Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

For me I have four.

My first worst game was when I started a new Single Player game and by turn 2 my star had gone nova and I was out of the game. Quick and easy.

The second game was the Star Trek Final Frontier (I) where I started on a moon. That did not work out well for me.

The third was when I joined ond of CK's game and took the pirate trait without understanding what that meant. My bad. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif I let everyone down.

The Black Nova game I joined was interesting but it sucked horribly for as I took over an empire on the verge of being anihiliated by a hostile neighbor.

All of these games althought ultimately dissapointing, were fun while they Lasted. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

For me, that's the first game I hosted myself. I was inexperienced (not in playing but in organizing an good PBW-game) and much to eager to play, I got beaten before turn 40.

I even don't remember the game's name but it was an 1.49-game

Inti,

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

One game I started colonizing only to discover a alien race was in the next system... It declared war, and I pooled all my resources to ships, but it wasn't enough... I was reduced to a tiny world systems away with nothing but a couple of ships...

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

I remember my first game of SEIV Gold after playing on the demo.

I started ok, but didn't have a clue of the advanced tech that wasn't available in the Demo, and got my behind severely handed back to me by the AI. Maybe i should have checked first http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Now i'm winning Hard Difficulty/High Bonuses/Team Mode TDM Mod Pack Games, it's nice to know i actually learnt how to play the game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

Single player game. I started in the bottom corner with 3 wps out of the system. 2 were unstable that lead to black holes while the 3rd led to a system that only had 2 tiny planets I could colonize. After finally managing to get past one black hole (about 12 attempts later), What was I to find? Another Black Hole!!! By the time I got 3 systems away from my homeworld (yes, only 3), I was using heavily armored destroyers (needed to heavy research armor to get through the unstable wps and repair to get through the black holes), my first encounter with an AI was with a Krill battle Cruiser.

yeah....

Now that I think about it, that became one of the most challenging games, and a whole lot of fun once I got to that point....

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

Any PBW game in which I have started in a corner... :-\

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

I used to play a lot of PBW back in like Oct 2001 and I was in second place. I wasn't friends with this guy playing with a trek set and we were sort of battling over control of a neutral empire and he had gone straight for PPB (which is ****ing cheap and I'll hate him to this day) while I had DUCs. Needless to say I got spanked because of the massive cheapness of PPBs and I thereafter quit all PBW games (I had like 4) never to return. The part that irritates me the most was that even though I left I still heard about how he was just glassing my empire. I'd doubt I'll play against humans again. It's just like Starcraft. Once players KNOW how to play there is just no point in a noob trying to get into the action.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

Umm... this is hardly like Starcraft. There are a lot more paths to victory than the 1 or 2 per race as seen in Starcraft. Don't let one bad experience sour your view on PBW... blindly rushing for PPB is actually a bad thing (possibly even a noob mistake http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ), as you can be defeated easily by someone that gets DUCs, Combat Sensors and ECM. They are a much more powerful combination than just someone using PPBs, and their ships are a lot cheaper too. Combat bonuses and ship costs are much more important than just raw damage. Of course, there are a lot more factors than just these few to consider. Comparing a strategy game to something as simplisitic as Starcraft is silly. There are a wealth of options to explore.

Of course, then there is the plethora of mods to consider that drastically change the status quo...

[ April 11, 2004, 05:12: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

I am thankful that I have had far more fun games than not. When SEIV becomes a job for me I will stop playing it.

I play it because I enjoy it, and I enjoy what it gives me in return, power.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

Whatever you say, Fyron. That wasn't the first time PPBs spanked me. I actually left that game when his fleet of PPB ships completely obliterated my fleet of DUC ships. So, no, DUCs were not better. And I'm not the first here to say that PPBs are a cheap victory.

What I don't like is that unless you do every move, every research, ever colonization with precision you are dead meat like I was. That is what I was comparing to Starcraft. Starcraft you had to be precise down the the second. In this you have to be precise with every move.

This is not really a strategy game at all, it's a test of who knows what research is the best combined with the luck of finding colonizable planets. A lot of research tech is just plain useless other than to waste your time.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

Although PPB is quite dangerous, i've played against friends at each others houses and we disabled certain killer technologies and thats where the Fun really starts.

Also, Compared to most mods out there SEIV Gold un-modded is rather unbalanced. Try playing a mod or two and see if you enjoy that more.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

To get PPB I, your opponent needed to research Physics twice.

In that time period you could have researched Physics once (for combat sensors), Military Science (for ECM), and had ECM I. Right there he is at a disdvantage- his ships now have a 10% decrease in their accuracy.

You can get DUC V (40 damage up to range 5) for the same price as his PPB V then. (60 at min range, 50 at max) Or gone for APB V. Your DUC ships would have had less overall damage, but DUC is cheaper and therefore faster to build and easier to maintain than PPB.

Or for that matter you could have gone Construction then Fighters for the same cost as PPB, then researched DUC while he was getting PPB. Why? Because now you have the Light Carrier, which is just about as good as the Light Cruiser, and more importantly uses the Heavy Mount. Mounts are the single most important thing in SE4- if you don't use them you WILL loose. And having a heavy mount means your weapons are now 1.5 times more effective- and better than his PPBs.

The only reason PPB can be excessively nasty is if you rely heavily on shields. If you don't its primary advantage goes away.

EDIT: or you could have gone mines. Boom, no more PPB ship, and you have 50,000 research left to boot.

Given the same amount of research for each side and taking the Carrier approach (without any fighters!):

5 DUC carriers killed 13 PPB escorts for a loss of 2 carriers, with two more damaged.

More simulations:
escorts cost 3730/100/900 and take two turns to build.
carriers cost 7900/100/525 and take three turns to build.

