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In order to ensure a high quality game as well as continual expansion, we have found it necessary to create a Quality Assurance guru. Please everyone welcome Gav to the team. With extensive knowledge of our tools and a passion for fixing bugs, we hope he'll make an excellent addition to the team.
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Another round of Deathmatch comes around. Who will proceed to the final? The grudge matches seem to indicate that most people think the Imperial Union/Galactic Empire will win the war. Its nice to know that most think the best way to get ahead is through hard work.
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Due to the annoying fact that these stupid Unexplored Systems seem to appear in the most unconventional places, even after we've looked between the couch cushions and in Sin's belly button... We've decided to hold a competition. Given the inexplicable speed in which people seem to be able to exploit the game for their own good, I'm offering them a way to use their powers for good instead of evil.
Sitting within the Esuain Sector, is an Unexplored System. Inside it is me, my ship, and a single planet named Khan's Playground. I will be awarding 50,000 CPs to the first person to find it WITHOUT MANUALLY FLYING THERE AND SEARCHING, and the steps they did to find the location. Such examples would be: Search Tool, Google search bar, Source Code, Nav Comp, etc etc etc, however you find it. The system name is Khan's Playground located within Esuain . If you click on the link to Khan's Playground, it SHOULD re-direct you to another system. If its actually showing you the correct system, please inform us how you managed to get the correct one to show.
Normally this would be something we'd prefer to do on dev, but since the foot traffic is larger here, it's easier this way. To this end: Anyone who finds an exploit and fails to report it an an admin, hoping to keep it for their own gain, will find themselves permanently banned from the combine. Good luck and be sure to report the location to us(preferably DM me) if you can find it.
EDIT: (462, -471) Is NOT the system location.
EDIT 2: 1 Exploit found in regards to the advanced search function, should have it fixed shortly. Please refrain from DMing me or reporting any exploits in regards to Search until it's fixed.
ROUND 2!: Galaxy Search and Advanced Galaxy Search have been fixed to repair the previous exploit, so feel free to check there as well as everywhere else again. The sooner we get all thes things patched up, the sooner we can release new Systems.
| | (Edited by Jesfa on Year 13 Day 79) |
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To simulate a more accurate combat environment, you will no longer be able to take part in combat once your HP has dropped to 1 or less.
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If you lose Droids and/or NPCs and their equipment while partaking in ground combat, we are not going to refund you for your lose. Do not come to us demanding that we refund you your assets.
If you do not wish to lose your assets, do not take part in ground combat.
Note: Weapon and Armour stats are liable to change as we attempt to balance out stats to bring them into line with combat rules. Changes made to stats will not entitle you to retro-active replacement of your assets.
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I have just added a claim button, so that you can claim items dropped by bandits. At this point, you will only be able to claim NPC Owned items, and you must also be holding/wearing the item in order to claim it.
Go forth!
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EDIT: Also forgot to mention that any NPCs in your party that die, will explode along with anything they were carrying. The risks of war are such fun!
EDIT: Forgot to mention that bandits have a 5% chance of dropping an item that they are carrying. This includes weapons, armour and various other items. Also, some development resources.
EDIT: Additionally, for the time being, if you are defeated by the creatures/bandits, you will NOT die/go unconcious, but simply be reduced to 1 hp. This will likely change in the future however.
With this sync, we're pushing closer to PvP. With this iteration, we have released Bandit Combat, and armed our Creatures and both groups will shoot back. Bandit Combat will follow the same rules that govern how Creature Combat works. You enter a square, find bandits, shoot them, they shoot back, punch and pie is had by all.
On that note, for this iteration, it has been decided to restrict creature and bandit spawning to outside of cities. We will investigate in future if we want to lift this restriction and how, but for now, we will continue with the notion that the wilderness is an angry place. Building a city will not kill any creatures or bandits however.
Features:
- Bandits will now spawn following the same rules as Creatures
- Creatures will now fight back when a character attacks them. (Will not pursue or engage characters by themselves)
Mini Features
- Added links to SWC social network pages on the SIm News page and so removed the "Follow us" section from the community menu.
- Added Force Event category.
- Fixed bugs notifications also appear on @swcombine_dev twitter account.
- Improved construction and prospecting events to contain better information
- Gave Jedi and Sith Temples the ability to hold RMs
Bug Fixes and Tweaks
- Weapons area will only display ships actually in weapon range.
- GNS Flashnews no longer reporting planetary control changes. (Bug 1557)
-Raw materials owned by a separate entity than the entity that will own a new facility or station will now by default be unselected.
-Force actions can no longer be used while in fire delay (Bug 1269)
-Fixed a bug where people could not use faction RMs that they had privileges to use (Bug 1096)
Descriptions
- R&D I Station
| | (Edited by Zhao Yun on Year 13 Day 74) |
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Do you think the Combine deserves to be "MMO of the Year"? Of course you do, so go here and vote:
Best Indie Game:
Best Role-playing Browser MMO:
Best Browser MMO Classic:
(And share this with as many of your friends as possible.)
