Initially I caught onto the fact that Star Wars Galaxies was planning a MAJOR rebuild of their game via Kill Ten Rats. F13.net also has a good discussion going on.The quote that really caught my attention...
"Basically they went through, ripped out 80% of the classes, left in the following: Force Sensitive, Bounty Hunter, Officer, Smuggler, Commando, Spy, Trader (all the tradeskills - 4 base sets now - Domestics, Structures, Munitions, Engineering), Medic and Entertainer. Here’s the deal. Right click shoots - you have to aim. Left click fires off a special ability.It seems that they are merging the concepts of Planetside with SWG which is something many people have called since SWG was in beta. Star Wars combat has always been about the lasers and SWG was quickly pushing the EQ formula into Star Wars.
No more auto attack.
No more hotkey combat.
Once collision detection goes in, this will probably be the game I play. There’s actual skill involved now. You can run from people and they can’t just autohit you."
All these MAJOR changes come on the heels of their first combat revamp... which I doomcast on message boards well before it ever hit. These new changes are what I consdier a REVAMP. They are truly migrating the game to simpler, yet more skill based combat system.
Do I think these changes are going to save the game?
Possibly, but I'm not going to Vegas anytime soon to drop my life savings on it. It will hopefully be 6+ months before we see the changes. Otherwise they will be rushed, buggy, and do more harm than good.
These are good changes for the game! However, the number of complete rebuilds of entire game systems for SWG has destroyed all faith in SOE developers that I may possibly of had left. Sorry Raph.
*IF* they go ahead and turn SWG into a Planetside-style clone (in 3rd or 1st person), they're going to lose a considerable percentage of their players - leaving the crafting in is a sneaky way to retain some though.
ReplyDeleteOf course, they already lost quite a few players already, with every major patch aside from JTL, where they gained a huge number of newbies in exchange for a few more long term players.
Up to them. I'll probably go back when it's implemented and stable, give it a quick spin to see if it's actually any good then abandon it due to it being either boring, full of hackers and bugs/abusers (a constant problem in skill-based games, as you call them).
Sorry. Much cynicism. Hey, it might even be good.
I don't think it'll top Counter Strike: CZ for skill though. ^^
-Ex-SWG player
Oblo
Answer me this... why is crafting being overhauled with the combat?
ReplyDeleteThis is such a broad stroke to the game that I am still trying to understand it all.
Crafting to me was one of the *better* parts of SWG that only needed some tweaks to iron out. I honestly believe crafting changes and the Jedi changes will be the two largest factors for vets quitting.