Topics

141

News & Updates / 2.2 Faction Profile: The Greater Maldrood

« on: October 21, 2016, 05:25:51 PM »

The Greater Maldrood & Federated Teradoc Union

Leaders: Treutan Teradoc (4-12 ABY), Kosh Teradoc (8-12 ABY)
Capital: Centares (4-8 ABY), Hakassi (8-12 ABY)

The Greater Maldrood was established by self-styled High Admiral of the Mid Rim Treutan Teradoc directly after the Battle of Endor. While it never reached the size of Teradoc's neighbouring rival Empire, that of Warlord Zsinj, it turned out to be one of the most enduring of the Warlord states. Teradoc found himself constantly engaged in border skirmishes with both Zsinj to the North and the Hutts to the Southeast, but it was not until he attempted to expand to the Gordian Reach (the territory around Yavin) in the wake of Zsinj's defeat that he managed to attract the attention of the increasingly powerful New Republic.



The Imperial and New Republic forces which had aligned against Zsinj turned their attention to Maldrood, beginning a three-way war between Rogriss, Ackbar and Teradoc. Teradoc managed to defeat the advancing Rogriss at Feriae Junction, causing Zsinj's former supporters to flock to Maldrood. The New Republic campaign, however, was far more successful. Facing the destruction of his empire, Treuton turned to his brother Kosh Teradoc who had his own Deep Core holdings to assist him, combining their territory and forces into the Federated Teradoc Union. Together they managed to avoid the total disintegration experienced by Zsinj's holdings, although they were relegated to a much smaller portion of their territory. The Union participated in Palpatine's campaigns, and both brothers managed to survive the conflict yet again, having even attracted the brilliant commander Gilad Pellaeon to act as their Commander-in-Chief, although Treutan quickly became embroiled in a war with Zero Command. Treutan was killed along with Sander Delvardus of the Eriadu Authority and Blizter Harrsk of Zero Command at Tsoss Beacon by Daala, who aimed to reunite the Imperial warlords, ending the Maldrood presence in the core. Kosh managed to survive another year after Tsoss, deeply embittered by the death of his brother, until Wraith Squadron organized a mission to save a scientist being held by Teradoc, killng the admiral and dissolving Maldrood.



Around 5 ABY, Moff-turned-pirate Leonia Tavira, leader of the Invids, cooperated with both Treutan and Kosh in order to gain more power and materiel for herself. As a result, with Tavira present Maldrood will be able to build pirate outposts, giving them access to some pirate units.




Keep in mind unit lists aren't necessarily final. With both Maldrood and Eriadu in particular, there's some stuff (including vehicles, ships and infantry) we may end up doing but we're trying to focus on getting the already-planned things done.

Space Unit Roster
Bellator (Kuat and Fondor only)
ISDI, ISDII, Tector, Secutor, Allegiance, Sorannan
Providence, Procursator, Crimson Command VSDII, Neutron Star, Immobilizer
Arquitens, Gladiator, Ton-Falk, Crusader Corvette, Interceptor IV, Customs Corvette
Unique Fighters: ARC-170, Clutch Uglies

Ground Unit Roster
AT-AT, A9 Floating Fortress,
AT-PT, AAT, T-16, SPMAT, TX-130, AT-AP
Bantha II, ISP
Stormtroopers, Shock Troopers, Jump Troopers, E-Web, Specialist

Just like he did with Warlord Zsinj, Corey will be doing another preview playthrough with Maldrood on his channel, so subscribe there if that's something you're interested in seeing. The Zsinj playthrough should be concluding in this coming week, so the Maldrood one will likely start going up the week after that.

142

News & Updates / 1.1 Early Preview - New Republic & Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium

« on: October 21, 2016, 04:23:48 PM »

I'm doing an early Ascendancy 1.1 preview LP as the New Republic. Check it out for a look at the Ssi-Ruuvi Invasion random event, some new tech, and (as of episode 5), the veterancy system). The first two episodes are out now, subscribe to see them as they're posted.

Click to go to the playlist

143

News & Updates / 1.1 Dev Diary: Fractured Empire

« on: October 15, 2016, 03:05:29 AM »

Before reading on, keep in mind everything discussed here is still in development, and will likely change to some extent before release.

...Veterancy...

One of our biggest focuses with this release has been on trying to alter the economy and the way people value their ships and infrastructure. We've been chipping away at this with each release, and 1.1 has a few more steps in that direction. A key part of the changes we're trying in that direction this release is the new Veterancy system for non-capital ships. Leveling has always been a feature of Capital ships and Titans, making them feel more valuable and giving a reason to try to keep them alive, but if anything, this has only ever made frigates and cruisers feel weaker, as the levels added more and more distance between their performance and that of the high-leveled capital ships. Frigates and cruisers essentially end up expendable.

Veterancy in Ascendancy works differently for Frigates than it does for Capitals. Capitals work exactly as they always have, of course (though we'll likely take another look at their stat bonuses for leveling up). This has nothing to do with the abilities, so you don't need to worry about the same micromanaging as you do for capitals; just make sure they're in the fight, and survive it. Essentially, every ship recently involved in attacking a target (right now we've got it at 60 seconds) has a chance to get a permanent stat boost when that ship dies. The numbers are still in flux so I won't give anything too specific, but for now this means after enough engagements, you can get a ship at roughly twice the damage dealt and half the damage taken as when it started, indicated on the unit card. This means that in some cases you can get, for example, a Victory II-Star Destroyer full of battle-hardened, experienced vets able to take on the green crew of an Imperial-class straight off the line. We're trying to reduce the overall number of ships you'll usually have on the map by a bit (with the Small-Medium-Large fleet sizes being more meaningful, for those who still feel the need for lag), and this is one the many changes we're trying to do to make those ships individually more manageable and valuable, alongside the supply changes we've mentioned before (pay-per-ship vs flat maintenance cost) and some other income-related changes (essentially, higher early game and much, much lower late game).

