Oh, Empire at War - I love it so... But it is like that one friend that, though you love her (I'm thinking one of my actual friends here), you know full well that she is, well, really really dumb. I write... verbosely, but I'll eventually get to the point - my new post-exams project, 'Rhodes', and some spoilers about what I've already been tinkering with and what I intend for it.
Star Wars: Empire at War and her expansion never pretended to be some sort of 'Star Wars: Total War', and it is certainly enjoyable as it sits comfortably in its casual gaming format, but it is most definitely that dumb friend in the pack - the strategy game that brings us so close to a beautiful fusion of galactic-level strategy and battle-level tactics (and, of course, in that most popular of fictional galaxies - that of Star Wars), and yet is so predictable, simplistic and badly made on so many levels. The horrific Rock-Paper-Scissors and 'me got bigger fleet than you' combat left much to be desired with both reference to Star Wars canon and battlefield simulation.
The flaws are too numerous to list in an article but include: AI with an IQ similar to that of the average lichen and a grasp of tactics so poor it makes the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Battle of Balaklava look like a stroke of genius; massive turbolasers that barely scratch a fighter whilst tiny blasters down them; tiny battlefields and weapons so comparable in range that all battles are a mush; the slowest missiles known to man, Bothan and Wookiee - the problems that one finds go on, and (believe it or not) this blog is not a bitch about the many flaws in what is nevertheless a good game.
So what is the point of this? Well, how can we get to improving some of these aspects instead of sitting around whining? There are dozens of admirable mods around, all doing their own thing, but what I'm concerned with is making the game more dynamic; closer to some imaginary reality with its own intricacies, instead of a simplified point-and-click-and-sit-back game. This applies to the galactic map and tactical maps equally, but today I'm talking about space tactical combat. Because I want to. And I can. And so Rhodes was born.
First then, what is lacking with regards to space tactical combat? Well, it feels a bit like just watching something play itself (and badly, moreover) - if you know you have a bigger or overall superior fleet, you know that victory is pretty much guaranteed. Other than controlling reinforcements, micro-management might as well not exist; you can choose how best to deploy your bombers or focus firepower, but in the end the outcome will depend little upon this.
There is so much to do to transform naval warfare in the game - but first let's put this all into perspective. Many mods want to enhance the original game and content to new and enhanced levels of gameplay; there's no point going down that route with my one-man project.
No, Rhodes is something of a concept-car of a 'mod' - my main goal isn't to produce a game for people to play, nor to enhance the existing game, but to take the engine and make a new fictional universe in it - one based on observations of human history and some basic science, but importantly designed so that the content will allow a greater simulation of war from top to bottom; galactic to tactical. I don't claim to be a great author of stories, nor an artificer of a new style of starship design, but the key things Rhodes is intended to be based upon are that it is both something that need not be constrained to any particular fictional universe's quirks, continuity errors and retcons and fictional science, and from that allow me to utilise the game engine to best effect. I want to make something that is believable - whilst Star Wars may be popular because of the entrancing struggle between good and evil, the attraction of things such as Stargate and Homeworld is how they are believable; how they can immerse the viewer/player into a reality which they could see happening, without having to have far-fetched explanations for how things work. I mean, come on... Why did the Rebels attack Endor from the side the Death Star superlaser was facing? Jeez... Even if it was inoperational, you'd think they'd take the tactically sounder option of eliminating all risk of Emperor Palpatine FIRIN' HIZ LAZOR.
At risk of sounding hipster, there are no obvious 'good guys' or 'bad guys' in Rhodes' universe; no evil Galactic Empire under the control of a vicious Sith Lord or valiant Rebellion fighting together in unity to free everyone from tyrannical oppression. Have you ever seen that in reality? Even the Second World War wasn't that clear cut. Hitler was a rotter, no doubt, but Stalin (on the side of the Allies) murdered even more civilians than Hitler, and the British Empire (as much as I love it) , standing strong against the Blitz and the might of the Nazi war machine was, after all, an Empire built by conquest and cunning diplomacy! No, instead you get to be allowed to make of your faction what you will. Naturally, there will be some differences between their government styles, military organisation, technology et cetera, but nothing so ridiculously contrived like one faction that relies solely on fighters whilst the other fields huge amounts of battleships (*cough cough Empire vs Rebels*). As far as I'm concerned - and hopefully I'll be able to implement this well in-game - if you want to take the Lorenzian Triumvirate out of peaceful mercantile democracy and turn her into a slave-trading galactic superpower that's your call. Obi-Wan isn't here to criticise your decision to turn on democracy, and Vader's penchant for crushing of rebels is far away in another universe if you wish to negotiate with the rebel uprising of some of your border colonies. Deal with it and do what you want.
