OFFLINE Q&A - Now's your chance to ask those burning questions!

[Seaseme]

So here are the rules:

Firstly, please only, ONLY post questions - Questions that are answered in the FAQ or are easily answered will be ignored.

Secondly, do NOT reply to this post unless it is a question relating to development

Multiple posts are OKAY, providing that they ask, or clarify a question that has already been asked.

DO NOT FLAME, DO NOT SPAM, DO-NOT-TROLL.


We will take the week to answer as many of these as possible and then make a post combining the live Q&A transcript and the OFFLINE transcript.

SO, without further adieu let the question bombardment begin.


Please note that not all questions will be answered, please don't be offended if yours wasn't included, there will be more Q&A sessions throughout the summer.

[Imperialassasin]

I hope this qualifies as a legitimate question....

Will servers or whatever i don't know.. be able to add items that or obviously in the item database or something similiar? Ex : wearable stormtrooper shoulderpad, rebel teardrop helm, rebel naval uniform?

[zetlaux]

What is the current status on the ideas of the dev team surrounding our abilities to model and submit new item models for the individual servers? For those of us who do 3D modeling, what software will we need to be able to work on this kind of content?

[StormZ]

Do you guys foresee any problems in the future for implementing any new features, or has all the hard stuff pretty much been completed or is being worked on now?

[Feidry]

What are the big issues left to cover? Seems to me most of the hard stuff has been hit already.

EDIT: To be more specific and to elaborate, from what I remember of pre-CU (which may be flawed or inaccurate) the groundwork for basically everything but structure placement seems to be done. As far as I can tell, all thats really left to do is to flesh out the game. Granted that may be a bigger job yet than the "groundwork". Basically, what I'm asking is:

Are there any core elements or features that have yet to be started on?

[Ekaika]

The three questions above are sort of the same, and this one might cover them all.

Q: Oru mentioned in the Darjani interview that he doesn't see a problem with "ripping" live content such as Hoth to add to the Emulator at a later date, and there are multiple projects underway working to mod graphics and such within the client. I understand we're rebuilding a game that's been dead a long time, but what are the legal ramifications of ripping content, and/or modding the client? I was under the impression, and it has been stated by the devs here many times, that this is illegal (and the threads are typically locked.) The activity level on these projects is increasing, and I think an official response would help clarify the do's and dont's.

[Borrie]

What is the Legal situation of Ramsey's heightmap trainer for ripping heightmaps from Live SWG using a third party program?

Is there any plan to tweak small things, like the display of correct races to players when you do /who, silent emote animations upon speaking, or correct capitalization on Shuttle Tickets?

Will GameMasters be able to place static buildings such as a Coronet Skyscraper manually in the game without a third party program?

How many Developers are actively submitting code and fixes at this moment?

Even though not under testing at the time of this post, is Jedi planned to be released with Version 1.0 of the Emulator?

Is the team shooting for a 99.9% remake of the game before Version 1, or will the game be around 70% to 80% ?

Is anyone planning on scripting and rebuilding the Tutorial from start to finish?

[praxi34]

At what playable state will you say that version 1.0 will be available? I mean not just when we get the community but the cold hearted features necessary in your eyes?

[Gulkia]

Will binaries be released when the game is 99% pre-cu or when it has enough content to be playable?

What kind of things can we expect from swgemu this summer?

[Vrej]

1)Has there been any progress on Creature Handler? If so, who is working on it and how much has been done?

2)We heard something a while ago about lairs being worked on? How much progress has been made there?

3)Does the DEV team plan on or have any tools to stop people from creating multiple accounts? (I believe Ramsey or another Dev stated they already had measures relating to this)

4)We heard about structure placement awhile ago. How much work has been done and who is working on it?

5) Is there a % estimate for how much of the schematics have been compiled for use with the server?

6) Do you guys need any help at the moment with compiling information or doing remedial coding tasks? We saw a dev asking for information about schematics awhile ago.

