Hi everyone!

Today is both a happy and sad one for me. I'm very happy to see everyone here on the team and forums again after being away for six weeks, but sadly this is also my last day with SOE. While I was out on maternity leave, my husband received a transfer from his company to another city/state, and we are moving within a matter of weeks. (We found out about two weeks after the baby was born - talk about a surprise!)

I have very much enjoyed my time on Star Wars Galaxies and I thought about you all often while I was on leave; I'm sure I'll continue to do so. During my time here I have worked my hardest to represent you and your thoughts, and I hope that I represented you all well.

I hope to cross paths with you again someday either here or in game. If you see Madoka online on Starsider, that's my play character -- feel free to tell me hi!

Thank you all for everything!

Edit: *smacks self* Made a typo on my last post!

Thank you for the well wishes, everyone! The baby and I have been doing great. Her arrival was a little unexpected but more than welcome. I really appreciate the good thoughts you all sent our way!

VK-471 is this week's Puzzler winner! Congratulations!

Planet: Dantooine

Location: -6821 6013

I don't have an ETA for the additional invisible items (biceps or chestplate) but it is on Loche's Whiteboard.

Game Update 6 included the new Appearance system, which allows you to customize your character's look like never before. Matt "AdeptStrain" Boudreaux offers an inside look at the making of "invisible" items created to help you get just the right appearance for your character.

Click here to read more about the making of invisible items for the Appearance system.

Welcome to this week's The Puzzler!

What is The Puzzler? 

It’s an image from somewhere inside the Star Wars Galaxies world.  But it’s broken into several puzzle pieces – and you only get to see a few at a time until someone here on the message board correctly identifies the location depicted in the picture!

What do I get for solving The Puzzler? 

If you are the first one to figure out the ‘mystery location’ by posting it in The Puzzler thread, you will hereby get bestowed upon you the forum title “Puzzler” along with the cool Puzzler icon.

There is only one winner a week so you have to be quick!

The Puzzler “Rules”

An individual can only win The Puzzler once, so if you’ve already won, please step aside and let others try their hand at it.

After the first set of puzzle pieces are posted, location guesses only will be allowed in the thread until after The Puzzler has been solved.  Please don’t clutter the thread up by discussing anything else within it until the game is over.  After it is, you can discuss The Puzzler to your heart’s content…but until that time, anyone posting anything other than a location in the thread will have their post removed.

You must be the first person to post the in-game location of the image within 50 units of where the image was taken (for example if the image was taken at 500, -500 and you posted 525, -450 you would be correct).

In the event that 2 people post at the same time on the message board (and the time stamp reflects this), whoever guessed the location within the closest amount of units will be the winner!
 
Posting Guesses:

Please post The Puzzler guesses in the following format:

Planet:
Location: 500,-500

Android21 wrote:

Admiral Motti: Any attack made by the Rebels against this station would be a useless gesture, no matter what technical data they've obtained. This station is now the ultimate power in the universe. I suggest we use it!

Darth Vader: Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Admiral Motti: Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader.

Android21 is this week's Descrambler winner. Great job!

Karthrag-Inak wrote:

any update on this?

I don't have any updates other than the team is still working on a retroactive fix for those affected. Thank you again to everyone for your patience.

Smuggler of the Month - January 2009

We are pleased to present our the January Smuggler of the Month and official scoundrel, DracoKyaku!

Many thanks to our Smuggler Senator, Vincent76, for putting together this recognition.

If you'd like to be the next Smuggler of the Month, it's easy! Keep an eye out in this forum for a nomination thread each month. Follow the guidelines in the thread to nominate yourself or a fellow connoisseur of beer and pie.

Previous Smugglers of the Month:

• Warcryer - November 2008
• KiliDaran - December 2008

DracoKyaku's interview with Vincent76 can be found below. Congratulations!

I hope you'll all join us in congratulating DracoKyaku in achieving the title of 'Scoundrel'.

Vincent76 Wrote:

The nomination list of January has been an overwhelming support to one player on the list of allready nominated scoundrels.

Autumn is known on the Chimaera PVP scene as a force to be reckoned with. Usually jedi will turn the other way and run when they see him.

In our little corner of the world, you'd know him if you read the stickies. He's done alot of indepth combat guides as well as some more smuggler gameplay guides. This one was recently featured in the weekly picks by Valara: [Guide] The Lost Art of Slicing  

Im proud to present DracoKyaku as this months Scoundrel, curiously also a member of the Smugglers Alliance guild on Chimaera.

   Words from a Scoundrel ...

 When did you start playing the game, ya scallywag?

I've been here from the very start and enjoyed every minute of it, when SWG finally went live in June 2003 and after I'd managed to import a copy at a reasonable price (See, Smuggling from the start!) I started my first Character on Wanderhome.

Upon the European launch of the game later the same year the Euro servers were added and I rolled a new character, Chimaera has been my home ever since.

