Official Announcements

[Fury]

All game and forum related official announcements will be made in this thread.  We will make our best effort to post the link to important announcements in the Announcements channel on Discord.  

[Fury]

We will shortly be removing the suggestions forum.  All game and forum-related suggestions for improvement to the site and game itself will be made using the Suggestions Tracker under the Support tab at the top. I will review all of the trackers generally on a daily basis, and update their status. Depending on the suggestion or bug report - it may get actioned immediately or take a number of days. It all depends on the priority.  Once they are closed out, they will be captured in the next version of the release notes. 

[Fury]

We’re planning on closing out phase 1 of development in the coming week.  I’m tentatively planning on jumping straight into phase 2, which will close out all the required development to begin the game.  I would anticipate phase 2 taking us three or so weeks.  More to follow on timelines.  I know people are antsy to get going.  This is a very methodical approach to ensure we can get back to life and return SWD to where it was from 2005-2017.  We want this game back online as well, and we look forward to getting to that point.  
 

Don’t forget, the forums and Discord are still open for general community interaction and planning.  We are always taking ideas and feedback.  

[Fury]

Release Notes for SWDiplomacy 2.2.1 have been published.  This was a security update involving a fix to the SSL certificate issues.  Additionally this update involved fixes and upgrades involving Discord, user groups, permissions, cosmetics, and social media integration. 

https://forum.swdiplomacy.com/index.php?/gamesupport/releasenotes/

[Fury]

SWDiplomacy 15-Year Anniversary

I want to just highlight that we are celebrating our 15th year of SWDiplomacy this month.  SWD launched officially in March 2006.  Work had begun on it in March 2005, with some delays and setbacks until the fall of 2005 when we were able to begin getting it into a playable state.  I think this should go without saying, that this community has survived because many people have stepped up to the plate over the years to take the lead or fill important roles.  I have not been always the most present and available person for the last 8 years or so, with sporadic appearances and things like that.  It's honestly been since the failed development project in 2017 that I've been this involved, and prior to that was somewhere around 2014 when I was active.  In my absence, many folks have stepped up and become leaders in this community - and I would hope it's mostly because they like this community than a feeling of necessity.  All of you are incredible, and I am not always the best at vocalizing it, but you keep the community going, not me.  I would list off names specifically, but inevitably I would leave someone off by accident.  Anyway, here's to all of you and our next chapter as we move forward with the new game. 

[Fury]

I want to address the incident on Discord from earlier tonight.  Unfortunately, it ended with the decision to ban the member in question.  The member and victim in question accused an avatar of sexual misconduct stemming from inappropriate private messages sent around 2006 or 2007.  These are VERY serious allegations, and I made the determination to ensure that the accused member has no place on this forum.  I was never made aware of these allegations in the past, and this was the very first I have heard anything like this.  This community has zero tolerance for this behavior and will forward all complaints on to legal authorities if the victim wishes to pursue that route.  The accused member has not been a part of this community in almost ten years, but at the very least we will monitor to ensure they do not show up - and ban the username they previously used. 

What is also important to know is that senior members of this community and myself offered the victim and person in question assistance, a chance to vent, and an opportunity to do the right thing and provide additional detail on an incident in question in the past.  The member refused to do this, and became belligerent.  The accusation made was very serious and we take it as such, and I can honestly say I take the accusation seriously.  Instead of being party to finding resolution and assisting the administrators in this effort, the member decided to become uncontrollably angry and acting in a way that was inconsistent with the Discord rules, as well as the rules of this community.  Let me be very clear below on a few things: 

• If you decide to make accusations of impropriety against an admin, avatar, or the community at large, you will be heard.  However, be prepared to provide evidence, facts, and information that can prove your accusation.  Administrators and staff CANNOT fairly do much of anything without evidence, aside from banning members from the community.  
• If you decide to act out of line, you will be warned.  If you are further out of line, and decide to disregard these warnings, we will do what is necessary to remove you.  We are a community, not a forum or Discord for you to stir trouble or stir the pot.  
• Accusations of ANY conduct that breaches our terms of service, or most importantly the law will be looked at.  If your claim involves any kind of interaction in our community that breaks the law - please report it.  Additionally, we will need details.  If we can confirm your accusation, we will forward necessary information on to the proper authorities.  
• Any incidents that have happened in the past, and on our old forums - unfortunately are in the past.  The only way I can make action on them is to bar individuals and accused perpetrators from our community.  With that said, as the owner of this site, as a husband, and a father that any legitimate threats of violence, criminal misconduct, sexual exploitation, or sexual harassment will be punished to the fullest extent of this community AND forwarded to law enforcement to investigate.  If it ever happened in the past, I was never informed of it back then.  As a community, we must stand against inappropriate behavior and rip it out at the root.     

