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!
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Few changes have been
made to the "Jump to Lightspeed" portion of SWG since its release.
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.
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Many people wanted
the old animations from SWG put back in. Darth Vader says, "It's not
possible."
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.
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The Imperial theme
park is going to be changed in the upcoming addtion, Chapter 7.
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.
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Many players asked is
there were any plans for introducing new planets to SWG. At the moment
it isn't likely
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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unofficial source for Star Wars Galaxies
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