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Rumors of new Star Wars Galaxies expansion most likely false
We received a tip from a reader named Lateris, pointing the way over to a discussion on MMORPG.com about a possible new expansion for Star Wars Galaxies. A video originally posted to YouTube purports to show footage of new content coming to the game, and labels the expansion "City of the Skies". The expansion would supposedly allow players to explore the Tibanna Gas Mines of Bespin, introduce two new player races, and raise the game's level cap to 100. Despite the somewhat-convincing video, this rumor seems to be false. When contacted by Massively, an SOE representative stated flatly that the company had nothing to do with the film. He went on to note the enthusiasm of SWG fans, and that the video appears to be assets and video from a number of other Star Wars games edited together. In doing our own brief investigation, we noted several assets that seem to be pulled from the title Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. The voiceovers used in the video appear to be pulled directly from that game, as does the imagery of the cloud city itself.Read on below the cut for screenshots from the video and an examination of what appars to be a fan-made forgery - entertaining though it is.
Star Wars Galaxies team prepping for Hoth, welcome new lead designer
There's been big news in the Star Wars Galaxies community in the last week. Last week's Friday Feature hints at the progress the development team is making in bringing to you a huge addition to the Galaxies experience: the Battle of Hoth. The "choose a side" feature highlights the different experiences the Rebels and Imperials will be having on opposing sides of the instance. While the Rebels try desperately to protect their transports and get away, the Imperials will be advancing on Echo Base laying waste to all they see. While full details on the experience aren't yet out, the feature gives a nice taste of what's to come in the next chapter of Star Wars Galaxies.Meanwhile, word from the official forums is that long-time lead designer for the game Thomas Blair will be moving on to another position at SOE-Austin. Blair has accepted the position of Design Systems lead on the DC Universe Online project. In his place will be stepping Jesse "Loche" Benjamin, the assistant lead designer for Galaxies. Player reaction seems to be generally positive, and Blair's 'goodbye' to the community is well worth reading. With a new lead designer and a new senior producer on the game within the space of a few months, it will be interesting to see where the future of the game goes from this point on.
Star Wars Galaxies producer says Hoth is coming next month!
In an open letter to the players of Star Wars Galaxies, producer for the title Christopher "Dotanuki" Field gave fans a heads up on what's coming down the pipe in the next six months or so. He lays out a timeline for upcoming patches, revealing that the Halloween event called "The Galactic Moon Festival" as well as The Battle of Echo Base will be released sometime next month! There will be a new Life Day event, along with the first expansion to the Champions of the Force game, sometime during the winter months. Beyond that, the next professions to see updates and patches will be Politicians and Spies, followed by Domestics/Structural Traders.He also notes that they are moving ahead full-force on a plan to deal with the game's many servers with relatively low populations. SWG players have been long asking for a solution in the form of server merges; as we've discussed before, the unique topography of the game's cities and planets makes that difficult. Field states in his letter that "We met with Marketing yesterday to discuss the timeframe of the program as well as the announcement timeframe. All the details are being finalized now. DevH is still hard at work on his tasks." He has no further specifics to offer, but notes that their interactions with marketing mean an announcement will be coming sooner rather than later.
Exploring SWG heroic encounters pt. 3
"There's no getting around the fact that the Rebels lose at Echo Base. We had to work out how badly they lost, as a question of what's fun for the Rebel players." The base, the developers offered up, is just ridiculously large. It's sort of silly. The Tusken Army Encounter will fit into the Echo Base map four times over. They have drivable AT-STs and drivable Snow Speeders. First time in Star Wars Galaxies. It's not true atmospheric flight, unfortunately, as they had to cheat a bit to create ground collision for the vehicles. You get to zip around a blow up Snowtroopers though, so there's a lot of fun to be had there. They're trying to develop the AT-ST as a two-player mechanic, but there's no guarantee it will make it into the Encounter when it launches.One thing that you've seen in the movies but won't make it into the game is the 'tow cable'. The Snow Speeders tripping up the AT-ATs is really excellent to see, but from a mechanics perspective is just too hard to do in an MMO. "This time the AT-AT shields are not too strong for blasters." They're the primary targets in the field for the Rebels. Loot and badges and collectibles will all be explored very fully in the new Encounter. Snowtrooper armor and Rebel Cold-Weather armor are both going to be available as a result of this new content. Rideable Tauntauns are in the works, you'll be able to fight off vicious wampas, and Rebels will be getting a new rifle skin: the AT-28. The E-Webb is out, as it's just out of scale for all the other weapons in the game.The instance is factional-only. If it launches 'for' the Rebels, all of the plotlines and encounters for players are made assuming you're a Rebel. The same is true for Imperials. There is no 'neutral' version of the instance. They're hoping to do something like with the space encounters, where neutrals could join a group on either side and temporarily have their faction over-written. Objectives from either side pit players against notable elements of this frenetic experience. One of the Imperial objectives in the instance is to stop the Ion Cannon from firing, for example.The designers noted that multi-group instances might eventually be in the works, but there are a lot of thorny balance issues to deal with there. For the time being, they have no plans for space-based instances or multi-group instancing. What they're focusing on now is more of these single-group story-driven encounters that tap deeply into the lore of the Galaxy Far, Far Away. To finally conclude the presentation, the developers and designers showed off a fantastic preview video showcasing the new content coming with the encounter. Check it out below! << Back to Part 2
Exploring SWG heroic encounters pt. 2
