An Unfair Universe Ghostrider - October 21, 2008 Greetings from Ghostrider. As you are now aware, I have joined the PR team as QA Lead, which fundamentally lets PR point me at problems and say 'go fix'. I look at fine details and niggling inconsistencies, while PR looks at the big picture. Over the summer this remit has included fine tuning some of my own development tools for the mod and other minor 'behind the scene details'. One interesting change that has come about is increasing the aggression of the AI in battle. This is especially noticeable in the behaviour of fighter and bomber jocks. All they see are a fat collection of targets and it's quite unnerving seeing a gaggle of starfighters power up engines and swarm at you, gunning for your lead ships. Unescorted corvettes beware. Galaxy Far, Far Away. PR has given me a new task. To populate the entire Galaxy Far, Far Away campaign, to a high level of detail and realism. This has been a serious challenge. Let me warn you now. This campaign is going to be unlike any of the others and it will be quite challenging. Although it is not finished, I can give you some good insights into the campaign itself. Before I could even think about starting, we had to determine a way to assess and compare planets to each other, so that we could consistently populate the campaign with ships and fighters that are a) relevant to the planet and its people and commercial contacts and b) that the planet/system could afford to buy and maintain. This has taken a huge amount of work, and we now have a self-consistent galaxy to work with that accurately reflects the planet's financial, military, commercial and demographic position in the galaxy. For example, living on a barren ice world with poor resources is going to have a significantly different defence force to say, a rich, urban world near a major trade route. This means that you need to evaluate a planet carefully before you invade. Where possible, we have tried to tangibly reflect these factors in the fleet population. One of the spin-offs of this work has been a re-evaluation of the galactic economy and I am sure you will learn more about this in due course. But what could we populate these planets with? It was obvious that just using the starting line-up of imperial and rebel forces was wholly inappropriate and completely inadequate. That got me thinking. Go back to 18BBY just after the end of the Clone Wars and you realise that both the Empire and the Rebel alliance have state-of the art military equipment. So was it better than the clone-wars era equipment? Well no, but it was an awful lot cheaper! Compare for example the brand new TIE Starfighter (60k) vs the Clone-Wars elite Eta-2 Actis-class light Interceptor at a staggering 295k. Now you see what a breakthrough the TIE series really is - 95% of the C.W. era performance at 20% of the cost. This ably demonstrates the fantastic ability of the Empire to churn out new craft at a frightening rate. We could not take that for granted in the post C.W. galaxy and that left us with a big problem. Only the pro-Imperial military planets will have access to the TIE series and only the biggest, richest planets in the galaxy will be able to buy the C.W. era ships, and that leaves a lot of planets unaccounted for. If you can't get these first-rank military models, what else can you get hold of? Over the last month, PR and I have filled this gap with a huge array of different space forces, comprising over 100 new encounters for this period alone, ranging in size from fighters to dreadnaughts! Some are rich, elite craft, while other cover old models, refurbished ships, less successful warship/starfighter lines, converted civilian equipment, liners and even outright salvaged ships. Pay attention to all the details, as you may not be able to tell the rich from the poor by visual inspection alone. I can also now reveal 4 of the many new adversaries you will be facing: CloakShape Fighter Delta-7 Aethersprite-class Light Interceptor T.I.E Starfighter Vulture Droid Starfighter The Units page has full details on these ships and their variants. The CloakShape is a Pre-clone Wars heavy fighter made by Kuat Systems Engineering with two light lasers and a concussion missile launcher for added punch. While limited by relatively poor agility, they make up for this in high hull strength. The Delta-7 was the last in the Delta Series produced by the KDY Yards. With twin dual lasers, excellent shielding, speed and manoeuvrability, this is a deadly ship to fly - if you can afford to buy one. The T.I.E Starfighter is the original mass produced starfighter made by Republic Sienar Systems - with an horrendous 90k price tag. This is not to be confused with the Empire-era TIE Starfighter designed some 4 years later by Sienar Fleet Systems. Vulture Droids are fast, light hulled droid fighters armed with 4 light blaster cannons and Energy torpedoes that batter down shields. These are normally encountered in large swarms due to their extremely low production costs. What else will you find? I will be breathing infinite variety into the galaxy, and there should be obvious differences between rich, powerful worlds on important trading routes, fortress worlds and military strongholds, smuggler havens, worlds ravaged by war, untouched beauty spots, humble farmers, isolated worlds, alien civilisations and so on. If you are really smart you may be able to spot flaws in the makeup of some of the poorly planned planetary defenses which you can take advantage of. In other systems you will not be so lucky. You should also be very careful because on the fringes of the galaxy, you may encounter groups with blatant disregard for