Community idea's for a possible SW:GB 2

[CorranSec]

The whole protoss thing seems a little too powerful. Although it would be realistic, it would rather screw up gameplay.

What about some kind of play on the "Corrupted Terran Command Center" (or whatever they're called) thing? ie, you convert an enemy building, and through some kind of plot twist or thing it builds units for your civ.

Here's one such idea:

The Rebels attack an Empire base, but keep the structures alive. Jedi Masters run in and convert them. One of the structures is an Airbase. The Rebels could use TIE Fighters (in fact, according to EU info, they do start using them), but they prefer to have a kind of combo ship; a mix of the speed of Imp fighters and durability of Rebels.

So they start making X-TIE Uglies!

 

Er.... looking back, this may seem a little crazy, and X-TIEs really do suck, but it would work nicely in terms of gameplay>realism.

These kind of conversions would be hard to figure out and balance, especially if it's Rebels vs. Republic (or some other battle which shouldn't be happening anyway), but they would be fun.

 

Crazy_dog: On the topic of sea units. Although they're supposedly nonexistent in the SW universe, they are there, and they are sometimes used for military action. Also, they're just fun. A Hunter adds more diversity to the range of aircraft and would be a lot of fun to use. For balance's sake, it could be designed so it can only fire on sea units, and requires a backup of Space Superiority fighters or some such to survive.

The fact is, aircraft are the backbone of any military force in the SW universe. These air forces are designed to be able to do anything, whether it be destroy other aircraft, ground troops, sea units, whatever. I know I'm going to get hammered by "making everything obsolete," but the fact is that it should have been "Galactic BattleSpace."

Ground and sea units will still be there, useful, and mostly downright necessary, considering that you can't even build aircraft until Tech 3.

 

The 'normal' fighter- this is a Space Superiority fighter. They are the multi-purpose-all-round-jolly-good-goodness fighters. Basically, they're the AA fighters, the escorts, the defenders, the dogfighters, whatever. They're the staple and the backbone of the air force, and are necessary in most situations, as I've pointed out.

 

You've got the Assault Transport thing the wrong way around. They're really not all that good at dogfighting. They'd be sorta like the Gunship idea (hears groans and screams and anguish all around). Yeah, yeah, it may sound dumb, but it'd work. The Assault Transport would carry the same as the normal transport, but be slower, better armoured, and have weapons which work well on 'unarmed' ground forces (aka ground units which can't attack air, including buildings). This may seem powerful, but it is especially vulnerable to Scout Fighters buzzing in, dodging the transport's fighter escorts, and knocking it out of the sky.

A good force would include both Assault Transports and regular Transports. A player would probably put his scout force/first strike units in the regular transports, drop them, then speed the transports back to base to grab some more units, while the Assault Transports have arrived to back up and reinforce the original army.

Maybe regular transports could be reconfigured to carry more units, so that players don't always use Assault Transports.. I'm not sure.

 

Kryllith- many interesting ideas you've pointed out.

The Frigate is an anti-interceptor-cruiser ship. But, of course, there's still the rest of the cap ships..... though everybody else seems to want to get rid of them.

The Assault Fighter is also designed to go against cap ships.

My Flying Fortress was sorta designed as an airborne version of the Night Elf Ancient Protector, from WCIII. Aka, pretty good defense and damage, can land and become an anti-air/anti ground turret, but is still pretty good sitting around in the sky.

Your idea also sounds pretty good, but having a ring of unmoving yet powerful Flying Fortresses surrounding your base as well as having AA turrets and normal turrets makes bases pretty impregnable.

To deal with this, I propose the elimination of my "Assault Fortress" and the creating of three new cap ships: The Airborne Turret, a turret constructed in the air (by the new Airborne Construction Droid) that can fire on air and ground units. Secondly, the Floating Fortress, a medium-speed cap ship with several anti-troop lasers and one anti-turret turbolaser. Finally, the Star Cruiser, an all-round cap ship which excels at destroying other Cap Ships.

These ships could have varied and intruiging artwork, especially the Star Cruiser, which could allow many people the joy of seeing the famed ships of the movies cruising around the screen.

[MadrixTF]

CorranSec - Have you ever considered writing a book...?

