Questions/Comments about 2.0

[yutpaeksi]

Surprised there's not a sticky already for this.

To kick it off, Corey I thought you were going to give the AI (and player?) capital shipyards to begin GCs. This doesn't seem to have carried over from the beta (I remember it being in place in patch 5).

The increased infantry speed works well, even if it looks absolutely hilarious at times.

I'm not sure how I feel about the complete fog of war reveal in all space battles now. It makes player assaults a bit easier, you can send in a single vanguard unit then pick exactly where to hype in the rest of your forces too easily.

[Corey]

To kick it off, Corey I thought you were going to give the AI (and player?) capital shipyards to begin GCs. This doesn't seem to have carried over from the beta (I remember it being in place in patch 5).

They did, it just may not be on every planet.

I'm not sure how I feel about the complete fog of war reveal in all space battles now. It makes player assaults a bit easier, you can send in a single vanguard unit then pick exactly where to hype in the rest of your forces too easily.

This isn't something we actually did. The game decides to do it when certain parameters happen.

[yutpaeksi]

They did, it just may not be on every planet.

Are you sure? I remember before that Yaga Minor (but not Ord Trasi) and Bilbringi in Final Imp Push started with cap shipyards, but now they're not.

This isn't something we actually did. The game decides to do it when certain parameters happen.

Oh I see, it's happening so disturbingly often (pretty much every battle I've fought so far) that I thought you'd forced it. Never mind.

Additionally, I'm very impressed by how many additional VOs you guys have added in. I do want to express that a some of them are very very low gain and difficult to hear. Difficult enough, that it might be better not even to have VOs for certain heroes.

[Corey]

Nobody's made any changes to the campaign files since beta. If you catch the capital shipyards that are missing from the start, post them and I'll fix it.

[yutpaeksi]

The removal of Kuat from the Final Imp Push GC is kind of unfair to the IR. It means there's no chance of getting KDY, while the NR has Mon Cal and the EotH has Syca.

[Corey]

I think I disagree, for a few reasons. If they got Kuat it would be at the expense of Bilbringi. While Kuat technically would benefit them more if given a direct choice between Bilbringi and Kuat, in game it doesn't really work out like that. Kuat is pretty far into New Republic territory, save for the few core planets the IR has, whereas Bilbringi is something they can get right off the bat. More skilled players can probably take Kuat and hold it with their core planet forces, but in general by the time you make it out to Kuat as the IR you're most of the way through the GC. If we were to just add Kuat without Bilbringi removed, it's adding another capital shipyard to the New Republic. So the benefit they get as the IR to having Kuat in there is either more of a benefit for the New Republic early on, which wouldn't be good, or hurts the IR player's starting position even more for a slight later game benefit for 90% of players.

[yutpaeksi]

Well first, I'm not sure why the addition of Kuat to the GC map would necessitate the removal of Bilbringi. I'm not sure that it's a BAD thing for the NR to benefit from four initial capital shipyards. The player can't leverage that early anyway due to money limits, and the NR AI would waste time by building Golans all the way back there at Sluis Van. And in this era, the NR IS supposed to be the dominant force in the galaxy...

If you're trying to keep the number readily available to the IR early lower, then the removal of Ord Trasi could be done to balance that.

I would agree that Bilbringi is positioned well for the IR to take and hold from the NR, BUT it's also susceptible to attack by the EotH. It easily can become a flashpoint for all three factions to fight over, which is something the IR player should keep in mind. I would argue that for the IR, fortifying and holding Borosk from the EotH is a nicer way to seal off that flank, then driving down Levian Two -> Champala -> Chandrila -> Kuat would be a nice spearpoint into the Inner Rim. Especially if the player is aware of the KDY bonus. I've previously viewed Kuat and Coruscant together as a mini-objective. When I know I'm stable enough in the back end of my empire then I feel ready to drive into the Inner Rim and pour resources to hold my position there. As the IR you COULD skirt around the outer and middle rim before driving towards the Core but that doesn't seem like them. That seems more like a silly Rebel thing to do.

In any case this hasn't detracted from my enjoyment of 2.0 Final Imperial Push (keeping Tierce out of action so he doesn't crash the game is kinda bumming me out). The GC map is thoughtfully laid out and I was surprised to find myself contending heavily with the NR and the EotH at the same time as the IR player. That wasn't an issue before and is very welcome here.

[yutpaeksi]

So Disra was never added to era 5 as a separate hero right? Well, in the XMLs it looks like the Relentless was intended to offer a price reduction bonus? That's not the case in-game, nor is it mentioned in the manual. So was it simply abandoned?

[Corey]

Well first, I'm not sure why the addition of Kuat to the GC map would necessitate the removal of Bilbringi. I'm not sure that it's a BAD thing for the NR to benefit from four initial capital shipyards. The player can't leverage that early anyway due to money limits, and the NR AI would waste time by building Golans all the way back there at Sluis Van. And in this era, the NR IS supposed to be the dominant force in the galaxy...

The end tally would still be the NR benefiting from it more than the IR. Even if you can't immediately capitalize on it, it's still a big boon, and both the EotH and IR are already at such a disadvantage for planets it wouldn't be a great idea to exacerbate that.

