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114-489: Star Wars Galaxy may refer to: Star Wars Galaxies , a Star Wars themed MMORPG platform for Microsoft Windows Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine , 2003 science fiction novel Star Wars galaxy , the fictional galaxy where the setting of the Star Wars saga occurs Star Wars Galaxy (comic) , a British comic series from Titan Comics Topics referred to by

228-476: A free-to-play Galaxies circa April 2005, Publish 14.1, pre-Combat Upgrade, such as the SWGEmu project or Project SWG. This first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed , was released on 27 October 2004. In many ways, this is the spiritual successor to the hit LucasArt's space combat flight simulation game Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter , as the theme, interface and objectives are quite similar. The reviews for

342-468: A god game , where the player assumes a god-like role of creation. The genre recognized today as "real-time strategy" emerged from an extended period of evolution and refinement. Games sometimes perceived as ancestors of the real-time strategy genre were never marketed or designed as such. As a result, designating "early real-time strategy" titles is problematic because such games are being held up to modern standards. The genre initially evolved separately in

456-464: A split-screen two-player mode where both players are in action simultaneously and there are no pauses while decisions are taken, forcing players to think quickly while on the move. In Herzog Zwei , though the player only controls one unit, the manner of control foreshadowed the point-and-click mechanic of later games. Scott Sharkey of 1UP argues that it introduced much of the genre conventions, including unit construction and resource management, with

570-483: A character reached level 90, they would gain access to collaborative "Heroic" missions. The five heroic missions were: Tusken Invasion, IG88, Axkva Min, Imperial Star Destroyer, and Exar Kun. Characters could erect, own, and decorate a variety of communal, personal, and governmental buildings. These buildings, when grouped, could be organized into cities. Players held elections via ballot box for Mayor. Elected mayors granted city members permission to place structures within

684-522: A dual-layer map; three-layer (orbit-surface-underground) maps were introduced in Metal Fatigue . In addition, units could even be transported to entirely separate maps, with each map having its own window in the user interface. Three Kingdoms: Fate of the Dragon (2001) offered a simpler model: the main map contains locations that expand into their own maps. In these examples, however, the gameplay

798-625: A dynamic virtual economy and other real-life social phenomena like a complicated division of labor . In this virtual economy, players were responsible for creating many in-game items including blasters , starships , clothing, armor, food, housing, furniture and even a wide variety of droids . According to Star Wars Galaxies and the Division of Labor , the division of labor in Star Wars Galaxies produced in-game results similar to those in real life. The game events were set following

912-598: A game combining both turn-based game and real-time-strategy is The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II which allows players, in a 'War of the Ring' game, to play a turn-based strategy game, but also battle each other in real time. A second criticism of the RTS genre is the importance of skill over strategy in real-time strategy games. The manual dexterity and ability to multitask and divide one's attention

1026-459: A key gameplay consideration, a significant example being StarCraft , while other titles have no such unit cap. Micromanagement deals with a player's constant need to manage and maintain individual units and resources on a fine scale. On the other hand, macromanagement refers to a player's management of economic expansion and large-scale strategic maneuvering, allowing the player time to think and consider possible solutions. Micromanagement involves

1140-448: A military force. Command & Conquer (1995), as well as Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996), became the most popular early RTS games. These two games contended with Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness after its release in late 1995. Total Annihilation , released by Cavedog Entertainment in 1997, introduced 3D units and terrain and focused on huge battles that emphasized macromanagement over micromanagement . It featured

1254-426: A mobile game published by Supercell , is a good example of a game which modified the RTS format into a simpler mobile experience. While often classified in the broader Strategy game genre, Clash of Clans still possesses many of the classic RTS elements, such as a "perspective of god", control over buildings and mobile units, and resource management. It also introduces and simplifies specific elements of an RTS to fit

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1368-604: A physics engine is Ensemble Studios' Age of Empires III , released on October 18, 2005, which used the Havok Game Dynamics SDK to power its real-time physics. Company of Heroes is another real-time strategy game that uses realistically modeled physics as a part of gameplay, including fully destructible environments . RTS World tournaments have been held for both StarCraft and Warcraft III since their 1998 and 2002 releases. The games have been so successful that some players have earned over $ 200,000 at

1482-406: A real-time strategy game, each participant positions structures and maneuvers multiple units under their indirect control to secure areas of the map and destroy their opponents' assets. In a typical RTS game, it is possible to create additional units and structures generally limited by a requirement to expend accumulated resources . These resources are in turn garnered by controlling special points on

1596-661: A set of troops across various enemy-filled levels. TechnoSoft 's Herzog (1988) is regarded as a precursor to the real-time strategy genre, being the predecessor to Herzog Zwei and somewhat similar in nature, though primitive in comparison. IGN cites Herzog Zwei , released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1989 as "arguably the first RTS game ever", and it is often cited as "the first real-time strategy game" according to Ars Technica . It combines traditional strategy gameplay with fully real-time, fast-paced, arcade -style action gameplay , featuring

1710-450: A single Novice level, four independent branches with four levels, and a Master level which required completion of all four branches. Characters purchased these skills with experience points gained through a related activity. After the NGE, the developers added nine new professions: Jedi, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Commando, Spy, Officer, Medic, Entertainer, and Trader. Progress in these professions

