Consortium to Pirates mod for Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption

Summary

The goal of this mod is to convert Zann Consortium into the Black Sun Pirates from the original EaW, while staying as close to vanilla as possible. I know there are some other mods that do a similar thing, but i wasn't satisfied with them so i am making mine the way i want.

Also, please keep in mind that i want to preserve the original vanilla experience, so if you're a fan of big and detailed mods like Thrawn's Revenge or Awakening of the Rebellion, you might not like this one. And needless to say, this mod is not canonical to anything at all, not even Legends. I just always wanted to play as those pirates from vanilla EaW.

What is already done

• Corruption was removed.
• Consortium units and structures were removed and replaced with Pirate ones from the original EaW. Here is a list of structures and units that Pirates can produce:

Ground:

• Pirate Barracks - based on Pirate Outpost from the original EaW. Icon was slightly changed to match the Pirate Base Facility.
  Produces:
  - Pirate Mercenaries - regular pirate soldiers, health was increased from 30 to 40.
  - Pirate Plex Soldiers - similar to Rebel Plex soldiers but slightly less accurate. New icon was created for them, based on the original EaW asset.
• Twi'lek Infiltrator Facility - can only be built when Pirates control Ryloth.
  Produces:
  - Twi'lek Commando - Pirate infiltrator unit, analogous to Rebel Infiltrator. Has remote bomb ability, just like Consortium Saboteur.
• Pirate Vehicle Factory - based on Pirate Base Facility from the original EaW.
  Produces:
  - Pirate Swamp Speeder.
  - Pirate Skiff - can now carry 1 squad of infantry, similar to Juggernaut.
  - Pod Walker - was slightly increased in size and deals much more damage now from a longer distance, but fires slightly slower.
• Ground Mining Facility - the same as Rebels and Empire have.
• Ground Ion Cannon - the same as Rebels have.
• Shield Generator - the same as Rebels and Empire have.
• Ground Turbolaser Towers - the same as Rebels and Empire have.
• Hutt Palace - the same as Rebels and Empire have.
  Produces:
  - Bounty Hunters - the same as Rebel and Imperial Bounty Hunters.
  - Hutt Crime Lord - provides 25% price reduction to most of the units and structures on the current residence planet, and 50% price reduction to Bounty Hunters and Smugglers as well as 50% production time reduction to minor hero units (Bounty hunters, Smugglers and Hutts). Takes a payment of 200 credits per cycle (week). Also allows the construction of Grand Arenas when placed on the orbit.
• Cantina - same as Rebels and Empire have. Produces Smugglers.
• Grand Arena - increases a planet's income by a random value between-1x and +10x of the planet's base income. Only 1 per planet can be built. Can only be built if there is a Hutt Crime Lord on the planet's orbit.

Space:

• Pirate Asteroid Base Level 1 - based on the Pirate Asteroid Base from the original EaW, but lacking 4 out of 8 weapons. The shield points were brought in line with other factions' space stations.
  Produces:
  - Z-95 Headhunter starfighter.
  - Pirate Assault Starfighter - has a missile firing ability (based on Y-wing ion shot ability).
  - Pirate Y-wing bomber - identical to the Rebel Y-wing.
• Pirate Asteroid Base Level 2 - based on the Pirate Asteroid Base from the original EaW, with all 8 weapons functional. The shield points were brought in line with other factions' space stations.
  Produces:
  - IPV1 Patrol Craft - the firing cones of its laser cannons were significantly widened to match other corvettes, making it comparable in its effectiveness.
• Pirate Space Dock - allows Pirates to build frigates and other big ships. Fits in the slot of space special structures (just like Long Range Scanner or Gravity Well), so this is not a level 3 space station. Has an ability to heal ships during the tactical space battles. Has a garrison of 2 Pirate Frigates.
  Produces:
  - Pirate Interceptor Frigate - reduced in size, all hardpoints have more health now (still less than Interceptor 4), making it much less fragile, but still weaker than Imperial or Rebel frigates.
  - Venator-class Cruiser - now has 2 hangars and carries 6 squadrons of V-wings. V-wings have TIE-fighter sounds. Red laser cannons are replaced with blue turbolasers, ion cannons are replaced with blue laser cannons, missile launchers are replaced with proton torpedoes. Can only be built on the same planets as capital ships (Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari Cruisers). Capable of planetary bombardment.
• Pirate bombing unit is Y-wing.
• Pirate special weapon is Ion Cannon, just like Rebels.
• Pirates can perform planetary bombardments if Venator is on the orbit.
• Pirates can perform planetary Raids, just like Rebels.
• Space and ground buildable turrets are now the same as Rebel ones. No OP mass drivers.
• Infantry buildable turrets were slightly rebalanced, but overall effectiveness should be about the same.
• Pirate heroes are Bossk and IG-88 for now. Their icons were replaced with custom made ones, based on the Empire Strikes Back shots.
• C3PO and R2D2 icons were replaced too because i didn't like them.
• The interface, including the menus, are converted to look like the original EaW interface.
• Consortium emblems for hero units, planetary bombardment, GC interface etc. were replaced with Black Sun emblems.
• Galactic and Tactical dashboards have the Black Sun emblem now instead of the Consortium one.
• Tech tree was edited to display Pirate units and structures.
• Consortium units were replaced with Pirate units in all of the FoC vanilla Galactic Conquest maps.
• Galactic Conquest maps from the original EaW were added, Pirate units were implemented.
• Most of the Consortium mentions in text were replaced.
• Various minor changes.

What is planned

• More heroes for Pirates. Prince Xizor - first of all.
• Boarding party unit, capable of capturing enemy ships.
• Some edits to the 3d models to keep everything consistent.
• Planetary bonuses will be edited to affect Pirate units and ignore Consortium units.
• I intend to make AI work in GC.
• Consortium mentions in audio files will be removed (announcer at the beginning of the tactical battles).
• Consortium music will be replaced with the music from the movies.
• Conditional upgrades using story scripting.
• Upgrades for units available in the structures during the tactical battles.
• Maybe the Skirmish mode?
• I got some other ideas, hopefully it will come to that too.

Known issues

• There are still some mentions of Consortium or their units.
• Pirates are weaker than other factions, so many GC maps are imbalanced (either too hard or too easy).
• Pirate AI in Galactic Conquest does not know how to play and is mostly idling.
• I don't expect the Skirmish mod to work correctly. There might be crashes. I only play GC. I will address the Skirmish mode when everything else is done.
• Story campaign and tutorials are probably not working either.
• I'm sure there is more, please let me know if you're facing any issues.

How to install

I can only confirm that it works with Steam Gold Pack version. I don't know if it will work with retail or GOG versions of the game.

Download the zip file, extract the ConsortiumToPirates folder into your Star Wars Empire at War\corruption\Mods folder (Steam version). If you don't have a Mods folder - create it. After that launch the game, go to Options, then Mods, then pick ConsortiumToPirates.

If you have the previous version installed, delete it entirely from your Mods folder and put the new one there. The saves from the previous version should theoretically work but it's better to start a new game if you're having crashes.

If you want an easier way to launch the mod you have 2 options:

Recommended:
Open FoC Mod Launcher (download here). It should automatically detect any mods in your Mods folder.

Or:
Follow this guide on how to create a shortcut.

Credits

- Petroglyph for making this game and supporting it for so long
- Gabrielle for the dashboards with Black Sun emblems
- Empire at War Discord Community for assisting and guiding through modding process
- Me for editing XML files and putting it all together