This game could learn from SWG

[Vandicus]

but for most ppl it would attract them

 

As I assume you are not telepathic nor some sort've hive mind creature controlling much of humanity, I don't know how you can speak on their behalf.

[Cakellene]

but for most ppl it would attract them

 

You speak for yourself and only yourself. Anything else is pure speculation.

[bahdasz]

I'm one of the rare few that actually liked the CU, except for the armor restrictions. But I don't care if it was to start over from launch or pick up where it left off.... I want my SWG.

 

This game is..... a'ight, at best. It may be Star Wars but it feels like a rather remote galaxy.

 

I miss the people. I miss JTL (and if any of you know, you'll know it wasn't even one of my more preferred parts of SWG). I miss the classes. I miss the crafting. I miss my house(s). I miss my pets. I miss the gameplay. I miss the customization for just about everything. I miss my speeder collection.

 

If I could get SWG in pre-CU mode with all the content it had at shut-down I'd probably pay $50 a month just to be able to play it, no kidding. It would be 200x more worth it to me than playing this game for free. I lost all my time, all my fun, all my friends, and what did I get in return? Ooooh, prettier graphics and I can jump OVER stuff now. Wow.

 

I predicted this game was just going to Star WoWs, at least I can say I was right.

[Garanaga]

No we don't. For some of us it would detract from the game.

 

Explain please. How does implementing things from SWG that people like detract from the game?

[Cakellene]

Explain please. How does implementing things from SWG that people like detract from the game?

 

What you like isn't necessarily same thing I would like. Something that adds to game for you, might be something that would make me unsub.

[Vandicus]

Explain please. How does implementing things from SWG that people like detract from the game?

 

Multicrew vehicles I've got nothing against personally. Battle pets however, yeah I'd outright stop PvEing and PvPing cause of those. Just ruins the experience for me. That'd have a high probability of having me unsub, and just go f2p to check out the continued class story of my 50s.

[LordArtemis]

I'm not sure that pet battle is any different than companion assist, but I digress. I think personally that when people think SWG and the features that made it great pet battles is not at the top of the list.

 

Open space, gear customization, interior decoration mechanics for housing, crafting, droid and ship construction, pet training for use as mounts...I think these are things they think of.

[Garanaga]

What you like isn't necessarily same thing I would like. Something that adds to game for you, might be something that would make me unsub.

 

 

Here is another question. What is it SPECIFICALLY that you do not want added and why?

[Garanaga]

Multicrew vehicles I've got nothing against personally. Battle pets however, yeah I'd outright stop PvEing and PvPing cause of those. Just ruins the experience for me. That'd have a high probability of having me unsub, and just go f2p to check out the continued class story of my 50s.

 

See I don't mind either of those. I never got to see the character class that could make them because it was locked out by the time I started playing. I did however see some of the pets people had, like rancors and such. I thought it was pretty cool.

 

But we are not the same and you probably like stuff I cannot stand and hate something I love. Meh. Individualism for the win It does not mean "some" of those things should not be added, just because you don't like something. As long as it is nothing that gives people an advantage over others I think it's fine.

Edited September 3, 2012 by Garanaga

[Vandicus]

I'm not sure that pet battle is any different than companion assist, but I digress. I think personally that when people think SWG and the features that made it great pet battles is not at the top of the list.

 

Open space, gear customization, interior decoration mechanics for housing, crafting, droid and ship construction, pet training for use as mounts...I think these are things they think of.

 

Difference between combat pets and companions for me are these two things.

 

1. Pets remind me too much of Pokemon. Admittedly I very occasionally play a Pokemon game, like maybe every 4 years, but I'd feel overloaded on that if there were little critters helping me fight everything.

 

2. Companions can't be used in Warzones or operations. Pets currently can be brought into those both. If pets became a real in game combat advantage, well I would just find raiding and pvp unplayable.

 

Another thing I would note is player bounties. This was debated endlessly pre release and I think still has its own thread. Seems like an invite to griefing to me, but it would probably not cause me to unsub, though it would detract from my experience unless done extremely well.

 

Animal mounts, unless they moved slower than speeders, would detract a bit from the realism of the game for me. Again not something that would cause me to unsub, but detracts from my experience.

 

Other things from SWG(minus the horrible balance) largely would not detract from my gameplay experience. I would love open space. I don't care about chat bubbles one way or the other. More gear customization options are always nice. I would pay extra money in this game if I could customize my ship(I love my ships).

