Star Wars Galaxies: Holo-answers!

It seemed after Holocron posted a few player stories, a lot of people loved them. To fulfill the demand, Holocron made a very lengthy post of player stories!

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Was amazing last night on Talus, I was just wandering. and not far from the D city, I wandered across some HUGE animals.. called Torturs, one bull (daddy), one baby and mom i suppose would be the third. Simply amazing.. Walked up to them not caring if i was gonna die.. i had to get close. And they came up to me and sniffed me.. I was as tall as just above it's ankle.. it was amazing.
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This is long, and about what happens when a MUD, is graphical. Click your back button now, if you really don't care about the simple things in the game.
Okay, I was on, how do you spell it, Ahazi? Anyway, I was on Ahazi today, and in the city of Theed, Naboo. If I were to do this in a normal mud, there wouldn't be anything to really look at, but today, I just decided to go sit on top of a hill a little away from Theed, and wait for the sun to rise. Just sitting there didn't bore me, because I was reading up on skill trees, and watch the grass wave in the wind. Finally after a bit, the sun starts to rise, and music starts playing for the sun rise. I really begin to think, that the game is really beautiful! I think this is what the Devs were going for.
Not a combat game, just a world.

No reason to play it, except for fun.

No end to the game, just live a life.

I've noticed things where people are just there in Cantinas and dance for hours, and not have a macro on, and I know this because they're talking to people and stuff. Then people are going out, and just exploring the world, and asking each other whether they've seen this creature or not, and wondering, 'should we stay away from it, or go near it?'. I'm a programmer, and I know what it feels like to put all this time into maybe, like a boarder for a window for example, and you feel really proud that it looks great, but to everyone else, they just take it for granted.

Just like the game, I don't really have a point to this post, except to just tell people:

Don't feel like 'beating' the game, or trying to advance faster than someone else, just play it to have fun, and let the game take you on an adventure!

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Yesterday was a great day for me in the beta; I finally made it to my dream planet (or moon) - Endor. This is the place that out of all the screenshots posted on the SWG site months ago, really peaked my interest due to the lushness of the forests and the role that Endor had in the movies.
Now of course I was advised by many people that it's a dangerous place, with lots of violent little ewoks talking out large groups of 20 players and other red con mobs, and no cities or infrastructure in place to survive for very long.
Duly noted. So what to do? Well, I rolled a new toon on the 2nd server, (Koorby McFey) with the sole purpose of not to level, but to explore. He's a marksman so at least he has a half-chance of defending himself, but the point was to NOT come into contact with anything but scenery and new lands.

What I saw blew me away.

So I roll Koorby and start in Corellia, do 2-3 quick fedex missions to cash up and buy a one-way ticket to hell (er, Endor). Hop on the interplanetery shuttle and land there very early morning, still dark.

Heading south from the outpost (and that's all it is, a few buildings guarded by stormtroopers) I am using the planetary Ctrl-V map shrunk down to a small window to head down to the coast,then west to my trek destination; the mouth of the largest river on the map. I wanted to feel like an explorer just jumping of a sea craft, landing on a new continent for the first time.

So I cranked up details to almost max on my PC, the terrain and scenery completely leaves my jaw dropped on the floor. Headphones on, lights off, Ctrl-Shift-H to remove the HUD and I am completely immersed in this place. I enter first person mode. I really AM here.

Lots of weird chirping sounds and strange dog-like barks in the distance. I plough through the dense undergrowth and see 150 foot tall trees all around me. They are gigantic! I reach a stream, which is what I was looking for to take me to the coast. I am constantly moving in a "Z" pattern to avoid mobs. The only thing displaying on my hud is the overhead map, just showing me as a white triangle and mobs as red triangles. I set this so mobs are on the edges of my monitor and scaled to be at least 25m from me, thus avoiding aggro. It makes for slow progress, and I'm constantly criss-crossing the stream, but I'm alive at least and moving south. Ocassionally I Ctrl-Shift-H to bring up the planetary map so I can check on my progress. Sort of like pulling out an explorer's map. NOTE TO DEVS: Can we make certain UI elements "persistant", so that when I turn off the UI they stay on the screen?

