Welcome back everybody!

Please bear with us over the next 24-36 hours as things spin back up and the devs make sure everything is working as intended. CP Login streaks may be temporarily broken but we're actively looking for a way to bridge the gap. 
 

If by tomorrow, things are still broken, let us know. 
 

(also no I'm not back but hi)

EDIT: Asteroid Damage has been disabled for ~24h to give you all time to respond appropriately. 
 

EDIT 2: We were able to restore the login streaks, however it seems like the login rewards will not be able to be easily paid out on an individual basis. As such, you all will have missed out on one day’s worth of CPs credited to your account, but will resume normal gains the next time your CP login streak updates. We will make sure to release the next round of CP entities one day early so you all miss it by that much.

- Fix issue where capital ships were stopping to turn too often during diagonal travel. (Note there is still an issue with sublight travel timer being inaccurate sometimes).
- Added an option under look and feel to suppress non-primary faction notifier flashing.
- Fix issue where subfaction members were not showing up in autocomplete fields on faction privilege page.

...isn't happening.  However, based on the wonderful feedback received across the galaxy, we have defunded bandits and their doors are now capped at level 1*.

Enjoy your pirating ways.

With the new changes to capital ships we've some updates to the two Jawa quest NPC's.

- T'uk finally has Daring strike missions available! Utinni!
- The Dooka Shop has been individualised, everyone now gets their own shop each week!
- Both M'uk and T'uk have new Capital strike missions that might appear randomly! These missions are guaranteed to spawn for everyone for the next 3 months! (Groups of 4-6 are recommended)

Many thanks to everyone who helped make these quest updates happen!

Thrall EDIT Y27D139: I forgot to update the delay before waves spawn from 30 seconds to 35 minutes for the new Capital strike missions, if you have already picked up the quest "Bandit Boss - M'uk" or "Bandit Boss - T'uk" be warned that the waves will spawn 30 seconds after the last hostile ship has been destroyed. Aborting this quest and starting it again will fix this. Or don't, you've been warned.

- Capital Ship Shield Arcs: Capital ships now have directional shields and directional weapons assigned, and these can be tested in showdowns.
Rules can be found here.
Prior to combat, this also changes places where ships with directional shields can take damage, e.g. Asteroid Fields. Damage from asteroid fields will apply from a random direction. This means if you get unlucky you could take hull damage before reaching zero shields.

- Extra Changes:

•  Modifiers have changed for all ship classes, but primarily capitals.,
•  Capital and Super Capital ships can now be attacked by bandits. This means that all ships can now be attacked by bandits. Note that capitals still cannot attack a bandit and will not return fire at this time.,
•  Shields for capital ships are now directional. When hitting from one direction, both that directional shield and the omni shield will take damage. Once both are depleted, the hull will begin taking damage even if other directional shields are still up. Watch out when taking one into an asteroid field!,
•  Turbolaser Batteries now have their own modifier. The most obvious effect on current functionality is that frigates with Turbolaser Batteries will now do less damage to corvettes.,
•  Turbolaser Batteries have had their number of shots increased but damage reduced. Overall damage remains the same.,
•  Quad tracking has been increased.,
•  Firepower increase for personal ionic weapons (Electrostaff, Jawa Ionisation Blaster, TB-1a). This is to help counteract the previous addition of armour for droids.

Bugs:
- Fixed pew pew lasers not showing on atmosphere maps.
- Improved crewlist modify error messages.
- Added Khuiumin to the darkness map.

Feedback thread is located here.

Greetings sentients!

With the recent release of the new mining and prospecting ships comes an overhaul to most of the other Mining feature related art, as well as some new ways to view large images of rocks thanks to Clarrs help which are coming soon. Currently you can view them via the NPC Market material listings in the meantime by clicking the small image just like any other.

All RM Types - New rules images, including large images where applicable

Y-8 Mining Vessel - New large and small rules images

SX-65 Groundhog - New large and small rules images

FK-7 Airspeeder - New large and small

Enjoy!

Kolo

- Fix issue with facility construction abort page crash.
- Fix issue with recycling not being blocked when recycler is disabled.

The Rules Team is looking to bring on additional members to help refine and balance key combat systems.

We are seeking:

• 2-3 members focused on Space Combat, with primary emphasis on capital ships (assigning and balancing weapon arcs, shield arcs, and overall performance). The aim is to ensure balanced and meaningful roles for capital ships while keeping all ship classes viable and effective in their intended scenarios—from individual engagements to large fleet operations.
• 1-2 members focused on expanded Ground Combat (infantry, vehicles, facilities, and their interactions in combined scenarios).

