Since December 2005 you have all been playing the New Game Enhancement that several of you thought was put live with very little warning. The reason we took this measure is because we felt that the veteran gamers that usually frequent the test centre would instantly say “No” to the New Game Enhancement as they did when we launched the Combat Upgrade. You all have to understand that this game is actually under constant development and that we strive to make the best of our product. Lucas Arts has been working very closely with SOE since the launch of the NGE to gage the general feelings of the community and although several posts made by some veterans were negative in the beginning, we feel that the general population of Star Wars Galaxies now feels comfortable with the game in its current state.
What you didn’t realise and what we couldn’t tell you because of certain legal obligations is that you are only playing a fraction of what the true game will be like in it’s finished state. We had planned several months before NGE to upgrade the combat system to make it faster and more iconic, we had several ideas of how to do this but we needed a long-term test of each system. The CU was the first system and the NGE style combat that you now play was our second system.

Having now tested both systems we can see that people prefer the quick response of the NGE, but also like the targeting system of the CU. In addition there were certain professions that worked well such as creature handler and Doctors and others that people didn’t seem to like, Such as Rangers. These professions however worked well in the bringing together of a community that we had intended for. But we had to work on the professions and some new ideas to see how they would work if they were upgraded or scrapped, So we removed the professions we knew people liked, to force them to try the other professions they might not want to play. We have now gotten all the data that we need from our testing and are now planning to complete our experiment of the game.

On the 23rd of April we will be releasing the NHP (New Hope Patch), which will be included in publish 28. This will combine both the CU and NGE to make our finished combat system as well as bringing back creature handlers and all the other professions that were removed. Also we will be bringing back the skill trainers and the ability to customise your own characters for all professions. Group XP will also be coming back into the game as well as several other things that we removed while we tested the NGE engine. The legacy type quests that exist in the game will also be staying, giving people the option to do the quests for XP or to go out in hunting parties with missions from the terminals, Both how ever will now be paying experience points that relate to your level so that no one system is any quicker then the other. Over the next few months we will be releasing several more updates to add more quests that will get you to combat level ninety and specialised quests for non specialised professions, such as entertainers and crafters, who will have their own set of Legacy style quests that will pay new rewards including new schematics, dances and songs.

We are also aware that many veteran players disliked the change that made the Jedi profession so easily obtained. This was always going to be just a temporary change; we needed to extensively test the new set of skills that Jedi possess. The ‘Force Village’ will once again exist, allowing those who want to, the ability to become Jedi’s. Current Jedis over combat level 80 will be able to keep their Jedi profession, whilst all lower level Jedis will be given the re-spec option upon login.

We realise that several of you might think that our testing on you has been unfair and we apologise in advance, In addition to giving everyone 2 months free subscription we will also be giving out thank you gifts that will only be obtainable to current players and will never be passed out again.

Thank you for your time and patience and understanding. As ever, we are looking forward to hearing your points of view on this change through the reply feature provided by these forums.

Julio Torres, Producer - LucasArts

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