 

First Assault Fortresses, and now floating Fortresses???? Dude, you need to get real here for a second - if it is going to involve Cap Ships (Which by the way i am in favour of) then it has to be space-combat. No need for Turrets or any other land-based units - just good old fashioned Cap Ships, fighters, etc. will do fine thank you very much. - But if you ever designed a game i would buy it just to have a laugh!

[CorranSec]

Eh? What is this "book?"

*Guybrush Threepwood voice* I have no idea what you just said, but I feel strangely insulted.

 

Funnily enough, the whole Floating/Flying/Whatever Fortress idea actually came from a Star Wars book or two. Wedge's Gamble and Darksaber, to be precise.

 

I have proposed a whole bunch of cap ships, but Kryllith mentioned turrets, so I put them in. I like to include other people's ideas.

[Kryllith]

Originally posted by MadrixTF

No need for Turrets or any other land-based units

The turrets I'm refering to specifically would be designed for space battles, not planted on the ground (probably not even low atmosphere, since they'd be design to sit there without using propulsion... too close to a planet and they'd smash into the ground). Though, they'd act the same way as a ground turret(unmovable, good damage, good range, takes lots of damage).

 

Kryllith

[MadrixTF]

CorranSec i was refering to your looong posts, if you added them all up and stuck them between two covers you would have a book. You could give it the title " My Floating Fortress Ideas by CorranSec" - perhaps NASA will get some good ideas from your book...

 

Kryllith, unless one were trying to defend a space-station of sorts, then you could just use fighters for defense...?

 

Hey, that's a good idea - how about a space-station as the Fortress or CC? Then you could start adding "fixed" structures to the spcae-station for defense...

[CorranSec]

Yeah......... I figured you meant something like that. Looking back, I do seem to post quite a large amount of stuff. It's all good stuff though.

 

Actually, I think air turrets would both be an extra layer of base defense (requiring much more air combat, which is good ), and defense for other airborne structures. In terms of base defense, AA turrets just can't cut it against all the different cap ships etc. which can be used to decimate them....... therefore, for balance's sake, Airborne Turret things would be needed.

 

I think an airborne Fortress would just be too damned powerful. The airborne structures which I have already proposed include an airborne Sentry Post and a Space Construction yard (airborne airbase which builds some ships that can't be built at the normal airbase). These would both probably need turrets for protection, seeing as they would most likely be built away from your base (considering that most things can't hit them, they're great for a forward base).

 

Also, there could be a TRUE floating fortress, based on the EU material, which is basically an airborne Strike Mech. Book fans will like this........ I hope.......

[MadrixTF]

CorranSec, you seem to be replying right after me - it's nice for a change...

 

I'm hping you can assist me: I don't know much about this EU stuff, i love reading books and if you could let me know who the authors are and what the series are called that would be a great help - i asked Admiral Nilaar in a different post already, but i think his timezone is way different to mine...

 

As for a floating Mech - i don't know... i think spacecraft would be better - Mechs are definately gound-based - but then again - i haven't read the Expanded Universe series yet....

 

Maybe a modifed Mech with wings??

[CorranSec]

Well, it's not really a flying mech, it just has sorta the same role as a Strike Mech. Though it could be like a flying mech.

 

Instant replies is nice.

 

In terms of EU: (this is mostly in chronological order, i'm only putting the ones after the movies. If I don't mention that it's a trilogy of series, it's not.)

 

Tales from Jabba's Palace (edited by Kevin J. Anderson, I think)

The Bounty Hunter Trilogy: The Mandalorian Armor, Slave Ship, Hard Merchandise (Writting by A.C. Crispin????? Or am I thinking of something else)

The Truce at Bakura (Kathy Tyers)

The X-Wing series: Rogue Squadron, Wedge's Gamble, The Krytos Trap, The Bacta War, Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command (I draw a lot of my material from them, writting by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston)

The Courtship of Princess Leia (I forget the author)

The Thrawn Trilogy (the first Star Wars books ever writted, a good starting point, writted by Timothy Zahn, a very fine author.)

At the same time as Thrawn, there's another X-Wing book: Isard's Revenge. By Mike Stackpole.

