New Game Enhancements

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This page is for information on the New Game Enhancements. Please only post information on this page and indicate if it has been confirmed or just a rumor. If the information has been confirmed, please post a link to whom confirmed it or how it was confirmed.

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Update

 * There is an official announcement that all U.S. & European servers will be taken down on Tuesday, Nov. 15th at 12:00am CST until 5:00pm CST to load the NGE. You can read it here.

Confirmed

 * There was an Letter to the Community discussing changes to SWG.
 * There is also a STAR WARS GALAXIES NEW GAME ENHANCEMENTS - GENERAL FAQ posted by SoE
 * Some extra FAQ answered SWG FAQ 2
 * The NGE will start on the Test Center on Friday, November 4, 2005. Confirmed
 * NGE is scheduled to go "live" on Tuesday, November 15, 2005. Confirmed
 * There will be new quests & dungeons. Confirmed
 * The Old Man are gone...Confirmed
 * Even if you have more than 1 character, none of your characters will be deleted. Confirmed
 * Chat will remain the same as it is now. Confirmed
 * Hardware requirements will stay the same. Confirmed
 * For all Jedi that have not unlocked thier 2nd character, they will need to do so before the NGE goes live. Confirmed
 * As long as you have at least 1 skill box in Jedi you will get the Jedi reward. Confirmed
 * Your character cannot change species. Confirmed
 * Negative Jedi XP will not carry over to the NGE. Confirmed
 * None of the servers will change. Confirmed
 * SWG will not become a First Person Shooter with the NGE. Confirmed
 * Jedi/Force sensitive will be a starting profession. Confirmed
 * You will only be able to change professions on a character with a respec or with a profession restart kit. Confirmed
 * Bio-Engineer will not longer be required for base destruction. Confirmed
 * There will be no mixing professions & all professions will have a self-heal ability. Confirmed
 * You will be able to keep your vendors. Confirmed
 * The only changes to the Pilot profession is the order in which you earn skills. Confirmed
 * The ability to change "Blue Glowy" can be turned off & on at any time, not just at death. Confirmed
 * You will be able to keep all your old badges. Confirmed

General Information
This is just a general guide written by Cutedge during the NGE beta test. Don't take this as an endorsement of the NGE. It's just information.

Interface and control changes

The default option for control (and of the writing, the only option in the drop-down for control selection) is a mix between "classic" SWG and the new style. You have a moded interface that you switch between by pressing ALT.

Mode 1: FPS style, for a lack of a better terms.

Moving the mouse in this mode directly changes your view. The targetting arrow will interact with whatever it is over.

Mode 2:Like the current SWG mode 2

Moving the mouse moves the mouse cursor around the screen. Moving the mouse to the edges of the screen makes you turn.

Using most items is simply done by single clicking with your left mouse button. You still can pull a radial menu, which has all the options that are in live now, by pressing ~ (the tilde key) or by pressing ' (the quotation mark key).

The User Interface is new, and is much smaller than what was in live during the CU. An outline of it is as follows.
 * Your character information is in the upper left corner. A small circle shows your profession and level, although right now it shows the crafter "hammer" icon for everyone. It still shows the three ham bars by percentage. This window is not resizable or moveable.
 * The target window is similar to the character information window. The target window automatically shows the information of what you have your cursor over (or what you had your cursor over last). It also shows the ham and level. The circle shows either nothing for friendly NPCs / items, or shows the con circle graphic inside the circle when you have it over another player or over a target you can attack. This window is not resizable.
 * Along the bottom of the screen is the XP meter. It is not resizable or movable.
 * The toolbar is similar to the old toolbar except it is locked to one row. On the right it has a toolbar slot with a blueish glow around it and some artwork. This is the currently selected special or item. This window is not resizable.
 * On the right side of the screen is a button which brings up the menu with all the different windows, much like the button bar we had before. This button can not be moved or resized. The menu it brings up has the icons we are familar with on the right side with the text of what they are on the left.
 * The chat window shows up on the left side of the screen and is resizable and moveable. It does not show up in the tutorial area by design. It has all the options we are currently familar with, although there is no Combat tab in it.
 * In the upper right is a text window showing the current quest you are doing, followed by what the task for it is and a waypoint to that location if applicle. It is horizontally resizeable but can not be moved.

