Re: EaW: Total Realism v1.0

[Athanasios]

Directly from EaW:Total Realism readme file:

 

EaW:Total Realism mod enhances Empire at War realism and gameplay features on Ground, Space and Galactic Campaign. It was developed for those that wished to lay down more strategies on the battlefield than amass an overwhelming "doom" force that eradicates everything in its pass.

 

Realism enhancements were based on real-life examples, such as armor penetration law and a talor-made "food chain" among several classes of units while Gameplay enhancements had as purpose to provide a challenging, real-time-strategy game by balancing all aspects of the game that contribute to this aim.

 

What would you expect to see from this mod?

 

 

 

Ground major modifications

 

• Autoresolve function fixed
  
• Ground camera pitch limits unlocked
  
• Enhanced laser graphics
  
• ATAT headmounted anti-air lasers enabled
  
• Regular infantry can no longer damage armored vehicles (penetration implemented)
  
• T4B's heavy lasers and missiles fire simultaneously
  
• T4B's special ability changed to "power to weapons"
  
• T4B has now shields
  
• Infiltrators and scout troopers can now use binoculars
  
• TIE Mauler has the "hunt for enemy" ability
  
• Repair Facilities can heal multiple units per cycle
  
• Repair Facilities heal faster and have wider repair ranges
  
• Rebel Repair Facility can repair damaged Snowspeeders
  
• Bacta Tanks can heal multiple units per cycle
  
• Bacta Tanks heal faster and have wider healing ranges
  
• Weather effects balanced
  
• Indigenous spawn units will not respawn after first kill

 

 

Space major modifications

 

• Mon Calamari Cruiser spawns 3 X-Wing and 1 Y-Wing squadrons
  
• MKII Assault Frigate spawns 2 A-Wing and 1 Y-Wing squadrons
  
• Nebulon-B Frigate spawns 2 Z-95 Headhunter squadrons
  
• Interdictor Cruiser spawns 2 TIE Fighter squadrons
  
• Interdictor Cruiser removed from Rebels
  
• Carrack Cruiser removed
  
• Torpedoe boat removed
  
• Tie Interceptor removed
  
• Repair Tenders removed
  
• TIE Fighter enhanced to come up for Rebel Capital ships' spawn squadrons
  
• Z-95 Headhunter can lure the enemy like the A-Wings
  
• X-Wings, A-Wings and TIE-Bombers have the "hunt for enemy" ability

 

 

• More than 330 tweaks and modifications on most .xml files in order to achieve balanced and challenging gameplay
  
• Detailed changelog .xls files containing all the editting done so that anyone can play with the values

 

 

 

Special credits must be given to (alphabetically):

- Adonnay , for his enhanced laser shots and ATAT headmounted cannon lasers activated

- MistenTH , for allowing using his "Realism v3.0 (gold)" mod as base for the space modification

- Slocket , for allowing using his "Ground Camera angle - unlocked" mod

 

Expect EaW:Total Realism to be uploaded later tomorow or on Thursday.

Edited March 13, 2006 by Cain

[Mikan Cyclone]

.  Just  .  This....looks....AWESOME!!

[Uranium - 235]

Do you mind if I take your mod and apply my 'realism' size and speed tweaks?

 

In a nutshell, my 'mod', which I still poke around on when I have time, is changing all the units (space units for now) so that their characteristics match 'real' Star Wars.

 

I changed the sizes of all space units based on an arbitrary 'proper' size situated roughly between the 'real' comparative size of the Home One and the Mon Calamari Cruiser.

 

What this means is that the Home One got a lot bigger, and everything else got smaller. Star Destroyers are still pretty big, and fighters are wee-sized specks. In my opinion, it really makes the game feel more 'epic' in large battles - your capital ships lumber around the battlefield while stinging gnats bite and chew on them.