Edit: You can vote once in each category.
Edit: * push *
| | (Edited by Jennifer Dreighton on Year 13 Day 70) |
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Jesfa has informed me that due to some exploits that slipped through, all unexplored hidden systems will be removed again once the dev team reaches their home destinations and the situation can be corrected. Systems that have already been discovered as of right now will not be affected by this.
| | (Edited by Syn on Year 13 Day 68) |
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It is midnight at Denver. I hereby officially conclude the 2012 Star Wars Combine Dev Meeting. It was fun. It was exhausting. It was productive. It was everything a good Dev Meeting should be. We had good talks, we came to an understanding, we found new friends and new perspectives. We broke an all time record of most Sim News postings in one week. We will all now go home. Whoever can will get a good rest and some sleep and then we will continue our work for the Star Wars Combine with renewed motivation and the determination to implement whatever we have planned.
This year we will make a video on the 2012 Dev Meeting and targets, similar to the one we made 2009. The video was extremely popular and we got many requests to make one every year. It may take a few days, I am still working on it currently and the editing takes quite a while.
I am happy to announce that the next Star Wars Combine Dev Meeting will take place in Atlanta in August 2013, prior to Dragon*Con. Dragon*Con will be a great setting to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Combine, hopefully with a large number of players. This will be a one time opportunity to attend a great convention and meet the Star Wars Combine developers team, so we decided to announce this early to give people a chance to prepare.
I want to thank everyone who attended the Dev Meeting. The team members who donated a full week of focused work for the Combine and the players who braved a snow storm to meet us for dinner. I also want to thank all members of our extensive team who keep working for the Combine day after day, all year long, Dev Meeting or not. I also want to thank all the players who made this game and this Dev Meeting possible through their support, be it material or immaterial. This game couldn‘t exist without you.
Thank you all and good night.
| | (Edited by Jennifer Dreighton on Year 13 Day 68) |
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In order to fix up the code for creature movement we are going to be resetting the creatures. What this means is that any Creatures currently in the your city is going to dissapear, so if you're on an African Safari trying to hunt down that Nexu, you're going to need to leave the city and re-enter it in order to respawn the creatures on that tile.
Annoying I know, but it should open up some new features we hope to be releasing shortly.
EDIT: SIn's lied to me. Apparently Creature spawn is OFF so we can work on additions to it.
| | (Edited by Jesfa on Year 13 Day 67) |
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With a large turn out for the Q&A this year (Both from the players and Developers), we are posting the logs as promised for you to read over.
If you're not the one to read the Sim News Comments thread on the forum, The Development Q&A Logs are available here (In a PDF File)
Thank you for your attendance at this years Q&A, for making it possible and keeping the Devs busy with asking the questions!
EDIT: Right link location
| | (Edited by Veynom on Year 13 Day 67) |
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Due to the annoying fact that these stupid Unexplored Systems seem to appear in the most unconventional places, even after we've looked between the couch cushions and in Sin's belly button... We've decided to hold a competition. Given the inexplicable speed in which people seem to be able to exploit the game for their own good, I'm offering them a way to use their powers for good instead of evil.
Sitting within the Esuain Sector, is an Unexplored System. Inside it is me, my ship, and a single planet named Khan's Playground. I will be awarding 50,000 CPs to the first person to find it WITHOUT MANUALLY FLYING THERE AND SEARCHING, and the steps they did to find the location. Such examples would be: Search Tool, Google search bar, Source Code, Nav Comp, etc etc etc, however you find it. The system name is Khan's Playground located within Esuain . If you click on the link to Khan's Playground, it SHOULD re-direct you to another system. If its actually showing you the correct system, please inform us how you managed to get the correct one to show.
Normally this would be something we'd prefer to do on dev, but since the foot traffic is larger here, it's easier this way. To this end: Anyone who finds an exploit and fails to report it an an admin, hoping to keep it for their own gain, will find themselves permanently banned from the combine. Good luck and be sure to report the location to us(preferably DM me) if you can find it.
EDIT: (462, -471) Is NOT the system location.
EDIT 2: 1 Exploit found in regards to the advanced search function, should have it fixed shortly. Please refrain from DMing me or reporting any exploits in regards to Search until it's fixed.
ROUND 2!: Galaxy Search and Advanced Galaxy Search have been fixed to repair the previous exploit, so feel free to check there as well as everywhere else again. The sooner we get all thes things patched up, the sooner we can release new Systems.
| | (Edited by Jesfa on Year 13 Day 79) |
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To simulate a more accurate combat environment, you will no longer be able to take part in combat once your HP has dropped to 1 or less.
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If you lose Droids and/or NPCs and their equipment while partaking in ground combat, we are not going to refund you for your lose. Do not come to us demanding that we refund you your assets.
If you do not wish to lose your assets, do not take part in ground combat.
Note: Weapon and Armour stats are liable to change as we attempt to balance out stats to bring them into line with combat rules. Changes made to stats will not entitle you to retro-active replacement of your assets.
