The Empire at War Mechanic You Never Knew About

[@fayetal_attraction]

ship energy seems like a system with such potential for interesting mechanics, like an electronic warfare based ship depleting enemy energy, lowering their effectiveness. if we ever get an empire at war 2, i'd love to see them bring the system into obvious use

[@matthew____879]

Didnt the Sundered heart hero unit drain energy from enemies?

[@alduintheanti-dragonborn]

@@matthew____879 I think it lowered damage of enemy ships and had a voice line that said it was draining energy.

[@ladylolth3057]

​@@matthew____879Disrupts enemy targeting and disables enemy special abilities for a temporary amount of time.

[@michimatsch5862]

In Star Fleet Command - Empires at War your ships were mainly managed by you allocating energy to different systems. Overcharging and undercharging weapon systems, energy to sensors, the hangar, electronic countermeasures and electronic countercountermeasures (no, rly), shields, etc. Now, of course you only had 3 capital ships in that game but that was such a cool system and it rly gave you a lotta options on how to approach battles besides the literal approach.

[@JohnAnous]

Ion cannons actually overloading generators/reactors like in the movies? Overloaded generators could prevent hyperspace retreat, slow shield regeneration and firing rate

[@Rarasz97]

Not knowing much about development of this game, when I watch you tell about mechanics, and playing from premiere, I get under impression that creators wanted to create this in depth, complex strategy, and money guy come in and said "cinematic camera, rest is unimportant" and here we are with a game that doesn't even have keybind button for pause (nor possibility to have one) and to see vital info for planets you must click special button to see it, every time you load save.

[@E1081TheSecond]

That Pokemon TCG cameo threw me for a loop.

[@beemy.6923]

The AI rebels on some backwater planet watching me bring another 100 stormtrooper squads after they wiped out the first 100:

[@iivin4233]

It is funny that we call them rebels when on those backwater planets and many bigger ones the Alliance is so much more the legitimate government.

[@WellWisdom.]

This game just keep getting better and better. Thanks Corey and Team for the fantastic mods.

[@Ginfernus72]

same. with every update it keeps getting better.

[@commanderneyo]

Ya know, Corey, I can't say I've ever delved into the XML files 😂

[@dajosh42069]

I have. But normally for relatively minor changes to unit stats and sizes. As well as changing pop caps, and what ships are buildable by which factions. Essentially to make personalized submods.

[@xxnightdriverxx9576]

I did it back in the day before the steam version came out, and you had to get mods from modb. But I only changed some simple values like increasing or decreasing shield strength, build cost, number of fighter spawns etc. I once tried to change a Turbolaser to a Mass Driver and failed :D

[@iivin4233]

There are some things you can alter that'll change your life.

[@iivin4233]

​@xxnightdriverxx9576 OH, this. One way is to go into the "projectiles" file and find the proper name of the mass driver you want. Just copy and paste that name into the (or whatever it's called) line of the unit you're trying to alter. You can also make this change from the "projectiles" file itself in various ways. Or you can make your own custom projectile by altering values in the "projectile" file and playing with the "effects" file to make custom effects--like yellow lasers for example.

[@dajosh42069]

Fascinating... It never ceases to amaze me how you guys constantly manage to keep such an old game (and old game engine) relevant and fresh. Very, VERY cool!

[@sekira4516]

the closest I ever got personally to realizing this buried mechanic existed was when I eventually noticed shield regen not working like I first thought of being a set amount ever few seconds (never got an actual time for it, didnt care enough to measure it) unless you were still hitting it which would reset that timer. After noticing it could still regen even while taking damage then I started wondering what systems actually govenered that regeneration... but because nothing in game explains this *exactly* I never found out.

[@lahgtahsstreamarchives9700]

Kinda disappointing energy doesn't impact hardpoint weapons, or has a convenient way to be seen. It could've made for quite a lot of mechanical depth, from limited-use powerful munitions, to being able to disable a ship through energy-damaging weapons like ion cannons. I personally like the idea of it for use in micro-button abilities, with every ship having power to shields, engines, or weapons that could be toggled, able to stay active as long as the ship has energy. This would effectively be like stance control in other RTS, with defensive, aggressive, or movement stances. In this, ships taking the brunt of punishment could toggle on power to shields, while those in the rear in no danger of being fired upon could put on power to weapons. It would add a lot more tactical depth to space battles...provided the AI could also use it lol. Power to engines would be really fun for kiting and high-mobility fleet groups.

