HW2: Star Wars: Warlords: Clone Wars

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-05-23 01:52am

Everyone's favorite Starwars mod, Warlords, has just released a Clone Wars varient. All sorts of fancy ships that saw service in the clone wars are at your fingertips, including a bunch of new maps and things. I found that some of the maps like Yavin and such didn't work, but some of the new maps included such as the low orbit courscant work just fine. Additionally, I found that you can't tech to some things, so it's best to leave researching off. Otherwise, have a ball! Build trade federation control ships and heavy cruisers, build ancient republic heavy destroyers, or go with some of the newer models! All this and more!

I know I enjoy it!

tumbletom · Post by **tumbletom** » 2005-05-23 07:05pm

OPMG, Im soooo getting Homeworld 2 now

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-05-23 07:19pm

It's a bit of fun, although they're really going to have to change the starship AI one day

Further, it works better on a 5500 than a 6600GT or 9800. Madness.

tumbletom · Post by **tumbletom** » 2005-05-23 10:05pm

One question: Do people play this game online? Like, a lot of people?

If so...

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-05-23 10:25pm

Warlords is indeed interesting. It's very pretty, with a huge variety of units. But I have a few issues. I'm running a pretty decent current-gen Radeon X600 Graphics card on a compy less than six months old, and I frameskip like CRAZY the instant more than three ISDs are on the screen at once. I REALLY like the turbolaser exchanges of the game, but it seems there's very little differentiating one ship class from another. For example, most of the fighters are too similar, and the ISD, ISDII, ISDIII, Alliance SD and so on are so darn identical. Same with the MC cruisers...

Also, balance is a little funny, as an ISD'll slag twenty frigates without breaking a sweat or losing her shields. Yet B-Wings will rip one apart.

The mod's worth trying out if you have a decent computer anyway. HW2's fun too, so play it!

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-05-24 01:57am

tumbletom wrote:One question: Do people play this game online? Like, a lot of people?

If so...

Maybe the website notes a IRC channel, you might wanna check there. Personally, I've only been able to get a game going with the AI, and my roommate... once. You do need a spectacular machine to really enjoy it.

The Clone Wars mod AI is very... fighter happy, and their destroyers are stupid as hell... if there are fighters there *first* they'll just play point defenders and ignore your larger ships. I noticed some quirks with the tactics, if you start changing them it really affects the ships speeds and stuff, so it's best to sorta not touch that feature (not that I understood it in HW2 anyhow).

Vanas · Post by **Vanas** » 2005-05-25 04:53am

Nephtys wrote: I REALLY like the turbolaser exchanges of the game, but it seems there's very little differentiating one ship class from another. For example, most of the fighters are too similar, and the ISD, ISDII, ISDIII, Alliance SD and so on are so darn identical. Same with the MC cruisers...

I think the problem there, is that the major defining features of the ISD variants, is that they all look the same in the movies. :p

The ISDIII is blacker though, while the ISD I has the taller comm tower.

I'll take a look at the Clone Wars bit as soon as my Guild Wars binge ends.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-05-25 11:16am

What IS the diff between the Imp 1-3s anyway?

Vanas · Post by **Vanas** » 2005-05-25 12:21pm

ISD I: Taller comms tower, 8 enormo-turrets on sides (6TL, 2Ion) (In Warlords, they're dual Turbolaser turrets), tough.

ISD II: Standard Comms tower, 64 HTL on sides, thinner shields.

ISD III: An ISD II but blacker and cloaks. I think it's got thicker shields than the II, too.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-05-25 12:31pm

Ah. Okay. Now only to figure the difference between not One, not Two, but THREE classes of Interdictors, six classes of frigates, and five new 'letter-wing' fighters I don't recognize at all. What the heck is a K-Wing? What's the difference between a bulk frigate and a modular cruiser? What is a Titan Cruiser, and why does it look like an overweight ISD?

What's the difference between THREE models of MC80? Augggh.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-05-25 02:13pm

Nephtys wrote:What's the difference between THREE models of MC80? Augggh.

Looks pretty much

The Mod focuses much more on included all ships. As such you get a LOT of ships which are virtually identicle in terms of firepower and shield strength. Many ships in his Mod are one that were only in comic books, or even just a small pic in a comic book. A lot of his 'stats' are highly non cannon... But in his FAQ's he makes a HUGE point that he really doesn't care

He's doing this for fun, and to have a game where StarWars ships can kick the crap out of each other, and on this, the Mod delivers Wonderfully!!!

So, if your looking for an accurate, Canon based, fully researched game, don't go here... If you want a killer Spacship game where you can have fun, this is your baby!

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2005-05-25 02:26pm

It would be great, if it didn't run like ass in any combat bigger than a destroyer and a few squads of fighters. Seriously, my machine isn't exactly top of the line, but it's pretty high up there, and even at all effects at low and 800x600 resolution, the game is slower than jizz sliding down a tree on a low grav world.

Vanas · Post by **Vanas** » 2005-05-25 03:21pm

Nephtys wrote:Ah. Okay. Now only to figure the difference between not One, not Two, but THREE classes of Interdictors, six classes of frigates, and five new 'letter-wing' fighters I don't recognize at all. What the heck is a K-Wing? What's the difference between a bulk frigate and a modular cruiser? What is a Titan Cruiser, and why does it look like an overweight ISD?
What's the difference between THREE models of MC80? Augggh.

There's three Interdictors? The only ones I can think of are the Immobilizer 418 and the Dominator SD.

The K-wing is a monstrosity.