More on that later.

...Fractured Empire...

After Endor, the Empire was anything but one big happy family, and the leadership and its values were always in flux. In Imperial Civil War (ourFoC mod) this has always been a bit more obvious than in Ascendancy. Beore we split the original Remnant faction and its tech tree into the Remnant and the Pentastar Alignment in Ascendancy, there were a few more obvious branches and styles in how you could play the Remnant, but we had essentially shoehorned the Empire into a superweapon-centric playstyle without too many other options. We still want that to be an option for our more destruction-loving fans, however we want to represent the internal turmoil of the Empire a bit more as well. As a result, we've rejiggered their diplomatic tech (which, sidenote, every faction is having expanded a lot more in 1.1) and turned that particular page of the tech tree into the Regime page. This page allows you to side with one of three sets of Imperial leaders and doctrines, each with their own unique advantages, disadvantages, techs, and heroes. This won't be an exhaustive list of what's available (we're aiming for about 10-15 unique techs per leader), but I've picked out some of the bigger ones to give a sense of what they do. We mostly won't say who the heroes are yet (we'll have a separate update for that), but you can probably figure most of it out. Our feedback from testers has been especially positive on this so far, so we're feeling pretty good about the direction this is going in. We tried to pick the three ways to divide this up that offered the best representations of different aspects or periods of the Empire. Sorry Isard.

1. Admiral Natasi Daala
Daala is best known as the leader responsible for finally unifying the Empire. Although she lacked the tactical genius of Thrawn, she is highly determined and possesses a certain level of politically savvy, having convinced the likes of Gilad Pellaeon and Ivan Cronus to support her in the unification of the warring Imperial splinter factions.

Unique Techs/Units:
- Crimson Command VSDII: A more powerful and, most importantly, red version of the Victory II-class Star Destroyer. This can be available to her earlier in the campaign, allowing for a more powerful start for the Empire if you side with her.
- Maw Installation: This formerly-universal Imperial tech improving research speed is now available only to Daala.
- Metal-Crystal Phase Shifter: A unique weapon designed at the Maw which breaks apart the hulls of its target on the molecular level.  Increases the damage output of your ships.
- Knight Hammer: Siding with Daala gives you only one hero; Daala herself, in the Knight Hammer. If you already have an Executor-class built, recruiting Daala allows you to have a second (however, if you already have Daala you're not able to build a second in the conventional way). Daala is also unique in that she is the only hero able to be recruited again after her death, as she escaped it herself so many times in the lore.

2. Grand Admirals Thrawn & Pellaeon
Grand Admiral Thrawn and his protege, Grand Admiral Pellaeon are arguably the finest strategic minds the Empire ever produced, and certainly the most level headed. They each had their own style, with the innovative Thrawn and the more traditional mind of Pellaeon, however each possessed a special talent to see the bigger picture of a given situation (even when that meant recognizing defeat). They shared a military philosophy that placed an emphasis on the ships of the line, detesting the large resource sinks of the Emperor and various Warlords. This branch tends to draw equally on each of their periods of leadership, since trying to make them each their own branch would be like splitting hairs and not including either of them would feel wrong.

Unique Techs/Units:
- Scimitar Assault Bomber: One of the more powerful fighters in the Imperial arsenal not named "TIE Defender," the Scimitar Assault Bomber is a versatile craft designed during Thrawn's campaign to retake the core which functions similarly to how it always has in Ascendancy.
- Mole Miners: An ability available to Star Destroyers, which deploys mole miners to enable the capture of enemy ships (with the cooperation of troop landers).
- Several techs available to Thrawn and Pellaeon related to opening of the Empire, giving them a cultural, diplomatic and economic leg-up over their counterparts (ie Mixed-Race Military and Pellaeon-Gavrisom Treaty).

3. Emperor Palpatine - Dark Empire
Emperor Palpatine's return marked the use of several different types of superweapon, and siding with him will be how you gain access to those for yourself. Palpatine's Dark Empire has a large capacity for destruction, but because it is so focused on a few key points of power, it also has the possibility of crumbling upon itself if they're taken out, as their use can help turn the galaxy and its citizens against you.

Unique Techs/Units:
-Superweapons: World Devastators. Sovereigns. The Galaxy Gun. The Eclipse (unique Hero; you asked for it).
-TIE Droids: An automated fighter around the same power as a conventional TIE Fighter, but which does not cost any fighter supply to create.
-Fortress Worlds: Two levels of tech which increase both tactical slots and the number of starbases you can build in a gravity well.

That about covers it. As always, if you have feedback or suggestions on anything we've talked about here or anything else related to the mod, feel free to leave it in the comments or post it on our forums.

Follow Ascendancy

Forums - Facebook - Steam Group - Mod DB

144

News & Updates / Era Two - Galactic Conquest Breakdown

« on: October 13, 2016, 04:21:07 PM »

Before we get to the main event, there's been a ton going on with the development for both ICW and Ascendancy. As far as art goes, on top of other new content Robin is almost done with the reworked Bellator. I've also been working on getting some of our models from the latest Ascendancy version into ICW, including our Venator, Acclamator, Vindicator and Quasar, on top of other things we've already shown in ICW like the Assault Frigate and Escort Carrier. It may or may not make it in time for ICW 2.2, but Dr Knickers is also working on updating the Dreadnaught model, taking some inspiration from Fractalsponge's recent work. There's been a lot of recent questions about Eriadu and Maldrood units as well; they will be discussed pretty soon, so for now just be patient and stew in the delicious, aromatic and potentially nearing-spoiled mystery.

In the last news post we talked about some of our overall goals with edits to the GCs coming with 2.2, and outlined the three Era 1 GCs. This time we will be discussing Era Two, which starts with the conclusion of the Bacta War at the Battle of Thyferra, and ends with the Mission to Bilbringi of 9 ABY (which isn't actually the same as the Battle of Bilbringi where Thrawn died).

