Comments - Features from the last previews

[Cain]

Hyperspace routes let you quickly and easily ferry ships and troops back and forth; so well-connected planets are easier to defend, while remote planets with few or no hyperspace routes may be tough to hold on to,

 

So you can fly outside the space routes area - nice - but only towards a planet and considerably slower. To bad that you cannot also stop in the emptyness of space.

 

Different planets may also house secret treasures, such as hidden ship designs (the Imperial forces may research upgrades for their ships and armies, while the Rebels must steal everything they can find)

 

Comme on - No research for the Rebels ?! They should be able to do some research at a slower rate. Much slower.

 

Chewbacca will be able to commandeer enemy vehicles, while Han Solo will be able to plant explosive charges

 

I assume this vehicles that you steal - will remain yours after the battle. Then I will have in time an Army of AT-ATs for the rebels ... he, he ,he

 

but in space, he'll be surrounded by wingmen TIE fighters who will soak up all incoming fire, making Vader impervious to damage until his squadron can be defeated.

 

Nice - it seems that some characters will be able to fly fighters. I wonder if Vader's fighter has hyperspace a engine.

 

and TIE tanks, which can self-destruct to cause a damaging explosion

 

I think that al the units should be able to self destruct.

 

star destroyers (which can create an unlimited number of low-level TIE fighters for space combat for free--also on a countdown timer),

 

Unlimited ?! Come on !

 

In a defensive position I will use them as TIE factories or I will delay the outcome of a battle that i'm wining just to produce more TIEs - a lot more of them - he he he I just need to wait for the timer to start again. It is not fair for ships to spwan infinite numbers of fighters and its extremly unrealistic.

 

further--in the single-player game, you can pause, slow down, or speed up time to better take in the action. In both single- and multiplayer, you can switch your view to a cinematic camera that swoops in and focuses on a battle's biggest scenes in a zoomed-in view. And in both single- and multiplayer, at any time, you'll have the option to auto-resolve a battle (which will calculate the result of a battle based on the relative strength of your units).

 

Nice - I was worried a bit about this option. good to know that they are in.

 

Bigger vessels like star destroyers can be extremely powerful allies in battle, because they have "hardpoints" along their hulls that can be outfitted with powerful cannons, shields, and other additions, but they can also be expensive sitting ducks if not properly defended

 

Now we asked Joe and he said that you can upgrade your hardpoints. This guys say the same it seems - but the LEC (D.S) sais you cant costumize them .... I'm confused.

 

Each planet you control comes with slots to build facilities and ten spaces for your standing army on the ground (additional troops can be kept on transports in orbit, but ten is the max on the surface).

 

Come on ! Is the planet too small and I need to keep my troops in space ? Loll - Very funny.

 

It still needs some polishing to iron out awkward angles and sometimes spastic jumping from view to view, but it gives you quite a rush to see those orders play out much as you could imagine it happening if you were directing your own Star Wars movie

 

I also heard that huge maps have some lag problems ... ... Is this true Delphi ?

 

you need to secure the space around a planet in order to begin your invasion, unless you happen to be the Rebels. Their counterbalance to the Death Star is an ability to blockade run a small force (up to four units) bypassing orbit and landing directly on a planet. It's sort of a guerilla warfare tactic that forces the Empire to devote a number of its forces to holding the planets it occupies, and it feels exactly like something you'd expect the Rebels to do.

 

The best feature yet ! I love it. It will be cool if you will see the ships passing thrue the planet athmosphere. Since you don't want to think that they are still in orbit. How will you explain that the Imperial fleet is not attacking them when you fight on land. Lets just say that they should fly on your screen over the land map and then release the transports ... etc. That will be cool.

 

A successful land grab attack can tip the scales in your favor, but you always have to be on the watch for the defenders circling behind you to recapture a reinforcement point and reduce your population cap.

 

Nice - I love an AI that has initiative. My main worry is that the AI will react excesivlly to your actions rearangeing his troops in the galaxy over and over again and he will not do enough powerful offensive moves. SW Rebellion had this problem. Your hit and run tactics were slowing down AI build up and planned attacks since he always abandoned his plans to do a stupid move as a reaction to another simple move by you.

