Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

The problem is the cross platforming. They make a game for PC then "attempt" to bring it to a console, and vice versa. It just doesn't work.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

The games I've been seriously interested in (or if you will, addicted to, playing heavily for years and years) since moving from Atari computers http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif to Micro$oft are:

Tigers on the Prowl / Panthers in the Shadows
Myth: The Fallen Lords / Myth II: Soulblighter / mods
Space Empires III / Space Empires IV Gold modded
Combat Mission (all)
Dominions PPP / Dominions II, Dominions 3

At the minimum, they all want a mouse, and not some retarded console controller. Keyboards are nice to have, too. Even the action games I've been moderately hooked on work better with keyboard and mouse, or joystick, than a console spaz blob.

Consoles are mainly a lame way to abuse customers and the art of computer gaming for crass corporate exploitation, in my opinion. Sort of good for some action games for kids, and to keep kids off the computer, but not much more except a big annoyance for gamers with eldritch tastes like mine. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

PvK

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

I just don't get why console games still have 'save points'. I mean, consoles have had some sort of storage capability for years, and the next-gen ones seem to come with decently sized hard drives, so why the save points?

More to the point, why do they still have save points when the game is ported to the PC?

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

So much anticipation...So much dissapointment...

Oh, and the *Real* Cyrodil is a jungle! Why can't they keep to their own canon?

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

And removing the levitation spell? That's like removing flying from the superman movies. No thanks, I'll stick with Daggerfall, and a Space Empires that doesn't go into the console market.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

The 0-1 FPS refresh speed really gets me. 10 mins of moving the mouse a bit at a time to get it over a button, just does me in after about 5 mins. Yes, well I guess I need a newer computer. Paying around $50 for the privlege of playing the game and for all the great support from Aaron, easy call. Paying $2000+ dollars to get a new computer JUST so I can play this one game. Sorry.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

It is funny people still say $2,000 computer. A 2 grand system is pretty crazy these days. The system I am on is a 2.8ghz p4, 1.5gb ram (system was bought over 2 years ago for < $750 from Dell) and a 128mb AGP (no PCI-E here) Video card that was $150 3 years ago (so not top of the line then). No issues here with speed.

I cannot even play Supreme Commander due to the age of my video card http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Yeah, $2,000 for a good PC is so 1999... $750 is even overkill for SE5. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

I got this entire system I'm running SE5 on (and applying that warppoint generator to) for $300 even in January.

And due to sheer laziness I haven't even bothered to put a real video card in yet. The onboard is good enough for procrastination to kick in http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

From what I've looked into if you even want to sneeze at the newer games coming out you need to invest at LEAST $2000.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

I don't know about that. I could buy a $150 video card for my system now and be able to play the latest games. You don't need dual/quad core for any games, you don't need SLI cards that cost $500.

For example. Vanguard Saga of Heroes is a new WoW kinda game that is supposed to be pretty hefty with the graphics:

Processor 2.4 GHz Intel processor or 2400+ or higher model AMD processor
512 MB RAM
Vertex and Pixel Shader 2.0 compatible hardware with 128MB of texture memory
16X Speed DVD-ROM
20 Gigabytes Hard Drive Space

My 2+ year old cheap system just needs a new video card for it. That is the minimum, I probably would need a new system to play with the Max settings, but I certainly could play it.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

GuyOfDoom said:
From what I've looked into if you even want to sneeze at the newer games coming out you need to invest at LEAST $2000.

Not really. You only need a $2,000 system to play them at gigantic resolutions and max settings.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Interesting. I've been debating on planning my next machine sometime soon. I might consult you guys first.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

I built mine for $800 (guts only- no case/KB/mouse/monitor, those were re-used) a year ago, and it still runs every game I've thrown at it fine. Including Supreme Commander, at 1280x1024 mid detail..

