On Tuesday, August 1st at 4:00 AM PDT all U.S. and European galaxies will be taken down for server maintenance and a live update.

When the update is complete, all galaxies will be live but unavailable while we complete final testing. All galaxies will be made available after that time.

4:00 AM PDT (Los Angeles) / 6:00 AM CDT (Austin) / 7:00 AM EDT (New York) / 12:00 PM (London) / 9:00 PM (Tokyo)
[Click here for a Time Zone Calculator]

Always remember to check the Announcement Forum for the latest information.

Major Features

Chapter 2 has a lot of exciting new features! Read this section to learn about:

* New Quests: "The Talus Incident"
* Our Chapter 2 gift to you
* Auto-Aim Targeting
* Jedi Expertise
* Bounty Hunter Expertise
* New PvP static Galactic Civil War bases
* New Player Character appearances

"The Talus Incident": Chapter 2 brings us a new quest series building off of Chapter 1's exciting quest series, "The Corellian Captives".

With the Galactic Civil War boils over in the city of Restuss, CorSec Officer Dathnaeya Loessin can no longer stay out of the conflict! As the Imperials tighten their grip on the galaxy and the Rebellion grows in power, she must make a decision and join one side or the other!

Having been a great help in finding The Corellian Captives, she turns to you for answers! You must investigate military contractors and try to uncover the truth about the Empire and the Rebellion for CorSec! What path will you follow?
Chapter Gift: Our gift to you this chapter is a new type of short-duration, military grade buff that will heal your wounds in combat as you take damage. This gift can also be earned as a reward from the static Galactic Civil War bases that is also part of Chapter 2, so if you would like to earn more, you can by capturing an enemy base! For more information on Chapter Gifts, click here

Auto-Aim Targeting: Take control over combat with Auto-Aim Targeting! Now you can lock on to any target to ensure you are engaging the enemy target you choose in the heat of battle. To access the new targeting options, open your keymap options and select the key bindings for "Toggle Safety" and "Set Intended Target."

Jedi Expertise: Give your character more depth with the new Expertise system. Starting at level 10, Jedi will earn Expertise points that can be spent on specialized Expertise abilities! This new feature allows you to develop a variety of different Light and Dark Jedi abilities for your character. As you continue to advance in levels, you will earn more points you can use to improve your existing skills and even earn a wide variety of new skills. High level Jedi will have the opportunity to allocate many Expertise points based on your level.

You can open your Expertise window in-game through the main game menu. Look for the menu item, "Expertise”.

Bounty Hunter Expertise: Bounty Hunter Expertise is also coming your way in Chapter 2. First Strike, Defensive Tank, and Sustained Damage are all different ways that you can specialize your Bounty Hunter using the Expertise System. Starting at level 10, Bounty Hunters earn Expertise points that can be spent to make your Bounty Hunter unique and different from other Bounty Hunters. As you continue to advance in levels, you will earn more points you can use to improve your existing skills and even earn a wide variety of new skills. High level Bounty Hunters will also have the opportunity to allocate many Expertise points based on level.

You can open your Expertise window in-game through the main game menu. Look for the menu item, "Expertise”.

Static Galactic Civil War Bases: Following the battle in Restuss, both Imperial and Rebel forces have intensified their efforts to oppose one another. Both sides have identified what they believe are strategic locations that are important to their operations. Across the Galactic Empire, familiar places like Talus, Naboo and Corellia are now the spot of heated conflict as both sides attempt to control them.

click to find out more about the exciting new Galactic Civil War Bases!

New Character Appearances: Humans, Zabrak, and Twi'leks get an appearance improvement in Chapter 2! These playable species have been upgraded so that your character's customized details take advantage of the latest visual technologies. Skin tones will look richer and more natural; body details will be more distinct and other details will be more striking. As new chapters for Star Wars Galaxies are published, more and more player races will get these new graphic enhancements.



Chapter 2 Publish Notes

Art

* Humans, Zabrak, and Twi'leks have new Character Appearance enhancements.

* Improved tractor beam visual effects.

* Improved the firing animations for carbines.

Battle of Restuss

* Increased the amount and frequency of Rebel and Imperial NPC patrols in Restuss.

* Rebel and Imperial sensor array quests should now be giving Experience Point (XP) rewards on completion.

* Commandos will no longer be able to destroy enemy antennas by taking a mission and then switching factions.

Combat

* You should now be able to use special abilities involving grenades, mines, and the supply drop on surfaces above the ground.

* Buffs from the Sith Holocron and the Shard of the Serpent are no longer on the same cool-down timer.

* Special attacks now have tracking projectiles.

Death Watch Bunker

* Re-breathers can now be worn with Wookiee Armor.