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I have just added a claim button, so that you can claim items dropped by bandits. At this point, you will only be able to claim NPC Owned items, and you must also be holding/wearing the item in order to claim it.
Go forth!
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EDIT: Also forgot to mention that any NPCs in your party that die, will explode along with anything they were carrying. The risks of war are such fun!
EDIT: Forgot to mention that bandits have a 5% chance of dropping an item that they are carrying. This includes weapons, armour and various other items. Also, some development resources.
EDIT: Additionally, for the time being, if you are defeated by the creatures/bandits, you will NOT die/go unconcious, but simply be reduced to 1 hp. This will likely change in the future however.
With this sync, we're pushing closer to PvP. With this iteration, we have released Bandit Combat, and armed our Creatures and both groups will shoot back. Bandit Combat will follow the same rules that govern how Creature Combat works. You enter a square, find bandits, shoot them, they shoot back, punch and pie is had by all.
On that note, for this iteration, it has been decided to restrict creature and bandit spawning to outside of cities. We will investigate in future if we want to lift this restriction and how, but for now, we will continue with the notion that the wilderness is an angry place. Building a city will not kill any creatures or bandits however.
Features:
- Bandits will now spawn following the same rules as Creatures
- Creatures will now fight back when a character attacks them. (Will not pursue or engage characters by themselves)
Mini Features
- Added links to SWC social network pages on the SIm News page and so removed the "Follow us" section from the community menu.
- Added Force Event category.
- Fixed bugs notifications also appear on @swcombine_dev twitter account.
- Improved construction and prospecting events to contain better information
- Gave Jedi and Sith Temples the ability to hold RMs
Bug Fixes and Tweaks
- Weapons area will only display ships actually in weapon range.
- GNS Flashnews no longer reporting planetary control changes. (Bug 1557)
-Raw materials owned by a separate entity than the entity that will own a new facility or station will now by default be unselected.
-Force actions can no longer be used while in fire delay (Bug 1269)
-Fixed a bug where people could not use faction RMs that they had privileges to use (Bug 1096)
Descriptions
- R&D I Station
| | (Edited by Zhao Yun on Year 13 Day 74) |
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Jesfa has informed me that due to some exploits that slipped through, all unexplored hidden systems will be removed again once the dev team reaches their home destinations and the situation can be corrected. Systems that have already been discovered as of right now will not be affected by this.
| | (Edited by Syn on Year 13 Day 68) |
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In order to fix up the code for creature movement we are going to be resetting the creatures. What this means is that any Creatures currently in the your city is going to dissapear, so if you're on an African Safari trying to hunt down that Nexu, you're going to need to leave the city and re-enter it in order to respawn the creatures on that tile.
Annoying I know, but it should open up some new features we hope to be releasing shortly.
EDIT: SIn's lied to me. Apparently Creature spawn is OFF so we can work on additions to it.
| | (Edited by Jesfa on Year 13 Day 67) |
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And now for something a little shiny.
I've spent this afternoon experimenting with the desktop-style notifications some of you may be familiar with from GMail. The next time we sync you'll be prompted about whether you'd like to turn on desktop notifications for events. What are those?
Something like this:
(With apologies to everyone's favourite leader of Centrepoint).
If you opt to allow them you'll automatically get new event notifications as long as you have one tab open at a Combine page.
At this point the Web Notifications spec is only supported natively by Chrome. There is a Firefox plugin (third-party add-on, not affiliated with us) that provides similar functionality though. Users of other browsers are out of luck for now I'm afraid.
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It seems that despite our best efforts to sniff out every single way of finding these hidden systems, one managed to sneak through, in the form of NavComp in a sense. We apologize, but as there were quite a few people that contacted us regarding these systems, we've for the time been forced to take these systems out of the galaxy to be re-released later. Regretfully this means that we're going to have to delay the Great System Hunt for a few more days. None of these systems moved however, have been found yet through normal means, so we've caught a minor break.
Thanks to the players who informed us of the issue, and we apologize to everyone for the issue, I can assure you no one's more dissapointed about this than myself. We'll be sure to inform everyone when there's something out there again for you to find. Sad face :(
Edit: After much hard work, research, and third relevant thing. I'm pleased to announce we've once again added unexplored systems to the galaxy.
| | (Edited by Arjuna on Year 13 Day 65) |
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Well, better late than never, with the fixing of all the various tools necessary to add them, we're happy to release the 2011 CP Droids! Enjoy!
Click Here for CP Droids!
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A nice little digest on what we've done so far...
features
- Asked for expressions of interest relating to the first stage of Web Services.
- Developed Web Services resources for use by client developers.
- Recycling is now available for ships, vehicles, droids, and items as well. Recycling events have been improved to include ETA and obtained RMs. Several visual enhancements to the cockpit and inventory have been introduced as well to reflect the recycling operations.
- Added Google +1 and FaceBook "I like" on Sim News and Rules.
