Universe At War: Earth Assault, A.K.A. Project-02 Options

[Bittah Commander]

Just read PCZ's article about Petroglyph's (formerly known as) Project-02. I can tell you I'm definitely going to get this game (mostly former Westwood staff made is working on it -on their own!-, so it just has to be good )
Chances are this game 'll get just as interesting as C&C



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This was posted by SAGEKING on Petroglyph's forum:

The highly anticipated project known to the community as 'P-02' or 'Project-02' has been officially announced as Universe at War, bringing the raging battles of the alien Hierarchy and their foes to battle out on our planet Earth.

View Official UaW Site
View Press Release
Download UaW Announcement Screenshot Bundle

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And IGN interviews Petroglyph Staff about UaW
(Also, don't forget to check the screenshots over there!)

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Humans playable?, Only in the prologue!

The title says it all, really.

To expand a bit -- yes, there are major characters in the game that are human. You get to play with one of them in the prologue, and they show up throughout the entire story campaign after that. Who's side the humans are on depends on the part of the story you're playing.

Rest assured that humans will get their day in the sun, but that's not going to happen immediately. They have some serious reverse-engineering to do on the other technologies they encounter before they're going to be able to compete with the others on an equal playing field.

Can humans take down some of the alien stuff? Yes. However the burn rate in human lives and machinery is staggering per alien craft destroyed. The current human technologies will not stop the Hierarchy before all of humanity is wiped out without major technological advances.

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Name: Defiler
Faction: Hierarchy

Purpose: Area-Denial Unit and Meta-Artillery
Speed: Medium
Armor: Medium
Unit Class: Inorganic
Vision: Medium
Targeting: Direct

Concept Art:

Click Image for Larger Picture


Reconnaissance Photo:

Click Image for Larger Picture
Word from the front lines:
"A slathering, gooey form encased in a bath of radiation, the Defiler has something living in it, but as to just what that is, it's not entirely clear. The defiler speaks in gurgles and barely audible words as it goes about its task of corrupting and mutating."

Weapons:
Radiation Bleeder (Passive): The defiler bleeds radiation as it moves. The longer it stays still, the larger the radiation area becomes around it, up to a moderate size. Radiation bleeding only works while the unit is in bleed mode (default).

Radiation beam (Default, vs. ground): The default weapon does different things to different unit types.

Vs. Infantry: Infantry hit by radiation charge take heavy damage over time. If the targets are killed by the beam, they become mutant slaves, controlled by the Hierarchy player.

Vs. Vehicles: Sprays vehicles with high-intensity toxins. Vehicles get a light DoT effect applied for a long duration that makes them reveal for the Hierarchy player.

Vs. Structures: All structures get a light DoT effect and function at half efficiency for the duration. Production and turret fire rate is slowed. This effect stacks with the Cylinder's effect, completely shutting down the structure if both effects are on it.

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Foshjedi2004 posted these CGM scans at Petroglyph's forums:

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b191/Fos...-1172080486.png

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b191/Fos...-1172080531.png

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b191/Fos...-1172080553.png

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b191/Fos...-1172080599.png

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b191/Fos...-1172080678.png

[Machine]

Looks nice, seems it's going to add my favourite feature of the earth series (customizable units). And also very innovative from what I've read.
Cool another game to wait for :biggrin: ; And it's from Petroglyph, I hope it's better than EaW (it rocked)

[Mr. Pokey]

If this game is anything like the older C&C games then its bound to be top notch! I am so buying this when it comes out.

[Uufje]

Seems like a nice RTS, I, for one will buy this when it comes out.

[Bittah Commander]

I didn't really like EaW (they worked on EaW together with Lucas Arts), but I think Petroglyph makes better games when they make their very own project (just look at C&C).

[cdmt]

I didn't really like EaW (they worked on EaW together with Lucas Arts), but I think Petroglyph makes better games when they make their very own project (just look at C&C).

I agree EaW was weak. It took forever to get anything going in that game and you were limited in skirmish in who you could play against. I hope Petroglyph amps up the speed. Maybe they wanted fully capture the hurry up and wait an eternity atmosphere of the military. I think though that this new game by Petroglyph will be more like CNC in terms of gameflow and speed; because I see a ton of similarities between Lucasarts' last star wars rts Galactic Battlegrounds and EaW in terms of speed and gameflow style.

[Almighty Mole th...]

Indeed, i was Listening to The War of the worlds When reading that... Coincidence perhaps. Anyway, it sounds like a blast, i might buy it if i have the money when it comes out

[Clazzy]

I didn't really like EaW (they worked on EaW together with Lucas Arts), but I think Petroglyph makes better games when they make their very own project (just look at C&C).

How can you say that when they've only made one game? News flash, they didn't make C&C. Some of them were part of the development team but not all.
Personally, I don't feel as though the game looks that great. It looks like they've seen Supreme Commander and feel like making their own version with a storyline.

[DoomToHel]

wow i want to get that game it look very good. i like the screen with the "war of the worlds" alien things .

[Bittah Commander]

How can you say that when they've only made one game? News flash, they didn't make C&C. Some of them were part of the development team but not all.

Actually, from what I understood the majority of the Petroglyph staff comes from Westwood.

[Clazzy]

There's a difference between "the majority of Petroglyph's team is from Westwood" and "the majority of Westwood went to Petroglyph".

Also remember that LucasArts were a major influence in KOTOR and KOTOR2, they're still great games. Granted the sequel had loads cut but the original was still a classic game despite their interference. EaW wasn't a bad game, but ground battles weren't particularly fun and, aside from the battles, it was just a simplified Rome: Total War. I'll probably still get the game but I won't get my hopes up.

[Bittah Commander]

There's a difference between "the majority of Petroglyph's team is from Westwood" and "the majority of Westwood went to Petroglyph".

Might be true, but it is (for as far as I know of course) the majority of Westwood Vegas (responsible for TD, RA1 and TS) who went to Petroglyph.

[DeathRay2K]

I'm really excited for this game.
From what I know, singleplayer is going to be at least as deep as C&C, which can only be a good thing.
I just wish the Alamo engine wasn't so ugly...

[Bittah Commander]

I edited my first post, check it out

[Corsair]

This looks like it will be a nice alternative to CnC3 (in my opinion) although it won't come out until a little bit after CnC3 does, right?

[Mr. Pokey]

Q4 2007 I think.

[Bittah Commander]

Like said in the interview, if everything keeps going as well as it is going right now, then it's expected to be released Q4 this year.

I couldn't care less about C&C3 anymore, but I'm really looking forward to this game

[Corsair]

I couldn't care less about C&C3 anymore, but I'm really looking forward to this game

Hah, same

[Bittah Commander]

Edited my first post again

[Corsair]

Yea, that was sad news to me when I read that humans won't have a real major part in UaW :(, but it is an interesting direction Petroglyph is going

[Wess]

the story could be good, i'm not blown away by those pics tho
but i'll keep an eye on it.

[Bittah Commander]

Well, I prefer a good story and good gameplay over just good graphics.

Yea, that was sad news to me when I read that humans won't have a real major part in UaW :(

Well, like Ishmael said:

Rest assured that humans will get their day in the sun, but that's not going to happen immediately. They have some serious reverse-engineering to do on the other technologies they encounter before they're going to be able to compete with the others on an equal playing field.

So what I'm assuming is that humans are at first mostly trying to run, hide and rescue each other at the beginning of the campaign and they'll also try a few futile attacks at first (obviously with no success).
Then eventually the humans will gather some destroyed alien units, research the technology and eventually use the reverse-engineered technology to build their own units which are (or at least almost) as advanced as the alien units.

[Corsair]

Yea, that is true

I believe they said that there will be a mix of humans that split off and help the different alien factions as well

Kind of reminds me of The Beast in The Revelation
-Some humans join the bad guys "selling their soul" the others join the good guys and not giving up their freedoms (in a nutshell)

Just my speculation since Petroglyph was using the year 2012 in sync with the Mayan's prophecy

People have been calling for the end of times for centuries now, I guess if it were to happen 2012 it would be as good a time as any

What about you Bittah, missing the humans side any? I guess I do just simply because there has always been a human side

This post has been edited by Corsair: Feb 7 2007, 10:25 PM

[Bittah Commander]

I think I might miss it a little if there would be no human side at all... But none said there really won't be. Like I said before, eventually the humans might have learned enough from the alien units (and the destroyed units they collected and researched) to make their own advanced units that are (or at least almost) as strong as the alien units.
OK, the title of the post I quoted actually might be saying there will be no human faction in Skirmish at all... Which would be a little sad. However, if there would be a human faction in Skirmish, it would only have units that are similar to the units of the other factions anyway, meaning it wouldn't really be a unique faction, but merely a mix of the alien faction, with some weaker human units in addition. So I think it's understandable.

By the way, Wes.com:

Thanks for all the feedback thus far, keep them coming. But also just to let you guys know..visually..most of the things you've seen hasn't even gone thru the 'polish' phase...so be assured that its only gonna look better from here on out...the trees...cars...soldiers...etc. The first phase is of course to build everything, get it in the game, get it working, and making sure its fun. Then...its polish polish polish

Also, edited my first post again

[Corsair]

OK, the title of the post I quoted actually might be saying there will be no human faction in Skirmish at all... Which would be a little sad. However, if there would be a human faction in Skirmish, it would only have units that are similar to the units of the other factions anyway, meaning it wouldn't really be a unique faction, but merely a mix of the alien faction, with some weaker human units in addition. So I think it's understandable.

Hopefully Petroglyph will give us the ability to 'unlock' the human side and let us use the side in a custom map

Where we can make our own maps about how the fight with the aliens would really happen

But whether there's a human side or not, the game looks like it's shaping up nicely and I'm looking forward to it

[Disturbed]

I do not like the looks of that game to be honest. Those kind of games are all graphics and no fun, this is the way i see it : Graphics to not make the game.
By the looks of things, the people who made this think otherwise, i found that most games like that did not turn out to be fun... However, to be fair, you can't really tell game play by looking at pictures can you? So i'll be keeping my eyes open.

[Bittah Commander]

I agree the game doesn't have the most awesome graphics, but like Sageking said, none of the graphics have been polished yet (and all the human units you've seen so far are probably place holders).

[Bittah Commander]

Updated my first post again

[Bittah Commander]

I haven't updated my first post in this topic for quite a while, even though there has been a lot of new stuff released.

I won't update this topic anymore, so if you want to follow the updates on Universe At War: Earth Assault, you'll have to visit UaW's section on Petroglyph's forums.

There's one thing you should really see though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7nPOZaVsF8.
It's a video interview with a lot of ingame footage.

[Team Black]

Can't wait for this one, Petroglyph has some good guys in their crew (Including Frank Klepaki on the music XD ye ha!)