crazylegsmurphy

Well ya.....as long as it's not gone! If it just gets absorbed into another unit then cool, but if they just shoot him a care package and leave him to fend for themselves in space (meaning you actually lose the x-wing) then that would be lame.

Huh? Does this mean that if you fight, and win...but say one x-wing remains, we lose the whole unit? That sounds poopy.

Bah, I hate when they put stuff on there...I don't want to register for that crap!! It's a patch...just put it on lucasarts, or here or somewhere where I can just get it without all the rig-a-ma-roll!

Well...how many planets are there? I thought the whole deal was that you had the whole galaxy to take over, and you and a friend could play and save, and play and save till it was decided? Whats it really like? Cause if it's just some 5 planet crap, then I'll be really disapointed. I don't want to have to mess around with mods and crap because then I can't play it with anyone else that doesn't have the mod.

You can't...as you can see I put "Not a screen cap" on there....that is my wish of how they would have made base building...from the Galactic map...you can place/arrange Icons. Or at the very least I would like to see a choice of 2-5 placement choices...so the human enemy can't always tell where I am.

Why not make this topic a sticky topic where people can post they have it when they have it...then it's confined to one place?

Ya dude, lets see some screen caps of some maps or something.

http://www.mmmyeah.com/EAW/wish_list.jpg

I wish! There are a bunch of things I wish you could do like SWGB! One of them is what you are saying. It would be great to convince some Wookies or something to come with you...but I don't think it's possible.

I was thinking about this....don't heros re-spawn after some time? I mean aren't there any heros with a ship that have the firepower stong enough to clear some space? As well...if the AI only has a few fighters couldn't you take your chances with transports? They still have a few guns. I know this isn't the place for it, but this is another instance when ship damage would be cool. You might just have a fighting chance if you could just keep striking the fighers with one or two transports....they wouldn't be able to repair fast enough.

My issue is that after you fight those 40 battles, unless there is dynamic changing of the base placement, all you have to do is remember where the base is...and the next time you play, it won't take long at all because all you have to do is rush the base. There needs to be some form of base placement. Like I have said, I agree. It doesn't need to be on the scale of building every base on the spot, but the defender should have some knowledge of where the base is and set it up according to what works best for them as a player. Basically, just because the Dev's think that where they put the bases are a good idea, doesn't mean that works for everyone...and the limited nature of pre-set bases will undoubtably cause some players to become frustrated, and bored. Ahh, throwing in a little BFMEII I see. While I'm not sure how much it would add to the game, it would be nice to put a custom hero in there for the fun of it. Especially if that hero were a Jedi. Yes I know that in this timeline there are only three major Jedi, but it would still be cool. I think right now they have that super long wait time for the heros to respawn. I dunno, I kinda like that they do...but they really should have an option that doesn't involve a mod. I think it would be a nice option to up the stakes a bit by making heros killable. As for more....I think that there are obviously a lot of heros that could be made...depends on if it shifts the balance too much with all those heros. This I agree on. I am already pretty tired of looking at the rebel tanks. I remember in SWGB there were probably less units, but because you had so many races to choose from it "felt" like you had more. I mean in the end they all pretty much do the same thing, but visually it's nice to have something different. You know my thoughts on this. I would assume they would have this no? I mean we can control Jawas. I would like to see you be able to inlist them into the army and take them with you. It would be great to take luke to Kashyyyk and have him convince an army of Wookies, or Gungans, or something....to fight...it would throw a bit of suprise in the game when suddenly your IMP base is being attacked by something else! Indeed! My friends are already a tad upset that we all can't band together and take over the galaxy. I honestly don't know what this means. Examples? The only realism I would like to see is less focus on weather, and more focus on troop reaction. Even if you look in the demo movies the troops will stand in one place and get stepped on by AT-AT's...I mean come on! I have honestly never used that in any RTS game I have played. But I think in this game it might help. Please expand your reasons why you think this would be good for the game.