 

These things all fall somewhere on my personal priority list. Ship customization is high up there for me personally because it wouldn't have as massive a trade off as open space(which is comparatively lower because of how much PvE and PvP content that could be designed with those same resources).

[LexxYovel]

No we don't. For some of us it would detract from the game.

 

Why would it detract from the game to have the extra features found in SWG? I can see maybe a creature handling system not working as well in this game as in SWG, but how would the other things actually detract from other people's playing experience? Adding gambling for instance, is an added mini-game. It doesn't take away from other play styles (which at the moment, seem to be 90% running operations).

 

I would never say SWTOR = SWG, or that SWG was a perfect game, but I have to agree with the original poster that the key sandbox aspects of SWG are what made it exciting, and what made the game last as long as it did.

 

If you want any useful interactions between players in SWTOR, learning what made SWG a tight-knit community could not hurt.

 

But I already know that in these forums, any mention of the word "SWG" is immediate grounds for argument.

 

But hey, that game got shut down for this one, so you may as well put up with ex-SWG players! Bioware wanted us here after all

Edited September 3, 2012 by LexxYovel

[Elyx]

I think the biggest issue is that there simply aren't many other venues for SW game fans to get their fix. those that come in and talk about SWG were part of the small niche of people that loved SWG, and was looking for a replacement after NGE killed it. it's not surprising that many landed here!

 

And I agree that there are some aspects of MMO's that Bio could learn from SWG. but your being narrow minded by saying that these things were a SWG specific thing. many MMO's throught the past had many of the elements you are talking about. you just found a balance of them that you liked in SWG.

 

Which is fine. I won't berate that here, can't really....SWG sounds like it was a fun game. but it was far in it's coffin before I ever heard about it.

 

the biggest issue is, aside from some of the more basic requests (player housing, better space battle, etc.) many of the aspects of SWG that you loved were based on the game mechanics, and to replicate them in this game would take more dev time then it's worth. it's like trying to turn a toyota truck into a ferrari...though they are both cars, they're intent and design is so far different that the cost of trying to make the truck perform like a testarossa isn't even worth it.

 

many people who played SWG loved the class system. isn't feasible here. They'd have to drop everything the put into the class game as it is and rewind the clock do that. although I'd love to see improvements in space battles, creating an open space universe to fight/rob other players/smuggle in would be tantamount to making a whole new game. isn't gonna happen.

 

But many of the examples are great. open worlds, more customization, faster speeders (and multiple passenger ones as well)...these are all simple changes and additions that are fine, and would make the game better. but SWG didn't invent this stuff. it was in Evercrack, LotRO, many others, some of them before SWG was even an idea. so it's not really a good comparison. the things that made SWG different and unique among the other MMO's that offered many of these surface things you mention is its game mechanics...which will be impossible to implement from a resource point of view.

 

So yea, this game could use many of those changes. and many of those things were in SWG....along with many other MMO's. so although I agree with some things, this post is really looking like a "I miss SWG and you should be it's replacement and your not Bio! shame on you!" thread.

[RobNightfall]

SWG had at most just over 300k subscriptions.. 100k or less in the last 4 years it was live.. There isn't much SWTOR can learn from SWG..

 

At best it was a nich game for a nich group of players..

 

I have no desire for player housing.. I see no point in decorating a house.. That seems more like a feature for 'The Sims'..

 

I have no desire for chat bubbles.. To me they are useless.. They simply serve no purpose.. If someone wants to talk to me.. They can /whisper.. Typically speaking, I have general turned off.. Still.. I would prefer chat to be confined to a little box, rather than all over my screen..

 

The list goes on.. SWG was not wildly popular and this game was never meant to be SWG 2.0..

 

http://www.mmodata.net/

 

SWG had over 1 million subscribers at one point (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Galaxies#History) and did not lose them until they made radical changes in the game (i.e. the CU, followed by the disaster of the NGE). Please learn your history before spouting pure ignorance, especially since at it's height that game did better than this one because it was able to maintain its 1 million strong subscriber base for a longer period of time. This game sprinted farther ahead, but it lost the race due to its inability to endure.

 

As for the features you don't care about, that was one of the great things about SWG. What you didn't care about didn't impact you, with the exception of not being a social player. The only optional parts of SWTOR are PvP and crafting. Everything is mandatory if you want to be able to enjoy the game. You have to raid, you have to grind, you have to roll alts. In SWG, you didn't even have to play a combat oriented class if you didn't want to. Personally, I thought non-combat oriented classes were boring, but they were available and there were people who really enjoyed them due to those classes ability to interact socially with others in the game. In this game, more than 20 players in the cantina and the FPS gets flushed down the toilet.