The 'Tusken Army' encounter was originally intended to be the 'middle-of-the-road' instance, between IG-88 and Axkva. Instead, players kept losing to the onslaught of raiders because too many citizens would die. "Essentially we'd created the world's most obnoxious escort quest." Still, it was very popular because it allowed players a lot of choice. Even if they didn't have the 'right' classes, having enough players to cover the city sufficiently meant you could successfully complete the encounter. Despite the challenge, it was a very well-received experience. The map used in the Encounter is actually a streamlined version of Mos Espa, with many elements taken out to ensure NPCs would path well through the area. From a technical perspective, Tusken Army was the most advanced of any of the Encounters. They really pushed their tools to the limit getting the experience together, and it was a great use of the quest manager in a new and unique way. It's something they really like as a tool to aid player understanding of what's going on – they expect to use it more in the future.Hoth is modeled very closely after the Tusken Army – small teams will be running around taking on encounters individually, rather than 'tank and spank' boss fights. The quest manager will be used in Echo Base much as it's used in the Tusken encounter, to keep players all 'on the same page.' Many components of the "ISD", or Imperial Star Destroyer, were completed some time ago. It was created at the maximum size of the instance, but the original creator never noted that anywhere. The result is that a lot of their work on the instance to begin with was figuring out why things just weren't working. Camera issues plagued hallway encounters, and so most of the action is restricted to larger rooms. Krix, the first encounter, is the most challenging boss in the Encounter. Once you're past him, the rest of the event is comparatively easy – this was on purpose, but resulted in a lot of frustration when the event first came out. To somewhat placate frustrated players, they added a badge for defeating Krix in a specific circumstance. Imperial Grenadiers, a mob that participates in the encounter, throw their charges faster as the event goes on. The fewer Grenadiers there are, the lower Krix's health, the faster they throw. The developers joked that "there should be a badge" for defeating Krix with just one Grenadier standing, because they estimate that devoted solider is throwing about ten grenades a second. Questions from the audience touched on various bugs and quirks about the encounter. The team is always open to this information, they stated, and it was obvious someone was taking notes as these issues were raised. Exar Kun, the most recent and advanced of the Heroic Encounters, was obviously a point of pride for the attending developers. The dev team had a better understanding of what the players could accomplish, and very deliberately created a space where they could showcase several different bosses in evocative lairs. The goal was to create an encounter that 'felt' unbeatable but was still something that could be completed. New technology was implemented for the Encounter as well, that allowed NPCs to attack players through surrogate objects. This tech comes into play in the final encounter with Kun himself. It was completed more quickly than other encounters as well, due to experience with past encounters and development of Encounter tools. << Back to Part 1 Head to the Hoth Preview >>
Fan Faire 08: Exploring Hoth and the Star Wars Galaxies heroic encounters
SOE's Fan Faire had a number of excellent events and panels that had nothing to do with the new EverQuest expansions. One such panel was a chance for the makers of Star Wars Galaxies to lay out some background on the high-end experience for all players in the game: Heroic Encounters. These unique missions were added in Chapter 7, and feature some of the most 'Star-Warsy' moments players can experience inside the SWG game world. They pit players against everything from the assassin droid IG-88 to the deadly Sith Lord Exar Kun ... and there are more on the way. The newest of these Heroic Encounters will be released to the game soon, and is centered on one Star Wars lore's most epic battles: the Battle for Echo Base on the planet Hoth. Portrayed countless times in single-player videogames, the SWG designers are thrilled to be able to bring that experience to players within the next few months. Join us below the cut for a lengthy look at designing and developing the Heroic Encounters, and a look ahead to the upcoming Hoth Encounter!
Star Wars Galaxies Producer Letter previews upcoming content
Dotakuni, the relatively-newly minted Producer for Star Wars Galaxies, dropped into the forums in anticipation of next week's Fan Faire event to let players know a bit about what's coming down the pipe. He talked up the panels aimed at SWG players next week, singling out the Galactic Assembly on Saturday night as the must-see event for the Faire. The TCG, Champions of the Force, is also mentioned, and he goes over a few of the 'types' of loot cards players will be receiving in their regular booster back ration. Speeders, Wearables, Paintings, Vendors, and even permanent buffs will be available in the first card set.The Battle of Echo Base is also on Dotanuki's list, likely the most-anticipated content coming to Galaxies in some time. He describes the environment as massive, with the base being a 'labyrinth of tunnels and rooms'. Vehicle combat was something John Smedley mentioned in our talk with him back at E3, but Dotanuki notes he'll tell us precisely what vehicles will be involved in the battle next week. The Producer closes out his note with some intriguing hints about future events ... including one based around the Star Wars Holiday Special? Next week's Fan Faire will offer up plenty of great information for expectant fans.
The battle of Hoth is coming to Star Wars Galaxies
At this year's Galactic Gathering community event, the team behind Star Wars Galaxies announced big news for the coming year: the battle of Hoth will be added to the game as the next Heroic encounter! The ice planet Hoth was originally seen in the movie Empire Strikes Back. That film has always been in the future of SWG's continuity, and thus perpetually out of reach. The advancement of the game's timeline has been requested by players for years. Even though this isn't a traditional expansion with a full new planet, the implications of moving forward in the Star Wars universe's timeline are endless. Whether that movement is actually happening is still a question, though, as precious few details were available at the event. The developers did say that the instance will focus around the fight at Echo Base. According to this week's Friday Feature, the Heroic Encounter should feature Snowspeeders, AT-ATs, and snowtroopers - as well as many of the main protagonists from the original Star Wars movies. Other future highlights touch on things we've heard about before: re-confirmation of the Meatlump theme park for Chapter 10, the Droid Commander expertise system, and promises to examine Beast Masters and traders in Game Update 5.This is some amazing news, with the possibility of some big implications for the game. We'll be sure to keep you posted as we get further details.
