Blackjack2

Hmmmm... I have no idea if I destroyed any research facilities early on or not. If you find the above to be true please let us know. I really want to play a rebel conquest but, I don't even want to start one until I know for sure I won't have to fight acclamators and tartens the entire time.

I played a Medium Conquest as the Empire this weekend and my rebel opponents seemed to tech up just fine. I have seen everything but, Mon Cal cruisers and I think that is because I have both Fondor and Kuat (The only large ship building planets on the particular map I am playing). MPTL's are freaking lethal So it would seem that it is the Imperial AI that is not teching up. Has anyone played a Medium/Hard Conquest against the Empire starting at Tech 1 and seen them using units above tech 1? One thing that might be important is that on my Rebel game against the imps, I was playing the 43 planet conquest map and I manually set the starting tech level down to 1 in the advanced options. My Empire vs. Rebs game was on the 35 planet map (empire @ war) where the deafult starting tech level was already set to 1. So perhaps messing with the default starting teching level is screwing it up somehow. I am going to try a rebel game on the 35 planet map and see what happens.

Just finished one of the 43 planet conquest map games against the empire last night. They never teched up. I was fighting acclamators and tartens the entire time. It was very dissapointing. The only two heros they ever had were Tarkin and the Emperor. I was dying to go up against some SD's, AT-AT's and the Death Star but, they never researched them. Or is they did, they never built them. I think this definatly needs to be looked at. Is anyone else noticing this? I am starting an imperial game tonight so i'll see if the rebels suffer from the same problem.

Sigh. Looks like i'll have to get off my lazy butt and make some maps myself. hopefully, someone will beat me to it. I don't know if I have mentioned it but, I am incredibly lazy ;D.

In the case of ground battles I have found that I can choose which units I send in first by zooming into the planet, and then dragging the specific unit I want to one of the ground garrison squares. Often I like to send in a unit of infiltrators first to secure the buildpads around the landing sites in order to build defense turrets before I begin landing the rest of my invasion force. In space on the other hand, this annoys me to no end. It always decideds that my initial force should be at least 50% figther craft (playing as rebels) and, as someone already said, at the start it is a mad rush to get all my fighters behind the rest of my fleet, and preferably hidden in a nebula before the inevitable march of the Tartens. If I am not quick enough the tartens wipe out my entire fighter complement in seconds. While we are on the subject, i'd also like to express my displeasure at the way the imperial fighters atuomatcially spawn (This is also a problem w/ space stations). Time and again, they spawn right into the teeth of a waitng CC or tarten. With me pleading to the screen for them to just wait in the hanger until I call for them. CC's and Tartens are almost overpowered in my opinion. It takes forever for them to go down. They should not be able to park themselves near capitol ships (especially those that are supposed to counter it) and just munch on fighters/bombers for 5 minutes.

Does anyone know where I might find a map showing the hyperspace lanes of the galactic map in EAW? It would be immensely handy to be able to see these paths all laid out on a nice map. As it stands now in order for me to figure out where my choke points are I have to constantly drag spies around to get the little white hyperspace lines to show up. This is annoying and i keep having to do it over and over again because I can't remember them. A map with them all laid out would be a great reference. I am at work right now and really hoping that I didn't miss this in the manual somewhere. :

I have been playing EAW off and on now since the game was released and I am seeing some odd behavior on the part of the enemy A.I. It doesn’t seem to be teching up. At first, I believed this to be a difficulty issue. I played my first few conquests on easy and therefore, I figured, the enemy was staying low tech to facilitate that ease. I am now playing a medium difficulty conquest as the rebels on the 43 planet galactic map. By default this map starts at Tech three but, I went into the advanced options and turned it down to Tech one (I like starting from scratch). I am now in the day 40-50 range and all the Empire has ever sent after me is Acclamators and Tarten Cruisers in space, and AT-STs, Tie Maulers, and Infantry on the ground. I am pretty sure all of that is Tech 1 Stuff. They also do not have anything greater than a level 2 station anywhere, which I believe is also an indication that the Empire has not progressed passed Tech 1. I am fully teched up at this point and very surprised that on medium difficulty I was able to finish my tech tree before my AI opponent has really even begun. Not to mention the fact that I am tired of seeing Acclamators. My space conflicts have zero variety. I am dying to pit my Mon Cals against some SD’s. (the enemy still has both Kuat and Fondor) Is there something I am missing here? I am not usually someone that would be considered good at this type of game so medium difficulty is usually about right for me. Perhaps in this case I need to jump up to hard, but in my experience that level of difficulty is usually pretty insane. Is anyone else noticing that the AI seems to tech up rather slowly (at least, on easy-medium difficulties)?

