This publish includes tweaks and fixes for the GCW, some more UI loving and a new story Arc!

Quests

Today begins the first part of a new epic quest series called “Secrets of the Syren”! Who is the pilot that everyone is searching for? What was the dangerous cargo he was carrying that both Imperials and Rebels want so desperately? Rebels should report immediately to the Tyrena Cantina, Imperials to the Bestine Cantina and Neutrals to the Theed Cantina!

GCW

• Increased the difficulty of higher level faction base spawns. (Now that the rebel and imperial faction bases spawned entity difficulty and numbers have recently been brought into balance with each other, the difficulty of the spawns at bases higher than the forward operating bases are being increased)
• PvE (non SF) faction bases can no longer have control terminal menu options for resetting their vulnerability timer (which shouldn’t have been there anyhow, since PvE bases are always supposed to be vulnerable), nor can you shut them down to abort a self-destruct countdown, once started (which better fits the non-PvP nature of these bases).
• Added hacked terminal and base destruction alarms to factional bases
• Added exterior reinforcement spawner to hacked factional bases
• Decreased point cost of faction turrets
• Decreased point cost of the factional forward operating bases
• Factional base deeds should now indicate what faction they are for by their name.
• Increased GCW point value of factional bases for all bases higher than Forward Operating Base
• Slightly increased cost of Tactical Center to bring it in line with the increased toughness of its spawns
• Fixed an issue where Imperial guards were spawning and entering Moenian cantinas
• Fixed rank display in recruiter conversations
• News terminals will now always open the news headlines when you double click on them
• Fixed several bad faction base objective-terminal spawn locations and orientations
• Fixed terminals only working if you were special forces
• Added roving security personnel to hacked factional bases
• Fixed a bug where objects could block players from entering factional bases
• Changed how GCW faction perk costs are changed based on GCW status. There was a bug that caused items to get cheaper as you started to lose. This was incorrect and backwards. If you are losing, items get more expensive on that planet.

AI

• Fixed a bug where AI would warp when moving towards a destination (such as fleeing, etc.)

UI

• There are 4 new key bindings that are not mapped to any key-binding at this time. When bound, they should filter out friends and enemies in a previous next manner
• Player movement should now feel “snappier” (run, walk and turn rates have been accelerated)
• Hovering over a blip on the radar will display tooltip information about the blip.
• Fixed an issue where the buff window would reset when a player logged out or relogged.
• Planetmap should honor the show all cities flag.
• Fixed an issue where players could not run through streetlamps
• If the quest journal is open when a task or quest completes, it will now update correctly.
• Duplicate journal entries will only be displayed once. (e.g. Darn Droid listed a speak task 3 times before).
• Destroy, loot, and timer tasks will have a progress counter in the journal. (e.g.. “Killed: 2/10″ will show in the journal description for a kill 10 worrts task).
• Tooltips on the radar will now display instantly
• The waypoint window in the datapad window will no longer overlap the checkboxes in the detail view
• Radar opacity should ignore UI opacity setting
• Improved double click options:
  • Double-clicking on NPCs will display the appropriate messages and perform the proper actions.
  • Double-clicking an incapacitated player will death-blow them.
  • Double-clicking on your mount will mount or dismount you.
  • Double-clicking on a crafting station will start a crafting session with a compatible crafting tool in your inventory

Loot

• Giant Canyon and Krayt Ancient Dragons should drop pearls at their normal drop rate
• Nightsisters should drop crystals at their normal drop rate
• Fixed a problem with all high-end loot drop rates
• Fixed an issue that no longer allows dead players to loot factional pets and dead players

[edit] Player Cities

• Fixed a problem where some Mayors cannot send ingame emails to citizens

Player Event Perks

• Changed faction perk gating to fix coverts not being able to wear armor

Vet Rewards

• Anti Decay Kits that were placed inside house containers such as a bookcase or armoire will now have a “Pickup” radial menu option.

Misc.

• Fixed an issue where players would experience a crash to desktop in /alarmsnooze if no alarms were previously set
• Japanese Localization Fixes
• Fixed some issues that would cause players to crash to desktop

Galaxy-wide Vendor Search is here!

Have you ever wanted to search for an item to buy without having to travel across the entire planet randomly checking vendors? Well now you can! We have enhanced the functionality of our bazaar terminals to include the ability to search all player vendors for items you may be looking for. This new feature will greatly improve how vendors are handled in the game. Read on for more information.

