How's the balance?

[Naso]

I tried the demo and mods when they came out and found it really fun yet disappointing, so with all the patches, how does the game play now? Is there more strategic depth in ground or space, and are the ISD's still really really weak and the Mon Cal's ridiculously strong? Also, does anyone know if there'll be a gold edition with the expansion when it comes out? Thanks

[Guest DarthMaulUK]

The game will really open up now there is an editor and the new expansion (http://www.empireatwar.net/expansions ) will REALLY turn up the heat.. The game is good fun to play

 

DMUK

[Darth Anarch]

They made the Tartans, Corvettes and Gunships a little less powerful against fighters and reduced their hitpoints some. That, in my opinion, was the most significant balance issue in the game.

[Naso]

So how do the ISD's stack up against other cap ships and fighters?

[wedge2211]

They rip through any capital ships smaller than they are. Against Mon Calamari cruisers, there is still debate on these forums. ISDs can't really target fighters, and so their one certain weakness is against bombers. Thankfully, they have their own TIE squadrons on board.

[Naso]

Has much changed with land? I'm ok with RTS generally, better with Rome/Shogun types though perfectly fine with AOM and a few others, but I couldn't get a feel for what was going on in the demo. It was like a really really slow rock-tumbler. I tried to attack armor with missile troops and use tanks against infantry but everything just sort of got mired down and destroyed unless I put everything in a giant blob and then hoped that I had a couple guys standing at the end.

[stingerhs]

the ground battles are also very balanced. about the only thing that is a bit unbalanced is the Rebel Artillery units. a couple of those units make for an excellent defense post due to the massive amount of damage they can inflict on just about any unit except the AT-AT walkers. the speeder bikes are decent enough against them, though since they move so quickly and can drop bombs off right next to the arty units and blow them up.

 

if you have them available, bombing runs are also a good counter against arty units.

[CommanderSB|TFL]

the space(1v1 and genral skrimish) are not balanced(tier1).It takes too long time for a vett to destroy a mine. For more info check out:

http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index.php?showtopic=100901&st=20

[gswift]

I don't play much land, but I've played space multiplayer since the very beginning. With the latest update, they improved some of the maps and fine-tuned some of the unit strengths. Multiplayer is even more fun now than it was before. I don't think either side has a clear advantage in space skirmish, and there are already several really cool custom space maps to play. I especially love the way you don't have to download or install the custom skirmish maps. You just join a game hosted by someone who's using one, and it automatically installs for you to use forever. (unless you delete it). The limited number and style of official maps that came with the game was the biggest problem with the game's replayability. That's fixed now, and BOY is it fixed. If you're debating about buying the game, it's a must-have for any Star Wars fan. If you're expecting a Total War experience, this isn't supposed to be like that. EaW is more focused on the online experience, and personally I think that's a real blast.

[Rust_Lord]

People have their different views of course, and their favourite sides, but you will see people claiming things to be fair, then a patch comes out with some corrections. The latest patch highlights changes that I for one thought were needed. Corvettes were downgraded but still utterly lethal against fighters, ISDs were made cheaper because they are not as good as they are suppossed to be and some some Rebel ground stuff was downgraded...the T4B tanks which were overly tough. I have done alot of comparisons on custom maps between ships. An ISD can win over a lone Mon Cal but if you take on any more than one, with an equal number of ISDs, the ISDs will get severely owned. Having said that, I think Imperials have the edge in space, while Rebels have a definate edge on the ground. Their troops are better, their artillery is excellent and they get aircraft which can take out the Imperials best unit without having to reduce it to 0 hitpoints.

[Naso]

Hmmmm.. I'm not as interested in wash-rinse-repeat multiplayer type thing. Why would they make ISD's cheaper instead of just making them more resilient?

