harvey032186

I was going over old posts and saw EvilleJedi talking about an app he used to have that allowed the creation of custom fleets (even tweaking stats and allowing naming). You said you couldn't find it at the time, I was curious if you ever stumbled across it after that? You see, there pretty much doesn't exist a decent Star Wars strategy game, so what I do when I play with my brother is mod Rebellion (to change the shiplist and balance resource costs) then "act out" the battle in Warlords. It's a wonderful system, except for the slight confusion behind characters being on specific ships, etc , you can imagine. Anyway, if this app is available it would immensely streamline the process

I have seen reference off and on to the game crashing when the computer plays as the Imperials. I haven't scoured all the topics yet, so I don't know if a solution was ever found. Well, I have found one. It only does it if you try to start a game RebVsImp straight after startup. It crashes every single time. However, if you start a game as ImpVsReb first, THEN start one RebVsImp it works fine. A note: with OldShips.big enabled, the Imperial mostly builds MSH, so it's best either disable OldShips (it'll use more variety) or to play facilities (I assume, haven't tested, just know it acts a fool in Reinforcements) Also, on expert mode, it seems the AI hordes its ships in one tiny spot and rarely if ever leaves. On hard, it will send out a steady stream of smaller fleets, though it still presents a good challenge with RU injections enabled.

A mere technicality. Actually, I might have to revise my favorite to the Watchkeeper. Awesome little ships. Much tougher than the Victory, heavily armed, fast, cheap, AND cool looking. Use 'em to watch over disabled ships (couldn't resist cause of the name) and bases, also as spearheads for attacks cause of their ability to absorb damage while the ISDs and my flagship disable and destroy the targets. I've found careful management of forces and prioritizing the enemy ships can turn a slugfest into an easy victory. I initially liked the Allegiance for a flagship, but it's too easily disabled for now and not THAT much tougher than an ISD. I've settled on the Titan as my preferred battlewagon. Those missiles it lobs seem to be real shipkillers.

Ignore this. Wrong topic.

I kinda figured it was related to canon, though I never really payed much attention if they describe the explosions in detail. (shrugs)

I don't go for it cause it's theft, no different than walking in the store and shoplifting a copy. I have made copies, for use in my home cause I don't want to buy three or four copies so I can play LAN with my friends/family who live with me (yeah, we got that many computers tween us all). The only other exception is if it's something that's older and hard to find, if I know somebody what's got one I'll copy it, cause it's likely the only way I'll get one. Interestingly, I've noticed a lot of companies seem to make their old games available for download for free (if your willing to spend the time it takes to download a 2 giger over the net)

Just out of curiosity, EJ, I posted several ideas earlier. Do any of them gel with your vision, or are you specifically doing things differently? U don't have to explain yourself, of course, I'll be playing Warlords regardless I'm just curious as to how you're doing things. I know in a lot of cases, you have reasoning for the way things are. I'll admit, the one I'm most curious about is the Ion Cannon downtime cause I think it's a major pain in the arse (thus its being first)

My personal favorite is the Victory I class Star Destroyer. They have enough firepower to make a heavy cruiser pay attention, they're reasonably durable, not real expensive (kind of a pain they use the same slots as the much larger ISD so you can't really have both). They are kind of slow though. I've tried using the mk.II and III, but though it rectifies the speed problem, they take a knock in the head as far as firepower. They're like sharks in minnows against smaller ships, but aren't worth the trouble against larger ships. Course, I guess that's pretty much the way it is with ANY ship that is substantially outgunned by its opponent, it's just more annoying cause I like the Victory so much. I didn't spend all that time building those things just so some jackass with a Napoleon complex can blow them up!

I just used the Mandator for the first time and saw the explosions from its missiles are different from most the others. DIFFERENT GOOD! The flash of light and bright blue cloud\explosion look fantastic! Most the concussion missiles are a rather dull red glow, not nearly as impressive. Have you considered using these awesome looking explosions, and if you want them red, perhaps use the same one just tented red?

I actually have this ship for XWA. I had all the Pre-quel ships loaded and going for all of five minutes, I was tweaking the stats to my liking (I prefer higher ships speeds, more fun/realistic) when the EXE got corrupted and I haven't felt like jacking with it since. It's one of the higher quality, better looking models out there. Oh what's his name, can't think of it, runs MTD, he's a slam-bang artist, all his stuff looks great. Especially among the non-canon ships, which tend it seems to be made by amateurs, it blows out of the water.

