31-12
2018
Yuuzhan Vong at War Mod Spotlight
Posted by Digz at Petrolution News on December 31, 2018
The Yuuzhan Vong at War Mod got an honourable mention in this years Best Upcoming Mod of the Year Awards and did so in 2016 in a similar category, so what is all the fuss about?
The mod looks to bring a new era into the game, one talked about in Star Wars lore as being the greatest threat to the galaxy, we see Grand Admiral Thrawn mention it several times in the books and it brings genuine fear that a threat so large can come from the Unknown Regions that could destroy the entire galaxy. The mod is looking to be released as some point in 2019, with various stages of releases to accompany the different elements of the mod, it's a refreshing approach from the development team to release in stages and focus on the elements of getting those right whilst working on the larger incremental updates.
By focusing on just one of the game modes, "Aftermath" below is the description of the game mode which describes it better than I ever could, source can be found here:
The Aftermath mode is a unique and exiting experience. You are the commander of a crippled battle cruiser that was left behind after a fleet engagement. Your job is it to not only protect the beings under your command but go even further and get your ship back up and running. Resources are scarce and limited, and you’ll have to send out your transports to gather resources from debris fields and wrecked ships on the battlefield.
Once you started to scour the battlefield for scraps and debris, you will make a scary discovery: It’s not only your ship that was left behind. An hostile battle cruiser suffered a similar fate, and its commander is trying to repair the ship as well.
This is the moment you will enter into an arms race and whoever manages to repair the ship first will have the fire power to defeat the enemy once and for all.
The mod even has its own technology upgrade structure which it has aligned to the Yuuzhan Vong war which lasts five years, aligning it with that makes much more sense and each faction will upgrade differently according to their own characteristics by lore. More information on the technology upgrade can be found on their Mod DB page here.
The mod also features updates to the galaxy map and adds realism and authenticity to it, it also adds in a concept of "nav points" they allow for re-routing during the longer hyperspace routes. So with all these exciting changes to the gameplay mechanics, new factions too, and adhering to the lore that captures the imagination of most Star Wars fans it is no surprise why this mod was an honourable mention for best upcoming mod category.We expect great things here!
If you want to get the latest updates for the mod make sure you stay tuned here and also visit their website and their Mod DB page.
31-12
2018
Players Choice Mod of the Year Awards 2018
Posted by Digz at Petrolution News on December 31, 2018
The Players Choice Mod of the Year Awards hosted by MoD DB have been decided, over two weeks of voting and the top 10 have been announced! Gratefully the Empire at War games are well represented with two out of the top ten mods being from Empire at War: Forces of Corruption! Those two mods are Awakening of the Rebellion and Thrawns Revenge: Imperial Civil War.
The two mods have a great following and we are as a community so proud of what these two mods, as well as all other mods for the game, have performed in these awards and I'd like to congratulate the two teams from Awakening of the Rebellion and Thrawns Revenge on behalf of the community here and at Revora for their dedication, hard work, and sheer brilliance for creating such mods that we enjoy playing so much.
If you haven't heard of these fantastic mods I'll put a brief summary taken from their Mod DB pages with the relevant links and a helpful gameplay video to let you see the brilliance they have created.
Awakening of the Rebellion 2.7 is the upcoming Version and its a massive Update and Improvement then the actual release Version 2.6. The AI is almost rewritten and will be a challenge as ever before There are new Story Events and reworked existing ones. All Space and Ground-Units are updated and/or replaced with new Models/Textures. New Soundeffects and Music-Tracks, a New Galaxy Map that is almost Canon and new Space and Groundmaps.
Thrawns Revenge: Imperial Civil War
Thrawn's Revenge: Imperial Civil War is a total conversion mod for Forces of Corruption which brings the game into the Post-Endor period. The mod features a new era-based story progression system covering the timeline betwen the Battle of Endor and up until the start of the Yuuzhan Vong War. The mod includes hundreds of new planets accross almost 20 Galactic Conquest scenarios, hundreds of units and heroes, new particle and other graphic effects, and several new gameplay mechanics.
28-12
2018
EaW Remake Mod - Review
Posted by Digz at Petrolution News on December 28, 2018
I'm sure everyone has heard about Petroglyph re-mastering Command and Conquer and Blizzard working on remastering Warcraft 3, I'm sure a lot of people are wondering whether Petroglyph will ever remaster Empire at War - no need Petrgolyph, The Empire at War remake team have us covered!
The mod has overhauled the graphics of the game and has produced such quality and depth in design it really feels like a re-mastery, maybe if Jeroenimo, the creator of the mod reads this he may change the title to Empire at War Re-mastered! Before I go any further, I truly believe a picture, or in this case a video paints a thousand words so I'll just let you watch a video on Jeroenimos YouTube channel that was released a few days ago that shows off the new control ship and battleship skins:
The level of detail in the skins is completely out of this world and when playing the game it really gives you the feel of a modern day game and when you take down a ship you smile from ear to ear, just turn up the volume and play to your hearts content!
The mod also makes a big statement in trying to turn the world into an ever changing environment, we have seen big developers try and fail at this, we have seen others succeed. To quote the development team "The idea is to give the galaxy a more varied and alive ecosystem where you can build different units on different planets." This is a fantastic idea and to an extent EaW vanilla already has this concept but nowhere near the scale that this mod brings, you certainly do not want your enemy to be making those all powerful interdictor ships, this means expanding your empire in the campaign map and in the correct way is crucial. The level of thought required in your campaign has just increased tenfold and this, as gamers, is what we want. We want to be challenged, we want a living world that constantly changes and it brings into perspective the way we plan ahead in our campaigns. Different planets also have increased values in regards to your economy, so for example you want to go for Bespin alongside other climate planets that will give you income boosts according to its climate.