Then the sun starts to rise, poking through the massive douglas fir trees. The water sparkles the sun's reflection, and long morning shadows are cast on land and water. The beauty of the next thirty minutes left me speechless. It feels so REAL! To be honest, I am getting perfect frame rates, even smoother than the Naboo plains; which strikes me as odd given the density of the foilage. It's probably the fact that the horizon is close, obscured by the hills, gullies, and canyons, and that the whole place is in a tree canopy.

I eventually make it to the coast, and it looks like a scene from a postcard from Alaska or British Columbia. I come to a lake bounded by tall pine trees, the sun reflecting on the water. The music swells in my ears as the morning slowly progresses. All the while I am hearing and seeing creatures I'd never dreamt of, from wolf-like animals to moose and a giant ape-like creature sitting on a beach plucking things out of the sand.

Westward along the coast, with sandy beaches and small peninsulas covered in trees growing to the shoreline. I stumble across an abandoned village. It's got a large indian teepee style hut in the centre. Seems abandoned. The place is completely empty but for a huge wilderbeast who has decided to claim it as his own. He stands six feet tall and seems to be aware of my presence but allows me to retreat quickly back to the beach and continue westwards.

An hour later, running Z-pattern in and out of the water along the coast and I reach the mouth of the river that I'd seen on the map. It has steep banks on either side with lush growth. It could be in the Amazon. More weird sounds and the sun is climbing a little hight. The colors are amazing. Now it's time to move northwards inland and follow the river for 15 miles north to the desert. A long journey, but one that I am determined to take. I'm relieved that a few hours have passed and I am still alive. The key to this trek is to avoid contact. It's all about stealth and reading the movements of the many, many creatures around me. It means frequent stops and waiting for them to move. In one case a flock of large dragonish bird hover on the right bank of the river. As I move forward, one of the flock suddenly screeches and flies quickly to the left bank, almost into my aggro zone. It's a tense moment, and adds to the atmosphere. I take a deep breath and move slowly on, swimming mid-river.

It's midday now and the sun is beating down, casting weird shadows all around me. I follow the river north for an hour and then a message telling me "You have entered Bestine" pops up.
I now expect some sort of outpost or signs of civilization. I'm still cautious though, this planet kills first and asks questions later, and that's animals and other humanoid species alike. As if to confirm my caution, not long after that I am completely jumped by some weird looking creatures; not ewoks - these guys were too tall to be ewoks. Taleks, I think they were called. They must have been tracking me for a while, because they jumped me from behind, incapacitated me almost instantly, then dealt me a death blow - no mercy - ending my journey abruptly. Rule number #1 for Endor. No second chances when soloing.

I respawned back at the outpost clone facility and reflected on an amazing day. I had survived for 3-4 hours solo in the toughest place in the galaxy! I had seen some of the most gorgeous environments ever to grace my screen in real-time.

To me, this death is a challenge! I do some quick and dirty fedex missions to get enough credits to shuttle to the smuggler's base for inland. I have enough credits now.

Tonight I will try to penetrate deeper north to the desert country. I can't wait.

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My wife and I were "tailed" by a hermit spider on Naboo the other night. We passed within maybe 50m of him and he started following us.
Now, maybe it's just me, but I swear everytime we turned around, he would jump in a ditch or slowly move off in the other direction. It was as if he were trying to act nonchalant. I was talking to my wife as we were watching this. Neither of us were sure if we actually had agro. We'd turn and start walking away and here he'd come again. We stopped and looked back at him maybe 3 or 4 times. Everytime, he did his best to look like he wasn't following us.
After maybe 250m or so, he charged us and we fired him up. If that's the "stalking" AI, it was incredible. I don't think a PC could have done a better job. Right up until he charged, we were wondering what he was up to.

Big kudos on that!