[Fury]

THANK YOU.  I cannot say it enough, loudly enough, or more emphatically.  To those of you who donated (you know who you are), and the rest of the forum can see who you are on your user profile....thank you.  We eclipsed our donation goal to support the game engine development.  This money will go a long way to help us realize the collective goal of getting OUR game running again, and building upon the work that was done in the past and giving us more functionality and game mechanics.  

Just for the community's awareness. This doesn't mean the donation box goes away.  You will notice from month to month we will have a continuing donation goal. This goal ($25) will be reset every month and go towards helping us cover the costs of keeping the game running.  Our monthly expense is $24.70 which covers our hosting, domain name registration, IPS forum software license and technical support, and cloud backup storage of the site and databases.  While all these are not monthly charges to us, many of them are annual or every six months - so we took the annual cost of it all and split it up 12 ways.  

We understand that for many people, for a variety of reasons (the pandemic just being one of them), money is tight.  Please do not feel pressured to donate if you cannot support the donation or just cannot afford it.  There is zero obligation, and I would feel more comfortable knowing that if you can't afford it, that you kept the money for yourself to support your livelihood.  I just want to call out why there is still a donation goal and feature even after we have eclipsed our development cost goal.  

[Fury]

An Update on Action Processing and the Galactic HoloNet

In the past, players would write up actions and the action was submitted to avatars. The avatars were then on the hook to produce the news article for said action, as well as using their collective wisdom to determine what effects it would have on the player and planet.  This is a skewed way of doing things, and also inundates the avatar staff with things they probably shouldn't be messing with.  This old way implies that the Galactic HoloNet is it's own news organization.  It is not. While there was a news organization called the HoloNet News, it was just one of many different feeder news services that fed into the larger HoloNet.  Think of the HoloNet more as the internet or a wire service.  It doesn't publish it's own material, but makes information available from a vast array of publishers.  This is the model we will move to in the future.  We will push the onus of creating news articles onto the player.  This is your chance to push your propaganda, and makes the planetary news network more relevant than it was before.  

What does this mean? 

Henceforth - players will write up both the action and the news article.  You will write your action, by giving us the nuts and bolts of what you wish to do through the action submission tool.  You will additionally write up your accompanying news article on your planetary news forum/thread.  If you wish to forego a news article, please indicate it in the action itself.  Avatars will do their job to determine what effects will be applied to your planet and/or other planets.  The planetary news posts will require avatar approval to be published.  This isn't for the avatar to quality control your news, but to ensure that it isn't published until the action is processed - to ensure they process simultaneously.  Avatars additionally, will determine if your news article justifies being published to the HoloNet News (HNN) forum.  Your article will not be changed, but will simply be copy/pasted over to a new post within the HNN. Not all news or actions will make it to the HNN.  There won't be an exact threshold for it, but as an example - if you submit a small domestic political action that has very little impact on anyone beyond your planet or system, it probably won't make it to the HNN.  

Think of the entirety of the HoloNet News forum and the Planetary News forums as utilizing the HoloNet.  The independent news outlet, HoloNet News will just "pick up" stories from across the galaxy and re-broadcast them on a galactic level.  Additionally, avatars will utilize the HoloNet News forum from time to time to post news coming from non-player controlled planets, as "event injections", to help spur activity and roleplaying.  Nothing that the avatars inject into the game will be "game breaking" or catastrophic to the game itself, but will likely be things that will generate debate and in-character discussion.

Why the change? 

SWDiplomacy is first and foremost a roleplaying game.  This change will put more of the responsibility of roleplaying onto the players.  Additionally, the avatar staff is small, and writing both the news articles and determining action impacts/effects are two areas that take the most amount of time for an avatar to process, and can potentially lead to bottlenecks with processing actions, or in the worst of cases, a pause. We need to avoid these - to ensure the game runs smoothly and efficiently.  

