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by Chris Higgins

Editor’s Note: Although FanFaire ’07 may be over, the information gleaned from the panels continues to slowly trickle its way onto the Internet. For the article’s author, Chris Higgins, the SOE FanFaire ’07 was just another opportunity to delve into the Star Wars universe and gather more knowledge concerning Star Wars Galaxies. He attended almost all of the SWG panels, missing only one, and continues his dialogue concerning the various panels right where he left off (you can read the first portion of the panel discussion by clicking here). Enjoy!

After the Trader/Entertainer panel SWG players were treated to a group discussion called “We’ve Got Plenty of Space” featuring Lorin “DeadMeat” Jameson, Jesse “Loche” Benjamin and Travis “Shadowbrak” Hicks.  This panel was aimed at gathering people’s thoughts on future updates to the “Jump to Lightspeed” portion of SWG.  Most SWG players understand that JTL has been pretty much untouched since it launched, so the dev team is going to be exploring future content updates and features.    

When the panel opened the floor to questions, the first inquiry was in reference to the capital ships video from a long, long time ago.  The panel responded that the video was a “what could be versus what will be” type scenario.  At the time the video was created nothing was developed or put into place for capital ships and to do so would be a substantial development effort for the SWG team.  Currently there are no plans to develop capital ships in the near future but it might be explored some day.  

The topic of Space Stations that players can land on was brought up. According to the panel, the SWG team is still exploring their options.  The panel attendees were told that the artwork exists, but they are still looking into this and the effort it would take to develop.  

Many good ideas where raised in this panel  including giving a more epic feel to space, a space theme park, improvements to the firespray, and many others.  The improvements to space should start happening in the next few chapter publishes, and I personally can’t wait.

Next on the agenda was “Lets Not Fight About Combat” and was hosted by Thomas “Blixtev” Blair, Jesse “Loche” Benjamin and Travis “Shadowbrak” Hicks.  One of the items brought up quite a bit was combat animations and if the old ones would be brought back. According to the team, the old animations will not be brought back and they explained why.  

Since the NGE the combat is so fast, all the old animations and combat would become choppy and would look horrible because the animation would not finish before the new one is fired again.  They are looking into what can be done to improve animation, but at the moment there is not much that can be done without doing another motion capture routine.  

Another important issue on the docket was lag while in PvP areas or large groups.  One of the immediate actions being taken against lag is a particle effect slider bar that will allow players to reduce the amount of particle effects, which should make it down to players by Chapter 7.  Other than that, the SWG dev team is still looking into the root cause of why there is lag when large groups gather.  

On a different note, one player brought up a problem with mines and the misuse of them.  The player commented that mines are way too easy to drop and way too powerful.  He sited instances in game where people using mines were dropping them while being chased.  Blixtev said he liked the mines and did not want to tweak them to much because he did not want to diminish the usefulness of mines.  After discussing how the mines are used in game the SWG team said they would look into it and maybe add a limitation that would not allow a person to drop mines while in combat.  

Another comment made by Blixtev was about combat interaction.  Since the NGE, the grouping for mission’s aspect was lost and the team is aware that this element of the game needs improvement.  They are currently trying to bring back game play that requires grouping to accomplish goals and bring back the social interaction that was lost with the NGE, while still allowing people to achieve solo quests.  The combat panel had many good ideas such as improvements to targeting and increased experience for harder monsters.    

The final panel was called “The Gathering” and was attended by all the designers from the previous panels and SOE CEO John Smedley.  This was the last panel of the weekend and was in place to discuss SWG as a whole and showcase some new things on the horizon.  We were shown a video that showed some of the changes already pushed down this year and what we can expect in the new Chapter 7 content.  

Some of the Chapter 7 highlights include heroic encounters, the collections system, species origins, and changes to the Imperial theme park.  We were then shown a video of the new heroic encounter, which looked kind of tough and challenging.  It was mentioned that even traders can participate in some of the encounters, because a few of the tasks do not include fighting.  

The collections system looks like its going to bring a lot of new items and useful things to players as well, including lightsaber hilts, a Jedi belt that acts like a backpack, and much, much more.  I would not be surprised if a few of those rare Jedi crystals appear in this new system.  

After the movie, everyone was allowed to ask questions of the SWG team and voice their opinions.  One player asked if an expansion was planned for 2007.  The SWG team responded there will be no expansion this year because they are focusing all their efforts on the chapter publishes.  The topic of advancing the timeline in the SWG universe was brought up and the LucasArts team said they would look into this because of all the feedback from the Fan Faire, but originally the response to that question would have been, “No.”  House pack up might be expanded into everyday game play and the criteria for house pack up may change.  Either way this is a good way to keep condemned structures from piling up again.  

Players also asked if there were plans for any new planets and currently there are no plans for one, but it was a possibility for the future.  The origins system was discussed a bit, and initial reports point towards a scenario where you will decide what your origin will be instead of being racial specific, and players will be able to choose one option when the character is created.

After all the positive feedback this past Fan Faire about the language system, SOE and LucasArts are considering adding this back into the game.  The topic of smugglers was also brought up and the developers are hard at work reading the forums for ideas on this.

The matter of server merges was brought up and DeadMeat fielded this one.  He explained that server merges will not be happening because people do not like to be forced to leave an area that they love and enjoy.  DeadMeat also added if we can get more people to play SWG then a server merge will not be needed, which was met with thunderous applause.  Lastly a person in the crowd asked about SOE’s commitment to SWG, and the response was very positive.  The commitment from SOE and LucasArts to SWG remains strong and the team has put quality first in everything they are developing.  They realize that the SWG team has made mistakes in the past and they are all working towards fixing these issues and making the game fun for everyone.  

Another player asked, “How can we trust SWG after the past?”  The panel responded that the proof is in the pudding, and the past 6 months should prove that SOE and LucasArts are both working together to make SWG a great game again.

I think every current SWG player can agree that in the past 6 months SWG has gotten much better and with all the exciting changes in development SWG’s future looks much  brighter.

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Make sure you check out all of our SOE FanFaire ’07 coverage!