At least if the internet has anything to say about it.
So, has anyone bought "Empire At War"? I've been playing a bit after I got this dreadful cold, and it really grows on you. The learning curve is a bit longer than in other strategy games, you have to work constantly in fortifying border planets, space fleets and garrisons when doing the main campaign, while at the same time developing new tech to keep up with the rebels, but I just bagged Sullust in a very strange and worringly satisfying way.
What inspired me to make this thread was the way it went down; when I moved in on Sullust I assumed no fleet would be present because the planet icon was grey (unlike enemy-red) so I only sent one Victory class star destroyer. Once there, I noticed the Nebulon B Frigate and three corvettes coming at me, pumping out fighters to throw at me. After an intense shootout, my smoking SD, with its TIE wings expended and all but destroyed, was declared winner.
I thought that was the end of it, but sadly enough for the rebels, they had sent in a small fleet of transports to Sullust, perhaps to fortify the ground base in case I did what I just did.
So one (now repaired) star destroyer and three wings of TIEs and bombers against ten panicking rebel transports with useless tanks and soldiers in them.
What's funny is that you can press spacebar during land- or space-battles for a random cinematic, letterboxed camera view of the unit you've indicated. So I pressed it a few seconds before the last rebel transport got its final volley from my SD, this is what it looked like;
Is this game similar to Rebellion? That's my only question. If it is I'm headin down to the computer store!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
In the commecial for the game, Vader looks like the Hulk in a Darth Vader costume. Really cheesy there.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
I'd say this game is what Rebellion should've been. EaW is similar to Rebellion in that space/landbattles, for instance, can be decided instantly or fought through. The basis for choosing the winner seems a bit strange, as I lose many more units that way than if I fight myself, so I never do that. The plaent conquering is the best part, straight after I've conquered a planet in both land and space, I build a space station in its orbit and suddenly I have capacity to build four more Star Destroyers. There is a unit cap determined by your amount of space stations, barracks and planets.
Jason: The only thing I thought was low-tech was his cape, which doesn't flap in the wind like modern games with "rag-doll" game engines, but then I thought about the work load algorithm for 200 flapping coats/pony tails/robes in a large land battle and suddenly that cape doesn't look so bad.
But it is possible that the commercial you saw, Jason, didn't have the effects-dial turned up to max. If you lower the "Geometry Detail" in video settings you get a big performance gain but the characters look like LEGOs. No offense, Jeff.
Also, they didn't skimp on the sound effects in this game. Everything about the saber is there, for instance, from ignition and shutdown to different swing-sounds and blaster-blocks.
There is a few irritating things with the galaxy mode, like if you double-click a planet to zoom in on its resources, and the clickable field around the planet is overlapped by another one next to it, you zoom in on the planet next to it instead. I hope they'll fix it in the next patch.
Also, the cinematic mode seen in these screens, totally random. It stays on the unit you've selected for maybe five seconds, then shifts to another character/unit, usually not even participating in the same fight, ignoring the chance that you maybe chose the first unit for a damn reason. It's like a one-armed bandit, you have to do it five times until you get something interesting.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
quote:No offense, Jeff
Pistols at dusk.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Is there a way in these games of defeating Vader before Luke gets to him in Jedi and turns him back to the light side? Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Hey now, everyone deserves one chance at redemption, you heartless you.
As it happens, I'm fulfilling my end of the story and just tractored Leia's corvette into submission. I even used Vader's personal TIE to shoot out her engines first, or my Imp-SD wouldn't have caught up with her. tHEY R slow3r tHAN m0145535 iN J4nu4RY.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
What other Star Wars games have you guys played? I've played quite a few and they're all for the most part very well made. Here's the list
#1 The game that got me hooked both on Star Wars and video gaming in general: TIE Fighter. BEST GAME EVER!
#2 X-wing: Wasn't quite as polished as TIE Fighter but still excellent.
#3 Rogue Squadron 64: It was alright, I didn't much care for it
#4 Shadows of the Empire. Good Game
#5 Dark Forces: Kicks Ass!
