Concerns About Empire At War

[Akula_pff]

First off, from the previews I have seen so far the game looks awesome but I do have a couple of concerns.

 

1. I want continuity with the other Star Wars games that have been previously published. So rather then seeing lots of new units designed specifically for this game I would rather see the ground units from Force Commander and Galactic Battlegrounds, as well as the Ships from the X-Wing series and Rebellion over new designs.

For example some units that we haven't seen in screen shots yet:

 

Lancer

Carrack

Bulk Cruiser

Strike Cruisers

Alliance or Imperial Carriers

Bulwark Battle Cruiser

Dreadnought

Assault Frigate

Liberator Cruiser

2 Winged Nebulon B Frigate

Super Star Destroyer

Rebel Tanks from Force Commander and Galactic Battlegrounds

AT-PT's

CIS Starships from Revenge of the Sith(I think you could argue that after the CIS defeat some of these ships fell into Rebel hands??)

MC-40 Light Mon Calamari ships

Ocean going units would also be fun to have

 

2. One of the things that disappoint me most in RTS games is the lack of a wide variety of units; I hate RTS games that give say 10 different Units rather giving the player a wide variety of choices.

 

3. How easy will it be to make mods for the game, one detractor of Rebellion and Galactic Battlegrounds was the inability to add new units without replacing existing ones.

[General Ackbar]

First off, from the previews I have seen so far the game looks awesome but I do have a couple of concerns.

 

1. I want continuity with the other Star Wars games that have been previously published. So rather then seeing lots of new units designed specifically for this game I would rather see the ground units from Force Commander and Galactic Battlegrounds, as well as the Ships from the X-Wing series and Rebellion over new designs.

For example some units that we haven't seen in screen shots yet:

 

Lancer

Carrack

Bulk Cruiser

Strike Cruisers

Alliance or Imperial Carriers

Bulwark Battle Cruiser

Dreadnought

Assault Frigate

Liberator Cruiser

2 Winged Nebulon B Frigate

Super Star Destroyer

Rebel Tanks from Force Commander and Galactic Battlegrounds

AT-PT's

CIS Starships from Revenge of the Sith(I think you could argue that after the CIS defeat some of these ships fell into Rebel hands??)

MC-40 Light Mon Calamari ships

Ocean going units would also be fun to have

 

2. One of the things that disappoint me most in RTS games is the lack of a wide variety of units; I hate RTS games that give say 10 different Units rather giving the player a wide variety of choices.

 

3. How easy will it be to make mods for the game, one detractor of Rebellion and Galactic Battlegrounds was the inability to add new units without replacing existing ones.

 

 

yea i agree with some of your concerns. im sure they havent announced all the units yet, given its still a year or more away from release.

 

id prefure them not to make new units on their own too. id rather have things from the movies,games, and EU in.

 

 

one thing we havent heard anything about is sea units. (which you pointed out and didnt notice before lol). it brings up a interesting point. planets like mon calamari dont have much land, so how would you capture it?

[Ghostly_Substance]

First off, from the previews I have seen so far the game looks awesome but I do have a couple of concerns.

 

1. I want continuity with the other Star Wars games that have been previously published. So rather then seeing lots of new units designed specifically for this game I would rather see the ground units from Force Commander and Galactic Battlegrounds, as well as the Ships from the X-Wing series and Rebellion over new designs.

For example some units that we haven't seen in screen shots yet:

 

Lancer

Carrack

Bulk Cruiser

Strike Cruisers

Alliance or Imperial Carriers

Bulwark Battle Cruiser

Dreadnought

Assault Frigate

Liberator Cruiser

2 Winged Nebulon B Frigate

Super Star Destroyer

Rebel Tanks from Force Commander and Galactic Battlegrounds

AT-PT's

CIS Starships from Revenge of the Sith(I think you could argue that after the CIS defeat some of these ships fell into Rebel hands??)

MC-40 Light Mon Calamari ships

Ocean going units would also be fun to have

 

2. One of the things that disappoint me most in RTS games is the lack of a wide variety of units; I hate RTS games that give say 10 different Units rather giving the player a wide variety of choices.

 

3. How easy will it be to make mods for the game, one detractor of Rebellion and Galactic Battlegrounds was the inability to add new units without replacing existing ones.

 

Welcome to the boards

1 & 2) Well I found that as a contradiction (sp) You dont want knew units but you want lots of units from games and movies. Well if you want lots of units they're being pulled from EU, theres only one unit I found I neve saw and it was for the Rebels, that AT-ST like thing (Pod Walker). Ya water units would be a nice edition to some planets. Have that AT-AT Swimmer and such.

 

3) How easily will it to be modded ? Was said to be modded easily. Well I like what you said about creating new units with out replacing another unit.

[TSKNF]

First off, from the previews I have seen so far the game looks awesome but I do have a couple of concerns.