Oh Delphi-PG you crazy guy! It really does help when someone sits down and just says whats what. I suppose I'll have to wait and see....of course you all know that I'm going to buy this game regardless, and I'll take your word it's gonna be cool. I did notice in the mod that when I retreated most of my ships were slammed right before hyperspace which is good. That puts my mind at ease on that subject....I just hope that you guys have something in place to stop the inst-o-repair planet jumping issue. Thanks for replying... *psst...keep an open mind on that base building idea, I really think it would help stop people from memorizing the bases and kicking people's butts. I mean your not technically base building, you're just placing the icons...I mean geez even if we could see that map as a defender that would be good enough in some ways*

That was from the Dev Chat a while ago....but, does anyone know what that even means. He answered "Yes" for both questions. I don't understand how a different time scale would make any difference. Does anyone know what this actually means?

Damn! That sucks! You seasoned gamers who know the ins and outs of how these games work will slaughter casual gamers like me! You are right though, thinking about it you have to wonder why they decided to take that element out in the first place. (It apparently was in the original code, but got axed when the focus group said they didn't like to wait for repairs) Your word disapointment is an understatement indeed. What this basically means is that I probably wouldn't even waste my time playing online with a gaming community because I simply don't have the time to get into a 4 hour Galactic struggle only to have the person I'm playing against pull these sorts of things. I have spent most of the day searching every forum on the net looking for answers and the best I can tell, Petroglyph has no intention of adding this feature back in....so it looks like I might be passing on this game. I mean I'm sure it'll be fun and all, but $60 is too much to spend to deal with stuff like this. I guess the thing that kind of upsets me the most is that even though Petroglyph seems good with answering questions, they also seem really good at casually beating around the bush. It seems to me that basically all the gamers want is some straight forward answers as to what is in the game, and what isn't...what will be added, and what the Dev team has no intention of adding. I'm not a big fan of, "Ohhhh, wait and see...we're sure you'll be happy!" because when it comes to computer games (no resale value) and the money to buy them, I really want to know how it plays, and how fun it is. I suppose this might be one of those, "Wait for the add on" games where you don't buy it until enough people have complained so they actually change it.

I hear what you are sayin. I too found that while the ships are preparing for the jump they are pretty much sitting ducks. They do take a lot of damage at this point because I think they actually stop fireing. However....I think that the "hit and run" will still work in some ways because all a player needs to do is keep the capital ships behind the fighters, and not let them get too far damaged. You may have a point that the hit and run tactic won't work as flawlessly in practical battle, but I still think that it's going to cause issues when the defending force is already lacking in numbers.

Hey, I JUST, (yesterday) bought the Logitech gaming mouse and I had the same problem. The default action for the middle wheel button is to zoom, which in EAW doesn't work at all! What you need to do is go into your mouse setup, and select the middle mouse button. There is an option for "Other" under the right hand side menu which will bring up a drop down menu. Select "Middle Mouse Button" and then it should work in the game by pressing CTRL and the Middle mouse button. Whats this you mention about an ingame camera?

I'm honestly sorry if I am rehashing things that have been said to death. I understand that due to time and logistics that these elements won't be ready for the launch. If you are correct in that these issues won't be addressed at all, now or ever...then I think I may have to pass on this game for now. For me the demo didn't do it. It exposed some very specific design flaws (in my opinion) that put up some major red flags for me. I know that my group of gaming friend won't stick around very long with the seemingly limited replay value. I mean, I have, like most of you some of the major mods installed, and while it's only the demo, take away all the nit picks and all that and the game basically gets really old, really fast. I found myself tired of standing my troops in the open for the build pad thing. I'm tired of the space battles. I'm tired of having nothing else to do but click and drag ships to other planets. I really, really want to enjoy this game as I have been plugging it to all my friends for almost a year, but as the day draws closer I'm not sure I'm sold on it. I suppose, what I am after is some sort of press release or something that list ALL of the features in the game, all of the planned patch features, and what we can expect from the game.

