Star Wars republic: Total War

[bish]

Hi,

I have decided to develop the mod Star Wars Republic: Total War, which will be set during the clone wars. The finished mod should feature factions such as the Confederacy of Independent Systems, The Galactic Republic, The Galactic Senate, and perhaps even the Huts or Wookies, which could add a hand-to-hand combat element. Although the Rome engine is not really suited to technology such as starfighers I do believe it would be possible with determined effort to create a mod which could emulate the large scale battles as seen during the clone wars.

Although I am an inexperienced Rome modder, I am a fairly competent programmer and have some scripting knowledge of other games, so I am fairly confident I can pull of most of what will be needed. However I am absolutely useless when it comes to 3d/ 2d art which is severly holding me back, I would really appreciate any assistance on this front and if you would like to join the development team then please email me @ thomasbishop@hotmail.co.uk.

I would also be very glad if you could post any suggestions or questions you might have here or at the republic total war forums.

The website is http://republictotalwar.fragism.com (please note there are no screen shots as of yet as the work I have done already is rather experimental on stuff such as blaster beams - not really that impressive to look at)

Regards, Bish

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Wow! If this works, that would be great! I fully encourage you in this endever. If I thought I could help, I would offer it. Sadly, I am no modder. Though I can offer advice about the gameplay (ie what I would like to see ) and Star Wars in general.

I don't think you should have Wookies as a specific faction. The Hutts sound cool, though.

Some factions maybe kinda:
Galactic Senate
Republican military (allied with the Senate; think of them as all of the Roman families united and working with the Senate)
Confederacy
Hutts ("the Hutts are gangsters")
Jedi? Make them allied to Senate & Republican military?

For more factions, look maybe at starwars.com - at one time, I really liked their site. Now I like it (the formatting, mostly) a lot less. But such is life.

How are you going to treat planets? As islands in a sea of stars, with ships being naval units?

This sounds great. May the Force be with you!

[AssasinsShadow]

Being a SW fan, books and movies, I always thought a SW mod would be awesome. But seeing as i have zilch experience at modding, I was always intimidated by the task. Clone wars setting sounds interesting, although I would have made it post Episode 6, where you have more options for factions. Irregardless, good luck with you mod, and let me know if there is anything I can do to help

[bish]

How are you going to treat planets? As islands in a sea of stars, with ships being naval units?

If i get it off the ground you should be able to move between each planet by using space transports. Either each planet will be one sellement on the campain map or like you said i could have round islands in a sea of stars.

I was planning on the jedis being the general of the republic such as Yoda or Mace Windu. Although a jedi faction sounds like a good idea since i have only few factions.

[bish]

Here is a list of units - say if i have missed somthing or if i should include another faction


Grand Army of the Republic
Regular Clone Troopers Plain white=infantry, Yellow=commander, Red=captain, Blue=lieutenant, Green=sergeant
Advanced Recon Commandos Blue=trooper Red=sergeant
Commando troopers
Repusorpack troopers (have jet packs)
Mon Calamari Knights
Jedi knight as a general such as yoda or mace windu

All Terrain Tactical Enforcer (AT-TE)
Self propelled Heavy Artillery - Turbolaser (SPHA-T)
All Terrain Personal Transport (AT-PT)
Saber-Class fighter tank

Confederacy of Independent Systems
Battle Droids Blue=pilots, Yellow=commander, Red=security
Bio Droids
Chameleon Droids
Destroyer Droids (droidekas)
Dwarf Spider Droids
Hail Fire Droids
Homing Spider Droids
IG Lancer Droids
Super Battle Droids
Geonosian Royal Warriors
Quarren

General could be General Grievous or Count Dooku

AAT’s -tank
STAP (single trooper aerial platform)
MTT (Multi-Troop Transport)

Hutts
Those piggy guys i have forgotten their names
(need more suggestions)

[Keba]

The Hutts would have lots of Mercs.

