The Life Day celebration may have ended today, but Star Wars Galaxies players received Game Update 6 in its place. The biggest change with this update is the addition of the appearance window, which was outlined almost a month ago.

The Appearance tab has been added. All characters may now access a window that determines the outward appearance of their characters. This Appearance window allows you to equip armor, clothing, and jewelry that do not alter your stats, but instead are simply for show.

Now you're free to completely customize your characters without sacrificing any stats. Keep reading after the jump for the rest of the patch notes.

Star Wars Galaxies: Game Update 6
Publish Notes, January 12, 2008

Appearance Window:

• The Appearance tab has been added. All characters may now access a window that determines the outward appearance of their characters. This Appearance window allows you to equip armor, clothing, and jewelry that do not alter your stats, but instead are simply for show.

• Select "Appearance" in the game menu or use the command /appearancetab to open the Appearance window.

• To wear an item as an appearance item, you must be able to normally equip that item and that item must be in your inventory at the time you equip it as an appearance item.

• Items equipped as appearance items do not count against your total inventory space.

• All profession, level, and species restrictions are still obeyed by appearance items.

• A radial option "Equip Appearance" has been added to items that are eligible to become appearance items. You will only get this option if you could normally equip the item and if the item is currently in your inventory.

• Added an option under the "Misc" page in the Options window. This option called "Unequip Items When Double Clicked in the Appearance Window" allows you to turn on/off the ability to unequip items in the Appearance window simply by double clicking on them.

• A "Hide Appearance Items by Default" option has been added to the Misc section of the Options window. This option will automatically show you the normal appearance on any player creature you examine. The "Hide Appearance Items" option can also be toggled on the Examine window; it will just default to hiding those items.

• The Examine window now has a checkbox to show/hide a user's appearance items. This will allow you to see the "true" items a character is wearing.

• Users can equip/unequip items via the Appearance window's "paper doll" by checking the "Show Equipped Items" checkbox. While that checkbox is checked, any items you drag and drop between your inventory and the appearance window will equip/unequip those items.

• Please be aware there is an issue with the Appearance window and the Shatterpoint Cloak and Cloak of Hate. Using the Hood Up/Down option can cause your Appearance window paper doll to be out of sync with the server. This is simply a superficial bug with the paper doll and Hood Up/Down and causes no damage to your cloak or characters. It can fixed by logging out and back in with your character.

Game Play:

• A painting reward for completing the Battle of Echo Base flawlessly has been added. Players who have gotten a flawless victory in the past receive the painting on logging in to Game Update 6. Only one painting is awarded retroactively, but you can get a new painting each time the encounter is completed flawlessly.

• A bug causing female eyes to not behave properly with goggles and other eyewear has been fixed for the following races: Humans, Twi'lek, Sullustan, and Zabrak. Mon Calamari and Trandoshans will be fixed in a later update due to an issue with ATI video cards.

• Fixed an issue that was preventing Hoth exploration badges and a Nova Orion collection from becoming 'hidden' when unchecking the "Show Completed" box in the Collections window.

• The Podracers at the Valarian Podracer bunker in the Legacy quest series are no longer floating in the air.

• Corpses full of loot no longer disappear early when a player with a full inventory attempts to loot.

• Newly received Junk Dealer Loot Kit components now stack. Old, previously looted, components can be placed in a loot kit then removed to make them stack.

• Junk Dealer Loot Kits now have the ability to make components stack.

• Junk Dealer Loot Kits now have the ability to decrement components in a stack.

• TCG vendors placed by non-traders now transfer as a TCG vendor deed when packed up.

• A TCG vendor placed by non-traders in a structure they do not own (admin) that is then packed by the structure owner reverts to a TCG vendor deed in the original owner's inventory.
  
• It no longer snows in Wayfar and Dearic; snow remains on the ground of Doaba Guerfel and snow falls occasionally.

Player Cities and Structures:

• Mayors will now get an email when a house has been packed up in their city.

• Merchant signs can now be placed on theater structures.

• The Structure Terminal 'Set Name' option no longer changes the name of the structure sign when the UI has been cancelled.

• Items that increase storage capacity can now be used on the Diner and Barn.

• Beasts roaming in the Barn now display the correct dyed colors.

Beast Mastery:

• When a beast egg is converted into a holo-beast data cube, there is now a chance that it will become a rare colored holo-beast. The holo-beast will always be the same when loaded into an emitter, so a rare color holo-beast will always be that rare color while a normal holo-beast will always be the common hue. 

Officer and Bounty Hunter:

• Removed armor restrictions on expertise armor bonuses for officers and bounty hunters. The expertise for these two professions no longer require the player to be wearing a full set of the specified armor; they just get the innate bonus from the expertise.

Domestic Traders:

• Domestic Traders can now craft items that have an "invisible" appearance:
  • Appearance Tab Left Bracer (Level 22 schematic)
  • Appearance Tab Right Bracer (Level 22 schematic)
  • Appearance Tab Belt (Level 18 schematic)
  • Appearance Tab Necklace (Level 18 schematic)
  • Appearance Tab Gloves (Level 18 schematic)
• These invisible items, when equipped in the Appearance window, make those slots appear as if you have nothing equipped.

User Interface:

• Added color customization support for items with four palettes.

• The collection icons for the Hoth Sharpshooter collections have been swapped.

• Fixed a bug that would cause resource container icons to not properly draw their current capacity in certain situations.
  
• Friend and ignore list entries from other games and galaxies are now displayed in the Community window with the proper identifying prefix.

Character Transfer Service:

• Fixed an issue that caused Aurillian resource containers to not transfer.

Life Day:

• The Life Day event has ended. Saun Dann is no longer available to begin the quest to obtain a STAP, but the other quest-related NPCs will remain for a short time for anyone who still has the quest in progress. Once the STAP reward is obtained from Watto, the quest can be deleted if desired with no loss of reward.