Hey, For sure, but I'm not even talking about the demo. It's been made quite clear in many ways that the no base building, instant repair, and planet pop cap are all going to be in the final game. Yes they may release a patch, but what I want to know is what issues are actually being looked at because being a starving student I can't really afford to drop $60 on games that I won't even play. Right now I am torn between EAW and another unnamed game coming out soon, or just sticking to SWGB. These are the issues that I have found with the game that could be a make or break for me. Ya, of course everyone has an opinion, and there are a thousand things that people would like to see put into a game, but I think that the nice thing about these forums is that as a gaming community, if we suggest ideas, and then find a clear and concise way of letting the DEV's know that we all agree for the most part, we might just end up with an awesome game that we all enjoy. With that said, I never rely on patches to fix a game, because (I'm not saying this company is like others) but I remember dropping $80 on a game called Falcon 4.0 back in the day, and by the time I saw even the idea of a patch, I was so frustrated by the game I gave it away. I just don't want to run out to the store on Feb 16th, drop $60, and come home to find the same problems that are in the demo, because I'm already getting a tad tired of the game because of the static nature of it.

I completely agree with you! There should be an auto-spawn option on each ship when you build it or something. That way you can control how many units are poured into the battlefield. I too don't really want the fighters to be picked off by the space station or whatever when I can clean up the battle with just a capital ship.

Wow, thanks for the reply guys! I suppose if it works out that everyone has to have the same versions of the game, then that would be cool...but it could also make things really lonely in the multiplayer world if everyone who has a slight mod (Ship names) can't play with anyone else because of it. I hope there is some way that the game understands high level mods (Ship size, build times, hero/unit strength) and low level mods (Ship names, planet size) so the user can still play the game on thier end the way they want it to look, but the basic game elements would stay. Basically, I am leary to mod anything on my game because I don't want it to limit me from playing with my friends. At the same time, there are some things I would love to Mod to make it more enjoyable for me, but don't need everyone else to have that mod.

Hello, I'm not sure if this is OK to do around here, or if you guys really care that much...but I thought I would take a second and create a wish list based on the demo, the mods, and what I know of the full game. I think it would be awesome if the DEV's could stop by here sometime and give a thumbs up, or thumbs down to ideas that we might have. That might help us get a better idea of what is planned, what is moddable, and what we can expect. So to start.... 1. Base Building / Defensive Knowledge I would really like to see some form of base building. Now I understand that EAW wants to get away from that type of game and I can understand why in some respects, but as a defender, I still think it's only fair that you know where your troops, buildings, and such are prior to being attacked. As well, I think it's fair that the defender has some form of knowledge of the area since he occupies the planet. The following image is a very quick idea of what I thought might work. Instead of the "movie" camera panning around planets, that space could be used to pop up a map of the planet. Then using the already built in grid system the user could place buildings and Build pads on the map where they think it would be best. If the user decided to just build the buildings without the map, then the AI would just place them where it would have anyway. The enemy couldn't see this map, they would only see the standard screen showing that there are in fact buildings on the planet, but wouldn't have any other insight. To me, this little bit of control would allow some strategy to take place instead of just suddenly scrambling around to try and figure out where things are when you are in battle. As well, it allows for some replay value because after a while it will become pretty easy to remember (Or write down) that on Tatooine the base is here, the build pads are here, and all you need to do to beat it is follow steps A to C to win! http://www.mmmyeah.com/EAW/wish_list.jpg 2. Repair! I've said it once, and we've all said it again. I think there will be major problems with the instant repair of ships and ground forces. I have already become frustrated as the IMP's have jumped from one planet to the next. Nothing drives me more insane then losing a battle, and a lot of ships, but taking a pretty huge chunk out of the IMP's just to have them show up on another planet a few seconds later at full strength to take out another one of my fleets. This is just the computer we are talking about here. Imagine the hardcore gamers in the multiplayer world who figure out how to take two, or three forces and just keep jumping from planet to planet without any consequence? The fact is that you can't always consentrate on one ship and take it out, sometimes it just happens your force is only good enough to inflict damage. To me, having some sort of repair delay would make things a whole lot more suspenseful. Imagine an IMP fleet with the intention of taking over your last base. They show up three planets out and you meet them there with your largest fleet. The battle goes horrible, and you lose the planet, but you are sure you damaged the fleet. Now the IMP's decide to push on without repair...you meet them again...BAM, you get wiped out, but you can see that they only have one SD left....and it's not doing so well. Suddenly you see that one last SD heading for your base. You panic and scramble all fighters! The attack begins...your ships are taking a beating...you are sure you are going to lose...when suddenly out of your reinforcements comes Han and Chewy....they circle around and...BOOM!! The last SD goes down in flames! Imagine how awesome that would be compared to the current way, which is the IMP Fleet takes out your fleet...then they show up at full strength and take out your already weak second fleet....then....well...we all know how this is going to end. As you can guess, I really would like to see some form of repair or post battle delay. 3. Ground Force placement If you take a look back to the image I posted you will see that I added a little box under the buildings. This is just a minor nit pick, but I think it would really help. As you all know when your planet population is full, the units converge in space...now they don't hide on the other side of the planet, or in a asteroid Field.....nope, they put themselves on the front lines. I will honestly uninstall this game in a second if I start losing whole fleets of troops to some multiplayer gamer who has figured out that one X-wing jumping from planet to planet (With instant repair) can take out everyone. Sure you might be saying, "Well then you have to defend them better!" but honestly, when you are against the ropes, your only two planets are the only places you can build, there isn't always the option to keep them all defended. I think the game needs to let the player have the reserves stored in a safe place. Have it on the opposite side of the planet, or simply on the planet. This could have a population cap as well, but at least give them a fighting chance! If any of you have anything to add, please do! Jeff