common law and decency: pirates, corrupt officials, renegade Moffs, slavers, drug lords, shipjackers and so on. These outlaws are highly dangerous and have modified their ships to match their trade. Pay close attention to the stats in combat, because appearances are always deceiving. These boys don't play fair as the following sequence shows. At the beginning of the campaign, choose your targets wisely, otherwise it could be a serious mistake. I expect most of the early campaign action to be in the outer rim, slowly moving corewards as time progresses. Your core worlds will be somewhat trapped and undergunned at the beginning so pay attention to building your economy. You will need it. Otherwise, take in and enjoy the variety of a living, breathing universe. Comments (58) Ghostrider Joins As QA Lead Phoenix Rising - October 19, 2008 Apologies for my reclusiveness of late, but I've actually been doing something that I haven't had a whole lot of opportunity to do up until now. That is to say, managing, because Ghostrider has joined the Phoenix Rising team as our Quality Assurance Lead! And we have been working like mad on v1.1. Those of you who frequent the forums should remember Ghost, he's been a veteran presence around here for over a year. The consummate "idea guy", he's been proposing changes to the mod in an unofficial capacity for just as long, a some of which have already been adopted for the next version, including a station revamp and addressing pirate forces. Privately, he's also developed a couple of useful balance tools and made his own tweaks to the mod, notably concerning campaign starting forces. I've therefore tapped him to be in charge of quality assurance with the overall responsibility of finding ways to improve the mod. His first major assignment is to work on the Galaxy Far, Far Away campaign and, by extension, its three sub-campaigns... but I'll let him discuss what he's done himself. Expect a report within the next few days! Comments (9) Welcome To Brentaal IV, Have A Nice Stay! jdk002 - September 20, 2008 Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to give you Brentaal IV. Brentaal IV is one of the wealthiest worlds, sitting on top of one of the most important trade hubs in the galaxy. Most of the planet is covered with starports, industrial complexes, factories, and trade markets. Brentaal IV is also covered in plateaus, cramming it's 65 billion residents into the valleys below, that's a tight fit! The world has a history of occupation. Captured by the Sith millennium before during the Sith Wars, and more recently the Confederacy took control of the planet briefly during the Clone Wars. The majority of the population is involved with shipping or trading in some fashion, meaning whoever controls this planet will surely reap the benefits. Brentaal IV will be part of the next release. Stay tuned, there may be more to come before the next release. Comments (13) Economic Stimulus, Part I Phoenix Rising - September 4, 2008 Contrary to traditional strategy games, we've never been one to shun non-combat units - in fact, we've devoted the large part of three ship classes to them. The galaxy just feels like an empty place with only military units in it and these civilian classes help give it life. Realistically speaking, any army is only as good as its bankroll and supply train, which is what freighters are meant to represent. In v1.0, these units produce income in proportion to their population cost, mainly due to the fact that I was restricted from modding in alternative methods of income generation. With the latest changes, things just got a whole lot more interesting in what is just the first part of a veritable rethinking of the game's economy. Freighters obviously produce income by hauling cargo. Thanks to numerous roleplaying sourcebooks, most ships have a well-documented cargo capacity expressed in metric tons. The problem: these numbers represent a measurement of weight opposed to volume and thus can vary widely between ships of a similar size, not to mention they also depend on the extent of local gravity. For the sake of balance, that's what made me discount using them as the basis for a direct scalar conversion of income when I originally explored the idea. So that's not what I've done here. Instead, freighter income is now based on a relative scale of cargo capacities from ship to ship. In other words, if one ship has a greater tonnage than another, it will also produce relatively more income, just not the same as you would get from directly comparing the two. The exact values are also partially derived from the volume of the ships themselves with prudence given to economies of scale in bulk freighters, which is just my in-universe way of saying that balance played a small role. The foremost example of this is in light freighter/transports, which have cargo capacities some orders smaller than anything in the freighter class, yet still produce comparable incomes. They are, however, fast enough to run blockades and evade customs patrols, so it's assumed that transports can haul illicit, and therefore more lucrative, goods. So it's not an exact science, but it's a lot more interesting than having every freighter be equal. When that was the case, there was no reason to have more than one light freighter and one bulk freighter per faction; after all, why spend credits researching a ship that isn't meaningfully better? Since freighter income now varies, there's suddenly quite a good reason: more credits. And that can only mean more ships. To fill this need, I've revived the classic modular conveyor and container transport designs under the designations MCF Modular Conveyor and CTF Container