[@iivin4233]

I think if you know enough you can make a bar for it. Corey's clone wars mod used to have a whole extra "currency" (spare parts) with its own icon on screen. Wish I could figure that one out. Regardless, it shows you can even add whole new values that can be tracked on screen. Pesumably this could be done with energy.

[@williamhand1471]

Always love the modding/scrit videos.

[@skipper2285]

Something that would be cool (and somewhat disconcerting) is that if the energy drops to a preset value, the ship emergency jumps out of the battle. I think this would create great potential for a plethora of WTF moments, especially if you neglect to inform the players that you created this mechanic.

[@MtAt1000]

So do the Power to Weapons/Shields/Engines change these values or do these abilities bypass this mechanic altogether?

[@ElCidTheScienceKid]

Great question!

[@Demcalves]

PTW/PTS/PTE all affect the unit as they are changing energy and shield values to the unit itself using multipliers. You can see it visually in the base game when the VSD and Acclamator drain their shields. It takes a minute for the energy pool to recoup and recharge the shields when the ability goes on cooldown. These two units are the most noticeable.

[@iivin4233]

An unexpectedly realistic mechanic. If you have to use more power for a system irl you do either have to start shutting other systems down or else burn more fuel to run the generator hotter. Otherwise, the generator slows and things start melting. In reality this is more of a strategic concern, though. The amount of power you expect a ship to need is something you consider when designing a ship. It is possible to make relatively robust ship design system in EAW as it is. It would just clutter the build menu too much the way I know how to do it.

[@grandmasterapple6355]

After years of trying to figure this out, thank you

[@philippobitz2592]

Saying it now before watching the video, this is about the energy pool. Edit: Called it.

[@Fredlyy]

These are my favorite types of videos

[@nuancedhistory]

Yeah, I feel like if Petroglyph just added a bar for showing energy level, or made it apply to hardpoints, that could be a huge change opening up a whole new range of mechanics.

[@bartskroh997]

I always figured something like that was going on under the hood

[@jyralnadreth4442]

The energy depletion could be a way to properly mode the Victory 1 and Providence Class Destroyer/Carriers Missile/Torpedo armament

[@Blacksmith__]

That Imperial Reign rebel UI looks slick!

[@gamerz1172]

Watching this video makes me wonder if we stumbled across the remains of a horrorific battle the game's programmers fought to try and create a more indepth system of combat

[@Marinealver]

Energy needs to go into 3 things, Engines, Weapons, and Shields.

[@antonisauren8998]

From my limited EaW modding 15 years ago, I just thought it's system strain capacity before ship becomes disabled from ion damage.

[@LegendaryLycanthrope]

Be nice if the devs could fix up this system entirely for next year's patch, assuming we're still going to be getting yearly updates for the game - it's already half-working as-is, so if it could be made fully working, it could add some serious extra modding potential to EAW.

[@aetherial87]

Heh, I always thought the energy code in the xmls was going unused, interesting to learn it is actually utilized .

[@malekzayed6433]

Where can I find the Astromech modding tool?

[@harrisondansie9542]

8:40 😲 le Imperial Reign... is le real?!

[@goldenfiberwheat238]

What’s imperial reign?

[@JerryJelq]

@@goldenfiberwheat238their upcoming mod based on the galactic civil war

[@kR-qj7rw]

its always bee n real people for some reason thought it was a joke

[@stevendolges8372]

Wonder how energy will be handled when the Vong show up. Maybe a mechanic to be used to handle their weird aspects of dovin basals.

[@brooksidestar]

is imperial reign a real thing and still in development because that is exactly what I want

[@Namelesswhirl]

I would have thought that the Ion cannon would be the main thing that interrupted 'energy'.

