"Spooky" Showcase Winner!

 

I'm pleased to announce Solaria, Rori was one of the locations officially chosen for the Haunted Galactic Showcase.  What does that mean?  As the image above reads, we were part of the Friday Feature section for October 22, 2010.

For those of you with emo Anakin patience issues, here's all you need to see if you're here for Solaria...

Haunted Galactic Showcase

Solaria City Hall

Location: Solaria, Rori (city hall)
Nearest SP: Rebel Outpost
Server: Starsider
Proprietor: Mayor Jivaro Qel-Jairus
In Solaria, Rori I try to keep citizens and visitors interested in the city by decorating City Hall for the major holidays. Making it spooky for the Galactic Moon Festival had received a lot of positive feedback, and I hope people enjoy it this year too.

This Death Trooper armor guards the entrance to the mayor's office. Notice the rotting stomach in the background and an appropriate warning sign to ward off the squeamish.

One of the usual city hall attractions is the "city in a city" display which the fog machine is engulfing. A carved pumpkin is resting on a house in the background and a Tusken raider is sporting some biological flair.

A krayt skeleton is trying to scale the wall while skulls and carved pumpkins watch. The two outfits are costumes from a fan film I starred in called "To the Moon and Back."

Neither heroes nor villains are safe from my decorating, hence the Jan-Go-Lantern and the big brain on Mace.

This is me posing in one of the more mundane scenes; a skeleton in front of a painting of Z'ozpheratu.

I must have gotten too close to the decorations. I ended up stuck in my own web.

It seems an afflicted version of me is trying to destroy City Hall. Hopefully his dexterity had been severely hampered but... uh-oh. Little help, GMs?

It's an honor to make it so far as a city, and I hope all the citizens are as happy as I am.  I have a good time decorating each holiday and I'll have more pics to come.

For anyone wanting to read the article in its entirety, click the jump or follow this link:
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/en/players/news_archive.vm?id=68968

New addition(s) to Solaria

This is breaking news (in fact, I am inside the SWG browser posting this).

What's new in Solaria? At least two things.

In case you didn't know, there is already a Heroics reset terminal for anyone to use inside city hall.  All you have to do is click it if you ran instances, and it will clear all instances you ran. It can be used basically once a day for any person.

The newest of the new are the anniversary terminals. Namely the bazaar and space terminals. Both are in front of the shuttleport facing south. Shuttle into Solaria, Rori and you'll be staring right at these crowding the Solaria Spotlight Citizen statue. (When will the next be awarded? Shine your light and perhaps I'll see it.)

So what can you do with these new terminals? The bazaar terminal works similar to any other in a static city. The only difference is you cannot post items to sell there. You can search all the bazaars and vendors in the galaxy and even make waypoints to the vendors, however.  The space terminal lets people examine their ships and change out parts, but they cannot launch or travel with it.

Stay tuned to find out what's to come. Hopefully there will be much to celebrate this Moon Festival holiday.

Get Ready for the GMF!(?)

The GMF is the Galactic Moon Festival.  According to lore, Jabba likes to lavish the galaxy with fun once a year (or to show off his riches).  I'll post something OFFICIAL about that but for now, I wanted you all to start getting ready.

I try to do something for city hall and the cloning facility each holiday.  Things already started inside city hall.  See?

That's just a teaser to what's already inside.  There are decorations in each room of city hall for the Moon Fest - and more to come.

If you have your own decorating for the occasion, send your pics:  jivaro (@) bigfoot [sorry but need to keep the spammers down].

I'll keep the decorations up as long as the event goes, and I shall be wearing my own spooky attire.  If anyone wants to hold an event inside Solaria, just let me know so you can get storyteller zoning.

More news on the event to come...

Death in the Family

 I'm sad to give news of the passing of Tuage (C'B).  He was not only a friend of mine but a former guildie and past citizen of Solaria.

 From Facebook:

at 1pm Michael took his last breath. He is now an angel looking down on all of us. No more pain or suffering. Please keep his daughter and the rest of his family in your prayers and thoughts as the healing process begins.

