SWG.net review of NGE

[Guest DarthMaulUK]

Out with the old and in with the NGE

 

A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away, came the game that put us in the Star Wars Galaxy. Or at least, thats what we were told. Almost 2 years on, the galaxy is still there but the game we know and loved has changed.

 

Turning to the darkside

One of the biggest complaints about Galaxies was the fact it just didnt appeal to new players. A huge learning curve and unless you knew someone or found someone who would help you, it was all but impossible.

 

Grinding has been made easier now - replaced by a simple skill bar - which means that you can, at a glance, check your progress as you look to improve your combat level. The changes continue...... new players can now do new quest based missions that now actually give real rewards in terms of money and experience points, in addition to loot. Much better than before, where all you received was a handful of credits and a broken datapad!

 

Combat itself are where the biggest changes have been made. However, the darkside of the force has fallen here. Although an incredible brave step by the developers to do a FPS style combat system, it is still flawed. Unless you are ranged, melee will find it difficult to run after and catch their enemy who speeds off into the sunset, as one such enemy did against me.

 

This does need urgent tweaking and once fixed, it will certainly improve the game in the combat area. Another issue is the lag. Since NGE, the delay has been awful. Vendors who have to wait ages just to place an item, and of course packet loss.

 

Launching this new system was bad enough but to launch it with servers in this condition really is yet another blow to the long suffering community. They are still investigating the server issues but still launched NGE anyway. Thanks!

 

The Jedi Mind trick

Everyone wanted to be a jedi - so the developers have made it easier! Gone are hours of grinding killing Bols by the thousands to claim experience - gone is the Force Village that enabled you to do quests to gain Force experience and work your way to becoming a Jedi.

 

You can select Jedi as one of the new 9 professions which have all been plucked from the Star Wars universe. Fancy being as cool as Boba Fett, you pick Bounty Hunter, fancing being as dashing as Han Solo, you select Smuggler. Being a Jedi is still hard work. You wont get your lightsaber until level 30, which you have to craft yourself - lets hope the prices of the resources needed to make one, come down by then.

 

All this has been done in an attempt to make the game more 'Star Warsy'. The marketing of the new website, the flash intro and new Star Wars footage as you run around the space station certainly give you that feel. If you were a new player, it would most certainly suck you in.

 

Thankfully, I am not that new player. I'm a veteran and suddenly have that feeling its out with the old and in with the new as veterans seem to be the ones being slapped in the face and forced to take the changes...like it or lump it.

 

I respec to Jedi from being a Master Bounty Hunter/MRifle to see what it would be like and really left in no mans land. The official new manual isnt live, I didnt know where to go to start my quests and in traditional SOE fashion, I didnt get any of my rewards - including my robes. This is to be fixed in a 'soon to be released' hotfix. Outrageous!!!

 

Just to help gain extra XP, I had to take on these nOOb quests and it was embrassing for me to be killing quest mob with level 10s! I went back to killing Bols - level 74s ( I am level 70) and the weirdest thing happened. Killing Bols was easy but because the NGE combat system is so flawed, I could kill some Bols, but then I would come across one or two that would flatten me in two hits!

 

Galaxies certainly did need changing but despite failed attempts by SOE to bring in the Combat Upgrade followed by the changes to the group hunting XP (which they have brought in,despite the protests before) but to be honest, the old combat system was fine. After all, Galaxies was an RPG, not a FPS!

 

<b>I've a bad feeling about this...</b>

 

The common factor with the problems is SOE. The moment they decided they could improve things, it all went wrong. Did we have too many professions? Maybe, but this was Galaxies unique selling point. Players could be anything that they wanted to be in Galaxies and it also gave a sense of community.

 

SOE have failed on all counts to deliver that Star Wars experience becausing yet again they are releasing an untested and untried product onto its dwindling player base - especially after the flawed Rage Of The Wookiees.

 

The game lacked any Star Wars content. All these new players are being sucked into a game that actually has NO Galactic war. Its kind of on hold. Amazing!

 

Another kick in the teeth was the Trials Of Obi Wan. If you are a veteran player, this expansion becomes essential so you can spend even longer grinding to reach level 90. Without it, probably triples the time it will take to level up.

