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Windows Live name - Forum name:

Eurosubstance - Being mine (Ghostly_Substance).

Swgbex - Swgbex

AdmiralAntilles - Admiral Antilles

thrawn889 - Grand Admiral Thrawn 88

Droid803 - Droid803

RaidenFJ - Foshjedi2008

Its a fun game when things really get going but if you don't let the action happen you'll just say "oh its just another game". Get playing and you'll have the most fun you have ever had and I was actually proud to lose to Driph from all the fun that was going on  ;D

I came to a black screen and it was 3:45 am in the morning. Proof that I played beta my name is "EuroSubstance"

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I'll post more screenshots later when I play more since I was busy learning the game and no time for screenshots.

Petro-Gamers.com has 8, yes 8 Keys to hand out to the community.

Head over to Petro-Gamers NOW!!

Its short and a disappointment. Petroglyph bragged and bragged at how it would kill off Starcrafts and Dawn of War CGI but its just too simple. I declare we get a more worthy of a CGI. Sorry Petro but you bragged a bit too hard (Ishmael-PG).

Good luck!

edit: Typo fixed, Ghostly

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http://www.universeatwargame.com

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Enjoy and *taunts* I got the music to the first trailer.

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Name: Defiler

Faction: Hierarchy

Purpose: Area-Denial Unit and Meta-Artillery

Speed: Medium

Armor: Medium

Unit Class: Inorganic

Vision: Medium

Targeting: Direct

Word from the front lines:

"A slathering, gooey form encased in a bath of radiation, the Defiler has something living in it, but as to just what that is, it's not entirely clear. The defiler speaks in gurgles and barely audible words as it goes about its task of corrupting and mutating."

Weapons:

Radiation Bleeder (Passive): The defiler bleeds radiation as it moves. The longer it stays still, the larger the radiation area becomes around it, up to a moderate size. Radiation bleeding only works while the unit is in bleed mode (default).

Radiation beam (Default, vs. ground): The default weapon does different things to different unit types.

Vs. Infantry: Infantry hit by radiation charge take heavy damage over time. If the targets are killed by the beam, they become mutant slaves, controlled by the Hierarchy player.

Vs. Vehicles: Sprays vehicles with high-intensity toxins. Vehicles get a light DoT effect applied for a long duration that makes them reveal for the Hierarchy player.

Vs. Structures: All structures get a light DoT effect and function at half efficiency for the duration. Production and turret fire rate is slowed. This effect stacks with the Cylinder's effect, completely shutting down the structure if both effects are on it.

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Name: Habitat Walker

Faction: Hierarchy

Purpose: Mobile Infantry Producing Walker

Speed: Slow

Armor: Heavy

Unit Class: Inorganic

Vision: Medium

Targeting: Direct

Word from the front lines:

"They came out of no where, blazing through the night sky, and crashing upon the cities and suburbs like meteors! Minutes after the explosions the ground began to shake and enormous walking alien machines arose silhouetting the fires."

-Anonymous US Marine

Weapons:

Despite the fact that these same mysterious Hierarchy Walkers have been showing up around the world, they are all slightly different from one another. These walkers seem to employ a hardpoint type system in which they can build weapons and subsystems, in order to customize their role, depending on battle circumstances. Our recon team was only able to retrieve one photo before being detected by the escorting Hierarchy Defilers.

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Name: Grunt

Faction: Hierarchy

Purpose: Infantry

Speed: Medium

Armor: Medium

Unit Class: Organic

Vision: Medium

Targeting: Direct

Word from the front lines:

"The ground shook louder and louder. We had no idea what to expect. When we saw the silhouette of the walker, we were sure there could be nothing worse. Then all of a sudden hundreds of circular lights lit up below the walker... waves of alien infantry approached us..." -US Army Corporal

Weapons/Abilities:

Plasma Scattergun (Short Range, AE): A heavy plasma cannon that fires a burst of shots in a conical pattern at close range, which also have a chance to knock enemy units back.

