Producer Note: May 8th, 2009

[Q'in]

Bo shuda,

I hope everybody is enjoying their sparkly new houses. Update 9 was a lot of hard work for the team but I hope that the new options available bring a great deal of variety to the different server landscapes out there. With all of the Update 10 excitement coming up I haven’t had the chance to jump in yet and see how things have changed.

Speaking of Update 10, I’ll bet you’d like some additional information on that. Okay, so here we go…

“Dotanuki, what’s the deal with the battlefields?”

Update 10 will feature four all new battlefields. All are roughly based on “reinforcements” style gameplay. That is, each team starts out with a certain number of reinforcements. When you kill a member of the opposing team, or accomplish an objective, the opposing team’s number of reinforcements goes down. Whichever team reaches zero first loses. Alternately, if time runs out the team with the lowest score loses. Through clever use of these objectives, and variations in the landscape from battlefield to battlefield, we’ve managed to give each battlefield its own unique gameplay feel. All the details below are still being play tested and finalized and are definitely subject to change before it hits Test Center and LIVE.

Massassi Isle is on Yavin IV. When battling in Massassi Isle each team starts out with a set of bases. In order to knock down your opponent’s reinforcements quickly you’ll need to destroy the terminals in their bases while defending your own.

Battlefield 2 (name TBD) is on Yavin IV as well. Currently, each team starts out with a set of bases, similar to Massassi Isle. However, there is a single base in the center of the battlefield that can change faction several times. The gameplay for Battlefield 2 is still in progress though, so this may not be the final version that goes LIVE.

Battlefield 3 (name TBD) is on Endor. This is a very small battlefield with a single base at the top of a tall hill. This base can be captured repeatedly by either faction. Every time your team captures this base, the opposing team suffers a large loss to their reinforcement count.

Battlefield 4 (name TBD) is an island on Endor. There are four communication towers on this island. Secret data is sent to a randomly selected member of one of the teams. The player with the data must deliver it to a randomly selected communication tower. If the data is successfully delivered to the specified communication tower the opposing team will take a reinforcement hit. Conversely, if that player is killed before reaching the tower his/her team will suffer the large reinforcement loss.

“Wow, battlefields sound awesome, Dotanuki, but I want to know about the rewards.”

Last month I revealed the new Rebel SpecForce armor and told you that it would be available for all races. Here’s a peek at the Ithorian version of that armor.



For the Imperials, today I can also reveal that the “can be seen in the films” armor that has “white on it” is the Galactic Marine. We think this is one of the coolest looking armor sets from the Saga and we’re happy to bring it to you with Update 10. Congrats to Bamsee who I believe guessed it first. It was neat to see the threads of discussion on this topic and some of your guesses definitely gave us some cool possibilities to bring you the next time we do an Imperial armor set.



For those that wanted something from the Classic Trilogy timeframe, all I can say is that we’ll look into some of the suggestions for next time. We really like the look of the Galactic Marine. Just because it’s not seen in the latter three films doesn’t mean that the armor isn’t in use at all anymore. We really do hope that you like it when you get the chance to wear it in-game.

“Nice armor, Dotanuki. How about the weapons?”

In my last note I mentioned that you would be getting a slew of new weapons. Well, here they all are…

Pistol – WESTAR-34 Blaster Pistol. This is the type of pistol Jango Fett used in Attack of the Clones.


Rifle – WESTAR-M5 Blaster Rifle. This is one of the ARC Trooper blaster rifles.


Carbine – N'Gant-Zarvel 9118 Carbine.


Heavy Weapon – CR-1 Blaster Cannon.


Knuckler – Buzz-Knucks.


Sword – Sith Sword.


Two-Handed Sword – Vibrosword.


Polearm – Magnaguard Electrostaff. These are staffs were used by General Grievous’ bodyguards.


Single-Handed Lightsaber – Sith Saber.


Two-Handed Lightsaber – Two-Handed Mysterious Lightsaber.


Double-Bladed Lightsaber – Double-Bladed Darth Phobos Lightsaber.


We hope you’ll enjoy playing in all the new Update 10 battlefields as well as reaping the rewards that they have to offer!

Following Update 10 will be Update 11, Empire Day. The ceremonies from last year will return but the event as a whole has been expanded as well to make it more interactive. The ceremonies will now occur roughly every 15 minutes and three people will be called out for a special badge at each ceremony. We will also be introducing repeatable mini-games similar to last year’s Life Day’s smash presents/decorate trees games. Rewards will include a slew of brand new badges, items for you home, and some other surprises. On the subject of rewards, Cigaran, you’ll be happy to know that I finally found a place to implement your reward request back from November 6th of last year (no, I didn’t forget about it); look for it in Update 11!

Finally, I would like to encourage anybody who has the means to join us at Fan Faire in June. I’m putting together the presentations for Fan Faire now. We will have a lot of exciting things to reveal at the show!

May the Force be with you,

-Dotanuki

Linkto SoE boards thread