You might try a no-cd crack. Not that I'm advocating piracy or anything, but those things have their uses and you've obviously got a copy already. I WAS using one, for convenience sake, but eventually removed it cause at random moments HW would ask for the CD anyway, causing the game to crash, so it's kinda... pointless I suppose I don't know, that's a very strange situation you're in. You mentioned installing the game/patch ,etc, but not looking for an update for the player itself. Before you go messing with anything else, see about that. Sometimes the simple stuff does the trick.

It's not your computer most likely. The little phrase "securom.com/emulator" implies its your CD player. Probably a driver update will help. Re-install HW2, and re-install the patch, it might've buggered it up. HW never was known for outlandish stability and reliability, especially when you go to jacking with it. Another thing to consider, is that some games choke over writer CDs or DVDs, whether they're loaded in them or not. It's actually not that uncommon, they're afraid of piracy and whatnot. Haven't had problems with HW2 before, but that doesn't mean much. Your player could be "the one" it freaks out over. Anyway, if it's a writable, try playing the game in a different non-writable drive. Try removing the writer after that. Just my experiences with these shoddily written, rushed out the door POS games they release nowadays. Don't bet any big money on my solutions. Actually, now that I think about it, I've had it pop that box up on me before, too. With me, I'd close it and try to restart the game and away I'd go and it wouldn't bother me again for a long time. Yeah, try reinstalling the game and patch, it might've screwed up. After that gripe at Relic for having a buggy game.

Bug Report: Twice now, I've had ships start zipping around the map at ridiculously high speed (4 or 5 times normal). Out of control buzz bombing type stuff. The other day, I sent in a fleet of Allegiance and several VSDs, we were losing, and all of sudden one of the VSDs kicks it in the arse and takes off doing high speed strafing runs reminiscient of the way fighters performed in HW1, flying out, reversing direction and kickin the thrusters. He died after a minute or so, so I didn't get to observe the behavior for long. A few moments ago, I was playing the Vong against Rebels. Everything fine at first, suddenly, a Modular Battlecruiser lunges from the Republic line... and promptly leaves the battlefield. Looked like he was trying to reverse direction, trying to turn around but moving too fast to stop. Suddenly one of my ships takes off after him... and leaves the battlefield flying sideways (trying to stop too?). Next, an Endurance Fleet Carrier rams one of my cruisers at high speed, damaging both. He recovers, does it again. Then spins out of control toward the edge of the battle at high speed (dies before he gets away). The behavior this time was more like what happens when a game lags out and things start... weirding out. Not every ship was doing it, and it wasn't consistent. No I wasn't online, it wasn't lag. Not that many ships out either, 30 or 40 maybe not counting fighters in both battles. Never had this problem before. Amusing, but obviously not "supposed to be".

I think mine was just one AI. As the time limit expired, my buoy self-destructed. I presume the AI's did, too. Don't know, we met in the middle and I lost

Really? I only played with a time limit once, so I assumed that was "the way it was" Oh well, I was wrong. It was bound to happen at some point in my life. As you can tell, it's my day off and I am bored out of my freaking mind or I wouldn't be on here this much.

Yeah. Those vodka martinis will do that to you...

Indeed. As mentioned, that is an oversight and is on the to-do list for removal. Patience, padawan. EJ will be with us, always. Or until he dies. Or gets tired of doing this. Or perhaps gets knocked off by an associate envious of his powers (eyes warlords staff suspiciously) or perhaps by an ambitious up and coming (why's everybody looking at me?)

Yeah, that's kinda the idea. The "official" use for Reinforcements, is each side is given a set amount of money and a set time within which to purchase units. After that, they go at it. The point behind making it invincible is to keep people from cheating and knocking it out before the time limit. No, the game won't pop up "User Wins", but it's pretty obvious who won, cause one of the players doesn't have any ships, so it's irrelevant. Against, the AI, same thing. One of you runs out of money/time and can't build anymore ships. Whether the buoy is alive or not doesn't matter. You "won". As a side note, I noticed that if you set a build time limit, the buoy self-destructs when the timer is out, so after you kill everybody, it WILL say "User Wins". The invincibility also allows players to set games up with resource injections that truly CAN'T end, allowing for hours of mayhem as opposed to 20 or 30 minutes. Facilities mode is for more traditional RTS style play with "base building" "resourcing" "research", etc. Basically, it's a perfect system where every player's preference is covered. As Borat would say, " I like!" or Ali-G "Respect".