 

So much of what makes Star Wars special are its characters. Luke, Leia, Obi-Wan, Vader and the list goes on. In Empire at War they live up to their reputation, with signature special abilities that make them a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Take the Emperor for instance with his force lightning that chains from unit to unit; or Admiral Ackbar with his concentrate fire that can focus every weapon in a fleet on a single target; or how about Han and Chewie, with their ability to become invulnerable in the Millennium Falcon; and what would it be without Luke having a lucky shot at his disposal in his trusty X-Wing? Using these was without doubt the most rewarding part of this hands-on playtime.

 

Nice - I love Ackbar's option. I wonder how he will fight on land.

[Wiking_pff]

Each planet you control comes with slots to build facilities and ten spaces for your standing army on the ground (additional troops can be kept on transports in orbit, but ten is the max on the surface).

 

Yeah this is kinda funny. "Sorry guys, no more room down here, but just take that transport over there and stay in orbit until we need ya!"

[WhiteSkull]

whats funny is the transports will be destroyed when the planet gets invaded by the space fleet lol

 

 

unless they make transports that can hide.

[Cain]

whats funny is the transports will be destroyed when the planet gets invaded by the space fleet lol

 

unless they make transports that can hide.

 

Ok now I am a bit worried - Delphi help pls. !

[Zer_Teron]

he said that you can upgrade your hardpoints. This guys say the same it seems - but the LEC (D.S) sais you cant costumize them .... I'm confused.

 

Uh Cain, Upgrading and custimizing are two very different things. Upgrading mean you could like make a ISD into a ISDII by clicking a button that upgrades its hardpoints so it has more weapons and such, while customizing would be able to swap an ion cannon for turbolaser such.

[Teradyn_pff]

Basically, this is a way to prevent the unlimited troops garrison, from what I understand. 10 is a bit silly in my opinion. The units are played like they are single units, but in actuality they are representing massive numbers of units. Imagine the entire planet of Coruscant guarded by 1 AT-AT, 2 AT-AAs, 3 AT-STs and 4 groups of Stormtroopers. In Empire at War this is the maximum (assuming all take only 1 slot) that you can defend your main base with as the Empire.

[Xenomorphine]

Chewbacca will be able to commandeer enemy vehicles, while Han Solo will be able to plant explosive charges

 

I assume this vehicles that you steal - will remain yours after the battle. Then I will have in time an Army of AT-ATs for the rebels ... he, he, he

 

Highly doubtful, as that side would not have the properly trained personnel to make much use of them, much less the right transports.

 

star destroyers (which can create an unlimited number of low-level TIE fighters for space combat for free--also on a countdown timer),

 

Unlimited ?! Come on !

 

In a defensive position I will use them as TIE factories or I will delay the outcome of a battle that i'm wining just to produce more TIEs - a lot more of them - he he he I just need to wait for the timer to start again. It is not fair for ships to spwan infinite numbers of fighters and its extremly unrealistic.

 

It would probably only be an ability in the midst of a battle. One extra group could be created (much like air strikes) with intervals of five minutes or so. Probably however long the designers think it would take for the previous amount to get blown up, which means it would be a generated replaceable attrition rate.

[Xenomorphine]

Basically, this is a way to prevent the unlimited troops garrison, from what I understand. 10 is a bit silly in my opinion. The units are played like they are single units, but in actuality they are representing massive numbers of units. Imagine the entire planet of Coruscant guarded by 1 AT-AT, 2 AT-AAs, 3 AT-STs and 4 groups of Stormtroopers. In Empire at War this is the maximum (assuming all take only 1 slot) that you can defend your main base with as the Empire.

 

That is why some of us hoped for a realistic method of having to destroy more than a single base before taking over an entire planet.

[Gen.Vader]

but then again your main task is to defeat them in orbit, and not on land, and you can call in reinforcements at any time, so its not like they wont have a little bit of help. and also, since this is such a large spectrum of a game, i assume land units, even the ATATs, 1 build group of them would prolly include 3 ATATS as 1 pop

 

but ISDSII, those are definately 1! or 2

[Teradyn_pff]

There are no ISD II, the tech doesn't go up that far, according to Petro.

 

Also, AT-AT are very likely to count as more than 1 for a single unit.

[Star Wars Man]

There are no ISD II, the tech doesn't go up that far, according to Petro.

 

Also, AT-AT are very likely to count as more than 1 for a single unit.

Maybe 3, Possibly 2 against the limit...

[Teradyn_pff]

And with a 10 unit limit on the ground, that isn't going to be anything close to what I would think a Planetary Invasion force would be like... there will be mods though.