 

As for the game learning from SWG, it would be more accurate to say that SWTOR could learn, period. There are a lot of things wrong with the game, many of which are the result of bad decisions made during its initial development (if you want a laundry list of them, search them out on the forums, I've gone on about them ad nauseam and even I'm sick of it). My primary complaint is simple: due to the poor design, it actively discourages social game play and it is not an MMO. You can pick any other MMO on the market as an example for it to learn from.

Edited September 3, 2012 by RobNightfall

[Garanaga]

I'm not sure that pet battle is any different than companion assist, but I digress. I think personally that when people think SWG and the features that made it great pet battles is not at the top of the list.

 

Open space, gear customization, interior decoration mechanics for housing, crafting, droid and ship construction, pet training for use as mounts...I think these are things they think of.

 

Pretty much got it in 1. I loved all that stuff and it would make this game EPIC if some if not all of it was added.

[LordArtemis]

For open space I really would just like to see a BF2 style space battleground, with a persistent battle raging 24 hours a day.

 

As to the pet in PVP issue, I think if companions are not allowed pets would not be either if they were combat pets...Really, we are just talking about adding more companions here with no story requirement. They would still gain affection through actions, and could still assist in combat. Probably not as effective, but the one plus with a mount pet is that you could use it for combat AND as a vehicle.

 

Mounts could be slower than speeders (and probably should be) but would have other advantages...storage perhaps. Not to mention the combat ability.

 

Same with combat droids. No need for a story, but not as effective as full story droid companions. Perhaps they could do other things, like repair armor and provide buffs as well as heals.

 

Ship customization is also very important to me.

[Vandicus]

For open space I really would just like to see a BF2 style space battleground, with a persistent battle raging 24 hours a day.

 

As to the pet in PVP issue, I think if companions are not allowed pets would not be either if they were combat pets...Really, we are just talking about adding more companions here with no story requirement. They would still gain affection through actions, and could still assist in combat. Probably not as effective, but the one plus with a mount pet is that you could use it for combat AND as a vehicle.

 

Mounts could be slower than speeders (and probably should be) but would have other advantages...storage perhaps. Not to mention the combat ability.

 

Same with combat droids. No need for a story, but not as effective as full story droid companions. Perhaps they could do other things, like repair armor and provide buffs as well as heals.

 

Ship customization is also very important to me.

 

BF2 ftw.

 

I could tolerate the pets if they were not useable in PvE or PvP, but then they have to make a division between combat pets and non combat pets. That's probably doable somehow. However pets still don't feel Star Wars to me. We see all of one guy in the movies who has a pet, and that's Jabba's beasttamer. As a class/spec in itself its more ok, since that's a key part of their personality. Seeing random people running around with rancors(people who aren't Dathomiri Force witches or exotic beast tamers) or some other exotic monster breaks some of the realism of the game for me. The EU and original movies never support a setting where everyone has some sort of animal attack beast. Tolerable to me, but still a negative even with no access to PvP or PvE.

 

Droids on the other hand have plenty of basis. Preferably they wouldn't be added to end game PvP or endgame PvE as that would create a lot of balance issues, but it wouldn't bother me in the least to have people walking around with an escort of combat droids. Totally fits into Star Wars for me.

[Esno]

i would be willing to pay 40$ a month for swg if it was back ( perhaps even more ) just so i can have some fun in star wars universe mmo

 

I used to pay $60 per month for SWG running 4 accounts usually had 1 pc tripple logged and 2nd pc running ent in guild cantina lol, truly miss this, but with this game have absolutly no plans for more than 1 account.

 

Loved the ability to crafts pets with the chance of a mutation and joining pet grind groups the going out to learn the specials in the wild for your pets.

 

Not to mention the decent space RE to improve your looted space parts then to shoe-horn them into your lower mass ships to pimp them out for space PVP

[Caelrie]

Here is another question. What is it SPECIFICALLY that you do not want added and why?

 

SWG's crafting and loot system. It was HORRIBLE. All the best stuff was made by players so your gameplay wasn't that of an adventurer or hero, but instead a consumer. You farmed credits in order to buy things to help you farm credits so that when the stuff you bought broke, you would have enough credits to buy the things you need to... farm more credits, and while you were farming those credits to buy things to farm more credits, the things you were using broke, so you needed to keep farming credits in order to sustain your credit farming...

