Avian Gamers Network

Now that the stress test is over..... tell us what you thought of the game compaired to SWG.

1) MSC > SCS

2) I love the graphics! Activity, even quite a ways away, is very easy to spot. Each area within the general geographic areas has it's own flavor. By that I mean Razor Hill looks different than Sel'jin Village even though they're just a short jog away. SWG, beautiful though it may be, does become a little homogenous feeling, particularly urban areas.

3) Combat is fast, furious and dangerous! Unless I really out-ranked an opponent, I always had to exercise some caution when facing down a baddie. And then there were those times when I had just a tiny bit left on my health bar and was casting my hail-mary spell and it connected just the soon-to-be loser started his last attack! Nailbiters, I tell ya...they abound. There were cases where I ended up dying but after my shadowbolt (was running an orc warlock name Orlock ) launched so my opponent still ended up dying. Fun stuff.

4) Fast in-and-out times. If I had 10 free minutes, I could not only play but make progress. Mission targets are usually fairly close to where you get the mission. I was able to buff my own AC and while there are buffs you can get from others...they are not absolutely necessary. I emphasize this b/c I know this is a topic near and dear to the hearts of many who are tired of that aspect of SWG. The only things I had to do from the time I joined the game until I was hacking and casting was summon my imp or voidwalker and buff my armor (incidentally, if you logged for less that 15 minutes, they persisted!).

5) While I was limited in the armor I could use, when I wore armor, it didn't hinder me at all.

6) Sounds are perfect and I did not find the music annoying. The sounds arose from your environment, your pet and of course combat. Music changed from area to area and didn't seem like it repeated a lot.

7) Missions are PLENTIFUL and VARIED! In fact, I don't believe I ever really had to go out and just hunt. Simply by running missions, I was able to advance my level in a fun and rewarding (loot and experience) way. The fiction behind each of the missions is worth reading and paying attention to. If you know your WC history the missions really pull you into the overarching story of the game franchise.

All for now but I'm happy to answer questions!

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Liro
"The english language is not a wedding gown, it doesn't get better the more lace you add. It is instead a thong. Less is more." From /.
I need to remind myself of this regularly.

Just to respond to Rocklars post then to add a few of my own.



I agree this allowed me to try quite a few different types of characters without having to destroy each one til I was sure I found something I liked better, and it also allowed me to know the local inhabitants (actual players not NPCs) of the areas becuase I wasnt having to try my testing on a different server.



I agree. And even in the towns like Ironforge the different areas had its own theme/music and look. The Rogue area of the town looked much more dark and sinsiter than the humongous forge area for exacmple. And one odd thing, my wife who hates games and never has played any except for Literati on Yahoo and The Sims (for a short time), kept wanting to watch me play, she like the graphics as well and even went far enough to say my gnome mage was "cute". She about cracked up laughing when I had him dancing.



Yup there were many times where I figure hey he is one level below me, no problem, and it would end up a pretty close battle. Or attacking a level 7 mob just to find all of his nearby friends decided to help (like the leper gnomes or the frostmane trolls who liked to try and gang up on me a few times)



I didnt get to play every class but just about every one of them has its own type of buff in some way, I dont know if they all did though. The missions were a awsome way to play, at the end to yesterday I had my mission list completely packed where I could grab anymore. They are things that you can log in and do as you have time, they never go away until you tell them to. Some of them had me travelling several areas away and some that had me going just a short walk down the road or killing a local menace.



I could only wear cloth as a mage on my main and even then I could still enhance parts of it with leather with a leathercrafter made upgrade kit



I had sound turned off most of the time, it wasnt until the last couple days that I turned it on, and you know I felt it really enhanced the gameplay and I didnt turn it back off. Most games I turn it off and leave it off, like SWG.



I agree, many small stories developed as you play, from a love story where you are delivering notes to the young lovers and trying to help them get together even with their family at odds with each other, to a ram hunting abomidal <sp?) snowman or drunken dwarfs wanting better liquor.



Me too.

1) You can quickly get a feel for the different classes in very little time, with missions you can get the first couple of levels very quickly.

2) Cyrus: on your PM about the rogue. I played with one a bit more and they do look interesting. I just prefered my mage over it. They dont start off with a range attack but can train in throwing knives. They also have stealth and backstabbing abilities, even though I never got to try them myself they do look pretty cool. With stealth you turn transparent where you can hardly be seen. They also have a few other pretty good moves but I didnt get a chance to try them because I only took my rogue up the first few levels before the stress test wore out.