The gameplay itself is smooth, aggressive, and visually appealing with an expanded roster of ships. Many people will think just putting lots of ships in a game does not make it awesome, you're quite right but ensuring the factions are balanced with a large roster of ships does it make it awesome and this mod certainly does that. If you're undecided my advice would be to give the mod a go and I promise you won't turn back. A forewarning the mod is still in development stages, it has not been fully released yet so there is still some work to do and I think a top priority is to increase the stability of the game as it does crash from time to time, that is essentially the single drawback so far. It is on the Steam Workshop or you can find it on ModDB here. The Mod won an honourable mention in this years ModDB Mod of the Year Awards in the Players Choice Awards category, I'm a little sad it did not get into the top 10 but I'm sure next year upon even more work and exposure in the community it will. I've been watching Jeroenimos YouTube channel lately, particularly the tutorial videos on the mod which is essentially him doing a walkthrough playing the Empire campaign, there must be about 10 hours worth of footage in this walkthrough split into different videos so please give them a watch and by the end of the first walkthrough which is below I know you'll be hitting that download button.
Petrolutions official rating review of this mod is an 8/10
26-12
2018
Petroglyph Announce Conan Unconquered!
Posted by Digz at Petrolution News on December 26, 2018
The title says it all and the trailer certainly wets the appetite! Alongside Command and Conquer re-mastered Petroglyph are working on another title due to be released in the summer of 2019 called Conan Unconquered.
Conan Unconquered is a strategy game set in the barbaric world of Conan the Barbarian where you must build your stronghold and assemble an unconquerable army to survive the savage hordes of Hyboria. Wave after wave of increasingly more difficult enemies will rush at your gates and you will need to manage resources, research new technologies to advance your defenses, and recruit an ever-growing army if you are to save survive utter destruction.You can choose to play the game entirely alone in single-player, but Conan Unconquered can also be enjoyed in full two-player co-op allowing for a truly unique, shared multiplayer experience. Players share a base, but both can freely construct new buildings and amass an army to reach their common goal.Similar to games such as They Are Billions, the enemy hordes will keep coming at you and how long you can resist the invasion depends entirely on your ability to build your stronghold and lead your army. Gameplay is real-time, but you can also pause at any time to issue commands and start construction of new buildings. Battles will be bloody and savage with players having to deal with anything from fires raging through their stronghold to piles of corpses spreading death and disease.The savage horde is at your gates. Will you fall or will you remain unconquered?
The game as the quote above from the Steam page states it is going to be a defence game built upon your stronghold and armies that you build, it will have lots of re-playability with the maps being randomly regenerated and you can play this offline solo or online as a co-op game.
The steam page can be found here where you can find more information about the game.
8-4
2018
Phoenix Rising v2.0 Public Beta
Posted by evilbobthebob at Phoenix Rising News on April 8, 2018
After the success of the demo, I have decided to move forward with a public beta phase, released via update to the Steam version of the demo. This will introduce the full set of galactic conquests that are currently work-in-progress. You should expect more bugs than the demo version, but also many more opportunities to try out new parts of the mod.
Known issues:
Missing text
Poor performance in some GCs
Missing CSA units
Unit filter buttons may sometimes display an incorrect state if pressed rapidly
Sandbox missions may show incorrect information
Changelog from demo:
Full GC set (Work in progress)
New filter buttons: click to hide different classes of space units/research
Updated tech trees for Rebels and Empire
Fixed some weapons not firing from muzzles correctly
Space colonies now correctly show up in battle results
Please report bugs here or on the Steam discussion page.
25-2
2018
More Demo bugfixes
Posted by evilbobthebob at Phoenix Rising News on February 25, 2018
A new set of bugfixes and other improvements has made its way to the demo, both on Steam and ModDB.
Changelog for version 2.0.2
- Did a pass on ground unit AI combat power so the AI sends more reasonable amounts of units into land combat
- Added infantry highlight icons so that infantry are more visible in combat. Current icons are Red for Imperial infantry, Blue for Rebel infantry and White for Independent infantry.
- Fixed firing muzzle positions for AT-AT, T4 series, and ground-based turbolaser turrets.
- Improved AI starbase upgrade responsiveness, they should now tend to upgrade if the opponent does.
- Garrison structures are now visible through fog-of-war
- Kyle Katarn now uses a Stormtrooper One blaster rifle instead of the post-Dark Trooper campaign assault cannon.
- Golans and shipyards are now placed better on space maps. Golans should generally protect shipyards and the colony.
- Land combat camera now has full yaw rotation and adjusted zoom
- Added Skyhook fleet information in the startup dialogue box.
- Added TIE Starfighter specific skin (the TIE Starfighter is the first in the main TIE line)
- AI responds better to planetary bonuses.
- General scripting performance improvements
- Multiple attempts at reducing the prevalance of save game crashes.
- Updated space missile models for concussion, proton torpedo and proton rockets
5-2
2018
Demo bugfixes
Posted by evilbobthebob at Phoenix Rising News on February 5, 2018
- Improvements: Improved skirmish AI, buffed AA build pad turrets (now have double fire rate), added time-scaled particles for status effects. Made easy difficulty slightly easier.
- Improvements: Added units back into skirmish mode. Further skirmish AI tweaks.
- Bug fixes: Overracer bike icons; Text fixes for Rebel structures; attempted fix for crashes on Mustafar/Clakdor; attempted fix for save game crashes.
- Bug fixes: Fixed crash on Mustafar and Clak'dor maps. Removed debug info. Fixed reinforcement problems in skirmish (side effect: skirmish Golans and GC space colonies now prevent reinforcements in a radius around them)
- Bug fixes: Fixed squadron ability autofire scripts. Fixed CSA starbase upgrade cost in skirmish. Fixed text errors with Xg Star Wing and made Dominator III SD buildable once researched. Attempted to reduce the issue where fighter/bomber/transport units fly all over the map. Attempted to further improve savegame bugs.
- Bugfix: reduced planet texture resolution to improve performance, reduce chance of savegame crashes, and because the game can't render 4k textures.
- Fix for Tarkin respawn
- Fix for Clak'Dor VII crash
13-1
2018
Phoenix Rising v2.0 Demo
Posted by evilbobthebob at Phoenix Rising News on January 13, 2018
After 5 years, we finally have v2.0 of Phoenix Rising ready to demo, with the Operation Skyhook Campaign.
Download here for a manual installation: http://www.moddb.com...rising-v20-dlt;/a>
Or find us on the Steam Workshop at: http://steamcommunit.../?id=1235783994
Experience the lead-up to A New Hope from both sides of the Galactic Civil War, as told in the Legends universe
Selection of missions provide guidance in the early stages of the campaign. The later stages are up to you!
Command the Rebel Alliance from hidden fighter bases, striking against Imperial convoys and trying to discover the location of the Death Star construction site
