Re: SEV Recommend?
 

Thanks for this thread. I never looked closely at the other shrapnel titles, they looked more like worldwar titles for veterans to me. I was not aware of Dom 3 being a fantasy strategy game with magic. Very interesting!

So the AI is good for singleplayer gaming you say?

Re: SEV Recommend?
 

Well, let's just say Dominions 3 is a much simpler game for the AI to play( move troops from one sector to another and recruit troops, basically), and as such it gives competition. The lack of diplomacy, i.e. full war as soon as you meet, adds to this as well.

Other than that I'd say SE V is by far a better game, or at least it will be when it's completed. I don't care too much for the general gameplay of Dominions, it's the smaller features( item making, spells, etc.) that makes that game fun to me.

Re: SEV Recommend?
 

Narf,

Not a chance of that. She has a violence phobia. Understandable though. She is Serbian and her family has suffered Nazis, Commies, Moslems, ethnic violence, and Bill Clinton.

Eleven Non-Cheating Ways to Help the AI
 

Eleven Ways to Help the AI (besides "cheats" like giving them unfair resource advantages, refusing to use certain weapons, abandoning all but one planet at startup, etc.):
1) Start with 10 good planets and high resources. Or 5 good planets and medium tech level. (AI is weakest in early game development.)
2) Don't make the galaxy too large. (AI doesn't expand as intelligently as humans.)
3) Make all AI players be aggressive xenophobic warmongers. (AI doesn't do diplomacy as well as humans.)
4) Don't choose any special racial techs for yourself.
5) Scramble the AI players (so you don't know what to expect when you first go to battle).
6) Turn off major disasters. (AIs don't know how to handle things like an impending supernova.)
7) Don't use galaxies that have lots of planet-less systems (which can stop AI expansion and agression).
8) Always use either strategic combat or automatic tactical combat. (This removes a huge advantage for human players over the AI, and prepares you for PBW.)
9) Use the option that gives everyone continuous full knowledge of every place they've ever explored. (This helps AI, which has no memory.)
10) Lower the setting that triggers Mega-Evil Empire (which causes all the AIs to ally with each other and gang up on you).
11) Set a strict limit on the amount of time you can spend on any one turn. Use a 3-minute egg timer. Once it runs out, you MUST end your turn. (Also a good rule for hot-seat play.)

When I do these things, the AI gives me a fun game. I still always win, but I like that.

If I want a real challenge, I can (additionally) use some of the cheats mentioned at the top. Role-playing is also quite fun and challenging. Examples:
1) Set MEE very low, and pretend to be an insane race intent on wiping out all other races. Never invade planets or capture ships; glass them. You might even consider blowing up their systems entirely to wipe out all traces of them.
2) Conversely, keep standard MEE, keep all AI players at standard settings, and pretend to be a dovish race that tries as hard as possible to avoid conflict (while trying to unite everyone under your peaceful rule). Never ever glass any colony, and concentrate on capturing or disabling enemy ships. You'll have to make and keep powerful allies to prevent triggering MEE.
3) Pretend to have a religious taboo against using warp points. Only give up this taboo when you can create your own.
4) Pretend to have limited authority. Use AI ministers to handle aspects of your empire over which you have no direct control.
5) Pretend that your empire has term limits that cause you to lose all political power for X years after serving 2X years as emperor. So alternate 24X turns of micromanagement with 12X turns of full minister control. People are SO fickle!
6) Play normally until you've triggered MEE, then switch sides. Now you are trying to rally the rag-tag rebels against the MEE! (Actually, I've always had MEE off when I did this. It is possible that, once MEE is triggered, the AIs would unite against the human player regardless of which empire he is playing. That would be a wacko bug!)

Re: Eleven Non-Cheating Ways to Help the AI
 

I truly wish I could recommend SEV. I've been trying to 'get into it' off and on for the last few months. But it just doesnt grab me. It feels glacial compared to SEIV and the interface woes dont really help. I find myself playing the first 30-40 turns and then getting bored and saving it and not coming back. Then, a few weeks later I'll fire it up again, start a new game and repeat the cycle.

I've tried the Balance Mod (which is excellent work) but there is still something missing from SE5. I shudder to think about trying to play Stock. I cant put my finger on whatever it is about SE5 that just doesnt do it for me. I played SE4 to DEATH and would still be playing it now if the later patches hadn't broken TCP/IP play. The fact that SE5 also apparently doesnt work via TCP/IP is another turn-off as that was my group's preferred way of playing SE4.

Like PvK, I'm hoping that it eventually sorts itself out. There appears to be a lot of potential here. But at the moment, playing SE5 seems more like work and less like fun. I'm hoping some enterprising modders save the game much the way mods like Devnull and whatnot did for me for SE4. The only downside here is that modding SE5 seems to be a heck of a lot more complicated so I'm unlikely to do it myself, again unlike SE4 where I worked on my custom mod for years.

I'll keep trying SE5 though. With each patch and Balance Mod revision I usually fire it up and play again. Hopefully one day it will grab me and I'll be able to recommend it whole-heartedly!

Re: Eleven Non-Cheating Ways to Help the AI
 

You can play SE4 via TCP/IP if all players use Hamachi to create a virtual LAN, then run SE4 as a "LAN" game through it.

Re: Eleven Non-Cheating Ways to Help the AI
 

Did you get the latest patch?
Deluxe broke it, 1.96 should have refixed it...

Re: Eleven Non-Cheating Ways to Help the AI
 

I have played it 8 hours now. What's wrong is the speed at which it can be played. The UI programmers need to take some Time & Motion classes. The Gilbreths (cheaper by the dozen) would roll over in their grave if they saw this.

It's not just time-motion it is time-information. Quick overviews are needed, that can be drilled down to details. Also as an old guy I find some of the eye-candy distracting or obscuring.

Some of it is just frustrating. tkae the star-Fury like design screen with it's compnant placement and decks. Just how does any of that effect combat/game-play? If not, then why bother?

Right now I rate it D for DOG.
It is so similar to SEIV, why bother playin it at all.

Re: Eleven Non-Cheating Ways to Help the AI
 

Good suggestion. I've looked into it myself, but getting my group to do it would be like pulling teeth. If the game doesnt simply 'work', they wont be interested in workarounds, unfortunately.

No, we were never able to get it working right with more than 2 players after the SF acquisition.

I concur with it seeming frustrating and with features that seem underdeveloped. I dont like the multiple decks thing either and the fact that weapons have no arcs leads to 'gamey' placement (ie, put them in the back of the ship to protect them etc).

I dont know that I'd call it a 'dog' at this point, but its just not my cup of tea. Part of that might just be me trying to give the benefit of the doubt to the game, buts its amazing that someone like me who was so absorbed by SE4 cant even sit through a few hours of SE5 and enjoy it...

Re: Eleven Non-Cheating Ways to Help the AI
 

Just ignore "TCP" then, and use PBW.
No need to all be together at once, autohosting, and you can have PBW send you emails with the turn and/or reminders.