Badge System Concepts

One of the things a designer of online games usually wants to do is allow players to show each other information about themselves. One of the ways this can be done, particularly in a game that promotes the collection of items or ranks, awards, or other status markers, is a "badge" system.

I. THE FUNCTIONS OF BADGES

Before getting into suggestions about how to implement badges, it's useful to consider the functions they can serve in a MMOG.

• record of achievement

Badges serve first and foremost to tell other players what you've accomplished. In one sense, this is just "bragging rights," but there doesn't have to be anything juvenile about it. Accomplishing something difficult -- even if only in a game -- is worthy of being recognized publicly in that game. A badge system that does this well will be a popular game feature.

• indicator of playstyle

Badges serve as a way for a player to concisely describe his or her playstyle. In an online game, your identify (that is, your character's identity) isn't communicated so much by what you look like as by what you do. Your actions tell people who you are.

Badges are a kind of shorthand for describing the actions you've taken, and more specifically the kind of actions you like to take. If you have more Location badges than anything else, other players can assume (probably correctly) that you're more interested in travelling than in combat or mastering professions. Similarly, if you have numerous badges for things like "...has slain over 10,000 animals" and "...has participated in the destruction of [whatever]", then it's probably safe to assume that this is someone who prefers combat to travel or profession-mastering, and so on.

So a badge system that offers a few specific categories of badges, each of which is clearly related to a unique playstyle, will be effective at letting other players know what you like to do in the game.

• mark of common interests

Badges serve as markers that allow players to recognize each other as belonging to a particular group or having similar interests. In real life, gang colors are an example of this function of badges -- the MMOG version of this could be considered to be the visible title appended to your name when you join a player organization. Another example would be to see someone besides yourself wearing armor like yours -- this serves as a kind of recognition marker for people who like combat.

The badge system itself could also be used to perform this function -- what if we could search for nearby players who are actively displaying certain badges or badge types?

• conversation starter

Badges serve to indicate not just similarities but also differences. If we see a player displaying a badge we've never seen before, or a badge in an area that interests us, we can use that information to interact with the other player where we might not have done so otherwise.

II. WHO'S INTERESTED?

There's a sense in which collecting badges suggests one MMOG playing style in particular: the Explorer. This isn't someone who's just interested in visiting different places; an Explorer is someone who enjoys finding all the content a game has to offer.

Explorers don't just collect Location badges -- they also collect combat badges and profession mastery badges; they want to know how the game works; they want to understand why the game system behaves the way it does.

Some players want this knowledge specifically to gain power over other players, or for security from other players. These folks aren't Explorers, exactly; they do these things more as achievements. In fact, that's what the typical person who enjoys this accomplishment-oriented playstyle is called: the Achiever. There's nothing inherently wrong with being an Achiever -- you could even say that these are exactly the people that a badge system in a game is intended for.

But Explorers are worth encouraging in an online game, too. These are the people who not only know all the interesting features of a game, they understand why those features exist and how best to enjoy them. An Explorer can not only tell you where to find that critter you've been wanting to bag, but can also tell you the best tactics to use and even whether there are other creatures in the area that you might also be interested in.

It seems to me that this type of gameplay ought to have some badges geared toward it as well. Location badges are a good start, but how about some additional ways to indicate that a character has collected lots of knowledge about the game world?

(Note: For more on Achievers and Explorers, and on the other two major playstyles -- Killers and Socializers -- read Richard Bartle's "Players Who Suit MUDs" essay.)

III. "PHYSICAL" DISPLAY

Badges shouldn't just be bit of text that you have to /examine someone to see -- they ought to be "physical" objects in the game world that your character can actually see being worn by another character.

There are various ways this could be done. One obvious way already in the game is high-level armor, especially high-level factional armor. Another type of "badge" is someone being followed by a creature pet -- the creature acts as a kind of marker to tell other players that this person is probably a pet handler.

But why not make this type of badge official? Certain badges ought to be actual physical objects (in the game) that a player can choose to display. The most obvious form of this kind of badge is as something you wear outside your clothing -- medals, pins, rank sashes, and other decorations.

Or you could let the player choose one badge from those she's won to be displayed as a visual effect -- perhaps a glow, or an icon displayed above her head. This wouldn't have to be fancy; a simple icon would be enough (although fancy would be cool). And it could reuse the code recently added to allow some "emoticons" to be displayed above a character's head, so it shouldn't even be very technically challenging.

So I say let's think about what badges are really good for... and then go to town thinking of ways to enhance the current badge system to achieve those goals!

SWG: Storing Starships as Deeds

Since when was convenience the most important aspect of a multiplayer game?

Of course the game shouldn't require players to do something over and over that adds nothing to the game. That's just grinding, and grinding isn't fun. But just because the game doesn't make accessing some feature as easy as blinking doesn't automatically make it a grind. If there's some rational justification for slowing players down a little, then a bit of "inconvenience" is not only acceptable, it's necessary.

That said, I also don't think games need to be so complex in the name of "realism" that only a NASA astronaut with a doctorate in aeronautical engineering can play them. Realism is fine up until the point where you start including features that force players to do tedious tasks that don't advance a story.

In this case, on the one hand we have the game mechanism of storing an enormous starship as ones and zeroes in a datapad (even though that ship probably took tens of thousands of resources to build) because reusing the "deed" interface meant more programming time available for space combat features. And on the other hand we have the more realistic (both in physical and Star Wars terms) suggestion that our ship can only be in space or docked at an orbital space station, which would require us to shuttle up to a station to use our ship. It's not as realistic (again, either in real-world or Star Wars terms) as having instanced landing bays near starports, but it's still more realistic than stuffing a giant starship down your pants.

Are we really in that much of a hurry to be going-running-doing-killing that we're willing to accept a completely unrealistic game mechanic?

I'm not a SW continuity fanatic. If the developers of JtL add mass driver weapons -- even though no such weapon was ever described in the movies -- I could accept it, because it might be reasonably argued that such a weapon is a necessary feature in a space combat game. But the idea of putting an entire ship in a datapad goes too far. No such technology is ever even speculated about in SW; if it had been, Luke would never have needed Yoda to drag his X-wing out of the muck on Dagobah -- he'd have just called it up from his datapad when he got back to Dagobah Starport and zoomed away.

Time is only of the essence in multiplayer games if you believe that they're merely things to be beaten as quickly as possible. But what about the idea that these games aren't merely short-term goals to reach, but long-term journeys to experience? In which case, isn't experiencing the logic of the background story more important than gameplaying convenience?

Put me down for "inconvenience" on this one. The few minutes I spend shuttling someplace to get my ship is totally justifiable as long as it creates the feel of being in the Star Wars universe without being a major impediment to gameplay. I think achieving that kind of balance between story realism and game convenience ought to be what we expect from SWG's developers.

SWG: Jump to Lightspeed: Space Commerce +

Let me turn now to some of the comments regarding Space Commerce.

WesBelden wrote:
for it to have any chance of succesfully being implemented in my eyes, a limit on what can be transported by players on public transport (ie, what's currently in the game), or a heavy charge for carrying such things (resource containers going up by number of resources in each one, crates etc.) would have to be implemented. Similarly, the amount one can hold while in a fighter class ship would also have to be limited.

Agreed, and it's an excellent point.

I grumbled some time ago about wishing that SWG had implemented an "encumberance" system, since 100,000 units of steel taking up exactly the same amount of inventory space as Goru Rainstealer's calling card just makes no sense whatsoever. If encumberance was factored into carrying capacity, then the problem of freighter space (not to mention vehicle trunks and mount saddlebags) would automatically be solved.

Failing that, I suppose that there would have to be a rule in place that items could only be transferred from shipping terminals to ship "manifests" with X number of spaces (based on the size of your ship and available space not taken up by other ship systems like weapons or engines), and from ship manifests to delivery shipping terminals.

Of course, that does nothing to prevent someone from simply buying an item from a shipping terminal and placing it in their personal inventory, getting on a ship and going somewhere else, then placing that item for sale on another shipping terminal. So maybe this is another place where we need to make the distinction between freight (something you ship for someone else but that doesn't belong to you), which could use the terminal->manifest->terminal system, and cargo (something you buy yourself and take elsewhere to sell at what you hope will be a profit), which people will certainly transport in their personal inventory.