Weapon Bash (Default Melee Attack): Knocks infantry unit back/down as well as doing damage.

Upgrades

Plasma Grenades (vs. Vehicles, medium range): Throws a plasma grenade at the enemy vehicle, burning it for medium damage over time.

Radiated Shot (Researched Passive): The grunt's plasma shot causes radiation damage over time to any units hit by the blasts.

Introducing the Hierarchy

By Adam Isgreen

Design Director, Petroglyph

 

From the very first concept meetings for Universe at War, we always wanted there to be a "big" faction. Big weapons, big units, big damage, and big craters left behind. Of course, there were issues with this approach. Could we make a faction that was mostly big, lumbering fortresses? Would they be fun to play if they were as slow as they should be? How would we divide the player's attention between combat and production? These were questions that would take us the next few months to iron out as we refined the first faction for Universe at War, the Hierarchy. In this article, I'll describe some of the processes we employed in creating this faction, from its name and look to the walkers and their methods of use.

Read More HERE

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Mission: RECON 33.1

CLASSIFICATION: TOP SECRET

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REPORT RECEIVED - VISUALS ONLINE.

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Previous Reports were correct, there is an Aerial Force for the invaders, they cut through our forces as if they were tissue paper.  The Aerial Unit appears to be some sort of Saucer which dispatches balls of light which appear to be the same as the ones reported during the events of Roswell back on July 2, 1947.

There appears to be two forms of these balls, attached are some aerial images taken by our unmanned recon probe showing the damage that the "orange/red" balls can cause.

The Below Attachment Also Contains our initial Assessment of the "Saucer"

REPORT END.

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INITIAL ASSESSMENT OF "SAUCER"

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Name: Saucer

Faction: Hierarchy

Purpose: Anti-Air and Repair

Speed: Medium

Armor: Medium

Unit Class: Inorganic

Vision: Medium

Targeting: Direct

Word from the front lines:

"We spray them with machine gun rounds and then fix every hole in their armor. We launch a rocket into them and then those blue orbs appear to fix everything again! Then those orbs attach to our jets and helicopters and melt them slowly...It's hopeless..." - Helicopter Pilot

Weapons/Abilities:

Repair/Attack Mode Toggle (Active Toggle): Sets the Plasma Orbs to repair friendly air and ground units near the core, rather than attacking. This will immediately recall any attacking Plasma Orbs and then set them to repairing. Attacking Plasma Orbs are Red. Repairing Plasma Orbs are Blue.

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Upgrades

Plasma Orb Longevity (Battlefield Upgrade): Plasma Orbs last longer away from the core unit.

Plasma Orb Independence (Researched Passive): Plasma Orbs will go after the nearest target once dispersed- they no longer have to return to the saucer before going after another target in-range.

9min 20 sec

Video Podcast

Medium Version Download

Small Version Download

Download 'Damage King' Teaser Mp3

View Official UaW Site

View Press Release

Download UaW Announcement Screenshot Bundle

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WORLD DOMINATION AT STAKE AS SEGA ANNOUNCES UNIVERSE AT WAR: EARTH ASSAULT FOR THE PC

 

The Future of Earth Hangs in the Balance in the Next Epic Real-Time Strategy Game from Petroglyph, Makers of Star Wars: Empire at War

 

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (February 2, 2007) - SEGA® of America Inc. and SEGA® Europe Ltd. today announced the development of Universe at War: Earth Assault for the PC. Developed by Petroglyph, this combat-intensive real-time strategy (RTS) game enlists players in an epic struggle to prevent total alien domination of planet Earth. Universe at War: Earth Assault is scheduled to ship to retailers in North America and Europe in the Fall of 2007.

 

Universe at War: Earth Assault is set in the near-future when multiple factions from across the galaxy have come to Earth to wage epic warfare. Containing numerous features and customization options never-before-seen in the RTS genre, Universe at War: Earth Assault will create an exceptional strategy experience for single-player and especially multiplayer battles.

