I know we have some folks who play the Emu, curious to hear from them how strong the community is and how the game is progressing in terms of viability.
The SWGEmu Team would like to announce two major things
as our Christmas present to the awesome community here.
Playable Test Center
Official Server Plans
Playable Test Center
In order to thoroughly test out all aspects of the game, we feel that we are finally at a point in development where we can announce our intentions for a “playable†test center.
What is going to happen to the current TC (Nova)?
The current Test Center (TC:Nova) will run much like it does now. Blue Frogs will still be present to give items and train professions that are in need of immediate testing. New features will be added straight from the SVN to TC:Nova. This saves you the time of having to grind your profession and allows you to test new content immediately. Testers who want to test out new features and play around in a less serious atmosphere will still want to play on TC:Nova. On occasion, TC:Nova may experience database wipes in order to ensure testing and stability.
What is going to be on the new TC (Sun Crusher)?
The new "playable" Test Center (TC:SC) will be a separate and new server. TC:SC will only be updated with new features once we are fairly certain they are 100% stable and tested on TC:Nova. TC:SC will have no blue frogs or @GM commands for players. You are meant to grind your profession, much as you will in the final release of the game. This helps ensure that there will be fewer bugs on TC:SC, and that all levels of game play are tested equally. Since testers will no doubt spend a lot of time leveling their characters on TC:SC, we will make every effort to ensure that we do not wipe the database, unless it is absolutely needed. Testers who want a feel of what the final game will be like, and are looking for something to simply “play†will want to play on TC:SC.
When can we expect these changes to go live?
As long as we continue to receive enough community support and donations to support two servers, while still saving enough for future goals, you should see the server go live sometime in Q1 2009. In order to ensure the best game play possible, we still have a few features that we would like to finish up before starting the playable server. These features, such as crafting and player housing, are in their finishing stages and should be ready and stable in the coming months.
Official Server Plans
We have been bombarded with this question as long as the project has existed. "Is SWGEmu going to host an official server?" We have always deflected this question with non-committal responses. Today we make the official announcement that SWGEmu WILL be hosting a server called "Sun Crusher". Sun Crusher will start out as the "Playable Test Center" and when the official release is ready, then it will be wiped and become the SWGEmu LIVE Server.
After long discussions and debates, we want to make sure that the community can count on SWGEmu to be a pillar in the SWG Emulation scene. Does this mean that SWGEmu wants to force out or hurt the communities? Absolutely not! In fact, we will be setting up numerical standards for servers to become "Official" sponsored servers. Standards would include things such as user base, server hardware, server bandwidth and connection, so we can ensure the entire user base a central place to come and see reliable servers with their specialties. Each server will have their own play style and new features, and keeping information about them in a central location will benefit everyone's population.
Knowing what inquiries will abound from this post, an ambiguous statement will be the answer for the inevitable onslaught of the question "Will SWGEmu implement X new feature, or balance X something". The answer to this is maybe. Our #1 commitment is releasing a fully functional, identical SWG (with bug fixes) emulator. This "vanilla" release (SVN) will be maintained by SWGEmu for the foreseeable future. That said, the majority, if not all, of the SWGEmu developers are excited to taking Sun Crusher and fulfilling the potential that SOE never got around to doing.
More details will come forth in the coming weeks/months about this, but this is our Christmas present to everyone who has been asking and hoping for this. Please continue to enjoy the existing test center, and we look forward to getting the Sun Crusher community going in the very near future. We love you and thank you for your support.
Happy Holidays,
Team SWGEmu
