GrandMoffThoth

Hey everyone,
From [a] to [g] What I'd like to see added to the game is;

-[a]- I would love to see Jabba the Hutt explored. Either as a race, or to interact with as an uncontrolable ai. As a kid, I thought his Gamorrean guards were the coolest with their huge axes, & hog snouts. Then came the Rancor pit, & Sarlaac pit. Which were each as awesome as the idea of capturing Han Solo, & freezing him in a carbonite slab to smuggle across the galaxy to hang on your wall due to unpaid debts! Why are these things not fixtures in our gameplay, did noone else fall in love with all that came with Jabba the Hutt? If that's what served as 'business as usual', I always imagined what gloriously insidious methods & fetishes, the infamous Hutt reserved for special circumstances!
I don't think he should amass a fleet of ships, you would know more than me how possible it is to code a Hutt to be a Hutt. It would really be awesome to interact with real spice runs & smuggling operations, that are successful but also frequently snagged by the Empire. Kessel's mines could be opened to massive upgrades for those with the $$. The ability to carbon freeze a bounty or stop at various crime worlds to check for bounty prices to make some quick cash. I dunno, this is a HUGE part of the Star Wars Universe that never seems to overlap right. Is it possible to make a Mod upgrade v3 or 5, which overlays the bountyhunters & their prey & our ability to get prices placed on our heads or killing specific people, or blowing up a specific world, or being too much of a butcher etc. If there ever is a multiplayer add-on, hunting down a fellow human player, & turning him in to a crime boss for a chunk of change for building a fleet or superweapon, then busting him out would be very neat. Remember Solo got a bounty placed on his head for dumping a shipment the Empire tried to bust him with for smuggling! He got away that day but got frozen later for that same decision. These events would add so much to the game. If not for a functioning sarlaac pit, Jabba probably wouldn't have let Boushh unfreeze him. Speaking of functioning sarlaac pits...
-[b]- Since the Hutts in general, much less Jabba, didn't reach out to rule every part of the galaxy, that creates a lot of space to fit in Tyber Zann's crew, competing crime lords, but especially Black Sun! Who cares about Zann if it means Xizor & Black Sun are ignored? There must be some way to add these crime lords to the gameplay, as they have had so much to do with the major galactic events, & backround schemes that led to the decay of galactic domination. This is like a prohibition movie with no mention of the mob. Black Sun should be woven into the fabric of the underworld, there is as much to say about Black Sun with its array of cartels, as there is to say about the various Hutts.
-[c]- Heros are ridiculously absent in this game, I haven't seen the thread where you mentioned your focus or disregard for adding heros. This to me is as important as new planets! The reality for all sides, is that important characters are placed in command of important vessels. Placing Han Solo in command of your fleet should make a bigger impact on the outcome than placing Abe Carlton in command! There really needs to be 20+ characters for each side, I want to defend this opinion more, but it seems all too obvious of a statement. Perhaps it would take a whole upgrade to do it right to deal with the icon clutter, & commander bonuses, but this is an absolute must.
If Tarkin loses 10 major battles/fleets in a row, costing you half the galaxy, & you're only alive due to Grand Admiral Thrawn; there should be a way to promote Thrawn to Moff, demote Tarkin to Grand Admiral, & probably even the ability to officially execute those responsible for continual failure! Vader went through Admirals like underwear, the Empire needs the realities of promotion/demotion. It might sound silly to some, but vying for positions of favor, knowing you die if you fail, & risking it all to garner the promotion to Admiral, Grand Admiral, Moff, or Grand Moff, is what made the Empire run! If Thrawn loses your Death Star, your research capital, & your largest fleet; you should be able to 'banish' him into the unexplored regions of the outer rim!
-[d]- From what I've seen, your new planets are S P E C T A C U L A R ! Exactly the kind of love & attention to detail that anyone could hope for. Of course this is based on screenshots only, but it stands to reason that they play the way they look. I missed where you mentioned (if you did or not) whether all the new planets are extra, or if some replace others. Is the only planet limit, the creative juices limit, or is there an actual code cap etc? I understand a lot comes with making a new world, but exploring your own niche in unknown space when most of the galaxy is gunning for you is an aspect that would greatly deepen the gameplay. These maps are unbelieveably too small! It's a Galaxy not a county!! 100+ worlds seems a wee tiny for a galaxy, & we're not even at 100 yet. Why not just narrow the war into a 10x10 room & have at it for "Galactic Domination!"
-[e]- The Ssi-Ruuk are one of the most inventive additions, which have been blatanly ignored over & over again! I realize they spanned a single novel, but anyone who read that novel, knows what I am saying. Plus, now that it's all battledroid this & clonetrooper that, the Ssi-Ruuk deserve their chair at the table. They could even be placed well off the main map, so they don't come into play until deep outer rim exploration occurs. To both stop initial map clutter, & subsequent voids of interest once large areas are opened up in the outer rims & unknown territories. They would also present one of the most unique ai experiences around. Same question about the races, is there a coding cap (new race replaces old race), or is the cap work/effort/time based?
-[f]- This space station obsession has got to stop already! Every damn space battle doesn't need to involve destroying a space station!! It's just dumb. Now & again, ok, but how many space stations were in anything Star Wars? Not on every planet! Something needs to either drastically alter this aspect of our battles, or do away with it as a military unit. Enterprises switch hands far more often than get blown up & rebuilt 7 times a week. I'd rather have better reinforcement options. I know this has nothing to do with PR, but doesn't anyone else feel the same? There must be another way, especially if you are able to modify so much.
-[g]- I attacked a planet once with what I thought would be 25 star destroyers etc, only to discover I had 4-5 vs their 12. Their reinforcements wiped out mine until I lost 5 ships at a time to the demise of a fleet that should have walloped the opposition! This is maybe the worst part of the game. I had not known every ship they had was there, but with my full force as it was composed entering the system, I could have taken them. This battlefield unit capacity cap is obscene. Lose the detail in the tree leaves I say, give me Star Wars back! I did catch you mentioning the attempt to greatly raise all caps in your mods, & I look forward to this aspect of your mod as much as any other.
I realize the whole machine lag prob with huge units, but isn't there a way to create a series of micro managers which dissipate the clutter of that info? Could you make the ability to chose an attack formation & target, so the machine doesn't have to deal with every single unit? Much like playing an NFL game, where your off/def line doesn't stop moving b/c you're presently manuevering the QB or WR. Everyone knows what to do, even the guy you just clicked away from & confused by ruining his route, resumes his route on his own. I've so often had a platoon get shelled while a tank I clicked off of is staring out into space not 3 ft away! Then the tank is shelled next. I'd rather have internal ai managers which make my units act right when I'm looking elsewhere in the battle. Is this at all possible conceptually, I dunno the softcode/hardcode limitations. I also don't know if this is as simple as it seems, quite difficult, or impossible without hardcode access.

