Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

Although PPB is quite dangerous, i've played against friends at each others houses and we disabled certain killer technologies and thats where the Fun really starts.

Also, Compared to most mods out there SEIV Gold un-modded is rather unbalanced. Try playing a mod or two and see if you enjoy that more.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

To get PPB I, your opponent needed to research Physics twice.

In that time period you could have researched Physics once (for combat sensors), Military Science (for ECM), and had ECM I. Right there he is at a disdvantage- his ships now have a 10% decrease in their accuracy.

You can get DUC V (40 damage up to range 5) for the same price as his PPB V then. (60 at min range, 50 at max) Or gone for APB V. Your DUC ships would have had less overall damage, but DUC is cheaper and therefore faster to build and easier to maintain than PPB.

Or for that matter you could have gone Construction then Fighters for the same cost as PPB, then researched DUC while he was getting PPB. Why? Because now you have the Light Carrier, which is just about as good as the Light Cruiser, and more importantly uses the Heavy Mount. Mounts are the single most important thing in SE4- if you don't use them you WILL loose. And having a heavy mount means your weapons are now 1.5 times more effective- and better than his PPBs.

The only reason PPB can be excessively nasty is if you rely heavily on shields. If you don't its primary advantage goes away.

EDIT: or you could have gone mines. Boom, no more PPB ship, and you have 50,000 research left to boot.

Given the same amount of research for each side and taking the Carrier approach (without any fighters!):

5 DUC carriers killed 13 PPB escorts for a loss of 2 carriers, with two more damaged.

More simulations:
escorts cost 3730/100/900 and take two turns to build.
carriers cost 7900/100/525 and take three turns to build.

In a large scale engagement, that means one side fields twice as many escorts (and those escorts would have taken longer to build).

Simulator tests:
20 escorts / 10 carriers: total loss of escorts, most carriers lost: 1.
20 escorts / 9 carriers: can go either way. Best-case scenerio for the escorts: 15 destroyed. Best case for the carriers: NONE destroyed (this is more common)
20 escorts / 8 carrers: almost always results in total destruction of the escorts.

You have to get down to 6 carriers before the escorts start winning consitantly, and even then they loose around half their number most of the time.

[ April 11, 2004, 00:27: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

It's also quite possible to think you are dying because they have PPB, when if fact you are dying because they have more combat bonuses, since they are one of the most important things. Not realizing that can result in very disadvantaged empire designs... which is what PvK Balance mod is for. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

PvK

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

Worst game ever for me?

Easy. My first game on PBW. And it was ALL my fault. I hadn;t ever played any PBW type games, had no idea about them, and I had been playing SEIVGold solitaire for faaaar toooooo longgg...so when I joined my first game, I got really angry at another player when I thought he didnt understand how the game was played, and how he "backstabbed" me, and totally kicked my butt. I was defensive, I blamed him, not myself. In reality, he was just really good, I was playing in a war game when I thought it was an RP game, and I got very frustrated and acted extremely immature. It was all my fault, and I acted like a real sh*t. I later apologized profusely to him, but I don't blame him for never replying. I still am very embarrassed about it, and hope that he doesn't think I am still a total jerk. Sometimes one just has to fall down hard to realize what an a** one has been.

Still sorry,

Alarik

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Though I don't agree entirely with what you think about the PPB, this statement is fairly accurate. However, when you are playing with good players, who all know what to research and how to design their races, then strategy and tactics become the deciding factor (combined with the luck you mention... though that can be mitigated somewhat by playing on a "balanced" map). Noobs definitely don't stand a chance against an experienced player, but that statement is true for a lot of games, and complaining about it is more indicative of the type of game you enjoy than the quality of the game itself. Some people like Backgammon and Cribbage because there is always the chance to beat someone who is ten times better than you. Others like Go and Chess because the opposite is true.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

One thing that can even out the research issue is to play a high tech game. Everyone then starts with all the techs researched. It then boils down to tactics, ship design, empire infrastructure, and a little luck. Just an idea.

Slick.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

My worst game would have to be my first PBW game when I took over an empire in the BGNW game. The empire was in ok shape, but little did I know the friendly neighbor was preparing to attack the empire I took over. Which he then proceeded to do almost as soon as I took it over. Right then I learned a valuable lesson; never take over someone elses empire, because for one, they can really screw it up, and two, because you don't know the political dynamics. I've never taken over a PBW empire since.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

Baal, you describe what it is to be a strategy game...

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I think some 50 PBW games of experience have taught me a thing or two about PPBs... yes, they are powerful, but they are certainly no Talisman. Combat bonuses are king. If you have stronger weapons but are behind in combat bonuses, you tend to lose. Also, there is probably a lot more to why you lost that game or two than simply the fact that your enemy was using PPBs. PPB != guaranteed victory

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

I have to say that I went into battle with 108 heavy DUC battleships, max tech DUC's, ecm, combat sensors and 20% fleet and ship training. My racial points were set at 120% aggressive and defensive. 2 Phased shields on every design, scattering armor, and stealth armor. 1 shield generator on each design and each design had a solar sail.

My *** was handed to me by a fleet of less then 50 Battle Cruisers packing PPB's.

In another battle over 200 of my DUC Battleships, same design as above, were obiterated by a fleet of ships less than 70.

Both battles took place in my space so I had first shot. This is when I decided that the multiplayer combat system of the game was broken.

CNC and Tnarg can probibly back me up on this as they were in the same game.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

IMO PPBs aren't so unbalanced as might seem... still, I like to play with tech cost set to high - I suppose that at low cost they're probably too easy to obtain.

The only tech I found really unbalanced was the allegiance subverter (before it was changed not to affect ships with master computers) - there was *no* way to defend from it, at most you could reduce the losses.

This said... my worst game ever... well, it was a very quick two player game. I had prepared a large fleet or two and was about to declare war on him when his home system's star blew up and destroyed most of his empire... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif It was quite disappointing... my first thought was "I've played so far for nothing".

Still, for some weird reasons, I enjoy playing (almost-)doomed empires, resisting to the Last... which is nice, since in most games I regularly get outnumbered, outgunned and outeverythinged http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif