Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

Well I downloaded the Space Empires Demo a little while back and I must say...this is the most epic and in depth strategy game I've ever played, cept for the 100 turns drawback I think this game is really worth getting.

I have a few questions about some stuff though:

1.How good is the AI in the full Version?

2. How easy is it to put in one of those cool new shipsets I downloaded?

3. What is "play by mail" and how does it work?

4. What is "play by web" and how does that work?

6. Does this game have a cut off year like say Starships Unlimited or Civ 2?

7. How many ships and troops can you have as a max in the full game?

8. Just how big ARE the largest galactic maps in terms of system numbers?

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

lot of questions. I'd be happy to answer when I get home from work but I know as a type this there are probably 2 or 3 people typing long answers. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Good enough to cut your teeth on. Then get the TDM AI mod, they'll keep you busy. Humans are best, though. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It is pie. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">One person hosts the games, send turns out, you work them, send them back, wait for next turn. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">One site hosts the games, send turns out, you work them, send them back, wait for next turn. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Only if you wnat it to. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">20,000? 200,000? Enough, that's for sure. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">255 systems is the game max. These can have many, many planets. FQM mod does wonders for the map.

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

"One person hosts the games, send turns out, you work them, send them back, wait for next turn."

So one player sends out the information on turns and the others type their response and let the host play it for them?

Or do they get to actually PLAY the turn as if they were playing a hotseat game?

Sorry for what no doubt sound like dumb questions but I just want to learn everything I can before I get a game.

[ October 06, 2003, 19:56: Message edited by: Starhawk ]

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

"So one player sends out the information on turns and the others type their response and let the host play it for them?

Or do they get to actually PLAY the turn as if they were playing a hotseat game?"

They play it in Simultanous mode, send the turn file to the host, the host runs the turns and SE4 calculates the results.

Simulanious mode just means you input orders only, then at the end of the turn everyone's orders are run at the same time.

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">the load the game up, play the game and when you hit end turn it creates a .plr file that you send to the host. (note this is one of 2 ways to play by e-mail, the other u just send the turn back and forth)

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

Hmm sounds like it would take away from the experience of playing SEIV.

Here's another big question...Should I bother getting SEIV or is SEV coming out soon enough to make getting IV a bad idea?

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

Hey Starhawk. Welcome to the forum. Just a heads up, there is no hotseat play over multiple computers - PBW, PBEM, or TCP/IP are all strategic combat.

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

Yeah I knew that...but I was kinda figuring the play by mail game would work in a similar fashion. I wouldn't want to play a game where i can't even see if I'm gonna win till the next turn :-).

Play by mail sounds as if it takes away some of the enjoyability of the game.

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">no, the answer was not clear. in a simultanious play by email or play by web game, you PLAY YOUR TURN. each player plays his/her own game turn, on their own computer, in their own copy of SE4. then when they are done with the turn, their computer saves it as a ".PLR" file and you send it to the hosts, whom compiles it all and sends out a ".TRN" file for the next game turn. the difference between simultanious and sequential (you can play a simultanious game in hotseat mode, to see what im talking about) is that in a simultanious game the ships dont move when you order them to - they record a list of orders and everyones ships move together when the turn is processed.

simultanious is a much better way of playing, IMO (although slower for single player games) since it forces you to use more tactics and you cant be as reactionary.

As to ETA on se5, i would guess next xmas at the soonest. maybe 2005. I got an email from AH once that said he was shooting for xmas this year, but i doubt its going to happen. we all would have heard something by now.

EDIT: Oh, maybe you did understand. but the combat simulator can give you a general idea if you are going to win a combat or not, and almost all but the most important battles are won by overwhelming force. thats largely the difference between strategic and tactical games. in strategy games like SE4 and CIV, the goal is to make sure the fight is as unfair as possible.

[ October 06, 2003, 21:15: Message edited by: Puke ]

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Nitpicking but isn't it a .gam file that they send out?

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

Yeah, he's been playing too much Stars! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
(silly .x and .y files that game used too... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif still that was a great game, wish they'd finished the sequel http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif )

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

Yah. I remember when SE4 was first coming out... I was hoping to grab it and the next Stars! all within the same year... ahh how my heart would have soared... now it looks like the Stars! franchise is dead.

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Nitpicking but isn't it a .gam file that they send out?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well if we want to get all technichal it is a .GAM a .TRN and a .CMB file. The TRN file alows you to see what happened during the previous turn

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

wow, nailed by four people on that one! next we will have people from my PBW games chiming in that i would actually have known the correct extensions if i would just bother to send a turn in every once and a while!

seriously, thanks for the correction. and too bad about S!:SNG...

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

Okay 'nother question....I know it's an annoying habit i've got but http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif .

Okay the first place I saw Space Empires IV I saw a 3d shot of a ship near a sun, it looked like it was a scinimatic of some kind, so can any of you guys explain this? Are there 3d scinematics for some events?

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Possibly you saw a screenshot of the game setup screen. It's not cinematic but it does put random images on the screen.

Also, someone correct me if I am wrong, there are some cinematic screens for some of the events when playing single player right? Like when you blow up a star or a planet, doesn't it cut to another screen and show a little animated bmp of the planet blowing up? I don't play much single player so I can't be certain about that. Maybe that's what you saw then.

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

stelar manip componets include animations of their effects, when used in a sequential turn game. more like an animated .gif in quality. random events have no animation.

Re: Hi all I just have the demo right now but...
 

Nah, no graphics like that. It was probably the Stellar Manipulation menu screen.

The game isn't about graphics. Its strong points are elsewhere, but they're so strong they more than make up for the 1993 graphics.