Two Questions Re: Retail/Disk versus Steam and 2.2

[SLB1]

I plan to reinstall/play SW EAW/FoC and ICW.  After reading threads on this site, parts of the manual, and watching Corey's Youtube stuff.  I have two questions:
(1)  I have the retail disks of EAW and FoC. The Manual had a link to LucasArts which then sent me to Disney, and after "looking around" I found the two patches - FoC to 1.01 and more than 2Gb of RAM.  Also, I noted the extra steps to launch the ICW if you have the Steam version.  Because I play Steam games offline, is there any advantage to buying/downloading the EAW and FoC from Steam?
(2) To just play ICW, I will need ICW2.1 and the stability patch from MODdb; and to assist in 2.2, I will need the separate 2.2 Demo and the 2.2 Loading Time Fix patch, also from MODdb.  Have I missed anything?
Thanks

[Corey]

Hello again SLB!

1) Really, there's not a huge difference with Steam vs non-steam, except steam has those patches included. Aside from editing the launch options to a different mod name, you're not likely to have a much different experience either way unless you enjoy Steam tracking how much of your life you've spent in the game. I personally prefer it because I hated keeping track of the CD, but that's up to you.

2) Yeah, 2.1 is just the base build and stability patch, and the 2.2 demo is just the main download and the loading time patch.

[SLB1]

Thanks for the information.

After 4 years (time goes fast when you are having fun), I wanted to play/re-familarize myself with ICW.  While playing (ICW/GC/6ABY The Stars Align/Penstar/Captain/Week 43), I noted 5 issues/bugs/problems/requests, some of which may or may not be fixable:
(1) In several space battles with the New Republic, the new intruder (forgot name) occasionally jumps in and fights everyone.  Several times, when the New Republic is on the offensive and they retreat,  the battle ends, eventhough the  new intruder has not been defeated.  I vaguely remember this being discussed in the past, but could not be fixed.
(2) After defeating the Imperial Remanant on Bilbringi (there were 4 Golans in space), I built 3 Golans, but on the planet view there are only 2 boxes with Golans, and the small text on the top left only shows two types.  In addition, the boxes show 2 Golan IIs, but the text states Golan II and Golan III.  Also, on the space build UI, the Golans are still shown as buildable.  Can I build more than 2?
(3) Starting week 41, for space battles, my frame rate has noticeable dropped.  Nothing has changed, but the week.  Is this worth pursuing?
(4) On several of the base layout maps, e.g. Anx Minor, the location of units, buildings and placement positions are not shown.  If this can be fixed, I can include a detailed list.  I vaguely remember this being addressed years ago.
(5) To help a relatively old guy, is there some way I can lighten the blue color for the Penstar Alignment to make it easier to read?

Thanks

[Corey]

(1) In several space battles with the New Republic, the new intruder (forgot name) occasionally jumps in and fights everyone.  Several times, when the New Republic is on the offensive and they retreat,  the battle ends, eventhough the  new intruder has not been defeated.  I vaguely remember this being discussed in the past, but could not be fixed.

 That's how it's intended to work (or at least, has to work within the game).

(2) After defeating the Imperial Remanant on Bilbringi (there were 4 Golans in space), I built 3 Golans, but on the planet view there are only 2 boxes with Golans, and the small text on the top left only shows two types.  In addition, the boxes show 2 Golan IIs, but the text states Golan II and Golan III.  Also, on the space build UI, the Golans are still shown as buildable.  Can I build more than 2?

You can build as many as the planet lets you build. The boxes cannot be expanded to show more than two, the text at the top is meant to display everything on the planet, but there may have been a bug if you didn't see all of your stations. We're exploring different ways to display them, but that would likely be beyond 2.2.

(3) Starting week 41, for space battles, my frame rate has noticeable dropped.  Nothing has changed, but the week.  Is this worth pursuing?

The week wouldn't have any impact on the framerate. It may be that you're coming across different types of ships in different frequencies that have more or less strain on your system.

(4) On several of the base layout maps, e.g. Anx Minor, the location of units, buildings and placement positions are not shown.  If this can be fixed, I can include a detailed list.  I vaguely remember this being addressed years ago.

These are automatically generated by the map editor. When the map is saved again by the editor, it overwrites the data and has to be extracted, so we will once again have to go through and get it to re-extract. It is, quite frankly, one of the most tedious things in the fucking world and easy to go wrong without noticing because there's really no indication of how well it worked until you come across the planet (one of 240) ingame. In any case, for 2.2 we've cut most of our own maps and reintroduced most of the vanilla maps, so we'll likely have to redo it for all of the maps which are staying anyway.

(5) To help a relatively old guy, is there some way I can lighten the blue color for the Penstar Alignment to make it easier to read?

2.2 has brightened all of the colours a bit, but this can be found in the Expansion_Factions.xml. If you search for the "Pentastar" section, in the first bit of code there's a set of RGB values- you just plug in the appropriate values for whatever colour you like (if you don't have photoshop, then the internet is full of decent RGB viewers)

[SLB1]

Thanks as always.

While I am "on a roll" - have two more questions:
(1) when I attacked Mon Calamari with overwhelming space assets, the New Republic space units immediately retreated, but had no direct star lanes.  I vaguely remember this from the past, did they slowing traveled to the nearest New Republic system?
(2) according to the manual this is a single era campaign, if I eliminate Mon Mothma, what happens to the remaining New Republic planets and units?

  - post title a'bit off - 2 questions became 7

[kucsidave]

1 Yes, they do. You are 100% right
2 NR leaders have nothing to do with era change. The IR's leaders are the one the era change is tied to. Though in single Era GCs losing them doesn't really change thing other than losing them.
Alternatively there are some events which happen on certain condition(s), but these are/will be well documented. You can always take a look at them within the objectives in the 2.2 demo version.
Simiar smaller "mini missions" existed within 2.1 too (Thrawn GC and Reunification to be precise) and they were documented in the manual.
In the future you will be able to see those documented within the game as well.