Naja

What has led you to believe this, Beowulf?

Look at Avaris' post "the good, the bad, and the ugly" for a good summary.

LittleB: I think what Avaris is saying is that this goes beyond crying over spilt milk, concerning the loss of one unit (the Venator). Rather, we are pissed about the apathy that LucasArts is displaying towards its fan base, the quality and consistency of this game, and the Star Wars universe itself.

And the Acclamator remains? There is no sense of timeline in the game. *note* The comparisons I am about to engage in assume that canon units are chronologically determined by which movie they're first seen in, and not by what assumed event happened (so we first see Imperators in Episode IV, not "just after the Clone Wars," or we first see Mon Calimari Cruisers in Episode VI, not "after Mon Calimari was liberated." Etc). Mon Calimari Cruisers (Episode VI), Acclamators (Episode II), A-Wings (Episode VI), and AT-ATs (Episode V) exist; yet no TIE Interceptors (Episode VI), B-Wings (Episode VI), SSDs (Episode V), or Venators (Episode III)? Face the facts; they just plopped some units in with a "they're all from Star Wars, who gives a shit" attitude so that each unit would have a cookie-cutter counter. Why else would the Rebels have Mon Calimari Cruisers in a game that supposedly takes place "between the end of Episode III and ends at around the time period of Episode IV" ? 'Well, the Empire should have the ISD researched by the end of it, so let's give the Rebels their own heavy cruiser so they can have a [direct] match for it.' Utterly lazy thinking. And don't anybody repond with a "well, what if the Rebels did free Mon Calimari before the Death Star was destroyed? You don't have to rigidly stay towards the established movie timeline, ya know - we can change Star Wars history with this game!" retort. Besides the established fact that the devs have framed this game to take place within the Episode IV timeline (Death Star gets blown up, Luke isn't a Jedi yet, etc), selectively picking certain bits and pieces from different timelines isn't reinventing history - it's ill-begotten, inconsistent, and poorly-explained anachronism. If you truly want to change the history of a predetermined timeframe, stick to it, I beg of you. And should you feel the compelling need to make a change, do it intelligently and consistently with what the fans would want, and not half-assed, I again beg of you. Fin.

It briefs you about the weather, the bonuses or disadvantages to owning that planet for your faction, the indigenious life that will fight against or for you, whenever you start a ground battle.

Complexity does not ruin gameplay. Inflexibility and imbalance ruins it...and pandering to a fickle RTS demographic who's just going to leave the game to collect dust in under 2 years after purchasing it is the surest way of ruining EaW's gameplay. And I like Earth 2160! I think what ruined it for multiplayer wasn't the complexity as much as the imbalance (the Aliens are either hella susepctible to rushes at the beginning, or damn-near invincible once they can spawn Postomor Destroyers), and the bugginess of Earthnet, which has been somewhat alleviated now that Earthnet2 is online. I think it's great; too bad that Zuxxez had such an exclusive marketing policy and barely let the states know about such an awesome game.

In light of all this negativity concerning some of the community's dissapointments, I read the 2nd designer diary and was pretty impressed by how "unforgiving" weather on planetary surfaces was described as being. Blizzards that can cut sight ranges up to 70%, poisonous volcanic air that can erode away at the health of unprotected infantry, rain that reduces blaster accuracy by half, all that jazz.

Hoo boy. Let's hope that Delphi indeed isn't that. Or heaven help Petroglyph on their 2nd game.

I'd be able to tolerate it if more relevant and established ships like the Lancer, Carrack, and now Venator were in.

The boycott wouldn't be over the removal of the Venator in Empire at War. It would concern, rather, the low level of marketing amorality responsible for taunting the community with the prospect of a ship that they're obviously gah-gah over, only to yank it back at the last second, and reserve it for an expansion soley to boost sales for that expansion. It's a very cheap blow to the fans. Secondly, I feel that believing that any arbitrary removal or sullying of a well-established Star Wars ship is alright because "they're all ficticious anyway" is just...lazy and apologist thinking. If a game involving the world of Tolkein had Hobbits flying jetfighters against Orc hordes flying MiGs, odds are something wouldn't feel quite right. There is verymuch an importance to remaining consistent with an established story's canon, or scope of canon, because it's often an indicator to how much a developer really cares about the world in which he's creating a game. The fact that the Venator was axed, but a garbage vessel creation like the Broadside remains is testament to the fact that making a quality Star Wars game is a lower priority than having a direct equivalent of the Rebel missile boat for the sake of some cookie-cutter concept of "balance."

