Little.B

So only 1,5 hours left and I will start my travel to Leipzig. Im off until Saturday so be sure to check my website now and then (at Saturday/Sunday) for updates. Have fun and stay clean!

Yes you can. Nobody ever told something different

Yes. Battlefront 2 and new stuff for SW: Galaxies will also be shown there but for some reason they do not appear in the Activision Line-Up. Nobody knows why...

As planing looks right now I will be there from Wednesday to Saturday morning so I will stay two days (Tuesday, Friday) at the GC and will take a very close look at Empire at War (and will take photos and videos of course) If there is something you want to have a very, very close look on please write it down here within the next 36 hours (aprox) and I will do my best And of course #1 priority is on the Debarisher

I'm not evil.... just rotten to the core!

In the basics this is a very good idea I have to admit. But I don't think it will be possible because as it seems to me the player does not play a person but is some kind of all-mighty hand of the Emperor/Rebellion. If he is a traitor all his units would follow hin and your new enemy would be gone because you are the enemy. I hope you understand what I mean /imho please don't hit me

In case of WoW it is not true. This rumor was brought up by players who don't know the tools they are running. Yes, WoW does check system specs, files in the WoW and some other folders but it does not save or send them.

Ah. This hairy beast did not deserve to survive

Yes they did. In the movies it looks way better. Even with textures! *WEEEE!*

Horrible is the wrong term. It is a nice game but does not get so far to call it good. 42€ were way to much money

Yes it's (or most people think) that it is a Marauder Corvette. You can see them in some of the videos. On this shot it looks very..... ugly.

In the videos you can see that that is the rebel artillery. As it seems it needs some time to set up but once it is hell breaks loose

I just wanted you to know that we will get new info on EaW within the next week(s). From the 19th to 21st (of August) the Games Convention (Europes biggest gaming expo) is taking place in Leipzig, Germany. After many E-Mails Activision Germany (Publisher for UK and RoE (Rest of Europe) announced today that Empire at War will be shown (and will be playable) at their booth. Most likely I will be there (at least I will give my best ) and shoot as much photos and videos as I can So with a bit of luck we will get to know something new within the next week. If I cant go there (which I don't hope) of course other gaming magazines will surely have a look on it. I'm so edgy!

mh. Best counter to a SSD? I would say.... a stolen SSD maybe?

First of all: Sorry, sorry, sorry it really took very long. Other projects kept me busy and finaly is simply fogot about it. But now here it is. I hope there arent too much spelling mistakes in it. Also some passages were really hard to tranlate so I had to change them a bit. A proefessional translator would surely have made it different buy hey I'm not a professional translator Have fun reading (Remeber, this was published in Feb05) ------------------------------------- Star Wars: Empire At War 16.02.2005 15:11 Uhr The rebels know what they are coming for when they arrive at the imperial outpost. The few defenders are no match for the troops landing with mighty transport vessels. After the last AT-AT trembles to the ground rebel pilots rush into the hangar and climb into the brand new prototypes they were coming for. As fast as they came the rebel forces are gone before imperial reinforcements arrive. In their hands the new weapon of choice: the X-Wing. Beginning of the Rebellion This story is not the only one which will be told in Empire at War. "Nothing is rendered in this movie. This is all done by the game engine", says Mike Legg, the president of Petroglyph, an ex-Westwood-employee. The engine is completely new and has been developed fort his new Star Wars-RTS. This step had been taken after the team looked at several completed engines but did not find a satisfying one "Either it was graphically out of date or to weak overall PC-Performance. So we said: Forget about it we have to do something new." All those nice effects like Pixel and Vertex shaders which can be done by DirectX-9-GPUs can be used. Highly detailed units move on well illuminated planets which are full of nice details like realistic water effects or volcanic ash-rains. But ground-battles are only half the fun: For the first time the player will be able to conquer space. These battles will have major effects on ground-battles and the campaign itself. Rewriting history The story of Empire at War begins right after Episode III and will continue over the timeline of the classic movie trilogy. The player can take control over the Rebels or control the mighty fleets of the Galactic Empire."We give the players a basic flied to play on. What he does with it is up to them", Brett Tosti (Lucas Arts) stresses. So like in Battle for Middle-Earth the player will be able to change the history and lead the evil guys to victory. Game difficulty, Size of the galaxy and Win Conditions (e.g. controlling a special percentage of the galaxy) will be adjustable. "This is a continuous universe in which the controlling party of the different planets will change several times. Of course there are key-planets every factions wants to control", says Joe Bostic. Empire at War wants to get away from the well-known linear campaign design. Some units will only be available if the player controls their homeworld. Between the battles the player develops new technologies, builds new units and plans his next attacks. Honorable Retreat "In traditional RTS games the player uses 80% of the time to gather and building a huge kind of super-army which is send to the enemy ", says Mike Legg. To win a single mission is only secondary in Empire at War. Important is to do more damage to the enemy then he does to your forces. If the player retreats surviving units will still be available so it is often better to retreat then to fight an impossible battle. There is much to do not only objectives like "defeat the enemy". It can be very useful to use smaller groups of fighters to attack enemy bases and to destroy important enemy ships and building to strengthen your chances in a later battle. This makes scouting is very important. Rebels will use spies which will reveal all the activities at a planet and its orbit. At least as long as they are not encountered by their imperial counterparty: bounty-hunters The big plan Empire at War has ground and space battles which are strongly connected to each other. Most times a won space battle is the pre-condition for an invasion because you have to get your transports past the defending fleet. But it’s the decision of the play where to set his priorities say Mike Legg: "You can say: ‚I don’t invest in many ground troops. I prefer controlling the orbit or vice versa" Butt he buildings on the planet itself can make space battles much easier/harder. Ion Cannons for example can support your defending. But it’s also possible the other way: You can send in TIE Bombers to support your fighting troops on the ground. In deep space For a better overview the game has no "real" 3D view like for example Homeworld but ships will automatically fly over each other to avoid collisions. The feeling of space battles is very different to ground battles, Joe Bostic explains: "It’s like in old naval battles. Stardestroyers have many turrets located at their left and right flanks. To use them all the player has to move the larger vessels into good firing positions by hand. To take out larger vessels the player will need to destroy them party after party" When attacking capital ships the player can select different parts like the engines and shield generators. Once these components are destroyed the corresponding function is no longer available. Just like the generators on Interdictor starships which inhibit enemy ships from fleeing into hyperspace. Much smaller and weaker are the space fighters like X-Wings or TIE Fighters which (just like infantry units in ground battles) consist of several crafts forming one unit. Imperial Research Which units are available to the player (and when they are) depends on the priorities in the players’ technology research. Of course the timeline when which technologies are available can and will differ to the movies. The best way to compare the research system in Empire at War is to compare it with Civilization: It’s close to human history but with enough efforts you could build tanks even in the 18th century. The list of units is still kept top-secret right. Next to well known units from the classic movies there will also be units taken from Episode 1-3 and also some new creations. Also some units which appeared in books like the TIE Crawler will be seen in a game for the first time. Still much left to do The release of Empire at War is set around Christmas [out of date info] and because of that there is still much content to be added. Thinks like resource-management are still tested and thought out. Strange things like wood harvesting droids like in Galactic Battlegrounds have been denied. Also there is still much to do referring to the games AI .because the computer has not only to be a good tactician in battles he also has to plan his actions in the campaign. In multiplayer matches we will see the classical "Rebel vs. Empire"-campaign with two human players controlling one faction. In real multiplayer matches up to eight players will fight each other competing about ranks in online-rankings. (German text by: Heinrich Lenhardt http://www.pcgames.de) (Translated by: Little.B http://www.empire-at-war.de)

