Star Wars Galaxies Complete Online Adventures Download Free
- "Experience the greatest saga e'er told.....yours."
- ―Star Wars Galaxies tagline
Star Wars Galaxies (often abbreviated SWG) was a Star Wars–themed MMORPG adult by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and published past LucasArts for Microsoft Windows PCs.[vi] The base game, titled Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, was released on June 26, 2003 in the United states of america of America, November 7, 2003 in Europe, December 23, 2004 in Nippon, and in 2006 in Australia. The base game was upgraded with three major expansions since. In addition to the initial toll of the game software, SOE charged a monthly subscription fee (like most other MMORPGs) of $fourteen.99 USD (€xi.15, £9.49), with discounts for iii-, six-, and 12-calendar month subscriptions. On June 24, 2011, Sony announced that Galaxies would exist shut downward on December 15 of that yr.
Contents
- 1 Development and release
- 2 Story and setting
- ii.1 Opening crawls
- 2.2 Story arcs
- 2.iii Timeline
- two.4 Planets and explorable areas
- iii Gameplay and features
- 3.one Species and professions
- iii.1.1 Species
- three.i.2 Professions
- 3.1.2.i Original professions
- 3.ii Actor housing, guilds, and cities
- 3.iii Starships
- 3.3.one Playable
- 3.3.two NPC but
- iii.four Combat
- iii.5 Other features of the basic game
- 3.6 Servers
- 3.one Species and professions
- iv Releases, expansions and updates
- 4.1 An Empire Divided
- 4.2 Expansion packs
- iv.3 Combat Upgrade
- 4.4 New Game Enhancements (NGE)
- four.5 Free grapheme transfers and server closures
- four.half dozen Detailed release and update history
- iv.vii The end of Galaxies
- 5 Reception
- five.1 Controversies
- 5.one.ane Jedi
- 5.1.2 Combat Upgrade
- v.i.3 New Game Enhancements
- 5.1.4 Expansion refund
- v.one.five Subscriber numbers
- five.1 Controversies
- 6 Continuity
- vi.1 Inconsistencies
- 6.2 Tie-ins
- 7 Credits
- viii Appearances
- 9 Sources
- 10 Notes and references
- 11 See also
- 12 External links
Development and release
On March 16, 2000, LucasArts Entertainment appear a partnership with Verant Interactive Inc. and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) to create the first massively multiplayer Star Wars online role-playing game.[vi] [7] The then-unnamed game would be developed by Verant with online play supported by SOE. This was the same team that created and supported the popular Everquest massively multiplayer online game. LucasArts would be responsible for all distribution of the Star Wars online game. The announcement included an expected release date sometime in 2001 and that the game would have place during the classic trilogy Star Wars era.
LucasArts officially announced the brand name of the game to be Star Wars Galaxies on November 29, 2000.[8] The announcement claimed the beginning round of testing for Star Wars Galaxies was expected to outset in late 2001, which would push back the official release date to an unknown time. The game's official information site was launched on November 30, 2000 in conjunction with SOE and featured frequently asked questions about the game and bulletin boards fielded by members of the development team.[ix]
- "We encounter this Web site every bit an important step toward building a strong community for the Star Wars Galaxies line of games. Nosotros firmly believe that consistent and open communication with fans will be one of the keys to the success of the Star Wars Galaxies experience."
- ―Simon Jeffery, president of LucasArts
On May 17, 2001, even before the game went into public beta testing, the showtime expansion'due south evolution was announced.[10] The yet-unnamed add-on, which was expected to be available half-dozen months after the initial product release, would be a infinite simulation and enable players to own and fly starships which would permit interplanetary travel and space gainsay. The release date of the initial production, the basis-based component, was updated to the second half of 2002. The staggered release schedule of the infinite component of the Star Wars Galaxies serial was said to benefit players because they would accept fourth dimension to establish their characters and explore different elements of the cadre game before adding the space layer.[11] Traveling betwixt planets would be accomplished through the utilize of public shuttles, which would ferry characters from world to world.[source?]
A new official site launched on the aforementioned twenty-four hour period, which placed more of an emphasis on the community of the game. It included new screen shots, movies, an updated FAQ, concept art, development team members' profiles, features about the game, and a new forum.[12] The site reached 100,000 users by Dec 2001.[xiii] Throughout the next year afterward the release of the site, new content would be revealed. This content included information on species and locations, new images and movies of different game elements, and 360-caste QuickTime VR panoramas of dissimilar locations.[source?]
In May 2002, Verant began accepting applications from users who were interested in participating in a closed beta test for Galaxies. The closed beta test would begin in July 2002.[14] SOE would share more information on the game equally the beta moved forward. This would include more screen shots, information on match making services, the fact that players would be permitted only 1 character per server,[15] and skill trees and how the skill-based system would function.[16] LucasArts also announced on May 20, 2002 that both the Xbox[17] and PlayStation two[18] would become a version of the game, just these would later on be cancelled.[source?]
The year 2002 concluded with LucasArts officially confirming a release engagement of April 15, 2003.[xix] [20] They also announced on December 20, 2002 that the ground-based component of Star Wars Galaxies would be called An Empire Divided and that the game's online community had grown to over 400,000 users since its original release in Nov 2000. This represented one of the largest always fan communities amassed for whatsoever game prior to retail availability.[19]
An Empire Divided would subsequently exist delayed to an unknown time,[21] simply on June 17, 2003, LucasArts confirmed that Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided would exist released on June 26.[ane]
With a Star Wars license and veteran designer Raph Koster at the helm, expectations amid gamers ran high during the development of Galaxies. Many industry professionals expected that these forces would push button the subscription numbers past the one million mark. As development wore on, the release engagement was pushed back, features were cutting, and Sony canceled planned ports for the Xbox and PlayStation 2.[source?]
