How is the game now?
 

So, how is this game now? Does the latest fix and mods make this a worthy investment? I've seen this available at Gamestop for $19.00 and was considering. What is everyones thoughts on the game play?

Re: How is the game now?
 

For $19, I'd say go for it. Most of the showstopper bugs have been eliminated, aside from a memory leak that some people have reported. I haven't seen it myself, so I can't really comment on it, but as it stands, if you get patched up to 1.33 and get either, or both, Kwok's Balance Mod and the IRM mod, you'll have yourself a good game with an AI that puts up a decent challenge.

Re: How is the game now?
 

IIRC you main problem was with the UI, right? That hasn't changed much. There have been a few changes like condensed unit lists and a few ship design improvements.

The demo is up to 1.25 now. Grab that, try again.

Re: How is the game now?
 

So...the UI remains the same?

Sigh.

Oh well...

Thanks,

AMF

Re: How is the game now?
 

I would buy it. The UI stills has some issues but the game is very playable now.

Re: How is the game now?
 

I wouldn't. I got the latest patch just for possible future use, but I can't even muster enough interest to check out all the fixes because I just don't find it fun. And none of the fixes address the things that make the game unfun. Except 1: the game now should process turns when minimized - great, but not enough.

I'm playing other games.

Re: How is the game now?
 

I get increasingly confused about comments like this. Honestly I think any critiques of this game right now are just being nitpicky. The game is the best 4X game out there right now.

Re: How is the game now?
 

Im with Slick on this one. I dont enjoy the game, unlike SEIV, easy as that.

Re: How is the game now?
 

That may say more about the industry's regard for the 4X genre than it does about SE V.

I'm still waiting to acquire a system that will run SE V, so I can't comment on the game itself, yet. (I've had a deal pending on a used machine for over a month and a half, but circumstances keep preventing it from getting to me.)

There's one thing I can say about it: because the v1.33 patch has fixed a couple issues were causing problems on PBW, PBW no longer allows people to start new SE V games in older versions.

capnq
PBW admin

Re: How is the game now?
 

I like SE5 more than I did SE4.

Re: How is the game now?
 

Much better as of late. The patches have fixed many of the more glaring bugs, I'm more used to the UI quirks, and I really like the gameplay. With the Balance Mod, the AI can really survive well -- even small low tech ships are quite durable to combat.

Re: How is the game now?
 

Well, the AI can perhaps survive, but he can't actually kill a player. For that matter, 10 AIs together couldn't kill a player, even a newbie. The attack part of the AI scripts are really incomplete, especially in regards to the fog of war feature. Other than that, most bugs are being sorted out.

Personally I don't really enjoy playing the game all that much, though. The new modding possibilities are great, combat is an improvement, and there are several other smaller improvements as well, but the user interface and the main windows are so awkward and slow that it takes away much of the fun with the actual gameplay.

Re: How is the game now?
 

What you consider nitpicky, I don't. I know what I consider fun, and SE:V aint. I was responding to the original question by another user. Sorry if it confused you.

Re: How is the game now?
 

I'd be curious to know what you consider fun then.

Re: How is the game now?
 

Wow, that was probably the most ridiculous reply ive seen in the last few weeks. Cant you just acknowledge his opinion regarding SEV ? He says he dont have fun while playing it, there is absolutly no way to argue over that.

Re: How is the game now?
 

I could easily say that about 95% of the criticism I've heard of SEV. The complaints I hear range from "it runs slow" to "I hate the UI" Which translates to "I've played SE IV for so many years that I hate things that are different."

It's a new game, made by a single person. It's continously evolving and it gets a large amount of support from the developer and interested player base. SE IV was a great game there is no doubt, but instead of continously critiquing SEV how about people volunteer to help fix it.

Re: How is the game now?
 

Uh, no. I don't think the UI is as bad as people say, but it does have issues. (why did the game ship with no condensed lists for units, and why do some screens still not have that option? Why are my custom layouts never saved? Why are some common options stuck into sub-menus? etc)

Re: How is the game now?
 

I don't think that's it, Doom. At least for my part, it's got nothing to do with me not liking what's 'different'. And I hadn't even been playing SE IV all that much before SE V was released.

To put things back in perspective, for my own sake, I fired up SE IV again; it's *amazing* how fast and easy it is to interact with ships, colonies, anything in that game, compared to the new one.

Even such a small difference in game mechanics as the 'double-click'( SE V ) vs 'single-click'( SE IV ) makes a big impact on how much you have to 'work' to get things done.

