Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

www.malfador.com No jokes.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Damn you people with faster than dial-up internet! Those screenshots are gonna take forever to load.

But it looks f***ing awesome!

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I am in love...

Not with you Renegade.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

OH does screenshots are soooo cool, its like a dream come true

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I sure hope not! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

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*blink* "Sports" is a tech area? Hmm, I wonder what kind of futuristic sports we'll be inventing when we research it.

Colonization techs apparently have multiple levels now. I wonder what the later levels give. Lower cost? Smaller? More cargo space?

Hmm, "Cultural Achievements". I wonder how similar to Civ3 that is.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

3D GROUND COMBAT! WOOT!
HEX GRIDS! WOOT!
3D SYSTEM VIEWS! WOOT!
3D COMBAT! WOOT!
BETTER INTERFACES! WOOT!
CLEANER LOOKING RESEARCH PANE! WOOT!
KINDA REALISTIC SIZES! WOOT!
PRETTY STARS! WOOT!
ASTEROID BELTS! WOOT!
SPORTS!(woot?)
MAINTENENCE COSTS! WOOT!
HEX GRIDS! WOOT!
RESEARCH SLIDERS! WOOT!

Now, did I forget anything?

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Lol

Pics look good.

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Ah, the glory of 3D view AND hex map!

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I think I need to take a break and just go for a walk..........

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Yay, ship size is conveyed visually properly! Look at how much BIGGER that space station is than the ships around it!

Edit: Just got to last screenshot. Judging by that screenshot, we can all stop worrying about too simplistic ground combat! It's ground combat in a hex grid!

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*drools*

This is sweet! I know what my favourite game is going to be... but that release date (Q4 2005)... I don't know if I can wait that long...

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

I have a new goal in life... learn how to make my ship sets work in SE V and make them look as good as the ones in the game. OMG! The ships are scaled to the bases...... GROUND COMBAT!!!!!! 3D buildings and unites..... Oooohhhhhhhhhhhhh... Shower time.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

On Patch Download page:

"Dude! The game has to come out first!"

LOL http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Yeah, the patch message is awesome. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Anyone else notice from the screenshots that facilities are now going to have a workforce? and maintenance! Realism! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

And looking at the combat screenshot, it looks like combat won't be so detailed that we can't have tons of ships, but detailed enough to make me drool in anticipation!

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Somehow I missed that. Hmm, I wonder if there will be facilities that reduce the maintenance cost of other facilities?

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

More news!

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

I hope the sliders in the research screen (and wherever else they're used) have click-and-drag functionality, or at least a decently high rate of change for click-and-hold on the arrows.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Woops, we have a typo. In the Q&A answer to question 3, "tergeted" is misspelled.

Edit: And another one, in question 4 "allready" should only have one l.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Take a look at the ground combat screenshot. It looks to me like we can manually place where we want our facilities and weapon platforms to be placed for optimal defensive positioning.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Ah yes, that reminds me: Will there be facilities with defensive systems for use during ground combat, and will we be able to but ground combat weaponry on weapon platforms?

Regarding all types of combat, will firing arcs be part of design considerations?

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

I believe that in the chat sessions Aaron said that firing arcs would be a part of (at least) space combat. Then again, I could be wrong, if I am please correct me someone.

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Now, about the site, it could use some more of the available screen real estate, with the SEIV banner up about 1/7th of the screen is dedicated to the news, wich imho should take about 2/3rds at least (maybe include the banner as news for now) and then have links to various other things, now the site is packed with information, all on one page. and about 1/5th of the sides is spent on the decoration, which is nice and such, but it's still, only decoration.. content is more important than the package imho.

Anyways as far as the screenshots are concerned I'm drooling, the graphics might not be DX9 accellerated and stuff, the features they promise are worth thousand thimes more.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Actually I was wondering about that. Does anyone ever do research with the "all at once" thing on? (or whatever its called). I always do mine one at a time but maybe thats just me

ALSO the screen shots are great but is that little galaxy window the size of the game or is he just running small games for testing? Will I be eagerly awaiting Fryons first mod to give us back the giant maps?

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

In SE4 the divide research points function is pretty useless.

In SE3, I could put 1% or 2% research towards medical tech, and I would finish the med tech at just the right rate to keep up with natural plagues http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

I wonder how ground combat works now... can I call in supporting fire from orbiting ships? How about atmospheric fighters? That would rock!

