The Galactic Map

[Guest DarthMaulUK]

Seen in action at E3 ( see the trailer section of our website) the galactic map seems to be shaping up into something exciting. I found this little piece of info about the map and its part in the game.

 

GS = Gamespot

GS: The galactic map seemed very interesting to look at, especially in terms of figuring out the relationships of planets to each other. Are you restricted to traveling in a linear path? In other words, if you're at Planet A and you want to conquer Planet C, do you first need to capture Planet B? Or can your fleets travel between planets independent of the space routes? Could you tell us about the role of trade routes in the game?

 

JB = Joe Bostic (petro)

JB: Your fleets are not restricted by trade routes and can travel directly to wherever their hyperspace engines can reach. Two factors to keep in mind: Trade routes greatly increase hyperspace speed, and there is a distance limit on a single hyperspace jump. These combine to allow players to freely explore the galaxy, yet still be constrained enough that there will be natural choke points in order to give strategic significance to some systems above their intrinsic value. Another aspect of trade routes, in addition to fleet movement bonus, is that they provide economic rewards if both ends of the trade route are controlled.

 

With this in mind, how will it have a bearing on your strategies? Certain starships won't be able to reach a certain part of the galaxy - unless they take detour routes( more than a single hyperspace jump) - slowing them down - which could be vital if your trying to attack a system and only your main capitol ships arrive with no support!

 

It will certainly bring in the thinking mans strategy when moving fleets around. Do you like this idea? In Rebellion, the fleet could travel anywhere on the galactic map - however - it would only go as fast as the fleets slowest ship, which added an extra few days to the travel, meaning that there was more of a chance of losing the surprise attack!

 

DMUK

[StealthWar42]

It definitely sounds awesome, I'm anxious to see how this will work out.

 

The only thing is: what if two rival fleets are travelling on the same route and they run into eachother on the map? Since there's no deep space battles, what happens, they just wave at eachother and go on?

 

Still, can't wait to hear some more about how this map works.

[lukeiamyourdad]

it would only go as fast as the fleets slowest ship, which added an extra few days to the travel, meaning that there was more of a chance of losing the surprise attack!

 

Well, you'd have to choose faster ships for the attack then! Strategies man, strategies and planning.

 

 

The only thing is: what if two rival fleets are travelling on the same route and they run into eachother on the map? Since there's no deep space battles, what happens, they just wave at eachother and go on?

 

I'm not sure, but I guess that if both fleet are in hyperspace, they'll just move past each other with not enough time to hit the brakes.

[Darth Andrew]

Excellent. This is exactly how I was hoping it would be like.

[Darth Alec]

Thats a dent in my strategy. But a good dent.

[Jan Gaarni]

It definitely sounds awesome, I'm anxious to see how this will work out.

 

The only thing is: what if two rival fleets are travelling on the same route and they run into eachother on the map? Since there's no deep space battles, what happens, they just wave at eachother and go on?

 

Still, can't wait to hear some more about how this map works.

The chance of spotting eachother in Hyperspace is 1.000.000.000.000.000.000:1.

 

And actually do anything about it is even greater.

[StealthWar42]

Ah, okay. I was under the impression that they were going to use just regular engines to get between planets without trade routes, I didn't know hyperspace engines could be used anywhere.

[Jan Gaarni]

Well, Hyperspace engines ... well, they arn't engines per say. Ships that have hyperdrives are able to accelerate increadible fast, either by it's propulsion engines, or the drive itself, not sure, which seems to be part of the jump into Hyperspace. Hyperspace again is a parallell dimension where speed has no limit. The only limit is how effective the Hyperdrive is at flinging the ship into and thru Hyperspace.

 

Without Hyperdrive technology it would take years and years to travel between planets, not to mention crossing the univers.

 

Travelling thru Hyperspace is no picnic though if you don't have a starmap, or traveling along a trade route. The gravitation from objects in Realspace casts shadows into Hyperspace. If a ship were to collide with such a shadow it would tear it appart. That's why all Hyperdrives are equipped with a safety kill-switch that shuts down the Hyperdrive and brings the ship back into Realspace before it collides. This feature is also what the interdictor ships exploit. By creating a gravity field along known traderoutes, they can bring ships out of Hyperspace to inspect, or raid them, depending on who owns the interdictor.