1824-534: A single profession was healer. The Jump to Lightspeed expansion made individual ships attainable by players for the first time. This allowed players to acquire and pilot ships of various sizes. Ships ranged in size from fighter crafts to gunships with up to three decks. This gave players the option between space-based or planet-based gameplay. Each character and creature possessed three "pools" (called Health, Action, and Mind; or "HAM") that represented his or her physical and mental reserves. When any one of those pools

1938-547: A strategic control-point system, in which control over strategic points yields construction/reinforcement points. Ground Control (2000) was the first such game to replace individual units with "squads". Others are moving away from the traditional real-time strategy game model with the addition of other genre elements. One example is Sins of a Solar Empire (2008), released by Ironclad Games , which mixes elements of grand-scale stellar empire building games like Master of Orion with real-time strategy elements. Another example

2052-424: A strategy map and a battle map (in full real-time) and the player can at any point in time seamlessly zoom in and out in between both. A third common criticism is that real-time gameplay often degenerates into " rushes " where the players try to gain the advantage and subsequently defeat the opponent as quickly in the game as possible, preferably before the opposition is capable of successfully reacting. For example,

2166-481: A streamlined interface that would influence many RTS games in later years. Age of Empires , released by Ensemble Studios in 1997, tried to put a game in a slower pace, combining elements of Civilization with the real-time strategy concept by introducing ages of technologies. In 1998, Blizzard released the game StarCraft , which became an international phenomenon and is still played in large professional leagues to this day. Collectively, all of these games defined

2280-465: A traditional RTS experience. In a typical real-time strategy game, the screen is divided into a map area displaying the game world and terrain, units, and buildings, and an interface overlay containing command and production controls and often a "radar" or "minimap" overview of the entire map. The player is usually given an isometric perspective of the world, or a free-roaming camera from an aerial viewpoint for modern 3D games. Players mainly scroll

2394-400: Is commonly the main focus of the RTS games, but other titles of the genre place higher gameplay significance to how units are used in combat ( Z: Steel Soldiers for example, awards credits for territory captured rather than gathered resources), the extreme example of which are games of the real-time tactical genre. Some titles impose a ceiling on the number simultaneous troops, which becomes

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2508-726: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Star Wars Galaxies Star Wars Galaxies ( Galaxies ) was a Star Wars- themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows , developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and published by LucasArts . The open world Star Wars game was released in stores on 26 June 2003. Galaxies spawned several expansions and updates through 2005. The servers shut down on 15 December 2011 due to contract expiration. There are several private emulator projects in various stages of development that intend to allow users to experience Galaxies in different incarnations of

2622-453: Is divided into a small central area with several instanced "dungeon" areas. Other content added in this expansion included: the ability to add cybernetic limbs to a character, resource mining in space, quests for two new creature mounts, and three new starships. A substantial portion of the content for this expansion was adapted from the film Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith which

2736-517: Is indie game Achron (2011), which incorporates time travel as a game mechanic, allowing a player to send units forward or backward in time. Multiplayer online battle arena games (MOBA) have originated as a subgenre of real-time strategy games, however this fusion of real-time strategy, role-playing , and action games has lost many traditional RTS elements. These type of games moved away from constructing additional structures, base management, army building, and controlling additional units. Map and

2850-626: Is often considered the most important aspect to succeeding at the RTS genre. According to Troy Dunniway, former Westwood developer who has also worked on Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars : "A player controls hundreds of units, dozens of buildings and many different events that are all happening simultaneously. There is only one player, and he can only pay attention to one thing at a time. Expert players can quickly flip between many different tasks, while casual gamers have more problems with this." Real-time strategy games have been criticized for an overabundance of tactical considerations when compared to

2964-473: Is still under development by a small team and is several years away from completion. Both SWGEmu and Project SWG are regarded as the primary emulation projects for Galaxies with other communities utilizing their source code to run their own server, sometimes contributing specific code to create their own content or by using shared content from resources such as ModTheGalaxy , a game modification distribution forum. Some player-made tools created while Galaxies

3078-475: Is that success involves not just fast clicking, but also the ability to make sound decisions under time pressure. The "clickfest" argument is also often voiced alongside a "button babysitting" criticism, which pointed out that a great deal of game time is spent either waiting and watching for the next time a production button could be clicked, or rapidly alternating between different units and buildings, clicking their respective button. Some titles attempt to merge

3192-485: Is that they too often have the same strategy: produce faster than you consume. He also states that building and managing armies is the conventional definition of real-time strategy, and that it is unfair to make comparisons with other genres. In an article for GameSpy , Mark Walker criticizes real-time strategy games for their lack of combat tactics, suggesting real-time tactics games as a more suitable substitute. He also says that developers need to begin looking outside

3306-624: The Bloons Tower Defense series (2007-2021), and more have (varyingly) adapted the RTS format in the same manner as Clash of Clans , and in turn developed a style of RTS unique to the mobile game industry. Beginning in the early-mid 2010s, the expansion of the Indie game market on game developer Valve Corporation 's gaming distribution service, Steam , allowed RTS game developers to produce smaller-scale and increasingly accessible Indie-RTS games. These RTS games often are more true to

