StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I like the idea of playing as a criminal organization but I think that the storyline is a bit too wanktastic in favor of the Consortium. First of all, the StarViper. It was a unique fighter created specifically for Xizor and he bought the production rights to keep it unique; I can't see him allowing or tolerating anyone stealing the designs. The one time we see Xizor in the game, he makes it very clear that he sees Tyber Zann as an inferior and not even a particularly important one.

Second of all, Zann's piracy against the Mandalorians; while I am not a Mando-Fanboy I still think that deliberately antagonizing the Mandalorians is a bit like kicking a rancor: too much risk for too little reward.

Thirdly, why did it have to be the Millennium Falcon that took Tyber Zann from Kessel? Why not, say, Dash Rendar? Would have been interesting to see more of him.

Fourth, there's that whole Carbonite Sith Army. Now that LucasArts has been gutted, I doubt we'll ever see any further developments there.

Good thoughts.

The only pretext in which Zann's organization works on a galactic level is if the Rebel Alliance is much more powerful than the films establish.

Sorry, but I don't buy that. I realize some EU sources claim there were other, smaller Rebel fleets trying to distract the Empire while their main force was in the Endor system (e.g., that one Battlefront shoot-off ... what was it? Some unit Han supposedly formed).

Perhaps there were TINY fleets elsewhere -- say, a single small capship or frigate with a fighter wing or two -- but I've always been under the impression that the supreme bulk of the Rebel fleet attacked the Death Star II. The Emperor said the "insignificant rebellion" wound end that day before Luke's eyes, so if they had substantial assets elsewhere, why couldn't the Rebels keep fighting on? They were guerrillas, after all, not a proper military.

FOC doesn't see it that way. In the game (and I don't mean the sandbox Galactic Conquest), the Rebels control or have ridiculous sway over many worlds. A fair number of planets/systems are a hair away from openly rebelling themselves. And the Hutts seem to maintain an inordinate amount of control over the space they ruled before the Republic became the Empire.

But I've seen "ANH." Tatooine was a backwater afterthought but there was no doubt that, when it came down to brass tacks, the Empire, not Jabba, ruled that shithole by "0 BBY." Jabba might've thought he was still in charge on a day-to-day basis, but by then, he good and well knew the Emperor could easily clamp down on his slug ass and all but pop his sphere of influence like a big balloon.

As far as the Black Sun goes, Palpatine was only amenable to Xizor for helping to build the DS2 in secrecy. Xizor, nor his chickenshit organization, was ever a true rival to Vader or anyone else in the Empire. Sidious would use Xizor as a patsy, just as he had the Trade Federation and, ultimately, the entire CIS.

A lot about the authenticity of FOC's story is up for grabs, but hey, it was fun. I thought the original "TFU" game was fairly fun, too, if a bit repetitive. But the problems with its story, and its sequels, opposite the movies probably makes any complaints about FOC look tame by comparison.

I actually seem to remember a line in New Essential Chronology where it is mentioned that the Hutts truly and well know that the day they stop paying the Emperor and his high-ranking goons off and try to act as if they were actually a truly independent political entity, they will be squashed like a bug. They simply didn't have the means to stop an Imperial assault so they did what they did best: subterfuge, corruption etc. and hoped like hell that Vader or Emperor doesn't get upset with them (it's not like Vader would care if he glassed a major Hutt world or two). I don't even remember if they did any trade with the Rebellion (some did, surely) because they were worried what might come to be if such thing would be revealed to the Empire.

And yeah, some little Rebel fleets might still be going around elsewhere in the galaxy, but they were very small, barely more than pirates - the RotJ novelization states that the absolute majority of the Rebel Fleet was attacking the Death Star II. We might be generous, though, and assume that the Rebel Fleet was indeed the Rebel Alliance's main military force while the governments and systems affiliated (openly or secretly) kept most of their own forces near them (like the Mon Calamari, who had a good reason to fear that if the Empire noticed that their military was off to do something, the Imperials would turn their world into a firepit).

And I never really cared that much for Zann and his "forces of corruption". The story had too much contradicting elements and immense and ridiculous fan wank.

As an expansion I liked what it brought to the main two factions: B-Wings, orbital bombardment, ground unit transports, etc. I loathed the Zann Consortium though, as being stupidly OP. Hell you could argue vanilla EaW gave the Rebels too OP compared to the Empire, but the ZC was just...blegh. Having to clean corruption from worlds was a huge PITA.

The story just made the gameplay imbalance, which could otherwise be ignored, into more-or-less canon as they're SUPER PIRATES who hijacked the fucking Eclipse. I'm not sure if that's better or worse than Gary Stu Starkiller founding the Rebel Alliance.

Worse. It is one thing to have some guy be present at some meetings or be an inspiration or even contribute significantly.

It is another to have some pirate nobody ever heard of conquer the most heavily defended systems and defeat the best strategic and tactical mind of the Empire.

The Consortium was basically a powerful criminal organization that was at its peak for a few months, basically the time during the campaign, and was local to a few systems. After the heist of the Eclipse, they probably fell to the wayside. Anyway, I can see a few justifications for its existence:

1. Zann was operating during a time of great chaos so the Empire was focused on other threats.

2. Palpatine probably secretly allowed the thing to happen anyway to cause chaos so he could further expand his powers in response.

3. The real-world existence of massive pirate operations messing with huge empires (the Wokou vs. Ming China, Koxinga's pirate network vs. Qing China), and in Star Wars the Stark Hyperspace War as an example of a massive criminal faction taking on the galactic polity.

The Wukou pirates never managed to seize Shanghai,and I doubt they raided Shanghai although they did raid ships leaving Guangzhou.
Koxinga threat was also more as a rallying point to other Ming loyalists and faced an Empire which had nascant naval forces.

Zann RAN through the Imperial blockade of Yavin as though it didn't exist(it really didn't exist in the game).


Furthermore, the Wukou pirates had access to a large smuggling network, as opposed to Zann 'reduced to one planet' resources.