Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Hey, i stated a load of current games

- Sacred, unpatched crashing
- Titan Quest, unpatched slowdown crashing
- Civ 4, unpatched, first patch was released by fans, MemLeak
- Oblivion, beta patch after 4 weeks, Graphic Issues. Localization problems (big one) apart from US-release
- Rise of Legends, unpatched / Memory Leak

Can continue this list for the last 4 years if you like it.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

-----So, I assume that SEV is approaching it's final release form.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Now Ragnorak, how are those bugs any worse then bugs in the past? I mean, I can think of hundreds of games with bugs that are just as bad that were released over my life time. Hell, The Legend of Zelda: Links awakening had a bug were sometimes it would crash and when you restarted the game all the castles would be marked as completed so you couldn't finish your saved game and that was on the NES.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Like a lot of folks I've been waiting on this on a long time. Here's hoping the coding is better than the game box graphics!

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Indubitally. Or something.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

According to Shack News, SE5 is out on Tuesday. Either they're a bit confused or they know something we don't. My guess is the former.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

baby_arm - My guess is they got their info from the "Wargamer" website. Which still has the incorrect date of 8/12 instead of 9/12.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Strategy First states that SEV is due out in late September. http://www.strategyfirst.com/press/D...ArticleID=3298

"Strategy First will be hosting various Contests, with promotions and prizes to play for. Upcoming Contests include: Best Game Modification (Mod) Contest, Best Fan Site Contest, and a Space Empires Trivia Contest. More information on these contests will be coming your way soon.

Please also stay tuned for the first edition to the Space Empires Dedicated Newsletter which will be out September, 2006.

Space Empires V is due to be released late September, 2006. Is rated E for Everyone by ESRB. For more info on Space Empires V please visit: http://www.strategyfirst.com/en/games/SpaceEmpiresV/"

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Woohoo! Official release date set; quick, let's have a long, involved argument about bugs in games!

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Remember that when most anticipated sequels to loved games come out, they are immediately trashed, bashed, *****ed about, hated, despised, thrown out, returned, and generally do improve over time as a following develops. Keep in mind that when SE IV was released it was continually updated with patches and new features.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

There is no way it will match everyones idea of what it should be. And no one here can possibly give it a fair shake as if they were a newbie seeing it for the first time. So yes, there will probably be more gripes than praise at the beginning.

The test will be..
do we delete it or keep in on the machine? Do we keep playing it even with the gripes? Do we make suggestions and wait for patches?

For me personally, unless its so bad that I delete it then I think I will probably bite my toungue on anything I dont like at first. Try to give other people a chance to judge it on their own. Especially in outside forums.
Just IMHO

Gandalf Parker

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

If you find bugs then I see no reason to remain silent as it will help to improve the game.
SE IV had a few very nasty bugs when it was released as far as I remember and I am willing to tolerate them in the beginning.
For me there are two key points that will decide if I switch from SE IV to SE V:

1.) AI
2.) Modding possibilities

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

It will stay there were many people who did not like how se3 was changed to se4 and they hung around. I personally disliked se4 alot when it first came out

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Without wading through all of the info about this can someone answer a quick question?

Will you be able to fight the tactical combat in multiplayers TCP/IP games? If not, is this something that is planned for a patch or expansion or something?

Thanks a lot

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

I'm willing to give the game a fair try. I think that's what will really determine it's success.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

37 days ago there was a post regarding the release date of the new version of a game we all know and love! Since that OP this thread has been hijacked into a discussion of why Aaron's sellout to SFI is going to cause SEV to be an uberbugged screwup of epic proportions.

We are talking about Aaron here folks. Are there going to be bugs... yessssss. Will the bugs be worse cuz Aaron is working for the Man... yah maybe but it is Aaron's freakin game! Let it go!

Most importantly if we use up all the mud slinging it around before the game we'll lose out on a great chance for self-righteous indignation when we pay money for a totally screwed experience (which isn't going to happen anyway)!

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

I'm with Narf. There are some things about SEV that I'm not quite happy with, but I'm certainly quite willing to give it a fair try.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

It's mod-able!!! If you don't like what comes in the box get going on your own creations. Maybe it'll be good enough to release on one of the boards.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Like what?

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

I'm gonna go with... spending a bijillion hours on pretty 3d graphics instead of using those CPU cycles on something useful like... a severely demented AI er sumpthin.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

I agree there. Im not sure if the 3d graphics were a good tradeoff. Its gone to a shelfware distributor and it looks very shelfware but truthfully that wasnt on my list.

