Character Generation

Character generation is the process by which you decide upon and create a character to be your alter ego in Star Wars Galaxies. There are several steps involved in character generation, and while the process is relatively simple, you can fine-tune almost every detail of your character if you want to go deeper.

To begin with, you will be asked to choose your race (at which point you can customize your appearance), followed by your starting profession. These two things will determine your starting attributes and the equipment you begin the game with. You will then be given the option of traveling immediately to your starting planet, or going through the single-player tutorial section.

If this is your first time playing Star Wars Galaxies, we highly recommend that you run through the tutorial. The interface is excellent, but works differently than most other games, and the tutorial does an excellent job of preventing confusion, and helps you to catch cool features which you might otherwise have missed.

Attributes

Attributes (sometimes called 'stats,' or 'statistics') are a series of numbers that describe the relative strengths and weaknesses of a character in Star Wars Galaxies, with higher numbers representing higher levels of the relevant attribute. A weak character might have a strength rating of only 300, while a very strong character might have a rating of 600, though what is considered high or low can vary from attribute to attribute.

Your beginning attributes are set, first of all, by to the race you choose for your character and secondly by your starting profession. As an example, a human brawler would receive a +300 bonus to their starting strength (+100 for being human, +200 for being a brawler), whereas a Wookiee marksman would have a bonus of +500 to strength (+350 for being a Wookiee and +150 for being a marksman).

Technically there are nine attributes in Star Wars Galaxies, but in practice, there are only three that are used directly, each with two support attributes: one attribute that determines how much the main attribute is drained each time it is used, and one attribute that determines how fast the main attribute regenerates.

As an example, health is the primary attribute that represents your overall physical well-being. If you get injured or perform a very strenuous task, your health goes down a bit. The drain rate attribute for health is strength, and constitution is the recharge attribute. When you get injured, you lose a bit of health, but it is your strength that determines just how much health you lose from that injury; the stronger you are, the less health you lose. After you are injured, it is your constitution attribute that determines how quickly you recover your lost health; the higher your constitution, the faster your health recovers. The stats, with their support attributes, are listed below.

"Although there are nine attributes, you will normally only deal directly with three."

As you can see, even though there are nine attributes, only three directly affect your character.

Health is your physical health, and can be reduced by things like injury, strenuous activity, or by making special attacks.

Action is your physical energy, your ability to do lots of things quickly and accurately. It is drained by making some special attacks, by some strenuous activity, and by getting hit with some special attacks.

Mind is your mental ability, thought process, and so forth. It is used up by performing thinking tasks, special attacks requiring concentration, and by getting hit with some special attacks.