In a large scale engagement, that means one side fields twice as many escorts (and those escorts would have taken longer to build).

Simulator tests:
20 escorts / 10 carriers: total loss of escorts, most carriers lost: 1.
20 escorts / 9 carriers: can go either way. Best-case scenerio for the escorts: 15 destroyed. Best case for the carriers: NONE destroyed (this is more common)
20 escorts / 8 carrers: almost always results in total destruction of the escorts.

You have to get down to 6 carriers before the escorts start winning consitantly, and even then they loose around half their number most of the time.

[ April 11, 2004, 00:27: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

It's also quite possible to think you are dying because they have PPB, when if fact you are dying because they have more combat bonuses, since they are one of the most important things. Not realizing that can result in very disadvantaged empire designs... which is what PvK Balance mod is for. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

PvK

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

Worst game ever for me?

Easy. My first game on PBW. And it was ALL my fault. I hadn;t ever played any PBW type games, had no idea about them, and I had been playing SEIVGold solitaire for faaaar toooooo longgg...so when I joined my first game, I got really angry at another player when I thought he didnt understand how the game was played, and how he "backstabbed" me, and totally kicked my butt. I was defensive, I blamed him, not myself. In reality, he was just really good, I was playing in a war game when I thought it was an RP game, and I got very frustrated and acted extremely immature. It was all my fault, and I acted like a real sh*t. I later apologized profusely to him, but I don't blame him for never replying. I still am very embarrassed about it, and hope that he doesn't think I am still a total jerk. Sometimes one just has to fall down hard to realize what an a** one has been.

Still sorry,

Alarik

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Though I don't agree entirely with what you think about the PPB, this statement is fairly accurate. However, when you are playing with good players, who all know what to research and how to design their races, then strategy and tactics become the deciding factor (combined with the luck you mention... though that can be mitigated somewhat by playing on a "balanced" map). Noobs definitely don't stand a chance against an experienced player, but that statement is true for a lot of games, and complaining about it is more indicative of the type of game you enjoy than the quality of the game itself. Some people like Backgammon and Cribbage because there is always the chance to beat someone who is ten times better than you. Others like Go and Chess because the opposite is true.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

One thing that can even out the research issue is to play a high tech game. Everyone then starts with all the techs researched. It then boils down to tactics, ship design, empire infrastructure, and a little luck. Just an idea.

Slick.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

My worst game would have to be my first PBW game when I took over an empire in the BGNW game. The empire was in ok shape, but little did I know the friendly neighbor was preparing to attack the empire I took over. Which he then proceeded to do almost as soon as I took it over. Right then I learned a valuable lesson; never take over someone elses empire, because for one, they can really screw it up, and two, because you don't know the political dynamics. I've never taken over a PBW empire since.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

Baal, you describe what it is to be a strategy game...

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I think some 50 PBW games of experience have taught me a thing or two about PPBs... yes, they are powerful, but they are certainly no Talisman. Combat bonuses are king. If you have stronger weapons but are behind in combat bonuses, you tend to lose. Also, there is probably a lot more to why you lost that game or two than simply the fact that your enemy was using PPBs. PPB != guaranteed victory

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

I have to say that I went into battle with 108 heavy DUC battleships, max tech DUC's, ecm, combat sensors and 20% fleet and ship training. My racial points were set at 120% aggressive and defensive. 2 Phased shields on every design, scattering armor, and stealth armor. 1 shield generator on each design and each design had a solar sail.

My *** was handed to me by a fleet of less then 50 Battle Cruisers packing PPB's.

In another battle over 200 of my DUC Battleships, same design as above, were obiterated by a fleet of ships less than 70.

Both battles took place in my space so I had first shot. This is when I decided that the multiplayer combat system of the game was broken.

CNC and Tnarg can probibly back me up on this as they were in the same game.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

IMO PPBs aren't so unbalanced as might seem... still, I like to play with tech cost set to high - I suppose that at low cost they're probably too easy to obtain.

The only tech I found really unbalanced was the allegiance subverter (before it was changed not to affect ships with master computers) - there was *no* way to defend from it, at most you could reduce the losses.

This said... my worst game ever... well, it was a very quick two player game. I had prepared a large fleet or two and was about to declare war on him when his home system's star blew up and destroyed most of his empire... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif It was quite disappointing... my first thought was "I've played so far for nothing".

Still, for some weird reasons, I enjoy playing (almost-)doomed empires, resisting to the Last... which is nice, since in most games I regularly get outnumbered, outgunned and outeverythinged http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

My god I haven't seen you post in ages. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Welcome back. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

one of the early multiplayer games that I played taught me that there were cloaking technologies at the top of the armor tech tree. I never knew that before, and since I had never used cloaking against the AI (or seen it used against me) I had no idea where to look to start researching sensors.

of course, the other candidate for worst game has to be Furball II. Though some people maintain that it was a fun game, I am very unhappy because it turned out to be very unbalanced and there were flaws in the game setup that were not properly accounted for. chalk it off to lessons learned.

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

I'd have to say that my worst game ever ws the first full edition game I played. Had no idea what to research and only had destroyers to counter an ai invasion with battlecruisers

Re: Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played
 

I think the worst game I had was the first time I tried playing the Proportions mod. I think I was in turn 3 or 4, when this fleet of ships comes out of a warp point like gangbusters and starts obliterating my small empire. There was no way I was going to win, so I just quit that game and started another, with a different strategy. Maybe one of these days I'll go back to finishing that particular game.