 

However, part of this realism tweaking requires speeds to be changed. Having a 9 meter A-wing covering the distance of the Home One (I think I set it to something like 3200 meters) in two seconds is just really wrong, and looks incredibly dumb. The speed changes are not only relative (meaning everything will go slower) but the changes in the interest of realism will be minor, so I can't see balance changing very much, if at all.

 

Along with these changes is a range reduction / increase for most weapons. In a nutshell, balance won't really change at all. The 'main' tweaks are going to focus on making space combat seem a lot 'bigger' and more epic. Instead of struggling to manuver that ISD and watching the ape at the wheel spin in circles because his ship covers 1/5th of the screen, you should have lots of room to move things around.

 

I'm debating on making an overall balance pass myself as well - more pricey capital ships, slightly less effective bombers, and maybe figure out if that 'upkeep' field actually affects anything.

 

My main problem is, given my tight schedule, everyone updates everything while I'm working, and then I have to tediously apply all my changes :/

 

In a nutshell, I'm trying to make the space gameplay a little 'slower-paced'. You'll have more room to manuver and direct units without waiting for a map editor, and positioning and long-range units will have more importance.

 

Oh and here's a little thing I made for the Rebellion scale comparions.

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/8301/eaw2ey.gif

 

 

 

Anyway, I figure with a mod like this, you should throw in some of these other mods like the Galactic Expansions, etc.

Edited March 8, 2006 by Uranium - 235

[JohnnySax]

This looks very cool!

 

Have you considered balancing the campaign as well? That would give it the complete package!

[Athanasios]

@ Uranium: You can use this mod as soon as it's out, but with special credits given to Orao (co-maker) and me. Mind however that changing scale factors mind cause other side effects, as you can read here.

 

Also, since this mod took much time to be done (all those 330 tweaks weren't set "light-hearted"), we'd appreciated if you (anyone) doesn't release a mod with 1-2 values changed and saying "my mod". For this reason, some "copy-right" features might be included.

[FormulaRedline]

I personally would love to see this mod with more realistic sizes applied.  I hope the hitbox issue doesn't create to much of a problem.

[Necro]

problem is u get mkii assault frigs WAY before awings!

[sagboy]

So are you releasing this?

[Athanasios]

Well, as promised, i release the Empire at War: Total Realism v1.0 mod today, but with one small exception; the Autoresolve issue will not be fixed in this version. The reason is simply that it turned out to be way more complicated than i expected. To give you a numerical excample, Autoresolve ChangeLog.xls has more than 250 entries alone (boosting the whole tweak/modification numbers around up to 450), meaning that i will need more time to fix it correctly...and i expect these entries to get even more, since some (if not most) units have multiple autoresolve values in different .xmls.

 

However, there you go with v1.0 of EaW:TR mod . You can download it by clicking here, or, if your browser prevents pop-up windows, copy paste the entire link to a new window:  ht*tp://users.auth.gr/~atsiolas/EaW Total Realism v1.0.rar (remove the * from http).

 

I'll try to upload this file both in LucaFiles and Gamesport, but i can't promise anything, so, i uploaded them to my personal university web storage.

 

As you'll read in the README file, since ill be working on the Autoresolve issue, any feedback is welcome in the meantime, so that the upcoming version will have as more fixes as possible (if any need for fixes arise).

 

I'd like again to give special thanks to Adonnay, MistenTH and Slocket for allowing us using their mods.

 

Hope you enjoy the EaW:TR mod and keep it slow with the tomotoes for my clumsy mistakes you might spot

[sagboy]

Cant dl, the link brings me to a page in some foriegn language

[reddogzl]

right click the here and click save as

[PipfunatUT]

sorry friend, i dont see anything close to "here"

 

this is what i see

 

Rar!+l9�Ύ*¦x©ε0zΆδKIΉ�ε&=0€ψ&NΚ(!π�4*l₽ΒρΤϊΒΪ�\Bχ`ΘS�Άx�ΐΛρ`­ΫξrΖ Χ₯ϊ#>@Lή�Β-­�Qύ2�?L=kώ-Ο|ΔyκΔ―¨

