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Howdy folks!
I want to tell you a little about where we are and how our plans are evolving for the future.
A couple of weeks ago, we launched the Corellian Corvette... our first space-based instanced adventure. There are nine different types of missions; and groups of players are able to go to their own private instance of the adventure. Since its launch, 40,487 unique characters have entered it... and only 11,103 unique characters have completed it. It is definitely not for the faint-of-heart!
We have been working on our publish process and technology, and things are happening very smoothly and on a regular basis. Our mini-publishes are two weeks apart, our main publishes are 6 weeks apart, and we hotfix things into the game almost every week.
With Publish 8, we hope to fulfill the promise of the utility droids by adding several cool new utility modules. Now Droids will be able to help you find resources on other planets, pay your structure maintenance, repair other droids, heal you in combat, jam with musicians, put on laser-light shows, throw traps, harvest creature components, advertise your wares, and blow stuff up. Along the way we cleaned up a lot of old existing Droid bugs, fixed some just plain annoying bugs (Armor Hole, anyone?), and added as much cool stuff as we could, like manual turret control. And just try to disrespect stormtroopers now! For the complete list of fixes and changes in Publish 8, please click here.
We also put in a novice player tutorial for the starting professions. This is a directed experience that adds a ton of information and quests to the starting player's path. New players will be given a helper droid that will aid them in completing their quests. If you have been thinking about starting a new character, this would be a great time!
Looking forward, we think there are three major systems that we need to address before we launch into Space: Combat Balance, the Jedi System, and the Galactic Civil War.
We are cranking on the Combat Balance, and we think development on it will span 2 more publishes. This is an extremely sweeping and in-depth overhaul that will include the HAM revamp, speed formulas, weapon balances, weapon certifications, weapon stats, profession roles and balances, specials, armor balances, DoT balances, and buff balances. Obviously we want to get this right, so we are taking the time to do so.
One of the things I am most excited about is the Secrets of the Force publish! Publish 9 will totally change the way that Jedi is played. I know there is a lot of concern as to how existing Jedi will fit into the new system. Let me assure you that you will be able to customize your character into the new system with proportionally as much power as you had in the old system. There will be a lot more info on how this is going to work in the near future, and I think it is going to blow your socks off!
The Jedi Trials (Publish 10) will completely put an end to the Hologrind as a method of achieving Force Sensitivity; and put a quest-based system in its place. Another hot topic with the players is how those that have been grinding away, but have not yet reached Force Sensitivity, will be compensated. Basically we are going to take the proportion of completion that players are at, and allow them to advance more rapidly through a proportional amount of the quests. It will be fair and it will be fun!
Finally the Galactic Civil War will be overhauled to become the true elder game of Star Wars Galaxies. There have been a lot of questions as to why we are doing the Jedi system before the GCW. Basically there are three reasons:
1) Our vision for the GCW requires that we find ways to involve virtually everyone in the ongoing war. We need to take the time to design the GCW revamp so that it can be impacted by all types of players, from a Master Commando to a peaceful Artisan.
2) Because the GCW involves a fair bit of PvP, it has to be done after the Combat balance. (However, there will be plenty of ways for non-combatants to contribute as well.)
3) We do not think the current holo-grind system of becoming a Jedi is healthy for the game, and we want it to stop as soon as possible.
This does not mean that we will be ignoring GCW issues along the way. We are trying to continually improve the current system between now and then.
We're also doing a lot of "under the hood" things in preparation for future improvements to the Bazaar and large scale PvP - while you won't see any fruits of those efforts a while, this work will allow us to expand the Bazaar functionality and better support big battles in the future.
We've been burning themidnight oil to come up with a few more surprises. In the next 60 days you will see announcements on:
A Veteran's Rewards system that will allow you to earn a bunch of cool things, up to and including an exclusive starship when "Jump to Lightspeed" launches!
In-game leader boards.
New mission types for player cities.
A preferred "Jump to Lightspeed" beta program for existing subscribers/veterans.
A Character Transfer System to move between galaxies.
And a few other crazy things along the way!
As mentioned in the last State of the Game, things can and will change with our schedule. Accordingly, I would like to present you with our current development plans:
Mini Publish 8.1 - May 11th
Image Designer Enhancements
Improved Line of Sight calculations (no more shooting through walls etc.)
Jump to Lightspeed Beta announcement
Mini Publish 8.2 - May 25th
Death Watch Bunker This is a Major adventure w/ integrated profession requirements and some amazing new loot:
Bounty Hunter Armor
Mandalorian Armor
Jetpacks (Yes, Jetpacks!)
New weapons
New art
Veteran Rewards system
Badge Display system
Loot enhancements
Publish #9: Secrets of the Force
Complete overhaul of the Jedi system
Character Transfer System
Hermit Quest fixes
PlayerCity Missions
Mini Publish 9.1
Wookiee Armor 2 & 3
Additional Chat Channels
Mini Publish 9.2
Crafting/ Entertainer Quests
Merchant: Remove Empty Vendors from Planetary Map
Publish #10: The Jedi Trials
Complete overhaul of the path to becoming Force Sensitive
Combat Balance: A major overhaul to the combat system and balances of our game.
Squad Leader Revamp
Mini Publish 10.1
Top CS/ QA/ Correspondents' issues
Mini Publish 10.2
Hutt Casino: This is a major Social Adventure geared towards Dancers, Musicians, and fast-talking Smugglers. It is also going to be a great place just to hang out. It was moved from Publish 9 to Publish 10 because our art resources will be cranking on Space during that time. Believe me, it will be worth the wait!
Publish #11: The Galactic Civil War
Complete overhaul of the Galactic Civil War system
Smuggler revamp
And then... Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed!!! I cannot begin to tell you how freakin' cool this is! Cinco Barnes (Design), Anthony L. Sommers (Programming) and Jeff Dobson (Art) are the three Leads, and they and their teams are doing an amazing job! We are going to be showing a lot more of this in the near future, starting at E3, so you will get to see for yourselves. All I can say is that this totally fulfills the complete vision for Star Wars Galaxies. You will live your life on the ground and do some serious adventuring in space...
We are having a blast making this game, and we hope you are having a blast playing it!
Best,
Gary Gattis, SWG Senior Producer, SOE
P.S. Final disclaimer... things can and will change :-)
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