R2-Opus2

I've seen something strange happen in a few game's I've played so far. I don't know yet if its across the board or just in a particular game mode. For some reason I saw this at least twice. I'm referring to the AI going bezerk creating a ton of field/fleet commanders and when I take one out using a bounty hunter, I get graphcial glitches poping up in zoomed in planet view where the field/fleet commander's icon is repeated over and over. I see the icon under all 3 fleet windows, again pasted over the droid buttons bottom left above the map, and one more overtop the garrison slots view. Also there's a number (I can't quite make out) plastered across every hero icon pic in the upper right. Also I think this somehow disabled centering on a hero from galactic view by clicking its icon. Other than that last, I haven't noticed if this affected performance any other way. just seems to be primarily a graphical snaffu.

If I'm not mistaken, this was addressed in the 1.1 fix but I don't have the content listing in front of me just now. I think it had something to do with when you killed an interdictor, its grav field effect was still working.

I forget which campaign scenario it was (I've been jumping around a lot, only finished one so far...just exploring atm), but on the ground map I believe, for Bothawui, the citizens that spawn from the buildings at the bottom right corner of the map, there's one group that can't move because the building this one group spawns from is smack up against two barriers (1 its building, and second the shoreline is in the way). I think the first time they spawned when the map loaded was fine, but when I lost some of them, they got messed up respawning. I've had similar problems where build pads are concerned. If any infantry unit (or probably any ground unit) is in the way of the pad when its building, when the thing is done being built, the units in the way can't move unless you destroy the pad unit and rebuild it again after moving the unit. Even if you don't do any of this though, I think the units in the way can still fight, they just can't move. One other thing I spotted is about the Rebel's treaded tank units (T4-Bs I think) where they arbitrarily obliterate those wall obstacles...even if you control the build pads around them. Kinda sucks to lose them like that if they help provide you cover. I think they ought to lump these in among indiginous units not counting toward pop cap such that, they can be captured just as with build pads. But then the T4-Bs need to ignore them when they belong to you. Still keeping my eye out for things, but that's my initial observation after playing a few days.

I have GalCiv and the expansion. I also like the way it handles cheats if your into that sort of thing. I may get the sequel to it later on after I've heard more about it. The only MOO game I enjoyed was probably the first one, never got the second one and didn't quite like the third (though it had ok things going for it but missed the mark on too many things to count). I've just got into EAW and so far the only thing it could probably use that I can see off the top of my head is probably better textures for the ground units (although its quite possible I have a crummy graphics card that's not tapping that potential). Unfortunate that there's no diplomacy or ways to sabotage or cause uprisings. Would have been cool to use character units like Leia, Vader, Palpatine and Mothma in the diplomacy roles at least (I do like the new perks thing they got with characters and systems though). The infiltrator unit would have been cool to use like rebellion did with causing insurrections apart from what it can do on the ground now. I hope that the modding community will be able to do a lot of stuff for this to make it more Rebellion-like as far as scales go i.e. Add more planets and ground/space maps for them to make a bigger galaxy and sides to boot. I do miss the Sector break downs from Rebellion in that it seemed that travel times could take longer between them (so far it seems a little bit fast the way units can move in the galaxy map) whereas it would be shorter traveling times within them. One other thing I like though is how some systems have bottlenecks in terms of trying to reach them. I'll take a look at the link above and see how that is but I'm still pouring through EAW at the moment.

I got my game and have been playing it but not really long enough to know if that patch helped anything but I got it anyway. Reading the updates that are in it, it uh, looked fairly important for game balancing issues at any rate. I probably won't be doing any multiplayer though, at least I've gotten myself familiar with the game.