[@CoreyLoses]

It does to some extent (it does energy damage) but the actual ion stun is actually a different thing- that's why it *does* interrupt firing, unlike energy

[@laverniustucker8198]

Given your best estimate, when can we see .5 releases and 1.0 release of Revan?

[@M3TR0POLIS]

Revans Revenge is in Beta. 2-3 months would me my best guess. Corey and his team will probably talk about it in their anniversary stream which is soon.

[@nathanoutdoors7981]

WOW 🤯

[@Metawraith]

For potential reference when I return from work tonight, which of your tutorials would most quickly and easily teach me to code in a new ground/ space hero unit (Jedi type character) in a pre-existing mod? I'd love to make and attach a custom model for it as well, but one thing at a time. Thanks in advance, Corey!

[@michaelandreipalon359]

As a guy who understands the hassle of energy management in the X-Wing games (and even Squadrons) and, say, has mixed feelings on XCOM 2's somewhat similar Tiredness system (and believe me, it's way worse in the Long War 2 mod), ditching this system in EaW seems the right choice, for this could have become a "Scrappy Mechanic". At least, that's how I assume this ditched system would have worked. By the way, no May, Dawn, or Iris cards?

[@ElCidTheScienceKid]

Do ion cannons use the energy mechanic at all when disabling ships?

[@xDanny33x]

Not even safe from Misty when watching Star Wars vids…..

[@WesleyHill-md5cg]

Is there a way to link energy to special ability refresh rates?

[@chiefwatta8379]

Hey devs your video was actually found on fox news for me so good job I guess 👍

[@iivin4233]

Is the are the perception/token/display functions the way the game displays shields and health--ths elements it normally displays?

[@CoreyLoses]

No, the display fu actions I used are only for the kinds of text you see come up in the top left of the screen through the subtitles. We use them extensively in the mod, but the base game doesn't use them to display game information at all. The regular health bars and such are their own directly-coded C entities, they don't use perceptions or LUA scripting.

[@TheAdmirableAdmiral]

what if we had the energy percentage pop up only when you hovered over the unit with your cursor like the other unit details?

[@CoreyLoses]

There are theoretically many ways it could be displayed if designed from scratch, but unfortunately the only way it can be done at all is the way I showed in the video or through a lot of cumbersome particles

[@Demcalves]

would putting the energy tags found in the projectile block work in the hardpoint block? I might experiment a little to see if that gets around the hardpoint limitation

[@Littlemilkjug533]

Is it diplomacy?

[@fabovondestory]

Are Xml and Lewis(?) their own language?

[@goldenfiberwheat238]

8:40 what’s imperial reign?

[@HawkeyeTM]

Empire of War Expanded's take on the Galactic Civil War, in both Canon and Legends

[@goldenfiberwheat238]

@ oh

[@kadindarklord]

I've asked on two different parts of the mod, but how can I disable TIE Fighters in FotR?

[@HawkeyeTM]

Allow me to step in; essentially this would be no different than changing the fighter roster for ships (which Corey has already done a video on), but you'll either be removing any line that references TIEs or changing them to a more suitable squadron, depending on which you want. The file path should be something like Steam -> SteamApps -> workshop -> content -> 32470 -> Mods -> 1976399102 -> Data -> Scripts -> Library -> eawx-mod-fotr -> gameobjects, from there you'll need to open pretty much every republic (and probably a few CIS/Hutt) associated files to replace any mention of the TIE and Missile TIE; You'll also need to check any hero options, there's a few that spawn TIE or TIE Variants depending on the era. If you have Notepad++ or Visual Studio, you could make use of the replace in files option to simplify it greatly. That said, I think there's at least one fighter Hero that leads a TIE squadron, but you can easily avoid him by just not using any heroes he could be assigned to. It might be possible to rework him to be in a different fighter squadron or something similar, but it's not something I know how to do myself.

[@ianlee337]

You mean you don't want ships to spawn ties right?

[@kadindarklord]

@@ianlee337 Ships, stations. Everything.

