posted 05-27-07 07:11 PM
EDT (US)
1869 / 2273
Thanks Master Silver! Okay, you haven't said yes yet, but I'm more than happy to test Jedi Power Battles. From what I've seen it'll be great fun. Would you want me to?
Well you asked for more detail. Here's a VERY detailed overview, hopefully containing no spoilers for the storyline. And I haven't given any of the strategies I've worked out for the sections, though when I finally upload it I'll put them in a text file for if someone's stuck.
MODS needed:
Republic forcefield gates (not *essential* but much better)
V-19 torrent (landed) for the ship hangar
'forcefields' which replace naboo hubs for the hangar exit
Venator cruiser Ep 3
Mandalorian buildings mod
Acclamator cruiser (to replace the (A) air transport)
Lasers mod from one of Senya's realistic units pack, and the corresponding geniex1. This is really needed to balance the units up. I'll include it in the file.
[all of these except the last one are optional, but make it a much better experience)
AI files:
A taunt AI basically cut-and-pasted from the Ultimate RPG AI but limiting the taunts and ONLY having the taunt-detection bit in.
Campaign: "Dreams of Empire"
The entire thing is set in the Outer Rim, around the Alzoc 3 area. I'll take the planets from 'Empire at War'. You always use Republic units - until the final scenarios.
The campaign starts in the Clone Wars time and continues through to 15 years after the rise of the Empire. The main character is a Fleet Strategist (haven't decided on a name yet).
Basically this Strategist gets more and more obsessed about his "Dreams of Empire" until there's a huge Republic-Republic conflict which he loses, and then he's imprisoned in an asteroid prison.
The story is told from a conversation in this asteroid prison: talking about the past. The final scenarios involve an attack on the prison and an attempt at liberating him, but there's a few plot twists I don't want to give away publicly.
The scenarios are usually split between the prison conversation and the battles of the past: one scenario conversation-in-the-present, one scenario battle-in-the-past. The introduction has both, and the final scenarios are battles-in-the-present at the asteroid prison.
So far I've completed the Introduction, where there's a brief conversation in the prison followed by a sort of tour of the Strategist's personal ship as it was in the past, a flashback. [the ship will be ambushed in the third scenario]
The 2nd scenario is basically completed, I've been checking the triggers today. The Republic invades one of the planets near Alzoc 3 (I haven't decided *exactly* which one).
First Stage:
There's a very brief intro there with the cruiser jumping from hyperspace and deploying a commando transport and 6 fighters. You have to escort the transport down through stars, then wisps of cloud and larger clouds, landing at high altitude.
Enemies:
TF fast fighters (traditional droid starfighters). They come in pairs, then quads and then squadrons of 8. You have to use your range advantage (4 v 3)
TF ADV fighters. You can't afford to take many hits from them, but there aren't too many. Pairs come from behind every so often, and near then ground there's a whole squadron that are mostly destroyed by the Cruiser.
Mines (TF ADV bombers) fly up to the transport and detonate.
BOSS: An Air Cruiser. It deploys ADV fighters and mines. You have to get behind it with 3 or more fighters, select it and type taunt 1 to fire a barrage of torpedoes. Do that twice and it's destroyed.
sentry posts. as soon as you see them the cruiser takes them out.
AA turrets. as soon as you see them the cruiser destroys them, except for at the end. The very last turrets are not destroyed, so you have to stop them firing at the Transport until they're destroyed or the Transport gets past them.
Second Stage: Commandos and an R2 unit get out of the Transport (jet packs) and the Transport then blows up, as if you had crashed. You have to take control of 2 turbolaser cannon turrets with the commandos (repeater troopers). First there's a stealth part. You have to make your way through a TF compound next to the 1st turret avoiding patrolling AAT tanks and killing troopers, using the R2 to open gates and slice the locks on the turbolaser cannon entrance. Once inside the cannon you have to reprogram the main computer and fight your way out because 3 droidekas activate and start shooting. Then you make you way out of the compound, again without being seen.
The seconds part is another boss battle against a Confederacy Hvy Mech Destroyer. You can only fire at certain times, and you have to position each of your 4 commandos at indicated points to throw grenades every 30 seconds or so. The BOSS spawns COnfederacy Hvy troopers, repeater troopers and then TF upgraded repeater troopers you have to take out very quickly. It also fires mines (explosives droids), fires particle cannons (straight ahead and to the sides) and deploys grenade troopers which you can't attack. As you damage it it goes crazy and starts killing you with radiation and ion pulses so there's a time limit before the commandos die.
The third part is another stealth section. There's a gate checkpoint ahead, so you take a detour to a mining outpost, divert the guards by sabotaging a sentry post and conceal yourselves in a mining transport, which takes you through the checkpoint and near to the 2nd turbolaser cannon turret. You go through a bit of forest to get there, then blast through some light walls and ADV mounted troopers and take over the turret in almost the same way.
