Echo Station: History of Star Wars Gaming Part 3

In The Beginning: A Galaxy, Far, Far Away ...

by Scott (A'Kula) Schimmels
4/2/99
(continued)

	Finally, in 1997, Totally Games created what many thought was going to be the ultimate Star Wars space combat simulation, X-Wing® vs TIE Fighter® (XvT). XvT was a Windows 95 based game and came with 2 CDs, one for installing the entire game, and a multiplayer CD that allowed a friend to load up a shell of the XvT game, enough to allow him or her to connect with your PC over the Internet. There was one expansion disk - Balance of Power™ (BoP) which corrected some of the cricisms of XvT - mainly a re-balancing of difficulty between Rebel and Imperial, and bringing back the B-Wing to the Rebels. In addition, the Super Star Destroyer (ala the Executor from Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi). XvT was built using the TFCD graphics engine, but with the advent of 3D video cards for the PC, all of the starfighters, ships, containers etc. were rendered in a fully 3D environment. X-Wing® vs TIE Fighter® earned several achievements for LucasArts including: Best Science Fiction Simulation Game of 1997, C-Net Game Center Number 1 on 1997 Hot Holiday 100 List, Computer Gaming World
I've discussed XvT and BoP in great length in my XvT Strategy Guide, so I won't cover it any more. The only ship needing discussion is the Super Star Destroyer (SSD), the same class of ship Darth Vader commanded in both the Empire Strikes Back and the Return of the Jedi.
	The SSD is the capital ship of capital ships. In BoP, where the SSD first makes its appearance, the ship is 8 kilometers long! Nearly 5 miles. There has been a sizeable discussion on Datamaster's website about the accuracy of the model. From various technical sources, it has been proven the SSD is actually closer to 16 kilometers long, over 10 miles! Totally Games confirmed they downsized the SSD due to limitations in the existing hardware when BoP was released. Recall, XvT and BoP were written for P90s with first generation 3dfx cards. Within a short time after the release of BoP, high end Pentiums, PIIs, and second generation 3D cards came on the market, making a full-sized SSD possible (which can be downloaded form DM's site by the way). The SSD is an incredibly tough ship, you better have a squadron of B-Wings, loaded with heavy rockets, to tackle the Imperial's best capital ship. Fortunately, the cost of an SSD is so staggering, that only a handful (last official count was 4) were ever built. This was fortunate for the Rebel Alliance/New Republic as a single SSD could face a Rebel fleet and win. The SSD could house two full wings of TIEs, 144 fighters, along with a full complement of SHUs, TRNs, and ground troops. While not a Death Star, an SSD could easily command a sector of space with impunity.
	Other ships returned to the inventory with BoP that were missing in XvT such as the Rebel Transport (R/TRN),
	the Light Calamari Cruiser (CRL), the modified Corvette (M/CRV), the modified Strike Cruiser (M/SC) - used in the Rebel Campaign as their answer to the Interdictor Cruiser, the Shipyard (SHPYD),
	the Repair Yard (REPYD),
and the Manufacturing Facility (FAC/1). In addition, Totally Games created six variations of the Platform (PLT/1 - PLT/6). A new hideout was created for Rebels and Mercenaries alike, called the Asteroid Hangar (R&D FC) and was protected by a new asteroid laser battery (LAS BAT) or the asteroid warhead launcher (W LNCHR). Some additional utility vehicles were the Heavy Lifter (HLF) and new containers (CONA - CONI). All of these new ships and objects added tremendous dimension and depth to the Star Wars® universe. After installing the game, and getting the music, graphics etc all configured, you're now ready to join the Baron Fel or Wedge Antilles and do battle. Totally Games changed the format from a concourse to a datapad which allowed an easier interface with the various options within XvT/BoP.
	The datapad had the following options: Craft Database - lists all craft available in XvT and/or BoP. Each craft is shown in 3D textures (providing you have a 3dfx card, and all their pertinent statistics listed. Config - configuring the game for sound, video and calibrating joystick. You can have differing configurations for Single Player (SP) and Multi-Player (MP). You can also set up MP for TCP/IP or Serial Modem play, depending on what's available. Join - once you've configured your system for MP, and identified the ISP or phone number of the host, toggle this button and off you go! Be ready to fly as a team (co-op), or head-head (melee)! Host - once you've configured your system for MP and you're the one hosting the game, toggle this button to enter Host-mode, and wait for your fellow pilots to log-in (either via TCP/IP or Serial Modem). Fly Solo - fly the training missions, melees, battles and campaigns in Single Player mode. Pilot Stats - review your performance per mission, and your current ranking. Not a Jedi yet? Well, earn more top performance (TP) ribbons and win more MP co-ops or melees.

