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Star Wars Galaxies Takes Jump To Lightspeed
Thanks to 1UP for its article discussing the recent announcement of Star Wars Galaxies' space combat expansion, Jump To Lightspeed, which takes the PC MMO into the heavens, and "focuses primarily on [space-based] vehicles for both combat and transportation, promising at least 15 new modes of travel." There are screenshots and an official FAQ over at the Star Wars Galaxies site, explaining "you can expect to pilot X-wings, Y-wings, TIE fighters, TIE interceptors, and many other recognizable starfighters", and, dodging some sarcastic online reaction, an interview with producer Haden Blackman over at IGN PC argues: "In many ways, we're looking at Jump to Lightspeed as 'X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter' online - much of our focus is on that dogfighting experience."
The mounts and the vehicles were much simpler overall than the spacecraft are being talked up to be.
A new player can have the skills to make himself a vehicle easily in a weeks time. The materials will take him another week or two to get due to the large amounts needed. Getting a critter to ride around on takes a couple of weeks of playing getting scouting experience and creature handling experience.
Chances are, the spacecraft are going to require many of the master crafters to work in conjunction with each other to create the final product. Each master crafting profession takes either some large investment in equipment or a lot of money to master, and can't be done overnight unless you've just got the cash for it. It took me the equivelent of 1.2 million credits worth of steel (at bargain rates) to get my character to Master Weaponsmith.
Getting pets and vehicles is simple, getting space vehicles is going to be quite a bit more expensive. Particulary if the require us to use large quantites of our precious named resources.
I mis-spoke on the economy, and I stand corrected. The highest I've gotten in combat classes is about halfway, and there is only the occational 2000 credit mission available to me. I still tend to get killed when I'm in a group though, and don't enjoy grouping much at all.