The Saint

Meh Star Trek mods have been done into the ground besides there are already enough ST RTS games out there.

I'm not a modder, wish I was, I'll learn one day though I suppose before I die. I've got another 60 years to go I figure..ahem..onto the point..I've just been brainstorming some ideas really on what could be done for modifications to EaW. Keeping in mind that we dont really know if the two factions will be hardcoded into the game and thusly unchangable and no new factions are able to be added the scenarios I give will be designed solely for the purpose for a mod with two factions: Wing Commander: Honestly now there arent enough mods for this game series, even though the games themselves were epic space sims in which you could actually win or lose a war. There havent been really many flightsims which allow you to lose a war just as quickly as you win it unless you die and then its a game over. Back to the point of the matter, there is a vast plethora of information concerning ships, dates, times, worlds(one game came with a map which detailed the jump routes from one planetary system to another..hundreds upon hundreds of planetary systems and the factions they fell under). The main crux of the storyline is simple, you have two sides, the Terran Confederation, and the Kilrathi Empire, have been at each others throats for some time..both of them are established however the Kilrathi have a slightly larger military..this would be a rather convential war based around the Carriers both sides put forth. There is a plethora of fighter and bomber craft, transports, destroyers, cruisers, even corvettes. And there are also superweapons for both sides. Definately something to keep in mind. Space Above and Beyond Now there has to be someone on this board who rememebrs this show. United Nations Government vs a race of aliens known only as the Chigs. Fighting on dozens upon dozens of worlds. Its the same as Wing Commander except the SAAB universe is smaller, the ground warfare is better mapped out but their isnt as much information about the ships other than the main Carrier for humanity. Everything else would have to be guessed. This would be a good idea for someone who is just scre wing about and wants to make their first mod(more than likely if I decide to throw my hat in the ring this will be it) Any Babylon 5 War: You cant help but be able to pluck a one on one conflict out of the B5 Universe. The Earth-Minbari War, the Earth-Dilgar Conflict, the Narn-Centauri War, the Earth Civil War. The list goes on for a bunch more conflicts but really now...from what we've seen of the graphics engine in pictures of EaW..I doubt there isnt one fan of B5 who wouldnt want a chance to recreate the Battle of the Line. Heck, I'd play a losing war as Earth just for that sole purpose/ There are of course others, the sky is really the limit for this game depending on the tools which are released for modification purposes..and in the end we can all dream, cant we?

For all the things we still dont know, what we do know is that this game will have some impressive damage modelling. That ISD breaking up is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. In HW2 the ships creak and groan and eject atmosphere into space and such but they dont break apart..this is something else truely amazing.

-not surprised- Cynical nature 1, Optomist nature 0

So...where are the new screenshots? Lucasarts sent me an email about new Battlefront II screenshots but I see no new EaW.

This is the tactic the rebels used in Return of the Jedi. Two fleets were used, one as a diversion and another to attack the Death Star directly. It worked in the movies because the good guys always win, will it work in game though is another matter. The Imperial player would need to be really stupid to leave the Death Star undefended. You've sent 60% of your forces to attack a world, fine, whats the loss of one world, compared to the loss of such a superweapon? Frankly, I'd lose one planet, but keep my DS with a sizeable portion of my navy. Combined they can retake the world by force.

Or maybe they dont let you load up the ISD with all those troops in the first place. Maybe you have to use transports anyway. Or maybe the ISDs dont carry as much as an ISD. Frankly, being able to attack the troop transports directly and run away is a lot better than running up against an ISD and trying the same thing.

It was Japanese diplomats who reported that talks had failed and to carry on with contingency plans while US diplomats wished to continue further with talking. What it came down to it was, the US wasnt willing to supply the Japanese war effort in China, and the Japanese werent going to take a no for an answer. There was no negotation. Especially when negotiation worked wonders in Europe just a handful of years before Pearl Harbor over in Europe.

