Server maintenance has been completed. We've incorporated a few back-end changes that should prevent location-related bugs from happening like we previously saw in Serrocco, as well as made some minor improvements to how they're stored. Thanks for your patience, and please feel free to reach out if you experience any issues. 

___________________

We will be taking the game down around Y26 D194 01:00 CGT for approximately 2 hours in order to run the server maintenance associated with the previous issues. This should take place middle of the night for USA and late morning/early afternoon for Europe. 

___________________

Hey folks, we've got a bit of an update for you:

We've fixed the below issue which basically duplicated an entity's location causing database issues, as well as another issue that popped up after fixing that one, where the database was over-earnestly deleting locations.

From all of this, we've identified some changes that need to be made on the back end in order to improve how locations/parties work, but it will require some game downtime. We're working to figure out exactly how long that's going to take, but it will very likely be multiple hours of downtime. As we get closer to the downtime window, we'll give you an exact timeframe we expect to be down for, and this Sim News will be updated accordingly. 

Thanks again for your patience!

EDIT: For those concerned: you'll get plenty of advance notice. We will not be just issuing a "game will be down in an hour" notice. I'm going to try to fit this downtime around my schedule, so I can be present for it, and ideally, we'll give ~24hrs of notice.
___________________

We've identified an issue with combat/travel bugging in Serroco. There have been 2 instances within the past 4 hours, and both instances of things breaking in Serroco have been a result of using the Promote to Leader button on the Squadron screen. Typically this has occurred at the same time that combat/travel(mainly combat) takes place, and it's causing issues. Our recommendation in the meantime is refrain from using the Promote to Leader button. Please see the masterfully crafted image below, and please continue to be patient as we work towards a more permanent fix.

This Sim news will be updated as we have more information.

Hello all, this is Hollis (Rilan Ludel), a member of the Quest Team. Minor tutorial improvements have been synced: moving the Quizzer closer, reducing its health from 3 to 1, and minorly improving directions and combat tips. The first hour of gameplay should now be less tedious for people with low stats. Thank you all again for your tutorial feedback. We looked through every comment in detail and found it very helpful. For stage 2, we’ve planned a huge update to the tutorial based on your feedback and have started scripting it. We’re keeping all the things you liked, but we plan to teach more features (and the UI itself), simplify finding and starting the tutorial, add community/faction-simulating dialogue/RP, better access to help info, keep it quick and streamlined, and more. This may take a long while (it’s been 1.5+ yrs since the feedback survey, already), but we’re excited about it and hope you are, too. Thanks as well to all the SWC Team, especially QA, for all of their effort and support. 

- Entities that are disabled while travelling will have their parties travel aborted. Previously the travel would continue if a party member was disabled.
- Fix unconscious timer not applying properly when in showdown.
- Fixed pronouns in force invitations
- Fixed an issue where travel actions were not set properly causing page crash

Greetings sentients!

Hot off the presses, theres some new rules images....

- Ancient Lightsaber

- Blade Modulation Control

- Crystal Control

- Emitter Control

- Lightsaber Hilt

- Power Supply

- Lightsaber

- Double Bladed Lightsaber

- Imperial Royal Helmet

- Imperial Royal Armour

- Bayonet-class Light Cruiser

- MC-30b Corvette

- Simiyiar-class Light Freighter

- M-Class Luxury Liner

- MC-60 Star Cruiser

- MC-80a Star Cruiser

- MC-80b Star Cruiser

Enjoy!

~Kolo

- RNG Events. Certain actions now log the RNG output that influenced the results. The RNG output is visible in certain events by clicking on the arrow.
- Revert capture change from space bandit loot. The change that required all bandits aboard a ship to be cleared was unintentional and has been reverted. To initiate capture of a ship you must clear the bandits in the cockpit.
- Fix Disable Timer length issue on hostile entities the first time they are disabled. Disable timer was not including doors in the calculation for hostile entities when they were first disabled. This calculation performed correctly, meaning the initial disable timer for hostile entities will be longer.
- Fix Fire delay not cleared on leaving showdowns.

Greetings hunters! The quest team tells us that a Trandoshan Hunter has appeared in open-to-all zoos, zoo stations, and wildlife preserves in every sector. If you visit him, he can teach you the ways of the Scorekeeper and induct you into the Jagannath. Under his tutelage, you can earn Jagannath Points by hunting creatures. What are Jagannath Points good for? Glory of course! Go have a chat with Anook Fess today.

