Re: Cain >< Stellar Mod reviews.

[Stellar_Magic]

I just had this idea, how about Tuesday, me and Cain download the newest version of each other's mod and write a short review about it. Edited February 7, 2006 by Cain

[Cain]

You got a deal !

[Stellar_Magic]

I thought you'd like the idea  ;D

[Megajames]

hay, can I write a review as well

[Stellar_Magic]

I'll be releasing a new version pretty soon, we should wait and download tommorrow so we both have the most advanced version of each mod.

[Megajames]

new version, YEY , sorry you can deleat this if you want

[Stellar_Magic]

Yeah indeed... I just spent almost my whole afternoon playtesting it... Perhaps I kid myself. Playing it.

 

Cain, I'll download your mod tomorrow and start compiling a review, perhaps we should use similar criteria.

 

1-10 for the following.

 

Overall:

Balance:

Playability:

Realism:

Stability:

 

You'll probably whoop me in terms of Balance, Playability, and Stability.

[Cain]

I am a gamer that has becomed a modder, then a mod lead, then community manager, then real game producer and probably soon an EA prducer ... I am sure that this experience will help in makeing a good review of your mod.

 

What I am looking after is this 1. Fun 2. Gameplay 3. Realism 4. Genral Balance 5. Reduced number of bugs.

 

I already downloaded your mod. Nice experiment btw it remainds me of PTESB.

[Stellar_Magic]

EAW: Warlord - 6.0 - Total Mod Expansion

Reviewed by Stellar Magic

 

Well, with the final release of EAW just around the corner many of us have begun to turn to mods for our fill of Star Wars combat until then, among the best of these mods is the Warlord Total Mod Expansion.  Its designed to allow you to fight the galactic civil war from a perspective you hardly see presented, an Imperial Rogue, a Warlord.

 

The mod is based on the rebellion of Grand Admiral Zaarin shortly after the Battle of Hoth, and does its best to present the battle within the limits of EAW’s Demo.

 

In terms of actual game-play and mechanics the mod is almost identical to the normal game; the primary difference is the strategic game-play where you organize your forces and work to defeat the imperial and rebel forces.  Here the game play is different in one important way, it’s more difficult.  Much more difficult because your starting resources are stretched so thin because you only have a single system under your control (Corellia which you’d think would have a higher credit value).

 

There are also a plethora of more subtle changes, like the hardpoints on Zaarin’s ship, the Imperial II Star Destroyer Glory.  The Ion Cannons are now a combined turbolaser and concussion missile battery.  It really gives the ship some extra punch.

 

Most of the rest of the mod is actually just unlocking and debugging features buried in the game itself and balancing them.  Almost all the units that are in the game are activated in one form or another in the game.  I must give Cain credit for debugging and stabilizing the demo, I didn’t have a single crash while I played.  I also appreciate Cain’s changing the hyperspace speed to one which is more manageable.

 

Fun: 8 out of 10

 

Well in terms of how fun it is, the mod is on a par with other mods like Bryant’s Mod.  It enables a lot, but it doesn’t change many of the things which increase or decrease how fun the mod is.  To me, fun and challenging can go hand and hand, and playing as Zaarin is more challenging, but not by all that much.

 

Game-play: 8 out of 10

 

There isn’t a steep learning curve like in my mod ROR, you can easily jump from the vanilla demo to the mod and play without any challenge or unlearning what you’ve learned.  The game mechanics are the same as EAW, and its more playable thanks to slower hyperspace velocity.

 

Realism: 4 out of 10

 

Like EAW itself the mod isn’t very realistic.  Tie Fighters are way to big, capital ships are too small.  A turbolaser hit won’t kill a starfighter outright, and the capital ships seem to be able to accelerate and decelerate far too quickly, not to mention the respawning of starfighters once their destroyed.

 

Balance: 9 out of 10

 

Balance is something I normally don’t care about, but since Cain decided to include it in his analysis of my mod I should do the same to his.  The mod seems very balanced, Zaarin may be a small force but he has slightly better ships.  Of course if the units are the exact same with a few minor changes as those in the original game it’s kind of hard to unbalance a game that’s already thoroughly balanced.

 

Stability: 10 out of 10

 

The mod doesn’t slow down a machine and lacks most of the bugs other mods face (invisible bases, indestructible bases…)  I didn’t once have an exception appear and the game didn’t slow down (ROR slows down most machines quite a bit because it processes a lot more data due to how many ships the can be built or moved at one time).

 

Overall: 7.8 out of 10

[Cain]

Thank you stellar for your review pls. post it also in the news forum and drop a link here. I will do the same. I started to play yours but I am not ready yet since I do most of the production work until a new producer comes to help.

 

Still I am very impressed with your mod and I will try to incorporate many of your design ideeas in mine. Give me a day or two pls.

 

Also if other modders from PFF or others sites wish to participate in this reviews exchange - they are more than welcome to join with their mod.

[Stellar_Magic]

hmm... I'm begining to get worried.  Either Cain's making a complete list of bugs or he's totally addicted.  ???

[Teradyn_pff]

Don't worry Stellar, he said already that he is busy with work.  He doesn't seem to me the type that will just give your mod a lackadaisical passover, but rather one that will not post something until he is satisfied that it is thorough.

[Cain]

Stellar I played your mod and I must say that with a bit mor epolishing it can be the best mod around. Anyway Try to sacrifice realism for functionality pls.

