Quicklinks to Questions:

Introductions

Will the Healing skill be strictly technology based, or can we also use organic methods, such as plants?

Will all the items in the game have a 3d model?

We all were impressed about the Krayt Dragon. How many polygons is it made of? How fast will it be able to run?

Mon Cals: will they have the Wet/Dry Bonus/Penalty ideas from the P&P RPG?

When will we see wookiees screenshots?

Will PAs allow members from multiple factions within them?

Many people complained about the LEGO advertising in the recently released movie. Will we see this kind of advertising in the game?

Can you give us Guild leaders any clues to what kind of features we will have to assist us in running our guilds?

Is there any chance of a Brazilian server?

When releasing information to the fans, how do you balance marketing concerns against "participatory development" efforts to include the fans on the design?

How will you be preventing client hacks?

Can you guys let us in on the next planet?

How many worlds will there be?

What can you tell us about political skills?

When will we see another movie?

Until the Space Expansion how will travel between planets be?? Will there be a quick zone or maybe you just sit in a seat looking out a window in space for 10mins?

Will there be a slicer skill and what will it be able to do?

Ready to give numbers of char slots per server yet?

Why aren't you using the Krayt Dragon Cry Obi-Wan mimics in ANH?

Is it going to be a problem for people to get a house due to lack of space?

Will spice trade in the game?

Is there a date in sight for Public Beta testing?

Will there be Under Water Cities?

Would it be possible to make this "Dev Chat" thing monthly, or bi-monthly?

Can we expect any kind of audible dialog?

Will houses be a huge monetary investment?

Will we start out with enough money to buy a speeder and/or house?

How many servers do you plan on having at the start?

Will we be able to have swoop gangs?

What ESRB rating are you trying to get?

Because of the gameplay environment, will EverQuest players and Ultima Online players have an advantage when starting to play?

What is Cosmic Rift?

Will I be able to join a Cantina band?

Will grappling combat maneuvers be possible?

Will the game be divided equally between the rebellion and the empire or Will it be closer to continuity with the empire in control of 90% of the game?

When will screenshots of Yavin 4 come?

In the video there is something throwing up smoke in the upper left corner behind the running Bothan, what is it?

If we build a house on one planet will we be able to "move" it to another if we don't like the location?

How will the chat dialog appear for wookiees when you type messages since they don't speak basic?

Do you plan on having enough servers and bandwith to encounter the demand when the game first goes online and people play 24/7?

What will Corellia look like?

Can I command NPCs; stormtroopers for example? How exactly will that work?

Speaking of NPC's, Have you passed the Rabbit and Wolf stage yet?

What is the organizational structure for the SW Galaxies Team(s), how much staff is development and how much will be ongoing?

What happens if an entire side is wiped out? Like what if the rebels lose all their territory?

Will there be any "Easter Eggs" in the game? Some dev humour perhaps?

Wouldn't having universal translators defeat the point of having a protocol droid?

Do the Dev's still have an actual life or has it been taken over by SWG?

Will we be able to hunt down Gungans\Jawas\Ewoks?

Conclusion

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Q-3PO said: Hello and welcome to the first Star Wars Galaxies Developer Chat. This chat will run for one hour and we'll try to get through as many of your questions as we can during it.

Q-3PO said: The chat is fully moderated which means you will only be able to talk to each other using the private message function (type /help for more details). I'd like to take a moment to thank Marie Harrington, Manager of Web Site Ops, and Mark Preston, god of chat rooms, for their help putting together tonight's chat.

Q-3PO said: Please send your questions to /msg Marluka (Marie). Marie will sift through them and post the best ones for the guys to respond to. We won't be answering questions about Jedi selection or the Space Expansion.

Q-3PO said: This chat event will last 1 hour and a transcript will be available on our site by tomorrow morning. Without further adieu, let me have the panel introduce themselves. Raph?


Holocron said: Hi everyone!

Holocron said: I'm Raph Koster, Creative Director on the project... I think I know a heck of a lot of you from the boards, in fact!

Holocron said: Looking forward to the chat tonight. :)

BoShek said: Welcome everyone to our first chat. I see a lot of people that I recognize from the developer boards. Enjoy.

