Will FoC be compatible with EAW for multiplayer instead of putting FoC players on to a different server.

It would be good if FoC and EAW players will be able to play together, FoC units appear as additional units to EAW players but cant be built.

Also with the map editor will players be able to share maps without additional players having to download them?

I agree. I really dont like this different server thing. The community is already split in two with the daft 'Quick Match' idea.

Gamespy has managed to ensure that the community shrinks on a daily basis and I really think that the design team MUST look at how Dawn OF War works online to keep at least 300+ people playing daily

DMUK

So far the matching system isn't what put me off from the multiplayer, its the players that learn the game inside out in 1 week, then they use the same strategies over and over again, with precision of seconds making some games impossible for the casual gamer, though the matching feature is at fault for that since it doesn't look how many times has a player won or lost, and compare it against potential contestants, then pick the players that match the most.

I usually find myself matching against a micromanaging expert wich can pull anykind of strategy on the precision of seconds, and boy do i get whooped everytime..though a few games i had were fun as the contestant was more or less evenly matched.

Perhaps Lucas Arts/Petroglyph need to release more official maps?

A random map generator would be better. Same planet names but the PC randomly draws up a map while the game is loading. That way people wont be able to learn strategys. I must admit I am guilty of having strategys.

Its a shame as when I go online there is about 19 UK players online. Which means I have to go in USA rooms which means more lag. This game should be far more popular than what it is for a game that came no1 in the all formats and is still selling well.

The problem for most users is patches. A lot of newbies to PC gaming wouldnt go on community sites to check for updates. Perhaps a new patch for auto updating should be included (this isn't a big problem for hardcore EAW players) in FoC. WoW does it, XP does it, so should EAW. Also a test connect to a Lucas Server to see if you will connect to other players, rather than newbies wasting my time lol. The test connect will come up with a recommended auto config and firewall config instructions.

Also off topic, what about a window option for EAW or is that already there? Sometimes recieving a message on MSN will really slow me down and I am on a good-ish laptop of a Turion 1.6 GHz, 512MB RAM and 128MB X700.

A random map generator would be better. Same planet names but the PC randomly draws up a map while the game is loading. That way people wont be able to learn strategys. I must admit I am guilty of having strategys.
Yes, I do agree I always loved the random maps made with the C&C games. I guess they just forgot or are too lazy to program the coding to make one. Seeing as it would have to have some complex algorithms to place rein. points, etc.

Yes, I do agree I always loved the random maps made with the C&C games. I guess they just forgot or are too lazy to program the coding to make one. Seeing as it would have to have some complex algorithms to place rein. points, etc.

Look at this page

http://www.petroglyphgames.com/aboutus/index.php)

The team have worked on C&C games... so I would suggest they were lazy ;P

But being fair to petroglyph, EAW is far more complex than C&C, but you could say games are supposed to get better over time?

Well, given the options available in the new land map customization/base setup features, there's substantial leeway there to randomly place map items. I'm not sure how the terrain format works, but if they have "tiles" that are placed individually or if they have "objects" (hills, trees, etc) that are placed on the terrain, it wouldn't be too much work to come up with an algorithm to randomly place a number of tiles/items and assign some number of reinforcement points... Well, okay, it might, I just don't know. But I agree, I'd love to see a random map generator!

Okay, after having taken a look at the map editor, it seems to me that random map generation would just involve:

1) Random selection of a texture tileset and decorative environmental variables (sky, etc)
2) Generating a random heightfield (entirely possible and easy, used frequently for 3D terrain generation in programs like Bryce, TerraGen, or World Machine) and applying some filters to make sure there's enough flat, playable terrain.
3) Random placement of doodads (decorative map objects)
4) Random placement of buildings, build pads, and reinforcement points, within certain limits to keep the bases localized (this would probably include applying a smoothing filter to the heightfield to make sure each of these items has sufficient passable terrain around it)
5) Painting the terrain with passability information (i.e., marking "steep" and "water" terrain--but this could probably be programmed as a filter that checks the gradient of the heightfield and marks any areas with a large slope as "steep")

I'm really not sure if any part of this process could be modded into the game; but I bet someone could write a plug-in for the map editor that could do all this to generate a random map in the editor program. (Or even running as a standalone, provided the program can interpret all the EaW data--again, not something I've taken a look at.) I'm pretty sure that none of these steps would be too computationally intensive, so while you might see a slightly increased loading time, I don't think it would be by much. Hmm...something to think about.

Perhaps it could be done for v 1.5?

I'm not complaining. I have no faults with 1.4 yet. Good work petro!