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| Welcome to my news area for the upcoming Star
Wars Galaxies Online Role Playing Game (SWG
ORPG)!
Those new to the
site and/or SWG should go to the Briefing
Room first. From wild rumors to
confirmed information--if you have news for sale, encrypt a message to
me. You might want to check out my slicer
policies first though. For old news, please visit
the Battlestation Archives. |
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And in answer to the much-emailed question:
yes, I'm yet still alive! :)
My job took me away for yet another two week
stint (though this time, not so hush-hush--heh). It's
obvious at this point that my work "promotion" (among other
things) is keeping me from being able to keep things going
here in the same way that we're all typically used to.
And I'm not willing to bend my standards--such as they are.
So like everything in life, some things have got to change.
I knew since the release of the game that this
site was going to have to evolve one way or another in the
transition to remain useful. But given my work status,
that decision has become much easier to make.
I thus plan to to make this SWG site more
"community" focused as opposed to "news and information"
focused.
Given that the
Official Site
now actually does a great job of keeping you guys informed of
all that is going on with the game itself, my only other
option was to try to provide a deep amount of statistical
information about mechanics and minutia to the nth degree in a
similar vein to SWGStratics. But
given that I don't have a full staff and now clearly don't
have the time to attempt to compete at that level, I'm not
going down that road.
Oh I likely won't be removing any of the
information I've already amassed, but the format and focus is
going to change--with the PA listings taking a more prominent
role. I've got a number of other ideas as well, but I'd
rather not reveal them yet. I'm also probably going to
take the opportunity to give the site a long-overdue face
lift.
To all my loyal readers who found this site
beneficial during the development of Star Wars Galaxies--thank
you! I enjoyed every minute of it. And I very much
look forward to providing a service that many of you will
still find useful (and perhaps more so) as the game continues
to evolve.
ps--I can't give a time table due to my work
conflicts. My goal is to have the site revamped and
unveiled by the end of the year at the latest. I'll
try to post progress reports along the way.
Blade out.
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SWGStratics is hosting a
chat with Kevin "Q-3PO" O'Hara, Haden "Shug-Ninx" Blackman,
and others tonight at 7:00pm EST. Be sure to join in if
you can make it!
To connect to Stratics IRC, use one of the
servers below and your favorite IRC client:
- irc.stratics.com, port 6667
(connects to a random server on our network)
- irc.frws.com, port 6667 (USA,
Colorado)
- irc.epaxsys.net, ports 6667,
6668, 7000 (USA, Colorado)
- irc.glowfish.de, ports 6667,
6668, 7000 (EU, Germany)
- stratics.afraidyet.net, port
6667 (USA, Georgia)
The channel is: #swghoc
on Stratics
IRC. Maybe I'll see you in
there! |
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Judging by my overt tardiness (see below),
I'm sure most of you have seen it already, but for those who
might be left off the list, here's a recap of this
month's official newsletter...
Well Star Wars
Galaxies has finished its first month and is already
the second largest Massively Multiplayer Game in the United
States (behind EverQuest). We're about as pleased as can be
with this news.
This means good things for
the team as well. We continue to get resources to enhance the
game and are seeing significant progress on the upcoming
additional features, player cities, mounts and vehicles. We
expect them all to be in the game within the next few months.
We've also been working hard with the Correspondents to make
improvements to the professions.
Our Monthly Story arc is
about to enter Act 2. In act one, players have been tasked
with finding fragments of Rebel or Imperial data disks. They
are rumored to be in the possession of several notorious gangs
including the Meatlumps and the Swoopers. Once a player has
collected all four pieces (either through looting or trading),
they can compile them for the secret message. The message has
already been decoded by the dedicated community (translations
below), but the compiled disk can still be turned in to any
faction recruiter for credits, 500 faction points and a
special Story Badge. In Act 2, players will need to go on
special missions to uncover more about the nefarious Dead Eye
plans and the fate of Lyda.