Tell the lads when you started swigging ya first flask'a'rum like a real Pirate, ya bootlegger!

When I first started playing, my first choice was to grind up through the Marksman boxes and try out Pistols, Carbines and Rifles to find a favourite – I never got that far, once I started using pistols I was set on my path - eventually settling on a combination of Some Pistoleer, Smuggler and the Bounty Hunter pistol tree to reach the speed cap.

Although my main draw was Pistols and using a weapon that many others considered underpowered I eventually fell in love with Smuggler as a whole for much the same reasons – I guess I'm naturally drawn to what people perceive as the underdog.

Did you ever feel like walking the plank, perhaps one of those nights when the moon was Green and far far away and the lasses where all standing on the Marina?

Honestly? I can't say I have.

While always trying to stay optimistic in the face of various game changes I've also been very lucky that I've had a core group of friends who have stuck with the game through all the various iterations.
While we did lose a lot of Guild members with first the CU, then the NGE and eventually decided to disband and join another Guild, we've always managed to stay together.

What made ya stay aboard the Dutchman for all those extra years under the mast, scumbag?

Two things really..

• The combat system (and I'm speaking of all three variations here, although possibly ignoring the early NGE), It can be as complex or as basic as you want it to be, I really do love spending time tweaking stats and seeing how they play out in game - embarrassing as it sounds, I really get a lot of enjoyment running through my combat log after a huge PvP fight and looking to see how *I* personally affected the battle.
  
• The community: my long term friends, our current Guild (Smugglers Alliance on Chimaera) and the regulars on both the Chimaera and Smuggler forums all combine to make SWG a very cool and relaxing place for me to hang out.

Whats ya favorite Gamble?

I love to group up with other Smugglers and wreck as much havoc as we can in PvP zones, not much is more satisfying than hopping out of cloak along with a few well selected fellow scoundrels and dropping a larger force who have made the mistake of bunching together.

When you have ya own ship and a crew, and youre free. Whats your plans, gunrunner?

Relax and enjoy SWG for what it is: a great way to interact with fellow Star Wars fans and participate in that galaxy far, far away.

The QA team is investigating this now. Thank you!

Borahorror wrote:

Valara wrote:

Nerifes wrote:

At how many houses demolished is a badge rewarded? I know 10 houses is junior...

Here's the badge rundown!

• 10 Structures Demolished - Junior Wrecking Crew Worker
• 50 Structures Demolished - Wrecking Crew Manager Extraordinaire
• 100 Structures Demolished - Wrecking Crew Mogul
  

I smashed 5 houses in the event last year, will the count reset or increment this time around?

The points you earned in the last event can be used in this event. The points are not reset.

EzronDax wrote:

How long does it take for a resubbed account to switch from abandoned to not?

I resubbed an account on Saturday and the houses were still abandoned on Sunday

The houses that are re-subbed/"unabandoned" will be updated sometime after February 15. I don't have the exact date yet, but it will be before the demolition begins on March 3.

Melter-Girl wrote:

Valara, can you plz explain a bit more detailed what you mean with removed from the game servers. If something is removed from the game, doesnt that mean that the data is completely deleted?. Or did you only mean, that the structures are only removed from the planetary maps?

The data isn't deleted! The house is packed up into the owner's datapad, and when they return to the game one day they can place their house and all of their items with no loss.

-Nija_son- wrote:

How about fixing the bugs that are not allowing all the members of a group from entering, AM, IG-88, EK heroic instances.  Only sent in a dozen tickets between four accounts.  From talking to other players on Chimeara it is happening alot. 

The team is looking into the entry issues with heroic encounters, Exar Kun in particular. We consider those issues a high priority.

We are still having some trouble with the Salute, but we're continuing to work on it. Sorry for the delay!

Official SOE Podcast #54 is live! Hear all about Ashlanne's and Brenlo's holiday break and New Year's resolutions. This Podcast features an interview with Olivia Malmstrom, new legal counsel at SOE, and with Tiffany "Amnerys" Spence and Joel "Raijinn" Sasaki to talk about the Vanguard anniversary. Kelly "Valara" Knox stops by for a quick chat about events in Star Wars Galaxies, and Jason "Pex" Ryan's news gives us all of the latest and greatest from many of the SOE titles! We also include a dramatic rant along with a challenge to our top ranters!

So tune in! You can get your Podcast goodness two different ways: head over to the Podcast's official site and click on your preferred bandwidth, or if you have iTunes installed, select iTunes store, type SOE into the search box and click Subscribe! Your feedback is always welcome either on the Station forums or via email.

Don't forget you can find us on Twitter and Facebook!

Nerifes wrote:

At how many houses demolished is a badge rewarded? I know 10 houses is junior...

Here's the badge rundown!