I'm thinking light infantry/skirmishers mostly (smugglers, bounty hunters, goons, thugs, bandits, pirates, etc.), with, again, light armored support (modified speeders?). Cheap, easily replacable, troops. They should counter this by having lots of units, making lots of money (and hence hiring large numbers of mercenaries).

I personally think the idea is great and am willing to help out (by offering advice, my modding skills never got off the ground, leafing through 300-odd pages of insturction for 3Dmax just didn't seem like a good passtime), but I know a lot more about the Dark Age of the Empire and afterward, I didn't really like Episodes 1 and 2, and thus my knowledge is limited.

Perhaps the Jedi should be their own faction, allied to the Republic (thinking up units would be a mess, maybe Republic troops on detached duty).

Wookies were never independent in their own right, but having an unit or two of mercs would be fun.

I would ask for an elaboration of Mon Cal knights. I thought they were ship-builders in the rebellion and not much good in combat (fairly weak and not very tough).

[bish]

I have a question. What are the banners and logos of the factions.
I have looked all over the net and found very little on what the logo of the cis and republic looks like. I have seen an empire like logo on clone helments but i have no other information on this.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

good luck
how you gonna get past the fact that ranged units fire in volleys?

[Sundjata Keita]

A starwars mod has been proposed before and was eventually deemed impossible by restrictions of the engine and probable copyright enfringement but good luck all the same. Here is the thread https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=42614. There maybee some ideas that you will have to get round but I don't know much about starwars so yours might be a different time period or something

[Hunsik26]

Hey, just wanted to drop in and tell you that an idea for the Star Wars mod is simply a good idea; although I cannot stress the importance that it will be difficult to make. Hey, I'm no modder, but I've seen firsthand of what the engine was designed to do... visually.

Anyway, putting provinces as islands of planets and the sea as the universe, well... that sounds like a very hard thing to do; so what I can think of this mod is the ability to recreate a continent with varying degrees of terrains and unusually named provinces controlled by whomever you deem necessary to the greater good.

However, the storyline in Star Wars does not fit in the mold of rigid battle formation as the movies have shown that tactics are modern and conventional in spite of the ending movie that consisted of clone troopers marching into the ships. If I may, I would like to present you an idea of a Star Wars storyline that is a little off-base here, although does hold some credibility to Georgie-boy's SW history.

"The Republic has geared up for the clone wars, and yet have to begin their battles elsewhere against the factions who opposed the once glorious empire. The clones have marched into their ships and have landed on a planet called "X" (note: just to experiment). There were startup factions populating centralized areas and forced themselves to fight in the name of the Separatists. The Clones responded by marching to the areas and fighting in the name of the Republic itself. What turned out to be a grand battle resulted in problems for the sector."

Something like that, but ya know, there is a thread about a guy who described using hi-tech guns as the form of fighting, although he does point out with clarity that if you take away the hi-tech guns and replace them with energy swords or the like, it adds a certain element to the game.

As for me, I would like to see an entire continent filledi with wondrous landscapes and fighting battles in unsually named provinces against factions unknown... And don't get me wrong, I would love to see the mod in it's working state for RTW.

Keep up the work and we will utterly drool at the sight of the unit pictures.

See ya...

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Notes on units - you cannot have all those officers like you would wish. But you can have (per unit) a standard bearer and an officer (bearer = sarge, officer = Lt.?).

Republic:
Standard clone unit is fine
Recon - maybe smaller but faster? Not sure about this Maybe merge them with the commandos???
Commandos - not a great battlefield choice; maybe make them an agent instead of assasin/spy?
COULD replace commandos with a similar assault trooper (hey, SW gives us a little leeway for making up units)
Repulsor pack troops would be incredibly difficult to simulate purposefully in the RTW engine - recommend you not bother trying (though if you somehow do, it would be a fantastic miracle)

Armor
All Terrain Tactical Enforcer (AT-TE)
Self propelled Heavy Artillery - Turbolaser (SPHA-T)
All Terrain Personal Transport (AT-PT)
Saber-Class fighter tank

These would be quite difficult. Never mind the problem of animation, the engine might require riders. Could be very difficult. Maybe a later version? (ie release 1.0 without armor...)

