Naja

*cracks knuckles* Let me have a try at this, eh? What is Palpatine's first name?

Why wasn't Hoth there?

Mon Calimari wasn't 'freed' until way after Yavin, though. Or rather, they didn't openly revolt against Imperial occupation until after the events at Yavin IV. I wonder if you have to rescue Ackbar from slavery under Tarkin to recruit him...

Bahh. Those hippie Rebels can prance through however many tulip fields as they please; the galaxy belongs to Palpatine.

Yeah, but with 6 ISDs, the Imperial player could mass-produce TIE Fighters and Bombers (for no cost) to take out those fighters and destroy the heavier vessels' hardpoints while the ISDs hammer away at the support vessels.

My bad. By "capital ship" I meant something more to the effect of "ship of the line," like ISD, Mon Cal, VSD, all that jazz.

I imagine that a good mod would put the space cap at about 50-60. That's about 20 capital ships (3x20), or however many support vessels you would want. You could simply eliminate the presence of the other two fleets so that you wouldn't have to worry about that campy reinforcement aspect and just do battle with one fleet for each side.

I doubt that the devs have even read the Dark Empire series. Not that I'd blame 'em - those books are either loveable or detestable. But there was no concept of the Acclamator back then; those books were written in the early early 90's, way before the prequels. But anyway, the absence of the Venator with the unexplained remaining presence of the Acclamator would indeed be justifiable if the Acclamator were being used as an efficient troop transporter, like you said. It's not, however. Its use is just as a light frigate; that's all. Hence, my confusion at an Episode II starship being present in a game that spans from III-IV, paired with the absence of an Episode III starship. It was a very arbitrary decision that contradicted what we were told directly by Delphi.

At least I can look to my fellow nerd heroes at Legacy of War, for my salvation. *salutes* Venators, Executors, and Lancers! Oh my!

Mehh. Imagine the Battle of Endor under that very system: 6 Rebel Mon Cals vs. 6 ISDs. Oops! Lost my ISD. *New ISD joins the fray* Oops! Lost the Mon Calimari! And Ackbar, too! *New Mon Calimari joins the fray, Arthas...oops! I meant Ackbar...mysteriously becomes ressurected after the battle, after having been disintegrated on board his starship* Rinse repeat. I'm buying the game at this point soley for Legacy of War and to kick my wife's ass online...

Bahh. Whatever happened to "epic battles" ?

I don't understand why the Acclamator - a MUCH older ship - remains, while the Venator is axed. Why don't they just axe the useless Broadside Cruiser if they want to remove a ship model? No one gives a shit about the fate of the Broadside. If this is indeed a prelude to a Clone Wars expansion, I refuse to buy that expansion out of principle. Games should be completed.

...to save a unit for a Clone Wars add-on?

I would assume that just as destroying the Death Star would be a Rebel condition for victory, building the damn thing would an Imperial one. It would probably give you control over a bunch of planets, too, once you completed the mission.

Omega: Yeah, we wish, but that's an OLD picture. Like, one of the first pictures released. I think a lot of things have changed. The only real hope at this point is to mod this (seemingly) restrictive space pop cap out of existence.

Number 5 seemed moronic. Honestly, who cares about what speeders can and cannot do when there are so many other important questions to ask? I take it questions are done, now? If not, I'd suggest that in place of the current #5, we ask a general, all-purpose modding question: "We know that the game will not be moddable outside of the box, and will need outside programs to extract the XML data. But once these programs are released, who will get to use them? Will it be a universal release where everyone who owns the game can download the modding programs, or will only a few select mod groups (like Legacy of War) be able to download them? How long after the game's release will the modding programs be released?" The second part of the question concerning when the programs are released I believe is important because it would show whether or not LucasArts is trying to be slimy and stall modding until a sequel or expansion comes out; if the programs are universal and come out, say, 2 months after the game's release, then we won't need to freak out so much.

...so I've noticed. But what happened to the thread?

It used to be here, but now I can't find it. Did we decide on 5 questions already, or was it moved elsewhere?

Why don't we just open up a seperate poll to see which questions are the most popular, like we did last time?

As I've said, these questions all feed into the basic question about how modding itself will be handled - who will get to use it (providing the tools universally, or only a few select modding teams that are approved of), by whom will it be handled (LucasArts or Petro), and how long after the game's release will we be able to use it. I also really like Phantom's question about how useful hit and run tactics will be if ships are immediately repaired after battle.

That's also a very old picture. There are pictures where we see persistant dead bodies on the ground. Surely, we can reason, things have changed between the screenshots of yore, and the screenshots of now.

I thought I told you to remain on the command ship!

I think that we need an all-purpose, general question about the moddability that doesn't run too much risk of being unanswered (like "how is your relationship to LucasArts?"). A good answer to such a question, I feel, would do much to allay our pessimism. Something to the effect of: In light of us knowing that we need seperate programs to extract the XLM files, who will be providing the programs to do so: LucasArts, or Petroglyph? How universal will the distribution of these programs be: to everybody, or only to dedicated modding groups like Legacy of War? How soon after the release of the game will these programs be available?

I agree, General Vader. We may be a little impatient, what with the waiting and all, but there is absolutely no excuse for bashing a decent guy like Delphi who is taking time out of his (undoubtedly grueling) work schedule developing this game to leak tidbits of info for our insatiable curiosities. You unsatisfied or impatient? Fine. Just articulate it clearly and non-derogatorily.

I don't see why people don't understand that in the Star Wars universe, balance and realism are not mutually exclusive. The Empire is all brawn. With numerical and resource advantages, they can crush whomever they intend to...so long as they can locate and pin it down. The Alliance is all guile and deception. While not nearly as strong as the Empire, the structure of their economy and armed forces allows them to gradually sabotage and erode at the Empire's war-economy, paralyzing it...so long as they can survive long enough. Like I said earlier - classic Sun Tzu. It was said best in a very early interview, actually. EaW will be a Cat and Mouse type of strategy, except the cat is blind, and the mouse has sharp teeth.