Empire at War: Total Realism v2.1 ***RELEASED!***

[Lord hobo]

my mouth has just hit the ground, cant wait to play 2.1

[whiteflash]

looks great!

but when can we class 2 morrow noon(gmt) say 3pm?

[Athanasios]

@whiteflash: Yep, noon should be around 3-4 GMT. More or less ofcourse .

 

Heh, 12 more hours, just hold your poistions!

 

And here's some more sugar in your black coffee ; along these 2 days of TR v2.1 announcements, some significant tweaks & modifications have been made: certain vehicles tweaked for anti-air use, space squadrons enhanced (thanks for your feedback!), some upgrades on rebel side have been tuned down (did you notice that T4B ended having +75% more firepower after the 2 upgrades!! The ATAT would be toast with only the "move faster" upgrades....*sigh*), some planet slots have been modified in order not to penalise any player in any of the GC modes and SD/MC made buildable in more planets for same reason, various text entries further modified, Vader now comes in an enhanced SD names "Executor"*, capital ships squadron capacity configured according to SWD data and more..................we'll update the initial quoted thread hopefully tomorow (obviously it's last priority now...).

 

Hope this helps a bit to cheer you up!

 

 

* Ofcourse, it's not an SSD (noone can add one without the mod tools), but we felt like that pitiful TIE Advanced looked too...."small" for Darth Vader. That guy needs more comforts in a ships, doesn't he?

[Jedi_82]

Oh dam i confused totally awsome work!!!!!!!

 

 

What about skirmish? what kind modifieds have u gyes done to that section? Just wanted to ask ;D

[darthcarth]

So u are setting it back because of a site?

[Athanasios]

So u are setting it back because of a site?

Believe it or not, yes. The current site is poor html page only. The site we have in our hands is an old site a company used and gave it to us, but it needs to be changed upside since its content is 100% irrelevant with what we're making.

 

Ofcourse, tomorow you won't see a finsihed site, this will (hopefully) follow after 1-2 weeks, but the page loaded will be better than a bunch of text in coloured backround .

[Orao]

I have to say I'm very disappointed in your new galactic maps. Having every single planet connected to every single other planet is just silly. Introduce some choke points! Make some worlds more important than others! Alter them so that some actual strategy must be used to succeed, rather than just rushing for planets and building a huge army just like every other run-of-the-mill RTS game.[/Quote]

 

Wedge try holding the siege against the AI

[StealthWar42]

Hey Athanasios:

 

Sorry but my comment got a little "skipped over" heh. Just wondering if you could respond to my suggestion or something? just a simple yes or no would suffice

[Athanasios]

Heh, sorry mate, i was busy in writing the 2nd screen update post which is not a regular 5-min-to-write one (resize images, upload them, instert links bla bla bla).

 

For the elite imperial trooper you mention, we do have in mind adding Dark Troopers. However, this is not currently doable with proper mod tools. From the constant communication we have with Torpid (that guy must be given special credits for bearing on us ), we know that you cannot apply 2 different skins/textures on one model; which means that, even if we make dark trooper skin, it will replace all stormies when applied. Generally, at this current stage of modding, we do not add "new" units in game, unless we have unique models for it (unlocked, hidden etc); the only exception was done for Vader's "Executor" (improved SD), for the reasons mentioned above.

 

And as for scout unit of feet, we'll be implementing in coming version (the ones prior v3.0) that will issue any bugs/imbalances reported too.

 

So, stay tuned!

[Athanasios]

This mod doesn't follow realisim. There Was no X-wing G-fighter

The only reason we separated ground variants from space ones (it's doable to make space squadrons just come down in ground) it's for balance reasons, especially for MP. In other words, while the rebel player can build X-Wings and drop down to surface, the imperial player will have to wait for TIE Advanced (that is hyperspace capable) to do the same. Also, the AI currently cannot understand that the space squadrons are capable of ground combat and it will not use them.

 

As for "strict" realism, X-Wings are atmosphere capable (they have shields), while TIE Fighters are not. So, you can base our balance to this fact too.

 

Interesting, why the decision to go with 11 fighter squadrons? Why not 12, like in all the books? I'm sure you can come up with a formation easy enough.

Implementing 12-fighter squadrons "stucks" on game engine; (1) the last lines squadrons have defficulty following the rest squadron, (2) they have difficulties engaging a battle, (3) they have difficulties in forming the long-tailed V formation and more...

 

In some game it will just send the scout to give you illusion of searching in some other it will let you certain time before attacking etc.

And to point out that this "illusion" is used in EaW too. It's obvious in Land and Space Skirmish, where you can see scout troops/rebel troopers/stormies and TIE Fighters/X-Wings respectively, scanning around your base. However, as Orao already said, it's just an illusion.

 

2) Setup a matrix to affect AI strategic decisions on results of scouting reports;

3) Adjust influence of scouting decisions on another matrix set by general game tactics based on the known galactic layout, which can be randomized for each game to give the impression of a new human opponent.

