teukros

Hey Stellar_Magic, does anything funky happen if there are e.g. 400 flights of starfighters buzzing about? (Envisions an Imperial Strike Fleet made up of three VSDs and nine Carracks with external T.I.E. Fighter racks...)

Funny thing is, I have tons more respect for the Empire than I have for the Emperor. 'course, my lack of respect for Palpatine is nothing compared to how much I despise Skywalker.

Oh you were talking the individual fighters... my bad. No I think a single squadron is about right... they were fairly big ships.

Twelve Fighter Squadrons in a Dreadnought?!!! Isn't that the fighter capacity of the Executor SSD?

I've posted my Imperial Fleet Configurations before, but just in case you haven't seen them, here they are... I love the speed of the Carrack but under the default settings it is seriously undergunned (fore and aft turbolasers of 5???) In my game I have doubled the TL ratings of most ships except for the Carrack, whose TL ratings I quadrupled. Fore and aft TLs of 20 still doesn't sound very impressive... the flank TLs of 60 are a little better. I also gave it modest ion cannon: range 35, fore and aft 0, flank 40. I read at least one post about dividing all fighter squadrons by three down into flights of four fighters each. I suppose this means that you would have to then triple the fighter capacity of all ships. But if you did this you would also be able to give the Carrack (the Imperial version anyway, if you allow both sides to build it) a fighter capacity of one - it was retrofitted with exterior rails from which were hung four T.I.E. Fighters. Hmmm, I wish I had the time right now to give that a try.

I also skipped that one. Bizarre even by Star Wars standards. Which explains why I never read anything with Daala... Here, here.

Well now... if you follow that link that Evaders99 provided last night and read through all of those posts, there's some interesting stuff. Pellaeon was a career naval officer (which is more than you can say about some of those oddballs Palpatine turned into Grand Admirals), and he knew his own limits (which is more than you can say about any of them, Zaarin and Thrawn included). Somebody named "Grand Admiral Wetengel" (I think) said it better than I could have: "Pellaeon bashing. Honestly, I see Pellaeon's promotion to Grand Admiral being a far greater honor than the rank having been given to any other. This wasn't a title handed down from a monarch, rather, Pellaeon received his promotion from his peers - from Dorja, Aban, Brandei and company who showed how much respect they have for Gilad Pellaeon by allowing him to take the reigns of the Empire, when any one of them could have easily plunged the remains of the Empire into another destructive period of Warlordism." BTW Paul - Good luck on your treatment and GET BETTER!

My impression was that Thrawn was the exception that proved the rule: the only Grand Admiral that deserved the title. (Not counting Pellaeon, for whom it probably really was just an honorific)

Heh, now I can see how the New Republic was confused about the existence of a Grand Admiral circa "Heir to the Empire".

Ah I see my mistake. Her card text lists her as the only known female Admiral, I somehow misremembered that as reading "only known female GRAND Admiral". Whoops. Sorry.

But if we go by that table of ranks, there is no such rank as Grand Admiral... implying that it was a non-military honorific. Maybe my question should be, was Thrawn still a Vice-Admiral when Palpatine promoted him to Grand Admiral? Or was he promoted to Admiral first? EDIT: There were twelve - Daala, Thrawn, and ten male humans.

Hmmm... So what was Thrawn's actual rank before Palpatine dubbed him a "Grand Admiral"? Was he a mere Admiral?

I'm usually too lazy to set points like that, I start every battle by telling all of my fighters to defend one of my ISDs (or whatever large ship is nearly front and center in my formation)! Then when they are all deployed and swarming around the ISD I vector them to their targets...

In XWA, a single X-Wing or Y-Wing could sink a Carrack Cruiser or even a VSD!!! Which is probably overdoing it... just a bit. But 12 B-Wings vs a Lancer? Like you said, hopefully the Lancer's hyperdrive is warmed up and its jump is calculated.

Well fighter vs fighter combat remains a bit mysterious to me (specifically, how damage is allocated amongst "individual" fighters), but I'm pretty sure that as far as fighter attacks on capital ships are concerned, the game treats the entire squadron like it is one highly maneuverable ship. Your hypothetical Lancer? Good luck to it to survive an attack from a full strength B-Wing squadron, with its ion cannon with strength of 864 with range of 12, and its laser cannon with strength of 576 with range of 20! And that's ignoring the B-Wing's torpedoes....