Confeds
Battle Droids - apparently you can have different skins for the same unit (though only one skin will be shown for the entire unit) that could spice up the color configurations
Bio Droids - don't remember them
Chameleon Droids - ditto
Destroyer Droids (droidekas) - difficult to work, but good if possible would be like the elephants
Dwarf Spider Droids - hard
Hail Fire Droids - ditto
Homing Spider Droids - still ditto
IG Lancer Droids - ?
Super Battle Droids - my favorite after droidekas
Geonosian Royal Warriors - should be local unit, not mainstay
Quarren - ? I don't know, maybe local unit

General could be General Grievous or Count Dooku - need a generic general... ?
Armor - same problems
AAT’s -tank
STAP (single trooper aerial platform)
MTT (Multi-Troop Transport)

Hutts
You mean Gammorean (sp?) Guards... maybe two or three types of these?
Maybe a Rhodian unit(s)
Generic thug units
Should be forced to rely on mercenaries if possible

Jedi (assuming they are separate) - they should be a very small faction, by the way
Jedi Knight (basic run of the mill)
Rangers (assistants, regular troops but with hit points to reflect some force abilities)
Jedi Master (?) Not great for the battlefied, maybe a general
Ability to use (some?) of Republic units

General ideas and concepts
Militias - from the very little I've read, both sides in the Clone Wars utilized militias to supplement regular army and for backwater skirmishing. There could be a few levels or types of militia infantry availiable everywhere, while regular units (clones & droids) would maybe require a different building (similating bases)
Projectiles - we will have to assume for our purposes that units generally fought in lines (like in 1800's) and fired volleys. To that end, it would be great if units could somehow fire three bursts (like 1/2 or 1/4 seconds between actual laser firing) then pause for maybe 5 seconds. And ammo should be nearly infinite (though not completely)
Meelee - except for a few like maybe Wookies or Jedi, almost all units will be ranged. But they should almost all have a secondary attack - ie hand-to-hand. Exceptions would be some of the Confed units like the droidekas. Suggest most just swing their guns, but a few could have bayonets?
Rebels - there should be many rebels in the game, to signify the amount of uncertainty in the galaxy. To win, the player should have to consolidate his power among the planets and systems surrounding certain base and center planets (like Coruscant). There should be lots of rebel and region-specific units, too, like Wookies or Mon Calamari.
Planets - maybe simulate them with a 4x4 island, with 1 port, 1 city, and two empty spaces. Put them all in a sea of stars... could look pretty neat
Generals
Republic - famous Jedi (not Yoda)
Jedi - famous Jedi (non-human? Yoda?)
Confed - Count Dooku? Robot? Generic man? Alien? Lots of possibilities here
Hutt - hmm. Mercenary (alien?) general or [young] Hutt?
Captains
Republic - clone trooper with correct (yellow?) colors
Confed - droid with correct (blue? Forgot) colors
Jedi - generic (alien?) Jedi
Hutt - ???
Families - the family tree will work with the Hutts, but a better solution would be nice for the others...
Messages - we should make/find nice pictures for messages... If I can learn it, maybe I could make some renders in 3D canvas we could use
Message/Unit descriptions - I could maybe write some
Buildings - we need to figure out this stuff big time

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

More ideas - as if you haven't heard enough out of me
--------------------------------------------------
Naval units - capital ships should be individual boats, while a single boat should represent a whole fighter squadron/wing. We can make the campaign map unit look like many fighters, but it should be a single entity
Agents - diplomats can stay, as should spies. I recommend we change "assasins" to "commandos" because, quite frankly, Republic Commandos are too cool to be left out. Or have both assasins and commandos, with assasins being weak and commandos being stronger
Walls - what will do about them? Most cities in Star Wars are walled, I would imagine. Maybe have no walls OR:
>select few planet-cities have real strong walls (don't know which though)
>Very weak walls available for all others (just for mild balancing... need some way to keep the besieged from always being overrun...)
New faction - pirate league (needs much better name)
Alot like Hutts, but more ragtag...
Mostly raiders, stay on Outer Rim
V&V's - can have a lot of fun with these
Wonders - I think we could have a few, but no real bonuses like +5 whatever... Just to make it look nicer

And Bish, don't be discouraged even if people (like even I did) pooh-pooh a Star Wars Total War. May the Force be with You!