Hey, I wanted to ask a few questions regarding Mods as honestly, this is the first game that I have seen so easily modded. I have a few concerns and questions maybe you guys can help me with. I have my Demo modded, and there are aspects of it that I like, and some that I don't. When the final release comes out, is it possible to mix and match mods to my liking? If so, how does this effect the stability of the game? If my friends and I decide to Mod our games, how does it work with multiplayer? What will happen if our mods aren't the same? How does modding effect the game in general? Will it make it unplayable with everyone else online? I suppose I'm not really sold on the idea of mods. I get that there are things that can make the game really cool (Scaled Ships), but there are times when a mod can make the game really annoying to play (Scaled Ships).....is it possible to undo a mod? Thanks! Jeff

Hey All, I just installed this Mod and I just wanted to throw out a few suggestions that might help make it a little more fun. First, as others have said, clicking on some of the planets is almost impossible....well not impossible, but frustrating if you are trying to click on a planet quickly. As well, why do AT-ST's "run" now, and why do they fire at that crazy fast rate? It also seems as though the ground units are not very balanced. Everything seemed to be killed in a few seconds and it seemed pretty unrealistic. And finally, I like the size of the ships in space and land combat, but I'll admit, even the fighters seemed a little hard to see...when zoomed out fully, running a resolution of 1280 x 1024, they are mere pixels. Other than that, it's pretty cool!! Nice work!

