1. Fall 2004: Smuggler faction caps were lifted. Was the first time in a while that one could replace faction without being attackable by overts of the opposite faction. Faction becomes easy to obtain, bases as well.
   
2. Late 2004: a bug is discovered, that all bases were being set to "vulnerable" right after each server reset, making base conquest a matter of a slicer rising early and loading fast.
   
3. Early 2005: saw the addition of Combatant bases/status. No longer can players directly defend their bases. Later, when only combatant bases were given recruiter spawns, the Special Forces bases were rendered far more useless.
   
4. Planetary control by base placement. The deep discount available to procure bases on the planet your faction controlled the most, made them easier to replace than defend.
   
5. RoTW: Ranged cybernetic arms, making it possible for a rifleman to render a base defenseless, while combatant, without even picking up aggro. Base takeover is now pure PvE, unless the attackers follow an honor code.
   

Message Edited by GoldSquadGirl on 04-05-200608:35 PM

I wish they would do a poll on the PVP. In general do you or dont you? I see lots of posts about it but I hardly ever see it. I know this varies from server to server. For the most part on my server at best it is a hand full of people doing the No Deathblow duels.

---

CW-XVII wrote:

agree with the above well thought summary

 

and a

 

/salute

to a worthy enemy

---

/salute you as well, my worthy adversary

Hope pub 30 delivers so the war can once again be equally worthy.

PUB 30 as planned:

---

Emperor_JD wrote:

I mean after all the key words in the name is STAR WARS.

---

An Empire Divided

---

GoldSquadGirl wrote:
The single greatest source of life on my server, that has turned us around from the post NGE doldrums is Publish 30.

The players streaming back into the game now, they play only to train for the upcoming fight, they want to believe that SOE finally understands, what happened in SWG, in the full-blown base wars of 2004.

When the combatant system was introduced exactly one year before the Dev letter that leakded the pub 30 blueprint, we were given assurances that Player Base Warfare would be a contest between PvP enabled players only, a promise that was not realized. Base Warfare died, as it became a PvE contest.

1. Fall 2004: Smuggler faction caps were lifted. Was the first time in a while that one could replace faction without being attackable by overts of the opposite faction. Faction becomes easy to obtain, bases as well.
   
2. Late 2004: a bug is discovered, that all bases were being set to "vulnerable" right after each server reset, making base conquest a matter of a slicer rising early and loading fast.
   
3. Early 2005: saw the addition of Combatant bases/status. No longer can players directly defend their bases. Later, when only combatant bases were given recruiter spawns, the Special Forces bases were rendered far more useless.
   
4. Planetary control by base placement. The deep discount available to procure bases on the planet your faction controlled the most, made them easier to replace than defend.
   
5. RoTW: Ranged cybernetic arms, making it possible for a rifleman to render a base defenseless, while combatant, without even picking up aggro. Base takeover is now pure PvE, unless the attackers follow an honor code.
   

Publish 30 accomplishes the same, as it stands now. If you don't believe me, look at the negative posts about this game, the most common criticism I see is that Pub 30 is too far away, even the most negative people are impressed by its proposed content. My server is steadily replenishing, based mainly on the promise of Pub 30, and the potential return of the most intense and thrilling PvP that the gaming world has ever known.

You at SOE, look at the newer games, they are all trying to capture what the base wars in 2004 did here. All you saw was the /reports, the nerfwhining, the CSR's getting spammed when they logged in. Because the fight was INTENSE. This was NOT a failure. It was a testament to the success here.

I visit the jedi enclaves still, each was once a work of perfection, from design, to functionality. The "postgraduate" jedi grind is gone, PvE no longer holds challenge, PvP is the end game content now, much as it was after the hologrind ended.

With that kind of dev attention to player bases, this game, even after all of the nerfage, and all of the broken promises, and all of the miffed vets and ex-players, will break all previously imagined boundaries.

Please SOE, you cannot afford to miss the boat here. This is make or break, right now, the servers feed off of the uncertainty, a promise would go a long way.

Promise us now, you will give us our war back. And we will bring back the legions.

---

Can I get a HELL YEAH???!!!! That will most defininetly be the make or break publish for many, especially commandos and officers.

Listen to the whining carebears long enough and have you do  a boring game.Pve is fine, but after you hit the top level, what else is there? The GCW and Faction wars should be the end content and that should be PVP.Period. You can always add a few quests for the NPC loving crowd.

Wow goosebumps!

I can tell you put your heart into that and you are passionate about it.  I thought it had died in me, but you just re-ignited the flame,

/WARCRY

Message Edited by Warmaker01 on 04-05-200612:07 PM

---

Landlord40 wrote:

there is no way ppl are gonna come back "now" for a publish that is half a  year a way. and even if they somehow would come back when the pub came out, be real that is not enough to make someone pay to play. only those that like the nge the way it is, ya know the ones that just want the bug fixes.

---

As I said in my original post:

"the most common criticism I see is that Pub 30 is too far away, even the most negative people are impressed by its proposed content."