 He was a great guy and always tried to stay in contact with his friends from the past.  Even when he was in a different guild and city, he still tried to help me out as well as any of his former guildies or citizens.  Often he would make me say hi to different people, and I'd carry out messenger duties since a lot of people had different

The memorial for C'b/Tuage will be held on Monday, October 4th at 7PM CST/8PM EST on Venri Island, Corellia (Starsider galaxy).  Waypoint is -5420 -6238.
We ask all that attend to be "On Leave" and of course, please no Bounty Hunting (please be respectful).  Please do not drop banners or activate Colonel buffs during this time to keep down on lag and distractions.
HERO will start with opening words and then we will open it to anyone else that would like to say something about C'b/Tuage.

You may leave comments here or at the link below.  Even if you didn't know him well (or not even at all), any words from the community would be more than welcome.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/list.m?topic_id=1137934

Let the Fishing Rumpus Start!

What is a positive to all the swamps of Solaria?  Well, fishing of course.  Small as the puddle may seem, most every puddle in Solaria supports fish.  Perhaps it's because they actually connect deeper below the surface and lead to the greater water body of water which borders Solaria in the south.

Why should you care?

Fishing has been revamped with leaderboards and even "elusive" fish to catch on most of the planets.  Below is the whole writeup.  Citizens and guilds can also garner credit for exemplary fishing, so take a look...

Fishing Leaderboard

The Fishing Leaderboard is a new in-game feature that keeps track of the leading individual, guild, and city anglers across each galaxy. It displays the ranks, lists the leaders' names, and the total length of the best fish caught for each leader.

• Individual Leaders: The total length of the best 10 non-collection fish caught during the period are used to determine the angler's Fishing Leaderboard score.
• Guild/City Leaders: The total length of the best 25 non-collection fish caught during the period by the members/citizens of the guild/city are used to determine the guild/city Fishing Leaderboard score.

The Fishing Leaderboard scoring period is weekly and starts/ends every Thursday at 19:00:00 GMT / 11:00:00 PST / 12:00:00 PDT (same time as the GCW rank and Leaderboard update). At the end of the period, the winners are determined and the list (along with all the scores) is reset to start a new period.

Accessing the Information
To view the Fishing Leaderboard, simply trigger any fishing pole.

The Fishing Leaderboard section in the Hobbies tab of the Collections window and displays a count of how many times the angler has made the Fishing Leaderboard winners' list. It also displays how many times the angler was listed in the leaderboard as a guild member/citizen of a guild/city that made the list.
The Fishing Leaderboard section in the Badges tab of the Collections window displays badges the angler has earned from the Fishing Leaderboard. Badges are granted for winning 1st place, and for making the Fishing Leaderboard winners list one time, five times, 10 times, 15 times... etc.

Cities and Guilds
In order to contribute to the guild/city Fishing Leaderboard score, the angler must have been eligible (i.e. did not just recently join the guild/city) for the period for which the guild/city made the Fishing Leaderboard winners list. They must also have caught a non-collection fish during the period (even if that non-collection fish does not end up contributing to the guild/city winning score), in order to qualify to receive credit for being a guild member/citizen of a guild/city that made the Fishing Leaderboard winners list.

Anglers joining a guild/city in between periods will not contribute to the guild/city Fishing Leaderboard until the start of the next Fishing Leaderboard period.

The guilds and cities in the most recent winners list will be given access to one guild/city travel point. The guild/city travel point privilege is revoked if the guild/city does not make the next winners list. To reiterate, the guild/city travel point privilege is only available to the guilds and cities in the most recent winners list.

Messaging and Notices
Whenever the positions on the Fishing Leaderboard for the current period changes, a message is sent to the chat, guild chat, and/or the city chat for the angler, guild members, and/or citizens of a city to notify everyone of the change.

An in-game mail will also be sent to the winning anglers, guild leaders, and city mayors when a Fishing Leaderboard period ends, and when the winners are determined.

Fishing Record

The Fishing Record displays the type of fish caught, the planet on which it was caught, the length of the fish, the name of the angler (person who caught it), as well as the location, time and the bait used.

For each galaxy, best length fish is tracked for each of the 70 non-collection fish (7 fish types x 10 planets). The angler who catches a non-collection fish whose length is greater than or equal to the current record will become the new record holder. Personal best is also tracked for each angler for each of the 70 non-collection fish.

Use any fishing pole to view the galaxy best, the angler's personal best, and the personal best of another targeted angler.

A record fish will be renamed to designate it as a record fish, and it's examine window will contain additional record fish information that shows, the galaxy, location, and bait used. Also, the examine window displays the angler who caught the fish and the time the fish was caught.