The base game, An Empire Divided, was released in the The states on June 26, 2003 to mixed reviews. Galaxies was nigh criticized for numerous bugs and cleaved features that plagued the game.[22] Afterward release, the developers continued working on the features cut during the filibuster. In November 2003, two of those most anticipated features, creature mounts and actor-created cities were enabled. Too, on November 7, 2003 it was appear that the offset player had unlocked a Force-sensitive graphic symbol slot needed to become a Jedi.[source?]
On Nov 7, 2003, An Empire Divided was released in Europe. A localized version for the Japanese market was published by Electronic Arts Japan on December 23, 2004. Notwithstanding, Japanese acceptance of the game was depression, and in November 2005 the servers were shut down and existing accounts migrated to US servers.[source?]
Story and setting
Star Wars Galaxies did not begin with any sort of overarching story. Originally, as the original opening crawl states, afterward character creation, the player started out on an Imperial Star Destroyer later on being captured on a rider ship suspected of illegal activity. After beingness cleared of any wrongdoing, the player was instructed to brand their way through the ship towards the shuttle bay. Along the fashion, diverse obstacles were used to educate the player in the basics of game play. Later reaching the shuttle bay, the thespian was allowed to choose a starting planet, and then city. The planetary choices were Naboo, Tatooine, or Corellia. A bulk of the already established cities on the planet of option could be chosen every bit a starting point, such as Moenia, Theed, Coronet, Doaba Guerfel, Mos Eisley, or Anchorhead. Later choosing, they were loaded upwards into their city of choice on the planet with nothing only a green and yellow R2 helper droid, a limited-utilise 74-Z speeder cycle and no real management on what to do next.
Later on the release of the New Game Enhancements in belatedly 2005, however, story elements became more important to the development of your grapheme. The introductory sequence was inverse. This time the player started out on an Majestic infinite station. The player was apace contacted past C-3PO, who familiarized the player with the basics of the controls, and informed them that Han Solo would make it before long to rescue them. Han, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 arrived and escorted the role player to the hangar bay, where they were attacked past 3 stormtroopers. After killing the troopers, Han, the player and crew boarded the Millennium Falcon and escaped the exploding station, with Necktie fighters giving hunt. The next sequence was meant to familiarize the player with the space-combat game play. The histrion commanded one of the Falcon 'southward turrets and destroyed several TIE fighters, after which the Millennium Falcon hyperjumped to Tansarii Point Station. After arriving on the station, the player was gratis to consummate several story-driven quests on their quest for credits and experience (the player had to reach level 5 earlier they could leave the station). Once the player was sufficiently experienced, the player had to aid Han Solo in repairing the Falcon. Upon doing so, Han Solo dropped the player off in front of the spaceport in Mos Eisley on Tatooine. Before leaving, Han Solo set them up with a speeder, and a contact in Mos Eisley. This led the player to working for Jabba the Hutt, first through Bib Fortuna, then direct from Jabba's Palace. Farther quests in this overarching chain (known collectively as the Legacy quests) took the player to other planets, including Naboo, Corellia, and Talus. All throughout this quest chain, the player met many familiar faces from Star Wars lore, including Watto, Ephant Mon, Jabba the Hutt, Boss Nass, and Quarsh Panaka, just to proper noun a few.
Opening crawls
From its release in June of 2003 until November of 2005, Star Wars Galaxies used an opening crawl much like the movies as an introduction during character creation. After the release of the New Game Enhancements in November of 2005, a slightly updated opening crawl was used.
- Original
| ||
- Revised
| ||
Story arcs
- Cries of Alderaan
- Secrets of the Syren
- Rebel Theme Park
- Imperial Theme Park
- Legacy
- Death Troopers
- Nym'south Theme Park
Timeline
According to the opening crawl of the game, Star Wars Galaxies was prepare sometime after Episode IV. Meanwhile, the existence of certain characters and quests indicated that the game was ready earlier the events of Episode V.
Serji-X Arrogantus appeared in the game, and is established to have died in 0 ABY. This seemingly implies that Star Wars Galaxies was set up very shortly after the Battle of Yavin. However, another character named Sergeant Ruwan Tokai clearly mentioned that the destruction of the Death Star occurred a year earlier, suggesting a timeline closer to 1 ABY. Furthermore, Darth Vader only learns that it was his son, Luke Skywalker, who destroyed the Death Star, a revelation which is said to have occurred effectually ii ABY. Ambiguous mentions were made in the game about the beingness of Echo Base on Hoth. Han Solo'due south appearance on Lok proves that the game was set before the events of iii ABY, when he became encased in carbonite. This means certain portions of the game took place immediately after the Battle of Yavin in 0 ABY, some immediately before the Battle of Hoth in 3 ABY, and some in between, making a physical date impossible to determine for the game every bit a whole.
With Chapter 11 in November 2008, the developers added the Battle of Hoth to the game. Nonetheless, the developers were quite clear that this did non advance the timeline. It was only intended to exist a completely isolated "Star Wars Moment"[23] to give players the opportunity to participate in the iconic movie outcome without any effect on continuity for the rest of of the game. During the terminal twenty-four hours of the game on Dec 15, 2011, the developers depicted the 2d Death Star over Endor, and included a bunker on the moon where Majestic and Rebel players could fight each other. Not long earlier the servers were terminated, the second Death Star was shown being destroyed in the sky. This indicates that at least the final twenty-four hour period of the game tenuously took place in four ABY; however, characters like Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine could however exist visited after the Death Star's destruction.