Exceptions

Military operations and attacks carried out on other planets will be the primary exemption here.  Obviously - you will still be entitled to write your own propaganda articles on the military operation in your planetary news thread/forum.  However, the "authoritative source" will be news articles that will be shown in the HoloNet News forum.  I will be passing down guidance later on this, but expect to see news stories on battles and conflicts to not be as exhaustively detailed as they have been in the past.  There aren't news reporters on every ship and with every combat battalion to give play-by-play specifics of every event.  They will broadly cover the military operation.  

[Fury]

Game Development Update

As of right now, we are moving smoothly through the backend of development. Essentially, we need to get all of the AdminCP controllers and modules built before we move to the front-end that you as a player interact with.  After speaking with the developer, we are going to plan on having everything completed by 30 April, to be able to launch the game on May 4th.  This would be opening up planet applications on May 4th, with a week to process, and then turn the game clock on after that.  We will use our assigned testers to help bug-test all of the components as they are finished. Please understand these are tentative plans, and they could potentially change.  It's hard to project this far out on a project like this, but we will make every effort to meet this deadline. Updates to this will be posted if they occur. 

[Sheriden]

Staff Recruitment
If you are interested in volunteering with the Restart Team to upload game data into the database once it is completed by our Dev Team please let us know! 

With out your assistance it will take us longer to have the game ready! Help us Obi Wan Kenobi, you're our only hope!

If you are interested in volunteering with the Avatar Team to process actions during the game round please let us know!

 

[Fury]

Galactic Embassies and Arms Markets - OPEN

The time is here - if you wish to establish a galactic embassy for your planet, and build an arms market - you are free to. Obviously we don't have the unit list ready for you, so it would just be cosmetic creative work to get an arms market built.  We aren't YET at a point of conducting full-scale RP and leaders discussion.  Just giving you the chance to get your planet established to some degree. 

[Fury]

Renaming Avatars

I want to announce that henceforth - what we used to define as 'Avatars' is being renamed as 'Game Moderator' or 'Game Mod'.   I have never been a huge fan of the term Avatar, and historically we only kept it back in 2005 because that was what Superpower used, and we spawned from that game.  However, we are our own game at this point.  I think for new players, it helps simplify everything in terminology.  Additionally, it clears up confusion between referring to an avatar picture, or a user group.  This will take getting used to for our players who have been with us for years, but I am sure we will all get there. 

Lastly, the term Avatar was used in the first place in Superpower because it is a term that refers to an almost deity like person.  However, with us stripping the Game Moderators (formerly Avatars) of 95% of their power to manage anything beyond the confines of the game itself, it makes no sense to call them that.  Administrators and Game Moderators have distinct functions, and this helps align with that. 

[Fury]

Planetary Leader Names and Character Names

For a long time now, I have noticed in SWD that players have taken the creative liberty to the extreme with character names that they give their planetary leaders.  We are a Star Wars game first and foremost, and in line with that, character names should maintain some form of resemblance to Star Wars names.  Effective immediately, characters you create for your planetary leadership will follow a new set of rules.  Please see the below link for further guidance: 

 

[Fury]

Update on Character Name Policy

 

I want to issue an update on the policy to character naming and utilizing canon characters within the SW Universe.  After some thought and consideration, as well as input from our player base, I understand that I was wrong to outright bar the use of canon characters at-large.  My intent did not match up entirely with how I actioned it.  The policy has been revised to simply bar force sensitives, Jedi, and Sith characters as planetary leaders. While I don't expect 100% approval from players on this, it is the right move.  Jedi, Sith, and force sensitives provide a player with military advantage and open up a slippery slope to using those planet leaders to give unfair advantage over other players. However, utilizing a non-FS, Jedi, or Sith character does not.  From here forward the policy is revised and non-FS, Jedi, Sith characters may be used within SWD. 

1. You may not use canon or non-canon force sensitives or Jedi / Sith as planetary leaders. 
   • Our intent is to prevent players from creating planetary leaders who maintain some form of diplomatic, military, or Force advantage over other planets due to using a force sensitive, Jedi, or Sith character.  
2. You may not use the name of an existing character in a different universe.
   • This is a Star Wars game - not somewhere to create Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne, or Harry Potter. 
3. You may not have a name that closely resembles that of a famous real life person or organization.
   • Again, this is a Star Wars game - we are trying to avoid the use of real world politicians, celebrities, and personalities of note. 

[Sheriden]

Club Feature Renamed / Open

The "Club" site feature, which we had originally intended to utilize in place of Organization Forums has been re tooled for use as private Planet Pages and Forums for every player world. 

