SWR Protectorare : The Empire Strike Back (Review)

[Cain]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Cain2/TopPaper.jpg

 

The PTESB review is in memoriam of my father May the Force be with him were he is now!

 

A Star Wars Story: Mangal Rebellion Trilogy

 

Episode I.

 

1.0 They thought he was dead… They felt his disappearance. As Luke and Vader watched the Emperor flail down the long shaft to the Death Star’s core, they thought no one could have survived the fall, much less the explosion of the Death Star. And in a way, they were right. But any engineer would have realized that the Emperor’s body hitting the core could have never caused such an explosion. It must have been more than just the Emperor’s body that caused such a discharge in the reactor core. His body was fully charged with energy from the Dark Side, and when combined with the massive power of the Death Star a dimension rift was born. A gate was created between this dimension and another dimension. By this gate some part of the Emperor escaped….his ghost…his essence !

 

1.1 An old Jedi holocron made by Master Ikacn Mangal prophesized the possibility of using the power of the Force to tear such a hole in time and space, but no Sith Lord or Jedi Master had ever accumulated such power to reach this hypothesized dimension.

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Cain2/Image1.jpg

 

1.2 The ancient holocron dates from a time when the force was one for all her users. It said that there are multiple universes both close and far from this one. In this intradimensional space, there is a cycle of movement and a moment when the Force from this dimension can be linked with the Force from our closest parallel dimension. In honor of the wise master who made this prophecy, the ancients named that dimension the Sajuk’Otke’Mangal , the Close-One viewed by Mangal.

 

1.3 The Emperor Palpatine was as surprised as any to find himself in this new dimension. He awoke slowly to find that things were very similar, yet somehow different. He felt oddly linked with the Emperor from Mangal in a way that the force could not explain, but none of them realized that they were the same person…not until the end .

 

1.4 Events had not moved as rapidly in the Mangal dimension, and the Empire was still building their first Death Star at the moment of the dimension rift. But here the Empire had split its efforts for security’s sake and was building two death stars at the same time. The Second one only contained the energy core and some support structures.

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Cain2/Jery.jpg

 

It was used for power test’s and experiments. When the interdimensional explosion occured, in the Mangal they were testing a method of enhancing the power of the generator core. The composite energy structure of the Death Star Two vibrated at the same energy harmonic in both dimensions. A link was forged between the dimensions supported by the massive power of the Dark Side.

 

http://www.swrebellion.com/hosted/cain/Previews/9992.JPG

 

1.5 All the elements were in place for the prophecy to happen. As the rift was starting to appear the emergency alarm sounded on all the unfinished decks of the structure. In less than one minute the core was penetrated and a web of Dark Side energy breach the container field around the core and climb up a shaft, discharging into the nearest person from the core. The Imperial fleet officer collapsed as the Dark Side flowed into him. The discharge delayed the construction of this death star. Because of the massive number resources needed for two death stars, the Emperor decided to focus on the other one that was already in an advanced stage of development.

 

1.6 …On Coruscant in the Imperial palace a dark figure was speaking to a holo link…

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Cain2/Pp.jpg

 

- You know what to do Grand Admiral ! …..if they continue to support the rebels I will dissolve them !…I do not need a Senate to rule the Galaxy ! ….And you will finish the project in time !...No one can stop us !.... I will crush this insignificant Rebelli…on …..ahhhh [the Mangal Emperor stop’s talking and put his hand where his heart was... closing his eyes]

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Cain2/Havearrived.jpg

 

….ahhh….get me Lord Vader... there is a disturbance in the Force... I have not foreseen…

 

1.7 …on the Second Death Star….The Imperial officer, Kwazak Rakan, slowly woke up and didn't feel any different, but the our Emperor Palpatine was hiding within him. Bit by bit, Palpatine took over Rakan’s body just as he had taken over the Republic Senate in our dimension. Slowly but deadly, stealth was something Palpatine understood. He was so careful, Rakan and the others never knew. The Mangal Emperor felt the new power growing in Rakan. Always wanting his most powerful minions closest to him so he could watch and mold their progress,

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Cain2/Es.jpg

 

the Mangal Emperor constantly promoted Rakan and by the time of the destruction of the first death star Rakan was promoted to become the grand admiral of all imperial forces only days later...

