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Star Wars Galaxies™ Galactic Civil War: Forces Under Siege (Game Update 15)

Publish Notes, January 25th, 2010

*Receiving Coded Transmission*

Imperial Naval Communiqué #31756

To: Fleet High Command and Sr. Officers

From: Ysanne Isard, Director of Imperial Intelligence

Imperial counterintelligence agents embedded with a Rebel Bothan spy network intercepted the following Alliance transmission. Our field agents have noticed heightened Rebel activity in certain sectors, and it appears as though we have uncovered the cause:

Following the recent situation on Dathomir, and additional rumors of Imperial atrocities, it is imperative that we take extreme measures to expand our intelligence gathering networks and secure vital communications routes. I am calling on all fleet commanders to rally ships and available ground forces to three critical strategic points across the galaxy:

Tatooine – city of Bestine: The capital of Tatooine is rife with corruption and political turmoil, and is also a key Imperial outpost. If we take and hold this city we will control a wealth of information that moves through the galactic underworld.

Talus – city of Dearic: Another capital city plagued by dirty politics and scandal, Dearic is also home to a diverse and bustling Starport. Control of this city provides a broad spectrum of intelligence that will span the entire galaxy.

Naboo – city of Keren: As the Emperor's home world, Naboo is the beating heart of the Empire. To establish a control point on this planet would not only supply access to crucial intelligence, but would also be a devastating blow to Imperial morale and the Emperor himself. With its high level of commerce and financial influence throughout the Naboo system, Keren is the perfect target for this operation.

This mission takes top priority. The Empire must not be allowed to hold these cities. Good luck, and May the Force Be With You!

-- Leia Organa

Imperial Intelligence has confirmed the authenticity of this transmission. Squadrons will be assigned to deliver ground invasion forces to each of these locations to take and secure the cities. Under no circumstance can we allow these Rebel scum to gain a foothold. Be advised that Lord Vader himself has taken a personal interest in this matter, and failure will not be tolerated.

*Transmission End*

Galactic Civil War: Forces Under Siege Features

New, massive invasion/siege warfare scenarios in three major cities - Bestine, Dearic and Keren featuring: New Gameplay:

Dynamic changes occur in cities based on which faction is currently in control. Cities will display Imperial or Rebel banners and faction-specific NPCs, quests, terminals and pylons depending on which faction is on top
Added support for Factional Mercenaries. Neutral players can align themselves with either faction to participate in city conflicts and earn rewards
Mayors of player cities are able to set their city's factional alignment from the management terminal
Win battles within newly implemented Planetary Regions, which determine which faction controls a planet
New Planetary Region Display interface shows which faction is in command of regions and planets throughout the galaxy

New Interactive Structures:

Defend your city by manning barricades and building defensive turrets
Assault enemy cities and take out defense structures and key enemy personnel with the might of AT-AT or Hailfire missile attacks

All New Profession-Based Quests:

Contribute to the battle with profession-specific quests that let you bolster defending or invading forces
Improve and repair defensive structures, revive fallen soldiers, heal fatigue, entertain demoralized troops, slice terminals, scout and sabotage patrol points, and more

New Rewards:

Reap the benefits of war when you successfully lay waste to your opponents with invasion-specific quests
Earn tokens for defending your city with battle-specific quests such as manning barricades, building turrets and treating wounded soldiers
Cash in tokens for new rewards, which include: faction-specific clothing including capes, cloaks and battle-scarred armor; Entertainer glow sticks and multiple new weapons

The Galactic Civil War is being introduced with Update 15. With this update, your GCW points are directly responsible for control of cities, planets, and the galaxy. You will see these changes reflected on your planetary and galactic maps. Bestine on Tatooine, Dearic on Talus, and Keren on Naboo have been turned on for the new invasion system.

GCW

Defense
- Bestine
  - The Defending General can be found inside Bestine at -1214 -3626.
  - An Officer giving defending players quests can be found not far from the General at -1195 -3620.
- Dearic
  - The Defending General can be found inside Dearic at 479 -3007.
  - An Officer giving defending players quests can be found not far from the General at 478 -3023.
- Keren
  - The Defending General can be found inside Keren at 2131 2766.
  - An Officer giving defending players quests can be found not far from the General at 1787 2512.

