Gabriel (Penny Arcade):
OK, who are you guys, and what do you do for
Galaxies
?
Haden Blackman (LucasArts):
I'm Haden Blackman, producer for Star Wars Galaxies
at LucasArts. Basically, I'm the point person at LucasArts for the game.
Rich Vogel (Sony Online Entertainment):
My name is Rich Vogel, and I am the executive producer of
Galaxies
. I am responsible for managing the large team we have
on SWG
, and making sure we have the resources and time to make a
great game.
Gabriel (PA):
Can you tell us what you've worked on before?
Haden (LucasArts):
Just about every Star Wars
game in the past five
years, most often as a writer/researcher (which often entails some design work)
or a voice director. My credits include: Star Wars: Behind the
Magic
(writer/researcher), Star Wars: Episode II Insider's
Guide
(writer/researcher, content supervisor), Star Wars:
Starfighter
(writer, voice director), Star Wars: Jedi
Starfighter
(writer, voice director), and Star Wars: Battle for
Naboo
(writer, voice director). I've touched just about every
Star Wars
game we've done, though.
Rich (Sony Online):
I was the producer for [the online role-playing games]
Meridian 59
and Ultima Online
. Before that I
worked on both console and PC games.
Gabriel (PA):
What's Galaxies
all about?
Haden (LucasArts):
Living in the Star Wars
universe in a way that
hasn't been possible before. (This could be a really long answer...)
Rich (Sony Online): Galaxies
is about being able to experience the
world of Star Wars
. We have all seen the movies and dreamed of
one day being able to live in the Star Wars
universe and
participate in the Galactic Civil War. In Star Wars Galaxies
,
you can.
Gabriel (PA):
What is your favorite Star Wars
moment?
Haden (LucasArts):
In the films? When Han is about to be lowered into the carbon
freezing chamber and Chewie just totally freaks out, throwing stormtroopers all
over the place. Fett is about to shoot him, but Vader--for whatever
reason--stops the bounty hunter. Then Han calms Chewie down by telling him that
he has to protect the Princess. That's just a great scene. I love the
interactions between Han and Chewie--they're really believable. In fact, Chewie
is one of the most believable characters in the original trilogy for me. In the
game, it's probably the first time I walked under an AT-AT. I felt like I was
at the Battle of Hoth (only, on Naboo...).
Rich (Sony Online):
My favorite Star Wars
moment is when Darth Vader
told Luke he was his father.
Gabriel (PA):
OK, on to the good stuff. If I play as a Trandoshan, will I be
able to regenerate lost limbs? Or will that be reflected by some kind of
increased ability to regenerate health?
Haden (LucasArts):
It's an increase in your constitution stat. As you take damage,
your health bar depletes and then it refreshes based on your constitution stat.
The higher your constitution stat, the faster you regenerate your health.
Trandoshans have a higher constitution stat than anyone else in the game.
Gabriel (PA):
Will characters who choose to play as a bounty hunter be expected
to play by the "hunter's creed"? This states that no hunter can kill another
hunter nor interfere with another's hunt.
Haden (LucasArts):
Well, we haven't really found a way to enforce it. So we would
like to encourage it though the guild. There will be a bounty hunter
guildmaster who will stress the rules of being in the guild. There isn't
necessarily a way that we have talked about to kick people out though.
Gabriel (PA):
Two hunters can't accept the same job though, is that correct?
Haden (LucasArts):
That's right. And, unless the two bounty hunters have declared for
two different sides of the Galactic Civil War, Imperial and Rebel, for
instance, they can't fight. It's unlikely that bounty hunters will declare a
side, though. So if two hunters are neutral, they can't attack each other
anyway--unless, of course, one of them has a bounty on his head.
Gabriel (PA):
How might a character get a bounty placed on them?
Haden (LucasArts):
We have a mission system in the game and some missions can be
bonded. Let's say Rich creates a player-generated mission to deliver a hundred
blasters to Tatooine, and it's bonded. When I accept that mission, I pay a
little bit of money into a bank account. That money actually pays for a bounty
hunter mission if I fail. So let's say Rich gives me the blasters, and I get
knocked off by some Kryatt so I fail the mission. Next thing I know, there's a
bounty hunter on my tail. It's unlikely that something like delivering blasters
would be bonded, but something like smuggling spice probably would be. You will
also be able to pull up a list of missions and go after nonplayer characters as
well.
Gabriel (PA):
Will the game keep track of your acquisitions, or your relative
success as a bounty hunter?
Haden (LucasArts):
Yeah, the game will keep track of all those stats. At launch we'd
like to implement some leader boards and things like that. That's not
necessarily something we need day one, but it's something we really want to get
into the game.
Gabriel (PA):
Now, if I am hunting someone, do I need to wait for that person to
enter an area that has been designated for combat?
Haden (LucasArts):
No, you can attack them anywhere you want. They have opened
themselves up and they aren't safe from you anywhere. That's just from you,
though, since you're their bounty hunter.