 

"Universe at War: Earth Assault will surpass the limits of what gamers expect to see in an RTS game," said Scott A. Steinberg, Vice President of Marketing, SEGA of America, Inc. "Petroglyph has a proven pedigree of critically acclaimed RTS title creation under its belt with team members that have worked on the original Command and Conquer and Command and Conquer: Red Alert. Universe at War: Earth Assault will be the culmination of years of development expertise in creating exciting and innovative RTS titles."

 

Universe at War: Earth Assault will employ a unique balance system called "Tactical Dynamics" that allows players to retrain and customize units in the midst of battle to better cope with enemy forces and tactical situations. Weaponry and defenses can be modified in true real-time to take advantage of constantly shifting battlefield conditions. Fully customizable tech trees will allow players to control the development of technologies that they deem key to victory.

 

Battles in Universe at War: Earth Assault will be large in scope and take place in malleable and deforming environments. Deadly sci-fi weapons and alien powers will allow players to destroy cities and whole territories on a global scale. Because the world of Universe at War: Earth Assault is persistent, players will be able to revisit previous battlegrounds to find them still smoldering in ruins.

 

Featuring innovative multiplayer modes inspired by popular massively multiplayer online games and competitive online playable titles, Universe at War: Earth Assault will give players achievements, rewards, and medals in a balanced environment to further encourage players to move forward in the game. Players from around the world will battle in persistent-style online campaigns for ultimate faction supremacy across a virtual representation of the Earth.

 

For more information on the game, please visit www.sega.com/universeatwar. Screenshots and artwork can be found on the SEGA FTP site at http://segapr.segaamerica.com.

 

 

 

 

About SEGA® of America, Inc.

SEGA® of America, Inc. is the American Publishing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA® Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

 

 

About SEGA® Europe Ltd.

SEGA® Europe, Ltd. is the European Publishing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA® Corporation, and a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. The SEGA® Europe, Ltd. Web Site is located at www.sega-europe.com.

Petroglyph's new futuristic persistent RTS makes near-future Earth the battlefield and humanity a casualty of war.

by IGN Staff

US, February 1, 2007 - The makers of last year's box office hit, Star Wars: Empire at War have told IGN about their next title set in a near-future fictional universe of their own making. Universe at War: Earth Assault is the first game in a series these guys are hoping to extend into the future. While the title would indicate a massive planet to planet brawl, this first game focuses the action on Earth amongst a human population unprepared for the throttling they're about to receive.

Petroglyph is taking the persistent gameplay developed for Empire at War and refining it to create a much smoother and deep gameplay experience. Design Director Adam Isgreen , Producer Ted Morris, and Lead Designer Steve Copeland all took time to help answer some of the questions we had about their futuristic RTS. Not all of our questions were able to be answered at this time, but there's a wealth of information below that should get most RTS gamers ready to tackle this one as soon as they can. Read on, check out the first three screens, and look for more info on Universe at War: Earth Assault as soon as we can get it.

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IGNPC: Glad to hear you guys are working on another persistent RTS. What's the deal with the setting and fiction this time around? How much of the universe is at war?

Adam Isgreen: At the beginning of the first chapter, "Earth Assault", the universe is primed for a war, but there's a problem. The Hierarchy, our heavy-handed alien faction, hasn't had any real competition in terms of combat prowess in a long, long time. They've been rolling over every other race they've encountered in this part of the galaxy for centuries, usually to the point of complete genocide. Some other races however have fled or survived through different means, and would love a chance to get even… but we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit here!

This first game centers around the conflict that erupts on Earth in 2012. The Hierarchy has landed on Earth with the intent to strip-mine the precious and organic material on the planet… and we mean everything organic. Humanity had a little bit of warning from their observatories and scientists, but clearly didn't believe that they'd be fighting against an alien force. They're disorganized and bickering amongst themselves as they try to present a unified military front. Frankly, they're also completely out-classed. The Hierarchy do this for a living, and they're good at it. Humanity isn't without its drive however, and they fight back with all they've got, but it's a hopeless battle in the long run if they don't get help. Fortunately for them, there are others who get involved.

