Just an update. I've put all my resources and weaponsmithing items up for sale on my vendor in Temenos, Naboo. All ranged weapons are also relisted at 5000 credits each, and all melee weapons are listed at 1500 credits each.
There's still a lot of great resources left, but it's going fast.
Personally I'm trying out different combat-professions, although it's not really going too well since SOE decided to have crafters - as well as entertainers - bend over and take it up the arse again with the respec. Apparently a fully templated crafter isn't worth as much to them as a fully templated combatant, because any combatant - regardless of level - will respec into a master-level crafter, while a full master crafter will only be able to respec into a level 10 combatant. Hybrid crafters/combatants gets the level they were in the CU. They devs have also confirmed that this is not going to change, so when they said "all veteran players will be able to check out the new professions", they quite simply lied since you don't "check out" a profession at level 1, no matter how you look at it.
This more than anything has made me reconsider my will to continue playing the game at all, but I'm still undecided. I love Star Wars, always have. It's very hard to quit the game since there's not really any alternative game if I want my daily fix of Star Wars, so I might just keep playing for a while and see how things pan out.
My prediction for the game:
There will be several new subscribers in the coming weeks due to their massive advertisement-campaign, but since they - as they've always done in the past - pushed out this new game way too early it's full of bugs, which will make most new players quit again pretty soon. The combat system of the NGE will probably take care of the rest, since it's fun for about an hour, and then it just gets tedious. There are other games that offer twitch-based combat, and most of them don't require you to pay $15/month, so the FPS-players will probably be going back to FPS.
In not too long there will be server-merges due to the fact that almost all the servers are too sparsely populated to justify keeping them separate (you'll already have problems finding actual people playing on several servers - the few you do see are most likely AFK).
In a few more weeks, the game will be shut down due to loss of money.
My hope is that the devs smarten up and bring back the old game-system - or make the new one more like the old one - before that happens. The system they had before the first CU worked great for this game, and even though it certainly had issues with balance and other things, those issues could've been fixed and adjusted, there was never any need for a complete overhaul, and there certainly was no need for two of them.
Anyway, enough ranting. I just hope anyone reading this - which aren't gonna be many - stays far away from Star Wars Galaxies, atleast until they've gotten it out of beta-state, which is how the game currently plays (people often say that about any mmorpg since they've all usually got a few bugs, but in this case it really is true - the NGE is more of a completely new game than just a game update, and it was nowhere near done when it went live, just like mmorpg's usually aren't at first launch).
May the force be with us all, because the devs have obviously fallen to the dark side ;)
Kiran Arms Inc. is going out of business for good
Posted by Arkel Kiran at Wednesday November 9.
I have bad news for those of you who've been buying weapons from me and who've found the quality of them to your liking.
I am dropping Weaponsmith - and crafting in general - for good.
Before you blame the NGE, I'll have you know that has little, if anything, to do with it. The main reason is that my own play-schedule pretty much prevents me from keeping up with demand and my little ingame arms empire at all. I sometimes end up being offline for weeks at a time for several reasons, which means my vendors gets emptied, custom orders aren't delivered, emails aren't answered, and so on. This means my customers can't trust me to get the job done, and if they can, they can't trust me to get it done on time.
In addition, when I do log on the game after a longer absence, I'd rather do something else than spend hours restocking vendors and going over resource spawns I may have missed in order to try and hunt them down from a resource vendor. It becomes more of a job than a game, and I already have a job in RL and don't need to pay $15/month for another one.
So I will be using my token respec to drop Weaponsmith and make myself a CL80 template before the NGE goes live as I suspect I'll benefit the most from the conversions that way.
Personally I'll most likely be looking to Antse for my own weapons in the future - atleast for as long as he remains a weaponsmith. I reccomend all my customers who are used to high quality weapons, consider doing the same.
I had a good run. Hopefully my contribution to the Kettemoor galaxy has made a difference to some others in a positive way.
May the force be with you :)
Finally back
Posted by Arkel Kiran at Wednesday August 31.
After being without a connection for about a full month longer than anticipated, I am now back ingame on a semi-permanent basis. To anyone who's tried to contact me the past few months, my apologies, but from now on I'll be able to provide you with all your weapon needs again.
RL Moving
Posted by Arkel Kiran at Tuesday June 28.
I am in the process of moving in real life, so my vendors will most likely become understocked during the month of July, and custom orders can not be filled until I am back in-game, hopefully this will be before the end of July but the inherent unpredictability of ISPs in these parts of the world means I make no promises. I have not quit the game though - I will be back as soon as possible.
Pre-CU stocks nerfed
Posted by Arkel Kiran at Wednesday May 25.
Pre-CU stocks were nerfed with yesterdays patch. Before yesterday, these stocks would add 40 points to both min and max damage to any rifle, carbine or heavy weapon they were added on. Now, that damage-bonus is gone, which means custom weapons with pre-CU components will not be as good as they used to (though they will still be superior to anything made with post-CU components).
As usual, this change is not retroactive, so weapons already made with these stocks are not affected in any way.
New Alderaa vendor restocked
Posted by Arkel Kiran at Friday May 20.
The pre-CU weapons at 500 credits have been removed from the New Alderaa vendor, and it has been stocked with new weapons instead. The pre-CU weapons will be moved to the Theed vendor until such a time as that vendor is removed.
Pre-CU Sale
Posted by Arkel Kiran at Sunday May 15.
All weapons converted from before the Combat Upgrade is now listed at 500 credits each on both the Theed and New Alderaa vendors. Crates are also available for many of the weapons, and they are priced accordingly - 12500 credits for a full crate (25 weapons).
Clearance-sale and resource changes
Posted by Arkel Kiran at Thursday May 12.
I've decided to close up the Theed vendor outlet. As a result, all weapons on that vendor has been relisted for 1000 credits each. There are also some crates of weapons available there, and they have been priced accordingly.
In other news, the way resources are used in crafting has changed, so that all my resources suddenly became better. Because of this, all the components I've been making since the CU are suddenly inferior, and so I've started making the new ones, which means stocking up on new post-CU weapons has become delayed. But judging from the looks of things, the new weapons will be well worth the wait.
Some site-updates
Posted by Arkel Kiran at Saturday May 7.
The location map has been updated after the main vendor outlet moved to Temenos and the New Alderaa vendor was moved into the mall. The new database is also complete, and weapons with the post-CU stats are added continuously.
The Looted Items page has also been updated, listing the amount of enhancements and components needed for post-CU weapons (old changed ones as well as new ones)
