Teradyn_pff

That is both good and bad. I think we should have to build transports to move our units as it requires slots and makes you choose how big to make your transport group vs their guards. As it stands now, your units only cost you what it takes to build them. Their transporting is "magical" since the transports are not themselves being built. This means that the mechanics to make other ships "transports" ie ISDs (per canon) in a mod will be that much more difficult as there will be no ship type that has a transport "number", it will just be each ground unit represented in space by a different model basically. We will have to see what this really translates into when we see how they are actually modelled and thier data is set up. The only good I see from this is less micromanagement in terms of unit transportation (although "realism" is sacrificed horribly this way) and this should allow you to have your ground forces with a space fleet without using up the fleet points which are too low as it is anyway. Another problem point is that an attacker would have to destroy each unit individually which some may see as a good thing, but realistically, what military force builds single unit transports as a rule (not counting specialty transports for huge or unique units)? As for the space limit. If they do take up points there, then it will be even worse that they use 1 transport per unit as that will seriously compromise your fleet makeup. If it is possible to have any size fleet but only 20 points worth visible at one time, then it is more unrealistic as no one would ever have their transports show up in the playing field unless there is no other ships available to fill the 20 point limit and it is done automatically. The more we learn about this game, the more "cheap" the "strategy" and "tactics" are becoming.

Three I can think of right off the top of my head have to do with ISDs' Tie production, AT-ATs' Stormtrooper production and the Rebel's blockade running. The ISD and AT-AT tactics are similar, just in different areas, space and land. Basically, you sit back and guard your ISD/AT-AT with all of your "point costing" units and produce ties/troopers and attack with them only. This will make the ISD/AT-AT able to attack (albeit very inefficiently) forever with little risk. Since the Rebels have to combat unlimited numbers of these cheap units with costly (in terms of battle slots and resources), they have no choice but to attack the heavily fortified enemy ISD/AT-AT, putting them at a disadvantage, especially if they are on the defending side of an attack (especially on ground) since the attacking troops can be reinforced from above. This basically makes any offensive (on the ground at least) a sure win for the Empire or in theory anyway. What would be a good counter to this tactic? The other one involves the Rebel's blockade ability. Since the Empire can only station 10 units on the ground, the Rebels can bring 4 units, do damage and follow up quickly with another 4, rinse and repeat until the planet is Rebel controlled. This basically forces the Empire to keep reserve units in orbit to quickly retake or regarrison ground troops that are depleated this way. This opens up an oportunity for the Rebels to attack with a large number of fighters to take out any orbiting transports, ignoring the capital ships that are guarding them. In essence, this allows the Rebels to basically take the superior Imperial ships out of the equation in terms of defense. Since the troubles are due to unrealistic defending limits, this isn't valid and can only be referred to as a cheap tactic. How can this be countered? Please add possible strange tactics like these that are exposed by the current "confirmed" game rules so that we can discuss tactics to minimize the threat to the gameplay that they pose.

Basically, this is a way to prevent the unlimited troops garrison, from what I understand. 10 is a bit silly in my opinion. The units are played like they are single units, but in actuality they are representing massive numbers of units. Imagine the entire planet of Coruscant guarded by 1 AT-AT, 2 AT-AAs, 3 AT-STs and 4 groups of Stormtroopers. In Empire at War this is the maximum (assuming all take only 1 slot) that you can defend your main base with as the Empire.

so does that mean that each troop complement and each AT-AT or AT-ST, etc has a separate transport ship?

I think the Star Destroyers should contain their "canon" compliment of tie fighters/bombers/etc and troops. Or in the game terms, the same number of slots as would accomodate these units.

Bah, EU = CrAp. With minor exceptions. But still don't consider any of it even close to canon.

It was stated about a week and a half to two weeks ago that the demo is completed. This statement was made by a reliable source and is furthur shorn up by statements from Delphi about the state of the maps for the demo. I, as well as most of us, expected with that news that the demo would be released around Christmas, but apparently that was not the plan. Later on, it was mentioned by the source that stated that the demo was completed that the release of the demo should be early January. Whether or not this is all true is not the question. The fact is, that we do not have the demo in our hands and the release of the game is less than 2 months away. I am curious about peoples' theories on why they are waiting until so close to the release (if the original report of the demo's completion were accurate). I also wonder whether or not anyone thinks that LEC may decide that since it is so close to release, to save the demo for the release of the game, for people who are not decided yet. So, what say you?

I think we want the option to play with 50 - 100 - 150 - 200, etc.

I think we need to see how we handle 44 planets where each map is like something off of StarCraft as for size. Think about the square footage of screen space you will be seeing. I want to see what the campaign mode does for our activities... that is where the real strategy will be... alot of people forget what the difference between strategy and tactical is.