[Sundjata Keita]

Just a note you can have more than just a standard bearer and officer. Scroll about halfway down this post for info and picy. https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=43707

Also you cannot ignore Capo of Arabia's point about firing in volleys. At the moment ranged units all fire together which wouldn't be good for your mod but for other units just spread them out and I don't see why they wouldn't fit in with star wars.

Another point is what about flying units. Maybee you could use alpha to cut the bottom off say a modded elephant unit to create flying units. Ambitious I know but it would be great if you could pull that one off. Of course they would have to be archer units to actually attack and when they flew over people everyone would fly about as if an elephant had just charged them...

[bish]

You have got some ideas Alexander thx. I have done a laser effect with a rubishy green texture.

republictotalwar.fragism.com/screenshot1.jpg

[Keba]

Perhaps what Husnik26 proposed, while I certainly love the space battles in Star Wars, perhaps we chould avoid all the trouble (and retain our sanity, to have all those starships under your command and not be able to lead them in battle ), and make it all happen on some small Outer Rim world, rather than the sea/space stuff, that would also make it possible to avoid problems with city distance and slowdowns.

Love the fire effect.

Walls should be removed, maybe replaced with static turrets, like the ones on Hoth, instead of towers, but no walls. Is something like that even possible?

If the single planet idea goes, faction:
Planetary Goverment (name would be determined later, maybe moarchy, would explain the family tree)

Infantry

Law Enforcement Rapid Response teams (think SWAT, inferior to military)
Planetary Defense corps. (standard units)
Rangers (Arcanii like scouts, sniper armed)
Planetary Elite Guard (best of the best, of what's avaible , good, but not as good as other faction's elites, but cheaper and quicker to train)

Vehicles

Swoop bike squads (small, quick, agile, weak)
Ground-tank (basic armor, good against infantry)
Heavy ground-tank (good against armor)
Heavy mortar (artillery, low acc.)

Actually, I think the wonders are hard-coded, either you have them, or you don't. How I miss Morrowind, you could mod and mod, there wasn't a thing hard-coded in that game.

[Hunsik26]

Hello, I am writing in reply to Keba's recent post. However, I certainly do agree about retaining our sanity over coding something difficult like this. Also, I would love to keep the SWR topic alive through a story about Outer Rim Territories, alongside with a list of factions who oppose each other in spite of political troubles for the Old/New Republic (however you may designate).

Keba, I don't know if it's possible to rechange the walls into static turrets (I know the ones you're talking about in ESB). But, it'd be nice to have it for a change. If it's not possible, then we'd have to make do with an Outer Rim story because of stories about backwater worlds that were underdeveloped technologically and economically.

Your idea about a planetary government constituting of a monarchy, like a family line, is not really a bad idea. If you look at various sources for kings, queens, princes, and princesses, you'd know that Star Wars has a healthy list of royals. For example, there is Prince Isolder of the Hapes Consortium, who wooed Leia before Han went nuts looking for her. I can't help thinking that if we were to make a planetary government, then we should classify that as a rebel faction and make the Old Republic the major player in resolving a major issue. Of course, we will include the Trade Federation, if necessary; but I don't see how credible they would be at an Outer Rim planet. To spark things up, how about a separtist faction that is neither loyal to Dooku or Sidious? For example, we'd have our generic samples of clones acting as family members, pretending to be royalty. Plus, there'd be a story about the clones having genome-coded generals, captains, and commanders being competent to carry out their own tasks. I know I must be off-base here, but any story is worth looking into if the idea is alive and kicking.