Planets and explorable areas
The original basic "game world" consisted of 10 simulated planetary surfaces and associated structures. The twelve dissimilar planets were taken from the Star Wars films and the Expanded Universe: Tatooine, Naboo, Corellia, Talus, Rori, Dantooine, Lok, Yavin 4, the forest moon of Endor and Dathomir. The game'southward first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed, added explorable space sectors for every original planet. Two boosted infinite sectors were as well included, Deep Space and the Kessel sector. The chapter 8 update as well added the Nova Orion Station. In the second expansion, Rage of the Wookiees, the Wookiee planet Kashyyyk was added. In the third expansion, Trials of Obi-Wan added the planet Mustafar (the but planet without an explorable space sector). Examples of characters and points of interest that players could visit within the game included HK-47 (from Knights of the Erstwhile Republic and its sequel), R2-D2, C-3PO, their escape pod on Tatooine, the Naboo Regal Palace, the abandoned Insubordinate bases on Dantooine and Yavin IV, the notorious pirate Nym in his stronghold on Lok, Ewoks and rancors.
Each of the ten original planets were represented by approximately 225 square kilometers (15 km x 15 km) of game infinite,[24] with all established cities and locations compressed into that space. In contrast, the expansion planets of Kashyyyk and Mustafar were smaller, constructed differently (e.g. instances) and in some cases imposed different rules than the original, such every bit terrain that was not traversable (i.due east. mountains or hills that cannot be climbed over). Kashyyyk was represented by several navigational zones that connected to each other via portals located throughout that planet. Many of these zones were instanced, meaning that only the player or group that selected that zone were likely the only inhabitants of that zone. Mustafar had a traditional layout similar to the original planets, but with many instanced dungeons scattered across the landscape. With the release of Chapter xi, the planet Hoth was released as an instance.[25] [26] Ord Mantell was too added.
- Corellia
- Corellian system
- Dantooine
- Dantooine organisation
- Dathomir
- Dathomir organization
- Forest moon of Endor
- Endor arrangement
- Kashyyyk (required Rage of the Wookiees)
- Kashyyyk system
- Lok
- Karthakk system
- Mustafar (required Trials of Obi-Wan)
- Naboo
- Naboo system
- Rori
- Naboo arrangement
- Talus
- Corellian organization
- Tatooine
- Tatoo system
- Yavin four
- Yavin organization
- Ord Mantell's space system (Bright Precious stone organisation)
- Hoth
Gameplay and features
In basic gameplay, the player used his or her graphic symbol's skills and special abilities to attack targets, consummate quests, undertake missions, create useful in-game items, and/or entertain other players. The player's character would have opportunities to meet famous Star Wars characters, earn in-game fame and fortune (or infamy and notoriety), travel to iconic Star Wars locations, and obtain numerous items, artifacts, and "trophies" that could heighten his or her graphic symbol.
Species and professions
Players of the game created characters to navigate through these environments. Characters in Star Wars Galaxies could be one of ten species, again taken from the films and the Expanded Universe: Human, Twi'lek, Zabrak, Wookiee, Trandoshan, Rodian, Monday Calamari, Bothan, Sullustan, or Ithorian. A graphic symbol could be either male person or female person, and he or she belonged to one of nine iconic professions: Jedi, bounty hunter, smuggler, commando, spy, officeholder, medic, entertainer, or trader. Affiliate 6 has introduced animate being master, the NGE version of the pre-NGE brute handler, equally a split up expertise tree.[27] A character could too optionally advance in the political leader and pilot professions, independent of his or her primary profession. As with all MMORPGs, the feature set up of Star Wars Galaxies were subject to alter.
Species
A player could create a male or female person character of the following species:
- Bothan
- Human being
- Ithorian
- Mon Calamari
- Rodian
- Sullustan
- Trandoshan
- Twi'lek
- Wookiee
- Zabrak
At that place were a number of species that appeared throughout the game equally NPCs (non-role player characters).
- Ankuran
- Aqualish
- Arcona
- Bith
- Chadra-Fan
- Chevin
- Chiss
- Dantari
- Devaronian
- Drall
- Dulok
- Endor Marauder
- Ewok
- Feeorin
- Firrerreo
- Gamorrean
- Geonosian
- Gotal
- Gran
- Gungan
- Hutt
- Ishi Tib
- Jawa
- Kitonak
- Klatooinian
- Kowakian monkey-lizard
- Mustafarian
- Nautolan
- Neimoidian
- Nikto
- Ortolan
- Pa'lowick
- Quarren
- Selonian
- Talz
- Toydarian
- Tulgah
- Tusken Raider
- Weequay
- Whiphid
Professions
These professions were bachelor in the game's later releases, following the "New Game Enhancements":
- Jedi
- Officer
- Smuggler
- Bounty hunter
- Commando
- Trader (Munitions, Engineering, Domestics or Structures)
- Medic
- Entertainer
- Spy
- Pilot (through parallel progression)
- Beast Master (through the Expertise system)
- Chronicle Master (through parallel progression)
Original professions
Player housing, guilds, and cities
Characters could erect, own and decorate a variety of buildings, including houses, cantinas, club halls and city halls. These buildings, when grouped, could be organized into cities. Players held elections via ballot box for Mayor. Elected mayors granted city members certain rights to place structures within the city and eject players from cities as needed. Reelections were held every three weeks. If some other actor wished to run for mayor, they could add together their name at whatsoever time to the election box to run against the incumbent. As cities grew in population, they became eligible to add services and facilities such as vehicle repair garages, shuttleports, cloning facilities, hospitals, cantinas and garden displays. They could evidence up on the planetary maps aslope canonical cities such equally Theed and Mos Eisley.
Starships
The game included a variety of playable and non-player controlled ships:
Combat
- Ground Gainsay: Ground combat in Galaxies was in existent fourth dimension and like to a kickoff-person shooter. Unlike most MMORPGs, whether an attack hits was not solely based on the grapheme's skill numbers. The actor had to aim a targeting reticule at a target and left-click the mouse to burn. Auto-aim and automobile-fire features were later made available, creating a more traditional combat experience, only players eschewing those options were rewarded with an increased chance to do maximum damage. Every bit characters gained levels (by gaining feel points, known as XP), they gained access to boosted combat abilities, called "specials," which were "fired" past using the right mouse button. These specials ordinarily had a cool-down period during which they could not be reused, merely they were much more powerful or versatile than the basic left-click assault. Specials were also used to heal characters and raise their other abilities too as decrease an enemy'south statistics. In addition to these specials, players gained the ability to use more powerful and varied type of weaponry as they climbed the ranks in their chosen profession. For instance, the KYD-21 blaster pistol was limited to the Spy profession.
- Space Combat: Space combat in Galaxies was like to ground gainsay. Players had to aim at their targets (frequently needing to "lead" their target to compensate for the target'south move) and click a push button on the mouse or joystick to fire. Success in space gainsay was largely dependent on player skill, only not quite to the same extent as seen in previous Star Wars space-simulator games. As characters advanced in their piloting professions, they gained admission to a multifariousness of tactics, starship chassis, and starship components. Their ships could be completely customized with components looted from enemies or crafted by shipwrights. Available chassis included the 10-wing and Y-fly for Rebels, Tie Fighters and Necktie/IN interceptors for Imperials, and new Hutt and Black Sun ship designs for Freelancers. Characters who mastered a piloting profession got access to PoB (Political party on Lath) transport designs such equally the famed YT-1300 light freighter. PoB ships allowed characters to walk effectually the interiors (which could be busy merely like a building on the ground) and man additional shipboard stations such every bit laser turrets. Some high-end ships were obtainable only via difficult quests; such ships include the Eta-2 Actis-form interceptor (unremarkably called the JSF or "Jedi Starfighter") and the KSE Firespray (made famous by the Fett ship Slave I).
Other features of the basic game
- Single- and multi-rider ground vehicles and starships (landspeeders, speeder bikes, swoops, X-wings, Necktie Fighters and even several of the YT-series of ships).
- An almost completely player-run economy, wherein player characters were responsible for creating many (and nearly all) in-game items including blasters, starships, clothing, armor, food, housing, furniture and even a wide variety of droids. Items were created from player-collected raw materials and looted items—with other player characters as the only consumers. Later on, the developers added more high-quality equipment to loot tables and as quest rewards, but thespian crafters remained an essential part of the economic system.
- An extensive ready of emotes, moods, and associated animations, which affected not just an avatar's physical appearance just also the text used to depict a graphic symbol's spoken language, and even the shape of the speech bubble displayed on-screen.
- Standard MMORPG features such equally thespian guilds, chat functionality, and other community features.
- The ability for players to place bounties on opponents that defeated/killed them in player-versus-player (PvP) battle. Player grapheme bounty hunters could and so choice up another character'southward "bounty mission" on the terminals and track the grapheme down. A compensation could be claimed at any time, regardless of the target's PvP setting. Up to 3 bounty hunters could runway a grapheme at any given time.
- An extensive avatar/character-creation arrangement. Characters could rent Entertainers to change their appearance in-game, with fifty-fifty more options than those bachelor at creation. Every visual aspect of a character was thereby changeable at whatever time after character creation except species and gender.
Servers
There were twenty-five dissimilar servers—chosen "galaxies"—in which players could choose to play the game. Most of them were named after obscure ships from the Expanded Universe. Twelve were shut down on October 15, 2009, leaving 13, which were close downward with the game'due south closure on December 15th, 2011.[28] They are:
- Ahazi
- Bloodfin
- Bria
- Chilastra
- Chimaera
- Corbantis (removed) [28]
- Eclipse
- Europe-Infinity (removed) [28]
- FarStar
- Flurry
- Gorath
- Intrepid (removed) [28]
- Kauri (removed) [28]
- Kettemoor (removed) [28]
- Lowca (removed) [28]
- Naritus (removed) [28]
- Radiant
- Scylla (removed) [28]
- Shadowfire
- Starsider
- Sunrunner
- Tarquinas (removed) [28]
- Tempest (removed) [28]
- Valcyn (removed) [28]
- Wanderhome (removed) [28]
Releases, expansions and updates
An Empire Divided
At the fourth dimension of its initial release, the game was very different than it was at the time of its closure. Vehicles and creature mounts were not even so implemented. While role player housing was in the game, player cities were not. (Those features were added in November 2003.) Each graphic symbol and creature possessed three "pools" (called Health, Action, and Mind; or "HAM") that represented his or her physical and mental reserves. About attacks specifically targeted 1 of these three pools, and any action the character took as well depleted i or more than of the pools. When any i of those pools was fully depleted, the character would fall unconscious. Combat required the histrion to carefully manage his or her actions to avoid depleting a pool.