Space Bandit Loot
- Some space bandits now spawn with loot aboard. See the Space Bandit Rules Page for details.
- Loot will only spawn on space bandits that are first disabled after this sync.

Character Stun Change
- Character behaviour on reaching 1 HP has been reworked.
- When characters reach 0 HP they will become unconscious instead of stunned.
- Characters can now choose when to wake up after the unconscious timer has elapsed, instead of always waking up immediately when the timer ends.
- Stimpacks will allow a character to wake up immediately, but the wake up will still have to be initiated by the character after the stimpack has been applied.
- This change is to reduce the ability to stun lock an unconscious character.
- See the life and death page for full details.

Holocron Battery
- A holocron can now be turned into a force battery allowing force users to store force points within the holocron to be used at a later date.
- See the Holocron Battery rules for full details.

Bugs
- Fix crash when performing combat in a garrison ship squad.
- Fix crash when scanning with 0 sensors from a facility.
- Fix bug where HEP was not removed from entire party.

- Better events generated when you are ejected into an escape pod.
- Fixes for cargo squad errors due to incorrect piloting status.
- Vendors now show up on scanner with their shop name.
- Mind control combat report event grammer fix.
- Boarding screen now redirects you to scanner page instead of travel page.

Computer Spike

A new generic lockbreaker has been added, the Computer Spike. Computer Spikes are single use, the are destroyed after use with door lockbreaking.
EDIT: Computer Spike has had its weight/volume/batch size updated to the following values (respectively): 0.5kg / 0.005m³ / 32 per batch. This gives them some advantage over the ELB in that you can carry more spikes than ELBs and in some cases makes them marginally superior to the ELB.

Bugs:
- Some changes to how stun actions are stored.
- Cargo Squads: Added extra checks before starting travel
- Cargo Squads: Fixed UI bug where ordering RTB would not properly clean up squadron
- Cargo Squads: Fixed bug where aborting while loading cargo at a source would leave the squadron stuck once returned to the base
- Due to ongoing reliability issues with periodic jobs, a new status section has been added to the timer status page to show if jobs have successfully run. This will show up after each of the jobs run the next time.

We finally found the instructions and Holocron crafting is now available! 

Holocron rules are located here and the rules specifically to crafting them are here.

Something something send a message to Noctis.

Greetings sentients!

Hot pixels fresh from the oven...

- Flak Jacket - New images, now including a never before seen large!

- Discril-class Attack Cruiser - New large and small images.

- Colossal-class Heavy Carrier - New large and small images.

- YV-666 Light Freighter - New bespoke cockpit!

- BTL-S3 Y-wing Starfighter, BTL-A4 Y-wing Longprobe, Y-TIE Ugly - New shared cockpit for the Y-series!

- Sentinel-class Landing Craft, Ministry-class Orbital Shuttle, Lambda-class T-4a Shuttle, Zeta-class Long-range Shuttle - New shared cockpit!

- Brayl-class Bulk Freighter, CR-20 Troop Carrier, KRS-1 Ore Hauler, Modular Conveyor - New shared cockpit!

Enjoy!

Kolo

Just a bug fixes this week.  Please let Noctis know if you find any issues. 

- Directional combat issues when using the weapon targeting screen.
- Removed useless weapons from the showdown menu that could not attack.
- Fix bug that allowed the ability to use bacta tanks in non-medical rooms.
- Fixed floating point issue with sublight travel in showdowns.
- Fixed issue causing off hand to not be used in combat.
- Some backend fixes you will never see.

Hi folks, me again.

I just finished an investigation into the capture of Dane Star, and concluding discussion amongst staff members, we are reversing the capture. Dane has been teleported back to safety, along with any relevant assets. This capture was done prior to the reversal of Erik Rebulas, however, the precedence was set, and this capture was also found to violate the rules. Everyone involved has been very cooperative about the situation and willing to assist in whatever way was necessary. As such, I am giving Taranjeek O`Cuinn a Strike 0 (instead of what would normally be Strike 1) for the illegal capture. As a reminder, this is simply a note on your account stating what happened and expires one year after issuance and comes with no bans.

All questions about this matter may be directed to myself via Darkness Message, Discord, or Support ticket.

