Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Has anyone seen any news since Sep 12th was announced here http://www.strategyfirst.com/press/D...ArticleID=3296 ?

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

It hasn't been posted officially by SFI, but a few stores like Gamestop have posted Oct. 17 dates, which sounds very reasonable IMO. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I could have sworn someone said damage would be done to the side of the ship that was hit (ie facings). Oh well, if that's not the case, I'm just as glad.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Corrected for you. Defender fires first on warp points, regardless of player number, and player number 1 is not always the game creator.

....Unless you're referring to Pre-Gold.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

http://www.strategyfirst.com/press/D...ArticleID=3298

"Space Empires V is due to be released late September, 2006."

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I'm led to enquire - why would a game be released in September? I'd always heard that Sept is the worst month to ever release any new product, what with the holidays not yet here, fiscal year budgets tight, just over the back-to-school buying season, and it being a well documented bad month for stocks and so forth, why did they choose Sept? I would personally rather wait two more months to make sure it gets a bigger market share.

Just curious really.

Thanks,

AMF

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Bigger market share? When all the other games are being released? What sense does that make? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Well, under the same theory that you want to place your shoe store in the same neighborhood as the other shoe stores - to capture your share of a market that you know already exists, rather than to try to get into a market that may provide lower demand. It's been a long time since I've taken anything resembling a marketing or business class, but going where there is an established market for your product was one of those basics...I thought. I could very easily be totally wrong - I'm not an MBA type.

Although it is pretty well documented that Sept is the yuckiest month for the stock market, I think becuase people are typically saving their money up for the holidays, etc...stocks almost always dive in Sept, IIRC.

But, of course, stocks are not games.

Really was just curious as to the logic.

Thanks,

AMF

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I thought the damage was directional...which mean any armor on that side would be damaged first...or we could hope...Shields might be a different matter

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Hybrid systems are always confusing. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif No firing arcs, no shield/armor arcs. But directional damage.

Damage to components is directional. Or supposed to be. Damage to shields and armor is not. Yes, armor 'components' are placed on the ship like other components but they all get destroyed before any of the inner components are damaged. Or that's how it's supposed to work.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Nobody said anything about not being able to implement leaky armor, though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I'm not sure release month will make any difference for this game. It's not your typical computer game. It's not a shooter, or a RTS game. The graphics technology is not cutting edge, etc etc. I can't see that SE5 is going to be competing against any other game for market share.

I think the target market for SE5 is going to be receptive to it no matter what time of year it's released. The target market for an incredibly deep strategy game like this is people like you and me, who don't just play a game to "beat" it and then lose interest in a couple of weeks. If SE5 is any good we will be playing it and modding it for years and years.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I still say that Aaron missed out on a good opportunity to add something special to the game other than glitz and glamour via 3d graphics. With neither the armor, shields, nor weapons on a directional basis, then what is the need for directional damage to components. Its not like you removing ability for the ship to fight from that side...all weapons arc, so there is no reason to destroy facing weapons, and I cant think of any other reason that directional damage, would have any effect. Sounds like useless code, that basically couldnt be finished. Without weapon, shield, armor arcs, there is absolutely no reason for directed damage...

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I agree. Non-directional shields/armor is disappointing.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

To be honest: I am glad there is no directional shield/armor. Of course it would be interesting if it worked like in starfury and the computer in strategic combat would move the ship optimally and you had some good computer aid in ship design. But if these two "and" are not fulfilled it could be quite tedious and frustrating.
Don't forget that probably 99% of all combats will be strategic.
On the other hand I agree that you could have left directional damage out completely.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

One of the things to keep in mind is that with adding weapon arcs and facings, you make it much more difficult to balance individual shipsets. Unlike Starfury where you might have to balance a dozen or so ships, SE:V has about 150 to worry about. With the directional damage, once shields and armor are down (or special damage types are in use) it plays a minor role such as in a pursuit, where a fleeing ship tends to be hit in the engines first etc. Lastly, fleet battles tend to end up in melees anyway, so if most of these features were active there wouldn't be much difference in the end result.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

So...speaking of battles...are the combats now greater than 30 turns, and floating? (ie, don't have corners, so you can do that pursuit thing you allude to...)?

I just keep up with the pestering questions, don't I...

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

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Combat is time-based and there are no corners. If a gap between a chasing ship and a fleeing ship reaches a certain distance the combat will end.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Yay! I kinda suspected that you could flee combat in that manner but it's good to hear confirmation of that!
Presumably that distance is moddable, and perhaps it might even be a formula, so for instance if you start with Chemical Rockets going 20 km/s or something and eventually get Hyper-Quasar Drives going 100 km/s then the distance required to retreat could increase throughout the game as the average player's tech level advances? Or is it time-based - based on the speed of the fastest ship in the pursuing fleet? (e.g. "if the enemy ship can't reach your current position within 30 seconds the combat ends")

edit: clarified from "can't reach you" to "can't reach your current position"

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I just assumed that some shipsets would be better than others, and that you would have to pay for better ship sets the same way you pay for any other advantage at the beginning of the game. Oh well.

So now we have to pay for maintenance on fighters? Oh great. Are they completely useless then? Are they just a little niche item or just something to bypass completely?

