Re: Next patch requests
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Because in comparisson to chemical engines they are ! Well, potentially at least. There are no concevaible means to acclerate any more the exhast of standart rocket, while there might be ways to improve the thrust of other, so far exotic rocket engines. The close marking of any hints from academic establishment by mass media makes a perfect sense if you taxonony sci-fi literature according to its original postulate : a literature on the edge of our scientific progress. ( Star Trek is random string of techno bubble and has no right to be considered as a SCIENTIFIC fiction IMHO)

Re: Next patch requests
 

Yes, ion drives have a strange Cache. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif First, I think 'ion' just sounds cool, and NASA has been talking about ion rives for ages. But also there was a specific Star Trek episode that touted the ion drives of some space ship that ambushed them and captured Spock, erm, Spock's brain, and I think that stuck in the popular imagination. While the exhaust speed of an ion drive is far greater than any current chemical rocket the thrust is very small and so the rate of acceleration is also very small. This high exhaust speed makes for great efficiency, though, so once you are out of the atmosphere it is a better thing to have for long-range probes that cannot come home and tank-up like a plane or ship can on earth. You get much more total thrust out of a given weight of propellant but it takes much longer to take effect. I don't think an ion drive can even operate within our atmosphere. They have to test them in a vacuum chamber.

Oleg -- Yes, treknobabble is garbage. I've made a distinction in my own mind between Science Fiction and 'Techno-drama'. Real SciFi actually has a plot that turns on the effects of scientific issues on how we see the universe and our place in it. Techno-drama is just soap opera with technological stage props and techno-babble. All but a handful of Star Trek episodes are nothing but Techno-drama.

[ 11 May 2002, 01:15: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Re: Next patch requests
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes they do. Albeit a Vacumm chamber filled with Xenons I think.

The Ion Engines that JPL is testing goes into the Ionosphear, charges up Ions, makes a "wall" of Dense Ions and gets out and push http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif into a great distance... I think.

The Thing with the Ion engines is all it needs are Electricity that are generated by the Solar Panels, rather than Chemical fuels which run out.

Although you can't use Ion engins in a planet: It'll just cause electroshock to anything that surrounds Kenedy Space Center.

Re: Next patch requests
 

If there is just ONE thing Malfador does, this should be it: give the AI some better movement strategies in combat. The following would at least TRIPLE AI effectiveness, especially if the same strategy was (optionally)NOT made available to humans (who I am sure use it always in tactical combat. I call it "just out of range". The AI usually moves right into the human's range without thinking, giving him first shot. As any human knows, first shot means guaranteed victory (I mean 100%) in a one-on-one all tech environment with equally good and optimal ships, no matter how good the opponent, and is a BIG advantage at any time. A single human ship in tactical combat can often take out a superior AI fleet without losing a single component as it is now. The game is just too easy in this respect. But suppose the AI practiced "just out of range", stopping his advance as a human would (i.e. stopping at distance 1+ opponent's minimum range + his number of moves) and let him come to you). That would really even the playing field and make strategic and simultaneous combat far more challenging for the humnan player. It can't be that difficult to program and would make a world of difference. Secondly, if they can do TWO things, teach the AI how to design better ships, using worms, subverters, talisman and ionic dispersers, the things that make the critical difference in who wins strategic combat between equally good designers (at least this is my experience to date). The first is, however, the key thing as the latter can be done with mods.

Re: Next patch requests
 

The biggest problem is humans can always find a way to exploit the AI, no matter what Aaron does to make the AI better. Of course you can crush the computer in tatical combat because you can react to thousands of different situations in a thousand ways. The AI has just a limited number of choices. If you want a challenging game...then don't cheat the AI by trading worthless junk for stuff, use strategic combat, things like that. You'll the notice the game becomes much more difficult.

Re: Next patch requests
 

Another move strategy that humans use in tactical combat that the AI could use to advantage but doesn't is the following. This we could call "moving in and out of range". The cleanest example is in attacking a stationary target which has a certain range, say a WP or a ship with engines knocked out. The human moves into range, shoots and moves back to distance (1+opponent's range). It seems trivial, but the AI now sits still within a planet's range and lets himself get knocked to pieces unnecessarily. Once again. it can't be all that difficult to program. Perhaps the movement strategy should be split into two parts (1) before shooting (2) after shooting, to give the possibility of more variation. for example. (1) "optimal range" AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE (i.e. no parallel moves as the AI does now) followed by (2) move "just out of range" if possible.

Re: Next patch requests
 

Catain Kwok, I agree and for that reason I don't use tactical combat any more. But what I am trying to do here is suggest that Malfador improve AI strategical combat by using some simple moves of the kind that a human would use in tactical combat, thus evening the playing field a little.

Re: Next patch requests
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I have lost planets to unmodded, standard AIs that did exactly what you describe.

Re: Next patch requests
 

The destrutction of ion stroms is still not reported in the log.

Sometimes, the ministers add itens ti queues of shipyards under human control (example: i use some space stations with huge cargo capability to build units in a loop, not minister controled of course, and sometimes appear ships/etc added to the queue.

Re: Next patch requests
 

If the Intelligence make a ship turn to us, in the log they report it but the go button take us to the place it appenned and not to the ship itself.
I think need to be fixed.