Massive Star Wars Galaxies Revamp

Shockeye writes "Over at f13.net we have posted an on-site report on the upcoming Star Wars Galaxies overhaul. SOE and LucasArts are changing the entire core of the game in order to make things more fun and make you feel like you really are a part of the Star Wars Universe." Indeed, F13 has the goods, and a lot of analysis in their forums. Available elsewhere is the community letter that unveiled the changes, commentary from Aggro Me, and a breakdown of what exactly is happening. From F13: "I don't know how else to explain it other than SOE has done the right thing. They've revitalized combat in an MMOG. It's a huge step in the right direction. Do I think they'll perfect it here? No. But it's by far the most interesting thing a studio has done. They've taken a gamble, and from what I've seen it's paid off. In other words, they've added the 'Wars' back to Star Wars. It's been in the works for over a year now. In fact, the expansions could probably be called smokescreens for the launch of the real game. It'll shake things up."

Comments

Woo, Combat.

[ivan256]

There are so many forms of competition that multiple humans can engage in. Why the obscession with combat in MMORPGs? Are we all savages? I can only think of one massive game out there that breaks the mold, and is marketed as a mainstream title. With all these competing developers trying to differentiate themselves, why aren't we seeing more games where the focus is something other than combat? While they're at it, they can try to come up with something where the number of hours you've logged in the game (experience points) and how quick your reflexes are, or how big a group you can coordinate as the sole characteristics that determine victory.

I think it's time we look back into the history of multi-player online gaming and start to pull some concepts from BBS doors. Sure, some had combat... Real-time even; but many had other forms of competition as well. Trading, creative construction, logic, politics, etc...

Re:Woo, Combat.

[Xarius]

FFXI (which I play) has trading on a large level, from Auction Houses down to individual player Bazaars.

* Crafting is a massive part of the game, where you can learn cooking, woodworking, fishing, alchemy, goldsmithing etc.
* The politics is quite prominent, where each of the three nations (Jeuno is neutral) competes for control of territory, thus dictating prices in that area, NPC's etc. If one nation controls area foo, certain shops may stock items bar for that amount of time
* The quests are numerous, and also count towards how famous you are in each town and city. As well as being the only way to get certain equipment and items.
* The missions increase your military rank in your nation by performing lengthy quests and such.
* Also there is Ballista and Garrison "sporting" events, where you compete with a lot of other people in the same situation.

I know I am biased towards this game, but combat is not the only focus. A lot of people become intensely rich by being one of few who can manufacture a certain item, or who can teleport people to certain places. Other people go for the fame, or the highest fishing level (not easy to achieve) or for the rarest items.

Things SWG needs to get me back form WoW

[Captain Kirk]

I have both and am letting my SWG subscription lapse. WoW has some essential features that make it better right now:
1. "Boss Key" - if I play at work, I MUST be able to Alt-Tab into a work appliaction when someone wanders behind me. WoW does this instantly. SWG takes 3 minutes.
2. Online manual - the manual in the box in now useless the game has changed so much. I took a few months off and found my armor no longer worked, my profession (doctor) changed beyond recognition and my combat skills were all changed.
3. Faster transitions - flying in WoW gets old after a bit. But the shuttling in SWG is just a joke - 2 minutes of your screen just sitting there? Come on, its got to be possible to jsut load the starport if not the whole darn city.
4. Most important - less lag. I can play on full servers on Wow and enjoy the game. I can play on half-deserted servers on SWG and get killed by Stormtroopers cos of lag.

Both are truly great games. But in terms of technical excellents the WoW client is many steps ahead of the SWG one and given the choice I'll take the game where the developers seem to be better. And its just more fun if you can play at work and not worry about lag.