Transport, as well as given the BFF Bulk Freighter a makeover to match. First, my reasoning for the prefixes. Since these are descriptive of a specific model of ship, just using "modular conveyor" or "container transport" would be insufficient; those are ship classes, like an "assault frigate". The X-wing series only gave us the model name for one of these units, the BFF-1 Bulk Freighter. Unraveling the "BFF-1" designation, I surmised that it stood for its class attached to its role, followed by the model number. That would yield "Bulk Freighter, Freighter - Model 1". They're all designed to haul XTS cargo containers, so if you assume the trio is part of a cross-company product line akin to the DX/ATR/ETR series, you can produce the names for the other two. Hence, MCF and CTF. The Alliance gets the MCF Modular Conveyor after the GR-75 and the Empire gets the CTF Container Transport after the Action IV. The MCF isn't as capacious as either of the other two container freighters, but it's value lies in being able to move a small amount of valuable goods securely. The CTF, on the other hand, is the queen of bulk freighters, able to haul massive quantities in a compact package. Both start with a respectable armament for self-defense against the stray squadron, but neither can stand up to a direct assault alone and should have a proper escort. Overall, they should invoke some interesting choices into your upgrade decisions. As I mentioned earlier, the extent of income upgrades has already been reduced from 400% to 250% of the starting value for v1.1. This was, however, for the old system. As a final point, I want to mention that this is still the case. All income upgrades are relative to their initial numbers; they are not fixed by any means. So that should be added incentive to research up. Stay tuned for Part II in the series! Comments (35) Rule Of Three Phoenix Rising - August 4, 2008 As you already know, Phoenix Rising: Space introduced a third faction to the struggle for the galaxy, the Corporate Sector Authority. It wasn't playable, only showed up in a few select campaigns, and was the source of at least some of the game-crashing bugs, but its inclusion signaled something far greater: an end to the Rebel-Imperial monopoly on the Galactic Civil War. Had it not been for hardcoded faction names associated with adding scripts and thus tech trees, you would've been able to play as the CSA in Galactic Conquest. In the next version, at least, you'll be able to choose them in Skirmish. The Corporate Sector Authority is now fully functional in Skirmish games as either a human or AI player. To accommodate, I've fleshed out its build roster with two completely new ships: the Mankvim Light Interceptor and the Marauder-class Corvette. The Mankvim line is a relic of the Techno Union. It's exceptionally cheap to produce and its performance shows it; speed is the interceptor's only redeeming quality. Of course, the Marauder-class is synonymous with the Corporate Sector. Despite the aging design, it still performs admirably in a pocket cruiser role, but unlike other corvettes, is completely vulnerable to fighters on its own. Additionally, numerous preexisting ship classes have been adapted to fly under the CSA banner, which the unit pages have been updated to reflect. Still a work in progress, here's the current look of its tech tree: Utilities: CT Space Tug Fighters: Mankvim Light Interceptor → Z-95 Headhunter Bombers: BTL Y-wing Transports: YV-666 Light Freighter → GAT-12 Skipray Blastboat Freighters: BFF Bulk Freighter Corvettes: Marauder-class Corvette → IPV System Patrol Craft Frigates: Carrack-class Light Cruiser Cruisers: Dreadnaught-class Heavy Cruiser Destroyers: Victory-class Star Destroyer → Recusant-class Light Destroyer Capitals: Invincible-class Dreadnaught Heavy Cruiser Dreadnoughts: Bulwark-class Battlecruiser It's not as deep as the two main factions', but still plenty effective. The Picket Fleet prefers to operate outdated starships that can be bought for a bargain and then refurbished, so expect them to spam antiques. Preliminary battles indicate that they're quite good at performing a turbolaser siege, given the variety of designs sporting heavy turbolasers, but are relatively lacking in a dogfight. Speaking of which, I'm still working on procuring a model for the IRD, since you just can't have the CSA without the IRD, but I hope to get one before the next release. If you can think of anything else that would be a good fit in the CSA ranks, the canon gives us a lot of leeway, so feel free to debate it on the forums. For comments and reactions, leave those here, as I'm interested in gauging the response. Comments (101) State Of The Mod Phoenix Rising - July 21, 2008 A lot of people are probably wondering where I went. And I don't really have a fantastic explanation; the daily grind concerning finishing up college simply got to the point where I was forced into putting the mod on hold. But that was a couple of months ago. As I gradually received fewer demands on my time, I decided that I could not return to the public eye without having accomplished something significant, realizing that the time I have left as an "unemployed" student is coming rapidly to a close. So, despite my extended disappearance from the forums, this mod is not dead, not even close. Quietly, behind the scenes, I've been putting the finishing touches on space combat. First and foremost, after two setbacks and two jury-rigged fixes, starbases levels have been torn asunder. Now, in order to build from the entire spectrum of ship classes at a single planet, you will need to construct one of each of the five starbases there. Specifically, Level 