What a surprise! Dark and Light will not go live on April 27th but May 30th instead. Nice of them to tell us promptly ahead of time.

The official Dark and Light site has an expanded guide to the various character classes available in the game.

My initial plan was to follow the Ranger path, as I did in Settlers of Ganareth. I enjoyed scouting and creature tracking and taming in Star Wars Galaxies and exploration holds a strong appeal, so Ranger is an obvious choice. Better still they will be able to fight efficiently with my beloved one-handed swords.

After reading the class guide, however, I am starting to see the appeal of the Paladin archetype. Their focus on defence, winning the fight through attrition and finesse with the one-handed blade, sounds very true to the spirit of the Fencer I used to enjoy so much in SWG.

I’ll probably still end up with Ranger. It’s a shame you won’t be able to revise your class later. I realise that this is true in almost every MMORPG out there but SWG was my first and I’ve yet to find anything to match its profession-based advancement.

Pioneers will carry over a percentage of their money, any Barony title they may have had and – if the rumours are to be believed – their combat level into Dark and Light. They can also place steles in the Settlers of Ganareth world with a personalised message. These steles will continue to exist in DnL and can be read by anyone passing by.

Despite being a day-one player of SoG I never reached a high enough level to own a Barony. Grinding is not high on my priority list and I started playing City of Heroes before SoG became stable enough to devote proper time and attention to. I won’t have a Barony title in DnL and I will start with at most 100,000 goth at level 12. Hardly the earth-shatteringly unfair advantage non-Pioneer players have complained about on the official forum.

I did place my stele, though. I can’t remember where, but I placed it. It has a very nice quote from one of my oldest and best SWG friends. Stumbling across it again, if I ever do, will be a pleasant surprise.

Dark and Light is scheduled for release on April 27th 2006. Somewhat optimistically, I’ve booked the day off work.

Like many former Star Wars Galaxies players I became interested in Dark and Light around November 2005. Like SWG, the game promised a sprawling virtual world with crafting, socialising and skill-based character progression. I pre-ordered, buying a Pioneer account which also gave me a guaranteed spot in the Settlers of Ganareth event.

For some reason I got it into my head that I wanted to write a blog of my experiences in SoG … and for some other reason I never got round to doing so. With DnL scheduled for release in two weeks I decided the time was right to start publishing my thoughts.