Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
tadashi
Feb 20, 2006

Here's the pitch for SWG

It took place between Episodes IV and V so who really knew what the story line was like for that period? Just do whatever you want
You could visit a shitload of planets from the OT and a few from the EU and there
You could serve the Empire or the Rebellion and build your own bases, but you can also work for Jabba which is p. cool
It's nearly a completely sandbox game so:
  • You could have your own house and cities and horde nearly all the space junk you could find
  • Almost everything worth using was created by players and everything eventually broke so you'd have to eventually get more stuff by trading with more players
  • You could be a space farmer, or tailor, or dancer, or horn player and just hang out in a cantina all day, if you wanted
  • Every world was a living world so you could just stumble across a Gungan/Imperial battlefield on Naboo if you were just running around
  • Nightsisters
Sure, you could be a Jedi if you wanted to ruin your life
You could own your own Y-Wing, X-Wing, A-Wing, Tie Fighter, etc

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

phosdex
Dec 16, 2005

You could be a mayor. With a rifle and a jet pack. How cool is that?

dudeness
Mar 5, 2010

:minnie: Cat Army :minnie:
Fallen Rib
Gotta tip the twilek dancers for giving buffs or healing I can't remember which.

reignofevil
Nov 7, 2008
I was a bounty hunter on tatooine and I shot womp rats for an hour then never logged in again because I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing or how. 9/10 I don't miss it like I miss city of heroes but I would play it again.

Tulip
Jun 3, 2008

yeah thats pretty good


My brother put down a giant minefield in the middle of nowhere in Tattoine while trying to figure out the controls. It had 0 mines so it just took up space and couldn't be built on. Like a year or two down the road, turns out it was in a fairly valuable location for some reason or another, and was in the middle of a player built city where it basically functioned as a common plaza because people had no idea who he was and he barely played.

Farmer Crack-Ass
Jan 2, 2001

this is me posting irl
My friend's late dad was absolutely in love with SWG when it came out. It was basically the fulfillment of the promise of video gaming for him, the ability to wander around Star Wars and have virtual adventures. I've never been into MMOs but it was heartwarming to see him so totally enthralled and enthusiastic about it.

Mooey Cow
Jan 27, 2018

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Pillbug
I don't know OP I can hoard junk right now that eventually breaks so I have to get new poo poo, it's not that cool and I would prefer if it was not so.

Sombrerotron
Aug 1, 2004

Release my children! My hat is truly great and mighty.

One of my more enduring memories of SWG is wandering around Mos Eisley and encountering a fat, bald player character wearing only underwear, twirling around the street in a whimsical dance and using the /kiss emote on my male Han Solo rip-off.

dudeness posted:

Gotta tip the twilek dancers for giving buffs or healing I can't remember which.
Buffs. Same with doctors. Gotta queue too, there's half a dozen other players wanting to get cyberswole so they can gently caress off to Fort Tusken and brutalise a bunch of Sand People in hopes of finding a holocron or two.

reignofevil posted:

9/10 I don't miss it like I miss city of heroes but I would play it again.
You do know that CoH has been cloned and risen from the dead like Sheevus Christ, right?

reignofevil
Nov 7, 2008
Actually yes but I tried and failed for about three hours to try and install the game and then I've just not tried since will the goons in that thread explain to me how to do it like the dumb little baby that I am?

Sombrerotron
Aug 1, 2004

Release my children! My hat is truly great and mighty.

Probably! There's also a CoH goon Discord you could try. It shouldn't be too difficult to get the game running now, though; have you already taken a look at the Homecoming FAQ?

I said come in!
Jun 22, 2004

This game owned. Would love for there to be a modern day remaster of this title. You can still play it on fan ran servers, but its such a poorly aged MMORPG that its really not that fun.

Meme Poker Party
Sep 1, 2006

by Azathoth

I said come in! posted:

This game owned. Would love for there to be a modern day remaster of this title. You can still play it on fan ran servers, but its such a poorly aged MMORPG that its really not that fun.

I think you desire for a remaster/remake is understandable, but ultimately impossible (to be good). The game was a product of the internet technology and culture of the time. It is impossible to replicate. None of the magic would be there in the era of game wikis and datamining, hyper-organized gaming groups, and no remaining "novelty" in online interaction.

This goes for a lot of MMOs of that time.

Zoran
Aug 19, 2008

I lost to you once, monster. I shall not lose again! Die now, that our future can live!
lots of fun memories from this thing. it was the first online thing I was really deeply involved in. spent like two months just farting around on tatooine building camps as a scout with no idea how to properly grind or get ahead in the economy or anything. eventually I joined a RP guild and got hooked up with resources and raiding buddies and everything

I kind of liked the cu, but like everyone else I gave up like two weeks into the nge

Nitevision
Oct 5, 2004

Your Friendly FYAD Helper
Ask Me For FYAD Help
Another Reason To Talk To Me Is To Hangout
SWG is a relic of the lost era of MMOs when they actually tried to be unique large-scale loosely-structured social experiences instead of you playing through a really stupid story with other players in the periphery and grinding arbitrary levels to reach the Gameplay of fighting big stupid bosses for baubles.

Meme Poker Party
Sep 1, 2006

by Azathoth
If you want to think about Star Wars Galaxies and have excess time on your hands, I highly recommend this series of blog posts by Ralph Koster who had an instrumental role in the design of the game. It's great reading if you're interesting in this game/MMOs of the time/game design in general. It's also kind of a post mortem of the game itself.

Part 1: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/15/star-wars-galaxies-tefs/
Part 2: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/16/a-jedi-saga/
Part 3: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/20/swgs-dynamic-world/
Part 4: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/21/designing-a-living-society-in-swg-part-one/
Part 5: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/22/designing-a-living-society-in-swg-part-two/
Part 6: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/27/did-star-wars-galaxies-fail/

quote:

When our team got going on Star Wars, we didn’t have an office yet. We worked out of J. Allen Brack’s house (he went on to be incredibly important to the history of World of Warcraft); in fact, three of the team lived there. I distinctly remember having conversations with Chris Mayer in the living room of that house — probably between bouts of Soul Calibur, we were all hooked — and trying to figure out what the heck to do with Jedi. At this point, we didn’t yet have the game’s vision document, we didn’t yet have a game design, or anything. So the statement “live in the Star Wars Universe” was not yet our guiding star. But we knew already that having an alpha class in an MMO was going to be a real problem. The problem was clear:

Everyone wants to be a Jedi.
Jedi are rare during the original trilogy.
Jedi are super powerful.

Of these three pillars, something would have to give.

quote:

But the game was shaping up. Players had formed governments. Vehicles were very popular. The early game economy, which was intentionally rocky becuse players had not yet developed all the interdependence infrastructure, had started to hum along. Entertainers were going on tour, and few of them were macroing, because they played entertainers because they liked it. People were building supply chain empires and businesses with hundreds of employees. Merchants were making a name for their shops full of custom-crafted gear.

And most importantly, nobody was a Jedi. Nobody cared. They were playing the professions they liked. They were doing what they wanted to do. The secret of Jedi was a secret still, and there were countless theories. Players thought they were being watched and only the deserving would be picked. Players thought that various half-finished bits of content were actually the star tof Jedi quest chains. And meanwhile, players were invisibly checking off items on their secret skill lists.

And LucasArts marketing says, “we need a Jedi by Christmas.”

quote:

Star Wars Galaxies set out with the intent of “letting you live in the Star Wars Universe.” The fanbase was very diverse, from people who just dreamt of lightsabers to people shipping Oola and Jabba. And there are a lot of ways to make a living. Because of this, the entire game was built around the idea of weak-tie interdependence: the idea that people you don’t know well at all are in fact crucial to your survival, and important, and matter.

In UO we saw people kill each other in droves, because that simplistic social model effectively meant that social structures could stay pretty small. There weren’t longer chains of interdependence. Whereas in SWG, I wanted to make sure that people knew they were part of a society, and most features were centered around that.

quote:

Right about now, to any player of SWG, what I have described in tandem with the “bouncy” nature of HAM as I originally pictured it, is probably sounding completely unfamiliar to them. And that’s because combat in SWG was a disaster.

quote:

I get asked this question all the time. In fact, now that I do consultancy from time to time, it’s not unusual for a company to come to me and say “can you put in crafting like SWG? Our players say it was the best ever!” Usually, they have actually, you know, designed their game already, or even built it. And I have to tell them, “No. You build your game around it, not the other way around.”

reignofevil
Nov 7, 2008

Chomp8645 posted:

If you want to think about Star Wars Galaxies and have excess time on your hands, I highly recommend this series of blog posts by Ralph Koster who had an instrumental role in the design of the game. It's great reading if you're interesting in this game/MMOs of the time/game design in general. It's also kind of a post mortem of the game itself.