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

My video card just doesn't support the pixel shader Supreme Commander uses :/ That game looks really good though.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Bought mine in October 06 for about 1700 $. Plays Supcom at 1280 * 1024 just fine.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

I keep getting distracted by EVE and Counter-Strike.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

I haven't played SEV at all for the last couple of weeks. When the new patch comes out, I'll start a new game.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Same here. Once the turn processing gets fixed. I'm hoping some more shipsets come out soon too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

When buying a new computer just buy whatever's cheap from an OEM with the processor you want (assuming you want Vista on it buying off an OEM is going to be the cheapest way to get the OS). Then upgrade the memory and grafix card. A thousand bucks should get you something with dual core, 2GB ram and an 8800 grafix card. The MB will be rubbish but you're not going to be trying to overclock it anyway if you're doing this on the cheap. It's the machine with everything tricked out to give you 10% more performance that's going to cost two grand.

Anyway, SEV... I haven't played properly for weeks but I usually try a game when IRM or BM gets updated. Still finding no challenge from the AI though so it's quite dull.

Since the demo was released I've railed against the UI so it's gratifying to see Atrocities admit I was right after all. Though TBH I'm fine with the UI now except for the clumsy filters. Which isn't to say I wouldn't still like to see a proper 2D system view and the option to have a square view to maximise the screen - yeah, just like in SEIV.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Huh?
I have gone back through my posts and can assure you that I have made no such statement. To the best of my recollection I have always stated that the UI has been the most definitively identified negative aspect of the game. Now that most of the bug issues have been addressed I am hopeful that following AI improvements, the UI will be polished. Priorities are what they are and bug fixes will always be at top of the to be fixed queue. UI issues are generally relegated to the bottom of the list of things that need addressing. But eventually they are looked at and in most cases taken care of. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I agree though, the filters do need work as they seem to be as you say rather "clumsy."

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Yes, i agree with AC, he never stated the UI is good as it is.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

frightlever said:
Since the demo was released I've railed against the UI so it's gratifying to see Atrocities admit I was right after all.

You would be hard pressed to find any beta testers (AT included) stating that the UI is excellent.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Am I the only one who doesn't really like the new 3D system view? I see people complain about the UI all the time, but I can't recall other people mentioning the system view.

To me it feels really awkward; the camera is strange going back and forth but rotates to the sides(?), you never really get the entire system inside the window at the same time, the screen icons and such are obviously not designed to work with the top-down style( thus rendering it useless ), etc.

It's night to day compared with SE IV's excellent top-down 2D view.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

The SE5 system view isn't unusable, but it is certainly very wasteful of screen space.

SE4 showed who was present and how many ships they had, using only a 24x10 pixel area.
SE5 gives you the choice of illegible blobs at 50x30 pixels or gigantic blocks that blot out the view of multiple hexes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

We should bug Aaron to use 2D text, like Starfury had, instead of this huge, blurry 3D stuff.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Well, my first downloaded version of the demo had some errors on it, so I'm downloading another version of it. As long as my computer can play that, I'll be a happy camper. I'd love to be able to play Civ4, but it's taken me a year to get my computer working. I'll have to be patient for the higher requirement games.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

SEV is an embarrassment. They made money on it, but marketed an inferior product. It is a shame it was not tested more and fixed before release. SEiv was good mp, but the AI is terrible.

But at least SEiv is playable. No game, calling itself a game, should take 5 minutes to do a turn. That is just absurd.
And on a computer that runs WOW with no lag issues too.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

@gregebowman: civ4 is definitely worth it!!!! havent tried the expansion though. I've spent hours playing civ4 over tcp with my friend across the country while talking on skype

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

What kind of TURN based games do you play? Any turn based game takes time between turns.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Of course all turn based games take time to process turns. Without trying to sound rude, I'm simply not sure what the point of your post was.

At any rate, I think Xietor is trying to say SE5 takes too long to process turns. I'm inclined to agree.

At least that's what I took from it.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

I play tons of turn based games, and none take the time SEV takes. In fact, even SEIV does not take nearly as long. It is obviously a bug that has not been fixed prior to release.

I have played about every good turn based game that has come out in the past 15 years, going all the way back to vga planets, masters of might and magic, and the original civilization.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

It's clear there is still a processing lag with the AI that hardly makes it the worst game ever, or a total ripoff.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

It is embarrassing it was released prior to making the fix that would allow the processing of turns to take place much faster. In my honest opinion, the game is unplayable with the time it takes to process a turn as things stand now.

