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Latest Star Wars Galaxies News Updates and Reviews Updated daily
Star Wars Galaxies : Screenwriter DNA Headed to SpaceBy: Taea
Sep 02, 2008 11:41:22 AM News Item: 4901
More names have been added to the roster of DNA samples headed to space with Richard Garriott's Operation Immortality. Several screenwriters for popular sci-fi films, television shows and comedies will be part of the DNA collection project that will be carried to the International Space Station by famed game developer Richard Garriott when he travels to space on October 12.
Joining the parade of notable names sending their digitized footprint into space is:
* Heather E. Ash - Television writer for the Stargate SG-1 television series.
* Steven Melching - Screenwriter for Star Wars: The Clone Wars feature and upcoming television series. Other credits include Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles, Men in Black: The Series, X-Men: The Animated Series and Troops (the popular Star Wars parody Internet short).
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Star Wars Galaxies : Star Wars Galaxies "Champions of the Force": Artwork and Press ReleaseBy: Aurael
Aug 29, 2008 01:24:42 AM News Item: 3997
These ARE the cards you've been looking for
The new trend in MMOGs seems to be that if a game has been around for a bit, it deserves to be immortalized in a collectible trading card game. With the recent launch of "Champions of the Force", Star Wars Galaxies joins the annals of paper warfare. The Ten Ton Hammer staff has the press release with all the info you've been looking for on the release of this trading card game, as well as some spiffy artwork and screenshots from the game for you to enjoy! Want more "Champions of the Force" goodness? Check out our exclusive interview with Darla Freeze, Associate Producer of SOE-Denver.
Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game: Champions of the Force marks the first ever Star Wars® trading card game offered exclusively online. Available to both current and former Star Wars Galaxies subscribers*, the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game provides players an entirely new gameplay experience by combining the challenge of a trading card game with the adventures and community of the massively multiplayer game.
- Read the entire press release and see the new images here!
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Star Wars Galaxies : The Star Wars Galaxies TCG goes liveBy: Michael Zenke
Aug 26, 2008 04:30:00 PM News Item: 4666
Filed under: Sci-fi, Launches, Star Wars Galaxies, Trading card games  Word from the official Star Wars Galaxies forums is that Champions of the Force, the brand new SOE TCG, is now live. We confirmed with a quick duck in-world, and claimed our five booster packs and starter decks from the jaws of the interface. All you need to do to play the game is type a quick /TCG into the chatbox, a method that will hopefully soon be joined by a standalone interface.
Along with the launch of the TCG itself comes a brand new section of the forums to support the card players. There are areas for strategy discussions, tech issues, and of course some talk of the game's simply fantastic art. If you're as excited as we are about the new game you might want to attend a player-organized Launch Party for the new game. It's taking place on the Starsider server (this blogger's home in the galaxy far, far away) both Friday and Saturday. There are handy timezone markers in the official party post to let you know what time to show up. Make sure to put on your dancing shoes and tell them Massively sent you.
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Star Wars Galaxies : Fan Faire 08: Exploring Hoth and the Star Wars Galaxies heroic encountersBy: Michael Zenke
Aug 25, 2008 04:30:00 PM News Item: 4665
Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Endgame, Star Wars Galaxies  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!Continue reading Fan Faire 08: Exploring Hoth and the Star Wars Galaxies heroic encounters Comments
Star Wars Galaxies : Exploring SWG heroic encounters pt. 2By: Michael Zenke
Aug 25, 2008 04:30:00 PM News Item: 4664
Filed under: Sci-fi, Endgame, Star Wars Galaxies
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.
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Star Wars Galaxies : Exploring SWG heroic encounters pt. 3By: Michael Zenke
Aug 25, 2008 04:30:00 PM News Item: 4663
Filed under: Sci-fi, Endgame, Star Wars Galaxies
"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!
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Star Wars Galaxies : Fan Faire 08: Liveblogging John Smedley's keynoteBy: Krystalle Voecks
Aug 15, 2008 09:00:00 PM News Item: 4382
Filed under: Galleries, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Previews, The Agency, News items, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, Everquest Online Adventures, Free Realms, Massively Event Coverage, Legends of Norrath, DC Universe Online
The buzz coming into this evening's Fan Faire keynote is palpable. All the players know something is going on, but nobody is quite sure what's in store for this evening's festivities. As a service to our devoted readers, both old and new, Massively is on-scene and we'll be liveblogging John Smedley's keynote this evening.