Significant experience in the Combine is an advantage but not required. What we need most is a strong understanding of the rules, higher-order thinking, and the ability to identify edge cases, potential abuse vectors, and the broader implications of changes across the game.

Team members will work closely with QA and the development team to get rules from the design stage through to testing phases.

Criticism is part of the process—from the player community, other teams, and internally. Thick skin is necessary; you shouldn't take criticism personally. The priority is game improvement, balance, and preventing exploits, not personal reactions.

This is a volunteer position. We aren't looking for any specific amount of hours put in, but we do expect consistent progress on assigned work. Contributors who do not contribute sufficiently are liable to be removed from the team.

Experience with spreadsheets is a significant plus (the team relies on them extensively), and basic programming skills for creating simulation tools are also advantageous, as they help speed up testing and balancing.

Applications are open now and will close in one week.

If interested, DM me here or message me on Discord (Dex). A short testing process will follow to evaluate your approach to rules analysis, edge-case identification, abuse potential, and game-wide impact considerations.

All ongoing work remains confidential unless it has been publicly announced or approval has been given to discuss it.

Let's keep combat balanced, strategic, and enjoyable for the entire community.

-Dex

EDIT: The application deadline, and the testing deadline are both now closed. In the coming days I will notify those who have been accepted that they are being added to the team. We recieved many well thought-out and well-written applications, and I'd like to thank everyone for the time and commitment that they have put in to apply.

Greetings sentients!

Just a reminder from your friendly neighborhood Custom Queue Team regarding custom submissions....

As stated in the custom art rules, AI of any sort is only allowed for NPC image submissions (as long as all other rules are met) due to the lack of images and/or live-action representation present for a lot of alien races. This includes using AI "recoloring" tools or websites either separate and standalone or natively built in to some products - notably Photoshop and other Adobe products. Its been quite a while since this rule was implemented, and the accompanying NPC accommodation made, and has been posted and enforced since. Its posted right above the section about Art Bans even. However, recently there has been an influx of clearly AI made images being submitted. Moving forward this rule will be more heavily enforced in the following way:

• First time: Image denial and normal message. This counts retroactively and moving forward if you've already had a denial!
• Second time: Image denial, message notifying of a 30 day submission ban. Submitter can request the ban be lifted after 30 days have passed directly with me via discord or darkness message.
• Third time: Image denial, permanent submission ban message. 

Always with any image denial: if you feel the denial was incorrect, you need clarification, or you'd like help fixing the issue, then please reach out - theres plenty of times where errors are made and denials are reversed and I'm always happy to help clarify information or suggest fixes. I do suggest doing your homework prior to working on or submitting images and verify they are not AI generated - being unaware won't be a valid argument. It only takes a minute or two generally.

 If you have any issues with this specific SIMnews post just drop a darkness message to Noctis and tell him how you feel. 

Happy arting,

Kolo

There will be some upcoming database maintenance on Y27D60 19:00, should take about 30 minutes. Server will be intermittently unavailable during this time.

Edit: Postponed to tomorrow, Y27D60 due to some missing code changes.

- Tractor beam functionality was separated from the Tractor Beam weapon, all entities with a hangar bay or docking bay can now use tractor beams (with a new clickable icon on the Cockpit screen).
- FI events have been updated.

Facility Income Sharding Change

For server performance reasons, facility income will now run grouped by Sector and will be spread out evenly across an hour period.
The income rules and calculations remain the same. This will apply to tomorrows income run.

Bugs

Fix NPC fitout drop error when trying to drop installed cybernetic.
Fix installed cybernetics taking up weight and volume.
Add rng rolls to cybernetic install/uninstall events.
Fix character faction membership caching to be more effective.
Optimize facility inventory export querying FI transactions too often.
Optimize default building inventory sort settings.
Fix Grant XP Admin tool unintentionally setting NPC/Creatures above their level cap.
Fix db partition tool crash when table missing.
Fix php 8 crash in asteroid mining code.
Fix php 8.5 inventory filter crash.
Fix php 8.5 WS auth crash.

Year 27 Day 152, 20:05 Noctis banned player Marcus Switch providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 152, 20:05 Noctis banned player Jax Wolfe providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 152, 20:05 Noctis banned player Dev au Augustus providing the following reason: Multi Ban

30 day bans for accounts coming under control of a single player.  You may not allow someone to access your account.

Times up.  But while youre here.

Year 27 Day 150, 11:26 Noctis banned player Keylara Ennada providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 150, 11:26 Noctis banned player Hudson Zandaly providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 150, 11:26 Noctis banned player Ezre Tesel providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Every player is only allowed to have one account.  Hudson and Ezre may request an unban in 7 days.

Year 27 Day 130, 18:22 Noctis banned player Waric Bele providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 130, 18:22 Noctis banned player Shiv Joben providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 130, 18:22 Noctis banned player Darex Metro providing the following reason: Multi Ban

1) You cant acquire an account from someone else.

2) You only get one account.

EDIT: Year 27 Day 132, 16:42 Noctis banned player Demas Kase providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Oldest account can request an unban in 30 days never.

Year 27 Day 135, 9:04 Noctis banned player Cal Duval providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 137, 9:08 Noctis banned player Urik Kantale providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 138, 10:42 Noctis banned player Aaran Lipost providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 140, 5:03 Noctis banned player Daran Odan providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 140, 13:05 Noctis banned player Keye Bynar providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 115, 6:29 Noctis banned player Soma Wren

Character can submit a support ticket in 30 days requesting an unban.

Discord ban will remain in place indefinitely.

Pejorative language will not be tolerated.

Edit: Year 27 Day 135, 9:09 Noctis banned player Elgar Thelcar providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Making a new account while banned is not the solution.

Ban now permanent due to history of bans.

Year 27 Day 131, 8:12 Noctis banned player Aacehrin Thenn providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 131, 8:08 Noctis banned player Zon Bey providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Zon Bey can request an unban in 21 days

Year 27 Day 73 Noctis banned player Zuk`Ha Ntaka providing the following reason: Failure to follow IC/OOC separation.

Strike 2 - Player can submit a help ticket after 30 days requesting an unban.  

Year 27 Day 33, 11:10 Noctis banned player Inquiz Warder providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 27 Day 33, 11:10 Noctis banned player Jasper Jervada providing the following reason: Multi Ban

 Oldest account may request an unban after 7 days.  

Y27D25, 20:29
Kodkod banned player Malcolm Marrz Blaine providing the following reason: Harassment

This player has received a strike 1 ban before, making this a strike 2 ban (1 month).  Player can submit a ticket in one month to request unban. 
 

Additionally, as a public service announcement, Discord has a block feature which you can use if you want someone to be prevented from sending you DM's.

Year 27 Day 10, 16:49 Noctis banned player Repok Spiuar providing the following reason: Multi Ban.

Year 27 Day 10, 16:49 Noctis banned player Crale Groman providing the following reason: Multi Ban.

Multiple accounts being controlled by a single person.  Remember, only 1 account per person.

Oldest account can request an unban in 7 days.

Year 26 Day 350, 7:09 Noctis banned player Jann Celtru providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Year 26 Day 350, 7:09 Noctis banned player Sogan de Celanon providing the following reason: Multi Ban

Oldest account can submit a help ticket to request an unban after 7 days.

Congrats to the latest tournament winner, Manta Birostris!

Deathmatch and Grudges

Because apparently it needs to be said, OOC memes in the IC space will not be permitted.

Forums threads ended, GNS posts removed.  Don't do it.  Take it elsewhere.

Been a while, next round!

Deathmatch and Grudges!

Hi guys, mom said it's my turn to post on the Sim News! And this time it isn't even a ban! (It's much worse) This is gonna be an entirely OOC post with no real bearing on the game or its features, so if you don't care, you can stop reading now and continue about your day.

We are now into our fourth month of 2026, and this year has been packed for me. So far this year, I've gotten a temporary extra family member, an unexpected work trip, extra responsibility with no extra pay, and all of this has taken my time and focus away from making this community better.

In short, my priorities have shifted to focus more on my family and what is important to me. I still care deeply about this game and community, and want to contribute. However, in typical SWC Admin fashion, I am simply running out of time and energy to actually contribute in a meaningful way. Exhibit A:

So, all this to write that I will once again be taking an extended leave of absence. I'm not stepping down as Game Admin (yet), but I truly don't know if/when I will return to this position. At the very least I'll try to stay a part of the community on Discord, so you all know I'm alive lol. In my absence, Noctis, Erek, Kodkod, Chupa and Koi will fill in the gaps as they already have. 
 

Thank you all for your kind words so far. I've been a part of this community for nearly 20 years (hello from Y8), and it's been an amazing journey going from playing, to helping the community, to creating new features for this game. 
 

So... yeah. So long and thanks for all the fish! 
(this isn't goodbye, it's see you later)

Hi, it's me, not Falcon. 