Good day to you all,

I recently concluded an investigation into the capture of Erik Rebulas, and made the decision to reverse it. This was because of the longstanding rule we have had in place regarding PvP zones and capture, where we don't allow it. The idea behind this rule is that Combat as a whole is considered to be in its beta phase of testing right now in limited areas(and to that degree, you could consider Showdowns an Alpha version to some degree). We want to encourage maximum participation (or rather, to discourage minimal participation) in combat features, as we take the feedback gained from newly released features in combat zones and apply them to the final product that will eventually be released. When you enter a PvP zone, we do not want you to have any fear of being captured, and as such have determined that it is not allowed.

Now, I had someone reach out to me about a week and a half ago asking whether only the physical PvP Zone is off limits for capture or if it was more inclusive. The physical locations where PvP takes place have always been off limits up to this point, but I also made the clarification that the spirit of the PvP zone is also off limits. What does this mean, though? If you are planning an operation with someone, and you encourage them (anywhere in the galaxy) to use your personal ships, only to then capture the member, this is a violation of the PvP rules because the member in question believed they were boarding someone else's ships in order to participate in a PvP operation. 

This is what happened in the case of Erik Rebulas. He was captured under the pretense that he would be participating in a PvP operation, only to be captured. While Erik did drop, and we offered to revive his character, he had unfortunately already made a new handle, and so we were unable to revive Erik himself. However, Erik now exists under the handle Asep Shadowscale (he allowed me to include his new handle in this post) and any business dealings you had with Erik, you may continue to have with Asep. We consider them to be the same character at this time, albeit with a new name and authorize him to act under a continuation of his former character. We have also returned Erik to a ship of his choice, reversed any assets he lost (to the market as well as any automatically sent upon his death), reset his level and previous skills. 

In addition, I am giving Alorxlan Palabar a Strike 0 for illegally capturing Erik. I reduced this from what would originally be a Strike 1, due to his willingness to cooperate with the investigation, his understanding of the events, as well as the initial communication I had with the parties involved which I believe played a part in miscommunication leading to the events that transpired. As a reminder a Strike 0 is only considered to be an official warning, and comes with no ban. 

Finally, expect the Spying and Sabotage rules page to be updated shortly to include a bit about PvP zones. Thank you all for your time, and as always if you have any questions/concerns, you can reach out to an Asim/Admin or by submitting a Support Ticket.

Year 26 Day 90, 9:50 Arjuna banned player Lyric Tickstar providing the following reason: PG-13

Please keep all in-game interactions, images, messages, or other content to a PG-13 level.
Player can request unban in 28 days time.

Y26D77 17:53

Kodkod banned player Sean Pax providing the following reason: Multi Ban, avoiding 21 day respawn timer

SALUTATIONS!

It is with great excitement and privilege that we introduce our TWO new Asims joining the team:

• Remus Soran, who will go by the name Kodkod (although, let's be honest, this picture might be a more accurate representation).
• Aquioz Lazule, who will adopt the name Koi.

Please join us in giving them a warm welcome! We’re thrilled to see what they’ll bring to the team.

Why two Asims this time? Well, I’ll be stepping back a bit over the next six months, and these two will help cover the gap. Remus already has some hands-on experience with admin tools from his time on the dev server, so he’s ready to hit the ground running. Aquioz is newer to this, but he’s eager to learn and contribute in every way he can. Both will be ready to assist soon, so don’t hesitate to reach out when you see them around!

This round, we received a total of 10 applications, and we’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who applied. If you weren’t selected this time, don’t be discouraged—there will be more opportunities in the future!

As always, if you have questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to submit a support ticket. And, of course, a big thank you to Noctis for selecting our newest Asims!

Stephan Celebesario is now known as Altaayir Cel Ebesario.

That's all

Today we wish Platypus a farewell as he steps down from the Asim team and returns to his character Bjaco Acker. Platypus has been an instrumental member of the team, helping with everything from Herdfest coordination to assisting with general staff duties and providing good input and feedback on various dev discussions. 
 

Thank you Plat, for your time with us. You're gonna be missed buddy!

With this announcement comes a heads up that we may be opening Asim applications again in the near future, so start thinking about if that's something you'd like to do. 

