Star Wars: Empire at War

Star Wars: Empire at War, abbreviated to simply EaW, is the latest real-time strategy (RTS) game to take place in the Star Wars universe. Promising to end the mediocrity of past Star Wars RTS games (namely Force Commander and Galactic Battlegrounds), Empire at War started from the ground up. The game was developed by Petroglyph, comprised of many former members of Westwood Studios (known for the Command and Conquer series). This company has developed a completely new engine specifically for EaW known only as Alamo. It uses several higher-end shader effects such as soft shadows, specular lighting, and particle effects for dust clouds and explosions.

Gameplay
The game features a brand new style of play to make things a bit more realistic—instead of building workers, gathering resources, and recruiting individual units, players are be granted resources based on how many and which planets the player controls. Controlled worlds increase the players' cashflow and many have special abilities to help increase the players' military might (ie: production boosts, increased funds, and attack power increases). Infantry units are "recruited" in groups, while larger-scale units are made individually.

Battles are carried out both on a planet's surface and in orbit. Whoever controlls the planet's surface, controls the planet itself. Bombing runs can be executed by space-borne units. Likewise, ground-based installations (like the ion cannon and hypervelocity gun) can fire upon units in orbit. Unlike in Galactic Battlegrounds, shields will form an actual physical barrier that must be penetrated.

Taking place in the time between Episode III and Episode VI, Empire at War features three factions, though only two are playable. Playable and bot only factions are the Rebel Alliance the Galactic Empire and the Black Sun, repectively. Among the Empire's advantages are their sheer power and numerical superiority, though it will be difficult for them to move about the galaxy without being noticed. The Rebels, on the other hand, won't have the resources to fund massive armies and will instead have to rely on spies and guerilla style hit-and-fade tactics. Like many RTS games, Empire at War features a "Rock-Paper-Scissors" unit usage style&mdash;for every unit there is a counter-unit. Brett Tosti, the LucasArts producer, has stated that this encourages players to create diverse armies and fleets with units that counter other units, as opposed to being able to building a bunch of "super units".



Players will be allowed to call on reinforcements during battle, including heroes like Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Players can also construct planet-borne ion cannons, factories, and space stations. Over forty locales are featured including Yavin IV, Tatooine, Dagobah, and others from the movies and expanded universe. Each world has its own unique advantages and resources. Vehicles from both trilogies will also be featured, further connecting them. Players that side with the Empire will be able to use the Death Star to further subjugate the galaxy by having the ability to completely obliterate a world.

Modding
As was revealed in early press releases and interviews, EaW is marginally open-source&mdash;with much of the game being controlled through text files (*.txt), XML files (*.xml), DAT files (*.dat), and Lua files (*.lua). Anyone with the knowledge and software needed to alter these files can do so.

The text files are easily edited in most text-editing programs (though Notepad is often the default editing program on the Windows platform) and control the unique ship names that appear on many of the capital ships as well as a fair amount of the stories used throughout the Galactic Conquest mode. The xml files control much of the data responsible for the appearance and behavior of units and buildings. These files are often, by default, launched in a web browser which allows for viewing only. For the purposes of editing xml WYSIWYG web editors (ie: Microsoft's Front Page and Adobe Macromedia's Dreamweaver), text-editors such as Notepad, or proprietary xml editors can all be utilized (through the latter two are most common due to their relative ease of use).

DAT files require the use of software capable of reading the information embedded within. In Empire at War, DAT files are used to store almost all of the text found within the game. Lastly, the Lua files are used primarily for high-level scripting and AI. Editing these files requires the use of Lua source code and a compiler, or the use of a Lua-friendly visual programming environment.

There are some portions of the game which are not editable, at present time: - the Alamo engine's .alo 3d models (no converter currently exists for the format) - the .Lua scripting files (they seem to have been compiled using some as yet unknown version of the language)

Petroglyph has promised tools for such purposes, though there is no release date determined, as of yet. Despite this, the community has been pressing forward, going so far as to enable Star Destroyers in low orbit above land maps, unlocking the existing units which were not put in place, and even some total conversions have begun. There exist some fan-made programs to assist with the editing of what can be edited, as well as a (at present primitive) .alo file viewer.