Lead the Galactic Empire to victory, protecting the Death Star and crushing the Rebellion across the galaxy
The Galactic Empire is recommended for first time players of Phoenix Rising.
Short summary of changes:
- Sweeping optimization improvements, including a "light" campaign for those having performance problems.
- Rewritten galactic conquests (Demo featured: Operation Skyhook)
- Rewritten AI to be more intelligent and challenging
- All hyperspace travel now done via hyperlanes, with bonus speed and income from different sizes of route
- Complete overhaul of planet locations, bonuses, and abilities
- Over 50 new ground maps for v2.0, many new space maps
- Both land and space skirmish are available (though land skirmish is still unfinished for the CSA)
- Space skirmish has been completely rebalanced to be more of a competitive experience
- New armor/shield/damage system for space combat, bringing it in line with our ground combat changes from v1.2. New space units and ground vehicle
- Improved weather system and atmospheric effect
- New hero system
18-12
2017
v2.0 Changelog
Posted by evilbobthebob at Phoenix Rising News on December 18, 2017
Below is a summary of changes to v2.0, as well as notes regarding what will be included in the demo version, coming soonTM
General
- Rewritten AI to be more intelligent and challenging
- AI now has some factional differences in style
- AI will correctly build units and structures based on its planetary bonuses
- Improved AI in tactical mode
- Rebalanced tech trees
- Functional CSA faction (full release only)
- Sweeping optimization improvements
- Addition of “light” campaign options for those who prefer high performance
- Many quality-of-life improvements
- Tooltips for all units contain all the statistic information you need
- Improved advisor hints to introduce you to the mod’s features
- Building and shipyard tooltips tell you what they can produce
- Improved research display
- Difficulty levels:
- Easy: AI gets 10% fewer credits and takes 10% longer to build units
- Normal: AI is exactly on par with the player
- Hard: AI gets 10% more credits, takes 10% less time to build units, and units have 20% more damage, 20% more health, and 25% more shields.
Galactic Mode
- Rewritten galactic conquests (Demo featured: Operation Skyhook)
- All hyperspace travel now done via hyperlanes, with bonus speed and income from different sizes of route
- Starships now cost population proportional to their crew requirements
- Complete overhaul of planet locations, bonuses, and abilities
- Planets now provide population carefully calculated from their statistics
- Bonuses are rebalanced and clarified with improved tooltips
- Planet info screens notify you of environmental or population conditions that affect production
- Many new planets added
- Overhaul of planet icons and base level display
- New planet textures
- Over 50 new ground maps for v2.0, many new space maps
- Restoration of classic EAW sandbox missions (full release only, not demo)
- Rebalanced freighters
Skirmish Mode
- Both land and space skirmish are available (though land skirmish is still unfinished for the CSA)
- Space skirmish has been completely rebalanced to be more of a competitive experience
- Units build faster and are cheaper
- Income scales better with station level
- Unit costs and build times balanced per unit and per unit class
- AI greatly improved compared to v1.2
Space Combat
- New armor/shield/damage system for space combat, bringing it in line with our ground combat changes from v1.2.
- Damage is now applied after armor subtraction e.g. laser damage 16 vs armor 12 does only 4 damage to a starship hull.
- Torpedoes and some other weapons can pierce armor.
- This means that light craft can barely damage capital ships. All weapons do a minimum of 0.5 damage if armor is equal to or greater than weapon damage.
- Shields absorb a percentage of damage from incoming fire based on unit class
- New space units (* = buildable in demo): Lictor-class Dungeon Ship, Providence-class Destroyer*, Belbullab-22 starfighter, Defender Starfighter*, TIE Vanguard, Diamond-class courier ship, Manka-class war Frigate*, G-1A Starfighter, Sheathipede-class Transport Shuttle, Y-85 Titan Dropship*, YV-100 Light Freighter, YV-330 Light Freighter, YV-929 Armed Freighter
- Rebalanced starship and starfighter weapons for the new combat system, rewriting thousands of hardpoints
- Space Colonies are now armed with turbolasers at all levels, and provide minor fire support to defending fleets
Ground Combat
- New ground combat bunker system, with many civilian structures available to hide your infantry
- New ground vehicles (* = buildable in demo): AAT, HMP gunship, MTT, OG-9, S-1 Firehawke*, V-Wing Airspeeder*
- Improved weather system and atmospheric effects- don’t let infantry get stranded on planets with a Type IV atmosphere!
- Infantry carry appropriately-modeled weapons in most cases
- New ground structures: Bank, Listening Outpost
Heroes
- New hero system with consistent hero ratings and upgrade paths
- Space heroes now require a flagship to attach to in many cases
- New heroes (* = playable in demo release): 4-LOM, Adar Tallon, Andoorni Hui, Apailana, Appo, Barrow Oicunn, Bevven*, Blitzer Harrsk, Bror Jace, Clyngunn, Cody, Comeg, Corran Horn, Crueya Vandron, Devlia, Erisi Dlarit, Evir Derricote, Gavin Darklighter, Ghorin, Haashn, Havet Storm, Hurst Romodi*, Kirtan Loor, Kosh Teradoc, Laryn Krefey, Lujayne Forge, Male Dee, Mawsh’iye, Meena Tills, Morteos, Nawara Ven, Odd Ball, Onara Kuat, Ooryl Qrygg, Osted Wermis, Peshk Vrisyk, Ragab, Rhysati Ynr, Riv Shiel, Rojahn, Sander Delvardus, Shaak Ti, Shea Hublin, Talon Karrde, Tensiger*, Terrinald Screed, Thaneespi, Theol Drost*, Treuten Teradoc, Tundra Dowmeia, Uwlla Iillor, Verrack, Zel Johans*, Zsinj, Zuckuss
Operation Skyhook- Demo Release GC
- Experience the lead-up to A New Hope from both sides of the Galactic Civil War, as told in the Legends universe
- Selection of missions provide guidance in the early stages of the campaign. The later stages are up to you!
- Command the Rebel Alliance from hidden fighter bases, striking against Imperial convoys and trying to discover the location of the Death Star construction site
- Lead the Galactic Empire to victory, protecting the Death Star and crushing the Rebellion across the galaxy
- The Galactic Empire is recommended for first time players of Phoenix Rising.
4-9
2017
New Patch for Star Wars: Empire at War (Steam)
Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on September 4, 2017
It seems that Disney has recently made some kind of deal that made Petroglyph add some interesting updates to the Steam version of the game. Here's their developer note about this subject:
A note from the developer.
Hi Everyone,
We have continued to watch the EAW community closely over the years and appreciate all the excellent support you have given us and the game. Thanks to all of you for the great feedback, awesome mod packs, and overwhelmingly positive reviews.
Check out the full press release here.
Here is a list of improvements made to the game.
· Steam multiplayer support in both FOC and EAW
· Enabled selection/list of player mods on hard drive, including mods via Steamworks
· Enabled windowed mode support
· Additional bug fixes and optimizations
We hope you enjoy this special update.
- Petroglyph
