Galaxies set to launch this month

[Lexington_Steele]

Note to all, SWG is very Buggy right now. Unacceptably buggy. I would wait a month on it. However it is somewhat fun, although I am not sure it could hold my attention for 6 months.

[TekDragon]

The game is still under NDA so I have to phrase this in a hypothetical manner.

Hypothetically server problems relating to the final stages of Beta are not only expected, they are desired. The testing servers a hypothetical developer would use would be much smaller than the full blown servers. Thus they could be more easily
"stressed" and the bugs can be kinked out in the last few days.

Hypothetically a game similar to this one (wink wink) recently opened their doors to a huge new batch of testers in so that the beginnings of stress tests could be done. Hypothetically that company wants to get the biggest of the kinks out while still under the NDA.

Hypothetically, of course.

[Warborn]

Originally posted by TekDragon
Yeah PS is MMORPG. But ive had bigger and better and cooler and faster and more intence battles in Tribes 1 and 2. Not to mention battles in Tribes 1 and 2 relied on skill and twitch, not whether your using this weapon or that weapon. No. In Tribes a plasma bolt to the face kills you just as fast as a disc launcher or a mortor or a laser bolt. They all took skill and a pro with a weapon had a chance against a pro with another weapon regardless of range (jackhammer can suck my dik you no skill newbs, try hitting someone with a disc laucnher flying 50 meters in the air at 90mph).

The "problems" you listed with PlanetSide reflect about as poorly on it as my "problems" with Tetris not having decent enough RPG elements would reflect on Tetris itself.

PS wasn't made to be the next big death-match, pros-eat-newbs-by-the-dozen game. It was intended to be a sci-fi war game set in the future, with less focus on the individual and more on how said individuals can work as a team. While I would agree that PS still has some work to do to better achieve that goal, it is by no means not worth the money. As long as you didn't buy it thinking it would provide you with an experience that it wasn't designed to fulfill, you will have fun.

[OneManArmy]

phew!, eh this is another RPG set in a different world... same old shit different day. Of course, I hate RPGs so Of course I'm gonna be biased, but hey deal with it, I'm not asking you to think like me so dont start. Just merely saying that my sources have revealed that while a cool game for what it is you still do the S.O.S

"hey lets find a butterfly to attack...." "hey lets attack here lets attack there, oo look I found a hat......" "ooo lets click attack button, sit back and hope i win....." ...yawn...

[Happy lil Elf]

War,
Don't bother arguing with Tek. You see he's never wrong and anyone elses opinion is absolutely worthless and simply stating it gets you a quasi-intillectual arrogant flame.

Tek,
You've cancelled your PS account. Hallelujah, get off the forums already Oh, and EQ had a skill system. You had to use all of your skills or they would be essentially worthless. Simply had a leveling system on top of that. Comparing games like Final Fantasy to SWG isn't the best strategy right after saying how you hated leveling since esssentially that's all those games were aside from the plots. Not knocking the games I love the FF series and FF4 (2 in the states) still gets many hours of play on my computer through ZSNES and is probably my favorite RPG of all time. Another thing to keep in mind is EQ was not really designed as a PvP game. Sure you had that option, but the game was definately not designed around that idea. Not really suprising that PvP in EQ is, well, shitty.

Now on to SWG. I've talked to many a beta tester, whether it be EQ guildy, PS outfit mamber or just random friend from past games like Tribes 2. The only opinion I've gotten back is: It could be a great game, but right now there's so many bugs in the game it's actually more of a chore than a pleasure to play. Admittidly I haven't talked to all of them in the last month but out have talked to 3 or 4 and that's still their opinion across the board. I seriously doubt the game will be flawless on release and I also doubt it's launch will be anything near as smooth as Planetside's if they go through with this release date.

It really saddens me to see them rush this game. Personally I'd rather they keep it in Beta until Novemeber(ish) and squash all the bugs. Would be interesting to see a absolutely stable launch.

Oh and back at E3, I think last years...maybe not been awhile, it was stated the first expansion would be the ability to buy you own starship and possibly customize it. That right there would sell me on the game no matter how buggy it is :lol

Bit off subject but my dream would be a Privateer style game set in the Star Wars universe. A game with essentially no end that allowed you to buy and upgrade ships combined with a Jedi Knight?dark Forces quality FPS. Kinda doubt it'll ever happen though /sigh

*edit*

And there are no Americans in Baghdad, right guys?

Thank you War, I think I almost wet myself Always nice to end the day witha good laugh
*edit*

[Darksim]

Its Tek!

[Hamma]

Server space does not judge the monthly price.

PS requires serious bandwidth to keep everyones ping time low.