Yea, the reason I thought I didn't do it right was that on the bit for selecting the sides when the demo is launched, I saw that rebels was now gone and only the empire was highlighted. I'll give it another whirl this afternoon and post if I have another mishap Edit: I tried something different, not unlike the brute force metod I used to install it previously Well, its a different scenario at any rate so I'm getting better at this. I'm guessing I have to do one side at a time so I'll do that. Edit#2: I got them all working ok so far and have been having a blast. I have yet to do the Zaarin one however. btw, for anyone that can answer, can fleet commanders and such be built? I haven't seen it enabled for the player's side on some of these, but I have seen the AI use them. Currently I'm playing the Rebels on normal I believe, and there's another thing where the droids can steal now but I can't seem to get beyond certain tech level where the steal option isn't open. Just wondering if that was just something intentional for this particular mode.

Decided to check this out. From what I've seen of it so far it looks cool (shame its just the tatooine map ). What I'm posting about now is whether I did the install correctly. I know I did something right but I don't know what. I copied the folders over and it is letting me play the Empire, but I don't quite know how to play the other sides. The factions I see are rebels, pirates and empire. I see characters such as Tarkin, Piet, Veers and Boba. Anyway, just wondering if I shouldn't have copied all the files over at once or if I should have only copied over the files for the side to be played.

That was one thing I hadn't experimented with yet, setting up hotkey groups. Glad to know its there. About taking out those two big turbo towers, I've done it a few different ways, but usually I wound up using an infantry group (1 load of 3 groups of 5) plus 1 1/2 - 2 of the plex rocket guys and a smattering or two of the local natives that you can use. I start by going after the bottom left turret first, and I inch my squads up to the shield barrier, and once through I set whoever I can to kneel and spread out while they attack. Meanwhile from two points, and now that I have the tower distracted dealing with the ground pounders, I sneak 1 or two artillery pieces into range to help finish it off. One good spot I've found for one artillery unit is position it just inside of the left landing circle - inching it up to the right boarder of it so it's rockets will reach the tower. Its a little tricky and takes some practice since I've lost artillery to the turbo tower doing it this way too (referring to the tower that's just in side their main base area, not the south tower). Sometimes I find Boba Fett here just inside the shield, waiting for some reason and not moving until my people come into view (sometimes though he's mobilized from the beginning) One reason though I think Tatooine's map became easy (granted after I learned how to use my forces better) is the poor placement of the power generator. Its much too easy to reach with an artillery piece just to the left of the build pad on the right side of the map (north east landing site). I think it should have been a little more centrally placed, perhaps nearer the sheild projector.

I agree with the assessment that Palpy didn't care much for the Sith rule of having only two. I think that, with all his adepts and the like, even Vader, the trick to his rule is never to have taught them everything he knows, or it will be his end. Palpy managed to come back in a clone body cause he was a very knowledgable Sith, and a crafty somebitch, but that goes with the territory So he could have Vader and his adepts around for all the reasons sited (rule by fear, ya need icons to project power and keep it, minor league crafty somebitches in the adepts), but for obvious reasons kept the best secrets to himself to stay on top. He learned his lesson well when he'd killed his master after learning everything he needed to know after all, so there was no way he was going to let his lesser Sith pals to one up him.

I'm not sure yet, but while witnessing some fo the build pad turret behavior after I built some, I don't get the sense that they track all that well independent of clicking on it and then targeting a pile of infantry. On the other hand I've seen the AI's small turret behavior and it looked like it was working ok. I thought that maybe they worked just as effectively if you didn't have to pay attention to them i.e. enemy gets within a specific range, they fire for you. Or maybe I'm fumbling around a bit i.e. maybe I should be left single clicking after selection to fire as opposed to right clicking? Not sure, but I got to thinking about it today when I was using Chewie to steal vehicles for the first time. Perhaps the demo doesn't quite have all it needs for the functions to work properly or as quickly otherwise. Or again, perhaps they'll work better if there was a powerup associated with them. I'm thinking there probably was one for the Empire cuz it appeared anyway that they were working better for them than for the Rebels.