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Cain2/Dr.jpg

 

1.8 In this dimension, Luke was able to focus on his training on Daggobah much more that in ours.

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Cain2/Mey.jpg

 

At the moment when he entered the tree cave, he realized the wisdom in leaving his lightsaber behind. Once in the cave, he had a vision of the menacing Vader raising his red lightsaber and he rushed to confront him, with a swift move Luke strike Vader’s head that was cut off. As the head rolled to Luke's feet, the helmet cracked open to reveal first Luke's face, but then a new face. Somehow it was familiar, then Luke realized it must be Vader's face. So similar to his own, he realized it was also his father's face when he was young. Vader's massive part mechanical body had never fallen, and now Luke saw its black armored hand outstretched as if asking for help. Calling to him. Then, the vision disappeared.

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Cain2/Luke.jpg

 

1.9 After overcoming his shock of realizing Vader was his father, Luke became convinced he could change his father only by not fighting him. He reflected back on Ben's sacrifice on the Death Star and wondered if Ben also had felt the only way to defeat Vader was for a loved one to try to show Vader what Vader had become by not resisting. He knew that his father has still the good side in him. However he knows how insane this would seem to anyone who had not shared his vision, so he says nothing to Yoda but begins to form a plan. When he goes to save his friends on Bespin City, doubt and fear first make him resist Vader,

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Cain2/Lv2.jpg

 

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/Cain2/Lv.jpg

 

but then he puts his lightsaber down. Vader again says, “Luke, I am Your Father !â€

Edited March 23, 2006 by Cain

[Stellar_Magic]

I remember this mod... and Cain, technically this isn't a review (I'll do that at a later date, but I'll have to go by memory because I've already got my own mod on my machine.)

 

I was going to ask if you could post both of Luke's images, the Pre-twins/Dagobah and the post-twins/Dagobah.

[Ghostly_Substance]

Its like a story But good enough at least I know what Cain's mod is about

[Cain]

Ok I uploaded more pics - just refresh this page 2-3 times to load them all.

 

 

SM I can't wait to see your review

[Foshjedi2004]

Can you post the images in a message cain?

[Cain]

Can you post the images in a message cain?

 

I don't get it - they are all up - refresh the page and scrool down true the story.

[Foshjedi2004]

Cain. Does luke have that mask on forever or will he go back to the face he was when he becomes a jedi knight?

[Darkmark]

It sounds like a really interesting story. If it wasn't for the fact I didn't have rebellion I'd try it out, it looks good.

[Stellar_Magic]

It's begun coming back to me... and the pet peeve (Yes I had a pet peeve about this mod).

 

I absolutely deplored how Luke looked in the mod, so when I installed it I changed Luke's card to something I liked more then a Vader head.

 

Other then that I had no complaints, though like with most everything I would have done a few things different but thats just me.

 

Okay so I'll start working on the review.

[Foshjedi2004]

Can you point me to the Mod itself.

[Cain]

Here it is

 

http://www.swrebellion.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=3

 

 

for download.

[Foshjedi2004]

Thanks Cain. Will upload the game tonight.

[Stellar_Magic]

Okay, heres my review... It's kind of short (But the mod doesn't change the mechanics of the game much at all so it doesn't warrant an enormous review like H2: Warlords or OFP: Conquer the Island.)

 

Review

Star Wars Rebellion: The Protectorate Modification : Empire Strike Back

 

Star Wars Rebellion is one of the longest surviving games in the Star Wars Universe. It is also among the most difficult acquire and modify. This is quite simply due to the game’s age. It has remained something of a cult classic among Star Wars fans due in part by Lucas Arts failure to create a suitable RTS of similar scope to rebellion. This doesn’t make it without a need for improvement.

 

The Protectorate Modification by Cain is an improvement over the original game in many respects, and is one of two TCs that strive to completely rework the graphics of the original game (The other is Rebellion: Reloaded a old project that remains at this point in the pre-release stages).

 

As a gamer I downloaded Protectorate ESB soon after its release and was once again re-immersed in the complex and ever changing world of Star Wars. The storyline may have been slightly different, but the game play and visual appearance of the game itself were remarkably improved. The artistic renderings of the original game designers had been replaced wherever possible by screenshots from the films, a marked improvement in my opinion. The graphic display of the Galaxy had been replaced by a photo of a real galaxy as well.

