The British magazine PC Gamer has written a devastating, and entirely accurate, review of the flaws in the NGE:

http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=157593

The Starter Kit has finally gone on sale here in Sweden (apparently as an export). I got it, essentially for the instant transport feature, but also for the manual as well. Back in early November SOE's Tiggs promised us an online manual by November 22. Tiggs is long gone, and no manual is in sight.

The one in the Starter Kit is minimal, but offers some interesting reading:

"When you left-click a character, a blue circle appears with several choices arranged around it. Select the appropriate choice to talk, examine, loot, trade, group, duel, teach your language or anything else that is available to you..."

"You can also use the pointer to drag the bottom of the Activities Bar down so you have two panels showing..."

About Space Combat:

"A blue arrow points to your current target..."

Would that these were still true! (And where's that manual????)

The respected online game website MMORG.com writes:

To change course as LucasArts is doing – no matter how noble their goals – should be the place of another game or at the very least restricted to new servers. If a company truly feels that changes are necessary and for the good of the game, offer players the option to enjoy these changes. If you’re right, the classic servers will lose players and slowly be merged together, but at least in that case it is done with their needs in mind.

This echoes what many Star Wars Galaxies users have been saying, over and over again, on the forums. Apparently Sony Online Entertainment and/or Lucas Arts doesn't care about the current player base. What is particularly irritating is that they claim they made the changes to make the game more fast-paced, with more action, to capture better the Star Wars feeling. Yet the new interface they have imposed is clumsy and slows play down. That, even more that making Jedi a starter profession, is the greatest weakness of the New Game Expansion.

Offering the classic game on separate servers could prove them right in their often repeated contention that players like the NGE. The fact that they don't believe enough in their claim to give it a try, speaks louder than words.

For the rest of this well-thought out commentary click here;

I really wanted to the give the NGE (the new version of Star Wars Galaxies for consoles that has has been forced on the current players). a chance. After all, it lets me be a Jedi, a direction I was denied when the Combat Upgrade was introduced. But there is so much that is wrong, I can't even begin to list them. Fortunately I don't have to, as other commentators have said it so well.

Obten at Stratics says it very well:

That item is in the form of a faked interview. Gamespy reveals a lot, especially about the market forces that led to abandoning the current player base in favor of a whole new group, in a real interview and conclusion:

What has really upset me was the way that SOE ignored all the suggestions/criticisms in the pre-launch Trader Forum. They set up a broken system, and didn't once bother to comment on any of the hundreds of posts.

Once again there were severe flaws, which apparently were pointed out during testing. Yet SOE rushed the flawed game out. One wonders what the purpose of the testing was?

But my biggest objection is the new interface. SOE keeps claiming the new system is more fast-paced, more action. Yet the interface is clunky and clumsy. Just moving around is much more difficult. The only advantage is that apparently it works well on consoles. The least they could do is offer a choice between the old and new interfaces, but apparently that is beyond their capacity.

It is very frustrating to be in the world in the game, having it look exactly the same as before, and not being able to move around except with a lot of hassle. A bit like the virtual version of suddenly being confined to a wheelchair or losing an arm.

Many changes are coming to Star Wars Galaxies, most of them not good. To start with the positive:

• Everybody gets to be Jedi
  
• Those few who don't have Jump to Lightspeed get it free
  
• Everybody gets a second character per galaxy/server
  

Then there's the bad news:

• Everybody gets to be Jedi (no one will want to be anything else)
  
• The game has been redesigned to play on consoles
  
• The new combat system is extremely clunky, and by no means fast and action-paced
  
• The changes to crafting will ruin it
  
• The developers have completely ignored all protests on the forum
  
• Customer Relations head Tiggs has left, apparently fired
  

Tiggs, who was much repected by players, lost a lot of her credibility a few weeks ago when forum posters noticed that Amazon was advertising what turned out to be the New Game Expansion (the console style changes that are being imposed on the game). This was while Sony Online Entertainment was still trying to get players to pre-order the new Trials of Obiwan expansion. Tiggs said the Amazon listing was an error. Since it turned out to be the new version of the game, the only error was in the timing.

It is unclear why Tiggs was fired. It may have been because she objected to lying on behalf of those higher up. But what has been especially disturbing is that neither Tiggs nor anyone else from SOE has responded to the growing criticism of the NGE on the game forums. As player comments/questions/criticisms have been ignored, frustration has grown, and Tiggs was widely criticised.

But since the actual frustration was aimed at Sony Online Entertainment, the player community seems to be very sorry to see Tiggs' departure, as she seemed to be the only person at SOE who cared.

I'm not sure what the second character slot will mean for Excalibur Starship. Under the new system, Shipwright seems to be split into two Trader classes. A second character might be useful to keep making equipment. But one of them would have to advance from zero.

Alternatively, if I could bring my existing Cadfael to my Aurelius account, I could cancel the extra account, and might stay in the game. Since Trader seems so totally messed up, my intention had been to make Aurelius a Jedi, and play with that until it loses interest, and drop the Cadfael account. If recent days are any indication, crafter sales are about to disappear completely.