Earth is the catalyst that will launch the factions you'll meet in Universe at War into a colossal battle across the stars. We've taken great care in making some very unique factions with their own motivations that make for some very compelling game play experiences and storytelling possibilities.

IGNPC: Is it centered on several planets or just Earth? What's so special about Earth anyway? Are humans part of the big war or just drawn into the fight?

Ted Morris: Just Earth for now - but as Adam mentioned, the war has been raging for centuries on a variety of planets. The full title of the game is "Universe at War: Earth Assault," and it is here that the various races collide - with humans caught squarely in the middle.

In the grand scheme, Earth really isn't any more special than the other worlds that have been "harvested" by the Alien Hierarchy. What makes it special to us is that we live here! Humans can't even begin to compete on the level of destruction that occurs in the game. After being initially drawn into the fight, it becomes quickly obvious that humanity, as a race, is pretty much screwed. So, while humans do play a role in the game, most of the ones you see will be running for their lives. There are a few notable exceptions that play a critical role in the story campaign however.

IGNPC: Can you describe the different factions and what kinds of technology they'll be using to trash our home? How do humans compare in the fight? Are we even capable of fighting against the alien invaders on their own or do we need help?

Adam Isgreen: I can describe one faction - the others you'll just have to wait to hear more about!

So for now, we'll talk about "those damn aliens" as the humans call them, or the name you come to eventually know them as, The Hierarchy. As mentioned before, the Hierarchy is our big, heavy, walker-utilizing faction that has come to Earth to strip-mine its organic content. They're a vicious, back-stabbing caste-driven race that thinks nothing of the species they wipe out in pursuit of the necessary materials to further fuel their aggressive desires.

The Hierarchy utilizes massive walkers on the worlds they travel to. These machines are highly customizable, able to fill roles for support, combat, and production, depending on the individual need and situation. They're so tough, they're dropped directly from orbit onto the battlefield! Utilizing a sophisticated teleport system, these walkers can teleport new components into and out of various sockets on their legs and bodies right in the middle of missions, without having to recall themselves for refitting. What this means for the player is that walkers are completely customizable to a number of different roles and able to switch up on the fly, so that if one configuration isn't working for your tactics, you can change it up.

However, since these walkers are also your links to getting units down onto the ground, as a player you have to carefully balance adding components that enhance production versus those that allow you to fight or defend. The Hierarchy player will spend a good deal of time scouting for information as to what the enemy is up to in order to have their walkers tricked out appropriately to counter.

Fortunately, other things for the Hierarchy are a bit easier to manage, especially when it comes to resources. Since they're here to collect everything, they literally can. Reaper Drones, smaller walkers also dropped from orbit, go around dissolving and vacuuming up everything that's not nailed down. They convert collected matter into raw materials, which the Hierarchy can use to build more war machines. Trees, cars, people, rubble, buildings, cows - you name it, the Hierarchy can get resources from it. However, just because you can pick everything up doesn't mean that there isn't inherent value in some items over others. Savvy Hierarchy players will plan out what to hit and when in order to maximize their resource intake. This creates some interesting combat situations, in which resources that are completely worthless to the other factions have to be kept away from the Hierarchy, as they see nothing but big dollar signs when they look at them.

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Weaponry-wise, the Hierarchy utilizes a lot of radioactive and plasma weaponry, which makes them able to shut down large areas of the map as they slowly stomp across it, pushing their enemies into unfavorable positions for easy collection and annihilation. They're sloppy and overbearing with their power. They're a race that would rather saturate an area into oblivion than go for a sniper's precision in their attacks. This leaves them vulnerable to certain tactics that the other factions can exploit…

That's just a taste of what to expect from one of our very diverse factions for Universe at War. We'll be revealing more about the others in the future!