• 10 Structures Demolished - Junior Wrecking Crew Worker
• 50 Structures Demolished - Wrecking Crew Manager Extraordinaire
• 100 Structures Demolished - Wrecking Crew Mogul
  

BlackWatchKeep wrote:

how about houses owned by toons that no longer exist?

there are several structures in my city that belong to a guy who deleted his toons on bria, but plays on another server, his houses have sat empty and condemned, taking up space for three years now.

We currently don't have plans to allow the demolition of Condemned houses in this event.

TarnRider wrote:

If a person pays his subcription, does his abandoned house become un-'abandoned'.

Yes, if the person re-subscribes by February 15. Here are the details:

If your service has been inactive since July 1, 2008, and you do not validly re-subscribe prior to February 15, 2009, your houses, structures and associated assets may be packed up into your datapad and removed from the game servers beginning at 4:00 AM PST on March 3, 2009.

Nerifes wrote:

What is the amount of houses a player can demolish per day?

You can demolish up to five structures per day (beginning March 3).

Edit: My first post was incorrect, I'm sorry! It's five per day.

The Emperor was not satisfied with the previous attempt to purge the vacant structures across the galaxies, and is doubling the Empire's efforts to smoke out the Rebels. But the Rebels have plans of their own…

Read more about the Empire's and Rebellion's race to remove abandoned housing.

Feature Scramble

Every week we spotlight a Star Wars Galaxies community member. Find out more about the other people you play the game with! Meet Sipam Doby from the Valcyn galaxy and the player behind her!

Perseid wrote:

For the badges, do the old Housing Pack-Ups count towards your total? I think I got around 10 last time.

Your previous demolitions count toward your total.

Great screenshots!

*shameless plug*

If you've crafted an exquisite in-game event for your player association, decorated a unique and creative home or structure, or designed other in-game creations, send it to us for consideration and we may showcase it on the Star Wars Galaxies web site! If you are featured, you will receive a special "Galactic Showcase" badge in game.

Please send your submissions to galacticshowcase@soe.sony.com with the subject heading "Galactic Showcase" and include the following in the body of your email:

• Character name
• Profile of in-game location/structure or summary of event – Please include as many details as possible!
• One or more screenshots in .jpg format and not exceeding 5MB (total), or URLs to screenshots hosted online.
• Exact location – Please include the coordinates and planet, if applicable.
• Galaxy
• Admission fee (if applicable)
• Your forum handle

There is no limit to the amount of "Showcase" items you can submit, but please submit each individual one in a separate email.

djwaindahouse wrote:

Valara wrote:

Please see the Notes on the free CTS thread about contacting the GM team about your recently transferred character. Thank you!

yeah, i have, still waiting been 2sih hours, can u go kick one of them in tehnuts or something

 

Please hang in there while the GM team gets to the submitted tickets as quickly as they can!

Please see the Notes on the free CTS thread about contacting the GM team about your recently transferred character. Thank you!

Loche and DevH are working on a retroactive fix, but I don't have any other details to share other than that at the moment. In the meantime, if you are affected by this issue, please don't untrain your beast's abilities. Beast Masters will be fine to learn new abilities that won't be lost by a retroactive fix.

We appreciate your patience as this issue is resolved.

We are working on the issue with Europe-Chimaera as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience this downtime may cause.

The_Shruberer wrote:

I had stopped playing SWG durign last pack-up period - how do these tokens work?  How many do you get per house/need ot buy an item?

For the house pack up specifically, these are points rather than tokens or physical items. Each structure destroyed grants one point, and each reward item costs one point.

Jigsaw wrote:

Yeah I got a full set of Xeno and I was wondering if the rewards are different or new this time around. I was thinkin of sellin my set thats why i'm asking.

All of the last rewards are back, as well as a new badge (100 structures destroyed) and three new pieces of furniture!

Valara wrote:

Servers should be available shortly. Thanks!

Europe-Infinity is experiencing an issue that has extended its maintenance period; the server will be unavailable for approximately one hour from the the time of this post.

Scratch that, the server is coming back shortly!

Servers should be available shortly. Thanks!

Jarrel_Reafis wrote:

Just went to check mine (packed up and in my houses) and all wont accept tokens and arent blank. Descriptions are still there... The one I had in Inventory has gone also...

The QA and development teams are working on this issue, but it is not likely it will be corrected before next week. A retroactive fix may not be possible, so if you are looking to transfer with valuable blueprints, you may want to hang tight until the issue is corrected. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may cause.

The Galactic Showcase puts the most creative storyteller events and player structures from all galaxies on display. The Golden Palace of Wanderhome, with pillars made from solid gold and an aquarium containing fish gathered from throughout the galaxy, first appears to resemble something from a book your parents read to you as a child.

Click here to see -Catfish-'s creation and find more details about submitting your own!

WookusToo wrote:

What about the rest of us?  Would it be so difficult to add a tag that said "Native of (insert server name here)"? 

DevH is working on adding this now; the title will display "Born on <galaxy>" and will be retroactive. You should see this in an update very shortly. Thanks everyone!