Naja

Although...Cain, what is it that you know?

Well, since those space stations are so damned huge, they could easily handle the size of an SSD (even if it was only 3x the length of an ISD). Especially if there was only one, like the Executor as a hero unit. They have done a great deal to release units and personell that we have seen only in Episode V+ (Veers, AT-ATs, Calimari Cruisers). Add to that, every other goddamned thread around here has something to do with SSDs. With the Petro guys frequenting the forums all over online, I'm sure that they've ran across the idea at least once. And if they frequent here, I'm sure it's been rammed in their face numerous times. "SSD?" "SSD?!" "SSD!!" Hey, talking non-stop about the SSD passes the time until December, at least. And who knows? Maybe they'll simply include the SSD on account of how annoying we've become. You hear that, y'all?! Annoy Petroglyph with all that you've got concerning that ship!

I want them to polish up some of the heroes' lightsaber combat animation. I want the SSD. I want the TIE Interceptor and the B-Wing. I don't want heroes to be over-powered. For the campaign, I don't want building or upgrading to occur in any of the battles, like in the alpha (I assume that it was a skirmish mode - that's tolerable).

Again, it seems like the ability to train and upgrade units in the midst of battle is only a skirmish thing, which I guess I can see the point of. Otherwise, the Galaxy Map would have no relevance in the campaign mode. Though personally, I think it would be much more fun if you could simply select the units you wanted to use before each battle started. Sort of like R: TW, where the only limit was a 20 unit cap per side, and a certain ceiling of funding that you could not exceed. So, for example, if you set it to a $10,000 ceiling, and 5 Praetorian Cohorts costed $10,500, you could only have 4 Praetorian Cohorts in your army. Ah well. The only nervousness I'm having about this whole unit production/upgrade thing during battles is the fact that unless Petroglyph does indeed treat this like a skirmish, it would completely negate the Galaxy Map during campaigns.

Hmmm. Are there any other Imperial units that can easily take down buildings that are non-artillery? BTW, is that a piece of steak your chipmunk is gnawing on?

Wouldn't that be anti-canon, though? In The Empire Strikes Back, Veers' AT-AT knocks out the Rebel shield generator in one go. Bah, ah well. I'll just use one of those TibED type editors that is sure to come out, and I'll edit the walker's lasers to be able to smash buildings. What is good for destroying buildings, anyway? Only artillery? Does this mean that the Imps have to lug artillery around wherever they go?

Also: did the AT-ATs seem to have firepower that was...lacking? I don't think that anything should be able to survive the combined firepower of 3 AT-ATs at close range, yet that structure that was highlighted was barely getting any damage.

Regardless, for how attentive those Petroglyph folks are, I'm sure that they'll correct these errors. We'd give 'em hell, otherwise.

Yeah, and those troopers' range of attack was pathetic. They had to go to point blank to shoot at anything. I assume that these are all Alpha glitches, correct?

Huh? Have you seen some of the other captured screenshots? The only reason this video looks all sploodgy is because it was a low-quality and shaky video camera that was recording it. Every account I keep hearing from keeps saying that EaW's graphics keep improving with each incarnation. As for the color-coding, I think it's been implied that that is only a multiplayer thing, to distinguish different players. Another question, Little B: you say that ground battles inherently run at double speed? Can you toggle battle speed? I would assume you could. Are ground battles inherently at a different speed than space battles? Is it possible to allocate different speeds for ground and space, or would you have to manually change it for each battle if you were switching between ground and space?

I think it looked confusing mainly because it was an Alpha, and it was a skirmish. From what Little B said, in campaigns you won't have to worry about unit production in the midst of battle because it will all be done on the Galaxy Map. Again, I think the TIEs outside of the ISDs were from the station due to it being an Alpha skirmish. Since this is a skirmish, I'd assume that you are manufacturing them in the midst of space, and since this was an Alpha without the Galaxy Map, it seems there would be no other place to build them. The graphics, I'm sure, looked confusing because it was taken from a shaky videocamera. From all accounts we've heard, the graphics are like twice as good as some of the in-game footage (the drool-inducing ones) we saw a while ago, and like Generals times 25! Now, the criticism, which I'd like to hope that Junker or Little B could correct: - Obi Wan's lightsaber motions still seemed a little awkward. - What were those fighters doing? In the first scene, while that whole shitload of ISDs was pumelling that Starbase, you could see a whole bunch of fighter groups (with blue and red squares) just standing there. What was that all about? Just Alpha weirdness? - The cinematic camera seemed a little jittery, and a little too fast. I'm sure that the jitteriness was caused by the hand-held camera, but the speed (at least when you were seeing X-Wings zooming all over the place) in some of those scenes was a little too...jerky and non-fluid.

