With everything on a trajectory to be live with possessions this week. I wanted to get out a brief update with some last minute topics and give heads on what will happen. Go over what’s changed since the last report and cover a few of the larger topics that seem to come with confusion.

Possessions Live

We are on track for a December 6th live date for possessions.

With this will come a few things:

• All salaries will be reset.
• All items will be removed, and new items restocked in stores.
  
• Award type items will be awarded again.
• Trial of Acquisition will need to be taken again for JM4+
• Beta banners and language removed across the site.
• Item Aspects will be retained, but need to be applied to new items.
• Many manual steps will take place awarding items, granting credits, or creating stocks.

If things come up I’ll drop notes in the report here for communication until it’s live with a follow-on report.

Clan Possessions

All the Clans have been given starting credit balances and planning worksheets. No major changes have occurred during the open beta, but once we’re live the Clans can begin to actually form their new official forces.

The big open has been, and is, of course, Clan credit earning. There is a larger scale plan that will continue to see implementation even after we’re live, but at a high level the plan is as follows:

Clans are planned to grow on average 70 million credit per year:

• 10% from members of the Clan doing certain activities
• 55% from planned Clan objectives and goals quarterly
• 25% from vendettas
• 10% from yearly bonuses

All but the 10% from members doing things will be implemented after we’re live. So what’s going to be active now? Well, if you do the math, Clans are expected to grow at around 7 million credits per year just from its members doing certain things. This will be individual member credit earnings, multiplied by 10x (so Clans earn 10x for the same activities members do for scale), for the following repeatable type contributions.

• Seal (Vendetta)
• Seal (War)
• Legion of the Scholar
• Clusters
• Crescents
• Novas
• Competition Participation
• Organizing a competition
• Complete ACC battle

Clans will earn 10x what a member does whenever any of the following credit-earning activities occur. This multiplier was decided by looking at average earnings across the items above for all Clans, and deciding what number would have gotten us to the place we wanted. It ended up exactly 10.49 but was rounded to 10.

With the coming GJW, we will see implementation of a credit earning plan to go along with it announced ahead of time, and as we move through 2017 along with the help of James, we will see Clan objectives rollout that give large credit bonuses. Will see more on this in various discussions as we move forward.

Extra Topics

• Adding new items has come up a lot. I’ve been taking note of and holding off on an extensive evaluation of adds. We’ll get there. I will release some general guidelines of what types of items will be added and how to go about requesting them. I plan to be as transparent as possible on these decisions.

• The slotting of Clan items created some confusion on sales during open beta. This logic will change to break an item apart on a sale, per my discussions with James, and will act differently after things are live. This should align the possessions experience more with what members expect.

• The dossier graphics link, between the Regent and Herald, will see some updates following the launch of possessions. Dossier artwork is currently live, and once another live system exists in possessions then Vyr will work with James to get this linked up, and I’ll support them however they need.

• The loadout showing up on a Character Sheet, the link between the Voice who manages characters and Regent who manages items, will see connection and enablement after possessions is live. Since the CS system is live, there was no practical way to enable this ahead of time.

• All of the end game type balance in the possessions system is admittedly lacking. This means that there are few Legendary items, not many Artifacts in existence, epic “Elite” versions of items are few and far between, the epic type items don’t have upgrade slots on them, and if you’re a high-level Equite or an Elder you probably find yourself easily attaining what you want. This is well known, and my first focus after things are live. The whole system is balanced around JM4 to EQ2 type members at this point, and I have plans to immediately dig deeper on a higher tier experience with my staff.

• All stores buyback on items is at 100% of the value. This does not always have to be the case. Nor actually does a store have to stock at item at 100% of its value. There are quite a few discussions ongoing about the future experience, but at least in the distant future and without full transparency, the plan is to retain the beta values of 1:1. On that

• Currently all stores exist 100% of the time, and there are no stores in existence that aren’t showing up. Over time this experience will likely change, with some reporting by me ahead of time, where new limited edition stores will show up for limited times, and additional stores are planned to exist. What form that takes is unknown but is definitely in the plan. The important thing to note for now is, the stores that are available now won’t be going anywhere in the foreseeable future.

Change Log

Since the last report...

• Added new shockboxing gloves item
• Added new Glove Weapon Item Category to categorize glove weapons, as well as a new Glove Weapon Cosmetic aspect to apply to applicable glove weapons to customize appearance
• BD-3000 luxury droid changed to Rare from Uncommon, price structure changed
• Updated Item Aspect Approval Policy to include a new rule that modifications are limited to one per aspect
• Corrected grammar and spelling errors in 131 items
• Added clarifying language that VT-49 decimator and YT-2400 have shields
• Added clarifying language that Eta-2 and Delta-7B come with the hyperspace rings
• Elite BlasTech DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol hidden and removed from possessions stock until upgrades functionality is expanded later
• Helmet Vacuum Seal converted to global for all Armor Helmet Modifications
• Armor Sealing converted to global for all Armor Modifications
• Scomp-Link Targeting converted to global for BlasTech Dur-24 Wrist Laser as a Blaster Modifications
• Emplacement converted to global for Merr-Sonn Z-6 Rotary Blaster Cannon as a Blaster Rifle Modifications
• HK Protector Package converted to global for HK-series Assassin Droid as a Droid Combat Modifications
• High Explosives converted to global for all Explosive Launcher Modifications
• Enclosed converted to global for all Land Vehicle Modifications
• Fully Loaded converted to global for all Land Vehicle Modifications
• Bayonet converted to global for all Slugthrower Modifications
• Two Ion Cannons converted to global for all Space Vehicle Combat Modifications
• Sensor Jamming converted to global for all Space Vehicle Combat Modifications
• Electronic Warfare Suite converted to global for all Space Vehicle Modifications
• Fit for a King converted to global for all Space Vehicle Modifications
• Garage converted to global for J-type 327 Nubian Starship as a Space Vehicle Modifications

The ‘Soon’ section

Much of this remains the same, but figured I’d keep this section intact for reference.

• A Dominion policy that helps define what within a Clan system requires approval, and where the line is to just have the creative freedom to do whatever a Consul wants. As well as start to piece together the gray area between possessions and not-possessions things that are still possessed.
• An Artifact policy that helps to define when and where and how and what artifacts are and come into existence. I admittedly haven’t had too much focus on making this happen but I’ll get it sorted. All the Consuls got me lists of what they considered their ‘artifacts’ a while ago and a clear picture going forward will emerge.
• A Shadow Academy related course for possessions. A brief discussion with Farrin on a plan, but with the entire system documented on the wiki, the SA will take on a more step by step guide format to help members walk through accomplishing some of the common basic tasks along with a knowledge check type course.
• A rank reward guide. Basically, it will create a page for each rank on the wiki, and then outline all the different rewards associated with that rank from skill points, to Force points to new talents to new lightsaber colors and custom robe options and items you can purchase and credits and everything that comes with each rank. So you can look forward and easily digest this information and understand the whole balance of ranks as it exists in the Brotherhood. Abadeer started something for me but I figured I’d note it here so I can hold myself accountable for it being a thing someday.

Regent Staff Links

• Item Research
• Stores
• Wiki Template

Conclusion

I appreciate all the testing that everyone has done, all the complaints and suggestions, bug checking and messages, have helped drive a higher quality system for launch. It’s far from finished, but the foundation established will create an enjoyable member experience I think. Even after this is live, please keep sending me feedback and thoughts, I have plenty of places to document ideas.

In darkness,