 

The route Lucasarts and SOE have taken with the player fees is not a good one. New players can download the trial for free, which allows you to reach level 10 before having to make that subscription purchase. If you make that payment, you can grind to your hearts content, and if you are a Jedi, you have to wait until level 30 just to get your Lightsaber - but if you bought the new Starter Kit, means that your fun will end here, unless you pay for the subscription to progress and grind even further until you reach level 80 - meaning you need Trials Of Obi Wan to reach level 90.

 

Both Lucasarts and SOE have been forced to issue refunds to anyone requesting them who downloaded Trials Of Obi Wan because the changes to NGE has created yet another community backlash.

 

They claim that NGE tested well in focus groups - but it seems that no one from the actual player base was present. Its my belief that Lucasarts and SOE see the current veteran player base as a thorn in their side and this is a daring attempt to make them all leave but yet, by pushing the Star Warsy feel to the game will attract enough new players to replace them.

 

After spending a few days playing the new Star Wars Galaxies, I come away thinking, how can one of the poorest MMORPGs online get worse, because, despite the changes being a good idea in principle, yet again they have been executed in a mindless fashion on a community who, if they dont like it, can leave attitude.

 

DMUK

[SirLancelot]

In the end, these reviews are a bit redundant. In essence, they say the same thing: "The veterans got screwed, and are angry, while new players may find it appealing".

 

Still. . .it's a review. Thanks, DMUK.

[Guest DarthMaulUK]

Essentially, they have created a new game. Players made their purchase because Galaxies was an RPG. Its now an FPS and a pretty poor one at that. This is something alot of reviewers are missing out on.

 

Having to thump my mouse buttons just to kill one bol is extremely boring and of course, isnt healthy for the thumb!

 

If you read through the forums the veterans are mad and rightly so. If you had a girlfriend and you have been with her for two years, then suddenly you came home and she had turned into a wookiee, you wouldnt be happy. Its the same sort of thing here but as I mentioned, the idea was probably a very good one but because Sony really are King Idiots, it fails to impress

 

DMUK

[SirLancelot]

Well, the girlfriend analogy may not be totally inapplicable as I realize that in games of this genre players get emotionally attached to their characters. I mean it's hard no to when you've invested 2+ years.

 

I'll agree the implementation and timing was poor. That does not necessarily mean that the changes themselves are bad.

[HUGOMAND]

Good review!

 

Someone could actually sue SOE and LA for destroying peoples thumbs

 

But I want to give this a chance, atleast until the next hotfix

[Sifidias]

they have killed the game as far as i'm concerned!

[Nedak]

Sence I am still new I do not find the NGE so bad... Tho it does really bug me that I have to press ESC to use my damn cursor and that to click on the "hot keys" I have to click ESC while I lag like hell to get to the "hot key". I think SOE's main concern right now should be making the game less laggy and making less requirements to play the game, like how World of Warcraft has barely any lag problems and bugs. It also makes me mad when I lag so much that I have to restart my computer to get a better connection with my Comcast highspeed because if I close the game my whole computer goes slower and it takes me forever to restart the dang thing.

[Terl42]

I saw the same basic pattern emerge this time with the NGE (New Game Experience) as there was with the CU (Combat Upgrade for anyone not familiar with that). Every SWG board being spammed with hate mail, and some one dumb enough to post good things and getting slammed for it. This bickering has been going on since I started playing (when JTL came out) even pre-CU it was over the many bugs and imballances in the game. SOE has claimed that both "upgrades" went over well with the testing groups, but between BOTH of the enhancements, I've only actually talked to 1 person who thought the improvements were actual improvements(he liked the CU).

Personally, I wasn't a fan of the CU, but it didn't really affect me as I was a CH/Shipwright, and the changes to the combat for that one didn't really apply to me, so I got to watch with out alot of emotions getting in the way. I'm not much of a Starwars fan either, but I did fall in love with the skill tree system pre-NGE where you could change you character around without starting over, and have goofy combinations of skills when you felt like it. The loss of the skill trees in favor of linear/one dimensionsl characters is a slap to anyone who invested the 5 minutes it took to figure out that you advanced by buying the skill boxes you wanted with the exp you got, and the endless hours of wandering around looking for advanced trainers till you came accrost a player city with a dozen trainers clustered together and went "oh, that's how to do that..."

