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Topic: Another One Bites the Dust: SWG Edition! (Read 280520 times)
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Tale
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8558
sıɥʇ ǝʞıן sʞןɐʇ
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Yeah, that's the reason i never picked up SWG. Pretty much the only mmo i never played a single second of.
In that case, how can you even discuss MMOs? This one was the "what MMOs could be" next-level design, spat out suddenly with some arms and legs missing. Then a really slick Blizzard version of EverQuest changed time and space. Devs decide what players get all the time anyway.
Good. Making decisions based on what players want is letting us cheat. My SWG guild was actually led by officers from Tigole's EQ guild, so inevitably we left for the early WoW beta, but SWG mass PvP over our player city was our spiritual home. That moment when our guild leader was incapped, I shot an area-effect carbine knockdown to buy time, dragged him around a corner, rezzed and buffed him, and we won...
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« Last Edit: May 04, 2015, 11:48:12 AM by Tale »
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Samwise
Moderator
Posts: 19212
sentient yeast infection
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Now that I've finally caught up on Raph's blog posts, I have to say the "crazy idea" for the Jedi system (where everyone gets a free Jedi slot with no unlock bullshit, but playing with that slot is hardcore permadeath mode) sounds like something I would have really enjoyed seeing play out in the game. Even/especially if it was mostly a giant clusterfuck with careless padawans getting wtfpwned all over the Theed spaceport and crying about it. The idea that any cantina dancer might just be secretly a Jedi who periodically sneaks off into the wilderness to practice using the Force where nobody can see her just massively appeals to me. I'd have loved to be a Jedi droid engineer.
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"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42628
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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I remember dogging the idea of permadeath when they suggested it for this game, but on reflection, I actually think it would have been a lot more intriguing than what they ended up with. Plus the vast buckets of dead Jedi tears would be exquisite.
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Samwise
Moderator
Posts: 19212
sentient yeast infection
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The way the system was originally described to me was a combination -- you would arduously unlock your Jedi slot through some secret process, and then your Jedi character would be permadeath. Which I still liked the idea of better than what emerged, but it's pretty fucked if it takes you a year to get the character in the first place and then you lose it with one unlucky lag spike. Having the character slot open immediately to everyone keeps it from having the bait-and-switch aspect.
I can see how it would have led to a lot of wrath from people who JUST wanted to be Jedi, though. In other words all the people who never played the version of SWG that the rest of us liked. They'd have come in, gone straight to trying to level up their Jedi, died hilariously, and ragequit, shrieking at the top of their lungs the entire time.
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« Last Edit: May 04, 2015, 12:54:29 PM by Samwise »
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"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
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Surlyboi
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10962
eat a bag of dicks
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The idea that any cantina dancer might just be secretly a Jedi who periodically sneaks off into the wilderness to practice using the Force where nobody can see her just massively appeals to me. I'd have loved to be a Jedi droid engineer.
That's pretty much what I did. Smuggler/BE/TKM, slowly honing his secret Jedi skills in the wilds of Dathomir. Making friends with the Singing Mountain Clan and using the Force on the Nightsisters and their rancors and later on darkside adepts and the wannabe sith preying on the Force Sensitives in Aurilia. I miss that game.
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Tuned in, immediately get to watch cringey Ubisoft talking head offering her deepest sympathies to the families impacted by the Orlando shooting while flanked by a man in a giraffe suit and some sort of "horrifically garish neon costumes through the ages" exhibit or something. We need to stop this fucking planet right now and sort some shit out. -Kail
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Malakili
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10596
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The idea that any cantina dancer might just be secretly a Jedi who periodically sneaks off into the wilderness to practice using the Force where nobody can see her just massively appeals to me. I'd have loved to be a Jedi droid engineer.
That's pretty much what I did. Smuggler/BE/TKM, slowly honing his secret Jedi skills in the wilds of Dathomir. Making friends with the Singing Mountain Clan and using the Force on the Nightsisters and their rancors and later on darkside adepts and the wannabe sith preying on the Force Sensitives in Aurilia. I miss that game. Which pretty much exactly captures what it would have been like to be a Jedi in that particular era of Star Wars.
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Cyrrex
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10603
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The way the system was originally described to me was a combination -- you would arduously unlock your Jedi slot through some secret process, and then your Jedi character would be permadeath. Which I still liked the idea of better than what emerged, but it's pretty fucked if it takes you a year to get the character in the first place and then you lose it with one unlucky lag spike. Having the character slot open immediately to everyone keeps it from having the bait-and-switch aspect.