In a small note: the original multiplayer worked with GameSpy, which is gone for a very long time already.
7-6
2016
AI Breakthrough
Posted by Ghostrider at Phoenix Rising News on June 7, 2016
After weeks and months of testing, and trying to figure out how to get the AI to react as a human does in a galactic environment, the PR team have finally achieved a significant AI breakthrough:
The AI now aggressively attacks independent planets, takes worlds, builds fleets, and stomps all over unwary humans if given half a chance.
The AI equasions to do this have been in place do this for years, but for months the AI has lain dormant, effectively asleep. We have tried hundreds of different ideas to get the AI to activate - all to no effect.
And how did we achieve this?
The frustrating answer, familiar to most modders out there is simple. We changed 1 value in the XMLs, instead of increasing the value from 1.0 to 1.25 we should have decreased the value to 0.75. It just took 6 months of testing to realise that is what we needed to do!
WOW. Did the AI react or what?
It annihilated one of the testers in Core Worlds in under a quarter of the time taken for a human player to "WIN" Core Worlds if unopposed.
Now that we know the AI is working, I have to go back and undo many of the campaign changes put in place that were an attempt to make the AI respond, but the mod is finally alive and kicking. We need to test and polish a bit more, but this makes us a lot closer to where we want to be.
Ghost
11-3
2016
8-Bit Armies
Posted by Digz at Petrolution News on March 11, 2016
Petroglyph have just released a video announcing a new game they are working on and looks close to release from the games Steam page. It's features currently indicate a simple, back to basics retro-style RTS game that will get us playing what we love: a simple, fast paced RTS! Check out the video below they released:
Here's what Petroglyph are describing this game as on their Steam page:
A Blast from the Past
8-Bit Armies is a classic, C&C-style Real-Time Strategy PC game. It's our most fast-paced, friendly, and accessible RTS game to date. Featuring offline single-player missions, co-op mode, skirmish, and PvP multiplayer modes running on dedicated servers.
Initial release includes:
- 25 offline campaign missions
- 10 co-op missions to play with your friends
- 10 multiplayer/skirmish maps that support up to 8 players online
- AI with multiple difficulty options to play with cooperatively or fight against
- Classic Base-Building mechanics let you construct the ultimate HQ from which to launch attacks against your foes
- Destructible environments on maps ranging from small to very large
- Easy to understand modern military units and structures lets RTS beginners jump right in
- From the same team that brought you RTS classics such as Star Wars: Empire at War, Universe at War, and Grey Goo
8-Bit Armies is for anyone that enjoys RTS games, or felt overwhelmed by more serious games. With hours of solo and co-op gameplay included, there's something here for everyone!
9-12
2015
Campaign #1 - CORE WORLDS
Posted by Ghostrider at Phoenix Rising News on December 9, 2015
At the centre of the galaxy, you find the oldest, richest, most heavily populated... and the best defended planets in the galaxy. Single planets in the Core have more financial and military influence than whole sectors in the Outer Rim.
CORE WORLDS is the first of the campaigns in the Rise of the Empire Era, which is set at the end of the Clone Wars. The formation of the Galactic Empire has been announced, but many worlds are either actively opposed to the New Order or are highly independent planets that will resist the Imperialisation of trade, commerce and law. You get to rewrite history with either the early Galactic Empire, or the scattered elements of the Phoenix Rising Movement.
All of these campaigns start with a handful of planets and outdated Republic-era and Clone Wars technologies. Many of the neutral worlds will be far stronger at the start than your small fleets, and these campaigns are lengthy. It is vital to plan for long term growth, and in many cases your production capacity will far exceed your initial income, and it is important to grow both militarily and financially.
The political influence of leaders also cannot be underestimated, and many politicians give time reduction bonuses on construction (motivation), and best of all, price discounts for the most influential.
You should also be aware that the larger starbases need considerable fleet strength, with destroyer and capital-class warship support for the level 4 and 5 starbases, before an invasion can be considered. It is no longer feasible to effectively destroy a starbase with corvettes alone, but your Level 2 starbases are vital to continued financial growth, so don’t ignore them.
It is worth noting that the income created by light transports is a percentage of the planetary income, so make sure your light transports are in orbit over your wealthiest planets. You receive light transport revenues once units have made 1 trip into hyperspace. XQ5 platforms add 25% to your base planetary income, and are well worth the 3 week production time on your richer worlds. However, there is a limit of 2 per planet, and many of your Core holdings already contain at least one customs station, with a welcome boost to revenues.
Before considering invasion, make sure you scout target worlds by espionage, stealth heroes, and attacks by a lone scout unit to ensure any invasion is feasible, and that you can escape if it gets too difficult. Many worlds have interdictors in their fleets, trapping invaders to certain doom. And don’t forget about small infantry raids with up to 3 infantry units. This can be a quick way to capture lightly defended units, with the advantage that you destroy the orbiting starbase if you manage to capture the planet.
In Core Worlds, you start with 6 influential planets : -
PRM Abregado Rae
The smuggler port of Abregado Rae is fiercely independent and highly resistant to being ruled, and is looking to Corellia for guidance in the growing opposition to the Galactic Empire. If the smugglers on Abregado-rae can join forces with the Corellians, they could form a powerful syndicate.
Strategic Considerations: Threat from Byss.
Heroes: Obi-Wan Kenobi
PRM Alderaan
Alderaan has been a staunch supporter of the republic in the fight against the Separatists, with the Royal Alderaanian Shipyards providing the engines for the Acclamator-class Assault ships. Both influential and with excellent facilities, Alderaan is politically opposed to the New Order and Bail Organa is one of the key figures in promoting the idea of active resistance to the ever-growing power of the Office of Chancellor.
Strategic Considerations: No Immediate threats.
Heroes: Bail Organa
PRM Chandrila
Chandrila is a world of free speech led by Senator Mon Mothma, who led the Delegation of 2000 to limit the powers of the Chancellor. Chandrila has a strong defence-fleet and is working with both Bail Organa and Garm Bel Iblis to take increasing military action to oppose the New Order.
Strategic Considerations: Major threat from Corulag.
Heroes: Mon Mothma
PRM Corellia
The free world of Corellia is the leading manufacturer of light freighters and corvettes with unrivalled construction facilities. Invoking an ancient law, legendary Senator Garm Bel Iblis has kept Corellia out of the Clone Wars and is strongly opposed to the changes imposed by the New Order.