They are coming back, and new players are eager to take part as well, just two months ago a half dozen small guilds controlled the ebb and flow of PvP on my server, now we are all lost in the stampede of the new arrivals pouring in to prepare themselves for the return of War.

I ground two full temp jedi, one pre CU and one during the CU, and I knew many others who did, it wasn't an end game that got people to stay, the jedi who stayed to PvP after the grind, they were the same non-jedi who PvP'd before and often during the jedi grind. The idea of people who ground jedi and learned to PvP afterwards was a myth. They got bored fast after the grind, and cancelled, Ebayed, or retired.

Those of you who tasted what the GCW can be, you know, that no amount of nerfage or broken promises can ever keep you from seeking that which you crave, old screenshots make your eyes well up and your heart pound, you can never fully pack up those forgotten battles in your heart and forget them, no matter how much you want to.

Those of you who missed the '04 base wars, and have not had a taste, you are no less of a player for it, your patience during the lull is about to pay off. Your opportunity to show what you are made of, and achieve martial valor waits in the wings.

There is a sense in the community, that for whatever selfish reasons, SOE is finally understanding, and will give us something real to fight for again, a real PvP GCW.

So here is your chance SOE. Come out of this Summit with a strong statement, and prove to us that you finally understand, what many of us have for a great while. We won't be fooled by pretenses to understanding, but if you get it right, we will know that also.

Because as an ex-Masonic friend of mine once told me, there never really was a secret handshake.

One believer always knows another

great post, I will be in Austin tomorrow night and the GCW and PvP are my hot points for questions.  The grind and quest running are fun and are also fairly easy to keep fresh, PvP however, needs to be the focus as the end game (IMO)

base wars to fight over galactic control for special dungeon or quest access maybe, there are tons of good ideas, just need to put the focus there.

---

Warlance wrote:

Salute to you girl! But please do not hold your breathe on things said/promised by SOE . You know they do not tell the truth to the customers(US) at all and the summit was once again proof of it.

---

---

Warlance wrote:

Sorry to disagree with you on the PvP, and with Mr JT has well, but to much manpower since before the CU has been directed towards PvP! The PRODUCERS and the Devs need to focus quite a bit on Merchants(traders), Smugglers, Entertainers, and the NON VIOLENT people of the community RIGHT NOW! THEY are the ones that are being left out with no love, and it is they that make the economy run in this game.You kill off the Merchants and Entertainers and then you have a FPS like DOOM.

---

---

Warlance wrote:

Salute to you girl! But please do not hold your breathe on things said/promised by SOE . You know they do not tell the truth to the customers(US) at all and the summit was once again proof of it.

---

And With Item decay coming back, your merchant will have an easier time selling his wares, like armor and weapons, if the VIOLENT members of "Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided" are using them up, under the new decay system. Some of the most successful merchants my server has had, placed shops right next to stubbornly defended player bases. Trust me, the biz there was great

When I was a Weaponsmith, I was a PvP Weaponsmith, a lucky spawn, at the same time as a dev announcement noone else saw Here helped me supply rebel bases on my server with a welcome mat for imperial snoops.

GoldSquadGirl,

You rock.

Warlance,

The support players can only benefit from an active PvP base.  There is no economy if all your PvE players are looting everything they need.  Traders and Entertainers have no use without customers who use their goods and services.  Right now the only reason I can see to PvP is for the people who love to kill someone.

Personally, I was always taught killing someone for no reason is murder.  I don't get off by running around and murdering people.  If there is an honest conflict, a deep rift, a conflicting set of ideals, a war, then there are things that must be done.  They're not pretty.  But in Star Wars it's suppose to be the rule-of-law being enforced by one group, and another group, seeing that the laws are being made by a ruthless and evil man, trying to stop them.  I personally need a reason to fight, and that gives me one.

However, as it is, the only type of fighting open to me is plain murder.  I can achieve no advances for my beloved Emperor in wandering around randomly killing an overt player.  I feel no sense of pride or joy in it.  I need to fight for my team, I need to accomplish something which feels real.  I need to see that my character is tired after a long fight and go seek out entertainers for him to soothe his mind and his aching muscles.  I need a good set of crafters resupplying my battered and broken equipment.  I need a medic to tend my seeping wounds.  This is war after all.  It wears on you.  It forces you to depend on people.

An economy driven by the ravages of war is a very focused economy.  What they need to do is give people like GoldSquadGirl and I:

1. A reason to fight
2. Consequences of fighting
3. Rewards for fighting
4. Something to protect, to look at with pride to save by fighting (faction PvP base)

If they do that, and allow our bodies and equipment to get worn out a bit from the battles, then we will absolutely need everyone else to help us (traders and entertainers).

And I have a question, why did you lump smugglers in with the non-violent people?  Smugglers need smuggling and sneaking around game-play, true, so it's not like a flame-throwing commando.  But non-violent?

And we have a FPS like DOOM right now.  I hate it.  I want Star Wars back.

---

JaGid_Shadows wrote:

GoldSquadGirl,

You rock.