IgescaStorm wrote:

Flatfingers wrote:
[... The only catch is that the person who placed the item for sale would have to authorize the delivery, otherwise you could have people griefing merchants by having their products shipped to undesirable locations.]

Why? If i bought an item from the bazaar, my money was sent to the seller. Now i can say another player, he shall bring it to me... Where is the grief?

IgescaStorm, the original suggestion didn't include buying the item first; it was just about offering to buy an item after shipping it. You're right that if the item is purchased first, then it would be fine to allow the new owner to authorize delivery.

The key is to insure that only the owner of an item is allowed to determine what happens to that item.

Rykith wrote:
I was thinking that maybe the alot of these things can be tied to the Merchant profession. It would greatly enhance that profession.

I was thinking that, too. :)

Just imagine if creative Master Merchants could be as powerful in their part of SWG as TKAs or CM/Pistoleers are in theirs....

TulasiKid wrote:
I haven't read Axelrod's work (was that something I was supposed to read in Macro Econ 1?) ...

You do NOT want to get me started on this subject! (You just think some of my other messages are long....)

Although Axelrod's work on the Evolution of Cooperation has applications in Economics and other human-related fields, it's probably best known in Political Science circles; in particular it's directly relevant to Conflict Resolution studies.

Basically he used computer simulations to show that cooperative behavior can evolve even in a crowd of people who take advantage of other people, as long as certain rules are in place:

• participants need to be able recognize each other


• participants need to be able to have multiple interactions with each other


• participants must not know how many possible interactions there might be

If those rules are in place in a multi-person system, then it turns out that a very simple strategy (known as "Tit-for-Tat") can create an island of productive cooperation even in an ocean of advantage-takers.

I'll leave it at that; if you're interested (and this stuff really does turn out to have some fascinating resonances with designing multiplayer games), you can find a lot more information on the Web.

TulasiKid wrote:
... but I do know that in the 19th Century American economy, businesses and investors faced these very same kinds of problems owing to a lack of a regulatory infrastructure for enforcing trade and commerce. Reputation was an important aspect of doing business, because there often was nothing else for investors to rely on.

Exactly right, and that's highly relevant to SWG and other MMOGs.

In my essay Economic Stages in MMORPGs, I try to make the point that online games (including SWG) are basically stuck at a prehistoric level of economic activity. If you think about it, about all we can do are make one-shot deals with each other, either through the Secure Trade Window or Bazaar/vendor terminals.

And isn't that similar to the limits to economic activity in the 1800s, when you pretty much only did business with people you knew personally and/or locally? When there's no reason for you to trust some distant person, why do business with that person?

The vendors, Bazaar terminals, and Secure Trade Windows are all extremely valuable economic tools in SWG because they are sufficiently trustable to allow players who don't know each other to trust each other in business deals. But are they enough to really unleash the creative potential of players who enjoy making business deals with each other?

To encourage more advanced economic activity in SWG, we need more advanced economic features. I tried to imagine what the most important of those features might be, and the most crucial concept by far was our notion of enforceable contracts.

The idea that people can agree to some exchange, and that all parties to this exchange agreement can trust the entire legal system of their culture to effectively enforce all the (legal) terms of the agreement, is probably the single most crucial advance in economic history. This is because an enforceable contract system allows potential contractees who don't know each other to trust each other, because they can trust the system to require the other person to hold up their side of the deal. And that opens up more new economic opportunities than any other economic tool we humans have ever dreamed up.

So yes... I sort of would like to see a good, enforceable player contract system in SWG. If the theory behind it is correct, then the question is whether it's technically feasible. I think it is... but that question is better addressed in the other threads on this subject.

BattledroidStrider wrote:
It encourages Freighers to be running around ...

That is a great way of putting it!

The truth is, we don't require player contracts or shipping terminals or any other new game mechanism to move cargo in JtL; we can do that informally the day JtL launches. But allowing players to do some thing is not encouraging players to do that thing.

Although there might be some diehard merchant types trying to make a living through freight shipping and cargo speculating in JtL, why bother when the game clearly isn't designed to support commercial gameplay? A set of in-game features to support freight and cargo shipping would take nothing away from combat gameplay -- in fact, they would enhance the purpose of combat beyond just pwning the other guy or levelling up. With commercial gameplay included, combat can also be about defending a merchant convoy from bloodthirsty pirates, or helping carry a crucial schematic to one's faction HQ or PA hall, or keeping the trade lanes safe from marauding creatures -- you get the idea.

In short, features to support space commerce are necessary to create the backdrop of everyday life before which the heroes of the Star Wars saga can play their roles.

As much fun as combat in JtL will be, it should be about more than just combat. As I've asked before: When only heroes can play, who needs heroes?

nasafan2 wrote:
increase the pay for illegal goods, spice/sliced weps, armor etc, but also make it a harsh punishment for getting caught with em. Being found out on the ground is not as bad as if the imps found out you were trying to actually transport the stuff! Puts a little risk in the game of spice running for all you smugglers out there.

I'm up for that.

Seriously, out of all the possible commercial enhancements that JtL might bring, the most obvious would seem to be letting Smugglers be better than anyone else at using their personal starships for smuggling.

Currently Smugglers are on the board for a revamp after JtL goes live. If I were a Smuggler who wanted smuggling in space to be a part of that revamp, I'd already be coming up with ideas for how to implement that... (hint, hint).

Lasek wrote:
if a player were to grab a delivery mission, mark it as delivered (nobody else could take it).. And then log out or simply not go to the delivery location. He wouldn't be able to access or use the items, but he would be able to grief by not delivering them to the wanting person.

Good point, Lasek. You're right; a freight delivery system would probably have to have some kind of guaranteed delivery period. One day might be excessive; how about two-hour delivery? If you haven't stashed it in the receiving terminal within two hours, it's yanked out of your ship and restored to "available" status on the shipping terminal.

If we really wanted to get complicated with it, we could charge "overdue fines" -- every hour beyond the two-hour limit, you lose 20% of the delivery payment. If the fines chew up all the delivery payment, then the item goes back to the original shipping terminal.

This still doesn't entirely address the problem of someone who takes a delivery item but doesn't deliver it... and then keeps taking it, over and over again, just to keep someone else from buying the item. If freight delivery is just NPC mission stuff, no problem, but if we're talking about delivering player freight, then that's a problem.

We probably also need to have some kind of counter that "remembers" whether you've taken some item, and doesn't let you select that particular item for delivery more than once per day.

TheHomicidalVerpine wrote:
For the npc cities: give players a higher reward for say running missions that take them from obscure locations to obscure locations.

This is another idea that just makes good sense. One of the greatest game mechanics ever invented is the one that ties reward to risk -- that way players get to choose the level of risk with which they're comfortable, and they are rewarded commensurate with that level of risk.

And just to make it an even better idea, THV's suggestion also has the advantage of encouraging players to visit new places -- something SWG's developers have always been interested in encouraging.

Finally, this idea ties in well with the notion that cargo bought in a big city on a "safe" planet should sell for the most money in outposts on "adventure" planets. Again, link risk to reward, and encourage players to go places they haven't been.

AuleyDavyds wrote:
What do you think of the recent addition of the "Auction" chat channel? ... The advantage of this system is that it solves the expediency issue I mentioned earlier: someone seeking to buy something can type a request, and *if* the right smith/seller/merchant is on and sees it, the response can be immediate.

I agree -- my first thought on seeing Q-3PO's announcement of the Auction channel was, "Well, there's the first version of the 'Want Ads' feature I was asking for -- dang, these guys are quick!"

It's not quite as useful as a "persistent" message that can be searched for on a shipping terminal. It's also less convenient than a message that lives in the same place (i.e., on a shipping terminal) as the merchandise to be shipped. But it's a great starting point, and I'm delighted that the development team took the time to implement it.

AuleyDavyds wrote:
... a player who has a large amount (or any amount really, I guess) of high-quality resouces from a planet (let's say Talus), lists them as available on this new "shipping bazaar" system, and then a crafter can purchase them. When exactly does the delivery take place though?

I think of it like this: Items are "in-transit" when the shipper accepts the delivery, and "delivered" to the destination starport shipping terminal when he redeeds his ship upon landing.

