Sandbox MMO with Well-Developed Crafting Component?

[AnotherLawyer 389]

Years and years ago I played Star Wars Galaxies. I'm old. Before it got destroyed it had one of the greatest crafting components of any MMO maybe ever--all the way from mining/hunting/scavenging for resources and components, to obtaining blueprints/schematics, to detailed specialties and sub-specialties for weapons/machinery/vehicles/homes, to merchandising and marketing. Regardless of where SWG ended up, the crafting component was fantastic at best and no worse than merely good from inception to termination. I haven't found another MMO that has anything like it and gave up on MMOs when my first kid was born about six years ago. I tried LOTRO and SWTOR and did the trials for a few others, but nothing with the depth and breadth of SWG.

My kids are school age now and I finally have some time on my hands--not infinite amounts of time, but they're pretty good now at keeping themselves occupied for an hour or so at a time with toys and books and I don't have to constantly keep them from stumbling into injury and things they're not supposed to be getting into. Is there any MMO out there now that comes close to the crafting/exploring component of SWG?

[ConferenceRoom 6141]

Elder Scrolls Online, maybe?

[AnotherLawyer 389]

1 minute ago, crackamacgowski said:

Elder Scrolls Online, maybe?

If you know, is it like crafting in Skyrim or one of the other TSEs? Otherwise, I'll take a look. For some reason I can't articulate, I've been avoiding ESO.

[SimonBolivar 10957]

I'd say Eve Online

[BoomMF 1398]

SWG dominated my life in college.  Like, stayed up until server reset, farmed Axkva Min, logged off and went to class half dead. #intrepidserverforlife

[CurlyDumps 4466]

Did you know about SWG Emu?  You can play your old game for free.

SWGEmu.com

[AnotherLawyer 389]

2 minutes ago, BoomMF said:

SWG dominated my life in college.  Like, stayed up until server reset, farmed Axkva Min, logged off and went to class half dead. #intrepidserverforlife

Luckily for me it didn't come out until the summer after 2L when my class rank was already decided and I'd done all of my shitty law review time. Pretty much all I did on weekdays for the last year of law school was play golf in the afternoon and then SWG until server reset.

[AnotherLawyer 389]

8 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

Did you know about SWG Emu?  You can play your old game for free.

SWGEmu.com

I tried for about a month a year or so ago but the bugs and omissions made it unplayable for crafting. Has it gotten any better?

[BoomMF 1398]

Yeah, I play the Emu (Basilisk) off and on now, but they just introduced post-pub 9 Jedi.  No thanks.

Also, the building with all my crafting mats went poof (despite having about 3 years worth of maintenance loaded up) so the fire is dying.

[CurlyDumps 4466]

23 minutes ago, AnotherLawyer said:

I tried for about a month a year or so ago but the bugs and omissions made it unplayable for crafting. Has it gotten any better?

I have no clue.  I  got it up and running about a year ago out of curiosity.  I beta tested SWG years ago ('02 or '03?) but never got into it. I At the time I didn't understand what kind of game it was, and was looking for a Star Wars version of Everquest or something.

[BoomMF 1398]

9 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

I have no clue.  I  got it up and running about a year ago out of curiosity.  I beta tested SWG years ago ('02 or '03?) but never got into it. I At the time I didn't understand what kind of game it was, and was looking for a Star Wars version of Everquest or something.

I still have that white envelop the beta came in.  You're right about the marketing though, it wasn't what people were expecting.  I think that and the growing pains turned a lot of people off.  It's a shame really, because it made money (until WoW came along and showed everyone what making money actually was) and to this day no game approaches the magnitude of its sandbox world.  Raph Koster is a legend.  John Smedley, not so much.

[Dutchrudder 11133]

Sandbox and MMO are mutually exclusive. Which one do you want?

[BoomMF 1398]

The SOE servers that housed SWG are in Austin somewhere.  I never found them.  Good thing too.  I probably would have ended up on the news before ending up on the news was cool.

[AnotherLawyer 389]

5 minutes ago, BoomMF said:

I still have that white envelop the beta came in.

Same here. I don't think they knew what they had on their hands, even though they had some really great content. Jump to Lightspeed might have been the greatest expansion of any MMO ever. When I was waiting for my bar results I went to Alliance Master Pilot with Havoc, then changed allegiances and went to Imperial Ace so I could get the Jedi Starfighter, then went back to the Alliance and did it again for the Crimson Phoenix badge.

[Rynosauri 23]

If you know, is it like crafting in Skyrim or one of the other TSEs? Otherwise, I'll take a look. For some reason I can't articulate, I've been avoiding ESO.

It's pretty similar to skyrim but a little more time consuming, you have to research items to unlock the traits for armor and weapons which start to take exponentially longer. There is a lot of uniqueness with the different styles you can craft in but there's only a few sets that seem to be worth it in end game.

That being said, the original game is only like 15 bucks and it's free to play (although crafting would much benefit with the monthly sub perks) so there's not a lot to invest to give it a shot.

[atomheartbevo 89626]

Bunch of the folks behind SWG cut their teeth on Ultima Online. 

And UO is still running....and about to add an endless high-level trial (or free to play as they call it) 

Edited April 4, 2018 by atomheartbevo

[Grippe 310]

On 4/4/2018 at 11:10 AM, SimonBolivar said:

I'd say Eve Online

+1, though, to be fair I'm still playing WoW.