My major disappointment this year was not getting the Combat Upgrade done before JTL was out. That was our original plan but after reviewing the initial design we realized that combat was going to be a deep change that would affect the majority of systems in the game. This combat upgrade is requiring lots of implementation, iteration, and testing time and we have been working on it since the end of Publish 9. Our goals are that it will be fun, engaging and rewarding before we release it to our players.

Read More...

-- LiquidTr4nce @ Fri 10 Dec 2004

This position requires monitoring of fan sites and the Sony Forums for news and interviews from the Developers of Star Wars Galaxies that affects the gaming community as a whole. It is more than just copy and paste information. It requires judgement as to what is news. Such information would then be posted directly to our website.

If interested in more information on this very important position, contact the News Editor, LiquidTr4nce, through Private Message, for more details and what is required of the position.

This can be a one time thing, or a permanent staff position.

- Submit writing samples for this position.
- This would require the ability to produce at least one guide every two weeks.
- Ability to produce guides for each profession
- Our goal at the vault is to update our existing guide section and replace it with new and current information.

Adv. Strategy: The best setup that I have seen with my decimator and will probably work with all three ships is to set up your droid interface at the lowest possible speed(lower the droid command speed the faster you can use them!), and use weapons overload three. NOT FOUR, four really really overpowers your turrets, makes them do huge damage. But will drain your capaciter to nothing in 2-3 shots. Weapon overload three, often increases your damage by a chunk without extra cost to your capaciter. This will give your gunners more power overall. I also do not suggest engine overload 4, i'd stick with 3. I so far haven't seen the advantage of tuning, or any evidence that it works. Only set this up if you have some spare reacter energy not in use(around 1k+ or more minmum). Otherwise it might disable some components(the most fun i had was doing an engine overload and having my droid interface disabled so i coudn't turn the overload off! ahhhh!). Also keep in mind that your standard pilot abilities half-stack. And what i mean by that is the advantages of your ability will hit, but any advantages from your droid command may override it. For ex. /eweapons will make my capaciter be stronger and add damage, but since my weapons are overloaded it only just makes my capaciter stronger. Having multiple operation officers has its advantages as well. One person can sit down and call a bomb strike or reload ability, then a 2nd can sit down and call theirs as well. Though i haven't tested with the actual abilites like emergancy shields or weapons twice, the double bombstrike is succesful. The ability timer is based to the player sitting in the chair.

• If you leave deep space or die, all damage is repaired for free
  with no decay. There are NO pvp Damage penalties for deep space now

• New Player - Replaced the
  non-upgradeable newbie ships with new "Prototype Ships", which are
  upgradeable, and are equipped with a hyperdrive.

Read More...

-- LiquidTr4nce @ Tue 07 Dec 2004


Jedi Rebellion - Chapter One
[Post A Comment] - Print News | Mail News
J. J. West is a budding novelist who has been something of a writer his entire life. While not yet in publication, he is steadfast in his desire to be so. Jedi Rebellion marks a unique endeavor on his part to provide compelling Star Wars fiction without the official benefits of being published by LucasBooks.

Star Wars Galaxies Vault is pleased to present the first chapter of his Star Wars Galaxies novel - Jedi Rebellion. We will be publishing this as a serial over the upcoming months, with chapters currently being published on Tuesdays and Fridays. Keep an eye out for upcoming chapters!

Chapter One: The Past Returns

It was nearly twenty years to the day when it came back to me. I�d always maintained that it hadn�t been something you could just toss away, though in this case the tossing had been more of a burying. I hadn�t wanted it to be found, after all. But there it was, staring at me clear as day through the vidscreen on my door. So much for thinking a twenty foot hole in a remote section of the Corellian mountains would be enough.

Oh, and did I mention that I�d also had it sealed in a container locked by the best slicer money could buy? A lot of good it had done me. I briefly lamented the money I had spent. After all, I was a merchant nowadays and a far cry from what I had been back then. Money meant something to me now.

A viewscreen is, simply put, an electronic device that saves a moment in time, a picture of a person, place, or thing, that can be viewed at anytime by the bearer of the viewscreen.

