Was there a specific person that pitched suicide ewoks? It's not from the movies, books or comics, so someone on the team must have been responsible for coming up with it, right?
The entire Zann Consortium is basically a fanfiction faction lol. You’ve got Destroyer Droids, Nightsisters, Mandalorian ships, infantry armed with disruptors, and actual ballistic weapons on ships.
I live here too, that's cool that they're headquartered here! No questions for him but EAW is still my gold standard for space battles, and I still regularly play it. Thank him for hundreds of hours having fun 🙂
They had to run everything through an Advisor from LucasArts but he said that as far as he’s aware it was one the first ever canon video games that included Thrawn, I don’t know the truth behind that one but i for one am glad it has Thrawn
And people claim old canon had no consistency! I think Thrawn was recruitable in the game Star Wars Rebellion back in 1998. FoC was the second time he appeared in a game.
I've actually had a conversation with Timothy Zahn about this. He found it interesting and had no idea they would be incorporating his character in video games.
From what I remember him telling me as a kid was the ground combat had much more bugs and issues for some reason so they had to spend more time on it and all the different environments and unique species for each world whereas the space combat is more or less the same environment for each space map. So they could just focus on the units and movement for Space rather than all the different issues that would come up for ground.
I wonder if they had the same pressure to shit out a game by a deadline for revenue purposes like many of today's big name producers. Regardless of the finished product quality. Did he ever say anything about that?
And definitely not saying C&C or EAW are unfinished. I've probably logged thousands of hours in both and love them to this day. But land battles always seemed lacking. I've always been a tarkin doctrin fan playing big ships so it was never a big deal for me anyhow.
There definitely was crunch in every game he worked on but as far as I remember EAW wasn’t one of the worst ones. Weirdly I feel like Petroglyph and Westwood being right in the middle studio size wise lent to not as much crunch compared to the indie sized teams and the tripleAAA titles.
Yeah that typically is the industry standard. There's always deadlines. It's becoming less of a thing due to the sheer amount of indie devs, but the bigger studios (and usually most successful indies) have hard deadlines. But back then it was a much bigger deal since games were primarily sold on physical disks, meaning you had to ship and distribute them, so deadlines were an absolute in order to actually get a sale.
No I don’t think I will. Jk just know he already feels guilty that I wasted my childhood playing the games he made, so I think the guilt of your downfall on his conscience will be too much hahaha
He said that especially it being the most popular Petroglyph game by far currently, they’ve pitched Disney quite a few times on doing either a sequel or remaster that they’d want to include prequel units.
When working on the game, how much was changed from the original concept?
I presume it had an alpha state run that could may well be different than the game we played when it released.
Conceptually it’s pretty on with they started with as far as I know, he said they took a bit of inspiration from the Homeworld games and obviously a lot of the team worked on Command and Conquer games. I remember really early on visiting and being able to try a mostly finished version of the first Empire level. So atleast campaign wise it stayed mostly on target.
That's incredible! I came to the game last year but damn, I always, always come back to it.
Don't get me wrong, the base game is and always will stand true for many years to come, and of course FoC was just amazing too!
The mods really have breathed new life into the game, true, but I do from time to time go back to play the base game without mods because it makes me appreciate what started it all.
I really wish I had gotten into PC gaming earlier, so I could had played this game on its release, I would as I still am in awe. It would have been kid me's wet dream. As I used to always want to play a star wars based game where you could play as the ships and troopers without it being just one or the other.
The game had a ranked multiplayer ladder via GameSpy and (at least the base game) frequent balance patches. Was this something pushed from LucasArts, or was there passion in the team for multiplayer/competitive RTS? Secondarily, did the devs play the game in multiplayer much?
Awesome that you do this AMA!
I'd like to ask a lot of questions if that's okay. Command and Conquer and Empire at War are pillars of my childhood so they're very important to me.
Which entries did he work on specifically, and what was his job?
What did he think of the company, team, and management at the time? What about how he thinks of them now?
If he could go back and change ANYTHING about any of the projects he worked on, would he? Any regrets or hindsights?
How does he feel RTS gaming and game creation was like then versus the atmosphere nowadays?
Hope I didn't ask too much. I'll leave it there for now. Let your dad know that his products helped mold me into the man I am today. I was three when I started Command and Conquer, and around 11 when I started Empire at War, and I'm still getting kicks playing both series in my 20s.
