Starwars Galaxies(PS2,Xbox)

[CaptainHowdy]

Just wanted to set the record straight.
by now I am sure many of you have heard horrible horrible things about Galaxies and probally have forgotten it was coming to PS2/Xbox, or at least wiped it from your wishlist.

I went ahead and gave the final product a test, and I wanted to say the griped are completely wrong, they are all from people who were in beta and did not feel it was ready for the retail market, and the lousy reviews I read made it obvious the person reviewing it did not even know how to play the game(Game Nikki for instance, the guys biggest gripe was how painful death is, tired of corpse runs.... well if he knew jack@#$% he would know you can insure everything on your person at the cloning stations insurance terminal, when you die, you come back there will all your stuff. He also griped that finding such stations is a pain in the butt, so I then pointed out to him that all you do is type in /find, a list of nearby places pops up, you pick what you want, and it holds your hand all the way to it...again just an example of how moronic these reviewers are who reviewed an MMORPG within 3 days of its release).

so for those who want to know about this game, I thought I would take the time to enlighten you.

unlike older MMORPG's, there is no preset economy, no NPC's selling armour or weapons. Everything you need is made by another player, every service you need is from another player, so obviously it took a few days for this game to get up to speed, first day the bazaar(an internal electronic auction that works much like Ebay) is empty, nothing worth buying. But now that a week has gone by, this game has really blossomed into the best MMORPG I have ever experienced, especially as a Starwars fan.

You begin selection your race and profession, and though the jobs sound really lame, all of them are Vital. The most lame sounding would be the Entertainer, as an Entertainer you would go the way of Dancing or being a Musician. What makes them so vital is this, after fighting in the field you get wounds and battle fatigue, these are unhealable without a camp or hospital, it cuts back your permenant health/mind/energy points. Your health and energy wounds can be healed in a hospital or camp by a medic, but to cure your mind and battle fatigue, you need to relax and be entertained. So you head to the nearest Hotel/Cantina and hope there is a show going on, and I was suprised at how cool this can be. You step in and there are a group of musicians jamming together with instruments they made themselves, and several dancers grinding out flourishes. You find a good seat amongst friends and highligh a musician and choose to LISTEN, then select a dancer and select WATCH, you only need one of them but by selecting one musician, you automatically listen to them all, by selecting the dancer you watch them all, which makes things heal up much faster. So you sit back , enjoy the party, get some crafting done(if your an artisan) and chat with the others, its actually quite an exciting experience, moreso than it sounds.

I think the best thing is how everyone works together in this game, only the noobs try to run off and accomplish everything alone, the seasoned players have thier buddy list full, and know they need help from others to get by, and the community is great and always eager to help. And they will save you a lot of money along the way, you can get training from NPC's but it comes at a great cost, you will need to go to them to add a new profession(you may have more than one, I currently have 3), but any training you earn in those professions you have, another player can train you(he would have to group with you, then he would highlight you and a TEACH option comes up for him).

This game has a LOT of commands, PS2 is obviously going to support the Mouse and Keyboard with it, they will have to, Microsoft is going to have to cave and put out a Mouse and Keyboard for this one, I just feel its a must, not so much for precision or aim, but because there are just too many commands needed for a gamepad. Another thing, Voicechat will just not be something to be used in this game..most of the magic is in the emoticons and small details they have added(for example, it recognized words you type, so if you were to say, "I don't know", your character would shrug his shoulders and shake his head as he said it..if you say "haha" or "lol" , your guy then goes through one of a few laughing animations.. also in part of the role playing you have many things you would do like that (/bow or /wave to greet a friend, or /hug if you like)

If they keep it true to what it is now, and give the players a M/K option, this is truely going to be a major experience for PS2/Xbox owners, and I can not stress enough that you need to keep your eye on this game..

for the eye candy, I have a few screenies I will post I took. You will notice I am chugging in some of them, when I first step into a cantina, my FPS will drop drastically, then it will stablize, being I took candid shots of large people filled rooms, I really put the squeeze on my weak little CPU.. I need to upgrade ... but I do maintain a steady 30fps outside.. it would be better if I were willing to turn off AA/AF

 

[DeathKnight]

AFAIK the Xbox version is on indefinate hold.

 

[cybamerc]

So is the PS2 version.

 

[marconelly!]

IGN rumor:

Star Wars Galaxies Going to PS3?
In an unofficial conversation with LucasArts employees in a drunken street fight (just kidding), IGN learned that there is about a 1%-2% chance that Star Wars Galaxies will arrive on this current generation of consoles (maybe even a 3% chance). The reasons are numerous, but the company wants to focus on the PC game (which just shipped), its patches and upgrades, and at least for the PS2, which should get the hard disc drive in the first half of 2004, it would almost certainly require the hard drive.

 

[CaptainHowdy]

thats probally a good thing, because there is an expansion coming that will add a lot of needed things(spaceships, and land vehicles), I bet they are just waiting until those items are done and everything is the way they want it in final form, so they can port a solid fixed format product.