- Built the GNS Web API functions.
- Moved Medical actions to Action3 system
- Published first draft R&D rules.
- Began work on Bandit spawning system
Bug Fixes & Tweaks
- Added more basic city images to provide some variety to the look of planets with lots of cities.
- Created @swcombine_dev Twitter account
- Lots of progress on Web Services and preparing for the beta programme
- Started creating the visualisation of the R&D tech tree
- Fixed SWCBX Top 10 banners not showing properly. (Bug 1390)
- Fixed SWCBX websites showing up in the top 10 without even displaying the banner exchange. (Bug 1502)
- Updated Features page with up-to-date screenshots and content. (Bug 1502)
- Fixed some possible abuse with A/E and clarified the A/E rules. (Bug 1408)
- Removed two down "Top Sites". (Bug 1517)
- Fixed issue preventing to protect a faction HQ. (Bug 1406)
- Fixed bug preventing to post on GNS. (Bug 1530)
- Fixed abuse allowing to gain XP of a Pilot when unassigning him and reassigning self. (Bug 904)
- Fixed blocking repair issue. (Bug 803)
-Fixed BugID1499: Heal and Revitalize now give appropriate increases to force meter.
-Fixed an exploit with station construction.
-Fixed a bug with station construction not paying tax.
-Limited the number of miners working in a mine to twelve.
-Fixed BugID 1476: NPCs not moving on facility construction.
-Fixed a bug with jedi training.
-Modified weight value for Raw Materials
-Modified weight of various freighter types
Rules Updates
- Recycling Rules
- A/E rules
Images
- XQ-1
- Firespray
- Starwind
- Bulk Freighter
- Cargo Canister
- Datapad
- BD-3000
- RIC
- DDC-Defender
- Relby K-23
- Wrist Caster
- Animated Recycling Icons
- Unique Station Map images
Descriptions
- Rancor
- Battle Armour
- TIE/sr Starfighter
- Gorg (creature)
- Borcatu (creature)
- Acklay (creature)
- Krayt Dragon (creature)
- Jedi Praxeum
- Statue
- Droid Tri-Fighter
Misc
- Reviewed Holocron and Wiki Guide.
- Discussed Team Structure and levels of communication
- Finalized the current 2012 guideline for Rules and Enforcement.
- Worked on Admin Tools
- Finalised CP Ship List
- Wrote Developer Tools to simplify database manageme
Various other things listed in the Sim News over the past few days.
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To make the hauling of raw materials easier for everyone in the game, all raw materials have had their weight dropped to .8 of it's previous weight rm. It was initially set to .5 but for whatever reason, when testing it on dev, the City Designer didnt carry the correct values. Should be fixed now. Sorry for the confusion.
| | (Edited by Jesfa on Year 13 Day 64) |
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Stefan Corleone has been permabanned for inappropriate in-game behaviour.
If anyone else knows of any information which could help in this matter, or has been affected by a similar thing, please do not hesitate to contact me through DM, Email or IRC (Jenos)
Edit: Fixed HTML -Gav.
| | (Edited by Jenos on Year 13 Day 75) |
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I've banned Cade Highwind on his request.
I personally feel that the details behind this are too personal to be discussed here, but all people involved should understand the reasons why.
If he feels he's ready to come back, all he needs to do is contact support to come back.
I hope he sorts his life out and feels well enough to come back soon.
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Two bans:
Banquo Knox has been banned for a week for admin harassment - inappropriate language and harassment.
Meret Blackmoon has been banned for three weeks (beginning after respawn - total of six weeks) for player harassment - inappropriate OOC allegations against a fellow player and inappropriate behavior.
The players can contact support at the end of their bans to have the bans lifted or appealed or to address issues.
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Zoran Farleed has been banned for harassing a member of staff after being banned from IRC for spamming.
He has 21 days to calm down and think about his actions before he can contact support to be unbanned from the game. His when his ban from IRC is over, is up to the IRCops.
Any continued attempts to harass the member of staff after this time will result in a permaban. This is his final warning.
That is all.
| | (Edited by Jenos on Year 13 Day 41) |
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Angelus Nigrum and Kuro Shi have been banned for 21 days for being the same person. He can contact support when his ban is up to have the account Kuro Shi unbanned.
Thanks for everyone who spotted the clearly obvious scam on the CPM, which Kuro actually posted while he was dead. I checked it out and they were without a doubt the same person (same IP and logins for one).
Also, it's good to know we've trained our staff up to spot the bleeding obvious:
[11:42:21] Arjuna: [06:00] %Tog[a]n: Jenos, time to check some multi? Kuro Shi and Angelus Nigrum look suspicious
[11:42:21] Arjuna: [06:00] %Tog[a]n: reference: http://market.centrepointstation.com/details.php?lid=177142
[11:42:47] Arjuna: I don't see any link, their logins don't seem to follow a close pattern
[11:43:10] Arjuna: but it is fishy
Note: Yes, this ban is less than the usual ones. Yes, we are aware. No, you don't need to remind us of that fact. We will be discussing punishments in detail at the Dev Meeting, and should have some basic guidelines for bans.
| | (Edited by Jenos on Year 13 Day 36) |
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I'll be gone all of January the DevMeeting in February. I'm leaving officially this coming Saturday, the 31st of December (which means i'll be spending New Year's Eve sleeping in my truck somewhere up in Colorado...so it goes). I'll come back into service when I get into Denver on the 27th for the DevMeeting.
