Ideas

[Kryllith]

Well if LucasArts is indeed watching, then I suppose there's a slim chance of getting some ideas implimented. That being said, I figured we might want to suggest some.

 

My primary idea is the for changes made to campaigns (assuming it will have campaigns). I'd like to see open ended campaigns, where the story unfolds based on how you did on individual scenarios. Forget the you-lose-a-scenario-and-you-have-to-redo-it crap. If you lose, the next scenario is different than the one you would have reach if you'd won. Yes, I realize this is a lot of extra work in scenario design/story telling, but it also extends the replay value and allow for multiple campaign endings.

 

To that end, I'd also like to see Multi-player campaigns, whether they be co-op, pvp, or both. Again, the story will progress based on who won individual scenarios. And simply attempting to wipe out another person in pvp may not always win the campaign. In fact, it may cause a loss to the "victor" if their scenario goal contradicts slaughtering their opponent (say, if the needed to capture something but destroyed it instead). Co-op players may have individual or share objectives that they can help each other out with (one of which might be meeting up with each other)...

 

Kryllith

[Nokill]

well my idear is mostly for the space battle stuf to be able to take over othere ships

whit small rebel ships (or yust blow them up from the inside)

the imperials have enuf space to take some ships in or thay can also yust blow em up

 

it woud be nice if you have a ship and you get a this many % of chance to be able to blow up the othere ship or yust damage it some

 

*yust an idear*

 

and maby a scarlec pit woud be nice

then we can walk some AT-AT's in it and see what he dos

[Jan Gaarni]

Well, I don't think it will be campaigning like that, you'll capture planets, rebuild it's defences, perhaps the enemy tries to recapture it before your defences are all up and ready, perhaps they will try to relinguish your control over another planet, etc......

 

The way I understand it, it will be back and forth depending what your enemy does, what you do, and it could potensially go on and on and on, until you finally realise your tactics and strategies sucks and you need to adjust.

 

For instance.

[swphreak]

Homeworld 2 Space battle engine! <.<

 

I wouldn't mind a sort of "co-op" campaign.

 

And for Skirmish mode or skirmish multiplayer, allow people to choose whether to have a just a space battle or just a ground battle. Or "normal mode" (both). I think I'll be doing more Space Battles than ground battles. I've been waiting for Space Battles since Homeworld.

[lonepadawan]

Random unit models and textures for rebel troopers to give the variety of species they had in the movie and to make them a slightly more ragtag force (which is the reason they're so cool)

 

Veterancy. Especially for the rebels. While the imperials have a bunch of cannon fodder, for the small rebel alliance individual troops and pilots are important. It would be cool if as they gained rank their skins changed (gaining medals etc and prehaps personalising their fighters like the Yavin X-wings) and used different animations (fighters might pull off some cool maneuvers while troops might be able to do stuff like say... melee (this sounds silly but I'm thinking of that rebel commando punching that imperial officer in ROTJ)

It'd be nice for the Imperials to have extremely experienced star destroyer captains and AT-ATs. I know there probably wont be individual upgrades like BFME, but it would be nice to give your best captain the best ship. (I dont mean anything complicated like giving ships individual pilots and captains... when I refer to captain or pilots I merely mean a capital ship or fighter unit)

 

Different stormtrooper armour for different enviroments. Merely eye candy, but it'd be nice to have sand troopers on Tatooine or snowtroopers on hoth. Not sure how you'd fit scout troopers in as they're more of their own unit type. It'd be a nice nod to the JK series if prehaps they added swamptroopers in a jungle environment. No stats change, simply a different model. Same for the rebels.

 

On the subject of stormtroopers, a zero-g stormtrooper from the Xwing series would be fun for space battles.

 

Anti Air. I've hated the way both force commander and Galactic battlegrounds did anti-air. Firstly air units were so weak against it made it useless. Seccondly, both flak and giant missiles are quite un-starwarsy. In FC troops could simply fire up at aircraft. It seems like we might not see any air units on the ground except for strafing runs, there is however the case of the snowspeeder. I'd quite like the AT-AA to make a return (It was in FC.. I'm not sure if it existed in EU before that but it returned for GB albeit with silly red missiles stuck on it) as well as it was a nice addition to the walker arsenal. So I suggest that any unit for which it is logical can shoot at aircraft. So troops can point their guns up and fire, AT-ATs can look up and fire, tanks can swivel their turrets up and fire, an AT-ST can't because it's head doesn't seem able to rotate that far. The AT-AA could be a specific anti air unit and be quite powerful against aircraft.

