Right, i've managed to do two things; first, i managed to win the clone wars scenario (albeit without Coruscant which i always lose really early on) through a domination victory. These are the problems i suggest be sorted by the next release:
- Remove conquest victory condition. When it's one one one, it's very unlikely (unless both players raze planets instead of capture them) that conquest will occur instead of domination. Domination should also be extended to 70% or 75%, since both players start with roughly 50% of the map to start with.
- Fix civilopedia and unit animations. Transparancy and morpheus.
- Whichever slacker said they were doing the venator and the eta-2 should really hurry up. On a different note, i'm going to try and finish my venator and eta-2.
- Units need a bit of balancing - i saw no possible use for half of them. Plus the tech tree needs re-arranging in terms of unit availability - AT-ATs became available at the same time as AT-XTs... i suggest making more unit types, such as dividing ground units into four different categories: infantry (offense), Heavy Mech (defense), Light Mech (explore), and Artillery (Artillery). This also means we can upgrade a bit, e.g. AT-XT to AT-ST, SPHA-T to Juggernaught, AAT to Tank Droid etc.
- Lacks pirates. I created a new Z-95 sea unit for the naval unit, and used the mercenaries as the land unit. Also, lacks leaders, armies, flag units etc.
- Far too many resources, to the effect that it was pointless trying to cut off one faction from it's resources, since almost every planet yielded strategic resource. About 5 planets holding each resource would make for a much more strategic game, as each faction actually has a chance of removing access to a particular resource.
- Fighters were too effective against capital ships. Remember it wasn't until the GCW that fighters were used to devestating effect against capital ships - (lets forget the ever-so-painful Phantom Menace battle). Air units should be used to take out ground units rather than used in space combat, thus their bombard ratings should be heavily toned down. I havent seen the clone wars cartoons so correct me if i'm wrong.
- Since we're thrown straight into war, it seemed sensible to have espionage on two counts - first, we lacked invisible units to scout out potential targets, secondly we lacked the intelligence center early on, meaning we were attacking blind for far too long.
- 'Build often' was too numerous in the governor - i suggest leaving 'naval units', 'offensive', 'defensive' and 'artillery' on often, 'setters', 'workers', 'wealth', 'explore' and 'culture' on never. This means more units will be produced.
- No wookies. These things irritated me, since they seemed to be superior to everything at the start, meaning every city had to have it's pre-game production changed at the start. These surely go under the category of militia, and clearly weren't superior to the clones else wookies would have been cloned instead, or wouldnt have needed the clones help at the battle of kashyyk. Maybe create a 'Great Wroshyr' wonder that produces wookies every two turns or something... but don't make them a universal unit. Same goes with Naboo fighter (replace with Z-95?)
That's all i have for now gameplay wise. I'm sure you've all missed my long posts.
Edit: Sorry, forgot the second thing. Using new technology (Paint Shop Pro X2 and Photoshop CS3 rather than the rather inferior office photo program and paint) I've created a stunning new interface. It's the same as the old one, but a lot less grainy with some different background pictures. The interface, including the source files, won't be released until Sum_aar_jam and i send out the next versions, but i'll post some screenshots soon.
Edit2: I don't know if anyone else has been raiding the Empire at War unit library, but i've managed to get an .alo importer for 3D studio max, which imports the mode, texture and animation. So expect a few units from me sometime soon... when i find a way to keep the textures on ther ender (they appear in the design view!)
and i thought three jedi would have been able to take on a fleet of destroyers, seemingly endless bombers and a huge droid army. Psh they don't make them like they used to.
