no plans to play WoW at all and was planning on devoting 6 months of my life to SWG. But when they ended the beta during a time when it was filled with bugs (so many i refused to buy it) I switched over to WoW. A year later I am very happy of my decision. However, I hope SWG becomes a great game where you can live in the Star Wars world and relive that fantasy of being Han/Luke/etc.

This whole change system sounds excellent. I feel bad for the hardcores that live and died by the old system, but jesus, it was the most un-fun game I've ever played. They should really divide the servers in half or something to accomodate some of the bitter people, but the change is needed. I look forward to this 'fps-ish' combat, the previous combat was thte worse one designed out of all mmos. The old skll system was crappy too, and the endgame was terrible.
Hopefully these changes will make the game fun again, and then i'll resuscribe. It wouldnt bother me if they made Word of StarWarscraft or a WW2 Blitzkrieg online.

I had a dream my children,

They were bringing back the long gone days of the Mind Fire Gaffi, and the Defense Fencer/Pistoleer/Doctor Tree build!

I think I was pretty much unstoppable at that point.


CAN I GET AN AMEN?

Hahahahaha. "Quick remove options, the players don't like thinking!" Old Pikemen will be accomodated for? Now they can shoot heavy bazookas as well as swordfighting? That's rich.