The Star Wars logo and universe is copyright LucasArts.
Imperial Assault has no relation with LucasArts or Petroglyph. All other
material on this site is copyright 2005 by Imperial Assault (Edan
Dover), and cannot be shown elsewhere without permission or proper
credit to their original creators.
All work
(including concepts, skins, models, and code) that is submitted
to Imperial Assault becomes the property of Imperial Assault
unless agreed upon with
Edan Dover
or Bryant otherwise.
Imperial Assault II: Rise of the Empire is
a Clone Wars modification for Petroglyph's "Empire at War". It will
add the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems
allowing players to experience both "The Rebellion" era as well as
"The Rise of the Empire" era.
By now many of you are aware that Imperial Assault 2 ran into a near grinding halt a few months ago. We have gone through many plans for the mod. Releasing it as Open Source, Space Only, or just canceling it all together. Needless to say all of those options fell short of the great mod we wanted to deliver to the public. At the end of May, I was approached by my old friend Z3r0x regarding Version 4 of his mod, known as Republic At War. Republic at War aimed at creating a Clone War experience very similar to Imperial Assault 2. Both mods had lost most of their staff, and were moving at a slow pace. It was decided that we would pool all the resources and create one great Clone Wars mod, it would be beneficial for not only both mods, but for the community as well. Now, IA2 and RaW have some creative differences, so combining them could cause problems for both fans and staff alike. After many debates we have finally reached a compromise that I believe everyone will be happy with.
The Details: Imperial Assault 2 and Republic at War will both be released at the same time. Each version will have identical code that allows them to be compatible for online play. The only differences between them will be cosmetic. IA2 and RaW will both have different splash screens and some audio depending on were you download it from. If you download it from IA2, it will have IA2 themes, skins and audio. If you download it from EEaW, it will include RaW themes music and audio. If you download the mod from filefront it will have a custom mix of the two showcasing the two mods seamless integration. Additionally there will be a special unit ingame skin that will identify which version you are using during online play. Republic at War has many non cannon units that IA2 does not, but to allow us to make one Supermod we decided to have one standard skirmish faction, but change unit lists for Galactic Conquest. There will be two main GC campaigns, Rise of the Empire and Republic at War. Both of these will follow the clone wars and use the same tech style, but Rise of the Empire will follow much of the cannon material, while Republic at War will allow you to experience many of the non cannon events and battles from the comics and clonewars cartoon series.
Q: Will IA2 Still be Released? A: Yes! IA2 will be released in its entirety.
Q: Will Republic at War still be Released? A: Yes! Z3r0x is decided to releasing the mod as well as supporting IA2.
Q: So, who is incharge here? A: Z3r0x is incharge of Republic at War, as well as the ground portion of IA2. Swgbex helps run IA2, and is incharge of the Space portion. I am incharge of IA2 and am of making sure both partys are satisfied upon release.
Q: There are two websites, which one should I use? A: You can use either of the websites. IA2 and RaW both have dedicated fanbases, so I encourage you to check both. The IA2 website will be dedicated to the mod only while Everything Empire at War is a more general EaW site.
Q: So both mods are the same mod? A: Yes, the code is the same, the only differences are cosmetic depending on the download source.
Q: Sounds good, when can I play? A: We are working on a "Beta" that will be released at the end of August, full version to follow in the following months.
Q: Awesome! What will this Beta have? Space? Land? A: The beta will have both space and land, but will not include the full unit list. We still have work to do.
Q: Will Raw have any special things besides the graphics differences? A: Yes, the mod on eeaw will have a addional GC called "Outer Rim Sieges" plus there will be a additional skirmish map unique for RaW.
Q: What about the SP Campaign? A: The Core mod will be released soon. The SP Campaign which is being built as we speak will be released some time after as a Addon or Expansion to the mod.
I would like to thank everyone who played in this weeks FoC game nite. Things started off rough, but when all the firewalls were turned off, and the games started it was alot of fun. There are a few things I learned, but I believe we can do this again and it will be just as fun. We talked, we fought, you should have been there. I hope we can do this again, and eventually play the mod together.
I actually told them alot of stuff you normal forum dwellers don't know.
May have been a while since some of you played FoC, heck, some of you may not even have it installed.