Shug_Ninx said: I'm Haden Blackman, LucasArts Producer for Star Wars Galaxies. Welcome! It's great to see so many familiar names.

Q-3PO said: And I'm Kevin O'Hara, the Community Relations Manager. You see me a lot on the forums trying to clue you in on our schedule.

Q-3PO said: And now for our first question

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Dolaarian asked: Will the Healing skill be strictly technology based, or can we also use organic methods, such as plants.

Holocron said: There's a medic skill tree, and it uses various sorts of resources. Some are gathered from plants. There isn't really an "herbalism" skill set per se, but they are made use of.

Shug_Ninx said: We'll also have bacta, as in the continuity. That's technically technology...

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Jence asked: will all the items in the game have a 3d model? Unlike EQ's brown baggy. So when it is on the ground you can see it. This adds great roleplaying opportunity.

Holocron said: Sort of a complicated answer to that one. :) So, for clothing, most objects that you would leave on the ground, etc the answer is yes. There are probably some items that are crafting only that don't have 3d appearances because they are never left loose on the ground. By and large, we're not letting you just pile stuff on the ground anywhere, you see... we are letting you pile stuff up in houses, but not just anywhere in the wilderness.

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Bret asked: We all were impressed about the Krayt Dragon. How many polygons is it made of? How fast will it be able to run?

BoShek said: The Krayt Dragon is about 9,000 polys at full resolution without LODs. It runs faster than the human can walk ;-).

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BobalDurant asked: Mon Cals: will they have the Wet/Dry Bonus/Penalty ideas from the P&P RPG?

Shug_Ninx said: Yeah, in keeping with the continuity, we'll have penalties and bonuses for Mon Cal in different environs. They won't be the same as in the RPG, though... :)

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Mahraccor asked: when will we see wookiees screenshots?

Q-3PO said: Yes, on next Thursday of next week. A cool 360 shot.

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Mofo-Dawg asked: Will PAs allow members from multiple factions within them?

Holocron said: If the PA allows it, it is possible to do. The PA can choose not to allow it, though. PAs are intended to be able to serve a role for real life friends, not just in-game groups, so it seemed best to leave that ability in.

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Bret asked: Many people complained about the LEGO advertising in the recently released movie. Will we see this kind of advertising in the game?

BoShek said: We will not have advertising in the game. Don't worry about it. We want you to be immersed in the Star Wars Universe and we feel this breaks that immersion

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Incom asked: Greetings, Can you give us Guild leaders any clues to what kind of features we will have to assist us in running our guilds?

Holocron said: You can select a leader, and they have various powers such as ejection, recruitment, etc. But they can also grant powers to other members of the guild, in effect building their own hierarchy. So if you want a PA treasurer, the leader can name one and give him the powers...

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Maw-Qwan asked: Is there any chance of a Brazilian server?

BoShek said: We are going to have servers in other countries but we have not determined where they are going yet.

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Bajeezus asked: When releasing information to the fans, how do you balance marketing concerns against "participatory development" efforts to include the fans on the design?

Shug_Ninx said: We're working very closely with LucasArts' marketing to determine what should be released when. We're trying to save some information for key marketing efforts, but the site is very important to use. We want to give the community as much new information as possible, and we need your help with some of our systems, so that comes first in many cases.

Q-3PO said: We definitely enjoy all the ideas and opinions we have gotten off the boards

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Wedge2006 asked: How will you be preventing client hacks?

Holocron said: First thing is, never forget that you cannot trust data being sent from the client to the server. In fact, you can also never assume that the info you sent to the server was actually seen by the client. Some hack techniques block packets from the client (say, for "sun set" so it never gets dark)... So you have to really try to verify everything, and make sure that there isn't anything important left up to the client. We are trying to use some clever verification techniques, but I won't go into them because that would sort of give things away. ;)

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Riff_Raff asked: Can you guys let us in on the next planet? Shug_Ninx said: Corellia. Han Solo's homeworld. I've actually been walking around it, and it looks wonderful. We have the gold beaches, and some other key locations. It's a great world for us because we can reuse some of the assets on other worlds (which haven't been announced yet).

