EAW: Star Wars Realism v3.0 (Space Combat)

[MistenTH]

EAW: Star Wars Realism v3.0 (Space Combat)

 

Description

EAW v1.2 mod to bring space combat more in line with my experience from the movies and the EU novels (particularly Rogue Squadron), as well as balancing gameplay elements. Fighters are now more useful, and broken / overpowered units such as the Ion Cannon / Assault Frigate have been balanced. Modded for Skirmish, but all space unit changes transfer over to the Story / Galactic Campaign modes.

 

This mod is intended to be a plausible replacement for stock EAW space combat and space skirmish.

 

Download Link

http://www.filecloud.com/user/files.php?category_id=386624 (834kb .zip)

 

Mirror - Petroden (Thanks Lion!)

http://www.petroden.com/eaw_game_mods.shtml

 

Installation

Unzip the zip file, transfer the XML & TEXT folder inside to your EAW/Gamedata/data folder. To uninstall, simply remove / rename the XML folder and replace the TEXT folder with a backup.

 

Refer to the FLEET readme file for installation instructions for that gameplay mode.

 

IMPORTANT: BACKUP YOUR ORIGINAL TEXT FOLDER AS THIS MOD WILL OVERWRITE IT.

 

Major Gameplay Changes

Smarter AI targeting, more aggressive Skirmish AI.

Fighters dogfight and launch attack runs, lasting longer against anti-fighter corvettes.

Many fighters now have missile weaponry e.g. X-wing & its signature proton torpedo.

Capital ships are now deserving of their name, taking immense firepower before dying.

Superweapons now balanced; using them is a tactical consideration instead of a no-brainer.

Skirmish settings changed; slower income, better buildable structures, stronger stations.

Rebel starfighters have strong firepower, as they should be.

The Empire has strong capital ships and TIE swarms, as it should be.

Many changes to heroes and almost all ships.

Power to Weapons and Shield Boost reworked to be more useful / less abusive respectively.

Some SP campaign changes as requested (slower hyperspace, longer hero respawn).

 

New Units

TIE Interceptor Squadron, Empire

Carrack Cruiser, Empire

Corellian Torpedo Boat, Rebel

Repair Tender, Both

(not exactly new) Interdictor, Both, Limited to 1 per player, increased reinforcement prevention radius.

 

New Skirmish Gameplay Mode

Introducing FLEET! Deathmatch. No resource collection. No time delays. Big Fleets. Epic Battles.

 

History

Decided to play around to satisfy my urge to see a more Lore-linked space combat. Eventually the changes kept growing until I decided to make it accessible to everyone for feedback and to enjoy a better game. I also made changes that were balancing in nature, and might differ from lore somewhat. Can't stand ground combat though.

 

Future Plans

Placing custom models, icons & sounds when they are available. Unless there are major bugs, this will be the last major update, gameplay wise.

 

I will still carry on modding in stuff in future, but not under SWRealism. It is complete, except for models, which will be inserted at a later date. SWRealism is GOLD! Thanks for your support & feedback!

 

I hereby grant anybody the right and privilege to utilise my mod for their own EAW modding purposes and use. All I ask is for due credit to be given to me for the code and features used, and that you just send me a PM over the forums to let me know that you are using it.

 

~MistenTH

 

 

 

 

 

[Hartmrolf]

Going to download and play it.

 

I have written this, because i was very bored:

 

A wing is fastest

next is Tie interceptor

next is Tie Fighter

next is Z95

next is X Wing

next is Tie Bomber

next is Y Wing

 

Most Maneuverable is Tie Interceptor

next is Tie Fighter

next is A wing

next is X Wing

next is Z95

next is Tie Bomber

next is Y Wing

 

Y Wing has Best Shields

next is X Wing

next is A Wing

next is Z95

Ties dont have Shields

 

Y Wing has most Armour

next is Tie Bomber

next is X Wing

next is Z95 (At it's Time the Z95 was said to take huge amounts of punishment, so it would probably still be well armoured)

next is Tie Interceptor

next is A Wing

next is Tie Fighter

 

A Wings Blasters/Lasers have most Firepower

next is Tie Interceptor

next is Tie Bomber/Y Wing

next is X Wing

Next is Tie Fighter

next is Z95

 

 

 

 

Tie Interceptor has highest Firerrate

Next is A Wing

Next is Tie Fighter

Next is X Wing

next is Z95

next is Tie Bomber/Y Wing

 

A Wings, Z95, Tie Interceptors and Tie Bombers have non shield piercing Concussion Missiles.