XvT and BoP is a radical departure from XWCD and TFCD environments. Unlike its predecessors, XvT/BoP charts your progress solely on how well you score on a mission, and the number of MP successes you enjoy. That means wading through a Tour of Duty or a TIE Battle is no longer the road to promotion and success. Instead, how many MP kills do you have? What were their ranks? By playing XvT solely in SP mode, you can reach Ace 1st Class (each ranking has four classes with 1st Class being the top class). To reach the next level, Top Ace 4th Class, you will need to play either a MP co-op or a MP melee, and win. To earn Jedi and Jedi Master rankings, you will have to face similarly ranked players, and defeat them. Believe me, this caused some consternation among many of the old XWCD and TFCD players, as their machines weren't up to MP standards (recall my first article about lag issues for MP in XvT). Another change was the ability to change the difficulty setting within XvT/BoP per mission. XvT/BoP has three possible difficulty levels (basically changing the AI performance of your enemy): easy, medium, and hard. Also each mission could earn one of six possible performance awards: busted, adequate, fair, good, excellent, and top. Fly a mission on easy mode, and the best you could earn is a good rating (scoring above 50K points). Fly the same mission on medium mode, score over 50K points and you'd earn an excellent rating. Top performance ribbons were given only to those who flew the mission on hard, and scored over 50K. One quickly observes that XvT/BoP was nothing like XWCD or TFCD - with respect to scoring and/or awards. Flying melees earned you lead, copper, bronze, silver or gold plaques depending on your ranking at the end of the melee. The same for battles. Campaigns (only available in BoP) were similar to the old TODs of XWCD or Battles in TFCD. To move on to the next Campaign mission, you had to win the first one. Each mission was ranked accordingly to your mission performance and level of difficulty. So you could eventually fly all 15 campaign missions successfully and have 3 fair, 5 good , 5 excellent and 2 top performance ribbons. Or any number of ribbons. The goal would be to earn 15 top performance ribbons - which meant you flew the entire campaign on hard, and scored over 50K per mission. Not the easiest of marks to reach. The other departure XvT/BoP made from XWCD and TFCD was the lack of a gun camera. This meant that online squadrons had to find other means of verifying pilot performance and ability - usually through 1-1 melees with squadron pilots. As time went by though, many of the Rebel Alliance and Imperial squadrons accepted XvT/BoP as a viable means of membership and came up with standards and requirements for entry. When BoP came out, it was now possible to earn a Jedi or Jedi Master ranking in SP mode, because the enemy AI was now raised from Top Ace (the old top rating used in XWCD and TFCD) to Jedi. I will warn you though that it takes what seems like a lifetime of playing on hard, and winning, to earn a Jedi in BoP.

Another new feature was the use of Smacker technology to create 3D movies for the cutscenes within XvT and BoP. Some sample images are shown below:

With the advent of Pentium processors, and 3D video cards, and a new graphics engine, XvT/BoP opened new avenues into the Star Wars®. The ease of adding new missions was made by editing the .lst files in each folder within XvT or BoP. A new powerful editor was created by Troy Dangerfield called XvTED. Each new version of XvTED added new powerful features, making the creation of new missions even simpler and easier. I will be discussing XvTED in more detail in an upcoming article. The OPT Project sprang up and gave us new ships to fly (refer back to my OPT article). Combining these two features gave rise to the term - shipsets. Shipsets are essentially new missions and OPTs bundled together as a single set of files that can be added to XvT/BoP to create new campaigns to be flown. Several of these exist on Datamaster's site.

For some, XvT/BoP was a disappointment due to some hardware and Internet problems that LA and TG have only partially addressed. As a result, they returned to XWCD or TFCD. For many others, XvT/BoP opened up new thrills and new challenges. I myself belong to the second group. I see XvT/BoP staying around for a long time since it has a difficulty leve to challenge me that is unsurpassed by any other space combat sim available. Wheh I fly a mission on hard, and earn that blue ribbon (Top Performance) there is a feeling of satisfaction that is indescribable. Or, if I fly a MP and vape my opponent 20-5, I know that I've reached a level of combat skills few have achieved. With the development of new OPTs and shipsets, XvT/BoP will have additional life - if only on my computer. :-)