One thing coming out of Fan Faire this year, which everybody will benefit from, is our Fan Faire Suggestions program. In this program, we will be addressing as of the suggestions given to us at Fan Faire as we can over the next 12 months. Any suggestions that are implemented will be called out as a Fan Faire 2008 Suggestion in the release notes. All devs in attendance had notepads and took diligent notes as they conducted their panels and interacted with the fans in the lounge. We had a meeting last week where we consolidated all our hand written notes to a master file. In the coming weeks we will go through this file and determine which suggestions we will tackle first. Our goal is to include at least one suggestion with every major release (e.g., a Chapter or Game Update).

For anybody who didn't get a download from the Galactic Assembly Panel regarding our plans moving forward I thought I would quickly recap here:

• Chapter 11, The Battle of Echo Base, and The Galactic Moon Festival, our first ever Halloween event, will be released this October.
• Life Day, along with the first Trading Card Game expansion, are scheduled to hit this winter.
• Game Update 6, release TBD, will focus on Politicians, Player Associations, and Spies.
• Game Update 7, release TBD, will focus on Domestics and Structures.
• We do not have any firm Update plans beyond Update 7, though there are several strong contenders under consideration.
• Chapter 12, Droid Commander, will include a revamp of the Droid Engineers. This will allow them to make droid parts and components as well as droid consumables. There will also be a new expertise tree to go along with this Chapter. Chapter 12 will release in 2009.

I would like to clarify one final thing that was discussed at Fan Faire: space. Pwh and I had a couple discussions regarding when there would be new space content and what it would consist of. As for when, there is nothing is scheduled right now, though it is something we are interested in doing. As for what the content would consist of, the report pwh posted is totally accurate. It is extremely unlikely that we would further fine tune the existing ships or add ships. At this point we're more interested in adding missions for the pilots to take part in. Ideally in these missions we would find specific roles for each ship class (bombers, interceptors, fighters, etc). Some folks seemed to think that the recent slip of the V-wing flies in the face of these statements. Please understand that the V-wing has been planned and in development for a long while and will be released before we get around to doing any kind of content update in space. No, we are not prepared to detail how nor when the V-wing will be released at this time.

Finally, on the subject of low-pop servers, I only have a small update. Things are moving forward very rapidly now. We met with Marketing yesterday to discuss the timeframe of the program as well as the announcement timeframe. All the details are being finalized now. DevH is still hard at work on his tasks. I know that you would ideally like to hear the announcement now or even get an idea of what solution is that we've settled upon, this is all I can mention now until the formal announcement is ready.

As we roll through September, the majority of the team members will be chained to their desks finishing off Hoth and the Galactic Moon Festival. We're very excited about the fact that it won't be long until you've had a chance to run around and enjoy all the cool stuff that we have in store for you.

-Dotanuki

Can you possibly give us any time frame for the Spy update.

Hoth looks brilliant but we won't be able to take part due to our lack of PvE skills, and from the looks of things it is going to be December 2008/January 2009 before anything is actually done to address this.

Surely you can see that this is too long to wait considering we have been waiting months since GU! (Nearly a year since we became useless in PvE), have you considered a small update to give us a use in groups during Hoth? or at least something to actually make us able to PvE at all?

 this is all I can mention now until the formal announcement is ready.

Finally, on the subject of low-pop servers, I only have a small update. Things are moving forward very rapidly now. We met with Marketing yesterday to discuss the timeframe of the program as well as the announcement timeframe. All the details are being finalized now. DevH is still hard at work on his tasks. I know that you would ideally like to hear the announcement now or even get an idea of what solution is that we've settled upon, this is all I can mention now until the formal announcement is ready.

Um, what does Marketing have to do with Low-Pop servers?

And when will Jedi General Expertise get a look over?

Sounds good.  By 'expertise tree' I assume you mean DC will be a BM-like side expertise set rather than a full profession?

I would like to clarify one final thing that was discussed at Fan Faire: space. Pwh and I had a couple discussions regarding when there would be new space content and what it would consist of. As for when, there is nothing is scheduled right now, though it is something we are interested in doing. As for what the content would consist of, the report pwh posted is totally accurate. It is extremely unlikely that we would further fine tune the existing ships or add ships. At this point we're more interested in adding missions for the pilots to take part in. Ideally in these missions we would find specific roles for each ship class (bombers, interceptors, fighters, etc). Some folks seemed to think that the recent slip of the V-wing flies in the face of these statements. Please understand that the V-wing has been planned and in development for a long while and will be released before we get around to doing any kind of content update in space. No, we are not prepared to detail how nor when the V-wing will be released at this time.

Dotanuki wrote:

Finally, on the subject of low-pop servers, I only have a small update. Things are moving forward very rapidly now. We met with Marketing yesterday to discuss the timeframe of the program as well as the announcement timeframe. All the details are being finalized now. DevH is still hard at work on his tasks. I know that you would ideally like to hear the announcement now or even get an idea of what solution is that we've settled upon, this is all I can mention now until the formal announcement is ready.

Um, what does Marketing have to do with Low-Pop servers?

And when will Jedi General Expertise get a look over?

Um, what does Marketing have to do with Low-Pop servers?

Dotanuki wrote:

Finally, on the subject of low-pop servers, I only have a small update. Things are moving forward very rapidly now. We met with Marketing yesterday to discuss the timeframe of the program as well as the announcement timeframe. All the details are being finalized now. DevH is still hard at work on his tasks. I know that you would ideally like to hear the announcement now or even get an idea of what solution is that we've settled upon, this is all I can mention now until the formal announcement is ready.

Um, what does Marketing have to do with Low-Pop servers?

And when will Jedi General Expertise get a look over?

They need that fancy marketing "spin" because no matter what is going to be done, there are going to be groups of people that are extremely unhappy and will flood the forums with complaints...

ArkonPhoenix wrote:

Um, what does Marketing have to do with Low-Pop servers?

Formal announcements and such are run through Marketing.  It's a sign that we're getting closer to, what I am led to believe by the amount of posts on the subject, the very anticipated announcement of what we're going to do regarding low-pop servers.

-Dotanuki

I get what your saying, or least trying to without giving away free cookies.

Now about Jedi General Expertise? 

ArkonPhoenix wrote:

Um, what does Marketing have to do with Low-Pop servers?

Formal announcements and such are run through Marketing.  It's a sign that we're getting closer to, what I am led to believe by the amount of posts on the subject, the very anticipated announcement of what we're going to do regarding low-pop servers.

-Dotanuki

Maybe go on test center and try out players ideas and see how it effects the public, since you're not using it anyways.

instead of doing what you THINK will work, see what WILL work for certain.

 Ink  <--- Who needs a sig when ya can type your own name out everytime

Thanks for the info, Dotanuki

So if I am reading that correctly, GU7 will likely happen before Chapter 12?

And yes, I and many others are anxiously awaiting more information on the solution for low-population servers.