3420-484: The Naboo Royal Palace, the abandoned Rebel bases on Dantooine and Yavin 4 , Ewoks , and Rancors . The game was announced in 2000, when LucasArts Entertainment began a partnership with EverQuest creators Verant Interactive Inc. and Sony Online Entertainment to create a massively multiplayer Star Wars online role-playing game. The announcement included an expected release date of 2001 and that

3534-506: The PC platform. Real-time strategy games made for video game consoles have been consistently criticized due to their control schemes, as the PC's keyboard and mouse are considered to be superior to a console's gamepad for the genre. Thus, RTS games for home consoles have been met with mixed success. Scott Sharkey of 1UP notes that Herzog Zwei had already "offered a nearly perfect solution to

Star Wars Galaxy - Misplaced Pages Continue

3648-594: The SWGEmu project was founded with the intention of re-creating the Pre-Combat Upgrade version of Galaxies from scratch through emulation . The goal of SWGEmu is to emulate the game to its entirety as it was on the live servers through patch 14.1. In 2020, the SWGEmu project announced it was near completion of the base game (colloquially referred to as version 1.0). They also announced that Jump to Lightspeed may no longer be included in version 1.0 due to

3762-467: The ZX Spectrum , and Nether Earth for ZX Spectrum in 1987. In North America, the oldest game retrospectively classified as real-time strategy by several sources is The Ancient Art of War (1984), designed by Dave and Barry Murry of Evryware, followed by The Ancient Art of War at Sea in 1987. In Japan, the earliest is Bokosuka Wars (1983), an early strategy RPG (or "simulation RPG");

3876-411: The real-time tactics (RTT) template, have moved toward an increased focus on tactics while downplaying traditional resource management, in which designated units collect the resources used for producing further units or buildings. Titles like Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (2004), Star Wars: Empire at War (2006), and Company of Heroes (2006) replace the traditional resource gathering model with

3990-443: The "nostalgia" of classic RTS games. Rusted Warfare (2017), is an indie-mobile release which is a good example of a traditional-style RTS which utilizes assets from the unreleased Hard Vacuum (1993) to create a "revived" RTS experience. Hard Vacuum was intended to include "resource gathering from mineral deposits", "base building", and "a wide range of fighting with units". Rusted Warfare and other traditional RTS titles utilized

4104-705: The 14.1 publish goal of SWGEmu, such as Awakening , Dark Rebellion , Empire in Flames , Infinity and Reckoning . Other projects like CUEmu look to use SWGEmu's Core3 code base to emulate the publish 15 era of Galaxies , also known as the Combat Upgrade. In 2011, after SOE announced the intention of shutting down Star Wars Galaxies, Project SWG was founded to emulate the NGE version of Star Wars Galaxies. Project SWG has not been as objectively successful as SWGEmu and has undergone multiple refactors of their code since conception. Their current server, Holocore ,

4218-461: The 360° 3D environment. Furthermore, Machines , which was also released in 1999 and featured a nearly 100% 3D environment, attempted to combine the RTS genre with a first-person shooter (FPS) genre although it was not a particularly successful title. These games were followed by a short period of interest in experimental strategy games such as Allegiance (2000). Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds

4332-552: The 3D environment. This led to a number of unique gameplay elements, which were mostly obscured by the lack of computing power available in 2007, at the release date. Japanese game developers Nippon Ichi and Vanillaware worked together on Grim Grimoire , a PlayStation 2 title released in 2007, which features hand-drawn animated 2D graphics. From 2010, real-time strategy games more commonly incorporated physics engines , such as Havok , in order to increase realism experienced in gameplay. A modern real-time strategy game that uses

4446-559: The Ancients ( DotA ), a Warcraft III mod from 2003, and its standalone sequel Dota 2 (2013), as well as League of Legends (2009), and Heroes of the Storm (2015), are the typical representatives of the new strategy subgenre. Former game journalist Luke Smith called DotA "the ultimate RTS". The popularization of the smartphone in the 2010s led to a new market for Video games to expand to and develop. Innovation on

4560-617: The Hutt , Bib Fortuna , Salacious Crumb , General Otto , Captain Panaka (appears as Colonel Panaka), Max Rebo , Wedge Antilles , Gavyn Sykes , Watto , Boss Nass , Grand Inquisitor Ja'ce Yiaso, the "reincarnation" of General Grievous as NK-Necrosis, Taga Olak, Jefa Bowa, and the Force ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi . Other characters and locations that players could visit within the game include: R2-D2 , C-3PO , their escape pod on Tatooine ,

4674-704: The Jedi. Developers responded by changing the penalty for death to skill loss in January 2004 and creating a quest system to unlock the character. Media outlets criticized the changes of the "Combat Upgrade" while subscription cancellations rose. After the New Game Enhancements were implemented in November 2005, various media outlets criticized the reduced depth and complexity of the game. John Smedley , president of Sony Online Entertainment, defended

Star Wars Galaxy - Misplaced Pages Continue

4788-406: The New Game Enhancements (commonly referred to as the "NGE"), players had access to 34 professions, with six basic professions: Artisan, Brawler, Entertainer, Marksman, Medic, and Scout. There were a total of 24 advanced professions. Each profession had advanced tier options, including hybrids that combined traits of two professions. Each profession consisted of a tree-like structure of skills, with

4902-576: The United Kingdom, Japan, and North America, afterward gradually merging into a unified worldwide tradition. Tim Barry in May 1981 described in InfoWorld a multiplayer, real-time strategy space game that ran ("and probably still is") on an IBM System/370 Model 168 at a large San Francisco Bay Area company. He stated that it had "far better support than many of the application programs used in