Grapheme progression was vastly different at release as well. Characters started out in one of six basic professions (Medic, Brawler, Marksman, Scout, Entertainer, or Artisan) and could choice up any of the other five at any time after graphic symbol cosmos. Each profession consisted of a tree-like structure of skills, with a single Novice level, 4 independent branches of four levels each, and a Principal level which required completion of all four branches. Characters purchased these skills with experience points gained through a related activity. For example, an Entertainer could purchase skills to get better at playing music, but but with Musician feel points. Dancing experience points were entirely separate and could only be used to purchase dancing skills.
In addition to the bones professions, characters could specialize into advanced professions such as Bounty Hunter, Beast Handler, Ranger, Doctor, and Musician. There were a total of 24 avant-garde professions, although in that location was no way for characters to obtain all of them at one time. Each avant-garde profession had certain skill requirements from the base professions that had to exist met, some more restrictive than others.
Jedi were not available equally a starting profession, nor even as an advanced profession. The developers stated only that sure in-game deportment would open up up a Force-sensitive character slot. The actions required were left for players to notice. It eventually turned out that characters had to attain Master level in five random professions. The identity of 4 of those necessary professions could be learned via looted holocrons, but the fifth had to be found via trial and mistake. The first Force-sensitive character slot was unlocked on Nov 7, 2003.[29]
Expansion packs
In addition to the base game, 3 expansions were developed by SOE and published by LucasArts since the game's inception:
Combat Upgrade
The Combat Upgrade of Apr 2005 was a major revamping and rewriting of the entire Star Wars Galaxies combat, armor, and weapons organization. A more restricted tone was gear up, whereas but sure characters in certain professions would use specific weapons and article of clothing armor. In addition, the method of fighting in the game was redone with skill levels assigned to both players and game creatures. Nether the new organization, only a beast of equal skill could be attacked by a player, with lesser creatures rendering no experience if killed and the more powerful creatures deemed near invincible to single actor attacks.
New Game Enhancements (NGE)
- "Nosotros get told by marketing, 'You lot know what, to practice a new marketing push nosotros need Jedi in the game. Nosotros want Jedi by Christmas.'"
- ―Raph Koster, creative director
On Nov fifteen, 2005, in that location was a complete overhaul of all game aspects, reducing the number of professions to ix, down from original thirty-two. New patches came out emphasizing the residual and individuality of each profession. These included:
Free character transfers and server closures
Beginning January 13, 2009, SOE began offering a free character transfer to all electric current subscribers of the game. Players were allowed a one-fourth dimension simply transfer from one "milky way" (or server) to some other. The departing and destination servers were each part of dissever lists. You could only depart from a set list of servers and could simply transfer to a set listing of servers. This promotion was gear up to stop on October 15, 2009.[31]
SOE announced on September xv, 2009 that a number of Star Wars Galaxies ' servers would be permanently shut down on October 15th, 2009. The following is a listing of the servers that were permanently closed on this date. All characters, items, and structures withal present on those servers were permanently lost when they closed downwards.[28]
- Corbantis
- Europe-Infinity
- Intrepid
- Kauri
- Kettemoor
- Lowca
- Naritus
- Scylla
- Tarquinas
- Tempest
- Valcyn
- Wanderhome
SOE later announced that, first on October sixteen, 2009, players who had had characters on the deactivated servers, yet did not take advantage of the free character transfer service, could contact SOE Customer Support and, for the standard $50.00 USD charge for a Character Transfer, could transfer a character from an inactive server to an active one. However, as a courtesy, when some users submitted their requests to the GMs, the transfer fee was waived.[32]
Sony appear on Apr 20, 2011 that they would begin offer free, unlimited grapheme transfers between servers on April 26, 2011. When this system became agile, the paid service was no longer available, though many of the same restrictions every bit on the paid service nevertheless applied. Additionally, under this new system, players were unable to transfer to the Starsider server; withal, they could transfer from the server and could also transfer between other servers every xc days.[33]
Detailed release and update history
- June 26, 2003: Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (initial boxed release) and Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided Collectors Edition
- Oct 27, 2004: Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed (boxed expansion)
- April 27, 2005: Gainsay Upgrade (free major online revamp)
- May five, 2005: Star Wars Galaxies: Rage of the Wookiees (digital download expansion)
- May 25, 2005: Star Wars Galaxies: The Total Feel (boxed compilation of An Empire Divided, Spring to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees)
- Nov 1, 2005: Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan (digital download expansion)
- November xv, 2005: New Game Enhancements (free major online revamp)
- Nov 22, 2005: Star Wars Galaxies: Starter Kit (boxed compilation of An Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, New Game Enhancements)
- November 16, 2006, Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures (boxed compilation of An Empire Divided, Leap to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees, Trials of Obi-Wan and New Game Enhancements)
