Quicklinks to Questions:

Introductions

With the announcement of Corellia as a planet, is there any chance players will be able to receive missions from and/or join CorSec?

In the last SWG Developer chat you revealed a planet (Corellia), what planet are you going to reveal tonight?

What do you see being your biggest problem to date *or in the future* regarding balance in the fighting situations?

Will selling items to faction aligned players affect my sympathy level?

With all the debate recently on the Dev board about the Hutt faction, Can you expand at all on the faction system? Are we going to see other factions, and can NON Faction players join Faction "PA's"?

Will we be able to change clothes from species to species? (ie: human slave outfit on a female wookie)

Are you guys were going to implement an offline way of viewing characters? Either printing them or with a separate program?

Besides creating Star Wars, how has George Lucas been involved in this project?

How many planets do you guys have so far?

Will players be able to build houses and/or stores within a city's limits, i.e. could I open up a shop in the heart of Mos Espa?

Will we be able to set blasters on stun? if so, how long does that last? will there be different solutions to maintain people in captivity?

Will this game become more of a Sim than a game? With all the proposed abilities and leadership positions, it seems like it might just turn out to be an all out political battle. How will this be addressed?

Can PAs switch to PvP, or is that strictly limited to Factions, and why? Also, do you guys work together a lot or mostly from your respective homes/offices?

Will there possibly be non lethal weapons like staffs?

Are there viewports in transports?

Do you plan to add EU characters like Mara Jade, Kyle Katarn or Dash Rendar in the game?

Will we be able to run the game in different screen resolutions? And if so how high can we go?

How do you measure advancement on non-combat forms of character development? AKA What if I never fight -- can I still have a house?

How tired is John Donham?

About Bounty Hunters, will they be able to have alliances to hunt same people?

Will we, as Twilek, be able to cloth, decorate, or equip our lekku? For example: Can I equip blade like instruments to aid in melee combat. Also, will lekku be able to be used in melee combat?

Is their any set number of indigenous wildlife to be included on each planet, or does it depend from world to world?

Give us an idea as to how insurance will work. Will we get the item back or the amount of money it was worth?

Can we hunt ewoks in the game?

Can you use the prose modes in languages other than english?

Will players be able to chose to become a Dark Jedi from the start, or must they become Jedi then fall?

Will the environment affect your status? Such as, staying out in the open on Tatooine too long during the day will have an effect on your health bar. Same thing with Hoth and such...

Will there be screens of buildings before release?

Will any planets other than Naboo feature underwater areas?

Will there be a variation in the kinds of stores you will be able to own and run? What kinds? Anything cool?

At this point, what is the state of development of the Player Interface. Can we get any insight as to what the current design might look like?

Will the lightsaber combat be nice and complex?

If there is no atmospheric flight, how will rebels take out AT-AT's?

Can the Imperials attack Jabba's Palace?

How long in time do you generally plan to make interplanetary travel, and what type of activities will players have to do while in-transit?

What kind of range will we have on general broadcast chat channels?

On neutral factions joining in a battle, will theyt have access to whatever equipment they want depending on what side they choose? And if so what would be the purpose of joining a faction then?

Ive seen the use of PDAs mentioned...how are they intergrated into the game?

Will anything be done to allow players who plan to declare to create factional PAs at the start of game launch?

Can each of you tell us just one thing in the game that you personally are very excited about?

Conclusion

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Haden_Blackman said: Hey everyone. Thanks for joining us. Hope you've brought some good questions with you... There's five of us, so we should be able to cover a lot of ground.

Rich said: Hi..Welcome to our second chat session with the developers. Enjoy!

Kevin_OHara said: Hi everybody, I'm the Community Relations Manager for Star Wars Galaxies. On the forums, you may know me as "Q-3PO" or that guy who posts the weekly FAQ and other goodies. :) Glad to see so many people here!

JDonham said: Hello - This is my first chat for Star Wars! Hopefully we'll be able to answer all your questions.

Raph_Koster said: Hey there everyone. Great to see the big turnout. I'm looking forward to a fun chat. :)

LucasArts_Host said: There are ton's of great questions so let's get started!!

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Moraj asked: With the announcement of Corellia as a planet, is there any chance players will be able to receive missions from and/or join CorSec?

Haden_Blackman said: Right now, you can't formally join CorSec. However, we will have CorSec NPCs who will be giving out missions for players.

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KirKethlik asked: In the last SWG Developer chat you revealed a planet (Corellia), what planet are you going to reveal tonight?

Raph_Koster said: Endor.

Haden_Blackman said: We selected Endor because it's a rich planet with a lot of diversity, and it's familiar to fans of the films. We hope to really be able to develop it in ways that you wouldn't expect...