Sorry I didn't mean to come off as metaphorical sounding as my bible It's not an either or thing for me, however on the creationist side of the coin it becomes more the realm of philosophy to me not science. From that perspective, yea they should be taught in their appropriate arenas and contexts. What I was blathering about above was suggesting that in some respects science can explain some of it to us in practical terms (never really cared for anything that sounded too much like magic). I don't think either one is an end to its own though if that makes any sense.

I've sometimes wondered how we developed a curious nature about things, in a genral sense, religous sense, and everything else inbetween I can't think of offhand. I suppose its something tied to survival instincts early on or something at a very basic level. I've also always felt that while I can't accept the book I was raised to be "literal" in all its aspects, I do think there could be a greater power that created everything. Science might not be able to prove its existance, but I think it can prove its majesty in what its made. I have no clue if 'it' is still around mind you. But when I see the kind of stuff Hubble's beamed back from space for example - How would we even have known it was there if we never investigated it - opened our eyes and looked at it. I can't imagine that anything as complex as our universe was made in 7 days (just an example of why I don't think my book is literal, at least, not from a human being's perspective). For all I know, this 'it' that made it all - 'its' concept of time may well be very different from how we measure it - even if this 'it' was literal at the time of whispering to the original author. I guess my point underscoring everything on this subject - evolution, believing in a higher power, science etc. - I think there's room for a little coexistance either way. I think our curiosity about who we are and where we're going is a powerful motivater. Because the act of discovery wouldn't happen any other way. But I do think discoveries help us grapple with the majesty of ('its' if you believe in an 'its') creation a little bit more than we otherwise might have.

I'll take another look at the description of those bunker powerups later when I play again. I know one boost was for infantry, one looked to be for sensors - seeing through the storms I guess (since I never placed a sensor on a build pad - didn't notice it helped line of sight much when I did) and I forget what the third one was. I think for the tank. Still, it leaves me wondering what other kinds of powerups there could be. Maybe there is one for fixed buildings on other planets. I just hope that they are varied and that there are very few bunkers with too many. I think this one at least showed that 3 is probably a good basic number to start from. Yet I suppose a bunker that had many more powerups would just mean its that much more of an important object to keep in control of.

I've been looking at the two editions for sale, one being a collector's edition for like 10 bucks more. I'd be curious to know what percentage of folk's here are eyeballing that version over the standard one. snippet of features on the CE: Screensavers 3D Lenticular Packaging Bonus Maps Concept Art Wallpaper The bonus maps are what interests me the most out of all of it. I could stand to do without the others myself. Has anyone heard any more in depth information about the contents of the CE?

FC had a few elements I remember digging, like being able to load infantry inside a transport, then when you got in range (and if you had multiples of transports, then highlighting them), you only had to click one button to disgorge them all of their troops. While that doesn't appear to be a carry over type feature, I think it could have benefitted a little from that experience. Now a few things I like in EAW that are not in FC, is that every ground unit (infantry at least so far) has a secondary ability of spreading out and kneeling when firing - I guess to prolong their health a bit longer than if they were standing and firing - which makes some tactical sense. However, I think Evaders has a point though about just being able to swarm a target. Its hard for me to tell just from the demo though if capturing things like that Tatooine bunker helps your fixed defenses like turrets to stand a chance against swarm tactics by infantry. Its a shame they didn't have a little bit of a positional swap in the demo to try to better understand things from the opposite side like this. Also no opportunity to look into defending against fleets in orbit.

I think EAW's ground combat, it seems to me to be more straight forward than FC's was, without all that camera angle confusion works best for me. Along these lines, I could do without the cinematic views on both space and ground. On the issue of control points, I'm glad those bunker things aren't in this one as its about the landing zones you need to take more than anything to allow more units, but also its tied to the planets you hold too. I like that this part is streamlined a bit in an overall territory sense. I would have (forgone the cinema view myself) preferred to be able to jump into the bridge/cockpit of a ship or FPS style on the ground to control individual units personally (in tandem after having gave general orders to everyone else that is). For instance, I would have loved to been able to jump into the cockpit of a snowspeeder ala Shadows of the Empire to take down walkers (to me the best part of that game), but oh well. Still, EAW is starting to have a wierd effect on me. There's an addictiveness to it in terms of thinking about it when I'm not playing it. I guess that's the intended effect a demo should have on me. I just hope that the 40 or so planets will be varied enough to be interesting arenas cause I have a feeling it might not be. Here's hoping mods, or the ability to expand on the number of planets is somehow possible down the pike.