Galactic Civil War

* Static Galactic Civil War Bases: Following the battle in Restuss, both Imperial and Rebel forces have intensified their efforts to oppose one another. Both sides have identified what they believe are strategic locations that are important to their operations. Across the Galactic Empire, familiar places like Talus, Naboo and Corellia are now the spot of heated conflict as both sides attempt to control them.


* Recruiters can no longer be used to set negative faction to zero.

Heavy Weapons

* Heavy Weapons have been changed so that you can activate special abilities just like normal weapons. However, the special abilities that were previously restricted during heavy weapon usage are still restricted.

Items

* You will no longer be able to bio-link an item that you cannot equip because your character has species restrictions.

Junk Dealers

* Transport Skiffs can no longer be sold to Junk Vendors.

* Lava Skiffs can no longer be sold to Junk Vendors.

Mounts

* You can now only have one mount out at a time.

* If you had a pet that knew the attack commands before Publish 25, they will no longer respond to that command. Please note that this will changed in an upcoming publish so that only Mounts are affected.

Player Cities

* If a player city has Zoning rights enabled, you can no longer transfer a structure without getting zoning rights from the Mayor or member of the militia.

Profession: Bounty Hunter

* Added Bounty Hunter Profession Expertise. You can open your Expertise window in-game through the main game menu. Look for the menu item, "Expertise”.

* PvP Bounty Missions: Missions for off-planet missions will be given to players before giving missions for your current planet. If there are no off-planet missions, it will offer same-planet missions that are far away. If there are no missions far away from your current location, it will randomly assign you a PvP mission.

* SpyNet Operatives have gone under-ground; it has become too dangerous for them to be caught out in the cities alone. Because of this, Bounty Hunters will no longer have to find a SpyNet Operative. SpyNet Operatives will now contact Bounty Hunters via comlink.

When the SpyNet Operative contacts you, they will give you either the location of your mark, the planet and the bio-signature of the mark or just the bio-signature depending on your level.

• Tier 1: The operative will give the more trusted and skilled Bounty Hunters a waypoint to the location of their mark.

• Tier 2: The operative will give you the Bio Signature, followed by a second communication informing Bounty Hunters which planet to start their hunt.

• Tier 3: The operative will transmit only a Bio Signature to novice Bounty Hunters.

For anyone who is currently on a Bounty Hunter mission and hasn't talked to a SpyNet Operative yet, you will receive a com-link message shortly after logging in.

Profession: Entertainer

* The /stopDance command will no longer stop music. (Use the /stopMusic command).

Profession: Jedi

* Added Jedi Profession Expertise. You can open your Expertise window in-game through the main game menu. Look for the menu item, "Expertise”.

* The Force Cloak special ability will now snare the Jedi and allow them to move hidden for 25 seconds.

* The Force Cloak cool-down timer has been increased.

Profession: Medic

* The Medic's Trauger Gas Canister special abilities should now work properly.

* The Bacta Haze description now displays the correct level.

* The Target Anatomy description now displays the correct level.

Profession: Smuggler

* The Camouflage Ally special ability will now hide your ally for 15 seconds and allow them to move.

Profession: Spy

* A Spy's steal ability will now work properly both in and out of combat.

* The Smoke Grenade line of special abilities will now root the user in place for the duration of the ability. This can be cancelled by activating a stealth skill, entering combat, etc.

* The Spy's Smoke Grenade line of special abilities can now be used when moving. When you activate the ability, you will then be rooted in place for the duration of the ability as noted above.

* Spies will now throw a grenade instead of their weapon when using the Flash Bang grenade ability.

Profession: Trader

* Crafting stations that have been in packed-up houses should now work correctly when un-packed.

Quests

* New Legacy Quests: Chapter 2 has new Legacy quests for level 41-43 and a new quest for level 18.

Level 18 Legacy Quest: Wald's Woes

To start this quest, visit Wald in Watto's shop on Tatooine.

Level 41 Legacy Quest Arc: Crisis of Allegiance (Dearic, Talus)

Level 42 Legacy Quest Arc: Genetic Potential (Nashal, Talus)

Level 43 Legacy Quest Arc: Deifying Decisions (Dearic, Talus)

You will begin these quests as part of the Legacy quest story arcs.

* Classic: Bestine Elections: The Merchants that spawn when Sean wins the Bestine election will no longer have code strings as a title.

* Jabba's Palace Theme Park: Porcellus: The number of creatures you have to kill to complete this quest has been reduced.