5016-623: The United States from 2007 had potentially been compromised. On 14 May 2011, SOE declared data was safe and reopened all servers. SOE offered a free 30-day membership for established members, an in-game decoration, and a 1:1 ratio of days lost. On 24 June 2011, SOE and LucasArts announced that they had mutually agreed to shut down Galaxies on 15 December 2011. According to the SOE announcement, "If you are an active subscriber in good standing as of September 15, 2011, then you can play for free for

5130-457: The Worlds (1998), Warzone 2100 (1999), Machines (1999), Homeworld (1999), and Dark Reign 2 (2000) were among the first completely 3D real-time strategy titles. Homeworld featured a 3D environment in space, therefore allowing movement in every direction, a feature which its semi-sequel, Homeworld Cataclysm (2000) continued to build upon adding features such as waypoints. Homeworld 2 , released in 2003, streamlined movement in

5244-529: The amount of strategic gameplay found in such games. According to Chris Taylor , lead designer of Supreme Commander : "[My first attempt at visualizing RTSs in a fresh and interesting new way] was my realizing that although we call this genre 'Real-Time Strategy,' it should have been called 'Real-Time Tactics' with a dash of strategy thrown in." (Taylor then posits his own game as having surpassed this mold by including additional elements of broader strategic scope.) In general terms, military strategy refers to

5358-412: The business", with a published manual and regular schedule. Comparing its complexity to Dallas , Barry recalled that "when the game was restored at 5 P.M., a lot of regular work stopped". Ars Technica traces the genre's roots back to Utopia (1981), citing it as the "birth of a genre", with a "real-time element" that was "virtually unheard of", thus making it "arguably the earliest ancestor of

5472-522: The city. Elections were held every three weeks. If another player wished to run for mayor, they would add their name to the ballot box to run against the incumbent. As cities grew in population, they became eligible to add services and facilities such as vehicle repair garages, shuttle ports, cloning facilities, hospitals, cantinas, and garden displays. They could show up on planet maps alongside canonical cities such as Theed and Mos Eisley . The gameplay design aimed towards realistic social institutions like

5586-408: The cliffside, even in the case when the attacker is a missile-armed helicopter. Homeworld , Warzone 2100 and Machines (all released in 1999) advanced the use of fully 3D environments in real-time strategy titles. In the case of Homeworld , the game is set in space, offering a uniquely exploitable 3D environment in which all units can move vertically in addition to the horizontal plane. However,

5700-615: The complexities of implementing the system. SWGEmu is an open source project distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License . The server code base, known as Core3, has been open source since before 2010, allowing for volunteers to easily contribute to its development. In 2019, SWGEmu also open sourced its engine, known as Engine3. Because SWGEmu is open source, any members are able to easily launch their own server for their own community. There are several community-run servers which develop content beyond

5814-535: The content is related to Revenge of the Sith , which was released to DVD on the same day as the expansion was released. Additional content, including the presence of the droid HK-47, is based on the Knights of the Old Republic games. One week after its release, the character development process was revamped through the New Game Enhancements (NGE). This led to a number of players demanding their money back for

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5928-840: The control and destruction of bases being an important aspect of the game, as were the economic/production aspects of those bases. Herzog Zwei is credited by 1UP as a landmark that defined the genre and as "the progenitor of all modern real-time strategy games." Chuck Sperry cited Herzog Zwei as an influence on Dune II . Notable as well are early games like Mega-Lo-Mania by Sensible Software (1991) and Supremacy (also called Overlord – 1990). Although these two lacked direct control of military units, they both offered considerable control of resource management and economic systems. In addition, Mega Lo Mania has advanced technology trees that determine offensive and defensive prowess. Another early game, Carrier Command (1988) by Realtime Games , involved real-time responses to events in

6042-540: The decision claiming it necessary to revamp the game in order to reverse the deterioration they were seeing in the subscriber base. SOE offered refunds on the Trials of Obi-Wan expansion due to it being released two days before the New Game Enhancement was announced. Subscriber numbers were originally expected to exceed 1,000,000. In August 2005, SOE reported that they had sold 1,000,000 boxed copies of

6156-661: The destruction of the Death Star in Episode IV: A New Hope , but before the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back . The game launched with 10 planets: Tatooine , Naboo , Corellia , Talus, Rori , Dantooine , Lok, Yavin 4 , the Forest Moon of Endor , and Dathomir . The paid expansions added Kashyyyk and Mustafar . There were 12 space zones, encompassing approximately 3400 cubic kilometers of navigable space. Nine space zones were associated with one or more of

6270-614: The element of classic PC-gaming nostalgia in order to drive the game-playing experience. Traditional RTS games released in the late 2010s - early 2020s were developed with a focus on coupling the traditional-style gameplay with uniquely styled, or hyper-realistic graphics. These RTS games are often Indie-RTS games, but released on a multitude of platforms. Some RTS releases like Halo Wars 2 (2017), Steel Division 2 (2019), Company of Heroes 3 (2023), and Last Train Home (2023) are examples of modern RTS games that are focused on providing

