Players will also have the chance to get out in space very early in the game. "We got a whole lot of feedback from Jump to Lightspeed that the gameplay up there was really fun it just didn't have enough content to keep people happy. The ground game had neither content nor was the actual combat gameplay fun." They want to take existing planets and flesh them out with new content that will lead players towards the impending war and even help them choose a side to take. The space station gave a glimpse of what's to come, but they have a long way to go admitting that most of the planets haven't been retrofitted quite yet.

When players land on the first station, they'll be given quests almost immediately, this time focused on their class. Apparently it was difficult creating special content for 34 different classes, which I'm guessing anyone can see is a ridiculous balancing and content creation task that never should have come about in the first place. "We looked at the professions and said we have 34 widely disparate professions in the game. None of which get all of the attention that a profession deserves in a game this type and many of which don't resonate to the Star Wars universe. I mean, what is a pikeman and why is it something in the game?" So with that thought in mind, they've folded all of the 34 professions down into nine professions including Jedi, bounty hunters, spies, officers, smugglers, commandos, entertainers, traders, and medics. "We ended up with these nine very iconic character types. We have a whole lot of data on the what people play in the servers and these were the ones that most people were playing. The only other profession we didn't absorb into one of these iconic templates is the creature handler and only 1% of our players play that character type."


The question on most players minds is probably, "What the hell happens to our characters?" The answer is both simple and not. You'll keep your powerful characters, but have to move them into one of the new templates. Existing players will get 10 chances to try out new characters. They'll receive an item that will allow them to change their class nine times after they originally come into the new experience. That's a chance to try out every class and then pick the one they want. There's no time limit on that, but that might not be much consolation to someone that's spent their entire career building up factories or farms that finds them gone.

Jedi players will also receive a small boon for countless hours in search of the power with a couple of trinkets. The first will be a crystal for your saber that'll make sure yours is always better than others. The second will be special Jedi robes. The last will be that they can turn into ascendant form and get that nice blue glow like the one I've attained by simply sitting in front of a computer screen for the last six years. These are more of a status thing than anything else so I have absolutely no idea whether these things will be worth it or not considering the time needed to become a Jedi.

It's inevitable that we'll be receiving plenty of emails about this in the coming days, weeks, and probably months. It's hard to argue with developers that really do seem to be trying to fix things, but it's equally as hard to argue with angry gamers who have been paying a monthly fee for years that feel like they're being jerked around. It's put up or shut up time for both parties. The game is changing whether players like it or not as the big wheel is already turning quickly. Only time will tell if these changes are for the good and whether veteran players will decide to stay and play or not. Stay tuned for more developments as they become available.