Next is a listing of the
decyphered disks from last month's quest:
This month we bring you the
translation of the Cries of Alderaan data disks. The fragments
gave 1 of 20 pieces of encoded text that the community worked
together for several days to decrypt on the Star
Wars Galaxies forums. Here are the decoded
messages:
Rebel
--ALLIANCE EYES ONLY. Pass
the word. Lyda managed to get hold of some important info
about that secret Imperial project we've heard rumblings
about. Now they're after her. They call her Codename
Skimmer, ha, if they knew how close they got to her real
name! Break. Anyway, keep an eye out for her--she might try
to contact you. She's gone deep underground, and we have no
idea where she is. Whatever you do, you MUST NOT give up her
identity. Break. Also, see what else you can find out about
these two things. One, the codename for the secret project
is apparently "Dead Eye"; see if you can dig up any more
information on it. Two, we need intel on a human doc named
Vacca. Looks like he vanished off of Alderaan ten years ago,
and of course records from there are hard to come by now
(curse the ashes of that slime Tarkin). We need all the
information we can get, but DON'T let anyone know you're
looking too hard. Break. Word is the Princess is personally
interested in this one, so maybe if you get lucky, you can
earn yourself a shiny medal too. Grease the power couplings
if you need to--the budget is going to stretch if need be.
Break. You all know it'll break Lyda's mom's heart if we
can't get her home safe. She's lost enough in the last few
years, and now her daughter's off risking her neck. Lyda's
spunk may have taken her a bit too far this time. Let's be
careful out there.
DERLIN, SIGNING
OUT
Imperial
---ENCODED IMPERIAL
TRANSMISSION. Confirmation code #15-A86Q. Attention, all
officers. Urgent orders enclosed. Summary: an Alliance spy
has misappropriated documents. Keywords: Project Dead Eye,
Vacca (Doctor), Rebel Alliance.
ALERT ALERT ALERT
A Rebel spy, possibly
Codename Skimmer, has obtained vital documents related to a
secret research project, codenamed Project Dead Eye. These
documents are encrypted, and we believe that the Alliance
does not have the means to decrypt them, but we cannot
permit the risk that the project be revealed. It is urgent
that any and all Rebels associated with the delivery of this
material be terminated with extreme prejudice.
Loyal Imperial officers
are already guarding Doctor Vacca, and security will need to
be increased. Deployments in the vicinity of the Project
should prepare for emergency personnel requisitions in the
event of the Project needing increased manpower.
An informal note: Vacca
may work with filthy furbags, but you all know the critical
nature of this project. IT MUST NOT SLIP, or Vader will have
all our heads, starting with mine.
-Moff Jerjerrod
The other
disks should be recovered by now as well. ;) |
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And judging by my inbox, I'd say many of you
didn't even realize I was missing. :D No, I have not
rudely been ignoring your cries for information--I've been
away on a very limited-access assignment for the past
month. Those who want to know a little more can check
out my post on the message board. I'll try to get to all
the lingering emails by the weekend--patience please.
;)
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SWGCraft is
a new SWG site in the GameSpy family devoted to all things
crafting in Star Wars Galaxies.
Along with crafting tips, tricks, and
instructions, the site also provides some great calculator
tools for your use and forums where you can discuss crafting
in general, your SWG business activities, or barter with
others.
Be sure to stop by, say hi to site manager Kevin
"Fragmaster" Bowen, and tell him Blade sent you! ;) |
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SWG Internet Community Specialist Ronda
"Princess Playah" Scott was recently cornered by the folks
over at Dragon Clan.
Here's a brief glimpse of what she had to say:
Hi
there! Thanks for your interest in my job here at LucasArts.
My title is, as noted, Internet Community Relations
Specialist. LucasArts created this position last year in
recognition of its fantastic and very active fan base. When I
first started, I was charged with establishing relationships
with the fan sites for all of our titles and the Lucas Fan
Network ( www.lfnetwork.com ). Soon after, I started to work with the
platform and genre specific sites (Xbox and RPG sites, for
example). And now, nine months into the job, I’m also working
with the largest gaming sites as well.
My daily
activities include answering lots and lots of email from all
the sites we work with. I also coordinate Q&As from all
websites, have them answered by the production teams,
proofread and then return them. I spend a lot of time finding
the most appropriate sites for us to work with for our
original titles as well (like Wrath Unleashed and
Gladius).
And probably the part of my job I like the
most is looking for new ways to bring our games to the gamers.
We attended Comic-Con San Diego for the first time ever this
year and got to meet hundreds of fans, many of who are playing
Star Wars Galaxies. And early next year, we’ll be having a
Star Wars Galaxies Fan Fest, bringing players from all over
together for the first time.
And yes, this does seem
like a dream job for some! I am sure there are many people out
there that would love to work in PR for a gaming company. It
is a great industry and the people are fantastic. The job
often requires juggling many different balls and a fair amount
travel, translating into very long days and lots of time away
from home. It’s not all fun and games all the time, but
overall, I don’t think this job can be beat
:-)
You can read the entire interview here.
I know what you are thinking--now if only she
needed an assistant.... ;) |
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I always try to encourage solid roleplaying
where I hear of it--and this past weekend, a dedicated Tusken
Raider PA known as the Jundlanders held a
"kidnapping raid" event on SWG's Wanderhome server that
I was very impressed with. Here's the story as conveyed
by Ummagumma:
There's been a startling and rather disturbing action
taken by the Jundlander TR tribe. The Bothan spynet is
clogged with conflicting information on it; fortunately we had
an embedded operative who was able to transmit coverage of the
event as it happened:
Things started to get tense when a
large group of Tuskens suddenly barged into the Cantina in
Bestine. It's not rare to see a smaller group of Sand
People converge here, but this was an unusually large
gathering, and they seemed immediately to take a particular
interest in a regular fixture there, dancer Yi'tse Mina.
Apparently she had seen the writing on the wall when it comes
to Tusken Raider aggression, as she had enlisted the services
of a bodyguard for protection that night.
Particular focus on Ti'tse came from
tribemember Rukar, who appeared to have a desire to make her
some kind of ingratiating gift to the Jundlander Tusken King,
Dunes Nomad. When Rukar started to become physical with
the dancer, her bodyguard Tearfell warned him off. This
resulted in a violent duel, which ended up with the
unfortunate bodyguard dead on the floor. With this, the
tribe immediately snatched Yi'tse and made off into the desert
with her, the echoes of desperate pleas for help all that was
left of her in the cantina.
The Raiders then high-tailed it
across the desert with their captive, destination unknown,
although recent rumors of a gathering hall in the Wastes used
by the Jundlanders led one to believe this was where they were
headed. The Jundland Wastes are notoriously dangerous,
and this fact was ultimately proven when a sudden attack of
indigenous creatures on the group caused enough confusion for
Yi'tse to elude her captors, making a mad dash to Mos Espa and
the shuttleport there. Rukar, being the initiator of the
abduction, took on the task of racing across the windswept
plains of the Tatooine desert to recover her, just as she was
ready to board a shuttle to freedom.
Taken back to the ruins which make
up the Jundlander gathering hall, the Twi'lek dancer was taken
in front of the King, and while supplicating herself, was
presented to him as a gift. She was then demanded to
dance for the tribe, her seductive gyrations having a visible
effect on even the most hardened Tusken.
After the seductive dance
performance, Yi'tse was then thrown unceremoniously into a
type of holding cell, her fate resting in the whims the
King. It is lucky for her, however, that the two Tuskens
assigned to watch the door began to argue amongst each other,
perhaps disputing who would enjoy the Twi'lek's charms when
their leader was finished with her. At any rate, Yi'tse
took this opportunity to elude her captors once again,
slipping out the door during the distraction and running off
into the setting suns of the desert to freedom.