6384-462: The expansion. After a week or two of protests, Sony offered refunds to anyone who asked for it, but many players left the game. On top of the expansions, SOE released several compilations of their games: Star Wars Galaxies: The Ruins of Dantooine is a novel based in part on places and events in the game. It was authored by Voronica Whitney-Robinson and Haden Blackman , the LucasArts producer of

6498-522: The final months. Players wishing to play through the end of the game and participate in the galaxy-ending event planned for the last week of live service in December will need to re-activate or join the game on or before September 15. No new or reactivated accounts will be accepted after September 15, 2011." On 15 December 2011, at 9:01 PM Pacific time, the servers of Star Wars Galaxies shut down, disconnecting those still playing and preventing entry into

6612-442: The first 3D units and terrain in real-time strategy games. The Age of Empires focus on historical setting and age advancement was refined further by its sequel, Age of Empires II: Age of Kings , and by Stainless Steel Studios ' Empire Earth in 2001. GSC Game World 's Cossacks series brought population caps into the tens of thousands. Dungeon Keeper (1997), Populous: The Beginning (1998), Jeff Wayne's The War of

6726-569: The first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed , praised the new space combat but criticized the base game for its lack of sufficient improvement. The second expansion, Episode III Rage of the Wookiees , was announced on 9 March 2005, and released on 5 May 2005. It added the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk and its corresponding space sector. Kashyyyk is different from the previous 10 planets: rather than being 16 square kilometers of openly navigable area, it

6840-452: The game revolves around the player leading an army across a battlefield against enemy forces in real-time while recruiting/spawning soldiers along the way, for which it is considered by Ray Barnholt of 1UP to be an early prototype real-time strategy game. Another early title with real-time strategy elements is Sega 's Gain Ground (1988), a strategy- action game that involved directing

6954-536: The game would take place during the original trilogy era . On 17 May 2001, before the game went into public beta testing , the first expansion's development was announced. The release date of the base game was delayed to the second half of 2002. The creators announced a staggered released schedule for the space-based gameplay A new official website was also released on the same day. It included screenshots, movies, an updated frequently-asked questions section, concept art, development team member's profiles, features about

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7068-442: The game's existence. The ten species that were available to players included: Human , Twi'lek , Zabrak , Wookiee , Trandoshan , Rodian , Mon Calamari , Bothan , Sullustan and Ithorian . Players could hire Entertainers to change their appearance in-game, with even more options than those available at creation. Many visual aspects of a character were changeable after character creation except species and gender. Before

7182-451: The game, and a forum. The site reached 100,001 users by December 2001. Throughout the next year, new content would be posted on the website. This content included information on species and locations, new images and movies of game elements, and 360-degree QuickTime VR panoramas of different in-game locations. The closed beta test began in July 2002. SOE shared information about the game on

7296-464: The game, requiring management of resources and control of vehicles. Another early game, SimAnt (1991) by Maxis , had resource gathering, and controlling an attacking army by having them follow a lead unit. However, it was with the release of Dune II (1992) from Westwood Studios that real-time strategy became recognized as a distinct genre of video games. Although real-time strategy games have an extensive history, some titles have served to define

7410-426: The game. In early 2006, unconfirmed reports showed that only 10,363 subscribers were playing on a particular Friday night, but Smedley denied that subscriptions had fallen this low. In an online interview with Reddit in July 2012, John Smedley admitted to "stupid decisions" regarding Galaxies' combat upgrade and new gaming enhancement policies. He acknowledged player led emulator projects seeking to restore

7524-479: The game. It was released in December 2003. On 27 August 2008, following the success of SOE's Legends of Norrath , LucasArts and SOE released Champions of the Force , an online trading card game based on Galaxies . In the game, players could collect, battle, and trade with each other they could also buy new cards and get in-game items. Over one hundred cards were created for players to find and play against others with new artwork featured on each card. In 2004,

7638-849: The game. The final five hours were broadcast in a live stream by Giant Bomb , with Kotaku reporting events as they happened. The final in-game events included a final player versus player finale between the Galactic Empire and The Rebels, as well as an appearance from the Force Ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi as depicted in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi . In the United States , Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided sold 370,000 copies ($ 16.1 million) by August 2006, after its release in June 2003. It

7752-523: The genre for new ideas in order for strategy games to continue to be successful in the future. This criticism has ushered into a couple of hybrid designs that try to resolve the issues. The games of the Total War series have a combination of a (turn-based) strategy map with a (real-time) battle map, allowing the player to concentrate on one or the other. The games of the Hegemony series also combine

7866-611: The genre received positive reception. The Pikmin series, which began in 2001 for the GameCube , became a million-seller. Similarly, Halo Wars , which was released in 2009 for the Xbox 360 , generated generally positive reviews, achieved an 82% critic average on aggregate web sites, and sold over 1 million copies. According to IGN , the gameplay lacks the traditional RTS concepts of limited resources and resource gathering and lacks multiple buildings. Total Annihilation (1997)

7980-498: The genre, providing the de facto benchmark against which new real-time strategy games are measured . The real-time strategy genre has been relatively stable since 1995. Additions to the genre's concept in newer games tend to emphasize more of the basic RTS elements (higher unit caps, more unit types, larger maps, etc.). Rather than innovations to the game concept, new games generally focus on refining aspects of successful predecessors. Cavedog's Total Annihilation from 1997 introduced

