battle-of-echo-base
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The Game Archaeologist and the Star of the Galaxies: The history
Each month, the Game Archaeologist dusts off one MMORPG of yesterday and investigates while hanging on to his hat. From the ancient lands of Ultima to a galaxy far, far away, the Game Archaeologist is always on the move, looking for the next treasure trove to uncover. Some say that covering Star Wars Galaxies is a moot point: that the true game as it was is dead, and that with The Old Republic on the horizon, SWG is all but passé. Yet through the steamy jungles of Kashyyyk to the dangerous dunes of Tatooine, there is evidence of passion, play and Imperial Stormtroopers shooting all willy-nilly. It's weird to think that in early 2003, the MMO genre was almost an entirely different creature. World of Warcraft was still over a year away, and the most successful developer at the time (Sony Online Entertainment, along with Verant) had teamed up with LucasArts to create a Star Wars game above all other games. A killer IP, a beefy development team, and incredible fan-fueled hype made Star Wars Galaxies THE game to watch as it raced toward launch -- even IGN crowed in 2000 that SWG could become "one of the biggest games of all time." Join us now as we hop back to the wild frontier of the early 2000s and peruse the first seven years of Star Wars Galaxies' run. It's had its highs, its lows, and a three-letter acronym that became one of the most infamous MMO events ever -- but no matter what your opinion, the Force has been strong with this title indeed.
Exploring SWG heroic encounters pt. 3
"There's no getting around the fact that the Rebels lose at Echo Base. We had to work out how badly they lost, as a question of what's fun for the Rebel players." The base, the developers offered up, is just ridiculously large. It's sort of silly. The Tusken Army Encounter will fit into the Echo Base map four times over. They have drivable AT-STs and drivable Snow Speeders. First time in Star Wars Galaxies. It's not true atmospheric flight, unfortunately, as they had to cheat a bit to create ground collision for the vehicles. You get to zip around a blow up Snowtroopers though, so there's a lot of fun to be had there. They're trying to develop the AT-ST as a two-player mechanic, but there's no guarantee it will make it into the Encounter when it launches.One thing that you've seen in the movies but won't make it into the game is the 'tow cable'. The Snow Speeders tripping up the AT-ATs is really excellent to see, but from a mechanics perspective is just too hard to do in an MMO. "This time the AT-AT shields are not too strong for blasters." They're the primary targets in the field for the Rebels. Loot and badges and collectibles will all be explored very fully in the new Encounter. Snowtrooper armor and Rebel Cold-Weather armor are both going to be available as a result of this new content. Rideable Tauntauns are in the works, you'll be able to fight off vicious wampas, and Rebels will be getting a new rifle skin: the AT-28. The E-Webb is out, as it's just out of scale for all the other weapons in the game.The instance is factional-only. If it launches 'for' the Rebels, all of the plotlines and encounters for players are made assuming you're a Rebel. The same is true for Imperials. There is no 'neutral' version of the instance. They're hoping to do something like with the space encounters, where neutrals could join a group on either side and temporarily have their faction over-written. Objectives from either side pit players against notable elements of this frenetic experience. One of the Imperial objectives in the instance is to stop the Ion Cannon from firing, for example.The designers noted that multi-group instances might eventually be in the works, but there are a lot of thorny balance issues to deal with there. For the time being, they have no plans for space-based instances or multi-group instancing. What they're focusing on now is more of these single-group story-driven encounters that tap deeply into the lore of the Galaxy Far, Far Away. To finally conclude the presentation, the developers and designers showed off a fantastic preview video showcasing the new content coming with the encounter. Check it out below! << Back to Part 2