The last part of the commando section is taking out a spaceport. You lure guards away with the R2 unit (regenerating health) and then avoid turret fire while planting charges at the base of 3 turrets, which you then blow up by slecting them and enetering taunt 1. You can choose whether to completely destroy the spaceport computers or divert some resources to you for the building a base section.
That ends the commando section. A troop lander from the Cruiser lands, thanks to covering fire by your captured turbolaser turrets. You're spotted by TF scouts, and there's a speeder bike chase where you have to jump off cliffs and think of alternate routes to prevent them returning to base.
Once you've killed the scouts, the troop lander deploys a small army with some repeater troopers, Hvy anti-air mobiles, 4 strike mechs, 2 mech destroyers and 2 AT-TEs (and 2 workers). You have to destroy an army under a shield generator, and then hold off a long wave of mech destroyers and 2 assault mechs which come in one at a time. After you've destroyed the command centre, you build your own and start building a base.
You are not allowed to produce your own units in your own factories, but you can research some technologies. You have to capture TF "production lines" which use a taunt system to create units in squads of 4 or 2, at very high expense, so you have to repair units a lot and use shield generators. Build the base quickly, destroy two small compounds - 'mining facilities' to the north and south, then you have to destroy a Core Ship and a Main Reactor in a VERY heavily defended Confederacy base in the south part of the map.
Three "electroturrets" (Coruscant building 9) destroy all your units if you come at them directly, so you have to go round or harvest trees. You can never defeat the Confederacy because the very centre of the base is also protected by 2 electroturrets.
The Main Reactor powers all the turbolaser cannons, so once you've destroyed it the Republic Fleet arrives and lands a massive invasion force. You take control of part of that force: 6 AT-TEs, lots of strike mechs and mds, a couple of pummels and cannons, a host of mounted troopers, two artillery, many scouts and repeater troopers, and some hvy AA mobiles. You have to destroy factories, two fortresses and two core ships which create units constantly until they are destroyed. You only have 10 minutes or so before you can't hold out any longer, so you must be quick and have a good strategy ready. One of the core ships is protected by electroturrets, so you must send a force from your base round the 'back way'. You cannot use your cannons because (a) it would take too long, (b) the electroturrets destroy the cannon projectiles before they impact.
Once the plains are clear, you solve a puzzle to reactivate an abandoned dock and cross a river.
The Final Objective is the Planetary Shield Generator, which is protected by more eleectroturrets and the main TF base. You must destroy the Reactor which powers all the electroturrets. That reactor is on top of a massive mountain next to the sea, but the Reacotr is protected by mroe electroturrets! You have to find a spot where a cannon can fire in peace. BUT when the Republic Fleet sends in the cannon, it's fired upon by lots of TF cannons hidden in the hills, so you have to take out the TIDAL power generator that supplies them with power.
When the Reactor is down, you push forwards into the TF main base. Take out the final Core Ship (the 4th one) and all TF forces are defeated because they have no central intelligence. This is the only way you can advance because most of your units will be dead or dying by now, even if you build more units at the "production lines". Advance up a spiralling ramp to reach the Planetary Shield Generator, killing a few orindary turrets and ignoring the deactivated electroturrets. Once the S-G is down, the Republic Fleet commences a precise orbital bombardment to destroy all TF Core Ships on the planet and you beat the mission.
Phew! It's a very long scenario: 10 minutes for escorting the Transport, 10 minutes for the stealth section, 10 minutes for the boss battle, 10 minutes for the 2nd turret and spaceport, 3 minutes for the speeder bike chase, 10 minutes to clear out the valley, approx. 30 minutes to build a large enough base, 15 minutes to destroy all the factories on the Plains, 5 minutes to solve the dock puxxle and destroy the Tidal generator and reactor, and 15 minutes to finally destroy the Shield Generator.
It's meant to be an epic first mission. Later missions will be shorter but just as intense. That's why I asked for a playtester, because such a long scenario can have bugs etc. in it.
I made it absolutely "rock-hard" (even if the difficulty you set it to must be moderate to stop alliance changes) if you don't listen carefully and use Pause (that's part of the storyline actually, the commander being able to Pause at any moment, because it's a memory of a battle.) But it's defintely do-able. Most sections will probably need 1 or 2 tries, of course I can do it straight off but I know what's coming and have tested it loads of times!
The reason I didn't split it up into lots of short scenarios is to give the computer time to build a base. If you build it for them their AI messes it up. By the time you get to build a base they have a very strong base ready for you, with stuff the AI can use and a good economy (give them lots of workers at the start and they mess up)
Also it's a single invasion, start to finish. It's not like you use the commandos a day after they've landed. Any mistakes you make, like taking too long on a section, should come back to haunt you later on. In multiple scenarios you can't do that.
Tigger Count: approx. 650. I might add a few more after someon'e given me feedback, or take some out.