- September 28, 2007, Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures (digital compilation of An Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees, Trials of Obi-Wan and New Game Enhancements)
- September 28, 2007, Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures (premium digital compilation of An Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees, Trials of Obi-Wan, New Game Enhancements with an additional in-game J-blazon 327 Nubian royal starship instant travel vehicle)
- November xx, 2009, Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures (premium plus pack digital compilation of An Empire Divided, Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees, Trials of Obi-Wan, New Game Enhancements with additional in-game rewards: J-type 327 Nubian royal starship instant travel vehicle, Tsmeu-6 personal bicycle bike, All Terrain Recon Transport, Mustafarian Underground Bunker, Varactyl and Lava flea mounts)
The end of Galaxies
On June 24, 2011, SOE appear that Star Wars Galaxies and the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Carte du jour Game would permanently shut downwards on Dec 15, 2011, primarily due to Star Wars: The Erstwhile Republic effectively replacing it. Additionally, the power to purchase cards and booster packs for the trading card game was disabled. Starting September 15, 2011, the game became unavailable for buy at retail or through digital download, and no new or reactivated accounts were immune afterward this date. Additionally, all billing for the game was turned off on this appointment; whatever accounts that were active and in skilful continuing at the time were able to play the game for the rest of fourth dimension for costless, and any such accounts were able to try any SOE game for free as a full fellow member.[2] After the shutdown, some erstwhile players created servers that emulate the pre-CU and NGE version of the game.[34] [35]
Reception
Prior to its launch, Galaxies won E³ Awards for ii years in a row, beginning in 2001 for All-time PC Game and All-time Online Multiplayer,[36] and so in 2002 for Best Online Multiplayer.[37]
Reviews for the initial launch of the game in 2003 were mostly positive. The game was praised for its lush graphics, liberal employ of the moving picture soundtracks, massive world size, character customization, creative beast ecology, circuitous skill organisation, player economy interdependencies and its sandbox approach. Reviewers criticized the overwhelming complexity of the game, PvP/PVE combat imbalances of the professions, bugginess and lack of quest content.[38] The reviews for the first expansion, Spring To Lightspeed, praised the new space gainsay but criticized the footing game for its lack of sufficient improvement.[39] The reviews for the second expansion, Rage Of The Wookiees, lauded the new quest content for current subscribers but lamented the Combat Upgrade and the continued bugginess of the game.[40] The third expansion, Trials Of Obi-Wan, in one case again introduced new quest and content and the planet Mustafar. Nonetheless, two weeks after a new system called NGE was introduced, which forever changed the play style of Star Wars Galaxies and removed some of the content that was included with Trials Of Obi-Wan.[41]
Controversies
- "There has been no MMORPG that has caused more controversy...."
- ―MMORPG.com
Jedi
Players who wished to play a Jedi character had to beginning unlock their Jedi slot by fulfilling an unknown list of criteria. All the same, within four months of this stipulation, no histrion had yet achieved the goal. The Jedi forum at the official site turned into a "flamer's paradise" as some subscribers defendant the developers of lying most the Jedi system being in place. The starting time role player unlocked their Jedi slot on Fri November vii, 2003.[42] LucasArts game producer Haden Blackman stated in an interview on December xx, 2003, with Gamespy: "Nosotros're confident in the [Jedi] system considering the feedback from players has been extremely positive. Not only are Jedi players happy with the organization and the powers they are receiving…." This caused a backlash by some players who felt this argument was misleading. Gamespy noted: "GameSpy's mail was so flooded with reports from the Galaxies community that we started researching this feature to present both sides of the story."[43] Considering the fourth dimension delivery to unlock a Jedi was substantial, players complained that perma-expiry of the character after 3 deaths was overly harsh. The developers somewhen relented and lowered the penalty to skill loss in Jan 2004.[44]
Some players farther complained that the process of unlocking the Jedi slot, known as "hologrinding," was overly long, painful and disruptive to the social textile of the game. In March 2005, the developers released a quest system every bit the new path to unlocking the Jedi slot.[45] [46] With the NGE (come across below) in November 2005, allowing all players, including new ones, to play a Jedi character, there were complaints that the time and effort that veteran players had expended in unlocking their Jedi slots were all for nada.[47]
Gainsay Upgrade
SWG developers promised a "Gainsay Upgrade" or "CU," which was released April 27, 2005, and represented a major rewrite of the combat, armor, and weapons systems, wherein merely certain professions could employ specific weapons and armor. The combat mechanics in the game were shifted from a skill system to a combat-level organisation for both players and game creatures. The icon graphics were changed from monochromatic to colour.[48] This alteration resulted in controversy acquired by players who criticized the changes,[49] [50] and cancellations during that time.[51]
New Game Enhancements
- "In that location'southward a reason that we did this. The story … is kind of getting lost here… the game was losing subscribers. We had to brand this game more attainable to a wider audience or somewhen we would non have a business."