8094-403: The magazine's annual Game Contest, the author described it as a "single-player game of real-time action and strategic decision making". The magazine described it as "a real-time space strategy game". The game has elements of resource management and wargaming . In the United Kingdom, the earliest real-time strategy games are Stonkers by John Gibson, published in 1983 by Imagine Software for

8208-628: The main structures for each team are still present, and destroying enemy main structure will secure victory as the ultimate victory condition. Unlike in RTS, a player has control over the only one single powerful unit, called "hero" or "champion", who advances in level, learns new abilities, and grows in power over the course of a match. Players can find various friendly and enemy units on the map at any given time assisting each team, however, these units are computer-controlled and players usually don't have direct control over their movement and creation ; instead, they march forward along set paths. Defense of

8322-455: The map or possessing certain types of units and structures devoted to this purpose. More specifically, the typical game in the RTS genre features resource-gathering , base-building, in-game technological development, and indirect control of units. The tasks a player must perform to win an RTS game can be very demanding, and complex user interfaces have evolved for them. Some features have been borrowed from desktop environments ; for example,

8436-640: The mobile format with "idle" resource gathering and defenses, as well as reducing the number of resource types, unit types, and building types to make the game more accessible to new users. In an interview between game journalist Bryant Francis and Clash of Clans developer Stuart McGaw, McGaw attributed Clash of Clan ' s design to "a focus on simplicity and accessibility", something that "anyone could pick up and play", while also retaining "the strategy DNA", that gives players "lots of options" while remaining "clear to understand".  Multiple other mobile games, such as Boom Beach (2014), Plague Inc. (2012),

8550-424: The mouse to move units, and gathering resources, and as such served as the prototype for later real-time strategy games. According to its co-designer and lead programmer, Joe Bostic, a "benefit over Herzog Zwei is that we had the advantage of a mouse and keyboard. This greatly facilitated precise player control, which enabled the player to give orders to individual units. The mouse, and the direct control it allowed,

8664-402: The near-industry-wide switch to full 3D was very gradual and most real-time strategy titles, including the first sequels to Command & Conquer , initially used isometric 3D graphics made by pre-rendered 3D tiles. Only in later years did these games begin to use true 3D graphics and gameplay, making it possible to rotate the view of the battlefield in real-time. Spring is a good example of

8778-489: The oldest "2D Real-Time Strategy". Barton also cites Cytron Masters (1982), saying it was "one of the first (if not the first) real-time strategy games [sic]." On the other hand, Scott Sharkey of 1UP argues that, while Cytron Masters "attempted real time strategy", it was "much more tactical than strategic" due to "the inability to construct units or manage resources". Byte in December 1982 published as an Apple II type-in program Cosmic Conquest . The winner of

8892-403: The only way for them to win or lose is militarily makes them unlikely to respond to gestures of diplomacy. The result is that the winner of a real-time strategy game is too often the best tactician rather than the best strategist. Troy Goodfellow counters this by saying that the problem is not that real-time strategy games are lacking in strategy (he says attrition is a form of strategy), rather it

9006-492: The original Command & Conquer gave birth to the now-common "tank rush" tactic, where the game outcome is often decided very early on by one player gaining an initial advantage in resources and producing large amounts of a relatively powerful but still quite cheap unit—which is thrown at the opposition before they have had time to establish defenses or production. Although this strategy has been criticized for encouraging overwhelming force over strategy and tactics, defenders of

9120-459: The overwhelming complexity of the game, combat imbalances of the professions, bugginess, and lack of quest content. The first player to unlock a 'Jedi slot' did so on 7 November 2003, four months after the release of the game. Players criticized SOE for the substantial time commitment to unlock a Jedi, penalties for in-game death of a Jedi character (permanent character death after three in-game deaths), and monotonous game play required to acquire

9234-593: The playable planets, but Kessel, Ord Mantell , and Deep Space were solely used for space gameplay and player-versus-player combat. The planet Hoth was added in November 2008, but could only be explored during the events of the Battle of Echo Base. Players could meet many characters from the main and expanded universe of Star Wars . The main characters include: Luke Skywalker , Han Solo , Princess Leia Organa , Darth Vader , Chewbacca , Emperor Palpatine , Admiral Ackbar , Jan Dodonna , Boba Fett , Jabba , Borvo

9348-438: The player to build an army (ranging from small squads of no more than two units to literally hundreds of units) and using them to either defend themselves from a virtual form of Human wave attack or to eliminate enemies who possess bases with unit production capacities of their own. Occasionally, RTS games will have a preset number of units for the player to control and do not allow building of additional ones. Resource gathering

9462-606: The popular perception of the genre and expectations of the genre more than others, in particular the games released between 1992 and 1998 by Westwood Studios and Blizzard Entertainment . Drawing influence from Herzog Zwei , Populous , Eye of the Beholder , and the Macintosh user interface , Westwood's Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (1992) featured all the core concepts and mechanics of modern real-time strategy games that are still used today, such as using

9576-416: The popularity of turn-based strategy computer games. In the past, a common criticism was to regard real-time strategy games as "cheap imitations" of turn-based strategy games, arguing that real-time strategy games had a tendency to devolve into "click-fests" in which the player who was faster with the mouse generally won, because they could give orders to their units at a faster rate. The common retort