Its been awhile since I've been back here, but I thought I'd drop in again to see folks' impression of this EAW demo. I've been playing it off and on since I downloaded it the other week. It certainly has characteristics to it that I would have liked to have seen in Rebellion - I like that there's precision targetting of hardpoints now for instance, and that overall the space stuff looks way sharper than Rebellion's combat view (one thing that's lacking that I can point to right away, that I did like in Rebellion, was being able to climb up or down in that space 'box'). I'm guessing space battles won't seem as epic, but again, at least there's better detail on the models and the like. While the ground combat is remenicent of Force Commander, I think the ground portion in this game surpasses that crap title (although I wonder if build pads are a little better arranged on other planets - I don't think Tattoine's pads, with the exception of the center part of the map are in decent places - I thought there should have been a pad or two near the landing zones personally, giving us another way to try to defend them). With regards to playing single player on this up to this point, and granted there's only so much you can do with the demo, I like that I can pause the battle to give orders then resume play. The first few times doing the demo I found it difficult to divide my attentions between the landing sites and my various units - some were falling quickly to Boba or being decimated by that Rancor with one swipe of his arms heh. I agree that a unit like Boba seems a little overpowering as he can just rocket in and stand on the checkpoint to retake it. Also speederbikes in a few instances took me off guard until I could rachet them down but not too overwhelming. I already realized early on the importance of artillery support, but the trick there is providing them cover so you can deploy them the way you want. Again, not too bad after I got the hang of it. Davynelord raised a good point with regards to the clickage going on between Rebellion and EAW. I can already see that this new one doesn't require as much as Reb did and that's another plus going for it. I can't imagine yet how multiplayer will work out, but so far I think I'll enjoy the single player aspects at least. The only concerns I have now with this is a question of support. Lucasarts in the past hasn't been that great when it comes to post-game-release offerings - maps, editors and the like for their titles. I already see rumblings of fan moddages for EAW so that's promising at least. Maybe there'll be another kickass fan editor for this title as well, akin to the latest RebEd.

Reminds me of Opus from the Bloom County comic strip ('tis where my namesake came from, the SW parody), how suckered in he got to late night infomercials Incidentally, what's the newest version of RebEd, just so's I know I'm still good? I'm still with 26 I think.

One of the things I think I'll miss in this game is the feeling of scope in the galaxy. I loved Rebellion's galaxy/sector layout, and even if a dozen or so terrains were to be reused for the ground portions, I think EaW could still cope with having a bigger sense of scope. I hear there'll be 30 some odd planets to go to, seems a bit limiting. I'm with you on its modability, I hope its there. I don't hold out much hope for it though, as traditionally, support in terms of the SW gaming license hasn't been as swift as it could've been. Galaxies has a shot at some respectable longevity, however this longevity is entirely up to the devs in control of it. It sounds appealing to me, yet I'm a cheap bastard when it comes to subscriptions to anything. Its a shame it wasn't something folks like me prone to single player games can't get and enjoy on those terms. (But then, it wouldn't be an MMOG heh). Catch 22, whatya gonna do.