1 Y25D343 7:59 Falcon banned player Elamas Ghent providing the following reason: Multi Ban - many multi accounts // permanent ban

2 Y25D343 7:59 Falcon banned player Durba Furba providing the following reason: Multi Ban - many multi accounts // permanent ban

3 Y25D343 7:59 Falcon banned player Matajambo Surgeproviding the following reason: Multi Ban - many multi accounts // permanent ban

4 Y25D343 7:59 Falcon banned player Wen Chinelo providing the following reason: Multi Ban - many multi accounts // permanent ban

5 Y25D343 7:59 Falcon banned player Joupi June providing the following reason: Multi Ban - many multi accounts // permanent ban

6 Y25D343 7:59 Falcon banned player Stoober McDabrafooserproviding the following reason: Multi Ban - many multi accounts // permanent ban

7 Y25D343 7:59 Falcon banned player Alabaster Mosesproviding the following reason: Multi Ban - many multi accounts // permanent ban

8 Y25D343 7:59 Falcon banned player Loiuwpoka Su providing the following reason: Multi Ban - many multi accounts // permanent ban
 

In addition, Quillo Farha and Gaitale Jokar have been included in this permanent ban upgrade. One account, kids. That's all you're allowed. 

Year 25 Day 295, 20:05 Noctis banned player Welck Gisk providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 25 Day 295, 20:05 Noctis banned player Lonus Yurashima providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 25 Day 295, 20:05 Noctis banned player Enim Nebuo providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Each player may only have 1 character.  Oldest account can submit a help ticket for an unban in 7 days and forfeiture of assets.

kthxluvubai

Mitth Wake has been issued a Strike 0 for IC/OOC separation. This strike will last one year from today's date or until another strike is issued. 

A reminder folks: Your OOC life and your IC life are two separate planes of existense that do not interconnect. It is okay that sometimes you have Real Life issues to attend to, and that may mean you are unable to tend to things IC. Remember that SWC is just a game, and although you may be attached to things in this game, it will not last forever. Communicating OOC obligations is okay, but leveraging OOC excuses to give yourself an IC advantage is not okay and breaks the IC/OOC rules.

As always, if you have any issues, please feel free to reach out or submit a support ticket.

Hello! Your favourite (only) quest team director just checking in with some exciting updates to the "Kill Space Bandits" quest.

• Dooka Shop "availability roll" has been removed - players will now be shown a flat three purchase options per week - this will be effective from the next weekly roll. 
• Relative rarities of stock has been adjusted - rarer entities are now between 1.5 and 3x more likely to appear. 
• M'uk, T'uk, L'uk have expanded their enterprises and can now be found inside Recycling Plants

As always, we endeavour to get every release spot on -- but as many of you pointed out, there were a few tweaks that needed to be made here. The purpose of the "availability roll" was to add a dynamic and random element, but it's clear that this missed the mark. Thank you for your feedback and your patience.

Recap on Dooka Shop mechanics:

• The shop will rotate it's stock every seven days.
• Each week, each player will be given three purchase options, unique to that player.
• Each player can purchase any, all, or none of these options.
• Each player may only purchase each option once.

And it's fresh! Just like this tournament!

To start with the mandatory pre-tournament orientation, please click here.

With that out of the way, let me tell you things.

First, it starts on 4/11 or Y26 D137(ish). Sign ups close 4/4 or Y26 D130(ish). Yes, I could have made a 4/20 joke but I didn't. We'll have time for that later, trust me.

Secondly, here are the prizes since I know you all like free things. If you make it to a prize tier, remember that you can also choose to get a prize from any lower tier. (1st place can pick anything on the list, 2nd place can pick anything except 1st and so on).

1st:
1 x Ardent DC
1 x CR-92 DC
1 x Acclamator DC

2nd:
1 x Kom'rk Class Transport
1 x Xanadu-class Superyacht
1 x Spirit-Class MSA1
50m Credits

3rd:
1 x Tri-Mark
1 x Nu-Class Attack Shuttle
1 x ETA-class Shuttle
25m Credits

4th:
1 x YT-1210
1 x Dynamic Class Freighter
1 x JX40 Jailspeeder
10m Credits

Knockout Participants:
1 x ETA-5
1 x BARC Speeder
1 x BTL-A4 Y-wing Longprobe
5m Credits

Everyone:
1 x CK-6 Swoop Bike DC
1 x HWK-290 Light Freighter DC
1 x R0-L0

Is the prize tier list balanced? IDK man. I'm a goat pretending to be a man who is really three jawas in a trenchcoat behind a keyboard. I'm in it for lulz, not sanity.

Some other neat links

The rule updates

Definitely not this discord

This sign up sheet

The bracket

Remember to thank Noctis. If you don't, I will know and I will find you. D:<

The schedule with captain names

Also, keep a lookout for the blue flashing icon as I modify this post with more information.