The Jedi Academy Trilogy: Jedi Search, Dark Apprentice, Champions of the Force. (written by Kevin J. Anderson)

Set within the Academy trilogy, there's a book about one of the Rogue Squadron characters, by Stackpole again. (So it's sorta a Rogue Squadron book, but it's referred to as a stand-alone).

The Callista Trilogy: Children of the Jedi (by Barbara Hamly), Darksaber (by Kevin J. Anderson), and Planet of Twilight (by Hamly again. I think it's Hamly. It might be Hambly or something).

At the same time, there's yet another X-Wing book. Starfighters of Adumar, by Aaron Allston.

The Crystal Star, by Vonda N. McIntyre.

The Black Fleet Crisis: Before the Storm, Shield of Lies, Tyrant's Test. (by Michael P. Kube-McDowell, which I think isn't his real name, but I think too much.)

The New Rebellion, I forget the author.

The Corellion Trilogy, by Roger MacBride Allen: Ambush at Corellia, Assault at Selonia, Showdown at Centerpoint.

The Hand of Thrawn Duology: Specter of the Past and Visions of the Future. (Again by Tim Zahn)

There are Junior Jedi Knights and Young Jedi Nights serieses (is that a word? I think not.), but they're mainly aimed at younger readers. I've never read them, and I doubt they're good source material OR good reading.

 

Lastly, and this bit deserves a bit all to itself, is the New Jedi Order. This is a very very long series, by a very very varied bunch of authors, and is still going. I haven't read all of them, but the first is by R. A. Salvatore and is called Vector Prime. After that, there's a bunch of mini-serieses-arg! That word again! (within the big series) by different authors, including Dark Tide by Mike Stackpole, Agents of Chaos by James Luceno, and many more (which I've forgotten and not read).

 

 

Er...... I just remembered........ You could've gone to the Star Wars website and looked at their databanks. You probably should do that, seeing as I haven't got everything. But anyway.

Happy reading!

[jcb231]

I think the idea of a spae-based rts game is great, but I would like to see an all-encompassing SW sim (Yes, I know I'm dreaming) that could incorporate large scale space battles, small ground and atmosphere battles, and galactic-level diplomacy ala Rebellion all in one game. That's be great...what a wonderful dream.

 

Imagine starting off with a galaxy overview map similar to Rebellion, zooming in to a target planet and deciding to send the fleet there, then when they arrive you take command in rts style. When you crush the enemy starfleet and make planetfall the game switches to something similar to Galactic Battlegrounds, with you in control of your assault forces, and with the option to build structures on the surface to act as base camp...or, once your power has been more established, you could build manufacturing facilities and cities in your less-war-striken zones.

 

That's be sweet...too bad we'll never see it.

[CorranSec]

Er... jcb, who exactly brought up the idea of a space-based RTS?

 

Damn, your suggestion sounds great. But, as you said, you're dreaming.

I've never played Rebellion.... what's it like?

[Crazy_dog no.3]

Originally posted by jcb231

I think the idea of a spae-based rts game is great, but I would like to see an all-encompassing SW sim (Yes, I know I'm dreaming) that could incorporate large scale space battles, small ground and atmosphere battles, and galactic-level diplomacy ala Rebellion all in one game. That's be great...what a wonderful dream.

 

Imagine starting off with a galaxy overview map similar to Rebellion, zooming in to a target planet and deciding to send the fleet there, then when they arrive you take command in rts style. When you crush the enemy starfleet and make planetfall the game switches to something similar to Galactic Battlegrounds, with you in control of your assault forces, and with the option to build structures on the surface to act as base camp...or, once your power has been more established, you could build manufacturing facilities and cities in your less-war-striken zones.

 

That's be sweet...too bad we'll never see it.

 

 

Hey that's my idea.

[MadrixTF]

CorranSec, you will find in my Add Capital Ships Poll, that Joesdomain and i developed the idea of Space-combat RTS - because the Cap Ships don't really fit into a ground-based RTS. But of course someone else could have come up with the idea...

 

jcb231: I think that's the best idea i have seen in this Forum so far - that's brilliant and i don't think it sounds too far fetched - maybe in the next 5 years...?