Id rather have had larger maps, more AI's, more involved AIs (then purely for my own dreamsheet command-line hosting, output files for web pages, and a linux text-mode host)

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

What is the map limit? Can it at least go to 255 systems? Is it PBW compatible?

Actually, nevermind. I'm gonna stop asking questions - I'll just work myself up into a lather and get wiggy.

I'll just wait and see. But, I too am not a fan of form over substance...hopefully it won't be. I'm sure it will be great.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

The map max is still 255, from what I've heard.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Well basicly, the whole 3d thing for a start,I think the time spent on 3d candy would have been better spent on AI/Diplomacy, also, I'm still quite iffy on how tactical combat will be. I might end up liking it, but it doesn't seem very likely. Also, I'm not a fan of the Starfury system of ship design, but I might be able to mod it to something I like better.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Atro, you know, that statement triggered a forgotten memory.

When SE4 first came out, people were *****ing like mad about the fact that, (unlike SE3), you could only build one thing at a time on a given planet.

And I bet when SE3 came out, (I wasn't here that far back!), people *****ed about some change from SE2 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

My only thought on the subject is that while I have unlimited faith in Malfador, I have, errrr, how to say this nicely, certain reservations about Strategy First.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Just to devil-advocate my own previous post...

You all realize of course that the 3D wasnt necessarily done for us. We all stayed with SE thru the things that sent other people away. So of course we would rather see that extended than invest in eye-candy. The pretties were added to impress the fickle public who cant see past 2d graphics. It goes hand in hand with shifting from what I think of as a publicity and online publisher to a marketing and shelfware one.

I can just hope that it achieves the larger player-base that it was meant to hook into. Hmmmm do I hope that? Maybe not. But Im sure they are hoping for it.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

It's not all about the "pretties..." There are game mechanics to think about too. Personally, I think the concept of a continuous time combat engine is far superior to the insanity of the SE4 combat engine. Sure, you can build a turn based system that tries to emulate continuous time with complex initiative and phases and all that, but why do that when you can just make it actually be continuous time?

It's not like Aaron went and built a Total War type 3d graphics engine for the game... It'd never get done if he tried to do that by himself.

Possum:
I don't think anyone will be able to ***** about SE5 construction queues. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Ok, so where do I go to pre-order this darn thing?

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

I agree with Fyron that an improvement of the combat engine compared to SE IV will certainly be most welcome.
And certainly you can't please everybody, but that makes modding possibilities even more important.
Which implies: make as little hard coded limitations as possible!
Therefore the maximum number of 255 system would be a bad news IMO if it is hard coded.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Sure, you can build a turn based system that tries to emulate continuous time with complex initiative and phases and all that, but why do that when you can just make it actually be continuous time?

I'd prefer a complex turn-based system, really. All other considerations aside, real-time combat is and will play differently, regardless of the ability to pause whenever, etc.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

It is a very complex turn based system if you get down to the nitty gritty details.

It is simply that the turns are one millisecond long, with non-instant weapons and turning.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Hehe, sort of like "Titans of Steel" on autoturns, if you want to think of it that way http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
Though I do wonder if the turns are really run every millisecond... that would be an awful lot of turn processing for every measly frame of animation... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

On MOO2 there was a nice (though imperfect) way to simulate realtime combat. Ships had initiative, which then gave you the turn to move. Though, for some reason human players had every time the first move. I think initiative should be calculated by many things like:
- level of engine
- engine capacity divided by ship size class
- experience of the crew
- experience of the fleet
- level of battle computer

Also, there should be different initiative for guns and movement (you may have superior engines but lousy battle computer or vice versa), and also - very difficult to implement - if two ships are have almost identical initiative but one has slightly better, the better ship should not be able to do everything before another ship gets the change.

My logic would say that high engine initiative gives you some movements (perhaps 1 or 2 squares) before another ship gets to move his one square. An example:

Ship A: total movement 7 squares, battle computer level 1
Ship B: total movement 5 squares, battle computer level 2

Battle:
Ship A moves 1 square
Ship B moves 1 square
Ship A moves 2 squares
Ship B moves 1 square
Ship A moves 1 square
Ship B moves 1 square
Ship A moves 2 squares
Ship B moves 1 square
Ship A moves 1 square
Ship B moves 1 square

Firing: If guns itself have no initiative and both ships would have same weapons, firing order depends only of battle computer. the ship B would fire first when in range (even if ship A would move inside the gun range and still have movement to go, but at this point Ship B gets his firing turn).

