Preview Video & We Could Be Heroes: CIS Edition news

Hello everyone! On June 8th, Thrawn's Revenge will hit its 12th anniversary, so we're doing an update series to mark the occasion for all of our current projects. We started with Ascendancy yesterday, then Fall of the Republic today, and on Saturday we'll cover Imperial Civil War. These will all have a video and a written component, though unlike usual, these will cover different things. You can follow the links below to get between all three updates when they're released:

Last year, we also released a historical infographic, so if you wanna check that out, you can see it here: Moddb.com

I've done an early preview gameplay video as part of my 12 hour livestream on Corey Loses, which you can watch below. While we still have plenty left to do, this was basically just to give an idea of how far along we are in terms of organization and some assets. There's still a lot of balancing to be done as well, but you can see some of the new assets like the CIS Lucrehulk Battleship and Vulture Droids that weren't in ICW, as well as a few explanations of content and some Q&A throughout the video. This was the last hour of a 12 hour stream, so it's probably not my most coherent video, though. Once we're a bit farther along, I'll do a full preview playthrough with each faction, like we did with ICW leading up to 2.2.

Next up, we have the CIS hero roster heading into the first release. Our goal with this version was to get a relatively similarly-sized core hero roster for the CIS and Republic- there'll be more to come later, but these are either the more major players in the time period, or they fill a particular niche that the faction needs and otherwise lacks. Part of our focus is also to expand some of the standard fleet elements of the time, which tend to receive a bit less focus next to all the jedi, so you'll see a few more obscure captains and admirals in both factions, especially characters who would later play a much larger role in the Imperial or Post-Endor period, keeping connections between Fall of the Republic and Imperial Civil War.

"The best of all would be the strongest student, yes? Wisest? Most learned in the ways of the Force? Best of all, Dooku would be! Our greatest student! Our greatest failure." - Master Yoda

Count Dooku - Ground, Space: Providence-class Carrier/Destroyer, Lucid Voice
A powerful jedi who began to lose faith in the Order after the Battle of Galidraan in the Mandalorian Civil War, Count Dooku, also known as Darth Tyrannus, is a Sith Lord who serves as the de facto political leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Under the guidance of Darth Sidious, it was Dooku's work which united the various disaffected corporations and blocs within the Republic to form the CIS.

General Grievous - Ground
Space: Recusant-class Light Destroyer
Space: Subjugator-class Heavy Cruiser, Malevolence
Space: Providence-class Carrier/Destroyer, Invisible Hand

General Grievous was a Kaleesh warrior who was cybernetically enhanced after a bomb planetd by San Hill and Count Dooku on his shuttle left him near death. In the Clone Wars, his cybernetic enhancements and training by Count Dooku allowed him to wield lightsabers, which he used to great effect, killing multiple jedi and collecting their lightsabers as trophies. Most importantly, Grievous also served as the first Supreme Commander of the CIS forces, united what was previously a very fractious and disorganized military and allowing it to effectively challenge the Republic for much of the war.

Assaj Ventress - Ground
Assaj Ventress was a powerful Dathomiri Dark Jedi and acolyte of Count Dooku, hoping to be his Sith apprentice. Over the course of the Clone Wars, she fought Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker multiple times. After a command by Sidious that Dooku kill Ventress, fearing her growing power, Ventress returned to Dathomir and planned for revenge against Dooku.

Sev'rance Tann - Ground
Tann was a Chiss Dark Jedi who left Chiss space to join Dooku's forces in the Clone Wars. Despite being a skilled warrior, she was killed on Krant only a month into the Clone Wars by Jedi MAster Echuu Shen-Jon

Sora Bulq - Ground
Sora Bulq was a Jedi Master famous for his skill with a lightsaber, although he fell to the dark side after helping Mace Windu develop his Vaapad form. He was captured by Count Dooku, and then served as a secret agent of the Sith Lord, attempting to cause discord within the Jedi Order before becoming the leader of Dooku's Dark Acolytes.

Viceroy Nute Gunray - Galactic
As the Viceroy of the Trade Federation, the Neimoidian Nute Gunray was one of the highest ranking political leaders within the Confederacy and a sitting member of the Separatist Council.

