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Star Wars: Galaxies Emu

Joined
Dec 17, 2013
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5,103
Star Wars: Galaxies was a sandbox MMORPG that came out in 2003 from Sony to a lot of hype. One of its distinguishing characteristics was that the lead designer was Raph Koster of Ultima Online fame, and in many ways, SWG was the intended successor to UO. It had great ambitions in terms of creating a complex, dynamic world driven by players with deep social interactions. While its initial launch was very buggy and the game certainly had its share of problems, it nevertheless attracted a hardcore following among people looking for a serious sandbox MMO.

Shortly after SWG came out, the MMO genre was rocked by the arrival of World of Warcraft, and much like many other publishers, Sony tried to cash in on WoW's financial success by changing SWG to make it more similar to Blizzard's behemoth. Two infamous releases called the Combat Update (CU) and New Game Enhancements (NGE) destroyed much of what was unique and complex about SWG and turned it into an inferior WoW wannabe. This led to most of the players leaving in disgust, and the game eventually being shut down in 2011.

As some of you might be aware, a small group of dedicated fans started a community project called SWG Emu all the way back in 2004, to try to preserve what made SWG special. Their goal was to give players an opportunity to play pre-CU SWG, the way the game was originally meant to be played by its designers. To get around Sony's changes, they set out to recreate the entire server architecture from scratch. This was an extremely ambitious goal that would take such a small group many years, and understandably, when people tried SWG Emu over the years, their experiences were often negative, with a lot of stuff either missing or broken.

However, it has now been well over a decade, and their efforts have not been in vain. If you look at their development list these days, they have been able to implement much of the original functionality, although they are still some ways away from version 1.0:

http://www.swgemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75

They are currently running 2 servers, a test server and a play server called Basilisk, which has a rather healthy population of 1200-1300 players on most times. There are also about 8 other servers run by other people with different rules but using SWG Emu's server code.

So if you are looking for a good sandbox MMO to play, and are saddened by the state of things in that sub-genre, this might be the best thing out there at the moment.

Website: http://www.swgemu.com/forums/content.php

Some recent articles about this:
http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/headline-story/15335/star-wars-galaxies-swgemu-project/
http://kotaku.com/star-wars-galaxies-is-dead-but-these-people-are-keepin-1786587786
 

Karwelas

Dwarf Taffer
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Codex Year of the Donut I helped put crap in Monomyth
Star Wars: Galaxies was a sandbox MMORPG that came out in 2003 from Sony to a lot of hype. One of its distinguishing characteristics was that the lead designer was Raph Koster of Ultima Online fame, and in many ways, SWG was the intended successor to UO.

This EMU is one of projects I carry in my memory and soul as one of best projects around. They did everything to make this game as it was before. Really, it is fucking amazing what they did with it and what they are doing. It is like ressurecting the game from the older times. I should get back to it as soon as I manage to pass the exams. Actually, maybe we should set Codex group.

(Cantina parties forever, who was there then knows. TIP THE FUCKING MUSICIANS)
 

zeitgeist

Magister
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Aug 12, 2010
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Wake me up when they get to JTL.

Two infamous releases called the Combat Update (CU) and New Game Enhancements (NGE) destroyed much of what was unique and complex about SWG and turned it into an inferior WoW wannabe. This led to most of the players leaving in disgust, and the game eventually being shut down in 2011.

Even though CU/NGE ruined the game entirely (NGE a lot more than CU), the real tragedy is in how many additional features, items and gameplay systems have been implemented since NGE, some of them mere weeks before the final shutdown was announced, such as atmospheric flight for example. If all those things were added to the base game instead (which should be the goal of at least one server project, but you'd have to get a fully finished base game for that first), it would've greatly surpassed even UO.
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
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Even though CU/NGE ruined the game entirely (NGE a lot more than CU), the real tragedy is in how many additional features, items and gameplay systems have been implemented since NGE, some of them mere weeks before the final shutdown was announced, such as atmospheric flight for example. If all those things were added to the base game instead (which should be the goal of at least one server project, but you'd have to get a fully finished base game for that first), it would've greatly surpassed even UO.

I agree, but I think we can pretty much assume game was put on obvious life support after NGE hit live servers and players reacted. You could say game was on decline with its last two expansions, though. Neither really came close to HOLY SHIT, DID YOU JUST ADD SPACE FLIGHT? level of JTL. That's how you do an expansion and not just "here's another leveling zone and gear, have fun".
 

zeitgeist

Magister
Joined
Aug 12, 2010
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Check out the post-NGE updates at this patch notes repository: http://swg.wikia.com/wiki/Updates

There's a billion small/QoL additions (silly little things like an appearance equipment tab) but there are also many major additions such as for example new PvP battlefields, Storyteller/Chronicle items that allow you to make quests and storylines for people to play through, an entire cybernetics upgrade system, new GCW city sieges in NPC cities and new GCW-related systems for player cities, GCW battlefields in space, already mentioned atmospheric flight etc.
 

dibens

as seen on shoutbox
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Besides the premise of player driven sandbox, how fun Galaxies actually is? What is the daily course of action you take your character through, when you log in?
 
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Well, like any MMO, there is grind involved, but so far, I find it less grindy than something like WoW. You can grind monsters to raise skill points, but there are procedural mission terminals everywhere, that generate an endless stream of various types of missions. Exploration missions where you go out to scout an area, combat missions where you travel to an area and clear out enemy creatures/humanoids and their base, escort missions to safely escort NPCs, various profession missions (e.g. bounty hunting, commando, etc), artisan missions, and so on. Completed missions grant credits (gold) based on their difficulty.

Using skill points acquired via combat/crafting together with earned credits you raise your skills in various profession trees, buy armor/weapons/mods/vehicles/house deeds/clothes/cosmetic stuff/etc. To heal, you have to go hospitals or find PC doctors, either way only PCs can heal you, one pool can only be healed by entertainers, so you go to a cantina and dance/listen to PC entertainers. Much of gameplay is social, where you join with others to PvE against tougher monsters, to craft together, PvP, or just hang out.

You can duel other players, or join Empire or Rebels and fight in PvE and/or PvP against the other side. Eventually, once they implement JTL, you can engage in space flight.
 

dibens

as seen on shoutbox
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So, I've been playing this thing for few hours. Made a reptilian- probably the only non-human, non-wookie race that doesn't look downright retarded. For a game that came out in 2003 it handles and feels like something out of mid-late 90s. Thankfully I found an option that allowed me to change to a more intuitive control scheme, why wouldn't they make it a default setting? There's tons of options and UI seems quite modifiable, which I like. Still, it will take some time to get familiar with. There's also personal character data you can create, down to your blood-type even, family tree etc, tons of larping potential.

Went to a Mos Eisley Cantina. Some guys were selling huge beasts, those are some sort of pets, I assume? I'd love to have one of those. Cantina was filled with afk players dancing. I guess this is how you grind the skill? Bought some items for starting credits, didn't realize I need to travel to the exact terminals off-world to retrieve them, oh well. Did some missions, so far the ones I took seem like shittier versions of Anarchy Online mission system, where you could actually roll for items you'd want. Combat is stunningly atrocious, the animations and input feedback are fucking awful across the board. Again, games like Anarchy Online came out two years prior to it and did it hundred times better in this regard. Thankfully there's some decent depth to it, what with different health bars and damage types and long lasting trauma and such. Overall, it seems the game had many ambitious ideas, especially in reagrds to socialising, but not enough time and resources to implement them smoothly.

I'll dick around some more, get used to it. What world/faction are you on, PorkyThePaladin , maybe we can hangout.
 

Scroo

Female Quota Staff
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Codex 2014 Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2
I would be willing to try it too, but does it even make much sense for a complete noob who never played SWG? The community will be miles ahead both in achievements on the private server as well as general game knowledge :/
 
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Dec 17, 2013
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I am on Basilisk, SWG Emu's main and only play server. I actually decided to re-roll, as my initial character is horribly gimped. Once I re-roll, probably later tonight, I will let you guys know the name/planet. I will be going Rebellion faction wise, but later on, it's better to stay neutral while you are new and weak. My first toons were on Tatooine, in Mos Eisley. I enjoyed that location, so will probably start there again.

You can post your toon's names too, I will try to look you up when I log in.

Scrooge It's fine, the UI takes some getting used to, there is a lot of screens and info, but you will get it in 1-2 days. Like dibens I changed the default control scheme, which was giving me carpal tunnel, to standard FPS WASD one. It's definitely a way harder game to get into than something like WoW, but after 1-2 days and help from other players, you figure out the basics and can decide if it's for you or not. The community is very nice, polite people with good grammar that were showering me with gifts I didn't even want.
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
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Sep 25, 2012
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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I found it pretty easy to get into for the week I played it, kinda decent speed of levelling too.
 

dibens

as seen on shoutbox
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Seek out Warrs, a trandoshan brawler, hanging around Mos Eisley. Tatooine is overrated tbh- a bland desolate piece of rock. I now know how young Luke Skywalker felt. Considering moving to the lush forests of Naboo.
 
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RobotSquirrel

Arcane
Developer
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Aug 9, 2020
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Adelaide
Allow me to necro the heck out of this thread. SWGEmu finalize just went online. 1k population.
Chewie We're home. This is the lead up to an actual release version so its pretty exciting.

And no JTL unfortunately. For that you can play on the Post-CU Post-NGE Legends server.
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
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Allow me to necro the heck out of this thread. SWGEmu finalize just went online. 1k population.
Chewie We're home. This is the lead up to an actual release version so its pretty exciting.

And no JTL unfortunately. For that you can play on the Post-CU Post-NGE Legends server.

How about some details/summary?
 

RobotSquirrel

Arcane
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The FAQ is located here https://www.swgemu.com/forums/showthread.php?t=242159
This server is intended to replace the pitt.
One character online only. 2 Max.
Jedi is bound to the character its unlocked with (which is great imo).

I've only been playing a day and Mos Eisley is swarming with people.
It genuinely feels like when the game went to Open Beta back in the day.

Also an update on JTL:
Jump to Lightspeed
In September of 2019 it was announced that Jump to Lightspeed (JTL) would not be apart of the SWGEmu 1.0 release of Core3. Instead, much like the live version of the game, Jump to Lightspeed would be a post-release launch so the team could focus on ground based portion of the game. As of September 15, 2019 a JTL Special Interest Group was formed to aide in the development of JTL and finish the systems needed for a post-1.0 release. SWGEmu JTL Statement - Statement 2020-11-13 | Last Updated: November 16, 2020
 
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7h30n

Augur
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Aug 14, 2012
Messages
311
I've started playing on Finalizer to see what all the fuss is about (I'm a 1st time SWG player), but in parallel I also created a character on Ultima Online Outlands (also a 1st time UO player), and so far I feel UO plays better.
 
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Mar 3, 2018
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CU was a much more balanced and interesting system than Pre-CU. Shame that Resto 3 launched before it was really ready and has been eclipsed by Finalizer. Guess people really enjoy being forced into cm or doc + 1 of the 2 viable damage classes to do anything in an actual group setting.
 

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