2) Griffen rides: All I can say is wow, you fly over the whole map on your way to where ever you are going and you get a chance to see the countryside from up high.

3) Content: Tons of content and areas to explore. Even with my level 13 mage I only made it to 4 distinct maps (not counting the Searing Gorge area where I died right away), I visited Dun Morogh, Loch Modan Elwynn Forest and Westfall. And even in tese areas I was constantly finding new things. Like the unfinished airbase (I have a picture of it somewhere)

4) Trade Skills: very interesting so far, I never was able to make it beyond the initial skill, came close in mining and fishing but not quite. I had fun with them, I spent several hours just fishing, and even though you do have to be at the keyboard to real in your fish if you get a bite I thought it was quite enjoyable compared to SWG. In all I tried first aid, maining, fishing, skinning and leatherworking.

Hmm that is enough from me right now, got a whole book here, hehe.

Oh will I still be playing SWG when this comes out? I dont know, i really dont know. I played UO for almost 6 years and now SWG for over a year, every other one only kept my interest for a short time (like a month or so). If WoW was to be release today I would shut down my accounts in SWG and move to WoW, will I get interested in SWG again and change my mind I dont know, couldnt tell you. The only reason I havent shut down my accounts right now is because of the PA.

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Section 6

Just a few scrrenshots I took, should have taken more

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=your_stuff&user_id=27974

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Section 6

Without being to repetitious I'll throw in my 2 cents on the characters I played and what to expect in the early levels.

The game is very intuitive. Anyone who has played a MMORPG before will be up and running virtually from the start. The starting tasks in the newbie areas are extremely easy. I never got killed with a new toon below lvl 7 on 4 different characters. The aggro is tuned way down in Newbie areas although a few things will trigger it. In the mines opening the chests causes all the nearby baddies to come running.

Getting to level 6 or so should take a few hours, though if you are intent on getting out of the newbie area ASAP look at no more than 90 minutes. I feel you should level up to six before leaving for a couple of reasons. You will be strong enough to get to the next area easily at level 6 and the game kind of suggests it. Your trainer in the newbie area will have spells and special moves up to lvl 6. I only made 5.5 with my undead priest before completing my last newbie quest but I ground out the needed half level in no time. An added benefit of grinding and or just general killing in the newbie areas - They seem to have the highest concentration of pack drops. Even wolves in the human newbie area drop the 6-slot packs. These are quite valuable to have for the storage and to buy them from an NPC is five silver which will be out of your price range for a while. Players may make them for you cheaper I just advise getting four ASAP.

The quests are fun for the most part and I never really got a repetitive feeling even though many (not all) are go and kill x of y or go kill y until you get x drops. I prefer the quests that simply require killing a certain number of creatures. If you have to wait for drops they can sometimes be scarce and grouping doesn't get you the drops faster cause you have to share them. If the goal is just to kill 10 bandits, everytime any group member kills one the group all gets the credit. Really though, I enjoyed the grouping for safety and communities sake and I rarely got left behind by someone who got his 8 widgets then moved on.

As has been mentioned, exploring out of your recommended zone is hazardous and can become frustrating. Just know that in time you will be of sufficient level to explore where you want and realize the areas aren't going anywhere and you will be fine. I did explore a zone above my level because I got the second level of herb gathering and the stuff I sought wasn't in my zone. By staying to the edge of the zones and moving carefully I was able to move about okay. Blizz, knowing the sneakers like me would stay to the edge of the zone, placed most of the herbs in the middle.

This brings up one aspect I question. All of the herbs respawn in the exact same places. Pick one in a certain spot and it will respawn in a few minutes in that very spot. I believe they should be randomized. Don't know if that is feasible or if most would agree but I think the way they have it is a little cheasy.

I think the graphics work and are crisp but maybe not as awe inspiring as some of the stuff I saw in SWG. That may not even be fair though because I played SWG, beta and live, for 9 months. I played WoW for about 9 days. Plus I still have a stronger feeling about the Star Wars franchise vs. the Warcraft franchise.

The game is far less buggy and far more balanced than SWG. That is not to say however that it is close to done. There is much to do. For instance MANY creatures suffer from pathing errors so you will see them and attack only to find they do not respond. This really takes away from immersion but it's not a deal breaker. Many upper levels say the characters aren't balanced for PvP. Others say only mages priests and warriors make the ideal group for raids. If this remains the case, myself and many others will be very disappointed. Paladins can't hold aggro etc. I hope they will work this out as I would be very disappointed to make a Pally or Warlock or Hunter or any other character for that matter then get avoided like the plague for instances.