Operation Downfall, was the name of the invasion of Japan. It was to be carried out in two phases. Operation Olympic(the invasion of the southern most island) and Operation Coronet(the invasion of the Tokyo Plains). Let me put it into perspective for everyone. Normandy was the largest amphibious invasion in modern warfare and what is pretty much most remembered by historians. The Normandy invasion landed 5 divisions, and 3 airborne divisions. Olympic was going to land FIFTEEN divisions, and Coronet was to land TWENTY THREE. Units which had fought in Europe were being redeployed to the US for a brief rest and then were shipped to the west coast for reassignment, and redeployment. Now the Japanese werent stupid they expected where the invasions to happen, and thus on the southern most Island, the defends went from 43,000 to 240,000 by the time of the surrender. This is uniformed units, this doesnt include civilian "suicide" brigades. One only has to look at the battles of Iwo Jima, and Okinawa to realize that it would have taken the deaths of nearly every Japanese citizen on both islands before they were taken. Even children were taught to fight with sharpened bamboo sticks. What the atom bomb did was to save potentially millions of Japanese and hundreds of thousands of allied lives. As for Hiroshima and Nagasaki they where military targets. Lets not forget WWII was a TOTAL war. And la total war is a war in which the entire public is moblized to fight. It happened in the US, it happened in Germany, it happened in Great Britian, all countries were geared to fight a long protracted war.Nagaski was the major port which supplied troops fighting in China, and Hiroshima was an industrial center still producing rifles, and parts for suicide jets. Thats right the Japanese developed and produced a suicde jet known as the Ohka which they planned on using against troop landingships and aircraft carriers. Dont believe they had a suicide jet? http://www.philsaeronauticalstuff.com/ohka/images/ohka-1.jpg To the troops who fought across the Pacific the atomic bomb was a god send. Even the most conservite of estimates expected an invasion of Japan to take the war another year before total completetion. And yet here people are ignornant to what must have been done ..granted this information was classified until the 1980s so it isnt broad public knowledge but to say no they were wrong for some political belief which wouldnt fly in the latter stages of WWII doesnt fly. Greatest tragedy of human history? Hardly. Less people died when these bombs were dropped combined, than killed by the Japanese at Nanking and Manila. Less people died in these two bombs combined than in Auschwitz. As far as human tragedies go, this one was a blip in a war where victory meant your country survived and defeat was out of the option.

((Having played Knights of the Old Republic I and II I figured this period of time would be a more than interesting background for a series of log enteries. I for one enjoy picking up datapads and the like in RPGs and just reading their their histories. Picking up the laser discs in Fallout 1 and 2 became a near obsession so I figured to toss my hat into the ring with this. This will be done as holocrons, datapad entrees and messages to home.I've never really done fanfiction work so bear with me)) The science vessel R.S.S Alderaan moved through the debries field around Malachor V. The last battle of the Madalorian wars the ship had been sent on a dual mission to observe the effects of the mass gravity projector and to scavange any artifacts encountered. Passing the burned out hulks of Maladorian warships and Republic cruisers alike, the scientists and archeologists were excited by the prospects they were facing. It had been nearly 2,000 years since the battle of Malachor V and the area had been declared off limits by the the Republic military as a graveyard. Of course the scavengers would show up on occassion, sometimes they would run into a Republic cruiser on patrol, othertimes they would run into a not so dead warship which would come to life with its ancient automated batteries. As the second millenium anniversary of one of the more destruction wars in Republic history began to approach the Senate finally began to loosen the purse strings to fund an expedition to the remote outer rim region. It was partly for scientific curiosity and partly because the Jedi wondered if artifacts were amongst the wreckage. It was long since fabled than Revan and Malak had not by choice left behind some weapons and some writings which the Jedi Order wished to recover... "2,000 years..2,000 years and now they decide to ask us to check out this..graveyard?" Nichos Yssard looked out of the transparasteel viewport on the observation deck of the modified Republic courier ship and scoffed. He was a life long spacer, a devoted officer of the Republic Navy and had jumped at the chance to volunteer for a high priority mission. Little did he know though that this was the mission. "Its taken this long for the Republic to authorize this mission simply because its been one disaster after another. Lets not forget that Revan and Malak did start the Sith War after the Madalorian Wars." Dr. Motta Parfum, an Ithorian spoke in his native tongue to the ships captain who could only shake his head once more. Amongst the debries field shuttles picked up floating footlockers and cargopods. They made sure to give wide berths to several Madalorian Warships which had been marked down as still potential threats. Even after 2,000 years there guns could destroy a reckless shuttle pilot or hapless scavenger. Lengthy decontamination and cleaning of each footlocker, and cargopod would be undertaken. Solar radiation, and contamination from the reactors of nearby hulks would mean a lot of the salvaged material was deadly unless the strictest procedures were followed. After five days the materials would be examined in one of six of the ships minature labratories to be catalogued, and then shipped off to the cargohold for later study at the Coruscant Center for Historical Research. Whiling moving a box of datapads and holocrons down to the cargo deck Second Lieutenant Alex Norsa accidently turned one of the historical files after jostling the box around slightly. Startled he put the box quickly down and stood back as the blue image of a Republic army officer stood before him from outside of the box. A computerized voice began to talk.. "Entry 1-Galactic Standard Year 21,037((3,963 before the battle of yavin))..datafile corrupted..errors numerous..." After the computer gave off its little warning the voice of the young man began to start and go..before finally working correctly. "...Onasi owes me 60 credits from last weeks pazaak game. Damn fighter jocks dont know how to play pazaak and dont know how to pay back what they owe. Oh well..the rurmor mill is turning I dont remember who I heard this from but apparently one of the gunners on C deck is from Onderron, he cant get in touch with anyone from his family and his friends back home say they've been attacked by the Mandalorians...I've always thought the Mandalorians attacked single worlds outside of the Republic's reach...I guess they have some sort of..." "Data file corrupted...Beginning Entry 2 from uncorrupted source approximately 48 galactic standard hours from previous entry" "...its been confirmed, the Madalorians have launched a broad assault on Republic space...the Senate has asked for support from the Jedi council...Its been forty years since the Republic fought a war and a lot of the Senators are blustering and blowing hot air on how we'll win in under a month......I've gotten my orders today, our unit is being rotated to the transport Concord. They want us to begin setting up a defense at some backwater planet..." "Data file corrupted.." Norsa grumbled and picked up the holocron from the box...looking left to right he turned it off and quickly stuffed the accursed machine in his utility pouch. He was going to have some serious work to do if he was to find out just what was missing on this holocron and if there was any real way to retrieve the info..he considered asking one of the engineers to help him...he'd need to be careful who he asked though if the scientists found out there would no doubt be some angry white coat comapling to the Captain who would then come down on him..