True to our classic game engine work continues on the "real" planet pages which will include all planet stats, treasury, military units owned, strategic ratings, and other data. So the "Club" Planet Pages should not be confused with those.

That said, in place of the classic action submission tool in use in the original SWD website we will be utilizing the club pages to allow players to submit actions in forum post format, where Moderators can respond to your actions with results, and engage in conversation with you if necessary. The club forums are private to their assigned members and everything you post will be invisible to other players.

We believe this system will make it easier for players and moderators to keep track of historical actions and results then the old site tools.  But unlike the stop gap player forums utilized in recent game rounds it will not be necessary for you to post / update lists of military units you own, treasury totals, or production orders.  All those systems will be automated.

While the game round will not officially start until that automation is complete your private planet forums are open for posting and you may begin working on actions you wish to submit during the game round - but no results will be posted until the round officially begins.

Planet Forums - Open

UPDATE: This feature is no longer planned for use as part of action submission.  Club forums will remain open for those who have used them to post notes but are no longer being supported as a game tool.

[Fury]

Donation Subscription Option

I want to offer up the option for players and members to commit recurring donations. My personal plan is to do this - and it allows me to not forget about them. Anyway, I have created six tiers of recurring donation. No donation is better or worse than another one. Any donation is appreciated equally and do not feel obligated to donate.  We want to offer up these options as we ramp up our development into our second and third phases.  Refer to the below graphic about how to manage subscription plans.  Beyond using PayPal - we now can accept Apple Pay and Google Pay thanks to our website being HTTPS compliant.  

 

[Fury]

Bug Fixes / Cosmetic Changes

As we near the end of the game engine development work that is required for us to start the game round once and for all - I am in need of a whole-community effort on something. We DO still have cosmetic tweaks and things that either don't look right, or just could look better or more easy to use, easy on the eyes, etc.  Could I get people to PLEASE log these things.  Find bugs, tweaks, cosmetic problems and utilize the bug tracker (https://forum.swdiplomacy.com/index.php?/gamesupport/bugs/) and submit them as a bug ticket. I will comb through every report and submit them in one consolidated bit to the developer to action once the major projects are out of the way. We don't need to wait on these fixes to start the game round - but I will still submit and she can work on them after the current projects are done.  I want a polished game engine here, and it's on all of us to highlight fixes and changes that need to happen.  Thanks for your help! 

[Sheriden]

Unit uploading continues at a pace (less then fast, but steady none the less).  At this time all capital starships and starfighters have been added.  Ground units are in progress.  The mid range units that fly and may or may not be space worthy (including Aerocraft, Landing Ships, Large Transports, Small Transports, and  Freighter - not to be confused with Frigates) are still being added.  

Why am I saying and posting all this...?  Because the time has come for last minute requests for additions to the unit list.  Once the round is ready to start I will not entertain requests for units to be added to the list even if they exist in canon - all requests for units to be added to the unit list must be submitted before the round starts.  To request a unit be added to the list you must send the request to me via DM here on the forums or via Discord.  You must include a link to a Wookiepedia source for the unit.  You must include proposed game stats for the unit if those stats don't exist on the Wookie page. 

AND

If you are requesting that a unit that is unique to your world be added, you must also submit a second request for a unit NOT unique to your world.

[Fury]

Our developer is grinding hard on our last three major due-outs.  The military production updates, which will allow multiple simultaneous lines of military production, the game application tool, and the planet action tool will all be completed shortly. In the mean time, we are working at a very good pace to get all of the game-data loaded in.  We are making great progress on our military units, techs, and other various data corrections and fixes.  We're also still working hard to get bug and fixes ironed out where we spot them. I am spending a little bit of time every day writing game tutorials for our new players and for future reference.  Please be patient. I know we've generally been able to deliver tangible product developments every two or so weeks for a while now. We're finally approaching the finishing line! 

 

I would like to ask a few things of our players.  We have a suggestion tracker and a bug tracker. I love hearing about new ideas and bugs on our Discord, however it is not the most appropriate place for it. With all of the chat, your ideas get lost. Your bug reports get lost.  How about we submit our suggestions and bugs in the proper channels: 

 

Suggestion Tracker:

https://forum.swdiplomacy.com/index.php?/gamesupport/suggestions/

 

Bug Reporting Tool: 

https://forum.swdiplomacy.com/index.php?/gamesupport/bugs/

 

[Sheriden]

For unit production / unit permission purposes the following decisions have been made and will be considered part of "canon" for this game round:

 

Mekuun Corporation is based on Coruscant.
Telgorn Corporation is based in the Corporate Sector Authority.
Cygnus Spaceworks is part of the Galactic Empire.
Ubrikkian Industries is a subsidiary of KDY based out of Hutt Space.
Nen-Carvon is based in the Tapani Federation.

