New Star Wars RTS game!

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-01-06 12:55am

There's apparently a new SW RTS game in works called "Empire at War".

http://www.theforce.net/videogames/stor ... _88640.asp

Here's some highlights from the magazine

-The game takes place shortly after Episode III.

-Primary goal is to conquer 20+ worlds.

-Each planet gives combat bonuses.

-You'll have to load and defend transports to get your troops to the surface.

-No resource gathering, planets give the aforementioned bonuses and a steady income stream.

-Structures will de-lvl if damaged (example given is a lvl 5 structure being hammered until it's only a lvl 3.)

-You can target specific sections of bases and ships.

-Hero Units.

-Damaged sections will break off ships.

-Space combat is 2-D but supposedly it has very cinematic dog fights with fly-bys, weaves, and such.

-The studio making the game, Petroglyph, is made up of former Westwood employees

-Game is supposed to be "around" ten months away (probable November 2005 release.)

Here's some scans the guy on SGN who posted this made:

The thread I got this from so I'm not plagiarizing:

http://www.sgnonline.com/vb/showthread. ... adid=31341

sweet, eh?

It's space battles AND ground battles.

Temjin · Post by **Temjin** » 2005-01-06 01:40am

I have my doubts as to how good it will be.

There's only been two Star War RTS games so far.

Force Commander: Crap.
Galactic Battlegrounds: The Retail Stand-alone mod for Age of Empires II. Only good because they copied AOE2 shamelessly.

I realise this is being made by different people, but I've got my hopes up too many times for me to do so again.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-01-06 01:45am

Galactic Battlegrounds was a fairly good game.

Thing is, this is the first game combining space combat and ground combat that I know if. If they make it Armada I style with the space combat, it could get interesting.

Post by **Vympel** » 2005-01-06 01:46am

I have high hopes. Notice how they used ITW: OT for the barges that drop off AT-ATs?

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2005-01-06 03:53am

You guys forgot to mention that turn based game. Rebellion? Anyway, the Star Trek version was way better.

Grog · Post by **Grog** » 2005-01-06 05:03am

Rebellion was real time and quite fun. (I thought it was better than the other SW RTS games)

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2005-01-06 07:08am

I hops those screenies aren't indicative of the final product...do they look grainy and dated to anyone else? Or is it just me?

Post by **Vympel** » 2005-01-06 07:13am

Chardok wrote:I hops those screenies aren't indicative of the final product...do they look grainy and dated to anyone else? Or is it just me?

They're scanned from a magazine. Scanned pictures from a magazine always look like shit.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman · Post by **Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman** » 2005-01-06 07:19am

Nice concept, if not too ambitious. I hope they wouldn't be poorly executed, otherwise this would be the next SW RTS failure following SW:GB.

El Moose Monstero · Post by **El Moose Monstero** » 2005-01-06 07:26am

Vympel wrote:I have high hopes. Notice how they used ITW: OT for the barges that drop off AT-ATs?

So did Force Commander, did it not? But I'm hopeful too, have been itching for a good crossover between space and ground battles. Shame the space battles won't be in 3d, but I suppose that would make landing troops rather complicated.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2005-01-06 08:12am

ahh didn't catch that it was a scan.

Still, i have not been overly impressed with SW RTS's of the past. Personally, I'm still waiting for a modern, decent FPS.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2005-01-06 08:25am

After playing a demo of force commander I didn't touch a SW game for quite a long time...
Maybe this will actually be worth buying?

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2005-01-06 09:23am

Chardok wrote:ahh didn't catch that it was a scan. Still, i have not been overly impressed with SW RTS's of the past. Personally, I'm still waiting for a modern, decent FPS.

Yeah, here's a hint, devs. The Quake 3 engine is OLD! Jesus.

Post by **Vympel** » 2005-01-06 09:24am

The_Lumberjack wrote:
So did Force Commander, did it not?

Never played Force Commander- maybe they got the barge design for the OT:ITW from Force Commander?

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2005-01-06 11:18am

Give me a Star Wars version of Armada but with more balanced economy and units and then I will be happy.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-01-06 11:18am

I just hope they don't get sued over the Star Trek game: Empires At War.