Combat

As stated, combat is a point and click affair. You can fire by either holding down the mouse button or by repeatedly clicking. If you hold down the mouse button, you can fire at different targets by moving the cursor from one target to another. While you are moving the cursor and holding down primary fire (button 1), if no target is under your cursor you will stop firing, and will start firing again as soon as you are aiming at another target.

When a creature/NPC dies, if it has something on it's corpse, a gold "i" icon appears over it, similar to the questgiver icon we have now. Single clicking on the corpse brings up the loot window. It is a gold window that shows the items on the corpse, and also has a "Loot All" button.

All characters can harvest from a creature. You simply loot the meat, bones, or hide off it.

The movement speed reduction for using pistols, carbines, and rifles is now applied and reapplied with every shot you take and has a duration of around 10 seconds. This means that you are snared in combat by the weapon movement speed reductions and shortly after combat you are allowed to move at full speed again.

Character and basic skills

Movement in running is at least twice, and possibly three times as fast. Using the Walk modifier button (SHIFT) makes you walk. The walk speed is unchanged (1.5m/s).

The character sheet now shows the following stats:


 * Health, in bar form and with a numeral amount
 * Action, in bar form and with a numeral amount
 * Mind, in bar form and with a numeral amount
 * An "offense" rating (numeral amount)
 * A damage amount, from x-y
 * A "defence" rating (numeral amount)
 * Strength, Constitution, Stamina, Agility, Precision, Luck in numeral amounts
 * Strength - Melee Combat Damage/Attack Ability
 * Constitution - Adds 8 points of health, 2 points of action
 * Stamina - Adds 8 points of action, 2 points of Health
 * Precision - Ranged Combat damage/attack ability
 * Agility - Defense for both Ranged and melee
 * Luck - Makes you Lucky
 * Defensive ratings for Kinetic, Energy, Heat, Cold, Acid, Electricity in numeral amounts

From the looks of it, wounds have been removed from the game. They aren't on the character sheet, but i may be incorrect about this.

There is no filling bar or information on food/drink filling. This is related to changes in food (you can only have one food or drink effect at a time).

You have no bank location listed in the character sheet. I assume this means that they are now all linked into one, and you can get bank items at any bank terminal. (need more info)

The birth location has been removed from the character sheet, as it was never implimented (to my knowledge).

All characters are given the basic dance and the ability to craft a basic food and drink.

Professions and the Profession Roadmap

The profession window shows a ring of skills that you get in order, centered around a picture of the person your class is based on. Below this is are four icons that show the progress you have in each of these trees. I'm sure you've all seen the pictures, and won't get into it as I don't have a flame retardant suit on me.

As far as professions go in the new system, it is worth noting that all characters can equip weapons of any type as long as they meet the CL requirements and the requirement of the weapon (if it has a profession certification). This means you are not locked into using Carbines, Pistols, or Rifles based solely on your profession, but the description of the profession makes it sound like certain professions will get better stats with certain weapons.

Quests and the Quest Journal

Quests are sorted in the quest journal, and can be resorted based on CL of the quest, the area, or alphabetically. Each quest has a combat level associated with it, and is color coded. Quests are flagged if they require a group to complete due to their difficulty.

Quests give you the appropriate kind of XP that your character needs to advance. Doing a quest task makes indicator noises.

Other interface windows

The abilities window, the community window, the datapad window, and the inventory window are unchanged in the new system.

Draft Pages
The following draft pages will be moved or copied to proper locations once the NGE is live.

levels
All professions will have linear progression. Players will not have a choice on what skills thier character learns. Skills and items will be granted at certain levels in every profession. For example, for the Force Sensitive (Prof), with ~500XP, characters will advance to Level 2 and will learn the skill of Focused Strike. And, at ~3800XP, characters will then become level 4 and learn Ataru Strike.

Combat XP per level
XP for level (not the skill XP boundaries are slightly different from the level ones; the level where the skill is awarded is listed)