Some News - Ultimate Empire at War mod for Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption

Not the best news ever, a short bulletin to keep everybody enlightened as to what is happenening.

Work on UEaW V1 has been slow, and I'm having to set back the release date. This is due to a variety of reasons:

Firstly, we've lost a few staff members to their non-modding life considerations. This is an unavoidable reality and risk in all modding projects, and we wish them well and look forward to their potential return, however it is crippling to rate of work. In addition to this, a couple of staff members have had to cut down their workload for similar reasons.

Secondly, I personally am somewhat to blame - for two weeks I was (completely by surprise and unavoidably) removed from access to any PC and thus both internet and modding due to a surprise family holiday. I had a nice holiday, but there was no time for contingency planning and this has set us back a lot. On top of this, since then, I've had university considerations (OH, btw all, I'm going to medical school... Got my grades!), including sorting out funding, banks, pre-term work and all the stuff I'm going to need (woo, stethoscope, but also all the living gear) - which has been soaking my time up and reducing the time I can commit to modding. This, when considering the existing lack of staff, has only made matters worse, and all credit goes to Shimrra, who has done an excellent job of soldiering on, sometimes alone, with bits of the mod.

Thirdly; our first stage of beta-testing (it's basically late-alpha testing) has shown up various problems. None of these are game-breaking or unsolvable, but some are stubborn nuisances to remove and it just means our existing commitment to a release date isn't possible if we are to release V1 in both a fully working and quality game. I won't release a broken version, but I will equally not release it unfinished and un-varnished because of fixing taking up time.

I've also had a few queries recently, most of which already are answered or catered for, but I'll elaborate a few here:

'You should give us a unit list for V1'/'Where is the unit list for V1':
The unit list has been done and available to the public since early March. It can be found attached in pdf format to the first post of this thread. You may need to register on our boards to be able to see and access the attachment. If you experience problems with registering, contact me.

Even just the graphics you've shown us so far from UEaW V1 in media releases look good, but will my PC be able to handle it? [usually followed by a list of specs]
Any modern PC from the last 1-3 years (or perhaps older) should be able to handle V1; it doesn't require some sort of super-nerding-gaming-rig with recompiled kernel and the works. It is true, however, that there is far more stress than in vanilla due to the more detailed graphics:

- Far more complex particle graphics and, of course, a far greater number thereof from there being both more projectiles flying around, and each one having unique individual, UEaW-made particle effects varying for dud detonation, impacts, shield contact et cetera; not to mention the projectiles themselves being brand new.

- Most of our new models are far more detailed than vanilla, especially regarding their shadow meshes.

- And general improvements across the board, including of combat environments.

This said, even if your PC can't handle this, there will always be the option to turn down graphics settings in the options. There will be a graphics-tweaking guide included with V1 with instructions about how to get the best of V1 with lower-end systems.

Can you please do [x] to [y] that you have made?
Look, we're always open to input, but if you feel strongly that you'd prefer x stardome or y ship to look differently, please don't shout about it repeatedly. Everything can be changed, though there are some things we don't want to change. Thankyou for the input, but please don't jump around repeating it!

Will there be Super Star Destroyers in UEaW V1?
Probably. They'll be damned expensive (costing much more than OVER 9000 credits) and will take OVER 9000 years to make, but they'll be available, and not necessarily with a build limit, either.

Cool, realistically available but treasury-draining SSDs. Are they re-modelled?
No. It's been a long struggle just to produce 4 eras worth of normal space units of all shapes and sizes to such a quality - don't expect more than an Eclipse and Executor classes in V1, and using default models. They're not a main feature of V1, just a tactical availability to commanders with a LOT of money and patience (though they are canonically scaled against all the other ships, and toned down very little indeed). If all goes well and we release more versions, we may add such behemoths and their counterparts to other factions and eras.

Chris, can I has a cookie?
No. You must earn my love and adoration to receive a cookie, something not easily done, though achieved by a few of my favourite forum-goers. You may, however, help yourself to a muffin.

To everyone who follows us loyally - and I notice our Moddb watchers now exceed 500 members - my thanks. We will eventually get there, faster and better if anyone can help us and bolster our depleted staff ranks, but we'll arrive eventually. It is a very trying hobby; certainly not easy when one has so many other commitments in life, but we struggle on nonetheless.

My regards

LTCC