Offensive
- Offensive Camps can be used by the invading faction for invasion specific quests, entertaining players, recruitment, and cloning.
- Bestine
  - Camps for the invading faction can be found just outside of Bestine at -900 -3782, -1253 -3348, and -1184 -3821.
- Dearic
  - Camps for the invading faction can be found just outside of Dearic at -2 -2805, 355 -2605, and -890 -2994.
- Keren
  - Camps for the invading faction can be found just outside of Keren at 1820 2192, 2131 2766, and 1212 3054.

Construction
- Tools:
  - Tools must be constructed to make pylons. Their resources are available from a supply terminal near the offensive and defensive general.
  - Supply terminals may be sliced by smugglers to provide optional components. Slicing the terminal repeatedly will increase the quality of the optional components.
- Pylons:
  - Pylons are construction points where you get construction quests.
  - Pylons are constructed by tools, which trade skill players manufacture. Anyone may use a tool, but trade skill players are the most effective at using tools during construction.
  - Constructing a pylon fatigues the builder, causing the construction of pylons to take longer and longer. This can be eliminated by visiting entertainers to work off fatigue.
  - Some Pylons have 4 levels:
    - Level 0: No construction and will not spawn during the battle.
    - Level 1: 1-49 resources have been constructed on the pylon.
    - Level 2: 50-99 resources have been constructed on the pylon.
    - Level 3: 100 resources have been constructed on the pylon.
  - Pylon objects:
    - Soldier Patrol:
      - This object spawns NPC's and is represented by a helmet icon floating over it.
      - Defensive patrols stay entrenched at their constructed location.
      - Offensive patrols assault defensive positions.
    - Barricade:
      - This object guards nearby players and NPC's and is represented by a barricade icon floating over it.
    - Turret:
      - Turrets are AI controlled and fire at enemies nearby. The pylon for these is represented by a gun barrel or dish icon floating over it.
    - Tower:
      - Towers buff non-player controlled AI nearby to do incredible amounts of damage. The pylon is represented by a floating tower icon over it.
    - Vehicle Patrol:
      - Vehicle patrols spawn tough vehicles and are represented by a terminal icon floating over it.
- Pylons are converted to their corresponding object when the construction phase ends and the battle phase begins.

Battle
- Vehicle spawn points:
  - Level 1: Level 60 elite vehicle
  - Level 2: Level 90 elite vehicle
  - Level 3: Level 90 boss vehicle
- Patrol spawn points:
  - Level 1: Level 60 NPC
  - Level 2: Level 90 NPC
  - Level 3: Level 90 elite NPC
  - Entertainers may entertain patrol points to buff NPC's spawned for both invasion and defense of a city.
  - Patrol points may be sabotaged by spies, which require a quest from their faction's general/attaché.
- Barricade:
  - No levels, but HP is increased by 5000HP per resource added.
  - Barricades offer defender quests for general combat.
- Tower:
  - No levels, but HP is increased by 5000HP per resource added.
  - Vehicles target towers
- Turret:
  - 5000HP per resource added.
  - Level 1-3: Increased damage per shot, but it can be mitigated by armor.
  - Turrets offer defender quests for general combat.
- Wounded soldiers:
  - Offer a quest to revive fallen soldiers to medics. Will reinforce a location or begin patrolling into the city to add to the invasion force.
- Damaged vehicles:
  - Offer a quest to tradeskill players for repair. Once repaired, they will reinforce the invading force by patrolling into the city.
- Demoralized troops:
  - Offer a quest to entertainers to be entertained and rejoin the battle effort for both offense and defense.

Invasions occur every three hours and last an hour. Two of the three cities will be active during each invasion.
- The construction phase lasts 30 minutes.
- The battle phase lasts 30 minutes.
- Defeating a defensive general will end a battle with the offensive team as the victors.
- Keeping the defensive general alive for the entire battle phase (30 minutes) will allow the defending team to win.
- Defensive general will flag players as Special Forces, if they persist in attacking him. A warning window will be displayed for attacking a general and not being Special Forces.