 

I also quickly discovered that the AI is markedly more aggressive in the mod. Later experimenting allowed me to figure out why this aggression occurred in game, the reduction in hyperspace travel time and tweaking of both side’s unit costs had produced this effect and I’ve used it as a reference for how to produce my own aggressive AI for my own, much smaller, mods. I’ve come to appreciate the amount of time tweaking the stats required to produce such an effect.

 

Unfortunately there are some things which felt somewhat wrong with the modification. Luke Skywalker doesn’t look like himself and his new appearance is more like a forced combination of an imperial officer image and Darth Vader’s image. The ship cards remain drawings when it would be relatively easy to change a portion of them to screens from the movies. Still these are relatively nitpicky details when compared to the overall size and scope of the changes in the game.

 

Overall it’s an excellent modification, 9/10 (I’ve only ever considered one mod 10/10 and that was Warlords).

[Cain]

Cool Review SM can you submit it also as a news on SWR ?!

 

Here are also some other recent quotes about PTESB:

 

".....it's the best TC released for Rebellion so far. It's simply complete and well working. There is a lot of work in it, and it was really worth, I cant tell you."

 

Loved that TC. It was great. I want to know how they got the Empire to get a SSD. I want that for my TC. The Republic needs a few certian ships.

 

I liked the fact that it took place in the Mangal dimension. It kind of gave the appearance that since it was new, anything could happen. My TC has nothing to do with Star Wars at all, so when someone plays it, they have no idea what to expect in terms of story. I liked that element in the Protectorate, too, especially with the new characters like Darth Rakam, etc. I didnt notice the rebellion being more aggressive though.

 

The TC was one of the best ever made for Reb challenging and fun to play.

 

I got Protectorate up and running and I deffinately like what I see... I started with the rebels ('cause I am a rebels type of guy...) and I liked how the Empire started out with a fairly decent size fleet + SSD haulin' ass at Hoth... The look of the Galaxy threw me of a bit but was deffinately a nice surprise. I loved how the earlier rebel warships were at least somewhat comperable to their Imperial counterparts... Absoulutely adore that Millenium Imperium... The changes in the fighters were ok too... I was a tad bit surprised to see Ozzle on my side and frankly I didn't really trust him so I've pretty much kept him on a low risk planet... See Luke come back with a Darth Vader Helmet and an Imperial Uniform was a bit of a switch... Oh and what is up with those Spy missions for the rebellion? Thought it was kool 1st time around but got a little annoying faily soon after...

 

But overall this is an Outstanding TC... deffinate thumbs up here...

 

... try the protectorate, the ai is better than the original

 

Great conversion. Just changed most of the ship models to the new textured ones and taadaa Like the changes and look forward to playing it some more!

 

Nice, I love this mod. Well made. Thanks for the great mod Cain!

[Stellar_Magic]

Well its not really news Cain, its been out for more then a year...

 

Maybe I'll attach it to the download as a comment.

[Cain]

Well its not really news Cain, its been out for more then a year...

 

Maybe I'll attach it to the download as a comment.

 

Remember that the Reloaded also had a "preview' so why not a Review News about the PTESB.

[Makwu]

I tried installing it a few months back with no luck. Also, does the mod have the new ship models or do you have to install those on their own?

[Cain]

Well no the mod has all that it needs - in particular - One new model and a lot of corrected old models - all fighters included.

 

 

1. Its basically an copy/paste operation step by step in the first part.

 

2. Its is followed by a load TC in the RebEd - and this should be all.

 

 

The instructions should be pretty clear - I recomand you to try to read the .ini (info) files.

[Andy1]

First I wish i had the game, secound I wish i knew how to set it all up :'(

[Cain]

First I wish i had the game, secound I wish i knew how to set it all up :'(

 

You instal the mod mainly by copy/pasteing some files over the original ones and then you load the stats with RebEd program.

[Darth Vader]

Incredibly cool! but I can't understand: is Vader going to be killed no matter what?

[Cain]

Incredibly cool! but I can't understand: is Vader going to be killed no matter what?

 

Well ... I was limited by the SWR engine and events I never considered the option to let him live - mostly because this mod was done around the time my father died.

[Guest]

I remeber when I posted in this topic twice and then they were deleted. And then the topic was locked so I couldn't post in here again............ Thank goodness for the wipe......

[Emperor_Cheeseman]

wow, did you actaully do anything besides cut and paste peoples heads around? this doesn't look like that great of a mod..but maybe I am wrong, perhaps I will see if I can get it to work