Star Wars Combine Sim News

SWC in PC Gamer

Seele — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:01:00

SWC has proudly been featured in the US version of PC Gamer, specifically the holiday issue (Dragon Age cover). For those in the US, if you're interested in checking the article out, then we suggest purchasing a copy of the magazine or grab an online subscription if that's your bag. The article discusses the overall concept of SWC as a browser based MMO and touches on the heart of the community and the broad array of things any one character may get up to with their time within the game.

The article features brief profiles on Horley Cyan, Vodo Bonias and Teniel Djo, although many more people contributed and were interviewed. Unfortunately the editorial process didn't allow all of the interesting tid bits of player perspective and experiences to make it in, but the Administration wants to thank all of those who participated. It's a great stage for the game to be featured in a magazine like PC Gamer and goes to show that the game is growing and attracting attention.

NPC Stores Fixed

Zhao Yun — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:25:12

The problem relating to items bought from an NPC store not appearing at the players position has been resolved. Anyone who couldn't find their items will now find them in the entrance room of the store they were originally bought in.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Scheduled IRC Downtime

Syn — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:04

Our IRC server hosting provider will be rebooting their servers at 2pm EST on November 19th in order to perform some security-related server upgrades. The downtime is not expected to last very long, but it would be wise to avoid scheduling any meetings requiring use of the chat server close to this time and date.

Starting Location Changes

Zhao Yun — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:48:09

From next week we will start trialing new arrangments for determining player starting locations. Instead of the Civic Centres we'll be using the Starports on each homeworld as the spawning points for new players. We hope this will result in less waiting time and a kinder experience for new players in their first days in the game.

If the changes prove successful we plan to integrate some of the existing help available to new players within the Starports and their shuttles. Hop on the forums and let us know what you think, or if you've any other ideas about how we can improve the way help is provided to new players.

Faction Dissolution Checks

Zhao Yun — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:21:27

As we've recently turned on Faction Dissolution, we've decided to give you all a little extra time to get your factions back in shape, and have thus, reset your timers. However, we have not reset them exactly to zero, but have instead given you one week of extra grace period from now in which to get your faction in order.

Enjoy

Assigned Datacards

Zhao Yun — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:38:31

Assigned Datacards have temporarly been unassigned. I'm working to fix the situation. Please stand by.

Edit: The situation has been resolved as best as possible. We have restored ALL assigned datacards from a backup that was taken on saturday night. This means however that datacards assigned on sunday will have been unassigned. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Weekly Sync Digest

Zhao Yun — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:21:14

Bug Fixes & Tweaks
- Fixed a bug in unassigning. (Bug 3696)
- Fixed a bug preventing Dirt Hauler NPCs from being unassigned at the end of a mining run.
- Fixed the display of the coloured boxes on the rules pages.
- Fixed the bug with travel preventing people from using Cross Terrain.
- Fixed an issue with crates only spawning one item when more were requested.
- Fixed the administration section of the classifieds.
- Fixed the issues relating to datacards not being assignable.
- Fixed the issue relating to production with datacards.
- Fixed issues with crates spawning with the incorrect number of uses.
- Fixed bug preventing to move Forum Threads. (Bug 3702)
- Fixed corrupted Heavy Lasers images. (Bug 3582)
- Fixed recycling feature. (Bug 3201, Bug 3640)
- Fixed error preventing to award XP for breaking locks.
- Fixed bug allowing to post on the GNS from a freighter. (Bug 3690)
- Changed force detection time to 1 hour
- Forcers now get their FP set to floor(FXP/100) to make up for masters not getting FP when their students train
- Fixed the display of forces rules page tables going over the sidebar in a smaller window setting. (bug #2454)
- Fixed pop-out "Add Jobs" window height not enough to accommodate choices. (bug #3715)
- Removed "length: m" display for facilities with no length stats.

Maintenance & QA
- Fixed many notices related to recycling, forums, admin tools, GNS)
- "Rooms" has been split into "Rooms" and "Room Messages". Previously, the list of room members would be on the "Rooms" page, now it is in the "Room Messages" page.

Skumja Jx Banned

Seele — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:35:37

Skumja Jx has been banned for 60 days for one count of ignoring Administrative Instructions, and one count of OOC Harrassment.

Maliklov Anderson Banned

Seele — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:49:58

Maliklov Anderson has been banned for 30 days for attempting to have assets owned by a previous character to himself. Remember, having assets previously owned by a character of yours is forbidden. You may purchase assets owned by a previous character of yours, however it must be for a reasonable market value, and also cannot be with credits transferred from a previous character.

Voice of the People #2 Submitted

Sorel Kaar — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:05:11

I would like to announce my departure from Public Relations team. I was one of the PR directors for a couple of years and must say it was a very interesting experience. It came to a point where i would need to focus on that job 100% if I would want to do it properly which unfortunately didn't happen. Since I can't leave my "IC life" and it wouldn't be fair to do semi-active job in PR department, I decided to focus exclusively on my character instead.

The main reason I'm writing this is to report back to all of you that Voice of the People #2 Survey results were submitted to core Administration of Combine and despite my departure from the PR group I will continue to do that specific survey every year. You will be informed of third such annual Survey when the time comes. Thank you all that participated in #1 and #2 - your emails were read in full and content summarized for Administration's review. Since the volume of your responses was off the charts, I'm looking forward to 2010.

Items Changes - Update

Zhao Yun — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:11:06

We've trolled through the database, losing many a man, but we've come out the other side wielding your missing items. You should now find all the items that you've lost due to the recent changes, sitting warm and snug in your inventory inside crates. This entailed the transferring of ownership of the crates from the original owner to the owner of all the items contained therein. We've also updated crates so that they will now spawn items with the custom picture that was intended for that item during production.

We're still looking into refunding people CPs for lost custom images, we're just chasing up a few people for some information regarding how many customs they had.

Disappearing Assets - Máurari Issue

Seele — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:01:31

We have finally had the time to correctly address the dissolution of Máurari and their assets that went to the Galactic Market. For those of who you have suddenly lost said assets, you will need to e-mail me directly stating what you purchased (including the ID), for how much, and from who. I only want to hear from the people who owned the assets at the time that they were made back over to the rightful owner.

To those who purchased the items from the market and then sold them to others after explicit instructions from the Administration not to; you and I will be having a little chat very soon.

Missing Items Found - Reward Wanted

Zhao Yun — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:18:09

If you were one of many over the past month, to have attempted to have bought from an NPC or crafted an item. you'll have noticed that your items have been quite unattainable. Well, because we're such fun fellows over at the dev team, we've taken the time to fix them all up for you. All lost items will now be in the entrance room of the respective facility/ship/spacestation/vehicle that they were created in.

Enjoy.

Missing Items: The Aftermath

Jevon Lambright — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:23:15

I have been getting responses from some combine members that some custom images were lost as a result of the items becoming abstract numbers inside crates.

As much as I would love to be able to replace the images instantly, I cannot. Nor can I tell what was applied before the cleaning occured, and not refund for reapplied customs. Therefore, while I apologize for the inconvenience:

Any custom images that were applied to an item that has been packaged into a crate must be bought again.