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BiggN asked: What do you see being your biggest problem to date *or in the future* regarding balance in the fighting situations?

Raph_Koster said: It's so easy to have people find places where they are unreachable by the AI and pick away at them. So we're spending a lot of attention on that. Basically, melee versus ranged combat, I'd say that's the toughest thing to tackle. :)

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Mabowave asked: Will selling items to faction aligned players affect my sympathy level?

Raph_Koster said: Not if you use your NPC vendors to do it, no. You don't have control over who comes by. But it's possible that direct trades with them might.

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Minder asked: With all the debate recently on the Dev board about the Hutt faction, Can you expand at all on the faction system? Are we going to see other factions, and can NON Faction players join Faction "PA's"?

Haden_Blackman said: We've been discussing the faction system in great detail on the boards, so I'd direct you to a couple of great posts by Raph. As to the second part of the question, we definitely plan to include new factions after launch.

Raph_Koster said: Currently, non-factioned players cannot join PAs that have declared as a group... But there's lots of good debate on that on the boards right now, so we encourage you to chime in there, because it's a good discussion to have.

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SithForceLord asked: Will we be able to change clothes from species to species? (ie: human slave outfit on a female wookie)

Rich said: Yes...you can

Kevin_OHara said: There will be some limitations though.

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Dantillion asked: I was wondering if you guys were going to implement an offline way of viewing characters? Either printing them or with a separate program....

Rich said: Yes..we have seen the great threads about this and we are going to work hard and get it in after launch. This is considered a lower priority feature.

Kevin_OHara said: I'll join the fight for it, it is a great idea.

Raph_Koster said: Game first, printable character sheets later. :)

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sonofhud asked: Besides creating Star Wars, how has George Lucas been involved in this project?

Haden_Blackman said: George is actually in one of your chat rooms.

Haden_Blackman said: Just kidding. He's involved in all of our projects early on. He knows about Galaxies and he's excited about it. He's been involved in some discussions about Naboo, and some other areas. But, as with all our games, he let's us develop our own ideas and take the license in new directions.

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mabowave asked: How many planets do you guys have so far?

JDonham said: We have 7 in active development right now.

Kevin_OHara said: We've announced five of them Tatooine, Corellia, Endor, Naboo and Yavin 4.

Haden_Blackman said: We have others in other stages of development, too (early design, etc.).

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Phineas asked: Will players be able to build houses and/or stores within a city's limits, i.e. could I open up a shop in the heart of Mos Espa?

Raph_Koster said: Currently, we're trying to encourage players to build in their own towns. We do have zoning to prevent building in certain locations. But there isn't anything precluding allowing it--we just haven't made any decisions on that yet.

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Gege_bell asked: Will we be able to set blasters on stunt? if so, how long does that last? will there be different solutions to maintain people in captivity?

Kevin_OHara said: Can't set blaster on "Stunt" though :)

Raph_Koster said: Well, technically, all weapons have the ability to stun through incapacitation. Beyond that, though, different weapons have greater odds of causing sort of a dazed state on top of that.

Haden_Blackman said: We're giving blasters to everyone. :)

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Threivenwry asked: I am wondering, will this game become more of a Sim than a game? With all the proposed abilities and leadership positions, it seems like it might just turn out to be an all out political battle. How will this be addressed?

Kevin_OHara said: Theme Parks are very "action" based.

Raph_Koster said: Seriously, though, we see it as a world--an immersive virtual Star Wars environment. It's not really a sim, it's an online world.

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Freetopii asked: Can PAs switch to PvP, or is that strictly limited to Factions, and why? Also, do you guys work together a lot or mostly from your respective homes/offices? Thanks a lot. Y'all are doing awesome!!!!

Raph_Koster said: An entire PA can declare to a faction and go PvP in that way. Also, PAs can declare "war" against each other as well, and enter consensual PvP that way (the other PA has to accept the war).

Kevin_OHara said: Although we are technically in 3 different offices, we meet together a lot in phone calls, email, video conferences and in person. We don't feel secluded.

Haden_Blackman said: I work in my office at LucasArts, but I visit the team as often as possible and I think I talk to one of these four at least once a day. Thanks for the compliments... :)

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jediwookiee asked: Will there possibly be non lethal weapons like staffs?

Raph_Koster said: All weapons do damage to one of the three pools, and thus can potentially incapacitate you.

Kevin_OHara said: Raph means to say, "Yes"

Haden_Blackman said: Technically, no weapon is lethal until you use it to deliver the killing blow.