If you're referring to actual code writing, importing matrix calculations in a multimedia application (such as games) would crawl the whole system horribly below "0". Now, mind that RTS demand a relatively huge amound of CPU power for pathfinding calcualtions, and you have the best "burn my CPU" utility !

 

Is the AI capable of using the new features, like the planet-side G fighters?

In most cases, yes. In some others, we have to tweak LUA script, for which we currently have no access as Orao said. Especially for G-Fighters, the impressive is that AI will build many Anti-Air turrets, as soon as you build them, no matter the side you choose. In our tests, it didn't build them, but we normally never play whole skirmishes; we just speed up the time to check out tweaks & modifications, note down any issues, the close the game for further modding .

 

Anyhow, let me know if your team has a paypal address and I will donate for your work. I feel you guys should be compenstated for providing a gaming experience the publisher and developers have not been able to precisely deliver.

Hehe, ok, this one must be stickied !

 

Seriously speaking, below is a part of out "Copy-right license" section included in the extensive readme file:

Obviously, there is not and there cannot be such a "license", simply because we modified an already licensed

to LucasArts and Petroglyph game. However, with this term we would like to state that grabbing EaW:TR mod or

any of its modified .xml or .dat files is regarded, more or less, as a "theft" to all the modding communities.

One of the reasons we logged down all the 1.000++ changes into nice-looking files, while obviously we had no

obligation to do so, is to give the people out there a complete sight of our hard and time-consuming work (we

do not have all the time for modding).

 

According to law, we cannot cost any licensed product. However, what must be said, is that we were and we are once again literally surprised by the "hug" the community accepted Total Realism mod. It's common place and it should have been already noticed by moderators and forum administrators, that many people, both in PFF and LF, subscribe to the forums only to say us "thanks", "that mod saved EaW!" and more. Not to mention the bunch of emails and privates messages we received for v2.0 (and still receiving!) and for v2.1.

 

This simple "thanks" is all our payment .

[zac naloen]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet in any of the previous threads (far too long to read through)

 

One thing i've found slightly annoying is that everytime i play galactic conquest maps the emperor always ends up being on some planet right near the beginning of the game and stays there. Because of the choke points you can't ignore it and the game ends up finishing early. Anyway of making sure the emperor stays on coruscant?

[The Watchman]

In regards to the space squadrons I use 12 ships per squadron without any difficulties that I've noticed. The formation I use is a V formation of sorts. I split them into the 3 "flight groups" used in the X-wing series.

 

			<Create_Team_Type>X_Wing_Squadron_Container </Create_Team_Type>
    		<Max_Squad_Size> 4 </Max_Squad_Size>
	<Squadron_Units>X-Wing, X-Wing, X-Wing, X-Wing</Squadron_Units>
	<Squadron_Units>X-Wing, X-Wing, X-Wing, X-Wing</Squadron_Units>
	<Squadron_Units>X-Wing, X-Wing, X-Wing, X-Wing</Squadron_Units>
	<Squadron_Offsets>30.0,0.0,0.0</Squadron_Offsets>
	<Squadron_Offsets>0.0,15.0,0.0</Squadron_Offsets>
	<Squadron_Offsets>0.0,-15.0,0.0</Squadron_Offsets>
	<Squadron_Offsets>-30.0,0.0,0.0</Squadron_Offsets>
	<Squadron_Offsets>-30.0,45.0,0.0</Squadron_Offsets>
	<Squadron_Offsets>-60.0,30.0,0.0</Squadron_Offsets>
	<Squadron_Offsets>-60.0,60.0,0.0</Squadron_Offsets>
	<Squadron_Offsets>-90.0,45.0,0.0</Squadron_Offsets>
	<Squadron_Offsets>-30.0,-45.0,0.0</Squadron_Offsets>
	<Squadron_Offsets>-60.0,-30.0,0.0</Squadron_Offsets>
	<Squadron_Offsets>-60.0,-60.0,0.0</Squadron_Offsets>
	<Squadron_Offsets>-90.0,-45.0,0.0</Squadron_Offsets>

 

I use that code so when I create a squadron and call them in you actually get 3 sperate selectable groups containing 4 ships each. This means a little more managing but is realistic to a degree I think. You could also space the 3 groups out a bit and change the max squad size to 12 so it's one selectable group but still looks like three but it's up to the player I guess. I'm also going to adjust the Z positions so they look a little more spread out without looking sloppy. Anyways my thoughts.

[Athanasios]

Heh, because some people start getting really anxious at PFF forums, we copy our answer here too so that we dont face same problems here too!

 

Hey people, don't put the knife to our necks ! This site (even a small part of it) is not a 5-min job. Besides, we're making a form for you to subscribe for tourney announcements!

 

So, give us some freedom........we feel like we're put in 9 feet and awaiting for execution order !

 

Tonight, you'll be playing Total Realism v2.1 - granted (providing that a heart attack or other incident doesn't occur)!

[wedge2211]

As for "strict" realism, X-Wings are atmosphere capable (they have shields), while TIE Fighters are not. So, you can base our balance to this fact too.