 

Trade routes are mapped hyperspace lanes that are guaranteed to be safe to travel along. Though you can use a starmap and have the navicomputer calculate a route for you, that is never a 100% guarantee.

But I guess it usually goes ok too.

 

Though the chance is very small, there have been incidents where ships have actually collided with eachother while travelling thru Hyperspace.

 

As for ingame, I doubt very much any of this will happen to players.

[StealthWar42]

Well, like I said, if the ships are travelling between planets A and B and are on a direct hit course with eachother, then it might happen. I'd like to see it happen! Honestly, I'm just trying to find a reason for them to include deep space battles but thanks for explaining the hyperdrive stuff to me.

[Jan Gaarni]

Yeah, I'd love to be able to just settle a score out in the middle of nowhere too.

 

But the game isn't being made large enough I'm afraid.

Even the planet count is too low for my taste. Atleast for those of us who have played/still play, and enjoyed/enjoy Rebellion.

 

But I haven't played the game yet, so I'm not going to shoot it down just yet.

The game looks too promising for alot of fun even with just 10% of the planet count Rebellion had.

[StealthWar42]

How many were there in Rebellion? And is there an official amount of planets so far?

 

I wish it was that big... although they DID say that there would be battles near asteroid fields and nebulae, right? I guess that's pretty good too.

 

I've heard a lot of bad things about rebellion, like it requires too many clicks... I mean, is it worse micromanagement than something like R:TW or the AoE games? I'm thinking about getting it just to tide me over until this game comes out

[OverlordAngelus]

My understanding of hyperspace in Star Wars is that each ship is alone in hyperspace, even if its part of a fleet, it has no way of interacting with the other ships until it returns to normal space.

[FroZticles]

Thats was my grasp of hyperspace too. Maybe to stay together the faster ships tune down there hyperdrive to stay in-sync with the slower transports.

[popcorn2008]

How many were there in Rebellion? And is there an official amount of planets so far?

..........

I've heard a lot of bad things about rebellion, like it requires too many clicks...

There were 200 planets in Rebellion, and so far I've heard the count for EaW is 20, though from what I've read over at the forums at the official site over at lucasarts it may be 40 now (though i wouldnt take those forums too seriously) Im not real sure, so dont quote me.

 

And yes, Rebellion is a mouse game, click click click. You get used to it eventually lol if you play it for a long time. I dont even think you use any keyboard in the game, unless you knew special shortcuts.

Thats was my grasp of hyperspace too. Maybe to stay together the faster ships tune down there hyperdrive to stay in-sync with the slower transports.

I know that in Rebellion (is there any other game to compare to??? lol) that when you travelled between planets, with different types of capital ships, all the ships in the fleet would go as fast as the slowest ship. So the fleet would stay together at the same speed.

 

EDIT: Sorry didnt mean to say Empireatwar.net, it was really the offical site forums

[OverlordAngelus]

They stay together because what is the point of sending a fleet to a planet (especially if you're planning to launch an assault) and the ships arrive at different times?

 

As FroZticles said, the faster ships just set a lower speed to travel through hyperspace so that they arrive at the same time as the rest of the fleet.

[Dagobahn Eagle]

The chance of spotting eachother in Hyperspace is 1.000.000.000.000.000.000:1.

And actually do anything about it is even greater.

[Cough], Interdictor cruisers, [cough].

 

I find it sad that there'll be no deep space combat, personally.

 

They stay together because what is the point of sending a fleet to a planet (especially if you're planning to launch an assault) and the ships arrive at different times?

The point is in many cases it holds true that the faster you get there, the better. Let's say you've got some hyper-space-capable A-Wings and X-Wings and slower corvettes and Nebulon-B frigates with the rest of the fighter group. The point of sending a "vanguard" of fighters in first would be to get some intelligence and to do damage in a surprise attack, softening up the enemy in the face of the cruisers' attack.

