Game Guides Archive

Well I quit a long time ago because I was bored to tears playing SWG. I reactivated my account yesterday, and played for about an hour today to check out the changes. I am now quitting again. I log on, get killed by a bounty hunter somehow. How I could have Visibility after being gone for the last 5 months or so is beyond me, but thanks to that 124K of XP loss and another 50K for resurrecting to top it all off puts me at a total over -200K now (I must have lost a little XP before I quit).

I thought I would check out some of the other things SWG had to offer, but I discovered that aside from a few new creatures, there is nothing to do that I haven't done before getting my Jedi.

I figured I would try grinding Jedi a little bit. Heard a rumor that SOE changed grinding and actually made it fun and not so repetitive. Well that rumor can be put to rest right now, because no that’s not true. For someone like me, that can only take a few hours of this game at a time before going into a state of insanity and throwing a large object through the monitor from boredom, it could take me anywhere from 3 weeks to a full month to get back 0 Jedi XP.

Now of course this process is mindlessly starting out; first changing clothes to normal clothes and putting away robe, unequipping saber, getting buffed, getting mind buffed, and then get to the planet I will grind from. By this time at the very least 30 minutes have gone by. Now part 2; equip CDEF pistol (I am not even a novice marksman, so missions are closer this way), Get two missions for creatures I am hunting (could take anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes to get these missions), travel to mission 1, equip saber, kill creatures, kill lair, equip CDEF pistol, travel to next mission, equip saber, kill creatures, kill lair, travel back to mission terminal. There is no part three simply repeat part two as many times as possible until buffs wear off, then repeat part one, and then go back to part two again, and repeat.

Now after about 15 minutes I think almost anyone would be bored to tears here. Most people hang in there say to themselves "once I reach Jedi Knight the game will be so much fun and all this will be worth it".

Lets keep in mind the average player gains 10K Jedi XP every hour of actual grinding. This means it will take you a full 24 hour day of doing the process I listed above to reach your very first Jedi box. The next box will take 48 hours, and so on and so forth.

Now we can't forgot death every once in awhile. Even the greatest of role players will die every now and then. It’s just the way it goes. Get ready to lose 50K XP every time and 124K XP if it’s a bounty hunter. So we get to add that into over-all grinding time.

Most players will say then "well then why be a Jedi? Try another class, and be done with it! Quit complaining!". Ok let’s do that! Master TKA, my personal favorite. Let’s take a look at the grinding; part one, same as Jedi. Part two; same as Jedi, except swap Vibro knuckles for saber. Now we have no XP loss here, no bounty hunters, and best of all much better XP gains and lower XP requirements. A very good player can get up to master TKA in one week. Others could take up to a month. Now we are a master TKA. Now what? Well.....nothing. You can try PvPing at this point if you like, but even if you're good you will still lose to any Jedi. Try another profession you say? Ok let’s do that! Same process.....we reach master.....and.....hmmm....ok....nothing left to do. At this point all paths point back to Jedi, because that’s the only place left to go. Time to go back to the Jedi grinding process.

Now onto the most important part of my post! So a Dev is reading this and says "ok, you big complainer. I want to know what would you do to make it better huh? What brilliant idea do you have?" Well here is my answer;

All professions need to be able to have something to do after master has been reached. Not everyone is a PvPer. Something to do could be some kind of quest that not only takes you to different areas of a planet, but also takes you into space. For example: A Master Smuggler could be hired by Jabba the hut to smuggle goods to a specific location. To get to this location we can't use a shuttle because we will get caught by imperials and will fail the quest. Can't use the travel option on our space ships because that option gets disabled when we pick up the quest. We have no choice but to travel through space where, UH OH a star destroyer captures our ship and pulls us in with its tractor beam. We now have to use our brain and our quick thinking which a smuggler must have to either find a way to talk ourselves out of this, or hide ourselves on our ship while they are inspecting it. During this time your heart is pounding, your throat is running dry. Just like reading a good book. You become your character and you are so scared because here you are, imperials all over your ship with guns, and here you are with tons of illegal contraband. What happens next comes down to your ability to react in a very short amount of time. You may get out alive, you may not. You also may just drop the contraband and abort the whole thing. Doing this could result in Jabba putting a bounty on your head. This Bounty hunter could show up and stick a gun in your face. Again this comes down to brains, quick thinking and quick reaction. Sounds like fun? I think it does. I came up with this as I was typing. I could easily come up with numerous exciting quests for master smugglers or any other professions. Or even a large group or guild where you enter an enemy ship and your attractive female master dancer distracts the ships captain while the rest of the group moves in for the kill. Something like that to add excitement.

SOE and even most non-Jedi players are saying "make Jedi more difficult, bigger XP losses, more grinding. Maybe take Jedi out altogether and let’s come up with some compensation for people who have Jedi." Here is my answer to that; simple; watch every single player quit one by one and watch SWG die completely. If everyone who has a Jedi quits, the game cannot work. This is not a game like Ultima Online where a few hundred people can make the game work. You need lots of people. Even now it’s difficult to do anything because of the lack of people. Don't be jealous of Jedi. Just go your own path, which could lead to Jedi, or maybe lead to another profession with lots of exciting quests that will keep you on the edge of your seat for months. After you get bored with a profession which is bound to happen eventually, try something else. Try playing every profession for a few months. After that maybe SOE will have some new professions, or maybe you will like to go back and try a profession you already did to discover that now that you have the "badge" for this profession, its much quicker this time to master, but wait, the quests at master are way harder. Yeah that’s right, it’s your second time around, no more Mr. nice guy. Don't like this kind of role playing? Want to PvP? Well personally as someone who likes lots of role-playing and every now and then PvP, I would keep faith in the combat revamp. You may need some friends to take down a Jedi, but to take down someone of another profession will come down to personal skill and equipment as usual.

Now someone may say "well Mr. Smarty pants, answer me this one; SOE does not want a million Jedi running around and probably no other player does either. How would you fix this? Can't make it so easy that just anybody can be a Jedi, but yet you complain when SOE makes it difficult to get a Jedi". Ok here is my answer; First off SOE did not make it difficult at all to be a Jedi. Its actually super easy when you break it down and think about it. It’s just REALLY boring and time consuming. I propose a way to make the journey to Jedi challenging and exciting. Let me just paint a quick picture here, Lets say that Star wars was real life right now. You could step away from your computer right now and see a storm trooper walk by your house. If I were a Jedi and decided to run out side and start mindlessly killing creatures to try to get better at being a Jedi, I would be kicked out of the Jedi order so fast it would make my head spin around so hard it would spin off and knock the person unconscious standing next to me. Think of what it takes to become a Jedi. What would you have to do? Well first of all we need to be a pretty powerful person with numerous skills to become a Jedi. Master a few professions and speak to a Jedi trainer who will tell you what you need to do to get into the Jedi order. May need to run some very difficult quests that at times will require quick hands, quick thinking, powerful friends, a good reputation, and even a recommendation from another player Jedi. Now its time to run the trials. I personally thought the trails were perfect, don’t Change them. Now its time to level our Jedi. This is very difficult because it’s going to require us to go on missions with NPC Jedi who will be barking out orders. Maybe we might need to save this NPC's life at one point. Maybe we will be by ourselves in an investigation mission. Anything could work here. During this difficult task whatever it may be, we will earn lots of Jedi COMBAT XP for saber or for let’s say force lightening. Upon completion of the quest we receive a decent amount of Jedi XP which would go towards any of the other Jedi skills besides the combat ones. There is more to a Jedi than combat after all. As a matter of fact, Jedi is more about getting out of the situation without resorting to violence. We will get to choose which missions we go on which will have difficultly levels ranging from very easy (can complete without buffs) to extremely hard (you better have a bunch of really powerful friends with you). Depending on the mission difficultly level will determine how much XP you earn during the mission, and how much you get after. Being a sissy and taking all easy missions will get you Jedi eventually, but it will take a really REALLY long time. Harder missions may level your Jedi faster, but be warned, once you get up there, your friends can't come with. This leaves you the choice, do you want to be a Jedi within a few months, or a few years. These quests won’t always have you killing. Your brain will play a HUGE role in this. Wow all the college classes are starting to pay off, and here I thought I spent 30K a year just so I could get that piece of paper that says I am smart so I could get a good job. Jedi are always using their brain. Yoda says, it’s not this crude matter as he grabs Luke's shoulder. Maybe you might not be a quick thinker. Maybe School wasn't for you. Does this mean you're dumb? No! Does this mean you can't be a Jedi? Of course not. Maybe a good idea would be to master Smuggler and try out some of those missions. That will teach you how to use your brain to its fullest potential, and afterwards you might be ready this time to try Jedi again. Hey now my mother will be happy that I am playing this game, it’s kind of educational. In my mind a Smuggler is a thief. A thief may break into a house, wake someone up, have the old man come down the stairs with a shot gun and get asked one simple question: "what are you doing here". Better think of an answer quick before getting your head blown off. This knowledge will need to be applied to Jedi, but now it’s even harder. Not a good fighter? PvP isn't your thing? No problem, before going for Jedi lets try a combat skill and master it. Try some of these quests. By the time you get through some of these quests, you will know SWG fighting like the back of your hand. Your fingers will be all over that keyboard, just you wait. These are just simple examples and believe me, I have plenty more.

"Ok so what are you saying? Make the game level based like WoW or EQ2?" HELL NO! Almost every single MORPG out there is like that which is what makes SWG stand out. Same leveling system, but we make it more fun is all. You have to grind a little here and there to get Master. Then you start using your skills and even learn others in the process. Then you start using; fast hand skills with mouse and keyboard, quick thinking, book smarts, street smarts, socialization skills, knowledge of other professions, or all the above (Jedi).

Now that you read all of this tell me honestly. Honest opinions here. Stupid? Cool? Could be cool if....? What would you honestly prefer figuring you had to start all over as a noob? Just do me a favor and think about that for awhile before answering. Thanks for your time.

Jannici Skynet - Dark Jedi (active since launch, now retired)

vMagev - Rebel Clone Tropper with Jetpackv
vDelli - Pre-Cu Jedi Elderv
vNomisdk - Master Tailor/Master Image Designerv
vOffer stuff at Danevang Mall(3331 -5594 Corellia) - Vendor FoD - Loot and morev

LOL....I'm not one to flame...in fact, this is my first...although it's only a small flame, a blue angel perhaps. Dude, you gotta relax. It's not THAT bad...and if you are only getting 10k jedi XP per hour, then maybe SWG isn't your game

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ZISSOD
Jedi Knight Loot And Badge Wh0r3

RASKI DRAKER
Master Armorsmith, Master Droid Engineer, Master Artisan (DWB Crafter-For-Hire)
*** Core crafter for 8 pieces of Mando on Flurry

Zookie - Bounty Hunter Swordsman
-=ENCLAVE=-

I don't think anybody understood what I am trying to say here. Look at World of Warcraft. Going from level 1 to level 20 is really fast. After that, leveling your character takes time. The difference is, leveling your character is fun and exciting. The quests are all different, and take place in different places. Once you reach level 60, there is still a ton of stuff to do. You could PvP, help people with Elite quests, or even take quests geared for level 60 characters that have great rewords at the end of the quest. The point is during the quest you are gaining XP. After completing the quest you get XP. Each Quest is different. Games like WoW and EQ2 are games I will probably play for the rest of my life.

One of my favorite quests I did with my Rogue is a quest where I had to use stealth to sneak aboard a ghost ship where all the walking dead on it are just waiting to suck the life out of anything living. My quest was to stealth my way into the ship and kill the ship's captain. Once I put myself into my character's shoes, my heart is pounding as I am thinking "oh man, this is creepy, what if I stealth too close to one of these undead guys and get discovered." Then once I complete the quest I get this huge feeling of satisfaction and the XP gain is just a bonus.

Leveling your character is always different, and is always an adventure. Once you start getting up around level 40, you have to actually take quests in the other faction's zone. Thats where the game really gets exciting, because now they can attack you, but you can't attack them until they attack you. Gives them the advantage and keeps you on your toes the whole time you are in that zone.

Occasionally with my character, I will hunt in a contested zone. Sometimes I get careless and a high level rogue comes out of nowhere and kills me from behind. Well thats ok, its all in good fun. Need to get back to my body and get out of there before giving him a chance to get me again. I will try again later. See, still fun eventhough I got killed

Now with SWG, the missions are all the same. Grab a mission, kill some creatures, repeat. The only time my heart starts pounding is when out of no where all the other character's turn red, and I have a TEF for some reason. The only reason why my heart rate is increasing is because I am scared to lose 50K or more XP and have to regrind all of that. When I am taken out by a Bounty Hunter, I am not willing to extend my hand and say "good job, you got me". After losing all that XP, you have to log off and blow off steam somewhere else.

All I was trying to say is there are ways to make a game fun. Many people still make fun of me, but you know what? I still to this day play Ultima Online. I always found that game fun because there is so much to do, and so many different ways you can level your character. Its never the same game ever, and therefore I will probably play the game for the rest of my life. I will probably play EQ2 and WoW for the rest of my life, and if not a good portion of it. There is just too much to do in those games to say "hey I have experienced all there is to experience in this game". With SWG you can say that after playing the game for a year or so. I love Starwars, and I loved the times I had in SWG. I don't want to seethe gamedie.

Jannici Skynet - Dark Jedi (active since launch, now retired)

I played EQ2 for a month and a half and found it boring. I came back here, and I've been back to exploring and hanging out with friends.

I can't say about the Jedi, as I have no intention of becoming one, because as one poster said, it is very time consuming, and I don't have the time for it. I'm not the best PvP(don't really PvP at all) and I'm still having fun. I found that in SWG as compaired to EQ2 there is a lot more player interaction in SWG, everyone talks to each other, helps out and stuff. I've acually have more things to do in SWG than I could do in EQ2, mostly I like the ability to go anywhere in the game as opposed to having to wait untill I'm a certain level to go somewhere, and if I get too high I can't go there anymore.

I like the housing in SWG where you can have cities in which you can explore peoples collections. You can sort of do that in EQ2, but not too well, you have to go through the list and enter their room, not very imersive having everyone come out through the same door way.

If WOW is that much better, than that sounds like the game that you want to play. If you like SWG than keep an eye out on the changes, but I don't think the game will take too much of a drastic turn to become extremely quest based like EQ2 or WOW.

Khasper Wavingfly - Master Artisan/Master Bio-Engineer/Imperial Pilot - Naritus


"Are you threatening me Master Jedi?"

Zookie - Bounty Hunter Swordsman
-=ENCLAVE=-

When I first started playing SWG right after launch,like many others Ihad no idea how to become jedi (or if it was even possible). I actually tried to play my character in a way that would be consistent with how a jedi might act. I never killed NPCs or griefed anyone. I thought there just might be a possibility that your actions in the game would determine if you were eligible somehow. Obviously, I was very naive.

Even though this is a role-playing game, there is no "role" you need to play to become a jedi. Unlike the films, it has nothing to do with conduct or morality. If you have enough time on your hands and you happen to be someone who feels like devoting it to a game, you can make it to jedi. You can behave any way you want without any regard to the true role of jedi as established in Star Wars.

I read something in the forums a while back. The poster said that the number one rule for a MMORPG was that you should never have a god class. No matter how difficult and boring you make the road to god class, there will always be a great number of people who will devote whatever time is needed to achieve it. It's just a matter of time.

As enticing as jedi is, I realized a while back that I simply don't have the time or patience. I know there are plenty who do though.