MovieChat Forums > Star Wars: Empire at War (2006) Discussion > Vertical learning curve

Vertical learning curve

posted 16 years ago by mark_jobling
3 replies | jump to latest

I just got this game, worked through the tutorial and tried the campaign mode.

So, I'm following the story and listening to Mon Mothma, trying to find my feet, and within no time at all a massive fleet of loads of star destroyers and support ships descends on Alderaan and wipes me out.

Talk about a steep learning curve. I cannot work out how you are supposed to plan your activity on the galactic map. There's no gradual increase in difficulty to let you get used to the interface, strategy, or tactics.

Are there any good game guides out there that explain how to handle the galactic map bit?

Also, the space and land battles are just too fast. Units just zip around everywhere in an uncontrollable jumble, leaving no time at all to really plan your tactics. I just seem to end up sending everything at one target, then moving on to the next one, until finished.

I'm really disappointed with this purchase. So far, this is the least accessible Star Wars game I've seen since Rebellion, which went back in its box after about 1 day of frustrated non-enjoyment. Is the game just really poorly designed, or is there something to be gained by persevering with it?

[–] mark_jobling 16 years ago

Ok, I persevered and I think I'm starting to like the game.

I restarted the campaign, as I don't think the tutorials or the campaign guidance made the implications of the real-time galactic map clear.

You have to start conquering as many planets as you can from the offset and get your fleets built up on all your frontier systems.

The first time I played, I just did the missions as suggested by Mon Mothma, so the first time an Imperial fleet hit one of my systems, I had nothing to defend with.

For my new campaign, I reduced the speed settings by one notch and set the difficulty to easy, to give me time to get used to the interface. When the campaign began, I made sure to capture at least one planet between each mission and really built up the defences, with substantial fleets in all the border systems. This time, when the Empire attacked, I was able to repel them.

One issue with this though, I lost all my fighter squadrons every timne the Empire attacked. Is it therefore worth just garrisoning the systems with capital ships and only using the fighters launched by the space stations?

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mark_jobling 14 years ago

Well, that must be the case then, coming from someone as clearly erudite as yourself, Cobra.

On other enlightening contributions by you, someone is "100% TOOL!", another is a "tard".

You sound to me like a Scrappy Doo-type character that was rejected from the already awful script for "Wayne's World 2"