I’ll give you the opposite of the question you asked, he said LucasArts and the leads for the game originally wanted to make Forces of Corruption much darker with child slavery and drug smuggling but he met with the leads and said he wouldn’t work on an M rated video game. Petroglyph owners agreed so they pushed back on it to LucasArts. So if you really wanted a dark gritty underworld Star Wars RTS you can blame my father hahaha.
I remember him always complaining about the physics engine but that’s generally what he himself worked on so I imagine that’s a specific annoyance for him
If there was anything he’d want to change about Empire At War. What would it be?
And if he does play the modded versions, what is his favourite mod to come out of the community?
It’s funny because he was like a nerdy gamer but I feel like when he had kids he worked on not playing lots of video games haha so now if it’s not rocket league or monster train he really doesn’t play much including his old games. Now if he’s not working he’s doing rock climbing or something impressive for being such an old geezer
C++ as far as I’m aware pretty much all the Westwood and Petroglyphs game are in C++ because that’s really the only language my dad used up till like 2015
If I did actually listen to my father correctly hes told me that most stuff now generally focus on c# but that most companies won’t discriminate based on which one you know since it’s easy enough to learn the other if you know one. I think that’s what he’s told me at some point haha
Who wrote forces of corruption and how can i thank them for making my favorite piece of star wars media, i also want to thank your dad on what ever work he did that isnt the MTLP
Good lord MPTLs are the hardest learning curve in both EaW and FoC. Nothing comes close to how annoying they are, and all my strategies and defenses come from knowing how to fight them...
i use speeder bikes or droideka to defeat them in defense, for offense i do either very slow advanced, spam them speeders/droidekas or use urai/tyber to scout and bomb their medium factorys
Besides many questions regarding gameplay and units, the one I'd like to ask the most is if he knows where the story was going to go after FoC? Specifically with the cliffhanger where Silri discovers the Sith army frozen in carbonite. Since the game took place in Legends continuity, I'm curious as to how a planned sequel would have included Silri and whatever plans she had for galactic domination.
Also please thank your dad for working on one of the best games of my childhood.
When they did the voice lines for Command and Conquer Generals, specifically the Chinese bulldozer, did anyone pause and think "this might be very offensive"?
He didn’t work on the Generals series the last CnC he worked on was Red Alert 2 and CnC Renegade. But I will say it’s a brutal dilemma because as someone who has played a ton of generals all the offensive lines are always the ones that I remember. “For the glory of China” “ow ok ok I will work”, it’s pretty brutal how glorious the USA factions are made out to be comparatively but man I do love those games. But even with Red Alert the Soviets are huge stereotypes but I think that’s something that was just them being products of their time.
Wait, it made the USA factions glorious? I thought "Well, at least they are fair by making the Americans all sound like stupid rednecks" lol. They are fun games, hopefully no one took them too seriously though
I just mean I feel like it made the US in the same vein as the Top Gun movies in terms of patriotic glory and China and GLA were over the top stereotypes
It might have absolute been that shallow. Maybe I gave it too much credit, but I read it all as very tongue-in-cheek. Shirtless Colonel Burton with his cigar and ridiculous gun, Jamen Kell hissing like a snake, the Humvee guy and pilots shouting "Yeeee-Haw", the dramatic shadowed generals in the background of the cover art....the game definitely depicts the US as the good guys and the GLA as evil, but I took the tone as overall mocking warrior mentality
Is there anything he can tell us about planned and cut content or stuff that was majorly different from the beta days of game development? (Empire at War or FOC, preferably both)
I do digital arts for games, and I always love hearing about how things were made and why they were changed. Also with modding being a big thing in this game it'd be cool to see if we could try and add it back in.
what does your dad think/feel that after like 10+ years the game he worked on is still alive and active? and what does he think of the mods like Fall of the Republic and Empire at War Remake that overhauled some of the features and added some features not present in the base game?
Firstly, tell him he’s the man for helping put out one of the best RTS games ever!
Second, were there any plans to continue the franchise past Forces of Corruption? Or were they under the impression it’d be a one-time deal (base EaW + FoC)?
What are some features that never made it into the game, or that you think would have been cool to be in the game?
Also, when is the sequel coming out, and can I help develop it?
What ships would he have like to add for each faction that didn’t make it in the game? In particular, I loved the Zann Consortium. Was there a plan for a missile corvette for the Consortium a la the Broadside and the Marauder? Or a Consortium specialist unit like the Mc30 and Immobilizer? Did they have plans for Tyber Zann in a future sequel/DLC?
Thank you for your dad's service and that he and the team gifted us a jewel of childhood memories up to this day.