But if there's a better way to accomplish grief-free but productive shipping, I'm listening!

(Personally I'd rather players were able to stay in their ships in landing bays and do their commercial transfers from a shipping terminal aboard their ship, but we've probably flogged that dead horse enough at this point.)

AuleyDavyds wrote:
Should the crafter be able to see listings over all planets, and then purchase it, hence creating a contract for a player to move the goods from one location to another?

I'd actually prefer to see something like that as an advanced skill in an Industrialist (or revamped Merchant) profession.

AuleyDavyds wrote:
The result for the shipper is a question, though: does he get a cut of the price the miner paid to the crafter, is there an increased fee (say add 10-15% depending on travel time and the danger of the route) added to the cost that the crafter pays, or are credits generated for the shipper, leaving the original contract as is?

If it's player-generated, I'd say make shipping payments additional credits. The seller would have to factor the cost of shipping into his price for the goods he's trying to sell, but the point of player shipping is not to add money to the system but to spread it around more.

If OTOH we're talking NPC-generated freight shipping, then there'd probably need to be some function that calculates the delivery fee (AKA "mission payout") based on the difficulty of reaching the destination terminal. (The cost of the item would actually be irrelevant, since as an NPC-generated item it wouldn't actually exist and therefore could not be purchased.)

AuleyDavyds wrote:
the important question is timing: Does the shipping occur before the sale (the miner asks to move stuff from Talus to Coronet in hopes that it will sell better there) or after (the example I gave above).

As I replied to IgescaStorm above, only the owner of an item should ever be allowed to determine the disposition of that item.

So if I place an item for sale, I have to authorize delivery if it's OK for the item to be delivered someplace else before it's purchased.
However, if you place some item and then I buy it, it would be nice if I could pay to transfer that item (which I now own) to a shipping terminal for delivery to the starport closest to me.

MayRee wrote:
Maybe people who move frieght for the misisons could have a "freighter rating". The Rating could be based on how many successful transport the person has completed. A low rating could get the freighter on the BH terminals (smuggler or not). A higher rating could get the freighter higher missions.

Hmmm... that's an interesting idea. I like the way you've worked it up so that players have good information about who they might do business with.

The only concern I can think of is that this might wind up preventing lower-level freighter captains from competing with established players. I'm not suggesting that everyone should be "equal" -- that just eliminates any reason for entrepreneurial creativity -- but at the same time I wouldn't want the established players to get all the shipping business. That's the kind of mercantilist exclusivity that just inflates prices; we want to be sure to have commercial competition so that every freighter captain can fill a useful niche.

How can the rating system help achieve that goal?

mistermackey wrote:
jeez how did you think of all that stuff?

ph34r my excessive free time. :)

SWG: The Path to Becoming Force Sensitive

The developers long ago worked up the design document for Force Sensitivity, but it might be fun to revisit the concepts behind it. I doubt that many of the goals for this part of the game have changed; only the actual mechanics for achieving those goals are in question.

But for us players to do a good job of answering the question of "known vs. mysterious," we still need to start by identifying what the goals for this part of the system are. Once we know that, we can do a better job of suggesting specific mechanisms.

Here's my short list.

GOALS FOR THE PROCESS OF ACTIVATING FORCE SENSITIVITY

(0. The process must be fun! But this should go without saying.)

1. The process must be difficult for each character who attempts it in order to minimize the number of characters with access to Force skills, who are always rare in the Star Wars universe.

2. The process should be ultimately achievable by every character, but immediately achievable by no character.

3. The general path may be known, but the specifics should be mysterious -- not random, but not deterministic.

4. The process should be challenging regardless of a player's innate abilities, connection speed, number of accounts, or time online. In other words, the process should be scaled to each character's current skills.

5. The process should not require camping of any NPC or object. Having a static location leading to an instanced mission is acceptable, but multiple such locations would be preferable if this approach must be used at all.

6. The process must clearly incorporate key Star Wars license elements. Given that becoming a Jedi is one of the two or three most iconic elements of all Star Wars-related media, becoming Force Sensitive in SWG must have a strong Star Wars feel to it.

7. The process should expose players (through their characters) to many forms of the content created for SWG.

---

Based on these goals, here's my suggestion for a mechanic to achieve them. I first made this suggestion several months before SWG launched, and others have offered their own versions of it (so it's not a new idea); this is just my take on it.

It comes down to this: Force Sensitivity Points.

Every quest, every mission, every distinct action a character takes, may have some small number of Force Sensitivity Points, or FSPs, assigned to it. The number of FSPs may be 0 (for a basic action with no moral implications, or a generic mission with no story elements); it may be moderate (for an action with moral implications or a mission with some story elements); it may be large (for a very difficult mission that tells a key part of some Star Wars story, and which cannot be repeated); it may even be negative (characters should be able to lose FSPs for choosing actions -- or inaction -- that no Jedi would take).

As a character goes about his life in SWG, his FSP total is constantly updated to reflect the FSPs gained or lost through his in-game behaviors. When (if!) his FSP total reaches some appropriate number, bingo -- he becomes Force Sensitive.

I believe this approach would achieve each of the goals I listed for the process of becoming Force Sensitive:

1. By keeping the number of positive FSPs low and/or the required total high, the difficulty of the process can be made difficult but not impossible.

2. By choosing her character's actions, and in particular what (if any) NPC missions to take, every player has a chance to eventually make her character Force Sensitive. But because it's not possible to gain all needed FSPs immediately, becoming Force Sensitive will take time.

3. By keeping the number of FSPs granted by specific actions a closely-held secret, as well as the "magic number" of FSPs required to become Force Sensitive, the general path may be well-known ("you have to play like a Jedi") while the specific actions necessary remain for the most part not only mysterious but different for each player.

4. Scaling assigned missions to a character based on that character's current in-game skills puts all players on a level playing field, and insures that what matters most is how you actually play your character.

5. If the number of FSPs provided by NPC missions is generally low, then FSPs can be spread out over most of the hundreds (thousands!) of current randomly-spawned missions. Thus no camping of static mission-givers is necessary. However, some specific missions (probably the highest-value ones) may be created that use instanced dungeons to minimize camping. Although low-FSP missions should be spread all over, the high-FSP missions (which will become known) should be isolated in generally known but slightly randomized locations on the different planets.

6. Normally, when a player receives FSPs, he won't know it. He may guess that some action he's taken has given him some FSPs (positive or negative), but most of the time there won't be any obvious indication that this has happened. However, the missions that give large numbers of FSPs (positive or negative) should make it clear to the player that Force Sensitivity is involved by incorporating key Star Wars elements into the mission. This would explicitly tell the player that FSPs are at stake. Not only is this simple fairness to players, it makes LucasArts happy by being a use of license elements that will be both satisfying and memorable. The most effective license element in this case will probably be to let the player's character meet and converse with (or be talked at, if necessary) one of the advanced Jedi (Light or Dark) from the Star Wars universe.

7. Most FSP missions -- but in particular those that give moderate levels of FSPs -- should be designed to require players to experience different aspects of SWG. For example, what appears to be a simple combat mission ("go tranquilize the rogue falumpaset that's bothering my kaadu herd") might require the character to use basic crafting skills to build a specific kind of device needed to achieve the mission goal, or to interact with a crafter who can do so. Or a crafting mission could call for the character to travel to an adventure planet to hire a dancer or doctor, who tells the player something about that profession. Some missions might need to be solo; some missions might require grouping. The point is to design these medium-FSP missions to expose players to different places, professions, and content in SWG.

SWG: Jump to Lightspeed: Advanced Sensor Ops

RontoMike wrote:
Great idea! I had a similar (but much more simplistic) idea.... have the JtL in-game "radar" operate on a line-of-sight that can be blocked by planets & asteroids. (Maybe have nebulae have a % chance of blocking sensors, depending on the sophistication of the sensor package.)

I imagine a more advanced sensor system still being able to use the "radar" display -- it just gets a few more controls added to it to let you select between the various scan modes.

For example, you'd start out in the Passive EMS scanning mode, where you could pick up information on nearby energy sources without broadcasting your own location (assuming you've turned off your ID transponder). Below your scope would be two buttons: "Passive EMS" and "Active EMS". Clicking on either of these would reveal a radial menu of sensor options, including "All".

