Anybody using Ground Combat/Units??

Narlotep · #1 August 31st, 2000, 01:42 AM

I just started messing around with "Troops" and am not very impressed with creating them let alone using them. I had to stop short, so some of these answers may become clear when I try again tonight.

My assumption (yeah, I know) was that I could produce "units' that I could group into tactical organizations, i.e. just like we can build ships and group them into Task Forces or Fleets. However, this does not appear to be the case.

1.) How do you regroup troop "units" into actual units? I built twenty "units" with
the design name "Light" and they all plopped out together and are sitting in the planet's "Cargo" area (????). From there, they appear unmodifiable, i.e. giving the group of units a true name rather than "Light" which has inexplicably become their organizational name or regrouping into smaller organizations.

2.) Seems strange that troops require designing and my boarding parties do not. Why can't I just use those shipboard boarding parties as "troops" as well. Granted they'd be lightly armed, but with the AI's inability to defend his worlds properly, they'd be good enough.

3.) Do troops gain experience? If so, is this by "unit" or by "group of units"? Again, if there is no organization and units are just clustered into blobs o' units, then how can the player take advantage of higher experienced units that he may wish to group into elite formations?

Anyway, its early and prior to coffee, but these are some of my scattered thoughts from Last nights experimenting.

Master Belisarius · #2 August 30th, 2000, 04:02 PM

The Troops are only a minor feature in SE4.
Yea, you can design your troops (and it's cool), but you can not do so much...
In fact, the SE4 ground combat (like most of 4x games in the space), it's very simple: only one stack of invader Troops against the defender's stack.
In my opinion, I believe that MM did the right decision: the core of the game is the "Galactic Conquest" not the "Planetary Conquest".

About your questions:
1) The Troops, like the Satellites, Plataforms, Mines, Fighters, etc, are placed in the Planet "Cargo Area", after you build it.
You can load them into transports if you want, and "regroup" them... but the game always group your units, depending the name that you used to create them.
If in the early game, you build light Troops with Small Rockets, you should name them "Light Rockets 1", for example. But, if later, you have new tech to design better troops, you should create a new Troop design (with a different name), using the new tech.

2)I think that MM only was keeping the same idea than SE3...

3)I'm not sure, but think not. Anyway, I'm sure that the Troops are expendable resources: you can build a lot of them, very fast.

Narlotep · #3 August 30th, 2000, 05:17 PM

Thanks.

That was the impression I was getting - another 4x game with no/poor ground combat. It's kind of like the Tactical game I suppose - MM has to pay lip service and throw something out to those of us searching for a bit more depth.

Jeb · #4 August 30th, 2000, 07:28 PM

While we're on the subject, does anyone know how ground combat works? Planets with no troops on them seem to generate one militia defender for each 20 million population, but I wish I knew how they are equipped. Do they get top-of-the-line stuff, or just small DU cannons I, or what? All I know is that more than two or three of these defenders can kick the butt of a whole transport load of high-tech troops. That's why I usually don't bother with ground combat, and just demand planets. To keep things from making the game too easy, I only do this when I've defeated a planet's defenses and have ships blockading it.

wingte · #5 August 30th, 2000, 08:48 PM

The best "ground combat" in a "space game" is IG II.

Wingte

quote:
Originally posted by Narlotep:
Thanks.

That was the impression I was getting - another 4x game with no/poor ground combat. It's kind of like the Tactical game I suppose - MM has to pay lip service and throw something out to those of us searching for a bit more depth.

Narlotep · #6 August 31st, 2000, 01:47 AM

Wingte,

IGII Ground Combat looked good, but several reviews dinged the AI's ability to use ground units. As I'm a solo player that killed it for me.

To tell the truth, I am really going to wait on SEIV until I hear some reviews that address the AI - so far I am "underwhelmed" by its ability. However, I do realize this is only the demo Version, so I'll still give it a chance.