Popular Articles - Star Wars: New Order mod for Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption

Promo art (Splash screen)

At first, we'd like to show you the new promo art to our 0.5 version.
Made by vovagete.

So, and know, let's see what we have reached in mod progress.

Clones

We have added anti-troopers - rebel clones from the Kaminoan Ressistance. We think you'll like it.

Credits: NeoMarz, 'Galaxy at War: Clone Wars' team, LucasArts&Petroglyph

Terren Rogriss

From time to time we continue to make portraits for different heroes. As for now we have Teren Rogriss.

Credits: vovagete

New infantry weapons

Just thinking about adding guns from the Battlefront :)

Imperial Artillery (WIP)

These models of the imperial artillery were made by Sudnos two years ago. It's time to finish them...

1st variant: precisely as it looked in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds.
2nd variant: looks similar to UT-AT. The personal idea of Sudnos.

Rebel pathfinders

One of the new types of Alliance infantry - pathfinders. They can establish the landing beacon to call additional reinforcements.

Command vehicles

The next feature is "Command vehicles". There are two command vehicles at the moment: Heavy tracker for the Alliance and LAVr QH-7 Chariot for the Empire. The list may be expanded in future, probably.

How it works: if you entruck a general in a command vehicle (or appropriate hero) then it will give you an additional bonus.

Visual updates

Over the coming months, a huge amount of work has been done to improve the visual component of our mod.
From what has already been done, the following can be distinguished:

• New planet textures (taken from Shiny_man's free release pack or based on them), as well as new custom models for some unique planets.
• Providing some units with new models and textures made from a scratch.
• New animations.
• Minor visual edits (texture upscaling; adding of team colors, hit marks decals; other effects)
• HUD rework

The examples of completed works can be seen below.

Beta testing!

We are working on preparations for the upcoming test. This time, a large list of tasks will be provided for bug tracking. The main goals will be to check the units with their new stats and abilities, as well as the balance of power of the two main factions. A separate task will be to check the playability of new maps and identify bugs related to level design, and testers will also have to evaluate the tactical features of all new maps. If you are interested in helping us with tests and bringing the project closer to release, follow the link to our discord and sign up for testers.

Additional help needed

We are always looking for people for cooperation, since in fact our capabilities are not enough to implement all ideas to the fullest at the moment. At the moment we are in dire need of:

• 2D-3D artist;
• Level designer (mapper).

If you have no experience in either one or the other, but you have enthusiasm, then do not hesitate to contact us (me or Sudno). If you have a great desire to develop the project, we may well teach and show everything that we know within the framework of moding. Any other activity of yours can also help us, for example, in such less priority tasks as translating the mod (if you speak Russian and English at a decent level), writing descriptions for units, helping with the voice acting of units / characters or working with audio. We are also always open to interesting ideas and recommendations.

We are waiting for you, here or on our discord :)

Required tools

For making maps you need to download the Map Editor. You can get it on Petroglyph web-site, that is the link.
Then just install the tool into FOC root folder. Don't forget to download the patch for the editor, if you won't do this you will face many unpleasant problems (unpatched tool breaks mtd commandbar, as far as I know), so it is better to keep the editor updated.

I also recommend you to have Photoshop (or any other useful graphics editor) for making a height map - an image which can be loaded into the editor for generating landscapes. The first video will be about that, so if you're not interested in this moment you can skip that part.

After everything is done you will be in need of making a mini-map, for this purpose you have to go on Modtools.Petrolution.net again. There you can download a Map Preview Extractor which will create a mini-map for your map.

While extracting a mini-map for preview, resize it to 512x512 and convert to .dds format.

Height map

That is the first video for this tutorial, there I show how to make a simple height map in Photoshop.

The Editor

The second video is about the map editor, there you will see all steps to make a complete map.

I also suggest you to switch on the subtitles, because from time to time some useful hints will appear on the videos in subs.

