Star Wars Galaxies Jedi Revamp Previews

[GameBanshee News]

Sony has revamped the methods players will use to become Jedi in Star Wars Galaxies, and both GameSpot and IGN PC have inside information about what the new changes entail. First, a snip from GameSpot's article:

Sony Online associate producer Julio Torres explained that the exact badge combination will remain a secret for now, though devoted Star Wars Galaxies fans will most likely try to discover this combination as quickly as possible. Collecting the right badges will cause a mysterious character, known simply as "the old man," to appear during players' adventures. The old man will charge players with various challenging quests, including the defense of a besieged village that is attacked by successive waves of Sith warriors.

We were able to play though part of this village mission and found it to be extremely challenging even with a party of Jedi characters. The quests will also include the earning of the traditional Jedi robe and the crafting of the Jedi lightsaber, with which players will be able to ascend to the humble rank of Padawan.

And a small bit from IGN PC's article:

According to the SWG team, a "well-rounded, well-adventured" player will be approached by someone asking them if they want to learn how to use the Force. Hopefully, you'll say, "Hell yeah!" This will lead you onto a story arc ending in a village full of Force-sensitive refugees. Once you've done some more work here, you'll be an Initiate. This leads further to a series of missions that will grant you the title of Padawan.

At this point, you have to lose all your non-Jedi skill points if you want to advance to the level of Jedi Knight. As you may guess, there's another series of exploits that will open up once you're a Knight, not the least of which involves fighting other Jedi players. The path from becoming Force-aware to becoming a full-fledged Jedi is designed to take around six months. Those who want to grind their way to the Force will probably be better served by enjoying the ride along the way instead.