While the story may have a happy
ending for Yi'tse Mina, the future looks less cheery for the
rest of the citizens of Tatooine on Wanderhome. The
Jundlanders have now struck against those outlanders who have
taken residence on their homeworld. We will never be
safe again.
Here are some pics of the event as it unfolded
(click to enlarge):
 
 
 
 
Glad to see more groups are
starting to make their servers really their own with player
events such as this -- I look forward to encountering others
who try to increase the immersion of the game in this
fashion. Good luck with your further raids Jundlanders
(but not too much luck--heh)! |
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OK--so it isn't exactly the FIRST official
SWG newsletter--but it IS the first official newsletter since
the game's release. Kevin "Q-3PO" O'Hara continues his
community duties by recapping what's been going on in the
first month of play:
Welcome to the first Star Wars Galaxies:
An Empire Divided monthly newsletter (since launch).
The purpose of this newsletter is to let you know what has
been happening in the SWG community this past month and to
give you a little indication of where we are
headed.
On June 26th, the game officially launched and quickly
became the fastest growing Massively Multiplayer Online game
in history. We’re very happy with how our community has grown
so far and are encouraged by the number of people sticking
with us beyond the first month. Most of that month we had
daily updates to fix exploits and enhance server stability.
While we still have more that we want to do, the game is
coming along fairly well.
We’ve recently started our Profession Correspondent
program. This is where community members on the official
forums are selected to represent each profession. They collect
the opinions of the specific community and organize them for
our developers to read through. We were careful to select
people who had the interest of the game in mind instead of
people who want to make their profession better than others.
During August we will begin working closely with the
Correspondents to address their top issues.
Also in early August we will release our
first major update. Currently on the Test Center galaxy, this
update adds additional fixes, features and content. Feel free
to take a sneak peek at what is coming on the In
Testing page of the
website.
Finally, August begins the first chapter
of our Monthly Storyline, The
Cries of Alderaan. Join
thousands of other players as they compete or work together to
find Imperial and Rebel secret datadisks. These coded disks
contain secret messages that foreshadow a much larger
plot.
Finally, the question on everyone’s mind is who will be
the first to unlock the mysterious Force Sensitive slot? The
Developers aren’t talking but expect some player to figure it
out within the next couple of months. The new question is,
will the first Jedi tell everyone and risk exposure to the
Empire…
Looks like things are beginning to move
forward.
The newsletter also contained a glimpse of a
player city bank in development (click to enlarge):
Lastly, they showcased another fan site. Congrats to
SWG Resource
Center for being highlighted this month! |
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GameSpy has two noteworthy articles that I
thought I'd share for those who missed it.
On the lighter side of the galaxy, that rascally
Fargo has written a
new SWG piece loosely based on his very own Mon Calamari
character, entitled "Fashion and Passion in the Star Wars
Galaxies".
Here's an excerpt:
I was a little slow on the uptake
when it came to Star
Wars Galaxies. At first, I was
excited! And then, ten minutes later, I was face down in a
crevice on some strange planet getting devoured by what
appeared to be little bunny rabbits.
I didn't remember
anything like that happening in the movies.
But gradually
my character, a Mon Calamari named "Farglik Marsbar," began to
spring to life. He blossomed like a Tatooinian desert flower.
He took on a life of his own....
You can read all about the life trials and
tribulations of the infamous Farglik in the original story here.
Next, GameSpy has an early review of their
impressions of the game itself. Given my own experiences
with SWG, I think it's a generally fair assessment (with a few
incorrect details regarding gameplay). Here's a brief
look at what they had to say:
Wow. Reviewing Star Wars
Galaxies. Talk about your tough assignments. How do you review
a childhood fantasy? For that matter, how do you review the
"Living in the Star Wars universe" fantasy that currently
lives inside the head of every gamer worth their salt? Indeed,
peruse any message board and what you come across is
passionate argument on both sides. One half of the gaming
community would have you believe that Star Wars Galaxies is
the greatest betrayal since a guy named Judas picked up 30
silver coins and the other half is currently too busy trying
to get into Jabba's Palace or crafting Armorweave to do
mundane things like talk… or eat… or go to the bathroom.
