EaW - Official News&Info

[Cain]

You may find this infos interesting ,

 

Welcome to Star Wars: Empire at War, a breathtaking new Real-Time Strategy game from Petroglyph and LucasArts where you control the fate of the galaxy. Set after Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and before Episode IV: A New Hope, you can choose to play on the side of the growing Rebel Alliance, or align with the dark side and play as the Galactic Empire. Star Wars: Empire at War is galactic in scope and allows you to fight epic space battles in orbit around familiar worlds, as well as engage in spectacular planetary incursions on a variety of diverse terrains. Many classic Star Wars units are available to play with - from star fighter squadrons, military frigates, and immense capital ships to planetary assault vehicles, super weapons, and Rebel infantry and Stormtrooper companies. In addition, legendary Star Wars heroes will follow your orders, using their Force powers and abilities to swing the tide of battle in their favor. All combat units and base structures persist throughout the game so when they survive a battle, they live on to fight again wherever they are needed. Star Wars: Empire at War is your chance to ultimately rewrite the history of the Star Wars universe - May the Force be with you!

 

Michael Legg

Lead Programmer - Petroglyph

 

and this one:

 

Greetings from the hidden Rebel Base,

 

I?d like to welcome and thank all of you for taking an interest in Star Wars Empire at War. We are very excited about this game, and it sounds like you are too.

 

Our goal with Empire at War is to put the focus back on the battles in both space and ground while getting rid of the tedious resource gathering aspects. Notice that I said getting rid of tedious resource gathering, not resource management. Managing resources and making strategic decisions regarding what you want to build, deploy and research is half the fun; having droids chop down trees isn?t. In EAW, players gain resources, heroes and special abilities by conquering and controlling planets. We want to remove the tedious aspects from the traditional combat strategy games and provide players with more opportunities to battle, build and strategize rather than collect, mine and chop.

 

We are also very excited about the persistent world we are creating. This freeform universe ties the space and land battles together and allows players to choose where, when and why they enter into a battle. The player chooses which side they wish to fight for and how their own personal story will evolve. Persistency fundamentally changes how and why you fight in combat.

 

For example, I could choose to enter a combat situation knowing that I?ll lose the battle. Why would I do that? Well, I might have spotted a huge fleet heading toward one of my prized planets and decided that it?s worth losing a few squadrons of X-wings to take out his transports containing his valuable and expensive AT-ATs. If I?m lucky, I can destroy the transports quickly and retreat before he can destroy my X-wings. Without his AT-ATs, he may decide that invading my planet would be suicide.

 

Since the entire universe and units are persistent, every battle and every unit is important. I tend to fight my battles down to the last man (rather than retreating) because I know that every enemy unit I manage to destroy is one less unit I?ll have to fight in the future.

 

I also wanted to take this opportunity to tell you some of the things we are currently working on. From a development standpoint, we have a stable and great-looking rendering engine running with all of the basic systems up and running. That includes space combat, ground combat, galactic campaigns, scenarios, multiplayer and a fairly robust AI to challenge us. For the past month, the team has been working hard on improving the AI, unit balancing, user interface, base building, space and land maps, camera enhancements, voice recordings and refining the opening cutscene.

 

As you can see, we are quite busy these days. Our goal is to have a polished version ready to show at the Star Wars Celebration next month and an even better version to show at E3 in May. We will be updating our website with new information and screenshots in the weeks to come. And as time permits, we will also be responding to this community in the form of direct replies, FAQ and designer diaries.

 

A lot is going on with EAW, and there?s a lot more we will be sharing with you in the coming months.

 

May the Force be with you. Always?

 

Brett Tosti

Producer

LucasArts

 

http://forums.lucasarts.com/thread.jspa?threadID=26333&tstart=0

 

In case you wanted to know .... and the super weapon is the Death Star btw.

 

Seeya

[vakundok]

Did they really think those would be inspiring?

It is a major step for them (as developers) to change from the warcraft/dune/c&c system, but it is not from the POV of the gamers. Panzer General was published a decade ago and it had persisting units and an other resource system than "send your peasants to cut trees even during battles". That system was for mission based games where you start with basicly nothing and have to build a base first (again and again).

 

They show things as extremely cool and new features that are very basic requirements nowadays. (Were cool new features four to eight years ago.)