I agree, with a little less micromanagment of missions. I could go through the game and have only 3 or 5 good battles, all other activity was diplomacy or sabotage...

or increasing the limit, whichever is quicker

Thanks for the info Delphi. Could you clarify this part? : "As I’ve stated before, this is hardly noticeable due to the fact that you can pull from your reinforcements at any time." Does this mean that a fleet can be as big as your galactic pop cap allows? You just drag the whole thing to the enemy planet and then pull 20 points worth at a time into the battle, filling up as ships get lost?

The Rebell Alliance, being what it is, doesn't start out having full ship production capabilities anywhere near the capacity of the Empire. They are a group of the largest pirate factions who banded together, so they will have older equipment like the Z-95 as their main starfighters. The Arc-170 are Old Republic/New Empire craft... the Rebells would most likely not even have the resources to maintain these craft, especially if the Empire doesn't deem them valid anymore.

I hope this answers the question about diplomacy! Read these answers carefully. There will be mission rewards during the single player campaign that will be in the form of a planet joining your side. If this is all you are asking about, then fine... but it is still not a diplomacy mission you can activate on any neutral planet. The 1v1 MP campaign mode is what I am referring to when I say no diplomacy. Find me a quote where they talk about diplomacy and they don't mention the single player campaign.

Well, this should be an easy value to mod, even if you have to do some hunting with a hex editor.

Dis sucks big time... I am on vacation from now till january 2nd...

No diplomacy... not unless they change their tune very suddenly and not much time for that.

That is only 7 ships. Not worthy of an invasion fleet, you know? What would you do against 5 mon cal and a lvl 5 space station?

Wouldn't we all? It is one of my dreams to get into the game industry, but right now I am busy wrangling data and haven't opened a compiler in about 4 months.. :'( I am still curious though (back on topic) about the reason for the delay. What, other than distribution problems, could delay the game for only 2 weeks? Not that I want a bigger delay, but if there was one, I would expect more than 2 weeks, you know?

Well, if the other person is smart and builds a well balanced fleet up to the pop cap, they should be able to win. I anticipate it to be something like the Age of Sail, the big bad ships take each other on, but the smaller frigates could do some serious damage due to their flexibility/maneuverability. Then again... if a frigate was hit by a full broadside of one of those ships of the line... well, we have now, fat sharks...

That may be something that you can set within the game options itself, but no info on that is in our hands yet. If you are referring to the 1v1 campaign game, then that could very well be something that is configurable via the planet xml entries. But, there again, we don't know anything about that part, other than we can't edit it out of the box.

Well, according to the true timeline ending at ANH end, there shouldn't even be more than 10 Mon Cal that have been retrofitted for combat in the galaxy. I think that there is even less, because I think they began retrofitting them after the Death Star was destroyed. Someone like Jan probably needs to correct me on this, though.

Visit them and what? You be nice ok? On the other hand, who lives near Lucas Arts's headquarters? Maybe you could go "politely" ask for an explanation to the delay?

i am aware of the fact that i cannto spell...it makes me sad! anyway thank you petro peoples please don't let the people on the forum depress you!!!!!! I STILL LOVE YOU!!!!! petro=<3 Don't take that too hard, Hadoken13. I was making a joke. Anyway, I hold any animosity I have for Lucas Arts, although I still don't approve of the Broadside. I don't know of anyone that has been bashing Petroglyph directly anyway. A perfect example: If the demo is completed as it has been reported, who do you think the release of it is waiting on? That's right... Lucas Arts. Petroglyph is not sitting on it laughing at us, they are waiting for Lucas Arts to finish going over it with a fine toothed comb (probably making sure it is not moddable) so that it can be released.

That is exactly the point, vasuba. The Endor fleet had over 25 ISDs and ISD II along with the second Death Star, many support ships, the Executor.. etc, etc. Our biggest fleet will not have more than 20 ISDs and that would be at the sacrifice of having any support ships. We don't expect 50 SDs and support craft for every battle, but having something huge like that would be something I would expect at least once in a MP game. Too many of us played Rebellion (and before you say anything, I know the graphics are different, but so is the technology now). We are used to 200 planets, at least 100 ground units (which were actually representative of whole groups) on our main base, 4 or 5 Executor class Star Dreadnaughts, 10-15 ISD IIs, 20+ ISDs and many more ships in the way of Lancer Frigates, Dreadnaughts, etc. Not to mention 2 or 3 Interdictor Cruisers. All of this and a Death Star that could fire on enemy ships. Go from that to 43 planets and a maximum of 20 units (especially when it was said that the unit cap would be barely noticable) and you can see why most of us are going to have to be severely, and I do mean severly, kept busy in the space battle with the current max limit to accept it. I still expect that most of us will mod the max as the first thing we do. I know I will at least, just to see what my computer can handle. 1Ghz processor is rediculous a system to target for in 2006, but Lucas Arts wants as much money as possible, so....