So if you then clicked on "Active EMS" | "All", your ship would start "pinging" with the entire suite of active sensors to locate and describe nearby objects. (This is where I'd like to see a Sensor Ops or Avionics discipline -- someone with better sensor skills should be able to get more information about other ships, in the same way that Scouts/Rangers get more detailed creature stats.) Or you could choose "Active EMS" | "Radar" and have your scope work just like it does now on the ground (with possibly a couple of enhancements for space combat).

This idea would also require some sort of object size vs. ship size check.... a Star Destroyer would have a much harder time hiding in an asteroid field than an X-Wing....

Which is absolutely as it should be. An ISD basically shouldn't care if you can see it -- in fact, the "shock and awe" they are intended to inspire depend on their being seen; the big Imperial ships should normally be doing everything they can to light up every sensor within a parsec. If their sheer size and destructive capability can persuade you to give up because the Emperor is too strong to fight, so much the better.

From the Empire's point of view, of course. :)

Although there are some Rebels who "prefer a straight fight to all this sneakin' around," you're right that the Rebellion would benefit more from having an enhanced sensor environment in SWG. Being able to use "natural cover" (nebulae, asteroids, stars, etc.) would give offer Rebels the tactical options necessary for the shadowy hit-and-run strikes that should be their modus operandi. (I don't recall seeing in the movies any Red Squadron pilots flying around looking for TIE fighters and saying things like, "d00d, u wanna duel?", then cloning and doing it again....)

Planetary Environmental Features

Why don't planetary physical phenomena play more of a role in online gameworlds, especially in games with science fiction settings?

There are several physical characteristics that would be fun to see implemented in an online game. I’ll use the various planets from the Star Wars movies as examples, but these ideas could be applied to any science fictional setting:

• variation in stellar systems:
• system has just one star
• system has two or more stars
• variation in stellar revolution times:
• even-length seasons (low eccentricity)
• varied-length seasons (high eccentricity)
• variation in planetary rotation speeds:
• different lengths of the day/night cycle
• different wind speeds (Coriolis effect)
• different tidal heights
• variation in planetary mass:
• different gravities
• different resource mixes:
• predominance of metals/gases on younger/more massive planets
• predominance of chemicals/foods on older/less massive planets
• variation in planetary crust motion:
• no formation = "waterworld" (Kamino)
• low formation rate = one huge, flat continent (Pangaea)
• moderate formation rate = several large, varied-height continents
• high formation rate = many small volcanic islands ("Hawaiiworld")
• variation in planetary ecospheres:
• desert:
• dry (Tatooine)
• frozen (Hoth)
• swamp (Agrilat, Corellia; Lianorm, Naboo)
• tundra
• grassland/veldt/steppe (Naboo)
• forest:
• boreal (Endor)
• temperate (Kashyyyk)
• jungle (Yavin IV)
• sargasso
• world-city (Coruscant)
• variation in moons
• different lunar revolution rates
• different apparent sizes
• different lunar appearances:
• Moon-like (cratered)
• Earth-like (moon is big enough to have gravity/atmosphere/water/life)
• gas giant occupies most of sky (moon and planet reversed, actually)
• different rotation rates:
• moon rotates to show different faces
• moon always shows same face (due to tidal locking)
• variation in nighttime starfield
• "normal" number and type of stars
• many stars (interior of globular cluster)
• no stars but bright night due to being inside an emission/reflection nebula
• no stars due to being within a "dark" absorption nebula

I've left some things out, but you get the idea: There are a lot more ways in which planets in a science fiction-based game could (and possibly should) be more "realistic." (I put the word realistic in quotes because we're just guessing what planets other than Earth and the few others in our solar system might actually look like. Still, they're the best guesses we can make currently.)

A few of these things are implemented in the Star Wars movies. The twin suns of Tatooine, the water world Kamino, and Yavin IV as a habitable satellite of a gas giant world are good examples of what might be possible. But although moviemaking has a tough time (for various reasons) with showing planets with different gravities or day/night cycle lengths or variable-length seasons, a persistent-world MMORPG could bring these effects to life though judicious programming.

Of course, the standard response is, "This isn't intended to be hardcore science fiction -- it's a game, not a simulation. All that science stuff has to take a back seat to other needs, such as story, action, etc." As someone who's been a programmer and project manager, I understand the need to distinguish between core features and chrome.

Even so, it still strikes me as kind of a cop-out for a science fiction MMORPG. Without the science -- in other words, without simulating some aspects of physical reality -- you lose a significant opportunity to give your online world a life beyond being just another button-masher game. To be blunt, "It's not gonna be a simulation!" is a poor excuse for a design philosophy for an online persistent-world game with a science fiction setting. When we have a pretty good idea how planets can vary, and -- importantly -- when those variations can increase the player's feeling of being part of a space-faring civilization, then why not implement those planetary effects?

In particular, why not add such a distinctive feature when doing so can give a game a competitive advantage in the increasingly crowded marketplace of MMORPGs?

SWG: Jump to Lightspeed: Advanced Space Commerce

INTRODUCTION

I believe that SWG and Jump to Lightspeed will be more fun with features that support space-based commerce -- in other words, space needs to have features to support both combat and commerce.

To this end, I've put together a number of ideas to support commerce in space. Some of them I've already discussed in other threads, some are new. The main new idea I get to toward the end of this message. If you're terminally impatient (heh) you can skip to the "SHIPPING TERMINALS" section, but I hope you'll try reading through the preliminary comments first -- they'll help the rest of this message make more sense.

SPACE EXPANSION: THE COMMERCIAL GAME

I put together a fairly detailed list of ideas to support space-based commerce in my thread SWG: Jump to Lightspeed: Space Commerce essay. This discussion wasn't so much about how to implement ideas for space commerce as it was to talk about what kinds of commerce the Space Expansion ought to have. It was a pretty good discussion, but I wouldn't mind giving these ideas a little more exposure -- if anyone thinks it might be useful to repost that thread over here in the actual Jump to Lightspeed forum, let me know.

The core of that thread that relates to this one is the list of three main types of space-based commercial service:

• passenger transportation
• freight delivery
• cargo sales

So how can we get these features?

PLAYER CONTRACTS

There's an idea I had a while back that would support space-based commerce without needing to implement any other new features. This is because it's a major new feature itself that goes well beyond supporting just space-based commerce.

This is the concept of Player Contracts. I've designed a contract system that would allow players to establish long-term and repeated contracts with each other to securely perform many different kinds of economic transactions, from the basic goods-for-money trade we currently use to crafting, repair, guard duty, player bounties(!), and even in-game marriage contracts.

If you'd like to check out the details of this idea, please see my Player Contracts essay. There's also a somewhat shorter version of the Player Contracts + concept that provides most of the key ideas in a shorter form. (Admittedly, it's not all that short.)

A couple of the contract types I propose are Transport and Delivery. Transport contracts allow you to make deals with players to move items or players to a specified location; Delivery contracts let you agree to give specific items to another player.

If just these two types of player contracts were available, we would have a formal, game-backed way to perform two of the most requested space commerce services: passenger service and freight delivery service. There's nothing preventing us from doing these things informally the day that JtL ships... but it doesn't appear that there'll be any features to reliably support doing those things, either. And without a formal in-game system that protects the players who agree in good faith to make contracts with other players, these kinds of commerce just won't happen -- it'll be too easy to cheat the other guy by taking his money or goods or services without providing the agreed-on payment.

A game-implemented contract system would be exactly the kind of formal system needed to be able to make trustable deals. But how would this actually work in practice?

One feature of player contracts that would make a freight delivery system practical would be contract terminals. As a freighter pilot, you'd be able to go to a contract terminal near your favorite starport, find a delivery mission that suits you, accept the mission, take "delivery" of the item (I put delivery in quotes because you never actually see the item in your inventory -- it's put in a special contract account to prevent theft), travel to your destination, and have the item "transferred" to the delivery terminal, at which point your bank account is credited with the freight delivery fee offered in the contract.

Sound like it might work?

It must be said that although the developers have discussed the idea of implementing some system supporting player missions (which really is what my player contract system winds up being), they haven't mentioned it publicly in months. Nor do they show any signs of considering implementing anything like a player contract or mission system.

So is there some other way to support space-based commerce? Is there some other relatively simple feature the developers could implement that supports not just freight delivery but cargo sales?

SHIPPING TERMINALS

Having gone through all the background details, let's cut to the chase. What we need is this: Bazaar terminals that can be placed inside starports, and that have been enhanced in two ways: to allow players to enter "want ads," and to provide automatic payments for delivering selected items to selected off-planet destinations.

(In what follows, remember the distinction between freight and cargo: freight is stuff you carry for someone else for a predetermined fee, while cargo is stuff you buy in one place and carry to sell in another place in the hope of making a profit between the two transactions.)

What we need is a new type of terminal -- a Shipping terminal -- that works just like a Bazaar terminal but with a couple of enhancements and a restriction:

• has a new "Wanted" category (in addition to Armor, Misc, Resources, etc.)
• has two new columns on all item categories (except the new Wanted category):
• Delivery Location
• Delivery Fee
• is only found inside starports

When you offer an item for sale on the Bazaar terminal, you have the option of marking it for delivery to another starport. If you take this option by selecting a Delivery Location starport from a pulldown list, you're prompted to enter a (non-zero) Delivery Fee as well. If you don't enter a Delivery Location, the item is listed for sale just like items are listed currently. Otherwise the delivery fee is immediately deducted from your bank account (if you can't pay it, you aren't allowed to mark the item for delivery) -- that way when someone delivers it they are assured of payment. If you later cancel the offer, the delivery fee is credited back to your bank account.

[Question: Would we want to allow items to be delivered to starport Shipping terminals on the same planet as the source Shipping terminal? Or should the pick list of possible delivery starports exclude all starports on the same planet where you're placing the item for sale?]

Only operators of multi-player ships would be able to accept freight delivery missions from the Shipping terminal. Starfighters will already have plenty of cool things that only they can do; they don't need to be able to haul freight or cargo, too.

To prevent the theft of freight by griefers, you never get the actual freight items in your ship -- you just get a ship's manifest that lists the items you're moving from one Shipping terminal to another. When you take a freight delivery contract from a Shipping terminal, the item is marked and displayed as inactive to anyone viewing that item in a Bazaar or Shipping terminal. If you get killed in space, the item is marked back to active. Only when you successfully land at your destination and redeed your ship is the item removed from the source Shipping terminal, added to the destination Shipping terminal, and the delivery fee deposited to your bank account with an in-game email message telling you about the transfer. (It might also be nice to send an in-game email message to the person who offered the delivery fee to let him or her know that the item has been successfully delivered.)

[Note that if piracy and docking are ever implemented, having a ship's manifest of items being delivered would be a good source of items for pirates to steal.]

[Additional enhancement: What about allowing anyone to mark an item for delivery, even after it's originally been added by someone else to a Bazaar terminal? That way if you're on Lok and you need 1000 units of Resource X and someone is selling it on Dantooine, you can offer a delivery fee for someone to bring it to you. The only catch is that the person who placed the item for sale would have to authorize the delivery, otherwise you could have people griefing merchants by having their products shipped to undesirable locations.]

Finally, there would also be a new button next to the "My Sales" button on the Bazaar terminal -- this would be labeled "Wanted". Pressing it would allow you to create what would essentially be want ads. You'd enter text into two fields: a short Subject line (probably with something like a 30-character limit), and a Details text entry box. You'd briefly describe what you want to sell (or buy!) in the Subject line, then provide any other necessary information in the Details box. When you hit OK, this would create a new "item" that's only shown when you click on the "Wanted" category on any Bazaar or Shipping terminal. All Wanted items would automatically have, say, a 3-day lifespan, but you'd be able to cancel Wanted messages in a way similar to how you cancel sale offers on Bazaar terminals currently (the only difference being that you wouldn't get an actual physical item to retrieve, since there was never one to begin with).

SHIPPING EXAMPLE

So how would all this actually work? Let's try an example.

Congratulations! You're now the proud owner-operator of a YT-1300 -- she may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, and you're ready to start earning back what you paid to buy her.

You walk into the Coronet Starport with your YT-1300 deed in your inventory. Set amid the ticket stations are several new terminals -- they look sort of like Bazaar terminals, but seem to have a few more blinking lights.

You access this new Shipping terminal, and click on the "Resource" category. On the right side of the terminal screen, the usual list of resources for sale appears... but you notice that there are two new columns: one for "Delivery Location" that for some resources lists the names of starports on various planets, and one for "Delivery Fee" that shows some number. All the resources marked as having a Delivery Location also have a Delivery Fee listed.

There's one item that shows a 500-credit delivery fee for taking some Radioactives to Theed Starport. You were already thinking of heading that way, so you mark that item and click on the "Deliver" button. You notice that there are two other items whose owners want them delivered to the Shipping terminals at the Theed starport, so you click on "Deliver" for them, too. Now all three items are grayed out on the Shipping terminal display.

You deed your ship, travel (uneventfully!) to Theed starport, and redeed your ship when you get there. As you stand on your two feet again, you notice that your email icon is blinking. When you click on it to bring up your Email window, you see that there are three messages waiting for you, each one telling you that the appropriate delivery fee has been credited to your bank account.

"All too easy!" you think with a grin. Then you realize that while you were in Coronet you could have checked the Wanted category for Bazaar terminals on Naboo to see if there were any items you could have bought in Coronet to bring to Theed in the hope of making a profit.

You figure you'll head back to Coronet, so you access the Theed Shipping terminal and select the Wanted category for Corellian terminals. Someone is looking for Lokian leather; someone else wants as many crates of Muon Gold as you can offer (but you're not desperate enough to try smuggling spice -- yet); and -- hey! someone wants Nabooian Fiberplast. You click on the Resources category, and sure enough, someone is selling 1000 units of high-quality Nabooian Fiberplast for 6000 credits. That seems a bit steep, but the person who left the Coronet want ad says he'll pay 8 credits per unit. That would be a 2000 credit profit, which would definitely pay the electric bill for a few days.

So you buy the fiberplast (before someone else can) and send an IM to the guy who wrote the want ad -- no response. You send an email, then jump in your ship and head back to Coronet.

When you get there, there's still no reply to your email. Now you have to make a tough choice -- do you hang on to the fiberplast in the hope of selling it to the person who wrote the want ad? Or do you put it onto the Coronet Bazaar yourself to try to make back what you paid for it (and maybe a little profit in the bargain)?

Welcome to the exciting life of a freighter captain. :)

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS

Here are some other ideas and concerns that might bear thinking on with respect to a cargo/freight shipping game.

1. Limit the number of items that can be concurrently taken for delivery. We don't want someone coming in and taking every single freight item from a Shipping terminal -- would 5 items (no more than 2 from any one terminal) be enough?

2. Delivery from Bazaar terminals. Suppose you're using a regular Bazaar terminal in a player city with no starport. Does that mean you can't offer an item for delivery (since there's no way to pick which Shipping terminal the item should be shipped from)? Should the rules for how items are deposited be changed so that you could pay a fee (in addition to the delivery fee you're offering a freighter captain) to have your item transferred to the nearest starport's Shipping terminal when you put it up for sale on your Bazaar terminal? Or should we make players have to go to an actual starport Shipping terminal to be able to mark items for delivery to other worlds?

3. NPC delivery missions. We want to be careful with these. If it's just a matter of delivering freight, it would probably be OK to have "fake" items to be delivered from one planet to another -- freight items (per my original suggestion) are never tangible items; they're just marked on a ship's manifest. What we don't want is NPC cargo missions, since that suggests that there'd be NPC-created items on Bazaar/Shipping terminals that we could actually purchase... which would corrupt the entire player-crafting economy of SWG.

4. Smuggling. This probably deserves a thread all to itself! I've never played a Smuggler, so I don't know how this profession currently does its thing. But given the hugely iconic nature of Han Solo's character to the Star Wars literary universe, I can't imagine that the developers don't have some new features in mind for Smugglers in a post-Jump to Lightspeed world. So I don't want to go too crazy with suggestions here, but it certainly seems that smuggling ought to be involved somehow in shipping as I've described it so far.

My suggestion is to have Imperial ships in space be able to scan freighters (in normal space). Imperial ships within a certain distance would be able to "see" your ship's manifest. If you were carrying something illegal, that would give you a TEF to them and they'd be able to attack you. Or perhaps Shipwrights will be able to craft smuggling holds on certain ships (*cough*freighters*cough*) -- smuggled items wouldn't show up on your ship's manifest, but Imperial or Rebel ships that got close enough to your ship and had the necessary sensors (see my thread "Sensor Ops and You" in this forum) could perform a cargo scan. If the scan turned up any items that weren't on your manifest, or that were obviously illegal, or if the scanning ship was Rebel and the scanned items were clearly pro-Imperial, boom -- TEF time.

SWG: Jump to Lightspeed: Advanced Sensor Ops

NattyDreadlock wrote:
... at some point smaller Imperial patrol/scout ships need to have similar, but lesser versions of these senors for player controlled vessels. Now these smaller player controlled Imp ships may have problems handling some of the larger, stronger or better upgraded freighters, but the Imp player's identification of the "illegal" ship could possibly create a TEF, plus he can send message to friends to look out for the ship if he can't engage or if the ship escapes.

This is exactly the kind of great gameplay my sensors suggestion is designed to promote.

A little background might be useful here. I have several reasons for being interested in getting broad-spectrum sensing features into the space part of SWG, but three reasons stand out.

Advanced Tactical Gameplay: Advanced sensors would never be necessary for players who just want to duke it out, but players who enjoy exploring tactical options in combat need a detailed sensor system. Ships must have enough properties (size, mass, heat/power signature, ID, etc.), and space must have effects on those properties (nebulae can hide your ship or light it up, stars can mask your radiation, etc.) to give players a satisfying space combat experience beyond "fly, shoot, fly, shoot."

Enhanced Roleplaying: As suggested in the story of the Imperial frigate, having lots of sensor options allows players to roleplay characters who employ tactics of deception, and allows other players to roleplay characters who seek to expose what is hidden. A rich sensing system makes these roleplaying styles possible.

Strong Star Wars Resonance: With a Galactic Civil War playing havoc with law and order, the seamier parts of the galaxy are able to operate more openly... but some amount of hiding is still necessary. A richly detailed sensor system offers a greater number of more interesting gameplay options to SWG players who want to explore the world of Boba Fett, Calo Nord, Prince Xizor, and others. In particular, scanning technology as one form of sensor operations has been a part of Star Wars products from the original movie (remember the Imperial scanning team that goes -- briefly -- into the Millenium Falcon on the Death Star?) to the TIE Fighter space combat game (the cargo container scanning challenge) that Jump to Lightspeed is to some degree supposed to resemble.

I think there's enough gaming goodness inherent in a strong/deep sensor system to make it worth having in SWG's space game. It's probably not something that can implemented in the initial release, but I hope we'll see something like it some day.

SWG: Jump to Lightspeed: List of Ships and Weapons

I originally posted this information some time back, but with all the conversation about Jump to Lightspeed features, such as what ships should be in and which weapons should be offered, maybe it's time for another look at this information.

These ships represent my best estimate of the ships available at around the time when SWG is set -- between ANH and ESB. This list includes some ships not yet available at this point in the Star Wars timeline, and may include some no longer available at this point in time. This is just for the sake of completeness; no attempt at absolutely perfect continuity is intended.

Anything here you think absolutely has to be included in Jump to Lightspeed?

Ship types are adapted from many sites, including the following two particularly good sites:

• http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/galacticempire/point.htm
• http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/galacticempire/ships.htm

---

STARSHIPS BY CLASS AND ALLEGIANCE

• Super Ships
• Imperial
• Executor-class Super Star Destroyer
• Rebel Alliance
• Mon Calamari 100 Defender-class Heavy Cruiser
• Large Ships
• Imperial
• Imperial-class Star Destroyer
• Royal Guard-class Star Destroyer (unique ship, see http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/galacticempire/ge3.htm)
• Victory-class Star Destroyer
• Victory Escort Carrier
• Rebel Alliance
• Mon Calamari 90a Heavy Cruiser
• Mon Calamari 80a Star Cruiser
• Endurance-class Fleet Carrier
• Medium Ships
• Imperial
• Interdictor-class Heavy Cruiser
• Rebel Alliance
• Mon Calamari 60 Strike Cruiser
• Common
• Quasar Fire-class Carrier Cruiser
• Carrack-class Light Cruiser
• Small Ships
• Imperial
• Aggressor-class Destroyer
• Rebel Alliance
• Nebulon-B Escort Frigate
• Common
• Lancer-class Frigate
• Corellian Corvette
• Corellian Gunship
• IPV-1 System Patrol Craft
• Starfighters
• Imperial
• TIE Fighter
• TIE Interceptor
• TIE Advanced (prototype)
• TIE Bomber
• TIE Avenger
• Rebel Alliance
• T-65 X-Wing Fighter
• RZ-1 A-Wing Interceptor
• BTL-A4 Y-Wing Bomber
• B-51 B-Wing Assault Fighter
• Common
• Hornet Interceptor
• Kuat Firespray-class Policecraft (the Fett's Firespray-type ship is actually a unique craft)
• Naboo N-1 Starfighter
• Z-95 Headhunter
• Bulk Freighters
• Imperial
• Imperial Armored Transport
• Common
• AA-9 Starfreighter
• Medium Transport (Gallofree)
• YT-1300 Light Freighter
• YT-2400 Freighter
• Auxiliary Craft
• Tug
• Tramp Shuttle
• Lambda-class Shuttle
• Sentinel-class Landing Shuttle
• Echo-class Boarding Shuttle

STARSHIP WEAPONS BY TYPE
(Adapted from several sites, including http://www.starwarsclub.org/swstats/equip/weapons.htm.)

• Lasers
• Laser
• Tenloss Turbocharged Laser
• Laser Cannons
• Blaster Cannons
• Gyrhil 72 Auto-Blaster
• Taim & Bak Kd-3 Light Blaster Cannon
• Rotating Blaster Cannon
• Laser Cannons
• Kuat Vonak Light Laser Cannon
• Borstel RG9 Laser Cannon
• Gyrhil R-9X Laser Cannon
• Taim & Bak KX5 Laser Cannon
• Taim & Bak KX9 Laser Cannon
• Taim & Bak IX4 Laser Cannon
• CEC Dual Laser Cannon
• Arakyd Tomral Heavy Laser Cannon
• Dymek Heavy Laser Cannon
• CEC AG-2G Quad Laser Cannon
• Turbolaser Cannons
• Taim & Bak XX-9 Turbolaser
• Incom W-34t Turbolaser
• Taim & Bok XX-10 Double Turbolaser
• (Heavy Turbolaser)
• Ion Cannons
• ArMek SW-4 Ion Cannon
• ArMek SW-7a Ion Cannon
• Comar f-2 (Light) Ion Cannon
• Comar f-4 Ion Cannon
• Comar f-9 (Heavy) Ion Cannon
• Borstel NK-3 Ion Cannon
• Borstel NK-7 Ion Cannon
• Borstel NK-10 Double Ion Cannon
• Battery Weapons
• CEC AG-2G Quad Laser Cannon Battery
• ArMek SW-8 Ion Cannon Battery
• Rocket, Torpedo and Missile Systems
• Heavy Rocket
• Vanguard Missile Launcher
• Sienar Fleet Systems MS-3 Concussion Missile Launcher
• Krupx MG5 Concussion Missile
• Dymek HM-6 Concussion Missile
• Arakyd Morne-3 Concussion Missile
• Arakyd ST-2 Advanced Concussion Missile
• NR-100 F&F Neutron Torpedo
• Arakyd Flex Tube Proton Torpedo
• Arakyd Hi-fex Proton Torpedo
• Krupx MG7 Proton Torpedo
• Krupx MG9 Emission-Type Proton Torpedo
• Krupx-A Advanced Proton Torpedo
• Sienar Fleet Systems MS-15 Diamond Boron Missile
• Arakyd UF-300 Multipurpose Warhead Launcher
• Bombs
• Proton Bomb
• Heavy Space Bomb
• Frei-Tek CL-3 Antistarfighter Cluster Bomb
• Mines
• Mer-Sonn Defender Ion Mine
• Orbital Mine
• Geonosian "Sonic Black Hole" Mine
• Tractor Beams
• Bonadon Cargo-Mover Tractor Beam
• Phylon Q8 Tractor Beam Projector
• Other Weapons
• Blas-Tech Plasma Cut Boarding Device
• Arakyd "Double-Blind" Jammer System
• Bertriak "Screamer" Sensor Jammer
• Sienar Fleet Systems G-7x Gravity Well Projector

THE REASONABLY COMPLETE LIST OF SHIPS AND RELATED OBJECTS
(Adapted from several sites, including http://hangarbay.tripod.com/td-tf.html.)

• Atmospheric Vehicles
• Bespin Motors Storm IV Twin Pod Cloud Car
• Bespin Motors THX 1138 Void Spider
• CAS-117 "Shredder Bat" Close Support Airspeeder
• Geaatech CAS-44 Shrike-class Support Airspeeder
• Incom T-16 Skyhopper
• Incom T-47 Airspeeder
• Mekuun Tikiar
• Slayn & Korpil V-wing Airspeeder
• Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps Naboo Police Cruiser
• Starfighters
• Arakyd Industries Helix Starfighter
• BullbaBong/Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps G-1 Starfighter
• CEC F-2020 Point Defense Interceptor/Escort Fighter "Nova Hammer"
• Cygnus Spaceworks Alpha-class Xg-1 Star Wing "Assault Gunboat"
• Cygnus Spaceworks Beta-class Xm-1 Missile Boat
• Dodonna/Blissex RZ-1 A-wing
• FreiTek E-wing
• Hapan Cluster Miy'til Fighter
• Hoersh-Kessel Drive, Inc. T-wing
• Hoersh-Kessel Drive, Inc. R-41 Starchaser
• House Cadrian SFA-4 "Concorde"
• I-7 Howlrunner
• Incom T-65 X-wing
• Incom-Slayn & Korpil T-120 C-wing
• Incom/Subpro Z-95AF4 Headhunter
• Joraan Drive Systems Pinook Fighter
• Joraan Drive Systems Supa Fighter
• KDY A-9 Vigilance Interceptor
• Koensayr BTL-A4 Y-wing
• Koensayr K-wing
• KSE Cloakshape Fighter
• KSE Firespray Attack Ship
• Locust Long-Range Tactical Scout
• Mandel Motors Starviper
• Mandel Motors Pursuer Enforcement Ship
• Mon Calamari X-200 W-wing
• Mongrel Snubfighter
• Nubian Aerospace Conglomerate RX-1 "Razorback"
• RSF-898 "Ghest"
• Rodian Assault Starfighter
• Scarab Mk.2
• SHD-66 Shadow Droid Cyborg Assault Fighter
• SFS T.I.E. Fighter
• SFS T.I.E./rc Recon
• SFS Authority IRD, IRD-A Fighter
• SFS GAT-12h, GAT-12j Skipray Blastboat
• SFS TIE Fighter
• SFS TIE/ad Advanced
• SFS TIE/ad x1 Advanced x1 Prototype
• SFS TIE/ad x2 Advanced x2 Prototype
• SFS TIE/ae Aerodynamically Enhanced Fighter
• SFS TIE/aq Fighter
• SFS TIE/bm Bomber
• SFS TIE/co "Concorde"
• SFS TIE/d Fighter
• SFS TIE/de Defender
• SFS TIE/e1 Experimental M1
• SFS TIE/e2 Experimental M2
• SFS TIE/e3 Experimental M3
• SFS TIE/e4 Experimental M4
• SFS TIE/e5 Experimental M5
• SFS TIE/ew Electronic Warfare Fighter
• SFS TIE/fc Fire Control
• SFS TIE/fci Fire Control Interceptor
• SFS TIE/gt Bomber
• SFS TIE/in Interceptor
• SFS TIE/ln Starfighter
• SFS TIE/rc Recon Fighter
• SFS TIE/rc mkII Vanguard
• SFS TIE/sh Shuttle
• SFS TIE/sr Scout
• SFS TIE/src Long Range Scout
• SFS TIE/st V38 Assault Fighter
• SFS TIE/ts Trainer
• SFS TIE/x3 Experimental Space Superiority Fighter
• SFS Scimitar Assault Bomber
• SFS Toscan Fighter
• Slayn & Korpil B-51 B-wing
• SoroSuub Planetary Fighter
• SoroSuub Preybird Fighter
• Starypan/SunHui Spaceworks Razor Fighter
• Surronian Conqueror Assault Ship
• Tenloss Syndicate Hornet Interceptor
• Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps NR-1 Naboo Recon
• Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps Naboo Bomber
• Trade Federation Variable Geometry Self-Propelled BattledDroid, Mk.1
• Trianii Spaceworks RX4 Patrol Ship
• Trilon, Inc. Aggressor Assault Fighter
• Twi'lek Chir'daki Deathseed
• Yevethan D-type Fighter
• Yuuzhan Vong CoralSkipper
• Zenid Defense's D3 "Terigourd"
• zZip Defense Concepts MK-122b "Scepter" Aero-Interceptor
• Starships
• Ackbar-class Strike Cruiser
• Alderaanian Thranta-class War Cruiser
• Alderaanian War Frigate
• Bulwark-class Battle Cruiser
• CEC Assassin-class Corellian Corvette
• CEC CR90 Corellian Corvette (Blockade Runner)
• CEC CR90a Modified Corvette (Blockade Runner)
• CEC Gunship
• CGS Dreadnought
• Dauntless-class Cruiser
• Demolisher-class star frigate
• DMC Carrack-class Light Cruiser
• Evakmar/KDY Assault Transport
• Evakmar/KDY LS-class Assault Ship
• Evakmar/KDY Star Tender
• Hapan Consortium Hapes Nova-class Battle Cruiser
• Imperial Death Star Battle Station
• Interdictor Dreadnought
• Liberator-class Cruiser
• Leonore Luxury Liners Inc. C-3 Passenger Liner
• Loronar Corp. Balarus-class Star Cruiser
• Loronar Corp. Loronar-class Strike Carrier
• Loronar Corp. Loronar-class Strike Cruiser
• Loronar-class Modified Strike Cruiser (Rebel Alliance)
• Loronar Corp. Medium Transport
• Loronar Corp. Torpedo Sphere
• KDY Allegiance-class Star Destroyer
• KDY Corona-class Frigate
• KDY Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer
• KDY Escort Carrier
• KDY Executor-class Super Star Destroyer
• KDY Imperial I-class Star Destroyer
• KDY Imperial II-class Star Destroyer
• KDY ISB Operations Ship
• KDY Lancer-class Frigate
• KDY Macan-class Star Destroyer
• KDY Nebulon-A Torpedo Frigate
• KDY Nebulon-B EF76-B Escort Frigate
• KDY Nebulon-B2 EF76-B2 Modified Frigate
• KDY Republic-class Star Destroyer
• KDY Sovereign-class Super Star Destroyer
• Mobquet Swoops and Speeders Medium Transport
• MonCal Ship Yards MC40a Light Star Cruiser
• MonCal Ship Yards MC80a Star Cruiser
• MonCal Ship Yards MC80b Star Cruiser
• MonCal Ship Yards MC90a Heavy Star Cruiser
• MonCal Ship Yards MC100 Defender-class Heavy Star Cruiser
• Olanjii/Charabah Hapan Battle Dragon
• Old Republic Invincible-class Dreadnought
• REC Shieldship
• Residian Gunboat
• Rendili StarDrive Assault Frigate
• Rendili StarDrive Bulk Cruiser
• Rendili StarDrive Dreadnought
• Rendili StarDrive Mandalorian-class Dungeon Ship
• Rendili StarDrive Victory I-class Star Destroyer
• Rendili StarDrive Victory II-class Star Destroyer
• Rendili StarDrive/Vaufthau Shipyards Ltd. Invincible-class Heavy Cruiser
• RSS Marauder-class Corvette
• SFS Destructor-418-class Heavy Cruiser
• SFS Guardian-class Light Cruiser
• SFS Immobiliser-class Picket Ship
• SFS Immobiliser-418-class Interdictor Cruiser
• SFS Research Ship SFS/KDY Enforcer-class Picket Ship
• Ssi-ruuvi Fw'Sen-class Picket Ship
• Ssi-ruuvi Shree-class Battle Cruiser
• Ssi-ruuvi Sh'ner-class Planetary Assault Carrier
• Tagge Industries Shipyards Ltd. Modular Taskforce Cruiser a.k.a Star Hauler
• Yevethan Aramadia-class Thrustship
• Shuttles/Light Transports
• Arakyd Mag V Mining Vessel
• CEC YV-666 Corellian Light Freighter
• CEC YT-1210 Corellian Light Freighter
• CEC YT-1300 Corellian Transport
• CEC YT-2000 Family Transport
• CEC YT-2400 Corellian Freighter
• CompForce Assault Shuttle
• Cygnus Spaceworks Delta-class JV-7 Escort Shuttle
• Jedi Works Corporation Assault Shuttle
• Koensayr Sigma-class Shuttle
• Mesens Corp. Scout Craft
• Muurian Interstellar Muurian Transport
• SFS Mu-2 Long Range Shuttle
• SFS IPV-1 Patrol Craft
• SFS/Cygnus Spaceworks Lambda-class T-4a Tyderian Shuttle
• SFS/Cygnus Spaceworks Sentinel-class Landing Craft
• SoroSuub Ferryboat Liner
• SoroSuub Luxury Yacht 3000
• Telgorn Corporation Delta-class Dx-9 Stormtrooper Transport
• Telgorn Corporation Beta-class ETR-3 Escort Transport
• Telgorn Corporation Gamma-class Assault Shuttle
• Telgorn Corporation/KonGar Ship Works Gamma-class ATR-6 Assault Transport
• Utility Craft
• BTS Enterprises Combat Utility Vehicle
• CEC Class 6 Deluxe Escape Pod
• Nicholas/Gordon Spacewerks Utility Tug
• Patel Ironwerks Heavy Lifter
• Phylon Freight CT-11 Space Tug
• Slayn & Korpil Mole Miner
• Freighters/Heavy Transports
• Allegra Enterprise Systems Modular Conveyor
• CEC Action Transport
• Galarne/Ferges Industries Freighter Type H
• Gallofree Yards Medium Transport
• Incom Y-4 "Raptor" Transport
• JenAni Systems, Inc. Freighter Type K
• Kiara Cargo Corporation Cargo Ferry
• KDY Star Galleon
• Mobquet Swoops & Speeders Transport
• Phylon Freight - DMC Standard-class BFF-1 Bulk Freighter
• Rendili StarDrive Neutron Star-class Bulk Freight Cruiser
• Rendili StarDrive Dwarf Star-class Freighter
• TransGalMeg Industries Xiyitar Transport
• Virella Systems Cargo Freighter
• Virella Systems Cargo Tanker
• Xizor Transport Systems Container Transport
• YTJ Freighter Type C
• Containers
• Extent Systems CXC-5 Container Type A
• Xizor Transport Systems Cargo Canister
• Xizor Transport Systems Class-A Cargo Container
• Xizor Transport Systems Class-B Cargo Container
• Xizor Transport Systems Class-C Cargo Container
• Xizor Transport Systems Class-D Cargo Container
• Xizor Transport Systems Class-E Cargo Container
• Xizor Transport Systems Class-F Cargo Container
• Xizor Transport Systems Class-G Cargo Container
• Xizor Transport Systems Class-H Cargo Container
• Xizor Transport Systems Class-I Cargo Container
• Xizor Transport Systems Class-J Cargo Container
• Xizor Transport Systems Class-K Cargo Container
• Xizor Transport Systems Class-L Cargo Container
• Xizor Transport Systems Container Hanger
• Xizor Transport Systems Pressure Tank
• Stations
• Alderaan Royal Engineers Delaya-class Space Station
• Arakyd Industries Comm Relay
• Arakyd Industries Sensor Array
• Bengel Shipbuilders XQ1 Space Platform
• Bengel Shipbuilders XQ2 Space Platform
• Byblos Drive Yards Asteroid Mining Unit
• Byblos Drive Yards Asteroid Hanger
• Empress-class space station
• GrayMor Engineering Corp. Dunari's Rest Casino
• Golan Construction Corp. Golan One Space Defense Station
• Golan Construction Corp. Golan Two Space Defense Station
• Golan Construction Corp. Golan Three Space Defense Station
• Golan Construction Corp. Space Colony One
• Golan Construction Corp. Space Colony Two
• Golan Construction Corp. Space Colony Three
• Imperial Research Center
• KDY Orbital Space Dock III
• KDY Lormar-class Refinery Station
• Kost & Ko Factories/Telgorn Corp. X7 Deep Space Manufacturing Facility
• Telgorn Corp. Azzameen Family Repair Yard
• Telgorn Corp. Derilyn Platform
• Telgorn Corp. Repair Yard
• Telgorn Corp. Processing Plant
• Telgorn Corp. Rebel Platform
• Telgorn Corp. Shipyard
• Telgorn Corp. XQ3 Space Platform
• Telgorn Corp. XQ5 Space Platform
• Telgorn Corp. XQ6 Space Platform
• VenteX Construction Yards Azzameen Family Base
• VenteX Construction Yards Cargo Facility 1
• VenteX Construction Yards Cargo Facility 2
• VenteX Construction Yards Industrial Complex
• Xizor Transport Systems XQ4 Space Platform
• Weapon Emplacements
• Arakyd Ind. Gun Emplacement
• Byblos Drive Yards Asteroid Laser Battery
• Byblos Drive Yards Asteroid Warhead Launcher
• Wandrau Arms Corp. Large Gun Emplacement
• Wandrau Arms Corp. Large Gun/Warhead Emplacement
• Mines
• Aida Sensor Systems Homing Mine Type A
• Aida Sensor Systems Homing Mine Type B
• Arakyd Ind. Mine Type A
• Arakyd Ind. Mine Type B
• Arakyd Ind. Mine Type C
• Arakyd Ind. Proximity Mine Type A
• Arakyd Ind. Proximity Mine Type B
• Satellites, Probes, and Buoys
• Ansible Inc. Communications Satellite Type 1
• Ansible Inc. Communications Satellite Type 2
• Ansible Inc. Communications Satellite Type 3
• Arakyd Ind. Probe Capsule
• Arakyd Ind. Probe Type 1
• Hyperspace Navigation Buoy
• Rendezvous Buoy
• Type 1 Navigation Buoy
• Type 2 Navigation Buoy
• Ground Vehicles
• Arakyd Industries XR-85 Tank Droid
• Aratech Repulser Company 74-Y Military Speeder Bike
• Aratech Repulser Company 74-Z Military Speeder Bike
• Caridian MT-AT Mountain Terrain Armored Transport
• Ikas-Ando Starhawk Speederbike
• Imperial AT-AT (All-Terrain Armored Transport) Walker
• Imperial AT-PT (All-Terrain Personal Transport) Walker
• Imperial AT-ST (All-Terrain Scout Transport) Walker
• Imperial JT-AT (Jungle Terrain Armored Transport) Walker
• Imperial Troop Transport Grav-truck
• Imperial Waveskimmer
• Incom Zoom II Speederbike
• KDY HAVw AS Juggernaut
• Kuan Swoop
• Mekuun Hoverscout
• Mobquet Swoops and Speeders Crawler
• Mobquet Swoops and Speeders Flare-S Swoop
• Mobquet Swoops and Speeders Nebulon-Q Swoop
• Pantolomin Shiprights Cruiser
• SFS TIE Crawler
• Sedri Motors Ltd. Amphibian
• SoroSuub V-35 Courier
• SoroSuub X-34 Landspeeder
• SoroSuub XP-30 Landspeeder
• SoroSuub XP-38 Sport Landspeeder
• TaggeCo. Air-2 Swoop
• Ubrikkian 9000 Z001
• Ubrikkian Bantha II Cargo Skiff
• Ubrikkian HAVr A9 Floating Fortress
• Ubrikkian Luxury Sail Barge
• Ubrikkian Seltiss-2 Caravel
• Uulshos Manufacturing LAVr QH-7 Chariot
• Uulshos Manufacturing Storm Skimmer