My impression: EaW's ground combat = Force Commander?

[Tokakeke]

What were they thinking?

 

I like the idea of landing troops. However, having played a few ground battles I can safely say that said mechanic, coupled with the absurdness of the credit system, rivals Force Commander's in true stupidity.

 

I don't mean to put down the game for no reason. It's just that the game was advertised as an RTS game. I expected some radical changes, but I considered it to probably be a Galactic Battlegrounds (which is a highly underrated, excellent game) type system.

 

Instead, there is no resource gathering. The resource you use (credits) is GIVEN TO YOU. After a while, you'll start getting wayyy more credits than you can spend - thanks to the low population limit. Some guy told me to buy bombing runs. Too bad they're worthless against anything: it takes a loooong time for the bombers to show up and by that time infantry is gone, artillery/mechs are usually gone, all that's left are buildings. Takes two runs to kill a CC, too.

 

As for the landing troops deal, I wonder why when I play a skirmish battle I build AT-STs at a factory then have to land them? Makes no sense. I would rather build/buy units on the ground COUPLED with landing them, but whatever.

 

In addition, there is another Force Commander-esque problem (at least for me): Unit selection. You get very few diverse units, no researching upgrades to existing units (only full tech levels and increasing armor, hp dmg, etc).

 

The graphics, though, are pretty good, but extremely laggy. I read online that the player models were pretty bad - they're not as bad as I thought they would be. Hearing this, I decided to crank my video settings. I can play detail-intensive maps on, say, Jedi Academy, everything set to high, pretty comfortably. The FPS in EaW makes my head hurt. I get 5-15 fps in most places, around 3 when things go boom.

 

I'm totally confused with the build pad deal and the way to build factories. I'm not going to even talk about those.

 

The MP is borked. Anyone with the game knows this, so I'm not going to get into it.

 

I'm ALSO not going to comment on the space battles - I find these pretty fun if not a bit confusing. The only thing I could say is that I wish they had more units too! Props for Boba's Slave I and its TOTALLY AWESOME RAPIDFIRE BLASTER TURRETS. The sound is so perfect.. I love it.

 

Unit balance isn't very good IMO. Turrets are way too overpowered, and one missile launching Rebel speeder should not be able to take out 8 legions of stormtroopers in less than 10 seconds. Heck, nothing should be able to take out that many troopers in 10 seconds save for a super-weapon deal or a area of effect weapon.

 

That's just my opinion..maybe I'm wrong about some things as I haven't been playing very long, but I have been almost completely turned off by the game, especially after waiting for a pre-order and a really long holiday/weekend that interfered with shipping..

 

EDIT: I'd also like to add that having a guy being picked on, and not being able to retreat said guy without moving a whole squadron/legion/whatever is kind of odd. Especially when you get down to a group with one guy left that counts toward your unit cap - I often send this guy in to be killed because I'd rather build another 4.

[Admiral Sith]

the lag is on your part and should be left out of the review, i can play the game on full settings without much lag and i dont have a top of the line computer.

[Cavkov]

I think the game is awesome and i have a great fun playing online.. and i love the ranking/ladder system to by gamespy.. i was negative as you in the begining but after a while i realize its a great game!!!

[Tokakeke]

Alright, to whoever designed the space combat system, you should be paid a 6 figure salary. I just played as Rebels..amazing. Simply amazing.

 

Admiral Ackbar saying "watch for traps" as the Home One moves around made my day XD

[wedge2211]

One thing about resource gathering:

 

Having a conventional mine+harvester resource gathering setup is neither realistic nor truly conventional for RTS games. In Empire at War, you're not just given credits; you have to build up credit-producing structures, planets, and pads. You still have to protect those assets and maintain them in order to be economically secure. The enemy could still take out your income supply, so you have to do a bit of work to obtain income. It's also more realistic than having miners operating on the battlefield. Finally, it's way more useful than Force Commander's godawful get-resources-when-you-kill-things system.