- ―John Smedley, president of SOE
Some other set of game changes dubbed the "New Game Enhancements" (NGE) began testing on Nov four, 2005, going alive on November 15 via digital download, and became available in retail equally the Star Wars Galaxies: Starter Kit on November 22. Changes included the reduction of the 34 original professions to ix "iconic" ones. There were criticisms of the changes in some reviews, and negative player feedback was noted past media outlets outside the gaming manufacture, including CBS News, New York Times, New York Post and Wired Magazine.[52] [53] [54] [55] On Slashdot, president of SOE John Smedley explained that they felt it necessary to revamp the game to the NGE in order to reverse the deterioration they were seeing in the subscriber base.[56] The development team affirmed this was their desired direction for the game, and they were slowly modifying parameters to address players' desires.[55] This progress included the re-introduction of some pre-NGE features that were removed, such as creature handling, target locking, automobile-firing, the ability to burn down special attacks from their keys, and the option to go along the photographic camera behind the grapheme, rather than the NGE's over-the-shoulder perspective.[27] The development team also gave each profession a gear up of "Expertise trees" to bring dorsum some complexity and differentiation to characters.[source?] Thousands of players canceled their accounts as a result of the NGE.[source?] In a 2014 reddit chat, Smedley wrote that he "would practice everything differently" if given a take chances to relaunch the game, and that SOE's side by side project would please players of Star Wars Galaxies.[57]
Expansion refund
The Trials of Obi-Wan expansion met with controversy every bit, 2 days subsequently the expansion was released, the evolution team announced the NGE. Many players objected that they would not have purchased the expansion if they had known in advance about the NGE. SOE eventually offered a refund to players who had purchased the expansion prior to the NGE, though this offer was quickly rescinded due to what the thespian community believed was an overwhelming number of refund requests.[58]
Subscriber numbers
Many industry professionals expected that the subscription numbers would exceed the one one thousand thousand mark, a feat accomplished only thus far in Asia past MMORPGs such as Lineage and more than recently by World of Warcraft.[59] Based on NPD figures as of Feb 2004, Star Wars Galaxies sold more than 300,000 boxed copies at retail for a total initial revenue of over $18 meg dollars. SOE confirmed in March 2004 that there were well over 200,000 monthly subscribers, making it the 2d-largest MMORPG in Due north America.[threescore] The company later reported in 2004 that they had 250,000 subscribers.[61] In August 2005, SOE reported that they had at present sold 1,000,000 boxed copies of the game.[62] Media sources reported that the subscriber numbers had fallen substantially since the release of the CU and the NGE.[51] [63] In early on 2006 after the NGE, allegedly "hacked" numbers purported to show that only 10,363 subscribers were playing on a particular Friday night. The President of SOE, John Smedley, denied that subscriptions had fallen this depression: "Have the numbers in Star Wars Galaxies gone down? I will tell you that the concurrent numbers have gone downwardly. Are they as depression every bit what was shown there? Admittedly non."[64]
Every bit of the 2nd quarter of 2006, co-ordinate to charts at MMOGchart.com, there were estimated to exist betwixt 110,000 and 175,000 subscribers. Still, even MMOGchart.com rated the subscriber number as a "C," which means they are "merely industry 'best guesses' or are otherwise questionable" due to SOE not releasing SWG subscriber numbers.[65]
Continuity
When Leland Chee was asked on the StarWars.com Message Boards if Star Wars Galaxies was generally ignored when it came to canon, since reclassified as Star Wars Legends, he replied:
- Equally far as the Holocron is concerned, I don't ignore anything. Licensing checks continuity in Galaxies like we would for any other game, book, or toy. Every bit I do my continuity checks, the information gets entered into the database. I also incorporate anything from the Galaxies website and strategy guides.
When asked about player-created characters, ships, and events featured on the official Star Wars Galaxies website, Leland stated that such aspects of the game were:
- Non-continuity since they exist only in a single milky way/server. [66]
Inconsistencies
The game developers drew many aspects of the films and Expanded Universe. However, in some cases, they exercise not fit into the era. Keeping in mind that the time frame of this game was meant to exist presently afterwards the Boxing of Yavin (0 ABY–ane ABY), some elements of the game arguably should not be there:
- The opportunity to play as a transcended Forcefulness ghost Jedi character. This option was only accessible by those players who attained Jedi status prior to the NGE.
- Jedi could exist seen in large numbers in many major cities, equipped with Jedi robes and ignited lightsabers. Also, Jedi were dominant combatants in the Galactic Ceremonious War (see below).
- Players using not-Human characters could earn war machine ranks in the Empire, resulting in Imperial Wookiee generals and the like.
- The ability of players to craft and airplane pilot ships such as the B-wing and A-wing, which supposedly were non designed still.
- Chapter v introduced gainsay droids for regular employ, which are highly uncommon for this era.
- Large quantities of buildings dotted about landscapes that wouldn't normally be populated, such as Tatooine.
- The power of players to craft and equip Mandalorian armor, which became quite abundant as fourth dimension went by.
- Cloning was outlawed during the Galactic Civil State of war, so massive cloning centers on every planet would be breaking the laws of the Empire.
- Clones in the Star Wars universe took up to ten years to abound and mature even when they were biologically engineered to age faster than normal. In Star Wars Galaxies, information technology was the selection of the player to clone his character instantly in a cloning center whenever he dies. However, this may have been a mere game mechanic to let for quicker play.
- The rancor is identified every bit an crustacean/arachnid hybrid, though it displays the traits of neither and has already been identified in more than reliable sources as a reptomammal.
- Game Update eleven introduced the Galactic Marine armor for Imperial players. The armor itself was not in frequent utilise at the time of the Galactic Ceremonious War.
- Game Update 12 introduced more battle droids such as B2 super battle droids, MagnaGuards, and DSD1 dwarf spider droids. These, equally well as the battle droids introduced in Chapter 5, are highly uncommon during this era.
In few of the to a higher place cases, the developers provided a reasonable in-universe caption of these elements' existence. Nevertheless, it is unknown if other sources will accept them every bit canon.
The game focused more on allowing its players to feel equally many facets of Star Wars lore as possible, sometimes at the expense of consistency inside its own universe (for example, the mayor of Mos Eisley highlighted the incident in the cantina when Obi-Wan revealed himself equally Jedi as something special, even though Jedi were a common role of the game population).
Unlike the historic chronology of Star Wars, where almost all Jedi are extinct past the fourth dimension frame of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, Star Wars Galaxies allows for hundreds or thousands of Jedi playing in the game, which is set in the period of time betwixt the first moving picture and Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.