A "Record Data" radial menu is available on any non-collection fish that will display the galaxy best and the angler's personal best information for that particular fish type.

NPC Record Holders
All 70 fishing records are currently held by various NPCs. The current record length and which NPC currently holds which record are different for each galaxy. These NPCs are actually quite avid anglers who have recently come out of the closet to reveal their ...errr...ummm... ichthyologic tendencies, so it will take some effort to best their records. The angler that becomes the new record holder will get a Comm Message from the NPC who originally held that particular record, who will have a thing or two to say to the new record holder.

There are more NPCs than fishing records, so some NPCs will not be record holders on some galaxies. So if Darth Vader is not a record holder on your galaxy, you'll just have to go fishing on a galaxy where Vader is a record holder if you want to receive message from the angling Dark Lord.

Titles, Badges, and Collections

Titles:
Titles (70 available) are granted to the current record holder. When there is a new record holder, the title will be removed from the current record holder and granted to the new record holder.

Badges:
Badges (70 available) are granted for catching a record fish. Badges are also granted for catching 1, 5, 10, 15..., 100 record fish.

The Fishing Leaderboard section in the Badges tab of the Collections window displays badges the angler has earned for being a guild member/citizen of a guild/city that made the Fishing Leaderboard winners list.

Badges are granted for being a guild member/citizen of a guild/city that won 1st place, and for being a guild member/citizen one time, five times, 10 times, 15 times... etc of a guild/city that made the Fishing Leaderboard winners list.

Collections:
A collection under the Fishing Record section in the Hobbies tab of the Collections window displays the count of record fish caught by the angler.

Seven collections (one for each fish type), with server first and a badge as reward, under the Fishing Record section in the Hobbies tab of the Collections window are available for catching a record fish of the particular type on all 10 planets.

10 collections (one for each planet), with server first and a badge as reward, under the Fishing Record section in the Hobbies tab of the Collections window are available for catching a record fish for all the seven types on the particular planet.

The ELUSIVE Fish

Tales abound of the one that always manages to get away. Are there any truths to these stories, or are they just overactive imagings after too many rounds of Valarian Brandy?
There are only 70 ELUSIVE fish (one for each of the 70 non-collection fish types) for each galaxy. The odds of successfully landing an ELUSIVE fish are much, much, much greater than that of successfully navigating an asteroid field, even if Han doesn't want to hear it.

Badges (70 available) are granted for catching an ELUSIVE fish.

To view the ELUSIVE fish list, use any fishing pole.

An ELUSIVE fish will be renamed to designate it as an ELUSIVE fish. For example, "a faa" may be changed to "the ELUSIVE Tatooine faa".

The Development Team reserves the right to revisit the "only 70 ELUSIVE fish per galaxy" rule once any galaxy has caught all its 70 ELUSIVE fish. Good luck with such a feat/challenge/accomplishment though.

Elusive Fish List
For each time that the very lucky angler appears on the ELUSIVE fish list, as long as the angler has logged in within the past 90 days, one travel point will be granted to the angler's current guild and city for each time that the angler appears on the ELUSIVE fish list. This is a permanent perk. Guild/City travel point update occurs at galaxy restart and at the end of the leaderboard period every Thursday at 19:00:00 GMT / 11:00:00 PST / 12:00:00 PDT, so the perk will not be applied immediately when the angler catches an ELUSIVE fish, but will be applied at the next guild/city travel point update. If the angler leaves/joins a guild/city, the perk will be removed/applied at the next guild/city travel point update. The perk will not transfer with the angler with CTS. The angler must get on the ELUSIVE fish list of the destination galaxy in order to receive the perk.

(click the jump to see fish tanks of galaxies)

Solaria has city waypoints!

Here is the official announcement from Game Update 17.6 (even though a tad late).

City Waypoint Registry

• The mayor can upload waypoint to the city waypoint registry from the waypoint's radial menu.
• Citizens can download waypoint from the city waypoint registry into the datapad.
• Launch the city waypoint registry window using the "City Waypoints..." button in the waypoint window, or with /cityWaypoints.
• The city waypoint registry can hold 25 waypoints. 

There are at least three current waypoints in the current city registry.   If you have vendors in your city or a public house you want to show off, contact me in game with the waypoint attached, and I'll see what I can do about adding it to the city registry.  The spots may even end up on this blog.