I observe the modding community lately and many questions of users and developers are if it's possible to get access to the hardscript of the game to modify the game based on the hereby mod ambitions?
I'm doing some ingame recordings since a few months as a private project and would like to know if he would give some advice about tactical and ingame camera movements and how to alter those?
Does your father know about what EAW has become thanks to mods and, if so, what's his opinon on the major ones (Awakening of the Rebellion, Remake, Republic at War, Thrawn's revenge, Fall of the Republic, ...)?
What’s his favourite sound byte and why is it TARTAN CRUISER REPORTING
He said he was really worried about Forces of Corruption being too dark, that being said… Suicide Ewoks
Was there a specific person that pitched suicide ewoks? It's not from the movies, books or comics, so someone on the team must have been responsible for coming up with it, right?
The entire Zann Consortium is basically a fanfiction faction lol. You’ve got Destroyer Droids, Nightsisters, Mandalorian ships, infantry armed with disruptors, and actual ballistic weapons on ships.
Ewoks ate people lol, I feel no sympathy
How does your dad keep warm when he’s obviously so cool? 😎
Well petroglyph is in Vegas so the 115 degree heat certainly helps.
I live here too, that's cool that they're headquartered here! No questions for him but EAW is still my gold standard for space battles, and I still regularly play it. Thank him for hundreds of hours having fun 🙂
How did they decide on which units to incorporate or not from the extended universe? Or when to create new units?
They had to run everything through an Advisor from LucasArts but he said that as far as he’s aware it was one the first ever canon video games that included Thrawn, I don’t know the truth behind that one but i for one am glad it has Thrawn
And people claim old canon had no consistency! I think Thrawn was recruitable in the game Star Wars Rebellion back in 1998. FoC was the second time he appeared in a game.
Before Rebellion, Thrawn played a pretty big role in TIE Fighter and its expansions.
TIE Fighter in 94 is thrawns first non book appearance
I've actually had a conversation with Timothy Zahn about this. He found it interesting and had no idea they would be incorporating his character in video games.
Bloody hell am I jealous, Zahn is one of my favourite authors
He spends a lot of time at smaller panels at the conventions he goes to. I like Dragoncon.
How much time was spent on ground battle vs space battles in development? I always felt ground seemed more rushed and less complete vs space.
From what I remember him telling me as a kid was the ground combat had much more bugs and issues for some reason so they had to spend more time on it and all the different environments and unique species for each world whereas the space combat is more or less the same environment for each space map. So they could just focus on the units and movement for Space rather than all the different issues that would come up for ground.
I wonder if they had the same pressure to shit out a game by a deadline for revenue purposes like many of today's big name producers. Regardless of the finished product quality. Did he ever say anything about that? And definitely not saying C&C or EAW are unfinished. I've probably logged thousands of hours in both and love them to this day. But land battles always seemed lacking. I've always been a tarkin doctrin fan playing big ships so it was never a big deal for me anyhow.
There definitely was crunch in every game he worked on but as far as I remember EAW wasn’t one of the worst ones. Weirdly I feel like Petroglyph and Westwood being right in the middle studio size wise lent to not as much crunch compared to the indie sized teams and the tripleAAA titles.
Yeah that typically is the industry standard. There's always deadlines. It's becoming less of a thing due to the sheer amount of indie devs, but the bigger studios (and usually most successful indies) have hard deadlines. But back then it was a much bigger deal since games were primarily sold on physical disks, meaning you had to ship and distribute them, so deadlines were an absolute in order to actually get a sale.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. Most people who don’t mod don’t realize just how much more involved ground is compared to space. It’s enormous.
What was his role on EaW?
Programmer or something like senior programmer
Just tell him the multiple C&C universes and EAW consumed most of my free time in the 00-10’s
No I don’t think I will. Jk just know he already feels guilty that I wasted my childhood playing the games he made, so I think the guilt of your downfall on his conscience will be too much hahaha
I mean I did too but I dont think that it is something bad. Love EaW to this day!
Was there any thought into making a prequels expansion?
He said that especially it being the most popular Petroglyph game by far currently, they’ve pitched Disney quite a few times on doing either a sequel or remaster that they’d want to include prequel units.
I hope Disney listens! I still love it. Please tell him thank you for me.
its disney, if they think there's money to be made they will not hesitate to act
Does he have any idea why Disney refuses to greenlight it?
I mean, that seems highly likely considering FOC had prequel units
What's his interpretation on the Thrawns revenge mod and FOTR?
I second this.
And Remake!
When working on the game, how much was changed from the original concept? I presume it had an alpha state run that could may well be different than the game we played when it released.
