The good thing about current SWG servers, is that beyond Restoration, there are plenty of variations to choose from, between Pre-CU and NGE, both original and modded servers. All versions have their pros and cons.
I remember the zones being massive in this game. It also impressed me how you could create a house almost anywhere you wanted. I remember when MMO meant having a massive world.
I was there at launch. It was actually my first MMO (unless Island of Kesmai back on CompuServe counts). I was an Entertainer, and was part of an Entertainment Guild. We would actually be hired by other guilds to come perform for them at events. (In the original game, in addition to taking normal damage, you took mental wounds and "combat fatigue," which you could cure and recover by watching Entertainers for a while, so they were actually an important part of the game.) The original game had 12(?) classes and a somewhat complicated advancement system through them. You could eventually become a "master" in one or two, but you were limited as to how many total points you could acquire, so if you wanted to try a third class, you had to drop your skills in another. It was eventually revealed that becoming a Jedi required to you hit master rank in four specific classes, and which classes you needed were randomized for each character. Eventually they added Holocrons to the game that told you what class you needed to master next, then the NGE came along and the entire thing became moot. I actually liked the old class/skill system. It felt unique, while the NGE seemed to follow more standard RPG tropes. Still, one of my favorite games. I may have to check it out.
Exactly why I love R3! It has the old skill box system that’s great. You aren’t pidgeonholed into a class like NGE. Plus R3 adds NGE content like the collection system, legacy quest, chronicler, etc
My first, and almost only MMO. The first time I ever gamed with more than three other people online. And here were hundreds in the same space. This was before WoW. The sea of name labels above every head was crazy. I forget why I stopped playing. Must have gotten distracted too long by some other great game. Player-made villages were a highlight for me, and one of the main reasons I could never fully embrace WoW.
There's several emulators out there, Restoration isn't even the only one. There's servers with custom content, servers rolled back to pre-CU, servers with the full NGE including JTL. You can probably find a server that's in the right era for you.
Damn I miss this game, I have an account on Restoration so will have to go back again. I had my small store on Tat just outside the city and spent a lot of time helping out the newbis, sending them out on missions to collect hides/bones which I could turn into their first armour set and making them proper crafted CDEFs.
Myself, my brother, and friends, worked SO HARD at unlocking Jedi during the original pre-CU days, only to get slapped in the face when they eventually turned it into a starting profession. Suddenly there were Jedi running all over the place, :( None-the-less, we were all so sad when things finally closed down for good. Have been loosely following the SWGEmu project throughout the years. Might just have to check this out. Thanks for bringing us this video, Obsidian!
Ironically, once all the professions got their updates, Jedi became rare again in the NGE. At least as far as pvp goes. And lets be realistic (I was there) SWG started becoming a glow bat fest even before the CU (at least on the two servers I played on at the time), and the CU was 90% Jedi.
Played from launch to the NGE, ran a guild , built a city (Empath Abbey), was in the first 10 Jedi on the server I played (Eclipse), favourite pastimes were PVP and Deathwatch bunker, made 11 jetpacks a Mandalorian chest and a handful of Mandalorian helmets. Left the day NGE launched.
Loved Galaxies back in the day, and I primarily focussed on being a pilot in it upgrading my ships with some legendary stats. A guild member of mine actually made a website where people could upload all their stats and try to fine tune their best ship setups. It got very involved indeed. Xato or Gaararra if you are out there, hope you are well!!
Nice to finally see your face! :D I was an old-school SWG player, Pre-CU, Pre-NGE. CU was okay, NGE killed it for me, and countless others, I'm certain. I've been playing Restoration, along with pretty much every other flavour of SWG reboot. I'm really enjoying Restoration gameplay, mechanics and MOST importantly - the community is awesome! Thanks for covering a much-loved game. Peace.
I've never played a game since the closure of SWG that has given me the same level of entertainment over such a large timescale. I played almost every day from 2004 until it's closure. Now i'm lucky if I play a game for 3 weeks without moving on. If I remember right from what I read months ago, that Restoration are only allowing a small amount of Jedi on the server at the same time. So if you're lucky to unlock Jedi, you're not guaranteed to be able to play that character if other players have already spawned in their Jedi.
