Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

The fact sheet says 100 solar systems with 15 planets each. Will we be able to increase the number of solar systems to at least 255 like we can in SEIV???

14 different races? I guess some of the SEIV races are not in SEV...
The screenshots show these races: Amonkrie, Cuecappa, Drushocka, Eee, Jraenar, Norak, Phong, Sergetti, Terran, Ukratal, Xichung. Do you know if there's going to be Cryslonites???

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

I don't know if anyone noticed the release date...Feb 2005...that's got be a typo...I mean it can't be Feb 2006...It must surely say November 2006...

Kana

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Does the video in the first post still work? I just see many advertising popups (like: you have won free gasoline for 100 years, bleh).

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Choose "Continue to 3dgamers.com" in small letters in the top right.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

How detailed is ground combat? are we talkiing simple Imperium-Galatica2 point click and destroy with tank units(like the video suggests) or like a Wargame with great depth and hundreds of different units.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

DirectX 7? Funny, Aaron told me in an email that SE5 is using DirectX 8... (I asked him about it because DirectX 7 doesn't seem to work properly with WINE... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif)
edit: oh, and not a bad price point too - I was expecting something higher! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

A ASHBERY said:
How detailed is ground combat? are we talkiing simple Imperium-Galatica2 point click and destroy with tank units(like the video suggests) or like a Wargame with great depth and hundreds of different units.

You design the units just like you do in SEIV. Except this time, the weapon stats actually matter. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

All I can say about this video is WOW! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif
I cannot wait for this game to come out.

If any of you beta testers can say, are you still on target for a late 2005 release?

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Info that has been posted on gaming sites is February 2006!

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

I'm really not too sure. There's definitely a lot of work left, but we've still got four and a half months before 2006, and a lot can happen in that amount of time. I think it depends quite a bit on how many good ideas we keep coming up with and how many of them get added to the game. Let's just say there's a reason the NDA specifically disavows any commitment whatsoever to any particular release date.

Edit:
That's funny, I don't remember it being released six months ago. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

douglas said:
That's funny, I don't remember it being released six months ago. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

You've been missing out man!

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Thanks for the comments Douglas. I kind of figured I'd get a response similar to that. Ahh well, football season is here. That will keep me occupied until this is released. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Kwok, I can't believe I missed the big release. Why didn't anyone tell me? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

There probably is no chance of getting a version of the video that has no frames taken out, is there? It was worth a shot of asking about anyways. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

It shows how the times change.Once with a game like SE, it was all about the details of what's in the game.Now we have all this eye candy and little details of what's under the hood.I remember SE4 had a huge list pre-release of what's in the game.Nothing about SE5 on the MM website at all..

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

The SE5 feature list is still nowhere near final, so releasing a full list now would do little but lead to disappointment over the inevitable cuts. Whatever the beta testers and Aaron decide about what should and should not be in the game, there will always be some people who disagree. Every beta tester played and liked SE4 for the gameplay, not the sub-par graphics, so don't worry about gameplay taking second place to eye candy. Yes, there's plenty of eye candy in the game, but that's primarily because the team of artists is a lot bigger this time around while the programming team is still pretty much just Aaron.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Hmm, cant remember where I read this but it said SE5 will have 100 system maps, does that mean thats the max or is it just standard, at which point I ask does anyone know what the max setting for that will be in SE5, I think its like 250 something for SEIV

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

In SEIV, the standard setting was 100 systems, but the max was 255.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

The publicly stated list of features includes 'unlimited number of systems'... in a computer context there obviously cannot be NO limit, but a unsigned integer is 65,536 and that sounds like enough to keep you busy for a while. Game files will easily grow to several megabytes with thousands of systems. And turn processing time even with a dual-core 3 Ghz processor will undoubtedly take a while.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

AAshbery76 said:
I remember SE4 had a huge list pre-release of what's in the game.Nothing about SE5 on the MM website at all..

The SE4 feature list did not surface until only a few months before the game's release... Aaron is wary of posting a feature list early on, then having several or many features from that list not be in the game, disappointing gamers... But you can find fan-compiled feature lists on these sites:

http://www.captainkwok.net/se5info.php
http://www.spaceempires.net/home/gameinfo-SE5.html

(note that SEnet is currently down at the moment, so only Kwok's site will work right now)

douglas said:
Every beta tester played and liked SE4 for the gameplay...

That isn't entirely true. A good portion of the beta testers for SE4 strongly disliked the game and left forever or just kept playing SE3, only to slowly fade away. I hope SE5 does not cause the same sort of massive schism that SE4 did...

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

I meant beta testers for SE5. I suppose it is conceivably possible for someone to have applied for the SE5 beta either without ever playing SE4 or without having liked SE4, but I doubt any of the former would have gotten in and I fail to see how any of the latter would have the motivation to apply. Taking it as a given that every SE5 beta tester liked SE4, and the fact the SE4's graphics really aren't very impressive, gameplay is by far the more likely reason for liking the game.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

One thing I noticed is that there were no sound effects in the tactical combat. Is this just something that hasn't been implemented yet, did the reviewer not know how to turn the sound on, or is it an intentional design choice - "in space no one can hear you scream"?

