Thrawn's Revenge: Unification

[Corey]

Quick updates on Imperial Civil War 2.2 and Ascendancy 0.9, as well as an announcement on branding changes.

This news post covers information for both mods, but it's been a while since we've said anything about Imperial Civil War so we'll start there. There have been several questions about what's happening with 2.2. We've had a few bits and pieces available to test on our forums for a while now, however our focus has been on finishing the first release of Ascendancy. With that coming next friday, I'll move back to splitting more equally between the two as we accumulate feedback and make decisions for the future versions of Ascendancy. There have been other causes for delays, most prominently that my copy of the program needed to rig for Empire at War (necessary for adding the new PA and EotH units, as well as any Original Trilogy era content for that GC) was screwed up by Windows Update in a way that seems fairly insoluble without reformatting this computer which I don't really want to do, though I've managed to make other arrangements which should solve the problem.

Secondly, the main prompt for this post, is the decision to have a minor rebranding of Ascendancy. Ascendancy has been officially renamed to Thrawn's Revenge II: Ascendancy. This may seem pretty trivial, but it's meant to address a few things which have come up rather frequently. It makes it easier for people searching for the mod to find it. It used to be a little odd that every outlet for Star Wars: Ascendancy was called Thrawn's Revenge. Our site, forums, facebook page, youtube channel and twitter all just said Thrawn's Revenge, which has made it a bit more challenging for new people to find information and made Ascendancy seem tacked on as opposed to being in the same "series." With the new name change, this should hopefully be resolved.

The other main prompt for this change has to do with content. Before, Ascendancy and Imperial Civil War were essentially perceived as two parallel mods that just happened to be made by the same team, when in reality Ascendancy is, if not the sequel, then as close as that term can possibly come, which should again help with people who are new to the mods, or are coming to one mod from the other. While there are a few differences in what's included, notwithstanding the obvious changes from the fact that they're based on different games, the content being covered in each is heavily based on and influenced by the other, and Ascendancy is essentially an extension of what we wanted to do in Imperial Civil War in what we honestly felt was a more suitable engine. So, hopefully that clears up the divide between the two mods and explains a bit; if you're waiting for ICW2.2 we hope you'll give our initial work on Ascendancy a try, and if you're waiting for for Ascendancy we hope you'll enjoy ICW2.1 in the meantime.

Finally, I want to reaffirm that Ascendancy is still scheduled for the first release on Friday, February 7th. Until then we've been posting our test games on youtube, which we've all been enjoying and getting pretty good feedback on, so it seems likely we'll continue doing that for previews as we add new content for both mods. 

As ever, we're always looking for ways to improve, so if you have any feedback, suggestions or requests for Thrawn's Revenge (either one) feel free to let us know.

Thrawn's Revenge Forums
Thrawn's Revenge I: Imperial Civil War on ModDB
Thrawn's Revenge II: Ascendancy on ModDB

[jordanthejq12]

As a sidenote, it's interesting that the TR post has a ton more hits than the Ascendancy side (though they are the exact same thing). Not quite sure what that says, but it must be something.

On topic, this was a rather brilliant decision. Ascendancy does feel, on the whole, like a true sequel to TR, overall expanding the range of options while omitting some things (ground combat of course, which means no PA, and I am going to miss the Venator). Rebranding is anything but minor, and I feel it will benefit both mods.

[Corey]

As a sidenote, it's interesting that the TR post has a ton more hits than the Ascendancy side (though they are the exact same thing). Not quite sure what that says, but it must be something.

You mean the ICW post. They're both the TR post

Either who, that's just because when I posted the links to Facebook/twitter  I posted this one and not the Ascendancy one, so any directed traffic is going to come here.

As far as the name change, yeah, its really less of a rebranding g and more an official recognition of what was always true. The only reason it wasn't like this before is because none if us are super fond of the name itself; that's part of why we almost exclusively referred to the mod as ICW for the last 7 years. But, its more helpful to everyone for them to have the same name and frankly we're rather well known as the Thrawn's Revenge team so it all works out.

[kucsidave]

Just a question, will the Ascendancy come out on Friday or 7th, because the both cannot be done at the same time.
I ask this because it is the 6th of February, Friday, and I WANNA PLAY ASCENDANCY

[Slornie]

I think Corey might have been hedging his bets.  Depending on which time zone you're in it could be out on Friday or it could be out on the 7th!

[Corey]

It's supposed to say Friday the 6th. It's easier to have a typo where you press 7 instead of 6 than to have a typo where you type friday instead of saturday. Either way, it could still be the 7th before it's actually out since we have no control over when ModDB approves things.