Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed Previews
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At today's press event, LucasArts showed off two new star systems, Dathomir and Yavin-4, both of which are home to beautifully lit nebulae and star systems, and both of which will be extremely challenging areas designed for high-level pilots. These areas will be dangerous simply because hostile space pirates will roam the area. But in these and other regions of space, you'll also come across huge space stations, like Corellian corvettes, which are armed with many turrets and which may take several players--who are working in unison--to destroy. While you're in space, you'll also be able to take on missions to hunt pirates, or you can engage in player-versus-player dogfights. Winning a PvP dogfight will earn you bragging rights, but killing off pirates may net you all sorts of rewards, including additional credits, specialized space combat experience, and prestige points with specific political factions. Unfortunately, you may come up against enemy forces that are too much for you. If your ship is destroyed, you'll respawn at the nearest space station, but you won't lose your ship. However, not all of your ship's add-ons may be recovered, so the threat of losing your expensive ship will give most players reason to think twice before going it alone.
The second is at GameSpy:
Space-faring combat, as has been stated numerous times, most closely resembles that of space shooters, like Wing Commander and the classic TIE Fighter and X-Wing games. Where do the MMORPG elements come in, you ask? Primarily, once you start down one of the space-specific career paths, you'll begin to gain access to skills that improve various areas of your piloting abilities -- tactical maneuvers, various system proficiencies, even droid-related stuff. You'll be able to upgrade your ships' various systems, too -- better shields to stave off blaster bolts, faster capacitors to make your shots, meaner weapons, and the like. From what I gather, the system will work something like certifications do in Planetside; you'll have to gain certain skills before you can equip specific upgrades on your ship.
The third is at IGN PC:
You can tell by the new screenshots and movies we're posting today that the game looks great. The environmental effects and objects are obviously impressive but it's the ship models that steal the show. While I've generally appreciated the colorful backgrounds and massive planets, once I saw the ships in motion, all that stuff faded, literally, into the background. The level of detail is impressive, particularly with the large ships like the Millennium Falcon or the large bases floating in orbit. Better still, the ship models destruct dynamically so now two disintegrations will look the same. Seeing guns tumble off of X-Wings or TIE cockpits spinning past your nose makes for a very exciting and authentic experience.
The fourth is at SWG Vault:
You could collide with objects. What you collided with had a lot to do with what happened with that collision. For example, if you collide with one of the orbiting space stations, a capital ship, or a large asteroid, you just bounce off it. If you collide with a smaller rock or another player's ship, you will fly through it, however your screen (and controller, if it's force-feedback enabled) will shake. It is important to note that no real damage will be taken when these things happen (to prevent the obvious griefer tactics), but you'll still have some sense of having the collision one way or another. So why not suffer damage? Remember the goal is to get you into space, and once you're in space they want you to stay there. If every little fender-bender sends you back to the nearest spaceport for serious repairs, that would not be fun.
And the fifth is at HomeLan Fed:
Ultimately, Jump to Lightspeed finds itself in an interesting situation. From a traditional RPG perspective, the new profession and the ability to make cargo run will add a new level of excitement to that component of the game, especially since there will no doubt be a lot of money to make as a Shipwright early in the game. But from a space-sim perspective, Jump to Lightspeed could very well be one of the best (arcadeish) space-sims to come out over the last half-decade, and many fans of that genre who may not have much interest in the traditional MMORPG aspect of the game, may find a new home in JtL, although the monthly SWG fee may push some people away in this case. But in the end, Jump to Lightspeed offers a little bit for everyone, and if the final version of the expansion fleshes out as well as the preview we saw, it will be a worthy expansion pack to Star Wars Galaxies. Jump to Lightspeed is currently set to be released this Fall.