As for the list of infantry & vehicles, I think they'd be a nice assortment to a rebel faction (for example, mercenary organization)... As for Planetary Defense troops and Rangers, they'd make excellent troops for staging defenses of the cities although.... Keba, I remember a story about a certain lifemate named Atuarre, in the Corporate Sector book (I know, the writing is terrible), who happened to be Triiani Ranger. The book briefly detailed the CSA invading the planet, and retaking it. It also depicts them enslaving the Triiani Rangers under their employ. Just a ranging thought I'd like you to know.

As for the last sentence you wrote about wonders, I think we should include a few cool wonders, like for example the Massassi Temple on Yavin 4. Not exactly like that temple, but if you somehow stumbled upon a wonder, it triggers a battle that you'd have to engage an unknown enemy. Also, the wonders' battles would be a lot tougher than fighting against the factions, just for fun's sake.

And Morrowind, I LOVE Morrowind! I just have not been able to play it in spite of my busy schedule whatnot with moving into a new apartment, rearranging my life priorities and all... But, I can be sure I'll post more on the forum from my own computer.

Okay, that's it for today. Let me know if you have more ideas to add into this topic.

[Hunsik26]

I have several questions to keep everyone on their toes. However, some of those questions will keep busting your minds just to guess. Hopefully, we can arrive at some conclusion to each question.

Question 1: If there will be generals leading troops, such as Count Dooku or Gen. Grievous, what will become of their traits? Or what will be normal traits for good and bad commanders? Specify which traits does what.

Question 2: What will become of the retinue? Surely, you guys at the SWR have thought this out. Please name all, or some of, the members of the retinue that belong to a specific faction. Will there be specific negative/positive bonuses with retinue when added to a particular general or governor?

Question 3: What are the factions, which exist for the mod? the CIS and the Old Republic stands as two major players for the modification, but there must be some smaller factions that are powerfully influential to a backwater planet or whatever ideas you may come up with.

Question 4: What will become of the wonders? Will there be battles with unknown enemies? Or will the wonders be occupied by a known faction? Are there bonuses when you take over wonders and if so, what are they?

Question 5: What elements will be added to SWR? Will there be strategic elements pertaining to battles and position of towns? Or will there be heavy RPG elements such as 'get your princess to marry a prince of her own!"? Keep us posted about this.

Question 6: Will there be specific colorings of troops assigned to each cohort in each faction? Like bish's idea for the sergeants/commanders/generals assignation... that was simply terrific although it make take alot of work to make it happen.

Question 7: What will be the specific timeline or timedate of this particular mod? Will it be staged pre-Clone Wars or back in earlier times? Or a piece of alternate SW history? If you've answered one of those questions, what will be the specific setting for the campaign? For example, bish's idea for planets and the universe, or my proposed idea of a completely strange world, in respect to Keba's mention of the Outer Rim?

I guess all of those questions will keep you busy, trying to figure out what to do. Until then, I'll be waiting.

[ShadowStriker]

padawan, jedi, jedi knight, and jedi master ( you should have jaedi master as a general, and like five jedi knights to protect...)
padawan they should be called when they are in training.... jedi is and average soldier (speaking like yoda)
the more traits they get that recons if you shall become jedi knight or jedi master (general)
so what im saying is that jedis should be able to grow in skill

[Hunsik26]

padawan, jedi, jedi knight, and jedi master ( you should have jaedi master as a general, and like five jedi knights to protect...)
padawan they should be called when they are in training.... jedi is and average soldier (speaking like yoda)
the more traits they get that recons if you shall become jedi knight or jedi master (general)
so what im saying is that jedis should be able to grow in skill

I'm not sure about the concept of the hierarchy for the Jedi. I mean, the idea for Jedi Knights protecting their Generals is a feasible idea. But one question kept me guessing. How will the Padawans fit into this if there's only Jedi Generals with assigned knights? Is it that they will serve as captains and go from there?

