SE5 What are the highlights?
 

Ok, so what are the must have features of SE 5? I have played through some turns in the demo and it appears renarkably similar to SE4, but with a new 3D layout to get used to. Nothing appears to be new and exciting ..... what should I be looking at to blow my socks off and say "must buy!!".

RA

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

The game is only going to get better.
It is very moddable, more so than even SE IV.
While not yet polished and fully functional it will be.
Combat is a kick in the ***
Ground combat is way way better than in SE IV
The political system is far better than SE IV
The Intel system is a note worthy mention
Better looking components
The planets rotate
The system maps give the game a real feel for size and they look good.
There are lots of reasons to buy the game. The most important one is that as time goes on the game is only going to get better. Why not be a part of the journey.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

Features that aren't just "oh, shiny!":
-Limited LOS and having to survey new systems (leads to a problem with the game not remembering enemy units, like in SE4, but there's a settings.txt line that mostly fixes that).
-Greatly expanded modding possibilites- take a look at the date files.
-Combat. Warp-assults especially will be much more interesting: ships don't appear all at once any more! they come through the WP in a steady stream. You can tell them to go through all at once, but that risks losing some to interpentration.
-research is better, and points carry over
-contruction carries over; you can build multiple ships per turn, and multiple TYPES of items per turn.
-many of the menus are very customizable and sortable
-Alliances
-The treaty system is no longer fixed to a few treaties- you can include whatever you like in any treaty. Don't want to let your treaty partner colonize in your system? You can forbid that. Want to share intelligence, but not research? you can do that.
-the log has been improved. You can see diplomatic messages you sent, and those the enemy sent from previous turns, for example.
-Strategic combat has been improved- you can pause it, run through at different speeds, reply, etc.
-path.txt is no more. Looks like you can select mods in-game.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

Not sure if I like not seeing anything in a system when I first enter it. I arrive in a solar system in my hi tech starship and I can't see any planets?!

How's the AI?

RA

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

Yeah that messed me up also. You have to fly around to find things. There was a green line around the area that my ship can "see". Oh yeah, the default colony ships see more than the "scout" ships I tried to build. No wonder there were no scout ships in the defult options.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

If you really don't like the feature you can turn it off. And Gandalf, your scout ships didn't see as far because you didn't mount sensors on them. The default colony ships DO have sensors.

Can't speak for the AI so far, my test games I've only really run across neutrals for some odd reason. The other empires are THERE, but I haven't found them. That and the demo is locked to medium difficulty.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

With some level 10+ sensors you see about 70% of the system as soon as you enter it. It's an okay feature I think, especially considering it's completely adjustable( settings for it are in the settings.txt file).

As for the AI, I don't really have anything good to say about it thus far. In two 100-turns games I've never had a planet attacked, never had them venture into my systems, they're being really uninterested in research( which is, I'd say, more important than ever; there's so much of it now), etc.

Not sure what's wrong with it. It's like they are in 100% passive mode, and they don't really expand( at all?) either. Think the most I've seen is a colony 1 system outside their home/start-system.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

That's actually kind of realistic. We're spoiled by not-to-scale media depictions of solar systems. In the real universe, you have to be really close to something (on an astronomical scale), for it to show as disk rather than just another point of light.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

This is an excellent observation.

That's because Pluto is waaaaaaaaaay the **** out there http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Oh, and CapnQ, all 4 of the links in your sig are broken, including the first one, to PBW. And I just checked to be sure PBW is up http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

The Amon'Krie destroyed one of my colonies, but it turns out their home system was right next door. The AI seems to research APBs, Torpedoes, and Point-Defense, but nothing really ground-breaking. How about some ground troops and transports, eh? No matter, the modders will take care of it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

(Testing edited sig)Well, that was odd. Somehow the PBW link's UBBCode [ url ] tag got changed to a HTML < href > and the number 4 was added to one filename. I certainly didn't do that. I'm not sure how to fix the other links; that's why I added the caveat about logging into PBW.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

We can argue about what's realistic in 2400+ starships but of course it's all fiction. All the above would be true if we were arriving in a space shuttle.... but I am thinking starships are starting with more advanced scanner/sensor technology that we have at the moment.

Anyway, glad to see we can turn it off if we don't like the game play aspects of it.

RA

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

Exactly. Modding is the key. The SEIV AI was basically useless in the stock game but actually fun with the TDM ModPak.

TM

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

It preceeds Space Empires VI.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

Thing is, though, the game SHOULD be fun out of the box. People buy a game and expect it to be playable and challenging when they get it home. If modding is the key to getting any real enjoyment out of SEV, then maybe the price should be lower.

Or maybe the talented and energetic members of the modding community should have been involved in SEV as co-developers. to take some of the pressure and workload off Aaron.

I personally had quite a lot of fun playing against the stock SEIV AI. I have been downloading new shipsets/races for some time, but only began playing mods about a year ago.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

Its worth noting that for a new player the default AI works well enough.

The people that think the AI is a *complete* joke are generally good enough they'd thrash almost any AIs, and new ones are only a minor challenge because they behave in slightly different ways.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

In the demo the AI hasn't attacked me at all actually, and I'm *not* an efficient player. It's like they keep within one system of their homeworld and just fly around with some defense fleets.

In other words, I can spend forever expanding, researching and building up fleets, because the computer never bother doing anything.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

Raapys: what empires? Keep in mind that only the Abbidon, Amon'Krie, Terrans, and Xi'ati are true empires. Everyone else is a isolationist neutral- they're supposed to behave like that.

Still, the neutrals I fought in my last game did a decent accounting of themselves. Kicked my *** a couple times, actually..(better research prioritys; they went for guns I went for other stuff).

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

It was depressing when I heard the beta testers mention that the "50 beta testers" was more like "12 beta testers + deadbeats/no-shows".

I honestly haven't played much of SE5 since Sunday. I played all Friday night and Saturday, came to the conclusion that the fundamental game rocks, and have spent all of my spare time since then modding it. I didn't expect the stock SE5 game experience to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, nor would it have made much difference to me if it was.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

Unfortunately that's..not at all uncommon. :/ Too many people sign up for testing thinking "hey, free game!"

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

There are professional beta test companies. But they probably cost a lot.

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

I resemble that remark...

Seriously, I was a beta for EU2. As it turned out, when that oh-so-exciting package with the Swedish postage on it arrived, I had recently seen the birth of my first child and my wife was in rage-against-the-machine (i.e. my computer) mode. So, I had maybe an hour or two to play daily, and that starting roughly 9PM EST. A good half (or more) of the betas were in Europe, and new beta patches came out (darn near daily) during Euro working hours. By the time I installed a new patch, any bug I found had already been reported. I could kibitz on gameplay stuff, but that was pretty much the limit of my influence. I'm sure Paradox considered me a lame beta (and justifiable so).

I've never even applied to be a beta again. Back in my college days, oh baby I coulda been the betamax. Being a beta is a MAJOR commitment, and if you haven't been there don't be too rough on them what has http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

edited for spelling

Re: SE5 What are the highlights?
 

Ive been in numerous beta groups. Its hard to keep playing the game over and over and over. Restarting everytime changes are patched in. Grabbing each patch faithfully and testing it.

Especially if its a group where ALL you get to be is a beta-tester. Test the code. No suggestions, no opinions, no discussion. I dont know if thats what happened here but it sucks when it does.

Most beta testers start out with good intentions. Dont be too hard on the ones that fall out. Praise the ones that hang in there. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif