Interview II

With apologies for lateness (My Harddrive went on vacation this weekend. I await it’s return and am constrained to posting from work until then!)

5.    Is that what keeps you logging on regularly? Or is it something else?

 

I love the fact that I am living my own Star Wars adventure every day. In 1977 I walked 1 mile to the Theaters with my friend Kurt to see the Star Wars movie. I am a Star Wars geek. I also like to keep up with all the friends I have made in the game. Saying Hi to the crazy wookiee from California, the quiet Canadian guy that knows EVERYTHING about crafting, the 2 Elder Jedi best friends who know more about combat mechanics then I ever will, the amazing Droid Engineer who I find I have quite a bit in common with, outside the game. My mates from Australia who are always making me smile and laugh (if you do not have Aussies in your Guild, get some!) And dozens more friends made.

 

6.    What advice would you give to anyone considering starting a guild?

 

Start with a core group of in-game friends. And don’t be afraid to grow “organically”. What I mean by that, is your guild should grow over time by guilding players you know and like. The worse thing you could do is Guild any warm bodies in Mos Eisley that can click on ACCEPT. That’s when bad things can happen. We have all heard the horror stories of accounts being hacked, or whole houses cleared out. Try to resist the temptation of growing fast.

 

7.    We’ve begun to see the free CTS kick off. Have you seen much difference in the game because of it?

 

I have noticed a HUGE improvement in SWG overall. It is amazing to see busy star ports again. To see players in remote regions of Talus or Endor, where you thought you were the only player on the planet. To have no shortages of both vendors and customers. Busy Cantinas with friendly Entertainers. Reminds me of the old days

I Spy … or do I?

Following the sage advice of pistolpig, I chewed a lot yesterday on the idea of Bounty Hunting and adding Beast Master into that. After some excellent input from my good friends in the guild, I think that is the way forward for the foreseeable future.

I play an Engineer in game on my trader – probably my favorite character. Spending yesterday in the spy forums let me see this:

Jedi

Commando

Medic

Entertainer

Bounty Hunter

Structures Trader

Officer

Smuggler

Domestics Trader

Munitions Trader

Spy

Engineering Trader

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/list.m?start=150&topic_id=817696&postId=8906642

Now as attractive as it is to my masochistic side to play the two least popular classes in game, with the added symmetry of  one being the worst crafter and the other being the worst combatant class, I just couldn’t do it! I’m going to chase down a cheap 40 point pet to play with and spend a month or three playing Bounty Hunter.

GU7 Sneakpeek

Following AdeptStrain over at the oForums can be quite .. daunting. The guy is into everything!

One thing he shared yesterday was the idea of implementing an auto-loot function in GU7.  In solo play, you negate the need to have to open every corpse and check ‘loot-all’ – nice in and of itself! In group play, the auto-loot follows group loot rules. ‘Free-for-all’ selection seems a tad fuzzy in terms of how it generates the ‘winner’ but it looks like there is enough going on in the selection process to introduce some element of randomness.

One thing that bothers me is that, currently, if I loot before I harvest – I may or may not get the chance to harvest before the corpse disappears. There is a very short lifespan for looted corpses. I have trained myself to harvest first always. That way if there is no loot, it’s no problem. And if there is, it keeps the corpse available for a longer period of time. If I loot first, I continually run the risk of not having enough time to come back and harvest hide or meat or bone off the thing. I don’t macro harvest – so no /loot all;/harvest hide for me. I suppose this would get around things – but I kind of like playing my way through a post-combat denoument and not macroing my way to looty-glut. Where ever I can manually perform an option rather than macro-manage my way through it, I prefer to do it.

Probably why I suck at combat!

Wait, wait.. Spy’s Are What?

I run a couple of accounts. Well, it used to be 5 but is considerably fewer these days – what with the doubling of characters per account now. Still not sure I like that, but that’s a post for another day.

Long story short, one of these accounts has a combat character on it that I didn’t level. (ok, ok, before you start howling, no – I did not ‘buy’ it! He was a doctor so NGE made him a combatant and then various bits and peices of shooting and the odd quest over the years have gotten him to 90) I’ve never played much of any combat characters  before the NGE and not really at all after it – so I’m really not all that sure what to do with him. I see the sense in having a character that is built around shooting other things without being dead as that not only opens up other types of gameplay but helps trackdown that obscure piece of junkloot needed to make some particularly nice piece of kit on the trader.

But a doctor/medic doesn’t really excite me to get on and play him. I had a ranger back in the day that I really enjoyed and so thought Spy might be a good fit. I casually asked in my /gu channel about spy and got a universal wave of hate including things like only players that want to cheat their way through the game use it.

I don’t want to cheat my way through the game.

I did ask in terms of having some fun with PvE and doing heroics. I’m not into PvP at all. So I guess I’m just not sure WHY they are so universally hated. Noone really said “Oh, hey. They cost a lot of points in expertise to make efficient.” or “They are slated towards medic sniping in PvP and so not popular in groups too much.” or even “If you are looking to recapture ranger, you’ll just be disappointed.” It was pretty much 100% vitriolic hatred.

So I still don’t know what to play. Or why NOT to play a spy. Or even why everyone loves to hate them.

Perhaps I’ll just close that account…

Weekends

It’s counter-growth to not post on the weekends. Experts say you ’should’ just to grow the blog readership.

I’ve thought about it all weeek and decided that I will not be posting on the weekend. For me, this is not about being popular or huge or whatever. It’s really about just enjoying the journey. I think that level of interest is what’s authentic for me, and forcing posts out on the weekend would be just about the stats. So the weekend for me is about family, church, gaming and recharging/reconnecting for the week ahead. so – enjoy your weekend.

Go game! (once the servers come back up that is…)

SWGBlog

Over the next few days, I plan to spend some time getting to know the author over at SWGBlog.net. Mike is a pretty unassuming guy, from all indications, but his commitment to our game is notable. He has been publishing daily for nigh on two years about the game as he sees it. In no small measure, THIS small plot of ground owes its existance to SWGBlog. I enjoyed reading his daily post so much, I figured “Why not double the fun!” So now in addition to the smile I often get from reading Mike’s post, I get the satisfaction of crafting my own!

So I quizzed Mike on all the stuff I want to know about his take on playing SWG, running a guild and blogging about it. We’ll be featuring that interview every Friday for the next few weeks. Without further ado, here is part 1 of the interview Mike was so gracious to answer!

What can you tell us about your Guild? History, Name, why you started it – that sort of thing.

 

I started playing SWG the first week it went live. I met several very cool players in a Guild called AAInc. I was a Doctor during the NGE days, and soon they asked me to join their Guild. They had named themselves AAInc, which stood for Arch Angels Incorporated. I was never given a reason why they chose this name, but everyone was friendly and helpful so it did not matter much to me. A year later, the Guild leader had left the game for personal reasons, leaving 3 of us Guild Council members to determine what our next step was. The other 2 Council members were working on unlocking their Jedi (which was known at that time), so I asked if I could try being the Guild Leader. I have been the AAInc Guild Leader ever since.

 

2.    What are some of the distinctives of your guild?

 

Our Guild is unique in many ways. We are an ‘older’ group of players primarily, but this was not a conscience decision, just the way it worked out. Our players are mostly 30 to 50 years of age, many married and all with good jobs. Guild Chat can often be found with discussions on Mortgages, repairing Hot Water Heaters and Holiday hot spots. Most of us have multiple accounts, and most of us work in the Computer field in some capacity.

 

3.    Running a guild can be tough. What do you find hardest about heading up a group of players

 

Trying to force guild members to do things is a recipe for disaster, so don’t do it. I learned that from previous guild leaders, so we have NO mandatory meetings, no required Heroic Runs and no mandatory PvP. Remembering that players are individuals, and all play the game differently is a good starting point. We encourage players to explore all aspects of game play. Change factions, delete and remake toons, leave and rejoining the guild, etc, is all acceptable. We really only have 1 “carved in stone” rule in AAInc: No “F” word in Guild Chat. We don’t ask much.

 

4.    What’s the favorite part of the game for you?

 

My favorite part of the game is the many Options it offers. For example, on my two Medics (rebel and imperial) I love being a support player in a group encounter. On my Commando/BM I love exploring and foraging. On my Tailor, I love promoting, and up keeping my Costume Shop and vendor. I have 2 toons that just harvest resources, and I love watching the credits roll in from that On my Bounty Hunter, I love doing Treasure Maps and NPC bounties. I login and do whatever sounds fun that day.

Clinically Depressed Poodle Mauls Former French President Chirac

Great headline, no?

Not SWG related but who could let that one go by?

Valara Begins the Clone Army

Valara

from SWG – Dev Tracker by Dotanuki

I’m happy to report that Valara has become a mother!

Both mom and new baby are doing great.

Obviously this means that she will be out on maternity leave, effective immediately.  We expect that she will be out for six weeks.

In her absence, Elias will be the Jedi Master Sith Lord for all SWG community matters.

Congratulations Valara!

-Dotanuki

“Stealth Fix”

Once item that was repaired this morning that did not make it into the notes was the fact that bio-linked items can now no longer be worn in the Atab by persons other than the bio-linkee. Seems some people were taking bio-link stuff owned by others and using in their atab – even though they could not equip it.

Naturally (/rolleyes) this upset some who felt that somehow, they had been nerfed, or unfairly dealt with. Adeptstrain replied:

It was fixed because it was a bug. A-Tab has to follow normal item rules, including biolink. That’s how it was approved and that’s how I have to keep it currently.

Whilst he is 100% right, this really should have been caught in Q&A. Atab is a fluff item and waiting a week or so to get it and ensure it was done right seems reasonable. SOE need to realize that when they test a system like this, they need to test it with items commonly available to the playerbase.

Chat Update

A small change this morning that looks aimed at making the ongoing character transfers a tad more stable. Good news if you are considering moving in the next coupld of months! I’m not sure why, but I also have come along behind this CTS and created new characters on the old servers. I’m probably crazy, but I DO think they are going to shut them down eventually (Whether sooner or later, who can say) and I want a shot at whatever rewards they will give for mandating folks migrate. Crazy? Probably!

Anyway – here’s the notes.

Star Wars Galaxies: Game Update 6.3
Publish Notes, January 22, 2009

Character Transfer Service:

• Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause CTS to fail.