[aiwest420]

ok, for those who actually played SWG beta, i have some questions:
1)how is the game compared to planetside?
2)is it worth the money?

also, is there anyway i can try it out before i buy it (im thinking fileplanet PS beta deal)

ps, dont reply to my questions if you're going to say "OMG IT SUX" or some other stupid shit

[Lexington_Steele]

Originally posted by aiwest420
ok, for those who actually played SWG beta, i have some questions:
1)how is the game compared to planetside?
2)is it worth the money?

also, is there anyway i can try it out before i buy it (im thinking fileplanet PS beta deal)

ps, dont reply to my questions if you're going to say "OMG IT SUX" or some other stupid shit

You can't really compare the two. I would say that PS had a more bug free launch than SWG will.

Is it worth the money? That is a tough one and depends on what you feel is worth $50 + 14.99/month. I think you would have to decide for yourself. It is not a "you must buy this now," but at the same time it isn't crap.

There will be no way to try out the game without purchasing it.

[TekDragon]

Originally posted by Hamma
Server space does not judge the monthly price.

PS requires serious bandwidth to keep everyones ping time low.

Negative Hamma. Coding is what keeps people's pings low. Sending the smallest packets possible between the server and the client is what keeps your ping in da green. Bandwitdth plays a part but once you get to a certain level the price doesnt go up exponentially anymore. In fact ive heard many times my brother (vice president of technology at LI in Washington DC) comment on the continued drop in broadband prices at the higher levels as new technologies come out.

Server space DOES take up a lot of the cost for MM games. Problem is, what exactly is PS using its server space for?

Do the PS servers have to handle:
1. Large charachter databases with potentially hundreds of items stored on a charachter (and in the charachter's bank)
2. Hundreds of static NPCs across the server, each with their own scripting and AI (they are making townsfolk move and converse realistically in SWG).
3. Thousands of "mobs" across the server, with each type using varying depths of AI scripting (each mob type is supposed to have varying levels of hostility and behavior).
4. Huge amounts of resources. Including: crafted items, mob dropped items, craftable components, and base resources.. Also tabulating and keeping track of the decay on all of the above (with the exception of perma items).
5. Player run houses. Player run villages. Player run towns. Player run CITIES. Player run MILITARY BASES. Player run WORLDS.

Well? Do they Hamma? No, of course they dont. Heres what they have to handle:
1. Charachters that take a tiny fragment of space to store compared to MMORPG charachters (which is fine, its a FPS).
2. 5 bases *snicker*
3. Less than 2 dozen weapons *snicker*
4. A handful of vehicles *snicker*
5. Ummm...
6. .....

Nope, thats it. THATS what your $13 a month is going into. To pay the devs for doing jack shit. To pay the server bill that doesnt cost anywhere near that.

Yeah right We both know where 85% of your subscription is going to: into the pockets of SOE execs.

[NightWalker XI]

FF XI is gonna blow all these wannabe games out of business..

[Sp3ctre]

^Yep I agree, FF XI is gonna rule^

I generally think Star Wars is complete bollocks in any form, like Harry Potter, Ms Dynamite and Nicole Kidman. I can't stand the story, the 'acting', the world, the complete nobhead fans and the crappy guns.

All these games do is leech off a license

[Warborn]

Originally posted by TekDragon
stuff

That's only partly true. In order for the packets to be small enough, a lot of stuff had to be simplified in the game. No NPCs, no hit detection, no complex equations for determining damage incurred (or general combat equations for hit/miss readings). So, yes, the coding plays a big part.

However, to say that PS doesn't take a lot of bandwidth to run is ignorant at best, intentionally misleading and malicious if I were to be realistic. PS takes probably around the same amount of bandwidth as MMORPGs take to function in order to achieve a ping which is much lower than a standard MMORPG's (most MMORPGs cap the bandwidth allocated to each player well below the 56k modem level, thus causing the incessant rubber-banding and whatnot). To keep this low ping for thousands of people playing the game around the clock, you're looking at a hefty monthly fee for bandwidth.

But, the subscription fee isn't spent entirely on that. The live team which is used to keep PS updated and functioning smoothly also needs to be paid, and they're paid out of the game's monthly earnings. Furthermore, all secondary employees (ex. CSRs) also require a salary, and again, PS's monthly fee is tapped to pay for them also. There are probably a couple other cash sinks involved, but I'm tired and don't feel like trying to remember them.

While a successful MMOG can be profitable, saying that 85% of the monthly fee is pure profit is completely ridiculous. I seriously question whether or not you truly care what the facts of a given situation are, or whether you strive to keep the wool pulled tighly over your own eyes so that you can believe to be true whatever doesn't conflict with your own personal opinion.

[ZionsFire]

always a good response from warborn

[OneManArmy]

wow, tekdragon is an asshole.....