The best counter for aircraft should be other aircraft. This is going purely from the films of course..

 

Colliding capital ships. I love the scene in ESB where two huge star destroyers almost crash.. it'd be cool if we could trick ships into doing this.. or even order them to execute rams! It would also be cool if a ship, no matter what size could possibly go out of control when being destroyed (Kinda like the troll and mumakil in BFME) smashing into friend and foe alike (No 1 lesson learnt in SW: Raise the shields BEFORE the A-Wing hits the bridge)

 

Fighters are too small most of the time to be hit by turbolasers. A star destroyer would have a hard time hitting fighters buzzing around it, and the best counter would be to launch your own fighters.

 

Proper shield generators. I've mentioned it before but it's always been a disapointment in the last few games that shields merely raise the HP of units. They should simply deflect fire coming from the outside. Once units are within the shields they can fire away to their hearts content.

 

Moving while firing. This was the one advantage FC had over GB. Units actually advanced while firing. The limitations of the GB engine meant that troops would march up and stand still while firing. There was an interview before CC saying that in CC you would be able to move and fire... but I think it was cut. Anyway.. it'd be nice for units to be able to advance and fire at the same time.

 

<End force Long post>

[El Sitherino]

I don't remember reading anything about destroying an entire planet so.... I want that.

 

My dream ever since I was 4-5 was to blow up a planet with the Death Star.

[lukeskywalker1]

Good AI/Pathfinding.

 

I havn't read too much, or.. well, anything about this game except in a few forum topics, but if its like other RTS games, then it needs better AI. Its so annoying to tell your troops to walk to the right, then go off on some weird path that takes 5 minutes to get to the place you clicked, when they could have taken 30 seconds to just... go there properly.

 

And then the way they attack... whats up with that.

 

Maybe I just suck at RTS games. Who knows.

 

Well, we will see.

[OverlordAngelus]

Two features I'd like to see.

 

First, in Rebellion you could assign characters to ships and planets. It would be good to be able to assign a commander character (Thrawn for example) to a fleet and they would give a bonus.

 

Secondly, I'd like to see an exensive scenario builder (but please make it more like the Blizzard editors so it doesn't require a good understanding of astrophysics and take a year to learn).

 

The scenario editor should be able to create scenarios and new planets to the campaign mode. What would be best of all though, a campaign editor feature (I really want to recreate the Thrawn Trilogy!).

 

Anyway, thats it really.

[Heavyarms]

Originally posted by OverlordAngelus

Two features I'd like to see.

 

First, in Rebellion you could assign characters to ships and planets. It would be good to be able to assign a commander character (Thrawn for example) to a fleet and they would give a bonus.

 

 

This would be okay, but I'd rather this not be Generals: Zero Hour, where there is a general for a certain type of force and you just always know what's coming because they limited weapons so much. If this was to happen, I'd like to see a commander give a slight edge to a certain type of unit or something, and not forcing a one-dimensional, who-can-build-the-most-to-overwhelm idea.

 

Things I'd like to see:

 

the two groups have a rich diversity of units and such at their disposal, really a lot of different types of units because there's only two sides, also so that anyone can cook up a strategy that really hasn't been thought of yet.

 

I'd like to see a variety of starfighters for both sides:

 

TIE Fighter

TIE Interceptor

TIE Bomber

TIE Advanced

TIE Defender

Assault Gunboat

 

A-Wing

X-Wing

Y-Wing

B-Wing

Z-95 Headhunter

 

I'd also like sort of easily managable resource system( such as trade vessels that go off the map or something and then come back with resources, or planet ownership) Because when fighting a massive Space/Land campaign I really don't want to monitor resources except if I'm mass producing or the gathering tools are being destroyed. That's all I can think of now...