7) With all the new features in, what is the plan for the next stress test? Are we going to wait until everything is in and then stress or is there another plan?

8) If the EMU team decides to run a server, there are the two jedi options available. Since both are technically authentic pre-cu, if you do decide to host a server, how will you choose the jedi option? Will it be a community vote or just whatever was at the patch 13.1?

9)I was unable to shoot tuskens inside a building when I was outside. Is this related to heightmaps or cells or...?

10)Squad Leader skills apparently had some effect when completely outside of range of the group during SOE Pre-Cu. Will you change it so that a SL has to be in-range for these to work or will will you leave it as it is?

Thank you for your time.

[Leonon]

Is there a planned order of implementing crafting/crafted items? Does it include all crafting (doctor, scout, droidmaker, bioengineer, etc)? If not, what parts of crafting does it include? If there is a planned order then what, exactly, is it?

EDIT:While my question does not actually pertain to time frame, you may answer any perceived question about time frame that I may now have sort of just asked.

[blizuko]

I know everyone wants to get back to good and have the same game back that it was before we all quit because the Combat Upgrade. Im just wondering if the devs will continue to work on the game for reasons such as bugs that may have slipped by and to improve the game over all? For instance one thing that made the game good back in the day was that we got new loot and items randomly. Plus they have done a few new good things from what I've heard like relaxed land restrictions when placing a player structure or players can now call bountys on other players as missions for Bounty Hunters. I could see how someone might be able to argue the Bounty Hunter change but not the relaxed land restrictions.

So basically I want to know:

Will the devs continue to work on the game for an undetermined amount of time?

And if so will the game get upgrades like the ones mentioned above or are there legal issues?

[Borrie]

Will SWGemu go closed source upon Version 1 or will there be the opportunity for many different "children" to grow from SWGemu?

Is there still work being done on the Engine and connection stability?

Are GMs able to broadcast game music across the server or a localized area?

How many players has the server been able to safely hold before crashing or become unstable?

Are GMs able, or going to be able to drop and manipulate player created or spawned furniture outside of a house or in a public building?

Will Server owners be able to choose the death system that works in their server? (i.e. running back to your corpse to retrieve your inventory, or cloning with everything intact)

Will GMs be able to spawn and populate their very own dungeons?

Does scout related skills and abilities have any spot in the near future projects, such as Creature Handler or Camps?

Has the first Top Ten list been accomplished or nearly finished?

With Cell Movement now in place, will it be difficult to implement the Cell locations for objects and NPCs, and allow players to sit on chairs inside correctly?

Has anyone attempted to add new races?

Will individual EXP rates for each type of EXP be available? (i.e. High Medic exp rates would allow you to advance in medic much faster then any other profession)

How many characters max can you have on one server?

Has there been any progress on Jedi, or does the profession still remain combat only?

[Newsound]

Will you guys be adding features added since NGE that have been well received like vendor re-list?

Will this team be hosting their own servers?

[Kateb Ibliss]

How are the issues with accuracy and certain other modifiers coming along?
I know that Benjai sent in a pretty nice looking equation a while back, are you looking at tweaking things up a bit?

[Newsound]

Do you guys have a general idea about the mathematics behind skill tree? Seems to me there is a freaking pile of math that needs to evaluated on a whole bunch of levels. Is there a plan of action to accomplish what seems like a huge pain?


Will someone post a recap of the Q&A for those that missed it?

[Valis]

Is there a fix coming up some day for the snappy stopping that they added somewhere pub 12-13? I seem to have read something about it, some time ago.

[Shin925]

How are you going to handle accounts and stuff like that? Is it going to be secure from hacks, cheats etc?

[Soldier]

Is there any milestone or accomplishment that individual members are particularly proud of? Any that the team as a whole are particularly proud of?

When or if the emulator is completed, what are your plans?

Do you intend to play when or if it's completed?

Do you have anything to say to other emulator teams?