Small items, like repair kits, paint kits, and preprogrammed droids are still selling briskly. But sales of big items have more or less ended. Vehicle Restoration Kits, which I couldn't keep enough of, are no longer selling at all. I've made 25 of the new Modified Fusion Reactors, which are high power, low mass, and only level 7. But only two have sold, despite my having the lowest prices on the server.

A few weeks ago a thread started in the Star Wars Galaxies forums after someone spotted that Amazon was going to be selling a "Star Wars Galaxies Starter Kit" from the middle of November. Despite an immediate message from Director of Community Relations Tiggs that the Amazon posting was an error, there was lots of speculation about what this could mean.

This ranged from a mix-up with the Knights of the Old Republic Game to a repackaging of the game with all the digital downloads, or a completely new approach to the game that might be playable on consoles, including Jedi as a starting profession.

It turns out that the only error Tigs was referring to was the timing of the posting, and the last alternative is the correct one. In around two weeks the entire game will be changed, all current professions except pilot and politician replaced with 9 new ones. Once chosen, professions cannot be changed, and Jedi will indeed be one of them.

For me personally this might be an advantage, as the Combat Upgrade made my goal of reaching Jedi all but impossible. But it is hard to say what effect it will have on Excalibur Starship.

All crafting is being rolled into the single profession of Trader. I hope to continue to make startships, especially after opening our Galactic Megaquarters, but it remains to be seen how this will play out.

I’ve really enjoyed the expansions to Star Wars Galaxies, until now. Jump to Lightspeed was necessary, adding space to what was only half a game without it. Rage of the Wookiees was cool, giving up space mining, the lovely planet of Kashyyk, and lots of interesting quests. It did hurt crafting, by providing many loot items that used to be made by other players. But all the extra stuff was fun. And we shipwrights got lots of neat stuff to make for the people who got loot ships.

What I haven’t liked were things forced on us, especially the Combat Upgrade, which impacted on my play in two ways. It destroyed medical crafting, ending my main business in the game. It also doomed solo PvE. Until then I had slowly been grinding my way towards Jedi, mostly fighting Sand People at Fort Tusken. But under the CU almost everything I fight less than my combat level of 76 just gives me 1 xp (compared to 1000-4000 before), and anything more just kills me.

The CU forces group combat, which replaces the previous subtle mutual dependence on miners, crafters, healers, entertainers and fighters. Since it started I have rarely fought, except in space. Because of the CU I have had to give up any dream of making Jedi in this game. It is just too hard if you play solo PvE. (It would be nice if Pilot Prestige points counted towards Jedi, but that hasn’t happened.)

Now we have a new expansion, Trials of Obiwan. Leaving aside the fact that using the planet Mustafar is just a marketing ploy to tie into the release of the Episode 3 DVD, this is basically just more of the Combat Upgrade. There’s no space element for those of us who are playing that part of the game. Instead there are many many new quests, with lots of loot (further undermining the crafters). But the only way to finish the quests is to fight in a group. Solo players can go elsewhere.

Naturally, as an expansion, no one forced us to buy the thing. I got it because I really wanted the bunker, and that hasn’t been a disappointment. But I was hoping that the new YT-2400 ship could be flown and fought solo, since my YT-1300 cannot (another disappointment). Now it looks like I will never know. Not only do you have to do the quest in a group, only one member of the group finishing the final battle actually gets the ship. So you have to keep doing it, in group. Because the ship is one of the many new non-tradeable items, you can’t buy one either.

Dear Devs….next time make some content for those of us who play solo. And if you want to add trials on a new planet, which actually fits into the SWG timeline, let us fly to Dagobah and get quests from Yoda.

I play the online game Star Wars Galaxies, my only vice in that direction. I came to it because of a cover story in "Wired", my favorite magazine, and play because I am a Star Wars person, not because I like games. Thus, when 40 percent of the game players, and virtually everyone I knew in the game, left a few months ago when Sony Online Entertainment ruined it with a dumb-down valled the Combat Upgrade, I remained. I had nowhere else to go if I wanted to hang out in a Star Wars virtual universe.

I had almost achieved all my goals....all the rebel quests, Master Pilot with my own (Millennium Falcon type) YT-1300, successful businesses selling medical supplies and starships. The one goal I was approaching when the CU hit was Jedi. The way you make Jedi now is to gain lots and lots of combat experience. I was slowly progressing under the old system and would have made Jedi within a few months. But the new system rewards people who fight in groups, and penalizes those, like me, who play solo. Where I could previously get 1000 combat experience for fighting the lowest level Tusken Raider, I now either get 1 experience point (if I fight anything below my "level") or get killed (if I fight anything above my "level").

Unless I switch to grouping, I can't make Jedi. The alternative is to buy a Jedi account on Ebay for a few hundred dollars. While I am tempted (I have no ethical qualms since Sony Online has taken away the possiblity to work my way to it) but it costs too much.

What is left is accumulating the various quest loot items available in the game. Some I can win on my own, others are very difficult, but can be purchased from other players with game credits, through Sony Online's own web forum. Two days ago I managed to put together a deal to buy the most sought after and expensive item in the game, a jetpack like the one Boba Fett uses.

It is kind of fun to be able to zip around with the thing, about 2 meters above the group. It has its drawbacks, you can't fly over walls, and you can't fire weapons while flying in it. So it doesn't really have much of an advantage over other ground-based transportation. But it is pretty cool anyway.