Under the original Jedi organization, a role player could simply get a Jedi after mastering professions chosen randomly at character cosmos. When fewer Jedi entered the game than was anticipated, players were helped past finding several holocrons, which would tell a role player which game professions to play and master. This resulted in several "career" players spending hours on end writing program macros and mastering most every profession in the game. Still, after complaints from a big portion of the role player base (especially those that weren't constant and devoted players and thus less willing to master multiple professions), Star Wars Galaxies was given a new Jedi system called the Jedi Trials. Under the Jedi Trials, only after obtaining various goals as a regular character was a character considered "glowing with the Forcefulness" and accounted worthy to train to become a Jedi. Several new tasks and then became available to the player, which were revealed through various non-player characters. Such tasks included obtaining skills, destroying creatures, and visiting several Jedi-related locations. Even with the Jedi revamp in place, many in the Star Wars Galaxies community expressed feelings that the game would become an "Army of Generals" where the number of Jedi playing in the game volition be extremely loftier, thus making the game less interesting for those playing not-Jedi characters. The method of obtaining Jedi skills was changed considerably nether the "Combat Upgrade" system released in April 2005.
After the NGE, anyone could become a Jedi by selecting the "profession" when creating their grapheme. Arguments came upward proposing that Jedi, once the NGE was released, would still exist unbalanced, only this time with the odds against them. Many Jedi came into the NGE and saw that their former ability was dramatically reduced. At one point, the village of Aurilia (the in-game location that served as a hub for pre-NGE Forcefulness-sensitive questing) became inactive. Players that were still within when this happened constitute just a few NPCs left. Some players still wished to see the hamlet reopened as a sort of training center for the Jedi fabricated to ensure the old prizes don't disappear from the game. But it was subsequently announced that Aurilia would never be returned to its erstwhile land, and was re-opened in a different form; in Chapter seven, information technology became the location where a player could receive quests, which, upon completion, volition permit the actor to access the "heroic instances," which were battles against multiple "bosses," with puzzle and strategy elements mixed in. These heroics were designed to be completed with a grouping of players, usually viii.[67]
Tie-ins
- Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine - A tie-in novel to Star Wars Galaxies which was co-written by W. Haden Blackman and Voronica Whitney-Robinson. It was published past Del Rey on December 30th, 2003.
- Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game : An online card game that was launched in August 2008 and was available to all Galaxies subscribers. Its initial release was chosen Champions of the Strength. Several expansions were released since its inception. It allows players to play on their ain or against each other, in a new storyline that features Namman Cha, Rachi Sitra, Jeffren Brek and Coret Bhan in their quest for the Codex of Tython. Information technology also features special boodle cards that could be redeemed for in-game items in Galaxies.
- The Story of General Grievous: Lord of War
- Due north-G Necrosis
- Myyydril Caverns
- Bane's Heart
- Treun Lorn
- Doctor Kinesworthy
- Underworld Appendix: Swoops, Spice, and Wretched Rogues
- Crash due north' Burn
- Star Wars: Empire at War
- Rihkxyrk attack fighter
- Star Wars: Knights of the Sometime Republic: Days of Fright
- Bivoli Tempari (in name of Trivial Bivoli)[68]
- The Force Unleashed novel
- Minstyngar (Mentioned only)
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- bocatt
- Emperor'due south Retreat
- Kobola Miners
- piket
- quenker
- Rori
- Rori Spice Mining Collective
Credits
- This section represents the original game, An Empire Divided.[69]
Appearances
- As Star Wars Galaxies introduces thousands of new elements to the Star Wars Expanded Universe, this article refrains from using "(Starting time appearance)"; instead, the following symbols are used to bespeak whether an chemical element originated in a source other than the base game.
- A † signifies a graphic symbol, location, event, etc. that originated in another source.
- A ‡ signifies a graphic symbol, location, event, etc. that first appeared in or was outset mentioned in Jump to Lightspeed rather than the original game (prior to Nov 9, 2005).
- A Γ signifies a character, location, event, etc. that get-go appeared in or was start mentioned in Rage of the Wookiees rather than the original game.
- A Σ signifies a character, location, event, etc. that start appeared in or was outset mentioned in Trials of Obi-Wan rather than the original game.
- A
strikethroughsignifies a graphic symbol that was nowadays in the game later release but was later removed from the game.
Sources
Notes and references
Run into also
- Planet Design: Building Worlds
External links
- Official site (content at present obsolete; backup link)
- SWG Wiki
- swgemu.com - A fan-made Star Wars Galaxies emulator
- swglegends.com - A fan-made Star Wars Galaxies emulator
- Points of Involvement (2003-06-13). lucasforums.com. LucasForums. Archived from the original.
- Ratan, Suneel: Tranquillity Birth for Star Wars World (2003-06-26). wired.com. Wired.com. Archived from the original on June 10, 2008.
- Vitka, William: In 'Galaxies' Far, Far Away… There Is Discontent, Evolution And Outrage In Star Wars Galaxies (2006-02-21). cbsnews.com. cbsnews.com. Archived from the original on March 2, 2006.
- Alexandra, Heather: Star Wars Galaxies Is Dead, But These People Are Keeping Information technology Live (2016-09-xiii). kotaku.com. kotaku.com. Archived from the original on May 7, 2020.
- Winkie, Luke: Flashback: 'Star Wars Galaxies' and the Disastrous "NGE" Game-Killing Update (2017-05-25). Rolling Stone. rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017.
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