Overview

The purpose of vendor search function is to allow vendor owned items to be searched from anywhere in the galaxy. This will include the following functions:

• Each vendor owner can decide whether to allow his or her vendors to be searchable in the market. There is an option for vendor owners to turn on/off the search option on his or her vendor. The vendor owner will be able to find current search option settings for each of his or her vendor(s)
• When a vendor owner turns on the search option, a player should be able to go to any bazaar and list all items owned by this vendor
• When a vendor owner turns off the search option, the vendor is no longer listed in the galaxy-wide network search. With this search option turned off, vendor owners have the ability to conduct private auctions. Players will need to physically go to the vendor and click “Use Vendor” to list items from this vendor.

Vendor Status

For all the existing vendors, the default option is set to no. Players have to go to their vendors and enable this search option. For all future vendors, this option is set to yes by default. For vendor owners to check if the search option is on or off do the following:

• Select the Vendor you wish to turn search on/off for
• From the radial menu choose “Vendor Control”
  • Once you have selected “Vendor Control” then choose “Status”
• A pop-up window will show if the search option is on or off

PA Hall Leadership Succession

Overview

In the current live environment, a PA does not automatically handle the case where a PA leader has retired from the game. This condition results in leaderless PAs, often with active members who wish to continue to run the guild. In order to resolve this system, we will implement an automated PA succession system.

Allegiance

The existing “Allegiance” system interface will be removed. Instead, guild leaders will be able to turn on voting at any time. Every two weeks, the votes will be tallied and a new guild leader selected. This is to allow guilds the option of a democratic process. Not all guilds will want to enable this option. Guild leader voting will default to off.

PA Hall Leadership Succession

There are now two methods for PA Hall Leadership Succession: direct leadership transfer and leader elections as explained below.

Direct Transfer

Direct leadership transfer is executed by the current PA leader at the PA management terminal. The leader would select the “Transfer PA Leadership” option at the terminal. They are then prompted to enter the name of the person who will receive leadership. This person must be online and be standing near the terminal. The person who will receive leadership must also have enough lots free to take ownership of the PA hall. If they satisfy the requirements, the PA leadership and the PA hall ownership will be transferred to them. If they do not satisfy the requirements, the existing leader will receive a message as to why the change could not be made. Trial accounts are not eligible for leadership or PA hall ownership.

Elections

During the regular weekly PA maintenance, the system will examine the last login time of the PA leader. If they have not logged in for one month, the system will send an email warning to the PA members. The warning will explain that the leader has not been active and that a voting process for a new leader has been opened.

The voting process will use the same interface as player city voting. Three options will become available on the guild management terminal during voting:

1. Register / Unregister – Any full PA member may run for election. They would select this option to add themselves to the ballot. Only members on the ballot are eligible for election. Any guild member in normal standing can register to run. Sponsored applicants will not be eligible to run.
2. Cast Vote – This option allows a member to select who they wish to vote for. They may also choose to abstain. A member may change their vote at any time
3. View Standings – allows the player to look at who is currently registered and how many votes they have received.

Exactly two weeks after the election is started, the votes will be tallied. The individual with the most votes will become leader of the PA.

In many cases, the owner of a PA hall and the PA leader will be different characters. In order to prevent a PA from losing a PA hall due to the absence of the hall owner, PA leaders now have a limited ability to claim PA halls they do not own. A new guild terminal option “Accept PA Hall” will appear (for guild leader) if the hall owner has not logged in for 28 days. Once the guild leader owns the hall, the structure may be transferred to another player using the /transferStructure command.

Other Changes

Profession Dancer

• Added new dance (Tumble) to Dancing Knowledge I
• Added new dance (Tumble2) to Dancing Knowledge II
• Added new dance (Breakdance) to Dancing Knowledge III
• Added new dance (Breakdance2) to Dancing Knowledge IV
• Removed the 15sec delay between stopping one song or dance and starting a new song or dance.
• Removed chance of making a mistake while dancing.

Profession Musician

• Added new song (StarWars4) to Novice Musician skill box.
• Added new song (Funk) to Music Knowledge II
• Removed the 15sec delay between stopping one song or dance and starting a new song or dance.