On that note, anyone who is interested in living in Solaria (or even parking nearby) can contact me through in-game mail to discuss possibilities.  We are also open to people wanting a city to hold an event.  Remember, the Harvest Festival is coming up soon.

City Decor - trackback story

This is a pic of some storyteller decorating done in the city.  If you'd like to try your hand at decorating Solaria, contact me here or in-game to make a request.  Your screenies can be a future post (with credit and a link).

See the original post here:
http://solariarori.blogspot.com/2010/03/solaria-decor-celesrias.html

Recent City Hall pic

Here is a quick peek inside city hall - showing off some of the newest decor available for helping out Nym.  Click for a better look.

Decorations often get changed out or moved around depending on what's new in the galaxy...or events taking place.  The next scheduled holiday is Remembrance Day.

City Banners

 

Many people aren't aware (or forgot about) city banners.  They are originally obtained as a "city banner kit" veteran reward, but can be traded and sold.

 

 The kit converts into a banner which can be of a faction or one of MANY planets.  The banner can be changed as often as wanted, so buying one banner from someone doesn't mean you have to keep it that way -  so long as a "city banner" variety.

City banners can be placed inside one's own structure or inside a city...as the name states.

If any citizens have a banner they would like placed in front of their house or a particular structure, I will be happy to do my best to make it happen.  There are already a variety of rebel banners in Solaria, so I will let you display any planetary banner flag in the city.  All you have to do is mail me or send a message.

Full explanation of city banners:
http://swg.wikia.com/wiki/City_Banner_Kit

Expanding the community

The recently-ended polls have taught me a couple things.  Citizens want more activities (roleplay/events).  They also want city meetings.

Citizen opinion:
1.)  85%  want Solaria to actively encourage roleplaying.
2.)  84%  want options for a city meeting.
3.)  Most citizens don't want imperial sister cities.

 Here is my proposal (feedback encouraged):

Combining the first two, I'm planning for a day (still thinking Mondays) each week to hold a city gathering.  It can be for citizens AND 'outlanders' to get together and have fun; and doubling as a city meeting via the channel for citizens only.

In addition, I can advertise it in the city message as well as spread the word to other mayors also.  This can also open the opportunity for a different host each gathering and keep up the atmosphere.

Solaria also has an opportunity to carve in a niche all its own.  So many want to roleplay or learn the art, but are shy or afraid to try.  It's what gave me the revelation to make Solaria a 'helper rp' city.  What would that mean?  People can test their rp chops, get constructive advice on styles (even bios), or roleplay without ridicule...which brings me to another item I want to bring up...



Solaria, Rori should be a 'clean' rp city.
I don't know if this has been brought up anywhere, but every roleplay city I have seen pop up has been based in something secretive, illegal, imperial, or illicit.  Ever since Eisley's "scum and villainy" diatribe, I have seen overbearing policing or smuggling/slaving dens.  If you want something more stepped up; smuggly; sithy; slavie... my advice is to travel to the city of Darkside Realms, Rori.

Why am I bringing this city up?  Because not only is it just southwest of Solaria, it's also a great city doing it right in the 'dark' way.  If it's imperial or illegal, you can find it in Darkside Realm.  It was formerly Dying Slowly (a take on an iconic SW city) which has been a more prominent haven since former militia member Zeranna has become its current mayor.

In fact, I have been working with Zeranna to make Solaria's citizens welcome in their metropolis despite their imperial flagging.  Since I want people to 'keep it clean' in Solaria, Darkside Realm is the place to soil up those hands.  Just don't cause any trouble there since their security is some of the toughest out there.

This doesn't mean I decided on it being an official sister city, but it is a definite affiliation so long as Zeranna deems Solaria as being in worthy status.  None of this is in stone yet, so all input will be taken into consideration.  There is always an angle I haven't thought of, so this is why I turn to the community for input.

Back in orbit...

 

That's right: Solaria's blog is back and hopefully to be more inclusive.

With more tools at my disposal, hopefully Solaria can take another step towards being the galactic community I strive for.

Lately I have been in more social circles than before.  With all the pulling together I had been doing, some changes in communication helped me get closer to other cities on Rori as well as other planets in the galaxy.

City and Mayor chat channels are two of the greatest things out there.  Some of you know I had been working on my own mayor channel, but it's much better with the new channel for mayors only.  This will bring together participatory people and their citizens to make events more fun and encourage more community throughout the galaxy.