 

Its 00:11 AM here and Now I have more free time to play but I am so tired ... I will appreciate if you can wait until the weekend for a similar review - i just want to play more and I am too sleepy to do that now. The game industry can do that ....

 

Thanks - I wish we could merge our mods and make two versions. One for full realism and one for max usability realism.

[Stellar_Magic]

No problem, I should have put Sarcasm> in the last post.  Oh well, the next version includes training levels... And you guys will probably be absolutely stunned by the changes.  Unfortunately, to fit everything on the command bar I've been forced to make it so that at most each planet can build two types of ships, with six levels and two classes all but one of the bar's opening for units is filled.

 

Once the full scale mod ROR kicks off I'll have to figure out some way to fit more on the command bar.  :

 

Sacrifice Realism... NEVER!!!  ;D

[Cain]

I never said to sacrifice it .... I said make two versions !

[Dorkthehunter]

I never said to sacrifice it .... I said make two versions !

 

Actually you said:

Anyway Try to sacrifice realism for functionality pls.

My demo broke, so I will eventually get around to getting these mods. In the meantime, I will sacrifice realism on Stone Table, but then it will come back and kill me. ;D

[The_talented]

oh uh... hey STELLAR... YES a turboloaser blast WILL downright pwn a starfighter... sheilds full and all...

[Stellar_Magic]

I certainly hope that remark wasn't in jest.  If you remember what happened in ANH when a starfighter got hit by turbolaser fire... No more starfighter.

 

Putting together a less realistic version would be a lot of work, especially once I completely the scripting for training levels.

[Tranon]

Thanks - I wish we could merge our mods and make two versions. One for full realism and one for max usability realism.

 

Ahhh.... that sounds so terrible good if it ever happens.

 

Regards.

[Cain]

A Taste of Rebellion Beta V0.4

ROR and NMA Team Project: A Taste of Rebellion modification BETA V0.4

Reviewed by CA

 

Based on one of the previous LEC games - Rebellion, ROR tries to bring back that magic. It almost manages to do that but it is faced with the fact that EAW was designed on very different settings that do not reflect realism - maybe just in terms of 40%.

 

ROR gives you the real Star Wars and I can get that feeling while playing it - I wish even for more - If only Stellar could slow down the AI and get bigger maps for his huge ships. ROR needs a lot of polishing and more testing. It reminds me of Warlords on HW2 and it seems that EAW will never get close to it.

 

I also love the way the galaxy has been arranged but I wish it could be made a bit larger and with smaller planets.

 

If Stellar manages to improve his game play and get a bit more fixing - it will be a better mod than mine.

 

Fun: 7 out of 10

 

The feeling of more reality makes it more fun. You don't get that bitter taste when you see all the realism errors existing in EAW. The battles seem more accurate and I only wish that the movement at those speeds for the fighters could be more focused.

 

Game-play: 8 out of 10

 

ROR gives you the chance to adapt to the new systems or reality. If you ever played Warlords for HW2 you will feel at home.

 

Realism: 10 out of 10

 

This is Star Wars and I just wish that the old EAW game play will not get in the way. I also wish that I could explore more. I am sure that with the full game and a bigger team this mod will be the best representation of star wars - better than even the original EAW or SWR had to offer since this mod is for hardcore gamers and not for noobs,

 

Balance: 10 out of 10

 

I didn't felt any difference between the Imperial potential and rebel potential. The factions can do exactly what they did in the SW Saga. No exaggeration is present.

 

Stability: 4 out of 10

 

Do to the 100% realism the AI can't face it and does too many hyperspace travels that lags the PC. Size reduction in EAW greatly affects movement and some units move too fast and other to slow. Not much of a problem but it get noticed

 

Overall: 7.0 out of 10

 

I wish to se a mod that defeats all the original EAW designs issues. If the realism mod will be more stabile and a bit more realistic to the "fan market demands" it will surly win any competition.

[Stellar_Magic]

I'll definitely need a bigger team then just myself to pull this off.  :  Of course considering that this is just a couple weeks since the demo came out  ;D

 

Some things I'd like to do...

 

1.) A Bigger command bar, hopefully the final build included a scroller on the command bar so this won't be an issue.  I'd also like to make it so units can be stacked on the ground as well as in fleets.

 

2.) Full Galaxy:  Thats right... A Full Galaxy.  Everything you see in the original EAW plus a mountain of additional material.  100 Star Systems should be out first goal, and by star systems I mean systems with as many planets as are in the actual system along with system entry and exit points (These would be space only areas and sort of be like around our own Kuipler Belt).

 

3.) Longer Build Times:  One of the reasons the game slows down as much as it does is that the AI just spams units like mad and moves ground units around in small bits of 1-5 companies.  If you make it so the AI has to take the time to build units this will cut down on the slow down early in the game.  Unfortunately all attempts to change build times in the demo failed, does anyone know why?

 

4.) A corporation based tech tree is something I really wanted to implement, but the current setup of EAW will make it more difficult... I'm trying to think of a way to remedy that.

[CyBS43]

2.) Full Galaxy:  Thats right... A Full Galaxy.  Everything you see in the original EAW plus a mountain of additional material.  100 Star Systems should be out first goal, and by star systems I mean systems with as many planets as are in the actual system along with system entry and exit points (These would be space only areas and sort of be like around our own Kuipler Belt).

 

Do you want something like in Rebellion?