Chris Replies

[Gobalopper]

Some more posts at the official forum from Chris today, I guess now that the game is done they have more time to answer our questions. :)

Today he replies about Battleclans, strategies, QuickMatch, when the game ships, and last up the advantages each House receives from veterancy:

The link that has been posted around was used for some early BattleClan testing, and is not longer valid. In fact, we will be doing an Emperor Battleclan wipe of the database (as there are no official clans allowed at this time) within the next 2 weeks. That said, we will of course keep everyone informed of when the wipe happens, and when and where you can start to register your official clans. I know that many of you want to reserve your favorite Battleclan names, so keep tuned to the messages boards for news. -LINK

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I'm really enjoying the tactical discussions on the boards of late! Everyone has done a great job at research (without the game out yet) and have some really sound strategies. I expect that they will evolve & change over time & experience. :)

p.s. Capitaine Tarace made a good point, but remember .. the 'silent' resource in Emperor is 'buildable rock face'. Since you can only build upon the solid rock mesas, you'll be making lots of decisions on whether 'spend' the rock space to build something, as well as the money. :) -LINK

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One really nice thing about 3D, is that everything scales to whatever resolution the player chooses. i.e. There is no tactical advantage over higher resolutions. In fact, you'd only be increasing the fill rate needed to keep your framerate where you like it.

So to answer the question, you can set your Graphic options to any valid Direct3D resolution that your card/monitor support. I've played Emperor at 1600x1200 on one of our systems here. If you have a monster system that can handle it, go for it. QuickMatch games will use whatever resolution you've selected.

p.s. I have noticed that some video card drivers will incorrectly report resolution settings through Direct3D that the card hardware will fail to create. This is a driver problem with that manuf. direct3D drivers. If you try a resolution setting that fails, you can reset it to the default 800x600, or try another of the offered settings. The list of choices is entirely up to the video card manuf. -LINK

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Emperor will be available worldwide on June 15th. It is always best to check with your local retailer for a firm date on when they will be able to sell you a copy, just to be sure they haven't already sold out. -LINK

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We have made a distinct class advantage for each House, in addition to whatever differences/nuances you find in their unit list.

House Atreides = Drill Instructors. 3rd rank 'Veteran' infantry can return to the barracks and train all future 'like' infantry to +1 veterancy level. They also have the only 'repair vehicle' in the game.

House Harkonnen = Pain tolerance. Harkonnen units will not slow down or suffer performance penalties for damage. They take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.

House Ordos = Regeneration. Ordos vehicles are made from self-repairing armor. Infantry gain self-repairing ability with the 1st level of veterancy. -LINK

For those of you new to the site or who don't know much about the game yet I recommend checking through some of our news archives or even Davo's newsletters. There is tons of information posted from the forums and other sources there that you may want to read up on before the game is released.