Edit 1 - Chupa can't combine time and failed hard. Be sure to ping him relentlessly on discord and laugh at him for his mistake.

Edit 2 - Rules have been updated. Big changes. Be sure to read carefully. You will notice increased madness and a changed prize due to popular request. Enjoy!

Edit 3 - Sign ups are closed. I hope you remembered a towel!

Edit 4 and 5 - The schedule is posted. Also, I recommend using a tool like this one here to help you find a better time to bash rather than wait until the last minute.

Ayeta! A highly legitimate businessjawa of the clan L'uk has appeared on board Recycling I, Recycling II, Recycling III, and Recycling IV type space stations. L'uk sells a variety of rare and not-so-rare products which can only be purchased with the elusive Dooka.

• The shop will rotate every seven days.
• Each player will be given a list of between one and three potential purchase options.
• The exact number of options presented may change between shop rotations. 
• Each player can purchase any, all, or none of these options.
• Each player may only purchase each option once.

Happy shopping!

Hello everyone!

I’ve got some exciting updates to share with you all about some changes on the team!

First off, Thank you to Erek for announcing that I’ve been promoted to Game Admin! Over the past several months (...perhaps longer), I’ve been working closely with the Dev and Quest Teams while balancing the support side of my Asim duties. Now, I’ll be joining Kyle (RIP), Arjuna, and Erek (Supes/Superman) on the Admin team! Arjuna will continue handling Galaxy Direction, Erek will focus on Game Design, Kyle will continue to be MIA, and I’ll be taking on the role of Implementation Director. I’ll still be closely involved with the Dev and Quest Teams, just as I have been, and I’m always here to help with support issues if needed, but otherwise the Asims are in excellent hands with Noctis, Chupa, Kodkod, and Koi at the helm, so feel free to reach out to them as well! You can find the full list of team members on the Team Members Page.

Along with this new role, I’ll be helping to develop and refine a Dev Roadmap for public release. This roadmap will outline our long-term goals and the steps we’re taking to get there, as well as answer any questions the dev team has about the way forward. Once it’s finalized, we’ll share it via Sim News so you’ll know exactly what to expect in the future.

Lastly, a quick heads-up about some upcoming changes to Ships and Stations. We’re almost ready to finalize these updates, but since they’ll impact RM costs(including the long awaited introduction of Nova to stations with concussions or porton-torpedoes), we want to make sure you have enough time to prepare. Consider this your (no less than)2-week notice that RM costs for Ships and Stations will change for any constructions after the stats update. Weapons and Damage Modifiers will likely be changing this weekend. The finalized list isn’t ready yet, but once it is, I’ll share it with you in a detailed Sim News post. Some RM costs will increase, some will decrease, and the same goes for RMP. If you’re concerned about the changes, I recommend boosting your stockpiles by about 25% for stations and 10% for ships.

[Edit to add that we will be removing some med rooms from the CR-92 Battle Corvette, Nova-class Battlecruiser, Kandosii, ISD, Battle Dragon, Acclamator, Home One, and SSD to bring us in line with the R&D Master Plan.]

That’s all for now! A huge thanks to everyone in the SWC Administration, past and present, for their support in getting me to this point. It’s a pleasure to serve this amazing community, and I’m always open to your feedback on how we can keep improving.

As always, if you have any questions or need support, don’t hesitate to reach out on our Discord Server or by Submitting a Support Ticket.

Thanks!

Happy Friday, Combine:

I'm proud to announce that Falcon has been promoted to Game Admin for Implementation. 

He will continue to work closely with the Dev and Asim teams on the advancement of the Star Wars Combine, hatching it into the stuff of our childhood daydreams.

With the flurry of feature changes, development progress, rules updates, and community engagement, it's hard to miss Falcon's level of involvement since joining the team. His teamwork, judgement, and work ethic have been a reliable and positive influence for the flock.

I look forward to seeing Falcon's many fine feather additions to the game.

Please congratulate him if you see him around.

Deathmatch has concluded!  Long live new champion, Memnoch, who has succeeded in narrowly stopping the blue lady from winning twice.  Go vote in the new Deathmatch!

As is tradition, new Grudge Matches have appeared.  Falcon has a list of everyone who voted Crow in the last round and you'll be getting coal next Winterfest.

Be sure to submit new and exciting and definitely not trolling grudge matches for the future!