[Rust_Lord]

I dont multiplay either, so I cant speak for it....time issues. As far as ISDs beign cheaper over being better, thats something you will have to ask the developers. Could be a balance thing, but really I couldnt care how expensive they made an ISD they should make it as powerful as they should be....An MC80 has 48 Turbolasers, 20 Ion cannons. An ISD has 60 Ions and 60 Turbos. The MC should have better shields, the ISD should be tougher. Thats how its always been. They should have made them comparable. Charge 7000 for a standard ISD I couldnt care. If you replicated established canon, an MC would have 2 Ions, 4/5 TLs and an ISD 6 of each.

[The Source]

The game is questionabley unbalanced across the board. The Republic side allways has issues, which range from slow production to too expensive. X-Wings cost too much compaired to Tie Fighters. I allways thought they were equally balanced in the movies. When you play on the Empire's side, you have Star Destroyer that launch Ties. What I found is that there are no Republic ships that spawn X-Wings. I find that to be a great disadvantage for the Republic.

 

I don't play EAW too much, for it is not the greatest game in the world. However, I do find myself tinkering with it every once and a while.

[Darth Anarch]

The game is questionabley unbalanced across the board. The Republic side allways has issues, which range from slow production to too expensive. X-Wings cost too much compaired to Tie Fighters. I allways thought they were equally balanced in the movies. When you play on the Empire's side, you have Star Destroyer that launch Ties. What I found is that there are no Republic ships that spawn X-Wings. I find that to be a great disadvantage for the Republic.

 

I don't play EAW too much, for it is not the greatest game in the world. However, I do find myself tinkering with it every once and a while.

I think that on the whole, the game is quite well balanced. The Empire spawns TIEs for free from their capital ships, but they're weaker than the Rebellion's moderately expensive fighters (which are also hyperspace-capable, something that's a great tool for hit-and-runs). And I've played the game a lot but never noticed that the Rebels have slower production than the Empire.

[wedge2211]

I allways thought they were equally balanced in the movies.

Are you kidding? A rebellion should be evenly matched against an entrenched galactic empire? I think you missed the whole point of Star Wars with that statement... The Rebellion and Empire are not supposed to be evenly matched--they are supposed to play entirely differently but each be capably of destroying the other, and EaW accomplishes this nicely.

[The Source]

I don't know. I respect everyone's point of view, but I personally believe that EAW does have unbalance issues. I think that the Rebels are too weak, and they take way too long to spawn. I will have to disagree to agree.

[Yadiel]

I'm happy with the game being unbalance, I wont say its the ideal thing, but still i like it that way(always plays with the rebels, I know nothing about the emp). I think everything is on the wits.

This gets harder on multiplayer against good player, but useing the hotkeys and the right units u can use the weak points of the empire, on space battles target the tartans, and the y-wings will do the rest with the capital ships, fire missiles long range, send han to finish off those long range ships(the ones fireing missiles, cant remember the name), concentrate fire on the shields, things like that.

 

There are hard points against the imps, just look at them and exploit them, they have a limited amount of fighters, thats, i would say, the most important, u can carry any amount of fighters, and thats the point of the rebellion, they depend on hit and run, guerrilla tactics and thats why fighters are the strong point in with the rebels.

 

In the land know how to use and cover ur infiltrators, get 3 air speeders away from the anti-air turrets, and think how to use ur mechs, dont remember u have a vision ability, that one in my opinion was 2 much, use right and u can anticipate ur enemy movents to cripple his army then strike with carfull.

 

The more bombers u have in space the less time u have to wait between to use ur bombing runs

The more facilities of a kind u have in a planet, the fastest u will create those units.

Use mon mothma (tedious but saves a lot of credits)

 

I've never played as an imp, well i only did the campaign, but in multiplayer im always in rebel side, so my point of view can only be based on that, maybe there are things in which the rebels are overpowered(like that vision ability) that i've exploited, and are the very same points that are bothering most of u. Maybe i've to play the imps to see how important is that umbalance problem, but for now, this is my point of view.