[JerichoDeath]

X-Wing vs TIE Fighter... Dark Forces...
So many memories...

(of course, I still have my original Dark Forces and Dark Forces 2 disks... might even still have the X-Wing vs TIE Fighter disks somewhere)

[InsaneBaron]

Oh, the Atmosphere at Peragus was well done, as was the mystery aspect- I actually created and discarded three different theories before figuring it out. It didn't help that I mistook the HK unit for his illustrious predecessor. What bothered me was the gameplay aspect of the level design; it felt a little too repetitive, I often wasn't sure why I was going to a new mine section (other than "maybe I'll find something that'll get us outa here", which I never actually did) and the time-spent to stuff-happening ratio was slow until the Harbinger arrived. Like I said, not not terrible by any means, but room for improvement.

Whatever Kreia is, I decided pretty quick that she isn't trustworthy.

Yeah, I also thought that HK was the original unit, really made me hesitant to fight him. "Don't make me fight you HK  ".

I have to agree with the repetitive nature of the starting area made it very boring, when you see one mine you see all of 'em.

I didn't really see her as untrustworthy until the (You do go to the academy on Korriban right?) Korriban academy, which although the memories are pretty hazy  on what tipped me off, but the indication that she wasnt any old lady or jedi was apparent from the start though, I just really wanted to know what was up with her.

I get the feeling the devs were encouraging that mistake on purpose- I mean, he acts a lot like HK-47, he starts out on the Ebon hawk, and droids getting new colored plating isn't exactly rare in Star Wars (it happens twice to 3PO in the movies alone).

I was suspicious of Kreia from the start (her corpse-scare first appearance and attitude that she had something to hide), but what solidified said suspicion was that fact that she and Sion are clearly familiar with eachother when they fight on the Harbinger. Whatever she is, she's got her own agenda, and I'm one of her tools.

[Hobbie]

In other news, Lucasarts Round Two is out on GoG.

Notable inclusions:
X-Wing Alliance, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and expansion, Dark Forces, Galatic Battlegrounds Saga, Battlefront II, KOTOR II.

All with widescreen support and made to work on modern computers.

Have fun folks.

Stop.

Back right the hell up.

X-Wing Alliance with WIDESCREEN SUPPORT?

I am every level of there.

[An4ximandros]

In other news, Lucasarts Round Two is out on GoG.

Notable inclusions:
X-Wing Alliance, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and expansion, Dark Forces, Galatic Battlegrounds Saga, Battlefront II, KOTOR II.

All with widescreen support and made to work on modern computers.

Have fun folks.

MYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYCHILDHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNN NNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Still remember how I could never pull off swapping that ****ing box of old spice

"YOU MOST REGISTER"

[AdmiralRalwood]

In other news, Lucasarts Round Two is out on GoG.

Notable inclusions:
X-Wing Alliance, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and expansion, Dark Forces, Galatic Battlegrounds Saga, Battlefront II, KOTOR II.

All with widescreen support and made to work on modern computers.

Have fun folks.

Stop.

Back right the hell up.

X-Wing Alliance with WIDESCREEN SUPPORT?

I am every level of there.

whoa wait what

* AdmiralRalwood checks the store page

Hmm. Screenshots don't look any different.

[Mongoose]

I'm currently most of the way through Dark Forces on Steam, but man I played the absolute **** out of Galactic Battlegrounds many years ago.

[Colonol Dekker]

Wing alliance and fighter for life yo...

[deathspeed]

I already have Empire at War, but am thinking about picking up Galactic Battlegrounds.

[Mammothtank]

Wing Commander Saga and Wing Commander 3 have taken over my life.... 

[An4ximandros]

Got SW Force Commander to work on W7-64bit. Those briefings remain as cool as ear-blasting Gundarks. And the music. PS: copying a disc as an iso and running it on a virtual drive is a neat way around noisy Disc Readers in olden games.

[crizza]

I'm dying to get my hands on a alpha key for Naval Action: Age of Sail, but no money at the moment

[InsaneBaron]

[another bit of commentary while I wait for the mod update I'm waiting for]

You know what were silly in the first KOTOR game? Quarterstaffs. (Quarterstaves?) Arguably the worst close-range weapon in the game. Lousy bludgeoning damage, no piercing/slicing damage, and on top of that, it's a double weapon, meaning it's clumsy and inaccurate until you invest in the Two-Weapon Fighting feat tree (and by the time you've made said investment, you should easily have found a weapon that will actually justify it.) In a case of reasonable irony, there are (AFAI could tell) no NPCs dumb enough to use them, making the Worst Melee Weapon a surprisingly rare item, although some vendors will sell them for warm spit. Seriously, it's a stick.

