Hi srd2k7,

Love the mod. It's a great map with great balance between the starting forces. I don't know if you've tweaked the AI or not, but playing as the Empire is completely brutal; I've never seen Rebels act so aggressively or so effectively before. The uprising mechanic is a blast; it would be great if it were possible to randomize which systems revolt and when.

I've played through the custom GC a couple times on each side and I have a few minor questions/comments/suggestions.

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GENERAL:
1) The Black Sun does not appear to have an AI, since it just sits there. I'm not sure if this is intentional. I'm OK with it if it is, since I generally loathe the underworld faction, but in light of the AI's aggressiveness, it does mean that you the player are able to engage with the Black Sun only when absolutely necessary to get at the opposing side. Funnily enough, due to the uprising mechanic, I find myself conquering "neutral" space as the Rebels far more often than as the Empire.

2) Many systems are too close together. The drag-n-drop fleet command interface does not play well with the spacing in the Core and other regions; it's very common for fleets to go to the wrong place. Since immediate retreats count as defeats for the Empire's uprising counter, this is a serious pain in the behind. I would advise spacing out the entire galaxy a bit.

3) I notice the new update added a custom splash screen; very nice. It also appears to have added a new button on the main menu partially overlapping the Petroglyph logo.

[Added 12-29] 4) The AI likes to build multiple copies of tublolaser towers in systems it controls. They don't actually do anything in battle, since the map only has room for a specific number of towers. They do, however, make the system hellish in auto-resolve. Is this intentional?

EMPIRE:
1) You start out with a couple of ships over Bestine, which also has a Black Sun starbase. Whenever you do anything with this system, it provokes an immediate battle. Not sure if this is intentional - if the Empire is supposed to be blockading the system it probably shouldn't have a starbase.

2) You don't start with any Tartans, but a huge number of TIE Scouts. I would consider replacing some of the TIE Scouts with Tartans.

REBELS:
1) Endor blinks rapidly to signify it is out-of-bounds. It's kind of irritating. Leaving Endor permanently grayed out (displaying the wireframe rather than the surface texture) would probably be a better option. You can refer to the XML files for the main camapign to see how to force a system into this status.

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I hope you keep working on this. It's probably my favorite EAW mod right now. I feel as though the major mods are crowded with new content without a clear vision, whereas your decision to use only vanilla assets means that your focus is on the gameplay rather than adding every rando Super Star Destroyer that ever showed up in some 90s comic book.