I can see how it would have led to a lot of wrath from people who JUST wanted to be Jedi, though. In other words all the people who never played the version of SWG that the rest of us liked. They'd have come in, gone straight to trying to level up their Jedi, died hilariously, and ragequit, shrieking at the top of their lungs the entire time.
But wasn't the idea that you would unlock the slot and then it would stay unlocked? I mean, your Jedi would totally die, but then you just restart the unlocked slot as a padawan or whatever. I would totally play that game. Of course, I still play the EMU, so there's no accounting for my tastes.
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"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
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5150
Terracotta Army
Posts: 951
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Of course, I still play the EMU, so there's no accounting for my tastes.
Have they fixed the issue where group members aren't all seeing the same content yet? That was the thing that stopped me playing EMU
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Cyrrex
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10603
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I don't even know what that bug is, so I doubt it is an issue.
The thing about the EMU these days is that they have released the code, so now there are a shitload of independently run EMUs that manage their own stuff, plus they then get access to any new EMU code. In practice, this means they can add their own content, fix their own bugs, adjust the classes in general and activate content that the EMU people lock off on their own servers. Not to mention add-ons and HD texture fixes, etc. By all accounts, the official EMU server is the least well-developed, because they officially give zero shits about placating their community with half-assed systems.
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"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
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Samwise
Moderator
Posts: 19212
sentient yeast infection
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The way the system was originally described to me was a combination -- you would arduously unlock your Jedi slot through some secret process, and then your Jedi character would be permadeath. Which I still liked the idea of better than what emerged, but it's pretty fucked if it takes you a year to get the character in the first place and then you lose it with one unlucky lag spike. Having the character slot open immediately to everyone keeps it from having the bait-and-switch aspect.
I can see how it would have led to a lot of wrath from people who JUST wanted to be Jedi, though. In other words all the people who never played the version of SWG that the rest of us liked. They'd have come in, gone straight to trying to level up their Jedi, died hilariously, and ragequit, shrieking at the top of their lungs the entire time.
But wasn't the idea that you would unlock the slot and then it would stay unlocked? I mean, your Jedi would totally die, but then you just restart the unlocked slot as a padawan or whatever. I would totally play that game. Of course, I still play the EMU, so there's no accounting for my tastes. I guess it's more the possibility that you'd have worked to do all these quests to unlock the slot and then would find out you didn't like the permadeath experience, so that's where the bait and switch comes in. Which is true of most MMOG endgames so maybe that's not a big deal.
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"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
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Raph
Developers
Posts: 1472
Title delayed while we "find the fun."
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In the "permadeath slot" version, the slot would have been there from the get-go. Maybe gated on something small, like "learn the basics of the game before trying this, dumbass."
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tmp
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4257
POW! Right in the Kisser!
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Maybe gated on something small, like "learn the basics of the game before trying this, dumbass."
"Kill 10 womp rats."
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WayAbvPar
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Maybe gated on something small, like "learn the basics of the game before trying this, dumbass."
" Kill Bulls-eye 10 womp rats." Gotta keep that lore intact.
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When speaking of the MMOG industry, the glass may be half full, but it's full of urine. HaemishM
Always wear clean underwear because you never know when a Tory Government is going to fuck you.- Ironwood
Libertarians make fun of everyone because they can't see beyond the event horizons of their own assholes Surlyboi
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Sir T
Terracotta Army
Posts: 14223
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You forgot the sandspeeder
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Hic sunt dracones.
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Kail
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2858
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The permadeath thing sounds like an easier sell for a modern game than it would have been a decade ago. Launch as a free-to-play game with special permadeath Jedi Slot DLC for $20 a pop, it would probably fit right in nowadays (insert an extra $10 for limited edition purple lightsaber crystal! Special 2-for-1 deal on midichlorians this week only!). Back when SWG launched, I was still morally outraged that games would dare demand a monthly fee, paying money for temporary content would probably have made my head explode.
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Samwise
Moderator
Posts: 19212
sentient yeast infection
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I think it'd be a much easier sell now than it was thirteen years ago. Games like Rust and DayZ have demonstrated that there's a market out there for hardcore permadeath shenanigans.
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"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42628
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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There is. It is referred to on official marketing documents as the "Dickpunch Market."
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Typhon
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2493
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If they had built in a rogue-like feel to it, with leader boards, stats, etc, for how far you got/survived with your force-sensitive it would have gotten traction from a portion of the playerbase - you ARE going to die, see how far you make it. Course, the higher up in the leader board you got, the more hunted you would be.
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Draegan
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10043
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I think it'd be a much easier sell now than it was thirteen years ago. Games like Rust and DayZ have demonstrated that there's a market out there for hardcore permadeath shenanigans.
Toss in some PoE and D3 stuff too. There is a large market for it.
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