Hey gang, this is Jaskell checking in with a behind-the-scenes look at some of the excellent new features coming with Game Update 9.
Being a Star Wars Galaxies home owner myself, I was excited to be assigned the task of adding new structures to Game Update 9. I had heard that the art team was going to add structures with windows as well as exterior color customization and was impressed that they were taking on such a bold task since these are both exciting new features never attempted before in Star Wars Galaxies. As you might imagine, taking large, multi-room structures and cutting holes in the geometry, then attaching a palette where one never existed, presented a few challenges. Ultimately the art team was able to overcome these challenges and successfully created eight windowed houses with exterior color customization, two of which were completely new structures.
Once the windows were in I went through each of the buildings myself to identify any design challenges. Each of the houses had to be checked for misplaced structure terminals, proper hanging and standing sign placement, and proper footprint (i.e., the number of lots they consume compared to their physical size and storage capabilities).
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Once the structures were complete a method for allowing the player to 'paint' them had to be created. The paint kit is created via draft schematic so that it may be mass produced and sold by Structure Traders.
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But Structure Traders weren't the only profession to receive attention. The Domestic Trader had a series of issues that were also addressed through the profession Top 5; a list of the top five requested changes that are compiled by players on our forums. Fiasco worked on increasing the food and drink buff attributes, art added colors to the palettes of some wearables and I addressed some of the high profile defects and change suggestions.
An example of a change coupled with a defect fix was the revamp of the Starshine Surprise schematic. To begin with, Domestics Traders were not encouraged to craft the Starshine Surprise buff because the effect it produced was not useful. I decided to fix that while simultaneously addressing an issue that was on the Domestic Trader Top 5 list; milking creatures was too difficult.
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The newly revamped version of the Starshine Surprise buff in Update 9 not only increases the amount of milk produced by the creature, it reduces the amount of milking required, has a possibility of paralyzing the creature (so that they don't run away while being milked) and increases the chances of gaining the exceptional milk collectible which players have reported as being too rare.
These changes, and many others, are on their way to you in Game Update 9. I hope you enjoy Update 9 as much as I enjoyed working on it! I'm off to decorate my new house...
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