 

Empire at War is not the first RTS game to have resource gathering operate this way. Total Annihilation did it very successfully. There were two resource in the game, energy and metal. You get energy by building power plants, you get metal by building mining facilities over metal deposits. The resources then come pouring in on their own, with no assistance from harvester units or you, the commanding officer. You still have to secure more metal deposits and build more power plants, though, if you want to balance the rate of resource production and consumption. You also have to protect your assets from a wayward enemy scout or strategic bombing run. TA's 'spiritual sequel,' Supreme Commander, will work the same way. Empire at War is by no means the first RTS to use such a system, and that system has been very successful in the past. It's just that we're all too used to Command and Conquer and StarCraft to realize that EaW is simply a different flavor of RTS.

[Cavkov]

One thing about resource gathering:

 

Having a conventional mine+harvester resource gathering setup is neither realistic nor truly conventional for RTS games. In Empire at War, you're not just given credits; you have to build up credit-producing structures, planets, and pads. You still have to protect those assets and maintain them in order to be economically secure. The enemy could still take out your income supply, so you have to do a bit of work to obtain income. It's also more realistic than having miners operating on the battlefield. Finally, it's way more useful than Force Commander's godawful get-resources-when-you-kill-things system.

 

Empire at War is not the first RTS game to have resource gathering operate this way. Total Annihilation did it very successfully. There were two resource in the game, energy and metal. You get energy by building power plants, you get metal by building mining facilities over metal deposits. The resources then come pouring in on their own, with no assistance from harvester units or you, the commanding officer. You still have to secure more metal deposits and build more power plants, though, if you want to balance the rate of resource production and consumption. You also have to protect your assets from a wayward enemy scout or strategic bombing run. TA's 'spiritual sequel,' Supreme Commander, will work the same way. Empire at War is by no means the first RTS to use such a system, and that system has been very successful in the past. It's just that we're all too used to Command and Conquer and StarCraft to realize that EaW is simply a different flavor of RTS.

 

 

Amen!

[Tokakeke]

Nevertheless, it's what I'm used to, and what I expected - every RTS I've ever played used this setup.

 

I like a separate economy/military. I like having units do my economy - it makes me feel like I'm not just going around blowing up stuff, I'm ordering workers to go mine stuff and upgrading collection buildings. Building a couple buildings and putting some artillery near them and forgetting about them for the rest of the game is not my cup of tea,

[paws1111]

Nevertheless, it's what I'm used to, and what I expected - every RTS I've ever played used this setup.

 

I like a separate economy/military. I like having units do my economy - it makes me feel like I'm not just going around blowing up stuff, I'm ordering workers to go mine stuff and upgrading collection buildings. Building a couple buildings and putting some artillery near them and forgetting about them for the rest of the game is not my cup of tea,

 

 

so your saying you dont want any thing inovating or new ? persontaly i dont htink they realy could of done harvister even if they wanted too i dont seee 100% how it could work with the galatic map and if they did it for skirmish it would be like 2 seprate games with same units

 

other than that all i can say is this isnt the game for you if u like harvistors >.<

[The Source]

Galactic Battlegrounds is a cool game. I just played it a few days ago. I agree it is a little underated. My expectations for EAW was nothing of the sort. Like the C-RPG world, the C-RTS world keeps evolving into new directions. Yeah! There are things that I belive are under developed, and there could be massive improvement in character design. However, I am completely open minded about this game. I just bought the game a few moments ago, but I am stuck at work until 7:00. While running around online, I have been checking out screens all day. I have to tell you, EAW has some surprising enhancements, which bring justice to C-RTS. Yeah! There are very few verietys in character and ship, and it comes only on 2 CDs.

 

However, look at what they did bring to EAW:

1 EU Characters.

2. A game that is a cannible of RTS designs. Usually, you get only a Space RTS or a Ground RTS. This has both.

 

These and more...

 

Yeah! I like the resource gathering and fortress creation of Galactic Battlegrounds, but you can't allways play in the same circle.

[Tokakeke]

"so your saying you dont want any thing inovating or new ? persontaly i dont htink they realy could of done harvister even if they wanted too i dont seee 100% how it could work with the galatic map and if they did it for skirmish it would be like 2 seprate games with same units"

 

I didn't say I didn't want anything new. -_- I just don't like the current "do nothing and you get credits. build something and you get credits faster. By the way, here's some credits, go buy something" system. Especially when you have to land troops and can't build any when you touch down.