Strategic Considerations: Major threat from Byss.
Heroes: Garm Bel Iblis
PRM Farrfin
This smuggler world has a vibrant underworld and finds the Galactic Empire and its new taxes a considerable threat – especially as this is increasingly backed up by the Imperial Fleet and a growing Imperial Customs Service.
Strategic Considerations: Major threat from Coruscant.
PRM Fresia
This tiny island population is the home to Incom – producers of one of the most popular basic fighters towards the last days of the Old Republic – the Z95 Headhunter. Incom’s fortunes have dramatically changed for the worse with the creation of the Galactic Empire and the move towards disposable TIEs – and disposable pilots, something that the Fresians object to morally.
Strategic Considerations: Isolated, but Coruscant could be a threat in the future.
IMPERIAL Coruscant
Coruscant has everything – vast research capabilities, diverse production, immense wealth and a huge pool of talented individuals to nurture and develop.
In addition, both Sith lords – Darth Sidious and Darth Vader - are present on Coruscant, giving the Imperial faction a huge advantage. The political and financial influence of Darth Sidious is worth several star-systems, and Darth Vader frightens whole armies, both in space and in ground combat.
Strategic Considerations: Minor Threat from Farrfin.
Heroes: Darth Sidious, Darth Vader
While the temptation is to focus on military research, some effort should be spend to upgrade the trade fleet and add to Coruscant’s fleet in case the threat from Farrfin increases. Military expansion, both north to Dolomar and south to the Deep Core should be considered.
IMPERIAL Byss
Byss is the center of secret holdings in the Deep Core. With a massive 20bn population of immigrants tricked into travelling to a utopian world, Byss could become a major planet of influence.
Strategic Considerations: Major Threat from Abregado-rae and Corellia
Much effort should be made to consolidate holdings in the deep core and expand as if the smuggler fleet on Abregadoe Rae is able to merge with the Corellians, then the Deep Core is in danger.
IMPERIAL Corulag
This model Imperial world is isolated from Coruscant by the republic influences at the Naval Academy on Anaxes, and threatened by political activists on Chandrila. It must rapidly expand its fleet and defeat pro-republican sentiments.
Strategic Considerations: Major Threat from Chandrila
Heroes: Gilad Pellaeon
IMPERIAL Kuat
The Kuat Drive yards have unrivalled military production capacity – as long as you have the credits to spend.
Kuat has strong neighbours, but no immediate threats, and while it may be tempting to immediately start construction of a destroyer fleet, current limited incomes may prove this be an unnecessary strain on finances. It may be wiser in the short term to divert funds to more vulnerable holdings until their security has been established.
Strategic Considerations: No immediate threats. Powerful neighbours.
Heroes: Onara Kuat
IMPERIAL Gandeal
Gandeal is a mineral-rich resource world with small freighter yards that supplies the shipyards of Fondor with raw materials. This should be considered as facility for financial rather than military growth.
Strategic Considerations: Weak Military. Powerful neighbours.
Heroes: Barrow Oicunn
IMPERIAL Prakith
Prakith is the secret headquarters of the Inquisitorius in the Deep Core. With no immediate threats, this facility should be expanded to a support facility, building fleet and trade units.
Strategic Considerations: Light Military. Powerful neighbours. Medium term strategy Corsucant should make efforts to connect to Prakith.
Heroes: Antinnis Tremayne
Overall, this is a campaign for long term strategy. You certainly have far higher incomes than any other campaign in this era, but early opportunities for expansion are limited – and most be considered carefully. However, you have access to unsurpassed shipyards and with a solid financial base, your regions of influence should expand steadily.
26-10
2015
State of The Mod
Posted by Ghostrider at Phoenix Rising News on October 26, 2015
First of all, I would like to apologiese to all of the fans for the total neglect and lack of news in the last year.
You may be mistaken in thinking nothing is happening with the mod. - You would be wrong; progress has actually been quite positive recently, but real life cuts back on modding time for most of the team.
Before detailing some of the more exciting developments in the mod, it's probably worth a recap of what has happened to date, as this has profound implications on my particular area of focus - the campaigns.
Combat Mechanic
The entire basis os space comabt has been rebuilt to match the land mechanic, with a detailed and comprehensive armor and shielding system. Shileds now absorb laser fire, ranging frmo 20% to 45%, depending on unit class. Armor grades range from 8 points in fighters to 32 points for capital class warships, and all the weapons in the mod now have different damage ratings. HP are considerably increased.
The biggest change in tactical battles, is that laser cannons, and especially light laser cannons, are unable to penetrate heavy armor. This does not mean that your fighters are redundant, far from it. A cloud of snubfighters and transports can strip off the shields of destroyers and capital-grade warships, making them much more vulnerable to turbolaser fire, but you can't kill a star destroyer with snubfighters alone - you have to have turbolaser support. Bombers get proton rockets and proton bombs, and can be pretty nasty.
We have also added space population. The idea is that in order to crew and maintain a space-based unit, you need a support base. Your planets provide population and without spare population you can't build anything. This explains why the Acclamator and other crew-heavy designs, such as the Dreadnaught rapidly became obsolote. The Imperial class is much more effiecient in terms of deliverably combat power vs population support required.
On a strategic level this adds a new dimension to the campaign scenario. You need credits AND population to build warships. As a result, we have rebuilt the entire economy from scratch, with new pricing and a detailed planetary model that calculates planetary economies based on population, tech level, agricultural base, mineral resources, underworld and manufacturing capability. Agricultural wolrds are particularly important to feed and grow your fleets.
Proximity Jumps and Trade Routes
We have removed proximity jumps from the mod, so all space-based travel is based on the trade route. This makes strategic planning much more interesting, and you will find that key planets that lie at the junction of major trade routes are extremely important strategically, as these act as choke points to access different regions of the galaxy.
For example. Brentaal IV, which lies at the junction of the Hydian Way and the Perlemian Trade Route, is now probably the most imporatant piece of real-estate in the galaxy and is defended accordingly!
Armed colonies
All coloneis, from levels 1 to 5 are now armed with turbolaser cannons, and are heavily shielded and quite difficult to kill.
You will need cruiser support to take on a level 1 or level 2 colony, and multiple cruisers for a Level 3 Colony.
Level 4 colonies are extremely challenging, and need a large fleet, with at least destroyers, if not capital-class warships to have a chance of destroying the base.
