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Early this morning the live servers for SOE's Star Wars Galaxies went down, fans quieted for a specific purpose. Chapter 10 arrives today, bringing with it a whole new array of content designed for characters across all level ranges. You can find official patch notes on the game's website. The biggest addition to the game is the Meatlump complex, a dungeon aimed for characters level 55 and up. It was a bit unclear initially who would be able to take part, but it looks like even max-level Jedi will find quests at their level in the challenging tunnels.

The other major element coming in this patch is the new Looking For Group system. You can tweak your own profile in numerous different ways, and then go searching out fellow adventurers to take on the dangers of the Galaxy Far, Far Away. An in-party teleportation system, tweaks to a few of the professions, and some minor adjustments to the Mustafar instance system all round out this newest patch. If you've already checked out the Meatlump lair or the LFG tool, let us know what you think of it.

Plus! Next week is the five-year anniversary of Star Wars Galaxies. Be sure to check back with Massively.com for celebratory features and a few surprises!

This past weekend was a unique one for the Star Wars Galaxies community. As we discussed last week, long-time fixture on the SWG team Jason "Pex" Ryan took his leave from the game. He's now slated to be the Community Manager for the in-development title Free Realms. The Pex Badge Bash was a huge success with the Galaxies playerbase, it seems, and the official forums have the screenshots to prove it. Check out the gigantic thread for shots from across the galaxies, as well as writeups of the events.

Also on the official site this past weekend, a brand new Friday Feature. The Meatlump Theme Park will feature a unique bomb-defusing puzzle, the first of its kind in the game. As one in a continuing series of developer insight posts, Associate Designer Jeff Haskell shares a bit about what was involved making the wire-cutting puzzle come to life. Check it out for a preview of the new system, coming soon to the game in Chapter 10.

The next Chapter update for Star Wars Galaxies is fast approaching, and patch notes for the content drop to the Test Center server appeared on the official forums earlier this week. We've already discussed Chapter 10 in a bit of detail here on the site, but it's worth reiterating what exactly you'll be getting. Here's the highlight reel:

• The Meatlump Theme Park. A whole new dungeon-type environment with an overarching storyline, new loot to collect, and even its own internal currency that strongly resembles factional rewards. You can get a sense for how the area is shaping up in the game's feeback thread (mind the King!)
• An Improved Group Search Tool. The game essentially gives every character the ability to set their own attributes, and other players the opportunity to search the galaxy over for other like-minded players. A big improvement over what amounted to a glorified local /who. The feedback thread is giving it mixed reviews.
• This was one we previously missed: Group Pickup points. A group leader or Officer can use a slash command to set a 'pickup point'. All the other characters in the group can then use another command to teleport right to that location. Very convenient. The feedback thread seems mostly positive.
• There were also a few minor tweaks to class abilities, and another feedback thread calling for input on the Mustafar instances generally.

With TC already banging away at this content the next Chapter drop has to be happening soon; we'll keep you posted.

This week's Friday Feature on the official Star Wars Galaxies site is all about the feared Meatlumps gang, and the brand-new Meatlumps Theme Park coming in the Chapter 10 patch. The Corellian gang has always been a fan-favorite, and the rumors of the Meatlump King go back almost to the days of SWG's launch. Finally, players will be able to face down this fearsome opponent in the the Meatlump base, a brand new explorable area coming in the next big content drop for the game.

This Theme Park sounds to be introducing a few new mechanics to the game as well. Players who run through the Theme Park will not only receive badges, unlock collections, complete quests, and obtain loot, but they'll also be able to obtain Meatlump "lumps". These ... wads ... are apparently used as currency by the highly unintelligent gangers. Lumps can be turned in to certain vendors for rewards, apparently mimicking the factional currency systems seen in other MMOs. You can check out the official forums for player reactions to the teaser. If you're looking forward to trading lumps with the 'Lumps, you won't have to wait too long; Chapter 10 is dropping onto Test Center this week.

Posts to the official Star Wars Galaxies forums have noted that Game Update 4 will be released during the upcoming week; very welcome news for Officers, Smugglers, and especially Commandos. There's more goodness coming to the game beyond next week, though. The official site looks to the primary feature of Chapter 10 in this week's Friday Feature. The new and improved SWG group search tool is a concerted effort by the developers to solve the game's pressing population issue. Check out the accompanying forum post for hints at the community's reaction.

The new search functionality, which will extend galaxy-wide to reach as many players as possible, has numerous selectable criteria. On the individual player's side, there are several ways of advertising your interests. The role you want to play in a group, what kind of group you're looking for, even the possibility of gathering for social situations are all covered by the tool. The previous LFG tool had numerous drawbacks, including a limited range and now-useless search criteria. When actively searching for new group members, the tool offers a similar range of options. Professions, level ranges, and interest are all tweakable by the group leader. Pure utility, but interesting nonetheless.

The ninth chapter update to Star Wars Galaxies was released to the live servers yesterday! This chapter is entitled "The Fury of Exar Kun", and continues the SWG team's commitment to regular and targetted content updates. This one, unlike Game Updates 1 and 2, is nothing but a love letter to the players. The official patch notes spell out all the gory details: PvP collections, the Exar Kun heroic instance, improved Storyteller tools ... even the chapter gift (a housing-placeable terminal that lets you track the progress of the Galactic Civil War) is getting a really positive player reaction. For details RPGVault has up a piece giving us the full rundown on the Chapter, from badges to blasters.

With Chapter 9 out and being explored the next content updates are already in the works. Game Update 3 will see much love given to the Jedi and Bounty Hunter classes; the developers are testing the changes to the Jedi and have been sharing some of their play experiences with force-users on the forums. They've also been releasing information on the upcoming Chapter 10 goodies. The next big content drop will see significantly improved player search options, making it that much easier to find a group of fellow adventurers in the Galaxy Far, Far Away.

The ongoing quest for more content in the galaxy Far, Far Away continues, with producer Lorin 'DeadMeat' Jameson dropping a production letter / state of the game address into the official Star Wars Galaxies forums. Jameson is enthusiastic about the upcoming release of Chapter 9, which entered public testing this past Friday. He invites players to fully test the patch, giving special notice to the much anticipated Exan Kun instance (which will feature some really fantastic rewards), the storyteller blueprint system (screenshots of the system at work are available) and a brand new ITV collection quest.

The next two Game Updates are already in the planning phases, with Bounty Hunters/Jedi scheduled for some tweaking in Update 3, and Commandos/Officers due for Update 4 (finally!).

He also teases the playerbase with hints about what we can expect in Chapter 10. According to Jameson the headliner for next chapter will be the fan-favorite Meatlumps gang. This content will be, amazingly, not for the high level. Instead, level 45-65 characters will feel the love, and face down the dangerous Meatlump gang on their home turf. The next content drop will also see dramatic improvements in the Looking For Group and player search interfaces - tweaks designed to make finding other players less of a challenge on low-population servers. All great news for the average SWG player, and another follow-through with the team's promise to keep the players happy.