The new almost FPS combat it's got now could be improved on by either allowing lock ons to npc's (I do sort of like the manual targeting for pvp) or by going back to the old controlls. (if you spend 20 min with the new options menue, you can re map most of them manually, but you have to do it for each character you have). I'm not that worried about the non existant exp, that will be fixed fairly soon, it happened before, and will happen again. Untill then, go home and decorate, or otherwise catch up on space missions, train guildies, or any of a number of things that don't involve 8 hour picket spin groups.

I am not a happy player. I can see where SOE tried to go with this, and if they brought back the skill trees and classes, maybe they could get away with the "faster combat", but this is not the game I bought a year or so ago, this is a new pice of crap that I would have returned 5 minutes after opening had I bought it post NGE. I feel that I have enough time invested that I plan on waiting till jan 1 to see if SOE will take the only good piece of advice I've seen, and copy what they did with Everquest 2 and stick a user poll in the launch pad window so each person gets 1 vote per account. a simple 5 option poll would do....

 

"What would you think of the NGE?"

 

1) Love it

2) Like it

3) Doesn't matter

4) Don't like it

5) Hate it

 

My guess is going to be a average responce of around 4.25 on that scale based on the web poles, but then SOE is probibly afraid to run this kind of fair test because of all the money they had to have spent recently on the television advertiseing. Or maybe they are right, adn the boards are filled with the supposed minority, and we don't see anything good because the players who like it are happily playing. (I find that hard to believe because I haven't found any happy players in the game, but whatever) This type of poll would settle the arguement one way or the other. Soe would have a Huge poll that they could controll to make sure it wasn't some programmer spamming I hate its' with simply only takeing one vote per account, and if they are right (oink, oink, flap, flap), then the minority of us can cancle our accounts and go play something else, if we are right about how many want it back how it was, maybe this will get them to at least open a few servers with the cu, or better yet, pre cu.

I don't see why they can't have 2 or even 3 versions of SWG up since the servers really don't talk to eachother, so people with cu won't be fighting with NGE or pre cu characters. It would give the vetrans back the game they love (I'd love to go back to the last patch pre cu, I'll deal with the bugs that had, it was the most stable verson of SWG I've played on), it will get at least 20 people I know to come back giving SOE 40 more accounts per month and stopping us malcontents from spamming their boards causeing 2-3 of thier employees to spend all day telling us no instead of fixing the problems. I'd love to pay 40 bucks to move my characters to a server for pre cu, or even cu after the days of NGE play.

I guess it all boils down to one group is blind to the wishes of the other. In this case, it's SOE vs the vetran players. Untill there is an honest poll, SOE won't believe those of us makeing posts like this, and we won't believe thier claims of "testers liked it" (not without adding caviats like useing people on death row so they have the choice of playing SWG NGE, or getting fired) or some similarly biased group... (paying the testers 50 bucks an hour would also work for this...) Let's just have a fair poll on the launch pad same as they did for EQ2, then we will at least know what the actual opinion is, and can work from there. There's no point if fixing something people hate, and no point in putting up with countless hate mail from a small minority. one of us is wrong, a simple poll will tell who.

[itchythesamurai]

The controls and interface just seem clumsy and awkward to me now, like I should be playing with a PS3 or XBOX 360 controller instead...

 

Don't really like the changes, I'm going to take a break from SWG for a while and then see if it has gotten any better.

[Azrael]

The controls and interface just seem clumsy and awkward to me now, like I should be playing with a PS3 or XBOX 360 controller instead...

 

Well, don't worry, you will be within six months. That's all thats left for this game. Anyone that sticks around will just be beta test monkeys for the "New and Improved" console version.

[Trahern Valley]

I don't think the village is gone. I think they're all still in there, it's just the mist doesn't let anyone through anymore because the FS stuff is gone. I wanted to go /comfort Noldan, dammit!

[Klee]

I think DMUK was in a good mood and a might bit generous with this review. Nuch more generous than I would have been.

[Guest DarthMaulUK]

As mentioned. The idea is good. Julios Torres inherited a poor game from the old Producer, Hayden Blackman and wanted to make sweeping changes. If you look around the web, you won't find a single decent review for the NGE - apart from a nOObs point of view, where it has improved.

 

2 years on, there still is no real content for high level players, who do lava flea missions on Mustafar, which have been nerfed from yielding 50k XP to just 1K. They need to start putting in real content and stop with these pointless boring quest missions and kill of the Galactic Civil War. Ah well, Christmas is coming.....