Hey All, I must admit this is officially the first post of this nature I have ever written in my life. I am what you might call the “casual gamer” in the sense that I only have limited experience with these types of games, and so please forgive me if I don’t know all the abbreviations or terms. I wanted to take the time and write this review of the demo as I am very impressed with the support Delphi-PG has given, and it seems like the company genuinely cares about the gaming experience that their customers have. So with that, I suppose I should get started. I’ll try and break these down into categories to make it a little easier to follow as this will undoubtedly get pretty lengthy. I’ll address the following issues and thoughts in the following categories: 1.First Impressions a.Graphics b.Gameplay 2.Space/Ground Combat a.Space Combat b.Ground Combat 3.Final Thoughts 1. First Impressions In the past my experience has been limited to games like SWGB, AOE, and Civilization. Because of that, my view of how things should, or could be may be a little narrow compared to what the rest of you know, but this might be the opportunity to get a point of view of someone with “Fresh Eyes.” When I first loaded up the demo version of EAW I was fairly impressed. I had been looking forward to the release of this game since it was first announced, and so my expectations were naturally high. I found that everything seemed to be pretty intuitive and I had very little trouble navigating around. There isn’t much I am going to say about menu locations and such due to the fact that this is the demo version and much of it could be changed for the final release. 1.a. Graphics At first it seemed like the graphics were a little on the “unpolished” side. The main (in game) interface, while looks good seems to be a little big for my taste. What I mean is, when I put the resolution up to 1280 X 1024 the icons and such still seem much bigger than necessary. Of course this is a minor nit pick and doesn’t affect the game in the least, but it does give me a claustrophobic feeling. My suggestion would be to slightly scale down the tabs dedicated to space and ground building, and sneak that little R2 unit’s details in there somewhere. This would just open up the main play area a tad. With that said it seems for the most part that the graphics are pretty well done. There are minor things such as ships flying through ships, and the camera rotate/zoom can become a little awkward (especially in space), but all n’ all pretty fair. 1.b Gameplay The gameplay seems to be pretty solid actually. Once I got over my initial learning curve and threw out my expectations I started to have a pretty fun time. Space battles were a nice change and the idea of taking over planets seems to be quite enjoyable. There were however, a few things that I found a little odd about the gameplay. As all of you know, the speed of the demo has been drastically increased, but as many of you have stated, some of the bigger vehicles seem to be moving slightly quicker than expected. Now, I am aware that you can actually set the speed of combat in the options menu, but the problem is that you can get the smaller ships/troops to move at a decent speed, but the but vehicles (Especially the AT-AT) seem to be moving at too quick a pace. As many have said, it’s hard to say if this is a result of the demo or not, but my suggestion would be to slow the larger vehicles down a tad to give them a better sense of “bulk.” I will touch on more specific issues in later sections, but overall the game seems to be pretty enjoyable. 2. Space/Ground Combat 2.a. Space Combat I actually quite enjoy the space combat aspect of EAW! From the demo it seems that it could result in some quite enjoyable online battles once all the units have been properly balanced. There was however a few things that I did find a bit odd. (Clickable Area) Firstly, when you are in a space battle, for the most part the icons will try to line themselves up side by side to make it easier to isolate a specific group of units. This actually works quite well except for when you are trying to target something specific in that area. There were a few times when I found myself trying to fight through a cluster of X-wings and TIE’s in order to hit the shields on a Star Destroyer. It became quite annoying to have to try and pan the camera to the right angle so I could actually click on the ship I wanted. Of course this is probably a limitation of being able to pan the camera in the first place, but it would probably only bug me a fair deal if I lost a battle because I couldn’t weed through things quick enough. (Population Cap – Space) The other thing I have noticed is the population cap. Now I understand that you can call reinforcements at any time and it is designed to give you the impression that you have unlimited forces, but what I don’t like is that you seem to have no control over what forces show up at the start of a battle. For example, let’s say I have a pretty wide range of ships and I am going to attack a space station. I know, (From the mouse over effect in Galactic Mode) that this station is only guarded by one ISD and a few fighters. At this point when I fly a fleet of ships to the planet it automatically starts a battle and picks the (Population Cap) amount of ships that it thinks I might want. This could be a little frustrating if I simply wanted small fighters, or large ships to enter the battle. My point is that unless the game allows me to choose what ships I want to bring into battle, it’s slightly frustrating when I don’t have access to the ships I brought until something dies. This could be solved if the game would allow the player to fill the unit spaces above the planet before starting the battle, or allow the player to have reserves show up later (delayed in Hyperspace). This would allow the player to use three fleets of ships in the order they wanted. I’m sure many of you would