That said, I'm not giving up on SE V until Aaron does.

Re: How is the game now?
 

Or the publisher? *cough* moo3 *cough*

Re: How is the game now?
 

Phoenix-D said:
"Why are some common options stuck into sub-menus?"

That one is easy; there is not always enough space for buttons, given the massive sizes used. This is particularly true of the construction queue window... oi. When we started complaining about this stuff, Aaron said it was too late to try to restructure the basic framework of the UI... :-\

Yimboli said:
"Or the publisher? *cough* moo3 *cough* "

The developer/publisher relationship between MM and SF1st is not the same as what Quicksilver and... whomever it was... had. AFAIK, SF1st did not contribute (much? any?) money to develop SE5; it was funded by MM.

Re: How is the game now?
 

The buttons aren't -that- big, compared to SEIV.

SEIV construction window: 14 buttons
SEV construction window: 13 buttons (space for 14).

SEV has more buttons in sub-menus, but that's mostly because SEV has "add item", "remove item", "Amount", which are somewhat redundant. I almost never use them.

Same with the ship design screen. SEIV has space for 14 buttons, SEV has space for...14 buttons.

Re: How is the game now?
 

Yes, but it has more things with buttons, and thus not enough space to put all of them on the screen...

Just because you don't use the amount field doesn't mean other people don't as well.

Re: How is the game now?
 

How'd those people handle SEIV? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: How is the game now?
 

In SE4, it is relegated to a sub-menu button. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: How is the game now?
 

I spent about two years of my life constantly changing my desktop environment. I love changing my UI but I think SE5's interface was overall a step backwards. It did add great stuff like hexes but SE5 displays data poorly more often then not like the combat log.

Its code is closed source; what else is there to do besides test and report?

Re: How is the game now?
 

The problems at this point are just a ton of little niggling things that combine to reduce the fun of playing.

Even slight interface items like the Planet names covering up the red/green dots for habitability are annoying. Is it a big deal? Of course not, but its repeated clicks to remember which planets are where etc.

Also, its handful of clicks to be able to find out what facilities are on a planet instead of a simply r-click on a planet.

Giving orders to ships is semi-uninituitive as well. I have to pick up the sector, click the ship and then click it again to see what orders I have given already.

And for some reason, ship design which used to be a lot of fun in previous versions seems tedious in SE5. I cant place my finger on exactly why, but I all I can go on is that I used to look forward to designing new ships when I got new hulls or components but now it seems like its a bother.

Finally, the most telling thing for me is that even though I've been waiting and checking every day for the patch, when it came out I downloaded it, fired up a game, played for about a dozen turns, saved it, and havent really felt like starting it up again. That is COMPLETELY subjective, but its just a feeling that the game isnt really that fun for me unlike SE3 and SE4 where I could lose myself for hours thinking 'just one more turn...'.

Re: How is the game now?
 

Bingo.

Re: How is the game now?
 

Uncle_Joe said:
"Even slight interface items like the Planet names covering up the red/green dots for habitability are annoying."

The atmosphere glows in FQM bypass that nicely, allowing you to tell atmosphere type at a glance.

Of course, if just a little bit of care had gone into the planet textures, you would be able to recognize the atmosphere type just by the planets' colors alone, as we could in SE4... But alas, we have blue oxygen and blue methane planets that are indistinguishable from each other, and yellow CO2 and hydrogen ones...

Re: How is the game now?
 

It's a little better. For $19 you should buy it, patch it, and play it. It will take a few more patches I expect, to get the AI right, even if the other numerous niggling issues remain. As released the game entirely deserved the sharp criticism it received, but it has improved quite a bit, and will probably continue to do so. That it is near the top of the heap of 4X games (not arguing the opinion, happen to agree) is more a condemnation of 4X games, than it is praise for SEV.

Re: How is the game now?
 

So I take it the SE5 UI isn't moddable like SE4? I'm a huge fan of 3&4, but I'm also currently holding off on SE5. If it is moddable, has anyone made new skins?

*recloaks*

zen

::edit:: Thanks Fyron, when I said 'moddable' I meant skinnable. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: How is the game now?
 

SE4's UI is not moddable. It is partially skinnable, in that some of the elements are stored as bitmaps. However, you cannot actually change the UI.

SE5's UI is very skinnable. Every element is stored as a bitmap, rather than just some like in SE4. However, it isn't really moddable either. You can do a little bit with the HUDSettings.txt file to move buttons around, but thats it. Look for the "Dark UI Mod" in the mods section for an example of a reskinned UI.