Many of the cities I have been in contact with are imperial, but all are welcome to Solaria so long as they aren't looking for trouble.  I did flag our city rebel but abstained declaring a GCW region due to our more harmonious nature.

Stay tuned:

Solaria Update(s)

 

It's been a long while, but Solaria was doing a lot of reorganization.  Speaking with fellow mayors and setting some things into play.  The swampy waters may look still, but a current flows (and a lot of decent fishing in those puddles too).

The blog is here for the citizens to come together in a proactive way and have an actual community, just as a guild would.  Solaria is more than one guild, and some have no guild at all.  This is the place to propose ideas or give direct feedback...as why the posts have a comment section.

Next step is what Solaria should do to keep things moving forward.  A forerunner is to have a designated night for all sorts of gathering, as my earlier post.  Since so many cities have 'nefarious' types of rp fare.  Think of it as a teaching city kind of setup, where people can play out stories and have fun but nobody disparaging one another for their styles.  Most every rp city or community assumes you already have your style down...and many forget there's a learning curve in being someone of unique stature. 

Sound off with your feelings, and interest level.

JMara (1977-2010)

Solaria Decor - Celesrias

There has been an open invitation for citizens (and sometimes non-citizens) to hold events or decorate the city with storyteller props.

First person to take me up on the offer was Celesrias.  Mostly improving the gardens already in place, here are some pictures of her design skills in the city. Click the pic to see its full-size version.

(more pics after the jump)

What is Solaria?

 

Solaria is a city on Rori [Star Wars Galaxies; Starsider] which was one of the first cities founded in its original incarnation.  It is a rank five city, making it a Metropolis: the highest ranking possible.  The current mayor is Jivaro Qel-Jairus.

The city is a Research Center, meaning it helps with crafting/experimenting inside city limits.  There are a number of public crafting stations (marked by streetlights) which help traders make their wares and also assists jedi with crafting better lightsabers.  Solaria also boasts a diner; aiding with domestic and structure crafting.

There are no taxes in Solaria, and ticket cost is set to the bare minimum.  There is no citizen, sales, or property tax.  Instead, the city accepts voluntary donations inside of city hall.

To live in Solaria, one must be a rebel or neutral affiliation.  Imperials are rare as a good complexion on a sith lord. A person must also wish to live in a friendly and community-minded atmosphere.  Interested people should be willing to stay a declared citizen.

CITY RESTRICTIONS:
No more than a MEDIUM house (or correlating footprint) are allowed as a whole due to available space.  Rare exceptions are decided on a case-by-case basis.  The city prefers Naboo style houses, but generics can also be placed.  Corellian or Tatooine structures cannot be built on Rori at all.

TCG structures can possibly be placed in Solaria on a case-by-case basis.  The Mustafar Bunker is an example of a structure which cannot fit in the city due to the land situation.

Most citizens are members of the guilds GFA and ASF but a PA affiliation is not a guaranteed factor.  To learn more about living in Solaria, please contact Jivaro (best way) or comment on this post.

Almost anyone can host an event in Solaria.  With early notice, permissions can be granted to allow decorations and the like - at least a week or more ahead of time.  There are a number of "friendly neighbors" or "sister cities" Solaria has made acquaintance or affiliation with.  If Solaria hosts any event, these other cities will have open invitations to also attend.

Any species of any gender or affiliation are welcome to this metropolis.  Citizens are expected to treat all visitors in a respectful matter with the expectations visitors have good intentions when making use of our city.

Citizen or not: All comments, complaints, critiques, and suggestions are welcome with no consequences.  Use the contact link or talk box to leave feedback.


Thank you for your time,
-Mayor Jivaro Qel-Jairus

Retro: Solaria Statistics '08

Just as the title...these are old statistics I dug out.  They were nge but before the houses first started the demolitions [pack up collection] started.

The statistics are dated October 2008.  It was a time the old houses with old footprints were still there.  And the city had much more of a struggle for city maintenance reserves to stay full.


City Statistics

Rank: Metropolis (5)
Radius: 450m
Citizenship: 85
Structures: 261
Registered Civic Structures: 90
Specialization: Research Center
Income Tax: 2000 credits
Property Tax: 19%
Sales Tax: 0%
Travel Ticket Fee: 100 credits
Garage Service Fee: 6%