 

Notice a theme there?

 

On the other side of the equation, I really loved the space game in SWG. That was so very well done. It was fun.

Edited September 3, 2012 by Caelrie

[Cakellene]

Here is another question. What is it SPECIFICALLY that you do not want added and why?

 

Sandbox features. More complicated crafting. Non-instanced housing.

[Kubernetic]

I never wanted to play SWG. So they could learn how to turn me off as a player, I suppose.

[Esno]

See I don't mind either of those. I never got to see the character class that could make them because it was locked out by the time I started playing. I did however see some of the pets people had, like rancors and such. I thought it was pretty cool.

 

But we are not the same and you probably like stuff I cannot stand and hate something I love. Meh. Individualism for the win It does not mean "some" of those things should not be added, just because you don't like something. As long as it is nothing that gives people an advantage over others I think it's fine.

 

Combat pets were great, i had 40 pets crafted up and leveled inc a few mutations by the time SWG was shut down, only downside with them was it used up alot of your skill points (approx 1/2) to make them viable, which reduced your own boosts.

 

Being a commando with AOE heavy weapons and a pet fighting at your side helped especially in PVP, if they focused on your pet 1st you were dead shorly after tho lol

Edited September 3, 2012 by Esno

[RazielHex]

Combat pets were great, i had 40 pets crafted up and leveled inc a few mutations by the time SWG was shut down, only downside with them was it used up alot of your skill points (approx 1/2) to make them viable, which reduced your own boosts.

 

Being a commando with AOE heavy weapons and a pet fighting at your side helped especially in PVP, if they focused on your pet 1st you were dead shorly after tho lol

 

Master Bounty Hunter / Creature Handler.

 

2 Rancors + Probe Droid + Combat Droid + AT/ST

[Soljin]

I miss creature pets and mounts...and dynamic open world spawns like the Krayt Dragons on Tattooine. It was great to go out and Hunt Krayts all day with a couple friends....or kimoglias...or NS queens....Man SWG had such a huge open exploration with many huge scary mobs that you could hunt for rad drops and a wicked fight....was so cool.

[Esno]

I miss creature pets and mounts...and dynamic open world spawns like the Krayt Dragons on Tattooine. It was great to go out and Hunt Krayts all day with a couple friends....or kimoglias...or NS queens....Man SWG had such a huge open exploration with many huge scary mobs that you could hunt for rad drops and a wicked fight....was so cool.

 

Not to mention random rotating spawns, so that if you cleared the area there was the posibilty of different mobs to kill lol

 

Ah the creature kill collections to gain rare DNA samples to craft lol, many an hour spent with alts on follow with attack/heal macros running with their pets also attacking lol

[MajikMyst]

SWG had over 1 million subscribers at one point (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Galaxies#History) and did not lose them until they made radical changes in the game (i.e. the CU, followed by the disaster of the NGE). Please learn your history before spouting pure ignorance, especially since at it's height that game did better than this one because it was able to maintain its 1 million strong subscriber base for a longer period of time. .

 

Before you make yourself look like a complete idiot and call someone else ignorant.. You might want to read your own link..

 

Subscriber numbers were originally expected to exceed 1,000,000.[55] In August 2005, SOE reported that they had sold 1,000,000 boxed copies of the game.[56] In early 2006, unconfirmed reports showed that only 10,363 subscribers were playing on a particular Friday night, but Smedley denied that subscriptions had fallen this low.[57]

 

No where in your article does it ever say that SWG had a million subs or anything close to it.. Even the quote above from your own link doesn't say ti.. So perhaps you should go learn your own history.. Or you can just try actually reading something before you post it.. That would be good..

 

Here.. Read the source that Wikipedia uses.. Even it only claims 250k subs..

 

You really should read stuff before you post it..

 

To make matters worse.. This is why you should never use Wikipedia..

 

Subscriber numbers were originally expected to exceed 1,000,000.[55]

 

Link 55 which should be the quote above, is actually an article on WOW..

 

See here..

 

That is link 55.. To make it worse it is also a blog in which people could respond to it.. While I haven't read all the reponses.. The article certianly had nothing to do with SWG..

 

Again.. Read before you post.. All you did here was show your own arrogance and ignorance..

Edited September 3, 2012 by MajikMyst