Haden Blackmen (Shug_Ninx) just posted this at Sony's SWG forum.
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Anyway, last time I talked about AI, but that was by no means the only major step forward for the project. In order to get through all this (and hopefully put together a Shug Cubes today), here’s the down-and-dirty bullet point list:

-MoCap Animations! The team has done its second motion-capture session, focusing this time on combat animations. The animations aren’t simply “swing” or “fire a blaster,” although those are there too – some of the animations show complex combat moves and combos, including a great drop kick. Because most of the humanoids are sharing the same basic skeleton, we can transfer these animations between characters with only minimal tweaking necessary. Just for fun, we tried out the drop kick on a number of different characters, including a Gamorrean guard, a Zabrak, and Droopy McCool (from the Max Rebo Band). Watching the pudgy McCool leap into the air and deliver a devastating drop kick was surreal… (but let me be clear - you probably won't see Droopy or similar NPCs doing drop kicks in the game).

-Hairstyles! Many of these are finished for the human male and female. We have several standard hairstyles, including many drawn from the films (Qui-Gon’s ponytail, Luke’s feathered cut, Leia’s hair-buns). We also have more outlandish haircuts (various mohawks, for example), and several hairstyles inspired by our friends and family (comb-over, anyone?). When creating your character, you’ll be able to select from this library of hairstyles, but a few of the more “unique” hairstyles, including Leia’s hair-buns, will only be available to players who have climbed the hair-dressing skill tree.

-More Models! The team is still producing models at an incredible pace, especially given the high bar we’ve set for quality. New droids, creatures, and, most importantly, NPCs are evolving every day. Among the finished NPC species are Sullustans, Quarren, Nikto, Tusken Raiders, Ithorians, Devaronians, and a multi-colored Gungans.

-Resource Gathering! The basic resource system is in place now, allowing us to create a “mining facility” (okay, right now it’s just a moisture vaporator) and collect resources (it’s all numbers – no interface yet, but it’s up and running).

-More Tools! The particle effects editor should be completed soon… There have also been continual updates to the existing tools: World builders can now place rivers and roads.

-Combat! Let me say it again: Combat! That’s right, the first pass of our combat system is in the game. Three of us ran around in an empty field (actually, the site of where Theed will be built, I believe) and shot at each other with blasters. Right now, combat is very simple: Push a button and an “attack” command goes into your attack queue. There’s only one attack (“fire blaster”), and everyone is attacking at the same speed (which, right now, is pretty fast). The blasters caused damage (visible as little numbers floating off into space), but our characters couldn’t actually take damage yet because we haven’t integrated the Health pool. I was really impressed to see that some basic rules are already being applied – the farther away you are, the more likely you are to miss, for example. Even though there’s not much complexity to the system right now, I still found great enjoyment in taking potshots at the other characters and combat right now feels fast-paced and frenetic. This is one of those moments when you start to see the gameplay evolving, and it’s very exciting.

So, I’ll try to post another Trip Report next week. The team is crunching to hit their next milestone, which should include more advancements to the systems above as well as some new stuff...

Well, now that Juz has posted this on the main page I just look silly. But hey, I reported it first!

Well, when I first was glancing through the threads, I saw this one and had to do a double take. Not because it was anything out of the ordinary. At first glance, though, I could have swore I saw "Combat Hair Styles"!

Now THAT would be an interesting topic /forums/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif

Thanks for the update.

WATCH OUT! She's got a blaster hidden in her Bee Hive! /forums/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif