Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided

[ghsqb]

Ok, I am a complete n00b to the world of MMORPG's.

Never played one before in my life.

Today I bought Star Wars Galaxies.

Anyone here play it that I can hook up with to show me the ropes of one of these games?

LMK,

Thanks

Micky

[Starcade]

I bought it, played it, and the lag was so horrible in towns that I just cancelled my account. I was an artisan....I reckon it would be a good game if you had a decent gaming computer, but the lag was unbearable in towns, where a few hundred people gathered, not even worth my time if my computer won't run it decently....I know very little about the game though.

[calthaer]

I feel bad for you, man. I've played several MMOGs before, and I wouldn't touch that Star Wars one with a ten-foot pole, certainly not for the first 6 months and probably never. Besides the fact that it was made by the same people who made EverQuest (which despite all the terrible design flaws has managed to retain a large following because of its remarkable ability to create addiction - see the Everquest Widows' group on Yahoo Groups, it's REAL sad http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EverQuest-Widows/ ), it's pretty much a general rule that almost NO MMOG is going to be playable for the first month or two. Most of the reviews out there tell you this, but for some reason people just haven't picked up on the fact that the companies that are selling these games are essentially selling you a box of crap that you will only be able to use 50% of the time for the first month.

After that they sometimes get around to fixing a lot of the major bugs (many game-stopping), but in general the creation of an MMOG is a huge technical feat and very few companies seem willing to let one gestate for the amount of time required to create a stable & fun product. They almost all decide to release it half-finished and half-assed, and expect customers to pay for it while they bring the "game" up to the standard of quality that most people expect from their single-player games.

Maybe Blizzard's *World of Warcraft,* Artifact Entertainment's *Horizons,* or Richard Garriott's new one will buck this trend...but they seem like the only ones out there who are poised in a position to do so. I dunno - that's just my $.02 based on personal experience and on the reviews that SWG has garnered...most of the ones I've read are giving it "mediocre at best."

[ghsqb]

@ calthaer: Hmmm good feedback, thx.
To be honest I hadn't really read any of the reviews, frankly I picked up because it was Star Wars. ;)

Haven't even tried it yet as of this writing. Perhaps one advantage to not having played these games is lack of a real standard to compare this one against.

I mean, game flaws that make a game unplayable, or heavy lag, are going to be killers no matter your standards, but I hope that isn't the case.

Thanks for the heads up though.

[Starcade]

If I were you, I'd wait a few more months, so the servers can be stabalized, most the bugs worked out, ect. When I played the final game, alot of the quests were still bugged out, just wait for it man.

[dave2236]

I beta tested the game for 4 months and thought it was awful. I think my non-disclosure agreement is over so I can say what I want. The lag was horrible even in the last days of beta. most of the shuttles in the cities didn't work and missions didn't work. the crafting and artisan stations didn't work and no one I ever saw was a jedi. because becoming a jedi would take I figured about 20 hours a week for a year to build up the experience.

Also most of the planets were incomplete and they wanted to launch 8 planets and only got 5 to work by time it was released. Tatoine is laggy as hell, corellia is boring, naboo isn't bad but theres lots of walking. The othe two I rarely played because they crashed every 10 minutes.

Save your money, this game won't be good for another year or till they come out with a really good expansion. Not just an expansion to fix all the bugs that should have been fixed in the release version.


My advice, don't buy the game..go with some other MMORPG

[Starcade]

Dave, you say 20 hours a week like it is a big amount. When I was playign eqoa I was putting in 9-10 hours a day, thats like 60-70 per week.

[dave2236]

20 hours for some people is alot. I do play some games for 20 hours a week, but not the same game for a year straight. I don't know, thats alot of time to invest in a game. If a person spent that much time working you'd have alot of cash to spend. Also soem people have jobs, kids, school, wives, girlfriends..ect...

I'm just saying for me bieng a HUGE Star Wars fan..the game was horriably dissapointing. And the company had so much time and money in a game that they couldn't fix.... maybe down the road they might fix it and it might be good, but that won't be for awhile.

This is just my opinion though...go ahead and enjoy it if you have bought the game or plan on buying it.

[ghsqb]

I beta tested the game for 4 months and thought it was awful. I think my non-disclosure agreement is over so I can say what I want. The lag was horrible even in the last days of beta. most of the shuttles in the cities didn't work and missions didn't work. the crafting and artisan stations didn't work and no one I ever saw was a jedi. because becoming a jedi would take I figured about 20 hours a week for a year to build up the experience.

Also most of the planets were incomplete and they wanted to launch 8 planets and only got 5 to work by time it was released. Tatoine is laggy as hell, corellia is boring, naboo isn't bad but theres lots of walking. The othe two I rarely played because they crashed every 10 minutes.

Save your money, this game won't be good for another year or till they come out with a really good expansion. Not just an expansion to fix all the bugs that should have been fixed in the release version.


My advice, don't buy the game..go with some other MMORPG

Sadly Dave2236 and Satrcade, you guys are exactly right.

