Designer Diary #1

[Guest JediIgor]

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/starwarsrts/preview_6131525.html to those who haven't seen it

 

On the one hand, most of it is good news, like a screenshot that shows an X-Wing doing a trench run, but on the other hand, one thing Joe Bostic said got me quite worried:

 

By carefully maneuvering through the cloaking effect of asteroid fields or other space "terrain," you can race in and destroy the enemy transports carrying ground troops before the enemy can react.

 

Am I missing something here? Won't most troops be carried by an Imperial Star Destroyer anyways, which under the official databank can carry a full stormtrooper division, 20 AT-ATs, 30 AT-STs, eight Lambda-class shuttles, 12 landing barges, and six TIE squadrons.. So how are they going to make a run for it and destroy the "transports" if all the troops are on the ISD initially?

 

Then at the last possible moment, while near the atmosphere, they would send landing barges and sentinels down to the ground, wouldn't they? Not individually from the start! The only way that quote would make sense if Petroglyph blundered and had transports separate from the capital ships, or if they were really talking about a surprise strike from the planet to take out the landing barges before they reach the ground but after passing the planetary shield.

 

 

Edit note : Topic title edited to be the dedicated topic to the Designer Diary #1 (Siddus).

[Swiftdraw]

I thought it was shown clearly earlier on that you could intercept troop transports entering the atmosphere. Actually, I think gamespot and some magazine had articles that featured this. It was shown that the Imperials destroyed the rebel space force over that planet and were sending down troops for a planet invasion, then the rebs sent up some ground based X-wings and took out 2 of the transports and a couple of the defending TIES.

[Guest JediIgor]

Swiftdraw, theoretically you are right, but I can't understand why he would say "cloaking effect of asteroid fields or other space "terrain,"" which have nothing to do with atmosphere at all!

[Joshinator]

An interesting question u pose. I worry it may be an oversight. In one of the Demos, u have Star Destroyers protecting land transports. This either indicates that the troop transports can't be docked on capital ships, making them completely vonerable all the time, Or there's a period of time it takes to load em up with troops, then dock with capital ships, requiring a no battle zone for them to dock. Maybe it's like u thought too. I wonder how it's gonna work. Perhaps for ballancing issues, they'll make troop ships "vonderable" to make playing more difficult. I hope they can be docked on capitals, then they can launches, and only briefly vonderalbe as they head to the planet, in which time rebels can attack with fighters, or vice versa.

[Stellar_Magic]

Well, maybe the asteroid fields he's refering to are close in to the planet like the asteroids around Geonosis or he's talking about hitting other transports. While an ISD can carry alot it can't carry enough troops to take on every landing in which case its only logical to build transport ships like Star Galleons. If you can take them out you'll be able to severly cut the number of troops dropped on the planet, right?

[The Saint]

Or maybe they dont let you load up the ISD with all those troops in the first place. Maybe you have to use transports anyway. Or maybe the ISDs dont carry as much as an ISD. Frankly, being able to attack the troop transports directly and run away is a lot better than running up against an ISD and trying the same thing.

[Cain]

We should analise again the 47 min video from E3. I have noticed this there ... transports staing outside ISDs before a battle. thats quite strange - we have no proof at this time that a transport can enter a ship.

 

...maybe before landing transports you need to keep them out a little - maybe they need some galactic air ...who knows what the desigenrs had in mind.

[Wiking_pff]

One example of this would be taking a small force of fast ships into a well-defended enemy system to use the ships' speed advantage. By carefully maneuvering through the cloaking effect of asteroid fields or other space "terrain," you can race in and destroy the enemy transports carrying ground troops before the enemy can react.

 

As far as I understand this, the point is that your fast ships would use asteroids as cover for as long as possible, before jumping the transport that were on their way to the planet. So if a planet is surrounded by asteroids, you could sneak a pair of fast cap ships all the way to the planet undetected, jump the transports as they leave their capital ships, take out 2-3 of them, then retreat if possible.

 

At least that's how I see this part of the interview.

[Swiftdraw]

Swiftdraw, theoretically you are right, but I can't understand why he would say "cloaking effect of asteroid fields or other space "terrain,"" which have nothing to do with atmosphere at all!

 

Thats why I said they were entering the atmosphere, they weren't quite there yet. Maybe I should have just said going to the planet.

[Vader89]

While this interview (if thats what it is considered) was cryptic im looking forward to the upcoming ones very much and this one also gives us some things to argue about.

[Ghostly_Substance]

GS: We saw star destroyers and Calamari cruisers in action at the show, and we saw how different classes of ships travel on different "planes" (fighters travel on different axes than capital ships, for instance). Can we expect to see super star destroyers? How large can fleets eventually be, and how will larger space battles differ in pace and style from larger land battles?

 

 

 

Move as close as you can and engage those star destroyers at point-blank range.

JB: Fighters and capital ships do travel on "planes" for the most part, but once combat is engaged, there is a bit more freedom. Smaller ships can pass "over" the larger ships, and fighters can dive and weave freely about their targets. Fleets can be large, but there is a point of diminishing returns. Too many ships and it becomes difficult to maneuver, the fleet becomes vulnerable to area-of-effect missiles, and it would be difficult to properly manage each ship to maximum efficiency. Using "just enough" ships to win the battle is best since ships are a scarce resource, the galaxy is large, and one never really knows where the enemy will strike next

 

Its the second time he went around the question lol. And speaking of which some of them seem to be what we asked

[TSKNF]

Hmm...so transports won't be carried in Sd's? Oh well, no game's perfect.