·L}��W�Ε8₽¬ΰυΘ₯ήΡPφ>ή§΄Ύs?ΝA ΞUΰζ₽V�A¬lqwTIΊd�γͺ��²Ζ�ΐΤ A�μkμΝdBΛe:Gξ��σa6¦Ϊχ�¨Χ�]2Ϋ34ΧΒ�ΪwAώγEΣάΣk�32¦η¦��ς~ήI―���¬�;Nζ ₯EΕΤI'qο6ωu�ΜιόΉλ��Q€ϊyΚfϋ"ύω�gTEC>ΐx�)½6

 

pages of that...

[razielad]

LOL PipfunatUT.

What he means is where you have the link "here" in the post (on this page) right click and "save as". The link is a direct link to the file, so when you open it in your browser... you're actually seeing the .rar file in text format!

[PipfunatUT]

damnit i should of known that...

[reddogzl]

lol thanx razielad... my bad i didn't think some one would open it an look for "here" lol

[razielad]

Upon completion of my first two GC's (one Emp, one Reb) I have give a big thumbs up.

 

There were only a few little things:

 

The AI still spreads like wildfire and spawns stations/buildings/garrisons/fleets in violation of the rules. (ie: within a few days of the start of the GC the AI has taken over and fortified every single unclaimed planet.)

 

As Emp I couldn't build Interdictors.

 

T4 tanks are overpowered. They're fast, heavily armored, shielded, and good against everything up to and including AT-AT. Just about the only two ways to combat them were Veers (all power to weapons!) and Vader (crush!) though I suspect Force Corrupt would have worked as well. I used my t4's (on unit, two tanks) several times to rush the base and take out the shield generator. They couldn't stop me.

 

There's something wrong with one of Home One's hardpoints. Durring two separate battles, I could not destroy the Hero ship. I would end up with one Turbolaser hardpoint left and even with 5 squads of bombers and Piet with his energy beam I couldn't bring it down from 100%. By either letting the Home One retreat (turn off my gravity well generator) or using auto-resolve once that one hardpoint was all that was left, the Home One would be "lost" after the battle ended.

 

Was it indended that the rebel ships (with the exception of Home One) have invisible docking bay hardpoints?

 

Frigate MKII are CRAZY. I'd rather face down two mon-cals than one Frigate MKII.

[PipfunatUT]

*thumbs up*

 

 

an idea to balance out the fighters though would be to have z95's spawn from Mon Cal's and such instead of xwings...  you can justify this since the xwing is new and all the rebs haven't had a chance to refit their ships squads and instead focus on the solo wings...

 

shrug just an idea..

 

great mod thou

[Athanasios]

The AI still spreads like wildfire and spawns stations/buildings/garrisons/fleets in violation of the rules. (ie: within a few days of the start of the GC the AI has taken over and fortified every single unclaimed planet.)

This is because AI does not respects the Pop Cap limit and in hard mode, it will cheat in every way. Since we can't access .LUA files, we hope that the AI will be fixed by the upcoming patch

 

As Emp I couldn't build Interdictors.

In skirmish they are definitely buildable, yet, we might have editted (by mistake) a value for GC, when we removed it from Rebels. Are you sure you advanced to the required level to build them?

 

T4 tanks are overpowered. They're fast, heavily armored, shielded, and good against everything up to and including AT-AT. Just about the only two ways to combat them were Veers (all power to weapons!) and Vader (crush!) though I suspect Force Corrupt would have worked as well. I used my t4's (on unit, two tanks) several times to rush the base and take out the shield generator. They couldn't stop me.

We intended to make T4B tanks powerfull, since they are the last unit Rebels get in Tech 4. One ATAT can take two T4B (even three if the short-lasting "power to weapons" is not activated). Also, 4 M2 Repulsors can destroy 2 T4B of the company of 3. Their shield was intended to be used as to handle ONLY the first shots, before they get in the heat of battle, no like T2B and M2 shields that are vital for them to survive.