Hunt for Zsinj
"Let me get this straight. You said 'Kiss my Wookiee!' to the most powerful warlord in the galaxy?"
―Prince Isolder to Han Solo



Time Covered: Hunt for Zsinj (6-8 ABY) - Post-Zsinj Campaigns (8.5 ABY)

After the delays of the Bacta War, the New Republic is able to fully turn its attention to Warlord Zsinj. Zsinj posed such a threat as to prompt an alliance between the New Republic, the Imperial forces under Teren Rogriss, and the Hapes Consortium. After Zsinj was dealt with, the Imperial forces under Teren Rogriss and the New Republic forces under Han Solo continued on to deal with Greater Maldrood, whose leader, Treuten Teradoc, used the death of Zsinj to absorb much of his territory and forces and declare himself the High Admiral of the Mid Rim. In this campaign, the New Republic has some access to Imperial and Hapan units.

Factions:
New Republic - Coruscant (Represents alliance of New Republic, Hapes and Imperial Remnant)
Warlord Zsinj - Dathomir
Greater Maldrood - Centares

Thrawn Campaign
"History is on the move, Captain. Those who cannot keep up will be left behind, to watch from a distance. And those who stand in our way will not watch at all."
―Grand Admiral Thrawn



Time Covered: Thrawn Campaign (9 ABY)

Despite having spent the better part of the last decade in the Unknown Regions establishing the Empire of the Hand and dealing with threats to the Empire and Chiss Ascendancy, including the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium and Nuso Esva's holdings, Thrawn was quickly able to build up the biggest coalition of Imperial splinter factions since Endor. He united the forces of the Imperial Ruling Council, the Pentastar Alignment, Ciutric Hegemony, and smaller groups like the Corellian and Antimeridian sectors; essentially all remaining major Imperial forces outside of the Deep Core except the decimated and destabilized Greater Maldrood. Territoriality, the galaxy is at this point fairly evenly divided between the New Republic and Thrawn's Imperial coalition. The hunt for the Katana Fleet is still present in the GC, and we'll also be looking into other options to provide some story elements to this campaign (as one of the few two-sided ones, we have a few more options than in other cases). Aside from a few planets on either side, this campaign will probably be the least changed for those who have played previous versions.

Factions:
New Republic - Coruscant
Imperial Remnant - Orinda

Isard's Revenge
"It is interesting we have not met before, you and I, having been foes for so long. I expected you to be taller."
"I expected you to be dead."
―Ysanne Isard and Wedge Antilles



Time Covered: Ciutric Theatre (9 ABY)

After Thrawn's death and the dissolution of his coalition back into its constituent parts, the New Republic decided that in order to avoid the appearance of weakness, they would quickly launch another campaign against one of the remaining Warlords. They quickly settled upon the capricious Prince-Admiral Delak Krennal of the Ciutric Hegemony, who had usurped and murdered former Imperial Grand Vizier Sate Pestage with the assistance of Isard and General Paltr Carvin. This decision was controversial, as the Hegemony had not shown outward signs of expansion and Krennal had undertaken a campaign to improve its public appearance, including decrying superweapons (despite secretly building one themselves) and apologizing for the destruction of Alderaan. As is typical of Star Wars villains, Ysanne Isard around this time also turned out to not only not have died in the Bacta War, but also had a clone. Her clone, believing herself to be the real Isard, was providing advice to Krennal, while the real Isard was aiding the New Republic, hoping for an opportunity to reclaim the captured Lusankya. 

Factions:
New Republic - Coruscant
Imperial Remnant - Ciutric IV


And for a shameless plug, if you wanna see these changes in action as they develop, I've been previewing a lot of the new content on my personal channel atCorey Loses and on my stream on Hitbox. Currently for ICW I'm playing through Hunt for Zsinj with Zsinj and Maldrood, although the GC layout isn't quite the final one previewed here. There's also a poll up on the Hitbox for what should be previewed next. I typically stream every Saturday at 2 pm EST, and will be doing so this Saturday as well. I also do some other kinds of tutorials and playthroughs there, so if that sounds interesting to you give it a look. If you really want to support it or the content I make, I do have a Patreon for that as well.

If you have any suggestions, critiques or anything else you want to discuss for the mod, let us know in the comments or head over to our forums.

145

News & Updates / The Cold Shoulder & Preview Streams

« on: October 05, 2016, 12:26:43 PM »

None of our loading screens have made it past two versions, and the Empire of the Hand Stormtrooper shoulder has now finished its tenure as our resident welcome mat. This will now be what you see when you load up the mod.



We'll be back later this week with the second Era preview, but if you're looking for more 2.2 preview goodness, Corey will once again be previewing a very early 2.2 build on his personal stream at 2PM EST on Saturday, continuing his Zsinj playthrough. If you've missed the campaign so far, he's made the VoDs available on his youtube channel here:
Zsinj Campaign Playlist

He's also done a tutorial on how to add your own basic space heroes for Empire at War, which you can watch here:

146

News & Updates / Era One - Galactic Conquest Breakdown

« on: September 24, 2016, 05:17:25 PM »

2.2 is bringing a lot of overhauled content to the table, and Galactic Conquest scenarios are no exception. The GC selection and era system of previous versions did a decent job of capturing the overall themes, but there were some things we really wanted to change. Some GCs ended up trying to cover too much, and some GCs ended up being a little redundant. For 2.2 we sat down and basically re-planned all of our scenarios from the ground up (get it?). We'll be posting 7 updates of this type to outline the changes; one per era, one for progressive GCs, and one for GCs which don't fit into those categories (though eras 3 and 4 may be combined for the breakdown, we'll see when we get there). There will probably be some changes between what you read in these updates and the final release, but nothing too major.