So, to get everyone to install the game, I say we have a FoC gamenite, just me and couple and you guys.
The Gameday will be Wednesday, July 16th From 8 pm EST - 12 pm EST (or later). Let me know whats going on, if you want to play. I will try and get people set up in 3 v 3 matches. (the best for play / least lag)
My FoC online name is Bryant21 add it. Please post up your online names as well. Also, a timezone would be helpful.
I hope this is a good time to get everyone to play some FoC, talk, and kill some Imperials. Long live the Rebelion!
I have updated the site heavily in preparation for, things. Here is a list of what has changed:
Website Updates Staff Has Been Updated... Empire/Rebel pages... Advanced User registration was installed. (Most posts are invisible to you guys, but we get about 5+ spam topics a day) Misc Stuff you wont notice. Affiliates
I am doing another member cleanout to see if the new security settings are going to work. Validating members are gone too. Sorry if you need to re-register.
Additionally, the site and forums are optimized for Mozilla Firefox. Its a better browser, get it at Mozilla.com
In any case, there are things going down in the background that I hope we will be able to share with you soon. Maybe I'm crazy, but I am going to say it anyway. There will be a playable mod coming "soon" I have seen alot of the stuff that we have ready and are working on, you will be amazed when it comes out.
Its been a while guys, I just wanted to let you all know what happened. Currently I am enrolled at university majoring, and everything here is going well. A year ago I kind of fell of the face of the planet, and now I’m here to let you all know what went down I should have done this sooner, but here it goes.
Last year was my senior year of high school, a very busy and stressful time. My computer had just crashed and my life consisted of modding, homework, a job, and some social time. I was very busy and during this stressful time I kind of turned my back on modding and Star Wars. During the year of 07 I didn’t play a star wars game, or even watch the movies, pretty much I had a star wars and stress overload. I was stressed, and modding just seemed to make me more stressed. People were leaving, it was a lot of work, and I felt like things were falling apart all around me. I did however get through that year, and now I would like to apologize for turning my back on people here, running away with little explanation. I should have never done that, no matter how things were going. I want to try and make amends to you, the people.
I learned a lot during my time with this mod, and it taught me a lot of great things, both good and bad. I would like to thank all of the people who made this possible, especially Edan. He got this whole site set up, and none of this would have been possible without him. I would also like to thank our fans and sponsors. This mod was made for the people, and I would like to know what you, the community want done with the files. I propose that we host up all the models, textures and code that were created over the years, and make it open source. This will allow others to enjoy the hard work we put in, even if we can’t finish it.
I haven't had too much time to work on IA 2 recently due to crashing classes and all these other things that need to be done on ones first semester at a university *started September 27th *
Either way I have gotten things sorted out now for the most part and I should be resuming work and posting updates regularly again.
I don't have anything ready to show yet.. I just wanted to get this message up. I'll get something worth showing soon.
I was really hoping to get a video for you guys today.. but Fraps and my X-fi didnt feel like working together.. I think I know whats wrong.. but I wont have it by today.. Maybe next update.
Apparently some of you have been waiting for this.
Open staff positions:
Skinners: Unknown how many are truly needed, but depending on weather or not I get certain assets we may have more skinning work than previously thought.
Modelers: While most of the models are ready to go, there are certain things that still need modeling.
Animators: Again how much work is left on animating is unknown until we can get ahold of all of the IA 2 assets.
Coders: We still have most of our IA 2 coders, and we arent in dire need for any right now, however I wouldnt mind having some experienced coders in the "new" team. As we get nearer to release, we might take more coders to convert IA 2 to EaW from FoC. (We will elaborate on what this means later)
Again as we advance through the mod our needs will change and we will post what we need at that time. ----------------------------------- Picture time?
Well, I spent most of the day talking with people, Didnt actually get to do much because I tried to get a video out.. but It didnt quite work as well As I could have..
I will however show some interesting things I thought about while working this past week..
First thing that made me think: You guys have surely seen by now the coruscant skydome. Looks nice doesn't it? When I first started making it.. I thought I could problably just scale up the planet's size and bam.. thats it.. Slap on a new high rez texture.. Voila Its done... Heck what would be cooler is adding planetary rotation too.. Totally realistic Right?