X Wings and ?Tie Fighters? (not sure, i think i saw it in one star wars game, but rather not give them) have non Shield piercing Torpedoes.

Y Wings and Tie Bombers have Shield piercing Torpedoes.

All have Blasters/Lasers

 

Tie Fighter Sqadron is size 13

Tie Interceptor Squadron is Size 9

Tie Bomber Squadron is Size 5

X Wing Squadron is Size 9

A Wing Squadron is Size 5

Y Wing Squadron is Size 3

Z95 Squadron is size 9

 

A Wing is most Expensive

Next is X Wing

Next is Tie interceptor

Next is Y Wing

Next is Tie Bomber

Next is Z95

Next is Tie Fighter

 

 

Tech 1: Z95, Y Wing, Tie Fighter

Tech 2: Z95, Y Wing, X Wing, Tie Fighter, Tie Bomber

Tech3: Z95, Y Wing, X Wing, Tie Fighter, Tie Bomber, Tie Interceptor

Tech4: Z95, Y Wing, X Wing, A Wing, Tie Fighter, Tie Bomber, Tie Interceptor

 

I know there are no Tie interceptors but i think Tie Scouts could be modded to behave exactly like Tie interceptors and could later be given a Tie interceptor Model.

[Darkfyre]

That depends on your source, officially the X-wing is supposed to be 80MGLT ala the movieverse, however having had the game specs prior to the movie ones myself, I much prefer the Xwing/TIE Fighter series' X-wings at 100MGLT, which is about the same speed as the standard TIE Fighter.

 

Missile loadouts are along the lines of TIE Fighters and Interceptors usually not being outfitted with warheads, though they do sometimes have them, TIE Bombers having multiple launchers, including Protons and Concussions, A-wings and Z-95s having Concussions and X-wings and Y-wings loading Protons. Also, only the Z-95 has blasters, the rest have lasers, usually two, but X-wings and TIE Interceptors have four, Ys also get a pair of ion cannons on a turret that's usually locked except on the dupes.

[Hartmrolf]

Dont know, i always thought of the Imperial Fighters being both quicker and mor mobile then the rebels, with the exception of the a-wing which i have quite late in the tech, as i think it only appeared in the last movie and was meant to be a counter to the tie interceptor which was slaughtering rebel fighters and if it couldnt it could run away because of superior speed.

 

Tie Interceptors i think had missiles at least in some other games? Also it should work well to make them really good against rebel fighters of the same tech level, next tech level features a wings to equal this out.

 

Oh, i just noticed i messed up the speed thing a bit, xwings and z95s were supposed to have the same speed and only be slightly slower than tie fighters.

[Darkfyre]

In TIE Fighter the official loadout for the TIE Fighter was two lasers, an ion engine capable of 100MGLT with weapons on a maintenance charge level and 15RU hull, though some missions allowed you to use missiles with them, in Battlefront 2, they do have torps as standard loadout, but Battlefront just has three ships with different skins for different groups.

 

TIE Interceptors from TIE Fighter had a loadout of quad lasers, an ion engine that maxed at 111MGLT with maintenance charge to lasers and 20RU hull. Once again some missions in the game allowed you to outfit with missiles and Battlefront gave them a multi-shot concussion launcher exactly the same as the A-wings and other interceptor craft.

 

Realistically the T/F matches the X-W, T/B and Y-W also match speeds, Ints were slower than A-wings and the Avengers and Defenders could out run any standard Rebel fighter of the time period, however, the TIEs are somewhat more agile, in space, in atmosphere their design tends to screw them over while the X-wings and Z-95s gain an advantage because they're built more along the lines of current fighter planes.

 

The major part of why the TIE Int is deadly is that while the Rebel ships all have shields, the TIEs don't, and in order to get a better class TIE, you've got to prove yourself in a standard fighter first, meaning that only veterans got the Ints or better under the Empire while the Rebels put whoever they could into whatever they had needing to get a lot of pilots in the field, particularly at Endor, and between the sheer numbers of TIEs there and the fact that a lot of the Rebel pilots were probably green where that type of combat was concerned, it cost them a lot. I mean, you've got what? 10+ star destroyers at Endor, even were they all Victories, that would have been 240 fighters, the fact that a lot of them or all of them were ISDs meant you're looking more along the lines of 240 Ints, 120 Bombers and 360 Fighters on standard loadouts, quite possibly equipped with missiles just for the mission were they don't get them as standard, /then/ you get the Executor's compliment of 144 TIEs, probably split 72 Fighters, 48 Ints and 24 Bombers, then there's the DS2's compliment, which would be even higher than the Executor's.