Species and Creatures

 * Bantha
 * Bothans
 * Desert Sketto
 * Ewoks
 * Geonosians
 * Gungans
 * Human
 * Hutts
 * Jawas
 * Mon Calamari
 * Rancor
 * Sarlacc
 * Sullustans
 * Tauntaun
 * Tusken Raiders
 * Twi'leks
 * Wampa
 * Womp Rat
 * Wookiees

Troops
{|-
 * valign=top|

Imperial

 * Darth Vader
 * Emperor Palpatine
 * Boba Fett
 * Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin
 * Captain Firmus Piett
 * Colonel Maximilian Veers
 * Mara Jade
 * Probe droid
 * Stormtroopers
 * Fleet Commander
 * Field Commander
 * valign=top|

Rebel

 * Captain Raymus Antilles
 * Commander Ackbar
 * Han Solo
 * Chewbacca
 * Kyle Katarn
 * Mon Mothma
 * Everyone in Red Squadron during the Battle of Endor
 * Ben Kenobi
 * R2-D2
 * C-3PO
 * Special Forces (Rebel Soldiers)
 * Smuggler
 * }

Vehicles
{|-
 * valign=top|

Imperial

 * Imperial Star Destroyer
 * Immobilizer 418 cruiser
 * Victory-class Star Destroyer
 * Acclamator II-class assault ship
 * Tartan-class patrol cruiser
 * Broadside-class cruiser
 * Y-85 Titan-class dropship
 * Sentinel-class landing craft
 * T-4a Lambda-class shuttle
 * Slave I
 * TIE Bomber


 * TIE fighter
 * All Terrain Armored Transport
 * Self-Propelled Medium Artillery
 * All Terrain Anti-Aircraft
 * TIE Mauler
 * 2-M repulsortank
 * All Terrain Scout Transport
 * 74-Z speeder bike
 * IPV/1 Patrol Craft
 * TIE Scout
 * valign=top|

Rebel

 * Home One
 * Mon Calamari Star Cruiser
 * Assault Frigate Mk. II
 * EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate
 * DP-20 Corellian Gunship
 * CR90 Corellian Corvette
 * Marauder Corvette
 * GR-75 Medium Transport
 * Millennium Falcon
 * Moldy Crow
 * Sundered Heart
 * BTL Y-wing starfighter/bomber
 * T-65 X-wing starfighter
 * Z-95 Headhunter
 * RZ-1 A-wing interceptor
 * T-47 Airspeeder
 * Mobile Proton Torpedo Launcher
 * T4-B Heavy Tank
 * T2-B Repulsor Tank
 * Alliance Space Station
 * valign=top|

Other

 * Alpha-3 Nimbus-class V-wing starfighter
 * All Terrain Attack Pod
 * Infantry Support Platform
 * Desert skiff
 * Venator Star Destroyer. Was removed from full version of game. (Not true can be renabled with a Little XML editing)
 * }

Imperial

 * Death Star
 * Hypervelocity Gun

Rebel

 * Ion cannon

Both

 * Anti Infantry Artillery
 * Anti Vehicle Artillery
 * Anti Air Artillery

Imperial

 * Imperial Light Vehicle Factory
 * Imperial Officer Academy
 * Imperial Advanced Factory
 * Imperial Barracks
 * Imperial Command Center
 * Imperial Heavy Vehicle Factory
 * Research Facility

Rebel

 * Alliance Barracks
 * Alliance Command Center
 * Alliance Officer Academy
 * Infiltrator Training Facility
 * Alliance Heavy Vehicle Factory
 * Alliance Light Vehicle Factory

Other

 * Bacta Healing Station
 * Abandoned Heavy Factory
 * Abandoned Sensor Array
 * Communications Array
 * Cantina
 * Hutt Palace
 * Mercenary Outfitter
 * Mining Facility
 * Orbital Long Range Scanner
 * Power Generator
 * Shield Generator
 * Repair Station
 * Sensor Node
 * Turbolaser Turret

Behind The Scenes
The Venator Star Destroyer was removed from the final version of the game, since it gave the Empire an unfair advantage in space. However, through the use of xml editing, many players have chosen to bring the Venator back into standard play.

This is the only non-Dark Forces saga game that features Kyle Katarn.