On the 'deathiversary' of Star Wars Galaxies, the fan team keeping the MMO alive is launching its biggest update yet, which includes five new playable species

Every update must be uniquely stressful for the people behind Star Wars Galaxies Restoration, the player-led revival of the MMO that died 13 years ago. After all, Star Wars Galaxies was the game with "the most infamous patch in videogame history", according to its original developers, who ascribe its cancellation largely to the unpopularity of the New Game Enhancements update.

The team who revived Star Wars Galaxies on a fan server don't seem phased, however. They've continued supporting its original direction with updates like the one that added planetary control mechanics, and even scheduled the latest update, Expanding Horizons, for the 13-year "deathiversary" of Galaxies.

"Instead of mourning the loss of Star Wars Galaxies," they write, "which 13 years ago on December 15 closed its doors forever, we invite fans from every corner of the galaxy to rejoice in the expanding horizons of the Restoration universe with a special Life Day event, where new players will be gifted special decorations that they may place in player-city life-day trees."

The big-ticket part of the update is the addition of five more playable species: the Nautolan, Chiss, Devoronian, Mirialan, and Bith. Players don't have to create a new character to try out a new species, and can swap by visiting an Image Designer. Other changes include revamped skill trees, 4K textures and a rebuilt x64 client, an added jewelry slot for earrings, and heroic challenges that reward complete jewelry sets, "perfect for end-game adventurers seeking the ultimate prize."

Vehicle customization is another significant addition, one that will let players "Craft the ride of your dreams with the new vehicle reverse engineering system. Loot parts, tinker, and toy with vehicles like never before! Change vehicle speed, maneuverability, durability, and add new abilities to outrun, disappear, or track down your targets."

Players in the droid engineer profession will be able to perform maintenance on droids to increase their base stats, with oil baths and a diagnostic minigame as new additions. And there's a new profession coming as well, the ranger. While there was a ranger profession in the original Star Wars Galaxies before the Combat Upgrade patch, this version will combine the abilities of that profession with the Combat Upgrade's sniper and the New Game Enhancement update's spy, "offering a unique gameplay experience tailored to the most versatile players."

I asked for a little more info on the ranger and how they'll play and was told, "Our Ranger is a mix of all three eras of the game. We've taken the camps/creature/terrain handling from pre-cu, the crowd control/traps from CU, and blended in NGE's spy and camouflage system, allowing a ranger to blend into both wild and urban environments, camouflage their allies, lay/detect hidden traps, and generally be a nuisance in PvP, and allowing groups to tackle high level PvE content more creatively. We expect Ranger to be mixed in with other high level combat roles at different levels, so a Commando taking the detect tree to make sure they can detect stealthed enemies, or a smuggler taking the camouflage tree so they can sneak up and fire off their melee snare abilities!"

If you're tempted to try Star Wars Galaxies Restoration for yourself, head over to the website and create an account, download the installer, run that and then let it download the update as well, and you'll be ready to jump in. Here are the full patch notes for the Expanding Horizons update.