 

A-wings though, they were started pre-Yavin, however they weren't mass produced until after, and the fact that the Imps had brought out the newer Ints meant the A-wing was changed some to match it and counter its potential leathality to Rebel fighters, however, a good Rebel pilot in an X-wing can take an Int out, particularly if it comes down to a head-to-head run, because the X-wing, while slower and less agile, is tougher and usually better equipped because of the torps.

[Hartmrolf]

Of course, head on, one on one an x wing is supposed to beat pretty much any Tie that ever appeared in the Movies, off course imho the idea of tie fighters is not to go one on one and the idea of tie interceptors is not to go head on.

 

So, about Missiles what you say is basically that it should depend purely on balance whether tie ints get missiles, right?

[Darkfyre]

I'd say that the only common Imp fighter to have warheads all the time should be the Bomber, however you can have some limited number squads that do have warheads equipped. I'm not sure how you'd do it, but if it were possible to have the game give perhaps one in five/one in ten squads missiles at random, then that would match the cannon I'm used to seeing. Of course if you put in the Avenger and Defender, then those TIEs should always have dual concussion launchers for one reason, they're designed to kill X-wings.

[MistenTH]

Wow, you 2 know your fightercraft well. Nice to see all the loadouts coming out, that's what I was trying to work towards, and hope it's reasonably accurate.

 

For my mod, I have the TIE-fighter and X-wing with the same speed [4.0] and manoeuvrability, but the X-wing wins out in raw firepower, better pilots (simulated by better firing cone) and proton torpedoes against larger ships.

 

1 X-wing squad will win 1 TIE-squad with 0-1 losses, but 2 TIE-squads will destroy the X-wing squad with 4-5 losses. I think I got the fighter balance down nicely

 

Both bombers are at speed 3.0, and yes, I do have the Y-wing as the strongest health fightercraft at 110, and the TIE bomber next at 90 (same as X-wing). Equipped the TIE bombers with concussion missiles, and the Y-wing with a 360 degree ion turret (is it actually used in any of the games or in the EU to shoot fightercraft with by the way?)

 

My A-wing has concussion missiles and the best speed of 4.8, but low health, and is the best anti-fightercraft fighter. I just introduced the TIE Interceptor (using TIE scout model for now) in my latest test build, so next update Imps get a good fightercraft that can own X-wings. It's based on the A-wing but slightly slower at 4.6, and without concussion missiles. However, there are 7 in a squadron to carry on the Empire's tradition of overwhelming numbers.

[alxy_07]

I like the changes you made, I just have a strange graphical effect with your mod. All my acclamator-class cruisers have the tips of their ships blown off, without the concussion missle launcher, every battle I start they don't have the front tips

[alxy_07]

I checked your hardpoint xml and I don't know why the concussion missle port is blown off on all my acclamator, its strange becuase when i remove the hardpoint xml, they are fine.

[vanen22]

I like the changes you made, I just have a strange graphical effect with your mod. All my acclamator-class cruisers have the tips of their ships blown off, without the concussion missle launcher, every battle I start they don't have the front tips

 

The mod is great, and I have the same problem, I thought maybe it was done on purpose?

[walpurgisng]

Thats what that is. I have the blown off tip problem as well.

[MistenTH]

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll check it out. However, even with the tip blown off, does the Acclamator still fire its concussion missiles? It looks fine for me, wonder why.

 

And just a heads-up, I'm now working on some new ships for my next release, but no models unfortunately. Also, I can enable their build in Skirmish, but I do not know how to in the Campaign mode. Anyone can help here?

 

TIE Interceptor - Lethal starfighter

Carrack Cruiser - Imperial Cruiser armed with Ion Cannons

Repair Tender - Repairs fighters, corvettes and structures

(basically anything without hardpoints)

[vanen22]

MistenTH are you working with any of the other modders that are doing land based mods? I really like your mod, but really want a land based mod also. Can we use more then 1 mod at a time?

[Tom Servo]

It doesnt modify any ground unit files so yeah if you just replace those files it can work with this mod.