White Haven wrote:
Chardok wrote:ahh didn't catch that it was a scan. Still, i have not been overly impressed with SW RTS's of the past. Personally, I'm still waiting for a modern, decent FPS.
Yeah, here's a hint, devs. The Quake 3 engine is OLD! Jesus.

Ever played Battlefront?

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2005-01-06 12:04pm

White Haven wrote:
Chardok wrote:ahh didn't catch that it was a scan. Still, i have not been overly impressed with SW RTS's of the past. Personally, I'm still waiting for a modern, decent FPS.
Yeah, here's a hint, devs. The Quake 3 engine is OLD! Jesus.

It may be old, but it's also widely accessible to people; there are still quite a few out there running sub-GHz computers.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-01-06 12:20pm

Vympel wrote:Never played Force Commander- maybe they got the barge design for the OT:ITW from Force Commander?

Force Commander blew chunks. I can play a game with bad interface to a point if I like the subject... and hey, this is Star Wars, so I want to see how the storyline plays out.

No, wait. I don't. Never mind. Uninstall.

Interface sucked large primate testicles, unfortunately.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2005-01-06 12:40pm

I'm still a big ol' fan of Rebellion (it's real time, I'm not sure why people insist on calling it turn based...the days are not turns as in "you gotta wait now, motherfucker!). People said the interface sucked...it was quite a bit of clicking but nothing too bad once you got used to it. And I'm not of the opinion that graphics are all that important. Still, the tactical side was a bit lacking. It'd be nice to have a genuine Homeworld-style space battle for Star Wars (a real one, not a Mod). I'm not sure if you could incoperate it with a game like Rebellion without making it huge and resource intensive, but it'd be cool to see.

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2005-01-06 01:12pm

Grog wrote:Rebellion was real time and quite fun. (I thought it was better than the other SW RTS games)

Yup.

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2005-01-06 01:33pm

RogueIce wrote:I'm still a big ol' fan of Rebellion (it's real time, I'm not sure why people insist on calling it turn based...the days are not turns as in "you gotta wait now, motherfucker!). People said the interface sucked...it was quite a bit of clicking but nothing too bad once you got used to it. And I'm not of the opinion that graphics are all that important. Still, the tactical side was a bit lacking. It'd be nice to have a genuine Homeworld-style space battle for Star Wars (a real one, not a Mod). I'm not sure if you could incoperate it with a game like Rebellion without making it huge and resource intensive, but it'd be cool to see.

I really started liking Rebellion only after I modded it using the tools available on the 'net: first I gave the ships and ground units more realistic specs, and then I modified the maintenence requirements of units so you could have 10x or more as many, allowing those awesome fleets of ISDs I always dreamed of since I first picked up the game...

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-01-06 03:13pm

The only "good" star wars game I think of (in the Strategy genera) is, of course, Rebellion. To this day I think back fondly of my massive carrier fleets, or my unstoppable Bulwark wall of battle. I think it's time someone made Rebellion 2. Shame the computer was never up to the task of building "large" war fleets.
Truth be told the combat engine could use a "little work", but on the whole, it's not so bad.

For now I use Warlords when I need my Star Wars spaceship fix.

Mitth`raw`nuruodo · Post by **Mitth`raw`nuruodo** » 2005-01-06 05:20pm

InnocentBystander wrote:For now I use Warlords when I need my Star Wars spaceship fix.

I didn't know about that game. That's awesome.

I'll probably play the game in the OT eventually, it looks like it might be decent. If it isn't, it'll still be a nice momentary distraction.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2005-01-06 06:29pm

JUst how many of the development team are former Westwood developers and how shamelessly can they ripoff the old C&C interface? Imagine Generals with a ATAT instead of the Chinese Mega Tank? The last load of SW games have been a significant improvement on their 90's counterparts. I have high hopes for this new one.

Post by **Vympel** » 2005-01-06 10:15pm

Lord Pounder wrote:JUst how many of the development team are former Westwood developers and how shamelessly can they ripoff the old C&C interface? Imagine Generals with a ATAT instead of the Chinese Mega Tank? The last load of SW games have been a significant improvement on their 90's counterparts. I have high hopes for this new one.

The 90s star wars games kicked arse as well.