I've been thinking about getting into it, but I've been turned off by the bad early reviews that it got.

So, any Massassians out there who play it or have played it? Could you tell me what your experience was like and whether you think it's a waste of money or not? Thanks a bunch.

Theres a 10 day trial of it on fileplanet, I've been trying to get it to work the last day, but i wasnt given no trial key for it .

Worst. MMORPG. Ever.

It was seriously a chore to play. Get World of Warcraft or City of Heroes instead, they're so much better on every single level.

Except for subject matter.

I liked Galaxies.

I like SWG, and I still play it.

For anyone that cares, I'm Antonov Kovovovski, holed up on Chimera as a master artisan, master WS, carbineer and pilot.

Edit: It's buggy, laggy and slow as hell, sometimes. Combat unbalance has shifted, partying is essential, and my guild is cool. But it's fun, so that's OK.

The game has changed greatly in the past month. From a machanics prospective, it's pratically a whole new game. The combat system has changed drastically. For instance, you can now use Rifleman skills with a Pistol. The HAM has been reduced from 9 to 6 bars. Only the Health bar takes damage now. There's also more of a 'level' system. As you progress, your health bar increases towards the 3000 cap. The buffing system has changed. For instance, anyone can buff themselves now (though it's still far more effective for a Doctor to buff you). Armor has changed. Specifically, there are new factional armor sets available for the appropriate combat closses (scout/recon, assult, heavy assult). There have been major (and minor) profession revamps. Starport and shuttle wait times have be dramatically reduced (not that you need them if you have a ship of your own). Many more quests have been added. The Rage of the Wookiees expansions bring the new Kashyyk(sp?) planet with tons of quest and content. It also favors a more AC2 feel where you have well defined paths to take through the landscape. You can also now mine astroids for resources. There's a new mining cargo ship that's absolutely huge! The largest playble ship in the game.

It's truly a great time for the game.

From the sounds of it, it seems like it's about time for me to start up my SWG account again....

How's solo play? Impossible or just barely possible (I hate grouping..)?

Also, how are the entertainer classes these days? I really liked being a musician early on, but then there were just a bunch of naked macroers going for the jedi crap and the entertainment community basically died.

I haven't played in like a year, so.. yeah.

Been about a year since I've played as well...

Tempting...

Such a bad game, half the game's content was completely untested, as CRAFTING wasnt in the game in beta at all. And most the advanced jobs were untested due to multiple characther wipes. The XP system was completely changed 5 days before release.

The only fun thing in SWG was the character creation, and that was just to the extent you could make your character ridiculous looking.

Finally.
The game it was supposed to be.
Two years after it was released.

i loved it. i had to stop playing because i couldn't afford it anymore. now i don't have time.

Eh, I'll stick to Guild Wars.

You people that keep commenting on how bad it is probably haven't played it since they completely changed it. And by completely changed, pretty much only the environments are the same.

The environments really, really sucked. That's one of the reasons I disliked it.

I played it for a year. COuldn't take it anymore.

WoW is much more fun for me.

I was obsessed with teh "star wars" and "huge" aspect of it and not the "MMORPG" part of it. IE I explored alot... didn't seem to be worht exploring. I wanted effort for GETTING places, not going there and doing the quest of the area. I wanted some cool reward for just finding a place far away.


even if it's upgraded, I'm not spending another 1-3 months getting a semi-good cahracter.

WoW is good for me.

I play it every now and then. Played it for the first time in a few weeks recently, and was shocked at the differences that had been made. Took me a while to get used to them.

The other day and I was running along and stopped and stared at another player for a few seconds, he was wearing Episode III Stormtrooper armour. Seen a few players with robotic arms around as well, guess the new expansion pack is out then.

Wow, those are some drastic changes. The last time I played SWG was when fileplanet offered the 2 week trial way back before the expansion pack came out. Based on what I played so long ago, to me, it was fun for the first week but it then started to feel like a chore. It was taking wwwaaayyy to long to level up skills and the exploration took forever. However, there were some good things about the game that I think are even better than what WoW has to offer. Until I try out the new SWG, I have to say I'm sticking with WoW.

Solo play is harder now then ever. Before a soloer could go at a lair and just use area attack to kill all the creatures around them and the lair. Now picking them off one at a time is more favorable. Grouping has changed dramatically. In fact, the new changes encourage grouping. You now get the appropriate XP and reward payout.

The environment has changed a little. Static objects are now viewable much much further then before. Coming over a hill and seeing Coronet or Theed still 2km away is quite the site.

Even starting out a new character is a lot better then before. For a while now they were giving out "speeder rentals" to new characters which allowed you to have three rents of a speeder. Now they have a slower/weaker version of the X34, the X33 that they give you.

The GCW has really heated up. Major NPC's like Darth Vader and Mon Mothma make semi-regular trips to major cities to encourage participation in the GCW. There is a new system of planetary control. Factions can take over other faction controled NPC cities. You can keep track of the latest news in the GCW via News Terminals.

A lot of new weapons have also been added to the game along with an entirely revamped looting system which adds more diversity to the Galaxy Economy.



Actually, that's not true. A lot of the new revamps are based off of how the game was originally designed. In Beta everyone had enough Med skills at character creation to use Stim A's. Due to Medic and Doctor complaints, they took this out before Release. Now you can use Meds again (though with less effectivness then doctors). BTW, Combat Medics can Rez now also. All healing (including Rezing) by Medical Professions are now abilities (no meds required). All medical crafting has now gone to the Bio-Engineer profession.

Entertainers,
I don't know where you last dropped off with entertainers but they have learned tons of new flourishes, dances, and songs. The skill points have also changed so that it is now possible to master Dancer, Musician, and Image Designer. Droid Engineers have entertainment modules they can install on droids to help provide a neat little side show for entertainers. Since the Jedi grind was taken out, you no longer see masses of entertainers macroing. It's back to the dedicated social players (tips welcomed). There is a scheduled revamp of the entertainers and crafting professions to come next (Smugglers included, though they've already recieved some changes).

I strongly urge anyone intrested to visit the main site (starwarsgalaxies.com) and checkout all the new changes since the last time you played.

I saw the complete package on Amazon for only $30, so I think I might try it out. Thanks for the info guys.

I play it....too much sometimes. 14 hours straight last saturday. The combat upgrade really made it more fun for me, since I don't have to go ****ing begging for 15,000 credits for the damn doc buff every time i want to go out and fight.

I play on starsider as Kioet'

Don't suppose anyone knows where I can find out where to get a trial key for the 10 day trial fileplanet have going? I still can't find one, I was never sent one during installation or anything :S.

Capt. You don't know how awesomely fun beta was. You got VERY little XP for lower level creatrues, and all attacks were much weaker. People HAD to group together to get good XP. Large hunting groups were organized on Endor and Lok all the time, 15-20 people working together to take down huge creatures to get good XP. Crafting was very limited, due to the fact that factories werent in game until 5 days before release. All the weapons sucked, all the armor sucked, and people had fun.

That's because the trial is closed. Fileplanet only offers trial keys when the trial is active and the trial keys are offered from the website itself, not from the installation.

Acctually its not closed, the key was hidden away somewhere, i wont use the details, but someones already used the key.