Major Publish Features:

• Imperial Crackdown
• Bestine: City Redesign
• Chef Profession Revamped
• Vehicle Enhancements
• Revised Theme Park rewards for Imperial, Rebel, and Jabba theme parks.
• Cleaned up all Tatooine and Dantooine quests.
• New Visual Buff system. 

IMPERIAL CRACKDOWN

Imperial Crackdown: The Empire will be a more active part of the Galaxy now, hunting down Rebels, making sure Imperials are abiding by the law and searching for contraband.  If a player has contraband, the Imperial Troopers may or may not be able to find it.  Depending how much a player has and what they have will effect it, but when they do, there will be consequences for Rebels, Imperials and Neutrals.  As a result, Rebel recruiters have taken their faction terminals and gone into hiding.  They are no longer flagrantly out in the open and the Empire is looking for them.  Word on the streets say that some have gone into hiding into Cantinas and that's where the Empire has gone to shakedown people for information.

The Emperor has decreed that sliced weapons, spice, Rebel faction equipment and (of course) Rebels are what his troops should be focusing their crackdown efforts on as they pursue his mandate of eliminating the Rebel Alliance.  The biggest obstacle they face are the smugglers.  It has been rumored that smugglers can help cloak Rebels and contraband from Imperial searches in Cantinas and can escape the ever-searching sensors of wilderness probots and have made hefty profits in smuggling contraband.

Bestine: City Redesign:  In the future, other static cities in the galaxy may get upgraded to have a accentuated Star Wars feel about it.  The first one has been completed with this publish.  This static city (not player cities) will have characters familiar to the Star Wars universe and its history.

As part of this, players can get involved in the political struggle by voting for either of two governors aids.  As each cycle passes and one or the other Aide gains power, the ambience of the city will change depending on the successes and fails of the Military and Commerce politicians.  Sometimes the Empire's strength may show and other times it will wane and Tusken Raiders will raid the city.

Chef Profession Revamp:  The Chef profession has been completely revised in this patch.  The change is pretty dramatic and familiar foods will have different effects, but with attention to detail and the involvement of Bio Engineers, all will be revealed.  Chef food items will have a more interesting and powerful set of effects and buffs and more flexibility in experimentation.  There are chef hats and aprons that are creatable by tailors.  Players now have a better "stomach" and different foods will take up a different "space" in the stomach.  This can be seen on the food items "examine" window.  Food effects are no longer limited to stat modifiers.  Food created by Chefs can now enhance skills, give new protections and enhance combat abilities.  There are even foods for medics, entertainers, and crafters.  Players can examine a food item to display what it does.  Bio Engineers are in the mix too and can make experimental components with food additives and there are some very potent concoctions.  There is more Milk in the game too.   Some Herbivores can be "milked" now (You'll have to figure out on your own what can be milked, though be sure to avoid "Bulls").  There are even drink containers now as well.  We encourage all players to seek out and try the new foods! 

For more information, check out the Chef Revamp Friday Feature.

Vehicle Enhancements: There are some important vehicle enhancements with this publish as well.  Master Artisans can create a Vehicle Customization Tool.  This tool allows players to 'paint' their vehicles and can color either the body or the striping, so be sure to mix and match to find just the right look for your vehicle.   Any player may use the tool, but Master Artisans must make the tool.

Another exciting switch is that players can now have 3 vehicles stored in their datapad at a time.  This will give players an opportunity to try out different vehicles on different terrains and map out exciting planetary races.

Theme Park and Quest Loot:  Exciting changes that will start showing up in this publish and continue with each new publish is that "loot" for Theme Parks and Quests.  Whole new "loot item" systems have been revamped so that loot for Theme Parks and Quests is fun and rewarding while at the same time, not damaging to crafter's and their businesses.  For those players who have completed the Imperial, Rebel and Jabba's Theme Parks, they will be able to go through the park again if they wish to earn the new rewards.  (This will be done quest NPC's directing players to a new record keeping NPC who will "reset" their status).  There are many quests across Tatooine and Dantooine that now have revamped rewards.  (For the Tatooine buffs, Huff Darklighter's Kraytskull quest has been upgraded, but the loot for that quest has not been changed).

Buffing and Attribute Modifiers:   A gameplay item that comes up with many players is the attribute buffing system and display.  There is an exciting new visual buff system that makes it easy to see which buffs are active on a player at any given time.  The buff system will be much easier to use and the user interface changes to make them easier to understand what is going on during game play.  Players will now be able to see what attribute modifiers are currently active on them as well as the important data for each modifier.

Milk, Eggs and Seafood:  With the Chef revamp, many herbivores can now be milked and this is an obvious source of new milk.  There are more eggs too.  When "Searching Lair", players will now find more eggs that can be used in recipes (though it is not intended to be enough for manufacturing).  There will be more fish in the game too.  Fish will have a higher yield and fish caught on adventure planets will have more of a fishy payload, so it will be worth the danger of fishing in dangerous locations.  There is even a neat craftable tool for Crustacean farming as well.  Artisans with Engineering 3 can make the tool, but not until they have quested for the item and have the schematic in their inventory.  Once they find the schematic and craft the tool, anyone can use it.  Once the players have the tool they need to have the tool in their inventory, be standing in water, not swimming and then the shellfish trap will have a chance of finding mollusks and crustaceans (Who's got the melted butter?)

Star Wars look and feel: One of the top player items was to have a stronger imperial presence in the world.  In addition to the Imperial crackdowns and shakedowns, the cities of Kaadara (on Naboo) Kor Vella (on Corellia) and Mos Espa (on Tatooine) have a strong Imperial presence and will even be attacked by Rebel insurgents (NPC's) and players can even get involved in the ongoing conflicts.  This is a great stage for Rebel and Imperial player groups to find combat and role playing alike. 

The Little Things: The little things matter as much as the big things. There were many sound upgrades, improvements to the graphic user-interface and even a few minor activities for players to find. Many POI's and places where NPC's interact with each other (or NPC theaters). One of the "biggest little" things with this publish will be the removal of decay for factional combat from the death penalty. Instead of having a 1% decay for items, players will have no decay as long as the are declared to a faction.