IGNPC: Your work on Star Wars: Empire at War had to have taught you some valuable lessons about persistent RTS features and styles. What were some of the lessons you learned and how have you fused that knowledge into the gameplay? Will it still all work in real-time?

Adam Isgreen: We've learned a lot from SW: EaW/FoC about what we loved and what we did not when working on a second-gen persistent game. First off, we learned that the persistent universe actually interfered with player's desires to play the story campaign. We kept hearing that players "just wanted to get to the story," rather than fight filler battles between them, no matter how compelling they were on their own. We took this to heart in our story campaign for UaW, which is more linear and features a lighter version of the global mode than we have for the full-blown Conquest campaigns. This keeps the story moving along at a better pace, allowing you to stay focused on the battles and the story rather than being side-tracked.

However, for our Conquest campaigns, our global mode is fully open and truly comes into play. We loved the power that we had in SW: EaW/FoC, but hated the management of it all. Having sub-screens to list what was where wasn't an elegant solution to the abundance of data (i.e. ship locations, which planet had what factories and tech, starbase upgrade levels, etc.) a player had to keep track of, and we disliked how technical the galaxy became when you turned all the data displays on. Combined with the sheer number of "buckets" you had for fleets and planets and factories, we felt that we could do a lot better in streamlining the strategic experience.

So, we did. In creating our new global layer for Universe at War, we had to make some tough decisions - lots of dials, or a few? Deep meaningful choices, or lots of minor impact? After a lot of revisions and reworking (much to the chagrin of our UI programmers), we've arrived at what we feel is a very deep, yet easy to understand global mode. We've changed the player's main focus to Strike Forces, consisting of heroes and their persistent forces. The changes to how you build and fortify zones is also more streamlined but at the same time still decisive and impactful to your overall strategies. They are also integrated better into both the tactical battles as well. In the coming weeks and months as we finalize details, we'll be able to talk more about Strike Forces, the way command centers work on the strategic level, and the other changes and gameplay in the global mode.

The player has a lot of decisions to make, but the focus on strike forces and large command centers allows us to make those choices deeper and have more impact on the game rather than worrying about dozens of fleets, who was building what (and where), and a lot of lesser choices that didn't have major impact on the territory.

And yes, it's still all in real-time.

IGNPC: Once in tactical mode, what kinds of battlefield tricks can we expect to see? Any unit customization?

Steve Copeland: Good RTS games are all about placing hard decisions in the player's hands. You might surprise your opponent by sacrificing all of the customizable sockets on your relatively fragile science walker (which are ordinarily used for enhancing all of your other units) to build a devastating front-line weapon on its back. Sometimes you have to take big risks if you want big rewards.

We have an unbelievable amount of unit interactions in UaW, both between friendly and opposing faction's units. There are many, many clever assists one can perform with a group of mixed units to improve each other's capabilities, as well as tricky one-two punches on the enemy. Some of these take a certain amount of finesse, so often a good, old fashioned "group select and attack move" is in order to keep up the pressure and buy some time to pull out a trick or two.

A system we call "Tactical Dynamics" is at the heart of the hard choices we give to players - it's the ability to customize your units on-the-fly. Each faction manifests this ability in a different way, and for now, we're only talking about the customizable sockets on the Hierarchy's war machines. These enable players to build everything from autonomous guns of many varieties, shields, armor, heat sinks, devices that give special passive or activated abilities, buffs, debuffs, mind control, radiation, mutation, repair, production capabilities—too many to name. How you customize your war machines is an important part of your tactical build order game.

IGNPC: What sorts of units can we expect? Are we talking smaller units or huge intergalactic units like Supreme Commander is offering up? Will these units be persistent as well and gain experience and power through a campaign?

Steve Copeland: You can expect a large selection of interesting units that make up extremely diverse factions, using unique technologies. Each faction is strongly themed with specific strengths and weaknesses. Scale is only one facet of this diversity.

