New Star Wars RTS game!

SPOOFE · Post by **SPOOFE** » 2005-01-07 05:24am

A Star Wars RTS really needs a perfect blend of ground and space combat. If they were REALLY ambitious, they'd have individual missions take place over an entire planet, only a tiny bit of which would be the focus of ground combat, but the entire orbital spectrum would be a crucial tool to supplement it.

That would introduce some fascinating strategies... do you keep your capships far away from the surface to keep them safe, but also risk cutting off your supply lines? Or do you stay nearby, vulnerable, but capable of supporting your troops with orbital support?

It would take some really creative interface work to keep it from being too complicated, but it could work.

Robert Walper · Post by **Robert Walper** » 2005-01-07 06:26am

SPOOFE wrote:A Star Wars RTS really needs a perfect blend of ground and space combat. If they were REALLY ambitious, they'd have individual missions take place over an entire planet, only a tiny bit of which would be the focus of ground combat, but the entire orbital spectrum would be a crucial tool to supplement it.

That would introduce some fascinating strategies... do you keep your capships far away from the surface to keep them safe, but also risk cutting off your supply lines? Or do you stay nearby, vulnerable, but capable of supporting your troops with orbital support?

It would take some really creative interface work to keep it from being too complicated, but it could work.

When they make a game like that on par with the upcoming Battlefield 1942, I'll be a very dangerous person until I get it.

Freeman's Trigger-Finger · Post by **Freeman's Trigger-Finger** » 2005-01-07 02:22pm

Sometimes, when I look at them scans, they look photoshoped. Are they really scanned from a magazine?

Galactic Battlegrounds was avergage at best, but overall fairly mediocre. I remember when I first relaized that Wookies had tanks and that TIE fighters could generate sheilds. WTF!

I have great expectations for a new SW RTS, the very idea of both franchise and genre combined eludes so much potential, here's hoping it can meet on it. It's very early days yet, so I dont think prolonged criticism is fair. We'll have to wait and see.

SPOOFE · Post by **SPOOFE** » 2005-01-07 04:35pm

Sometimes, when I look at them scans, they look photoshoped.

I'm not seeing it. Just looks like they have higher poly models, better textures, and far better lighting.

Freeman's Trigger-Finger · Post by **Freeman's Trigger-Finger** » 2005-01-07 05:36pm

SPOOFE wrote:
Sometimes, when I look at them scans, they look photoshoped.
I'm not seeing it. Just looks like they have higher poly models, better textures, and far better lighting.

It's probaly down to the haziness of the images, but the SD in the second pic looks like it's directly pulled out from the movies for one thing.

Admiral Bravo · Post by **Admiral Bravo** » 2005-01-07 07:33pm

This game has so much potential that it could be one of the greatest star wars stratagy games (with the exception of Rebellion, of course) of all time. Force Commander was a pain in the ass, and Galactic Battlegrouds was Age of Empires with a Star Wars licence slapped on it, so it would be nice to see a good Star Wars RTS, and with the guys who used to work at Westwood working on this it seems to be in good hands.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2005-01-07 08:02pm

Freeman's Trigger-Finger wrote:
SPOOFE wrote:
Sometimes, when I look at them scans, they look photoshoped.
I'm not seeing it. Just looks like they have higher poly models, better textures, and far better lighting.
It's probaly down to the haziness of the images, but the SD in the second pic looks like it's directly pulled out from the movies for one thing.

And it never occured to you that perhaps it just had an awsome graphics engine? Take a look at screenies from some of the latest games, the graphics are almost flawless.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-01-08 01:49am

Freeman's Trigger-Finger wrote:Sometimes, when I look at them scans, they look photoshoped. Are they really scanned from a magazine?

Galactic Battlegrounds was avergage at best, but overall fairly mediocre. I remember when I first relaized that Wookies had tanks and that TIE fighters could generate sheilds. WTF!