[vanen22]

Great, Thanks for the information

[MistenTH]

There are a few files that both modes share in common. So anyone who wants to include my space mod will have to work with me to make sure no data is lost or conflicted. But mostly the files are separate.

 

GAMECONSTANTS.xml and PROJECTILES.xml and UNIQUEUNITS.xml will probably be the ones in conflict with ground mods.

 

Actually I'm modding with the folks doing the 'unofficial' 'patch', basically I'm providing the space modding while they are doing the galactic campaign and ground.

 

Basically, if anyone likes my space mod and wants to use it, just let me know and I'll help integrate. Just crediting the work to me is fine

[MistenTH]

Ok figured out why the Acclamator spawned with it's nose blown off. I initially wanted to make the concussion missile launcher a non-destructable hardpoint, and deleted all the lines that made it appear. I did not place a substitute, so there was no data to build the nose.

 

But the concussion missiles work, so no problems.

 

I realise now that capital ships are truly engaging in slugfests, with the larger ships taking as long as 5 minutes to be destroyed even while being fired upon by say, 1 Mon Cal and 1 Assault Frigate.

 

To compensate, I'll be reducing fighter build times so that more of them can be used to better kill capital ships, and the mid-range ships will be designed to speed up destruction of capital ships.

[Xyvik]

The information is slightly incorrect, at least as far as Lore goes. The TIE Interceptor is, in fact, faster than the A-Wing unless the A-Wing shunts power from its shields into its engines, in which case it moves out a bit ahead.

 

The A-Wing lasers are not as powerful as the X-Wings laser cannons because the purpose of the A-Wing was to be fast, not necassarily powerful, and some things were skimped on the A-Wings laser cannons despite the fact that later models could pivot.

 

The A-Wing was built first, and the TIE Interceptor was built to match that threat.

 

TIE Fighters are faster and more manueverable that X-Wings. TIE Interceptors are the second most manueverable starfighter in the galaxy, with only the TIE Defender being able to outperform it (but if we include the Defender in our list of things, it beats everything else hands down for armor, shield power, firepower, speed and manueverability)

[walpurgisng]

Oh YEAH! The Y-wing is the fastest ship in the galaxy...the fastest at getting blown up because its so damn slow. Its very enjoyable to play space battles that last twenty minutes instead of 3.5 seconds. In unmodded EAW, you could blow up a ISD with a battalion of Y-wings in about two minutes. Now...

[Slocket]

"WOW!"

 

With just some tweaking, this is really an impressive mod for a first shot!

 

Nice to have a longer battle and it is getting closer to lore. I would also like to see the Tie Interceptor placed in as it was in Tie Fighter (the game) as the poster remarked above.

 

Is it not odd that the closer it gets to canon, the better the balance? This stuff has been talked and written about for years -and it naturally created a balance.

[walpurgisng]

Itd be great if you could tweak the AIs corvette building. I faced a battle with 15 corvettes on screen at once. I dont know if it was the AI or just the lions_eaw_epicmod I had installed. It is still enjoyable to have battles rag on forever now. I removed the mod and tried playing with the original settings and battles are over way too fast.

I know this is off topic, but playing as Boba Fett is outstanding--Slave I model is fantastic, the sounds are dead on, and the charges are... explosive.

MistenTH or MistenTotalHardcore, can you please fix the blown off tip in your next mod and possibly add the Venator mod in as well.

[MistenTH]

That's what I'm aiming for, a more recognisable and balanced SW space combat

 

Yes, I will be introducing the TIE interceptor in the next build.

[Slocket]

I wonder if you use the TIE Scout unit to make into a Tie Interceptor, playing agianst the AI, the perception functions may need to be changed.

 

In other words, I think the AI needs to be told it is a real fighter unit top of the line and not use it in limited numbers as a Scout unit is normally. But of course if you are playing against a real human this would not be an issue.

 

Just looking somewhat at the equation and such, changing the cost of units and other things might get the AI confused. maybe that is why the Rebel AI goes nuts on building lots of corvettes. The official patch changed some units cost since in ther demo it seemed to build a decent fleet.

 

The AI perception functions in XML is very interesting. It has a dynamic feel to it, though I have a long way to understand it all.

 

Anyway, be looking for the next update! I think this will go far.

[Zorromorph]

I'm 99.9% sure the AI makes considerable use of the AI Combat Power variable. Therefore, you want it build less corvettes? Make it think they suck. Invert for the Tie Interceptor, which should have a higher value than the Tie Scout obviously.