[AZIronman]

i was eltaed to log on to tc to craft only to relize theres only one thing i could craft. With there being toons of schematics to craft i think talior has well over 2k schems how do yall plan to get all of that work done?

[Kylrathin]

Would you be willing to release a somewhat comprehensive list of things that are modifiable using your scripting engine vs. things that are locked up either in the proprietary Engine or in the Client? I haven't looked at anything since Core1 and I feel I have a pretty good idea of what's untouchable client-side, but it'd be nice as a postmortem to this project to have a list of functions that are purely client-side and precompiled. Thanks!

[eywill]

First off, thank you all so very very much for everythng you are doing. It is very exciting that this is becoming a reality.

Now I know that everything is going pre cu pub 14ish.. On that note:
Will there be issues addressed that existed at that time (pre cu) as you build the emu, or will it be more of an exact copy and then issues addressed?
I'll use an example: Force sensative combat melee speed worked on ranged weapons, while the range speed did not... This is just an example of the weird quirks pre cu had. Will things be right the first time, or will these bugs be ironed out after you achieve pre cu status? Forgive my ignorance on programing, but I'm just not sure how things get implemented.
Ive often wondered if these things were an easy fix but SOE ignored them because they thought "Why? We are going NGE soon anyway.."


Again, thank you very much for all of your work.. I know it will be done when its done. So please, make sure you get out to the pool and enjoy some margaritas this summer, we had patience with SOE, so we can certainly be patient for live!

[syvart]

1. Will a server op be able to modify the number of items you can put in a house?

2. Will a server op be able to chose if we will have the original 50 items in a backpack or the modified 80 items in a backpack?

3. What jedi unlock method will be used? Can this be chosen by a server operator and also if the server op can chose will there be the ability to add things to the unlock method to make it a mystery? For example using the holocron method you will also have to visit 3 specific POI or spend at least 5 minutes next to the crystal in exar keens location.

4. I have heard rumors that the EMU will probably wrap up twords the end of summer. Does this still look possible? (I know this is a touchy question. Feel free to ignore if you don't want to answer)

[Rauce]

Q: Will some professions be "modded" by the emu team (like carbineer, pikeman, Squadleader) To get them more on "par" with the rest?

Q: Any Chance the Emu team will buff some existing weapons to higher AP? (think Flamerthrower, Elite carb, drx carb, Launcher Pistol)

Q: Will the dev's reconsider the 100% resists on some mobs, that make pve for various professions just not doable ?

[Shoryuu]

When swg is completed (aka all features done) are you going to set up a phase where KEY areas such as bugs that existed within live will be focused on as well as other areas that may arise that COULD go unfixed as many bugs did through beta (aka emu beta).

Difference this time is you guys are actually listening, Sony never listened to players. They only listened when it was a problem with another player, or someone was clone camping (which wasn't illegal but CSRs felt they needed to show up anyway).

I will be one of the few playing as much as possible to find as many bugs as I can so the game can become more enjoyable then it already is. I am like many here, eagerly awaiting completion argh! :lightsaber::lightsaber: :rolleyes:

[jimmy1212]

Q.Voltrox was working on adding new items in game+cert's,is this work being carried on by him when he returns or are other dev's going to take this up?
Q.With all the different and various missions out there,what time frame would you expect all the scripts done by?
Q.Will things be moving at a faster pace once heightmaps/crafting is implemented (considering these are the current big issues.correct if im wrong.
Q.What key features are you hoping to get in by the end of summer?

Thanks for your time,il look forward to reading answers not only to my questions but the rest aswell.

[DavidTirno]

Could all the Developers share what they're most proud of and what is their main inspiration is that keeps them going to work on just a wonderful project?

[gurluas]

Q: Will unused planets be enabled (Read, Enabled not completed) so you can access them through commands and work on them individually from server to server?

[Erro]

can we have some special something somewhere in game which says 'yay! it happend ! yay!' which we can all go somewhere and take lots of screenies of lots of us together so we can post it on SOEs site?