Tycho (Penny Arcade):
If the bounty hunter has friends with him, would they be able to
help him capture his bounty?
Haden (LucasArts):
They can't initiate the attack. So let's say you're after me and
I'm hanging out in a cantina. As soon as you spot me you can initiate the
attack because I'm flagged as your enemy and you're hunting me. So you attack
me, and if I attack back and you and all your friends are grouped together,
then the blasters come out and I'm flagged as an enemy. It sounds complicated
but it should be really easy for players.
Gabriel (PA):
You have mentioned that you might implement the ability to play
games on interplanetary trips. Would Sabacc be one of them?
Haden (LucasArts):
Yeah, we are looking at putting in Sabacc and HoloChess at some
point. A lot of other stuff has kind of taken priority. Whether those will be
in the game for launch I don't know. To be honest, those are the kinds of
things that can easily be added after launch. But Sabacc is a game that we
really want in there and actually we have Sabacc skills already in the
game.
Tycho (PA):
How does travel work between planets right now? You have said that
you plan to release a space expansion in a year or so. In the interim, how will
things like smuggling work?
Haden (LucasArts):
There are three transport mechanisms in the game right now. One
way is for players to purchase a ticket on a transport that travels a
predetermined route between planets. So, you might go from Tatooine to Naboo to
Corellia, and there will be a certain amount of time that it takes. You will
hear, almost like you are on a bus, "Next stop Naboo" or whatever, and then you
would get off. The other form of travel for a player is charter travel. There
are some planets that are off the beaten path like Endor or Dathomir. So, you
need to jump on a charter shuttle for that. Those will actually be more
expensive, but they will drop you off and you can recall them to just about
anyplace on the planet. You will also be able to transport goods on freighters.
So there will be stuff that's carried on your person that's smuggled and you
can also put stuff onto cargo transports. The danger there is when you go to
pick your items up, not so much when you drop them off. Now, once the space
expansion comes out you will be able to smuggle items aboard your own ship and
risk getting picked up by an Imperial blockade.
Gabriel (PA):
In some skill trees you will have to take on an apprentice in
order to advance in that tree. Will Jedi players be expected to take on
Padawans?
Haden (LucasArts):
We cannot discuss the Jedi system in the game right now. But we
have publicly said that the apprentice system does extend to the Jedi. The
thing that we are being really secretive about is actually how you become Force
sensitive. Once you become Force sensitive the progression for a Jedi will be
pretty straightforward. It uses a lot of the same mechanics that we already
have in the game.
Gabriel (PA):
Will you be able to play as a Force adept, which is to say,
someone who is sensitive to the Force but not actually a Jedi?
Haden (LucasArts):
Well, you would become Force sensitive and then you might train in
some early Jedi skills. But you can only advance so far that way.
Tycho (PA):
Who actually administers the trials, since there is no Jedi
Council during this time period?
Haden (LucasArts):
Uh, good question. Well, we can't really talk about that. There is
some stuff that we got approved by Lucasfilm that is gonna be pretty cool I
think.
Gabriel (PA):
OK, uh… the cloning thing? [In Star Wars
Galaxies
, your character can create and store a clone. The clone has
all the skills and experience of the character at the time the clone was made.
If your character is killed, the clone is activated and play continues.]
Haden (LucasArts):
Do you guys not like the cloning thing?
Gabriel (PA):
No, I'm OK with it. I think people probably overreacted.
Haden (LucasArts):
OK, good.
Gabriel (PA):
But what do you say to role players who say they don't understand
how to role-play a cloned character?
Tycho (PA):
Would you say that they're fools?
Haden (LucasArts):
(Laughs) No, no. Um, I would say that for us, it's one of those
tough situations where we had to put the design in front of everything else. We
need a respawn system and we wanted to wrap it in something that would make it
feel like it fit in the Star Wars
universe. I think that those
people that are having problems with that should really look at it more like a
save game. And we are saying that, when you get cloned, we take a complete
snapshot of everything about your character other than the equipment that you
own. So, why not just assume that those memories are there too, right? Just
because we have cloning in real life doesn't mean it functions the same way in
the Star Wars
universe. It could be much more powerful.
Gabriel (PA):
Will players be able to open up their own cloning facilities?
Haden (LucasArts):
Let's see, what was the last verdict on that? I think we said no.
Right now, there are a couple structures that we are concerned about giving
full player control to. One of those would be banks, and cloning facilities
would be another one. I will say that, I bet ya anything it's something we try
and experiment with in beta and see if it gets abused way too quickly.
Tycho (PA):
One thing that I really enjoy about MMORPGs is crafting. I really
enjoy player-created items, how rich is that in Galaxies
?