Please flood the support page with tickets for Jenos and Arjuna now that i've cleaned up that mess and am gone! I'll leave Jenos in charge of the bans while i'm gone, and remember - play nice. It's just a game!
See everyone in the New Year!
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Azrael Diogenesis has been given a 30-day ban for violating the Spying Rules, specifically impersonation of another combine player. Azrael Diogenesis can contact support after 30 days to have his ban lifted.
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Yuri Mieko has been given a temporary 15-day ban for spawning a new character without waiting for the death respawn-timer from her prior character. The player can contact support in 15 days to have the ban lifted.
This is a warning to everyone! Be patient - there are timers, and they exist for a reason.
| | (Edited by Arete on Year 13 Day 5) |
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Breia Baurbera and James Decerion have been banned for being the same person.
They can contact support in 30 days to have the ban lifted for their original character
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Steven Gates and Rowly Freeland have been banned for 21 days for being the same person.
They sent me a DM admitting to being the same person. Granted, it was after someone on IRC caught on to them and threatened to report them, but they were honest about it eventually.
He can contact support to be unbanned once the 21 days is up.
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Mirabella Mindano, Aloysius Knight and Niccolo Nardiello have been banned for being the same person. They were using a list of proxies to change their IPs, but got caught out when an additional multi got caught up in the recent validation sweep.
I've had a few people contact me with possible Aloysius Knight multis before, so if you think you know of any we don't have, please let me know and I'll check them out.
Thanks :)
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Sin made the Authentication tools which we've been waiting for with the new registration system, so I've cleared out all the new accounts which have shared an IP and have not stated a known multi account.
This totalled 387 accounts, and I will list the handles below. If you feel you should not have been banned, I will go over your cases individually and unban you if you are not a multi. I've had to authorise over 500 accounts, so it is likely I've made some mistakes.
If you would like to request we look into your account, please send a support ticket with all the handles you share a connection with, and we will look into it. I'm not sure, but there may also be an issue with new handles. If you have created a new character recently and have been banned, please note that on the support ticket.
Now the accounts which have been banned are as follows:
Victor Reznov
Tom Martin
Tyrone Slothrop
Tony Fitzz
Veil Korath
Xero Yona
Will Reay
Xerath Graves
Zack Howard
Tshan Fox
Soraya Lyte
Van Decken
Sweetfeet Gem
Telon Yelil
Shane Dawntreader
Thomas De Maio
Skribe Enthurr
Usul Ewm
Sylven Dawnstar
Solace Elspeth
Washika Tashimi
Xyk Oranissi
Toto Mueller
Wedger Beckett
War Nok
Soma SilverStar
Wyatt Johnson
Toruk Macto
Ty Conner
Ventus Strife
Thereeza Tyru
Xicon Orthos
Zun Ladoo
Shyuuga Heero
Tavion Arkilles
Thorin Ragnok
Shorwarr Lofryyhn
Othorion Brightsong
Paii Vlo
Recaduma Aldimon
Rando Skystar
Mortol Bobsen
Robert Alexander Raybourne
Nick Martins
Maz Nator
Oliver Hughes
Ori Zane
Santiago Raven
Omnicron Creta
Norman Child
Ronan Tytan
Petrik Boss
Mission Tolas
Mikael Novasun
Sam Good
Sam Angel
Matul Jhon
Plo Kota Bannis
Rhykef Nabria
Ryan Grant
Michael Binks
Niobe Leven
Nantili Nadario
Roquispier Son
Nasirii Jundo
Rad Davis
Rex Flasher
Raven Salos
Mith Sett
Ronin Lee Wilson
Sckirata Septimus
Niolelo Jorus
Perceus Desmeus
Rhiryn Masu`Toki
Radu Udarum
Luke James
Mark Copperburg
Jhatoc Nimmor
Kalla McJones
Joken Salo
Mala Hatul
Lorenzo Diabo
Jorian Grayd
Ken Onasi
Luke Jones
Lance TaiShou
Juni Foster
Jonathan Carter
Kamis Hull
Jin Nguyen
Kyle Tennant
Joe Martin
Ledger Cross
Karmel Cynewalker
Jt Sherrer
Kirby Smith
Li Sang
Kyle Huxley
Jordan Griffin
Mal Clenim
Joshie Kirdawn
Kai Darkon
Kraven Drake
Kana Zu
Komoris Ayatu
Kevin Wootten
Lucas Stanford
Jordan Stanford
John Netini
Mack Star
Kamen Rider
Jinsha Andrestar
Eramus Lencor
Kerlos Meelgo
Jessy Korne
Kamaniya Te
Ellias Tolvar
Jacob Blaise
Dender Anderhail
Gotgan Windshoc
Dorana Aurea
Jax Vayne
Elsan Roe
Drak Wras
Djhon Becket
Etran Tenne
Foley Dartan
Gabriel Swan
Dev Kroton
Glabr Khrin
Exodus Lightshield
Falcon Hex
Jason Rome
Hecular Alfarsi
Dred Furian
Jacen Karred
Helena Skyrim
Drago Droner
Fikri Fadhil
Herr Rosi