The Planetary Map for the appropriate planet will show the current phase that Bestine, Dearic, or Keren is currently in (construction, combat or occupation).

Factional Helper
- Neutral players can become factional helper to help their favorite faction.
- Use the command browser, /factionalHelper slash command, a faction recruiter, an invading city General or a city defensive Field Commander NPC to access the factional helper system.
- There is a 30 minutes cooldown once you have stopped helping one side before you can start helping the other side. You can still immediately help the side that you most recently stopped helping.
- If you are a Special Forces factional helper, you will be automatically changed to Combatant factional helper upon cloning.
Factional Presence
- If you are factional special forces (NOT factional helper special forces), "actively" playing the game, not cloaked/incapped/dead, and out in the world in a GCW contested region, each minute, for risking life and limb to provide factional presence/patrolling the GCW contested region, you will automatically provide a nominal amount of points to the GCW score for your faction for the contested area. The amount of points is proportionate to the character level, plus a 10% bonus for each GCW rank.
- Factional presence is only granted if you (or if mounted, your vehicle/mount) are on the ground out in the world. This means that factional presence is not granted if you (or if mounted, your vehicle/mount) are in/on any part of a structure (like entrance steps, roof, balcony, theater stage, etc), or on a bridge, or in a garden, or in the bazaar/bank plaza, or on a storyteller platform, etc.
- A "GCW Factional Presence" radial menu has been added to the War Terminal and the War Intel Pad that displays a window showing the GCW contested regions that currently have factional presence activity.
Player City Factional Alignment
- The mayor can set the city's factional alignment from the city's management terminal.
- There is a 1 day wait to switch the city's factional alignment. There is no wait to align with the same faction that the city most recently aligned with.
- The city's factional alignment is displayed in the city's status window and in the announcement message when you enter the city's borders.
- If factional presence (see above) occurs within the borders of a same aligned player city (i.e. the player city overlaps the GCW contested region, and the factional presence occurs in the overlap area), there is a 100% bonus, plus a 10% bonus per city rank, plus a 5% bonus per year of city age.
Travel Perks And Restrictions:
- Once a planet is 70% controlled by a faction, the following travel perks and restrictions will apply to GCW officers. To repeat, GCW travel perks and restrictions only apply to GCW officers.
- GCW officers of the controlling faction will have 0 shuttle wait time.
- GCW officers of the losing faction can only board every other shuttle, or pay a 50000 credits surcharge (each time) to avoid waiting for every other shuttle.
- GCW officers of the losing faction must pay a surcharge for shuttle travel if either the departure or the arrival planet is 70% controlled by the opposing faction, whichever is greater. The amount of surcharge is 500 credits for each % above 70%.
- If the planet has more than 1 Starport, only 1 Starport will be available for interplanetary ticket travel (both outgoing and incoming) to GCW officers of the losing faction. The 1 Starport that is available is the one that is least controlled by the controlling faction.

User Interface
- The Galactic Civil War Information Screen:
  - A new button has been added to the button bar. The Galactic Civil War screen is THE location to get all the information you need to see what's going on in your part of the world, or how the war is going in other galaxies and the final score across all galaxies.
  - This screen can also be brought up with the /gcwInfo command.
- The Galactic Travel Map:
  - The planet map has been updated to show areas that affect the outcome of the Galactic Civil War as well as the score for that current zone.
  - Areas currently under rebel control will show up as a rebel insignia, imperial control shows up as an imperial insignia, and 50/50 zones are shown with a contested insignia.
  - You can prevent the Galactic Civil War zones from showing up on your planet map by simply unchecking the "Show GCW Contested Zones" option on the Planet Map window.