Haden (LucasArts):
It's hugely important to us. So when we decided to make this game,
we realized that combat was going to be very, very important obviously. It's
Star Wars
; you're gonna want to run around blasting stuff so
there's gonna be players that spend almost all their time doing that, and
that's great. We are trying to make combat as dynamic as possible to support
that. At the same time, we know that there will be players that just want to
live in the universe. We want to give them new tools to do that and take it to
a new level. Especially the crafting, which is one area where we can be kind of
evolutionary and kind of take what's been done before and expand upon it. So
our crafting system lets you build pretty much anything. There are a lot of
interdependencies between that and the resource harvesting system, the
apprentice system, and then combat as well. So let's say Rich decides he wants
to start building blasters. I can go out there and kill a million stormtroopers
and the blaster rifle that Rich builds will probably be better than the blaster
rifle that I can pick up from a stormtrooper. So that's sort of the way we are
trying to balance it.
Rich (Sony Online):
The other thing is there's what's called a "maker's mark." So you
can actually name it like Smith & Wesson has their mark on their guns.
Haden (LucasArts):
He's from Texas, so that's really important to him.
Rich (Sony Online):
That's right. The other thing is you can build with specific ores
that may become unavailable.
Haden (LucasArts):
Yeah, we have a random resource generator. So let's say I find
some really cool ore that has a random assortment of properties and allows Rich
to build a blaster that is more powerful than anything we've seen before. I
discovered that ore, so I get to name it and I sell it to Rich. He makes a
blaster that is high demand. Well, you have to do upkeep on items and that uses
up ore too. Eventually that ore gets depleted, and the weapons that are made
out of that ore can no longer be kept up. Rich has to find a new ore to build
weapons out of which will encourage people to go out and find new resources. It
will also encourage crafters to continually experiment with different designs
and so forth.
Tycho (PA):
Gabe's fantasy is to do the bounty hunter thing, but mine is to
produce weaponry and have my own store.
Haden (LucasArts):
That is one of our core gameplay elements.
Tycho (PA):
So I can have an NPC that works at my shop. How do I supply him
with the weapons to sell?
Haden (LucasArts):
First, you would set up a factory that can mass-produce your
weapons according to the schematic that you built. You can hire other players
to transport them to your store. Or, you can have your store right next door
and do it yourself. You can then set up a nonplayer character to run your
store. Basically, it's just a series of check marks. You say, "I want you to
sell these blasters for this amount." Or, "Here are the things I want you to
buy for no more than this amount." Then you can go offline and have dinner, and
come back and find that all your blasters have been sold.
Gabriel (PA):
Will you be able to advertise your store? Hand out fliers, put up
signs, that sort of thing?
Haden (LucasArts):
Well, we can't do that, just because we're worried about player
content. It's more a word of mouth thing and the "maker's mark" will help out
with that.
Gabriel (PA):
So, what's to stop people from setting up their shops around
cloning facilities, since they will probably be a high traffic area?
Haden (LucasArts):
Well, we will have zoning laws. Some planets like Rori, which is a
Naboo moon, we'll probably let you build like crazy--you know, everywhere but
on water. But someplace like Tatooine, we'll say that you can only build in
certain areas and it has to be far enough away from Jabba's palace or
whatever.
Tycho (PA):
So, players can create a building according to a schematic?
Haden (LucasArts):
Oh yeah, without a doubt. So you actually pick some prefabricated
buildings, but then you can expand them. So you can build a simple player house
and then expand it over time to, like, a three-story palace.
Gabriel (PA):
Do you ever see including things from the expanded universe, like
different time periods?
Haden (LucasArts):
Yeah, that is something we've talked about doing with maybe an
expansion or something. We've also talked about holding events and that kind of
thing. We don't want to be beholden to a fixed timeline, because we have no
idea what's gonna happen as we go through beta and launch the game. We'll be
responding to a lot of player demands. Eventually, we would like to do
something like the Battle of Hoth though and sort of advance the timeline. You
never know, we may do an expansion at some point that is like the New Jedi
Order.
Gabriel (PA):
So, if you do the Battle of Hoth, will players who became
Imperials be at the command of AT-ATs?
Haden (LucasArts):
Hopefully, yeah. That is what we'd like to do.
Rich (Sony Online):
That would be in a battlefield situation. That Battle of Hoth
would be a scenario. We aren't just going to have AT-ATs running around.
Gabriel (PA):
Imperial players can also command stormtroopers, right?
Haden (LucasArts):
Yeah, right now one of the things you can do is build an Imperial
installation. There are different-sized bases with different abilities, and you
can build turrets and stuff like that. A base will actually spawn
stormtroopers. There will be different kinds of stormtroopers, and different
amounts depending on the size of the base. Rebels can do the same thing, only
with Rebel soldiers.
Gabriel (PA):
Fantastic. Well, thanks guys.
Haden (LucasArts):
Thank you!
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games aim to create a
virtual world and populate it with human players. It's been done to varying
degrees of success, primarily in the fantasy genre with titles such as