With all of the GCs in the mod, once of the things we wanted to do was to inject a little bit more of the story and lore where possible, so in 2.2 you'll see a few more events thrown into the GC for different rewards or to cover different plot points. Some of these will be mentioned in the update, but not exhaustively. The era system does a decent job of covering the broad strokes of the post-Endor story, but there's still some gaps it leaves and we essentially want to make that a little more fluid and try to have some story progression in GCs which don't cover multiple eras. Era 4, for example, is pretty compact; there's only one major conflict in the time period (Daala trying to reunite the Empire while fighting the NR), but with others there's a lot to represent and having "the era 5 GC" just didn't do it justice.

Now, for the first set. Era 1 has always had Isard on the Lusankya as the sole leader of the Empire, which got the job done but condensed things a bit too much considering Lusankya spent most of this period under a city and Sate Pestage was more or less in charge before Isard (there was another guy between them, but he didn't really do much). Having just Fractured Empire and The Stars Align, which were altogether too similar in content also left out a lot of the bigger campaigns in what was actually a pretty hectic period, and that's what we're trying to cover here with these changes. So, we've refocused The Stars Align to be more localized to the Pentastar Alignment, and split Fractured Empire into the 2 GCs; Endor Aftermath and The Bacta War.

The Stars Align
"The New Order has never fallen. Only the Emperor. … The Emperor may be dead, but the Empire lives on!"
―Grand Moff Ardus Kaine



Time Covered: Pentastar Talks (4ABY)

This GC essentially gives the option of a small campaign within Era One for Pentastar players, focusing on the formation of the Pentastar Alignment and the Pentastar Talks between Grand Moff Kaine and the various groupss that form the Alignment. In 2.1, The Stars Align was meant to focus on this but ultimately ended up containing the majority of Fractured Empire as well, so these changes (initially planned by new team member, Kucsidave) should refocus the scenario and with its focus on the Alignment, give it a bit more of a reason to exist on its own.

Factions:
New Republic - Hast
Imperial Remnant - Orinda
Pentastar Alignment - Entralla

Endor Aftermath
"It's just that, after every major victory, I hope the fighting is over. But it'll never be over…Even after we defeat the Imperials, there will be someone…another threat to peace…"
―Wedge Antilles




Time Covered: Delvardus Campaign (4ABY) - Liberation of Coruscant (6ABY)

This GC covers the initial expansion of the New Republic and the rise of Imperial Warlords. The battle of Endor has left the Empire in shambles, caused infighting within its political and military branches and allowing the New Republic to make several key gains. The Pentastar Alignment, Zsinj, Eriadu Authority and Greater Maldrood all hope to establish themselves as the legitimate successors to the Empire, and have the benefit of starting with their territory already consolidated. Within this GC, the Remnant starts out with Sate Pestage as its head. However, if Coruscant is taken, Pestage flees and Isard takes over with the Lusankya (or if Pestage is killed before then), essentially splitting the GC into two mini eras. Imperial players can also opt to support Isard earlier if they put in the resources to extricate Lusankya from Coruscant themselves.

Factions:
New Republic - Endor
Imperial Remnant - Coruscant
Pentastar Alignment - Entralla
Eriadu Authority - Eriadu
Warlord Zsinj - Serenno
Greater Maldrood - Centares

Bacta War
"Rebel forces are indeed now in control of Imperial Center. What they have discovered, though they know not the depth of the problem, is that Imperial Center is a poisoned world, a sick world. It is a black hole from which they cannot escape."
-Ysanne Isard



Time Covered: Mission Above Imperial City (7ABY) - Battle of Thyferra (7 ABY)

After the fall of Coruscant, elements within the New Republic differed on what should be their course of action. As she left the planet, Isard on the Lusankya unleashed the Krytos Virus, a bioweapon developed by Evir Derricote which targeted non-humans. Isard then took Thyferra, allowing her to control the galaxy's supply of healing bacta. Wedge Antilles and Rogue Squadron wanted to raid Thyferra for the Bacta and focus on removing Isard, but the New Republic instead chose to target Warlord Zsinj, believing him to be the greater threat. Despite this, Antilles and Rogue Squadron still undertook the mission to cure the virus. This GC primarily sees the Imperial Remnant and New Republic fighting over the core worlds, with Zsinj waiting at the edges of the galaxy to strike. It also includes a series of events for the New Republic involving finding a cure for the Krytos Virus, which will place penalties on New Republic worlds from the start of the campaign until it is cured.

Factions:
New Republic - Coruscant
Imperial Remnant - Thyferra
Warlord Zsinj - Serenno


That's it for now. Hopefully this gives you a decent idea of where we're going with these changes. These updates will be interspersed with faction profiles and "We Could Be Heroes" editions until we've completed them all, so stay tuned. Also, I (Corey) have been doing some very early preview playthroughs of 2.2 content on my personal youtube channel, so if you want to check that out it can be found here.

If you have any suggestions, critiques or anything else you want to discuss for the mod, head over to our forums at www.thrawnsrevenge.com/forums.

147

News & Updates / What a Piece of Junk

« on: September 23, 2016, 01:08:04 PM »

But everyone's favourite piece of junk. We'll be outlining hero systems a bit later (waiting on one or two models before we do), but this is obviously one of the New Republic's hero ships.

Model by Corey (1500 polies)
Texture by Slevered

148

News & Updates / Millenium Falcon

« on: September 22, 2016, 09:07:27 PM »

As we've said, in 1.1 we're adding hero units. Here's one of them. Model by Corey, skin by Slevered.

149

News & Updates / We Could Be Heroes - Warlord Zsinj

« on: September 15, 2016, 05:37:13 PM »

A couple of weeks ago we did a news post about the expanded hero roster of the Pentastar Alignment, and we intend to do this for each of the remaining Warlord factions (the other factions aren't changing). Now it is Warlord Zsinj's turn.