Good God I must digress - this blog entry is meant to be about the Naval Warfare aspect of all of this! So what am I planning? Well I couldn't just list everything if I wanted to; but I have a few examples which I've already done some work on to flash around. From looking at actual naval and aerial combat, we can learn some things, and port them roughly and liberally into the uninhibited 3-dimensional battlezone of space; and then on top of that we can add the 'flavour' of the fictional universe, as it were. So, what can be done with the basics of the way combat functions, before we start to go into horrific goal equations and behaviour scripting? Here are a few things:
- Dynamic battlespaces - This involves both larger, freer maps and, crucially, a whole different space unit setup - not just with longer range but with a much greater span of ranges for weapons, and a truly dynamic combat zone, where instead of everything being mushed up and dying one-by-one until one faction has nothing left, the deployment of assets actually affects the outcome and their performance in battle. Any commander who lets enemy bombers reach his carrier is either a fool or has been fairly outfought; we'll get onto why later. Battleships and fighters shouldn't bundle up together into a mindless fray; else you'd simply make one class of ship to do everything.
- Realistic Naval niches - This is heavily reliant on the previous point, since long range anti-capital missiles are not usually best employed in close combat, and so a commander must be able to control the deployment of his fleet. A simple way of considering this with regards to the vanilla situation: your battleships, destroyers and cruisers have numerous heavy, long-range guns for pounding enemy capital ships to pulp from a distance, whilst your bombers have short-range, armour-piercing munitions that can 'sink' a vessel very quickly if they manage to score a hit. So why the hell would you send your beautiful, expensive, crew-intensive, heavy-hitting battleship into close combat with an enemy fleet where both their capital ships and bombers can hit her effortlessly? Screen her with escorts and fighters whilst she happily fires her main cannons at the enemy; let her blast the enemy's escorts out of the sky, allowing your bombers to sweep through their perimeter in the moment of weakness and ram a torpedo or two into the hull of the enemy command ship at such close range their CIWS can't react in time! Expect to see more role-specialised weaponry deployed on appropriate vessels - from cluster missiles for dealing with starfighters and gunboats, to heavy calibre kinetic cannons for blasting slugs through enemy armour.
- Actual Naval principles - This doesn't mean turning the game into some horrifically complex realistic simulation, but taking the idea and importing it into the gameplay. Whether this is eliminating the enemy's radar/sensors so they're firing blind, re-balancing missiles and torpedoes so that it will take just a few anti-capital missiles to breach the hull and down the vessel if they reach their target or fitting CIWS (Close In Weapons Systems - 'point defences' to most game-fans) to your capital ships as a last ditch defence, it's important. My 'Super Hyper Juggernaut Frigate Smasher' Battleship may not be designed to engage starfighter attacks, but no naval designer would think to leave her defenceless against them! I've taken some XML concept work on projectiles and superimposed them onto the vanilla game - in this example nothing has been changed from vanilla except I've re-coded concussion missiles to be destructible entities that can be shot down like any ship in the game, and re-equipped the Crusader gunship with a set of CIWS point defence turrets, whose job it is to *attempt* to shoot these missiles down before they reach their target - with normal projectiles; no special abilities involved. I have to say - seeing that spray of bullets trying to knock the missile from the sky (and seeing a few missiles knocked out) is rather satisfying - video coming soon of autocannons spraying to down missiles.
A few pictures; firstly a few of the aforementioned crusaders being used as test-beds for CIWS; I'll put a video up soon to properly illustrate, but essentially what is nice to see (which is hard in a still, I know) is the arcing fire tracking missiles; unfortunately barely viewable here since I superimposed this onto vanilla graphics. This screen of autocannon bullets is somewhat primitive, but a heavily relied-upon method of defence in Rhodes; in varying forms providing the first barrier as a screen on the border of your lines, and as the CIWS last-ditch against incoming torpedoes. Expect decoys and anti-missile missiles, too:
Secondly, just a random bit of eye-candy; an incomplete model awaiting texturing and fine detail; more notable for her design: yes, bombers don't need wings to fly in space, but then, this vessel is expected to be able to launch from and operate in-atmosphere as well. Not to mention the advantages to such a design; ample external space for munition mounting (wing pylons) and relatively small profile.
I hope this made for some interesting, if less than exciting reading. I won't be starting any development real for a little while - I have two weeks of exams (13 exams; 31 hours) coming up... 'Be a Medical Student - live the dream, and dream of your life...'
