Ranger Archive
Thread: Impressions of NGE so far.
I made it onto test center and later TC5 for a few hours tonight and played a spy and a smuggler. Here's a few notes on what I experienced:
- My spy char ran into a bug that left me stuck in the tutorial after about 30 minutes of play.
- My smuggler char made it through the tutorial and down to Mos Eisley. The tutorial dragged on way too long. Once I got to Mos Eisley I was started out on another set of quests that seemed like more tutorial stuff, way too easy and boring. Maybe it's because I'm used to difficult things but I wouldn't want to grind a new char under this system.
- The loot/harvest system has been combined. Single mouse clicking on a corpse brings up a loot window with loot, credits, and resources (hide, meat, bone) if any.
- Combat is initiated by single clicking on a target and repeated clicking continues your firing. Haven't checked yet if there's other ways to initiate combat andfirebut if not, then afk grinding may be over.
- When I see other players running they sometimes appear to slide instead of showing thier legs moving. It makes the game look cheap.
I know, looking at this list, I see that these are pretty negative. I went into this with an open mind but it's not looking good so far.
Anyne else get in?
Most of the problems I was having was due to serious lag issues the like of which I've not seen since around P9 when they had to adjust the capacity on all cities to start reducing rubberbanding.
Interface looks alright. At least Dr P hasn't got his colouring pens out and made it 'fun and exciting' to use. Sometimes bland and dull is good.
Been downloading various clips of ingame fotage and it does LOOK alright. New combat system I've got issues with and I may well be investing in a programmable mouse or somesuch as I don't relish hammering the life out of my mouse button.
Already miss Ranger, lol.
Right, am off to play SWBattlefrontsII again. Hoth needs me...
I'm cross-posting this from WildBill's SWG Forums (Since most folks probably aren't setup over there yet...). I did experience some of the same bugs the other guys above mention, but eventually got in and got to the space station and started poking around there, donig missions, flying to the asteroid, generally seeing how things worked and tryin to get used to the new interface. I'm not going to dwell on the same things (stuff like the Falcon bug I fully expect to get fixed by the time this goes live), here's my general impressions and how I think this is going to go as we get to higher levels too. 
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I've gotten in twice now, and actually got to play for about an hour or two yesterday afternoon (enough to get by the Falcon, to the station, do some quests, fly to the little potato asteroid, and kill lots of stuff there).
Initial random impressions...
1) wow, new interface. At least for me, where I've only used the classic SWG one. Getting used to WASD movement again, getting used to NOT hitting ALT or CTRL with keys to do stuff (open inventory, etc). Not bad, just different.
2) wow, combat is fast! and dynamic! To those concerned it's nothing more than a FPS, it's not quite that. It's not button mashing and macros, but it's not SOO twitch based either. I found that for the most part, just get your mouse cursor in the general vicinity of the thing you want to shoot, make sure it's red... and let 'er rip.
3) HAM regen seems to have been juiced up on 'roids. Seriously. I think I was regenning faster than an ancient krayt on +RETREAT+ or something. But it was nice. Mobs weren't regenning 10x faster than I was, and in fact, I was able to successfully and repeatedly take down yellow- and red-con mobs without really having to pause a ton in my gameplay. None of this 5 min to take down a red con (or die trying). Battles are fast (and I'd guess furious when we get into large scale stuff - I can't wait) and pretty dynamic. Moving and mouse aiming IS going to take some getting used to since it's been a long time since I played any FPS stuff on a PC, and tho this really isn't a FPS... you still have to do the whole aiming-while-running bit. It's more forgiving, but player skill IS going to make a difference now to some extent.
4) I've only been playing the Spy profession so far. The initial quests are fun and interesting - focus is definitely on NuRanger type stuff, the game has completely dropped pretty much ALL concept / references to Scout skills of any kind. Organic "harvesting" now consists of random looting of organics from creatures you kill. That means it's "easier" (in that they can remove huge gobs of code for harvesting, harvest group bonuses, etc) but it's going to be a lot harder (in that you might kill the same mob, and the loot is random - you MIGHT get hide, you MIGHT get meat, you MIGHT get bone, or you MIGHT get absolutely nothing). Not sure what that means for organic harvesting market other than it LOOKS like it's going to be totally random, and a LOT harder to gather up large stacks of a specific resource. I guess alot is going to depend on how much demand there is for new crafted stuff - with no more decay in game, maybe this is part of the result?
5) For those of us that fit the Explorer archetype, it most defintiely is going to be a case of "it's not a profession, it's a lifestyle". The con is, no more scout-based professions or skills in the game, at ALL. Spy really is a somewhat stripped down NuRanger, and everything else Scout is gone - no idea how to name or train mounts, no more BE, no more Scout. The pros are, with the changes to agro for Traders and Ents, you can probably pick up ANY class in the game and be an "Explorer" without worrying about 1-hit incaps or anything. It would be very reasonable I think to be a wandering minstrel now, seeing the sights on all the planets as you play your trusty slitherhorn, etc etc. Most of the other professions have enough combat skilsl to get by anywhere it seems.
6) Many things we've been used to no longer seem to exist. I coulnd't find any real concept of conceal/camo mods, no TN (seems like everyone runs fast, but it's hard to say in very cramped space on a space station), nothing like that. Don't waste a lot of money on CAs or AAs at this point, no idea what stuff is going to convert to. I foresee a LOT of really torqued BHs and Jedi as one loses a steady source of income from CA/AA sales from NPC marks, and the other loses millions and millions in investments potentially. Heheh.
