They have ruined a game I have played for over 2 years. Combat for melee is impossible, and the loss of professions :(
I’m 48 years old (Although I don’t feel near that old, heh) , I have 3 kids under 11, 2 dogs, 3 Rats, 3 Parakeets, a Beta fish, and stressful job ( I.T.)
I had 5 SWG accounts and I purchased all of the expansions for all of the accounts. I typically only logged in when kids go to bed, so after 9pm at night. I enjoyed logging in nightly and get rid of the stress we all have in our daily lives. 2 of my accounts were crafting toons, because some nights I just felt like making stuff and didn’t fell like stressing over quest, grinding, etc. One account was a Dancer/ Musician ID, I would play her when I wanted to socialize and meet folks on the server (Lowca), one account was my Creature Handler that I started a few months before the TOOW expansion and was having a great time on Mustafar. And my favorite account a Doctor – Bounty Hunter turned Jedi over a year ago account. He was my, I feel like killing something toon, heh.Some folks would say, Hey loser…..you are way too much into this game, and likely they are correct, I had a toon for whatever I felt like doing on a specific night. Besides I pay the bills.
Over the past several days I’ve been on TestCenter, creating several new toons and giving the NGE a whirl. I’m going to try and sum up in words what I’ve found in as positive way as I can….
First off, I liked what they did for the new player, the movie portion, getting into a space fight right away is great, and it would have been nice to have a tutorial back when we all started in July 05. It was even a lot of fun getting decent loot as a new character it’s a nice hook. It was also nice because you can learn the most important commands and such, in a short time.
However, I did not like the fact that there are no longer many different professions to choose from. And the screen with profession choices is real cheesy. Later when you pull up your profession to see your level and such, again cheesy.
Once you are on the Space station and start looking around, doing quest and such it’s allot of fun. I got used to the combat, pretty quick…. how could you not, its way too simple.I miss being able to click a specific attack, heal, etc. The little cross hair and clicking to attack I can live with, but not allowing the use of Quick Keys, is hmm no fun. I tried to do the entire quest on the space station with all 3 of the toons I created before I left. I would suggest that to al of the new folks. The beginning for the new player is good stuff, except for the few things I noted.
Once I arrived on Tatooine, things got a bit ugly, mainly because of the lag. But I’m sure that will be fixed before they go live. I think I did all of the beginner quest here also, as I said before the combat once I got use to it was simple, but still have the issue of no quick keys for healing, and such. What got to be a real issue was not being able to pull your vehicle out by…ahem… clicking the Quick Key. The need to use the ~ key all the time to get an examine, board, use, etc is real annoying. Bringing back the right click on mouse would be real nice. The quest on Tatooine are set up pretty nicely for the new user, learn to get around and use terminals and such ( Except for the ~ )
Things that have caused me to terminate all of my accounts except for this one, which is open until Jan 4th are
Lack of professions, and mixing and matching those professions.
No Decay, I have 2 accounts with 5 different Crafter professions, why keep them.
No Creature Handler or Bio engineer, one of my toons is a CH/ BE, no need to keep him.
Entertainers don’t seem to be needed as they once were, and loss of the easy chat makes it difficult to socialize.
Un-intuitive UI, losing the ability to right click for inspect, loss of the 12 quick keys and the cheesy professions screens all very bad makes the game look cheap.
The way chat is now set up is terrible. Might think of going back to something that has worked for over 2 years.
Being unable to drop profession as you learn a new one os terrible. Some of us get bored with a profession and want to try something different without losing everything.
The Hud map is way to small for us old fellows that wear glasses, re-size would be nice.
Things I liked about the NGE:
The combat took time to get used to but once I got into it and found a few tricks, it wasn’t too bad. Quick key return would make it much better.
The beginner Quest were fun and the loot new folks get will hook them into playing longer
The movies and meeting Han, Chewie and such is nice touch
Not changing Space combat.
I had both positive and negative experience with the NGE, which I’m sure everyone has. I’m going to use the one account I have left to keep in touch with my guild and friends, and to fly, I still enjoyed flying very much. The loss of professions and their usefulness will cause me to look elsewhere for entertainment however. This could be a great thing for our beloved game if they would just open their minds and re-think the profession issue.Oh, heh I forgot to mention Jedi, on all 3 of the servers I was on, it seemed as if everyone was wearing Padawan Robes, heh you folks that screamed there were too many Jedi, after the village, your going to pull your hair out now… HAH.
Well, that’s all, I know it was very long winded, but now I feel better because instead of just gripping I have tried to give them the perspective of a long time user.Farewell friends and good luck in your future endeavors Mr. Torres. By the way, even though I feel you screwed the folks that purchased TOOW, no hard feelings, I have learned to wait to purchase any upgrades and expansions in the future. Shame on me.