Holocron said: My favorite part is the fields of flowers under the trees on the edge of the plains... really colorful, especially when you come across a fallen tree...

BoShek said: This was the planet in my update that I was wondering around for an hour. It is just stunning

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JourneymanJay asked: How many worlds will there be?

BoShek said: More than the planets that we announced so far.

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KieranHorn asked: What can you tell us about political skills?

Holocron said: Basically, political skills open up abilities. To start with, you have to choose to invest skill points in politics skills to be able to run for office. So there's a commitment there, basically. And once you are in office, you have to devote yourself to it, because you need more politics skills to be able to do specific things with your towns. So if you are planning on making your town into, say, a heavily trade-centered town, you can choose to spend skill points in the area of economic management. And that will give your town cheaper maintenance fees, or better flexibility with setting taxes, that sort of thing... So the skills your politician has have a direct impact on how the town can grow or be managed.

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DarthKissmass asked: When will we see another movie?

Q-3PO said: We will indeed. We're starting to discuss it internally now. We don't have a schedule set yet though. Don't expect it very soon, but it will definitely show more gameplay.

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Souldefender asked: Until the Space Expansion how will travel between planets be?? Will there be a quick zone or maybe you just sit in a seat looking out a window in space for 10mins??

Holocron said: Closer to the latter. You have to go to a spaceport and catch a shuttle, basically. You can walk around in the spaceship while traveling. The trips aren't very long, but there is some delay involved. Shuttles are very frequent, btw. They leave when full or every five minutes.

Shug_Ninx said: We hope to have stuff that you can do while en route, though. :)

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XDARKX asked: Will there be a slicer skill and what will it be able to do?

Holocron said: Yep. :) It actually covers a couple of things. There's slicing the Holonet, there's slicing security systems like disabling turrets and defeating locks, and there's some "investigation" stuff...

Shug_Ninx said: Slicing, btw, is the Star Wars equivalent of "hacking."

---

Blade asked: Ready to give numbers of char slots per server yet?

BoShek said: We have not decided yet. It is too early.

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Maha-Bhakti asked: Why aren't you using the Krayt Dragon Cry Obi-Wan mimics in ANH?

Shug_Ninx said: Many animals make different types of noises in different situations. The krayt is roaring in the demo/first footage. In the film, it's more of a cry - probably a warning of some sort. :)

---

IG-420 asked: Is it going to be a problem for people to get a house due to lack of space?

Holocron said: There shouldn't be. We are a) making a ton of space b) making detailed spreadsheets to make sure that the server capacity is larger than the amount of lots we have available c) limiting the lots that can be built up on a planet. It's a tricky juggling act because we do not want to have "urban sprawl", but we also want to guarantee that there will not be more players than there are lots available. In fact, we currently are planning to give each player an allotment of dozens of lot, and we would cap the server population based on how many players can actually build in the entire game... Since building is so critical to getting to the gameplay content (harvesting resources, running shops, etc)

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HocNof asked: Will spice trade in the game?

Shug_Ninx said: We will have various Star Wars spices in the game as resources that can be sold and traded. Some spices will function as "buffs."

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Speranza asked: Is there a date in sight for Public Beta testing?

BoShek said: It is too early to talk about Beta Testing. You will be notified as soon as we start it.

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Max222 asked: Will there be Under Water Cities?

Shug_Ninx said: We're planning to include Otoh Gunga on Naboo.

Holocron said: No plans to include buildable underwater player housing, though... sorry. :(

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Bret asked: Would it be possible to make this "Dev Chat" thing monthly, or bi-monthly?

Q-3PO said: Our next Dev chat won't be until December on lucasarts.com but after that we'll start to have more regular ones as we head toward beta.

Q-3PO said: Also...

Q-3PO said: Next month we have a fun little dev/community event planned on the Station. You'll get a chance to play with or against members of our team in Cosmic Rift. It should be a blast. You'll hear more about it when we officially announce it early next week.

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GeneralEmanon asked: Can we expect any kind of audible dialog?

BoShek said: There will be limited audible dialogue in the game.