 

To me, "galactic in scope" means that the enemy can always retreat and I have no chance to defend all of my planets simoultaneously. This can be reached both by the size and reaction (travelling) speed. Rebellion reached (or tried to reach) it by really lowering the hyperspace speeds.

 

I would really like to know about games where the AI is finished and works beforethe graphic engine.

 

Balancing a game can easily ruin the SW in it, so I hope they do it really carefully.

[Guest JediIgor]

Did they really think those would be inspiring?

It is a major step for them (as developers) to change from the warcraft/dune/c&c system, but it is not from the POV of the gamers. Panzer General was published a decade ago and it had persisting units and an other resource system than "send your peasants to cut trees even during battles". That system was for mission based games where you start with basicly nothing and have to build a base first (again and again).

Well, most of the things they said seem like PR bullshit to me. I'm glad you saw through it too. All of those things have been done in previous games like you said .

 

Greetings from the hidden Rebel Base,

 

Our goal with Empire at War is to put the focus back on the battles in both space and ground while getting rid of the tedious resource gathering aspects. Notice that I said getting rid of tedious resource gathering, not resource management.

Umm.. ok.. didn't Force Commander and Rebellion do this?

 

Managing resources and making strategic decisions regarding what you want to build, deploy and research is half the fun; having droids chop down trees isn?t. In EAW, players gain resources, heroes and special abilities by conquering and controlling planets.

Holy crap, in Rebellion you too gain resources by controlling planets!

We want to remove the tedious aspects from the traditional combat strategy games and provide players with more opportunities to battle, build and strategize rather than collect, mine and chop.

Like pretty much any turn-based strategy game out there? Whoa.. brand new stuff. I mean really.

 

We are also very excited about the persistent world we are creating. This freeform universe ties the space and land battles together and allows players to choose where, when and why they enter into a battle. The player chooses which side they wish to fight for and how their own personal story will evolve. Persistency fundamentally changes how and why you fight in combat.

Yeah, cause it's not like there was persistency in any previous 4X games, Rebellion, or the Total War series, or any war game for that matter. It's been done.

 

For example, I could choose to enter a combat situation knowing that I?ll lose the battle. Why would I do that? Well, I might have spotted a huge fleet heading toward one of my prized planets and decided that it?s worth losing a few squadrons of X-wings to take out his transports containing his valuable and expensive AT-ATs. If I?m lucky, I can destroy the transports quickly and retreat before he can destroy my X-wings. Without his AT-ATs, he may decide that invading my planet would be suicide.

Or maybe the other play doesn't need to be stupid and hide his AT-AT transports behind the capital ships? I sure hope the AI isn't stupid like that.

 

I also wanted to take this opportunity to tell you some of the things we are currently working on. From a development standpoint, we have a stable and great-looking rendering engine running with all of the basic systems up and running. That includes space combat, ground combat, galactic campaigns, scenarios, multiplayer and a fairly robust AI to challenge us. For the past month, the team has been working hard on improving the AI, unit balancing, user interface, base building, space and land maps, camera enhancements, voice recordings and refining the opening cutscene.

So does every other AAA title. How about something we haven't heard?

 

In case you wanted to know .... and the super weapon is the Death Star btw.

Seeya

It's always the death star isn't it?

 

By the way, I'll be less cynical when the developers start giving us less bullshit. Just look at some Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion interviews, they are very careful about what they say (and they just give off a good vibe).

[DarthFelth]

i agree with you jedi, after force commander i lost faith in lucus arts just as i lost faith in lucus after attack fo the clones. well i guess with the time period the death star makes sense but why not do a new time period, with the imps acting like the rebels did in rebellion as this might make the game that little bit more orignal cos really does every game need vader and the emperor in, you could have orignal dark jedi or even no dark jedi.

 

the star wars universe has so much to offer yet all the games seem to be based around the same period, how many different ways can the same story be told.

[Cain]

Ok guy's ...instead of giving so much criticism here ....why you don't post on the Lucas main official EaW Forum ?! That forum is seen by LEC and by the EaW Petro guy's.

 

The game is pretty much finished now ... but i'm sure that some constructive criticism will help to avoid some minor mistakes.

 

... I really want this game to be relaxing and fun....I want it to make me play it again and again like Rebellion....and I'm personally happy that not LEC is fully behind it .... Petro has something to say in this game creation and it is their first game .... they are tring hard you know ! .... the only problem is that they are under contract to not say much until May ....