9690-491: The problem by giving the player direct control of a single powerful unit and near autonomy for everything else," and is surprised "that more console RTS games aren't designed with this kind of interface in mind from the ground up, rather than imitating" PC control schemes "that just doesn't work very well with a controller". Some handheld consoles like Napoleon on the GBA uses a similar solution. However, several console titles in

9804-682: The real-time strategy and first-person shooter genres in Battlezone (1998), while in 2002 Rage Games Limited attempted this with the Hostile Waters games. Later variants have included Natural Selection (2002) , a game modification based on the Half-Life engine, and the free software Tremulous / Unvanquished . Savage: The Battle for Newerth (2003) combined the RPG and RTS elements in an online game. Some games, borrowing from

9918-517: The real-time strategy genre". According to Ars Technica, Utopia was a turn-based strategy game with hybrid elements that ran "in real-time but events happened on a regular turn-based cycle." According to Brett Weiss, Utopia is often cited as "the first real-time strategy game." According to Matt Barton and Bill Loguidice, Utopia "helped set the template" for the genre, but has "more in common with SimCity than it does with Dune II and later RTS games." Allgame listed War of Nerves (1979) as

10032-508: The right mouse button or by accessing the ability on a toolbar. In addition to providing high-damage attacks, specials were also used to heal, buff, debuff , and crowd control enemies. Players gained the ability to use more powerful weapons as they advanced in level. Players also earned "Expertise Points" as they leveled up, which were used to advance their professions. The player could allot 45 points to various abilities and attributes, from weapons specialties to healing and armor proficiency. Once

10146-429: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Star Wars Galaxy . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Star_Wars_Galaxy&oldid=1251116127 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

10260-402: The screen and issue commands with the mouse, and may also use keyboard shortcuts. Gameplay generally consists of the player being positioned somewhere in the map with a few units or a building that is capable of building other units/buildings. Often, but not always, the player must build specific structures to unlock more advanced units in the tech tree . Often, but not always, RTS games require

10374-409: The second expansion, Rage of the Wookiees , lauded the new quest content for current subscribers, but lamented the combat gameplay updates and the continued bugginess of the game. The third expansion, Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan , was announced on 19 August 2005, and released on 1 November 2005. This expansion added the ground planet of Mustafar to the game. Like the previous expansion,

10488-579: The servers on 15 October 2009. Players with characters on the affected servers were offered free character transfer to one of the 13 remaining servers. On 3 May 2011, SOE issued a press release stating that all SOE had been isolated from the Internet, due to massive and widespread security infiltrations of various games, servers, and databases. Security teams (and the FBI ) were called. Initial reports indicated personal data and of 20-30 million customers outside of

10602-419: The servers were shut down and existing accounts migrated to US servers. On 16 September 2009, SOE informed all current and past account holders of the forthcoming closure of 12 servers (galaxies): Corbantis, Europe-Infinity, Intrepid, Kauri, Kettemoor, Lowca, Naritus, Scylla, Tarquinas, Tempest, Valcyn and Wanderhome. Character creation on these servers was disabled on 15 September 2009, with the final closure of

10716-565: The strategy argue that they're simply taking advantage of the strategies utilized, and some argue that it is a realistic representation of warfare. One of the most infamous versions of a rush is the "Zergling rush" from the real-time strategy game StarCraft , where the Zerg player would morph one of their starting workers (or the first one produced) into a spawning pool immediately and use all of their resources to produce Zerglings, attacking once they have enough to overwhelm any early defense; in fact,

10830-469: The technique of "clicking and dragging" to create a box that selects all units under a given area. Though some video game genres share conceptual and gameplay similarities with the RTS template, recognized genres are generally not subsumed as RTS games. For instance, city-building games , construction and management simulations , and games of real-time tactics are generally not considered real-time strategy per se. This would only apply to anything considered

10944-458: The term "zerging" has become synonymous with rushing. Some games have since introduced designs that do not easily lend themselves to rushes. For example, the Hegemony series made supply and (seasonal) resource management an integral part of its gameplay, thus limiting rapid expansion. Despite Herzog Zwei , a console game , laying the foundations for the real-time strategy genre, RTS games never gained popularity on consoles like they did on

11058-571: The time, this represented one of the largest ever fan communities amassed for any game prior to retail availability. The base game, titled Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided , was released on 26 June 2003, in the US and on 7 November 2003, in Europe. A localized version for the Japanese market was published by EA Japan on 23 December 2004. Japanese acceptance of the game was low, and in November 2005

11172-486: The traditional RTS format accelerated throughout the early 2010s as RTS games were released on the App store . With the new format specific to Mobile devices , mobile RTS games were often simpler than their desktop counterparts. The simplification of the RTS formula coupled with the adoption of the smartphone during this period allowed for mobile RTS games to be more accessible than traditional RTS games. Clash of Clans (2012),

11286-477: The traditional RTS formula, with the player having the "perspective of god" and managing units and resources. Such Indie-RTS Games released in this period were often subject to Porting , and often made it to mobile devices. A few of these Indie-RTS games are Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator (2017), the Machines at War series (2007-2012), and Bad North (2018). Oftentimes, modern RTS games attempt to capture

11400-537: The transformation from semi-3D to full-3D game simulations. It is an open-source project, which aims to give a Total Annihilation game-play experience in three dimensions. The most ambitious use of full 3D graphics was realized in Supreme Commander , where all projectiles, units and terrain were simulated in real time, taking full advantage of the UI's zoom feature, which allowed cartographic style navigation of