When does something silly become stupid?* When someone acts as if it should be taken seriously. KOTOR II, on the Harbinger, I find myself repeatedly attacked by Sith assassins, with the resources to have high-tier stealth field generators and the talents to use them, who were apparently trained to hunt Jedi and specifically sent after me... and every last one is swinging a quarterstaff. The being-hunted paranoia gradually faded into "Yay, cheap XP!" plus laughing at the assassins getting clobbered by an old woman with a Gamorrean battle-axe (which, in hindsight, was kind out-of-place on the Harbinger).

Yeah, still waiting for the mod. Playing FTL: Faster Than Light in the meantime.




*Not so much "stupid game design" as "stupid NPCs"

EDIT: Oh, and it gets even sillier in the Restored Content Mod. Apparently, in the game files is the Guide Beacon, which is supposed to be a terrain marker for the Peragus miners but can double as an improvised weapon. It is to the quarterstaff what the mining laser is to the blaster pistol. TSLRCM dutifully resurrects it on Peragus. It gets funnier because I found it in the same chest as "Norris Robes", giving a useful suggestion about who would use such a weapon...

[StarSlayer]

Killing an M41 with the Chaffee is fun, doing it while performing a sick power slide is just sweet, sugary icing.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Well, after having to try for a couple months last summer to get my Black Ice gauntlets for my main character in Neverwinter, my Ranger & Clerics got them within the last couple of weeks without even trying. ****in' MMO RNG dickin' around.

[NGTM-1R]

Rebellion. Because I had atrocious luck, Wedge and Ackbar both got captured early, preventing me from getting access to Mon Calamari cruisers.

Day 220: The Alliance to Restore the Republic launches its attempt to liberate the Corellian sector, spearheaded by twelve Dreadnaught-class warships.

Dreadnaught Squadron One engages Victory Star Destroyers Master and Corrupter, supported by four Carrack-class ships.

Despite Dreadnaught and Orion being hulked by the VSDs, Princess Royal, Tiger, Indefatigable, and Colossus close an englobement around VSD Master and destroy her. Heavy damage to Princess Royal does not prevent the other three ships from severely damaging Corrupter, and two of the Carrack-class ships sacrifice themselves to prevent Tiger and Colossus from destroying Corrupter before it escapes.

Dreadnaught Squadron Two confronts Imperial Star Destroyer Master, supported by a Strike-class cruiser and two Lancer-class frigates, over Tralus. The ISD's battlegroup refuses to engage, ceding orbital control to the DreadRon.

Okay game, you want to make me take Courscant with Dreadnaughts? I will do it.

[The E]

Rebellion. Because I had atrocious luck, Wedge and Ackbar both got captured early, preventing me from getting access to Mon Calamari cruisers.

Day 220: The Alliance to Restore the Republic launches its attempt to liberate the Corellian sector, spearheaded by twelve Dreadnaught-class warships.

Dreadnaught Squadron One engages Victory Star Destroyers Master and Corrupter, supported by four Carrack-class ships.

Despite Dreadnaught and Orion being hulked by the VSDs, Princess Royal, Tiger, Indefatigable, and Colossus close an englobement around VSD Master and destroy her. Heavy damage to Princess Royal does not prevent the other three ships from severely damaging Corrupter, and two of the Carrack-class ships sacrifice themselves to prevent Tiger and Colossus from destroying Corrupter before it escapes.

Dreadnaught Squadron Two confronts Imperial Star Destroyer Master, supported by a Strike-class cruiser and two Lancer-class frigates, over Tralus. The ISD's battlegroup refuses to engage, ceding orbital control to the DreadRon.

Okay game, you want to make me take Courscant with Dreadnaughts? I will do it.

I always had a soft spot for Rebellion's Dreadnaughts. Once, during a multiplayer match, we had a massive fleet engagement that was ultimately decided by a single dreadnaught running around destroying crippled ships, which was both sad and rather hilarious.

[An4ximandros]

Sounds like I should really get rebellion.

Re-installed old Force Commander. I really need to make a short story about how I stole an AT-AT and used it to destroy an enemy base. By itself.

[That Man]

Playing Skyrim using a dark elf archer/ranger build. There's something so touchingly...human about shooting bandits in the crotch by moonlight.

[NGTM-1R]

Day 262: The Alliance's attempt to liberate the Corellian Sector has been largely successful. Over half the worlds are in Alliance hands, and the rest have either declared their neutrality or are in active rebellion against Imperial troops.

The Imperial Fleet stages a counterattack against the damaged DreadRon 1 in orbit of Corellia itself. ISD Master and ISD Oppressor, with a half-dozen mixed Strike and Carrack support ships, are confronted by the reinforcing ships of Corvette Squadron 1 and the newly arrived pair of Alliance Escort Carriers Flurry and Tornado. The Imperials, confident of the superiority of their Star Destroyers, approach behind a screen of TIE Interceptors.