Part 1: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/15/star-wars-galaxies-tefs/
Part 2: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/16/a-jedi-saga/
Part 3: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/20/swgs-dynamic-world/
Part 4: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/21/designing-a-living-society-in-swg-part-one/
Part 5: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/22/designing-a-living-society-in-swg-part-two/
Part 6: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/27/did-star-wars-galaxies-fail/

This is all really loving awesome thanks for sharing!

dialhforhero
Apr 3, 2008
Am I 🧑‍🏫 out of touch🤔? No🧐, it's the children👶 who are wrong🤷🏼‍♂️
Bideo Game development and the devastating effects capitalism has on them are really depressing

Tulip
Jun 3, 2008

yeah thats pretty good


Chomp8645 posted:

If you want to think about Star Wars Galaxies and have excess time on your hands, I highly recommend this series of blog posts by Ralph Koster who had an instrumental role in the design of the game. It's great reading if you're interesting in this game/MMOs of the time/game design in general. It's also kind of a post mortem of the game itself.

Part 1: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/15/star-wars-galaxies-tefs/
Part 2: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/16/a-jedi-saga/
Part 3: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/20/swgs-dynamic-world/
Part 4: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/21/designing-a-living-society-in-swg-part-one/
Part 5: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/22/designing-a-living-society-in-swg-part-two/
Part 6: https://www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/27/did-star-wars-galaxies-fail/

This rules. This quote in particular

quote:

The economy pretty quickly developed into a Pareto-distributed economy where the richest were insanely rich. I commented at the time that we had successfully managed to recreate the rich oligarchs of the real world, so something must have been working reasonably correctly.

Makes me wish that 'can we create a functioning player economy" had been a branch of MMO that got explored by non-libertarians.

Zoran
Aug 19, 2008

I lost to you once, monster. I shall not lose again! Die now, that our future can live!
It's so true, I always felt like there was a tiny number of people who had every imaginable resource and I never had any idea how to even begin getting rich

SlothfulCobra
Mar 27, 2011

That seems like the inevitable result if you put in the effort to maintain resource scarcity and allow for individuals' accumulated wealth to be protected and safe. That's basically the libertarian dream of secure personal wealth.

You can reduce the value of accumulated wealth by devaluing it or directly taking it away, and you can make it possible for wealthy players to go bust, which are some of the main strategies for the real world. There's also the ability to give handouts to poorer players, but when you remove resource scarcity, it's not exactly an economy anymore.

48 Hour Boner
May 26, 2005

I think something's wrong with this thing

dudeness posted:

Gotta tip the twilek dancers for giving buffs or healing I can't remember which.

I was in the early beta for Galaxies, and I remember there being no limit to the amount you could tip someone, and it was impossible to refuse a tip.

I stopped playing when the game went live, wasn't there some scandal where a ton of players got banned for tipping (and receiving!!) duped money? So much so that Sony's answer to protests was to teleport the protesters into space or something?

Meme Poker Party
Sep 1, 2006

by Azathoth
I definitely remember that was a scandal involving duped credits. It became a big problem because Sony, unable to determine who created them, just starting banning anyone who happened to possess them. Apparently they could tell which credits were legit and which were duped, but of course the common player could not. Since this is money we're talking about, the problem here is obvious. By the time the hammer came down the duped credits had been tipped, been traded, and generally spread all over. It was a bad solution and more innocents got caught it than actual dupers.

I also remember the "teleport to space" thing, can't remember if was specifically about the duped credits thing but it probably was. But yeah people were protesting in-game, and I guess for lack of better tools to handle it some GM's just teleported them away into space. I don't think this actually killed them or whatever, because it's not like the game ever had a reason to put a person in space so oxygen and what not was not modeled. It just left them functionally disabled until teleported back.