Warlance,

The support players can only benefit from an active PvP base.  There is no economy if all your PvE players are looting everything they need.  Traders and Entertainers have no use without customers who use their goods and services.  Right now the only reason I can see to PvP is for the people who love to kill someone.

Personally, I was always taught killing someone for no reason is murder.  I don't get off by running around and murdering people.  If there is an honest conflict, a deep rift, a conflicting set of ideals, a war, then there are things that must be done.  They're not pretty.  But in Star Wars it's suppose to be the rule-of-law being enforced by one group, and another group, seeing that the laws are being made by a ruthless and evil man, trying to stop them.  I personally need a reason to fight, and that gives me one.

However, as it is, the only type of fighting open to me is plain murder.  I can achieve no advances for my beloved Emperor in wandering around randomly killing an overt player.  I feel no sense of pride or joy in it.  I need to fight for my team, I need to accomplish something which feels real.  I need to see that my character is tired after a long fight and go seek out entertainers for him to soothe his mind and his aching muscles.  I need a good set of crafters resupplying my battered and broken equipment.  I need a medic to tend my seeping wounds.  This is war after all.  It wears on you.  It forces you to depend on people.

An economy driven by the ravages of war is a very focused economy.  What they need to do is give people like GoldSquadGirl and I:

1. A reason to fight
2. Consequences of fighting
3. Rewards for fighting
4. Something to protect, to look at with pride to save by fighting (faction PvP base)

If they do that, and allow our bodies and equipment to get worn out a bit from the battles, then we will absolutely need everyone else to help us (traders and entertainers).

And I have a question, why did you lump smugglers in with the non-violent people?  Smugglers need smuggling and sneaking around game-play, true, so it's not like a flame-throwing commando.  But non-violent?

And we have a FPS like DOOM right now.  I hate it.  I want Star Wars back.

---

5 stars!!!


Could not have said it better myself
/rockon

---

Landlord40 wrote:

there is no way ppl are gonna come back "now" for a publish that is half a  year a way. and even if they somehow would come back when the pub came out, be real that is not enough to make someone pay to play. only those that like the nge the way it is, ya know the ones that just want the bug fixes.

---

First, awesome job Haleigh.....again. 

Second, I really hope this pans out in pub 30.   As me, you, and the rest of Sunrunner Server has seen, pvp without conflict is boring.  

The GCW system must evoke powerful emotions if this game is to survive.   If the boards fill with flames and the CSRs and inundated with /reports, then SOE will know they got it right. 

Just look at the BH terminal issue.

Why is the BH terminal issue so important?  Because the hunt of your target gets you  pretty emotional.  Anxious, nervous, excited.  The build-up to actually clicking /attack is very important to the game.   When I was a bh, I use to get excited when I would beat a jedi.  That's because there was a real life emotional build-up to that point.  Those emotions are like drugs, very addictive.   The reason that no one raised their hand when the guy asked how many people liked the PBS is because the system didn't evoke emotion.  Running around clicking on people to see if they have a bounty isn't exciting!   But Picking your bounty, stalking them all over unbeknownst to them.  Knowing that you have the power to attack at your desicion.   /drool.  I've been spending all day trying to find old Mabari Armorweave (8k energy resist /jedikiller).  The boards were flooded yesterday with people excited about the turn of events for the PBS.  The same will happen if they can get the GCW correct.  

Bases are the major part of it.  Who cares about going to a battleground.  No One.  Let us decide where the battleground is going to be.    Make those battlegrounds that SOE is trying to make pve player quest oriented.   We want to defend our cities - attack the enemies cities and complain about how the other side cheated.  The cities are something that we have been building for about 4 weeks now; secretly, telling only trusted friends.  Paranoid that the other side might find out and mess up your plans.

Seriously, Haleigh, has any real passion come of our new fights?  We had several CSR assisted events, and no one got really upset about sneaky tactics.  No one jumped on the boards complaining about so-in-so.  It all changed when SOE took the passion out of the game by taking away our fear of loss.  I still remmber that arse Kenji taking out that AT-AT during that battle pre-NGE.   God every Imperial on the server was pissed for a week.  couldn't wait till the next event to get revenge. 

Will the pub 30 content bring back a lot of people- yes, but if the content isn't what we were are hoping for.  NOt only will they leave again, but the tried and true will be crushed as well. 

Message Edited by wintersNight on 04-08-200602:17 PM

OK I can agree with the premise of what you have said here, but it still comes down to the facts that most if not at least 85% of all publishes since the cu has serve for the fighting professions to fight better NOW, little if no effort has been made to helpl the supporting group of civilians (Merchants and Entertainers Mostly)in this. In fact they have been made substancuality weaker in their ability to manufacture the QUAILTY items YOU (Has PvPers) want. I to want to get into the fray, but what I really want is an Equal footing for all of these professions to be fixed and playable. Has it stands this is not so. I salute your efforts to get a better PvP enviroment for all, but you should not and need not forget the support personnel YOU need to do that. Allow us at least the chance to catch up with where you are. I want to see ALL professions working at once so that all can enjoy this game , and that they where doing until the NGE .

NGE= No Good Entertainment