#6 DF2 Jedi Knight: Kicks even more ass!
#7 Rebellion: Took me about 2 years to completely learn the game but it's still a really good one.
#8 Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast: Disembowling stormtroopers is fun!
#9 KoTOR: Awesome Storyline and a huge plot twist. Great Game!
#10: KoTOR2 TSL: Gave me a collossal headache. Also the storyline is kinda ripped from Jedi Outcast. And a serious Bug midgame
#11 Battlefront: One of the best games recently made.
#12 Battlefront 2: Pretty much same as the old one. But the Hero's didn't make up for the omission of several of my favorite maps. Space Battles are cool.
#13 Jedi Knight Jedi Academy: Cool Tie-ins to the books and other games.
#14 Episode 1 Racer: Fast paced racing action. And the fact that you can play as someone other than whiney little Annie is a definate plus. My favorite was Neva Kee. That little dude sounded like a psycho.
There's a few others that I've rented but since I havn't played through them I can't really say whether they were good or bad. Star Wars Starfighter and Clone wars to name a couple
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nim: Hey now, everyone deserves one chance at redemption, you heartless you.
As it happens, I'm fulfilling my end of the story and just tractored Leia's corvette into submission. I even used Vader's personal TIE to shoot out her engines first, or my Imp-SD wouldn't have caught up with her. tHEY R slow3r tHAN m0145535 iN J4nu4RY.
All I can say is "Thank God the japanese did not get creative control over the game..."
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
I don't know, the japanese were pretty good at shipbuilding and refining during the 19th century, they would probably be good at realizing the star destroyer design. Invented the bulbous bow, they did.
Also, repressed patriarchal dominion realized through rape dream. Like the stereo, they didn't invent it but they refined it into an art.
But is it really what the japanese are like, or is it what a few influential designers and authors/cartoonists started and which has since snowballed (no pun intended) into a cultural phenomenon, a la Dallas for the States? Was it there in the 50's? 60's? Is the US occupation to blame for their sick games?
(I'm studying anthropology right now, that's why I'm asking)
DaBang80: That's a nice list. I have to disagree on Sith Lords, I got around the bugs with patches and forum tips (like how to not get stuck in the arctic temple) and I was sufficiently satisfied with the improvements (more force powers, double invetory sets for quick switch and the new saber upgrade features) to forget the fact that they cut out so much from the intended content. And the ending was unsatisfying, unless they had released the third part 6 months later, which they didn't.
About Jedi Outcast; the first time I got to meet another lightsaber wielder (at Bespin, yellow leotard guy up in the wind-shaft walkways), I cut his sword arm off at the bicep after two moves, while he was diving over my head. I more or less just held the saber upright and he jumped over it while I swung. That was the defining moment for me, against which all future SW-games with sabers in them were to be measured. I hope they do another JK title. To think what they could do with physics like in Halflife 2. For once some Sith Lightning that actually looks and sounds like in the movie. And more variables in physical character creation. Short and stocky, tall and wiry.
Anyone remember that Myst-ripoff in 2004? You could design a character and even shape the dimples in the cheeks, and decide hair color from a 32k color map. It sucked storywise but the char creation was the best I've ever seen.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:But is it really what the japanese are like, or is it what a few influential designers and authors/cartoonists started and which has since snowballed (no pun intended) into a cultural phenomenon, a la Dallas for the States? Was it there in the 50's? 60's? Is the US occupation to blame for their sick games?
(I'm studying anthropology right now, that's why I'm asking)
oh...this one cant be blamed on the US (or anyone else) wanting to see teenage schoolgirls raped by bizarre-o tenticle things. Lot's of those stories involve gender-swapping and hermaphrodite characters- not gonna be popular in the states. I think it's a social repression thing: much like how the women with the most voracous sexual appitites seem to have gone to catholic school (all three of the dominatrix's I know were sent (as girls) to strict -private- chatholic schools run by nuns).
Just my opinion, of course: let's hear from the folks living in Japan!