Deciding on heroes for Imperials, especially the Warlords, can be a bit more complicated than other factions; because of how the EU developed, you'd often have stories about the New Republic fighting some random group or individual, without really saying which Imperial group they belonged to. A lot of in-universe development of the Warlords only came later in the EU's development with source books like the Essential Guide to Warfare and the Despoilers of an Empire series, which sorted out some of the mess. Obviously, when a person is explicitly mentioned as being part of a faction, those are the easy ones. Some of the other heroes within Zsinj's Empire, Eriadu and Maldrood come from extrapolating based on where they were located and who else they worked with, and in some cases, what might have happened had certain events turned out differently, usually giving them a few more options as they expand (this being less common at the moment, but hopefully something we can expand on in the future). As we explain the heroes for each group, we'll also include the rationale for including them where it's less obvious. The icons also don't translate from tga to png as well as they could, so in general the icons do look a bit better ingame than in the news posts.



Warlord Zsinj - Space: Executor-class Star Destroyer, Iron Fist
Zsinj's initial rise to prominence came when he hunted down and killed his mother, Admiral Maarisa Zsinj, after she refused to hand over command of her ship. Affter the Battle of Yavin, Zsinj was granted both the rank of Admiral and command of an Executor class, Brawl, which he rechristened Iron Fist. He would soon become the High Admiral of Crimson Command, and Grand Moff of the Queli Oversector based on Taris, which he incorporated as a key portion of his territory after Endor. His actual position as "Warlord" within the Empire under Palpatine was used to legitimize his command after Palpatine's death, while he still swore loyalty to the Empire, thereby popularizing its use by other pretenders.

General Melvar - Ground: A6 Juggernaut
Fanatically loyal to Emperor Palpatine, and with an obsessive love for the Empire, General Melvar became Warlord Zsinj’s top General after the Battle of Endor, spearheading many intelligence operations for his new commander. Reputed to be extremely sadistic, Melvar had his fingernails replaced with cuticle implants to provide him with an immediate torture device.

Captain Raslan - Space: Executor-class Star Destroyer, Razor's Kiss - Recruit from Kuat
Raslan was a highly intelligent and competent officer loyal to Warlord Zsinj. During the attempt to capture the still-under-construction Executor-class Razor's Kiss at Kuat, Raslan led a team on a Lambda shuttle to hijack the vessel.

Note: This mission did fail in the EU, however part of the point of the Warlords is to give the players the opportunity to succeed where these Warlords failed in canon.

Gethzerion - Ground - Recruit from Dathomir
Gethzerion was the ruthless founder and leader of the Dathomiri Nightsisters. When the Millenium Falcon crashed on Dathomir, Gethzerion cooperated with Zsinj to capture Han and Leia. When confronted by Luke Skywalker and her niece Tenneial Djo, she fled the planet and her shuttle was destroyed on orders from Warlord Zsinj.

Terrinald Screed -  Space: Gladiator-class Star Destroyer, Demolisher - Recruit from Carida
A hero of the Clone Wars and commander of the first Victory Fleet in the Galactic Republic. After the death of Palpatine, Screed carved out his own Warlord kingdom and allied himself with former rival Warlord Zsinj, who ultimately had him executed

Admiral Apwar Trigit - Space: Imperial-class Star Destroyer, Implacable
Formerly an Imperial officer, the self-styled Admiral Trigit would leave the Empire’s service after the apparent death of Ysanne Isard. Independent but lacking the resources to carve his own empire, Trigit hired his ship out to Zsinj and placed himself under the Warlord’s command.

Captain Zurel Darillian - Space: Modified CR90-class Corvette, Night Caller
The Night Caller is a heavily modified CR90 Corvette. Its commander, Zurel Darillian, is a meticulous former intelligence officer who was exiled from his home planet, Coruscant, after it was lost to the New Republic. Darillian is primarily responsible for taking diplomatic actions on behalf of Zsinj towards those Zsinj wished to recruit for his Empire.

Tetran Cowall - Space: False 181st Squadron
Tetran Cowall was a former holodrama star who joined Zsinj in order to impersonate Baron Soontir Fel when he was unable to find other work. His rival, Garik "Face" Loran of Rogue Squadron, a former actor himself, said he was a man of "no perceivable acting skills" although he was able to convince Rogue Squadron he was the true commander of the 181st.

Teubbo the Hutt, Economist-  Galactic
Little is known about Teubbo, other than that Teubbo was a Hutt employed as an economist by Warlord Zsinj.

Inquisitor Lanu Pasiq - Ground
When Darth Vader was hunting down the remaining jedi after Order 66, Lanu Pasiq was among the first of a new group of dark jedi called the Inquisitors being trained to assist him. In this capacity she worked closely with Antinnis Tremayne and Imperial Intelligence Director Armand Isard, father of Ysanne Isard. After Endor, she allied herself with Warlord Zsinj.

Rear Admiral Llon Banjeer - Space: Quasar-class Carrier
In the early days after the Battle of Endor, Admmiral Llon Banjeer was an ally of Warlord Zsinj and used his bulk cruisers to attack the New Republic shipyards at Hast. After the fall of Zsinj's Empire and the final death of Emperor Palpatine, Banjeer was part of the Interim Ruling Council and a backer of Carnor Jax. In space he commands a Quasar.

Admiral Angela Krin - Space: Lucrehulk-class Battleship, Resolute - Recruit from Etti IV
Angela Krin gained prominence as the Corporate Sector officer in charge of enforcing the Endregraad quarantine in 119 ABY. She was also responsible for thwarting the plans of Hutt groups.

Note: Krin was never directly affiliated with Zsinj, and was instead a member of the CSA navy. Since Zsinj controls the CSA, we've extrapolated to using her a s a recruitable hero for Zsinj. Resolute may be switched to her initial Invincible-class version if we decide to use that ship class.