 

.... I give up .... i'm fighting a war that I cannot win now

[vakundok]

Possibly because you fight a war which does not exist.

 

I think, all of us agree that we would like to play good SW strategy games and we are happy about that Lucasarts (that presumabely does have the money to create quality) has not yet given up the idea of creating (sponsoring) one.

 

However. Many of the gamers are quite fed up with the current form of capitalism, where the marketing is the value instead of the product itself. I think all of us saw overenthusiasted games to be, well, poor (to say the least), for quite a price.

 

I hope you will also agree, that what is currently known about EaW is the larger part plain marketing (basicly along the "simply the best game with totally new and cool features" line) and the smaller part (the actual facts) is not that promising. (With "promising" I mean promising over the level what is expected from the older LEC games plus the elapsed time since they were published.)

 

All of us (I bet that even Jedi Igor) hope that it will be a good game. It is only that many of us are tired with the marketing promises turning out to be empty.

[Cain]

Well most of the work for EaW is done by Petro not LEC ...in my opinion ... and they are tryng hard to do a very good RTS .... what can I say I never asked why they signed all this marketing secrecy until May but then they know better.... the Petro guys are quite the oposite of LEC in terms of thinking. i'm sure they will do a good job or at least satisfactory one.

 

 

...if they will forget something ...then ...we will be there to mod it.

[Jahled]

Possibly because you fight a war which does not exist.

 

[Cain]

 

 

... one day Jahled ! .... one day / I just need a bit more time ... and then I will have a big surpirse for you ... ... I hope it will be a plesant one.

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

...the Petro guys are quite the oposite of LEC in terms of thinking. i'm sure they will do a good job or at least satisfactory one.

 

You really won't be able to tell whether this is true or not until the game is actually released. I'm sure they are posting on forums with the expected "Thanks for the input! We'll put it to use!", but in the end it's nothing but fluff. Almost every game with a forum of its own has devs posting, trying to keep the community hyped up, so unless you're privy to information the rest of the world isn't, I'd say you've fallen victim to their ploy.

 

As for the fact that Petroglyph is the primary company developing EaW, that's also moot. Sure, it's their guys doing the work, but LucasArts still owns the title. I think we all know who's really calling the shots.

[Jahled]

 

 

... one day Jahled ! .... one day / I just need a bit more time ... and then I will have a big surpirse for you ... ... I hope it will be a plesant one.

 

Well, I hope it's a happy one!

 

But with all respect, I understand you not. You appear to be an marketing department's wet dream. What's you signiture all about? You haven't played this game yet go on and on about it as if quite frankly you know all about it. So what are you on about here about EaW? Essentially I detect the negative feedback here at least to be from experiance concerning hype. You in particular seem to have been so overwelmed by it, which in turn I simply don't understand. Why all this continued energy into promoting something you haven't yet had any experiance of?

Edited April 1, 2005 by Jahled

[DarthFelth]

I agree with everyone but Caine I stand by my earlier points and also the last really good Lucus arts game i played was x-wing vs Tie Fighters, i havent played the jedi knight tales of the jedi rpg thing, i didnt bother with star wars galaxies cos i wanna be a dark jedi but they make it so hard (from what i hear) The Jedi knight Series wasnt that great to be fair, dark forces2 i like alot, jedi knight2/dark forces3, whatever was ok but the plot wasnt anything special and jk3 well modders have done most of that stuff on their own anyways.

 

Empire at war, well, hmm, it could be very good but the last westwood game i played was only good cos i got to rip men apart with russian dogs so i dunno. time will tell

[Guest]

Why all this continued energy into promoting something you haven't yet had any experiance of?

 

 

....it means that I know something that you don't know. I will try to convince Ismael to post here, but i'm not sure. Ohhhh ..... well I give up on posting stuff about EaW.

[Guest]

Esta fechado e as chaves ficaram dentro.

[Trejiuvanat]

Esta fechado e as chaves ficaram dentro.

 

Portuguese? It's closed and xxxx is inside?

[Cain]

Trej stop posting in that language

[Jahled]

Esta fechado e as chaves ficaram dentro.

 

Holy wamprats!! Ignore this you must for it was me. I was trying to figure out how Cain 2 posted as a guest and then couldn't deleate it!

 

Then I forgot all about it!!! Zouch! It wasn't posted to antagonize!!

 

Oh, it is Portuguese, top of my head translates something like 'the car door is locked and the keys are on the inside!'