* Legacy: Bluffing CorSec and Borvo's Guard - A Trip to Corellia: If you finished the "Bluffing CorSec" quest given by the CorSec Captain and then deleted the “Borvo's Guard – A trip to Corellia” quest before speaking with the guard on Naboo that gave the quest, you can go back to the Naboo guard to get the quest again. When you complete this quest task, you can go back to the CorSec Captain and he will update your quest journal and send you to the next quest.

* Legacy: Catch the Escaped Murderer: If you stopped the quest conversation with Pooja before it was complete, she will now give you the quest waypoint anyway.

* Legacy: Doing Darkwalker Deeds: The description for this quest now has a description for the final task.

* Legacy: Gendra's Speeder: Traders who respec'd their profession to Entertainer, and Entertainers who respec'd their profession to Trader will now get the correct quests from Gendra and can continue the Legacy quest series.

* Legacy: Kick to Naboo: If you have this quest from Watto, if it is still active in your quest journal, and you have started/completed the Naboo Legacy quest series, then these quests will automatically be completed when you log in.

* Legacy: Rescue Karl Heckener: Fixed an issue preventing you from getting the 'use' option on the Theed Crest reward from Hugo Eckner.

* Legacy: Search for Shipment Orders: This quest can now be completed.

* Nym's Theme Park: The droid, computer terminals, gas filters, and grenade case quest items no longer have to be opened. Now you only need to click on them for the quest update.

* Rage of the Wookiees: Clone Relics - Working for Boba Fett Phase V: Droid NPCs should be more easily spotted.

* Rage of the Wookiees: The Road to Exemplar - The Final Battle II: If you failed this quest on your first attempt, Sertild will now re-grant the quest.

* Tansarii Point Station: Tarand Crowe's s smuggling quest from will now correctly update in your quest journal if you launch from Gamma Station instead of Tansarii Point Station.

* Trials of Obi-Wan: Fate of the Galaxy Pt. II: This quest can no longer be abandoned. This is to prevent problems caused by abandoning the quest.

* There were three quests that were not working properly because of the Secrets of Syren quest series. If any of your active quests are Find Trehla, The Minstyngar's Horn, or The Census, then the quest will be restarted. If you have a Syren quest that is still active, it will be abandoned upon logging in.

* There are many quests in the game that involve NPCs that use quest dialogue to “converse” with you, and they are also attackable. These NPCs can no longer be killed which would prevent you from being able to complete these quests.

Space

* Space Mining resources can no longer be lost by attempting to unload them from your cargo hold while also having a full inventory.

* When viewing the contents of your cargo hold, you should no longer see code strings.

* Use of /unstick commands has been disabled on the Avatar Platform.

* Female Pilots will now correctly get the medal for finishing the Imperial space quest line.

* Master Pilot missions that had code strings as descriptions will now be correctly displayed display as Kessel.

User Interface

* Character Sheet: All weapons that modify character attributes should now turn the affected stat description green on your character sheet.

* Chat: Fading now works correctly for the chat window when on the ground.

* Datapad: The Droid Battery Life display now updates properly in the data-pad.

* Descriptions: Unique items will be properly displayed as "unique items" in the Examine and inventory windows.

* Descriptions: The description "No Trade" now fits properly when an examine window is scrolled upwards.

* Descriptions: The starter Carbine now shows the correct weapon range when examined.

* Descriptions: The Master Bio Engineer badge will no longer show in the list of “Badges not acquired yet.”

* Group Window: When in a group, the group UI is now slightly smaller.

* Help: Clicking the "Help" button now accesses our consolidated web-based interface for tracking issues and searching the Knowledge Base.

* Options: The Keymap window is now embedded in the options screen.

* Radial Menus: If you call a Radial Menu up for an NPC or object and the mouse cursor isn't near the NPC or object the menu will appear centered on an object's center point.

* Radial Menus: The radial menu can now be called for the Creature Recycler.

* Targeting: Auto-Aim Targeting feature has been added to the game.

* Waypoints: Waypoints will always be created at your current position when you use /waypoint command.

Vehicles

* Jetpacks are now less likely to get stuck in small arches.

World

* When you click on Signs and Billboards, they will now display a window you can read. To see an example, try clicking on the big sign in front of the starports.

* Creatures in the Mutant Bark Mite cave, Borgle cave, and Kahmurra Biogenic Research station are less likely to appear right on top of each other.

* Most elevator buttons have been changed so that you only have to click on them to go up and/or down. If there are multiple floors and you can go either up or down, you will find two different buttons in these elevators.

* Loot percentages on Tansarii Point Station have been reduced.

* The Pirate Captain in the Droid Cave on Lok can once again be killed.



-- Edited by Jibblett at 09:51, 2006-08-01

-- Edited by Jibblett at 10:00, 2006-08-01