There may be a few changes before release, but that's the gist of what you'll be dealing with. We'll have the Eriadu and Maldrood faction profiles and hero rosters soon as well. If you want to see more of what's in store for Zsinj, I'm currently doing a playthrough of the Hunt for Zsinj GC as Warlord Zsinj on my personal channel with an early build, which I'll also be doing with the other factions as we go. You can watch it by clicking here.

If you have any suggestions, critiques or anything else you want to discuss for the mod, head over to our forums at www.thrawnsrevenge.com/forums.

150

News & Updates / 2.2 Hunt for Zsinj Preview - Warlord Zsinj

« on: September 04, 2016, 10:50:42 PM »

I've started playing through some of the 2.2 content on my personal channel on stream, and pushing it to youtube. I've started with the in-progress Hunt for Zsinj GC as Warlord Zsinj. Click thw image below to go to the playlist.

151

News & Updates / We Could Be Heroes - The Pentastar Alignment

« on: September 03, 2016, 05:07:26 AM »

One of the most common requests related to the Pentastar Alignment has always been for more heroes, since they were limited to four in previous releases. Because of how little attention the Alignment gets in lore, this isn't always easy, however we've managed to flesh out the hero roster in ways we think most people should be happy with, including some changes to the existing ones which should free us up in some other ways. So, here's a quick look at who you'll be playing with in 2.2, starting with the three unchanged ones.



Grand Moff Ardus Kaine -  Space: Executor-class Star Destroyer, Reaper
Kaine, the leader and founder of the Pentastar Alignment, will be essentially unchanged from previous versions. He'll still be a big source of early power for the Alignment from the bridge of the Reaper, which will itself be making a few more appearances in the mod.

Grand Admiral Octavian Grant - Space: Imperial-class Star Destroyer Oriflamme
Octavian Grant has always been regarded as a brilliant tactician, although his lack of desire to play the political games required for success in the Empire left him without a significant following after the Battle of Endor. Rather than carve out his own warlord state as many of his Grand Admiral peers had tried, the pragmatic Grant sought refuge within Kaine's Pentastar Alignment while the other Grand Admirals were picked off by each other and the New Republic, despite having been marked for death by the other Grand Admirals. Grant would eventually defect to the New Republic, trading immunity for Imperial intel. He would seek to aid the New Republic in defeating Grand Admiral Thrawn, although he was declined the opportunity out of mistrust for his motives. In Operation Shadow Hand, however he played a key role in the New Republic's ambush of Grand Moff Kaine by feigning allegiance to his old colleague and luring him into a trap.

Commerce Master Commissioner Gregor Raquoran - Galactic only
Raquoran rose to the position of master commissioner through years of proving himself to be a capable businessman, as well as demonstrating a significant level of political acumen within the Velcar Free Commerce Zone. After Endor, he believed the Velcar zone to be relatively safe, but after Kaine called for the Pentastar Talks in 7 ABY, he recognized the prudence of Velcar joining the Alignment. Ingame, he provides significant cost reduction bonuses.

Zenithal InQuestor Jerec - Ground
Jerec was initially a Jedi Master who then became a feared Inquisitor within the New Order. After the Empire's collapse, he styled himself Warlord; however, he ultimately decided to align himself with Grand Moff Kaine's Pentastar Alignment, taking up the mantle of Great InQuestor of Judgment, the Alignment's version of Inquistitors. While he was still ostensibly serving the Alignment, Cronal, who was with the recovering Palpatine on Byss, reached out to secure Jerec's cooperation in the search for the Valley of the Jedi. Jerec will be remaining the same on the ground, however he will not automatically spawn with Vengeance.

Captain Sysco - Space: Vengeance-class Star destroyer Vengeance
Rather than keep Jerec as a free jedi hero with his own SSD from the start, Vengeance and Jerec have been separated, with the former being given as its own hero to Captain Sysco, the officer who commanded the ship under Jerec. Sysco and Vengance will not be spawned at the start of GCs; instead, he will need to be recruited into your fleet. This allows us to play some more with other areas of strength within the Alignment, since with two free SSDs, they could foetn be overbearing.

Great InQuestor Halmere - Ground
Halmere was one of the few surviving force-sensitives after the Clone Wars. He was chosen by Darth Vader for training, and worked his way up to the position of High Inquisitor by the Battle of Yavin. Like many other inquisitors, Halmere was recruited into the service of the Pentastar Alignment by Jerec. After Jerec's death at the hands of Kyle Katarn, Halmere took his place as the Zenithal InQuestor of Judgment.

Governor Ib Dekeet - Galactic, Space: Praetor II-class Star Battlecruiser
Dekeet was an Imperial governor stationed in the outer rim. He was present at the Pentastar Talks, and ultimately signed on despite initial hesitance.

Elta Besk - Galactic, Space: Interdictor-class Star Destroyer Dynamic
Elta Besk came from a rich family and inherited the company Dynamic Automata from her father Metron. As head of DA, she was invited by Kaine to the Pentastar Talks along with the four other dignitaries and captains of industry. She agreed to join out of concern for possible slave revolts in her workforce if the New Republic were to get a foothold. On the Galactic map she provides a cost reduction to units with significant droid parts.

Wyrn Otro - Galactic, Space: Enforcer-class Picket Ship, Enforcer
Otro was invited to the Pentastar Talks as a representative for Galentro Heavy Works, which would join and produce the iconic Enforcer-class picket ship for the Alignment, along with various other types of arms. Jaemus Shipyards was a subsidiary of the company.

Sariss - Ground
Sariss was the daughter of Cronal, and served undercover as the "Prophetess" on Tatooine before the Battle of Endor, serving as a spy for the Secret Order of the Empire. After fleeing Tatooine, she became an apprentice of Jerec. She was also killed by Kyle Katarn in the search for the Valley of the Jedi.

Yun - Ground
Yun was the son of a mineral baron. After becoming infatuated with Sariss, Yun joined her in the service of Jerec. Upon finding Kyle Katarn unconscious and defenseless after the Moldy Crow crashed, Sariss tried to kill him, however Yun deflected her attack which then killed Yun, who said he believed Kyle deserved the opportunity to defend himself.