 

Yet, we can slow them down a bit (if you see the changelog we increased their speed in an extremely small amount), throw down a bit more their shields and powerup ATAT and M2 tanks. We're also planning to implement Veers ability to all ATAT (with less firepower).

 

I repeat however that T4B are meant to be the "all-purpose" tank of Rebellion, it's what they finally get, it's nothing against an ATAT (1v1 combat) and must be worth of its credits.  It's the same case when you attack a planet with ATATs and a reasonable backing up force; if the defender has only T2B to defend, well, what does he expects to be the outcome of the battle?

 

There's something wrong with one of Home One's hardpoints. Durring two separate battles, I could not destroy the Hero ship. I would end up with one Turbolaser hardpoint left and even with 5 squads of bombers and Piet with his energy beam I couldn't bring it down from 100%. By either letting the Home One retreat (turn off my gravity well generator) or using auto-resolve once that one hardpoint was all that was left, the Home One would be "lost" after the battle ended.

Fixed. Thanks

 

Was it indended that the rebel ships (with the exception of Home One) have invisible docking bay hardpoints?

Well, not exactly. If you look into the .xls file Mon Cal (including Home One version), MKII, Nebulon-B and Interdictor have gained hangars that spawn and carry different types and amount of squadrons. The invisible hangars are due to the code programming used to implement hangars to ships that, by default, have no hangar textures. Yes, it doesn't look the best it could be, but we must texture some hangars and this  takes up more time. Maybe in the next (or later) version.

 

Frigate MKII are CRAZY. I'd rather face down two mon-cals than one Frigate MKII.

Heh, same with T4B issue, since MKII are what Rebs get before they gain access to Mon Cals and while imps gets Victory class. Yet, we'll slower down their shields and this should do

 

Btw, we really appreciate such feeback! Seriously, keep posting such imbalance/bug issues, so that in the upcoming version (by Monday i hope) everything is solved.

[ShockMeSane]

I realize your intentions are good, but there is no human way to balance a game of even this scale in a week with less than 5 testers

 

Misten's original was actually fairly well balanced for space combat, though I would say the Empire probably had an upper hand once the limitless fighter spawns came in (if you played with the right tactic, which was just maxing out on Victories, standing back and beating people to hell with 16 TIE-Fighter squadrons). Anyways, I don't even care about the ground combat, just auto-resolve it when I can even be bothered to play GC, which is totally pointless because no matter how much it cheats, its so easy to defeat massive enemy fleets with a tiny force taking no casualties that it isnt even funny Best of luck to you though.

[Zenoth]

Can we expect a new version soon ?

 

Because the issue regarding one of Home One's Turbo Laser point being invincible pretty much makes the Rebels also invincible as soon as they get one, thus playing as Empire is useless as of now.

 

Or could I myself modify just a few lines somewhere so I could fix only that right now without having to wait ?

 

Thanks. And by the way, other than that obvious bug, I really like this Mod. Very well done.

[Athanasios]

A patch will be released later tomorow, including all the issues reported fixed plus some additions. For those however that can handle .xml editting (concerning the Home One issue):

 

1. Open Hardpoints.xml

2. Get in Home One's

3. The 2nd and 3rd lines   

 

Yes

Yes

 

must be set to: No

 

Hope this helps

[Zenoth]

Thanks a lot !  ;D

 

Now we can talk about great support from Mod developers for their community/supporters.

 

You guys rule.

[razielad]

>In skirmish they are definitely buildable, yet, we might have editted (by mistake) a value for GC, when we removed it from Rebels. Are you sure you advanced to the required level to build them?

 

Yep. I made a point to go all the way through tech 5 and even build a DS and blow up some planets.

[Athanasios]

The interdictor issue is fixed

[Zenoth]

Is the patch still planned for today ?

 

Can't wait for it !