Drasis Octavius
Ithlen Night
Girj Girji
Eveleen Rosser
Ekso Azura
James Winsfind
Isolder Norwu
Gigante Troya
Hongvi Dakota
Gary Stanford
Esolar Maad
Donhu Ekvam
Elizabit Feiwib
Jacen Star
Isaac Royster
Gordan Stanford
Jacen Core
Galis Sassaka
Forkarro Hracca
Decimus Aurelius
Blake Tuggle
Belle Windshoc
Brandon Lockseed
Antonio Alicea
Alexander Raybourne
Chris Wolfpack
Borat Koncesny
Athan Quaresma
Clint Osborne
Animoto Togashi
Daniel Dark-Sabr
Athan Allen
Christopher Sak-Heed
Casca Blackheart
Bendak Stardasher
Akhil Naik
Bobba Young
Athan Cage
Askrik Zakua
Daniel De Maio
Arial Saphia
Christian Matthew
Austin Burns
Chino Dax
Badi Dea
Arnis Code
Carmelo Smith
Azor Sparks
Darren McFadden
Andre Johnson
Davy Shipfish
Cadeus Mori
Arto Morwa
Alan Korbano
Daen Aerohs
Bethany Zing
Azriel Hart
Bruin Izdarus
Bobolo Johnson
Amalia Van Kyre
Cyrus Protoncrystal
Anakin Dread
David Sarif
Anomandaris Irake
Aylar Rave
Delafor Konoahai
Dahlia Agrona
Chad Weedon
Corum Andrestar
Aero Koral
Aditya Ku
Aeolus Zephyr
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In order to ensure a high quality game as well as continual expansion, we have found it necessary to create a Quality Assurance guru. Please everyone welcome Gav to the team. With extensive knowledge of our tools and a passion for fixing bugs, we hope he'll make an excellent addition to the team.
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Another round of Deathmatch comes around. Who will proceed to the final? The grudge matches seem to indicate that most people think the Imperial Union/Galactic Empire will win the war. Its nice to know that most think the best way to get ahead is through hard work.
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Do you think the Combine deserves to be "MMO of the Year"? Of course you do, so go here and vote:
Best Indie Game:
Best Role-playing Browser MMO:
Best Browser MMO Classic:
(And share this with as many of your friends as possible.)
Edit: You can vote once in each category.
Edit: * push *
| | (Edited by Jennifer Dreighton on Year 13 Day 70) |
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It is midnight at Denver. I hereby officially conclude the 2012 Star Wars Combine Dev Meeting. It was fun. It was exhausting. It was productive. It was everything a good Dev Meeting should be. We had good talks, we came to an understanding, we found new friends and new perspectives. We broke an all time record of most Sim News postings in one week. We will all now go home. Whoever can will get a good rest and some sleep and then we will continue our work for the Star Wars Combine with renewed motivation and the determination to implement whatever we have planned.
This year we will make a video on the 2012 Dev Meeting and targets, similar to the one we made 2009. The video was extremely popular and we got many requests to make one every year. It may take a few days, I am still working on it currently and the editing takes quite a while.
I am happy to announce that the next Star Wars Combine Dev Meeting will take place in Atlanta in August 2013, prior to Dragon*Con. Dragon*Con will be a great setting to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Combine, hopefully with a large number of players. This will be a one time opportunity to attend a great convention and meet the Star Wars Combine developers team, so we decided to announce this early to give people a chance to prepare.
I want to thank everyone who attended the Dev Meeting. The team members who donated a full week of focused work for the Combine and the players who braved a snow storm to meet us for dinner. I also want to thank all members of our extensive team who keep working for the Combine day after day, all year long, Dev Meeting or not. I also want to thank all the players who made this game and this Dev Meeting possible through their support, be it material or immaterial. This game couldn‘t exist without you.
Thank you all and good night.
| | (Edited by Jennifer Dreighton on Year 13 Day 68) |
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With a large turn out for the Q&A this year (Both from the players and Developers), we are posting the logs as promised for you to read over.
If you're not the one to read the Sim News Comments thread on the forum, The Development Q&A Logs are available here (In a PDF File)
Thank you for your attendance at this years Q&A, for making it possible and keeping the Devs busy with asking the questions!
EDIT: Right link location
| | (Edited by Veynom on Year 13 Day 67) |
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As the dev meet is coming to a close, here are some photos of what went on the past week. It's on Google+ and Facebook so enjoy.
