From the creators of Imperial Civil War and Ascendancy comes Thrawn's Revenge III: Fall of the Republic, covering events in the twilight years of the Galactic Republic and the Clone Wars. For millennia, the Galactic Republic has been a source of peace and order for the galaxy. More recently, corruption has begin to spread through its institutions. Across the galaxy, beings become disillusioned with the status quo and rise to challenge the Republic...
If you are reading this from the Imperial Civil War page, FotR has its own ModDb profile on which we will be posting all future FotR-relevant content.
Follow Fall of the Republic on ModDB - Thrawn's Revenge Discussion Forums
A Republic in Decline
"I am quite convinced that ten thousand more systems will rally to our cause, with your support, gentlemen."
-Count Dooku, aka Darth Tyranus
Hello everyone! On April 1st, we released a rough teaser trailer for Fall of the Republic, which for some reason people thought was fake. Then, a few weeks ago, we confirmed it had resumed development in our Thrawn's Revenge historical timeline, the first part of our celebration of 11 years as a mod team. We were going to hold off on doing a proper announcement for a little while, but there's been some common questions we wanted to take a moment to address, as well as break down the way the mod will work.
Fall of the Republic is a prequel-era mod in which we want to recreate the galactic situation in Star Wars in the last years of the Republic. We aim to bring the feel of our post-Endor mod, Imperial Civil War, into this time period, adapting that model to one suitable for the era. In the same way that Imperial Civil War tries to shine a light on some of the mid-level players and events like the Yevetha, Hapans and Warlord factions on the galactic stage of the post-Endor period, we hope to explore some of the timeline beyond just the Clone Wars themselves. While the Separatist Crisis and the Confederacy of Independent Systems became the standout conflict, the decades leading up to the declaration of the Galactic Empire saw significant military buildup across various factions, where certain events swinging a different way could have brought different challenges to the Judicial Forces Republic in the early parts of this period, with a constant debate about the virtues of re-militarization within the Republic. People can speculate on what that means, but for now, we'll leave it at that. Our history of developing Imperial Civil War and Ascendancy will be informing how we structure the mod, release-wise. In order to better focus development on specific parts of the mod, ensuring people get regular, more polished releases and giving us a more solid basis to work off of, instead of trying to tackle everything at once, we will be starting a bit more simply with the Republic and CIS, and working up to our broader goals.
Into a New Era
"They will have the numbers. We will have the Force."
- Jedi Master Saesee Tinn, Fifth Battle of Qotile
One of the more prominent changes in Imperial Civil War versus the base game is a tech system primarily based on "eras" (being Imperial regimes in ICW) as opposed to a directly tiered, traditional tech system where you start with, for example, corvettes and work your way up to larger Star Destroyers. This is a model we will be translating into Fall of the Republic. The first release will start covering the major conflict of the time period, being the Clone Wars, broken into three eras; the first, second and third years of the war. The playable factions in version 0.5 will be, of course the Galactic Republic and Confederacy of Independent Systems. Considering the factions themselves did go through some standard technological advancement and research during this period, there will be elements of that as well, but it will be based on in-universe factors, instead of just ship A is stronger, so it's era 3. Era progression will be based on a mix of events and the passage of time, with different research options and other events possible based on the era in which you are playing.
We will be doing a faction profile for the CIS and Galactic Republic at some point in the future, covering their unit and hero rosters for v0.5. But for now, we want to cover some of the more common questions we've been asked.
Will this interfere with Imperial Civil War 2.2? When will Fall of the Republic be available?
Fall of the Republic will have absolutely no impact on the release of Imperial Civil War 2.2. Our goal is to build FotR off of Imperial Civil War 2.2 as a starting base, so dedicated work will not be started on Fall of the Republic until Imperial Civil War is in testing, which is also when you'll start seeing screenshots and video of the first Fall of the Republic release. Until then, the only work we'll be doing is on assets also needed for ICW (ie, the new Providence art assets). As mentioned above, we're keeping our plans for that first release less ambitious; we'll be doing the basic framework for mod and the two main factions, which should not take too long to get out after 2.2. With the mod tools Pox and I are working on, like the GC creator, a lot of the logistics for this become a lot simpler. If there are any talented 3D modelers or texture artists out there who would like to help speed this along, they can contact us at ThrawnsRevenge@gmail.com
Aren't there already Clone Wars mods for Empire at War?
Yes, and for a long time, this is why reviving FotR wasn't really on our radar. However (and this isn't criticism of the existing mods, simply a matter of taste) the more I started playing those mods, the more I was thinking about what our own version of that would look like. Yes, it still involves clones fighting droids and Venators fighting Lucrehulks, but there can be different ways to handle that. Some people may prefer the existing mods, some people may prefer our version, but ultimately we enjoy making mods, and we make what we want to play, so really it just means more options.