Thunderheart?

Why not just take out the Broadside? No one gives a rat's ass about that useless piece of crap.

What's wrong with online petitions? At least some sort of message is being sent out. If at least half of those who sign do indeed not buy the expansion en masse, then the financial dent will be noticeable.

...Or, just boycott the expansion.

I believe in Star Wars to the extent that it is a wonderful modern day myth, in the same ranks as The Chronicles of Narnia or Tolkein's Similarion (The Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings, etc). The reason that the prequels were dissapointing was because they lacked that certain mythological magic the original trilogy had; mainly due to George Lucas having a heavy hand in everything, in contrast to the original trilogy, where his role was minimal.

How about...no starship being able to manufacture starfighters, and all starships being able to carry ground forces and landing craft a la Rebellion?

There comes a point when I wish that developers would just make a finished product so that people like Juggernaught would be out of a job.

Well, Teradyn's comments may have come off as a bit ageist, OMEGA, but he's right on, sad to say. Despite the few exceptions you see, the vast majority of teenagers (at least in my country) are snotty, fickle, materialistic, and dumb as a wall. They don't know a good story when they see it, and they certainly don't know a bad story when they see it. An entire industry positively thrives on the money of their parents placating their capricious whining, explaining the development of bad movies like Episode I. It's all here in this pamphlet.

Ehh, despite my occasional bitterness, I am still very excited about this game. I guess my bitterness manifests because I was one of the first people here who was aware of this game's development from the get-go; we had very high expectations for it. I suppose modding will solve most of the problems, but you can't escape the fact that despite how the game in concept is going to be very flexible and innovative, it could have been made a helluva lot better.

[bitterness]Ahh, laziness reigns supreme once more. We can have the earliest Clone War Star Destroyer known, but an Episode III one? Nahh. So help me Bob, I'm gonna boycot the expansion if it turns out to be a Clone Wars one. And LucasArts PR, Petro, whoever it is that's releasing these screens only to later deny the units' existence, and keeping other dissapointing developments until the last minute: enough of the goddamned c*ck-teasing, please. It's very aggravating.[/bitterness]

*shrugs* Doesn't strike me as anti-American as much as anti-Right Wing. Unless somehow the two can't be identified without the other? Makes me sick to think that anytime someone points out how ludicrous the American Right Wing is, he gets automatically labeled as an "anti-American." It's almost McCarthyist. And *ducks flaming projectiles* I think that Bush cheated just as much in the second election. When the CEO of the company that supplied all of Iowa's electronic voting machines (Diebold) raises over $600,000 for the Bush/Cheyney campaign and pledges his support to "do anything I can to deliver Iowa to Bush," I get a wee bit suspicious. When Republican Party officials do everything in their power to keep disenfranchised hundreds of black ex-felons (blacks statistically tend to vote Democrat), and do everything to deceive black communities about election specifics (giving the wrong date or time of the election, telling them that they cannot vote if they have unpaid parking tickets, etc), I get a wee bit suspicious. When an Iowa town of around 600 people reports over 1000 votes for Bush, I get a wee bit suspicious. Rinse repeat.

TK-421's, of course!

Hmm. So you would say that there's no real politic way to perhaps 'suggest' a creative vision to some modders?

I'd like your advice on this matter. Is it at all possible to contribute to or start a large modding project for a game and not have any large computer experience? Would it come off as annoying or insulting to get skilled modders to help in a project when I myself have no skills other than those outside of modding? I ask these because I'm considering thinking up the raw ideas (in terms of new storyline and dialogue), and perhaps even recording new voice acting, for a total conversion of the game Earth 2160, and I don't want to unwittingly come off as an ass when asking people to help me with it.

Nyet, comrade! It's Augustus. At the end of The Phantom Menace, the Naboo procession (that reminds me a lot of Dinotopia, for some reason) that Palpatine had played for the victorious was called "Augie's Great Municipal Band" on the CD soundtrack. Now, that may just be coincidental. BUT... the song itself is the Emperor's theme transposed into a major key!! Pretty sneaky of John Williams, eh? So, yeah. Never been a more solid speculation about useless fanon.