I am not slamming the game itself, as i think it will be a worthy successor to IV once that glaring bug is fixed.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

The best games of SE4 take over an hour to process for a hearty battle.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

how long do the total war serries take to do AI turns when there are large battles?

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

It is a non-sequitor to compare SE4 and SE5 processing times when combat occurs (not to mention every other TBS game with non-RT combat). There is nothing at all comparable between a simple turn-based combat system and a real time combat engine. Real time combat (in SE5) has on the order of 20 rounds per second of combat time to deal with. Compare that to the simple 30 rounds of SE4, the non-rounds of Civ/GalCiv1 simple att/def calculations, etc. Comparing to something like Rome: Total War has merit (though its combats are an order of magnitude less complex than SE5), but not anything with simple turn-based combat.

Could it be faster? Yes. Is Aaron working hard to make it faster? Yes.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Fyron, you forgot to add "Is it at least 4x faster with the upcoming patch? Yes." in your comments. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

4x faster with the next patch? That's excellent. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Very little. They don't actually simulate the tactical battles, though- they just roll dice.

This can produce odd results. I once lost a battle (60% of my forced killed, 20% of the enemy) in auto-resolve. I went back a turn, ran it myself, and without ANY tactical consideration what-so-ever won it with only 10% losses to my force..

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Pretty much all turn-based games just roll the dice on auto-resolve. I'm not sure what I'd prefer. It's certainly nice to be able to have very fast turn processing, but I'm not fond of odd battle outcomes. I'm not sure how auto-resolve would actually function in a game like Space Empires though, considering you design the ships manually.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Plus you can minimize in the next patch I belive. Big plus there.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

I will add, despite my disappointment in the time it takes to process a turn, I do have confidence that the game will be fixed given the history and evolution of this game.

And I would not accept a full refund for it if it was offered. So I do like the game, and intend to play it once the processing of turns becomes more user friendly. But in response to the poll, I am not presently playing it.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

If I could get refunds on games these are the games I would want my money back on.

Moo3
Ages Of Empire III
Civ III
SimCity 4
Tribes Vengeance (:()
Quake 4
Doom 3
Half Life 2
Unreal 2
Reach for the stars
Various star trek games
Various civil war games
But mostly MOO3 and CIV 3.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

I'd agree with most of that list, except MoO3, SimCity 4, Tribes, Doom 3 & Unreal 2, since I never bought those. But hey, if you want to offer me a refund anyway, I won't say no.

But seriously, Reach for the Stars. I bought it because it got a good review, and played it for about 3 days before giving up on it entirely. It was, to quote Fyron, positively mehtacular.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

I could only play it for about four hours before uninstalling it. However I hear they recently, as long ago as two years, released version 1.4 of the game that improved it greatly. Too bad I gave the game disk away to good will. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Any one here ever play Imperium Galatica II?

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

IG2 is not worth your time or money.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

I will agree that Moo III ranks as my all time biggest disappointment, especially given how excellent MooII was.

It would be awesome if someday the random hero thing of mooII
could be incorporated into SE. That sort of event was exciting.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Well, keep in mind also that SR5's processing time is supposed to improve in the next patch and it isn't completely due to combat.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

Oh I already own the game, but have never really ever played it. I played the demo, bought the game back in 2000 but cannot recall if I have ever installed and played it. I recall thinking that it was interesting but very limited in scope.

Re: Vote: Who is still playing SEV ?
 

There's two things messing up SE V's turn processing times, from what I can see. The first is the slow system ship movement( which was even worse a few patches ago ), the second is the combat calculations. The actual AI scripts, i.e. 'thinking', doesn't appear to take any time at all.

I don't understand why 32x time rate ( or 64x for that matter ) wasn't included in the game in the first place, though. And what kind of CPU does one need to actually take full advantage of the 32x mode in a regular-sized combat? Does all beta testers get four times as fast combat on 32x vs 8x mode?