Development Cycle Archive

Why would I want to move to a city populated by people I don't know, doing things I"m not intrestedi in. I have a group of about 25 friends living within 150 meters of our "Coming Soon----City Hall---" spot. People who Iknow I'm compatible with.We were told we could form a city, with a small med center and terminals. Maybe a guild or two. I don't want to live in a "SUPER GUNDAMDEATH FROM ABOVE IMPERAL GUILD" city.Ialready do that in real life.

I wanted a chance to form a nice, little, town. Kind of isolated, maybe, if we were intresting enough, we'd grow. Maybe not. Now I don't get the chance unless I get lucky enough to plant before the cap is met.

I remember the claims that the casual gamer would be able to compete with the powerguys. HMMMM not true in any aspect at all.

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OOSquishy wrote:
....They have shown me what it is like to be in a community and how the effects of a simple obstacle and bring people together to work towards a common goal. It may not be something we wanted, but it wasdefinately something we learned and worked to overcome with a smile on our face and a warm feeling in our hearts.

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I found the same thing when we got our city together, Squishy. In fact, we had everything set up in one location, and found that some nearby people had specifically planted harvesters in strategic locations (and renewed maintenance on ones theyhad told usthey were going to pull up or allow to die) to keep us from being able to raise a city hall. So, first three, then ten, and ultimately thirty of us picked up and moved to a new location. This was not cheap, but it turned out to be a better-situated location, anyway . The nice community feeling has continued and grown since then. We were lucky enough to get our city hall raised before our server/planet hit the cap, and all I can say to you is - keep at it. When the cap gets raised, you will be delighted to see your city hall, and know that you havegathered a large team of diverse people, and together accomplished something not only beneficial for all of you, but pretty darned impressive, as well.

Hehe, you will also have yet more work ahead of you...

But it will be fun, too.

What about those who were not on soon enough to start a city. Not everyone could be on in the morning and lost out with the cap on each planet.

I'm sorry, but I don't think player city caps should be increased to large numbers. Having the planetary maps dotted w/ tons of player cities would cause HUGE lag. Plus, people need to rethink their ideas on this & consider joining another player city. There aren't enough people & space to have cities of L5 - 85 citizens plus.

To all the players saying to, "Quit whining and join an existing city!" are only players that want their city level to increase, I disagree on a city cap. They should have just made the restrictions harder to even place one...say 60 citizens in48 hours or Hall is destroyed, and then increase level from there.I dont know of any city in real life that has 10 citizens....hell, not even 60!

Bottom line is devs dropped the ball, and players deserve to give em a piece of their mind and whine all they want if they feel like it...period! After all...they are paying customers that were promised something that the devs didn't deliver.

Case closed.

Without an expansion of the overall size of the game, raising the city caps will not work. Already we are seeing overcrowding for Harvesters because the usable land has diminished. I think the cap should stay where it is, unfortunately you can't take back some citys which already exist.

I agree with Yonv. I know there are 'cities' out there who were simply too late to place their city hall..I know one of them that would have a population of over 150, straight away when the cap is lifted. They were one of those places who were simply too late.

So please don't start about joining another city as I have been to some places who weren't even 1/3 of what I described above.

what are you talking about? There is plenty of room for more cities!

Ecco

They are going to raise the cap by ten with the next patch, I am not sure that will be enough but it is at a start, I guess.

If there are player city caps, won't people who created their characters after the Politicans were introduced be screwed? what if they got politicians as one of their jedi skills and all the planets were capped.

Cities make for the least "Star Warsy" experience. There are too many, and many are obviosly intended to exploit POIs. Look at how many ring the holocron hunting grounds on any server. Many also are under 1000m from regular SWG cities. The asthetics of names eludes most cities as well. Some have great names and fit in to the Star Wars universe, but most others lack thought let alone inspiration.

A few cities fit the Star Wars style and spirit, and so /applaud to those communities.

