We are currently experiencing technical issues with our network that handles many SOE services. Right now we have no ETA, but engineers are working on resolving the problem as quickly as possible. You may experience timeouts or errors logging into any SOE game, message boards, or your account page.
When it comes to the world of videogames, few franchises have been as prolific as Star Wars. Every new Star Wars game that gets released is a sure-fire hit, partly due to the strength of the brand name, but also due to the indisputable quality of many of the games in the series. The first Star Wars game, The Empire Strikes Back for the Atari 2600, expertly captured the essence of the snowy Hoth sequences despite the technical limitations of the system. Later entries in the series expanded on the ideas in this game to encapsulate the entirety of the expanded Star Wars Universe. Despite the fact that (hopefully) the movie series has ended, the videogames will continue drawing audiences for years to come.
In our latest editorial Site Manager Sparky discusses how 2006 has benefited Star Wars Galaxies. Everything from returning players to the reversal of the NGE is discussed in this latest blog entry.
The holiday season is upon us and from a gamers prospective that usually means one of two things depending on which side of the fence you are on. If your a console gamer this is the best time of year to either own a system. All of the latest releases and accessories flood the market around this time of year and there is never a shortage of new experiences to try out. However, us MMO players aren't always so fortunate. The holidays can mean weak update schedules, busier than expected server populations and maybe an event or two to tide us over until the developers return to work in January.
Luckily for Star Wars fans the above statement doesn't apply to our game. The developers have done an excellent job providing us with new chapters, bug fixes and updates throughout the fall season. These updates have included new expertise systems for most classes, fixing up some of the legacy quests and providing an overll better experience, certainly when compared to the game just before the launch of the “Chapter” system.
New Poll: Life Day 2006 Print News | Mail News | Category: Site Features We've created a new poll on the site's sidebar asking which Life Day 2006 bonus you'd like to receive. Which item you get is completely random and as a bonus you get a second item for a friend. Sound off in our latest poll and tell us what you think. We've also included images of some of the items below!
Friday Feature: Life Day 2006 Print News | Mail News | Category: Friday Feature SOE has posted it's latest Friday feature. This feature is about their life day event and the possible items that you may come across. We've copied their announcement below:
Happy Life Day 2006!
For Life Day 2006, everyone will be receiving two Life Day Gift Boxes. There is one for you and one to give to a friend!
To open the gift boxes, all you have to do is double click the gift box and the Life Day gift will be placed in your inventory.
Here is a sneak preview of all the different gifts that you might receive.
(Make sure you give it a few minutes to update the images)
Chapter 4.2 Has Arrived Print News | Mail News | Category: Developer Comments SOE has unleashed chapter 4.2 upon us. Included in this patch are two sets of expertise fixes for Spy and Commando as well as some combat tweaks. We've got the full notes below:
Combat
Damage Over Time: Only 3 DOTs per player can be applied per player target (PvP only).
Abilities that use a % of action cost will now use the unmodified action total in all cases.
Space
GCW: A tier 2 pilot destroying a tier 1 enemy in space will receive the correct number of GCW points now.
Profession: Commando
Expertise: Dueling does not increase the count on a Kill Meter.
Expertise: Shock Tracer and Energy Grenade DOT damage are now 75 per tick for level 1, 150 per tick for level 2, 225 per tick for level 3, and 300 per tick for level 4.
Heavy Weapon DOTs now do 25% of the maximum weapon damage instead of 12.5%.
Profession: Spy
Expertise: Smoke Bomb, and Without A Trace will not break when using the Venomous Ploy trap line B.
Expertise: The ability Sneak will no longer cancel auto attack when attempting to use it in combat.
Expertise: You should now be able to stealth while under the effect of smoke bomb after the stealth cool-down is finished.
Today is Sankt Nikolaus in Germany. On this day, Nikolaus comes to the kids houses and reads his list of those who have been good and bad during the year. For those kids who behaved well, Nikolaus will give the kid a present. If they behaved badly, his fellow "Ruprecht" will spank the kid with a birch.
Another tradition in Germany is to put your boot in front of the door. The next day, it will be filled with Apples, Oranges and nuts.
Saint Nicholas ( Greek: Νικόλαος, Nicholas , Nike+Laós, "Victory of the people") is the common name for Saint Nicholas of Myra, who had a reputation for secret gift -giving, but is now commonly identified with Santa Claus, Father Christmas or in The Netherlands and northern Belgium as Sint-Nicolaas or Sinterklaas. He lived in 4th century Myra in the Byzantine Empire's Lycia, the modern day Demre in the Antalya province of Turkey. This is as much as is generally known about him in the West.
This historical character was the inspiration for a mythical figure known as Sankt Nikolaus in Germany and Sinterklaas in the Netherlands and Flanders, which in turn was the inspiration for Santa Claus. Sinterklaas (a contracted form of Sint Nicolaas) is a major celebration in the Netherlands and in Flanders (see below). Among Orthodox Christians, the historical Saint Nicholas is remembered and revered. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, children, and students in Greece, Russia and Serbia. He is also the patron saint of Barranquilla( Colombia ), Bari( Italy ) Amsterdam( Netherlands ), and of Beit Jala in the West Bank of Palestine.
