Ascendancy [SoaSE] > Ascendancy Discussion
Ascendancy General Information Thread (And Ask the Makers Anything 2.0)
Corey:
This topic will be (hopefully) maintained as a general repository for information about Ascendancy. If you have a small question that doesn't quite warrant a full topic discussion, feel free to post it here as well.
1. What is Ascendancy?
Star Wars: Ascendancy is a total conversion for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion with the aim of recreating the post-Endor Star Wars galaxy in a new platform. It is being created by the team behind Thrawn's Revenge: Imperial Civil War for Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption.
2. Which factions will be represented in the mod?
Since the aim is to recreate the Star Wars galaxy after the Battle of Endor, the two main factions in the mod are the New Republic (formed out of the Rebel Alliance) and the Imperial Remnant (one of many groups formed out of the Empire after the death of the Emperor). The third playable faction is the Empire of the Hand. Although these three will be the only ones available in the first release, we do intend to expand it as we go. More information on this will be provided as we go.
3. I've heard of the Remnant and New Republic, but what's the Empire of the Hand?
The Empire of the Hand is a canonical faction set up by Grand Admiral Thrawn in the unknown regions before Endor, making its first appearance in the Hand of Thrawn duology and most recently joining Jag Fel's Imperial Remnant faction in the Fate of the Jedi series. Because of the sparsity of canon sources for ships used by this faction, many of them are designed in house. We include this faction both as a reflection of Thrawn being the main focus of our mods, and as a way to eercise our own creativity while still working within the Star Wars universe. With every other faction we stick strictly to the source material, this faction gives us opportunities to expand.
4. Will any aspects of the original game be maintained?
None of the original factions or units will be preserved, and as many art assets as possible will be remade to fit with the aesthetic of the mod and the Star Wars universe. We also will not be maintaining the same scaling and balance conventions used by Sins; not every faction will have the same roster, not every faction will have the same roles filled, and there will not be such an emphasis on hard countering between units (where one ship does one function and you need a specific other ship to counter it).
5. When will the mod be released?
We will not release the mod until it's ready. We update pretty consistently, and have a large amount of the work done, however we do not have a set release date.
6. Can I test it?
Our testing process will be more thoroughly outlined later, but based on our experiences with ICW, it will most likely be as follows: Around a month before completion, we will put out a public call for tester applications, from which we'll take about 10-20 people. We'll then have a month or so of closed testing with that group, and finally after that month release an open beta. If you want to get involved in these steps, just keep an eye on one of our profiles somewhere (Sins forum thread, our site and forums, ModDatabase, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook; you have a lot of options) and you'll see an announcement eventually.
7. Why make this mod when Requiem and Sins of a Galactic Empire exist?
We're aware that other Star Wars mods currently exist for Sins of a Solar Empire, and we don't want to step on anyone's toes, but we also want to make our mod the way we want to make it. It doesn't make sense for us as a team to merge with another one when we already have so many of our own assets, and after years of working together on various projects, our own team dynamics. The bottom line is that this is a mod we've wanted to do for years, and have been laying the groundwork for it for much of that time, so we have our own visions for what we want to do. We'd be perfectly happy to cooperate with the other teams in some way, however part of the fun of modding for us is making the mod itself within this team, which is something we're not willing to give up. The end result is that while these mods are technically within the same universe, the focuses and methods being used will all be different, so each mod will have its own style.
8. Where can I get more information on the mod? Or see more fancy screenshots?
Just track us on any of our profiles. We can be found at:
Our site and forums: http://gutr.swrebellion.com/forums/index.php (We'll have a proper site up for Ascendancy soon)
Mod Database: http://www.moddb.com/mods/star-wars-ascendancy
Youtube:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thrawns-Revenge/20781119569
We also post frequent extra content between news posts on our forums for members and people who have over 50 posts on our forums to reward those contributing to the mod with their ideas and discussion, so if you're looking to find things before they're officially announced, please join the forums.
For Imperial Civil War Fans...
1. What is the relationship between Ascendancy and Imperial Civil War?
The best word to use is interdependent. Ascendancy is benefiting from a lot of the work done for Imperial Civil War, but the reverse is also true. The Mon Calamari models, for example, were done for Ascendancy but have made their way into Imperial Civil War, as will be the case with many of the model updates we do for Ascendancy.
We know there are several people disappointed about the ramp down of production on ICW and might think we're just abandoning it to work on Ascendancy. This isn't true. We reached the decision that we were happy with where Imperial Civil War is at, and aside from a few things we intend to add in 2.1, it was finished regardless of whether or not we did Ascendancy. However, with Ascendancy, it will get updated with the aforementioned models.
2. What about the Pentastar Alignment? And the Hapans?
Part of the appeal of Imperial Civil War is the interaction with all the different factions in the galaxy, in part intentionally modeled on the Total War series as well as the Sins of a Solar Empire series. Therefore, it's not something we intend to give up. However, for efficiency and organizational reasons, we're only focusing on the three main factions for the first release. We do intend to include several of the factions we did for ICW in Ascendancy at some point, and maybe a few that weren't, but they will be after the first release.
If you have other questions not answered here already, please feel free to ask them.
yutpaeksi:
The SOASE engine is a pretty drastic departure from the EaW one, and this is both good and bad. One of the major differences is the subsystem (hardpoint) damage system in EaW. Ships in SOASE just have a shields bar and a health bar, and until the ship runs out of HP, it's at full fighting power. Is there anything that can be done, or you're planning to do, to change that in Ascendancy?
How are ion cannons being handled? There is already an ion shot ability in vanilla SOASE, but its use is quite different from canonical and ICW ion cannon fire.
I'm looking forward to Ascendancy, I'm sure the TR team will do another great job as they already have with ICW.
Corey:
--- Quote from: yutpaeksi on October 10, 2012, 11:45:03 AM ---The SOASE engine is a pretty drastic departure from the EaW one, and this is both good and bad. One of the major differences is the subsystem (hardpoint) damage system in EaW. Ships in SOASE just have a shields bar and a health bar, and until the ship runs out of HP, it's at full fighting power. Is there anything that can be done, or you're planning to do, to change that in Ascendancy?
--- End quote ---
We can try to play with debuffs based on health, but I'm not sure if that'll yield too much.
--- Quote from: yutpaeksi on October 10, 2012, 11:45:03 AM ---How are ion cannons being handled? There is already an ion shot ability in vanilla SOASE, but its use is quite different from canonical and ICW ion cannon fire.
--- End quote ---
The effect from Ion Cannons we're goingfor would be more the ICW style.
bisszy4ever:
How will relations work like will the EotH have a better relation with the IR then the NR?
Lavo:
For ion cannons, does Ascendancy plan to use them as actual ship weapons (ex. vanilla EaW's ion cannons), ability-based weapons, or both?
--- Quote from: yutpaeksi on October 10, 2012, 11:45:03 AM ---There is already an ion shot ability in vanilla SOASE, but its use is quite different from canonical and ICW ion cannon fire.
--- End quote ---
It's pretty easy to make a weapon that only hurts shields, like the ship-based ion cannons in EaW.
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