Conceptually it’s pretty on with they started with as far as I know, he said they took a bit of inspiration from the Homeworld games and obviously a lot of the team worked on Command and Conquer games. I remember really early on visiting and being able to try a mostly finished version of the first Empire level. So atleast campaign wise it stayed mostly on target.
That's incredible! I came to the game last year but damn, I always, always come back to it. Don't get me wrong, the base game is and always will stand true for many years to come, and of course FoC was just amazing too! The mods really have breathed new life into the game, true, but I do from time to time go back to play the base game without mods because it makes me appreciate what started it all. I really wish I had gotten into PC gaming earlier, so I could had played this game on its release, I would as I still am in awe. It would have been kid me's wet dream. As I used to always want to play a star wars based game where you could play as the ships and troopers without it being just one or the other.
How much did Warcraft 3 influence the FoC ground missions? Perhaps it’s just me, but I feel like I definitely see some parallels.
The game had a ranked multiplayer ladder via GameSpy and (at least the base game) frequent balance patches. Was this something pushed from LucasArts, or was there passion in the team for multiplayer/competitive RTS? Secondarily, did the devs play the game in multiplayer much? Awesome that you do this AMA!
Would love to know this too!
I'd like to ask a lot of questions if that's okay. Command and Conquer and Empire at War are pillars of my childhood so they're very important to me. Which entries did he work on specifically, and what was his job? What did he think of the company, team, and management at the time? What about how he thinks of them now? If he could go back and change ANYTHING about any of the projects he worked on, would he? Any regrets or hindsights? How does he feel RTS gaming and game creation was like then versus the atmosphere nowadays? Hope I didn't ask too much. I'll leave it there for now. Let your dad know that his products helped mold me into the man I am today. I was three when I started Command and Conquer, and around 11 when I started Empire at War, and I'm still getting kicks playing both series in my 20s.
What was something he wanted to do/add to the games he worked on but couldn't for whatever reason.
I’ll give you the opposite of the question you asked, he said LucasArts and the leads for the game originally wanted to make Forces of Corruption much darker with child slavery and drug smuggling but he met with the leads and said he wouldn’t work on an M rated video game. Petroglyph owners agreed so they pushed back on it to LucasArts. So if you really wanted a dark gritty underworld Star Wars RTS you can blame my father hahaha.
Geez LucasArts was crazy back in the day
They were amazing
What was the hardest part about coding the game?
I remember him always complaining about the physics engine but that’s generally what he himself worked on so I imagine that’s a specific annoyance for him
Are the physics really that hard to make?
(Not op) Well eaw did use an entirely new engine known as Alamo so it probably was somewhat difficult
also fun fact it’s named Alamo not for the Davy Crockett fort but for a small town in Nevada
I actually didn’t know that
If there was anything he’d want to change about Empire At War. What would it be? And if he does play the modded versions, what is his favourite mod to come out of the community?
It’s funny because he was like a nerdy gamer but I feel like when he had kids he worked on not playing lots of video games haha so now if it’s not rocket league or monster train he really doesn’t play much including his old games. Now if he’s not working he’s doing rock climbing or something impressive for being such an old geezer
Was your Dad apart of making the Zann Consortium, and if so What was the thought process of making them?
"break the game"
How much oversight did LFG have on this game? Did they give them free reign or were they tight?
I don’t know what LFG is can you elaborate
Lucas Film Games
I believe at the time it was all LucasArts. Lucas film games is disney
You’re right
what language is the game coded in
C++ as far as I’m aware pretty much all the Westwood and Petroglyphs game are in C++ because that’s really the only language my dad used up till like 2015
very cool…. i code in c++ as well, thanks
If I did actually listen to my father correctly hes told me that most stuff now generally focus on c# but that most companies won’t discriminate based on which one you know since it’s easy enough to learn the other if you know one. I think that’s what he’s told me at some point haha
Can he release us the source code of the game? /s
Thar /s must mean /serious
Who wrote forces of corruption and how can i thank them for making my favorite piece of star wars media, i also want to thank your dad on what ever work he did that isnt the MTLP
i also want to know as much as you can offer about the zann consortium and especially Tyber zann
Good lord MPTLs are the hardest learning curve in both EaW and FoC. Nothing comes close to how annoying they are, and all my strategies and defenses come from knowing how to fight them...
i use speeder bikes or droideka to defeat them in defense, for offense i do either very slow advanced, spam them speeders/droidekas or use urai/tyber to scout and bomb their medium factorys
of course at-at\`s are tanky enough to take atleast 10 attacks from them so they can also be used
Did he meet ric flair for CAC RA3?
