Info From The Forums

[Gobalopper]

Chris posted two new messages in the official forums today, don't let that get you down, there was lots of info provided. Check out his replies on graphics and veterancy below:

Any current 16MB and above 3D card will do quite nicely for Emperor. We have all cards in that category and have worked hard to ensure fun playable performance on them all.

Also, we have many 'dials' to allow you to customize the graphical detail to your card. If you prefer more 'beauty' and have the fast machine/card for it (or don't mind the loosing a few frames per second), you can run the game in 32bit color and any resolution your video card supports under Direct3D.

I'm sure that many of you want good framerates over extra fancy graphical goodies, and there is a 'fast' mode which allows the best performance with all the dials turned down. However, I find that most cards do fine with the Medium settings. Its all up to your preferences, and very controllable.

The polycounts on the units, buildings & terrain are very high for this sort of game. Think about how many units you'll have on screen during a battle. I'm still amazed at how many we can pull off and maintain good framerates. We have heavily optimized the engine to produce gorgeous playablitiy. Texture are all in 24bit color, even though are screen shots are usually in 16bit. (32 bit mode takes full advantage of the 24bit textures).

I could go own with other numbers and such, but bottom line .. its all about how it plays... and Emperor is shamelessly addicting. I recently switched my favorite side from Atreides to Ordos and its like playing a new game! New tactics to discover, new methods to hand out mayhem... I'm just loving it!

Anyways, stay tuned.. we have a few more surprises coming up this month for ya! Hope some of you can drop by the LAN party and check it out! Nothing beats seeing it in person.

~-~

All units can gain up to 3 levels of veterancy. The effect of these levels is unique to each individual unit. You'll have to play each unit at its vetern levels to figure out the benefits, which are cumulative with their increasing rank. (i.e. a Atreides Sniper gets extra range at level 1, regeneration at 2 & stealth at 3.. at the 3rd level (elite) the sniper has better range than other snipers, regenerates & is stealthed). The progression is different for other units.

House Atreides have very loyal and well trained infantry. Their house advantage is that infantry gain rank quicker than House Harkonnen or House Ordos. Further, an elite (3rd level veteran) soldier can return to the barracks (consumed) and train all like infantry to the next level of veterancy when they 'graduate' and exit the barracks. You can repeat this and train 2nd & 3rd level veterans in this manner. Its hard to do, but very cool when you do it!

The other post about Harkonnen getting Pain Tolerence is correct. They stay full speed, full efficiency until they fall over dead.

The Ordos have invested in hi-tech regenerating armor; however, when damaged it taxes the power cells and the units move very slowly. Hit-and-run tactics work very well here. I like to take a group of lastanks and fly them in to take out a turret, then retreat when the first shield drops. Wait in the desert (avoid worms) for a minute, and your all recharged & repaired for another raid! - LINK

A little long, but it does a good job of suming up how veteran status affects each House and tells us the amount of work that has been done on making the game playable for all types of computers.

Also, just wanted to let you know that I'm working on a "pregame" FAQ that will put together a bunch of the more common questions, I should hopefully have part of it done by the end of the week, so watch for it then.