 

1. I want continuity with the other Star Wars games that have been previously published. So rather then seeing lots of new units designed specifically for this game I would rather see the ground units from Force Commander and Galactic Battlegrounds, as well as the Ships from the X-Wing series and Rebellion over new designs.

For example some units that we haven't seen in screen shots yet:

 

Lancer

Carrack

Bulk Cruiser

Strike Cruisers

Alliance or Imperial Carriers

Bulwark Battle Cruiser

Dreadnought

Assault Frigate

Liberator Cruiser

2 Winged Nebulon B Frigate

Super Star Destroyer

Rebel Tanks from Force Commander and Galactic Battlegrounds

AT-PT's

CIS Starships from Revenge of the Sith(I think you could argue that after the CIS defeat some of these ships fell into Rebel hands??)

MC-40 Light Mon Calamari ships

Ocean going units would also be fun to have

 

Ok, sorry, but a lot of that stuff won't be in the game, hand's down. They either don't have room fo rthem in th etech tree, or they want to balance th egame out without having to answer to all th eflipping fans who think it would be cool to cram all this stuff into the game btu th edevelopers shoudl rather be given the time and space to make th egame as they see fit and make it a great game at that.

 

2. One of the things that disappoint me most in RTS games is the lack of a wide variety of units; I hate RTS games that give say 10 different Units rather giving the player a wide variety of choices.

Units will have a wide variety of abilitites as well as the number of unit types as well. Remember wide variety does not equal lots of strategy.

 

3. How easy will it be to make mods for the game, one detractor of Rebellion and Galactic Battlegrounds was the inability to add new units without replacing existing ones.

It's looking pretty good right now. Remember that once you get around the interface most games can be heavily modded. Look at BMFE.

 

Sorry but a lot of your grievences look face-value an dyou don't seem to have thought about it a lot. Sure it seems like a great Idea to have all this stuff but does it necessarily help the game?

[Akula_pff]

This game is designed to be a simulation of the Star Wars Universe; the Star Wars Universe is diverse. In order to have a simulation, the simulation must also be diverse. Diversity can and does equal more strategic options. For example look at Star Fleet Command based on Star Fleet Battles. This game is one of the most diverse games out their and it has enjoyed lots of success. One of things that made Galactic Battle grounds and Rebellion fun to play was the wide diversity, in a balanced structured setting.

 

If you’re going to create a limited number, of brand new units for your Star Wars game is it really Star Wars anymore or just a game that has a few Star Wars units?

 

I'm not against creating new units or judging the game already, but if you have a large variety of perfectly good units in the Star Wars heritage why go out and create new ones and not include the ones already in existence???

[TSKNF]

This game is designed to be a simulation of the Star Wars Universe; the Star Wars Universe is diverse. In order to have a simulation, the simulation must also be diverse. Diversity can and does equal more strategic options. For example look at Star Fleet Command based on Star Fleet Battles. This game is one of the most diverse games out their and it has enjoyed lots of success. One of things that made Galactic Battle grounds and Rebellion fun to play was the wide diversity, in a balanced structured setting.

 

If you’re going to create a limited number, of brand new units for your Star Wars game is it really Star Wars anymore or just a game that has a few Star Wars units?

 

I'm not against creating new units or judging the game already, but if you have a large variety of perfectly good units in the Star Wars heritage why go out and create new ones and not include the ones already in existence???

First no it is not a simulation of the star wars universe. It's a game. There are only a few new units. But the fact is that I tried to get across is that if they don't need the EU units, they don't need the EU units. They invent new stuff if they can't find something from the SW archives that does the right job. Besides the EU is big; they could easily have overlooked a lot of stuff.

The game will be only 30% developer invented stuff anyway, so don't worry. Unless you haven't noticed, go look at the screenshots and tell me that's not Star wars.

[Overkill]

Welcome to the boards.

 

While I like lots of units its hard to have a lot of units while I have no knowledge of EU how much EU stuff is just the same thing as somthing else with minor differences. I would love having those ties that are piloted by AI but how would that fact be shown with a useful ability?

[Cain]

Welcome pls. enjoy your time with us.

[Guest JediIgor]

Agreed with point #1. Forget balance .

[Cobra848]

Agreed with point #1. Forget balance .

 

Are you joking?

 

 

A game like EaW doesn't need a lot of units, just a few for each major class.

I don't mind if you can upgrade a class of ship, like Y-wing to B-wing, or a older vessal for a newer type. In a building option there shouldn't be a lot of ships that do the same thing. Having to much is a bad thing to some RTS games. Also if all the stats are different for each ship, it would cause a problem for balance. What ever they give us, will be good enough. You will have a wide variety in types of units.

 

Yet them make their own units if need be. They are good at creating their own ideas.

 

 

I would hate if mods were so easy, that anyone could make them. I say thins because there would be a lot of bad maps, mod maps, andmods out there. I love mods, but I hate bad mods. I hope it will be easy for anyone who does know how to mod. You need not concern yourself if modding is easy.