The last time I was here posting, which was quite some time, I was getting my Rebellion fix. That's usually when I tend to revisit the forums here, or I by revisiting, I get my hankering to play again. Anyway, my last outting, I went with a more moderately modded game using RebEd. I experienced a lot of problems during the space combat where, as described by another poster in the first page, spread fleets out so far it dragged battles out so that, by the time the fighters engaged, it slowed things down to slide show effect. Instead what I ended up doing was upping the maintenance on a few key ships, such as escort carriers or any ship carrying more than 3 squadrons of fighters. It helped a bit during the combat to make it go by faster so I ended up tending to see my opponent using a lot of escort frigates if it was the rebellion, or the same (I enabled them for the Empire as well) the bad guys. I still built the expensive stuff, but put limits on the counts i.e. I allowed myself to build MC80s or Imp Stars but maybe like 3 per every serious task force with characters in it as the core, then focusing on anti-starfighter ships to enforce the battles to be done by the big guys more than by fighters. Anyway, its a tricky balance I'm still wrestling with in terms of editing the game cause its hard to get the AI to build anything unless you make 'em affordable. In another editing session, I too also gave the Carrack the equivalent of 1 fighter squadron, then also just lowering the squadron count to just shy of 12. Tweaking down the fighter squadron count also lends to nice battles between mostly cap ships I find.

I've only watched these once through after purchasing them the other week, but some of the more notable things mentioned in them I can confirm as well. There was one other thing I had noticed during the New Hope lightsaber fight, and that's the flashes of light when the sabers clash. Maybe its just me, but before I could'a sworn the flash was white, but I'm seeing flashes of green everytime they intersect now. Maybe it was always like that, I don't know. Just struck me as different. As for Temura Morrison's voicing of stormtroopers voices, I honestly couldn't tell if he had. I did however definitely notice the change with Boba Fett. Unfortunately I didn't notice any changes/additions to the space battles. They all appear to be the '97 fixes. Although maybe its me again, but one area I thought seemed different anyway, was the rebel fleet's retreating from the forthcoming exploding Death Star II (w/Endor backdrop). The perspective of them moving away after Wedge n' company exiting seemed to be at a quicker pace. If anything, probably just a small perceptual change to show that fleet's traveling progression away from the viewer *shrug* I agree on the perception of the way Hayden portrayed Anakin's ghost. Seemed a bit more forboding in his facial features than he ought to have been heh. I liken it to the way he was eyeballing Padme when she tells him not to look at her that way lol

Yea, I know we'd all be screaming if we'd fallen, I just think it was a cop out to have blatantly borrowed the Emperor's dying scream rather than have someone rerecord it. In any case, I don't think anyone would even hear someone screaming with the amount of the rushing torrent of air coming up through that city column.

I have to run out and buy this still, but from what I caught over there at theforce.net, I was happy about one change they talked about...They got rid of the silly cop-out copy/paste Emperor scream for Luke when he fell of that platform at Bespin (the same one used for the Emperor's death in ROTJ). I don't know though if they kept it like it had been before that, or added another dumb scream though

If Plo Koon is the one with that weird mask, then he's one of the ones I like. I won't say best one, but I like the exotic look of him and his race. The same would be true with me for that one that Jango shot off that balcony, as well as Kit Fisto and that weird chick who looks almost Twi'lek but with them stripy headtails. Again no rank of best or anything, just how they seem to me from how they look and act in battle I guess and what their race is. I definitely enjoyed the Yoda/Dooku fight, but part of me wishes we could see more Jedi using their force abilities more, perhaps even some they could invent that we've never seen. While I've been happy with the saber duels, something in me wants to see those Jedi go nuts with their other abilities Maybe Dooku will do something cool like use a fancy hand gesture and spontaneously make some troopers implode, that'd be sweet edit: Oh yea, about sabers, it'd be nice to have seen other colored blades apart from blue and green (I just think its a technical crutch in the film making with Mace's as the exception...its probably easier to manipulate given that effects shots seem to work best with them with blue or green screens?)

Mine's a bit tricked out at the moment so that advice might not apply all that well I wanted to boost some character stats, mostly leadership on both sides without the AI making the enemy's command characters always generals (in fleets anyway). Its the only thing I can think of barring increasing maintenance on things to avoid my tactical battles running like slide shows