Profession – Image Designer

• Reduced Image Designer skill point costs by 16 by reducing each skill box between Novice Image Designer and Master Image Designer by one point.
• Removed Image Designer action timers for Body and Cosmetic changes

Quests

• Quests with timers now display the timer in the quest journal.
• Quest News, our quest reporters have been digging around and were able to bring you the following quest news stories:

• Story Arc: Secrets of the Syren, Chapter two; More Than You Bargained For
  • Breaking News: Information has been received regarding the missing freighter pilot from Naboo. While this information has not been made public, a Rebel Officer in Tyrena as well as an Imperial Officer in Bestine and a private citizen in Theed have all been seen in talks with the various parties involved in the search. This raises the question of the seriousness of this situation. Parties involved in the initial search for this pilot are encouraged to talk to their initial contact.
• Quest: Enough!
  • From the journal of a holonews reporter: Looks like the fighting was rather rough in Corellia space today. I had the opportunity to actually see some of the fighting. I could kick myself for not bringing my holo-recorder! It appeared to end in a draw, but of course I can’t actually report that! Interestingly, two ships crashed: one on Talus and the other on Corellia. Sources tell me that an Imperial officer named Ceth Laike at the Imperial Outpost in Talus is looking for the pilot of one of these ships. A Rebel named Acun Solari in Tyrena is looking for the other. I hope they didn’t land in bad spots. Sometimes the local gangs salvage parts off of downed ships
• Quest: Imperial Defector
  • ### $! Encrypted transmission from Jom Irimore, Rebel Alliance cell member in Tyrena to Teslo Ten’doora at the base. Sir, I have a new contact. Another member of the Imperial Military (a high-ranking one, I might add) is going to supply us with information. I’ll send someone to bring him to you as soon as possible. I trust in this officer’s defection. Apparently, his entire family was on Alderaan. End transmission ^#)%)()(@!#^###
• Quest: Rebel Informant

 Memo
 To: Lt. Allard Lissara
 From:  Jaek Vercet, Imperial Representative to Moenia
 You were correct, sir.  Those rebels are starting to cave.  One of them came to me, telling me
 about a rift in the Alliance's leadership.  He's willing to give us information if we offer him
 immunity for his treason.  I leave that decision to you.  I'm laying low in one of the buildings
 in town and will need to send someone to bring the Rebel to you.

Jedi

• Fixed an issue where Jedi are able to heal other Jedi in incorrect cases

Player Event Perks

• A number of new venues and decorations have been added to the player event promoter NPC
• Player event decorations can now be rotated. You can now use a radial menu on Rental Deeds for Player Event Perks to check how much time they have before they expire. Many Player Event Perks can now be redeeded. By using the radial menu, the owner of a Player Event Perk may check how long the perk has before it expires.

UI

• Text changes made to the Popup help
• Fixed a problem with the camera rotation spin
• Changed UI options text from “Default (Modeless)” to “MMORPG Modeless”
• Changed default user interface keymap to “Star Wars Galaxies
• It is no longer possible to configure the UI to use modal chat while in one of the new modeless user interfaces.
• You can now turn with the keyboard while holding down left mouse button while using the default keymap
• Several optimizations to client terrain and flora rendering which should show increased frame-rate, especially during movement. Some players may find they can increase terrain detail and/or flora distances and still get good frame rate
• Optimizations to water code to improve client performance. Water detail control currently does nothing.
• Fixed an issues where water fountains were not showing the “water”

GCW

• Removed donate resource option from faction HQ terminals

Group Loot Options

• The group leadership and master looter will no longer transfer to another member when crossing a server boundary, traveling, etc.
• Droids and pets can no longer be made leaders or master looters

Space

• Fixed a bug where the s-foils on the b-wing were not opening and closing upon command

Structures

• We have expanded the viewing range on all player structures. This means they will now be visible sooner upon approaching them.
• Owners of houses with access fees will no longer receive a message when someone tries to enter the house but can’t pay the fee. This message will go to the person attempting to enter the house instead.

Group Loot

• Fixed a loot bug where no player feedback would be given if the corpse was empty when using /loot

Quests:

• Fixed an issue that was causing timers to not always show up in the quest journal

• Fixed a bug where a crafting tool can hang while loading schematic.
• Fixed recyclers, the tumble blender, and the agitator motor.

Guilds

• Fixed bug where guilds could no longer be placed on the Entry or Ban lists using “guild:abbreviation”

Player Event Perks

• Fixed an issue preventing the jukebox from playing.

GCW

• Eased the faction base placement restrictions

Misc.

• Improve server stability
• Fixed issue where objects could not be moved up or down in one of the rooms of the Corellian small style 2 house