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Jedi_Port asked: Are there viewports in transports?

Raph_Koster said: If you mean, look out a viewport when going from Corellia to Naboo, the answer is yes, you'll see space outside. :)

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Warrick_Jade asked: Do you plan to add EU characters like Mara Jade, Kyle Katarn or Dash Rendar in the game?

Haden_Blackman said: Yes. We actuallly have at least one of those characters slated for the launch product. We have tons of other EU characters planned, and we're expanding universe ourselves too... :)

Kevin_OHara said: What about Q-3PO??? ;)

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Mabowave asked: Will we be able to run the game in different screen resolutions? And if so how high can we go?

Rich said: It depends on your video card but the game can handle different resolutions.

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AlexDread asked: How do you measure advancement on non-combat forms of character development? AKA What if I never fight -- can I still have a house?

Raph_Koster said: Yes, you can still have a house. :) Basically, the skill based system has different requirements for each profession, so you advance by doing things relate to the profession. Houses, of course, cost money too. :)

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Nirgalis asked: How tired is John Donham?

Kevin_OHara said: Wake up, John...

JDonham said: Scheduling takes a lot of work. :)

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gege_bel asked: About Bounty Hunters, will they be able to have alliances to hunt same people?

Raph_Koster said: There's technically only one bounty hunter assigned to a given target, but there's nothing stopping people from collaborating to find the guy, and splitting the reward afterwards. Remember, bounty hunters have a very restricted way of choosing targets, to prevent grief play.

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wodowick asked: This question concerns avatar customization. Will we, as Twilek, be able to cloth, decorate, or equip our lekku? For example: Can I equip blade like instruments to aid in melee combat. Also, will lekku be able to be used in melee combat?

Haden_Blackman said: Actually, according to the continuity, lekku aren't actually used as extra limbs. So, no using them for extra attacks. WE will allow you some customization options that include "head-tail styles."

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Tatewaki_Kuno asked: Is their any set number of indigenous wildlife to be included on each planet, or does it depend from world to world?

Raph_Koster said: It varies from world to world, but we have both a set target for the world, and also a set target for each different environment within the world (eg, a target for swamp on Naboo, a target for forest on Naboo, etc).

Haden_Blackman said: We also have a target for the entire game, and of course we want to include enough recognizable creatures on each of the established planets.

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mabowave asked: Give us an idea as to how insurance will work. Will we get the item back or the amount of money it was worth?

Raph_Koster said: You get the item back.

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DarkPiccolo asked: Can we hunt ewoks in the game?

Rich said: Yes..working Ewok hunter right now

Raph_Koster said: I'm looking forward to it, personally. :)

Haden_Blackman said: Like Gungans, they might be tougher than they look, though.

Haden_Blackman said: Or maybe not.

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LordIblis asked: Can you use the prose modes in languages other than english?

Raph_Koster said: The prose stuff gets simplified in other languages. We can't write code to do prose parsing for every possible language since the grammar rules are different in every language. But the content will still be there so you get the necessary mood info, even if we have to present it just as (angry)(mutter) or something.

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JasonJion asked: Will players be able to chose to become a Dark Jedi from the start, or must they become Jedi then fall?

Raph_Koster said: In our game system, you have to become a Jedi first.

Haden_Blackman said: According to the continuity, most dark Jedi all start off as Jedi and then "fall."

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BrentStargazer asked: Will the environment affect your status? Such as, staying out in the open on Tatooine too long during the day will have an effect on your health bar. Same thing with Hoth and such...

Raph_Koster said: We do have climate effects, but we haven't specified them in tons of detail yet. And the climate effects will vary per species (Mon Cal don't like drying up, for example).

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gege_bel asked: Will there be screens of buildings before release?

Kevin_OHara said: Sure thing, but it won't be by the end of this year (other than the ones from the demo) Working on building interiors right now actually.

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Tchux asked: Will any planets other than Naboo feature underwater areas?

Raph_Koster said: Sure. Basically, if you see water, you can generally go under it. Well, if it's deep enough, anyway.

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jimbozz asked: Will there be a variation in the kinds of stores you will be able to own and run? What kinds? Anything cool?

Raph_Koster said: It's really up to you what kind of store you want to run. If you can obtain the goods, you can run a store that sells it.

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Shazz_gazm asked: At this point, what is the state of development of the Player Interface. Can we get any insight as to what the current design might look like?

Kevin_OHara said: John and I just had a meeting an hour ago with an artist actually.

JDonham said: We're working on the user interface now - we've done a first pass with Chat, Radar, Toolbar, Combat UI, etc.

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MAXIMUS asked: Will the lightsaber combat be nice and complex?