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So yesterday I was sitting around talking with this surveyor guy waiting for my stats to regen when off in the distance (about 90 meters, if you want to call that "distance") I see these 2 cats spawn from there lair(I think they were wrix's). I thought, well ok, there pretty far off so I doubt there's any chance that they'll aggro us. Strangely enough though, they start to move in a way I had never see a mob move before, in ANY game.
They seemed to move slowly, carefully and low through the aired Correlian tundra, their eyes seemingly fixated on the surveyor (This was definitely not the random movement of MOBs we usually get). When they got to about 40 meters away I remember that the new stalking AI had been added and started to back away. I yelled to my new acquaintance "Hey! I think those cats are stalking you!". All I received back in response was a "lol", from the Surveyor, whos back was to them. Then when they got to within about 15 meters or so they pounced and took him down in a matter of seconds.

I must say, that was a most impressive display of stalking if I ever saw one...now I know that they just dont stalk small animals, and to watch my back more often....

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Hello everyone on the Ahazi server. This is zorego here. we are setting up a crafters PA called Alleyway Artisans. (long story in coronet city)
Anyhow feel free to leave a post here so we can coordinate getting everyone trained up for free at coronet city. we will pool resources and cash to work on higher end projects and find patches of materials we need posted here with coordinates.

Have a good one all and I'll see you in coronet alley.

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There I was, a proud wookie, sporting my new Imperial Overt Decoder Ring and Trooper Personnel Aid. Just streching from signing the pad on the table.
I look around and try and figure out the amount of control I might have over my Trooper.

And then another wookie strolls around the corner. We freeze. I can feel him looking me up and down as I size him up. He's one of THEM. We are plainly both trying to decide whether to leave the weapons hanging at our sides and not "notice" each other or to act.

Bammmmm, my Trooper opens up on him. He opens up on me, we both dive for cover and start blazing away. In the end, he is the better wookie and puts me down and then takes out my trooper. A sporting wookie, he takes off without the deathblow.

We chat a little, learn we were both new to the factions and that we each had a blast. Either one of us could have had heart failure when the trooper broke the tension.

Now if only I could figure out what to do with a dead trooper.

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So has anyone been threatened with divorce due to testing SWG too much?
Im was expecting grief from my Wife but she has been relatively good about it so far.

(She is getting a bit mad at me constantly talking about it whenever we meet people though.

"and this is my Husband"

"Ohh hello what do you do?"

"Well at the moment Im heading for the Smuggler profession but Im spending most of my time crafting, ohh that and fishing!!"

*cough* "She means real life, not your bloody Star Wars game"

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I found myself out in Mos Entha, new character, was practicing pistol skills at maximum range shooting rills.
Along comes a patrol of six stormtroopers walking in formation. They walk right in front of me then all six turn in precision formation and open fire on the rill.

I got a little XP, but couldn't harvest the corpse.

I was actually impressed at how well the AI and the graphics/sound co-ordinated their attack. I guess Obi-Wan right when he said 'Only Imperial Stormtroopers can shoot with such precision!'
Later on I was running to get away from an eopie that was whupping me and ran straight into a camp of 'Desert Demon' bandits. They all attacked me.
They incapped me, then stood around me. One of them made the "Come get some!' emote at me while the rest of them started tapping their feet and clapping their hands in applause.

I was laughing too hard to get screenshots...

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I just got here yesterday, and I have just one word, WOW!
Everything is just beautiful. After doing the required reading, I spent the first day sight seeing and getting my butt kicked. I loved it.
Thanks to all that helped. Some of you were very generous, and gave me some needed assistance. There were a few uglies , but, you'll get that in any game, be it, Beta or nor. I'm looking forward to getting to know some of you during Beta and after launch.

Just wanted to say, "hello and thanks". :bows:

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On my short trip to Endor (short because I realized I was rather outgunned) I thought the land was quite beautiful. Probably the best artwork yet.
And then the monsters came...

