Sony Online Entertainment has recently announced via its Station.com Web site that it is planning to make some major changes to the Jedi system in Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. Following discussions with players it has been decided that a number of changes are necessary, and these will be implemented gradually over the coming months.

　　The first changes to be phased in aim to alleviate some of the short-term discomfort with gameplay and will appear in the upcoming Publish 6. The changes being implemented are as follows:

　　1. The permadeath system is being removed and changed to a skill revocation system based on deaths.

　　2. Deaths will decay from the death counter after one week.

　　3. Deaths after a buffer (three to five depending on advancement) will have a skill revocation penalty.

　　4. Skill revocation will be slight at first but will increase in penalty as the player accumulates more and more non-decayed deaths.

　　5. The skill revocation penalty will increase as a player advances up the skill tree.

　　6. The skill to be revoked will be randomly chosen from the last skill earned in each of the four skill branches.

　　7. No more than one skill will be revoked at a time, though players can get to a state where they lose a skill each time they die.

　　Changes planned for the second phase will see the introduction of a more quest-oriented Jedi system incorporating elements such as force sensitivity and Jedi-oriented quests that both the developers and the community feel should make up the process of actually becoming a Jedi. The new system will also provide some kind of recognition for players who have already put in a lot of work toward Jedi so that their efforts are not wasted.

　　For more information on Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, which was released in June last year, check out our previous coverage of the game.