7) There is NO alpha class. Not a Ranger item per se, but one that makes me happy. There are strenghts and weaknesses sure, and this definitely feels MORE like what they were trying to do with the profession diagram with the CU. Some classes will be heavier damage, some will be lighter damage but with some healing, some will be very low damage but amazing healing, etc. That concept is at least alive and well, and I think I see it already with Spy - we'll get specials in (broadly) ranged combat, stealth, application of DoTs/debuffs, and self-healing. Seems to be NuRanger plus possibly a bit of CM thrown in (with self-heals only). We don't seem like we're going to be as strong in the combat, but we'll make up for it with stealth and the ability to debuff others and heal ourselves. Other higher damage classes (like Commando) seem to have much higher pure damage capability, but not much (or any) self healing, etc. Balance at last!
Phew! That's all I can think of right now, I didn't get beyond CL3 or 4 last night 'cause I had to go help some guildies with the filming of their next movie. The NGE or CUII or whatever you want to call it is actually pretty fun. It's fast, it's engaging, it was really REALLY fun to go thru. Let's just hope they address some of the outstanding concerns (like either giving us multiple toons or the abiltiy to drop skills and take up a new profession when the boredom sets in). This should make it a LOT easier for them to add in professions-specific quests and content, which is awesome. Can't wait to get back in, test some more, and see what's going to come of it all. From what I've seen so far, I'm pretty sold, and will be sticking around for a while to see how this all plays out. I think this will definitely lay a solid foundation for the Devs to make this game truly great, and ya know what? If it brings in a few hundred thousand concole gamers who love it and decide to stick around and play and make the galaxies bigger and more populated and fun again... great! Maybe that will take the game to new heights and realize the potential it's had for so long now.
Signing off for now, more to come as I think of it or if I get in to play test some more...
What little I did experience of combat I loathe, let me reface that Hated would be a better word. I found it boring to just hold down the left mouse button to shoot. Moreover, the difficulty of moving while keeping a target will mean that the one thing I enjoy about the current combat system. And with the current system the use of special is at least not boring.
I am really hoping that it gets gun as a character achieve levels, but my inability to get in to one of the servers just aggravate me further. As it looks now, My main character will properly end op a trader for a few months before I get tired of not taking part in any of the contend. /shrug.
Please excuse my negativity, but the only bright spot I have been able to se with all this that my loss of hunting efficiency will most likely not affect my local armoursmith.
Well I've gotten in 3 times, all on different servers. So I have a brand new spy stuck on the ramp, an officer stuck in the space station hangar, and a smuggler that I played this morning for a long time and got up to lvl8.
I really like the tutorial in terms of itsability to get new players used to how things work. It's long, like another poster said, but I think for a brand new noob, it would be a very good introduction.
I always considered Ranger to be hunter/explorer rather than the para-military, so I'm not terribly pleased with where that will leave me in the NGE. In one of the tutorials, however, I was sent on a "hunting" mission to the space station atrium (lol), and the reward was a creature harvesting mod necklace. So I'm guessing there will still be a way for those interested to get attachments, etc, to up the harvesting quantity from critters. That makes me feel a little better. The quest was called "Scouting Task 1", so maybe there are more to come of that type of thing.
I know it's silly, but I was pleased with what I've seen so far of clothing in the NGE. When I completed my first smuggler mission, I got the same outfit that Han wears, which was kind of cool.
I'm trying to get back in to play some more with the smuggler toon to try and get to Tat and continue figuring out how to make my Rangery way in the new world. Overall, I'm sad to see the old Ranger profession go, but I think there is potential to still live a Rangery type life. If we can't convince them to bring back camps, maybe we can at least get a bedroll so we can lie out under the stars .
Seeing as how I have 0 characters on any test-server I presume they don't want me lol.
Looks like I'll be watching more than testing for the time being.
WildBil2Me wrote:
Maybe its my own ignorance ... but I just tried logging in and it tells me "You can't have anymore characters on this server."
Seeing as how I have 0 characters on any test-server I presume they don't want me lol.
Looks like I'll be watching more than testing for the time being.
I have seen others posting that problem too.
I was on TC5 for a while and got my smuggler up to lvl10. The lag is ok once you get about 800m away from Mos Eisley. I can't throw a rabid shaupaut 5m without hitting a jedi.
problem is they opened a pandora's box when they made it possible to get a jedi and now we all have to deal with it.
I cant agree more man.
The way i would like it is every month CSRs pick random people to be one of 4 jedi characters (two light, two dark depending on what allignment you chose). They would be very powerfull yet have restrictions also and essentially be on the run from Vadar and crew. They get lots of cool untradable stuff such as uber ship, amazing saber etc and bascially a bad ass package.
No leveling and all you get to do is play out for a month how you want whilst playing the story of being on the run from the empire.
). Oh well, they ARE the most iconic thing about SW.Message Edited by Calculus_Entropy on 11-07-2005 09:55 AM
Also, just for giggles, I did /maskscent, and got a system message "you do not have that ability" or some such. Apparently it hasn't been taken out completely. Again, it's one of those things that might be interesting to see added later on, although I guess spy specifically wouldn't really need it anymore.
From a 'just another player' PoV it's looking interesting. The tutorial does drag on a wee bit, but its far better than the old one. Using voice actors was a good idea.
They really are pushing the iconic boat out tho. First character you hear from C3P0. First foor you go thru.. well, you've all been there seen that done that. But you know what I mean.
Have had almost no luck getting in/progressing as the US servers are at 8 distance from me, so lag is mental. It's like playing on Bria on a US holiday weekend. Today caps must have gone up some as I was able to get in and actualy use the two toons I'd created. A smuggler and a spy. At least until I was gated by the starship terminal on one and the pilot trainer on the other (after completing his missions).
Am also getting the 'can't create' message, even after deleting one of the toons. Maybe they've locked it for now for some obscure dev reason,heh?