I stood about the same chance as someone playing pick-up stick with their buttcheeks. It just wasn't happening. The moment I chose to explore - I got whalloped.

I DON'T want the devs to take this planet "down a notch." No need. Its great the way it is. I like a challenge. I just won't be returning until I have a T-52 Ahbrams tank, or an AT-AT, with TIGHT door security...

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Saw a bird thing (don't remember the exact name) but it had some pretty nifty AI. It would fly around, back and forth, over what seemed like large distances. Every few minutes it would swoop into the camp of resource gatherers and kill someone, very quickly, and then fly away a bit.
Watching those around me, and then myself eventually, drop one by one was kindof like watching a horror flick and guessing who would be next to die off.
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ALL YOUR EWOKS ARE BELONG TO US!!
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My Happy Trip to Endor!
My trip to Endor I accomplished everything I wanted. It wasnt what I expected. Yet Ewoks I could understand how they would attack anyone upon entering their home.

I was lucky to get into a large group who proceeded to battle wicked creatures mostly those little monkeymen from hell. Which seemed to increase our faction with Panshee, the Ewoks faction its seemed. After being incapped let me see about 4 or 5 times. Yet gaining large amounts of experience in rifles.

My group had actually made it further then I expected. There was a battle that we lost most of our group and some how I escaped to help push back some of those monkey men from hell.
I heard one of the survivers move to the Ewok camp they may help. We approached it slowly not sure if we would be allowed in their camp. They had been watching our attempts to kill their foes. We got into the camp and were prepared to be deathblown but low an behold they did not.

They must have liked our helping them while in turn helped us while we sat down to recouperate.
So I got to sit in an Ewok camp and chat a bit while one particular Ewok looked like he was conversing with me. He even clapped his hands and made some very interesting twitching movements. Course I could tell he was smiling at me. I think my getting to know that Ewok was similiar to Leias chat she had with the Ewok in the woods.
Oh and just some meters away from this little Ewok camp were those vile putrid stinky monkey men, still trying to find anything that moved to put them to untimely deaths. P

I could see them getting closer and closer to the Ewoks little camp. Those nasty monkey men were after the Ewok and also myself and one other person. We were incapped in the little camp and I think those Ewoks took pity upon me as when i awoke I moved to a hut and sat the other person arose and took off where I dont know.

While i was being entertained by an Ewok. He looked agitated and started to run, when I saw him run i followed him a few meters away from camp. YES it was those vile monkey men. There they were attempting to take the Ewoks camp yet again.

I thought this might be a good time to get my bruised body back to the shuttle and get off this god forsaken planet.

I waved to the Ewoks as I ran through the hords of evil creatures.

I think i had to pinch myself to make sure i was still alive when i arrived at the Base complex.
I could not by a ticket fast enough.

So ends my tale of my first visit to Endor.

Farewell Ewoks. You sweet little fluff balls.

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Lok: You go for the adventure, but stay for the kimogillas.
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This planet totally rocks!
Excellent for experienced players with no fear and mid- to high-level combat skills. Environment is exceptionally immersive (old late-night horror meets Jurasic Park meets Star Wars) with Force sensitive and Dark Jedi Mobs totally commanding respect.

Excellent variety of creatures with dense populations and good AIs. Appearances can be very deceiving with some of the smallest critters being the most dangerous and the largest being the least (like dino cows).

Resources totally rule here! Dath is the BEST place for fighting artisans, XP hunters and thrill seekers of all kinds.

Minimal 'city' support and good mission payoffs (except for the problem of delivery missions producing targets within 60m) make this the most balanced thrill-seeker planet in the game. Plase tell me: what do I have to do to be an insurance salesman on Dath?!

I even like the darkness.

Solo play is exciting - you don't need to go far to find good mobs. Grouping is best done with experienced or patient players since the teamwork has to be pretty tight. Not a place for people who hate getting incapped and dying.

I love this planet!

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-Raph Koster
Creative Director

The official post can be found here. I haven't seen such a lengthy post in a bit :D.