Raph_Koster said: We sure hope so. We've motion captured a bunch of swordfighting moves already, and the animations look great. And of course, you can access special moves and stuff via the skill system and combat system....

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Darth_Jedi asked: If there is no atmospheric flight, how will rebels take out AT-AT's?

Raph_Koster said: Very carefully. :)

Haden_Blackman said: They'll hire Ewoks.

Raph_Koster said: Seriously, though, they'll have to use ground firepower. Turrets and heavy artillery more than blasters, of course.

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Sasquatch100 asked: Can the Imperials attack Jabba's Palace?

Raph_Koster said: They can attack it, but Jabba's Palace is likely to be one of the parts of the map that we don't allow to change ahnds, just because it's a theme park and we're putting many quests and the like there.

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MauriceTX asked: How long in time do you generally plan to make interplanetary travel, and what type of activities will players have to do while in-transit?

Raph_Koster said: For a given leg of interplanetary travel, the answer is between 3 and 5 minutes or so. Of course, some trips take multiple legs. For intraplanetary travel, if a planet has more than one spaceport, it's a minute or less. As far as what to do, we hope to have mini-games you can play while en route.

Haden_Blackman said: Games drawn from the continuity, of course.

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Bajeezus asked: What kind of range will we have on general broadcast chat channels?

Raph_Koster said: Broadcast channels vary. Some are limited by planet, some are not, depending on what sort of purpose they are put to. And you can send quite a long way with comlinks. But generally speaking, chat channels are not very limited in range.

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Gwerdon asked: On neutral factions joining in a battle, will theyt have access to whatever equipment they want depending on what side they choose? And if so what would be the purpose of joining a faction then?

Raph_Koster said: No, they don't get access to whatever equipment they choose. They aren't declared members, and the gear is a declared member perk. Now, there may be SOME gear they can get. But no, not anything they want.

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Vykk_Draygo asked: Ive seen the use of PDAs mentioned...how are they intergrated into the game?

Raph_Koster said: We basically use the data pad as a metaphor for the game interface. But it's also a place to store data items. Examples of data items includes schematics for crafting, droid programs, land surveys, messages, etc.

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MofoDawg asked: Will anything be done to allow players who plan to declare to create factional PAs at the start of game launch?

Raph_Koster said: You can create your PA right off the bat (well, if you can afford the PA hall you need), but you are going to need to get your members to the required sympathy level before the PA declares as a whole.

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XeiTul asked: Can each of you tell us just one thing in the game that you personally are very excited about?

Rich said: I am very excited about how immersive the worlds are. I never get bored walking around. The amount of creatures and variety in these worlds are beyond anything that I have ever experienced in a game. Combat is looking really cool too ;-).

JDonham said: I'm really excited about all the non-combat things that you'll be able to do. Social based skill trees, crafting, running merchants, etc . . . I think it will draw many more people to our game, and make it much more engaging for everyone.

Haden_Blackman said: There's so much... I've been working with Cinco Barnes on some of the theme parks and those missions should be really cool. I can't wait to run into Han Solo or Boba Fett. I'm also looking forward to participating in PvP - I can't wait to run onto a battlefield.

Kevin_OHara said: I'm looking forward to just hanging out in a player run cantina and know that I'm in a living version of my favorite films and in my own story along with tons of other avid fans. That and the Twi'lek dancers (I've seen the motion capture). :)

Raph_Koster said: Big question. I'm very psyched about many things. The politics stuff, for sure. The GCW. Battlefields. Character customization. But you said just one, and I can't pick just one. :)

Haden_Blackman said: And shooting Ewoks.

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LucasArts_Host said: Unfortunately, we're all out of time for tonight's chat. Thanks so much guys for chatting with us all tonight! Any final comments for the gamers out there??

Kevin_OHara said: There were literally thousands of questions to sort through tonight. Sorry we couldn't get to more than an hours worth of them. But feel free to post them on our Developer's Forum at www.starwarsgalaxies.com. We frequently go there to answer specific questions (that we are ready to give you an answer to).

Haden_Blackman said: Thanks for all your support. I've been really impressed with the community and I hope you can maintain your enthusiasm for this product until launch. It really helps keep us going.

Raph_Koster said: Be sure to join up at the official board sif you haven't already--I know many of you want more details than what there's room for in a chat like this, and the boards are the place to get those details. :)

Kevin_OHara said: In 2002, we are definitely planning on having more frequent developer chats.

Rich said: Have a great week. We will be doing another chat early next year.

Kevin_OHara said: Thanks everyone!

JDonham said: Seeya!

Raph_Koster said: Bye!