On Tuesday, December 5th from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM PDT, Star Wars Galaxies may or may not be available while maintenance is performed.
The service interruptions are not expected to last longer than 6 hours, but should it exceed that, we will update this announcement.
Thank you!
* Note: This maintenance effort is related to global changes happening in the system unrelated to Star Wars Galaxies. You may or may not be able to log in due to ongoing network updates.
4:00 AM PST (Los Angeles) / 6:00 AM CST (Austin) / 7:00 AM EST (New York)
12:00 PM GMT (London) / 1:00 PM CET (Berlin) / 8:00 PM (Tokyo)
Click here for the timezone calculator!
Stratics now has a toolbar for both Internet Explorer and Firefox! With the toolbar you can listen to one of the current podcasts from Stratics, or visit one of our fansites!
Kudos go to gabeknight, the "voice of stratics" who is also one of our SWG Reporters.
A few years ago, the guys from Penny Arcade decided to do something nice for kids at Seattle Children's Hospital. They put a call out to the gaming community to prove that all the ills of the world are not caused by video games. To prove, in fact, that gamers are pretty decent people. They asked for donations of toys, cash, and time to give these kids a good Christmas holiday. The results were nothing short of spectacular.
The Child's Play charity has grown to include hospitals around the world. Being in a hospital over the holidays is tough on these kids and it's our chance to help spread some good cheer to them. This year there are more ways than ever to donate to Child's Play. If you're not already volunteering time, gifts, or money to a worthy cause this holiday season, why not send a little joy to the world in this way? Nothing speaks more to the spirit of the season than putting a smile on a kid's face.
Jonric: Why will this content update will appeal to current subscribers, and why might the game be of interest now to those who've never played or stopped?
Jake Neri: With each Chapter, we are seeing progressively more and more people on our Test Server playing the new systems and content. We are pretty confident that the current players will love Chapter 4 because their feedback from playing it on the test center is telling us so. Our forums have been filled with really useful information, and the guys at Sony Online Entertainment have been able to use it to tweak the development of the features. It's actually a cool process to watch.
The wait is over! We know you've been starving for another episode and now you may partake in the feast that is Episode 64. While on a short vacation MrBubble stopped by the SOE offices in San Diego. What for? Did he survive? Was he brainwashed? He’ll answer all of these questions, and more!
While MrBubble was busy charming SOE employees into giving him cookies and gummi worms, Yivvits made a breakthrough in his never-ending quest to figure out those broken shaders/textures. That’s not all, he’s also been playing another game and it isn’t CoV.
Also this week, we cover a ton of random topics including gems like: more things we’d like to see fixed in SWG, Count Dooku’s opinions on various things, and MrBubble’s longing to be a fairy (in EQ2).
Phone support for account and technical support will be closed on Wednesday, December 6th.
Account and Technical Phone Support will be closed on Wednesday, December 6th. Phone support will return at its normal hours 10:00am through 7:00pm PST on Thursday December 7th.
Account and Technical Live Chat support will remain available during its normal hours Monday through Friday, 10:00am through 7:00pm PST at http://station.sony.com/chat
Account and Technical Email support is available any time at http://station.sony.com/email
Our Account and Technical Support knowledgebase is always available at http://station.sony.com/kb
Here's a reminder to sign up to receive SOE Emails. We have a few emails that will be sent out soon that you don't want to miss! What's included when you sign up?
You'll receive the quarterly Newsletters for the games you are signed up for.
You'll receive any promotional emails that we send out
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Click on My Account on the top bar (the station one) or visit
Click on Email Newsletters
Select those you wish to receive.
Click on Make Changes. (If you aren't sure you are getting the emails, click on Make Changes even if you don't change anything, just to refresh the setting.)
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How come I never seem to get any of the emails?
There are a couple of reasons you may not be receiving the emails from SOE:
Update your Email Address:
Incorrect Email Address is a common reason for not receiving the emails from the station. To update your email address, click on the link that says, visit the Registration pages.
Email is being blocked:
If your e-mail system has a block, junk, bulk, or spam mail folder, you'll want to make sure that it allows e-mail from The [email protected] [[email protected]]. You will need to check the options, properties, or preferences of your mail system to determine how to set this up.
Options not saved:
There's a chance that your options were not set correctly when the system changed over to this system. To fix this, click on the [Clear-All] link and click on Make Changes. Then select your options again and click on Make Changes again. That should refresh the list.
Real life first name: Cindy
Forum handle: Jannae
Main Character name: Raene Cedco
Server: Tarquinas
Player Association: Wraith Squadron (WSQ)
Where in the real life world do you live? Birmingham, Alabama
How long have you played Star Wars Galaxies? I have played since June 2003, and I have not stopped yet!
What other MMOs have you played? None to speak of, this is the first one for me.
What type of work do you do? I am an Administrative Assistant for a non-profit agency.
How long is your typical gaming session when playing Star Wars Galaxies? Normally, it averages about two to three hours a night during the weekdays and four to six hours on the weekends. I have had to cut back my time recently due to wedding planning, but once we are back from the honeymoon, it will be back to the late nights in-game and all day and night on the weekends.