Krassis Trelix - Space: Firespray-class Patrol and Attack Craft, Indenture (Can be recruited from Gabredor III)
Krassis Trelix is a slaver in the employ of the Karazak Slavers Corporation as a highly respected pilot. The KSC, although not strictly members of the Pentastar Alignment, would often be contracted by them when it was deemed necessary, as in one case when some of its members were tasked with the capture of the children of Cantras Gola's ambassador after they had discovered the planet's desire to secede and join the New Republic.

Rei'kas - Ground (Can be recruited from Gabredor III)
Rei'kas is a Rodian slaver working for the KSC as a strike team leader, a position he achieved due to extremely violent tenancies and determination. 


And that should do it for 2.2. Hopefully that should provide some more variety for Alignment players. We're also at a point where, in addition to articles, I'm going to start playing through some of the new content on my stream. For those interested, the first time for this will be Sunday September 4th (tomorrow) at 3pm EST. After the streams I'll also be putting them on my youtube channel, Corey Loses, for those who can't make it.

152

News & Updates / 2.2 Preview and Interview - Gul Gaming

« on: August 26, 2016, 01:43:55 PM »

153

News & Updates / Endor Aftermath

« on: August 23, 2016, 04:29:14 PM »

We're doing a significant overhaul to all of the Galactic Conquest scenarios in 2.2; some completely new ones, some redundant ones removed, some significantly reworked and some formerly single-scenario setups split into multiple scenarios because of how much they cover. Part of the goal in this is to add in more story where it's appropriate, but we'll get to that later once the project is closer to finished.

For now, here's the layout of the Endor Aftermath GC. This GC is the primary Warlord-focused GC in 2.2, with all Imperial groups plus the New Republic, immediately after the Empire's fracturing. We'll have a news post soon where we break it down a bit more.

154

News & Updates / Updated Faction Avatars

« on: August 08, 2016, 05:37:38 PM »

The faction-based signatures and avatars we've handed out have become pretty popular, but the ones on the forums are a bit more dull than the ones ingame; especially for the PA. So, here's a new set of brighter, less depressing avatars which are closer to the ones ingame. Other factions will get the same treatment as we go.

As per usual, just right click, copy image address, go to edit your profile and paste the image link in there.

155

News & Updates / Make Maldrood Great Again

« on: August 06, 2016, 09:27:05 PM »

156

News & Updates / The 2.2 Manifesto

« on: August 02, 2016, 02:41:13 AM »

Information has been a little bit sparse on 2.2 and what it actually consists of, and I apologize for that. This is because we typically wait until features are 100% complete before announcing or discussing them too much, which in this case has been a little problematic. There are plenty of things which are progressing well, but which aren't quite finished. Most of them will also probably finish all at once, so instead of waiting to discuss different changes, here's a giant overview of most of what we've got on our plates for Imperial Civil War at the moment, finished or not, in no particular order. I won't cover the three new playable Warlord factions here, since they're getting their own posts.


Regime Change - Finished

Instead of having to go on annoying suicide runs, we've given Imperial players a new way to get through the era. You can see it in action and the reasons for doing so in this video.


Particle Changes - Finished

Projectiles can sometimes be a bit overwhelming on screen, especially from larger ships. This is no longer a problem; lasers are considerably smaller and travel faster, meaning less clutter on screen. Depending on resource, we'd also ideally like to move towards getting some death clones and damage particles back ingame.


Era Progression vs Tech Progression - In Progress

One of the most common (and frankly, annoying) misconceptions about the mod is that era progression and technological progression necessarily mean the same thing, resulting in people saying "why should I have to kill my heroes to get better tech" when the only faction which gives up their heroes to progress chronologically is also the faction which tends to get hurt the most by doing so, the Remnant. There will be an even further divide between technological progression and era progression in the mod in 2.2. Instead of automatically getting ships when you progress eras, eras will be one factor among several. For example, upon reaching Era 3, the New Republic will have to complete tech upgrades to start constructing its new class ships, including the Sacheen, Nebula and, making its potentially-regrettable return, the Republic-class Star Destroyer. Research like this will be constrained to the Empire of the Hand, New Republic and Imperial Remnant for hardcoded reasons. This also gives the Remnant a greater incentive to stay within certain eras where it has invested money in upgrading its arsenal, and losing your leader now becomes an even greater setback.

For other factions, being the Pentastar Alignment, Greater Maldrood, Warlord Zsinj, and Eriadu Authority, there will be other prerequisites in place to give a feeling of progression even within single-era GCs. There will be some heroes available for recruitment only on certain planets, for example bounty hunters like Dengar and Bossk for most Imperial groups, or Rei'kas and Krassis Trelix for the Pentastar Alignment (more on that later). We've yet to say much about Maldrood, but a significant portion of their roster will be based on their pirate connections, including some unique units which will be both familiar and potentially unwelcome to some players.

Diplomatic Influence - Finished

Smallpox has mostly finished the Diplomatic influence system for GC. Here is basically how it works, in his words. Keep in mind there may be significant differences for this as it goes through testing.

The galaxy map is divided into sectors. Each planet gets assigned a value that represents your current influence on that planet. -If you lose a planet in a sector you lose influence on all other planets owned by you in the same sector. If you conquer a planet you gain influence on all other planets owned by you in that sector. You gain a little influence every day on each planet you own. If your influence on a planet drops to 0 you lose that planet (affiliation changes to neutral if no enemy diplomat or fleet is present). Every faction gets a diplomat unit with a build limit of one at a time. Diplomats have galactic stealth. If a diplomat is in orbit of a planet owned by another faction, the faction's influence on that planet will decrease every day. If the influence hits 0 while a diplomat is present the affiliation of that planet will change to the faction the diplomat belongs to. The diplomat also gets removed. Diplomats are also removed when the planet affiliation changes due to another faction conquering the planet.

