This update is going to deal with the changes to planets (and by extension, GCs) in 1.3, but first I'll go into a bit of detail on what's left to be finished. The only major thing left to do now is finishing the Golan II and III skins. There's a few other smaller balance adjustments and bug fixes, such as unit abilities as well, but not more than a day or two's worth. After those are all done, we'll be releasing a beta version on our forums for 2-3 weeks to work out any kinks we've missed and to get preliminary feedback for 1.3, after which it can be released. We're hoping to get a mid-late January release date for the beta.
The biggest issue with 1.2 was the tendency for the Galactic Conquest mode to freeze (unit production would lock, nothing but the camera could still be moved), and many of the changes in 1.3 have been centered on reducing or eliminating this as a factor. From our own testing, we seem to have succeeded, however the team is too small to know for sure so this is going to be one of the main focuses of the open beta phase. We have, however, tried to do this in ways which also increase playability on other ways.
For planets, we've altered several aspects of the game in order to make certain planets more desirable than others, and to make specific planets more than just another place to conquer. First is the population capacities. In previous versions, it really didn't matter which planets you had, you were almost certainly never going to hit the galactic limit. In 1.3, all of the planets' galactic population capacities have been lowered and adjusted against each other in order to make the planets you chose to focus on more important without limiting the potential for some epic battles. The baseline for this process has been Coruscant at 60, which allows for one and a half full space fleets, and then works down from there.
The second major change to make certain planets more valuable than others is capture bonuses. These vary from faction to faction, with the New Republic typically getting units, and the Empire of the Hand and Remnant getting infrastructure. If you capture shipyards as the New Republic, you will receive some ships, and if you capture them as the Empire of the Hand or Remnant, you will salvage intact shipyards. Some planets, such as Hapes and N'zoth, provide ships from minor factions, such as Battle Dragons and Thrustships.
The third change makes planets more worth keeping than worth taking for most factions, except to deny certain bonuses. 3 planets, one per faction, have been given a starting structure in some GCs which is irreplacable. These act as headquarters for the major shipbuilding companies, and provide 30% construction speed and cost bonuses on their products at that planet; these are Kuat Drive Yards at Kuat for the Remnant, Mon Calamari Shipyards for the New Republic, and the Sycan Engineering Company for the Empire of the Hand.
That's all for now, the next update should be for the beta release in a couple weeks, so stay tuned. If you have any ideas for future versions, bug reports, or questions please post them on our forums, or our Facebook page.-The Thrawn's Revenge Team
Sounds great! I can't wait for the release. Take as much time as you need though...
Ah, this is what I've been most eagerly waiting for. If it turns out as good as it sounds, it'll reinvent the GC portion of the game (which is my favorite aspect, anyway).
I really hope these changes will turn out good... GC have become a little stale for as of late.
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