Re: Most bang-for-the-buck hard code changes
 

MME
But semi-random MEE surely isn't a change that gives the most bang-for-the-buck .. declare war on all AIs you encounter, and you'll have a likewsie enjoyable game http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif


My 0,02 EUR of thoughts:

small change (?)
fix the ministers

medium change
fix the rest of the AI

really big change
give ua SEV, with all the good stuff from SE3 back, e.g. right-click, loadable ship styles, inteligence etc. etc.

A.

Re: Most bang-for-the-buck hard code changes
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Arralen:
... declare war on all AIs you encounter, and you'll have a likewsie enjoyable game http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree with you that this would make a challenging game. I am not so sure about enjoyable, though, because it completely gets rid of one of the aspects of the game (diplomacy) and leaves no place for roleplaying. You can't play a "nice" race this way http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...ons/icon12.gif.

Rollo

Re: Most bang-for-the-buck hard code changes
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Arralen:

really big change
give ua SEV, with all the good stuff from SE3 back, e.g. right-click, loadable ship styles, inteligence etc. etc.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

And the ship repair/construction queues! I loved how ship construction and repair worked in SEIII, and really wish that approach had been retained. So controllable and it made so much sense. I hate not being able to build ships and facilities at the same time...

Re: Most bang-for-the-buck hard code changes
 

Well, I don't know if this is a "most bang for the buck" kind of thing, but I've always thought that the Physical Strength characteristic should affect boarding. So if you have a 110% Physical Strength characteristic you lvl 1 boarding party counts as 22 guys insteads of 20. A pretty small and meaningless change, I guess, but physically tough races should be powerful boarders too, gosh darn it http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Most bang-for-the-buck hard code changes
 

Rollo your idea about the incertainty of the MEE level is certainly interesting. But you can have a similar effect already now if you chose in the game setting "player can only view his score". Then you only will know that you are number 1, but not if you are near or far away from the MEE percentage level because you don't see the score of number 2.

Re: Most bang-for-the-buck hard code changes
 

I got one: Allow more abilities for components and facilities.

i.e. a missle that has a repulsor beam built in to simulate the ship that was hit recoiling.

or a facility that reduces population while producing organics and lowering happiness (someone else already mentioned this)

- - - - - -

Another idea: Allow facilities to be built on a certain hull. Lets you have true nomads w/ no planets. It would be a sort of ship-planet hibred.

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Assume you have a 1kg squirrel
E=mc^2
E=1kg(3x10^8m/s)^2=9x10^16J
which, if I'm not mistaken, is equivilent to roughly a 50 megaton nuclear bomb.
Fear the squirrel.

Re: Most bang-for-the-buck hard code changes
 

OK, I thought of my medium (several weeks of programming) most-bang-for-the-buck change:

Put in tons of keyboard shortcuts. You wouldn't think that they'd be necessary for a non-RTS game, but I'm getting carpal tunnel syndrome from mousing all day at work. And stuff like user-definable hot "systems", so you could go between systems 0 to 9 by pressing Ctrl-# (or something like that).

Along with this would go interface changes to save clicks/keystrokes, and simple changes people have suggested to "smarten up" the ministers. For instance, a single button to upgrade facilities empire-wide, as resources permit, without scrapping anything, starting with the most-productive facilities. Things like that would save a LOT of clicks!

HOWEVER: I don't think ANYONE (including myself) has yet come CLOSE to my trivial and small hard-code changes (see beginning of thread) in terms of bang-for-the-buck (BFTB = increase in value / required programming time). Although, admittedly, those changes wouldn't help PBW/PBM unless the people really trusted one another or had a game-master. But that doesn't matter, because it's all about ME! http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/ima...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: Most bang-for-the-buck hard code changes
 

IMHO ....
biggest bang for the buck ??

FIX COMBAT!!!!!

I don't see how we or MM can ever build an AI that will challenge a Human, so I would think that for longevity of the game and expanding the customer base, you have to make the mutli-player extensions BETTER....

"net play" would be excellent (MAJOR)

the current PBEM works quite well, but where the game really seems to fall down is the Strategic Combat concept. If the expectation is that you have to use Strategic Combat for PBEM, then it needs a complete overhaul and ALOT of attention (MAJOR? MEDIUM?)

Re: Most bang-for-the-buck hard code changes
 

Probably medium-lvl coding:

Remember what colonies you saw in a system and put a datestamp for the Last time a ship of yours or one of your allies was in there. Maybe that will help the AI a bit on choosing planetary targets. Do NOT have it memorize ships spotted. Doing that would derange the AI and probably throw off some human players as well.

Have seekers move when launched. Either a default set to represent them being ejected from the launchers or whatever that seeker's speed is.



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"What do -you- want?" "I'd like to live -just- long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this..." *waggle* "...can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Morden?"

Re: Most bang-for-the-buck hard code changes
 

I forget, does the program beep at you when the computer is done processing? I don't think it does. If not, then that's my nomination for super-trivial hard-code change. It would allow people to play SEIV all night, and still get in some sleep while the AI moves are processed.