Star Wars Galaxies Dev Diary: Let the PvP battles begin

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, PvP, Star Wars Galaxies

Even while the Star Wars Galaxies team is plugging away on their newest game update, the staff still has some time to give us some of their thought process behind their work on the game.

Today on Massively we're happy to have Thomas 'Hanse' Eidson, one of SWG's system designers, dropping by to give us his thoughts on creating the brand new PvP battlefields for Update 10. The new battlefields are areas for team based PvP, where teams accomplish objectives in addition to annhilating one another to win the map. Think of it like Battlefield 2, where both teams have a set reinforcement count and will lose should that number ever drop to zero.

Thomas has much to say on their efforts to make sure teams were always balanced, to the creation of new rewards for the battefields, to finding plots of land to even make these new areas! Hit the continue reading button below, and grab yourself an insider's view of the development of Star Wars Galaxies.

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Star Wars Galaxies Dev Diary: Let the PvP battles begin originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Star Wars Galaxies Dev Diary: Let the PvP battles begin pt. 2

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, PvP, Star Wars Galaxies

After making the Massassi Isle, I used it as my central testing location for all the battlefield programming changes. All battlefields function as "reinforcements" style mini-games where teams start out with a set number of points. As players kill members of the opposite team, or accomplish battlefield objectives, they diminish the number of points the opposing team has. Whichever team is reduced to zero points first, or whoever has the least number of points when time runs out, loses.

With the core system in place, I then began to customize each battlefield to offer unique objectives to ensure each area features a unique gameplay experience with its own twist. Just tweaking these objectives has allowed us to have mini-games similar to capture the flag, king of the hill, and others.

Testing of the battlefields necessitates that we wage pitched battles on each one. This validates which battlefield is fun, needs fixes, or needs polish. So far, I'm very excited to see the Data Runners battlefield completed and in game. It is, by far, my favorite. It is my second attempt at making an island and its beaches are much more lush and prevalent.

We knew that just adding new battlefields wouldn't be enough; everyone likes to be rewarded for their efforts. Therefore, we have added two new sets of armor to the game. Rebels can purchase the new SpecForce armor, and the Imperials can get Galactic Marine armor. But that's not all, we also recognize that weapons complete the look of any player ensemble, so with that in mind we created a whole suite of new weapons (i.e., one new weapon of every weapon type in the game). Some notable weapons include the WESTAR-34 blaster pistol that was used by Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones[TM] and the Darth Phobos double-bladed lightsaber.

All of these new rewards may be purchased with tokens obtained for playing on the new battlefields.

We hope that players really enjoy the new battlefields and rewards that we've created for them in Update 10!

Star Wars Galaxies Dev Diary: Let the PvP battles begin pt. 2 originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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