SW:G is out in a week and the beta NDA is lifted.

[sumamael]

Star Wars Galaxies will release June 26, 2003 and the beta tester NDA was lifted a few hours ago.

Now I'm pretty sure that there will be people who are going to rave about how many bugs are still in the game and how much it suck for a reason or another, I have only one comment about the negative part, it is a SOE game, if you hate SOE with a passion because of EQ then you probably shouldn't play SWG.

Now the positive part, SWG is a great game, I love it. Mostly because of the tradeskill part.

I have skilled up to 250 smithing, getting near 200 tailoring and all of my other skills are around 220 like JC, brewing and pottery, also have an alt with 243 smithing so I know a few thinks about EQ tradeskills.

In EQ tradeskill skillups are long, boring and bad for your health. Sometimes one skill up can cost you 100+ non-trivial attempts that each has 10-20 subcombines...lots and lots and lots of clicking. Every time I see the combine button I can almost vomit.

Now in SWG the progression is not such an ugly timesink, you can become a tailor, weaponsmith etc etc, in a week or 2 easily.

So if you love tradeskills just because you like creating things but hate the long and ugly skill up then you gonna love this game.

As one of my friends put it, "If you even vaguely enjoyed tradeskills in EQ, you're gonna think you died and went to trader heaven."

So I can wholeheartedly suggest anyone to try the game, even if you won't like it on the long run, the visuals and the audio goodness is well worth the $50 even if you only gonna mess around with it for a month or 2.



Small print, if you hate bugs then wait a week or 2 after release before buying it.

If you are a power gamer who plays 12+ hours a day then you might wanna wait for the space expansion to come out because you might be dissapointed right now....

[Traska]

Now the positive part, SWG is a great game, I love it. Mostly because of the tradeskill part.

I have skilled up to 250 smithing, getting near 200 tailoring and all of my other skills are around 220 like JC, brewing and pottery, also have an alt with 243 smithing so I know a few thinks about EQ tradeskills.

In EQ tradeskill skillups are long, boring and bad for your health. Sometimes one skill up can cost you 100+ non-trivial attempts that each has 10-20 subcombines...lots and lots and lots of clicking. Every time I see the combine button I can almost vomit.

Now in SWG the progression is not such an ugly timesink, you can become a tailor, weaponsmith etc etc, in a week or 2 easily.

So if you love tradeskills just because you like creating things but hate the long and ugly skill up then you gonna love this game.

As one of my friends put it, "If you even vaguely enjoyed tradeskills in EQ, you're gonna think you died and went to trader heaven."

WARNING: Opinion ahead!

So, basically, they made tradeskills utterly and completely trivial.

What's the point, then? It's like if you can do your epic with only two hours work, how significant, how epic, is the epic?

I have a 250 baker (see sig for details) and I *still* do MTPs. Why? Because I love the fact that I can. Yes, baking is relatively easy, but the subcombines don't scare me away, they make me embrace the trade.

[Aoladari Raveynfyre]

All I want to say ATM is that I was entirely unimpressed with the game.

Yes you can see exp gain in one night even in higher levels, but to me the game seems to be very one dimensional. I don't mean the graphics I mean in the atmosphere. You do X you get exp. You can run missions but more often than not (playing certain non-combat classes mind you) you get your rear end handed to you on a silver platter. Making money is well.... difficult to say the least unless you can take down X ammt of storm troopers/rebels/badguys with a gun.

I recommend this game to anyone interested in FPS type games. Any other classes and you're screwed out of any enjoyable gameplay.

[Itzena]

I'd personally recommend Planetside for FPS fans.
I still can't believe that there isn't a true Z-axis in SWG, myself...

[sumamael]

So, basically, they made tradeskills utterly and completely trivial.

What's the point, then? It's like if you can do your epic with only two hours work, how significant, how epic, is the epic?

"Easy" yes, trivial no.

I can skill up to 250 baking in a week in EQ, takes a lot of foraging and even more clicking but I can do it.

I can become something similar in SWG in the same period of time but my fingers and mouse will be still functional at the end.

Also, there are no vendors in SWG, everything you need for tradeskills will have to be gathered a way or another. Mining, hunting, foraging etc.

[Eumerin]

I'm in the beta, and I've preordered SWG. So yes, I like it.

