Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

SJ: I really like that idea for temporal shields. I don't like the idea of temporal yards, period. Maybe the addition of a mine that could freeze a ship in place for X number of turns?

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

These Temproal Ideas are getting beter and better, Temproal shields are great, same as the idea about temproal space yards,temproal mines

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

This is why I mentioned the "Bill and Ted" factor

"Only the one who wins can travel to the past"

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

An obvious idea for a temporal weapon would be one that disrupts reload time.

Nice idea with the temporal shields SJ. Would be an interesting effect to say the least.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Psychic and Crystalline races already have such weapons. Kind of pointless if all racial tech traits start having the same features...

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Hi to all

just a consideration about SEV... one of the best feature I found in SEIV was the possibility to customize the race not only for the behaviour (AI, Racial traits an so on) but also but also for the appearance (shipset), that gave each race a unique look and it was possible to have many diffeerent races available.
With the 3d battle system this could become more difficult (are really there so much people able to use 3d graphic programs?.
What if I can define ten races with different racial traits and capability but on the screen they appear all the same? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif
I know graphic is not the main point for the game but... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

95% of shipsets made for SEIV are made by creating 3d models, then rendering them for static 2d shots. It is only a matter of converting these models to .X format to get them to work in SEV. Certainly, it is harder to do this with some formats than others, but it is still quite doable. At worst, shipset authors have to learn a different program to make their models (Wings 3d is free, and I believe it exports to .X).

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Well, in that case it might be better to give Psychic, Crystalline traits different weapons that are more appropriate...

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Actually, Wings doesn't export to .X, but it does export to .3DS and .OBJ, both of which are fairly easily converted to .X.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

The psychic one is most appropriate. It does not work on ships with a master computer. So, it confuses the crew and delays their actions. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif The crystalline one is fairly weird though...

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

One thing I'd definitely like to be able to do, is to retrofit by class.

IE. Bring up a retrofit screen, pick a class of ship currently in active service, and be able to retrofit every ship of that class all at once, rather than having to go around to every planet and construction yard to retrofit the ships.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Keep in mind there are (were) two Versions of basically the same ability that affects reload times - disrupt reload time and increase reload time. The latter might be best for Temporal, while the disrupt reload ability might go well with Psychic.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Erm... why would the temporal Version not affect ships with a Master Computer? "Increase Reload Time" type is the one that is stopped by Master Computers. It makes sense for a psychic weapon, which needs crew to affect. "Disrupt Reload Time" affects any ship, Master Computer or no.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

That's because I'm not specifically talking about SE:IV, but how these abilities might be applied in SE:V. In that case, I think "Increase Reload Time" would be better suited to Temporal technology and so MM can make it affect Master Computers. "Disrupt Reload Time" then can be used to effect ships with crews only as a Psychic technology.

Anyways we should be able to make our own damage types so maybe it won't matter all that much. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Why should the names be swapped if it has no other effect?

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

'cause it makes more sense. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

I don't care really, my original post on this matter was just that an ability that interferes with reload times goes well with temporal technology. I wasn't actually quoting the SE:IV ability name (and hence characteristics of) as Fyron assumed in his response.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

You guys are still talking about temproal stuff, that was like 6 pages back but anyways i got some new ideas

You all have had this happen to you at least once, ships being abandoned (lack of resourses) anyways why do they disappear i mean they must still be there its not like they are in the ocean and rust got um, i think they should be allowed to be salvaged and drift around one move per turn but not leaveing the system-- (that is if there are still warp points if not then drift everywhere). Also i think if ships early on go out to far away from planets i think there should be X chance they would disappear forever due to lack of communication and primitive populsion system. Also have them be able to be found or randomly pop up when you devolpe more advanced detection technology

Now--Atmospheric Malufunctions---If a ship is orbiting a planet(uninhabited) that has high amounts of ion storms or other things there should be a chance for the ship to crash into the planet for various reasons.
For both ideas
You could have a new tech called salavage which would allow you recover ships in space and more advanced Version of the tech would allow you to recover ships that have crashed into planets

These ideas bring up an intresting idea: recovery of enemy ships (stealing tech) or recovering ally ships for a price http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Wanted: ability to control AI intel project's queue from ai data file (like Construction_Facility.txt or Construction_vehicles.txt)

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Suggestions:

1) Last time I played SE:IV G, I built a base which could open and close warp-points, but as I recall, the base required at least one movement point to do any warp-point opening or closing. Perhaps this could be fixed?

2) An interesting addition would be adaptive technology which attunes itself to work better against enemy technologies. An example, adaptive shielding which can eventually completely protect itself against certain frequencies of attacks.

3) A new intel project where an empire could slowly take over another empire covertly. Such as inserting agents into the enemy empire whom will slowly gain in rank and become high commanders.