Thanks for covering this. Galaxies was my first mmo I ever played. It was great for it's time. Still have the collectors edition of galaxies sitting on my shelf.
SWG was the first MMO that I actually got to the end game. Prob the only game I ever played that much in my entire life, being an architect was so liberating since I was the person Guild Leaders would purchase guild halls and what not off of. I got popular and ended up quitting because the demand for houses was too much. Thats how involved I was, and I bet now it actually works. When it first came out so much of it was incomplete.
After Earth and Beyond SWG was the first MMO I spent serious amounts of time in. Started as a dancer then moved to combat. When the CU launched I was less than thrilled because it felt like it was going from sandbox to guided. Then the NGE came out and I was done. I still play on SWG EMU from time to time. Maybe I am just old now but I remember the change from playing Star Wars Galaxies to Star Wars world of warcraft wannabe. I hope the Dev group is able to make the game the best it can be and might check it out at some point in the future.
THis was one I discovered not long after it's dissapearance, and left me rather disapointed as It was exacty what I wanted from a Star Wars game. Some time after, I did discover there was a way of playing Star Wars Galaxies, post-shutdown, but the project hadn't taken off, leaving me to wonder around in a relatively barren husk. It's good to hear that this has been revived with an active player base, as I would love to finally be able to experience it myself and see what all the fuss was about. It's been many years since I looked into it.
I missed out on this one, for a long time I didn't have a fast enough internet connection to do much of anything besides check email. Heck, I used a AD blocker to help speed up loading any text based web page.
If I remember right Jedi were rare and kill on sight, only had one life, and were mega powerful. The village was introduced after the Jedi became easier to unlock and were reviveable. I think the bounty system was also introduced around that time as well.
Pre NGE SWG basically killed other MMOs for me. I have a lot of fond memories of it, and I don't get the same enjoyment from other MMOs. I was a combat medic and miner. I healed my friends when they needed it for their combat related activities and in my free time I ran several resource harvesters, selling the resources from my shop and on the market to crafters.
My favourite game all-time. I was devastated when they shut it down in 2011 and have always hoped that SWG Episode Two would be developed. I'm over on the SWG "Legsnds" server, solid server but high ping for me in the UK.
Wow you had to dicover that you have Jedi powers instead of choosing to start as a Jedi!? That is the coolest gameplay I've ever heard of. Wish I had a gaming PC back then.
I know this is old now. I was around from the start. I started as a humble musician busking in a cantina in a remote city on corellia for a few hours each day where I would see 5 regular players and the odd person that had come to the city for a mission/quest. After a couple of weeks the myself and the regular players in that area set up a player city and guild. It was great for a couple of years, CU update hit which annoyed a few members of our guild but they stayed on and adjusted to the new mechanics but then NGE was forced on us and everyone left, I occasionally logged on after that but the magic had gone, Jedi everywhere all the greatness of being able to craft your own unique build of a character gone. SWG became a rotting carcass of its former self and we all new the reason for it WOW had only been released a short time but had taken a lot of people from SWG as well as new MMO players and SOE wanted that money so they dumbed down what was the greatest MMO to mimic as much of WOW as then could
Love this game! I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a beta tester, back in the day you could not just pay for early access or pay for of playing the beta version, you had to apply and if you are lucky you would be chosen.... I was one of the lucky ones. I remember being super excited when I found out. They sent me the CD Roms, and an extra set for a friend. I was only chosen for the final beta stage which was about a week or two If I remember rightly. The night before the game launched. The Devs had an in-game party, there were fireworks going off in all of the cities on the servers,... fond memories. It may have 20 plus year old graphics but it has better gameplay the most of the rubbish, pay to win, live service crap we have to put up with today
I just started legends and nothing is like i remember about swg. I played very shortly but it was when you had to unlock jedi, there was no real class to pick you just used and trained in then skills you wanted. Going prone or kneelimg actually had a function, it made you more accurate. Now its just choose your class and go, at least so far im just started it and re learning.