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

They are now individually targetable, rather than stacked in groups, and the lack of area-effect weapons means that ships with only big guns will be wasting a LOT of firepower trying to blast those little buggers out of the sky http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

99 drushocka fighters in space, 99 drushocka fighters
Shoot your DUC, blow one up, 98 drushocka fighters in space!
WHAM! 98 structural damage!
98 drushocka fighters in space, 98 drushocka fighter...
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

One complaint overhead early on was that fighters were too strong... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Is the problem of accidental ramming (like in Starfury) eliminated in SE V?
Did you or any other betatester ever have a combat with something like 500 ships and 2000 fighters?
Sorry for all these questions, but we are just too curious and impatient.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Ships pass over/under each instead of colliding. I've already offered some speculation on performance with large numbers of ships earlier in this thread.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Will there be mines in the 3d battle or is it like Space Empires IV?

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Dunno, but I suppose you could create extremely slow drones which serve the same purpose... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Isn't it September the 12th today?

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I went back through the whole thread and can't seem to find it. How many ships in a battle were people were seeing before it was unplayable?

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Woops. It was this thread:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...;Number=440663

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

got it, thanks!

so... fighters are 2d objects? IIRC in Starfury they were 3d, no?

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I think when you're zoomed out far they might be, but zoomed in it's the actually model for certain. Not entirely sure about the first part though.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Any reason why Dominions_3 and SE5 are being released around the same time?

Just seems like both games could have acquired at least a little more money by releasing at different times.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I assume that the Mega-Evil Empire function will be present in Space Empires V. Is it still quite drastic where everyone declares war on you? Even a neighboring weak empire that will be destroyed?

It would be better if the closer empires and those in good relations to you would slowly detoriorate relations with you over many turns.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Here we are--September 12. I didn't really think SE5 would be released today, but I did have the tiniest little hope...especially on a cold, rainy Cleveland day like this.

Oh well. It will be here eventually.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I suggest that be the new, official unoffical SEV theme song.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Because they are being released by two entirely different publishers who have no incentive to coordinate their release schedules, which may not even be legal anyway.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Or, it just so happens that they both ended up being at some stage of "ready" at around the same time, and add in that a release around mid- to late-October is good for sales leading up to the holiday season, and interest in computer games increases towards the beginning of the winter season because our northern friends are more likely to stay inside for entertainment than to brave the snow http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

And while I think that there is some overlap between potential players for SEV and potential players for DomIII, I don't see one cutting in on the sales of another. If anything, there would be a mutual increase, as the crossover players evangelize to the other player base.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Regarding the different ship/ unit classes, will there be only one class of fighter, mine or troop?
Because that seems to be the matter, link:
http://www.malfador.com/se5empstyle.html
Any idea, anyone?

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

There's Small, Medium, Large versions of all Fighters, Troops, Freighters, Weapon Platforms, Satellites, and Mines.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

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

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I've been wondering; is there, or will it be possible to mod in, optional weapon properties in the design window, ala MoO2&3? I.e., you first research the weapon, then additions to the weapon; miniaturization, continues fire(improved accuracy), weapon improvement, etc. In the design window you can enable the ones you want for an increase in cost, increase/decrease in tonnage used by the weapon, range, damage, etc. Same goes for missiles and such( i.e missile shield). I thought it a pretty neat option in the MoO games, unfortunately lacking in SE except for the limited 'mount' feature.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

To be fair, all these items were possible in SE:IV with its "limited" mount system to the point where they could be applied on individual weapons or vehicles.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

I think these can be represented by different pictures, but a single pic, just magnified, can suffice.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

As far as I know, weapon values are the result of formulas in SEV.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Yeah, speaking of mounts - a while back someone said that mounts can change a lot more about a component than they could in SE4. Would it be possible for you to go into a bit more detail? I'm itching to make mounts that change the target type of a weapon (like the Heavy and PD mounts in MOO2 - heavy weapons couldn't target fighters and PD weapons could target missiles automatically), or mounts that change the move points generated by an engine (Massive Mount C-T Engines anyone? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif), or a plethora of other options... I already know that mounts can be levelled, by looking at some of the latest screens (ooh, level 100 Heavy Mount... wonder how powerful THAT is? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif) Is it possible to make mounts that affect seekers properly? How about applying multiple mounts to a component, with boolean restrictions (You can have a Heavy Continuous-Fire Laser Beam in MOO2, but not a Heavy Point-Defense Laser Beam!)???

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Current relase date is October 16, according to the print out I was given at the EB store. I plunked down my reservation $ because they were not planning on carrying it at the store closest to me.

I really hate the fact that consoles have taken over the gameing industry. (grump, grump)

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

dagummit! Beat me to it.

Local Gamestop has it hittin' their locale 10/18.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

If PCs are the first to incorporate VR Gloves and VR Headsets into the games then the gamers will come rushing back. Unfortunately if the console games are first the PC will suffer even more.

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Me too. Shelf space for PC games has shrunk steadily over the last few years. Most stores only stock "big" titles. I see entire rows of one particular shooter (a genre I'm getting sick of).

Re: Official SE5 release date announced
 

Long-term is harder than short-term.