What does a typical Star Wars Galaxies day consist of for you? As soon as I log in, I will check and answer my mail. I am the Mayor of Spirit, Tatooine, co-leader of our player association, a leader of the Rebellion, a member of the Jedi Order, and hold a seat on our Jedi council… so I tend to get a lot of mail. On a busy day, I will usually have a couple of meetings with players wanting to get advice, give me their thoughts about a topic for the next Rebel meeting, pitch an event idea, or want me to help with a role-play event. Depending on what the guild is doing, I sometimes head out for some PvP or to help guild members with quests.
What was the race and profession of your very first character? My first character was a human female scout/medic.
What got you into gaming and what sort of games do you like the most? I tend to like role-playing games the most. I have tried most of the Star Wars games out on the market but Star Wars Galaxies is my home now! Surprisingly, my friend and my fiancé got me into Star Wars Galaxies, and now I am more involved in the game than they are.
What other hobbies or activities do you take part in, other then playing Star Wars Galaxies? I am active with the Alabama Star Wars Syndicate, a statewide Star Wars fan club and costuming group. We have helped with movie premiers, conducted fundraising for various charities, and assisted with event enhancement. I am also an avid reader, like to write non-fiction, and enjoy dog shows.
What is your highest level Character in Star Wars Galaxies? My highest-level character is level 90.
What race and profession is your main character? My main character is a human Jedi.
What do you like the most about the profession you have chosen for your main character? Jedi is a huge part of who Raene is. I like the up-close nature of how the Jedi fight; it really puts you in the center of the action. It also gives me the chance to role-play the role of Jedi by having her either withdraw from a fight or engage, depending on the situation.
What faction is your main character? My main character is a Rebel.
What is your favorite player owned ship? I love my yacht.
What is your favorite ground vehicle? I love the skiff. I can pack a whole group into the vehicle and get the team from point A to point B easily.
How did you choose your main character's name? I have been writing Star Wars fan fiction for quite a number of years now. Raen was the name of the daughter of my main character, Jannae. I had already created Jannae on Lowca, so when I moved to Tarquinas, I tried to get the name Raen. It was already taken so I named her Raene.
Which professions in Star Wars Galaxies have you NOT played? I have not played a smuggler yet. I am tempted to create one.
What is your favorite expansion? I have to say it was the Trials of Obi-Wan. I am, however, partial to Jump to Lightspeed since it gave us the Ithorians and I do love my dancing Ithorian, Lim-Ham.
What is your favorite planet? Naboo is my favorite planet. I love the feel of the planet and the music.
What is your favorite NPC? My favorite has to be the Bith Band in the Mos Eisley Cantina.
Which expansion do you like the least? Rage of the Wookiees is my least favorite.
Which planet do you like the least? Kashyyyk is my least favorite planet.
Which NPC do you like the least? I do not think there is one that I like the least.
What is the most credits you have ever spent on purchasing a single item for one of your characters? I spent a little over 2 million credits on a data screen, the flat panel green one.
Do you have an item you no longer use but keep around for nostalgic reasons? If so what is it and why do you keep it? I kept Raene's armor she wore during the time she was a tera kasi master and swordsman, as well as her hammers. Those items are what helped me through the force village grind and put me into the Jedi trade.
What do you like best about Star Wars Galaxies? I like the fact that I get to create my own personal corner in the Star Wars universe. I am such a Star Wars fanatic that this is the closest thing to being able to be a true part of the saga.
What do you get out of playing Star Wars Galaxies? I love the sense of community we have on Tarquinas. The friendships we have built over the years in this game are incredible. When I log into Star Wars Galaxies, it is like coming home from a long trip.
Describe your best experience playing Star Wars Galaxies? It is hard to choose my best experience playing Star Wars Galaxies. It would have to be between kneeling at the shrine to start the path of the Jedi, my in-game wedding (all the Imperials and bounty hunters tried to stop it), the Trader Days event at the Darklighter estate, or the night my guild presented me with my in-game wedding gift for my real life wedding.
Do you run or work for a Star Wars Galaxies Fan Site? No, but I wish I did!
Each week, we take a memorable quote from the Star Wars films and scramble it.
You can assume:
* All the letters from the quote are present
* All punctuation from the original quote is included (periods, hyphens, etc.)
* Capital letters from the quote are still capitalized
Your mission, should you decide to take it is to decode the quote by unscrambling it and posting your answer.
Here is this week's scramble:
2 characters, 4 lines of dialogue
o s c s d m e e e a k o r e s a l o r t e t f m e n u d r d n r y d l e t o e y e Y e i e C e i e e a d e G r h n d p m r L h o t a w e m t b a A v c e u r n w t g h o a i t a a s n t y d d f n n a R b h t a l q n a e i a u o h u p m h c e i C g i v e t c d o d r H r r e m h I c r i y u I t s u u o r f a h t e b o h e o m m n m u m s e e o r s n o h h o e r o h i s r o h t n b e a s i s e i d i t r o t s l h a u e n o T s o e c s s r r s i L t e w..,..,,.,..
*Note: Edited posts are excluded from being able to get the Descrambler title