 

[pcostabel]

AFAIK the Xbox version is on indefinate hold.

Considering that this is a Sony game, I'm not surprised

 

[vrecan]

I was in the beta and I can say honestly it has its moments but it takes way to long to get to those moments to be something worth paying for. Why in every MMO do they have to string everything along forever just to do anything? I am just plain sick of all MMO's for this reason, drive me nuts!

 

[Grall]

String along? I'm interested in getting this game myself, would you please explain what it is you dislike in as specific a way as possible, thank you.

*G*

 

[jvd]

main problem with this game that is still not fixed is the rate of advancment. As a pistoleer you can max out that profession and use the best gun in a month. For a crafter to make that best gone it will take 3-4 months. All the while they can only sell things that no one wants.

If you were in beta you'd know all the problems that exist in this game. Thankfully many of them come later in the game. The problem is that they might not be fixed by the time people get to that point of the game. Also there are to many money sinks to be a crafter. Not enough when being a warrior. The one char per sever makes u not want to be a crafter.

 

[cthellis42]

So, uh... be both! There's plenty of room to stretch, and you can always change focus one way or another later on.

I love the economy so far--one of the only games to actually TRY to have one--and the class interrelationships are solid. In need of tweaking? Sure. All over the place. But when is THAT different from any other MMORPG? Hehe... Low level items are in no way useless right now, as the whole economy is ramping up. I can certainly see how later on, when lots of master crafters are about and competing, the scale of availability will make it rough on those just learning, but then they don't NEED to spend lots of money to skill up, since they can acquire the resources themselves. (But as with most things, the more you work with other people, the better off you'll be. One key to SWG is to BE SOCIAL! It is the ABSOLUTE most social MMORPG out there, and most inter-connected.) But in the end it leads to one of the things I like a lot about the game, which is that new players aren't going to be a billion times worse than Masters of Elite professions, as they'll have easy-enough access to good weapons anyway, and can hit useful abilities pretty quick.

So far I've been having a blast with SWG, though a bit miffed with the instabilities of my server. (Starsider is puh-HAAAAACKED!) Hopefully it'll be resolved soon, but in the meanwhile I just explore other characters on other planets to bide the time. ^_^ It still helps.

Plenty of bugs to go around, but that's what you get when you join a MMORPG at the beginning. In the meanwhile, the game is both broad and deep and I do NOT get the feeling of "I have to play the game for at least a year until I'm good enough to feel useful" from it, which I tend to in the others. It supports the casual player, and the meandering lifestyle, for which I highly approve. ^_^ It also seems to have enough meat for the intense players right now as well, and there seems to be plenty more meat to come.

We'll ride the waves of changes and tweaks and ajustments to classes to not make them far too snapped or less useful than scavenged foods, I'm sure... but for right now the balance seems tighter and also far less critical, since people can easily support multiple lifestyles. We shall see... It looks like it's going to be a damn fun--if bumpy--ride. ^_^

And on the X-Box matter, LucasArts exerts much control over the game, and they seem to be pretty tight with the X right now, so I imagine if they want it to be there it will be there. I don't think they want the game on ANY of the console right now, though, as there's a question of whether the hardware can handle it well, and they're meanwhile quite busy with the PC version. I'd rather they stick just to PC right now so _I_ get their best efforts, and leave them to make next-gen console versions should they want well down the line.

 

[jvd]

bahhhh don't need alot of money for lvling up a crafter ? excuse me have you even tried paying for a personal harvestor on the little money u make as a crafter ?

 

[cthellis42]

First off you ARE a personal harvester, and anyone who can't afford 720 credits a day shouldn't be operating one anyway. Until you can afford certain things and know HOW to make your money, you shouldn't be incurring expenses you don't have to.

'sides, you can just run delivery missions for an hour or two and make enough to pay for MANY harvesters if you want. All aspects of profit just involve knowing the game. You shouldn't be SPENDING until you know the game either.

 

[jvd]

First off you ARE a personal harvester, and anyone who can't afford 720 credits a day shouldn't be operating one anyway. Until you can afford certain things and know HOW to make your money, you shouldn't be incurring expenses you don't have to.

'sides, you can just run delivery missions for an hour or two and make enough to pay for MANY harvesters if you want. All aspects of profit just involve knowing the game. You shouldn't be SPENDING until you know the game either.

trust me i know the game. I beta tested since shuttle 2 my friend . 720 is a ton of money for the casual player who plays an hour or two a day (me now ) Also i could survey myself but its slow and takes alot of points to get good at. Which costs money unless you find someone to train u. But finding someone to train you takes a very long time .

 

[cthellis42]

I certainly haven't found it hard to find people teaching skills (they're downright eager to, since they know they'll want apprentice experience later on for mastering professions), and got to Survey IV before the initial weekend was up. And at a good location, I survey a LOOOOOT faster than harvesters. (Not to mention I can effectively do it while forum-hopping, doing chores around the house or whatever.)