Does this mean no Stellaris ship packs?
I'd still like to release some of our TR stuff for Stellaris, but as it is, there's a decent selection of Star Wars ships available for those who want to play with them, so I'm less concerned about that for the moment.
What about the Clone Wars Cartoon?
While the mod will be based in the Legends expanded universe, there have been some questions as to how we'll handle the Clone Wars cartoon. While the more recent Clone Wars cartoon (the one with Ahsoka) is technically part of Legends, it did introduce some inconsistencies (in star Wars? No!). We won't be completely disregarding the cartoon, but in cases where there is a conflict, we'll usually go with the non-cartoon source. There are some places, like the Essential Guide to Warfare, that retconned some of these issues, drawing from the cartoon and other sources, and for us, Essential Guide to Warfare pretty much trumps anything else. Basing the mod in Legends allows us to use some of the characters who would become major Imperial and Rebel figures during the earlier days of their careers.
Nice to see you guys coming back to this, good luck!
I thought they said The Clone Wars(the newer show, with Ashoka Tano, Admiral Yularen, etc.) was, along with Rebels, just as canon as the movies? Could be wrong, but I thought I heard that somewhere...
Afaik, it's Disney canon, but because the show started before Lucas sold Star Wars off, it can be considered part of Legends canon too.
When they started forming the new canon, the Clone Wars cartoon was brought in, along with the movies and things like Rebels. However, we're not working off of the new timeline. Rebels, the new movies, etc are not part of Legends.
This cartoon was also part of the old Legends timeline (Rebels wasn't), but it conflicted with a lot of stuff in some cases (ie the previous cartoon), so we have to make a determination of what to do in those situations
The old cartoon that was Volume 1 and 2 are a complete joke and act just like The Force Unleashed with over exaggerating the force with Mace Windu punching Super Battledroids into pieces and him jumping on a Vulture Droid pulling out it's wires and controlling it,i could go on and on but the only cool thing about that show was the parts with the arc troopers.
It was over exaggerated but still badass.
The overexageration was the point, much better to look at than pretentious bullcrap, it didnt conflict with canon either.
The Force unleashed was one of the best representations of what an uncontrolled force wielding monster looked like honestly. The force shouldn't always be shown as, "Hey I can lift that rock, and push that person over a bit". It has power, and sometimes insane power.
I heard anything that George Lucas was a part of before Disney bought star wars (including cartoon clone wars) is officially canon.
I'm not so interested in the pre Empire era of Star Wars, but I will still check this out. The quality of your work is reason enough.
Agreed. I've always preferred the Galactic Civil War era and, while the cryptic tidbits of Clone Wars info fascinated me growing up in the 90's, its portrayal in the prequels was somewhat lacking. That said, there were many great stories and spin-offs that came out of it, and the pedigree of the Thrawn's Revenge team makes me more excited for this than the glut of half-baked/atrociously balanced Clone Wars mods out there.
Contrarily I'm the exact opposite as I prefer the Clone Wars-era to the Galactic Civil War, not because of the "quality" of the Prequel films but because the Galactic Republic with its clones and Jedi and the Confederacy with its droid forces are two great powers that are roughly evenly matched which promises a more "balanced" war than the GCW in which the Rebels and the Empire were nowhere on equal footing in terms of military power.
Fair points to be sure. There's certainly an appeal about two superpowers duking it out in a massive, no-holds barred conflict, and it is a more appropriate type of scenario for EaW's game mechanics. It's one of the many reasons why I end up playing ICW more than the vanilla game, because it makes more sense for an established government like the New Republic to take and hold territory than a small resistance movement relying on hit-and-run tactics like the Rebel Alliance.
I guess I like the appeal of the underdog taking on seemingly insurmountable odds, which is more the theme of the GCW. There were many times in both Legends and the current canon where the Rebel Alliance came perilously close to annihilation, yet they managed to hold on by the skin of their teeth.
Exactly, and while the prequel films certainly have many flaws, especially in dialogue, the CGI-Clone Wars series gets progressively better after Season 1 and the Anakin Skywalker in that series is how the movie Anakin should have been.
Not to mention several good instances of characterisation for established characters like Padmé, Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Dooku, Ventress (who has an entire character arc dedicated to herself) and many of the Jedi who only get cameos in the movies.
After watching The Clone Wars, Order 66 is even more of a gutpunch because you got to know many Jedi and even Clone Troopers on a more personal level.
