Star Wars Galaxies ... it's not yet dead ...

[Alee Enn]

So I started playing playing Star Wars Galaxies last night

(If you're wondering how, I bought a disc on Amazon, installed it, and installed Star Wars Galaxies Legends launcher)

So yeah, people are still playing it. I've never played SWG before, and I accept that the graphics are dated. I'm yet to be convinced it's the best MMO ever (as some claim) but I'm giving it a try.

Anyone else played it? Want to play it? Have any advice (I haven't gone for Jedi, I'm a trader) I'd love to know how to get the cursor to move independently from the camera (I've resorted to having the menu up while I play).

[mrbadger]

... I'd love to know how to get the cursor to move independently from the camera (I've resorted to having the menu up while I play).

I think you want SWGFreeMouse

I found this linky

Don't play the game myself, haven't played a Star Wars game since the first FPS.

Not sure if the thread they mebntion has a download link. They say it does.nI can't find one anywhere else, but I haven't looked hard.

[Alee Enn]

Alt key .... I found it in the keybinds.

[Morkonan]

...Anyone else played it? Want to play it? Have any advice (I haven't gone for Jedi, I'm a trader) I'd love to know how to get the cursor to move independently from the camera (I've resorted to having the menu up while I play).

I played the original on launch. One of the biggest controversies was the player couldn't make the character jump... Dead serious - The developers didn't consider "jumping" to be something the players would want to do, so they didn't have any walkmesh capability on anything that wasn't at z=0. (Or "y", whatever your coordinate system is..)

I really enjoyed it at the time. The combat, before the biggest and most constroversial change, was excellent, given that we were all playing at "dialup speed." It was a que'd system, given the format, but it "felt like" real-time. Back then, that was a huge deal.

The first time I realized that this game was truly unique was when I was out prospecting and came across a bantha herd. Something, a predator, was attacking them. They formed a circle... These electronic "critters" formed a defensive circle! Astounding! It was things like that with many of the critters actually responding to things you did, realistically, that made the experience "come alive."

I remember hearing about the revival. I've still got my original disks, but have no idea where they are atm.

PS - SWG's crafting system was groundbreaking and still hasn't been reproduced in any MMO to date. It should be. A crafter's skill and their choice of material mattered. A pistol could be made from any number of "like" ingredients, some of the giving better bonuses than others, and the crafter's skill and choices about materials as well as additional components, all individually crafted, meant something.... It enabled a "crafting class" that actually allowed players to be "better crafters" than others simply by the player-choices they made and the materials that they had decided to use.

Srsly... It was a wonderful system. There was a great deal of innovation that went into creating that game. And then.... came the s-show...

PPS - On launch, there was no music. Zero. You can imagine how it felt to login to "Star Wars" expected to be able to bask in the beautiful ambience of William's music while experiencing some of the best environments made at the time and... getting nothing. Not a darn note.

[Apothos]

So I started playing playing Star Wars Galaxies last night

(If you're wondering how, I bought a disc on Amazon, installed it, and installed Star Wars Galaxies Legends launcher)

So yeah, people are still playing it. I've never played SWG before, and I accept that the graphics are dated. I'm yet to be convinced it's the best MMO ever (as some claim) but I'm giving it a try.

Anyone else played it? Want to play it? Have any advice (I haven't gone for Jedi, I'm a trader) I'd love to know how to get the cursor to move independently from the camera (I've resorted to having the menu up while I play).

I played it from launch and loved it in a similar way i loved the X games. You basically did what you want. There was a definite lack of content, but in a way this made the game better, especially in terms of community building since we were essentially left with a bunch of people who stayed for the same reasons once everyone else got bored (as well as many other reasons that would take all night to get through).

I gained a lot more appreciation for the game later after reading one of the developer's blog posts (more like a series of essays, really) where he describes the events that took place before and during game development that lead to the game not really being released as they'd hope (and with the lack of content that lead to a lot of people leaving). I'll try and find it and post back later.

I've never heard of this "Star Wars Galaxies Legends" server, but i'm going to assume it's another emulator, probably of one of the later, poorer states of the game since you mentioned not "choosing" Jedi, so it's unlikely you're going to experience the game in the state that a lot of former players look back so fondly on.

(SWGEmu is from what was the pre-CU (better/best) era, if it's still around.)

[Alee Enn]

I played it from launch and loved it in a similar way i loved the X games. You basically did what you want. There was a definite lack of content, but in a way this made the game better, especially in terms of community building since we were essentially left with a bunch of people who stayed for the same reasons once everyone else got bored (as well as many other reasons that would take all night to get through).

I gained a lot more appreciation for the game later after reading one of the developer's blog posts (more like a series of essays, really) where he describes the events that took place before and during game development that lead to the game not really being released as they'd hope (and with the lack of content that lead to a lot of people leaving). I'll try and find it and post back later.

I've never heard of this "Star Wars Galaxies Legends" server, but i'm going to assume it's another emulator, probably of one of the later, poorer states of the game since you mentioned not "choosing" Jedi, so it's unlikely you're going to experience the game in the state that a lot of former players look back so fondly on.

(SWGEmu is from what was the pre-CU (better/best) era, if it's still around.)

As I understand it ... there's two ways to play Star Wars Galaxies now, one is with an emulator, search SWGEmu, which emulates the server, but is essentially a single-player game. Star Wars Galaxies Legends is (as I understand it) a fan-run server and the players on there, are real people. I have only tried Legends.

From what I've read or watched (thanks Youtube) SWG used to be that you'd create a character, and then work on different stats that allowed you to do different things. In order to be a Jedi, you had to do a mission, that involved a random quest item (I can't remember what the video said) and it was very rare you'd ever see a Jedi. Then they did the NGE update (I think it was that, I have no idea, and am only going by what I've watched on Youtube) and you could choose what career path you wanted to do.

That's where SWGLegends is now, you choose what you want to do, and as I'd imagine everyone would choose Jedi, I decided to be different.

[Apothos]

No, SWGEmu is an emulation of the Pre-CU era (better / best) version of the game, complete with other players. I checked and it is still going, as i type it has ~1200 people online.

No need to explain the game to me, as i said, i played since launch.

Here's the link to the developer's series of essays i mentioned in the previous post if you're interested. The link to part two doesn't seem to work at the top menu, but there's another link at the bottom of the page before the comments section.

[Jericho]

Then they did the NGE update (I think it was that, I have no idea, and am only going by what I've watched on Youtube) and you could choose what career path you wanted to do.

For me, this was the best thing that could have happened to the game.

I thought it was a steaming pile before the NGE. Now you had a purpose!!! Alas, almost everyone else had the same purpose (You're one of 217,348 Chosen Ones online that week, just like every MMO)

Then you suddenly get cut off from the NGE story, just as your character his becoming powerfull

But it felt like Star Wars, with the music and the sound effects and the space stuff...

[Munchbold]

I used to love the space component of that game as a teenager. It was what prompted me to search for a space sim when I found X3TC many years later. It was all I did really; fly around and blow up rebels for cash.

[Morkonan]

I used to love the space component of that game as a teenager. It was what prompted me to search for a space sim when I found X3TC many years later. It was all I did really; fly around and blow up rebels for cash.

I quit before that came out. How was it? What was the gameplay like? (Will have to search for some vids on that.)