Not so--TIEs are atmo-capable. They are just horrid to maneuver, given their very un-aerodynamic design. They have a tendency to slip in the plane of their wings, and their ability to yaw is much reduced. There are a number of EU references to TIE fighters in atmospheric flight--and we've seen V-Wings, the TIE ancestor, in atmo in Revenge of the Sith. And why can't the Imperial player call down TIE fighters if they have a starship with a hangar over the planet? Why would they need to wait for TIE/A's?

 

2) You could have Han or other stealth units waiting in orbit to call down as renforcments to by pass the limit to the amount of units you can raid with.

Yeah, that brings up an excellent point...since you "Total Realism" guys gave Rebel Infiltrators the ability to move into systems undetected, a Rebel player could put an army of Infiltrators in orbit over an Imperial-controlled planet and then raid with a bunch of Plex Troopers. They'd have the ability to call down a ton of sniper/demolitions units while on the "raid."

 

Rebels can buy smugglers anyways, and finding out where the Empire is is never a problem when C-3PO and Han are around, plus some smugglers or bounty hunters here and there, so you should probably just get rid of the Infiltrators' new stealth ability, or make them more stealthy on the ground than in space (is it possible to make it so that Infiltrators will not be revealed to the Empire player when they shoot?).

 

Wedge try holding the siege against the AI

That's exactly what I'm talking about..."The Siege," "Fastest Gun," "Shoot-out," all those maps look like absolutely no fun at all to me. Since all the planets are connected to all the other planets, there's no strategy involved except frantically building stuff and hoping that you're building faster than the other player. Guys, if I want to play StarCraft, I'll play StarCraft...but I want to play Empire at War!

 

It seems like a lot of your modifications involve making units more powerful than they were in the vanilla game. (Increasing the complement of stormtrooper companies, making AT-ATs more powerful and giving them the ability to fight back against airspeeders, making T4-B's more powerful.) How does all that affect balance? If you elimenate the weaknesses of many of the units, you run the risk of screwing up the game dynamic. You may not have this issue if you made both sides equally more powerful, I'm just curious how balance is working for you.

[Athanasios]

Wedge, thank you for your feedback. We appreciate any feedback, negative or not, to improve this mod. We try to satisfy the majority of players and the numbers prove us to be correct.

 

Finally, neither you or anyone else EaW customer is forced to download, install & play this mod.

[Athanasios]

Don't worry people, 2.1.1 is on its way, but we work more freely than last times.....just to avoid previous mistakes.

 

We'll announce the download link the day the file is uploaded.

[Athanasios]

*whistling carefreely*

 

80% of 2.1.1 modding done

and only 5% is to come

 

rest 15% is for the site tune up

but you can't imagine what's up

 

we really pioneered again

and start to think of paypal donate

 

but we like petro guys

so we'll give the fame to them

 

 

*huge applause from the audience, hundreds of flowers are thrown on the stage etc etc*

 

PS:

...don't regard the previous song as hint

the release date is closely digged in

 

and don't shoot any moderator for pages lost

we asked them do it for this clean post

and maybe because 2.1.1 is close....

 

__________________________________

^^^Should we copyright this one?

[PoiuyWired]

removing the mod? whats the easiest way to remove the mod?

 

Also, it would be nice if there is a version w/o the installer. Makes things much easier :3

[PoiuyWired]

followup (since I can't delete/edit post suddenly) please add the readme text OUTSIDE the installation exe, it would help greatly.

[Athanasios]

1) You wouldn't like to see manual installation instructions......believe us, we tried this .

 

2) Unistall instruction will be included in 2.1.1. It's just deleting the files/folders that the mod installed.

 

3) The readme file is placed outside the installers too. Newer file with this one was uploaded few days after release.

 

Stay tuned for 2.1.1, you can't imagine what's coming up .

[whiteflash]

now i know u r not allowed 2 comment(lol)but will v2.11 include any new galactic conquest modes?-coz v2 ones were brill!

[Orao]

It will enhance some.

[Athanasios]

now i know u r not allowed 2 comment(lol)but will v2.11 include any new galactic conquest modes?-coz v2 ones were brill!

 

Our main priority for GC modes is the hardening of the original two ones (43/21 planets) with more enemies on your way.

 

As for more GC modes, we do plan some, but nothing is confirm. Maybe a more lasting Siege mode for example ...

[Athanasios]

One small (but not least) announcemet for everybody: atomic_slash has just entered TR mod team after some great work-samples we got. So, easy with him or someone will get a TR 2.1.1 pack full of viruses .

 

Just that. Don't ask why we got him in the boat, don't ask his tasks, don't ask anything about him. We keep his info locked well so, don't waste your time.............

 

[wswordsmen]

Just wondering. Why did you give tie-bombers the ability to defeate X-wings. I had 2 squadrons of X-wings engade 2 squadrons of tie bombers (both were at max or extremly close to max health) the 4 squadrons whent head on into each other. I should have won quickly instead in about 10 seconds my X-wings were destroyed.

 

Also why does the Acclemator have a missles that damage enemys that continue to fire after the hard point is killed. I think it is because you are not using modified projectiles for them but I didn't check.