User:Tentaka/Post NGE Review
From SWG Wiki
While discussing the NGE with other players, the most common criticism I have encountered was that the NGE seemed to limit character development and flexibility. I think it is important to recognize that the NGE doesn't seem to be a single stand-alone release, but rather seems to be part of a much bigger evolution. When viewed in this light it becomes apparent that the primary strength of the NGE does not lie in its initial release, its strength is in the fact that the NGE opens a vast world of opportunity to re-think not only SWG itself, but to break boundaries and perhaps revolutionize the MMORPG concept altogether.
Simply put, there is no other game that trumps SWG in terms of flexibility, diversity and customized game play and while we might wonder at the manner in which it was released, the NGE provides a staggering degree of promise and possibility.
Whats Good about the NGE
First and foremost the NGE was a massive programming success. While this success may be missed on some of the players, the NGE went off without a hitch. No one lost goods, weapons or other items. There were no inexplicable problems, and while there were plenty of bugs, these are to be expected with such a massive overhaul of any program. SOE/SWG did an excellent job of implementing the NGE itself, and while some may have issues with their communication with players, no one can dispute that the NGE was developed and programmed in a comprehensive, skilled and highly professional manner.
The faster pace of the game is a lot of fun. It's not so fast that it feels frantic, yet it doesn't drag or feel mundane. Honestly, as much as I appreciated how much opportunity for chat existed in the previous versions of SWG, combat was a little on the slow side wasn't it?
Faster default running speeds are a HUGE boon. Remember the slow trot from the landing zone of most starports to the city proper? Remember landing, running to the ticket terminal and running back again to board the shuttle? My god that dragged! The new pace is a definite improvement. In Publish 27 all vehicle speeds have been increased by 30% as well. EXCELLENT!!!
The ability to dodge ranged and escape melee attacks is another awesome improvement the NGE has brought to the game. Many times, when running toward a MOB for Melee, I would dodge to the left or right more out of instinct than anything else only to watch the blaster bolt arc to the side and hit anyhow. I always found that to be a little irritating. I always felt that dodging shouldn't be a "special attack" or "inherent in the to-hit calculations," it needs to be something a player can use or not use as the player wishes. Want to be a "stand and deliver" type or an elusive dodger, the NGE lets the player choose how the player wants to play.
While the more visible changes I've mentioned are all excellent there are also quite a few less visible changes that need to be explored a little further or at very least, acknowledged.
For example, when my crafters go out to their harvesters to collect their resources they never die anymore. The Devs have programmed aggro perfectly so that non-combatants don't drop like flies all the time.
The added types of experience points offer up some hope of additional character customization and enhanced gameplay. While this feels more like something that has been put on hold while the NGE's idiosyncrasies get worked out, I suspect that it will serve as a foundation for some upcoming publishes and further development.
Extending combat experience to space, is another example of a nice enhancement to gameplay. There seem to be some new space-based missions, though in all honesty I only managed to run up the Neutral Space Tree before the NGE, so perhaps I just missed out on the other quests.
Speaking of quests, as I have mentioned in my past articles, the quests are fun, engaging and have some decent loot and appropriate experience point values most especially in the early levels of gameplay. While in later levels the quests do tend to drag a bit, it's important to note that these are not the NGE quests. Likewise, the Devs have been incredibly diligent about fixing quest bugs and as Publish 27 demonstrates they are staying on the ball with fixes and also adding some more interesting loot/gear and abilities.
Linking the quests, to make less back and forth between the NPC and the player is also a huge improvement in the NGE quests. Haven't you ever wondered why MMORPG characters and NPCs don't use walkie talkies? I mean even here on earth we can text each other! Well the NGE quests do a nice job of eliminating a lot of the back and forth and I hope that we'll see even more improvements in that area in upcoming publishes.
All-in-all the NGE has created a strong and dynamic new foundation from which SOE/SWG may very well be able to re-capture and exceed its players love of the game that was SWG. There is a good deal of room for additional improvements to the systems that have been upgraded, but more importantly the NGE didn't strip SWG of its potential for excellence.
UI Tweaks
Certainly the faster pace of the game needs the kind of targeting that is currently offered, however it has been suggested (originally by a dear friend of mine) and more and more often by players-at-large, that land based targeting should be similar to space based targeting. Yes, you would still have to manipulate the cross hairs over your target for your fire to hit, but you should be able to select, lock and hold a single target. This is most particularly necessary when one or more adversaries can occupy the same space in front of the player. Since PvP play is an important consideration, and since Target lock is likely to be contrary to the intent of any PvP system, it might be prudent to make simply ducking behind an object or running outside of the range of the opponent cause target lock to cancel.
Targeting and clicking any non-combatant should always open the radial dial. This includes other player characters, harvesters, factories, elevators and so on. If you have ever tried to hold your cursor over a dancer doing the "formal dance" and then tried to either call up the radial dial or worse still, type /watch you'll see exactly why both the target lock and "clickability" are necessary to create easier player interaction and over-all improved playability.
Finally, adding a lockable feature to the UI also seems to be a common request. I myself have experienced accidentally moving one element of the HUD or another while in combat. Being able to lock the HUDs screen positioning using a checkbox or radio button on the HUD itself seems to be a necessity.
NGE Combat Profession tweaks
It seems that the developers focus on the combat professions has resulted in a good deal of upset from the customer base. While its clear from the Developer forums that SWG is aware of the fact that each combat profession truly needs a more in-depth review and loads of additional skills and capabilities, it may not be wise for SOE/SWG to focus exclusively on the combat professions to the exclusion of all other professions most particularly in the wake of the Combat oriented NGE. It seems that now might be the time to make one last combat oriented effort for the combat professions, and then turn the considerable might of the development team loose on the other professions.
In terms of combat professions the NGE does leave me feeling as though there are 2 professions to choose from. Jedi and Non-jedi. That is to say that Bounty Hunter feels about the same to play as Smuggler, which feels about the same as Combat Medic and so on. Once you get into Phase 2 of each of these professions that starts to change since the special attacks/abilities start to change how each character approaches combat. By phase three those differences become apparent. However in the early levels of play there need to be some tweaks to enhance the differences of each profession.
New "Pool skills"
I believe the idea of adding both pool skills and even more additional types of experience points would add a massive amount of diversity to gameplay and give the combat professions something to chew on while entertainers, crafters and politicians get some much needed attention.
Abilities from the pre-NGE professions could be brought back into play and perhaps some new ones added as well. For example the list of pool skills might include non-combat based skills such as harvesting and creature handling. Personally I believe that stealth and thieving should be commuted from Spy and added to the Pool, but as you will see in a subsequent article I have some very different ideas abut the Spy profession.
As additional skills are developed they could be added to the pool in future publishes. By having a wide range of diverse pools to draw from in combination with an appropriate profession to bonus ratio, each character could enhance their professional abilities as well as add a level of diversity back to their character concept.
Enhanced Attributes
Another enhancement to game play, that I had mistakenly thought was included in the NGE, was innate attribute enhancements. That is, the more you do a certain thing the more you develop your personal attributes. For example, the more you use melee weapons the stronger you get. The more you focus and aim using a rifle, the more precision; the more you run the greater your innate stamina and so on. As with pool skills certain professions would get a bonus applied to this. Bounty Hunters get more precise using their rifles faster than others, while Jedi get stronger using melee weapons.
I believe additional attributes should be added as well. Perhaps speed might also be added as an attribute. The more you run, the faster you can run? Likewise Melee speed and Ranged speed might influence attack speed with the appropriate weapons such as pistols and melee weapons.
The ideal time to work your character up in the pool skills and to enhance your attributes would be those early levels of gameplay. It would also bring hunting parties back into the mix, so that you might earn some combat experience by hunting, but you get a lot of practice with your weapon of choice. The flexibility of getting quest combat exp from quests plus being able to further enhance and develop your character in a unique manner would add quite a bit to the overall game and importantly add a good deal of activity for the combat professions while the developers start developing the initial upgrades to the Non-Combat professions.
Non-combat Professions
The NGE did very little to enhance most of the Non-combat oriented professions. In fact most NC professions were debilitated or harmed by the NGE in one way or another. I suspect the main reason for this was simply that the NGE is by its nature, combat oriented and that combined with the massive burden of working within reasonable time constraints a line had to be drawn somewhere.
What does the NGE offer to NC Professions? Opportunity. Since the NGE offered the combat professions a complete re-think relating to the nature of each profession and the very style of gameplay itself, at very least the NGE offers NCs the promise of significant innovation and some very exciting developments.
I understand an upcoming publish will be adding some combat skills to the Entertainer profession and frankly I am hoping that we'll see some TK like martial skills and defenses. Those of us who played TK =loved= TK and I know we are all hoping to see a return to the pronounced availability of unarmed melee combat. Combining TK within the Entertainer profession seems like a natural evolution of the profession to me, however, there also seems to be a tremendous resistance to this from some players who played entertainers.
In any case, there is a tremendous amount of opportunity for each of these NC professions to evolve into significantly more exciting and involving styles of gameplay and frankly there is so much material on each that I believe they warrant their own articles. Like the NGE itself, more delay for NCs, but hang in there NCs if the upcoming publishes and expansions do for you what the NGE has done for combat then great things are afoot!
Negatives
Just as the opportunity to really explore the potential of what this game can be is the central theme of the positive side of the NGE, lack of communication is the central theme of what is negative. While there does seem to be some small opportunities for the customer base to communicate their concerns and desires this exchange of information is definitely limited. The forums themselves are a weak basis for any kind of communication. They seem split into two factions; those that praise the Developers and those that complain and demand. I personally find them very difficult to get through as do many of the other players I know.
An in game system, a terminal or ballot box with multiple choice questions might be an excellent way to bridge the gap between those that use the forums, and those that forsake the forums in favor of just playing the game and hoping for improvement.
While I will go into the "questcentricity" of the NGE in a subsequent article, I think it's important to note that while quest based gameplay is an excellent way for new players to enter the game, as a model for the entire game it weakens SWG overall. Part of the joy of SWG was in the absolute vast nature of the gameplay available. That is to say that being able to progress either solo or in groups, hunting or in doing quests, opened a world of opportunity to the player that seems to have faded away following the release of the NGE.
Part of this weakening comes from the fact that in the first forty or so levels, the questcentricity of SWG now tends to encourage quite a bit more solo play. The quests are such that groups are not only unnecessary but the time consuming nature of groups makes them undesirable. This of course is a conundrum. Make the quests harder and the new players they are designed for will abandon the game, but leave them as they are and the soul of what made SWG soar is lost.
As we discuss the Idea of the Larger game in a later article this may very well become a non-issue. The quests do allow for very rapid leveling for the combat professions. While no where near as rapid as old-style hunting, the quests do provide a story line and with the proper shaping could very well serve as an excellent foundation for the larger game.
All in all the NGE represents a massive opportunity for SOE/SWG. In my next article I'll open discussion on the potential of the NGE for Non-Combat Professions, the larger game, and how the combination of the two might relate to some truly amazing growth for SWG. Following that we'll explore the idea of how spies may present an opportunity for yet another completely different set of gameplay options. Finally we'll revisit the idea of the "Uber Jedi."
See also: Review of the NGE by Davied Longknife; Longknife Valley; Davied Longknife;