Holocron said: We're planning on using it mostly for color, though, in a few places, not sustained conversations.

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Glucose asked: Will houses be a huge monetary investment?

Holocron said: They'll be an ongoing investment, for sure, but we haven't really settled on the cost for initial purchase. There will be tiers of nicer and less nice houses to buy, so price will vary.

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Whitski138 asked: Will we start out with enough money to buy a speeder and/or house?

Holocron said: Probably not.

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HocNof asked: How many servers do you plan on having at the start?

BoShek said: You tell us....Are you all buying the game? ;-)

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Squall_Stormrider asked: Will we be able to have swoop gangs?

Holocron said: Uhhh. Well, I guess if you were a group, and called yourself a gang, and all had swoops... ;)

Holocron said: Sure, why not. :)

Shug_Ninx said: We probably won't condone swoop gangs victimizing innocent people, though. :)

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Caella asked: What ESRB rating are you trying to get?

BoShek said: Teen rating.

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Kssob asked: Because of the gameplay environment, will EverQuest players and Ultima Online players have an advantage when starting to play?

Holocron said: I imagine anyone who has some sort of experience with an online world will probably have a leg up on other people. If you haven't played one of these, before, it can be kind of daunting. But I don't expect it to be a huge advantage in any way...

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boerhave asked: What is Cosmic Rift?

Q-3PO said: Cosmic Rift is a multiplayer space action game on The Station. Start practicing on www.cosmicrift.com

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Maha-Bhakti asked: Will I be able to join a Cantina band?

Shug_Ninx said: You won't be able to join THE cantina band (the Modal Nodes) - they already have a full roster. But you will be able to join *a* cantina band if you have the right skills and the right friends.

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Wookie_Jedi asked: Will grappling combat maneuvers be possible?

Holocron said: I'll be honest with you... doing tandem animations like that is really hard. We are trying to do several of these "tandem" animations, but if they don't pan out well, then the grappling stuff may not work out well. So keep your fingers crossed, but there are definitely no promises. Getting that to look good is very hard.

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TearForger asked: Will the game be divided equally between the rebellion and the empire or Will it be closer to continuity with the empire in control of 90% of the game?

Shug_Ninx said: We don't have exact percentages yet, but we're definitely trying to create the feeling that the Empire is the dominant force in the galaxy. We're hoping that the proliferation of Imperial NPCs will help with this. However, you can change the landscape of the conflict over time - if Rebels take more territory, then the balance of power can shift to some extent.

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top_gun509 asked: When will screenshots of Yavin 4 come?

Q-3PO said: You'll likely see some more planet shots like Corellia and Yavin 4 next month.

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TearForger asked: In the video there is something throwing up smoke in the upper left corner behind the running Bothan, what is it?

Holocron said: It was just a smokestack on one of the buildings... I think in one of the other screenshots where you see more of a panorama you can see the smoke coming from the chimney...

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CrucifieR asked: If we build a house on one planet will we be able to "move" it to another if we don't like the location?

Holocron said: You should be able to, yes.

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Mahraccor asked: How will the chat dialog appear for wookiees when you type messages since they don't speak basic?

Shug_Ninx said: We've decided that all characters will start with a universal translator that is "broadcast only," so Wookiees can broadcast messages in Basic. If two Wookiees talk to each other in their native tongue, then that will appear garbled to all other players nearby (unless they have the proper skills, of course).

Holocron said: There are a bunch of "linguist" skills so you can learn other languages in game.

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XDARKX asked: Do you plan on having enough servers and bandwith to encounter the demand when the game first goes online and people play 24/7

BoShek said: Yes...we will have the bandwidth and server capacity for launch of SWG. We have a lot of experience with EQ. This is not our first game.

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Ternque asked: What will Corellia look like?

Shug_Ninx said: In the continuity, Corellia is similar to Earth in many ways. We'll have a number of different environments to emulate this.

Shug_Ninx said: Right now, there are a lot of fields, some forests, the previously-mentioned "gold beaches," etc.

Holocron said: Here, let me take a whack... :)

Holocron said: Golden fields, with a plant that looks sort of like wheat... very colorful, riotous colorful flowers, often clustering in the darker areas under the shade of trees. The mountains are sharper than Naboo's mountains, more treacherous...

