Star Wars Combine

[ApocaRUFF 13]

I'll start this thread off by saying this game will appeal to very few people. It will, at first, appeal to any Star Wars fan. After you realize that it is a browser based game, a majority of you will lose interest. Then, once you do a bit more reading, you will find that the wait times in this game are long. This will further cut the population of interested people.

Star War combine is a browser based Star Wars simulator that is browser-based. It mixes strategy, sim, and roleplay elements to create a Star Wars universe where you can do just about anything you could want in Star Wars. From transporting freight for a mining corporation, to be a cog in the Imperial machine, or even having a chance at becoming a force sensitive and being found by one of the few FS inhabitants of the galaxy to begin your force training.

Rather than type out a mini-review, I am just going to copy-paste a post I made on the thread that introduced me to the game a few days ago.

Let me give you an example of my first day. First, I spend a couple of hours getting my name approved my an admin. While waiting, I read up on all the races, their bonuses, their traits, and their backstories. There's about 40 of them, I think. I have no plan to actually count them. After a while, I made my decision and chose the Iktotchi. Mostly becuase I liked their backstory, but also because they have a bonus to fighter/freight flying and a 2.0 race multiplier (has to do with Health Points).

After that, I read up on some guides on what to do in the first days of the game. For a bit I looked in to the force sensitive side of the game. Each race has a starting chance to become force sensitive, for example my race starts with a 3% chance. When my character was first made, there was a roll to see if I was force sensitive (which I wouldn't be told about, another force sensitive would have to test me and tell me). If I'm not, each time I level up my chance at getting force sensitive goes up a tiny bit, and every five levels I get another roll. Some people who are force sensitive have played the game for years without finding out. I really like the depth of this system alone.

After my name was finally accepted, I went looking for a faction. Now, a faction can be a government faction, or it can be a faction centered on research and developer, or mining. There's a lot of them, well over 50. There also non-faction groups of players. Each faction, even the galactic empire, are player run. Eventually, I came across a guy in the IRC chat who runs a faction named The Guild Bank. Despite its name, it is a trade faction/corp that provides a lot of different services. They also own another faction/corp that specializes in medical care.

After an interview processes, I was invited in to the game. This is where things start getting a bit weird for me. I say weird because I experienced a lot of excitement and disappointment. I was excited about all the possibilities, but I was a bit annoyed at it takes 12 minutes for me to walk one tiles down the street in our faction HQ city. After I got to the right tile to be able to enter the Starport in the city, I went in and made my way to the docking bay where I got in to my very own training ship.

Again, I was excited with all the possibilities. But then I was hit with an hour of wait time just to ascend in to the atmosphere. After an hour of that, I had to wait another hour to get in to orbit around the planet. Then a half hour to get out of the gravity well of the planet. During this time, I had a lot of discussion with Xanxus, the faction leader, about the game. It is a bit of a mix between simulation, role play MUD, and browser-based RTS. Factions can own planets and cities. It is possible for a faction to own cities on other factions planets. It is also possible to mine resources and produce items. This means that transporters/freighters are needed (which is what I would be doing in my faction).

A lot of the fun in the game is had by talking to the players, role playing, and politics. There currently is no combat, but it is promised in a future update. Apparently the reason for all these long wait times is to allow other players to react to what you do. People have lives after all. And while I can definitely pick holes in this logic, I guess combine has decided these wait times via trial and error as they have been around for quite some time, so I cannot really argue against experience.

I was once again excited about all the things I could do in the game. I could make my riches by running freight for my faction, gaining a place of trust and gain promotions. I could level up my character and make him better at what he does (piloting, but there are a ton of other things to do both ground and space-based), while secretly cultivating my wish to become force sensitive. And then I made it out of the gravity well and I set my hyper drive course for my first training missions. SLAM right in the face, 5 days and 7 hours of hyperdrive travel.

So, it looks like I'll be playing the IRC game for the next five days. I'm still excited for the game, and I will continue to play. It is incredibly deep, and there are tons of options for everything. I just don't know how or when I'll get used to these wait times.

And because everyone likes a screenshot:

[Laiwyn 188]

Sounds interesting, but it seems like a very very closed community with having to have your character name approved and then go through an interview process. I'm not in to Star Wars so I doubt I'll check it out but it sounds interesting (and I don't mean it in a slightly put-down sort of way).

Edited December 21, 2012 by Laiwyn

[Manifestation 85]

It's a fantastic game if it's your niche. The roleplay elements are amazing, the community is intense, and the history is *REAL*

There are guys who have been playing for 15 years...it's pretty incredible in that regard.

That said, if browser based roleplaying games arent your thing, don't even bother. The core of this game is not it's GUI or its actual gameplay elements, its the roleplay, in it's infancy it was just a forum...they created the GUI / game to allow the RPers more emersion in their stories. So it's kind of backward developmentally.