Well getting longwinded now so I will close by offering to answer any questions anyone might have and by affirming that I will be playing this game for months when it comes out. Years is a question but I know I will get months of enjoyment out of it.

I preordered today.

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"Chatfield, I think there's something wrong with our bloody ships." Admiral David Beatty, upon watching the battlecruiser Queen Mary explode at the battle of Jutland.

My name is Tobias Smith and I approved this post.

As bitter as I am over SOEs poor management of SWG, I think I do see a few areas where SWG trumps WoW. The two areas that come to mind are character customization, and user interface.

1) I understand the character customization is not as good as SWG? Did this bother you? Were you able to look or feel unique?

2) I loved how I could customize my HUD in SWG... when I look at the WoW screenshots I feel like the HUD is not as adjustable. What do you think of the WoW HUD? How customizable will it be? The chat box looks to be limited; in SWG I can have several boxes open for favorite channels. Can WoW do the same? If it can not, did you miss having more than one box open?

I didnt have any problem with customization, tru there isnt as many options as SWG but I didnt feel the need to have that many options, could be just me.

As for customization I never played with it but is supposedly fully xml customizable. They had/have a whole forum on the topic.

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Section 6

1. Customization is not even close to SWG. There are five or six choices of 5 or 6 characteristics. While that seems like a lot of choices (6 to the sixth power), with no options on the bodies a mage has the exact same shape as a warrior, as a thief, etc. Plus many of the choices don't change the look of the character that much, like skin tone. The thing is, I really didn't care. I look at my character from the back almost all the time anyway. I was just way into the game with little concern about my looks.

2. The hud is not very much customizable either. You don't really need to have multiple channels open though because all the channels have different colors. Your guild chat will come up in one color for instance. The problem may be the stuff flying off your screen forced out by newer stuff.

I just never considered these question since I was having so much fun playing. The Player customization is a mild irritation. The HUD might become a bit more of a problem.

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"Chatfield, I think there's something wrong with our bloody ships." Admiral David Beatty, upon watching the battlecruiser Queen Mary explode at the battle of Jutland.

My name is Tobias Smith and I approved this post.

Here is a couple pictures I found applied UI Mods

http://wow.warcraftstrategy.com/ctmod/images/mod_int.jpg


http://vjeux.grabu.free.fr/that's%20beautiful.JPG
http://img66.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img66&image=wheresthetrainer.jpg
http://vjeux.grabu.free.fr/yeah.JPG
http://membres.lycos.fr/vjeux/Cosmos/Menu.jpg

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Section 6

I haven't played WoW yet but on the issue of Visual Character Customization:

I really liked the customization in SWG, it was a fun process. But in reality you rarely if ever recognized people by there visual looks. Perhaps moreso by armor and weapons, but not facial features and skin tone. While I loved doing this in SWG, I can see why it really has less value in long term playability when compared to the technical resources required.

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Dr. Golga Bolg
SWTOR - Golga
Rift - Gnarlwood: Golgar Golgantua Golgate - Retired
WoW - Dalaran: Bolg Golga Virrok All Retired
SWG - Golga Bolg - Doctor (Resident) Retired
Eve - Edge Finn - Limbo
Section 2 - (Former) Director
What am I playing now?: The waiting game

SWG is just all pretty graphics, now while most of you probably disagree with me, thats how I feel......and well a game doesn't have to have really great graphics for me to like/love it..so...

I'm always confused when people talk about WoW graphics. For some reason, it's always stated that they're bad or just not the best out there. The thing is, though, is that they're just a different style. They're more cartoonish, but I don't see why that gets dubbed as "bad graphics." The graphics are sharp, the characters and enemies look smooth, diverse, and quite detailed, the environments are lush and vibrant... the list goes on. It's fine if they're not your cup of tea, and that's to be expected, but I've never accepted the label of the graphics being bad.

On a related note, I had many many more awe-inspiring moments with WoW than I did with SWG. The WoW environments just feel so alive, and the epic scale of many areas is just amazing (Ironforge, the dam north of Loch Modan, the structures in the lava areas between Ironforge and Stormwind...).

And there's not much I can say regarding the others aspects without being too redundant. I will say, though, at this time WoW is simply more fun than SWG.

Amen to that.

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"Chatfield, I think there's something wrong with our bloody ships." Admiral David Beatty, upon watching the battlecruiser Queen Mary explode at the battle of Jutland.

My name is Tobias Smith and I approved this post.