The Bulk frigate is the Scum's version of the Lancer, the Modular cruiser is something else.

The Titan Cruiser is a missile packin' Mother of all ISDs

And the MC80 is a little crappy, the MC80a(wings) is less crappy, as is the MC80a and the MC80b is the best.

That a good enough list? :p

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-05-25 04:59pm

Nephtys wrote:Ah. Okay. Now only to figure the difference between not One, not Two, but THREE classes of Interdictors, six classes of frigates, and five new 'letter-wing' fighters I don't recognize at all. What the heck is a K-Wing? What's the difference between a bulk frigate and a modular cruiser? What is a Titan Cruiser, and why does it look like an overweight ISD?

What's the difference between THREE models of MC80? Augggh.

Just read their armorments and look at their prices. For instance, the MC80 is a cheap destroyer. It's well equipped to fight frigates and light destroyers. The MC80a Liberty is a medium destroyer, tough and well armed, while the MC80a Maria is faster and more manuverable, but has fewer weapons. The MC80b Naritus is similar to a star destroyer, it's fairly heavily armed, a good price, nice and tough, and includes several capital ship torpedo launchers, which are very effective at knocking out turrets.

You could figure all this out by trying each ship out and/or looking at the ship's prices/tooltips.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-05-25 09:04pm

Yeah, I just pick ships based on the little popout spec thingy.

Course, that means 80% of the ships are totally fucking useless, but whatever floats your 'lets have as many redundant classes of ship as possible' boat.

I'd never noticed how stupid the EU 'tack a gun on' style was until I saw the heavy Gunship: wankwankWANKwankwank. The way they rate the TLs on various ships is ... interesting, to say the least. Did the CW-patch break the normal Warlords for anyone else?

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-05-25 11:40pm

I'm pretty sure clone was is acutally a different mod. But I did just check, and my regular warlords works fine.

The Corellian Heavy Gunship is large, slow and expensive. A corvette isn't very useful if it can't out-manuver capital fire. Not only that, it's not all that great against fighters (though in my opinion the only thing good against fighters are other fighters), and will be disabled by a single squad of bombers without much effort.

What EU 'tack a gun on' style?

The way TL's are classified is pretty simple, Blaster, Laser, Turbolaser; higher the rank the more potent the shot.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-05-26 02:47am

I just meant that the heavy gunship is a T-4 with guns glued on to every concievable surface.

Does anyone find any use for ANYTHING between fighter and destroyer/cruiser? Even with research, I find bombers rape things like corvettes, and it's not worth building anything less than the WEG 'cruisers' or ISDs.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-05-26 03:16am

Escorts can act as point defense, or can divert the attention of enemy destroyers from your larger, easier to hit, destroyers. They can also focus fire on turrets, this is especially nast against ISDII, as most of their firepower is in 8 turrets on the left and right side

Bombers can be quite nasy in number, they can disable destroyers sometimes or do a nice bit of damage if you've researched Torpedo salvo.

Though it's true, they are most effective at knocking out corvettes.

It's important to have frigates with your destroyers, especially if you play game modes where you can only build so many destroyers.

Yes, in the end if you have 6 Star destroyers and the enemy is just screwing around building dreadnaughts, yes you'll win. But in theory, your enemy isn't the painfully inept AI.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-05-26 03:20am

Well I've never played PEOPLE (except my mates, who aren't as good as me). So I don't know these things... Lancers are nice, though, although it's funny watching them shoot all their guns at one fighter

I've never tried killing turrets: by the time shields are down, I either jump the heavies out of range or (in non-jump games) vector a huge swarm of bombers and start micro-ing the battles.

Warlords still has some weapon-loadout quirks that shit me, but I'm a nitpicker. The LODing needs work: some ships NEVER use their best LOD unless you focus on something else and pan the camera past them

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-05-26 02:07pm

Killing subsystems just doesn't work well in Warlords. In HW2, it was a key part of combat against capital ships but.. well. Warlords rewards just having more Destroyers, and charging point blank for better accuracy. Also, is it just me or does the computer REALLY like World Devastators?

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-05-26 02:13pm

Well, in later versions WD's ARE one of the most cost effective Überships in the game, about as strong as Hevay Crusier and without the cost of the facility to build them.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2005-05-28 09:27pm

Filthy website being down. I want instant gratification!

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-05-29 07:46pm

Nephtys wrote:Killing subsystems just doesn't work well in Warlords. In HW2, it was a key part of combat against capital ships but.. well. Warlords rewards just having more Destroyers, and charging point blank for better accuracy. Also, is it just me or does the computer REALLY like World Devastators?

Early game it's good because if someone decides to rush a star destroyer you can just pwnt him by destroying all his turrets with your light vessels and he's sorta SOL

Otherwise it's mostly for ships with torpedoes. 2 Salvos from a Imp I will disable a good portion of the guns on most ships!

Hapan Battle Dragons are also good at that, though they are about as tough as a frigate and not nearly as difficult to hit

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-05-29 08:01pm

Stark wrote:I just meant that the heavy gunship is a T-4 with guns glued on to every concievable surface.

For the record, the Corellian Gunship is based on unused concept art, with almost virtually no changes. Or is there something other than the normal CEC Gunship?

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-05-29 08:39pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Stark wrote:I just meant that the heavy gunship is a T-4 with guns glued on to every concievable surface.
For the record, the Corellian Gunship is based on unused concept art, with almost virtually no changes. Or is there something other than the normal CEC Gunship?

I thought the CEC Gunship appeared in X-Wing Alliance.