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
I can well imagine influential japanese samurai and generals going to geisha houses to be put in bibs and cribs to take the pressure off of all the constant stout posturing, but western businessmen and leaders do that too. It seems like it metamorphed in Japan during the 1900's, though. I'll bet one of Bush's ancestors are involved in some capacity, what with them having their fingers in so many pies.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
I did get past the temple bug in Sith Lords with patches and forum tips as well. The prestige class was kinda neat too. I still think the first KoTOR was the better game.
Just got EaW and played through the first tutorial. It's looking like a fun game. I'm gunna go play some more.
Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
Well, I know we were responsible for some of it. Gen. MacArthur didn't like pubic hair, so it was his mandate that it not be shown in printed materials. That caught on. He wanted to do right by the American soldiery who made up the occupying forces, so pushed to have the age of consent lowered to what it now is (I think it's 14 -- Masao? Confirmation?).
And of course, we really screwed them up by nuking them. How many animes feature at least one nulear-like explosion...?
--Jonah
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
MacArthur encouraged shaved beaver? Well I suppose less chance of lice and stuff. This is news to me, though. And Sweden's legal sex limit is 15, but not for 15-year olds to do people over 18, I think, only other pre-18:ers.
Da_bang80: The tutorials are very detailed and helpful, the best I've ever received in a PC game, in fact, and that's saying a lot.
Just a word of advice, if you're doing the main campaign next, don't expand your system of controlled planets and hold out on the "plot-critical" missions (which eventually raises tech levels) for too long, or by the time you get the really fun units most of the game will be over.
The opposite, rushing through the plot and missing out on the large-scale conquering, isn't very likely, though. Often the script puts the next "plot" mission well behind enemy lines, so that you have to fight your way to it, building armies and fleets just to take the 3-4 planets between the target and your nearest outpost. So Petroglyph has really thought things through, it seems.
Also, I have a newfound respect for Mon Calamari warships.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"He wanted to do right by the American soldiery who made up the occupying forces, so pushed to have the age of consent lowered to what it now is (I think it's 14 -- Masao? Confirmation?)."
Thirteen, according to the Wikipedia, with various local restrictions. It doesn't say why, though.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Wow. I've been playing EaW for about 5 or 6 hours now. The land battles are insanely hard! Some reason I have no problem with space battles. Guess I'm a better admiral than a general. I guess it helps that the space battle is pretty much a clone of Star Trek Armada's play-style
Posted by Kazeite (Member # 970) on :
Well, ground battle do seem to be harder, for some reason...
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
What side are you playing, Bang? I found that, as the empire, my vehicles were insanely vulnerable to rebel rocket soldiers, four of them can take an AT-ST in 3-4 volleys. But the empire has the inexpensive TIE Mauler, which runs over soldiers. So I always keep a fast-response mauler unit, they can't take even two rockets but they are fast.
Likewise, as rebels I always keep a large number of rocket soldiers around the hover cars and launcher trucks.
And use buildpads smartly, when you encounter them. An anti-infantry/vehicle turret in the right place can make one hell of a difference.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
I've played some skirmish levels as both sides, and I'm doing Galactic Conquest as the rebels. Ya. Those Plex Soldiers are nasty. Those Mauler units are nasty too. I was fighting for my life on Tatooine when a Mauler comes by and runs over half my infantry squads. I was like "What the flying fuck!"
My defining moment in this game was when I had to defend Kashyyyk against an Imp Star, a trio of Missile cruisers and a pair of picket ships with a level 1 space station and 2 squads of X and Y-Wings. I lost the station and 3 of my squadrons but I still forced the Empire to retreat after losing it's Star Destroyer and all but two of the picket ships. Never underestimate the power of those flying bathtubs.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Boy I am really excited about this game. Can't wait to get it on Saturday/Sunday. Anyways, responding to the Kotor2 comments, exactly what is this mid game bug. I remeber encoutering a big bug on Dxun when after defending the Mandolorian base from the Sith when halfway between a conversation I was having with a character I suddenly had to redo the mission and battle the same Sith yet again. I certainly wouldn't have expected this kind of shit in the first and more superior Kotor1.