[The Relentless]

There is a 10 slot unit pop-cap in ground combat? I thought that was the building cap.

[Teradyn_pff]

No, you can actually see the ground pop cap boxes in a recent screenshot. The ground pop cap is 10 (although that is upgradable I think). The space pop cap is 20 and that is not upgradable at all. The trick to that is that ISDs and such may cost more than 1 pop cap each so you will never have more than say 10 ISDs or 6, in a space battle at once. A lot of the details on how exactly this works and what each unit's pop cost is are still not clear.

[The Relentless]

Well the 20-slot unit cap in space is acceptable when you can always call reinforcements when your ships are destroyed, but 10 for ground is just too low. How is it even possible to effectively defend a planet with 10 or less units against a force that can land more troops again and again? If the enemy controls the space they are the only ones capable of landing more troops, so the pop cap doesn't hurt them. The defending force, however, will only have the original 10 units at their disposal. Insane.

[deriko]

The attacking force still has to capture reinforcement points, so they still do have a sort of pop cap. There are units that come with buildings that don't count against your pop cap on the planet you're defending I think, and you have turrents and stuff to help defend too. I bet it is possible for the defender to have reinforcements as well anyway.

[lordstorm88]

uhm what exactly prevents the opposing team from stationing troops at every reinforcement point and maybe building towers too?

[deriko]

They have to get to and capture the reinforcement point first. The defender isn't going to just leave the reinforcement point undefended either. I don't even know if the attacker can build towers at all either.

[lordstorm88]

uhm I meant the defender. can't the defender just bring ALL units right where the first reinforcement point is? or split them and send them to all the first possible reinforcement points and build towers there too

[deriko]

I don't think that you don't get to pick where your ground units start the battle on the map.

[lordstorm88]

then the attacker is almost certainly doomed. I guess thats what bomb runs are for.

[deriko]

I meant the defender doesn't get to pick where their units start

[Ghostly_Substance]

Well it depends what you bring down first that will spell out your outcome. Then its up to your skill to see if you can win the land maps. Use everything at your disposal and try and be sneaky

 

If all else fails lower the AI again and try going up the AI steps until you can succeed better Gonna start on medium AI in Campaign and fool around in skirmishes to learn new tricks.

[Infinite_Xero]

All this is a pathetic attempt to balance a game where the forces involved are not equal in any way and should never be

The population limits, the equal troop and ship numbers, the selective use of the timeline. i'm concerned

This seems to be turning into SWGB all over again

nothing but unit - counter unit garbage, in 3D

 

damn, i hope i'm wrong...

[Garbageben]

All this is a pathetic attempt to balance a game where the forces involved are not equal in any way and should never be

The population limits, the equal troop and ship numbers, the selective use of the timeline. i'm concerned

This seems to be turning into SWGB all over again

nothing but unit - counter unit garbage, in 3D

 

damn, i hope i'm wrong...

How do you program heart into a game? That's my question for you. Yes the Empire could whup the Rebels, but the Rebels had heart and fought harder. How can you program that into a game? You boost the Rebel stats of course. Now you say that this is a pathetic attempt to balance a game where forces are not equal and that is true that they are not equal but unbalanced sides make for a very poor RTS experience. Ladder games with an unbalanced Empire would be a joke if someone liked to use Rebels. What strategy is there to a game where you know you can overwhelm the other side into submission and never lose because you can have more and better equipped large capital ships at your disposal. Call me confused but playing the Battle for Middle-Earth I can say that it was so unbalanced it wasn't very fun at all although the fun came with playing against others in mp.

 

So before you start saying how pathetic their attempt at balancing is, just remember that it has to be balanced somehow. It's easy to be an Empire fan and say I want to crush the Rebels each time and such. On the flip side how about us rebel fans that would not enjoy the game as much because we couldn't even win a battle against the Empire. How many people would get a game that they knew if they played one side they'd win 90% of the time and the other side only wins 10% of the time.

 

I'm sorry for the length of this and all but I just needed to get some things out. I'm not mad at you, just trying to post a new view on things. Oh yeah and here's some humor. Your gigantic fleet with the DS has come in to destroy my base and you're winning big and suddenly your DS blows up. That'd be a moral victory.

 

P.S. - Can people stop spamming multiple topics about what amounts to the same thing in the GD forum? Maybe merge some of the similar topics? It gets depressing reading through all the negative posts and then trying to post a positive note about the game.