[OverlordAngelus]

Oh, I wasn't thinking the bonus would be a ship or a super weapon.

 

A character like Thrawn would give a bonus on the accuracy of the ships under his command.

 

Another character might increase repair speed etc.

[Cavkov]

Well i would like to see more Neutral planets and NPC.. like if u have a base you could move out with a small force or a singel unit to explore the galaxy and maybe find some useful things like reqruiting units or something like that.

 

and it would be cool if it had some EU content like if you explore an planet in the outer rim you could find some temple or something and find some intresting things like reading books or holos (just an ad to the story or something like from KOTOR games)

 

this would be cool couse then you could travel just for fun and building a base so you dont just fight in the war all the time.

 

some RPG elements?? lvl up and so? i liked that in warcraft3 you could lvl up ur heroes.

[Darth Windu]

idea's hey? Lets just start with ADD THE REPUBLIC AND CONFEDERACY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Right, now that's out of my system, I do actually have some suggestions-

 

1. Add the Republic

 

2. Add the Confederacy

 

3. Unit Veterancy - good because it adds realism to the game and it makes people want to keep their better units - also makes them less canon-fodderish

 

4. Have neutral planets with diplomacy - ie, people you can negotiate with/threaten into joining you, or letting you establish a secret base etc. Incidently, a side of generic planetary defences would be good so that if, for example, the Empire invades a non-Rebel neutral world, they fight that planets forces.

 

5. More advanced unit autonomy settings - a good example is 'Star Trek: Armada 2'. In that game, you could set the movement autonomy for your ships, and the weapons autonomy (what they would fire at). It's is much better than in any other game i have seen, and would be nice.

 

6. Better formations - another great example is 'Empires: Dawn of the Modern World'. A great selection of formations for any situation, although one nice feature would be to have a 'surround enemy' command.

 

7. As Lonepadawan said, eye candy. Different stormtrooper armour and different Rebel uniforms for normal/on ships, forest, desert and ice would be a good addition.

 

8. Generals - even if LA/Petroglyph insists on going on the rather dull and lacking two-sides approach, at least add different Generals/Commanders to give better gameplay variety.

 

9. Stop adding superflous EU material. For Imperial ground forces, they dont need the TIE Crawler, and would do just fine with the Speeder Bike, AT-ST and AT-AT. After all, the game is supposed to reflect the FILMS, not massively flawed EU.

 

I'm sure I could add more, and probably will. Basically, all of these idea's anyone can find in my SW RTS template which can be found by clicking on the link in my sig.

[SirPantsAlot]

About most of the things here you don't even know if they are there or not...

 

About confederacy and republic, it would not fit in this game.

[Heavyarms]

Response to Windu:

 

1,2,8, & 9: Basically, Wndu, what you are asking for is several different civs with maybe 20-30 units total per side, IE age of empires, SWGB, C&C Generals, etc. I don't really like that approach, because to me it would make much more sense if we had incredible DEPTH in say two unit sets, such as the empire and rebel alliance. Because now, you get that strategic element you are looking for that you claim you can only get with radically different civilizations. If we get say 30 units for land combat and 30 units for space combat, that's a pretty big pool of men to get lots of strategic ideas!

 

I honestly think Windu you are not being at all flexible with your ideas since. You give nothing even a remotely fair shot unless it completely coincides with what you want. I think some of it is good, especially veterancy, but I see them putting that in anyways because the Westwood guys are some of the first to make it commonplace, especially in C&C games. I also think they are doing the unit autonomy, but not in the sense you are because they are making the units attack what they recognize they can beat more easily unless you direct it to attack something else.

[Darth Windu]

Heavy - no i'm not. What i'm asking for if four different civs with a reasonable number of units. Personally, I think that 30 different space units and 30 different ground units is excessive.

 

As for fairness, how am I not being fair? I was under the impression that this thread was for ideas, which I posted. If people want to pay attention, fine. If they dont, fine. All they are for though, is to add what I think would be good features to the game.

[lukeiamyourdad]

First impressions is everything Windu. You didn't do a good one. If you wonder why people will try to counter you at every corner, search no further.