[@HawkeyeTM]

Weird, I typed up a reply on how to do this but it seems that KZbin ate it for some reason, oh well. Anyway, the way to do this is no different than editing the fighter spawns for a ship, which corey showed how to do on his 5 ways to mod Empire at War video from a few months ago; you just have to go through the files and replace or remove every mention of the TIE. That said I think there's at least one fighter hero that leads a TIE Squadron, but you can always choose to not use him or find out how to swap him to a different fighter if you think the effort is worth it.

[@Dumbrarere]

"I made a bunch of mistakes setting this up, but we don't talk about those. Instead, you get to skip right to the point where I pretend I'm competent, and this all worked immediately." 😂 Edit: Oh my lord, that shameless "please like, comment, and subscribe this video" 🤣

[@mattcat83]

One thing I've disliked about Corey's mods is the rate of fire for projectors is way too fast. Halving it would be better and make their impact feel more meaningful.

[@TheSteve_1992]

And I have to add that I don't like how you slaughter Star Destroyers in droves. That is something Awakening of the Rebellion does better where an ISD feels like a threat and not flying scrap

[@kR-qj7rw]

afaik the gun relaod is based on gun count and lore accurate numbers so single weapons or low clusters are the high reload 5 second stuff for example, but anything with say dozens od medium guns becomes 1 second shoot twice hardpoints you can see that more clearly on say ISD 2s, the light turbolasers are 2 hardpoints representing whatever and shoot at like twice in less than a second with the medium octuples being volleys pf 2 each 5 seconds

[@yupmathumb]

Corey I Love you man and all the work you do to both teach and make fun mod stuff, But you are about a month and a headache or 6 late for telling me this info 😂

[@christianresel8051]

If you use TR then its NOT base vanilla EAW. Also the energy stuff was SCRAPED for a reason ya know? Switched with COOLDOWN. Proclaim otherwise all you want, thats how it is... especiel for shields and ESPECIEL for them Victory's wich recharge like near INSTANTLY when depleted(wich is actualy one of the 2 things making them viable compared to mass aclamators early on(wich sport them torpedo's to destroy subsystems more easily thus making them usefull against any oponent even larger ones). And even IF then that only proves how BAD EAW truly is and how BADLY it needs a remake, a PROPER ONE made by PROPER SW FANS. TR should first adopt to HOW SW WORKS IN TOTAL given even they would then use that energy first nonsense. Also IF AT ALL weapons should use it too and not fire when no energy is in there etc. Either full or not (thats why FUEL was scraped from HW like RIGHT AFTER THE FIRST GAME as it was STUPID to begin with!(Yea i was there when FUEL was a thing in HW1, wich was one of the many reasons to stop using anything smaller than frigates after mission 6 or so. Shure corvetts could be usefull sometimes, but even then frigate spawn was still better. back in the OG there was no unit cap at all and enemy strength modifier caped out at some point (or bugdied in missions like supernova). So all in all, nice to know that TR uses something wich shouldnt exist and certainly doesnt in vanilla (both vanilla games that is) just so it gives me ANOTHER reasons to never play it again (a more obvious one is you mixing proper SW Legends and the shit thats from disney) Also if your at it, delete those stupid hardpoints already... maybe for OBVIOUS gun turrets keep them but NOT substract that from the total HP of any ship! Them heavy turbolasers are NOT the ISD's weakspots! If their taken out by bombs or torpedo's that does NOT mean the ship is incabale of delivering fire NOR dies because HP or hull breaches!)

[@CoreyLoses]

I'm using TR solely for the easier display access. The first clip I showed was in base EaW. The energy systems have far higher impact in base game than in TR. It's *effectively* cut in base game and all mods, but it's still a system which exists in the game and functions. I'm not sure what about this topic warrants a comment this off the chain. My god dude.

[@kR-qj7rw]

do you get this mad when someone gets your order wrong at a restaurant or do you make yapping rants only on inconsequential youtube videos lol

[@BlueDracolich13]

​@@kR-qj7rw the spelling errors and capitalization makes it even more unhinged lmao

[@kR-qj7rw]

@@BlueDracolich13 its like an empire at war karen