Naja

The long rifle with the arm patch is simply a Sandtrooper, I think. Just goes with their environmental costume switch. Unless I'm wrong, in which case it might be a more elite unit. In which video did you think you saw Army Troopers?

Keep in mind another reason why the W3 hero focus was such a burden to so many people was because heroes could be ressurected. We can't see that in EaW. Ganging up on heroes may in fact be the best way to kill them?

Interesting indeed. By base population, do you mean something akin to a unit cap (unless you own more planets or build more population buildings), or a certain amount of recruitable human resources that regenerates over time, like RTW? And I wouldn't dispute a taxation system at all, at least for the Empire. Taxation could very well be one of many factors that could lead to a planetary revolt. Maybe the Rebels would have some sort of black market economy (smuggling, for instance) to pay for their shit. I would prefer that the seperate factions had two different systems like those, for example.

Anyway, back on topic, I've heard that Rebel Infiltrators (from Force Commander) will be back in the game. This the case, or is it not? If it was, this would be the Rebels' counter to massed walker rushses, or at the very least, an impetus for the Imperial player to have decent infantry support whenever possible.

Rock. Maybe bounty hunters would be vulnerable to regular troops? That seems the most likely rock/paper/scissors unit arrangement. Otherwise, bounty hunters would become the super units. Regular units < heroes < bounty hunters < regular units This way, nothing is over-powered.

I seem to remember in the older reviews of EaW that you can build cantinas along with your standard defense, construction, and shipyard type structures. Cantinas would be to give you more recruits. Now, these reviews are about a year old. But if they're still applicable, what do you think that means? That there needs to be a "recuitable population" whose generation you can speed up by constructing these cantinas? Or that it'll fill the role of the more traditional population buildings like the Terran supply depot, the Age of Empires house, the Warcraft farm/ziggurat/burrow/moon well?

I wonder how Stormies will be portrayed in the game, as well. The original trilogy depicts them as nothing but cannon fodder, while the EU tells about how they're the best of the best elite infantry. Maybe if there was a simple infantry (like Imperial Army Troopers) whose entire purpose was just to occupy worlds? http://www.tnthobbies.force9.co.uk/SWImpArmyTrooper.jpg

Bounty hunters could indeed be the counter to uber over-powered heroes. My question is though, how effective would a bounty hunter be against a Sith "mfer" (Sorry had to censor that) like Vader?

I've always figured, now that computer engines are getting that much more graphically powerful, why not expand the grandiosity of the battles you're flying in? Your battles, even the Battle of Endor for XW:A, seem very detatched and small scale. What if you got to be a TIE pilot in a massive, 6 squadron raid on a Rebel base? Also, I'd prefer them to actually make capital ships powerful - an ISD shouldn't be destroyable by a mere 3 Y-Wing squadrons.

Any new ground units for both sides, you think? Dark Troopers, mayhaps?

I was just thinking about old favorites like TIE Fighter and X-Wing: Alliance, and wondering if there's still a market for them. Is the genre still alive and kicking, or dead in the water to all that Halo-esque FPS crap?

Woah woah woah woah...I did not say that I was in favor of cookie-cutter match-ups! I just merely pointed out that numerically, there seems to be the same amount of units per side. That said, now that we know the SSD is in, and we can reasonably suspect more units, what Rebel and Imperial units are left to fill the void, do you think?

...and why the Empire chose to construct the Death Star in the orbit of a heavily forested moon populated by a resentful tribal society, as opposed to say, a barren volcano world with no trace of life, baffles the imagination.

Muchos gracias.

It seems intuitively obvious that there has to be a matching amount of Rebel to Imperial units. TIE Fighter/Interceptor?/Bomber/Scout = X-Wing, A-Wing, Y-Wing, B-Wing? Tartan Patrol Cruiser = Correlian Corvette Broadside Cruiser = Correlian Gunship Acclamator Cruiser = Nebulon B Frigate Interdictor Cruiser = Marauder Cruiser Victory Star Destroyer = Assault Frigate Mark II Imperator Star Destroyer = Mon Calimari Cruiser Super Star Destroyer = ? Now that we know the SSD is in, what equivalent Rebel ship do you think will also be revealed? In addition, how probable do you think other ships' releases are? For example, the Imperial Lancer Frigate. Or the Carrack Cruiser. If that was likely, what Rebel equivalents do you think we would see?

Did they say it would be a hero unit, or a run-of-the-mill produceable unit?

But think of all the British accent-laden white males that an SSD employs.

But can you seriously imagine a Rebel world (or a Neutral world that really in truth is hiding its Rebel allegiance) defecting to the Imperials? If planetary uprisings soley benefit the Rebels, then that's an unfair advantage.

His voice still sounded more like that of a hoarse Rastafarian than a sociopathic cyborg.

I didn't understand your first sentence, so bear with me if I get something of it wrong. Are you saying that these countries are statist, and haven't been blockaded? Statist, hell yes, but North Korea has been under blockade for a good 50+ years. Iran as well has been under trade embargo as well, ever since the Iranian hostage situation; a mere few years after its current theocratic government took power (approx. 25 years). As for the Saudis, I never ever said that the theocracy's rulers themselves had to be pious. I mean shit, wouldn't all that power and clout make you a hedonist, too?

Bah. Tell me your shorts would remain unsoiled if you saw a 19 KM-long leviathan bristling with energy weapons, staring your planet down.

Let's wait until after the chat, to make sure that these questions aren't already answered, though.

Yes, state-driven command economies don't really pan out too well, history has shown. Be it a right wing planned economy (fascism) or a left-wing one (Marxism). Fascism in particular would fair poorly under current global economic trends because it specifically places importance on a state becoming "self-sufficient" on its own resources - a feat of impossibility in today's global marketplace. Although, to be fair to Marxism, you could speculate that in that particular instance, we've never truly been able to see what a real socialist economy can do because every 3rd world nation that declared itself Marxist within the last century has been either invaded, blockaded, or shut off to international trade by our forces, or by our allies. You could also speculate that - the same with fascism - today's new global market especially limits our view of a socialist economy's effectiveness or lack therof. Trade is the lifeblood of any country's economy. And no one can trade with you if you're blockaded, or everyone else is bullied away from trading with you. That said, my totalitarian theocracy might be economically stable if it allowed say, free enterprise, among its (dronish) citizens, and maintained open trading relations with the big players. Worked for the Taliban, worked for Hussein's Iraq until '91, works for Saudi Arabia.

It makes me wonder: will planets have a population system? Or will it be like Rebellion, where some planets are populated and thus need a garrison to maintain their loyalty, and others are unpopulated and need only be colonized for it to be yours? I doubt the loyalty system is going to be anywhere near as complex as Rebellion, considering that there is not going to be a diplomacy and espionage aspect to EaW. I suspect that it's simply going to be a garrison ratio - X amount of units in proportion to Y amount of population. Z might be an array of different planetary effects. For example, Alderaan might be ridiculously more demanding of an Imperial garrison, while Coruscant would be the same for the Rebels. Perhaps characters, like in RTW, would have characteristics which would improve order on worlds that they're stationed on; limiting the amount of troops you need to hold back from the front lines. I would hope that planetary uprisings would only result in them becoming Neutral. The alternative would be an unfair advantage to the Rebels, methinks.

Harrr...General Grievous looked like a demon from hell in all the trailers...once I saw him wheezing all the time, though, the guy just turned into a self-pitious tin can man with extra arms.