[jcb231]

For Corran Sec and others who don't know--

 

"Rebellion" (also known as "Supremacy" in some countries for god only knows why) was a good idea that Lucas Arts executed somewhat poorly. Its still a fun game, but not as action-packed as GB. Its a sort of laid back, galactic overview-style sim.

 

You, as the commander of all the Rebel or all the Imperial forces just after the destruction of the first Death Star, sit in the command ship and look at a huge galactic map. Due to the events of the Battle of Yavin, support for the Rebellion has gron and several worlds have dropped out of the Empire, which gives you a nice little start as the Rebels. All sorts of information can be accessed....extreme micro-management is possilbe or you can let a droid handle things for you. You have tons of hero characters and can recruit more, and youu can send them on various missions, such as "Diplomacy" to convert a world to your cause, or "Incite Rebellion" or "Sabotage" or "Recruitment" or so on. The bad part is you can't really control the characters directly, so there's sort of a random, Role-Playing roll of the dice type feel to certain things. The worst part of the game is the strategic mode that you can control ship-to-ship battles in....it's horrid, but fortunately you can skip it and have the computer simply calculate the winner. The ultimate goal of the Imperial game is to destroy the mobile rebel base, capture or kill Mon Mothma, and capture or kill Luke Skywalker. The Rebel goal is to take Coruscant, capture or kill the Emperor, and capture or kill Darth Vader. Along the way, there are little subplots like Luke going away to train and coming back with Jedi powers, Han Solo being tracked by bounty hunters, etc. The Empire's advantages are better ships and more worlds at the start. The Rebels advantages are a mobile command center and sympathy joinings whenever the Empire does something really harsh. All in all a fairly good game that could be a lot better.

[lukeiamyourdad]

jcb- Do you know if they still sell Rebellion?

[jcb231]

I don't know. I highly doubt it, although it may be available with other games as part of LucasArts' "Archives" series. You may also come by it by ordering direct from LucasArts..perhaps they have a random copy still in the warehouse. It may also have been reissued by itself at a cheap price with some of the other "older" games at some point.

[lukeiamyourdad]

Just to ask... Is it worth buying?

[MadrixTF]

I think it's still available online from ebay.com ...

[lukeiamyourdad]

Not that I don't trust ebay but I just don't like buying stuff online. But anyway I'll look in some stores close to my home...

[Arthur2]

Exactly

this game is an AOK ripoff...and it's out too late in terms of marketing strategy

Microsoft is already testing their AOM when Lucasarts start advertising SW:GB, that's why the sales isn't so pleasing...

 

1. i think the graphics needs to be improved...

 

2. they should add star destroyers and bigger units, not those crap air crusiers...like EE they have carriers and infantry, SWGB2 should have star destryoers and somehow balance the units (cost, attack damage and hit points) so one unit won't become too strong (maybe add ion cannons to shoot down star destroyers?)

 

3. more diversity between civilizations. I think Gungans is really crap, they are meant to be under water and be a more barbaric race, it doesn't make any sense to include them in this game...

In the movie, the characters stated "imperial fighters cannot travel that far, an imperial base should be around"....maybe...SWGB2 can make the imperial fighters patrol around air bases and limit their flight time....that way we get more diversity...AT LEAST NOT ALL THE SAME

it's better to have less races and make them more different from each other than to create like 8 races and all with the same type of units, and 2 out of 8 civs are just crap civs that they decided to stuff in to make the game look good.......

 

4.It's ok to use AOM engine, but don't like...copy the unit structures...

like this SWGB's pummel is basically just rammer, that's stupid

 

5.Make it more original....

gosh, lucasarts' got the official starwars information

dun let the programmers make up the graphics for units

for example, the air cruiser graphics are UGLY, use something from the movie..or at least MODEST

 

hope that SWGB2 will be better

and i know it will.....cause SWGB is already a big attempt to make a better game (considering lucasarts' past RTS games...like Force commander)

[Arthur2]

one more thing...

 

6. the cloaking thing sux, it makes no sense for a unit to appaer when it attacks, that way there is no point making units cloak, just to hide away from ppl while moving...make it like the cloaking in Starcraft, ppl REALLY need detectors....and yeah....make it half transperant when its cloaked, cause it's hard to see it the unit is cloaked or not....