Clarification on the recent name changes for BSD.  Yes, it was reversed.

Both factions were charged for changing the names back.  Additionally, og BSD was fined for breaching the naming rules (analgous to old faction checks), making the name available to be stolen.

A faction is more than a name, generally.  Changing your faction name as a joke is misuse of the system.  Stealing a name is also misuse of the system.

Falcon EDIT Y27D91: Turns out there was another back end tool I had to add the new ships to so that factions with the mining module could, you know, actually produce these. I think I've fixed the issue, but if you have the mining module and still cannot produce these, then please let me know via DM or discord (#swc-help). Thanks for your patience and the heads up!

-----

I bet you guys thought I was gone again. WELL I'M NOT! And today, I bring you more gifts!

BEHOLD, THE AEA-500 ASTEROID PROSPECTOR:

BEHOLD, THE MINING BARQUE:

AND BEHOLD, THE CONTINENT-CLASS CRAWLER:

These bad boys can mine so many asteroids. If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with mesothelioma are a member of a Mining Faction, then you, too, can own one of these puppies(note: these are not actual puppies, but THIS IS).

Thanks to everyone involved in making sure these were squared away and ready to go. It's been a long time coming, but here we are!

Gooooooooooooooooooooood day/night/evening/afternoon/morning/midnight/whatever!

I am happy to announce that the Unfinished Blueprints Quest has been completed! The Mad Scientist aboard the research station has completed his research and patented his product, which took the Prototype Droid and turned it into the Basilisk War Droid.

Thank you to everyone who participated, we hope this quest was fun for you all! Thanks also to Jevon Lambright for the artwork for both the Prototype Droid and Basilisk Droid(Large image coming shortly), as well as everyone on the Quest Team who helped put this quest together and release it. Finally thanks to Platypus(RIP) for helping me stat this. The work on this quest and these droids started about 2 years ago, and it's nice to see it all come together. 

The Basilisk is now a Generic Datacard that your faction can buy for 2.5 DC Slots. Additionally, you have approximately 3 months to claim your Prototype Droid Datacard from the Mad Scientist, after which it will be unobtainable. EDIT: This also applies to obtaining Blueprints and bringing them to the Mad Scientist.

That's all for now!

• Life Support Console: Chance to spawn a hostile droid upon failure has been reduced from 33% to 20%
• Research Console: Chance to spawn a hostile droid upon failure has been reduced from 50% to 33%

This is to reflect the fact that the quest was implemented pre-droid armour, and that droids are now a tougher enemy than they were at the original release.

Hopefully many of your will be aware that a whacky scientist is developing a new droid in the Black Hole of Quintas system, and with your help, has even managed to develop a working Prototype!

At this stage I would like to clarify this community quest and how it works. 

After completing the Abandoned Research Installation quest in The Maw, the player is given a set of Unfinished Blueprints. These blueprints are a small part of a larger design, and can be donated to the Scientist aboard the station in the Black Hole of Quitnas system, to generate Research Points. The amount of points gained toward the community goal is proportional to your average R&D skills, so higher R&D skills equal more points! At this stage enough points have been generated to release the Prototype Droid. Any character which donates blueprints is able to redeem a single-use DC for the Prototype Droid by speaking to the scientist in the Black Hole of Quintas system.. This DC will be redeemable for up to three months after the total arc has finished, and can be redeemd by any character which has participated at any point during the event.  Once enough points have been generated, this arc will conclude with a brand new generic datacard added to the pool. 

Once you have donated your blueprints, you will also have the option to donate credits toward the research effort. This option is available once per week, and the cost will increase each time. The amount of research points generated remains tied to your R&D skills. 

You can find some more information about the location of the quests here

EDIT: The race is now closed, winners are being verified, and results will be posted shortly, along with prize winnings! 

After having carefully reviewed the contestants' events, and verifying the integrity of the results, I am pleased to announce the winners!

1. 1st place: Lorenzas Atticus - 7,214 Minutes
2. 2nd Place: Rall Dack - 7,266 Minutes
3. 3rd Place: Regulus Jagarnat - 7,299 Minutes
4. 4th Place: Akeeg Viawei - 7,314 Minutes
5. 5th Place: Jarneskeg Yrfeloran - 7,331 Minutes

The prize pool came to a total of: 1,620,000,000 credits, and as such, our top 5 winners will win the following amounts:

1. 1st place (50%) = 810,000,000 credits
2. 2nd place (25%) = 405,000,000 credits
3. 3rd place (15%) = 243,000,000 credits
4. 4th place (7%) = 113,400,000 credits
5. 5th place (3%) = 48,600,000 credits

Thank you to everyone who participated! I hope you all had as much fun participating in this as we had watching you!