720 a day IS, in fact, a bit much for people only wanting to spend 1-2 hours a day in the game. But then, people only wanting to spend that much are VERY casual, and should probably be pursuing other things anyway--or at least avoiding those those aspects which REQUIRE you to be less casual. Them's the breaks. The game is still quite friendly to those players, but there WILL be parts they'll be excluded from (or find to be a genuine pain) if that's all they're willing to give. (For them I'd even recommend spending less time on general days and sucking up for more time in bigger blocks every once in a while. You can deactivate your harvesters and only run them when you KNOW you'll be able to upkeep them properly so they don't drain you constantly.)

In the meanwhile, they could always just alter their lifestyle a bit to compensate. Take a combat base for easy mission-running and polish off a few missions first thing, and you'll make enough money to maintain 4 harvesters, and be able to spend the rest of your time as you will. For instance today when exploring another server I started as an unarmed brawler, got quickly to Intermediate, and then polished off two missions for 3k. Finding someone to train me took an extra minute out of my time, but the rest got me easily operable and in 20 minutes of missioning I'd've had plenty of harvester upkeep--all by my lonesome. Along with having harvested about ~50 bone and ~100 hide on the way, which is a good boost to a crafter. Certainly crafters favor the mental stats, but I've NEVER so far had an issue with running out of mind even on crafting binges. (And you can always shift your stats anyway. You might feel a pinch from taking a combative base in the late game, but probably not that severe. Meanwhile, you're able to PLAY that lifestyle.)

But again, for someone who chooses to not play in a style that CAN upkeep 720/day well, they are basically deciding they DON'T want to do that, and so they shouldn't try. It's very easy to do it otherwise, even for people on limited time budgets, and there are many ways to--all they have to do is look.

How will the overall landscape change in the future? Dunno. It certainly could. But since there is always incentive to train others, I don't see skill-training to becoming a huge drain unless one is based in a particularly remote area. (Again, choice is involved there.) Certainly things CAN turn for the worse for people, but MMORPGs will always have ONE constant, and that is change. Just another fact of life there...

 

[keegdsb]

I have a couple of Qs:
Is it really worth $200? (Game + Subscription/yr)
Anyone get a character in the 'force sensitive' slot? i.e. anyone get one of them there Jedi?

 

[CaptainHowdy]

"bahhhh don't need alot of money for lvling up a crafter ? excuse me have you even tried paying for a personal harvestor on the little money u make as a crafter ?"

that shows me right there you are not enjoying it because, you dont know what the heck you are doing..

as a crafter, why in the hell would you buy a harvester? let me be more clear on that, yes we will all need one eventually, but at Eng I,II, you are not going to need 1000+ units of anything...
once you hit Eng III and actually need that much, you can build you own harvester, the only costs are then to maintain it.. but doing two missions a week will pay that off and then some.
I dont even bother with a harvester, I just programmed in a Macro that will sample and rest over and over, so I can just leave it, come back and I got mad amounts of resources.. the game is what you make it, and you have to be willing to learn everything about it.

 

[cthellis42]

I have a couple of Qs:
Is it really worth $200? (Game + Subscription/yr)
Anyone get a character in the 'force sensitive' slot? i.e. anyone get one of them there Jedi?

All depends on you. I say "yes," but then I've been playing MMORPGs since mid-'99. <grin>

And to date, there are no Force Sensitive characters. The code to become one was active in beta, but NO ONE got the slot that way. (Some people were randomly assigned a FS slot for testing purposes, though.) I don't think too many people even figured out how to start down the path. We'll find out stuff as it happens, but I don't think you'll be running across lightsaber-wielding, mind-tricking folk any times soon.

 

[jvd]

I'm up to droid engineering already and i need a harvester.


What happens if i go away for a week. Thats a huge fee to pay. 720 for a small harvestor. Also why would i want to spend 3 hours in game to get the same ore i can get just leaving a harvester on. The promise by halo was that the harvestors and factorys would make crafting fun and take the grinding away. The grinding is in this game now more than ever.

 

[keegdsb]

And to date, there are no Force Sensitive characters. The code to become one was active in beta, but NO ONE got the slot that way. (Some people were randomly assigned a FS slot for testing purposes, though.) I don't think too many people even figured out how to start down the path. We'll find out stuff as it happens, but I don't think you'll be running across lightsaber-wielding, mind-tricking folk any times soon.

This is sounding like a real challenge, I want to get the game just to start the path now!

But still, the price seems really steep.

 

[jvd]

And to date, there are no Force Sensitive characters. The code to become one was active in beta, but NO ONE got the slot that way. (Some people were randomly assigned a FS slot for testing purposes, though.) I don't think too many people even figured out how to start down the path. We'll find out stuff as it happens, but I don't think you'll be running across lightsaber-wielding, mind-tricking folk any times soon.

This is sounding like a real challenge, I want to get the game just to start the path now!

But still, the price seems really steep.

don't let ctehllis42 fool u. He does'nt have a clue to what he is talking about. Force sensitive was only activated on the in house test servers. Even on the beta test servers you couldn't get fs. You also can't get fs now. THey are still working on it . Like the rest of the game it will come in a patch later on .