Ground Combat Changes - In Progress

There are a few different things we're playing with for ground. First off, we're removing some of our worse maps and sprinkling in vanilla ones where they fit again. This also means we've slowed down the unit movements back to their original speeds. Ground buildings are going to have defensive turret hardpoints built into them in order to add another layer to ground battles. I'm still playing with the turret types to make sure terrain affects them as little as possible, but for the most part the system is complete and in place. We're also playing with expanding hardpoint use on the ground, giving a bit more depth to your tactical choices and hopefully making one of EaW's better features more prominent. Infantry will all be gvien back the crouch-move ability as well. This is a good portion of what were doing, but not everything.



New and Redone Units- In Progress

This is a bit more difficult to talk about without just turning it into a list, so that's basically what I'll do. As usual, there'll be a few older units getting redone or updated in some way. There will also be plenty of new hardware in space and also on ground to get your hands on. There's probably two dozen units not present in 21, including the Bellator, Secutor, Gladiator and Allegiance to name only some of the triangular ones. There's also the ULAV and AT-TE on the ground. The Empire of the Hand will also get considerable attention in this respect, with three new capital ships and four new defense platforms.



This isn't quite everything in the mod, but hopefully it gives you an idea of our major goals with the mod for this version. More information, and more specific information, will come as we go. For those of you who would like to, I would also appreciate it if you gave this thread on one of my personal projects (which will hopefully help to allow me to focus more on things like modding) a read.

Follow Imperial Civil War

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157

News & Updates / The Ssi-Ruuvi Redux & Development Progress

« on: August 02, 2016, 01:49:50 AM »

The Ssi Ruuvi Imperium



In the past we've talked about our intention to have the Ssi-Ruuvi in the mod, and now we're explaining that a bit more. And before anyone says it, no, they will not be a playable faction in 1.1.



History & Culture

"It has been almost thirty years since the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium waged war in this section of the galaxy. In fact, our former masters were assessing more than just their tactics in the wake of their defeat." - Lwothin

For much of its history, the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium remained isolated in their own star cluster, content to enslave less powerful species close by, chief among them the closely-related P'wecks. This isolation was partially the result of xenophobia, while the Ssi-Ruuk religious fear of dying away from consecrated ground also contributed heavily. In this isolation, the Ssi-Ruuk developed their own unique technology to power their droids and starships, a process named entechment by which they drained a being of its life energy. Resource scarcity drove the Imperium to become expansionist around the Battle of Endor, and upon taking Imperial prisoners from border worlds, they discovered that humans provided significantly larger amounts of energy. A deal with Emperor Palpatine had promised the Imperium several worlds and millions of entechable humans, however upon his death the Empire was no longer able to fulfil this deal, and the Imperium began an invasion into the Chiss Ascendancy and the known galaxy. The New Republic launched a counter-offensive after defeating the Imperium at Bakura, only to find the Ssi-Ruuvi fleet in shambles, the result the much more destructive theatre of war between the Chiss forces and the Imperium; Jagged Fel indicated the occurance of several skirmishes between the Chiss and the Imperium. Although it would take decades, the Imperium recovered and, under the influence of Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators, launched another offensive in 28ABY which was ultimately thwarted by the Galactic Alliance and a P'weck slave revolt.





Gameplay

"The gulfs of space are not home to us and neither are the barren worlds. The worlds of fire and the worlds of ice are not home to us. Where oxygen burns and water flows, where carbon bonds and ozone protects—there we plant our roots. The seed of our species is fertile; all we require is the soil in which to plant it." - The Keeramak, Grand Shreeftut of the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium

For those who remember, we initially announced the Ssi-Ruuvi as a non-playable faction a few years back, although they've yet to feature in the mod. This changes as of 1.1. One of the possible random events in the mod will be Ssi-Ruuvi incursions into the galaxy. These can range from small-scale scouting fleets, to full-fledged armadas rivaling the power of the players in the game. When they do show up, you'd better deal with them fast, as they will have the ability to not only destroy your territory, but to capture and exploit it for themselves and expand their fleet. In our test games, it's not uncommon for them to become a major consideration, especially if they arrive early enough in an unoccupied section of the galaxy.

Their fleets will consist of the Shree-class as their heavy hitter, the Lwhekk-class Manufacturing ship as a carrier which does not require being resupplied (one of their faction bonuses), the Wurrif-class cruiser and the Swarm Droid fighter. If we end up with more art resources than we expected, we may make a few more units for them in 1.1, but that will most likely be waiting for them to become one of the three future playable factions in a future version.

Development Progress

In general, the mod is progressing well. As you can see in the screenshot above, the UI rework is essentially finished. Part of this will involve some of our steps to make the game mechanics a bit more clear to players, especially new ones, which we'll explain in a future news post with a few mechanical changes to the Remnant and New Republic. Heroes are also almost done, with a few key exceptions. The majority of the work remains with the Empire of the Hand, who will be gaining 3 new capital ships, two space stations and two defense platforms in 1.1.

Corey will also be hosting some community games of 1.0 on his stream in august. The schedule for this is as follows:

Friday August 5th - 6 PM EST
Sunday August 7th - 2 PM EST
Saturday August 13th - 5 PM EST
Wednesday August 17th - 6 PM EST
Saturday August 20th - 2 PM EST


Follow Ascendancy

Forums - Facebook - Steam Group - Mod DB

158

News & Updates / Gladiator Reskin

« on: July 30, 2016, 11:39:55 PM »

I've updated the skin for the Gladiator in 1.1

159

News & Updates / Video: Installation and Troubleshooting

« on: July 30, 2016, 04:37:33 PM »

160

Ascendancy Tech Support / Video: Installation and Troubleshooting

« on: July 30, 2016, 04:37:04 PM »

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