1 produces utilities, fighters, and bombers; Level 2 produces transports, freighters, and corvettes, Level 3 produces frigates and cruisers; Level 4 produces destroyers and capitals; and Level 5 just produces dreadnoughts. The impetus behind doing this was to reduce the likelihood of units falling off the right of the interface, but more importantly, it allows for specialization previously unseen in Empire at War: if you build two of the same starbase level at a single location, all of the corresponding ship classes will be built in half of the time. It is now possible to, for example, dedicate a planet entirely to churning out new capital ships by installing five Level 4 starbases there. The only exceptions to this are research and upgrades, which take the same amount of time regardless of how many duplicate bases there are; however, you will still need the proper starbase in orbit in order to make such developments. One of the improvisations I had to make to get this to work properly was to introduce a central, logical starbase to the game because the actual starbases could no longer serve in that function and other orbital structures seem to require exactly one to be present. Therefore, I came up with a space colony concept to serve as the focal point of your orbital presence. Space colonies work just like vanilla starbases in that higher levels replace lower levels, except they're cheap, totally defenseless, and only provide additional population. You must build a space colony in order to put any other structure in orbit; that's just how the engine works. Furthermore, if you lose the space colony in combat, all other structures will be lost as well at the end of combat. You've been warned. The remaining majority of my work has been on revisiting the existing content from v1.0 and ensuring that it's as good as it can be. That could mean anything from redoing the previously-estimated stats for a ship based on new source material to devising a more interesting or fair upgrade branch to improving art assets. In the latter case, I'd like to unveil the new look for the Lancer-class Frigate: I was never completely happy with the model that's currently in use, so I took the opportunity to bring in this one by Axingus and it's nearly perfect. Also, if you look closely, you can see a couple of the new projectile damage particles that I've come up with. Remember, the more feedback you as the player can give me as to what's off in the current release, the better I can respond to it in the next. Everything is still on the table. Of course there is more, but it's not all ready to be revealed just yet. Hopefully that's enough for now though. I'm going to attempt to catch up on responses to posts and messages over the next few days, so I may not get to everything right away. Thanks for your patience. If you tried to contact me recently and I obviously didn't reply, you have my sincerest apologies. There's really no excuse for it whatsoever, but I'll try to get back with you shortly, if possible. Comments (81) Some Love From PC Gameplay Phoenix Rising - March 31, 2008 For those of you living in Belgium or Holland, you might have already had the opportunity to read about Phoenix Rising in your local gaming periodical, but for those of us not so fortunate, here's a recap. PC Gameplay, a Dutch-language magazine circulated throughout the Low Countries, featured us rather prominently in their mods section for the March 2008 issue. From what I can garner, the review was quite positive, even going so far as to compare us to an official product. I'm, of course, both flattered and thrilled that so many people are enjoying the hard, often uncompromising effort that was put into Space. But the truth of the matter is that this mention was no random coincidence. Getting an article published for us was wholly the enterprise of our very own Theempirewins. Many thanks to Peter for taking it upon himself to do this for us out of no prompting of my own and also PC Gameplay for sending it to the presses! May it be the first of many such mentions for PR. Comments (9) Live From San Francisco Phoenix Rising - February 19, 2008 Armed with Phoenix Rising-themed business cards and CDs of the latest release, I'm currently in San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference, a veritable who's who of industry professionals. While I search for someone willing to pay me to do what I love, check out these hot, fan-made topics in the forums: Zarkis' work in exploring the AI has already led to a number of fixes and improvements that will make the v1.1 patch, and now he has released his own take on the AI. The Zarkis AI strives to address some of the deficiencies in the Galactic Conquest-mode AI from a production standpoint, so if you just can't wait for the patch, be sure to check this out. If you're looking for more flash in your tactical experience, look no further than Dal MP's Aesthetics Pack. This pack focuses on making the turbolaser bolts look and feel better and also has an added side-effect of improving performance, so there's really no reason not to try it. Last but not least, Dane Kiet is organizing a multiplayer Skirmish tournament, which is the perfect opportunity to check out multiplayer on PR if you haven't yet done so. This is especially true for those of you having issues with the AI - you'll be in for a few surprises against a live opponent. The tournament comes in 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 flavors and will commence as soon as there are enough players, so sign up today! Comments (29) Star Wars is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. All other content copyright Phoenix Rising 2006-2008.