Your breath huffs into the air on a cold December night. Seeing red, you quickly jump into the nearest fighter jet and take off, knowing they'll never be able to catch you. As soon as you take off, however, you remember that you aren't the most skilled pilot at this type of plane. Someone on the ground quickly takes you out as you hear laughter in your ear. "Gotcha!" If this action fills your blood with adrenaline, keep reading about War Rock, a new Online FPS, currently in Open Beta.
Each character class has its own strengths and weaknesses. For instance the Heavy Weapon Trooper has weapons that blow the snot out of vehicles, but for smaller, more nimble targets (like infantry) it’s harder for him to bring his big guns to bear. We’ll be changing the Heavy Trooper to actually be a bit tougher, but just a tad slower than other troops, so if you like the big bruiser with the Big Guns, the Heavy will be your guy.
Discover for yourself why this game is so much fun!
I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to a new feature we have here at WoW Stratics, the WoW Stratics Cast! Our fabulous reporter Jacan has stepped up to the plate and produced a FANTASTIC first cast. Below are the patch notes from his very first cast.
Please join us on Wednesday, December 20th, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.
You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:
stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.
We will be discussing general topics with the developers, and general chat will be in our IRC channel #everquest before, during, and after the House of Commons.
Did you play in pre-CU, or the CU era? Having problems adjusting to the the NGE? Well, we've got a guide for you!
The biggest difference those from Pre-CU will see are levels. Back in the first months, levels simply didn't exist. You either had skills, or you didn't.
Read about the differences between the old game content, and the new game content, and how you can adjust!
Need help with figuring out who you can heal when? It can be frustrating when someone is combatant or Special Forces and you aren't sure ahead of time if you can heal them. Well one of our writers has put together a guide to help you out!
Imperial Combatant - can be healed by imperial combatant and Special Forces medics, an imperial combatant medic can heal civilians, on leave characters, and other imperial combatants but can NOT heal any special forces or rebel combatants.
As you can see, the Stratics Sites are once again available. The virus we discovered yesterday has been removed and the source of the virus has been eliminated.
You would be well-advised to scan your computer's hard disk in search of any viruses that may have been injected if you visited any of our sites during the past couple of days. As you know, there are people who have nothing more to do with their time than to cause pain to others with utter disregard for our privacy.
While researching this problem, we found a couple of security vulnerabilities. Those have been modified to tighten up the security on all of our sites. Hopefully, we found them all.
Thank you very much for your patience while we eradicated this virus and made our sites much more secure. And thanks to all who donated their time and the information they found that indicated the problems. It's very much appreciated.
Roger "Teresk " Brown Stratics Content Director Stratics Forums Programmer Guild Forums Administrator
Following through with trying to provide the playerbase with more information on those that actually make the game, SWG has released a new Dev profile on their site.
Why do you like that profession? Having played all the professions in SWG over the years at least a few times, I can say that the Bounty Hunter resonated with me the most. In the beginning, I played the crafting game exclusively, raising the funds to provide for an entire city from my Armor-smithing business. Then, after unlocking my Jedi, I played him for a long time until they became very commonplace. At that time, I migrated back to the other combat professions and finally settled on the Bounty Hunter.
Read more about one of the few devs that seems to enjoy PVE instead of PVP.
Early this morning we discovered that an attacker had placed malicious code on our sites that may pose a security threat for some users. The code exploited a vulnerability in Internet Explorer and attempted to install the Downloader.Delf.11.AZ trojan.
We have removed the offending code and as of this moment our sites are completely safe. It should be noted that this warning applies only to our web content and not the forums, which were never compromised. Additionally, users of non-IE browsers should not be affected.
If you have visited our sites within the past 48 hours using Internet Explorer we encourage you to run a virus scan using your preferred anti-virus software or a free web based scanner.
Please feel free to contact [email protected] if you have any further questions, comments or concerns.
We are aware of the virus alerts on our network sites. Our Technical Team is currently looking into the cause of these alerts. While trying to locate the problem we will be shutting down certain aspects of our sites; search, ads, plus, etc. We thank you for your patience while we repair this issue and hope to have it resolved shortly.
Please join us on Tuesday, December 12th, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest II at 4:30 PM Pacific / 7:30 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.
You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:
stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.
We will be discussing general topics, however a main focus will be the recent expansion, Echoes of Faydwer.
For Life Day 2006, everyone will be receiving two Life Day Gift Boxes. There is one for you and one to give to a friend! (Characters must be older than 10 days to receive their boxes)
To open the gift boxes, all you have to do is double click the gift box and the Life Day gift will be placed in your inventory.
Here is a sneak preview of all the different gifts that you might receive.
A selection of stunning Life Day paintings which can be seen here
What is Wookiee Life Day?
Life Day is upon us! One of the most important Wookiee customs is Life Day. On this day, extended Wookiee families gather and celebrate a day of joy and harmony as promised by the Tree of Life.