If you're trying to keep the number readily available to the IR early lower, then the removal of Ord Trasi could be done to balance that.

If anything, we'd want to increase the ability for the IR to grow if they can survive the early phases, and the removal of Trasi, as one of the IR's few planets and one of only two capital shipyards in exchange for a fourth NR capital planet is a bit much. Trasi is also somewhat lore-related to the GC, as one of the few planets from both of the Thrawn book series.

I would agree that Bilbringi is positioned well for the IR to take and hold from the NR, BUT it's also susceptible to attack by the EotH. It easily can become a flashpoint for all three factions to fight over, which is something the IR player should keep in mind. I would argue that for the IR, fortifying and holding Borosk from the EotH is a nicer way to seal off that flank, then driving down Levian Two -> Champala -> Chandrila -> Kuat would be a nice spearpoint into the Inner Rim. Especially if the player is aware of the KDY bonus. I've previously viewed Kuat and Coruscant together as a mini-objective. When I know I'm stable enough in the back end of my empire then I feel ready to drive into the Inner Rim and pour resources to hold my position there. As the IR you COULD skirt around the outer and middle rim before driving towards the Core but that doesn't seem like them. That seems more like a silly Rebel thing to do.

Well, we also want the planet available to the Empire of the Hand if they're able to take it. Otherwise your only real prime targets early on are in the Remnant, which leaves the NR a bit too safe in that case. Bilbringi's actually one of my favourite planets in the mod in multiple scenarios (from a design standpoint) for exactly that reason.

So Disra was never added to era 5 as a separate hero right? Well, in the XMLs it looks like the Relentless was intended to offer a price reduction bonus? That's not the case in-game, nor is it mentioned in the manual. So was it simply abandoned?

Abandoned. There were some issues with exactly how to handle the Sinister Triumvirate that we either will or won't address later.

[yutpaeksi]

Thanks for the responses Corey.

I'm in the early stages of an AoW as NR. Was the Warlords AI disabled? I recall encountering that in beta patch 5, wasn't sure if it was going to extend to the final 2.0.

[Corey]

Yeah, their galactic AI was disabled. IF you remember from the last week or two of the beta, there was the huge spike in control freeze occurances in AoW because there was simply too much going on, and the Warlord AI removal was one of the three main changes I made to counteract it.

[yutpaeksi]

Yeah, their galactic AI was disabled. IF you remember from the last week or two of the beta, there was the huge spike in control freeze occurances in AoW because there was simply too much going on, and the Warlord AI removal was one of the three main changes I made to counteract it.

Well I remember the deactivation of one of the major faction AIs, but I'm a little saddened to see the Warlord AI take that hit as well. Thanks, wasn't sure if it was intentional.

[Lucinator]

im missing not having the visvia defense platform, how close is it to being finished?

[Willhelm]

i just have one big suggestion i guess, glizeans are (at the moment) EXTREAMLY OVERPOWERED... they basically can walk over turbo-laser towers and atats probably at the same time and win. plus they shoot lasers not "rail guns" so it would be cool if you perhaps give them a different weapon effect . otherwise the Empire of the Hand is AWESOME

Edit Probs shoulda put this in the questions and comments for 2.0 sorry

Edit number two - just to clarify im referring to a group of glizeans (3) not a single one

[Corey]

Still waiting on a skin.

[yutpaeksi]

Question about the addition of the Visvia:

Are they going to be limited to 2 per system? How will the increased number of slots for critical systems work for the EotH? Right now they can only build two Brask stations even in systems where the other factions can build up to 5 Golans. Will the EotH be limited at, say, Coruscant, to two Visvia and two Brasks?

[Slornie]

I think Corey is planning on relaxing the build limits on the EotH stations to allow for the fact that they only have two stations available to them.

[yutpaeksi]

i just have one big suggestion i guess, glizeans are (at the moment) EXTREAMLY OVERPOWERED... they basically can walk over turbo-laser towers and atats probably at the same time and win. plus they shoot lasers not "rail guns" so it would be cool if you perhaps give them a different weapon effect . otherwise the Empire of the Hand is AWESOME

Edit Probs shoulda put this in the questions and comments for 2.0 sorry

Edit number two - just to clarify im referring to a group of glizeans (3) not a single one

Actually I agree with this. Gilzean's are fairly tough and their damage output is through the roof. They're also too cheap at 700 creds (cheaper than RFTs). I'd recommend nerfing them via either a rate of fire decrease or making them more fragile.

[yutpaeksi]

A bit of a weird minor thing, when Mara Jade fights infantry with her lightsaber, she stands really far from the target. It doesn't even look like she's close enough to do damage.

T3-B tanks, when they use their rockets, are doing a lot of accidental friendly fire damage. The T4-Bs, when they use their rockets, they fly over other friendly infantry and vehicles but the T3-Bs don't. Maybe it has something to do with their respective heights?

[Colt]

Just wanted to query the setup for the "From the Ground up" campaign. It says the New Republic starts on Bilbringi IIRC but when starting a game as EOTH I find a fully decked out New Republic planet (Adumar) right next to my starting planet. Is that how it's supposed to be? Aren't the NR also supposed to start with one planet?

 Cheers,
 Colt