This SWG Friday Feature takes a look at learning how to craft Marauder armor.

A small, isolated tent lies nestled in the trees of Endor. Its single occupant is a Marauder named Macchbraus. Unlike others of his species, Macchbraus is willing to part with some of his ancestors' secrets if you are willing to trade information of your own.

Macchbraus offers crafting missions for Munitions Traders level 86 and above. The Marauder asks the armorsmith to give him pieces of crafted armor in return for a schematic of each piece of Assault and Recon armor, for a total of nine quests.

Be prepared for a long journey friends, but one well worth it!

SWG Senior Producer Dotanuki and community relations person Elias  has been hanging on in the official SWG forums and answering all sorts of questions regarding the newly announced SWG online trading card game!


Many questions have been answered, and even more have been raised, but the one thing that's sure is that the game is being developed by the folks in the SOE Denver office, leaving the SWG folks in SOE Austin clear to work on their game!

Whew!  What a mouthful of acronyms that post title is, but it's true!  Champions of the Force will be coming to us this summer from the folks that also brought us Legends of Norrath!

LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment announced today the Star Wars Galaxies™ Trading Card Game as part of the fifth anniversary celebration for the massively multiplayer game, Star Wars  The first release for the online trading card game, Champions of the Force, is scheduled to be released late this summer, following several months filled with in-game anniversary events. Galaxies.

The release of Champions of the Force marks the first ever Star Wars® trading card game offered exclusively online.  Available only through a valid, active, fully-paid subscription to Star WarsChampions of the Force provides Star Wars Galaxies subscribers an entirely new gameplay experience by combining the challenge of a trading card game with the adventures and community of the massively multiplayer game.  For the first time, players can: Galaxies,

• Choose between the light and dark sides of the Force and build their own Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game decks to fight virtual matches for the Rebel or Imperial factions;
• Challenge their skills in story-based solo-play or against other Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game players in epic one-on-one matches, cooperative Heroic Encounters, and official tournaments;
• Find more than 20 “loot” cards in the first release, Champions of the Force that can be redeemed for fantastic virtual items for use within the Star Wars Galaxies massively multiplayer game;
• Adventure in Star Wars Galaxies and collect desirable cards that enhance their virtual trading card game deck.

Read on for the rest of the press release, and we'll keep you updated on all the details as they're released!

Valara has a reminder for everyone who hasn't voted in the contest!

The Create a Painting contest poll closes on Monday, June 30, so don't forget to vote! Choose your favorite Rebel painting and Imperial painting and the two winning paintings will be placed in the game in a future update.

Everybody go vote!

From Valara:

On Thursday, June 26, at 4:00 AM PDT all U.S. and European galaxies will be taken down for server maintenance and a live update.

When the update is complete, all galaxies will be live but unavailable while we complete final testing. All galaxies will be made available after that time.

4:00 AM PDT (Los Angeles) / 6:00 AM CDT (Austin) / 7:00 AM EDT (New York)
11:00 AM GMT (London) / 1:00 PM CET (Berlin) / 8:00 PM (Tokyo)
Click here for a Time Zone Calculator.

Chapter 10.2: The Search for the Meatlump King
Publish Notes, June 26, 2008

Happy Anniversary, Star Wars Galaxies!

• The anniversary event begins on all servers during the day on June 26, 2008. Visit Theed, Naboo and Corellia, Coronet to join in the celebration.

   

 

Original Link

With GU 5 for SWG comes updates to the Beast Masters profession and Thomas "Hanse" Eidson is the dev with the details!

In 2007, we finished our first incarnations of the profession expertise systems. The recent updates that we've performed were to improve those expertise systems. Luckily, the last expertise system added to the game was for Beast Masters, so it is very up-to-date. We felt that the expertise system for beasts is balanced and does not need tweaks in Update 5. This allowed us to focus on other areas of the beast master system for improvement.

I was chosen to work on the Beast Masters, due to my knowledge of their systems. I wrote the original framework that beasts use in the game. Many large additions for beasts were added (data storage, retrieval, initialization, combat movement, etc) instead of using the older pet system. To make systems such as those, you must have information on everything that the system must do. This gives me a unique insight into fixing issues with beasts.

The full overview of the changes coming can be found here!

It's hard to imagine!  June 26th brings about the 5th anniversary of launch day for SWG!  Congrats to the entire team, past and present, who've worked so hard to bring that universe to the MMO world!

To help celebrate, SOE has some events, in game items, and celebrations for all to participate in!

Citizens across the galaxy can receive two gifts when they log in during the anniversary celebration! Use the radial menu on the Emperor's Statue or Yoda's Fountain during the Empire Day event to receive two anniversary gifts.

The Five Year Painting is a replica of The Empire Strikes Back movie poster, sure to add a cool style to anyone's decor!

The Novaless Soni-Optics Goggles Mark V are one-of-a-kind. Originally created to assist with aiming long range rifles, the goggles were not widely manufactured due to problems that prevented any real combat use. These goggles are considered a novelty item as a result and are showed off for looks.

Hope everyone participates in this joyous time!  For the full calendar of events, click here.

The Galactic Empire would like you to celebrate the anniversary of their inception with lots of events and cookies!

Order 66 Cookies increase movement and grant an experience bonus; these crunchy cookies have a delightful aftertaste. Imperials also enjoy the Gracious Government Mix during Empire Day celebrations. These delicious chocolates increase damage and reduce action cost.

Rebels have their anti-Imperial celebrations during this time, and they also have a lot going on.

Favorites of the Force are a Rebel treat created by secretive confectioners; these sour candies reduce action cost and increase damage. The Organizer also offers the energy drink Death Star Destruction, sure to boost the movement speed and experience gain of any tired Rebel sympathizers.

For those determined to let the others fight it out, they have the option of taking advantage of either parties offerings!

Those who do not support either faction in the Galactic Civil War still mark Empire Day because of the great changes the formation of the Empire caused throughout the galaxy -- changes that they use to their own benefit.

There are lots of other celebration opportunities including being called out by Lord Vader or Princess Leia, so be sure to find out what's going on and take part!

Those of us who beta'd SWG are in shock to look back and discover it's been 5 years later this month.  This Friday Feature takes a look at some of the memories the many years have brough to the team.

My most memorable experience was before I was on the development team, during the first hours in game back in beta. Without really reading anything on the forums I created my first character, a Wookiee.

I spent the first hour basically walking around Mos Eisley and becoming familiar with the game. But during my exploration I couldn't help but notice several players kneeling in a group with a weird farting particle around them. (I would later find out they were traders, hand sampling for resources.) Curiosity got the best of me so I walked up and asked them what they were doing. The first group I asked turned to look at me but said absolutely nothing; one shrugged his shoulders.

Thinking those guys were jerks I went to the second group of gassy players and asked the same question.
"Oh, look. The Wookiee is trying to say something. How cute," said one.
"Ooooru to you too, pal!" said another.

Brings back good memories, which I'm sure those bitter about the game will try to instantly squash, but you can't!  Check it out, and remember the good old days of games that we once, or have always, loved.