Google+
Facebook
For those that would like to view it on their phone here are the QR Barcodes you can scan
Google+ Facebook
 
Edit: Added Facebook
| | (Edited by Black Knight on Year 13 Day 65) |
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For those people who'd like to ask questions about what we've been working on and what we're planning, we will be holding a Q&A session on IRC tomorrow (Saturday 4th February) at 10am MST (9am PST, Midday EST, 5pm GMT) the channel #swc-qanda.
The room will be moderated, so if you have any questions, please contact a half-op, and they will sort and ask the questions.
On a related note, I'm looking for people to sort and ask the questions for this session :) Please contact me (Jenos) on IRC if you wish to apply.
Arete will follow shortly with a list of questions already asked and answered.
Edit: As mentioned, here are questions i've recieved so far and their answers:
Are crew requirements being considered for implementation?
- No
How do groups get on the Combine's advert exchange at the top of the pages
- On the CP exchange page, or e-mail the PR director at "PR@swcombine.com"
What's the next big thing to be released and when?
- Player vs. Player, around September.
I noticed that room descriptions and such seem to constantly be taken off the programming and then re added? What's the deal?
- No longer the case! They'll be all set from here on out. Any further question can be directed to the Q&A Sessions.
Which is going to be more implimented this year in coding: Bug fixes or new features?
- New features!
Can we get the SWCGuide translated into Italian?
- Due to coding issues it is not possible for now.
There are so many sectors that we don't know what is populated by non-gov groups, can there be a table to the left of the map stating sector control by non govs.
- Make a suggestion in the suggestions forum.
Can you look at Recycling? It's slower than dang prospecting
- Sorry, but recycling is slow. That's how it is.
When the development meetings first started, they used to upload some of the presentations (New member count, faction statistics, etc.) and features you guys would be working on. They haven't done this in the last couple of years. I was wondering if they might again post this information as I find it very interesting.
- It will be uploaded at the end of the meeting.
Are we gonna see an update to the firefox extension?
- In theory yes. In practice, maybe next week!
When can we expect to see full implementation of more technology, especially droids?
- This is an ongoing process, with more items and droids-related implementation being the focus of the year.
Allow CP ships to be spawned in ship yards BUT require them to have a build timer based on materials!
- Nope. Sorry.
Is ship repair being discussed at the meeting?
- It's been fixed!
I want any 7x7 or larger building to be able to be designated a faction HQ, and to be able to switch HQs.
- Nope. Sorry.
Holocrons - copy the custom npc scripting ability to the item, make it 1 use creation like lightsaber is (coded already) thus using premade code then at a later date make it have like +20% to force training and be able to set it to your Master in the force page in order to get its benefits.
- We will be discussing items usage like the Holocron later this year. So for now, please standby!
What are the chances that you could keep track of ALL the changes currently being made during the dev meeting then a post is made listing all of them in summary.
- Already been doing that!
So are they going to do anything about blatant faction leader swapping?
- Nope. Sorry.
When a player dies, instead of forwarding their assets to the people assigned (i.e. commander - pilot, etc), let the asset go to the Sector/System Government or to the NPC market.
- The problem with this is that it potentially strands players within the dead person's ships and then suddenly they find themselves in a ship owned by a random government or the NPC market. Thus, the system will remain as it stands.
What if every entity also had a droid capacity where that is how many droids the ship can hold BEFORE the droids start filling the passenger capacity?
- We'll certainly check on the feasability of that suggestion!
Will we have a 'claim' button for items?
- More than likely, but we will need to investigate the impacts of the button on the game.
Has there been any update on the briefs [you mean flashnews?] archive? When we last spoke, I was told that it was broken and there weren't plans to fix it at this stage.
- If it is broken we were not aware. Please file a bug report.
I have a question regarding R&D NPCs. Are they also going to be refunded skills? or will they be replaced entirely?
- Skills will be refunded, but the player will have to distribute those skills themselves.
Looking forward to the rest of your questions a the Q&A!
EDIT: I've told people several times how I feel about the claim button but apparently all three times potentially turned into "No". :P
| | (Edited by Zhao Yun on Year 13 Day 65) |
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Going to keep this short.
We're in the process of updating SWC's International Page.
Your assistance would be helpful in that respect as it's a page that has been neglected for possibly years, and is way out of date.
Please head on over to the Forum Thread and read what we need there.
Any questions can be sent via DM to Myself or to Siejo Kutol.
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Khan wants all you artists, designers, and doodlers to have a crack at the new cockpit design.
Prizes are 5000 CPs for ideas we use, and 100,000 CPs for the final design.
Thread to submit your work is here: http://www.swcombine.com/forum/thread.php?thread=52364&page=0
Deadline for this competition is 90 days from today, (Day 155), so have fun.
