SWG Stratics is proud to present the first in a series of exclusive interviews and screenshots concerning our favorite game!

The following questions were answered by Lorin Jameson, aka DeadMeat, producer at SOE,Star Wars Galaxies and Tim Temmerman, aka Neif, associate producer at Lucas Arts.

RainStar: Concerning the Spy and Smuggler professions, how much input from the Senators was taken into consideration?

LJ: We used the Top 5 Lists that each Senator maintains as the basis for our work. Obviously if something is out of scope for a small update we had to take a pass, but we always at least focused on the underlying themes that the lists represented.

RainStar: Since some of the changes are within the expertise system, will those involved receive a free expertise respec token?

LJ: When a change affects the expertise in a way that requires a player to reallocate, or if they might want to change their distribution because of some alteration of the expertise, we will allow for a free respec. We did this with the Spies for this Update.

RainStar: The Spy community had a big hurt put on it regarding PvE when they were nerfed awhile back. The AI was beefed up at the same time. Will the changes bring Spies back to their former glory?

TT: Spies will receive more reliable cloaking techniques, ensuring they can effectively sneak and evade mobs without being unfairly detected. We've also taken a look at Spy combat, and given them a new ability to boost their action pool. Running out of action was a big problem with Spies, and this new optional buff will entirely recharge the action bar in a matter of seconds. With a few additional DPS tweaks and mods, Spies will become a formidable opponent in any situation.

RainStar: How big of a DPS tweak are you talking about with pistol usage in the Smuggler profession?

LJ: A 12% bonus per shot, with the highest buff (Modify Pistol 3). It requires one Illegal Pistol Module and an equipped pistol. It places the buff on the smuggler, not the weapon.

RainStar: What does the new quest involve? Do you have to be a certain level or have a certain skill to start this quest?

LJ: The new quest requires that you have an Illegal Pistol Module in your backpack. When you summon the Smuggler's Junk Dealer, he/she will have a new chat option to start the quest. The quest requires you be level 90 and takes 100 Illegal Pistol Modules to complete. The quest can be completed with 34 tier 5 smuggling runs, as tier 5 smuggling runs grants 3 Illegal Pistol Modules per mission.

RainStar: Is the quest repeatable and does it offer useful rewards that can be traded?

LJ: Yes, the quest is repeatable for a top-end smuggler pistol schematic. The schematic can be traded.

RainStar: The Ewok Festival will be great! Which of you came up with this idea?

LJ: Well, not to take away the mystique of game development, but it was late in the day of meetings between SOE and LucasArts discussing what we wanted to do in 2008. Everyone loved the Life Day event this year and we decided we wanted to do more events like it. Valentine's Day was the first holiday of 2008 that we felt we could do something for, but since there's no Valentine's Day equivalent in the Star Wars canon, we just started calling it Wookiee Love Day. However, we didn't want another Wookiee-based Holiday, so I started calling it Ewok Cuddle Day. Everyone started giggling and the meeting kind of broke down for a little while and it never got changed. We left it as that until calmer heads prevailed, and a few weeks later and we came up with the Ewok Festival of Love. The truth is, our players love events like this, so we're trying to do more of them throughout the year.

RainStar: It starts on the 13th, how long will it last? Will it be a yearly event like Life Day?

LJ: The Ewok Festival of Love will run for a couple of weeks and we certainly hope to have this become a tradition like Wookiee Life day.

RainStar: Quite a nice list of fixes for this update. What is the deciding factor on what gets fixed first?

LJ: Aside from the specific focus on the professions, we draw the rest of the Update from what we call Stakeholders. This includes Community, Customer Service, and Quality Assurance. They each present a list of their top concerns, issues, bugs which theyve identified in-game. We hope this approach gives us a high bang-for-the-buck on the Updates.

RainStar: The Smugglers are fit to be tied at the moment. They want to be useful in the community again as they were back in the day. Any plans for this to happen?

TT: Every profession in Galaxies is unique, and as we go forward were always looking to increase group interdependence. For this update, weve added some new rewards the smuggling mission series, but we dont want to give out too many details here Ill say that Smugglers are a pistol profession, and as such, were giving special consideration to their pistol abilities.

RainStar: What is the line up for the rest of the Professions?

LJ: All of them will be hit during the next 6 months or so, with Medic and Entertainer coming next, then Jedi and Bounty Hunter.

RainStar: You mentioned "the goal is touching all of them (professions) in the first half of the year." What do you have planned for the second half of the year?

LJ: We like to stay pretty