Choose my Adventure: A wretched hive of scum and villainy... and quests
Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of posts and galleries here on the site. Then, as our two months are up, we'll do it all over again in a new game!
It's been two weeks since I stepped foot in the lands of Star Wars Galaxies, and as surprising as it may be to many to hear this: not only have I managed to avoid lag, but I've also been having quite a lot of fun. Yes, believe it or not, one actually can have fun in Star Wars Galaxies! That's not to say the game is entirely without problems. Let's face it, the core of the game is seven years old, and I don't know any games that old that don't have some issues. However, the age doesn't stop the game as it is now from being fun. Whether or not it's your particular flavor of fun, well, that's for you to decide. I'm certainly not going to convince anyone by essentially going "woohoo! fun!" at you over the internets.
With that out of the way, if you're curious as to what the last week held, and what this week's request for help is, then join me after the break. I can definitely use some sage advice from the active Star Wars Galaxies vets on this week's question!
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This week was all about getting my feet wet in Mos Eisley. When they say it's a wretched hive of scum and villainy, they're glossing over other good elements. No sooner had I touched down from the tutorial zone and I walked out of the spaceport, than I came face to face with a square full of players hawking their wares, offering buffs, and role-playing. As an old EverQuest fiend, it was like being in the Eastern Commonlands (or perhaps the PoK) all over again. Entertainers plied their trade, merchants haggled, people whizzed by on speeder bikes, and Mo'ag and I had a chance to see some local wildlife up close and personal.
Needless to say, we were very glad that whatever it was seemed to be friendly. Or at least, not in the mood for a Twi'lek snack when we passed by.
After a short while, and a bit of help from Han Solo, I was able to piece together a landspeeder, which made getting around outside of town wonderful. Inside town -- not so much. Mos Eisley has a way of narrowing down to alleys when you don't expect it, so a landspeeder is a wee bit too large for getting around town. Thankfully, the odd corridors and alleys begin to make sense once you've been there for a little while.
Another interesting thing is that despite my being a Jedi nooblet and having helped the Rebellion on the station, Jabba had caught wind that I was in town, and sent word that he was interested in hiring me to help out. Well, perhaps "hiring" isn't quite the word -- it was either help him, or wind up as sarlacc chow. While I initially considered running as opposed to assisting him, I was informed that by helping out, I'd not only be helping to keep tabs on Jabba, but would meet even more members of the Rebel Alliance.
My initial adventure started as a certain farmboy's would have -- pursuing womp rats and dealing with tusken raiders. From there, I found myself doing everything from running food deliveries to putting local thugs in their place. Along the way I had the chance to group off and on with both Mo'ag from last time, and some other interesting new faces, such as a friendly Ithorian named Bintall who saved my bacon while we were trying to hunt down some particularly nasty guys in a building some distance from Mos Eisley.
The amount of quests available have been great thus far. Between the odd terminal missions, which are often quite interesting to read, the main storyline, and the piloting (which I haven't started in on yet, admittedly) there hasn't been a single time I've logged in and said "hm, what do I do now?" There's always something to do. Additionally, the way they're all spread out, combined with the stories involved, make it feel far more immersive (read: less grindy) than I'd initially expected. Sure there's grind -- it's an MMO, there always is -- but it has yet to get to the point where I've become frustrated with it.
As I'm pursuing the main Legacy storyline and taking the odd terminal missions on occasion -- thus there's not a lot of choice there -- this week I'd like to ask your help with something that many newcomers may well find daunting in Star Wars Galaxies: the UI! I've heard that there are options to fix up the basic UI available out there -- and several of the other new players I've met up with have had similar questions. so this week I wanted to solicit the community's suggestions for ways to make the game's UI a bit more user-friendly.
Help me, Star Wars Galaxies community; you're my only hope!