A few months later.. after about 6 tries.. I finally get it right:
Now many of you have already seen that before.. What most of you havn't seen.. is the shape of the entire thing.. It looks round right?
Right? *note: I delete all triangles outside of the skydome so dont start yelling at me im wasting polies* See that purple mesh? Thats the skydome.. Looks can be deceiving right?
Okay how about something a bit newer? I was rigging the munificents deathclone for the video I was going to shoot. The venator blowing up the munificent just like in the movie.. but with the alamo engine. Unfortunately I couldnt get that for you guys due to technical difficulties.. However, these technical difficulties will problably make the video better in the end. Evillejedi just reminded me that he had redone the munificent back in april, and that I was using an old verion. I rerigged the thing and let me just say it looks better than ever. Caomparison shots?
*WHAT?!? 2 news updates in 2 days?* This is the first update coming from me.. So be easy on me.. *flame suit on*
I was going to have a whole bunch of pictures here but.. I will leave that til the next news update.. The new one should include new things I manage to get through in this week. I am trying to reorganize myself this week as I have just gotten many things handed to me, and with the few remaining staff left (Yes some exist) start handing jobs out..
While I am on the topic of staff, Everyone had their own reasons for letting this mod slow down, (I am definately not innocent either).. Personal things.. lack of specific things to do.. ect ect.. We still have some people willing to work though, and I think we can start speeding this up.. I wont say when we plan to release anything.. Just know its coming..
About the staff issue.. we are recruiting. What are we recruiting you ask? I dont know yet. I would assume Skinners and animators. Give me a week to get everything sorted out, figure out whats missing and whats not, and I will let you guys know by next news update, I promise it wont take 6 months.. It wont take more than a week either. (So yes mr. painless we have an official announcement *I think I can do that*, but its not specific yet)
I have also read about some moderators not being on as often as they used to, to validate users. I dont know if the relative lack of staff activity has caused this.. or what. I really dont know, I myself dont check up on this forums as much as I would like to, so you guys have to help me here. I am not sure if we need more moderators or not but I DO see some invisible topics that should be in the trash bin and some that should be visible.. I will talk to edan and some other forum people about this..
Now about the mod itself.... We initially planned to give you guys a "mini mod" of sorts. It had 2 units from a poll that we conducted a while back.. Then we decided, wouldnt it be a good idea to release more than that.. More like a "mega mini mod" It had about 10 units. Me and ryan were given the task.. We modified the list a couple times.. some things werent ready... .. things happened..
Here is the bottom line.. I am not going to make a mini mod.. I am aiming to do a full release.. Why? I thought, why rush to get a mod out to the public that does what many mods have done before? We could add all these clone wars units but what is the difference between IA 2 and them? That is the mindset I have going forward. I already have been working on some things that will hopefully make gameplay more enjoyable. See my sig.. That shows 3 new things that came out of IA 2's area 51.
In the end though its always Gameplay>Graphics That has always been my personal stance on games, but hey if they have good graphics too its a win win right? This is why I didnt want to release a mini mod. We had the graphics but not the gameplay, ultimately it wasnt what I felt IA 2 should have been. Cannonishyness should also be there as well.. Its a ballancing act..
I know of a few mods from the Generals era that are STILL not out yet, but the fanbase is still there and progress is being made. I am not going to keep you guys waiting that long, I know not to push community loyalty too much. So far though you guys have been great, and I am gratefull for the support you guys have given us, its been tough time. Its always nice to see a "Keep going staff" or "we support you" messages, but keep critizising us as well. Taking this long to update would have definately pissed me off to. I already told you guys I will be making a news post in the next week. If not I am telling you now. Spam me about it If i dont...*Not literally but do remind*
Summary:
1- We slowed down 2- We are recruiting (forums or staff.. not sure stay tuned) 3- Full release, no mini mod.. 4- Gameplay>graphics Maybe we can hit a ballance 5- You guys rock! 6- The next update should be an interesting one indeed, no more of these borring paragraphcs to read...
7- We arent dead!
---Your seccond in command---- 'bex
ps- I put the summary at the bottom to piss off the people that hate reading =P
-Additional- The next update will truly be a "state of the mod" and not the "state of the staff and the community" I just had to get these points out..
*started September 27th *