Star Wars Galaxies State of the Game
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Category: News ArchiveHits: 683
Developing Beast Master has been a very challenging process. The system is built on a complex design and requires a lot of tuning, which means that we have been tweaking it nearly everyday. We can't say enough about the fantastic job the QA guys at SOE and LucasArts have done for us on Chapter 6, as the development cycle has been intense. Our initial implementation was centered on getting the incubation system to work; this is the system that allows players to create custom pets. Players extract creature DNA and enzymes from creatures around the galaxy, combine them in the incubator, then run a variety of experiments to create a customized creature egg that any player can hatch and grow to a pet. The incubation system is the baseline for Beast Master, so a lot of time was spent on getting it right. There are many knobs that players can tweak to make different creatures; possibly even highly rare, mutated creatures. Once the incubation system was solid, we began working on the hatching process, and the system of growing and nurturing pets.