A very shocking demo (climbing down the ladder nearly made me scream ) but very, very short.

Plans on a Beta? Or Multiplayer Demo? (Something we can play before the game is officialy released)

Gret game Instead of downloading and playing the demo you can also download this video which is a complete walkthrough of the demo. Just posting this because its recorded by me

Can someone tell me what this is all about?

Graphics are just awesome!!!

Yes. Development of the game has been stopped officialy by today. Official Press Announcement (German) *edit Found it it English

At least we have somthing to talk about

Lets call it Debarisher So: For a Decimator this ship is to large (Deci is a medium transport. This ship has the size of a frigatte/cruiser) For a Demolisher the command bridge does not fit (But size and use seem to fit) For a Liberator the ship is to small and the Liberator is a New Republic design (and is the SD counterpart. The Empire would have no use for these)

I havent played Rebellion but the Liberator is a rebel ship right? The Demolisher Class is an imperial design so it cant be the same.

mh Picture of it? Its to big to be Decimator and to small (to weak) to be a Liberator (which has not been used by the Empire). So I'm confused now *EDIT* mh. The Demolisher could fit very well! Only the command tower seems a bit too large. http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/tv/demolisher-port.jpg http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/tv/demolisher-starb.jpg http://www.imperialbastion.ru/empire/sd/sd/demolisher4.jpg http://www.imperialbastion.ru/empire/sd/sd/demolisher3.jpg http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/diagram/dagger/200demolisher.jpg [Demolisher-class star frigate] * type: frigate or light destroyer * name: * nickname: Demolisher * builder: Sienar Fleet Systems ? * length: 0.495 - 0.580 km * volume: * engines:2 * weaponry: * internal docking: major * fighters: several squadrons * reference: Droids cartoon In the Droids cartoons a band of vicious pirates under the leadership of the nefarious Kybo Ren-Cha were in possession of a small stolen warship built to the standard design aesthetics of a Kuat Drive Yards vessel. Subtle scale cues in the cartoon suggest that the ship is significantly smaller than an Imperator-class star destroyer, and should probably be classed as a star frigate. The command tower is large in proportion to the rest of the ship, which is in itself one of the factors hinting at the vessel's smaller dimensions. The tower is as wide and long as its support structures; seemingly a fifth as long as the entire vessel. The bridge interior matches the popular kind with crew pits and a panoramic viewport array. However most of the windows are rectangular rather than triangular. The deck plating is bronze. The exit corridor is narrower than those of larger ships, and the bridge is somewhat less spacious overall. Instead of the three large primary sublight thruster nozzles of an Imperator-class star destroyer, the Demolisher has only two. Each of these appears to be smaller than the equivalent part of a star destroyer, though the thruster mechanisms partly protrude from the superstructure as twin ridges on the dorsal hull. The single docking bay seems somewhat smaller than the primary bay of a star destroyer, and it is located at the prow of the star frigate, effectively cutting the usual dagger-like point into a pair of mandibles. The relative scale of smaller starships seen launching from the bay or manoeuvring near the frigate imply a ship length of only a few hundred metres. The main hangar extends to nearly the entire width of the bay, making it significantly broader and more voluminous than the smaller but more numerous hangars of the primary bay of an Imperator-class destroyer. The number of stolen TIE starfighters in the pirates' Tarnoonga lair, which presumably were aboard Demolisher when it was stolen, indicates that the standard fighter compliment is between two and three squadrons.