sp4mm

As EaW's mod support is pitiful at best, I agree with that comment. Give people a decent SDK, or this game will fall even deeper into the realm of forgotten games. Because quite frankly, with its current gameplay depth, it gets old real fast. I don't even remember the last time I booted EaW up. Hell, I never even finished both single player campaigns.

It would be nice to see the full changelog, so people know what they're getting themselves into. You did keep a changelog, right?

Lol. My thread gets blatantly trolled, I "please" tell the trolls to stop "shi--ing up my thread", all the troll posts get deleted and I sit up with a 'language' warning? My oh my, in mysterious ways the mods here work! I am however going to repeat one thing that apparently got removed in the flurry... By "should" you surely mean "I think it should" -- I can't imagine an overwhelming majority agreeing with that opinion of yours to be honest.

Watch the language.

Well, that's certainly disappointing, especially when I consider how badly battles are auto resolved. It boggles my mind why Petroglyph didn't allow the other player to control the pirates. It would be a fun change to have it optional, and it would require hardly any effort on their part.

When pirate planets are engaged, is auto-resolve the only option? Or can the pirates be controlled by the opposing player? I'm hoping somebody here knows the answer to this, though I'm not holding my breath.

I'll second that. Though sadly I'd be suprised if it were even possible to hack-mod the last two features into EaW, but admittedly I haven't checked every square inch of the whole mod support thing.

The full game is dumbed down beyond belief. There is very little (if any) real depth in the galactic map, and hardly any in tactical either. The AI is absolutely horrid. It has no grasp of what makes a successful fleet, nor does it grasp the basics of tactical hero management. (How hard is it to program the hero AI to park next to a repair/bacta tank when defending? Seriously?) The mod support is not all that its cracked up to be unless Petroglyph decides to release some heavy duty mod tools. I'm sorry, but some editable XML and LUA hardly warrants the game to be marketed as the messiah of modding. A game made for modding? Look at Unreal and Half-Life. All in all, a disappointing start, but there is some hope. It all revolves around what move Petroglyph decides to make. As it stands, I can't recommend it to my friends.

Overkill. With 7 ranks, you don't want the difference to be this dramatic per tier.

Way off.

And you call them unfair? Heh. Reviews are subjective, and they have their reasons. In all honesty, given the lack of depth features in EaW, it sounds about right to me.

The point is that multiplayer could have easily included plantary diplomacy -- it would not bog the game down and it would open the game up to the whole cat & mouse behaviour which is the essence of the two Star Wars factions. Now I know that all this is too little too late for vanilla EAW. But I'm atleast hoping this can eventually be added either via an expansion pack, or some clever modding. (Though it would suprise me if the game turned out to be that moddable.)

I see, and during a multiplayer match, just how would the neutral combat be resolved? Automatically? Second player plays the neutrals? Again, it had crossed my mind that neutral planets may be inhibited by a few units... but I'm skeptical. Perhaps Lucas/Petro should have given players a demo that better represents the final product.

This had already crossed my mind when I wrote the post. Let's just say that even though I'm hopeful, I'm not very optimistic, but atleast there's the whole mod support thing -- which I hope ends up being all that they've hyped it up to be. However, as for your point about diplomacy 'bogging down the game'... rethink that for a minute. Remember we're not talking about Rebellion's clunky interface here. One way of doing diplomacy missions would simply involve dropping a diplomat on a yellow diplomacy mission circle, rather than dropping an infantry squad onto the land circle. Hardly much bogging there, for a whole lot of added depth.

SW: Rebellion's planetary allegiance system. (Yes, including the diplomacy missions.) Doesn't anyone think its ridiculous that you can use a single squadron of troopers, or worse yet, Han Solo, to fly around the galaxy chain-capping whole planets? When I compare EAW's starting scenario vs. that of Rebellion's, EAW loses horribly... and mind you I really want to love everything about this game. Seriously, think about it... --- SW: Rebellion --- a) Empire starts with a more powerful force. (True to the canon) b) Planet-to-planet movement takes a long time (a tad too long really) -- It is doubtful that either side will end up seizing every single planet out there before the game ends. c) Planet-hopping is not a viable expansion tactic. Planets get pissed when you seize them by force, and if you don't leave a garrison, they will revolt. d) The Empire, though having a stronger starting navy, has to seek out the Rebels, and the Rebels have plenty of places to hide... this type of cat & mouse behaviour is the core Star Wars element that I feel is sorely missing in EaW. :-\ --- Empire at War --- a) I presume that the starting forces will be far more equal, considering how the galaxy map plays out. b) Planet-to-planet movement happens in a relative flash, the whole galaxy will be in non-neutral hands within minutes during a powerplayer match. c) No need for a planetary garrison, planets that you have recently captured will just happily stay under your command, which augments the whole fast expansion mentioned in part b. d) In EaW, Rebel planets are "hidden" from the Empire by default, but this won't matter at all when the galaxy is 0% neutral. Food for thought?