A hotfix was implemented today on Star Wars Galaxies servers that enables double Chronicles XP and tokens, as well as adds a bazaar to the Dathomir quarantine zone. The patch also fixes a handful of bugs related the to Death Troopers update.

You can read the full patch notes for hotfix 14.5 after the jump and discuss the game in our Star Wars Galaxies forum.

The Death Troopers update is now live in Star Wars Galaxies, so keep an eye out for zombies on Dathomir. According to the release notes, "while rumors have circulated that restricted areas are being used to contain a biological threat, no official report has been confirmed or denied by High Command." I think it's safe to say the threat is very real, so make sure you complete the "Something is Obviously Wrong" quests from Update 13 to gain access the Death Troopers quest line. You can read the full patch notes after the jump.

While you're at it, interested players may want to pick up the new "Death Troopers" novel by Joe Schreiber. It was just released yesteray, so check it out for more details on the horrific tale.

Also, the Galactic Buddy Initiative ends tomorrow at 11:59 p.m. PDT, so invite your friends to play Star Wars Galaxies as soon as possible to earn various rewards, including an exclusive Light-Bending Podracer. A biological disaster is the best time to invite your friends into the game, right?

The Chronicle Master System is now live in Star Wars Galaxies, which means players can design and build quests using relics. Tony "Teesquared" Tyson focused on this new system in his producer's note for October. "Many of you understand what we are trying to do with the system – make generating user content a fun and rewarding game in itself," he said. The Death Troopers and Galactic Civil War updates will also contain Chronicle-specific content, and new relic types will be added in the future.

Speaking of the Death Troopers update, Star Wars Galaxies will be featured in a full-page ad in the upcoming "Death Troopers" novel by Joe Schreiber. Tyson expects it may draw some readers to the MMO, but only time will tell. Tyson's full letter can be found after the jump.

Sony Online Entertainment is asking Star Wars Galaxies players to help recruit new members of the Rebel, Imperial and neutral forces as part of the Galactic Civil War. To participate in the Buddy Initiative, all you need to do is have your friend download the 14-day free trial and try out the game. Once they convert their trial account to an active account, both of you will receive rewards.

The new recruit will get a Holocron of Knowledge that will raise any new character to level 50. The veteran buddy will get a token that can be claimed for one of four rewards, including an exclusive Light Bending Gasgano Podracer. A veteran player can get all four rewards on one character by inviting four friends to play Star Wars Galaxies. The offer ends on Oct. 15 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR STAR WARS GALAXIES™ ACCOUNT – 12 SERVERS CLOSING ON OCTOBER 15, 2009 - 09/14/2009

Tony "Teesquared" Tyson, who replaced Chris "Dotanuki" Fields as the producer of Star Wars Galaxies last month, has published his producer's note for September, which focuses on the next three game updates. Tyson outlined some changes that are coming to the bazaar in Update 13: Star Wars Chronicles and they include increasing the bazaar buy now limit to 10,000,000, increasing the vendor price limit to 833,333,333 and adding a Galactic Reserve feature where you can store up to 3 billion credits in "long term" storage.

As for Update 14: Death Troopers, Tyson provided a couple screenshots of the "horrific stuff" that's going on in the update. You can view a zombified Trooper after the jump. Here's what the producer had to say about Update 15: Galactic Civil War: "We are working on establishing the static GCW regions. These will be strategic planetary regions. Each faction will compete to control these regions in order to gain its benefits and shift the war into their favor."

In addition to working on the Star Wars Galaxies updates, The SOE Austin studio hosted the Syndicate, the oldest guild in the history of online gaming, last month and Tyson demoed Chronicles for the group. "I created and ran a quest called 'Amuse the Syndicate' which required the player to destroy a massive number of bugs in order to amuse the guild. Upon completion you received a congratulations comm message from the big man himself, Jabba the Hutt," Tyson wrote.

Is Sony Online Entertainment working on another Star Wars MMO? According to Ten Ton Hammer, an inside source at the Penny Arcade Expo has confirmed that SOE has partnered with LucasArts to launch a Star Wars game set during the Clone Wars. Apparently the game will use the browser-based Free Realms engine and will most likely be targeted toward casual players.

Ten Ton Hammer doesn't believe the new game will attempt to compete with BioWare's upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. It is more likely that the game will be based on the Clone Wars CGI movie and animated series.

So what are your thoughts on the possibility of another SOE Star Wars MMO? Would you play it? What would such a move mean for Star Wars Galaxies? Only time will tell. It's also best to consider this bit of news as a rumor until SOE confirms it as truth.

Game Update 12 went live this week, but it's already time for Hotfix 12.1. All U.S. and European galaxies will be brought down at 2 p.m. PDT today for server maintenance and to implement the update.

Basically, the update just adds some Engineering Trader fixes, makes it so the Anakin Skywalker Replica Cybernetic Forearm can be bio-linked, and lets you craft Cybernetic Arms and Legs with two sockets. You can read the full release notes after the jump.

Game Update 12 is now live on Star Wars Galaxies servers, and this one focuses mainly on Engineering Traders. Twelve new droids were added with the update, as well as the ability to craft cybernetic arms, hands, torsos and legs.

In addtion, continuations in the legacy quest line were implemented with the patch. You can read the full release notes after the jump.

In case you missed it, Chris "Dotanuki" Field announced last week he was leaving his role as producer on Star Wars Galaxies to lead a team on another project for Sony Online Entertainment. Field says his departure won't affect the upcoming updates that have already been announced, such as Star Wars Chronicles and Death Troopers. "My time on Galaxies has been beyond awesome and I'm so happy with all of the things the team has been able to accomplish together," he said.

Field also introduced Tony "Teesquared" Tyson as the new producer of the game. In addition, Tyson will retain his technical director title. The new producer has been working on Star Wars Galaxies for more than five years, and said in a Q&A that he's most looking forward to Chronicles and the Galactic Civil War in the next year.

Speaking of the next year, Tyson has already released his first producer's note in which he discusses updates 12 through 15. Update 12 focuses on Engineering Traders, while number 13 will include Chronicles and the Death Troopers prologue. Update 14 is all about zombies, and number 15 brings in the Galactic Civil War. You can read the full letter and Q&A below.