Star Wars Galaxies, expected to ship 06/25/03

[Nadia]

game site
http://www.station.sony.com/starwars/

game news at RPGDot.com
http://www.rpgdot.com/popup.php?popup=2&games=8


FAQ
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.co ... es/faq.jsp


fan site with lots of great info
http://www.slicerhq.com/guide/guide_index.php

[Nadia]

Q’s Query #19 – Character Advancement
http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/star ... 97658.html
To avoid the “level treadmill” we are putting less emphasis on “finishing” the game by maxing out a profession.

We’re figuring that the average (and I use the word loosely) player could fill up his learn capacity in about 3 months of steady play. We hope that players will realize there is much more to do in the game than just “leveling up” (so to speak) and are giving many avenues for enjoying the game beyond watching your xp bars go up.

In other words, you may have a couple professions mastered, but have you tried the other 20+ professions? Have you earned all the badges? Have you explored all the planets? Done all the theme parks? Took part in a P.A. war? Spent lots of Faction points? Seen all the POIs? Built a house? Took part in a player run event? Encountered every creature? Located the holy shrub? Etc.

[Nadia]

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/news/sd ... story=1407

To deliver the best possible massively multiplayer experience and ensure stability and breadth of content, LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment will delay the game's April 15 launch. This will enable us to invest more time into the beta program, and to solicit additional feedback from the tremendous fan base Star Wars Galaxies has already developed.

"In addition, we will not open phase three of the beta program until we feel the game is ready for a wider audience, which we anticipate will be within the next few weeks.

A new release date for Star Wars Galaxies will be announced shortly after the beginning of beta three.

[Nadia]

beta tester feedback
http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/star ... 12684.html

a tester thread from the Beta Forums:

Mattt's Expedition Outpost
First, I want to begin by saying that last night was not only the most fun I've had so far but the most fun I've had since my UO days, years ago. Before I begin, I also want to apologize to Shug Ninx for stealing the name of his idea.

Last night, I received a few messages outside of the game (tells are not working all the time!) from some friends that they were joining the Force Sensitive Sheep. Wanting to seek the knowledge of the Sheep, I headed to the coordinates to join up with them. Once I arrived, I was greeted by friendly members of the PA and accepted into it. I took a look around the PA hall first. It was very big!

There was a group forming outside; they were going to go hunting. I joined up with the group and went out to explore Tatooine. One of the first fights we got in was easily one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had in my life. There we about seven of us facing probably ten or more NPCs: almost everyone had blasters. A huge firefight erupted; blasters bolts were flying in every direction. I thought to myself, "Now THIS is Star Wars." After the last NPC fell, we all cheered for our victory. There was some damage done to us but we were mostly all in good shape.

We continued on, hunting for more things to kill. I was certain to make use of the moods; I spent most of the time being bloodthirsty. We came upon a nest of dragonets. We had to be careful or they would overwhelm us. At one point, they did seem to overwhelm us; however, our team pulled together and triumphed. One of us was incapacitated but not killed. After resting up a bit, we were ready to continue.

For about an hour, we fought group after group of NPCs or creatures. Everyone fell to our blades or blasters in the end. It was getting late, so I had to logout but I knew what I'd be dreaming about that night.

Near the end, I realized that I had made quite a bit of experience. While group experience is said to be bugged, I really didn't care; I was having a lot of fun. The latest Q's Query asks how the developers can get the players' minds off "the grind." Well let me tell you: grouping is the answer. When you get a really good group going, you don't even remember there is such thing as experience. You just play the game. It is more than that. You are in the game.



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Here is a response to that post from one of the group members:


quote:
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/agrees with Mattt 100%
Last night was an absolute blast. We were all having so much fun, we had to make a vow to not let Holo find out.