[CorranSec]

er... Arthur, some of the stuff you said has already been suggested earlier. But anyway.

 

1. Definitely. I think this is something we all agree on.

 

2. Take a look at my ship list earlier on. Actual "capital ships" (such as Impstars) would simply not work in the game. Consider this- A Star Destroyer cannot enter the atmosphere of a world (A vic might be able to, I think...) but even a Vic can level the average base (like one you might construct in the current SW:GB) in minutes. Out of scale, out of gameplay, out of the equation. Sorry.

 

3. By "diversity" I assume you mean "unique unit sets." I agree with you on this one, but there are some other points that are incorrect.

Gungans? Barbaric? What gives you that idea? That may have been the Naboo view of them before Episode I, but I think it's obvious that they are in no way barbaric.

More underwater- this might work well, and might not. What precisely were you suggesting?

Imp fighters having limited range- I think this would severly impede on gameplay. These aren't like the aircraft in Empire Earth (which I severely disliked), the only reason they said that is because they lacked hyperdrive. They have enough oxygen supply, fuel, etc. to get themselves through a battle.

Plainly, though it might be slightly more realistic, I think this would greatly slow the game down, and it's clear that that's not good.

Diversity can be achieved in other ways. The more civs the merrier- I think that anything less than 18 civs would be a huge loss, considering that if SW:GB 2 is released, it'll probably be released a couple of years in the future... and if they can reach about 20 civs now.....

 

4. An engine change is one of the most important changes that needs to be made. Unless you're considering moving to the EE engine............ I'll stick with AoK.

It is the future. A new engine is necessary, lest people just look at the game and say "What! This game's engine was out, what, 7 years ago!?"

 

5. The air cruisers do suck, but this doesn't mean we should immediately jump to canon art. There are better options.

 

6. Yeah, we've been over this before. Check over the entire thread before posting, if it's not too much trouble.

[Arthur2]

Star Destroyers...If you want every inch of the game to be corresponding the original movie, it's impossible. I dunno about Star destroyer, but in Episode II, there are really huge ships (the landing craft?) , landed on the surface of Geonosis...we'll figure that out, battle ships is what the game is about...!!!!

 

That's not what I mean, I think they should drop the entire idea of Unique Units. Instead, they can make the civs less alike by modifying their tech tree....I think they should make the rebel airforce stronger by modifying the features of the fighters, not just the attack damage, since u don't like the idea of limiting imperial fighters' flight time/range...then i dunno, we can consult the movie later and come up with new ideas. Seriously, they should make the civs have different tech tree....

 

Gungans, think about their air fighters??????

they might be underwater, but making them having exactly the same as other races(mechs? fighters??), is really not a wise thing to do...It's like stuffing something in just to make the game look good...they might as well just delete the civ from the game for SWGB 2

 

Anywayz, ppl, good thoughts here

we can compile it into a small proposal and send it to lucasarts' developers...so they can come up with something that ppl really want...and actually sell better

[Crazy_dog no.3]

In TPM the Gungan Grand army is ground based.

In AotC u might just get a glimpse of the Gungan's air "units"

 

Also in AotC u notice that the prototype SD 's don't actually attack, only supply reinforcements.

[CorranSec]

Arthur- it seems the words you're searching for are "unique unit sets." I totally agree with you on this one. But there still can be a large number of races.

The whole unique thing would lead to such changes as greater Rebel X-Wing attack, faster TIEs, and so on and so forth.

The gungans may seem strange, but all of this is necessary for game balance. If it's changed to unique unit sets, then we might be able to reflect the true nature of the Gungans. We'll see.

But for now, nobody has actually proposed an alternative to Gungan fighters....

Sure, there can be ships. Once again, take a look at my ship list.

[Arthur2]

unique unit sets....

hmmm more like completely different tech tree for different civs

kinda like starcraft, but then we have to maintain the bonus to attack/strong vs/weak vs properties of the units

 

a lot of civs, yeah u can

but then think about it...8 races = 3 CDs

and in blizzard game, they only have 4 races , and it fills a 640 Mb CD entirely.

the more civs u have, the more time it takes to develop (propose tech tree, design the graphics, design the units)

and surely it'll take A LOT more storage.