Oh... nice! I'll check this out and I initially unlocked the Jedi profession and a few days later they released SWG: complete experience! That's when I left...
I LOVED SWG... played it from Beta and all the way to NGE... had an awesome guild and made great friends... sadly lost it all to NGE as it was kinda before Facebook groups, Voice chat, Discord and whatnot
WHAT!! it is comming out for real. need to get into that . been playing emu on and off for years not another one like this every . and being the 4th jedi in the game back when they were unlocked i would love to play again . going to check this out
I just created an account bout a month ago been a great time sofar I'm glad I found the game live again ,Just with I could find my old guildies again )
I had a co-worker who played at launch. He talked about SWG so much that I started playing a month later. I played up until they added the space ships. It would be fun to play again.
I tried playing this back in mid 2000s but my PC was too old then. And by the time I got a PC capable of running it the servers shut down. So this will be my chance to finally play it. I prefer sandbox type MMOs over what is now the "traditional" model.
SWG was the best! Amazing professions that let you have truly custom characters. I remember the hype waiting for SWG, and its first couple years surpassed what I imagined.
I played galaxies for 5 years had basically a guild of 250 people who were crafters and imperial pilots we built a city on Talus and adopted another large imperial guild for ground combat. However I liked the game because of the time frame during the galactic civil war which meant Jedi were rare and the focus was on the other things you could be in the galaxy once they made jedi a starter class it ruined the mystery and excitement for me when you finally came across one of these rare mystic beings and it was quite an acheivement for those who unlocked it so if they put jedi back in the box and keep the combat fixes from NGE i'd go back.
Played SWG back in the day when Beast Trainer was a thing, NGE version was a step backward to me. Played emulators, but never heard of the restoration until this video, I will have to give it a go.
I've been made aware of a number of different SWG servers available. How does this one hold up against the other options? I don't want to miss out on a better experience of the game.
I left when NGE hit. I loved my CH at the time, even though it'd already been nerfed to buggery by that time. I know they eventually added CH back in but at the time, that was a deal-breaker. So if this has a mix of NGE and (I assume) pre and post CU, are avatars Skill classed (original) or Character Classed (NGE)?
I actually really like the project. Their design and changes are really nice and I'd probably rate them as one of the top, if not the top, emu server for SWG total when it comes to new content and smooth functioning. Unfortunately, they have a certain developer who is kind of a ticking time bomb of bad decisions/PR snafus and he recently just went off again. Then there are their whole weird data collection policies. Whenever asked about it, the Restoration gang usually bans or erases any mention of the topic which is odd. Good project and product, questionable management team and process.
Fantastic game and I hope it gets the graphics mods like Skyrim can do , otherwise it will be just too dated looking. I played when jedi had permadeath . I was the first to level cap a commando because it was such a broken class but I'd discovered an exploit for weapon exp. Good times
Dear ObsidiantAnt, You have given me great joy. I played the original SWG. For me it's the best MMO I've played so far (the list is long: I started with JumpGate, EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, Matrix Online, Guild Wars 1 and 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, WoW, Defiance, Star Trek Online, Star Wars Old Republic and Elite Dangerous among others) because of the great amount of options and mechanics it had and that nowadays our beloved Elite Dangerous dreams of having. Also played, of course, other private SWG servers like SWGEmu (the pioneer) and more recently SWG Legend.
@@druidhugger6311 I disagree. To begin and end JumpGate didn't have what SWG did, for example you could move around inside your ship with your avatar, you had to have a co-pilot to be able to use missiles, torpedoes, you could move around the ship to either use the turrets and shoot at enemy ships while other teammates were piloting the ship, or even fix the damage caused by enemy ships. I could go on but I think I've made my point. Because if we compare SWG with JumpGate, the first one had much more options in gameplay, mechanics, etc. JumpGate was just a space simulator and quite limited in its options. It was a pioneer and you have to understand that it was a game that started to be developed (I played it from the beta phase back in 1995/1996) long before SWG.
No one is going to even hope to complete with SWG Legends. It's absolutely complete, including JTL/etc and they have added content/zones like Cloud City, they have old and new events, etc that are far better than anything SOE did. I mean good luck to anyone to compete with what Legends has done. That would be nearly impossible. It's 5x the game SOE's ever was when it was still alive. Maybe as a Pre-CU game, but even then there wouldn't be much point.
SWG was my first ever mmo over 20 years ago. I got a lot out of it. Then I got into other mmos like EverQuest 2 and City of Heroes. I couldn't go back to SWG because the graphics were a bit linear and choppy. I tried SWTOR for awhile but had computer issues and decided to go full console (Xbox). On there I got into ESO and DCUO, tried Star Trek Online for awhile but couldn't get into it. Right now I'm just looking forward to Starfield, but it's not an MMO.
My oh my! Galaxies. Interesting that no MMO has quite matched even the 'hot mess' version of the game. I get weepy when I think about the game and the group I was in. A few decades closer to death and, Yes, I do miss it. : ) I will give this a try since I have enjoyed playing SWGLegends off and on. :) While I played early on, it wasn't until the ships and wookies were added that I played full time. ROFL. Made it to elder Ranger under the original system before we woke up one day to a new game. HA! Being able to start as a Jedi may have been cool, but a real punch to the gut for those that spent months (9? 10?) becoming a Jedi. Also 'emotional damage' to those of us who helped friends achieve the requirements, etc. --> Miss No-one-wants-to-be-Uncle-Owen ignored the folks happily playing merchants, musicians, dancers, etc. SW: The Old Republic put an end to that adventure. *sigh* -- Ranger Ryybharr, Medicine Wookie (Radiant) R.I.P. 2003 - 2011 Last words "I think I can milk that."
They are different eras of the game. SWGEmu is the “pre combat upgrade” version of the game. R3 is primarily Combat Upgrade era with a bit of NGE (new game enhancement) content. Legends is NGE - or roughly where the game was when it was shutdown plus some.
NGE killed SWG ultimately. I tried Restoration when it launched but, unless something has changed, it used the NGE version of BE as a profession so I opted for SWG Infinity and Sentinels Republic instead. Both giving Pre-CU combat and BE. Don't get me wrong I was excited for a CU Combat interpretation of the EMU world so I could get back to my CM/BH template but when the BE issues became apparent I had a chat with the team and they told me its basically NGE with CU combat shoehorned into it. A great effort for sure to bring back CU combat but the BE issue for me was a deal breaker. I am curious though, with so many SWG Emu options available why you chose to focus on Resto3?
They are different eras of the game. SWGEmu is the “pre combat upgrade” version of the game. R3 is primarily Combat Upgrade era with a bit of NGE (new game enhancement) content. Legends is NGE - or roughly where the game was when it was shutdown plus some.
You bet played Farstar about 2 weeks after it first launched until it closed in 2011. All wookie guild called ROAR based on Dantooine in the early years.
I mean play it for an hour. . Some people think runescape is the best mmo sooooo ya know its super subjective but imo there is a reason I never played this game long and its not because its a private server. I think the people this game is for are giga starwars fans but especially if your not limited by the space genre there are so many other better games to play out atm. It kinda reminds me of sto in that its a low res replica of the world. When I play sto I know its a crap game but I love it because I love trek but I wouldn't recommend it to people not already a fan of the theme. Its really easy to see past the game issues when you want to be immersed in the universe.
The best space mmo ever? until Lucasarts changed it and transformed it into a hellscape? you can call it the most disappointing, rage inducing gaming experience ever
In my view CU and NGE ruined the game - especially NGE when they ditched the free-form skills system for character classes. I wonder if the restoration project is pre-character classes? If it is I would be interested as one could really develop and grow their character as one likes.
R3 is primarily based in the CU era for SWG - with added content from NGE, like the legacy questline, chronicler, and a few other things. Its a great mix.
CU was a very short period of time where the old class system was still in the game but had fixed a lot of the early imbalance issues. An amazing period of SWG that never got time to really shine.