Due to a flaw in the circuits of some early viewscreens, they have a tendency to overheat and break, leaving you with an electronic paperweight and no picture. Fortunately the image is always burned onto a memory chip inside the viewscreen, and with the proper equipment you can retrieve it.

An ingenious Jawa came up with a solution to the problem of the broken viewscreen and developed a set of tools that could be used to print out the picture onto a piece of canvas using paints.

The first item required to produce a picture from a broken viewscreen is the broken viewscreen itself. The viewscreen can be hooked into what has become commonly known as a viewscreen printer.

Many of you with ATI video cards have been experiencing a common crash on your computer (otherwise known as "the client"). In our ongoing technology research with ATI, we have discovered that the problem is with some of the older drivers. These old ATI drivers are causing the crash. We have put together a few tips on how to find out if you are affected by this crash and how to fix the problem.



How can I find out if this driver problem is affecting me?

1. Load up your Launchpad

2. Click the button that says, "Game Options"

3. There are two things on the game options main window that you should look for:


The first item on the list you should look for is the Video Identifier.


You can determine if you have an ATI card by seeing that first highlighted number in the Video Identifier is 0x1002. It will be this number exactly.

The second item on the list you should look for is the Video Driver Version. ATI's Catalyst Drivers have a "Video Driver Version" that tells us which version is being used. The ATI catalyst numbers and the game options Video Driver Version correspond like this:



ATI Catalyst 4.8 is 6467

ATI Catalyst 4.9 is 6476

ATI Catalyst 4.10 is 6483

ATI Catalyst 4.11 is 6490



Sample video card description in the launchpad's game option window:

Video Identifier: 0x1002[v], 0x4a50[d]

Video Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6467



This video crash bug only happens on drivers older than and including Catalyst 4.8. Newer drivers, including 4.9, 4.10, and 4.11, all seem to be clear of the problem.


How to fix the problem:

We recommend, as always, that you use the latest drivers for all of your hardware.


If you need a current ATI Video Driver, please visit http://www.ati.com. You will see a button on the top, off to the right that says, "Drivers and Software". Click the button and follow the instructions.


Thank you.

Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl
Community Relations Manager

"The past had caught up with me..."

Halton Gemsun was just a simple merchant. His past was buried under twenty years of Imperial rule and he was certain that his secret was safe enough to live out the rest of his life in domestic anonymity. Then a young man mysteriously shows up on his doorstep bearing a relic from that past. His lightsaber. The very symbol of the Jedi he used to be. Before he can begin to fathom why this was happening, he is forced to take up the Jedi moniker once again in defense of his own life. From there he learns that the Jedi have secretly begun to reappear and through a chance meeting with one of these 'New Jedi', he finds himself on Yavin IV, at a hidden Jedi Temple being used as a training ground. But before Halton can situate himself into this new lifestyle, he learns that Dark Jedi have also begun to show themselves. What�s more, they may very well be lead by the only person he has ever trained in the Jedi arts... his old apprentice.

The hand torch flared and illuminated the bridge with a stark, white light. Chasing the dark shadows from where its beam fell, only for them to scurry under consoles and behind access panels, waiting to spill out again and flow across the floor to pool with their brethren like liquid mercury. Ryn ran a hand through his hair slowly, a habit he fell into to when he was concerned or nervous. The usually brightly coloured terminals and control stations were grey and dead, a feeling they had been that way for years hung uncomfortably in the air. The heavy silence blanketed everything except the sound of his own measured breathing.

Publish 11.3

(For Full Patch Notes Click "Read More")

New Loot

Everybody loves loot! Star Wars Galaxies is enhancing the loot system to make it more fun and exciting. With this publish, players will find all sorts of new goodies. There are 17 new skill enhancement stims, new loot kits, and new ways to recycle old loot kits. All of those broken datapads, viewscreens and firework duds? Well now, you can combine them with loot that drops from all sorts of NPC's to create new loot! You can Turn broken viewscreens into over 20 brand new paintings, turn broken datapads into working datapads, dud fireworks into working fireworks, corrupt datadisks into fixed datadisks that when combined with a working datadisk will a piece of flavor fiction and all sorts of new loot surprises (30 new craftables!