[Fury]

As you may have seen with our SWD 3.3.1 release - the game engine is completed enough for us to launch. I want to temper some expectations here with this announcement. This doesn't mean development ends. While we have been in a constant state of active development for the past 9 months, development continues. It may not be constant, and it will be less frequent updates, but we will always be working to improve it.  Furthermore, just because the development is done, does not mean the game will launch tonight.  We still have some further work to get done.  We are working through building out each planet's starting military, doing quality control work on our planets and military units, and have a few more game tutorials to write up to ensure our players have a method to get support in regard to using our game engine.  I will hopefully be ready to announce an exact launch date in the coming days. So for now, please be patient.  

[Sheriden]

Player planets have been assigned to organizations based on the best knowledge available to the moderator team on ehat orgs you wanted to be affiliated with. Please verify if you can see the org forums you think you should have access to and let us know you want to be added or removed from access to any groups.

[Fury]

We've made progress on our starting militaries. Here is a list of planet's who's starting militaries are done and loaded: 

• Abregado-rae
• Aleron
• Batonn
• Bestine IV
• Borosk
• Botajef
• Bothawui - @Daedalus
• Brentaal IV - @Willselph07
• Carida - @Vonar Roberts
• Castell
• Cato Neimoidia - @Viceroy Haako
• Centrality
• Chandrila
• Commenor
• Cona
• Contruum
• Deko Neimoidia - @redhunter
• Desargorr
• Dorin
• Dubrillion
• Entralla
• Esseles
• Ession
• Etti IV - @Andromeda
• Falleen
• Felucia
• Foerost
• Gamorr
• Garel
• Giju
• Glee Anselm - @Fury
• Ibaar
• Iphigin
• Iridonia
• Javin
• Khomm
• Koensayr
• Lothal - @Darth Cola
• Malastare 
• Muunlinst - @LordMoose
• Mygeeto
• Obroa-skai
• Onderon
• Orinda
• Raithal
• Ralltiir - @Itake
• Roche
• Sluis Van - @Hunterthemadman
• Sullust - @SpaceMocha92
• Takodana
• Tatooine
• Telos IV
• Tion Hegemony
• Woostri
• Yaga Minor - @Erich
   

[Fury]

The following planets have had their starting militaries loaded. If you are playing one of them, and see an issue, please let us know. 

• Axum
• Balmorra
• Bastion
• Bonadan
• Byblos
• Ciutric Hegemony
• Corellia
• Corulag
• Jaemus
• Jaminere
• Lantillies
• Metellos
• Nar Shadaa
• Prakith
• Rendili
• Skako
• Tallaan
• Tepasi
• Terminus
• Trandosha
• Vandelhelm
   

 

[Shadows]

Good news everyone! 

We are getting closer to the round starting, which means it's time to start making this place look all role-playey and stuff. You are now allowed to post in your Planetary News threads! Now wait, before you go too crazy (you crazy kids), there are some very strict guidelines to what you can post.

1. You can not post news that affects planets other than the one you control at start. This means, that as Dac, I can only post news that will effect Dac itself. I can not post anything on behalf of the Alliance, I can not post anything on behalf of the Mon Calamari Sector, hell I can't post anything that affects my direct neighbor. 

2. You can not post news that will have a direct mechanical effect on your planet. As an example, the Coruscanti government can not enact a domestic funding plan through these initial, "pre-round" articles. At the same time, the Coruscanti player could begin to [i]Roleplay[/i] a need for such a program, and the government making preparations for such. 

3. This is the most important: the purpose of these actions is for you to be able to essentially Roleplay your set up prior to round start. We're in a unique situation, where you can go independent, or stay as a part of a wider government. This is where you can establish that in game before the round starts. The best way to put it is that these articles are for you to do housekeeping to prepare for D-Day. 

Please keep the spirit of what these articles are supposed to be in mind. If you try to violate that and do things you aren't supposed to, we will look at you like you're the kid who shit in the pool and made everyone else get out, ruining their fun--oh and we'll delete the articles and make you wait till we officially start.