Curious about what SOE has in store for the future of their various MMOGs? Join us behind the break for the up-to-the-minute news from the front lines!Continue reading Fan Faire 08: Liveblogging John Smedley's keynote Comments
Star Wars Galaxies : Loot from the Galaxy Far, Far Away: Great Hyperspace War Bas-ReliefBy: Michael Zenke
Aug 15, 2008 12:00:00 PM News Item: 4662
Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, Star Wars Galaxies, Trading card games  All week we've been highlighting a series of loot cards for the soon-to-be-released Champions of the Force trading card game, and this blogger thinks we've saved the best for last. Champions is based on the SOE MMO Star Wars Galaxies, but this newest loot card goes way, way back to a time long before the Rebellion and Empire. The folks at SOE and LucasArts were nice enough to work with us to offer you a card-a-day all week, and we've had some good ones so far. We've taken a look at the Gungan Vendor, the Mechano-Chair, the Jedi Crest, and then (yesterday) the XJ-2 Airspeeder. Today's card, the last for our preview week, is another art object for your player housing. But whan an object!
It's a massive bas-relief carving depicting the Great Hyperspace War between the Republic and the forces of the Sith Empire. This is an ancient conflict, one that really contextualizes the age of the Republic; it took place some 20,000 years after the founding of that august body, and some 1,000 years before the Great Sith War depicted in Knights of the Old Republic. The Great Hyperspace War took place between the Republic and the Sith Empire at the height of its power. The Republic may have even been felled, if not for internicine fighting between the Sith Lords Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh over the planet Korriban. Click through to see the loot card depicting this ancient conflict, a work not unlike one owned by the Emperor himself ...Continue reading Loot from the Galaxy Far, Far Away: Great Hyperspace War Bas-Relief Comments
Star Wars Galaxies : The SOE Fan Faire bag o' schwagBy: Krystalle Voecks
Aug 14, 2008 09:30:00 PM News Item: 4381
Filed under: Galleries, EverQuest, EverQuest II, PlanetSide, Events, real-world, The Agency, The Matrix Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, Everquest Online Adventures, Free Realms, Legends of Norrath, DC Universe Online 
What goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas -- unless of course you happen to be at Sony Online Entertainment's 2008 Fan Faire! We here at Massively are party-crashing this fun event bringing all the dark, dirty details to you straight from the heart of casino central!
For those who are unable to make it to this year's event (and those of you who are just curious about this kind of thing) we're bringing you the contents of the official SOE schwag bag for this year. So gather your courage, and dip in to the gallery for a first look at all the wonders contained in the 2008 Bag o' Schwag.
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More Star Wars Galaxies News
(Click to read)
Aug 14, 2008 12:00:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : Loot from the Galaxy Far, Far Away: XJ-2 Airspeeder
Aug 13, 2008 12:00:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : Loot from the Galaxy Far, Far Away: Jedi Crest Painting
Aug 12, 2008 02:10:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : One Shots: The twin suns of Tatooine
Aug 12, 2008 12:00:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : Loot from the Galaxy Far, Far Away: Mechano-Chair
Aug 11, 2008 12:00:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : Loot from the Galaxy Far, Far Away: Gungan Vendor
Aug 07, 2008 12:00:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : Star Wars Galaxies Producer Letter previews upcoming content
Aug 06, 2008 04:00:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : Champions of the Force, exposed
Jul 31, 2008 01:00:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : Station Voice goes live today in EQ2 and SWG
Jul 29, 2008 04:00:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : Changes to the Officer class highlighted in latest Star Wars Galaxies video
Jul 29, 2008 10:00:00 AMStar Wars Galaxies : Star Wars Galaxies Game Update 5 goes live
Jul 17, 2008 09:00:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : Behind the Curtain: Gone for good?
Jul 16, 2008 08:45:00 AMStar Wars Galaxies : E308: John Smedley on Star Wars Galaxies, reconnecting with players
Jul 14, 2008 05:30:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : Exclusive first look at Star Wars Galaxies TCG loot cards
Jun 08, 2008 01:00:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : SOE provides handy guide to cross-game communication in EQ
Feb 26, 2008 10:00:00 AMStar Wars Galaxies : GDC08: Cartoon Network's FusionFall
Feb 16, 2008 10:00:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : Sony Online Entertainment is looking for interns
Jan 24, 2008 05:30:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : Behind the Curtain: What's in a name?
Jan 04, 2008 10:00:00 PMStar Wars Galaxies : SOE plans community meet-up in Vegas during CES
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