4) More event flexibility, such as an advanced ship coming from the future to warn your empire about a forthcoming war which will end NOT in your favor, to prepare you. In the background, I'd suggest giving one of the AI's the order to go into a huge militaristic operation against your empire, the breaking point of the war would be random.

5) Spatial anomalies would be nice, such as warp points which periodically open and close, or erratic warp points which randomize their destination, or even warp points which have a small chance every time a vessel goes through of closing forever and severely damaging the passing vessel.

6) Faster AI turn processing never hurts...


Sorry if any of these have been previously mentioned, if I sounded too vague, and/or if I rambled.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

OK. 1st I don't play this game, my new roomie does, so forgive my being a newbie and ignorant to the ways of the game. but I thought it would be badass to create a race of ultimate ground warriors of such power that troop transports would be more terrifying than any battleship. "oh my god, what if one of those transports gets through the blockade!" the type of race that doesn't colonise, or research or anything, but just lands troops and takes planets with devastating ferrocity. Unfortunantly it was poitned out to me that in SE4 one must research 2 technologies to get basic troops. wtf. why is it easier to make warships than ground troops? 2001 A Space Oddesey featured the first ground troops during the "dawn of man" bit. anyway. if SE5 let me create a "blugblater beasts of traal" race so that I could viciously stomp people on the ground. I might give it a try.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

SE4 is highly moddable, and it takes only a minute or two to add a new troop class that requires no technology, or to make Small Troops require no technology to research. To make Small Troops available from the start, go into TechArea.txt and locate the Troops tech. Set this field to 0 instead of 1, so that the Troops tech area requires no technologies to be able to research:

Number of Tech Req := 1

change to:

Number of Tech Req := 0

Then, set this field to 1 instead of 0, so that you will start any game with level 1 in Troops technology:

Start Level := 0

change to:

Start Level := 1

Of course, it is best to create a mod folder, named whatever you would like (such as Fast Troops), then copy the data folder (folder and all) into it. Make your modifications in this mod folder. Then, go to the folder with the SE4 executable, and open Path.txt. Change this line to have the name of your mod:

Using Mod Directory := None

change to:

Using Mod Directory := Fast Troops

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

You can already create such a race in SE4. Simply increase physical strength so your people are stronger. You still need to develop troops, but your troops will have an advantage against weak races. In practice though this has little benefit as the advantage is cancelled out by players habits of dropping 400 troops at once.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

There's also the tendency for players to glass the planet from orbit instead of fighting on the ground...

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Hey OT but kool fast reply

Anyways, I think fighters should play more of a role in troop combat also there should be weapons for fighters that only attack defensive ground units and facilties (ie troops, Planet Shield Generator). Also I think all units should be able to play into a general invasion. Example, Ships take out all defensive ships and bases, Drones attack targets like Planetary Shields, Then Fighters come in for a full sweep of Troops, and then Ground Troops start there invasion. Also a general side note but fighters need to be MUCH more moddable, i have tried modding somethings haveing to do with fighters but most everything with fighters is hard coded.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

In the #se4 chats, Aaron stated that you will be able to mod the vehicle types themselves. Not Small Fighter vs. Large Fighter, but what defines a fighter...

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

A SCENARIO EDITOR!

I really want to be able to write specific scenarios such as The Fifth Zhodani War (traveller), Star Wars (rebs v. empire), Dominion Wars (Star Trek DS9), etc...etc...etc...

It would have to allow you to set up game starts with empires that were vastly different in tech, starting positions, resources, pre-defined fleets, pretty much everything...but I can't really see as how that'd be so difficult, given that the savegames and EMP-PLR-GAM file structure seems suited to just that...

Hopefully it ain't wishful thinking...

Alarik

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

I can't see Any problem with that! I'm not going to send 10 troops when i can send 400 to do the same job.

There is No such thing as Overkill. There is No Kill or Just Enough Kill.

Next you'll be criticising me for sending 200 ship fleets to glass a newly established enemy colony, or sending star destroyers to destroy the system that pesky Alien scout keeps passing through. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

The main reason i want troops to be more vaible option is only because it is just easyer for me to send a star destroyer with a mine sweeper to the enemy capital system and blow S*I* Up.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Yes, but you lose all the potential benefits of capturing that system - resources, population, etc. - doing that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Anyways, Aaron has mentioned that ground combat is going to a bit more sophisticated than SE:IV.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Warning Rant:

For the love of all that is good fix the AI so that it knows the difference between maximum movement and necessary movement [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/mad.gif[/img]. I am sick of running simulations where the AI moves ships right next to enemy ships and then realises it has movement left so it moves away. I just did a sim where it was next to the enemy in the corner, it had 3 movement left so it moves away 3 thus reducing its chance to hit the enemy.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Randallw, have you looked what strategy your ships have? If it has Optimal Firing Range (default) it'll do that. I often use Point Blank -strategy, so that it'll always fire when it's closest.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

I understand the difference between pointblank and optimal range. In the cases I metion though why would it move next to them in the first place if it has optimal range. Its most prevalent when you have lots of ships all milling about near each other. An example not subject to range orders is when vessels are in the corner, they can't move any further and yet they spend all their movement going back and forth in the corner until they use up all their movement.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

What about increased ability for Game Masters for RP-styled games! Perhaps even an option to have the game function as a GM-run RP experiance.