I'm all for community efforts, afterall, that's part of what MMORPGs are about. I just hoped people would keep to the spirit of the game and not abuse a nice add-on like too many "uber-1337" people do. Its a roleplaying game. There's nothing wrong with powergaming so long as you keep the theme in mind. I'd love to powergame myself, but my other MMORPG Real Life takes up too much of my time (and credits, err, money).

I agree completely with Anjell.

However, my main concern is with the sheer number of cities allowed per planet. I am honestly surprised SOE actually lifted the city cap this far. After all, it looks like an attempt to "please everyone."

The fact of the matter is that many of these caps, especially on traditional hunting planets, is going to put a tremendous strain on the players in the long run. Seriously.. 50 cities? I remember reading a reply at the beginning of this post where someone stated they were worried they would end up seeing a hundred cities with 6 people in them. Well, while the number of citizens may be exadurated, that is exactly what we now have (or will very shortly).

The first concern I haveinvolves resources. It is becoming increasingly difficult to harvest good resources when they sprout up as it is. 50 cities will severly impair the locations where one could possibly harvest resources anyway -- good or no.

My second concern is hunting. I think most of us have noticed a severe decrease in creature activity and spawns as more and more cities are created. This is most easily noticed on a planet such as Dantooine where you can now travel 2 - 3,000 meters and not see one lair.

Another concern is the supply and demand of non-combative professions. It used to be that you could go to the Bestine cantina as an entertainer and know that it would be worth your time to perform there. Alternately, you could go there in need of healing and know someone would be there. In this example, you have 25 - 50 cities, each with their own cantina. Now, you could spent 30 minutes to an hour travelling from city to city desperately searching each cantina for the slim chance that you might find someone there. This also affects crafting professions. Where you used to have a few houses surrounding the large cities where you could go to purchase player crafted items, you now have 25 - 50 cities to search as well as those houses in rural areas.

I have also noticed a significant decline in overall social interation as, once again, the players are constantly too spread out. Now, this is a general statement, but I am tired. I've had other comments regarding this issue, but this will have to suffice for now.

What is the purpose of a point of interest if it is surrounded by player cities? One of the appealing things about Jabba's Palace, for instance, was how difficult it was to get there. The journey made it challanging. Doesn't it say in the description of the Sarlacc Pit that it is rumored that only Jabba knows it's location? How does it then make sense that there are 2 cities within 600m of it?

Now, I do understand that limiting city sizes was probably a measure taken in consideration of the concerns above. Personally, I do not feel as though this is enough. Cities should inspire large numbers of people to band together to create something rather than allow for 50 smaller groups of people seperate themselves from everyone else.

I'm not exactly sure how all of this relates to coinciding with the saga of Star Wars. Then again, I also thought the Rebels were severely outnumbered by the Imperials (especially before Empire Strikes Back). I suppose, however, this will all make sense if somewhere down the line (well beyond Return of the Jedi) every single planet in the galaxy looks like Corescant (sp?).

Thanks for your time.

I have to agree with Anjell and Rumbling Sky. I have just cancelled my subscription after seeing the player city cap rise in the latest patch. Too many planets are already overrun with cities. I strongly feel that player cities have ruined the game atmosphereirrevocably and I'mgenuinely stunned by the number of people who seem to support this cap rise. When I first joined the game, the planets were full of huge expanses of wilderness where you could easily go for hours without running into another player. The feeling of space and immersion in the gameuniverse was tremendous. You really felt like you were in the Star Wars universe. Then the player cities came along. One day, I clicked on my planetary map of Naboo, saw cities with names like Idiot's Ville and New Hamburg popping up all over the place like a virulent pox and felt my heart sink. I couldn't believe that the developers who had made such a great job of creating a beautiful and authentic game environment were so happy to hand it over to juvenile retards and powergamers.

Ultimately, I guess different people want different things from this game and sometimes those desires are mutually incompatible. It's just a shame that one server at least could not have been reserved for those of us that think that the great creations of George Lucas's imagination deserve a little more respect than SOE and many SWG players want to give it.

Note to devs - the unsubscription questionairre has a