___________________________________________
Edit: I've been made aware of a bug which can result in the checkpoint event being sent prematurely within the same star system. We are looking into a fix, but in the mean time: If this happens to you, please continue on to the correct checkpoint sublight location before setting course for the next checkpoint. Cheaters will not be rewarded. Thank you to those who have come forward. 

Edit2: The leaderboard and prize pot and now viewable on the Datapad.

It's a Christmas disaster! Chiss Chingle has gone missing, and the winter helpers need your help to save Christmas!

The key to saving Christmas is going to be speed this year. So grab your fastest non-modified* ship (No A-Wings allowed either!) and head over to the Winter Colony Station in Tynnani if you're feeling lucky**. There are no other specific gear requirements.

The event will take approximately seven days from the point it is "accepted", depending on the speed of your ship. It must be completed before Christmas Day. Plan accordingly, and pay attention to what the helpers tell you!

*Modified ship refers to any ship with the modified flag, regardless of the actual modified stat.

**You will need 5 million credits, and the knowledge that you may not get it back. 

Final Update: You will no longer be able to accept any quest from Dr Bram Pyre. Any quests which have been accepted prior to the cut off may be still completed as usual. Be aware that each quest will time out after two weeks from the point it was accepted. Thank you for participating and we hope you enjoyed this year's halloween event!

Hold on to your pumpkin spice lattes, because spooky season is upon us and something strange is afoot!

Intrepid pilots have reported sighting a peculiar and quite agitated Devaronian in the entrance rooms of Trading I and Trading II stations across the Galaxy. The reports suggest that he is a scientist of sorts, but it's not entirely clear why he's so upset - maybe you could figure it out?

Happy Halloween!

*With thanks to Clarr for doing like 90% of the work on this year's Halloween event!

Edit: If taking part in these quests, it would be wise to prepare for room combat. The quests will be active for the next 2 weeks!

Edit2: In approximately one week from now, you will no longer be able to accept any quest from Dr Bram Pyre. Any quests which have been accepted prior to the cut off may be still completed as usual. Be aware that each quest will time out after two weeks from the point it was accepted.

Edit3: Consider this your 24 hour warning. 

Greetings everyone,

As you may have seen the GNS Flash News just now, a new System has just been found! Your SWC Teams have been hard at work these past 2 weeks crafting a special memorial for our fallen players. We would like to present for you, the following additions:

• New System: Makem
• New Planet: Makem Te
• New City: Thousand Thousand
  • Inspiration reference: (LINK)
• New City: Tract of Makem Te (MAIN FACILITY) -- located at (9, 8)
  • There are Tracts fom (9, 5) to (12, 11) on the planet. However, for now, only the main facility is in use. The rest of the Tracts are visible, however the Swokes Swokes ask that all visitors remain at the main facility at this time.
• New 20x20 Facility: Tract of Makem Te
• New Item(Trophy): Memorial
  • The intent behind this is to be used by SWC Administration in the same room as a character who is moved inside the Tract and will note the date they joined SWC as well as their final login date. Players are encouraged to make their own memorials as custom items and leave them at the character's final resting place, should they so choose. 

In Legends, the Tract of Makem Te was where members of the Swokes Swokes race were buried when they died. The tract was vast and covered an enormous portion of the planet's surface. In our community, we are using it to honor our members who have passed away OOC and are no longer with us. 
Inside the Tract's entrance, you will find an NPC named Sepul Sepul Kurr. He is available to give you information about the Tract, the members inside the Tract, and to help you arrange funeral services for yourself(via a very generous donation) or for others. You may use Sepul Sepul Kurr to notify the Administration of a death in this way, and it will send a DM directly to us. 

I'd like to give a huge shoutout to the following individuals who expedited this process:

• Kolomon Seph: Art
• Wynk Waawat: Sepul Sepul Kurr Script
• Raptor Cardel: Descriptions
• Clarr Solo: Initial Idea

Through their quick work, we were able to knock this out in just about a week.

Finally, we'd like to issue a call-out to the SWC community at large: If you know someone who has passed away OOC and would like their character moved to the Tract, please contact me directly to arrange movement to their own room. (Please don't spam this DM like you normally would, I'd like to filter the noise on this one)

That's all for this announcement. Thanks for tuning in. (SUPPORT LINK)