I have to agree with you on that point Teradyn. For the most part I have tried pretty hard to keep my vettes away from enemy capitol ships. However, there have been occasions when a vette of mine strays into range of eneny ships that should tear it apart and yet they come away relativly unscathed. Also, at the end of a battle it always seems like my vettes are full health when everything else is generally pretty beat up. Definatly could be somthing wrong there.

Corvettes are quickly becoming one of my favorite units in the game. In my experience, they rip through fighters and bombers like crazy. Their engine boost special makes it easy for me to get them where they are needed as well. One thing I did the other night for the first time was, as soon as I hypered in system, I pulled my vettes off to the "left" of the engagement area. I moved the rest of the fleet to the "right". To begin the engagement, I sent in a group of A-wings (from the "right"). Their mission wasn't really to engage but, more to get info on enemy strength and, more importantly, use their special ability to taunt the enemy fighter screen to follow them. I then proceeded to pull the enemy fighters/bombers into the waiting vettes. It was a slaughter. With a large portion of the fighter screen gone, I quickly moved the rest of my fleet in to engage the capitol ships. First the Y-wings, quickly followed by my own capitol ship support. This actually worked fairly well. In the demo, the imps seem to be able to crank out fighters/bombers pretty quick, though, so it wasn't long before they had fighters back in the mix. Thus lessening the affect of the above tactic. Next time I try this I am going to concentrate fire on the enemy hangers ASAP. Since this puts an end to any more enemy fighter/bombers, hangers, to me, are a #1 priority.

I have a question about Rebel raids. If the Rebels send a raid fleet to a planet in which I have a space fleet stationed in orbit consisting of tie bombers will I then be able to call in bombing runs to aid in the defense against the raiding rebel ground forces? Raid fleets are essentially just bypassing the space defenses to go straight for ground control, right? So by that logic my space fleet should be undamaged. I hope I can call down bomb strikes in my own defense in such a situation. On the flipside, the Rebel Raiders would/should also be denied the advantage of their own bombing runs as they would have no supporting space units in orbit. Being able to use Tie Bombers in defense of a planet would seem like a needed counter to rebel raiding.

The demo has defiantly done its job. After playing the demo I have put Empire at War on my must have list. Having said that I’d like to discuss some of the issues I had as I played the game. I don’t have many but, to me they are important. Issue #1: I was not able to Pause the game during the real-time battles. I noticed a pause button to the left of the interface but it seems to be disabled during battles and only available in galactic mode. There were many occasions when the battles got a little frantic, especially on during my assault on Tatooine. I would love the ability to pause the game, assign my units a task which they will attempt to complete when I un-pause. At one point, I had my heavy tanks and artillery advancing on a turbolaser position, then all of a sudden Boba Fett made an attempt to sneak in behind my main force with his jet pack and steal my original reinforcement point. Han and Chewie were there and an epic Hero battle ensued. This was extremely cool. The problem was that I felt like I was “fighting the game” a bit to keep track of the hero fight and my turbo laser assault at the same time. I feel a pause feature would have alleviated this for the most part. Not to mention that I don’t know what I am going to do in the heat of battle when the phone rings or nature calls. Issue #2: I was a little disappointed in the Cinematic Mode. It seemed to miss the action more often than not and the camera cut to a different shot way too quickly. I think these two things are related in that the cinematic mode cuts to a new shot before it gets to the action. Ideally, what I’d like to be able to do is select a unit(s), i.e. The Falcon, engage Cinematic Mode and then have it follow the Falcon around in cinematic mode. I would prefer for not to cut to a new view on its own. These were my only real issues with the game at this point. Otherwise, everything I saw was pretty good.