Level 5 colonies are exceptionally challenging.
And if you think these are bad news, the asteroid bases are worse, so it is vital to send out expendable scouting parties to see what you are facing before you attempt an invasion.
Heroes
Heroes no longer come with elite warships. They now have command abilities but are just that - indivudal beings that need to be attached to a fleet to make a difference. So Darth Vader IV on his own is just a pilot in an TIE, but with a fleet he commands on the bridge of the largest warship.
Back to Basics
If we now wind the clock back to early 2014, we are in the process of updating all of the old campaigns with these points in mind. We have always had a goal of adding new campaigns to each release, but had no idea of the change that was about to take place.
Our concept at the time was to create a new campaign to show the difference in strategic planning due to the lack of proximity jumps and have a campaign based on the 5 Super-Hyperrroutes of Perlemian Trade Route, Hydian Way, Rimma Trade Route, Correlian Run, and the Corellian Trade Spine.
60% of the campaign was completed when the campaign crashed on install and it soon became apparent that nothing was going to fix it. The problem was simple - too many planets and too big a campaign. The EAW engine simply couldn't handle it.
So we made the critical decision to break up all the existing campaigns into smaller chunks, each with fewer planets.
So - Core Worlds lost the Expansion region and shrunk back to the Core Worlds and the Colonies. This was highly successful and led to a better campaign with faster frame rates and quicker load times and much less lag.
The roll-out pulled appart the entire campaign set and rebuilt everything from scratch.
Prelminary testing of all 12 campaigns is now complete and the results are rather exciting.
I'll let you have more news, in detail, about each campaign in due course....
Ghostrider
17-2
2015
GreyGoo's second patch is online.
Posted by Banshee at Petrolution News on February 17, 2015
The second patch for GreyGoo has recently seen the light of the day. Here's the official changelog:
February 17, 2015 Update Notes
AI
Default AI is now Lambert instead of Random
Audio
Fixed an issue where the RTS Primer VO audio was incorrect in German
Units
Aircraft will now prioritize empty landing pads first when ordered to land by right clicking on Hangars/Airpads
Further improved the extents shrinking from 50% to 25% to minimize artillery/AoE impact of grouped units
Campaign
Adjusted Easy and Normal difficulty settings. Hard difficulty is unaffected.
Fixed an issue where script-spawned units were not being given the correct health modifiers
Fixed a bug in The Barricade that caused some enemy Guardian units to idle in brush instead of properly mounting wall pillars
Engineering
Added matchmaking improvements to allow players easier access to searching for matches worldwide
Improved logic for detecting players disconnecting to force a win or avoid a loss
Servers will now temporarily pause when connection loss is first detected
Added improvements to performance that prevents certain cases from lagging the client severely
Structures from an eliminated player will now properly clear up passability upon deletion
Fixed a crash local to 32 bit machines
Fixed a crash that would occur while loading a multiplayer match
Fixed a lock that would occur for clients when the host would close the lobby
Fixed an issue where 2v2 Ranked matches were not properly reporting
Fixed crash that would occur when starting skirmish match
Terrain Editor
Fixed crash that would occur when launching a custom map with the spigot marker inside the HQ boundaries
Fixed crash that would occur when loading an untouched custom map
UI
Moved Quick Match window up in the Multiplayer screen while search is ongoing
Added translations for new text
Fixed an issue with compressed Korean text
Added a new Extras section to the menu with a quick launch button for the Terrain Editor
Made various fixes to improve performance in the UI
Fixed an issue where the game would unpause immediately after pausing in single player
I've seen many people complaining at the lack of stability of this game. I hope this patch improves this situation.
27-12
2012
Battlestar Galactica at War is back!
Posted by Darthbyron56 at Petrolution News on December 27, 2012
Hey Guys, Byron here. Avid BSG fans will be well aware that between 2010/2011 NBC issued a take down notice of a single BSG mod from Moddb.Since Moddb didn't want to get into trouble they decided to remove all BSG related content from their website.
However, we have started up our Battlestar Mod project again, and hopefully we can continue to develop it without NBC feeling threated by its presence.
So what have we been up to?
Well most of the content used in BSG Colonial Wars needed upgrades. Textures weren't great and most models need re-rigging.
Our Priority at the moment is to re-rig enough units to get you guys a mini-mod by 2013. We are aiming for something small, but quite diverse. We aim to change the graphics of the game so you feel like as if your playing a Total Conversion mod.
As mentioned all models are being Re-rigged, and re coded to be more accurate to the ships shown in the show. We have already re-rigged the Battlestar Galactica, and have put its Flak Shield ability to test against some cylon raiders, and the results are fantastic. The video below from our November update shows you this ability being used.
Due to some set backs re-rigging was placed on hold and minor modding of Factions, Galactic Conquests and Planet placement has taken over at this moment. But I am pleased to announce that we have finally overcome the rigging issues we were experiencing with the rigging process, but I'd like to show you what I've been up to in the meantime.
This video shows the new and updated effects that we are looking to create with our mods Galactic Conquest. As you can see we've taken to offering an accurate representation of a Galaxy by adding in Nebula and Star effects, we've even gone as far as adding Suns to each Galaxy.
The area of space you see in this video is known as Helios Alpha, and is one of the primary Helios for the Tweleve Colonies. It features the following planets:
Icarus,
Picon,
Caprica,
Gemenon,
Tauron,
Zeus,
Peresphone,
Erebos Asteroids.
Let us know what you think, after many attempts at getting the effects to work correctly I cracked it. We are aiming to develop another 3 of these areas for the other Helios' within the Twelve Colonies. You'll also notice some sound updates for the GC.
The mod is well and truly back in production, however as always we must say that Real Life events to come before any modding, so If you haven't heard from us in a while don't assume we are dead, we might just be very busy.
If you want to keep up to date with is visit www.bsgmods.com/forum and register there with us. The forums is quite New and we still don't have many members.
Thanks Guys,
Byron
10-12
2012
"Commenor must be some major-league trading planet"
Posted by evilbobthebob at Phoenix Rising News on December 10, 2012
Sited in the Colonies, Commenor is a bustling, arid trade world. Its surface is covered with starports and landing strips for the tonnes of cargo that arrives and leaves, bound for the Core and the Rim. The planet swiftly became independent after the Battle of Endor, but its strategic location means that it's unlikely to stay that way for long.