Miscellaneous
- Spawns will now be affected by a regions GCW score. The higher the score is in a region, the more likely you will be to see troops from the faction that is currently winning.
- There are new collections tied to the GCW city invasions.
- GCW points directly affect some planetary spawns and are properly represented on the war terminal.
- Mon Calamari Cruisers or Star Destroyers will appear in the sky of a planet, depending on who is winning. The more your side is winning by, the more ships you'll see.

Battlefields

Replaced the original two story battlefield bunkers with reworked single story bunkers to address the line-of-sight issues caused by pvp'ing in those buildings.

Graphics

Frame rate limit increased from 30 to 60 FPS.

Storyteller

Storyteller vendors can now offer most props and NPCs in larger quantities when purchased.

Bounty Hunter

Sniper shot no longer requires a prone position.

Weapon

Pistol Launcher rocket trail particle density reduced.

Chronicles

Tusken Raiders from the Tusken King instance will now count towards 'Kill Tusken Raiders' and 'kill and loot Tusken Raiders' storyteller relics.
Greater Desert Womp rats should now count towards 'Kill any Womp Rats' and 'Kill and Loot any Womp Rats' Chronicle Relics.

Misc

Targets you cannot attack (such as same faction NPCs) will now display their health as a grey bar when targeted. You still cannot attack these NPCs, merely observe their health.
Added a checkbox on the character selection screen to hide characters screen on servers that are now closed.
Players may now equip as many cybernetic attachments as they wish. Now you can be the droid you're looking for!
The Allow Object Icon Rotation option now applies to toolbar icons and not just inventory/container item icons.
Export command now properly writes out font colors.
Players can now mark themselves as "Looking For Work" (either by using the command /lfw or checking the LFW option on the Character tab in the Community page). This tag is meant for players who wish to do commission based work or provide some type of service. You can search for players with this tag by using the community search tool.
No-Trade items can now be placed into containers inside a player's house or space POB.

Death Troopers
After a mysterious turn of events the Empire has mustered an enormous military presence in a remote location on Dathomir. Imperial High Command has issued a travel warning to notify citizens to avoid travel to the planet if possible. Citizens that cannot avoid travel to Dathomir should be aware that certain locations are now considered restricted areas. Unauthorized travel by citizenry to these restricted areas may result in fines, arrest or both. While rumors have circulated that restricted areas are being used to contain a biological threat, no official report has been confirmed or denied by High Command.

Star Wars Chronicles Master System
It's time to open your imagination and start creating stories to share with your friends. With the Star Wars Chronicles system, you now have the ability to create stories from relics you will discover throughout the galaxy. Use the Quest Builder to write your story with the relics you have discovered. Hit "Create Quest" to consume the relics and create a holocron in your inventory. This holocron can be traded to others or activated to begin the adventure. Completing holocrons will reward you with profession experience and tokens. Tokens can be used at the Chronicles reward vendor, S7-U44 Vending Droid, in both Theed and Coronet. The vendors are in the tent behind C-3PO. You can purchase relic booster packs from them as well as other exciting rewards.

For some friendly assistance, speak with C-3PO and he will explain more about Chronicles.

On the field of battle, the force with the ability to move units at will always has the upper hand. In the fourth expansion to the Star Wars Galaxies™ Trading Card Game*, The Shadow Syndicate, gain a decisive advantage over your opponents with all new vehicle units sure to run your opponents in to the ground.

Join the 2009 Galactic Buddy Initiative and recruit your friends and buddy’s to collect exciting rewards such as a Light Bending Gasgano Podracer for you and a Holocron of Knowledge for your buddy that instantly boosts them to level 50!

What is this? It's a podcast focused on Star Wars Galaxies and all things Star Wars. Yivvits and MrBubble talk about how Star Wars and SWG pop up in their daily lives, what they've been doing in the game, and discuss the state of the game. Read on to hear what they have in store for you…

Here it is: our gargantuan two hour long Fan Faire 2009 Memories episode! You've probably listened to the SWG panels we recorded, but this is the episode where we pull it all together and tell you about our Fan Faire experiences. In fact, there's so much SWGwYaMB goodness in this one that we had to resort to using bullet points for the show notes! Here are just a few of the things in this episode:

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