Read More...

-- LiquidTr4nce @ Mon 29 Nov 2004

 

Greetings,

Star Wars Galaxies will soon be requiring that all players upgrade their DirectX to version 9.0c. DirectX 9.0c improves the graphics, security, and performance of your operating system. Download and install this update for your Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP-based system.

According to our optional hardware sampling, we estimate that 91% of SWG users have already upgraded to DirectX 9.0c, so only 9% of our users need to take any action. Soon, this software change will be mandatory and the game will not run without it. Before this change happens, we will remind users who are running older versions of the software to upgrade to DirectX 9.0c after they exit the game. When this becomes mandatory, you will be notified and asked to update your version of DirectX at that time. When DirectX 9.0c becomes mandatory, you will not be able to run SWG until upgrade your DirectX software.

We also suggest that you run DirectX 9.0C with the latest recommended drivers from the manufacturer.

Thank you.

Not sure about your DirectX?
Do you need to find out which version of DirectX you are running or to find out if DirectX is working correctly? Or if all necessary DirectX files are installed? To find out, use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (Dxdiag.exe).

DirectX Resources
DirectX 9.0c

Microsoft DirectX Download Page

Windows Update

DirectX Home User Frequently Asked Questions


Tiggs

Hi everyone!

A lot of you are wondering where and when the next Fan Fest is going to be. We don't have specific information to give out yet, but we are working on a plan for Fan Fest II in 2005. We're also working on plans for other Galaxies events throughout the year. I'll be posting more information here as I have it.

A couple of things about the ideas already posted here for the next Fan Fest location...

We won't be combining Fan Fest and Celebration III. The main reason for this is that Fan Fest is so focused on lots of opportunity to interact with other players and the developers. The days start before noon and there are forums and things planned to late evening. There would be no way to schedule around all the other events of Celebration III so that folks could make the most of both events. Having said that, LucasArts will definitely be at Celebration, so look for us to have Galaxies with us and potentially Galaxies related events!

And we know there is interest in a European Fan Fest, but there is no new news to report about the possibilities there yet. If this is something that is logitically possible, it's something we'd consider doing.

Anyway, there are the update as we can give it at this time. We're re-combing the feedback from Fan Fest I right now and will continue to update everyone as we have our plans for 2005 come together.

Thanks! :-)

Ronda

Community Relations Specialist, LucasArts

In the latest patch being sent out to the live servers we will see at long last a change most desirable: reduction in apprenticeship experience points. It will be reduced from 620 to 300. An acceptable change � most seem to think � but not nearly enough.

It puzzles me immensely why the developers thought it to be most prudent to axe apprenticeship experience points in pilot proffessions but not in the ground proffessions. Of course there are possible reasons, one of which is that attaining master is set up a bit differently in space, then it would be on the ground [if apprenticeship experience points were axed for the ground game].

Each week, Q-3PO started a thread for you to share game tips with fellow players. Tuesday Tips will continue on with that tradition so be sure to join in and add your helpful tip. Do you have a little known command you use all the time? A cool place to visit? A trick (non-exploit) to getting more out of the game?

Share it here.

To get things started:


Staying in touch with friends across Galaxies

We are still seeing a lot of questions about staying in touch with friends across galaxies, so I wanted to touch on cross-galaxy chat and friend's lists for all of our newer community members:

Adding a friend: Keep in touch with friends across galaxies by adding them to your friend's list (including laceName>TestlaceName> laceType>CenterlaceType>) like this:

In the spatial chat window, type:

/addfriend servername.character

OR use the Friends window (CTRL-P, Friends Tab):

Use the ADD command in the friends window and type in:

Servername.character
A tip to help keep track of which server they are on is to use the "Group" column in your friends list.

Note: that it will only show the player name in your friends list, so if you add someone like Chilastra.Han it will only say "Han" in your friends list. Also, it will only keep the last "Han" in your list.


Chatting with a friend: Chat with friends across galaxies using tells like this:


/tell Servername.character - sends to characters on another server

ex.) /tell Chilastra.Han message text



Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl
Community Relations Manager