From an initially defensible landing zone, attackers must choose if they want to push up a ramp onto the upper landing strip, or move out onto the open ground below the small clusters of mismatched city buildings.


Commenor's varied architecture is the result of its trading heritage; a melting pot of many different races and influences. Of course, both the Empire and New Republic would like to make their mark on the planet...


Whoever takes control of this world, it will certainly assure them dominance across the Trellen Trade Route and easy access to the Slice.


7-12
2012
Recopia: Base of the New Republic Defense Fleet
Posted by evilbobthebob at Phoenix Rising News on December 7, 2012
Situated between the Corellian Run and the Hydian Way, the planet of Recopia is ideally located to strike the other planets of the Core Worlds. This strategic position, and the relative anonymity it provides, made it the base of operations for the New Republic Defense Fleet in the period immediately after the Battle of Endor.


The reason this planet is ignored by the rest of the Core is its geography: sulphurous seas, poisonous fog and a lack of natural resources meant that a mere 200 million sentients call it home. They live scattered across the kilometre-high plateau islands that are dotted across the oceans, connected by bridges or airspeeder.


Due to the sizes of the islands, vehicles cannot be deployed to the surface. Instead, airspeeders and infantry are required of any garrison or attacking force that wishes to take the planet. Any structure on the planet must be carefully chosen to make best use of the limited space available.


The bridges provide choke points and defensible locations, while the small islands end up filled with skirmishing and air-to-air combat amid the lashing rain.
29-11
2012
Traveling Through Hyperspace Ain't Like Dusting Crops
Posted by Phoenix Rising at Phoenix Rising News on November 29, 2012
Research has always been an integral part of our development process. No demand has been more of a challenge in that regard than our need to place each planet at a definite galactic location for strategy mode.
When I began the process in the alpha phase of v1.0, there were maybe four official maps available that held any degree of accuracy; all were clearly related by the reference angle. Beyond that were hundreds of raw sources netting thousands of remarks about regional or relative location. Had that been the end of it, my task would have been nearly impossible.
Fortunately, an adolescent Wookieepedia was available to help cut through much of the clutter. And then I found this fellow called Modi, who had translated the askew maps onto a Cartesian plane, allowing me to derive coordinates that could be fed to the engine. It was the Internet equivalent of striking gold - a starting point. Later, JustinGann expanded on Modi's work to include speculative placements, which afforded me a second opinion. The end result was an independent interpretation of the galaxy unique to Phoenix Rising.
It took the single most important update to the canon to void all that effort - for the better. Midway through v1.2, The Essential Atlas hit bookshelves. Every star system that had ever been mentioned was now bound to a region of space 1/576th the area of the galaxy. A great many were placed with certainty. The unprecedented accuracy of the atlas created a dilemma though, as several campaigns had already been finalized for the release. Rather than scrapping them and starting over, we chose to forge on knowing that v1.2's astrography would be flawed. I am pleased to report that the next version will be anything but.
TEA contains dozens of maps, each with its own scale and set of planets. My first step in replotting the galaxy was to composite them at a scale of 1 pixel = 10 lightyears to create a supermap. The digital Mid Rim sector map served as the foundation, since it had no loss of precision from scanning and little artifacting.
With that done, the actual measuring was trivial. The results were better than I ever could have expected: the first planetary coordinates for Abregado-rae came in identical to those already in use. They were not alone. Although I had corrected our most glaring differences - generally those with no frame of reference or cases where TEA chose to reject Rebellion placements while I did not - when prudent in v1.2, our interpretation really held up to intense scrutiny. Only Spuma, which Children of the Jedi had confused with Protazk, and Orinackra were completely off.
The present and final representation of the galaxy is 20% larger than v1.2 and approximately 92 times the area of vanilla. That should be enough space to prevent planetary overlap in all future cases. Several worlds always have to be manually relocated regardless of scale, but not so much as to be a distraction.
As profound as it is to finally have set astrography, a different facet of TEA had an even greater impact on strategic gameplay. The once-sporadic and eclectic collection of hyperlanes was replaced with a vibrant trade network.
In v1.2, we had two kinds of routes: "the Big Five" and "other". There are now four classifications, the most I could objectively derive from official maps. These can be thought of colloquially as "super", "major", "minor", and "trace" routes. Their benefits are scaled linearly, so while traces provide only meager income, they are much quicker than using a navicomputer to punch though an unstable course, as is the case with non-route connections. Obviously not every system can be linked via hyperlane, so we have tried to balance between using intersections and minimizing campaign planet counts.
These connections are now critical to military operations in the Galaxy Far, Far Away. In the next release, fleets will not be able to travel from a planet unless there is an explicit line - we have eliminated proximity jumps. No longer can an invasion bypass Anaxes on the way to Coruscant, players need not guess where to attack and defend, and the AI has fewer perceptions to crunch when executing plans. This is arguably the single best change that has ever happened to strategy mode.
When FoC was released, I never imagined we would be able to deduce coordinates for every star system. If our trials and errors played even a miniscule part in affecting that change, then it was all worth it.
7-1
2012
But I've learned so much!
Posted by Ghostrider at Phoenix Rising News on January 7, 2012
With the stunning potential of the Freerunner model in full view, combined with the skeletal structure of the land mod in place, Phoenix Rising approached me the end of 2010 with a challenge: resurrect the Training Manual for the mod.
I had initially tried to write a training manual during 2010, but the idea never had any real structure and the project was put back on the shelf to gather dust.
The need for a manual had been building unseen for months. When we started development of V1.2 all those months ago, the mod was still small enough to be able to play by instinct and a few basic tool tips. As mod development continued, we were able to keep track of the expansion in units through simple documentation. However, as time went on this became more involved, with some fairly complex spreadsheets to keep track of space forces, the expanding number of planets and their advantages.
Then we added heroes. Lots of heroes. The complement system changed and more independent space units were added. Somewhere in the future the sheer scale of the mod would be too great to simply play by instinct alone, and too complex to try and remember everything as a developer.
The decision to redo the land mechanic from scratch became the focus for some form of supporting literature. However, the new land combat system is so totally different in design and depth that it would be hard for even the most experienced players to learn how to fight well on land. Support literature was needed, for players and designers alike.
But what form should this documentation take?
The old concept of the Training Manual came back to life and this time it had real purpose – help explain the nuances of ground and space combat and help players to make the most of all the development work that has created Phoenix Rising. The Technical Manual was born.