So where does the truth
lie? As in most cases, somewhere in the middle. It must be
acknowledged that, as a gaming experience and as a commercial
product, Star Wars Galaxies is a huge, bug-infested mess. It
suffers from the kinds of issues that plague nearly every MMO
around launch time - broken servers, broken quests, buggy
gameplay, lack of content - and adds to it some unique
Galaxies issues such as infrequent patching and truly poor
customer service all, at a premium price.
Yet for all
that, why do I think about the game all the time? Why, even in
the middle of writing this review, did I sneak into the game
to see whether or not that cool coat I put a bid on in the
bazaar has finally come through? Why am I so proud that my
Twi'lek scout has finally managed to get enough Imperial
faction points to become a Lance Corporal in Palpatine's New
Order? Why am I having so much fun in a game that frequently
drives me insane?
I Can Take You as Far as
Anchorhead…
If there's one thing that can't be
faulted in the game, it's the visuals. The instant you finish
creating your character and work your way through the
comprehensive tutorial, you will never have a doubt that you
are truly in the Star Wars universe. In fact, even if you
discount the Star Wars appeal of the game, the landscapes and
cityscapes in the game are simply beautiful. While they start
with the architecture and color schemes of the movies, they
expand and vary so much as you travel that I can easily
believe that these are viable, living cultures.
You can read the entire article here.
The reviewer goes on to say that despite his
irritation at the initial bugs, SWG is the most fun he's ever
had in an MMO.
My take: the bugs will get worked out, the
content of player cities, vehicles, and space is coming.
This game is only going to get better and I'm already having a
blast. I look forward to what lies ahead.... |
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Please forgive the cheap Seinfeld
reference--I couldn't resist and some of you bloody well know
it. ;)
Anyhoo--not everyone has seen this on the
official site, so I thought I'd post it here. Kevin
"Q-3PO" O'Hara is looking for volunteers as "correspondents"
for each profession. The role is apparently a monthly
one in which the volunteer player will attempt to filter
through the concerns being levied by the community for that
given profession, and convey the relevant/important
items to the dev team in a concise report. But
here's the full Q spiel posted to each Profession forum on the
official boards:
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Are you knowledgeable about
the [PROFESSION NAME] profession?
-
Can you objectively identify
relevant issues and distinguish them from simply passionate
arguments?
-
Do you like organizing
information and corresponding with other members of a
community?
The Development Team is looking for
a volunteer correspondent for the [PROFESSION
NAME] Profession. Participation is completely
voluntary and you can stop helping out at any time. We’re just
looking for someone who can help us sort through the various
issues for this profession.
If this is something you are
interested in, please write a short paragraph on why you think
you would be a good candidate and email it to SWGCorrespondent@soe.sony.com.
Please put [PROFESSION
NAME] in the Subject Line and include your SWG
handle in the message. By submitting this email to us, you
agree to allow us to contact you in connection with Star Wars
Galaxies and agree that all correspondence with and material
submitted to SOE will be the exclusive property of SOE and SOE
may use such materials without limitation and in its sole
discretion.
After we have reviewed the
submissions, we will pick one person to be our correspondent.
We will set them up with a special community title here on the
forums and ask them to help highlight for us the relevant
issues relating to this profession.
Don’t get too attached to the title
though; In the interest of well-rounded feedback, once a month
we may select a new correspondent. Please do not take that
personally, we just want to be fair and give other people an
opportunity.
We will still continue to monitor
the forums and read as many threads as we can. The
correspondent is just to help us focus on the top issues of
the profession.