The vanilla EaW ironically gets overshadowed by almost every mod made for it, lol, but it is certainly true. A RTS game isn't really the ideal genre to represent the GCW because of balance issues.
For gameplay fairness, the Rebellion and Empire need to have roughly the same properties when it wasn't really like that at any time.
For example EaW treats the Mon Cal Cruisers as equals to an Imperial Star Destroyer when in actual canon their only advantage over the ISD are their better shields. In terms of armor and firepower the MC is inferior and normally you'd need two MCs to defeat one ISD.
The Republic and CIS however, while having different philosophies and difference in numbers, are overall two roughly evenly matched factions.
Such an underdog scenario can be done, but would need a radically different approach to the game system for the factions.
I think Awakening of the Rebellion tries to capture this a little as far as the EaW engine allows.
Bravo, sirs. Follow your aspirations ever higher, just be careful not to choke on them.
(buried)
ok stop
So for the era system, does this mean there will be a chance for pre-clone wars eras to be playable? You mention the decades leading up to the Clone Wars but I didn't fully understand what that really had to do with the overall Era structure.
eventually that is a direction we'd like to take it in.
Personally, I think the Old Republic would've been a better choice. There aren't very many mods focused on this timeline and it would work perfectly with your Era system. That said, the idea of your team creating a Clone Wars mod with your style of space combat & campaign mechanics is very exciting. It could even top Republic at War for the best CW mod.
maybe eventually, but not for a long time
I will say since thrawns revenge and the team have a more stable system
I personally prefer that era as well in general, partially because there's a few different factions of similar size and power, but the biggest issue with doing an EaW mod set in that era is the unit rosters. Space is a little bit better, but ground is severely lacking.
I am very intrigued by the mention of pre-Clone Wars factions and events. There's certainly a potential wealth of possibilities given the plethora of "brush fire" conflicts in the decades prior to the Clone Wars. I've always considered EaW to be an "Infinities" product with the myriad of ways the player can alter the course of galactic events. It would be interesting to explore scenarios where the Clone Wars as we know it was radically different or never happened in the first place.
Considering the quality content that Thrawn's Revenge already is I'm pretty sure a Clone Wars-era mod will see quite some success.
The Republic and Confederacy are also quite different enough that there won't be much overlapping in units if any at all.
It's true that there are many CW-era mods out there, but while many of them are promising in terms of looks and included content, several of those are also a nightmare in terms of balancing (either the CIS or the Republic being overpowered or single units/ships being weaker/stronger than they actually should be) or simply not complete yet.
Or in many, MANNNNNNY cases, pure copy/pastes of other clone wars mods. I absolutely would not expect this team to do that.
That too, although I am not too concerned with having some same models in different mods when there was permission given.
Unfinished and unbalanced parts of a mod are a much bigger nuisance than using some already existing models.
I personally edited some XML-files in several mods to remove some imbalances or make certain parts better playable.
Not to mention how often I skimmed through the XML files in order to fill in completely missing text in the Master Text File so that I actually KNOW what I can build in Galactic Mode.
If every second unit has only stating [missing] [missing] when you hover over it and the icon is not immediately identificable it gets tricky.
A surprise to be sure but a welcome one.
Definitely looking forward to seeing this. Personally I've always preferred pre-GCW Star Wars (Clone Wars and Old Republic in particular) (Que hate mail), but the only mods we have (that I know of) for those eras are ORAW (which only has one person working on it, and he's working on another mod at the same time) and RAW (which, while not bad, is still unfinished and has serious balance issues), so I'm interested to see a fresh take on what, honestly, is my favourite era of the Star Wars universe (more hate!).
Its my fav too actually!
If you guys can finally make a clone wars mod which isnt hinged on TCW's ****** aesthetics or sounds, props to you because we really need one.
your avatar always weirds me out because it looks like my sister
yup , please no cartoonish TCW.
Sounds great, been wanting to play a good Clone Wars mod for a long time. Will any of this make it into Sins also eventually?
A surprise to be sure but, a welcome one.
Will you have more non-clone organics on both sides? The Essential Guide makes it clear that organics make up a large part of both forces.
I always imagined that dreadnought heavy cruisers, cloakshapes, pursuer gunships etc made up much of the forces on either side as well. When the clone wars was actually shown in ep 2, I was a little dissappointed by the droid v clone fights.
wow glad to hear you guys are doing this, I really like Republic at War and I think it's the best mod on the clone wars, but it's mostly based on the cartoon. I love how you guys are staying committed to the legends material and not the Disney canon. can't wait for this
Will we get to control Han Solo as a kid in Kashyyyk?!?!?!
This comment is currently awaiting admin approval, join now to view.