11514-479: The two systems: for example, the role-playing game Fallout uses turn-based combat and real-time gameplay, while the real-time strategy games Homeworld , Rise of Nations , and the games of the Total War and Hegemony series allow the player to pause the game and issue orders. Additionally, the Total War series has a combination of a turn-based strategy map with a real-time battle map. Another example of

11628-628: The use of a broad arsenal of weapons including diplomatic, informational, military, and economic resources, whereas military tactics is more concerned with short-term goals such as winning an individual battle. In the context of strategy video games, however, the difference is often reduced to the more limited criteria of either a presence or absence of base building and unit production. In an article for Gamasutra , Nathan Toronto criticizes real-time strategy games for too often having only one valid means of victory — attrition — comparing them unfavorably to real-time tactics games. Players' awareness that

11742-462: The use of combat tactics involved in the present, whereas macromanagement considers the greater scale of the game in an attempt to predict the future. A debate has emerged between fans of real-time strategy (RTS) and turn-based strategy (TBS) (and related genres) based on the merits of the real-time and turn-based systems. Because of their generally faster-paced nature (and in some cases a smaller learning curve), real-time strategy games have surpassed

11856-465: The website as the beta progressed. LucasArts also stated in 2002 that both the Xbox and PlayStation 2 would get a version of the game; however, both versions were cancelled. The game was intended to be released on 15 April 2003. The creators announced on 20 December 2002, that the base game of Galaxies would be called An Empire Divided and that the game's online community had grown to over 400,000 users since its inception in November 2000. At

11970-415: Was another full 3D game, but had limited camera views. The move from 2D to 3D has been criticized in some cases. Issues with controlling the camera and placement of objects have been cited as problems. A few games have experimented with diversifying map design, which continues to be largely two-dimensional even in 3D engines. Earth 2150 (2000) allowed units to tunnel underground, effectively creating

12084-407: Was critical in making the RTS genre possible.” The success of Dune II encouraged several games that became influential in their own right. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994) achieved great prominence upon its release, owing in part to its use of a fantasy setting and also to its depiction of a wide variety of buildings (such as farms) which approximated a full fictitious society and not just

12198-535: Was divided into three separate experience source groups: combat, crafting, and entertaining. In addition to these professions, a character could also pursue three optional side professions: Pilot, Chronicler, and Politician. Players could specialize in three different areas of their primary professions by selecting "expertise" options, including Beast Mastery (BM). The Trader profession shared not only BM expertise but also general expertise. All professions could specialize through expertise and items. The only role requiring

12312-471: Was essentially identical regardless of the map layer in question. Dragonshard (2005) emphasized its dual-layer maps by placing one of the game's two main resources in each map, making exploration and control of both maps fundamentally valuable. Relatively few genres have emerged from or in competition with real-time strategy games, although real-time tactics (RTT), a superficially similar genre, emerged around 1995. In 1998, Activision attempted to combine

12426-583: Was fully depleted, the character would faint. Combat required the player to carefully manage his or her actions to avoid depleting a pool. With the NGE, ground combat was changed to real-time and similar to a first-person shooter . The player would aim a targeting reticule and left-click the mouse to fire. Auto-aim and auto-fire features were available, but players who eschewed those options were rewarded with an increased chance of maximum damage. As characters' levels increased, they gained access to additional combat abilities called "specials" which were activated by

12540-589: Was live, such as SWGCraft and GalaxyHarvester , and are running with connections to hosted servers. In 2013, a former SOE employee leaked a copy of the 2010 production release source code for the Galaxies client, server, 3rd party libraries, and development tools to a few former players involved with the NGE Galaxies emulator Project SWG . The code was later leaked beyond its intended recipients and made available online. Real-time strategy In

12654-411: Was notable for being one of the few completely non-linear RTS games ever. It is only in approximately 2002 that 3D real-time strategy became the standard, with both Warcraft III (2002) and Ensemble Studio's Age of Mythology (2002) being built on a full 3D game engine. Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns introduced classic wargame elements, such as supply lines to the genre. Battle Realms (2001)

12768-472: Was released to theaters in the U.S. on 19 May 2005, two weeks after the expansion release. Customers who purchased the expansion also received a limited-edition Varactyl pet as a player mount. Rage of the Wookiees expansion also added a few quests, one allowed the player to obtain a pet Bolotaur after going through several tasks. The Bolotaur is similar to the Veractyl but larger and brown. The reviews for

12882-561: Was the country's 43rd best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006. Combined sales of all Star Wars Galaxies -related games released between January 2000 and August 2006 had reached 720,000 units in the United States. Reviews for the initial launch of the game in 2003 were mostly positive. The game was praised for its graphics, use of the movie soundtracks, massive world size, character customization, creative creature ecology, complex skill system, player economy interdependencies, and its sandbox approach. Reviewers criticized

12996-538: Was the first real-time strategy game to utilize true 3D units, terrain, and physics in both rendering and in gameplay. For instance, the missiles in Total Annihilation travel in real time in simulated 3D space, and they can miss their target by passing over or under it. Similarly, missile-armed units in Earth 2150 are at a serious disadvantage when the opponent is on high ground because the missiles often hit

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