 

Also, if you're in a hurry (you know a Star Destroyer or two are nearly completed in orbit), for example, why leave the X-Wings and A-Wings with the slow frigates and calamarians? Let them go in and harrass the enemy before it's too late!

 

(is there any other game to compare to??? lol)

Are you kidding me?! To list two: Stars! and Master of Orion 3. A 4x game doesn't have to be a Star Wars game to be in a comparison.

 

I know that in Rebellion (...) when you travelled between planets, with different types of capital ships, all the ships in the fleet would go as fast as the slowest ship.

A decent way to do it, but I don't really like it. In Stars!, ships could go between Warp 1 (snail's speed) without burning fuel, to Warp 10 (really fast), burning a lot of fuel and harming the ship itself if it didn't have a good engine. For longer runs and in the early-game, you had to go at a slow speed as your engines burned fuel quickly and your ships didn't have much fuel in the first place. In the late-game, you get engines that move the ships quickly without burning too much fuel, which enables faster and more distant travel.

 

Seeing that capital ships in Star Wars have reactors, and that fighters are very fuel-efficient, I don't think it can be done that way in EaW. But something related should work, if they came up with a good explanation. Reactor overheating could replace running out of fuel.

 

And I say again: You should be able to travel completely freely.

[Jan Gaarni]

[Cough], Interdictor cruisers, [cough].

Yes, but interdictors arn't, as far as I know, used to spot vessels within Hyperspace, but to pull them out of Hyperspace. And certaintly not while the vessel itself is travelling thru Hyperspace.

[popcorn2008]

Yes, but interdictors arn't, as far as I know, used to spot vessels within Hyperspace, but to pull them out of Hyperspace. And certaintly not while the vessel itself is travelling thru Hyperspace.

The interdictor cant stop other ships in hyperspace, while it is in hyperspace. In order for the interdictor to pull ships out, the commander would have to almost know where an enemy fleet would cross there path and set up the interdictor there. In order for the interdictor to be able to pull ships out of hyperspace in EaW, they would have to have deep space combat, because you would first have to know that a fleet was going to cross your path, get in position and crank up the gravity wheels. I guess they could make it pull ships out of hyperspace at planets, but I dont see a point because wouldnt the fleet your pulling out want to go to that planet anyway? Unless they make it where you have to travel through certain paths. For example, say the rebellion is sending a fleet to Tatoine, and to get there you must go past, say, Naboo. The empire could then position an interdictor at Naboo to bring the rebel fleet out of hyperspace. I doubt that is the case so I guess the interdictors only job in EaW is to stop a retreat.

 

It would be nice be able to have deepspace combat, so you arent distracted and its just open space. Hopefully an expansion can do this (I doubt it but I can also hope :-)

 

Also I know there are other RTS games to compare to, but mostly I compare to rebellion because beside force commander it is the only Star Wars RTS game. So I figure if they did it that way in Rebellion it may be done the same way. Because it is the star wars universe. I think that having the fleet go as slow as the slowest ship is the easiest idea to come up with, though I hope they come up with something a little different. Hopefully you will be able to upgrade your hyperdrive rating on the slow ships allowing them to move faster. Of course, this is all assuming that there even is travel time, they may just make the hyperspace trip not timed or even instant.

[Jan Gaarni]

Popcorn, Interdictors are used for more than just pull ships out of Hyperspace.

 

They can also be used to trap the enemy so they cannot retreat.

This is how you will use them in EaW.

 

By denying them to leave you will be forcing your opponment to engage in battle with you.

But one thing I hated about Rebellion was that I wasn't able to turn it off, incase I changed my mind and knew they would retreat if they had the chance, so that I didn't have to.

 

So I hope you are able to manually turn the field on and off.

[popcorn2008]

Popcorn, Interdictors are used for more than just pull ships out of Hyperspace.

 

They can also be used to trap the enemy so they cannot retreat.

This is how you will use them in EaW.

Yeah I think I said that somewhere in that heap of paragraphs lol at the end of the first part I say well I guess that they will only be used to stop retreat. I was just pointing out how hard it would be to have them be used to pull ships out in EaW.

[Jan Gaarni]

Uuu, yeah, just noticed. Right smack at the end of the first paragraph.

 

My bad.