[exedra]

Q : Do you plan to add/code an "anti-hacking" system to protect the emulator against hacker ? I mean : will the emulator be safe & secure for the people who are using it ?

Q : Do you know if "not critical bugs" will be present at the release, i.e when the 3hours buff were lost after a deconnection or a server crash ? Do you plan to release your first version without "lights" bugs, or no attention will be paid on these before first release ?

[Trugamr12]

Q: Do you plan to add any Custom weapons, armor, etc. that SOE didn't? if so what would they be?

Q: like everyone else im wondering how will you protect against hacking?

Q: Finally where do you think you will be by the end of summer?

[Sumane]

Q. What is the status of Ultyma? i havnt seen a post from him in a long time, or heard of any progress reports from him, or what he is working on. is he still a swgemu dev? not flaming just curious.

[ColaCan]

Will the SWGEmu team patch out bugs and make balances or leave it to the servers that run their engine?

Also ive been around since direct links to this sight redirected to teletubies.net, but havent followed news to closely. Whats up with SWGAnh?

[Vysse]

Q.When do you really believe that this project will be complete.I'm not asking for a specific date but rather and idea in years of when it might be done I understand there's no way to know for sure but you must have a rough idea.

[kelharis]

1. Is there a Developer "pool" going on guessing the final release date?
if yes, then
2. What are the guesses by each developer?
if no then
3. If there were a pool, what would the guesses be by each developer?

[Ekaika]

You guys just won't quit with that lol.

[SWGManiac]

Are you guys going to be putting any non game-play affecting 'surprises' within the emulator once it's finished such as the skeleton on the Bria server (not placed there but you get my drift)?

[kelharis]

You guys just won't quit with that lol.

Hehe.:D Thought that'd be a fun one.

[Jazza]

Are you guys going to be putting any non game-play affecting 'surprises' within the emulator once it's finished such as the skeleton on the Bria server (not placed there but you get my drift)?

skeleton? What skeleton?

[Jigoku]

skeleton? What skeleton?

I think you mean the skeleton on the bloodfin server there was one in the imperial outpost of a guy who challenged a GM.

[shiznitkerwyn]

Will the release of SWGEMU go live without JTL expansion files? (anything that makes it get it here quicker :) )

[Ekaika]

Guys, stick to questions that aren't answered in basic places like the FAQ. Much of this stuff has been covered in past QA's or the FAQ.

[Jazza]

Is it possible to put content into the Emu that wasn't in it pre-NGE?

Meaning things like ships or planets?

[BrianThebandit]

can we have some special something somewhere in game which says 'yay! it happend ! yay!' which we can all go somewhere and take lots of screenies of lots of us together so we can post it on SOEs site?

I dont usually post because I don't think I have anything constructive to contribute. but i would like to see this done.. i think it would be hilarious for like +200 people to all start posting pictures of a sign that says something like that. I would gladly get my station account banned to post those pics.

[Happyllama845]

My question pertains to your recent "Divided we fail" post.

Have you received any responses from other teams or developers (ANH, Lordc, or any past dev)? If so are they willing to cooperate?

Thanks

[Jlane]

Q: Is player housing soon to be implemented? If not, is it being worked on?

[Smannesman]

I'm not sure if my question has already been asked (and perhaps even answered), but it is as follows:

Is someone looking into the connection issues between the client and the server?
(Cannot connect to galaxy (offline), neverending 'connecting to galaxy', etc)

I still had those problems after compiling a recent version (sometime last week).

[CaloNord]

Q: Will different systems for player bounties by available to server hosts?

[fixit6]

Just a few questions...

How is CH, lairs, missions, and unit placement coming along?

Mostly, is CH going to make an appearance sometime soon. :D

[Davickk]

Q:

Honostly do you guys even bother reading the Future server idea's?

Quick statement about that question :
I mean if you guys looked in there. you'd find some really good stuff. maybe you guys should browse through there and make a poll of what we should and shouldn't test? or maybe have people that have private servers set up to test the ****?