 

DMUK

[Liliya]

I have been on and off with SWG since the beginning. I played a lot when it came out, then I burned myself and stoped. I came back to try the CU and it wasn't really what I was looking for. So I decided to come back again and try this NGE. Well I had to create a new chatacter because when I loged in with my old one, I had no clue. After going through the tutorial and first fiew missions, I am very pleased. I like it so far and the fact that you can be a Jedi from the get go, is appealing to me. It feels much more like Star Wars than before.

 

I do understand though that if you played non-stop since the start and suddenly everything is changed, you might not like it.

[Blings]

I purchased this game few weeks ago. I played for three months after JTL came out and it was a much better game then than now. What I find is that I want to play, but I feel let down I give it a (4/10) But not all is lost and Ill play my subscription out to the fullest, but I wont renew unless the world changes alittle.

 

I think the best part about SWG is the crafting and "was" its across the board diversity.

 

People need to realize that not all races and classes own in combat. Thats what lead to this mess. The classes do not have to be equal, but have to have their own specialties. The first person shooting is nice. I like it. Melee people need to realize that blasters own for a reason. Jedi should be forced to play really really smart. Its not easy and it would suck until the later stages, but a lvl 90 should own.

 

Now SOE changed it for semi-balance, but its bland and tiring fast. I liked how people had different choices of ways to kill people.

 

They should bring back classes like Creature Handling and Scouting etc as sub-classes. So you have the main ICONIC classes and sub classes for them to improve. I.E. a Commando or a Medic may want to scout or have a creature, but that may mean they cant pilot because they also want sub Class ProfessionX because it lets them do XYZ. Lets bring back diverse players. I liked seeing tons of different varients.

 

Also, not letting everyone be pilots. Not everyone in the Real Star Wars Universe was a pilot, so not everyone should be. They should raise the price of the ticket windows really high and find a way for people to offer independat transport services on their ship.

 

This would let low level merchants get money so they can buy more minerals and not have to fight.

 

Finally, they have done nothing with the galactic war. I would like to see people playing the game have more influence over the war. I would love it if the game had human control over the universe, where the universe grew as the players affected it.

 

SOE needs to let the galaxy grow on its own. The game has a solid foundation, but the fact is the next major change will make or brake the SWG brand.

 

Newbs wont stay if theyre arent veterans to lead and vets arent staying...

[they]

Alright. I picked up the game a few days back. About uh, three. And so far, I like it alright. I'm not a big fan of the normal turn based 'dice play' used by most MMOs. There are instances that I like it, but most of the time, I stick away from it. So I got this demo on my PC Gamer Disc, and tossed it aside. My kid brother installed it, and started playing, and it looked nothing like I remember, from back when I had tried a demo about two years back (I think. Very early on in the game), and couldn't figure out what I was doing. It seemed simpler, quicker, and much easier for new players. So I went ahead and bought the 'starter' kit. So as I'm playing the game, I realize there is nothing like what I remembered from the first time I played a demo. What happen to all the classes? Now theres NINE? All the classes was on of the coolest things about it before, because you could be anything. That didn't really bother me too much, because I hadn't been playing before the changes. As I came to learn, there were alot of significant changes. And, the veteran players got screwed, with little to no compensation.

 

I can't belive they made the jedi class so obtainable. That's not even cool. One of the big things floating around this game was that to become a Jedi, it required lots of hard work, time, and dedication. Now what? You can choose it as A Starting class!

 

Doesn't matter, I'd rather be a commando.

 

Still though, I feel that these changes were not fair to the.. Wait. No. I KNOW these changes wern't fair, and if I were a veteran player, I'd be demanding something. Anything.

 

And another thing: What's with this instant travel vehicle, the xwing/tiefighter that they're giving to people who purchased the "Starter Kit". I bought the "Starter Kit" But, I bought rights to it online, not the actual box, so I don't get it. That thing would be nice. So I'm a NEW player, and already they're giving something to new players, and I miss out on it. Better not continue like this, or SOE and the like are asking to be burnt. Like it was said in a previous post: The new players won't stick around if the vets arn't there to lead/help them. And if it keeps up, I'm betting the vets' won't stick around.