Also, the growing skill tree of improving the Jedi with cool traits sounds like a good idea. I concur with your idea on the skill tree.


I can't wait for the mod to finally take shape.

[Sundjata Keita]

Got another question to add to Hunsik's list

Question 8: Who will be the roman factions, who will be the senate and what's the storyline around this?

[Hunsik26]

Plus, including the Jedi as part of the Republic sounds like it would have conflicting problems with the hierarchy. Either it would be clone troopers or it will be superpowered Jedis.

I can visualize myself beating the factions 30 times in under 1 hour with just a Jedi army. Can't you? So, I might suggest that we add the Jedi as a small faction with little ability to improve their population and capitalize on their army. Sure they may work for the Senate, but there are game balance issues that bish may need to work out on jedis.

Anyway, keep on truckin', bish.

[Hunsik26]

Got another question to add to Hunsik's list

Question 8: Who will be the roman factions, who will be the senate and what's the storyline around this?

I guess is the Old Republic will become the Roman faction, although I don't know what the other two are. But I think there will be a galactic senate; and as for the storyline, I do not know. Let's see what bish can come up with.

But, it might be feasible if the Jedi were one Roman faction, and the Old Republic and another force were the other two. I don't know what bish is up to, but hopefully he can work it out.

[vlad 1]

iterest what about map ???
what about every new bulding ???
what about blasters lazers and rocets ???
what about space shatls ,linkorns and others space ships ???


i think better create full new game -then mod for rome total war !!i think this is imposible and need 1 year or more time for create normal game about star wars.

[Hunsik26]

only problem about that idea of creating a full game is there is no one to program such a game like this. Even if the full game came out, Georgie-boy is gonna raise some hell and try to shut it down... Of course, it's the same for bish, although his action to modifiy RTW is less drastic than the first.

But still, how are you gonna find some programmers. graphic artists, and the like to make a game like TW? Plus they'd want to get paid. Anyway, I think your questions pertaining to buildings, weaponry, and the vehicles will keep bish busy.

And about the map... there are two ways bish can choose from, vlad... his proposed idea of using the provinces as the planet, and the sea as the universe, or my proposed idea of using a strange world, again in respect to Keba's mention of the Outer Rim. I do not know what bish is planning to do.

You may want to talk with him about it.

[ShadowStriker]

someone said a robot could be jedi for the cofed...robots cant be jedis they cant learn the ways of the force

[ShadowStriker]

Got another question to add to Hunsik's list

Question 8: Who will be the roman factions, who will be the senate and what's the storyline around this?

the senate can be the senate lol

[Hunsik26]

someone said a robot could be jedi for the cofed...robots cant be jedis they cant learn the ways of the force

True... when have SW depicted robots (or automatons) having the full powers of Jedis? I mean, Yoda once said the force was bound to every living being. Also, midi-chlorians are the stuff of every Jedi, imbuing him/her with the powers set forth.

I think robots as jedi are a ridiculous idea. If Lucas actually made it happen, I'm gonna faint.

[Hunsik26]

the senate can be the senate lol

heh-heh.... kinda odd to repeat the word senate after it. But yea, gave me a funny thought.

[ShadowStriker]

i have a great idea!!! since some jedis go to the dark side we must be able to make them switch sides...so if we could like make them BE ABLE to go into like negative 2 loyalty or something he'l turn...MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU...LUKE (BREATHING) I AM YOUR FATHER

[ShadowStriker]

True... when have SW depicted robots (or automatons) having the full powers of Jedis? I mean, Yoda once said the force was bound to every living being. Also, midi-chlorians are the stuff of every Jedi, imbuing him/her with the powers set forth.

I think robots as jedi are a ridiculous idea. If Lucas actually made it happen, I'm gonna faint.

well there are some robots programed for trainig but only with the lightsaber

you are not a jedi without the force even if you have a lightsaber... so have you ever played any of the star wars games??? some use robots in the tutorials