Update that is sooner that expected, because, why not? news - Alliance at War mod for Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption

Hello, community. I do hope you all are doing well. So, I was sitting here playing on my laptop, and I thought, well, why not release the next update. Part of me did not want to release this update this soon, but I thought, why not? So I opened up Chrome, typed in Mod DB, and began the process of uploading what work I have do so far, ha.

This update mainly focuses on the Zann Consortium. Remember how the last two updates mainly focused on the Galactic Empire? It kind of switched now. I will give examples. This is just an estimate, but the April update was about 70% Imperial, 20% Alliance, 10% Consortium; the May update was 50% Imperial, 30% Alliance, 20% Consortium. This update is about 20% Imperial, 30% Alliance, 50% Consortium. Again, this rough estimate is just to show you which factions I worked on most.

All shields now block torpedoes and missiles. It was difficult trying to balance that out, and I know some fans and or players might say how this will make bombers useless know, and some might even complain about the MC30c Frigate, ha. But torpedoes and missiles now deal double the damage against ship hull points. I also thought that made it more realistic. Both are meant to deal massive damage against a ships hull, so this makes it seem more realistic. And about the MC30c Frigate -- sorry Rebel Alliance players, ha -- no more spamming the 30c to eat all Imperial ships for breakfast. Well, once Imperial ship shields are down, it is chow time, but until then, you need to wear down enemy ships shields.

This shield change also makes weak ships more useful. Because torpedoes and missiles cannot bypass shields anymore, ships like the Acclamator will not die as fast. This also makes ships equipped with ion cannons more valuable, too. I do not know if anyone knows or remembers, but awhile back, I made ion cannons and ion torpedoes more useful. In the base-game, they did virtually nothing other then the ability to not cause HP damage. I made them more effective against shields. Mainly because their primary purpose in Star Wars was to disable ships, shields, and just about any machines. Now they are even more valuable. This especially turns the Imperial-class Star Destroyer and the MC80 variations into predators; they are both equipped with ion cannons and heavy lasers.

All starfighters, now have secondary weapons. But it is not a hardpoint, they are coded in as abilities. And do not worry, their abilities are Canon-friendly. For example, an A-wing is equipped with rockets, TIE's are equipped with proton torpedoes. Before some ask what is the point of bombers if fighters can now fire ordinance, well the torpedoes are the lighter version. Just for the sake of comparison, let us say a Y-wing uses a 2000 lbs bomb. The X-wing would be using the 500 lbs variant. Also, because I coded in the secondary weapons as abilities, fighters cannot use their torpedoes and missiles as often.

I also worked on skirmish maps a bit more. Between singleplayer and multiplayer, I usually focus more on singleplayer, but I gave skirmish a bit of work this time around. All skirmish maps has increased in size; anywhere from 10 to 40 percent. Ha, I made all the singleplayer space maps a little bit larger, I want to say two years ago, and I am only just now getting around to skirmish maps, ha. And speaking of space maps, I worked on a few textures to them, so hopefully it will look visually better. On a few maps, I even added a bit more to look at. For example, on the Kuat skirmish map, I added two Imperial Star Destroyers under construction. They do not affect gameplay, it is just something to see when fighting an opponent. Also, about the skirmish maps, for the land Endor map, I worked really hard to make it look more closer to Endor in the movies. Battlefront kind of inspired the change.

As for the Thermal Imploders used by the 61st Mobile Infantry, that is a bit tricky. I worked on them again. I just cannot recall what I specifically did. Mainly becuase I worked on them months ago and did not write down what the change was. I either lowered their damage radius, or their damage in general, or both, but I cannot remember which it was. Anyway, Jedi can now defend and reflect with their lightsabers from all infantry types, instead of just a few selected units. I am still working on that though, so consider that to be an "in progress change."

I reduced the number of starting planets the Consortium begins with for *most* Galactic Scenarios they are in. I believe Equal Footing was the one that is largely still the same. They also cannot support a population as large as the Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance during Galactic Conquest. I have actually been slowly putting more emphasis on them being a pirate/cartel like faction. Meaning less people in the galaxy would actually want to join them. Especially sense they just steal everyone's stuff. I even gave them an in-universe pirate-sounding Star Wars song during Galactic Conquest, ha. Also, I am aware the Zann Consortium is cannon. In fact, I found out about it the year after they returned to Canon status.

The rest of the changes you all can figure out for your self, muhahahahah!

Anyway, I wanted to talk about sending me messages. I am not mad at anyone. Just do not get mad when I do not replay on the same day. I cannot be online all the time. If I do not replay within a few days... wait a few more days... ... ... ... ... Look I reply to all of your messages... Eventually, ha. I have an open door policy for players with questions. The only thing that really gets to me is when people ask me the same thing over and over again. If I gave you an answer to the question, it will probably not change. Why ask the same thing again? I am not mad. It is just, spamming me with the same question is not fun.

Also, be careful with trolling and or joking. I am not above jokes; I like sharing laughs with the community. But a lot of times, I do not know if one is serious or not. I remember this one time someone with a PhD from some college said they was going to nominate me for something. At first I thought someone was just messing with me. I was thinking, "way to pull one over on poor old Larry-3!" I do not know why, though. I do not have any super cool PC set ups, or degrees in gaming design. I sort of just explored the files and played around with them. There was a lot of trial and error... In fact, A LOT of trial and error. Beside a few examples I had from other modders, I sort of just played around with everything. Just me, some dreams, and a low-end laptop... that other gamers and modders would have probably laughed at, a lot. I would slide my laptop out from under my bed, open it up, and read through the files, try to understand them, play around with them, read some examples online, and yeah... Then one day we end up with Alliance at War. It was overwhelming at first, but not as much now. As you can see, there is nothing really special, ha. I used my low-end laptop, and went "ooh, what do these files do?" Ha. So when someone said they might nominate me for something, naturally I am going to question it. I said, "sure, just pull one on Larry-3 why don't you!" Which was a mistake, because I later found out the guy was serious. And I thought to myself, "what did I just do?!" Never found out what happened to the guy, though. See how joking can really screw with a person. I do not mind joking with the community, just add emoji or something when you do it. But hey, if ever you wanted to know how I began, I basically... explored. I will not sugarcoat it, all the lines of coding was overwhelming, but I stuck with it, and like I mentioned, eventually... Alliance at War.