The Hierarchy have enormous vehicles that each basically act as a portion of the player's base (as well as many small supporting units). When creating units that are so large, we felt that we needed to go the extra mile to make them feel like they are believably present in the world, and move in a way that conveys their mass and scale. We did this by building a large amount of interactivity into these vehicles, both in how the vehicles interact with the world and how the player interacts with the vehicle. Something so massive doesn't just nimbly move around the battlefield; as such, it needs to have plenty of interesting decisions to be made about its functionality and behavior. UaW: Earth Assault has this in spades.

Whatever units the player decides to include with their various hero's strike force will persist. There isn't a linear path of experience for units. Instead the player chooses, through research, how he will continuously evolve and improve his heroes and other units. Research decisions persist and can be changed as the game progresses.

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IGNPC: What kinds of objectives will players need to think about when they're dropped into tactical mode? Is it going to be mostly seek and destroy?

Steve Copeland: In the global game, a player had better have put some thought into his plan before being dropped into tactical mode. Each Strike Force and hero has strengths and weaknesses that will determine their appropriateness for leading the troops into a given situation. Is a surgical strike in order to take out one of the territory upgrades your enemy is using for global advantage? Would it be best to just take a bunch of units and roll over my opponent? Or is this strike force going to dig in, build a base, and stage a full-on war over the region (often the only way to take out a massive war facility)? An endeavor like this could be worthwhile to cause your opponent a significant setback in economics, research, production capabilities, or to destroy a global mega-weapon.

There are also many high-level decisions to make in the shorter, one-off, tactical only games. We're big fans of both macro and micro management challenges, so we've made a game where both are important. To elaborate on the macro game: you've got to consider if you're going to force early tech versus early units, which research path you're going to advance, map control, economic game, harassment and distractions, how much effort to put into scouting. Scouting is key. The information you have will better let you head your opponent off strategically and give you valuable clues for how to best customize your units. All of the good stuff from your favorite RTS games is in there, with a good amount of fresh gameplay around each faction's specific researchable capabilities, unit customization, and other features.

IGNPC: What kinds of new features can we expect from multiplayer? We've heard you were inspired by MMOs and other online environments. Care to explain?

Ted Morris: For me, multiplayer is where it's at - and that feeling is shared by many others on the team. It's central to the game's core offerings, which is why we're moving beyond just the standard head-to-head and team battles for this game. We've taken a lesson from some of our favorite MMOs on what gets people hooked and keeps them coming back for more and incorporated some of those aspects into Universe at War.

Just to be clear, we're not creating an MMO - we're creating a game where players can expect to have short term battles that help accomplish a longer term goal. In the game lobbies those accomplishments will equate to bragging rights, but in the game they are a more tangible benefit that enhances certain aspects of your force. Some of these goals will take an hour to complete; others may take a month or more. Our mission is to give players something to do every time they log in and play.

One of my favorite multiplayer features is a mode we're calling "Conquer the World". Players are given a 3D view of the entire planet, showing what territories or continents they currently own. Conquering another location means challenging another player, and your progress is tracked and shown to others. It's a little bit bloodthirsty, but everyone will have a chance to achieve the highest honors. So, instead of logging in and just playing a random map, players will have clear objectives to grab for and a way to progress themselves forward.

With that said, we'll still have a way to match players of similar skill levels against each other and let the best of the best fight it out for recognition on the leaderboards. Our plan is to make sure the community is well supported with lots of giveaways, contests, additional content, and ongoing support.

IGNPC: How long have you been at work on Universe at War and when can we hope to see the game working?

Ted Morris: We've been hard at work for over a year now, and the finish line is finally coming into sight. You'll see the game sooner rather than later given we're planning for a multiplayer beta test and demo later this year. If everything goes as well as it has so far, you can expect to see Universe at War: Earth Assault on shelves in Q4 2007.

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