Bloodwinter Clan

Bulge wrote-

About SWG: still an NDA, but I feel strongly about this, so let me just say a few things. There are no true quests right now, only the randomly generated missions and these are beyond boring and do nothing for you immersion or give you a hook in the world, i.e. backgroundstories and such. MInd you, hte lack of this has been noted (several times, also by yours truly) so they are now implementing hundreds of static quests, as opposed to the randomly generated missions. ALso more static NPC's. So this does bode well, although they still cna fuck up in this, if these static quests are also pretty random: what I mean is, that I want quests that involves many NPC's (static ones), several planets and that have an actual ongoing story behind them. Not only that, but also that the world itself, the environment, reflects these quests and backgroundstories. I.e. read grafitti of Tumpy Irontoe in Qeynos Aqueducts, then find some quest later on in far away Kaladim to kill this dwarf called ...Tumpy all the way back in Qeynos. And so forth. THis makes the wordl come alive to you, as opposed to all the "dynamically" sapwning stuff, which is nice to get some xp and a nice anticampin feature, but does *nothing* to get you attached to the world an its inhabitants.

Ther are more gripes from me with the game, but Iwont go into them, not untill the NDA is lifted. But once more, they are working on these things, though some things will never be really fixed(for instance, no jumping and falling damage in the game as in coming loose from the ground, this measn that your char is glued to the world, meaning that you can just *walk* down the ravine next to the Naboo waterfalls....no underwaterplay, no dungeon-like areas yet, hardly any "level-above'level" design, i.e. no pitttraps, no hidden walls, no nooks an crannies, no mysterious basements)

The world, though Star Wars, feels very bland, just by the way it is crafted, or rather NOT crafted but more likely generated.

In EQ, the zones were all handcrafted and made with a certain purpose: there is East Freeport, which is obviously the slum part of Freeport: you have a ragtown, beggars, the Thievesguild, the Necro Guild, hidden walls, a cave system, an underwater entrance, and so forth. North Freeport was more beautifull and here you could find the Paladins and other goodie two shoes. Rivervale was obviously Hobbitstown, and had its own distinct feel to it. Not only the zone-design, but also the whole NPC-thing was greatly implemented in EQ: lots of stuff was linked, spanned several towns and included scripted dialogue, scripted events, severla smaller and larger backgroundstories and what not. In EQ you can actually overhear a discussion between two Qeynos guards and get a clue for a quest, or a hidden Thives Guild. IN Thurgadin you can just listen to the jokes the Dwarves tell eachother at the bar.

None of this in SWG. Basically just NPC's standing around, most of them "dynamically" generated for someones mission, and if you hail them: "I have nothing to say to you". THe Dynamic spawning system seemed great at first and still has a purpose(lots of mobs to kill for xp) but it can never be more then an addition to an existing, rich and static (as in, does not go POOF on you) NPC network. Now there are some landmarks in SWG that sound interesting and have to do with the movies off course: but these are still few and far in between. The world needs a huge update in this department, imo. I mean, the landscape is stunning, no mistake about that, and the cities are nice, but they all look pretty much the same, though Tatooine looks different then Naboo, off course. But on Naboo its hard to notice a difference between Theed and Keren or Moenia. You have the Points of Interest, which are dynamically generated quests that you bump into, but the fun ones are not implemented yet, and then even: they are so bloddy volatile! You bump into them, do them and then everyone and everything goes poof (including whole Rebelbases) since you finished the quest. Nothing to return too, nothing to ever backtrack to, nothing to go like " Wooooah, that was cool, let me get my friends and show it to them!" I never realized how little these dynamic features of a game do for actuall getting someone immersed, and more importantly, *attached* to the world that he is playing in.

A mmorpg has never been a place for me where the most important thing was to "do" stuff: sure, you can do stuff in SWG: kill, craft, dance, what not. I play mmorpgs because I get immersed in them and feel in a different world. And THEN I want to be able to "do" stuff.

This was also something that was lacking for me in SB.

MAn, I am now making a Dark ELf NEcromancer, and I have never really explored Neriak that much: I am having a BLAST now that I am actually giving that town a good look. I mean, did you ever dive into that pond where you can look through a couple of huge windows UNDER WATER! and see a bar with NPC's? That is so freaking cool. SO I immediately went to find that bar, and when I came there, I noticed the bar actually had two levels, so not only could you look, as a regular Captain Nemo, through the window into the water, but also down on the first floor of the bar. He, some time later I saw another newb swimming there, or maybe someone that was picking ip the Wizard rod that is spawning in that water there. THis is what I mean by an interesting and immersive "level-above-level" design, that is missing in *every* mmorpg since EQ, everyone of them.

Oh, and that Wizard-rod quests takes you across the entire world of Norrath into several tricky situations and is one of the cooledst quests I have ever done.

ANyway, SWG will get better,and has different things to offer (SPACE) but I am not sure if I will ever like the flat design of the world.

ABout the war: havent experienced anything yet exept some players shooting at eachother, I am sure this is another nice "thing to do" in the world of SWG, but like I said, if the world does not grab me and draw me in, then never mind the stuff I can do there.

EDIT: sorry about the horrible spelling, feeel too lazy to corect it.