Basicly, an in-game scenario editor and more cheat codes that could all be controlled from the Master Login only. That way, the other players don't have access to cheat codes but if the GM wanted to achive a certain result, then the tools would be at his/her disposal.

To ensure game-play isn't abused, there could be an indicator stating that this particular game has GM tools enabled or some such.

I'm in the StarScape PBEM game and ShadowStar has done a remarkable job of GMing SeIV, but I'm sure there are still some aspects that could be better done with dedicated GM tools. Also, Geo's idea for PBW Starfury would be much easier done with these.

On a personal note, I for one would LOVE to see more types of games like this. Having been a GM for years, I'd even be up to host one if the tools to accomplish these things were available.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

How about the chance of ships hitting one another in combat, the chance would increase with the more ships in combat.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

No way! I don't think there should be any collisions at all without a ram order being issued. It'd be a micro nightmare (refer to Star Fury here).

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Oh, I thought he meant with their weapons... though it also kind of implies all combat in SE4 is a draw http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Why not, I think it is insane that such huge fleets can alll come that close without that possiblility. If there were hundreds modern water ships that close they would be mass amounts hitting each other

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Because SE is pretty abstract. You'll notice for example that nine 150-kt Escorts take up more map space than a single planet that probably weighs many, many GIGAtons.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Yes but that is out of necessity not because it is abstract. I sure as heck wouldnt wanr to look at something that was fit to size, would you???? This isnt dealing with the abstract this is a realism idea. TO refine my previous idea

Ship would have a chance to hit one another only if they were within say 1 square distances, also what would be factored in would be both ship directions, top speed, and sensor technology level, thats all i got for right now but there very well maybe more.

Small idea Gravitionial Forces, If you leave a ship in one place it should move closer to planets or stars depending on location and size---So a ship if it were near a star it might fall into orbit around the star, and if the ship has lost all its engines and movement it could be destroyed by the star but a ship with engines would stay in orbit unless it lost all Crew Quarters and Bridge---If it has Crew Quarters then the crew could still keep the ship alive.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Why exactly would a ship be pulled directly into a star and be destroyed if it has no engines? Most likely, it would just achieve an unvoluntary orbit around the star. A ship with engines on the other hand would probably just sit in place providing the crew isn't sleeping. Basically a ship with engines would sit in place and a ship without engines would be sucked into the nearest gravity well and get an orbit...


...I think? Meh.

(EDIT: Grammar error(s).)

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

New idea, this has been bothering me in all the games i have played. Gradual technology discovery, I will give an example, If i discover Contra Terrene Engines i dont want to have to research another couple of engine techs to advance that type of engine, I want a certian number of tech points set aside for that technology research. You would also have a choose to cut funding to each of the ongoing research projects if you need more for a new one. Do you guys understand that

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Orbits do decay over time, depending on their original stability. Satellites in Earth orbit for instance need adjusted every once in a while, in order to maintain their stationary orbit. However, the orbital decay takes quite a long time, as long as the original orbit was relatively stable.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

yes but if a ship was attacked and lost its engines, and it was drifting if it got caught in orbit it wouldnt Last that long

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Maybe after a few millennia. Most objects floating in space acquire a more or less stable orbit, unless they were heading directly towards the gravity source.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Yeah, you only need your engines to stay in 'orbit' if your orbit is unstable in the first place. Or if you're catching atmospheric drag.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

... The small relative size is what MAKES it abstract. More to the point the combat map is 2d; it would be trival for ships to pass through the same square by simply adjusting their course slightly.

I think that would be a very bad idea.

Most things are either going to go into orbit or zip on by, depending on what speed they were traveling at the time. This is definitely an aspect that isn't needed. Things don't just fall out of orbit if they loose their engines, FYI..not unless they are in very low orbit (proof: the Moon has no engines. It is in orbit)

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

OT: Have you read David Weber's "Empire from the Ashes" series? Puts a different spin on that :p

But no, ships should not just start drifting into stars if they lose their engines. The mechanics of the game prohibit RealPhysics as it is, and that would just make things frustrating and difficult.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Ok so one bad idea, but i still think gradual tech discovery idea little ways up this page is good.

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

The ability to multi add (construction) ships and facilities like you can with units.
Emperor Fritsch the Dense

Re: SE5, Tell Aaron what\'s on your Wish List
 

Units are small enough, and take up so little resources, that more than 1 can be built a turn. Ships cannot be built in less than a full turn, unless you have 12B people on one planet, so it is impossible to build more than 1 a turn. If you want to build more than 1 ship you have to build them each after the other.