argue this by saying, “If you only want a certain ship to attack the planet, than only make a fleet with that type of ship.” In a way you are right, the problem is, there is no way to adjust to the battle conditions that are happening. In other games of this nature, when you have a large population cap (200 – 300) you can choose to bring in certain types of units and keep the rest in reserve. That way if the battle changed, you could react and bring in something to defend. The way that it is set up now, it seems that the game maxes out your already low population cap right off the start, and all the ships you need are “locked” in Hyperspace. This means, the only way to get them is to sacrifice something. I would like to see the population cap stay, but have it so you can either control the ships that enter the battle, or have the population cap so you can cycle out ships as necessary. (Instant Repair) And finally, as many of you have debated about, the instant repair of ships. I am on the fence with this aspect of the game as I can understand how the focus groups could see this as a tad tedious waiting for ships to be repaired. On the other hand, I can see it from the perspective of the player who feels that this “no consequence” style of gameplay could result in a player being forced into battle after battle of “fresh” ships. I know in my experience with the game there has been times when I have been able to just barely sneak by a battle as my ships were creeping along in flames, only to have them ship shape and ready to go 5 seconds later. Some people were concerned this would lead to people building up population cap forces and just jumping from planet to planet. While I agree with that concern, I also feel that there is a much more underhanded way of abusing this system. Imagine that I take 5 ISD’s into a battle. I show up, and destroy a bunch of the enemy forces, but in doing so I take a lot of damage. Now, all I really need to do is retreat and then come back “five seconds” later and attack again, only this time I still have 5 ISD at full health, and they are struggling to beat me with the limited forces they have left. I’m sure there are many other ways that one could abuse this concept to their advantage, but it does seem to me that having some sort of time delay for battles would help to solve this problem. I don’t agree that ships should have to go back to “dry dock” but there has to be some sort of check in place to stop people from just bombarding people with battles. I think this could be easily solved by having a short time delay where ships are unavailable for battle. Sure, they can defend the planet they just captured, but there should be a limit on how fast you can recover from battle. As for the concerns of the focus group (the one who said that waiting around for ships to repair) I can’t see how in a game with 40 some planets, how there isn’t something else that could be done while the ships are being repaired. 2.b. Ground Combat This unfortunately is where I think this game suffers greatly. I find that every time I was “forced” into a space battle, I was pretty happy about it, but when a ground battle started, I found myself groaning as I knew what was in store. (Population Cap – Ground) The biggest concern I have is the population cap. I know that people hate this argument, but in the ground battles it is really very noticeable. When you are on the offence, you are really at an advantage in so many ways. Firstly, when you are on offence, you can pretty much bring down wave after wave of units in any order you please, and the more “reinforcement pads” you have them more places you can drop them. This works well, except of course if you are on the defense. On defense you are so limited in so many ways. The population cap of the planet means a few major problems for a player trying to not let their planet fall into enemy hands. (Population Cap – Ground – Unit space) It has to be the most frustrating part of the game, when you are trying to build up your ground defenses and then suddenly they are all orbiting in space. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was to watch my huge fleet of transport ships fall prey to an Imperial attack simply because there was no room on the planet. I understand that this aspect is designed to stop players from stacking all the units on a key planet and having a long drawn out battle, but to store the extra units in space is absurd, especially since the offender can bring in a huge fleet. I personally think this really needs to be addressed. I agree that people shouldn’t be able to stack the planet full off AT-AT’s, making it impossible to beat, but there needs to be a safe way to store reserves of troops so they aren’t fodder for incoming ships. This brings me to my second issue with ground battles (and in some ways space as well.) (Limited foresight) Think back to the battle of Hoth, remember how the Rebels were crouched in the trenches waiting for the inevitable attack of the Imperials? What was the one thing that gave the rebels the advantage in that situation? The answer is defensive planning! In EAW you build your buildings on the Galactic level. You also build your units on the Galactic level. This means that at no point during the game are you able to see what is happening on the planet until you are attacked. Once the Invasion Force lands you are suddenly getting your first look at the base laid out for you and then scrambling to figure out how to defend it. All the attacker has to do at this point is land as many units as possible, and head for the base. Obviously Tatooine was a demo map, and it was pretty obvious where the enemy was, but the point is that when you are on defense you have no control at all where your units are, or buildings are. It has been said that building bases is, “So 90’s” and that this new form of ready made base is the new way of strategy games. To me however, it’s like asking