Greetings, Combiners! A happy start to Q2 of the year and a happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it.

We the administration team wanted to reach out today to announce some exciting new features for the Combine, and somewhat of a change of direction in the development of the game to capture recent trends in online videogaming.

First, thanks to the hard work of Baugrems and Kay Dallben, we have released Season 1 of our new "loot crate" system. Many players have bemoaned the large number of credits in the game, as well as the difficulty of acquiring rare items that were given out over a decade ago to a select, lucky few players. This system is designed to tackle both of these issues at once, by providing the opportunity to acquire these rare or unique items for a small credit fee.

Located anywhere an NPC for the previous "Science Feud" event could be found (civic centers and starports) as well as many space stations, a new quest NPC now allows players to pay a small fee and be guaranteed to win from a selection of loot - from common items all the way up to rare Mandalorian armor! The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different items. As for cost: among other things, we’re looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can. This feature is live today.

Second, and more expansive, is our intent to capture the mood of the current climate of popular online games. Star Wars Combine will soon become SWCombine: Royale, a battle royale-style simulation game that blends the best aspects of popular games such as PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS and Fortnite as well as the proven aspects of the Combine into a compelling, adventurous online battle royale game set in the Star Wars universe.

Aspects of the Combine, such as the time delays, lack of player-vs-player combat, and construction permissions will be blended with successful aspects of this genre of games, such as team battles, a robust loot system, and on-the-fly obstacle building to combine into a truly one-of-a-kind experience. We look forward to these changes being made within the next week.

As always, thank you for playing SWCombine!