X-Wing Groups Red (72 fighters) and Blue (48 fighters), outnumbered, struggle against the TIEs but the reinforcing corvettes give them the upper hand. The Imperial Carracks attempt to drive off the Corvettes, but in so doing are unable to protect the Star Destroyers when the 72 Y-Wings of Group Gold descend on the Master in a fury. Despite their damage sustained in the last action meaning they are effectively unable to retaliate, Dreadnaught and Orion bravely soak fire from the Star Destroyers so that their sisterships can lend their fire to the attack on the Master.

The Master withdraws under heavy fire and the ISD Oppressor attempts comes to its rescue even as the Imperials decisively lose the fighter battle and the surviving ships of Red and Blue attack the Carrack-class ships. Instead, Oppressor becomes the Alliance's substitute victim. Despite the loss of both Dreadnaught and Princess Royal, the Alliance's fighters will not be denied, and hulk the Oppressor in short order. The Strike-class escorts destroy the Tornado while attempting to help the Carracks, but this only drives Y-Wing Gold into a fury and they descend on the Master again, launching torpedoes as the Imperial ship desperately attempts to escape Corellia's gravity well.

Master does not escape. The Carracks and Strike-class ships, caught between a damaged but still operational Corvette group and its attendent fighters in front, and three operational Alliance Dreadnaughts with an angry wing of Y-wings behind, elect to sell themselves dearly, destroying three of the six Corvettes before succumbing to the fury of the Alliance fighter wings. The last Strike-class ship attempts to destroy the badly damaged Dreadnaught but is blocked and destroyed by Colossus, Tiger, and Indefatigable.

No Imperial ship escapes Corellia's gravity well.


I'm really surprised I was able to pull this off. The AI only commits to battles it thinks it can actually win, and if it loses that belief it will run. There's relatively little room for brilliant tactics in Rebellion, too. I had to lure them really deep into the battlespace to prevent that.

[NGTM-1R]

Day 421: The Imperial Navy makes its last stand in the orbit of Courscant.

The Alliance has developed their DreadRon concept further and now deploys Dreadnaught Battlegroups, consisting of six Dreadnaughts, two Escort Carriers, and four Corellian Corvettes. For the attack on the Imperial capital the Alliance has deployed no less than three Dreadnaught battlegroups, their fighter wings replaced with newly developed A-Wing fighters.

The Imperial capital has no orbital defenses; no shields, no surface-to-orbit weaponry. If the Imperial fleet loses, an Alliance invasion is a certainty. Imperial forces, under the command of Darth Vader, are determined to hold the line. Opposing the Alliance fleet is ISD Judicator, ISD Imperator, two VSDs, four Carracks, a half-dozen Strike-class cruisers, and over six hundred TIEs of mixed Fighter and Interceptor types.

As the fighter groups clash, Alliance capital ships under the command of Admirals Solo and Calrissian smash into the Imperial line in a single tight, coordinated formation. The Strike-class ships, deployed ahead as a screen, are smashed aside with contemptuous ease by the Alliance's eighteen Dreadnaught-class ships, who split into two groups of nine to attack the Imperial-class Star Destroyers.

While the escort carriers hang back to offer support to their fighter groups, the corvette force masses itself into a single formation and englobes VSD Arrogance. Their massive opponent lashes out in all directions, destroying three of them before they hulk the enemy ship. As the Imperials decisively lose the fighter battle to the massed force of A-Wings, and the escort carriers exchange fire with the Carracks, the corvettes withdraw to assist the carriers. Their fighters, however, all nearly five hundred of them remaining, swarm over VSD Iron Fist and rapidly reduce it to a burning hulk, relieving pressure on the Dreadnaughts assaulting the Judicator.

Despite the loss of two Dreadnaughts and the hulking of four more, there is never any doubt the Alliance ships will carry the day against their much larger opponents. The last two remaining Imperial ships, Carracks, manage to hulk Escort Carrier Blizzard before being swarmed and destroyed by fighters and corvettes.

The Alliance ships immediately move into bombardment positions over Courscant, striking at Imperial military installations in a single rapid bombardment before they deploy troops under the command of Generals Madine and Rieekan to take the planet. Despite some sharp fights resulting the in the loss of three regiments of Alliance troops, the Alliance's ground forces cannot be stopped. The Imperial Palace is overrun and the Emperor captured, while in space Darth Vader's attempt to escape his crippled flagship is aborted by a swarm of A-Wings.

The Rebellion is over, and the Alliance to Restore the Republic has won. They have decisively crushed the last major concentration of Imperial Navy ships and captured or killed the leaders of the Empire.