a blind man to organize your kitchen and then being forced to make a meal for your family in 20 minutes. Obviously when you don’t have control over where things are placed, you are automatically at a disadvantage from a defensive standpoint. I think there needs to be a way where the player can have some control over where things are placed and the order in which units form up prior to battle. If your main concern is defending a cantina, (for some reason) then the player should have some form of control to say, “I want my tanks here, my troops here, and a few turrets here!” not, “Ahh, where are my troops, where is my cantina, where are the build pads, where are my tanks, where am I, what planet is this, why don’t I have a clue what this planet looks like even though I control it!?” All jokes aside, I think the defender should always have home base advantage of knowing where things are, where they are put, and prior knowledge of the land before getting attacked. If the game is only going to limit the player to 10 population cap units, then there has to be some sort of advantage. On a side note, I am aware of the shields and other defensive structures put into the game. I also am aware that the attacker has the “fog of war” to deal with as well, but this, in my opinion doesn’t make up for the fact that I should know where all my units are going to be before I get attacked. (Squads, Life, and Emotion) The only other slight issue I had with the game is the lack of formation. This also applies to space combat, but not as much for a few reasons. On the ground, we are seeing units revert back to the days of SWGB where they would line up and exchange fire like they were throwing cupcakes at each other. In the space combat the units actually weave and dodge bullets, but on the ground my troops would just stand there with a dumbfounded look on their faces at an AT-AT blasted them to shreds. Now, while I thought LOTR:BFME had it’s fair share of issues (Build pads) the one nice thing about that game is that the units seemed to be “alive” It was nice to see some reaction of the units to the things that were happening on the screen. I personally would rather see my troops run from an AT-AT if there is no support, than sit there and get slaughtered. When population caps are so tight, the unit AI needs to be able to know when it’s a good time to move. *NOTE: I was just playing EAW and when I took down an AT-AT my Rebel Troops put one hand in the air and cheered. So apparently there is some emotion in this game. I also realized that an AT-ST stepped on a few of my troops, but the rest didn't care as they were moving somewhere. This also applies to troop to troop battles. I don’t understand the point of all this amazing 3D terrain if the units are just going to stand beside it and fire from a group. I would like to see some AI written that would allow the units to have a bit more self preservation. As well, and I am sure many of you have wondered why this isn’t the case, but there needs to be some sort of formation buttons. Even SWGB had some form of formation button (while pretty useless), which allowed you to at least protect your tanks a bit. LOTR:BFME II seems to have figured out that it’s much too time consuming to try and baby-sit units that have a tendency to run off after a speeder bike leaving tanks exposed. (Bombing Runs) This is a double edged sword for me. I absolutely hated how in SWGB the fighters would just hover above the battle and get picked off by anti-aircraft units. I always wanted to see strafing runs and now we finally have it…unfortunately now defending against it is almost impossible! Sure, we can take our already occupied troops, and walk them over to a build pad, stand there long enough to “re-capture” it, and then build an anti-aircraft turret. Then, we can pull the troops off the turret and leave it completely undefended as they have to get back to the battle, because of course the population cap is looming. As your troops rejoin the battle you realize that because your build pad happened to be the only build pad out of range of the fighters, your troop center falls prey to the bombs and your anti-aircraft turret saves it’s ammo for another day. So, I suppose that I really enjoy the aspect of the bombing run, but once again the limitation of the build pads causes too much time and energy to be spent on trying to locate the right place to build, acquiring it, and then defending it. This whole issue could be solved with one simple step. Make the build pads a structure that can be built anywhere the defender wants. Even if the main buildings were pre-made (But we still knew where as defenders) we could figure out where to best fortify our bases. 3. Final Thoughts I suppose that is my major issues that I have seen based on the demo available. It’s hard to say what works and what doesn’t until one has had the opportunity to play the full game, but I think everyone has valid points. For me, I am simply looking for a game that I can play with my friends online, that will have the staying power of SWGB (Still on all our computers) and won’t become frustrating like, well, SWGB (drives us insane at the same time). Like most games that are released there are always things that come up that even the designers didn’t see, and that is fair enough. I applaud these two companies for supporting the game as they have, and I am very impressed by the ability to mod the game (Even though in many ways it drives me nuts). I think that if these issues were addressed this game could easily become one that it replayed many, many times. With that said, I look forward to playing the full version of the game, and I thank you for taking the time to read this. Jeff •In case you are wondering, my PC runs this game pretty well for the most part, but I can notice lag on full detail when things become crazy on the screen. Pentium 4 D – 3.00 GHz 2 Gigs Ram Nvidia GForce 256 1280 x 1024 @ 60 Hz