That blaster fight Mattt referred to cannot be understated. Ten of us engaged about 20-25 armed NPCs, and the blaster bolts were flying in every direction for a good five minutes. Everyone of us at one point said "Wow" or "How cool is this?:

By the end of the night our tactics were down pat, and we were fluid on who would pull, when to fire on the lair and when not to, everyone was utilizing /assist properly, and we looked like a battle-hardened unit prepared for the coming PA War.

I was having so much fun, I was completely unaware of any such thing as a grind. I reached Advanced Rifle and Advanced Camp in Scout, and made it half-way to Advanced Ranged Combat Specialist without so much as noticing I was working for xp. I even got to enjoy the glory of making a camp entirely out of the hides and bones of the dreaded dragonets that laid me low.

quote:

One of us was incapacitated but not killed.


When a man leads his troops into battle, he must be prepared to give his life for them. I think I was the only person incapped more than once the entire night.

[Nadia]

game specs
http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/star ... 23497.html
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1.04 What are the minimum requirements?

Computer
100% DirectX 9.0 compatible computer

Operating Systems
Windows 98 SE, Millennium, 2000, and XP

CPU
Required: Intel PIII 933 MHz or AMD Athlon 900 MHz
Recommended: Intel P4 1.5 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+

Memory
Required: 256 MB RAM
Recommended: 512 MB RAM

Graphics Card
Required: 32 MB 3D Graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting (T&L) Capability
Recommended: 64 MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex Shader and Pixel Shader (VS/PS) Capability

Sound Card
Required: PCI, USB or Onboard Audio Device

CD-ROM
Required: Quad Speed CD-ROM drive

Input Device
Required: Keyboard and mouse

Connectivity Requirements
Required: 56K modem or faster Internet connection

DirectX
Microsoft DirectX 9.0 is included on this CD. NOTE: DirectX may require the "latest" updates for your operating system. This may also include the latest drivers for your particular motherboard, sound and video hardware.

Installation
Installation requires 2.0 GB of free hard drive space. It is recommended that you have at least an additional 500 MB of free space available after installing the game for the Windows swap/page file and additional patch downloads.

Supported Chipsets at the time of release:
ATI Radeon 7200/7500
ATI Radeon 8500/9000
ATI Radeon 9500/9700
Matrox Parhelia
NVIDIA GeForce 256
NVIDIA GeForce 2 family
NVIDIA GeForce 3 family
NVIDIA GeForce 4 family
NVIDIA GeForceFX family

Additional Chipsets supported.

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At the time of release, we will have a webpage that lists what additional chipsets we support.

Have a great weekend everyone. I’ll try to get the devs to do E3 field reports sometime next week.

-Kevin O'Hara
Community Relations Manager

[Wykkyd]

cant say why but just dont expect it anytime soon.

[Nadia]

Collectors Edition
http://boards2.station.sony.com/ubb/sta ... 27582.html

We announced the contents previously, but just in case you missed it, I'll repost them here:

*An art book that includes most of the concept art for the game, along with final screenshots. We also included film stills and art from other sources (like the comics) so you can see where we drew our inspiration - there are some cool studies of how we transformed creatures from the Ewok cartoons into something that would fit within our game. There's a lot of "behind the scenes" info in the text, and a great intro written by Lead Artist, Jake Rodgers.

*A pewter figurine depicting a female Zabrak adventurer. The figurine is based of in-game art, including wearables.

*A Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided sew-on patch.

*A Star Wars Galaxies lapel pin with Rebel and Imperial logos.

*A Collector's Edition manual that is signed by the whole team (and includes another special surprise).

And, based on your feedback, we've added:

*A special in-game wearable that can only be acquired through the Collector's Edition. The wearable will be one of three types of "eyewear." Note that we don't have any other eyewear in the game, and these wearables can't be traded, so they're exclusive to those who have the Collector's Edition. We've put concept art and screenshots for the eyewear here: http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.co ... nshots.jsp

Of course, the Collector's Edition will also include the game and a 30-day subscription, just like the regular version...

Enjoy.

Haden Blackman
LucasArts Producer