Now I had already bought this when I posted above, and it is everything you guys say it is, or shaould that read isn't.

Tattooine is horribly laggy, to the point of being unplayable.
Take a shuttle, game resets constantly.

What a major, major disappointment.

Dave2236: Do you figure they can ever fix these issues?

[dave2236]

Uh man...I think it will be awhile before they fix the server issues. from day 1 when I beta tested that was the main thing they were working on. for 3 months they tried to fix it and never did. Also about a third of the game was left out of the release version. our Beta had more things in it than the release version does.

Honestly they put so much time and money into the game that they had to release it. any more delays and they would be in trouble. ACTUALLY I was shocked to see it out on the shelf at Best Buy...My exact words were " WTF, they actually released this game" I though for sure it would need 2-3 months of beta testing yet....

I'd say cancel it after the first free month and then wait for an expansion to come out. Did they even release Endor? I saw it but I don't think it was on the release version. what about Yavin?

[Stark]

I was an avid Anarchy Online player for a few years then I switched over to Ultima Online which I stll play everyday. Knowing how bad things get when a new MMORPG is released I am waiting at least a few more months before trying out SWG. When Anarchy Online was released it was unplayable from the start. When they released UO: Age Of Shadows earlier this year it was also horrible and unplayable for the first month. Both games though worked out the bugs and lag issues and are now stable games. SWG will be the same but I'd hold off a few months before playing and paying! 8-)

[ghsqb]

I'd say cancel it after the first free month and then wait for an expansion to come out. Did they even release Endor? I saw it but I don't think it was on the release version. what about Yavin?

Both Yavin and Endor are in the release.
The game is actually quite fun, now that I've had some time with it, but the lag is unbearable.
The problem is I'm playing with a P3 1000MHz, w/256 MB Ram, which is right at the system minimum benchmark.

I'm not sure if some of the problems I'm having are my own due to my system, or if its all at their end.

Pings will jump from 104 to 3647 in an instant.
Frames per Second are usually aroun 1-4 in towns and 10-14 in the wild.
Does that jive with what you found while testing?

[calthaer]

One of the reviewers (I think it was Gamespy) stated that even on very high-end machines the lag was terrible. Still a P3 is a little bit underpowered to be playing a newly-released game on.

Being in Canada doesn't help, I'd think...I remember that back when I was playing EverQuest (made by the same people) when I was in college in upstate NY, I had a cable modem there. My ping there was *higher* than when at home in Delaware on a dial-up 56k. It's crazy - there's no way my ping should have been higher on a cable modem than on 56k, but I'm pretty sure it was the proximity to Philly / Baltimore / Washington / NYC that helped the dial-up be superior. A lot of that has nothing to do with your connection and everything to do with the number of hoops you have to go through to reach their servers.

They keep all those servers on the west coast, I'm pretty sure. I think Ultima Online had a better idea by spreading them out across the country.

[portnoyd]

<ressurect>

Wow, I got this, and I'm addicted. I'm frightened. Very frightened.

And the game works REALLY well so far, for all I've heard. Hasn't crashed on me, no bugs, little lag. My system barely beats the system specs needed, and is playable as well. Everyone who has this, how are you doing with it now?

dave

[EnemyZero]

If I were you i'd forget SWG exists because its on my top 5 of most anticipated garbage.......it makes anarchy on-line look decent and thats bad....depending on what types of games you like, theres alot of them out there but sadly the ratio is more bad ones to good, if you give me a pm i can probably give you more info on mmorpgs. My personal favorite is Lineage: the blood pledge, i beta tested it about 4 and a half years ago and have had an active account ever since...and now Lineage 2 is coming out soon and looks amazing. check them out www.lineagethebloodpledge.com

[Raedon]

hmm.. runs fine on a 2.4ghz AMD w/1.5gig ram and a Radeon 9700 pro. My freind is a big SW nut and got it, it seemed ok though I only like Fantasy based RPG's. I'm holding my breath for EQ2, can only spend so much time in a game..

[ghsqb]

@ Portnoyd:

Yeah I'm kinda hooked too, but it is awfully buggy.
It seems to depend what server/planet/city you are in and what profession you have chosen.

What server are you on? Which planet? Which profession have you chosen?

If we're on the same server I can look you up!

[Lifebringeroftorv]

I just started playing this game myself. I kinda like it, even though you occasionally get 3 frames a second in cities. I am slowly liking the game.

[portnoyd]

@ Portnoyd:

Yeah I'm kinda hooked too, but it is awfully buggy.
It seems to depend what server/planet/city you are in and what profession you have chosen.

What server are you on? Which planet? Which profession have you chosen?

If we're on the same server I can look you up!

I'm on Radiant, on the planet Rori (Desolate!), and my name is Por-T'Nay Andule (Cheesy, but it sounded SWish to me). I'm going towards Master Doctor/Master Architect. Right now I'm two skills away from Master Medic, and two skills from Novice Architect. Getting there...

dave