SW: Siege of Cydonia

[Sarsstock]

The time has come my good friends to announce a new project I've been toying with since late last spring. Already with the help of some of the most acclaimed and respected members of this very forum I've managed to make great progress in the development, and I expect it to be not all too long before a beta is ready for play testing.

So please sit back and enjoy as the development of this epic saga unfolds before us. All are welcome to make any comments and or suggestions relevant to this project of adventure and bravery, of betrayal and ambition, of kings and queens, of witches and knights, and of mystical beasts and unimaginable forces of power in this tale set a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....

[Sarsstock]

The story of Siege of Cydonia will revolve around a small distant Outer Rim planet and will feature a conflict between two opposing sides at the height of the galaxy wide conflict known as the Clone Wars.

The protagonists and intended human players are the Cydonian people, a human society that inhabits of a large continent and rulers this planet and are descendants of settlers who fled persecution to settle this world centuries ago. They are an advanced agricultural people who thrive on selling they're great harvests to the powerful but less reputable buyers of the Outer Rim. Though peaceful in nature, the Cydonians do maintain a sizeable but very outdated military, one which was made to face the threats of an advesary they're ancestors faced long ago. The question remains, will the Cydonians be able to rally to the defense of they're lands if faced with an enemy more powerful and devious than ever imagined?

The antagonists of this story and AI intended civ are the Confederacy of Independent Systems or the CIS. They are the forces that wish to separate and form an autonomous government of their own in the galaxy funded by the great commercial and financial interests of the Old Republic itself. On Cydonia an expeditionary force has arrived and seeks immediate co-operation with the ruling Cydonian people, but are more than prepared to use their legions of battledroids to ensure the co-operation of the Cydonian people. Yet in the midst of this brewing conflict lies a third party, the ancient and mysterious Skeltrix.

The native bat like winged inhabitants of the planet Cydonia, the Skeltrix generations ago welcomed the human settlers but soon grew weary and jealous of their ever growing power and wealth. A war erupted, a war which saw the native inhabitants of the planet defeated, forced to cede a massive fertile continent to the human settlers now calling themselves the Cydonians.

For centuries their hatred and desire for revenge has grown as their society fractured and fell into ruin, but can the once great Skeltrix people re-unite and reclaim what was taken from them and restore their people to greatness?

Of course the story will also feature Bantha riders, Sarlac Pits, Speeder Bikes, Alien Bounty Hunters, dashing smugglers, Starfighters, droids droids and more droids, and Dark Side masters of the Force, elements of a tale worthy of the name STAR WARS!

Attached below is a preview of the people graphic Curt was more than kind enough to help me out with. The top row feature the member alien races of the CIS, the middle row the human Cydonians, and the bottom row the bat like winged Skeltrix.

Finally as a note, this project and its creator have no ties to Lucasfilm or LucasArts and the material produced for this project is intended as fan material only with no place in Star Wars continuity.

[Sarsstock]

Here is another preview, this time of two combat units that will be available in the course of the scenario. First is a double sided swordsman of the Cydonian Sovereignty Legion, the historic and proud backbone of the Cydonian military. Though rich in history, their use against a modern military force of battledroids and blasters is yet to be seen.

Second is a Xa'tik Ra witch, a member of an ancient Skeltrix dark side order dedicated to seeing the return of the Skeltrix people to the role of dominance on Cydonia through the use of sometimes primitive but always effective force powers.

[curtsibling]

Aha! It has arrived at last!!!
It's looking really professional and cool, Sarsstock...!

PS
I think I will be siding with the winged chicks in this one.
(Actually, they do have a legitimate cause...!)

[Eivind IV]

Very intriguing. Screenshots?

[Patine]

Glad to see this come out! Looking forward to playing the finished version.

[GhostOfDisco]

FW, MGE or ToT!
Because if it's one of the first two, I'll download the first chance I can!

[Sarsstock]

I'm afraid this project will be strictly ToT Ghost, as the colour pallet offered by Test of Time is much richer and allows better graphics than FW or MGE.

As for screen shots Eivind I think I could assemble a few. I've manged to finish the game map as well as the terrain files along with almost half the units that are slated to appear.

As for the bat winged chicks Curt, though their cause may appear noble up front, but there is always more than meats the eye with these ancient feuds and rivalries .

[Harry Tuttle]

Very nice Chris. I'm glad you brought this one out.

[GhostOfDisco]

Well, someday I might buy ToT - since I got a good price on MGE on half.com, maybe I can find a similarly low-priced ToT...

On a ToT-related note, will you be using multiple maps? Because that could be used for a dual "planet" and "space" action.

[Sarsstock]

Originally I had wanted to make this a duel map scenario indeed, one that allowed the player to engage in warfare in both space and the planet surface. However I was never really able to get a good idea of how you could allow units to move freely from the space map back to the planet map and vice versa, to represent a space units ability to leave and re-enter the atmosphere whenever it wishes.

Then there were some issues of how to handle units that couldn't enter the atmosphere map from space, if a space transport carrying units could enter the atmosphere and unload on the units on the planet surface and so on. If anyone out there thinks they have a good solution I'd be glad to hear it.

In the mean time I'll be getting to work on the tech tree this week, which will be crucial in driving the events of the scenario.

[Cyrion]

Wow! Eager to see this!

[Arthedain]

Indeed! This is GOOD news!

[Uncle Dead Bird]

This one looks like it'll be a goody!

I'd like to see more Star Wars scenarios. Weren't Alinestra Covelia and curtsibling working on one each, as well?

Anyhow, I'll be watching this one carefully.

UDB

[Sarsstock]

Here's an odd question for the more experienced ToT scenario makers out there. This morning I started placing units for some screen shots but discovered that despite the new units being in the units.bmp file, the units that showed up on screen were the old vanilla ToT units.

I had the same problem with Dalek Tyrany, I think the Resource.spr was what fixed the problem that time but it doesn't seem to be working here.

Any thoughts on what the problem could be ?