Map Preview Extractor and finish steps

The final step is making a mini-map, as I mentioned before. Open your MPE tool and load your map in there, it will create a file which is needed to be placed in such root: ".../Data/Art/Textures".

Then just code your map in the game. Open the xml-file with coded-in planets (Planets.xml, for example). Choose a planet which your map was made for, find a line named as and just insert the name of your map (Your map should be placed in 'Maps' folder).

That is all! If you have found some mistakes in this article, please note us.

Galactic Conquest

Galactic Conquests in the mod will be divided into several types:

• Multi-era sandbox GC
• Single-era sandbox GC
• 'From the Grounds Up' GC
• Galaxy-scale scenarios
• Local Scenarios

Multi-era sandbox GC is such a type of GC where players will fight in a duel between two main factions on the whole galaxy map (except some scenario or local planets). This GC will contain all standard heroes for both sides replacing each other after death or era transition. The two main factions are Alliance and Empire, as only those two sides that were active throughout all the timeline of the mod.

Single-era sandbox GC is a similar type to the above one, but it will be locked to a certain era. The other difference is that minor playable factions might be available.

'From the Grounds Up' GC is a type where each player starts with only one planet.

Scenarios (Galaxy-wide, local) are GCs where gameplay will be built on a certain amount of scripted events, missions, bonuses, timers, etc. Scenarios can be also characterized by asymmetric balance of power for each faction, and the difficulty may vary depending on which side you play.

Existing and planned examples

Talking about variety of GC types, let's take for example our first finished scenario - Operation Strike Fear. It takes place in Tion Cluster and describes the conflict between Empire and Rebel Alliance. The main objectives for imperial side is to conquer 4 major rebel bases and do not allow their ISD to be destroyed, as rebel side must repel imperial attacks and to keep occupied at least 1 major planet or to annihilate imperial ISD. Each faction also has reinforcements, either increasing or decreasing difficulty, depending on how much time passed. The assortment of available units is also restricted, as it is a local conflict and both factions can not deploy too much forces there.

Another example which is planned to be presented in upcoming releases is 'Thrawn's Campaign'. Unlike the above mentioned campaign, this one will be Galaxy-wide, with some additional planets unique for this GC. We're also planning some missions for this GC, the capture of Katana fleet for example.

Ideas for another GCs

We're intending to add all (or at least most of them) described scenarios mentioned in the list below. It is important for us to know which events are most desirable by our community to give the priority to such campaigns. That's why I decided to make a poll with all interesting events from Legends (reliable to Imperial period) which could take thier places in our mod.

List of proposed scenarios:

• Reconquest of the Rim
• Great Jedi Purge
• IG-88 Droid Revolution
• Kamino & Dellso Uprising
• Operation Skyhook & Yavin Blockade
• Shadows of the Empire
• Rebellion regrouping after Hoth
• Zaarin Insurrection
• Zann's Rising (Forces of Corruption)
• Return of the Jedi (pre-battle of Endor)
• Fall of the Empire & Coruscant Campaign
• Hunt for Zsinj (Bacta War, Post-Zsinj campaigns)
• Imperial Civil War (Massacre between Warlords)
• Operation Shadow Hand
• Daala Campaign
• Orinda Campaign
• Empire Reborn / Disciples of Ragnos crisis
• Restored Empire Crisis
• Black Fleet Crisis
• Second Imperium Crisis

And now I would like to ask our community about any thoughts concerning all those potential GCs, please don't hesitate to express your opinion in comments or in our Discord. It could be a great pleasure for us if you could suggest as more ideas as possible. Ideas about missions, proposing GC types for certain campaigns, unique units or heroes in certain events, ideas about interesting mechanics, bonuses, features, etc.

It will be interesting to hear from you :)

A long time ago we created a Discord server for easier communication with our testers. As for now, we decided to open it for everyone who wants to join! :)
If you want to discuss something concerning mods, development or anything else on our channels - Welcome!

Discord.gg