He posted the exact same
letter to all the profession forums, which is why I simply
replaced the actual names with "[PROFESSION NAME]"
above. If you are interested in doing this for a
particular profession--be sure to email them with the
appropriate name in the subject line. |
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I know, I know--sure seems like Blade hasn't
posted news in awhile. Well, let's just say that I'm
having "difficulty" adjusting to the Live side of
things. First--the Prima Play Guide to
SWG is very much worth the price. I highly
recommend you pick up a copy. The book is chock-full of
stats and info such as those I listed in the post below.
And no, I don't currently plan to simply regurgitate the Prima
info/tables on this site, so I'm left with attempting to bring
other noteworthy news that you might not regularly get for
now.
Suffice it to say that this means you might not
see stories as frequently as in the past for the time
being--since noteworthy items don't typically surface that you
can't discern for yourselves by actively playing the
game. And I've never simply wanted this site to just be
another canned walk-through. Yes, there are a
myriad of bugs and balancing issues they are working
diligently on---but just trying to keep up with the status of
each of those is a bit like tilting at windmills, and isn't
ultimately very helpful to you all. As I've stated
before, changes to this site in one form or another are likely
coming--but the transition is drawing out longer
than I anticipated.
I'll try to keep you all informed as things
progress (or digress as the case may be--heh). Thanks
again for the kind words from visitors both old and new over
the past few weeks--it does mean a lot. :) |
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I've received a number of different "guides"
from players eager to help the rest of you out with getting
started in this game. If you don't want to know this
info, stop reading now. ;)
First, let me share a table provided by
Rimarath regarding starting attribute point modifiers
for each species:
| Species Attribute Modifiers |
| Species |
Health |
Str |
Const |
Action |
Quick |
Stam |
Mind |
Focus |
Will |
| Bothan |
0
|
0
|
0
|
300
|
300
|
100
|
100
|
100
|
100
|
| Human |
100 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| Mon
Cal |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
150
|
300
|
300
|
150
|
| Rodian |
0 |
0 |
0 |
200 |
200 |
450 |
0 |
0 |
50 |
| Trandoshan |
250
|
300
|
400
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
100
|
| Twi'lek
|
0 |
0 |
250 |
250 |
300 |
0 |
100 |
0 |
0 |
| Wookiee |
350
|
350
|
150
|
200
|
100
|
100
|
100
|
150
|
100
|
| Zabrak |
200 |
0 |
0 |
300 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
400
|
Adding those up, we get the Total Distributable
Points by Species :
| Bothan |
1000
|
| Human |
900 |
| Mon
Cal |
900 |
| Rodian |
900 |
| Trandoshan |
1050 |
| Twi'lek
|
0 |
| Wookiee |
1600
|
| Zabrak |
900 |
Those numbers aren't exactly surprising.
here are added skills bonuses for the various species as
well:
-
Bothan: +15 camo., +10
cover
-
Human: +10 leadership, +15 artisan
exp.
-
Mon cal: +15 alertness, +10 weapon
assy. & structure assy.
-
Rodian: +15 def. vs blind, +10 1h, 2h,
weapon assy.
-
Trandoshan: +10 unarmed acc. &
melee def. & creature harvesting, +5 unarmed speed, +15
unarmed dam., +1 regen
-
Twi'lek: +5 wound healing music &
fatigue healing music, +15 wound healing dance & fatigue
healing dance
-
Wookiee: +10 trapping & taming
& creature handling & warcry, +1 roar (no
armor)
-
Zabrak: +10 def. vs dizzy & def. vs
stun & def. vs intim, +5 anti-shock, +1 vitalize, +1
equilib.
There are also potentially attribute modifiers
for professions as well, but I'm looking into some of the
specific numbers that I've been given thus far...I'll post
once I'm sure.
Next, is a very nicely done Character
Creation Guide by LedMirage. He's compiled
alot of good information to think about in the creation of
your character--especially if this is your first time in an
MMORPG.
Last, but not least, is an in-depth SWG
Computer Compatibility Guide by Barone
(download). In it, he gives some great
detailed procedures for testing your equipment for both
limitations and compatibility issues that are possibly the
culprit in issues of computer lock-ups and crashes. |
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