BTW, how did Japanese sexcapades find their way into a discussion about a Star Wars game Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
The midgame bug was when you entered the secret Jedi Academy on that snowy plateau. When you walk in and click the light side convo dialog "we mean you no harm" or something like that. the plot stalls. You're stuck there, the dialog is messed, and It took a patch and a few edits with the KoTOR Savegame Editor to fix it.
Also. I went to boot up EaW today and It won't work anymore. Something about emulation/Cd Protection. I went to the Lucasarts website and there's a lot of other people complaining about the SecuROM7 being screwed up. Well. Woopdie-Fucking-Doo! I know have a 60 dollar worthless video game! Time to go get my money back. I'm so pissed!
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
I don't have that, must be some special mix of PC components that provokes the reaction. It plays just fine to me.
Regarding TSL, I thought it was more rewarding to play as DS in this game, what with you being able to "turn" almost everyone in the roster, except T3-M4. And there were more opportunities to play bad, as well. I hit Dark Side mastery in record time in the last playthrough, right after purging the Ithorian compound at Telos. Also, the way each of the male/female player models look different as darksider was nicely done. I think I have found the most terrible female DS version in my current character, one of the asian builds.
Da_bang80: Y-Wings are very good at chomping up ship hardpoints. They sometimes come at my fleet in swarms of fifty, during the late parts of the game, takes time to swat them out. I wish I could have all the graphics settings set to max, but a Radeon 9800 256 is not enuff these days, and the current Shader capabilitities are staggering.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Yeah. Aparently it happens to some people and not others. And some fixes work for some and not others. So far nothing's really worked for me
But I'm going to wait a few days see if there's a new patch or fix for the game before I return it.
[ February 24, 2006, 07:39 PM: Message edited by: Da_bang80 ]
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Well, finished it as Empire, a few interesting things got my notice in the always-majestic SW end credits;
$$$$$$$$$$ Typical Computer-game-end-credits spoilers, we know what a bitch those usually are$$$$$$$$$
The voice of Boba Fett actually was Temuera Morrison. His Slave-I was one of the funniest ships in the game to use, I thought that was a neat addition. A pity I never got to use him on the ground, as a unit. He can do some nasty stuff apparently.
Also cool that the voice of (here) Colonel Veers was done by Jamie Glover, Julian Glover's son. Not only that, but I discovered that Jamie had done Veers in "Battlefront 2" as well, and apparently several voices in KotOR 2, if iMDB is correct. Anyway, cool that he sounds like his father. I've always liked Julian Glover, ever since his Richard Plantagenet in the 1982 british version of "Ivanhoe".
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Boba Fett as a ground unit has a Flamethrower and a Jetpack ability. I got my game working again. Little registry fix was all that was needed. I conquered an entire planet with 2 infiltrator units today. Damn that was fun.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Well if you want more fun, I've come acros this German Mod for Empire at War called Steiner's Advanced Units Mod. It's currently at Version 3.0 and it is the sickest shit ever. It has some cool units from EU books, comics, and games. There's everything from TIE Defenders to Chiss Clawcraft!
Here's a link to the website(they have 3 mirrors, but I believe only one link works and it might take a while) It's worth the wait because it has so much:
P.S.- It doesn't overwrite the original game, just make sure you have a folder called Mods inside your Gamedata folder for EAW. If you need help just ask or go to the mod's website.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Wow, way to dredge up an old thread. At least you chose a good one. I havn't played EaW for a while. (I did get it working again, one of the patches fixed that issue)
[URL=http://empireatwar.filefront.com/][/URL]
Heres another good site with a ton of mods. A lot of people say filefront sucks, but I think it's alright, no waiting an hour for your file like at fileplanet.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Yeah I've been to that site, and there are many interesting mods there. However, the aforementioned mod is the most complete one I found and according to some people down at filefront's forum, these people have been working on said mod since before EAW was even released. I picture a bunch of guys in a dungeon still working at 2:00 AM trying to make their model of a Star Destroyer look exactly like Industrial Light and Magic's model Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
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