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*Note* I felt Jesfa's post in the Sim News Comments thread explained our position well, with the recent changes that are happening, and why they are happening... so here it is in Sim News form :) - Jenos
In regards to these changes, in case it's not been stated enough or clearly, a point that I wanted made clear in Jenos post, as well in any post we make this week:
We're not purposely trying to aggravate/attack/go out of our way to make anyone upset. This year at dev, we're finally geting to the meat and potatos of the game, and have to make huge decisions as to how to proceed since we're as close as we are to moving onto what I consider to be the two major features the game has needed for the last 15 years (In no way is this a slight to anyone who's worked on the combine prior, it's all a build up).
To this end, unfortunately, there are going to be some major changes needed, and some will likely be unpopular, as well as their immediete effect/reasoning likely to be unseen at this time. To this end, we do have a great deal of things in the que, hopefully that will be up before the meetings end that will be make people insanely happy, but the goal in the end isn't the anger/joy of the day, but that these changes, however minor or major, are part of the whole.
I do wish to apologize for the very little to no warning on a great deal of the changes, and I can't stress enough how much I wish it weren't the case that we have to move so quickly. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that we do only have a week to get in effect, is an entire years worth of things thought out, discussed, coded, planned, and whathaveyou. Going into the meeting, we try to be as prepared as we can, and prepare for the 11+ months of time between this and the next, but we go in knowing that unless we really get moving on this during the week, it's incredibly difficult to get anything moving otherwise.
Again, I do indeed apologize if it seems as though we're rushing things, and I do hope you understand we're at least I feel we're coming from, and I do welcome players to (in a respectful manner, which most have done so) contact myself, who am more than willing to discuss what I can, or another admin. I can't talk for everyone in terms of how much time they can allot to talking to you, but I assure you that we're not simply doing something, just to do it, and I'd like to hope that it can be seen as such in time.
I would also like to thank those players who have contacted us through various means in a calm manner, whether angry, happy, or just looking for information. The calm demeanor does indeed go a long way towards taking the ebb off.
Sorry to rant/post in such a way, but I think I personally need to just say it, for myself. Thank you for reading my post if you did, if not, I hope you do take the time at some point.
*Edit* - Formatting fail... twice >:C
| | (Edited by Jenos on Year 13 Day 64) |
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(Preface: Even though the Rules are always subject to change, there will always be rules. If it's one thing the administration has consistently maintained when it comes to rules (and their enforcement)...it's that it has them.)
One of the ASim's topics at the current DevMeeting was to review rules and to update those rules and the enforcement of them. If as they say, history repeats itself, then we can take this lesson from history: of 800 ASims, there will be 800 interpretations and expectations of the rules. It's easy to forget this fact as it becomes "the norm" of things, so I appreciate when a player is willing to share his or her insight of this same truth. Banquo Knox reminded me recently, and so in dedication of him I felt it appropriate to post the finalized and current guideline that the SWC Administration of 2012 has implemented when addressing rules and enforcement.
If the rules are broken we will judge them in one of the following categories: Illegal Multi / Hacking / Spying / Bug Exploitation / Asset Laundering / PG-13 / Player or Admin Harassment.
Multis, Hacking, Spying, Exploitation and Laundering are categories you can think of as our "Golden Rule" area - abuse of the game itself. Harassment and PG-13 issues on the other hand are largely behavioral issues. Therefore, we have devised the following guideline which allows the staff a bit more flexibility and subjectivity in handling issues more individually and with what we feel is a fair compromise between punitive and constructive consequences.
Golden Rules / Game Categories - Pretty straightforward stuff.
Multis - 1st Offense: A strict warning and discussion of the rules expectations. 2nd Offense: 21-day Ban. 3rd Offense: Permaban w/review appeal at one year.
Hacking - Case-by-case category that can result with a month-long to Perma-ban depending on the nature of the incident.
Spying (primarily impersonation, and information passed from a 'dead' character) - 1st Offense: Warning/Discussion of expectations. 2nd: 6-week ban. 3rd: Permaban.
Laundering - 1st Offense: Warning/Discussion w/reversion of assets. 2nd-and continued: Reversion w/asset fine as decided by ASim.
Bug Exploit - Case-by-case as in the manner of hacking.
Behavioral / Community Categories - Since this section is particularly subjective depending on the issue, we are going to subjectively classify the offense by the degree of its severity and apply the necessary degree-penalty as necessary.
PG-13 - 1st "Degree": Warning and Discussion of the expectations of the rules. 2nd Degree: 1-week Ban. 3rd Degree: 3-week Ban. 4th Degree: Permaban.
Admin/Player Harassment - 1st Degree: Warning and Discussion of the expectations of the rules. 2nd Degree: 1-week Ban. 3rd: Perma.
Additionaly, any ban offense and/or degree can be increased with a 10% asset fine if the administration deems it necessary to increase the punitive nature punishment.
P.S. This will all be updated to the Rules page sometime during the meeting once Drei or Hardolaf or Sin get the chance.
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We are proud to announce that the Combine was listed as #88 in the "Top 100 Games of all time" by PC Gamer magazine (US edition, March2012).
 
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