VA Ky Terrak reporting in for the SSD Avenger
on 7/25/2004
Introduction:
Well.....I know that we are not supposed to bring RL into our reports....BUT This has to do with Star Wars so I am going to do it. Over the weekend I attended the San Diego Comic-Con. They had over 80,000 people in attendance so you can imagine the amount of stuff that was there. The Star Wars Pavillion was huge. They had lots of people there for autographs. Lucas Arts was there with all of the upcoming games so that you can play them before they come out. Starwarsshop.com was there so that you can sign up and look at the merchandise that was to be had. There was so much stuff that it was very very worth it. I attended with Jahn Compton, former XO of the EH and current head of the Fringe (SWG section of the EH). I am just going to copy his report to this since it says it all perfectly.
Emperor's Hammer Star Wars Galaxies Report #15 – 7/26/04
(For distribution to the Fleet.)
Back in 1976, some guy named George Lucas went to the San Diego Comic Con and introduced his latest film – something he called “Star Wars.” In the 28 years since, this small film has blossomed into one of the most amazingly popular franchises in any medium. Hardly a person on the planet doesn’t recognize Darth Vader, Yoda and R2-D2. Star Wars has always had a huge presence at the Con (now known as Comic-Con International). Kyy Terrak and I attended the main Star Wars panel this past weekend, and I think we’re both still recovering from the experience.
Hosted by Steve Sansweet, LucasFilm’s chief fan liason, we were treated to previews of upcoming LucasArts games and got to see some clips from the upcoming documentary from the Original Trilogy DVD set due in September. Special guests included Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, Producer Rick McCallum and a surprise visit from the young Vader himself, Hayden Christenson. We even got to see a video clip of…well, that might be a spoiler for some of you, so I can’t mention it here. Needless to say, I’m getting chills just thinking about it.
Tidbits of the final Star Wars film, Episode III, were revealed as well. Clips of the filming of the final lightsaber battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin were spread throughout the presentation. StarWars.com should have the pics of Kashyyyk that were revealed to us as well. But the biggest news is this: after years of speculation, the official title of Episode III has been announced.
Star Wars, Episode III: REVENGE OF THE SITH.
I screamed like a banshee as they announced this, fighting through tears of pure joy at the revelation. We’ve got 10 more months until ROTS is released, and it’s stuff like this that make me look forward to it even more.
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While at the Con, I had a chance to actually play the Jump to Lightspeed expansion for JTL. I flew a TIE Interceptor in the Dathomir sector, shooting down Hutt fighters right and left. Just thinking about it makes the hairs on the back of my neck tingle. First off, the game simply looks AMAZING. (Of course it doesn’t hurt that I was playing on a 30 inch, high def plasma monitor.) The detail of the graphics is mindboggling – when you fly straight, both engines on the TIE light up. When you turn right or left, the light on the engine that is not being used goes out. It really looks incredible.
But I have some big news about the game itself. SOE has already revealed most, but not all, of the ships that we’ll have in JTL. While I was playing, I took a peek at the skill trees and found some interesting info. In the Privateer skill tree, a piloting certification for the YT-2400 is listed under the Ace (Master) box. In the Rebel pilot tree, they get a cert for the B-Wing. And for us Imperials, we have a cert for the ship of all ships, the TIE Defender. I asked both Kevin “Q-3PO” O’Hara (who evidently put off retirement long enough to attend the Con) and Executive Producer Haden “Shug Ninx” Blackman about it, and they both smiled and said, “We haven’t finalized the ship certifications yet.”
As for gameplay, I thought the T/I handled more like a bomber from Wing Commander Prophecy than from any of the previous Star Wars flight sims. I’m sure they’ll balance that properly by the time the game comes out. My only real concern has to do with leading your targets while shooting. In the previous TIE/X-Wing games, you led your target, and your targeting reticule would turn green when you could hit your target. This took some skill to figure out when you needed to shoot. When I flew in JTL, there was an icon that flew in front of the ship. If you fired at the icon, you’d hit the ship. This essentially takes a lot of the need for actual skill out of the game. I hope they change this before its release.
TIE DEFENDERS. JTL is going to ROCK.
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News
Tie Corps News:
- Star Wars Episode III "Revenge of the Sith"
- The new site is located at - http://www.ehtiecorps.org/
- Send all missing IWATS to the Professor of the course
- check the website for up to date news - http://www.ehtiecorps.org/news/
Avenger News:
- Welcome SL Shark to Hunter
- Welcome SL Ati to Butcher
- If anyone has something that they would like me to add here just send me an email.
Promotions & Medals:
- SL Shark/Hunter was promoted to LT
- LC Kane Reese was awarded an IS-SW
- MAJ Andrijas was awarded an IS-BW
- LT Hunterr/Fury was awarded an IS-BR
- LT Lah/Storm was awarded an IS-BR
- LT Dargor/Hunter was awarded an MoI
Things to keep you busy
IWATS Completed:
not a one this week
Competitions:
see the individual WC and CM reports
BSF's:
Wing XVIII
Hunter Squadron - 49
Butcher Squadron -
Wraith Squadron - 2Wing XIX
Wing Commander - 2
Trapper Squadron - 6
Fury Squadron - 7
Flayer Squadron -
Storm Squadron - 5Well I am very happy to see that almost every squad had some flying in this week. A lot of improvement has happened over the entire ship since I came on board and I am very proud of all of you.