Man, I am sorry to see you guys having so much trouble. I began my download from Gamespot @ 11:00am central on the dot and I was finished downloading in about 20 minutes. I am a Gamespot Complete member so that may have had something to do with it. Also, downloaded it from work where I have a pretty good connection. For those of you who can't wait I'd suggest trying the Gamespot complete route. Here is the readme that came with the demo for what it is worth. Good Luck guys. ############################################################### LucasArts, a Lucasfilm Company STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR Demo Version 1.0 ############################################################### Thank you for playing the STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR Demo. We recommend that you read this file to get the most up to date information about installing, running, and playing this demo. Be sure to check the LucasArts website at www.lucasarts.com for the very latest information related to STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR. For additional information and in-depth technical documentation about specific hardware, we recommend reading the Troubleshooting Guide, which can be accessed by clicking on View Troubleshooting Guide in the Help menu on the STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR Launcher. ############################################################### --------------------------- Supported Operating Systems --------------------------- To be able to play the STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR Demo, you must have Windows 2000 or XP installed and configured correctly, and your computer hardware must be DirectX 9.0c compatible. --------------------------- Minimum System Requirements --------------------------- -------- Computer -------- Required: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible computer --- CPU --- Required: Intel Pentium 1.0 GHz or AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz Recommended: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 2.0 GHz ------ Memory ------ Required: 256 MB RAM Recommended: 512 MB RAM ------------- Graphics Card ------------- Required: 32 MB 3D Graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting (T&L) Capability Recommended: 64 MB 3D Graphics card with Hardware Vertex and Pixel Shader (VS/PS) Capability ---------- Sound Card ---------- Required: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible PCI, USB, or Onboard Audio Device ------ DVD-ROM ------ Required: DVD-ROM drive Recommended: 4X Speed DVD-ROM drive ------------ Input Device ------------ Required: Keyboard and mouse ------- DirectX ------- Microsoft DirectX 9.0c (August 2005) is included on this CD. You will be prompted to install DirectX during the installation of this game if this or a more recent version isn't already properly installed on your system. NOTE: DirectX may require the "latest" updates for your operating system. This may also include the latest drivers for your motherboard, sound, and video hardware. ------------ Installation ------------ Installation requires 1.5 GB of free hard drive space. We recommend that you have an additional 500 MB of free space available after installing the game for save games and Windows file caching. --------------------- Video Cards Supported --------------------- For a list of supported video cards at the time of release, please refer to the Troubleshooting Guide ############################################################### ------------------- General Information ------------------- ----------------------------------- Installing STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR ----------------------------------- Insert STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR Demo DVD into your DVD-ROM drive. Double-click on EmpireAtWarDemo.exe to install the demo. You will be prompted to choose Automatic or Custom Installation. Automatic installs the STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR Demo into the default location on your hard drive and install DirectX 9.0c (August 2005) if your computer requires it. Choosing Custom install allows you to change the installation location, prompts you to add shortcuts to the desktop and start menu, and prompts you to install DirectX. The default path is C:\Program Files\LucasArts\STAR WARS EMPIRE AT WAR Demo. --------------------- Administrative Rights --------------------- If your computer is running Windows 2000 or Windows XP, you will be unable install the STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR Demo unless you are logged on with Administrative