Emir Wat Tambor - Galactic
Like Nute Gunray, the Skakoan Wat Tambor was a member of the Separatist Council. He was also the Foreman of the Techno Union, and Executive of the Baktoid Armour Workshop. Baktoid was responsible for the manufacturing of many of the separatist forces' designs, including various types of battle droids and starfighters.

Admiral Trench - Space: Providence-class Dreadnought, Invincible
Commanding one of a few massive Providence Dreadnoughts within the Separatist fleet, Trench was was a Harch and seasoned Admiral under the banner of the Coporate Alliance, and then the CIS.

Admiral Pors Tonith - Space: Munificent-class Star Frigate, Corpulentus
A Muun banker and admiral from the Banking Clan, Pors Tonight was a capable commander, although he often overestimated his own capabilities. Relatively early into the war, he was captured by Anakin Skywalker.

Captain Canteval - Space: Munificent-class Star Frigate, Profit
A Muun captain, Canteval was in charge of CIS operations on Taloraan whcih had a secret treaty with Count Dooku. During the landing of their forces. While engaging Republic ground forces including the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, Canteval planned to ambush the Venator-class Resolute, which resulted in his ship flying into a gas giant after losing control of its engines.

Captain Mar Tuuk - Space: Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship, Procurer
A shrewd Neimoidian tactician and student of military history, Mar Tuuk was the commander in charge of the blockade of Ryloth. After Anakin Skywalker rammed his Lucrehulk with the Defender, the CIS forces at Ryloth fell into disarray and the Republic was able to successfully liberate the planet.

Admiral Dua Ningo - Bulwark-class Battleship, Unrepentant
Dua Ningo was a high-ranking Sullustan admiral during the Clone Wars, serving as the commander of the new Bulwark Fleet late in the war, a fleet comprised of multiple new and powerful Bulwark Battleships built at Foerost. After his success at breaking the blockade of Foerost, Ningo was tasked with planning an invasion of Coruscant, resulting in a series of battles against the Victory Fleet under the command of Jan Dodonna and Terrinald Screed throughout the core.

Aut-0 - Space: Providence-class Carrier/Destroyer, Resounding Cadence
Aut-0 was a super tactical droid who commanded a fleet of primarily Recusants within Separatist territor, who was deactivated late in the war by asquad of droids led by R2-D2.

TF-1726 - Space: Munificent-class Star Frigate, Tide of Progress
TF-1726 was a T-series tactical droid who commanded the separatist fleet of Munificent frigates at the Battle of Quell against General Aayla secura, in which the droid was able to secure a separatist victory, although Aayla was able to escape.

Kalani - Ground
Another super tactical droid, Kalani was dispatched by Count Dooku to dispel resistance to CIS occupation on Onderon after the repeated failures of King Sanjay Rash, whom KAlani later executed for his failures.

General Lok Durd - Ground: AAT
Lok Durd was a Neimoidian weapons developer and general within the CIS. He was repsonsible for the creation of the Defoliator, an anti-organic artillery weapon which left droids unharmed, which he planned to test on MAridun. In the ensuing battle, he was captured by Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano and Aayla Secura.

General Whorm Loathsome - Ground: AAT
General Whorm Loathsome was the commander of the Kerkoiden military forces, as wella s the leader of the Retail Caucus' forces within the CIS. He was the notably responsible for the capture of Christophsis and the commander of CIS forces against the Republic liberation force there.

Durge - Ground, Space: NovaSword Space Superiority Fighter
Durge was a bounty hunter of the Gen'dai species, meanign he was able to regenerate his body from almost any injury. By the time of the Clone Wars, he was nearly two thousand years old. He harboured a deep hatred of the Mandalorians, which led to his recruitment into the war against the Clone Troopers of the Republic on the side of the CIS. He was only killed once Anakin Skywalker launched him into a star.

That's it for today's post. As I said near the start, we have some other options and idea for heroes for future releases, so if you notice someone missing, feel free to suiggest them, but don't worry- much like ICW, our goal is to approach the mod in smaller chunks to make sure we're able to do releases in reasonable timeframes. Tomorrow we'll be talking about ICW and doing a developer livestream at 2pm eST, which you can watch here: Gaming.youtube.com