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Star Wars Galaxies System Revamps

Posted by Zonk on from the the-one-who-will-bring-balance-to-the-force dept.

Star Wars Galaxies has been out for over a year now, and Sony Online will be attempting one of the most ambitious moves in a MMOG to date. They're completely overhauling the combat and loot systems for their game. Now that Jump to Lightspeed is finally out, they've made available high level concepts for the combat revamp, concepts for the loot revamp, and actual data on the first loot revamp pass. From the combat revamp: "Star Wars Galaxies is making bold changes to its extensive in-game combat system. The goal of this all-encompassing set of changes is to make game play more strategic, more interactive and ultimately more engaging and fun for players of all levels."

4 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. Jump To Better Gameplay by blueZhift · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I too am glad that SOE hasn't given up on SWG. I last played it about a year ago and finally left for FFXI because there just didn't seem to be enough content or people around to play it with. With JTLS out and the announced improvements (plus an upgraded computer!) I'm tempted to dust off that old SWG box and jump back in.

    They also announced that they are doing a fully localized Japanese version. I wonder if they will follow the FFXI model and allow NA and Japanese players to play together on the same servers. I know that there are language and culture issues from the FFXI experience. But on the plus side, having players around the globe means that there is almost always someone to play with, which for SWG might mean fewer seemingly deserted cities.

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    To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
  2. Re:They are spooked by aelbric · · Score: 3, Funny

    With SOE also supporting EQ2, I don't know that it necessarily matters. In my opinion, they should just abandon the trainwreck that is SWG and throw more resources at EQ2. Perhaps even an SWG2: Return of the Content.

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    nos laetus epulor qui would domito nos
  3. How did they get it so wrong? by Drunken_Jackass · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I played SWG for about 4 months in beta, and about 6 months after release. My questions is, how did they get this so wrong? I mean, combat and loot are two MAJOR gameplay components.

    This is a design flaw that was either overlooked or ignored because of the rush to release a product that wasn't ready for release. Either way, this is a project management issue, and should not be tolerated. Why should players wait 1.5 years after release for fundamental game systems to be fixed - especially while paying a monthly fee?

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    There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
  4. Re:hopefully others will follow suit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I think it is too little too late. In SWG, SOE focused too much on creating a world, and completely and absolutely forgot it was a game.

    Add to that huge technical problems (a database system that still results it random missing items from time to time), many more major bugs that still have not been fixed, horrific managment (combat revamp should have been priority number 1, and should have been finished over a year ago --- not to mention a playable jedi class/hologrinding and the chaos that has caused), and you have the biggest flop in MMORPG history.

    This game should have had 500k to 1 million subscribers easily just based on the Star Wars franchise. Instead it is in the 200k range, and it will never grow from that.

    As other people have said, with WoW and EQII out now that number will shrink significantly in the next few months. And then MiddleEarth, D&D and others will be coming out to take even more subscribers away from SWG...