Traditionally celebrated on the Wookiee home world Kashyyyk, Life Day is a time to reflect on the renewal of life and to remember those who have passed on.
Wookiee Honor Families
Wookiees greatly value morality, courage, compassion and loyalty. As part of this sacred and ancient Wookiee tradition is that of the honor family . An honor family comprises a Wookiee's closest friends and companions. These family members pledge a commitment to lay down their lives for one another as well as members of any honor families these individuals may have.
Wookiees will often brave adverse conditions to make it home for this holiday as it is an important time for family bonding and thankfulness. Even the Imperial blockade that is stationed around their enslaved home world can not keep Wookiees from recognizing this most important day.
Life Day for All
In recent years, Life Day traditions have been adopted by many species across the galaxy. Originally, the celebration was held once every three years, but as the joyous holiday has spread through the galaxy, many species and cultures hold the celebration once a year.
Additional Life Day Lore
Here are some sources of information where you can find out more about Wookiee Life Day:
The starwars.com databank has this to say about the Wookiee species, which also touches on the history of Life Day.
More on the history of Life Day at starwars.com in an article titled, "The Forest of Gargantuans" that discusses the early appearances of Life Day and how it evolved in the Extended Universe.
On Friday, December 8th at 4:00 AM PST at 4:00 AM PST all U.S. and European galaxies will be taken down for server maintenance and a live update.
When the update is complete, all galaxies will be live but unavailable while we complete final testing. All galaxies will be made available after that time.
Combat Damage Over Time: Only 3 DOTs per player can be applied per player target (PvP only). Abilities that use a % of action cost will now use the unmodified action total in all cases.
Space GCW: A tier 2 pilot destroying a tier 1 enemy in space will receive the correct number of GCW points now.
Profession: Commando Expertise: Dueling does not increase the count on a Kill Meter. Expertise: Shock Tracer and Energy Grenade DOT damage are now 75 per tick for level 1, 150 per tick for level 2, 225 per tick for level 3, and 300 per tick for level 4. Heavy Weapon DOTs now do 25% of the maximum weapon damage instead of 12.5%.
Profession: Spy Expertise: Sneak, Smoke Bomb, and Without A Trace will not break when using the Venomous Ploy trap line B. Expertise: The ability Sneak will no longer cancel auto attack when attempting to use it in combat. Expertise: You should now be able to stealth while under the effect of smoke bomb after the stealth cool-down is finished.
Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl Community Relations Manager
Our very own Stratics Cast has put together a toolbar for use in both Internet Explorer and Firefox. It includes a way to listen to our podcasts, and to quickly go to any of our fansites!
The time you’ve all been waiting for is finally at hand. We’ve gone over all the submissions and picked out our favorites... Believe me it was no easy task. There were some outstanding entries so don’t be discouraged if yours didn’t make the final cut. After the contest is complete all the submissions will be posted in our “Players Corner” for everyone to enjoy.
Public voting will last for an entire week to ensure everyone has the chance to vote. The three medal winners in each event will receive a beta slot as per the Original Contest Rules.
Happy voting and good luck to all our contestants - you’re already winners in our books.
Please join us on Tuesday, December 5th, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest II at 4:30 PM Pacific / 7:30 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.
You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:
stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.
We will be discussing general topics, however a main focus will be the recent expansion, Echoes of Faydwer.
On Wanderhome, Pax Imperia is celebrating their third year with the server. Congratulate Wulfman on an amazing three years.
Pax Imperia, the loyal Imperial City on Corellia, is celebrating its 3 year anniversary on December 16.12.2006!
It was on the 16th of December 2003 when Alrevolis Vosteo founded Pax Imperia on the river a couple of kilometers west from the starport of Kor Vella.
To celebrate this day the merchants of Pax Imperial will have special sales on their vendors, a lottery Droid will have a jackpot of over 1 million credits and the city will have several decorations for the whole week prior the anniversary.
The main event will start on the 16th at 22:00 CET / 4 pm EST:
We will have two race droids placed, one will be for creature mounts only and the other one is for speeders.
There is going to be a “Droid duel tournament” where participants can have their Droids fight each other. You can bet on the outcome of the matches.
A cantina party will be in the "Laughing Svelt" Cantina where all Entertainers are welcome perform, while others chat, drink and dance.
When night falls we will have a firework display.
Lastly, we invite a special guest and fear there might be a raid on the city later that night (details will be added later).
Where is the Party? Metropolis of Pax Imperia Mayor and Event Organiser: Wulfman Location: -4875, 2140 near Kor Vella, Corellia
When? 16th of December starting 22:00 CET / 4 pm EST
Stratics Exclusive Interview!
RCet from Naritus brings us this week's comic strip exclusive to SWG Stratics! Guy may have switched to smuggler, but was it the right choice for him? 