Rights. You must also have these rights to install the Xfire software. After installing the demo, you will be able to play the game on a Limited (or Restricted) User account if you do not install to a location in the Program Files folder. If you plan to play the game on a Limited (or Restricted) user account, you will be unable to use the Automatic Install option. Please refer to the Troubleshooting Guide for more information. ----------------------------------------- Running the STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR DEMO ----------------------------------------- To run the game, click on your Start Menu, select Programs, then LucasArts, then STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR Demo and click on Play Star Wars Empire at War Demo. This will bring up the Launcher screen. Click on "Start Game" on the launcher. --------------------- Desktop Color Palette --------------------- We recommend that you set your desktop to True Color or Highest (32 bit) color. When playing STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR with your desktop set to a color palette other than 32 bit, you may experience various problems while running the game. ############################################################### --------------- Gameplay Issues --------------- ----------- Galactic AI ----------- Galactic AI has been disabled in the demo version of STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR. ############################################################### ------------------ Multiplayer Issues ------------------ ----------- Multiplayer ----------- Multiplayer has been disabled in the demo version of STAR WARS: EMPIRE AT WAR. ------------------------------------------------------------ The Full Version includes the following Multiplayer Support: ------------------------------------------------------------ Internet/LAN: Supports 2 to 8 players ------------------------------------- Internet Connectivity for Multiplayer ------------------------------------- Required: 56K or faster connection Recommended: DSL, Cable, or faster connection ############################################################### ------------------- Game Control Issues ------------------- ------------------------------- Empire At War Keyboard Commands ------------------------------- ------------ UNIT CONTROL ------------ Select Group 1 1 Select Group 2 2 Select Group 3 3 Select Group 4 4 Select Group 5 5 Select Group 6 6 Select Group 7 7 Select Group 8 8 Select Group 9 9 Select Group 0 0 Select All Ctrl + A Select Like Ctrl + Q Next Unit F Previous Unit D Guard G Attack A Stop S Move M Waypoint W Retreat E Reinforce R Place Beacon B Super Weapon Ctrl + W -------------- LAND ABILITIES -------------- Force Crush Ctrl + C Force Push Ctrl + F Force Lighting Ctrl + L Force Corrupt Ctrl + R Force Heal H Force Protect Ctrl + P Deploy/Undeploy Ctrl + D Take Cover Ctrl + Z Flame Thrower Ctrl + T Jetpack Ctrl + J Capture Vehicle Ctrl + V Exit Vehicle Ctrl + E Thermal Detonator K Drop Thermal Detonator Ctrl + K EMP Burst Ctrl + S Rocket Weapon Ctrl + G Cable Attack Q Sensor Ping Ctrl + O Control Turret Ctrl + Y Repair Vehicle Ctrl + U Boost Weapon Power Ctrl + B Self Destruct Ctrl + X Deploy Stormtroopers Ctrl + H Maximum Firepower Ctrl + M Sprint Ctrl + N --------------- SPACE ABILITIES --------------- Boost Shield Power Shift + O Weaken Enemy Shift + K Gravity Well Generator Shift + G Barrage Area Shift + B Hunt For Enemies Shift + H Boost Engine Power Shift + E Lure Enemy Fighters Shift + L Missile Jamming Field Shift + M Lock S-Foils Shift + W Tractor Beam Shift + T Proton Beam Shift + P Call For Wingmen Shift + C Lucky Shot Shift + S Redirect All Firepower Shift + R Ion Cannon Shot Shift + I Seismic Charge Shift + X Invulnerablility Shift + Z Destroy Planet Shift + D --------- INTERFACE --------- Toggle Droid Advisor Subtract Initiate Chat Enter Scroll Up Up Scroll Down Down Scroll Left Left Scroll Right Right Reset Camera End Camera Center Page Up Camera Home Home Tactical Overview Insert Camera Tether Scrlk Movie Mode Space Cinematic Camera Mode C Screen Shot F12 Quick Save F6 Quick Load F5 Mission Holocron Tab Planetary Information Caps Lock Taunt One Numpad 1 Taunt Two Numpad 2 Taunt Three Numpad 3 Toggle Interface I Toggle Player List P ################################################################ LucasArts, the LucasArts logo, STAR WARS and related properties are trademarks in the United States and/or in other countries of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © 2006 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. 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