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! Thanks for the feedback! 1) If you're talking about troop training research then that was intended (I want it to take a long time). If you're talking about ship or facility research then there is no reason for that. I swapped the numbers around a bit (Villar's facility research rating given to Jerjerrod for example) but they're the same numbers.... 2) Imperial Diplomacy is an oxymoron and the Empire has that great provoke and suppress tactic which allows them to get every planet down to a garrison of one or none in record time (something the diplomacy minded Alliance is not nearly as good at). 3) Hmmm are you sure you didn't change the Fleet Regiments? I'm pretty sure I left the army and fleet regiments of both sides unaltered. Computer still loves to raise Wookiee Regiments though, despite my raising the maintenance through the roof (Wookies have to eat a lot, you know ) 4) Nothing by day 400 is unusually slow, but yeah, I've noticed that too. It's kind of strange because that's the way that I play, so the computer is mirroring my play style. But the computer also seems to be holding its Corellian Corvettes in reserve a lot more than it usually does, which is inexplicable. On the other hand, when the Alliance does get around to it, expect a big battle. Other thoughts/ideas: As I already mentioned I might increase starfighter maintenance. I might reduce the armor of the starfighters by 2-4 points. I was looking at the XWA stats last night and they're all wonky. T.I.E. Fighters with armor of 9 and B-Wings with armor+shields of 160? And the Y-Wing is a lot more maneuverable than it is in XWA. My numbers for the lasers and shields are (kind of) based on the original Rebellion numbers, with some basic armor being added for all starfighters. It's entirely possible I overdid it with the armor, but on the other hand, in "A New Hope" armor seemed to be a lot more important than deflector screens, with deflector screens giving you, at best, a chance of deflecting damage but no dependable protection at all. For some time now I've been pondering decreasing the Corellian Corvette's hull from 500 to 400 (and increasing the Gunboat's MAT cost), but I hesitate because of the effect this would have on the AI (and I don't really have the time to use Traitor to be all scientific about it). And I might, someday, start to play with cards. I would like to find a Imperial-looking Neb-B card (talking about the visual appearance only). And if I could find or make Dreadnought and Corellian Corvette cards which somehow appeared "neutral", that would be great (there is no need for there to be two Dreadnought cards in the game). I would like to replace the Alliance Dreadnought with a realistic MC-40 (making the "neutral" Dreadnought buildable by both sides), and maybe the Empire should be able to build Golans as well (I would probably eliminate the Bulk Transport to make room for the Golan, sorry Rebels).

Well the Empire was the true successor to the Old Republic... if I'd lived back then the deal breaker for me (as it was with Han Solo) would have been the institutionalized enslavement of non-human races. Slavery might have been a fact of life in the Old Republic, but it was more along the lines of something the Old Republic shrugged its shoulders over and apathetically tolerated, rather than a matter of government policy. But enslaving the entire population of Kashyyk and rounding it up for off-world labor projects was over the top. Of course when was Palpatine not over the top? With that exception, I support the Empire.

Well in my TC the Alliance cannot build Nebulon-Bs (which are built for the Empire by the Kuat Drive Yards for Pete's sake (the Neb-Bs being buildable by the Alliance alone makes exactly as much sense as if ISDs were buildable by the Alliance alone)) but just the other night my jaw dropped to the floor when the Rebels assaulted the peace-loving, law-abiding people of Caprionril with this fleet: 6 Assault Frigates 2 Dreadnoughts 1 Bulk Cruiser 9 Corellian Corvettes 6 Corellian Gunships 1 Escort Carrier 1 B-Wing Squadron 3 X-Wing Squadrons 4 Y-Wing Squadrons 7 Medium Transports 1 Bulk Transport Thankfully I had one Command Fleet, one Assault Fleet (Heavy), one Assault Fleet and one Patrol Fleet (Heavy) parked at a nearby system with a grand total of 36 T.I.E. Fighter Squadrons, 18 T.I.E. Interceptor Squadrons and 18 T.I.E. Bomber Squadrons. That was one ugly battle... (two of my ISDs got gutted)

I use these templates for my fleets: (mix 'n' match as desired) Command Fleet: 3x Imperial Star Destroyer: 2x Stormtrooper Regiments 1x Fleet Regiment 3x T.I.E. Fighter Squadrons 1x T.I.E. Interceptor Squadron 2x T.I.E. Bomber Squadrons 3x Nebulon-B Frigate: 1x T.I.E. Fighter Squadron 1x T.I.E. Interceptor Squadron Totals: 6x Stormtrooper Regiments 3x Fleet Regiments 12x T.I.E. Fighter Squadrons 6x T.I.E. Interceptor Squadrons 6x T.I.E. Bomber Squadrons Assault Fleet, Heavy: 3x Victory Star Destroyer: 1x Stormtrooper Regiment 1x Fleet Regiment 1x T.I.E. Interceptor Squadron 1x T.I.E. Bomber Squadron 3x Escort Carrier: 4x T.I.E. Fighter Squadrons 1x T.I.E. Interceptor Squadron 1x T.I.E. Bomber Squadron Totals: 3x Stormtrooper Regiments 3x Fleet Regiments 12x T.I.E. Fighter Squadrons 6x T.I.E. Interceptor Squadrons 6x T.I.E. Bomber Squadrons Assault Fleet: 6x Dreadnought: 1x T.I.E. Fighter Squadron 1x Fleet Regiment 3x Escort Carrier: 2x T.I.E. Fighter Squadrons 2x T.I.E. Interceptor Squadrons 2x T.I.E. Bomber Squadrons Totals: 6x Fleet Regiments 12x T.I.E. Fighter Squadrons 6x T.I.E. Interceptor Squadrons 6x T.I.E. Bomber Squadrons Patrol Fleet, Heavy: 3x Carrack Light Cruiser 3x Lancer Frigate 1x Interdictor Star Destroyer Patrol Fleet, Fast: 3x Carrack Light Cruiser Patrol Fleet: 6x Corellian Corvette Sector Fleet: 4x Star Galleon: 3x Army Regiments 2x Escort Carrier: 6x T.I.E. Fighter Squadrons Totals: 12x Army Regiments 12x T.I.E. Fighter Squadrons