I wasn't even playing the game when either of these things happened. But I remember because they were notorious events at the time and the was plenty of buzz about it online.

Meme Poker Party fucked around with this message at 19:14 on May 11, 2020

Fleetwood
Mar 26, 2010


biggest hochul head in china
I played the hell out of SWG on the Bria server back in like '05 or maybe -'04.

Awesome custom crafting system, chat/social system was really cool, soothing and milking strange creatures as a Ranger and then making delicious Chef recipes, just hanging out in the cantina with word balloons everywhere getting buffs, it was fun

e: I also looked that you didn't have to create a beautiful, chiseled character- you could make a bulbous fatty if you wanted

Linux Pirate
Apr 21, 2012


SWG was cool. I played since launch until about a year of it closing. The best part for me was the expansion that added player ships, the only drawback was that it was released after the NGE, which hosed up the ground game. It kinda sucks because today all the fan run servers are either the original SWG without the ships/the hosed up base game, or the hosed up base game, but with spaceships. I was really hoping that there would be an emulator that ran pre-NGE SWG with the space expansion.

A couple of years back there was a thread for a goon guild on one of the fan servers, I joined but it fell apart a little while later. Still it was fun to play the game again. I just wish I played at the very end of official game because they released a crude version of atmospheric flight. People complained because there was a clusterfuck of ships above the major cities but I wouldn't have cared because a open world star wars game that had both a ground, in atmosphere, and space game is basically my dream come true.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

SalTheBard
Jan 26, 2005

I forgot to post my food for USPOL Thanksgiving but that's okay too!

Fallen Rib

quote:

I had a brainfart that never made it past those early days, there in that house. The idea took inspiration from Hardcore mode in the Diablo games. We would offer a Jedi system that effectively gave a different way to play the game. A method that kept Jedi rare, powerful, and yet allowed everyone a shot.

Every player would have a special character slot available to them, distinct and parallel from their regular character. This character would be locked into one profession, one class: Jedi. They’d start out weak as a kitten though, untrained in combat or anything, and with barely any Force abilities at all. Luke without womprat-shooting experience maybe.

Although the design wasn’t done yet, we knew that the game would be classless. So this pathetic Force Sensitive character would be able to gain better Force powers by earning Force XP by using the Force. They could also go off and learn other skills. But either way: if they died, that was it. They were dead. Reroll. Start over. It was that dreaded word: permadeath.

In the corner of the screen, there would be a timer running logging how long you had managed to survive. It was your score, for this weird little minigame. The name of the game was survival, but it was rigged.

You see, the moment you used Force powers within view of anything or anyone Imperial, or indeed any player, they could report you to the Empire. To Darth Vader’s Death Squadron in fact. And that generated someone to come after you. After first, just lowly Stormtroopers. Eventually, cooler characters, such as some of the bounty hunters like IG-88. Eventually, really cool ones like Boba Fett or fan favorite Mara Jade.

These would be brutal fights. Odds are you’d just die. So hiding and training very carefully would be essential. But it wouldn’t matter, of course. As you advanced, your powers would get “noisier” and cooler. You wouldn’t be able to resist using Force Lightning in a crowd, or equipping your lightsaber in view of some Imperials. And eventually, after Boba Fett and Mara Jade and everyone else had failed, well, that would be when Darth Vader himself bestirred himself to take care of the little problem.

And you would die. It would be rigged.

Your time would go up on a leaderboard, and everyone would be able to ooh and aah over the hardcore permadeath player who managed to get all the way to seeing Darth Vader and getting her rear end kicked.

As a reward, if you managed to make it to Jedi Master, your very last skill would be “Blue Glowy.” You’d unlock a special emote for your main character slot that allowed them to summon up the ghosts of every Jedi who had made it that far. So all the bragging rights would carry over to your other character. Heck, I had a picture in my mind of the most amazing player summoning up not one, but a whole set of them — the most badass player would have a coterie of Jedi advisors, hovering around their campfire, as they showed up.

The response to this idea was pretty much “Permadeath?!?” And so Hardcore mode never happened.

This sounds cool as gently caress.

SalTheBard fucked around with this message at 04:17 on May 23, 2020

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply