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ImperialCommando1138 wrote:

In its current form, I don't see much keeping interested after I master Shipwright and Pilot. The "canned" missions to get there are interesting puzzles, sometimes a little repetitive or even ridiculous (12 on 1? please), but that all ends when you hit the last level. Adding space mission terminals would extend that longevity somewhat, but it will quickly become a rather soulless exercise just like the ground combat mission terminals are.

What we really need is a concerted effort by the developers to add some galaxy-affecting content to this game. The ground game has no purpose to it. Some fantastic, epic battles have been fought between the Imperials and Rebels in the past year, but nothing every becomes of it. There is no "Galactic Civil War", just some bar fights or gang warfare that accomplishes nothing---not terrain changes hands, no cities are devastated or occupied, destroying a base means nothing, etc. It's an endless guerilla war with no organization and no meaning.

That being said about the ground game, the space side is similarly lacking. Sure, at the high end you can go take on a Star Destroyer or something, but what does destroying (if you can ) mean? Another one will take its place. The Imperial Fleet has hundreds of things. I'm only half-way through pilot right now but I can see the boredom ahead at the end of the tunnel.

I've pleaded for this, along with hundreds of others before, to no avail so far, but here are some suggestions, some simple and some not, for making this game work and expand. Something we all want.

(1) Stop worrying about offending some small vocal segment of the player base. Face it, not everyone is going to be 100% happy with whatever you do. Listen to suggestions certainly, but take the consensus view and forge ahead with it.

(2) Make the GCW actually mean something. Give bonuses of some sort (squad leader organization skills, cost of factional items) to the side who controls the most territory in the galaxy, including BOTH ground and space sectors. A simple method of calculating control---add up the total number of combat and/or prestige/faction skill points accumulated by each side on a weekly basis. Grade the control on the standard wargame sliding scale of victory---Decisive, Marginal, Undecided. Grant bonuses on this scale according to how many sectors throughout the galaxy are controlled by each side. Each week, the control is decided and bonuses awarded automatically. If possible, grade PvP activity higher than PvE points by some amount, thereby encouraging combat between players.

(3) Some additional functions that are required: if a faction controls all the space sectors around a planetary system, a blockade of sorts has been successful. The ground game should be impacted by this blockade for the losing side, as well as significant travel restrictions by regular transport services (i.e. non-JTL). This is where our smuggler friends come into play, doing the stuff they supposedly do best. Add roaming bands of patrol ships, just like the ground game, that stop and inspect cargo for contraband. This helps integrate the ground and space games.

(4) In the current timeframe, Jedi must be marginalized to factional in-fighting between the Dark and Light side. The Emperor and Darth Vader, along with incredibly difficult NPC's, must clamp down HARD on any visible Jedi, from either side or Luke Skywalker has no purpose in this game. Likewise, any Overt Rebels should be running for their lives constantly from endless streams of no-faction-point Storm, Commando, and Dark Trooper battalions hunting them down at first sight. It's a complete immersion killer to see groups of arrogant overt Rebels running around cities freely, and this has been a fault of the game from Day 1. Forget the complaints about "equality" and "balance". There should be none. You go Rebel, you automatically have the equivalent of a Death Warrant on your head. They are a guerilla force supposedly running from place to place just barely ahead of doom. How did this get forgotten?

Please, again, Developers....think hard about this or the exodus will continue.

Kalimir Krud, Tarquinas

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Great post. I'm more than disappointed with the space expansion since it's really not much more than a mission pack. You complete the missions, get the cert....and then what? If you were able to partipate in huge battles (ala BF1942) or you started fighting, like you said, for control of sectors in space that would be great. But it's just a badge you wear. So what if you can fly around in an oppressor? You can be blown away in 1 - 2 shots. It also came as a shock that my progress in the imperial faction gave me no advantage when I started in the Imperial navy. Eh...Why not? Would have been nice ot at least have access to cheaper starter ships from the empire and perhaps some custom weapons or something.

After reaching a certain rank in the Imperial/Rebel Army why doesn't the GCW take over? (and it might, I don't know) Cities should be largely imperial controlled and if rebels are spotted in an enemy city all hell breaks loose. There should also be rebel cities that are hidden on the map from imperials. The imperial's should have scout missions to find these cities destroy them.

If you don't want to be part of that war, don't join the rebels or imperials. There is no danger being on either side. You can own homes, harvestors, pets, anything. And they can't be destroyed!? We have landscapes littered with rebel houses, harvesters and huts. As an imperial shouldn't it be dangerous to be around rebel places? I may be covert but if I get that close to rebel structures they should attack me and vice versa.

I hope they make some changes in the future but it seems like they don't want to keep the game nice and friendly and keep the fighting localized to battlegrounds.

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ImperialCommando1138 wrote:

The ground game has no purpose to it. Some fantastic, epic battles have been fought between the Imperials and Rebels in the past year, but nothing every becomes of it. There is no "Galactic Civil War", just some bar fights or gang warfare that accomplishes nothing

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Actually the "Cries of Alderaan" content did accomplish something. The rebels won and now get a faction bonus. I think the dev's were doing pretty good in the beginning. They just lost focus on that stuff because of other game problems that "still" have to be fixed. Once they get things a little better balanced I think the GCW revamp will achieve something similar to what your talking about.

Lilith, how can you argue against new ideas? I don't know why anyone would post to actually voice a non-opinion opinion. Wouldn't you just ignore the forums and play?

There are a bunch of games out there today that came out way before SWG that are more interactive and dynamic. If anyone has played DAOC and gone out on raids you'll understand what a changing map does for the game. If the in game city's could be raided, and change bias for a certain amount of time, show up on the map as blue or red, spawn different faction NPC's, whatever. The game would feel more alive. How many times have you been standing in Coronet and watch a group of declared Imps roll in and start Roleplaying a Raid. I laugh, then I feel sorry for them because it's so absurd. They went to the trouble to group up and get ready for battle, but all that happens is they walk away embarrassed when nothing happens. That's boring, it's ruinous to the atmosphere and it doesn't need to be that way. Give people a purpose. Let them fight the GCW whenever they have enough people to fight it.

This opinion applies to space as well. SWG is sterile and now so is JTL. And don't give me any BS about griefing, this doesn't need to affect anyones gameplay adversly. Controlling territory wouldn't mean anything more then the prestige of control and some cosmetic changes. It would give both sides a reason to go for tangible, albeit mostly cosmetic, gains.

sterile is one of the best words i've heard to describe SWG in a long time.

Snadroj: That's exactly what I said in my post regarding mining, make them exotic, rare, make the mining freighter attract the same NPC's as other ships. Force the mining to be done with the pilot online and in the ship (no space harvesters) and make the resource depletable.

This way you'd introduce low volume, high quality resources that are harvested similarly to Rangers getting hide. You'd force the artisan to get guild or friend fighters to fly protection etc.

All of a sudden you have gameplay. You have a mission that's not some inane terminal mission that's repetitive garbage.

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Snadroj wrote:

I have played combat flight sims online for a while now so the only thing it added for me was freedom from public transport and multiplayer ships.

I agree that the space side needs more of reason to be there. If we take the mining suggestion as an example, why not have exotic mining materials (like crafting enhancements) that are only available from asteroids? - that would not kill off ground mining but allow a new market in exotics obtained with some risk (like being attacked).

I got bored living in the same place but need a house for storage, if I could get a higher item limit in the Sorosub by loosing the house it would enable me to move between planets much more easily, there must be crafters / medics / merchants who would like the idea of a mobile base of operations that can land temporarily (say for 1hr every 24) in a non-building zone and interact with the ground game.

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what massively multi combat flight sims have you played? i was unaware any save this existed.

meeuki:

I dunno about Snad, but I played the best ww2 prop flightsim ever created, Warbirds 3. The learning curve was impossible, you never truely mastered any plane and most people who played it owned a copy of Shaw's book on air combat maneuvering. It's like playing chess where a move must be made every second. Know your opponent, know your plane, know your energy state and have the coordination on the throttle, rudder and stick to fly it right on the edge. You'd fly against ~200 others dispersed on a map. The graphics were only moderate but the flight model was amazing. Most fun I've ever had online.