That's strange. What makes upgrading different as to warrant putting it in space battles only?

I don't see what's so offensive about Ackbar's avatar. Just a friendly little fish man. Little B, does this mean that ships will be built during space battles? Or that they will be upgraded during space battles? Or do you simply do both these things on the galaxy map? To my knowledge, the entire point of a galaxy map was to get all of the pesky building out of the way so that you could just kick ass in space or on the ground with no concern for construction or upgrading.

I heard that Little B had footage. If so, when do you think it will be available?

What is that grid type thing? Is it something you can see when you zoom out far, or when you press a certain button? Looks kinda like an eyesore. http://www.sw-eaw.de/bild.htm?id=244&eintrag=0&bc=3&showcat=5

About the unit coloring: In some of the screenshots I've seen, there is no color coding (like Stardestroyers and AT-ATs have nothing), and in some there has been (like ISDs and At-ATs having blue). Is unit coloring something that can be toggled, or is it just that those other pictures picked gray for their team?

I'm sorry to beat a dead horse, Little B, but will basic infantry units like Rebel regulars and Imperial Stormtroopers be able to? Because I think I saw them doing so in the Lucas Arts trailer, but am not sure. Have you or Junker played on the surface of Coruscant? If so, what did it look like? As for the ambiguity surrounding Tarkin, this concerns me. If people have played characters like Mara Jade, I'm surprised that Tarkin wasn't seen. I say this because a lot of characters supposedly are going to be "recruited" for your side when you liberate/conquer their homeworld, and it's strange that Tarkin, who you would assume would begin within the Imperial ranks from the get-go, wasn't seen. Any thoughts, Little B?

Is Grand Moff Tarkin an Imperial character? Have you seen what the surface of Coruscant looks like? Can units fire while moving? Are camera controls customizable? Would you compare them to Generals, RTW, or something else?

Can units like Stormtroopers fire while moving?

So...do you know if there will or will not be Super Star Destroyers, B-Wings and/or TIE Interceptors? Can units formation move/formation attack?

I don't know the names of them, but there are a couple of German dudes (one of them being a member of this board) that are attending the major event in Germany where EaW will be further showcased. This thread will be major concerns that we should pile together, when he starts telling us about his experience as of tomorrow. Try not to repeat a concern if it has already been said, please. - How will in-battle (non-cinematic) camera control work? Will it be like Generals? Will camera controls be customizable? - Can all units fire while running/walking? If not, which ones can and cannot? - Will there be an option (much like in Emperor: Battle for Dune) for units to move and attack in formation?

For when you are commanding a land or a space battle (not the cinematic mode), does anyone know what sort of camera system it will be using? I really hope that it will not be in the style of Generals, and more in the style of Rome: Total War. I say this because the Generals camera angles (the commands to rotate the angle, basically) are very counterintuitive: they're all the way on one end of the keyboard, while all of the other commands to attack, disperse, group units, and so on, are on the exact opposite. That, and there's no way to reprogram the controls! Rome: Total War, by contrast, has a very intuitive battle camera - you simply move the arrow keys, the camera moves in one direction. You move the mouse to the end of the screen, you alter the camera angle. I guess we'll have to wait for the people who have been to the Convention, to know more about this.

First off, what is the confirmed maxiumum of planets that Petroglyph has said will be in the game? I've heard everything from 20 to 50. Ok, my strong expectations, in no particular order: - Coruscant - Dagobah [no extra charge, I've just learned that "Dagobah" means "pantheon of the gods" in some language ] - Tatooine - Hoth - Alderaan - Calimari? - Correlia - Endor - Kuat - Fondor? - Sullust - Naboo?

Well, for consistency's sake, they'd better have an SSD. If the Rebels get Calimari Cruisers, that must mean that EaW (whether the creators are fluent in the SW universe or not) features some time after Episode IV, because the Calimari didn't revolt against Imperial occupation (promptly offering their ships to the Rebel cause) until after the Death Star was blown up. Since this goes past the Episode IV timeline, SSDs must be a part of that too, since everyone saw the Executor in # V.

Inquire about ground battles on the surface of Coruscant!