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?