[Rogue NineCH]

and maintain balance between the sides. While it would be cool to have tons of units for both sides, there comes a point where they are redundant. Having more than two units for a specific combat function is not practical. For instance, it makes no sense to have fifteen different kinds of bombers. You could go on and on for every type of unit in EAW, and then what about balance? You can't have one side that completely overmatches the other, the game would suck. Also you have to take into account game performance. More units means more demands on the PC, and Game developers want their game to appeal to the widest audience possible. You can't have the minimum specs start at 3 GHZ, because not everyone has that fast of a computer right now.

 

Now as for the units you mentioned, I would like to see most of those in EAW. However I seriously doubt we have seen all the units that are playable, so we have nothing to worry about.

[TSKNF]

Agreed with point #1. Forget balance .

 

Are you joking?

 

Yep, he was

 

I would hate if mods were so easy, that anyone could make them. I say thins because there would be a lot of bad maps, mod maps, andmods out there. I love mods, but I hate bad mods. I hope it will be easy for anyone who does know how to mod. You need not concern yourself if modding is easy.

Modding helps increase a game's longetivity, and I see no reason to hinder people coming up with maps to share between them and their friends, you don't have to download them. Also Easy modding let's the good mods come out quicker and better. So let them mod, let them mod.

[Cobra848]

Some games you can down;load the map right before you play it. And some mod maps you can play without downloading. I know all about how great mods help with longetivity. For example, the gaming market crashed in 1983 because there were a lot of bad games(I know thats not the only reason it crashed). I perfer that modders have to have some skills instead of none at all.

[TSKNF]

Some games you can down;load the map right before you play it. And some mod maps you can play without downloading. I know all about how great mods help with longetivity. For example, the gaming market crashed in 1983 because there were a lot of bad games(I know thats not the only reason it crashed). I perfer that modders have to have some skills instead of none at all.

 

True, and many modders have a lot of skill, and sometimes their maps are suited to their preferances, but I don't think it's worth hindering the good modders just to keep the number of bad maps down.

[Gen.Vader]

also the easier moodding abilities might get alot of good modders,affter they make 30 bad ones....

you also dont need to play them

[Swiftdraw]

My only concern is I'll go mad with impaticence before it gets out...

 

Seriously though, many "disappointments" can be rectified through a good mod. I'm sure EaW will be mod-able enough, the problem will lie within the people. You get a lot of big talkers and it never amounts to anything no matter how mod-able the game is. This is because they figure out how difficult it is to actually put something out. This is definitly a problem when your talking about adding new content like races, ships, and such.

Remember also these things take time. Larger and more complexe the mod, longer it takes and that dis-courages a lot of people, myself included. I sunk 3 years into a Neverwinter Nights mod that never saw the light of day (though the other two conspirators may still be working on it. Doubt it though, they were cursing it as much as I.) On that note: don't expect anything worth while untill roughly 2 months after the release of the core game (at the very earliest) and even then the mod will most likely be an early beta and not anything very complexe. Something like a new ship class maybe. Takes time to learn the new system and then actually make something.

Another situation that may crop up is a database for these mods and getting fan awarness to these databases. Getting everything together in one spot is very helpful to the causual gamer who just wants to extend the life of the game a bit by adding something different. You don't want to dig through 2,500 Google entries to find a decent mod!!! No, you want something that sets everything in front of you like a buffet table, allowing you to choose what you want with ease. I doubt we'll get the amount a game like UT2k4 gets, but gathering all the mods together in one place will take up tons of room. Un-fortantly there is no magic server fairy that makes these sites suddenly appear. No, someone will have to buy server space and get a website up to show off the mods in all their glory. Again that requires as much dedication as someone trying to make a mod to go on that site.

Fan awarness may be another problem. If people who play the game don't realize a potentally good mod is out there, I ask of you, whats the point of making it? Even on a forum such as this, how any people who actually buy the game come across this site? Offical support is a really nice thing to have. Like on the offical EaW homepage have a link to some fan sites that have a open database of mods to download and upload. If the EaW game has an auto-updater so these people don't have to go to the site, have a newsletter thing that points out these fansites pop-up. If sites don't get enough traffic, they tend to dry up and dis-appear leaving us with no organized source from which to get mods from.

But again, this also comes around to the fact people are going have to sink in the time and effort to make decent mods and communicate with eachother to get a community going and fill up these sites, to show the powers-that-be we care enough about this game to get some offical support, which in turn may help us draw attention to our mods. This may make someone say "Hey!!! I can do better than that!!!" and in turn add to modding community. Then again, maybe not, but we can't do it without trying. So kiddies, brush up on your coding skillz, learn 3D Rendering, dig up some rendering and texturing programs, and start conspiring with some like minded folks if you want this game to be all you want it to.

 

[/rant]

 

I've no idea if that made sense... Its 10pm EST (so I'm tired) and I just got off of Evilavatar (so I'm ranty). Hope I made a point.