Shug_Ninx said: Much more poetic.

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Mistfreshie asked: Can I command NPCs; stormtroopers for example? How exactly will that work?

Holocron said: Well, frankly, it works like managing pets. Basically the same system, under the interface. You order them to guard, to follow, to attack, that sort of thing.

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Inoga_Tarien asked: Speaking of NPC's, Have you passed the Rabbit and Wolf stage yet?

Holocron said: No, Inoga. (For anyone who does not follow the boards, this is a reference to a particular thread on the dev board). No, we're still implementing that base layer, and will be for a few more weeks.

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BoboFatt asked: What is the organizational structure for the SW Galaxies Team(s), how much staff is development and how much will be ongoing?

BoShek said: There are over 40 people in development and we will continue with the live team.

BoShek said: Once SWG is launched, the live team takes over. We will move the development team over to the Space Expansion.

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Mattt asked: What happens if an entire side is wiped out? Like what if the rebels lose all their territory?

Holocron said: The NPCs will fight back harder, making more incursions into Imperial territory, etc. Basically, the NPCs will try to make up for the players...

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RedNbacca asked: Will there be any "Easter Eggs" in the game? Some dev humour perhaps?

Shug_Ninx said: I hope so. We're already planning to include a number of "fanboy" references for people to spot, especially in terms of NPCs. We'll also have some very cool sites hidden within the worlds for explorers to find. As far as including a true Easter egg, like Wicket in the cells of Jabba's palace, we'll have to see.

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CrimsonClaw asked: Wouldn't having universal translators defeat the point of having a protocol droid?

Shug_Ninx said: No, because the UT we're including as a starting item is really on "broadcast only.

Shug_Ninx said: It means that you can make sure that people understand you, but you won't always be able to understand others if they are speaking in an alien language that you don't know.

Shug_Ninx said: We really had to make this choice, or a large number of players wouldn't be able to communicate and that would make even simple tasks very difficult.

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Xanamiar asked: Do the Dev's still have an actual life or has it been taken over by SWG?

Holocron said: Heh. :)

Q-3PO said: actual... life?

Holocron said: Well, I still manage to see my kids and my wife. I still have time to play guitar, read books, and stuff... it is a lot of work, but we try to stay sane and not overwork. If we crunched too much, the game would suffer because we'd burn out. So we recognize the value of having some perspective on the job. :)

BoShek said: We have a life now but next year will be different....in fact we are all taking our vacations this year.

Shug_Ninx said: I'm still making as much time as possible for life outside of SWG. I think we all need to or we'd get burned out. The amount of time devoted to the project will obviously increase as we approach beta and launch, and I expect to have my life dominated by the project from about January on.

Q-3PO said: It is important to have a life outside of work, but when Star Wars IS your work, it's not so bad to bring home often.

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Spyder4002 asked: Will we be able to hunt down Gungans\Jawas\Ewoks?

Shug_Ninx said: Yes (at least in the case of Gungans and Jawas - we haven't announced Endor as a planet). But I'd warn you that Gungans might be tougher than you'd expect, and there could be consequences (in-game) for slaughtering Jawas. Ootiinni!

Q-3PO warms up his Ewok blaster.

BoShek said: I always wanted to play "Gungan Hunter" ;-).

Q-3PO said: kidding

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Q-3PO said: Final comments from the devs?

Holocron said: Glad you could all make it out to the chat. See you on the boards. :)

Shug_Ninx said: Thanks for joining us. I hope that you're happy with the revelations that we've been able to release here. I look forward to seeing all the discussion about this stuff on the boards.

BoShek said: Thanks for coming....look forward to reading your posts on the boards

Q-3PO said: Well, that wraps up this Developer's Chat. I want to thank everyone for joining us. We plan on having another one in early December on LucasArts.com, after that we will start to have a more regular chat schedule as we head towards release in the fall of 2002.

Q-3PO said: The transcript of this chat will be up on our site tomorrow.

Q-3PO said: We're now returning the room to free chat, enjoy.