The last article I wrote about the status of the mod had been a few months ago. Thus I think its time to make a more updated article as since June a lot has happened. The mods discord community is slowly growing. The mod itself is progressing, and I have begun uploading videos showing off the new units (along with some tutorials) on my youtube channel. We also have Hostibus57 making a LP of this mod on Youtube as of right now.
Anyways lets get to discussing the mod itself.
First things first lets discuss the ground front, which is one of the 2 major fronts of Empire at War. Many infantry units have actually gotten animated so far, though a bit need to still be animated before the mods first alpha demo can be released. Many of these infantry style units had been reusing vanilla EAW animations (such as the various rebel troopers and Lando), though quite a few had animations and skeletons made from scratch (such as Kurome, Ksha, the mechs, Captain Archer, bounty hunter shara).
The ugly vanilla rebel and imperial infantry models were all replaced with better looking models. As for the ground units that still need animations, its just a few units that still need them (such as the Gold Third, Neptunia Next forms, Alicia Melchiott valkyria). There will be quite alot of new hero units being added into the mod. Additionally important to note that due to the rebels now being the New republic and with more resources and influence at their disposal, their trooper platoons have been changed to 3 squadrons containing 4 regular infantry, and 2 bazooka troopers per squadron, thus bringing up the rebels strength a bit; although the Imperial platoons now get access to grenadiers and (if certain planets are controlled) spaarti clones.
As for ground vehicles, both the rebels and imperials are getting new ones. The Empire gets a ground Thunderwing fighter, and will possibly get a new AT-ST and AT-AT model, and another new walker and tank. Meanwhile the rebels will get a few new ground units as well to help bolster them including AT-RTs (weak but fast scout units which can capture build pads and command posts), MAAT (which will deploy rebel troopers similarly to the Imperials AT-AT and provide hard hitting air support), AAC-3 Missile Tank (an artillary tank), and T5B Heavier tank (a slow but heavily armed and armored tank designed to specially deal with heavy Imperial armor). Additionally there will be certain utility units added (such as mining machines) which will give various effects.
And with these new units, the ground battles will be rebalanced.
I would say ground is around 60% complete.
With ground out of the way, its time to discuss everyone's favorite part of Empire at War, which is the Space battles!
As mentioned before, both the Empire and New Republic have many new space units. Various corvettes, frigates, destroyers, and capital ships.
Both sides also have an "ultimate" warship which is expensive but very powerful, with the New Republics ultimate ship being the Viscount-class Star Defender and the Imperial Remnants ultimate ship/weapon being the Eclipse class Dreadnought. Both will be very expensive ships, but both will be very powerful, and both will have a build limit.
As for the regular ships, there will be multiple categories. For instance on the Imperial side the Venator and Resurgent will act as Carriers, while the Rebels have the Quasar as a carrier ship.
The Ganges class will serve as a corvette bomber for the Imperials, while the Victory II frigate will become their main anti fighter unit. Meanwhile the Rebels Corellion Corvette and Nebulon will serve as their main anti fighter craft.
Certain ships will also have upgraded varients available to purchase (such as Acclamators and Victory cruisers).
And both factions will have certain unique role ships; such as the Empire having the Ragnarok and Desolators as specialized anti captial ship ships and the Rebels having certain specialized utility ships like the Advent Battleship (which acts to stun and disable enemy ships) and Defiant class (anti frigate/capitalship corvette). Rebels will have access to old Confederate ships like the Luchrehulk and Providence dreadnoughts as well, but in limited quantities.
Though for the main battleships, both factions will have similar equivalents in terms of ship class (though with different weapons and fighter compartments); For instance the ISD will be equivalent to the MC80, ISD 2 will be equivalent the MC90, the ISD3 will be equivalent to the MC85 dreadnought. Though certain ships like the Strident class and Resurgent will have different roles even if both are supposed to be equivalents in class.
Both the rebels and Empire got new fighters as well. And continuing in tradition, Rebel fighters are more powerful/armored while Imperial fighters are faster/more maneuverable but less armored.
Thus in space battles, both the Rebels and Empire will have specific strengths and weaknesses. The space station garrisons have been reworked, and most likely the space station themselves will end up being buffed as well.
I would say space is around 85% complete (most of the work that needs to be done in space is in regards to creating death clones for certain new ships), with the both sides rosters being finalized.
With ground and space out of the way its time to discuss the galaxy map and other related stuff.
Galaxy wise, all planets are now in their Expanded Universe positions, and travel between planets is only possible via hyperlanes, thus you can no longer just hop from planet to planet if planets arent connected. Certain planets can now be more strategically valuable due to their positions on the hyperlanes.
As for new planetary ground maps, those still need to be made (as the few that were made were lost in the hard drive failure a few months ago). Though I'll create the ground maps for the new planets later after all other rigging and animations are done.
Moving on, balancing still needs to be looked into more and redone a bit. The ingame economy system will get a bit of a rework as well, mostly in terms of the mining facilities as it doesn't make sense for all planets to have those, and instead only certain planets will be able to build them (such as Mygeeto, Sarapin, Aeten III). Additionally certain high income planets like Coruscant will be able to build capital/tax/senate buildings which can increase income that way. Though with the income system being changed, unit prices will have to be reworked as well.
If I would say the current state of the mod via percentages I would say this that Space unit stuff is 85% finished, Ground unit stuff is 60-70% finished. Additionally the new music for the mod has been added in and is working. What still will need to be done is making a few new ground maps, and possible re-balancing. Additionally the Neptunia units need their voices added in (which isnt hard to do).
Overall the mod is progressing smoothly and gets more of it completed every day. If all goes well, i'm thinking that the first public alpha/demo release of the mod will be released on steam workshop sometime around December 2019. It will surely be Neptastic!
Here are all the new infantry models for the Stormtroopers and Rebel troopers depending on planetary type. For the Empire The Snow trooper will be on Cold artic worlds, the green scout troopers will be on swamp and forest planets, the remnant stormtrooper will be on temperate and volcanic and desert planets, and the Army Maco Trooper will be most likely deploy on Urban planets.
Meanwhile for the New Republic the Commando trooper will be on Forest and swamp planets, the snow trooper on cold artic worlds, the tantive trooper will be on urban planets, and the New republic trooper will deploy on temperate and volcanic and desert worlds.
The New Rebel Vehicles. The T5B heavier tank will be a rebel tank specialized in destroying armored units. The MAAT will be an aerial gunship which deploys additional rebel troopers to battle. The AAC3 Battle tank will be short range artillery and deal with lightly armored units. Meanwhile the ATRT will be a mechanical scout trooper which can capture command posts for the rebels.
The new Imperial space ship roster for level 5 space stations on big shipyard worlds. From frigates and corvettes to full battleships and battlecruisers. Note that these ship build costs arent finalized and might change, and that the eclipse currently isn't shown, and that the older version of the acclamator and victory frigate will not be buildable on higher levels.