 

 

"other than that all i can say is this isnt the game for you if u like harvistors >.<"

 

Yeah, I got that already.

 

And I question "diverse variety" in characters. We've seen almost all these classes before. 5 ground units + a bunch of heros that feel like clones is not "variety".

 

If more units were added, it would feel less rock-paper-scissorsy.

 

There's always mods, right?

[wswordsmen]

You are getting taxes from the world you control. Or in skirmish your reciving funds from higher up in the Empire/Rebelion plus what you get from mining and resorce pads. Yes you are just getting them but think of it this way:

IRL you are a general in charge of building an army for a country do you get money or have people go out and collect food and wood and all that stuff.

 

You get money it's the same priniciple in EAW

[Samuel Dravis]

I liked FoCom's Command Points much better than unrealistically going around harvesting 'resources' (that have nothing to do with the game otherwise). From what you're saying, it sounds like EaW's system is much better than FoCom's or GB's.

[Tokakeke]

Resources added another level to RTSs because you'd have to worry about micro-managing them by, taking a SWGB example, building spaceports and trading resources. It also made it so that building stuff wasn't universal, you may run out of carbon and food for building troops to defend your base but you can still build some walls or something with the ore.

[Vagabond]

I'm glad there's not resource gathering. I always HATED having to herd my brain-dead little minions around because they were too stupid to know better than to walk through an enemy outpost. Besides, I don't play games so I can gather lumber and fish. I like to do the combat. I like the way they've abstracted all of that down to occupying a piece of real estate, which translate into $$$ that you can use for units. Perfect! Now if they could just fixe the saving / loading.

[Spaxspore]

I agree with the resource part.

 

What i wish is whatever garrision they have a on a planet that is all the troops they can have if they r under attack. Could you imagine @ the battle of hoth rebel troops training while under attack by AT-ATs???

 

I wish they would do what the did in Rebellion, have the garrision the only defense on the ground. And not be able to build while under blockade/ground assualt. And what happened to orbital boundbardments?????

[TotalBiscuit]

Nevertheless, it's what I'm used to, and what I expected - every RTS I've ever played used this setup.

 

I like a separate economy/military. I like having units do my economy - it makes me feel like I'm not just going around blowing up stuff, I'm ordering workers to go mine stuff and upgrading collection buildings. Building a couple buildings and putting some artillery near them and forgetting about them for the rest of the game is not my cup of tea,

 

If they've done this I'd have demanded a refund. 'Ooh look, Galactic Battlegrounds with flashier graphics @_@'. The day of resource gathering has passed, thank God.. The emphasis is on the combat.

 

TB.

[TK-421]

If they've done this I'd have demanded a refund. 'Ooh look, Galactic Battlegrounds with flashier graphics @_@'. The day of resource gathering has passed, thank God.. The emphasis is on the combat.

 

TB.

Resource gathering wasn't that bad of a thing to deal with, but when you need to watch about 4-5 different things and still have enough men and time to cover your bases it kinda becomes a bit distracting.

[Thor the Bassis]

Resource gathering isn't very realistic. It would never happen on a galactic campaign scale.

 

Plus those people judging the game on the skirmish gameplay (<cough>Tokakeke<cough>) should really try what it was designed for, the campaign which is quite realistic and is really good gameplay. The build pads make sense and the dropships make total sense.

 

The skirmish gameplay is really just an add on I think for internet gameplay(?).

[Guest DarthMaulUK]

Before Empire at War was released, it wasnt a secret that there would be no resource gathering. Almost all RTS games now have taken this direction to avoid it. I loved Galactic Battlegrounds but I used to get annoyed when in the heat of battle, a farm needed to be dealt with.

 

Force Commander was truely awful, the flash trailer, cool music and then, you played it...urgh, but you could see the vision behind it.

 

EaW isnt ground breaking but it combines brilliant space combat with exciting and fun ground battles, brought together with the galactic map. It is alot of fun.

 

My only real gripe with the game is the galactic conquest mode online. It needs a random system like Rebellion/Supremacy (the BEST rts ever) had...because when you start on GC mode, good players know all the weakeness of planets etc so there is hardly any strategy involved at all.

 

DMUK