Would You Kindly's Lore Inspired Experience Submod for Remake Mod 3.5 for Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption

I started this little script editing submod years ago when the first Remake Mod version came out for myself to better fit how I wanted to play the game. I love script tweaking for fun and have been editing scripts in lots of games for years- mostly for Star Trek Bridge Commander mods- so I opened up the XML files for SWEAW and found they were pretty similar. I made my first minor alterations, found 'how to' answers among the Remake Mod community and just kept playing and tweaking things from then on. It was intended for just myself, however I had always wondered if anyone else would be interested in it but I never released it. Now that Remake 4.0 is out and some players prefer the 3.5 version with no ground combat I figured it might be fun to add a bit of something new for the players of that version, so here it is. Feel free to give me feedback on any tweaks or additional changes you'd like me to add in and I'll see if I can figure out how to do so.

This Submod for the Star Wars Empire at War Remake 3.5 mod aims to make many lore inspired changes and enable larger battles for the original 3.5 mod for those that want a newer experience but also don't like the ground combat implemented in Remake 4.0.

Mod Highlights:

-Rework of 'Tech Levels' by reorganizing unit unlocks by replacing Tech Levels with 'Time Periods' and integrating Starbase Levels- effectively separating the two requirements. Ships are now available for build if the Starbase is at a high enough level AND the appropriate 'Time Period' has been researched.

-Fighter compliments have been completely reworked to better reflect canon and legends lore with added hangars, better variety and larger reserves with less individual spawns for longer fighter battles while maintaining performance.

-Unlocked previous 'Hero only' ships like the MC-75 for generic production

-Faction driven ship availability and unique faction and Refit versions

-Max Fleet Sizes increased

+More!

Installation:

Optional: Create a copy of the 'EAW-Remake' folder located in "DRIVE\YOURSTEAMLOCATION\steamapps\common\Star Wars Empire at War\corruption\mods\" and rename it to whatever you like for example "EAW-REMAKE-OLD" or "EAW-REMAKE-WYK"

Note if you don't backup or create a new copy of the original Remake 3.5 mod folder you will have to reinstall the original mod. Another option instead of backing up the entire mod's folder is to only backup the 'XML' folder and rename the old one to something else like "BACKUP XML"

Choose which copy you want to install the Submod into

Copy and Paste (overwrite existing files) the XML folder you downloaded into the mod's main folder you've decided to install too.

Make sure you update your launch options to reflect the one with the Submod files in it, for example I've changed mine from "swfoc MODPATH=Mods\EAW-Remake" to "swfoc MODPATH=Mods\EAW-Remake-WYK"

Launch game and select Forces of Corruption as usual :)

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Units have been slightly altered- mostly with their fighter compliment- to better reflect canon and legends lore from Wookiepedia. Most compliments include better variety, increased reserves for longer battles with fighters but with slightly lowered ‘launched’ fighters to aid with performance. Adjusted prices and build times to be lower on average by 40% across the board to help facilitate faster, larger, more aggressive conflicts with larger percentage reductions given to older vessels and less for newer ships. Loosened some faction specific ship's build restrictions, especially if more than one faction is known to have used certain ships or when they were produced more frequently such as with the MC-75 previously being locked as a Hero ship only: you can now produce generic versions of this vessel. Major and minor changes and additions to ship hangar units when applicable.

Most data has been taken from Wiki sources, however there are a couple examples from other sources such as the A-Wing's being attached to the Corellian Corvette's from The Clone Wars show. Fighter/hangar compliments more closely reflect the loadout TYPES of vessels used by their parent ship. Due to performance constraints, this does not mean ships will carry lore specific NUMBERS of fighters etc, but instead carry a flat PERCENTAGE of the full lore NUMBER or will retain larger more accurate full size loadout in reserve with a maximum of each spawned at one time. Compliment makeup will retain similar percentages i.e. 50% fighters, 50% bombers etc.

For example the Rebel/Republic Venator:

Stock Loadout: 50% ARC-170 (2 max spawned/4 in reserve), 50% V-Wing (2 max spawned/4 in reserve).

Submod Loadout: 4% Y-Wing (1s/1r), 23% Z95 (1s/11r), 62% V-Wing (4s/28r), 12% ARC-170 (1s/5r).

This also extends these changes to faction specific versions of the same vessel. For instance the Pirate/Underworld version of the Venator will have a hangar complement more resembling what fighters and bombers are available to that faction.

There are also separate "upgraded" versions (existing Remake Mod versions I've further modified) of a couple Clone Wars era vessels such as the Venator, Acclamator, and Recuscant. These ship versions are only available to build from their specific factions when reaching the applicable Tech/Time level (more on that below). These ships will have different cost and build times along with different weapons, health and shields and different, more updated fighter complements (TIE vs V-Wing etc). For the upgraded Empire version Venator this means it has become a test bed for the Empire's new long range prototype heavy turbolaser turrets designed for the Imperial Star Destroyer which have been fitted to the rear of this Venator version.

Changes have been made to how the "Tech Level" research upgrades are implemented. Instead of ships unlocking depending on how powerful they are and other unknown factors the original Remake Mod Devs decided on, I have reorganized them by 'Time Period'. In the game's engine not only what Tech Level you have unlocked, but also what level Starbase is located in the sector you are building from are factors that decide when a certain vessel is available for build. I have changed the Tech Level to work more like a Time Period that unlocks that period's available ships and relegated the previous ship size/power factor to the Starbase Level upgrade system. For example, you may now be able to build large ships earlier provided you upgrade your Starbase to the max available level but you will still not be able to access more late war ships such as the Empire ISD-II or New Republic ships until a later Time Period (higher Tech Level) has been upgraded.

For example: the Secutor is now immediately available for the Empire to build but requires a level 3 Starbase, whereas the newer but smaller Imperial Escort Carrier requires Time Period 4 (Tech Level 4) but only Starbase level 3.

Time Periods:

Tech Level 1: End of Clone Wars/Empire Creation

Tech Level 2: Start of the Rebellion/Alliance to Restore the Republic/Interwar Period

Tech Level 3: Rogue One/A New Hope/Beginning of a larger Galactic Civil War

Tech Level 4: Height of Galactic Civil War/The Empire Strikes Back

Tech Level 5: End of Galactic Civil War/Post RotJ/Beginnings of the New Republic

I may try to make starbase upgrades available at any Time Period to allow for a more broad early fleet variation.

Finally, most major planet's resources have been increased, especially starting capital worlds such as Coruscant to ensure a more stable, centralized faction foundation economy feeding into those larger fleets.

Max fleet sizes have been increased.

Starting fleets have been edited for most of the single planet start campaigns to recreate a more lore focused mix of ships that were available in each faction's fleets at the end of the Clone Wars. For example: Venators/Acclamators for the Empire to balance the lack of buildable vessels available that early in the Empire's creation, ships seen in early seasons of the SW Rebels show for the Rebellion (Hammerhead/Quasar), and remnant separatist ships (Munificent/Recuscant) for the Consortium/Underworld.

Some hardpoints/shield/health numbers have been tweaked for a couple ships but largely the same ship combat balancing from Remake 3.5 remains.

Thanks!