[klausD]

Baron,
"only" real time tactical combat? for me this is not really just only. tactical combat is for me 50% of SE4. I love to test my ship design against those of my opponents. (in TB combat of course)

I like the SE series really much since they start (I think I was one of the first who cought up the Modding and limited resources discussion in the SE mailling list several years ago) and I hope that Aaron will not "develope" the game in this new trendy "real time" direction. Why changing a system which is functional and well introduced? Improving yes - but not changing. For me this would be not a good way to bring SE series along. (and it has also a good chance to flop - as my lately posted game examples show)

I also dont find that you can compare an initiative impulse system like you and Barnacle Bill would like to have is similar to a real time system.
In real time the time impulse is infinitely small and thus a user cannot check precisely in which of those microimpulses to act. Therefore a guy which has a certain trained mouse ability is ALWAYS in advantage to another guy which has not this ability. And this is guilty in every game with RT sequences. (included SFB and Harpoon and so on) Some people claim that everybody has "enough" time for clicking/commanding their forces. But this argument is not valid, because its not true. In EVERY real time game the right mouse click at the right time is always better than the the right mouse click at the wrong time. And this puts a heavy disadvantage on untrained mouseclickers. I would like to have the SE series to be games which are a contests of the minds not of the fingers.

bye
Klaus