Asim applications are now closed. Thanks to all who applied!
___________

Hi folks,

Asim applications will close tonight after 23:59. These are the final moments to get them in!

___________
 

Seasons Greetings!

I hope you all are having yourself a happy Holiday Season(and if not, that's okay too! Or I hope it gets better!). Now that I'm done terrorizing the rooms aboard your ships

If you are interested, here are the rules:

• Newly hired asims are not required to irrevocably drop their character. Instead, their characters are suspended for the duration of being an Asim.
• Asims have no In-Character (IC) activity related to their suspended character while working for the administration.
• Asims will have a defined period of service of six months after which they may step down, or remain until they desire to return to the game.
• Compensation in the form of Combine Points will be provided for Asims who remain active and effective throughout their service period.
• Asims are required to use Discord and must be active in staff channels, as that is how the majority of decisions are made.
• Asim duties center around helping players affected by bugs, handling support tickets, and dealing with rules violations. There may be opportunities for asims to assist in designing RP opportunities for SWC at large, along with participating in discussion on game features before they are announced or implemented.

Applications should be submitted via Darkness Message to both Arjuna and Falcon. Please answer the following questions in your application(Note that this year we've added a 3rd scenario-based section):

SWC-specific questions:

• What is your Combine handle?
• How long have you played SWC?
• What have you done IC so far (including previous characters)? What are you working on currently, and what is your position with your faction?
• Why do you want to become an Asim and what would you contribute?
• Are you involved in any other online games or RPGs of a similar nature? If so please describe your position and responsibilities
• Please provide three references of SWC members who are not on the administration team that have been in the game for at least two years.
• If someone wrote a biography about your character what would the Title be? What is the best chapter?

Real-life questions:

• Where do you live?
• How old are you?
• What is your occupation?
• If you were an animal, what would you be(this is incredibly important)?
• How much time are you potentially available to volunteer per week on improving SWC?
• Have you performed administrative duties in the past or organized groups/events?
• What is your favorite fish fact?

Scenario Questions:

• Imagine for a moment you are on the team. A player accuses another of harassment but provides little evidence. How do you investigate and resolve this?
• A SWC Teams member suggests a game mechanic change that could be seen as biased toward their faction. How do you handle it?
• You discover a team member is using their position to gain an unfair advantage in the game. What do you do?
• How would you approach working with other Asims to resolve disagreements on game design or rules enforcement?
• How do you handle situations where players are being hostile or overly demanding?

If you are not interested

and are still reading this post feel free to send seasons greetings to Noctis.

Asim Applications will close around Y26 D47 (January 11, 2025)

Avast, me hearties! Gather 'round fer some rum-soaked news!

Our spyglasses be spyin' new bandit contraptions prowlin' the spaceways! Aye, AT LEAST 9 fresh vessels, listed below fer yer plunderin’ pleasure:

• Cutlass-9 Patrol Fighter (Fighter)
• SS-54 Assault Ship (Gunboat)
• VCX-820 Escort Freighter (Light Freighter)
• Pirate Snub Fighter (Fighter)
• Rihkxyrk Assault Fighter (Fighter)
• Pirate Interceptor Frigate (Corvette)
• Cumulus-class Corsair (Corvette)
• Warlord Heavy Cruiser (Light Freighter)
• GS-100 Salvage Ship (Heavy Freighter)

These scallywag ships be seen only in bandit spawns fer now. If ye’ve a hankerin’ to claim one, ye’ll need to capture 'em yerselves, savvy? An extra bonus fer the lot o’ ye recyclin' savvy swabs— the GS-100 be fit fer recyclin’ at the same rate as the GRZ (keep yer peepers peeled fer the Recycling Rules Page update comin’ soon). If ye fancy, ye can peep the Space Bandits Rules Page and see how often these scallywags be comin' round the block.

So hoist yer metaphorical cutlasses and set sail fer adventure! May the stars favor yer huntin’, and may the solar wind be ever at yer back! YARRR!

EDIT: Upon popular requests the Freighters now have storage rooms for storing their... freight. 

I come to you with atonement for the room map shenanigans...

Deathmatch has been advanced to the final round!! Go and vote for who hate the least!

Additionally, as is tradition, Grudge Matches have been updated as well! I gave you all plenty to deliberate amongst yourselves on, so take your time. That being said, since most of you decided deathmatch should NOT result in death, I am unhappy to announce that we will not be implementing the death feature associated with that suggestion. The other two match results come as no surprise to anyone. 