Actually the Construction Buoys in Facilities mode is a bug and will be done away with later. In Reinforcements it's intended to function the way it does, as an invinicible spawn point for the players. In order to control it, you use either a build time limit, or restrict the amount of funds available.

By and large I consider this mod to be extremely high quality. It is beyond any commercial game, especially in the realms of detail and care (maybe cause companies DON'T care). There is very little "wrong" with this thing, and what little is appears to be on the to do list. I've watched the mod closely for years and this is the first time I've joined the forums. Especially considering how few people have worked on Warlords, its progress is remarkable. My only suggestions are... 1. Ion Cannons- Not how they work, but their effect. Some seem over powered somewhat (I think this is on your to-do list actually) but regardless of how quickly a ship goes down, my complaint is the length of the downtime. I don't know how long it is, in excess of 20 or 30 minutes at least (waiting long enough I actually had a ship comeback up when I wasn't looking, so don't know how long it was). The result is, even if you win the battle, the ship is still down indefinitely. Repairing it with droids or MSH doesn't seem to do anything. Perhaps you could reduce the downtime, 5 or 10 minutes maybe. Definitely out of the battle, but not the war. Or make the MSH fire the ship back up after a few minutes. 2. Attach a minimum range to hyperspacing to prevent goofy micro-jumping, such as to dodge missiles, etc. 30 or 40km minimum at least, or perhaps a warm-up period between the order and the jump (more realistic too). Maybe a warm-up for the Interdictor, too. 3. Larger maps. I mentioned this in my previous post on the "ships you use a lot or little". An Interdictor knocks out 100km radius? Something close to that. Many of the maps have the spawn points closer together than that. 4. Perhaps increase the top speeds of the ships (a given if the maps are made larger). I made a mod to the old New Rebellion for HW1 that increased the speeds (1000mglt for Carrack, same for X-Wing) Actually made for a very cool environment. Especially after I increased their braking speed. At first, those poor carracks were kamikazes coming in, they couldn't stop NEARLY fast enough... Anyway, it was cool. 5. Construction yards. Increase construction times, not a lot, but a little. An interesting idea for variety, is you've got the mobile construction yards, have them build at one rate. Then have larger stationary yards built by the factory ships that perhaps have a higher build rate. Also, for long term traditional RTS facilities mode, perhaps a way to repair destroyers sometime today. I noticed on the platform, frigate ships actually dock ON one of the pads to receive repairs. Something similiar like a large repair gantry for SDs that the ship actually docks in and receives repairs at a much higher rate. At present, I don't see much point in the repair droids or other "fix capable" ships, cause the difference is so minimal as to be irrelevant. None of this is crucial stuff, and if you don't want to/ can't change it it's fine. Just ideas cause this is the place for it, yes? I actually got the tools to do it myself, and started poking around in the BIG files. I've seen EJ give people permission to use his stuff with a little addendum similiar to "if you can". It is rather confusing in there

I personally use a little bit of everything. I prefer playing on LARGE maps (why don't y'all space the start points out a little more so you don't start in gun range of every other player?) set up a perimeter around my nav buoy, maybe 100-150km out (or more) in every direction with a ring of proximity sensors. Everything inside I consider mine and trespassers are shot until they... ya know, are dead. Anyway, pairs of Bayonet or other light frigates patrol the extreme fringe/just outside my border, Carracks and other patrol frigates make a circuit back and forth across the sensors,each of which is lightly guarded by a couple perimeter guns. Enforcers and other heavy frigates stationed at regular intervals, and here and there a larger Victory or old Procurator to act as anchors and fast response units to incursions. Imperators and other destroyer classes respond to large scale invasions. Golans defend the jump point and are sent to hot zones immeadiately between me and opponents (the most likely approaches, in other words). Grav mines are sown inside the border to prevent more intelligent opponents from getting inside. Need high or unlimited caps, lots of money, lots of time, but makes for a very "alive" home sector with lots going on that constantly has to be managed. Not sure how effective it would be against a human, considering they likely wouldn't give me the time to set up, be constantly underfire.