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Exciting stuff - too bad I'm stuck at work for another hour. :-(

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IMO there should be a penalty for concentrating too much on a single tech field. This would make simultaneously researching several tech areas with various percentages of research allocated a sensible approach. Make sure click-and-drag works reasonably well, taking points away from other areas (from highest spending fields first) as necessary to meet the current slider's cost, and add locks that can be enabled on each slider to prevent points being taken from it, and I think we'd have a pretty good system. Just make sure there's an undo feature so a single misclick won't require readjusting all the sliders you're interested in because they all got dropped to 0 when you dragged one to 100.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Ever heard of the law of diminising returns? As you research more and more, you get less and less.

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Exactly. Which is why I think putting 100% on one tech should result in losing something like 25%, maybe more, of your research.

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Why? It just reduces my options.

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I must say, I really don't like that idea. At the very least, make it an option.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

How so? I think it would increase your options. If you really need a particular tech RIGHT NOW, you could take the loss and get it faster, but always putting 100% into one tech at a time is no longer the only reasonable thing to do in a fiercely competitive game.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Just got to look at the new screens. OMG!! They look awe inspiring!

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

No, it increases the trade-offs I have to make, but it reduces the time I can focus on one area if I want, thus reducing my options.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Decent eye candy, promising screenshots.

Typo: In the ground facility screenshot (lower right, 8th of eight shots) the word "Ordinance" should be "Ordnance" (no "I"), meaning "weaponry". Ordinance (with an "I") is a municipal regulation.

Thoughts: More complex/detailed game means either more micromanagement or more use of AI ministers, which will probably be much less effective than human players. More options makes it harder to program competent AI functions. I hope MM provides players with more "hooks" into the AI, so talented modders can take up the slack.

It may also take more post-release testing and patching to get the game into an "almost right" state comparable to SEIV Gold's v1.91.

On the other hand the designers seem to have planned some nice features for the game; with luck most of them will actually be implemented.

So overall I guess I'm hopeful, but wary. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Actually, that ship might be a space-borne colony, and as such needs ordinances http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

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Huh? My proposal wouldn't affect how long you can focus on one tech at all. Hmm, maybe I used the wrong word there. By "losing" I meant "wasting". Investing 100% in one tech area would only add 75% of your research points for the turn to your progress in that tech, but would have absolutely no effect at all on your research rate in later turns. You could spend up to 50% on each tech and get the full value of your research points, but each 1% more than that would only give .5% more progress. Keep in mind that these numbers are only for example purposes; personally, I would prefer an even lower limit for getting full value and a graduated system where the portion of each extra percentage point that gets wasted increases as the total percent allocated to the field increases.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

It isn't even in beta yet, give Aaron time! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Don't hold your breath on ordnance... Aaron armed ships with proclamations and laws in SF too...

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Well, I guess I should finish all those 3D Exosquad ships I was making, now that we have a suitable graphics engine to make it worthwhile.

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Which would mean that if I try to research one at a time, I'll fall behind.

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> Ah, the glory of 3D view AND hex map!

Indeed, in the great minds think alike category, here's a link to a pet project that I've been working off and on for years.

http://www.geocities.com/tzircher/tcom_gallery.htm

Don't be surprised if some of these models become available for SE V after it is released. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif
--
TAZ

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

At least the new buildings have a "Workforce" rating. Finally population will play a major role! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

On the other hand... I'm worried about potential Sim City-style micromanagment on every planet surface. It would rock in a game with 3 planets, but with 100 planets... I already choose gas giants specifically to have fewer planets to micromanage, but physically placing every building on every planet in a 100-star galaxy seems overboard. I wonder if the computer will do that automatically, with the player just queuing them like in SE4. Also, asteroids are still in clumps rather than belts. Combat looks really neat, though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

"Endless" ordinances? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

You know how bureaucracy is...:D

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

i think that having graphics is selling out. I was really hoping that sev was going to be a pure command line type of game. Maybe different colour on the fonts but thats it

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Tesco, you are in the beta, feel free to make that Mod. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Here's a hint, the UI uses .bmp's but one can easilly make a frameset and UI using bitmap versions of the extended IBM ASCII character set.

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

Re: Malfadors New Site Is Up WITH SCREEN SHOTS!
 

Thats a point, has it been coded to allow us to use things other than BMPs?
Cos that was a huge wanted, especially for the use of animated .gifs

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Yes, I like what I see. Especially the hex grid. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Except the system screen. U-gly! And trying to get my pointer on one of those back side hexes could cause serious damage to my monitor screen and knuckles.