Well, it's about time I wrote something. I've actually been struggling a little, wondering what to talk about, but I've slacked long enough. Still can't think of something decent to talk about, so instead I'll just vent a little about Star Wars: Galaxies.

Now, nearly a year has gone by, and I've been able to watch the progress of this game since the Beta days. Through patches and fixes, I kept hoping that the game would get even better over time. And yet each time, evidence mounted that the people behind the scenes often had no idea what they were doing.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy this game immensely, but let me bring up the Corellian Corvette. This new dungeon, recently added to the game, was to allow players to take part in missions that would take place on a Corvette in space. Sounds great right? I mean, to see the inside of the spaceship immortalized in the first few minutes of A New Hope. Not only that, but they would be instanced, which would mean no KillStealing.

And so countless players rushed to the Corvette, and fun was had by all. It appeared the difficulty was perfect. With only a maximum of 10 players who could go onto the Corvette at a time, it required working together, devising strategy, and careful outmaneuvering the defending guards. Many players died in the first few trips, but success could be had if you played your cards right, if only by the skin of your teeth. Fighting through the guards was a tremendous accomplishment.

Alas, as any new content enters the game, there were a few enterprising players who sought to circumvent the normal method of beating the Dungeon. These players eventually figured out a way to run through the Corvette completely alone. As such, they began 'farming' the Corvette, running through multiple times in order to obtain rare items that existed only on the Corvette. Battle Droids were often lured to fight against the human guards of the Corvette, allowing players to sneak through heavily defended areas with impunity. As there were only half a dozen droids, all placed in one area of the ship, players could run past them easily.

And lo, the Devs saw this and were displeased. "No player should be able to do this dungeon alone!" they said. And thus they changed the Corvette. No longer would droids fight with the human guards. But that was not enough. No, not at all. In fact, they also decided that it was still too easy. And so they added even more droids. Super Battle Droids were scattered throughout the Corvette, added in places that made no sense at all, for the sole purpose of hindering solo players.

Ahh, but what of grouped players? Still stuck at a max of 10 members, groups who went to the Corvette merely to experience the Dungeon soon found themselves outmatched. Even the most elite of fighters could not stand up against a dozen Super Battle Droids. And even if they could, with the sheer amount of them, there would be no hope of defeating them all and accomplish the mission within the hour time limit.

What was once a fun dungeon, a mix of fighting and exploration, has now become a place where you must avoid combat as much as possible, running from room to room without pause. As for the solo players? They still find ways to do it alone. In fact, it is now much easier to do it alone, as bringing a group only serves to draw everyone into combat with foes that hopelessly outmatch you.

Take a look at the following screenshots:
Droids 1
Droids 2
Tell me, who in their right mind would even think that this makes sense, let alone is a good idea? These Battle Droids were never seen in the original Star Wars trilogy for a reason. Yet here, they're even more common than womp rats.

At least there were good times to be had in the beginning, and I got some good screenshots.
Admiral
Bridge
Mess hall

Next time, I'll talk about City of Heroes and what they did right.

Posted by The Lazarus at May 5, 2004 01:45 PM