I have great expectations for a new SW RTS, the very idea of both franchise and genre combined eludes so much potential, here's hoping it can meet on it. It's very early days yet, so I dont think prolonged criticism is fair. We'll have to wait and see.

If you've ever scanned something, you'd know that looks realistic

And yes, Battlegrounds seriously exaggurated the Wookies and Gungans.

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2005-01-08 01:35pm

Having just seen the Magazine in question, i can say that screen shots shown are the worst of a good bunch, there some far better ones in there, such as one of a battle revolving around some sort of battle station and Imps and Rebel cap ships are doing some fine pyrotechnics with point blank broadsides, plus a few dog fights occuring nearby,

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2005-01-08 02:24pm

Dartzap wrote:Having just seen the Magazine in question, i can say that screen shots shown are the worst of a good bunch, there some far better ones in there, such as one of a battle revolving around some sort of battle station and Imps and Rebel cap ships are doing some fine pyrotechnics with point blank broadsides, plus a few dog fights occuring nearby,

I'll second that, there're some really good fleet shots in an article I looked through recently.

Admiral Bravo · Post by **Admiral Bravo** » 2005-01-08 08:35pm

I like how they managed to get the starship scale right, like making the fighters tiny compared to the star destroyers.

Laughing Mechanicus · Post by **Laughing Mechanicus** » 2005-01-09 05:18am

There are much better scan up a planetcnc.com with the whole article and lots of screenshots (scroll a little over halfway down the main newspage) - looks really promising to me. I much prefer their take on the TIE crawler to the EU one I've seen in WEG sourcebooks, it almost looks like the "wings" serve as anti-RPG netting. The new rebel tanks look very cool too, with the low silouette.

Post by **Vympel** » 2005-01-09 06:53am

Awesome, there's an Acclamator present in that space battle. And Interdictors, and VSDs .... (Victorys, not Venators ... hope there are Venators too)

Lex · Post by **Lex** » 2005-01-09 11:04am

I played Galactic Battlegrounds and it's add on Clone Campaigns 24/7 and never got tired of it, it was the greatest RTS engine, AoK and Star Wars in one game, it was incredible!!

but I do believe this will be good, Pyroglyph is a great studio.

Lex · Post by **Lex** » 2005-01-09 11:07am

by the way, I wonder how the multiplayer will be...

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman · Post by **Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman** » 2005-01-09 11:16am

SPOOFE wrote:A Star Wars RTS really needs a perfect blend of ground and space combat. If they were REALLY ambitious, they'd have individual missions take place over an entire planet, only a tiny bit of which would be the focus of ground combat, but the entire orbital spectrum would be a crucial tool to supplement it.

That would introduce some fascinating strategies... do you keep your capships far away from the surface to keep them safe, but also risk cutting off your supply lines? Or do you stay nearby, vulnerable, but capable of supporting your troops with orbital support?

It would take some really creative interface work to keep it from being too complicated, but it could work.

Uh... with THAT amount of complexity, not to mention the scope, I think you'd better go for turn-based instead of RTS. Or maybe RTS-turn based mix ala Lord of the Realms???

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2005-01-09 01:45pm

This game looks like it's going to be bad ass. I think we've all said we would like to see space and ground in one game. Force Commander sucked, and I never could stand Rebellion. I loved GB and CC so I'm already liking the screen shots for that. Maybe you'll be able to order orbital strikes.

VT-16 · Post by **VT-16** » 2005-01-10 01:05pm

They did mention ion cannons being used against blockade fleets, so their appears to be options for orbital strikes.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2005-01-10 05:16pm

I bought Rebellion (SW Supremacy in the UK BTW) a year ago off e-bay after heaing such glowing reviews of it from Shep and a few others. IMHO it was way too hard to break into and the interface was needlessly complicated. If i want a big space battle i'll go play the Homeworld mod SW NR on the LAN and turnoff Unit Capping.

I wonder how a mix of space and ground combat will work and how easily it will be to multitask them.