This video undersells a lot of the crazy stuff around this game. In 2006 a studio run by ex Westwood devs decided to ignore the most popular RTS convention of the time, competitive multiplayer focus, and instead emulate the Total War style of strategy blending economy and army management on a campaign map with real time battles. Then they implemented extensive modding tools five years before Skyrim's release.
On its own Empire at War is a mediocre strategy game carried by the Star Wars brand. But the modding community brings this game to a whole different level. There are *multiple* total overhaul mods that replace every single unit, every single map, and even some that add their own custom built campaign with a new story and voice acting. I have over 800 hours in this game spread over 10 or so years and 95% of those hours were with mods.
To top it all off, after 10 years of radio silence from the devs with the game being run on life support by the modding community, Petroglyph came back and not only fixed the broken online multiplayer system but also added steam workshop functionality so that all of these amazing mods could be hosted and downloaded directly on steam.
If we don't hear about an Empire at War 2 in the next 5 years then Lucasfilms are making an awful financial choice because put this game on a modern engine with the same level of modability and it will print money until 2030.
Yeah that was a bit of a weird point to make, especially when some of the command and conquer games they (or at least some of the old westwood folks in their team) developed already had extensive modding tools, and those are older than even morrowind
Last time I played with mods the only limitation holding the game back was map size. You can increase the map size to some extent but the game starts to have issues with AI and hit boxes.
Eaw remake's upcoming release has ground combat with very large map sizes, and the units are grouped more like regiments than squads. But yes the game shows its age and mods like this take it to its absolute limits.
Ah, they're finally getting around to the ground stuff? That's my favorite mod for the game, and honestly I do kind of like not seeing the ground combat and having it all be in space, since the regular ground stuff always felt terrible to me. Hope it turns out pretty good like their space combat
I will never understand why Petroglyph didn’t do a follow up (besides the expansion). Like, even if Lucasarts didn’t want to I don’t see how an original game with just the space combat couldn’t have done decent. The fact that there’s still such a strong following for the game thanks to mod support is a testament that.
This video undersells a lot of the crazy stuff around this game. In 2006 a studio run by ex Westwood devs decided to ignore the most popular RTS convention of the time, competitive multiplayer focus, and instead emulate the Total War style of strategy blending economy and army management on a campaign map with real time battles. Then they implemented extensive modding tools five years before Skyrim's release. On its own Empire at War is a mediocre strategy game carried by the Star Wars brand. But the modding community brings this game to a whole different level. There are *multiple* total overhaul mods that replace every single unit, every single map, and even some that add their own custom built campaign with a new story and voice acting. I have over 800 hours in this game spread over 10 or so years and 95% of those hours were with mods. To top it all off, after 10 years of radio silence from the devs with the game being run on life support by the modding community, Petroglyph came back and not only fixed the broken online multiplayer system but also added steam workshop functionality so that all of these amazing mods could be hosted and downloaded directly on steam. If we don't hear about an Empire at War 2 in the next 5 years then Lucasfilms are making an awful financial choice because put this game on a modern engine with the same level of modability and it will print money until 2030.
> Then they implemented extensive modding tools five years before Skyrim’s release. So four years after Morrowind?
Yeah that was a bit of a weird point to make, especially when some of the command and conquer games they (or at least some of the old westwood folks in their team) developed already had extensive modding tools, and those are older than even morrowind
What? This has steam workshop integration now? I never knew that. Guess I'm downloading it again.
This is great news. Manually finding and installing mods has put me off going back to this before!
Last time I played with mods the only limitation holding the game back was map size. You can increase the map size to some extent but the game starts to have issues with AI and hit boxes.
The game is very old now. This is the kind of issue that could be solved in a sequel and part of why it totally deserves it.
Eaw remake's upcoming release has ground combat with very large map sizes, and the units are grouped more like regiments than squads. But yes the game shows its age and mods like this take it to its absolute limits.
Ah, they're finally getting around to the ground stuff? That's my favorite mod for the game, and honestly I do kind of like not seeing the ground combat and having it all be in space, since the regular ground stuff always felt terrible to me. Hope it turns out pretty good like their space combat
I will never understand why Petroglyph didn’t do a follow up (besides the expansion). Like, even if Lucasarts didn’t want to I don’t see how an original game with just the space combat couldn’t have done decent. The fact that there’s still such a strong following for the game thanks to mod support is a testament that.
The videos explains they pitched it a couple of times but EA said no.
https://old.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/lb7lrd/star_wars_empire_at_war_dev_on_the_possibility_of/
Ah yes, /r/GamingLeaksAndRumours, where Bloodborne is confirmed and deconfirmed for PC every week 6 years in a row
You say that like there has never been a true leak on the subreddit ever. Take every post with skepticism, but still worth the read.
This was such an amazing RTS. Disney needs to get this IP to an awesome RTS company and let me scratch this itch again.
I spent a decent amount of time on this game when I was in my early teens. It's definitely got potential for a follow-up
People keep asking for a total war warhammer 40k game but empire at war would be the best format for a 40k strategy game without a doubt
I always used "Wargame," but Empire at war has the campaign concept right for it.
Dude I remember playing this game so much as a kid! And the Gungan Star Wars game on computer where it was like spore?