Example continued:

Ship A moves 1 square
Ship B moves 1 square
Ship A moves 2 squares
Ship B moves 1 square
Ship A moves 1 square
Ship B moves 1 square
Ship A moves 1 squares (ship A have 1 more square to move)
Ship B fires at ship A
Ship A moves 1 squares
Ship A fires at ship B
Ship B moves 1 square
Ship B fires at ship A
Ship A moves 1 square
Ship A fires at ship B
Ship B moves 1 square
Ship B fires at ship A

etc.

Of course, this is a crude combat model but similar what I hope to see in SEV. You get the point. Well, can SEV betatesters give any preliminary information about this or does NDA prevent you from comment? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Um, it's been known for a long time that SE5 combat is not turn-based, so why are you asking this? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

I have been out of things lately. Enlighten me. Can I see specs/preview of the game somewhere? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Ahh, sorry http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
Here's the official page with a feature list, system requirements, screenshots, and whatnot:
http://www.malfador.com/Se5.html

Note that one of the screenshots shows ground combat with hexes; that is a very old one - ground combat is now realtime just like space combat http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Thanks for the link. However, it doesn't really tell anything about the game, except what you can see from the screenshots.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I keep a more detailed feature list along with some exclusive screenshoots of SE:V at my website:

http://www.captainkwok.net/se5info.php
http://www.captainkwok.net/feature-se5screenshots.php

The smallest time segment you can run auto-pause in is 1 second.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I asked it before but didnt see an answer.

Real quick for a tester or anyone else who knows:

Will you be able to play out the tactical battles in multiplayer TCP/IP games?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

It is simply that the turns are one millisecond long, with non-instant weapons and turning.

And the fact that all ships carry out their actions/orders at the same time, as opposed to "real" turn-based combat where you do one ship then the other.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Space Empires V

The year is 2400.00 and the galaxy awaits exploration. Who could have ever imagine the wonders and horrors to come. Where peaceful exploration and diplomacy fail, conquest begins. Immerse yourself in the role of leader of your very own galatic empire. Explore the technology, build ships, and colonize the galaxy as you battle against other races for absolute power.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

It only seems that way because the turns are so short.
In reality the CPU can only deal with one ship at a time, and time steps have to be quantized in a finite computer.

You might say that even real life is turn based, with each turn being one planck time (5.4 x 10^-44 seconds) long. And that system works quite well http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

what, you dont think its being upped to 2500.00? thats enough time for a good game of SE4 to reach the top of the tech tree, and then be blasted back into the industrial age by galactic war.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Actually I think you can reset the date. I am not sure of this and don't want to say you can in case that was some sort of secret or something. But if you can, that would be sweet.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Being apply to set up our own timeline for mods would be super cool...

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

what would be super confusing if each race had a unique callendar. so for the texrux it would be year 4000, but the eee would be marking a new calendar at the year 50 or something.

and of course each race would have time that passed at a different pace, depending on the orbit of their particular homeworld around its primary star.

and each planet would actually orbit its primary star at a unique rate.

or, you know, maybe that wouldnt be so cool. it would actually be a pain in the butt to keep track of.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

I cannot imagine a situation where different races having different calendars would be relevant. All that matters is how the race you're playing measures time.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

You can change the starting date in settings.txt for SE:V.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

Yay! Now my 21st Century Mod can start in the year 2001 if I so desire! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
Any way to change how much time passes per turn? In SE4, it's 1/10 of a year; in Stars it's a year; in GalCiv it's a week (!)...

Re: Official SE5 release date announced - Septembe
 

what, you are going to make the starting facilities a mix of first world and third world nations that produce various resources and adversely impact the planet in some way?

and then you cant build anything real until you spend a few (tens of) decades researching "world government" and "practical space program"

that sounds irritating. and it ruins the suspension of disbelief if you have to pay attention to how those things happen. just roll the clock ahead 400 years, and hand-waive away the reasons your planetary government formed and developed spaceflight.

i mean seriously, if we have to imagine an entire humanlike species forming a common collective for government, directed towards a single purpose, its not really a sci-fi game anymore. its totally fantasy.