However, it's really unique because of this.

And just to clarify, they do the approval process on names so that you don't get silly non-canon stuff, or guys running around as "luk3 syewalkerzzz" and thing of that ilk, they try really hard to maintain a canon. Which is fantastic really.

[ApocaRUFF 13]

I am enjoying my time in it a lot so far. And so far all I've done is make my character (which was a great experience ) and sit in a spaceship traveling in hyperspace. I've been learning about the game and wrote a short backstory for my character.

Like Manifestation said, a lot of the game takes place via RP on IRC and/or the forums or private messages and stuff. However, the coders have been making it more and more game like lately. They are working on implementing PVP combat(I believe it is in beta test now) currently. Everyone working on it are volunteers, so it takes time.

Edited December 22, 2012 by ApocaRUFF

[Ecrir 887]

I've been playing it for 6 years now, with a few small breaks here and there. Really enjoyed it but it's not for everybody.

[Manifestation 85]

I almost forgot

LONG LIVE KING TYLGER

LONG LIVE HAPES

[Coren 17]

I've been trying it out since I read this post. Like you said, the people are really friendly. It was funny when everyone tried to recruit me to one side or the other. I had like twenty people contacting me, trying to sway me this way and that. I decided to join a bunch of pirates. I don't know how I feel about the time it takes to travel places. I'm currently in a warp of six days in real life time. So I kind of check in then to see what emails I got then disperse again. But they're all over their IRC playing all the time. I'll probably toy with it a little longer.

[Raybarg 437]

Yeah I read this thread and made account, joined a faction. Got handed a ship and told where to warp. For me it only takes 4 and half days to warp. Meanwhile I babble with faction members in IRC... its been xmas holidays and lots ppl drunk or otherwise in engorged madness.,.. just how xmas should be

[Klaa 4,872]

Eh browser games arent all bad. Theres decent and poor depending on one's tastes. Brower games are handy for low end PCs and mobiles. Even games like Farmville that just majorly sucked in gameplay. The main reason imho Farmville did well at first was because people could easily access it from work or wherever.

Overall it sounds good. Been going since 1998, which indicates some level of competence among the staff, especially for a free game. Feature wise it kinda sounds similar to a Star Wars rp-enforced MUD I played long time ago, Legends of the Jedi.

Lack of combat is a bit of a negative for me. Despite that I'll probably give it a go one of these days.

Im a little concerned Disney may go after them, among the other fan-created content. Havent heard anything regarding Disney's position on the matter; as a result, theres only their previous behavior to rely upon.

Edited December 27, 2012 by Klaa

[Ecrir 887]

When it comes to travel time Hapes has a big advantage, all of it's systems are very close together in a very high density area. So travel time is pretty much always less than a day unless you are using a very slow ship. I joined Hapes when I started and never left, it's a great faction

They are currently working on the combat thing, they are beta testing ground based combat on one planet at the moment (player vs player ground based combat). Space combat will probably take a while longer, hopefully that will come after and not before research and development, so that each faction has a chance to develop proper warships. The empire with all it's super star destroyers would have quite the advantage otherwise.

[ApocaRUFF 13]

I noticed the basics for space combat was in. I can go to actions and target a ship or building, and there is a drop down box plus an option to fire. I guess they just need to test PvP a bit and add in the code to actually allow for it to be used.

Edit: Also, it's neat to see that some of you guys are trying the game. I am surprised at how much fun my friends and I are having. I mean, we usually only spend about 5-15 minutes every few days actually playing the game, but we discuss it pretty frequently. It's fun to talk about and the game gets you in to the RP mood. I very much enjoy the way it facilities practical RP (role playing your character doing what it is actually is doing in the game, if that makes sense).

Even though we're used to the wait times now, we still ###### about the long wait times. I mean, the hyper jump times makes sense (traveling such huge distances and all), but the one hour to get in to the atmosphere, then another hour to get in to orbit is what is the biggest pain. Even the times it takes to do sub-light travel feels right.

I am kind of worried about what Disney will do with all the SWG-themed projects out there, but not to much. I feel that it would not be in their best interest to quill the massive, thriving fan community that is behind Star Wars. That's like insulting a group of people and then inviting them to a party, it wont work out to well. Or maybe not. Who knows. I mean, they would lose more money by trying to take down all the non-profit fan projects, and it would probably cause an uproar, especially since they just bought SW. I see Star Wars dying if Disney did something to crap on the fans.

Anyways, an update. I got my gear, got in to my friends ship and now we're heading to go get my own ship. Should take just over two days. My friends and I are being outfitted with YT-2000's, it seems. As I will be doing transport, I do not know if this will be my "work ship", but probably will be seeing as it is classified as a freight ship. I need to talk with my faction leader more on that.

Edited December 27, 2012 by ApocaRUFF