LucasArts itself might be aiming toward Indiana Jones and the like, it doesnt mean they wont allow another game company to make it like they did with KotoR 1 and 2. But as for KotoR 3, so far what I know of it is that, we'll probably see Fallout 3 before we see KotoR 3.

Thats from one review of ST: Armada 2. I'm looking at the reviews from ST Armada and it doesnt mention nearly anything about a 3D movement. Which if it where the case, you'd be able to fly over asteriod fields that blocked the way. Not have to go around them. What you might be mistaking for 3D movement is the ships moving along the limited Z plane. That doesnt give the game a 3D field of movement though and is mostly food coloring for the game. edit: It was a game built on a 3D engine, but the movement was confined to a 2D space.

They still werent robots though

I bet it'll like be the same demo shown at E3, lets not get our hopes up people. I'd rather be content with knowning Petroglyph is working on the game then showing off a new demo just a handful of months after the showing of the game at E3.

The order was established around the same time the Republic was formed. They were originally a military arm of the Republic and the Knights had their own rank system. At least according to one of the more popular games which thanks to LA has become canon something which the books lack. As for hyperdrive, it wasnt so much invented as rediscovered around that same time. Since there is no real date system for each of these events its all lumped together into one year. Some stuff to add to your timeline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBY#Timeline_of_Star_Wars_History

I have to disagree with the whole defection option..maybe if you were in command of a single starship for the entire game and you got that sort of mission well then sure its possible. But this basically puts you above the conflict. YOU are the Emperor, YOU are Mon Mothma commanding the respective sides. If there is ever a Star wars game that puts you in command of a single ship then frankly this would be a great idea to have happen. But it s not and I doubt it'll be implemented.

No there wasnt, ships moved on a 2D plane, much like this game is proposing, I've played Armada one and two. There has only been three ST ship based games which had a 3D plane of movement, Star Trek Starfleet Academy, Klingon Academy, and Bridge Commander. But again those are Star Trek games. Armada 1, 2, and the three Starfleet Command games all operated on a restricted field of movement. It was on a 2D plane except for when one ship needed to move above the other on the Z access. In Star Wars ,even in SWR it turns into a slug fest. Ships move, they turn and they fire on each other. Thats how it played in the movies as well. Thats how it was in the openning scenes of Revenge of the Sith This game is better suited to be played on the 2D plane with movement along the Z access to avoid collisions and the like.

Here's one non-specific question that would put our wonder to rest when it comes to the SSD and B-wing: Will we see space units seen in Return of the Jedi? As the game gets closer to the launch will a demo be available to the general public?

Yes we all know the FBI is watching people who play WoW..honestly now While I may not agree with the advertisements placed in videogames, and I think they're distasteful unless they can be put somewhere logical, I dont think the government is using this to watch the public. Unless al Quedia has suddenly decided that WoW makes the perfect place for a meeting. Blizzard is within their rights to request info such as OS, IP, and hardware specs. You've signed up for their service. They provide the online world, and they by all rights have a duty to protect it from hackers and the like. Look at it like this, when you sign up for a magazine you have to give them your name, address, credit card. It doesnt mean the magazine industry is OMG big brother. Honestly now people need to be more reserved when they scream Next Stop 1984, now its becoming like Chicken Little

Dark Troopers werent robots, they were specially picked soldiers trained in the use of the force. They were basically supertroops. And the War Driods/ Remote TIEs didnt really come about until the Empire began to take extensive losses and they found themselves facing concerns with manpower.

Thats during the Mandalorian/Sith Wars

How many people actually use the 3D plane though? Homeworld was nice for its movement, but that really isnt star wars. Star Wars the ship to ship battles were straight forward slugfests, the fighters dogfighted like out of WWII. Putting in a 3D would just give people a rarely used feature.

If he were real, I'd be kissing his wrinkled rear for command of my own Star Destroyer and I bet everyone else on the forums would as well. And this is coming from someone who will more or less only play the rebel side.

A marauder corvette, a corellian gunship and an unknown rebel warship..I myself think its a command ship of some sort..maybe early on before you get the Mon Cals...cant wait to get my hands on it. It'll be like a shiney new toy of death and destruction.

KOTOR 2 wasnt a flop persay..it was still a great game, but the ending was lacking, and it was admittedly unfinished. By itself its a good game..but when you consider the first it wasnt nearly as good. I was thinking more along the lines of SW: Rebellion..and several other games which will go unmentioned.