As always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, etc. you can DM me where I'll ignore it or you can submit a support ticket!

I will now leave you with this fish fact I found:

Fish feel pleasure, not just pain

Fish interact and form relationships with each other and other fish species. For example, bluestreak cleaner wrasses provide a special service to fellow fish. The wrasses swim into the gills and mouths of their “clients” to remove and feed on their parasites. In some cases, their clients are fish who’d otherwise eat them. So, to help appease them, the wrasses will often stroke their clients with their fins. Studies have shown that being stroked by cleaner fish is not only a pleasurable feeling for client fish, it also helps them to relieve stress — almost like a therapeutic massage.

Hello everyone.

I was talking to a little bird, and he reminded me how much you all enjoy CPs, so I figured I would see how true that was. I have been working towards getting Ground Showdowns up and running again because, if you haven't noticed, we have a lot of exciting ground combat features that would be really nice for you all to test out. I'm about halfway through my work, and I remember getting tired of having only one map to play on in the past.

This is where you all come in, as I don't want to be the only one making maps.  I need suggestions and some new ideas for new cities for us to all play in. I have made a post to keep everything contained in the Work for CPs area. Head over there to see the rules and what you need to do to join in.

Edit: Y25 D217

Just a friendly reminder, don't forget to submit or vote. 

Edit Y25 D233

We have had a very busy week so far and I don't want to stop the fun, so here's a quick update from me. First off, thank you to everyone who created city designs. They were all very enjoyable to see, but unfortunately, I couldn't accept them all. CPs have been awarded for the 30 cities I did pick, and I'll let the winners brag about their creations. With that being said, Ground Showdowns have been released and can now be enjoyed. Contact your local showdown coordinator to setup a match and continue enjoying all the new things this week.

Falcon Edit: I've posted a Ground Showdown FAQ for how to set up ground showdowns in the FAQ portion of the forums. Enjoy!

EDIT Y25 D245

Hey Folks, I've added 18 new fitouts for showdown use(IDs 68 - 86 in the FAQ pictures). You can check them out in the FAQ (link above) or on their rules page. 
 

^^ apparently this added them to the available loadouts for bandits so uhh.... in the meantime, good luck!!

Hello everyone, having come back from a brush with IRL permadeath, I would like to try rewarding the grim reaper by doing something with SWC permadeath. The main stumbling block is that we do not appear to have a consensus on whether to go towards the light or run away from it.

Therefore I am launching this survey in order that the SWC community may express its hopes, dreams and wishes as we continue to approach global combat. May the future ever be filled with violence and destruction in this universe, which literally has Wars in its name.

Click here for survey

If you have questions, feel free to hit me up in DMs. Or submit a support ticket.

Edit: The survey will remain open for a week and be closed around D246. Results may be published shortly after that point. 

Edit2: 544 responses so far. There are still three days until I close this. 

The survey has been closed. Stand by for results.

FALCON EDIT Y25 D228: This is the final update for this sim news post. Herdfest server has been archived and you may now claim items aboard the T2 and Herdship (with the exception of items currently being spawned by another character. Give them ample time to pick their item up from the floor).

Thanks again for participating and enjoy your day!
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FALCON EDIT Y25 D206: I will be archiving the HerdFest Discord server in ~24 days(just setting all channels to read-only and removing extra privs). Once that is done, I will post one final update here. Additionally, when the server is archived, I will not be enforcing the "no stealing from HerdFest" rule. So basically, if you want your stuff, you have until I post the next update to grab your stuff or someone else is gonna come along and steal it. 
 

one caveat to this is that if you follow a latecomer into the Baffor Jubilee and claim their prize right when it's spawned, then that will be enforced. 
 

That is all. See you in 24 days!
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It seems we Platypus forgot to make a Sim News about this... sorry!

The Ithorian Explorer who used to teleport you to the Herdship has gone home. The rewards vendor is still available and can be found in the cockpit of the Herdship which you can travel to at the following coordinates:

Sector: Bright Jewel
System: Bright Jewel (-5, 185)
System Position: (12, 9)

We have no plans to remove the rewards vendor any time soon, so if you still have leaves burning a hole in your pocket, feel free to spend them!

Platypus Edit: Sorry, my bad! One note - the Herd Meet Host in the Bafforr Jubilee's entrance can still send you home one last time. This NPC will be removed after D194.