Lots of goodies here: http://www.swrebellion.com/~the_mask/woodsboro/english/rebellion.htm

I'm playing a game as the Empire and last night I fought a Grusomely Humongous battle where the Empire had a 9:1 superiority in starfighters, making the outcome a forgone conclusion. I'm a little perplexed as to why the computer didn't build more carriers and starfighters... hmmm maybe the starfighters do cost too much... I have the "Traitor" program so I might experiment with lowering the MAT costs. After all, it is probably a lot faster, easier and CHEAPER to slap together 150 T.I.E. Interceptors than it is to build an Imperial Star Destroyer! At the same time, however, the pilots required for those 12.5 squadrons would be a very precious resource indeed. So even if I do lower the MAT costs, I'm thinking that the MNT costs should be doubled (or even tripled)! If doubled, two individual T.I.E. Defenders would require support services, ground crew and supply trains comparable to one Imperial Galleon, which actually strikes me as reasonable... The main point being, if MNT is high enough, it would be a crude but effective way of forcing the two sides to build things other than carriers and starfighters. EDIT: Of course the problem with reducing the MAT costs of the starfighters, as per my example above, is that it is then too quick and easy to replace losses... Oh well I set out to make a TC for a realistic two player game, I understand that PTESB is a very good single-player experience. I might still increase the MNT costs though... In all of my above ramblings, I should have noted that my TC doubles the turbolaser ratings of most ships. EDIT: Considering that all of the Alliance starfighters have hyperdrives anyway, I wonder what would happen if I stripped Alliance carriers of their laser cannon but made them cost 1 MAT and 1 MNT... hmmm...

Thanks Darth Griffin! Glad to hear you're enjoying it! When I invade and occupy a world the first thing I do (besides landing the officers and giving them an insurrection to suppress) is I move eight to twelve or so T.I.E. Fighter squadrons to that world. This provides enough of a defense so that my fleet can move on to the next system in the sector while the GenCores are being built and the Rebels are being squashed on the newly occupied world. With a little bit of armor and more realistic maneuverability, T.I.E.s aren't half bad. The Reb starfighters are still superior in most ways, but hey, quantity has a quality all its own, right? The problem with making the starfighters cheaper is that then they completely dominate the game. Don't be surprised if the computer builds nothing but fighters and carriers (and troop transports). I've seen it happen. If anything, the starfighters are _still_ a little bit on the cheap side... they're expensive enough so that building a new squadron is a deliberate act, and not just because your shipyards have nothing better to do. But OTOH, they're still bargains. Here's an example I wrote up a while ago: Example: Let's say you have an Imperial TF consisting of two Victory stardestroyers (with four T.I.E. Fighter squadrons), two Nebulon-B frigates (with four T.I.E. Fighter squadrons), and four Corellian Corvettes. This is a very respectable force!! This TF would cost the Empire: 2x(68 mat, 44 mnt) + 2x(34 mat, 35 mnt) + 4x(14 mat, 23 mnt) + 8x( 6 mat, 6 mnt) or 308 mat, 298 mnt Now let's say they get jumped by a cheapo Alliance TF consisting of two carriers, seven X-Wing Starfighter squadrons and five Y-Wing Starfighter squadrons. This TF would cost the Alliance: 2x(32 mat, 29 mnt) + 7x(15 mat, 12 mnt) + 5x(12 mat, 9 mnt) or 229 mat, 187 mnt - not that cheap after all. And I think it is pretty clear that the Empire could expect victory... I would expect the Empire to lose one of its VSDs or up to three of its escorts, but only at the cost of the entire Rebel force. The Empire will make that trade.

I used it in a two player game with good results but I was playing against a weak player so it is hard to draw a conclusion about game balance. The starfighters are much more powerful of course but they are also more expensive, and the Rebs retain an early advantage because of their superior starfighters. Actually I've found the single biggest play-balance issue to be the number of troops that both sides start with, and how quickly (i.e., cheaply) new troops can be churned out... want to handicap the game for the Imperials? have them start with an extra two dozen army regiments on Coruscant! Wheee!

If you're trying to upload from a Geocities account, Geocities is case-sensitive as far as it's filenames are concerned. I found out yesterday.

Man I hate Geocities.... it seems that Geocities filenames are case sensitive, so my submission earlier probably results in a "file not found" error. *fume* Here's the direct link... I've verified that this works... http://www.geocities.com/telamonian_teukros/OotiniTC.zip Off to resubmit...