As a graphic designer by trade with access to some high-end design software, I wanted the manual to be both informative and visually exciting. The design software can output to PDF, making it an ideal package to create an easy to read and near universal distribution format, and in shape I wanted the manual to fill the screen nicely and frame the new 3D renders created by Nertea. In addition, the copious library of screenshots could serve to illustrate units in action and key points of gameplay if required.
Once the basic structure of the manual was underway, a framing device was needed for the top and bottom of the page, and what better than an iconic screenshot of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer underbelly taken during initial testing of Operation Skyhook, deliberately taken to mimic the opening frames of “A New Hope”.
Tinted starscapes of Bespin space battles would initially serve as a background colour for the main text, but were since dropped in favour of another Skyhook screenshot featuring all the classic rebellion era units, including the DEATH STAR.
For the land pages, Phoenix Rising’s epic initial battle of Freerunners vs AT-AT’s on dusty Brentaal were unbeatable as background images and we simply had to include Nertea’s efforts in full detail.

But what of the text itself?
For me, nothing short of a full technical manual would do, as part of the fun of being involved in development is discovering what actually happens if you push the Power to Weapons button mid battle, or wondering exactly how much more firepower you get if you upgrade those Dual Laser cannons to Quads. There have also been a tremendous number of esoteric discussions about almost every aspect of the mod, for example wondering why Dark Empire-era AT-AT’s are so terrifyingly effective. With the manual we can add this information in and fill in all sorts of interesting details and share some of the development buzz.
It also gives us the opportunity to thank in detail the vast number of contributors to the mod, and highlight some of the hidden work that often goes unnoticed by testers and other members of the team.

Although it would be nice to have a full technical readout of every weapon, starship, upgrade, planet, hero and tank in the mod, clearly this would have to wait and to be built up chapter by chapter. For V1.2 an introductory General Overview and a Military Overview would suffice, hopefully giving players enough information to understand the basics of space and land combat, with the shorter space section covering useful updates while the Land section required a a complete breakdown of the new combat mechanic in its entirety, as trying to make the most of the new combat system would be a serious challenge without literature, and most players would miss out on critical tactical information this would make play harder and much less enjoyable.
Little did we know at the time that these two chapters would develop over the last year to over 100 pages, positively crammed with hints, tips, screenshots and enough technical data to keep an R2 unit happy for weeks. The manual also gives us an opportunity to thanks all the huge number of contributors to the mod over this lengthy development cycle, including the efforts of the various campaign testers and the output of our newest addition to the Phoenix Rising Team, evilbobthebob – our lead mapper.
The Space section of Chapter II includes data on all the space-based weapon systems, a detailed review of unit abilities and a look at the underpinning mechanics of space unit classes, covering armor types accuracy, damage control parties and other useful information. A full section describing all the different defensive and offensive abilities and a review of the compliment system rounds off the technical aspects of
space combat.

A Recent Addition
In the last month a new major section has been added to the manual. A rather innocuous comment on the forums – on a completely unrelated topic naturally – made me realise that there was a gap in the manual. Many players are not aware of the full potential and fleet roles of the huge variety of units in the Rebel and Imperial fleets.


This has now been resolved with a full 20 page review of all player fleet units, together with indications of their upgrade potential in the General Overview section. This and should provide commanders with greater insights into how to improve their combat skills, especially when paired with the technical briefings contained in Chapter II.
Discussion with the testers has since added a couple of pages of tactical notes and some great gameplay tips, together to make the General Overview complete.

The Land Section of the Military Overview provides complete details of the Land combat mechanic, describing the key difference between 5 units classes of Droids, Infantry, Walker, Crawler and Speeder, describing in detail the strengths and weaknesses of each class, how units are produced and full technical readouts of upgrades. Tips and strategy are included, indicating all the facets of gameplay, from bombing runs to infantry garrisons in vehicles.



You get to see the full weapon load-outs of all independent enemy units, and some stunning images of all the new units that have been introduced or converted for the intensity of planetary invasion as seen from a mud-hugging trooper or armoured assault carrier.



And if this was not enough, we have full listings of all land weapon systems with damage tables for the multitude of pistols, rifles, carbines, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, mines, and heavy vehicle-based weaponry that are now in regular use!

Future Chapters
These two chapters are just the beginning. As indicated earlier, the aim is to eventually put together a comprehensive technical manual for the mod, and the plan is to slowly release additional chapters as and when they are written!
The next chapter to be written will be Galactic Mode, used as a guide to help players make the most of all the information available to them, and this will also include details on hyperspace travel, trade routes, spying, information gathering and so on – but that won’t be started until after the release.
Following that will be chapters on Economy and Production at the very least – but this will all take months to complete, and as we progress into the development of V1.3, more time will be required to update existing chapters as well as writing new ones.
The V1.2 Manual will be included as a PDF with the release, and as always, we look forward to the ideas and comments this generates on the forums and I am sure V1.3 development will benefit as a result.