- Anyhow, these are my thoughts, & wishes for 'what I'd like to see in the game.'
I don't know how many others echo these ideas, or how many are included in today's release of PR. I would like to say that I am excited & willing to contribute torwards the creation of any of these ideas, though I am a novice at modding. Everytime I learn so much, they switch engines. I was so excited about Empire at War, until I played it and realized it was 1997 Rebellion all over again, with a few bells & whistles. If not for Phoenix Rising, I would've chucked the game at the wall, but as I knew from Rebellion & RebEd, the Mod community might have the answers Petroglyph lacks. They sold this game to me as Supreme Commander in macro-scope, & Gears of War in micro-scope. It falls short from every direction other than being Star Wars, which often is enough. As a Star Wars Risk game, it's way better, but as a Galactic Conquest game, I am broken hearted.
I eagerly await today's release of PR & hope it's everything it seems to be. I have lost all faith in Lucas Arts ability to ever create the galactic conquest game I yearn for. It seems I'd have better luck looking for Call of Duty Star Wars Mods & Galactic Civilizations II Star Wars Mods, than to buy another Star Wars game from Lucas. Hopefully I needn't do anything more than download the latest Phoenix Rising Mod to sooth my broken heart!


( are we there yet? are we there yet? are we ther yet?) ... (6 hrs left)