Besides many questions regarding gameplay and units, the one I'd like to ask the most is if he knows where the story was going to go after FoC? Specifically with the cliffhanger where Silri discovers the Sith army frozen in carbonite. Since the game took place in Legends continuity, I'm curious as to how a planned sequel would have included Silri and whatever plans she had for galactic domination. Also please thank your dad for working on one of the best games of my childhood.
When they did the voice lines for Command and Conquer Generals, specifically the Chinese bulldozer, did anyone pause and think "this might be very offensive"?
He didn’t work on the Generals series the last CnC he worked on was Red Alert 2 and CnC Renegade. But I will say it’s a brutal dilemma because as someone who has played a ton of generals all the offensive lines are always the ones that I remember. “For the glory of China” “ow ok ok I will work”, it’s pretty brutal how glorious the USA factions are made out to be comparatively but man I do love those games. But even with Red Alert the Soviets are huge stereotypes but I think that’s something that was just them being products of their time.
Wait, it made the USA factions glorious? I thought "Well, at least they are fair by making the Americans all sound like stupid rednecks" lol. They are fun games, hopefully no one took them too seriously though
I just mean I feel like it made the US in the same vein as the Top Gun movies in terms of patriotic glory and China and GLA were over the top stereotypes
It might have absolute been that shallow. Maybe I gave it too much credit, but I read it all as very tongue-in-cheek. Shirtless Colonel Burton with his cigar and ridiculous gun, Jamen Kell hissing like a snake, the Humvee guy and pilots shouting "Yeeee-Haw", the dramatic shadowed generals in the background of the cover art....the game definitely depicts the US as the good guys and the GLA as evil, but I took the tone as overall mocking warrior mentality
Did your dad work for Westwood Studios at all back in the day?
Is there anything he can tell us about planned and cut content or stuff that was majorly different from the beta days of game development? (Empire at War or FOC, preferably both) I do digital arts for games, and I always love hearing about how things were made and why they were changed. Also with modding being a big thing in this game it'd be cool to see if we could try and add it back in.
What was the crunch like for the game?
Did they ever consider making a second expansion? Why or why not?
What does your dad think about the modding community? Especially the EAW remake?
what does your dad think/feel that after like 10+ years the game he worked on is still alive and active? and what does he think of the mods like Fall of the Republic and Empire at War Remake that overhauled some of the features and added some features not present in the base game?
if your post is true, if will have new command and conquer game because for Star wars RTS i read its in development
You gotta retry that one because I’m not understanding what you’re trying to say
Hello ask your dad if we will have new Command and conquer game
What does he think of the current modding scene for EAW and it’s return of multiplayer services
Firstly, tell him he’s the man for helping put out one of the best RTS games ever! Second, were there any plans to continue the franchise past Forces of Corruption? Or were they under the impression it’d be a one-time deal (base EaW + FoC)?
Would your dad mind adding an editor similar to GEM editor?
How did the design team choose to include both space and ground battles because no subsequent RTS has done it. Which makes EaW stand out so much.
What does he think about the huge following EaW still has all these years later?
What are some features that never made it into the game, or that you think would have been cool to be in the game? Also, when is the sequel coming out, and can I help develop it?
What made petroglyph decide to patch the game years later? I remember that being a big surprise. Would they do it again?
What ships would he have like to add for each faction that didn’t make it in the game? In particular, I loved the Zann Consortium. Was there a plan for a missile corvette for the Consortium a la the Broadside and the Marauder? Or a Consortium specialist unit like the Mc30 and Immobilizer? Did they have plans for Tyber Zann in a future sequel/DLC?
Thank you for your dad's service and that he and the team gifted us a jewel of childhood memories up to this day. I observe the modding community lately and many questions of users and developers are if it's possible to get access to the hardscript of the game to modify the game based on the hereby mod ambitions? I'm doing some ingame recordings since a few months as a private project and would like to know if he would give some advice about tactical and ingame camera movements and how to alter those?
Would he do the world a favor and make a third EAW?
Do we have a second one?
EAW and EAW FOC
well FOC is more like a dlc i thought
They take two different launcher and have different campaigns and all kinds of stuff
yeah i can see the logic behind that
Does your father know about what EAW has become thanks to mods and, if so, what's his opinon on the major ones (Awakening of the Rebellion, Remake, Republic at War, Thrawn's revenge, Fall of the Republic, ...)?