On-line tactical combat idea
 

There has been some discussion about MM introducing a multiplayer mode. However the problem with multiplayer is often the time it takes to play a complicated game like SEIV. But how about a simplified Version that is restricted to one-on-one tactical combat? This would be far simpler to program and tournaments could be arranged with many variations, similar to AOK. Two players could, for example, play the best out of elleven with predesigned fleets limited to some total cost, say 300,000 resources. And be finished within two hours max on-line, probably faster than that. Or maybe just one ship, maximum Dreadnought class costing no more than 40,000 resources, etc. etc.
Designing ships and tactical combat are two of the most attractive and distinguishing features of SEIV, but the AI is just too primitive to offer a challenge. I cannot evaluate the technical costs of doing this, but surely it is not that big a deal, and I am sure it would be a big hit with many people who avoid multiplayer games because of the time factor. It could also attract a lot of new customers to SEIV and the single player game. Has this ever been discussed? What do you think?

Re: On-line tactical combat idea
 

On a similar note, I was thinking it would be fun to have tactical combats, using a human mediator for now.

With a human orchestrating the action, it would be easy to add weapon arcs, shield facings, real newtonian movement, splash damage weapons, all in a row damage, real emissive armor, shields against "only X" weapons, multiple damage types (WMG moves ship around), newtonian tractor beams (escorts can affect cruisers with a tractor beam, but they move themselves more than the enemy - useful in swarms though) etc.
Some other cool things you could do is have unknown information, and require ships to carry and use LongRange Scanners to see what specific damage they've done. The GM would always mention the obvious stuff, like the ship exploding, or a major chunk of the ship breaking off (all engines destroyed in one hit, say)

The only problem is getting all three people together at once (email, message board, ICQ?).
Other than that, it would be the ultimate tactical combat experience, and would make for some great stories.

Re: On-line tactical combat idea
 

I think tac combat as it is now would have to be made a little more complex to be a decent stand-alone game, but it's a nice idea.

I suggested a while back that Malfador should produce some small, email sized SE4 spin-off game and release it for free as viral marketting to drum up interest.
This could be suitable.

Other ideas that were suggested (Not all by me)
Space invaders / Galaga using the Race_mini_ images (Download more races for more levels)
Phong Pong
Druk-Man (A drukshocka pac-man gobbling up EEE)
BrEEEkout (Bat the EEE about the screen to demolish the blocks)


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SE4 Code:
L GdY $ Fr- C- Sd T!+ Sf-- Tcp-- A% M>M+ MpD! RV Pw Fq+ Nd- Rp+ G-
/SE4 Code
Go to my meagre SEIV pages to generate your own code.

Re: On-line tactical combat idea
 

hmmm... deja vu
my thread

i still think it's a great idea.