Star Wars: Empire at War just got a new patch 17 years after it released

Kudos to Petroglyph

Author:
Marco Wutz
Publish date:
Nov 21, 2023 3:46 AM EST

The best strategy game set in the iconic galaxy far, far away – Star Wars: Empire at War – did just receive a brand-new patch, 17 years after its initial release. Developer Petroglyph is still in active maintenance mode for the space game that has players take control of the Empire, the Rebellion, or – in the Forces of Corruption expansion – the criminal Zann Consortium, having pushed out a small number of updates in recent years.

This is one’s a biggie, though: Petroglyph upgraded both Empire at War and its expansion to 64-bit, which eliminated a ton of memory issues players have been getting. While this makes older saves from the 32-bit version unusable, players can always switch back to that to finish their latest campaign up. The new update even includes balance adjustments, some stability improvements, and a few overhauled graphic assets.

Star Wars: Empire at War Forces of Corruption cover art showing a battle between imperial and rebel forces. — Empire at War is still homing to a thriving and impressive modding scene as well.
Disney / Petroglyph

A Petroglyph representative wrote on Steam: “This work has been done with support provided by the outstanding team at Lucasfilm Games. We are profoundly grateful for their unwavering dedication to the game and community. A heartfelt shout out also goes to the indispensable community leaders whose tireless efforts of reporting bugs, rigorously testing builds, and offering invaluable feedback have truly made a world of difference.”

You can find the full Star Wars: Empire at War patch notes from November 2023 below.

Star Wars: Empire at War patch notes – November 2023

Bug Fixes

[FOC] Stop command functionality was partially lost in the port from EaW to FoC. Units in FoC would immediately start to move and attack units in their idle-attack range. Stop command functionality has been restored to its EaW state.
[EAW/FOC] When destroyed, ship names were repeatedly used again. Game now selects randomly from the entire list of ship names instead of beginning at the start of the list.
[EAW/FOC] Improved targeting range upgrade path for Crusader Gunships, Interceptor IV Frigates, and Keldabe Battleships was not applying to units correctly.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed an issue where on some PCs, beam-type weapons or ability effects (e.g. hack turret, super laser beams, Force lightning) would cause the game to crash.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed an issue where using Yoda and other Force users could "freeze" when using their abilities.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed an issue in Skirmish Mode where allied players on the same team would have their projectiles counted as hostile and would be shot down.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed units with targetable hardpoints being healed inconsistently.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed difficulty settings were not retained correctly while user-generated galactic conquest maps.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed bad references in data to optimize loading of assets which could cause “load-looping” and increase load times.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed hero health bar was not displaying the correct amount of health above the selected unit.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed an issue where all hardpoint units (including space station hardpoints) would rebuild and then self-destruct when hyperspacing heroes into the map while being subject to a health-increasing effect.
[EAW/FOC] Fresia and Byss land maps contained areas in which the AI would underperform and get stuck on the map’s islands. Both maps have been updated.
[EAW/FOC] Venator and MC80 shield meshes did not completely cover their respective ships which resulted in visible holes. Shield meshes updated to correct the issue.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed a bug where specific circumstances would cause starting units to not always respawn in space skirmish.
[FOC] Fixed a bug where starting units lacked the flag on their unit icon in space skirmish on initial spawn.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed a bug where if Mon Mothma or Grand Moff Tarkin was the only unit on a planet, invading armies would be deleted and invasion would never begin.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed a bug with constructing buildings preventing planet control from changing after a tactical battle.
[EAW/FOC] Restored skirmish multiplayer lobby functionality to have 5 or more players of the same faction.
[EAW/FOC] Faction requirement has been removed, players can choose any combination of factions to play with and don't require Rebel or Empire faction slots to start a multiplayer match.
[EAW/FOC] For user-generated content, global object IDs are now accessible by lua.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed a bug where enabling hardware mouse would cause the cursor to flicker.
[FOC] Fixed an issue on Galactic Conquest Felucia Space where turrets were set to the incorrect faction.
[EAW/FOC] The following space maps support two special structure slots, but only one marker was available for use, which prevented the second structure from appearing: (Honoghr, Fondor, Kuat, Muunilinst).
[EAW/FOC] The following space maps support two special structures but three were identified in data. Adjusted data to support the correct number: (Byss, Corellia, Fresia, Coruscant, Kuat, Mon Cal, Nal Hutta, Sullust).
[FOC] Fixed incorrect fire visuals attached when players deployed the Gargantuan onto the planet surface.
[FOC] Fixed an issue whereby the skirmish land maps for Hoth, Mandalore, and Bothawui had incorrectly assigned pads.
[FOC] Galactic Kamino space map updated to remove unintended Zann Consortium units.
[FOC] Fixed the Crusader Gunship, where it had the wrong damage multipliers applied to its hardpoints.
[FOC] Dathomir skirmish landr map had missing AI data which resulted in the AI underperforming on this map.
[FOC] Yavin skirmish space base map had an asteroid located too close to the base, causing it to become preoccupied firing on that asteroid. Extended map boundaries to correct issue.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed mismatched damage multipliers for the Acclamator’s turbolasers.
[FOC] Updated map previews due to visuals being inaccurate between the map and the preview. This was done for both land and space multiplayer maps, all space maps (including missions), and Underworld space missions.
[FOC] Rancor now has a restored attack animation for unfortunate infantry that get too close.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed Vader’s Force crush ability so that crushing a pod walker does not cause the crushed object to float in mid-air.
[EAW] Fixed GC Hoth Map so that the attacker starts with a captured landing zone.
[EAW/FOC] The destroyed version of some pirate frigates used a different scale factor. Corrected by adding new art for leader and captain.
[FOC] Units with hardpoints that are garrisoned in a vehicle no longer leave their hardpoints behind.
[EAW/FOC] Video options now allow higher screen refresh rates, especially in resolutions greater than 1600x1200.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed a rare crash that would occur when group-selecting units.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed locked planets in story campaigns sometimes still being accessible.
[EAW/FOC] Fixed AT-ST barrage area stop firing bug.

Other Internal Game Changes

The Forces of Corruption story lua scripts are now available in their uncompiled form and included in the 64Patch.meg.
Added new event params to the LOAD_CAMPAIGN story reward: <Reward_Param3>: Difficulty level (0 = Easy, 1 = Normal, 2 = Hard), <Reward_Param4> Tech level (0-5).
Added new xml tag <MoveAttackWhileStopped> that can be added to units. It defaults to false, making units fully stop when the stop command is used (EaW behavior). When set to true, units will immediately start to move and attack things in their idle-attack-range (pre-patch Foc behavior).
Added new Get_Name() lua function allowing to retrieve the name of a ship as defined in <ShipNameTextFiles>.
Added new functions to expose global object IDs to LUA: Get_Object_ID() for Galactic Conquest and Get_Parent_Mode_Object_ID() and Get_Parent_Mode_ID() for tactical.
[FOC] Unit targeting inaccuracy now applies to multiple different unit categories instead of just the last defined one.

Updated Map Editor

The map editor has been updated to be 64bit compatible.
Enabled new functions: Decal, Tracks, Animations, Cinematics and the Object Overview Dialog.
Editor no longer deletes shaders and textures not in a .meg file.
The divider between tools and map view in editor can now be dragged, helping with certain resolutions.
Fixed several causes of crashes.