As Sumamael mentioned, tradeskills in SWG are not trivial. Yes, you can get good at your craft, and you can craft some decent stuff in fairly short order, but there are other limiters built into the system. Locating your own resources is one thing. Later items require factories and enough quantities of materials that you need mines (we're talking houses, droids, etc... either you get a factory to harvest those materials, or you spend a looooooong time out taking samples for each item you build) and factories and mines require large infusions of cash.

High level tradeskilling is not something you do "just because" in SWG, although the lower levels of tradeskilling are perfectly doable by the casual tradeskiller.

[Niami DenMother]

Just so you can see some of the progressions involved, seems Alla'khazam's already has a character builder out.

http://swg.allakhazam.com/db/charbuild.html

[Eumerin]

Fun little tool!

There does appear to be a problem with it, however. Skills that require more than two prerequisites only seem to display the first two prequisites. For example, trying to select Novice Smuggler won't work until you have Pistols IV and Unarmed IV, which is correct, but you can select it even though you don't have any artisan skill. And iirc, smuggler requires Business IV and possibly Engineer IV (can't recall on the last one - its been a while since I last checked). And, of course, you can't get the 5000 merchant experience you need for Novice Smuggler without earning at least a little of the Business column.

But its still useful quite useful.

Edit: Whoops! My bad. Looks like they've changed the requirements for smuggler since the last time I looked. It also no longer requires merchant experience to learn Novice Smuggler.

[Cebe]

Any word of a SWG Crafting site? Somthing along the lines of EQ Traders and Camelot Tradeskills?

Thanks.

[GunnyBurlfoot]

Maybe the Denmom can expand her operations??

I find it incomprehensible that anyone could do a better job organizing tradeskill information and data than this site right here!

If that is impossible, perhaps someone closely affiliated with this site could run a SWG site, and a link put up??

I know several people who question tradeskill things, and always to solve it they say "EQTraders will have the right info, checking..."

So, what I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't trust a SWG Tradeskill site unless I knew that they were affliated with EQTraders in some fashion.

EQTraders is THAT good

[Lothay]

At this time, and for the forseable future there are no plans by EQTraders to do a site for any other game.

~Lothay

[Ngreth Thergn]

Who knows.

Since all that is needed for tradeskills for SWG is a FAQ.

"how do I get the parts"
"how do I make items"
"how do I experiment"
"what are the 'specialized crafting tool'""
"How do I get/set up a harvester"
"How do I get/set up a shop"
"How do I get/set up a factory"

Those are about the only things a crafter needs help with.

Maybe a "spreadsheet" of what parts are needed for x... just to have it at a glance... but really... SOOOO much easier.

How to make something in a particular tradeskill? It is really clear... no hunting for the recipe, no trivials... if you have the skills to make an item, you can make it... you can even easilly see in game what you can make in the future.

There is almost no need for a SWG tradeskill site except for the FAQ and maybe a board to converse on.

But CURRENTLY the answer is no... ESPECIALLY since it is launching during our beta of the DB site.

[sumamael]

Lol, forget everything I said.

In the last days of beta the xp requirements got balanced and now certain professions gonna take up to 6 times as much xp as before.

Now this is the same old grid like EQ, you gonna produce mass quantities of the same item in order to skill up resulting in the flooding of the market with those items pushing prices down etc etc....

The only thing that changed compared to EQ is the neat little xp bar showing exactly how much more xp you need to "skill up" and RNG plays no part in it anymore.

Anyway, it's still going to be a fun game but I think I will wait a few months before actively playing it to wait out till there is an established economy on the servers because the class interdependency will make progression very hard for the crafters in the first month.

[Niami DenMother]

Actually, the requirements were boosted up for them to test some stuff, then lowered again some yesterday.

Just like with EQ and the Test server, what happens in beta isn't necessarily what's ending up live. ;D

As for a crafting site for the game, try out http://www.swgcraft.com/

No, I'm not doing another site. I want a game where I can ***play*** and running a site for a game turns even play into work. Been there, done that, please don't ask me to do it for another game.

[GunnyBurlfoot]

Alrighty! Thanks.. but I will miss the Denmom's (and House Ogres) throughgoing dedication to the discovery of all recipes, as they have done so throughly well on EQ.

Although, it's also the community. Perhaps we could all agree to descend on this website the Denmom mentioned, so everyone that is playing SWG might continue to share information?? I hope to see you all in SWG someday!