Slashdot Mirror
Star Wars Galaxies Fanfest Addresses Wookie Mohawk Quandary
Thanks to IGN Vault for its multi-part report on the Star Wars Galaxies Fan Fest, held in Anaheim, California, on the 4th and 5th of June. There's also a summary of a developer's panel, in which the important question "When will Wookiees get Mohawks?" is addressed - apparently: "While the response was not overwhelming, more than a few attendees thought it would be a good idea." Regarding new in-game locations for Lucasart/SOE's MMO title, it's noted that the devs "all want [Coruscant to be added as a location to the game] very much. It's on the list, just as is Hoth and Bespin." There's also a Fan Fest photo gallery up on SWG Warcry, and there's currently a free 14-day trial of the game via FilePlanet.
"There's also a summary of a developer's panel, in which the important question "When will Wookiees get Mohawks?" is addressed "
Important... question... ? Now I feel A LOT better about participating in that Star Trek vs. Star Wars debate last week.
"Derp de derp."
I've done as much research as possible with the scant reviews of the Lightspeed expansion which is due out October 15th to the hordes of anxious spaceflight fans who have come together to show what can be done with enough people who know a Y-Bomber from a B-Bomber, and can make both dance around any defense system the empire can throw up at them.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Would they add hoth as a location. I've never played SWG, but i dont think hoth would be a good location. Theres nothing there. Thats the reason the rebels built their base there, because it was nearly uninhabitable. Not a good planet for common folk.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Why is it always the popular planets that get recognition? Support the lesser-knowns! Get in touch with the nice folks at Sony and tell them that you want to go to Ord Mantell!
"Max, come over here. French-Canadian bean soup. I want to pay. Let them leave me alone." - Dutch Schultz
Because it's all snow and only a couple of creatures? And wouldn't Coruscant just flat-out murder my framerate?
Let the wookies win.
Maybe it would murder your framerate, but not mine. Maybe they should limit Coruscant to those that can afford the very best video cards ;). Or maybe make that the upper-class area and the lower class have less detail (corridors).
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
Why? Because humans and zabrak have bonusses in battle the zabrak some excelletent resists. Other species have bonusses as well but none that are usefull in combat.
Wookies are the worst of them all since they didn't have armour. Recently they got some but it looks awfull and the effectivnes is a joke compared to what humans can wear.
My main char was a wookie named mojow on europe-infinity. Although a Terra Kassi master (unarmed combat) and owning most critters in PvP I sucked because the enemy had armour full armour with 80% resist, mine was 50%. That makes a whole lot of difference. Even if we are other wise perfectly matched I will loose. I just now deleted the wookie and used the old funds to equip my new zabrak female with top notch equipment. The difference is insane. Were before I was strugging now with a novice char in top armour I am just standing there getting XP like mad.
SWG has terrible balance issius and the sony seems totally unable to solve them. Why do I keep playing it? Well at times, in a good group on a good hunt it can be a fun game. It never is Star Wars but it can be fun. Just that somebody at sony needs to learn real fast how to make a game. In many ways it reminds of Quake by ID. Nice engine. Now can please someone from valve turn it into a game?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Anyway the bugs he mentions are a minor thing. Simply warping when you dismount a vehicle is a minor nuisance. A though enemy you just managed to get down to almost zero health warping 100 meters away in the middle of another bunch of critters can be seen as a challenge. The recent bug that stopped people from getting money from group missions except the mission owner could be seen as a test case of how nice players are. (result they are all assholes. I shared the money out and a grand total of 2 other players).
Worse are the braindead interface and game delay choices. There is an old joke that lists the step required on a number of OS's to change the IP. All the unixes have a online command, windows has dozen points to click through.
SWG is a thousand times worse. In the game you can own pets/droids/vehicles. These you can call from a datapad (popup window) by clicking on them, holding the mouse then selecting "generate/call" from the option menu that springs up with a few second delay.
Just double clicking on the opens a popup with the details.
Why is this so bad? Well apart from the fact that the most common act is to call not examine the details in the examine window are also displayed next to the item. So now you get two screen telling exactly the same thing.
This also makes it impossible to put the vehicle/pet/droid on the toolbar for easy calling.
Worse perhaps is the 15 second delay. If you are a master Creature handler you can have 3 critters and 1 droid to assist you in battle. But calling them will take you 4 slow selection procedures and a total of 60 secs waiting (can't call more then one at the time and combat interrupts the calling). So most master CH just use one big pet and not smart tactics with 3 smaller.
The game is filled with these kind of stupid interface design choices and delay tactics.
But worst offense of the game is this. It just isn't star wars. Apart from the stormtroopers everything seems to be made/designed by someone who saw a poster once and just doesn't get it.
The cities look crap, no-one would layout a city like that but there is also the simple absence of something like roads. Cities just sit in the middle of nowhere.
The terrain seems to have been designed by someone who never been outside. It is bumpy as hell wich serves no purpose except to add processor load and make for some very dizzying running around. Dathomir is the worst. It is hard to describe but imagine walking around in a fps with 200 meter tall 90% hills about 3 meters wide.
None of this is helped by a graphics engine wich sucks. On launch the game was applauded for the scenery. It looks nice, just don't expect a framerate above 2 unless you drop everything down wich means you are playing in a landscape that would have been considered outofdate 4 years ago.
Still there is something there and people keep playing in the hope that sony will one day fix it. For now it is clear why SWG is one of the less popular mmorpgs out there.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
that Sci-Fi fans and video gamers are obsessive nerds who care about pointless (to everyone else) details at the expense of everything else?
I suppose that gaming (in my day, that was a euphamism for gambling) can be a healthy hobby, but c'mon - when you're 45 will you really be glad that you spent so much time at LAN parties, and not so mcuh with pretty girls? (or boys, whatever you prefer)
From the Gentoo desktop of Luke Harman
When will they address the age-old Chewbacca defense?
I've been playing SWG for a couple weeks now (I know, newbie), and my biggest complaint would have to be the lack of a "larger" atmosphere. When I play, I don't feel like a small covert rebel pawn in a giant ongoing civil war between Rebels and Imperials. I just feel like a fish-eyed guy running around killing butterflies.
While yes, WWII Online sucked (graphics, stability, realism v. playability), it had that mid-war atmosphere. Every time you logged on, you got a map showing front lines, enemy & allied positions, mission rosters, etc. On their website they had constantly-updated strategic maps, a constant news feed about which cities were being contested by which groups, etc.
SWG doesn't really have that. It just feels kind of... empty. Of course, I am a wet-footed newbie, so maybe I'll find my strategic stride.
WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy