If you follow the Star Wars Galaxies emulation community at all, you’re probably waiting on a very big announcement from a certain rogue server today. So are we. But this post is actually about a different emu, and its press release – yes, a real press release from an emu, gotta love it – is already here, meaning it gets first crack at your Friday morning eyes.
I’m talking here about SWG Restoration III, which today has announced that its server launch is “imminent.” We covered this particular server last fall when it first entered testing; it’s notable chiefly because it’s built on the CU (combat upgrade) version of the original game, with cherry-picked offerings from other eras, particularly the NGE. For example, this particular server allows only two character slots, it does have Jump to Lightspeed (not all emus do), it discourages AFK play, it uses the pre-NGE character development, and of course, it has unlockable Jedi (with a new custom system for unlocks) and the bounty hunting system that goes along with it.
“Fan favourite Star Wars Galaxies has been painstakingly remade on the base of the Combat Upgrade system initially released into the game by Sony Online Interactive a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. The Restoration 3 team has taken the best of each iteration of SWG, maintaining the advances that new patches made to the game while keeping the freedom of an open, pre-NGE skill system intact. With an exciting roadmap & custom content planned, the Restoration 3 team will be releasing the expansion Jump to Lightspeed at launch, with Kashyyk, Mustafar, and other Heroic instances added once secret server-side prerequisites are met by players. This will allow adventurers to experience Star Wars Galaxies incrementally as first designed.”
The player team is planning an open stress test this weekend starting at 1 p.m. EDT tomorrow, after which the formal launch date will be revealed. “We can tell you that it’s imminent, and that any fan could take a guess at some upcoming force-sensitive dates and come up with a good answer.” May 4th seems like a likely guess, eh? Incidentally, the Discord looks as if it’s cleaned up its act significantly, so we suggest heading over there for more.