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

There are sound effects througout the game, but most of them are barely audible in that video for various reasons.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

"Various reasons"... hehehe...
I suppose one reason is because the music is so loud, but still, that sounds rather suspicious, as if most of the sounds in the game are just pirated placeholder sounds or something from some other game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Am I the only one who noticed facilities listed in the cargo window? Does this mean that facilities will be built just like anyhting else and can be moved around via ships? That is just cool.

Am I wrong? I am I seeing things?

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

I interpreted that as a kind of simplification that has been requested by some people. Rather than have a set number of facility slots and a set number of cargo spaces, just make it one "space" value, and certain facilities would take up X spaces, and certain units would take up Y spaces, etc. But I guess we'll see.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Moving facilities around on cargo ships? That would be so useful! Then you can prefabricate an entire huge planet's worth of facilities, go colonize a planet and drop the facilities there along with units and population, and instantly it's fully developed.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Did you just say that with a straight face, Kamog?

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

I personally don't like the idea of being able to move tons of facilities between planets like Kamog suggested. I also hate how badly the movie was compressed. It looked like utter shiza. Oh well. The game looks awesome, and did anyone notice the Grey looking aliens? (The ones that everyone sees when they gets abductz0red. You know, the Aurolain from SC2. Except they're yellow...)

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Hmm, those guys... according to the list-box thingy on the left side, they're the Phong...

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Those are some oogly lookin' phongs. Oh well, all the more reason to terraform their worlds into glass!

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

heh, thats a good line.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Aren't the other races supposed to be ugly to your race? After all, it'd be hard to hate an alien race that looked like koala bears or little fluffy kittens http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif On the other hand, if you look at the alien and say "Whoa, who vomitted that up?" (No offense intended Puke! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif ), then they'd be a lot easier to dislike (and, of course, conquer!) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Not Always my friend http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Well, they look nothing like the original Phong... Original Meaning circa-SE4 for me.

As I said though, nothing a few Planetary Napalm V's won't fix.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

I wanna see a screen shot of a RingWorld!!!!

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Aaaahhh! Talking poop! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

I request an informative Diplomacy screenshot.Not just eye candy. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

But because it's so wildly 'out there' in game terms it ought to be a special technology. Something you can't develop until very late in the game when you'll be thinking of using it to fill ringworlds and sphereworlds.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Well, if you either have lots of really small facilities (so it can be explained as moving smaller industrial units around) or really huge facilities (so it can be restricted to late-game mega cargo transports) it could work...

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Actually, facility movement could just represent the movement of equipment or prefarb components that can be assembled on site. Still should take up a lot of space though.....

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Will give a new meaning to the term Colony Ship... especially since space colonies are supposed to be in the game... I wonder if facilities in ship cargo can produce anything? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Well, I agree, moving facilities around should be a late-game technology and expensive to do. It should require a huge cargo ship to transport a facility. Considering that a medium planet can only hold 15 facilities when full, each facility must be huge, much larger than than a big city.

If a facility in ship cargo can still produce resources, research points, and intelligence, then we won't need planets. We can have races that entirely live in space. But it really doesn't make sense that something like a mineral miner facility could produce minerals when there's no planet to mine. Research and Intel could still be generated on a ship, though.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

It'd be neat if you could choose how you start out, either on a homeplanet, a home station or a home ship. Make for some interesting Roleplay scenarios.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Or a home nebula, or a home star...

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Your assuming that a facility is just a big complex and that is the only thing on the planet. I picture a facility as a instilation specifacly designed to support the spacefaring side of the empire. The actuall planet is probably filled with privately owned facilities, cities, and what not, but the majority of it only goes towards supporting the planet.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

I've always thought an interesting startup scenario would be the classic escape from the sun going nova scenario (name it the Nova mod, perhaps?). You would put all players with a single colony ship starting at the same starting point in a system with an unstable star. They would all need to move out of the system before the sun goes nova, and then play the game as normal from there. Presumably they would go their different ways, settle colonies, and eventually get down to fighting.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

I seem to remember some scenario made by geoschmo where he experimentally tried playing as if he were a neutral race (never using warp points) and eventually got hit by a supernova event. As I recall, the scenario starts on the turn with the 3 year warning log message, so you have 30 turns to evacuate your only system before it blows up, and all the AIs have had a fair while to expand already.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

I believe that was SuicideJunkie and the Exodus scenario. It is for SE4 Classic, so you can't play it with Gold, however.

http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/MM/SE4/Scenarios/

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Say, once Deluxe is released, won't that mean that everyone will be able to play the scenario, though, since both Gold and Classic will upgrade to Deluxe?

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

No, that scenario uses a P&N classic mod, and if it were possible to upgrade it to gold or better with a reasonable amount of work, I would have.

Re: SE V Video on 3dGamers
 

Oh, I thought it was just that the savegame couldn't be loaded by SE4 Gold...