 

Nevertheless, there's only two civs so 30 space and 30 ground units doesn't seem that excessive. Granted, it is a lot compared to any other RTS but it would be nice to have a huge variety of units instead of civs.

 

Though I do not like the Tie Crawler myself, I cannot see your reasoning behind:"There's no need for it".

First off, it's supposed to be a cheap attack tank. Do the Empire have anything in the movies that ressembles a cheap attack tank? No.

Thus they decided to go with the Tie Crawler. It may be ugly, I may dislike it but we'll see what it really does ingame before judging it.

 

BTW, if you wanted pure movies, you'd have near zero diversity.

 

Let's round up the pure canon units:

 

Empire:

 

Ground

 

Infantry

-Storm/Snow/Sandtrooper

-Scouttrooper

-Officer

-Navy Trooper

-AT-AT pilot

-AT-ST pilot

-Tie Fighter Pilot

 

Vehicles

-AT-ST

-AT-AT

-Speeder Bikes

 

Space

-Tie Fighter

-Tie Interceptor

-Tie Bomber

-Imperial Class Star Destroyer

-Super Star Destroyer

-Death Star I & II

-Lambda Class Shuttle

 

Total: 17

 

Rebel Alliance

 

Ground

 

Infantry

-Rebel Trooper(Hoth/Endor/Tantive IV)

-Taun Tauns

 

Vehicles

-Snowspeeder

 

Space

-X-Wing

-Y-Wing

-B-Wing

-A-Wing

-Excort Frigate

-Calamari Cruiser(mc80& mc40)

-Medium Transports

-Corelllian Corvette

 

Total: 11

 

That's a LOT of units...seriously, they add EU units for the sake of diversity.

[OverlordAngelus]

And for PT its even less.

 

Republic

 

Space Units

 

Acclamator Class Assault Ship

and um...Naboo Starfighter?

 

(I would consider the Jedi Starfighter to be a hero unit, seeing as the Jedi would have force powers that could turn the tide of battle easily).

 

Air Units

 

Republic Gunship

Republic Dropship (you see them landing the walkers on Geonosis).

 

Ground Units

 

Clonetroopers

The 6 legged walkers from AOTC (I don't recall their name).

 

 

Seperatists

 

Space Units

 

Droid Star Fighter

Geonosian Fighter

Trade Federation Battleship

 

Air Units

 

Battledroid on STAP?

 

Ground Units

 

Battledroids

Super Battle Droids

Destroyer Droids

The small and large spider droids

Hailfire Droids

 

Granted, I don't know what we will see in Revenge of the Sith but I don't forsee it adding much to that list. Meaning that even if the game was PT based, they would have to design their own units or draw upon EU material to fill out the selection a bit.

[Jan Gaarni]

Actually, Luke, the list is alittle larger:

 

Empire:

 

Ground

 

Infantry

-Storm/Snow/Sandtrooper

-Scouttrooper

-Officer

-Navy Trooper

-AT-AT pilot

-AT-ST pilot

-Tie Fighter Pilot

-Dewback

 

Vehicles

-AT-ST

-AT-AT

-Speeder Bikes

 

Space

-Tie Fighter

-Tie Interceptor

-Tie Bomber

-TIE Advanced x1

-Imperial Class Star Destroyer Mark I

-Imperial Class Star Destroyer Mark II

-Super Star Destroyer

-Death Star I

-Death Star II

-Lambda Class Shuttle

-Imperial Landing Craft

-That ship to ship shuttle craft (forget what it was)

 

Total: 23

 

Rebel Alliance

 

Ground

 

Infantry

-Rebel Trooper(Hoth/Endor/Tantive IV)

-Rebel Officer

-Taun Tauns

 

Vehicles

-Snowspeeder

 

Space

-X-Wing

-Y-Wing

-B-Wing

-A-Wing

-Escort Frigate

-Calamari Cruiser(mc40)

-Calamari Cruiser(mc80)

-Medium Transports

-Corellian Corvette

 

Total: 13

[DK_Viceroy]

Jan that ship to ship shuttle is called a TIE Shuttle and just to head off Windu with his anti-EU babbling again I don't care about laws of Canon and whatnot what I care about is a good game that has balance.

 

We could actually get a lot of units if people wanted to ignore EU but were willin g top use Fucasfilms Concept art for the films after all there are a huge array of designs never used, but of course EU has to be in or it wouldn't be good and it wouldn't be balanced. for proof of that try playing SWGB with Movie Units only, I gurantee you it's near impossible.

 

Where is Vostok when you need him he needs to put a leash on Windu:p

[Jan Gaarni]

Originally posted by DK_Viceroy

Jan that ship to ship shuttle is called a TIE Shuttle

Yes, that's what I thought I remember it was, but I wasn't sure (so I left it as a description instead. ).

 

 

 

Also, please try not to turn every single thread that Windu posts in, into a "Windu versus the forums" fight!

That goes to everyone.

[DK_Viceroy]

heh don't worry once Vostok gets his act together it'll be the "grand canon" of Star Wars Purism" V the true fans of Star Wars the Truists, I'm suprised he hasn't been bemoaning EU units as his his hobby:p

 

I'm not dragging in that fight just every time I used to make a mention of something EU a Purist would stick his/her head in and give me a lecture about the "laws" of Star Wars Canon, I've long considered them a pile of rubbish of course:p

[lukeiamyourdad]

Actually, even Vostok knows how to make sacrifices for gameplay.

[Dragonball Fan]

I think this strongly worded sentence is appropriate:

 

Windu, stop bitching.

 

Now that that's over with, they need to give the Rebellion another capital ship: The mc90.

[lukeiamyourdad]

They have enough large capital ships IMO. They should have more light/medium sized ships to represent their reliance on quick strikes.

[Admiral Vostok]

I have arrived. Forgive my lateness, but I have a few more important things to do at the moment than post on internet forums.

 

Now, first of all to the EU argument which is what my services were requested for:

The EU Argument

I have never said, nor have I ever believed, that a decent game can be made just using Canonical units. I do not object to the use of EU material to fill in a gap in the gameplay.

 

However, at the same time the EU should necessarily be in keeping with the general feel of the army in question. A huge AT-AT equivalent for the Rebels, for example, is right out because a brute strength unit does not fit with the Rebel style of warfare.

 

I'd like to, if I may, post once again my guidelines on how to maintain the right feel for Star Wars armies in an RTS game. Many of you have seen these plenty of times but I'm repeating them again for those who haven't. These are perhaps the laws that Viceroy mentioned above, but I'm not sure:

 

Vostok's Laws of Non-Canon Units and Star-Warsy-ness

 

1. It shall not replace or at least do-as-well-as a canon unit at a given task.

 

2. It is possible for it to exist as we did not see a type of warfare it excels at in the movies.

 

3. It shall not have some amazing ability that just about every army would have if they existed.

 

Now admittedly the TIE Crawler does not violate any of the laws. However as several others have said it just plain sucks as a unit concept. Why the Empire would ever use a tank when walkers are far superior is beyond my powers of comprehension. So obviously my laws fail to define exactly how to make a unit fit into the army. As a general guide it has to look like it has a decent role amongst existing Canon units, which the TIE Crawler does not. But that fact is too subjective to be defined by a fourth law.

 

Prequel Units

I too find it odd that the Prequel era has been ignored for this game. However unlike Windu I wouldn't say that the absence of them will make the game suck. There is just no logic in that statement.

 

However if an expansion pack were to be released with prequel units, I think it would be a cool idea for them to add only a single new civ in the form of the Confederacy, and merely expand the Empire to represent the Republic as well - since effectively they are the same army. The Empire as it stands already has some Republic units in it's forces, so expanding the Empire to include more would be cool. Perhaps there might have to be some restriction for the Empire so you can't access all of there units at the same time.

 

Other Ideas

As for my other thoughts on the game, they are pretty much exactly the same as lonepadawan's list at the start of the thread. However I disagree with his idea of shields. If you have to get inside a shield before your shots count, how do you take down X-Wings and Y-Wings? Perhaps for the capital ships and ground defences your idea is workable, but since it would be better to have a single model for all shields in the game I think the added rechargable hit points system is the only way to go.