World Supremacy: Have some Space Empires fans checked it out (has massive problems)

[spillblood]

Hey, since Gandalf Parker inspired me to do this: Have any of you Space Empires fans checked out World Supremacy, the new game by Aaron Hall/ Malfador Machinations? It has massive AI issues, IE the AI can't put on a fight against you and the AI can't use nukes properly. Plus, it's very light on features/ variations. When it was released it was even worse, but got improved a little through patches. The problem is: Aaron doesn't want to do any more patches, because he thinks there's no demand for them, which is because contrary to SE, no big community did form so far, and people who checked out the demo often didn't bother to buy the game. Plus, Shrapnel did ban a user for voicing his discontent with the game, and many former fans simply lost interest in the game and left the forums.
It's also highly moddable, but we have no modding community. Except for some balance change mods nothing was done yet.
Would you please check out the game and tell your opionion on it here? Would be a big help if the community got bigger again so that more people can voice their dissatisfaction with the current state of the game to Shrapnel, so that they resume patching. I've read many positive reviews on Space Empires, and they were the cause to buy World Supremacy. I think Aaron has given SE much more attention after release than he did with WS so far.
If that doesn't happen, Aaron simply will not go on patching the game. Just check out the World Supremacy forum, especially the last, still active threads.
Thank you!

[spillblood]

Please join the discussion in the following thread.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...t=47614&page=4
We've already got one owner and fan of Space Empires IV in the discussion, would be great if more'd join, you don't have to own the game to do that, just try the demo.

[Gandalf Parker]

I dont remember much patching on SEIV. Nor do I think it was all that much better than what you say of World Supremacy.

What Aaron released feels like a demo if its played vanilla. It was the many mods the players made that turned SEIV into a wonderful game. Im thankful to Aaron of course for creating it. Im just saying that it sounds kindof familiar.

[spillblood]

OK, seems I've been banned. I've seen they don't want help. OK, they not gonna get any. Last posts stated they don't want help, so **** them!

[spillblood]

Sorry, please ignore my last posts. I was drunk and saw the last open WS discussion thread was closed, so I assumed I was banned, which isn't the case.
We want to cooperate, Shrapnel!
Please don't close down any more threads.
I hope I can achieve getting more community here. Please help, all fans of Space Empires. I don't wanna harm Shrapnel, I just want to rally more support for the game. Seems Shrapnel don't understand that and resort to pretty dictatorship-like tactics. Why must they supress us here?

[S.R. Krol]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

I dont remember much patching on SEIV.

Digging up my press releases from '03 it looks like there was four patches for SEIV and then the Gold version came out, which included a whole bunch of mods. After that Aaron went on to do Star Fury.

[spillblood]

Thanks for posting here, S.R., I want to give a report about the moddability of WS here that's a bit more detailed:
My most important finding when checking the WS-folders: It doesn't have any of those .scr/ scripting files that were mentioned here before. This probably means the AI isn't moddable, because I've not found any AI- entries in the text files that can be edited. It also simply means the AI isn't scripted like in Space Empires, but actually reacts to player actions. I think Aaron pointed that out in some forum posts before, and I think it's the main cause he has problems improving it.
BUT, EVERYTHING ELSE, all unit pictures, all terrain tiles, all research items, every territory name, all sound effects, and all effects themselves, are in fact easily moddable via simple text files:

Effects.txt
GameSettings.txt
HelpText.txt
MainFonts.txt
MapTypes.txt
NationNames.txt
PlayerNames.txt
RegionNames.txt
SoundEffects.txt
Technology.txt
Terrain_Tiles.txt
Terrain_Tiles.txt

I can't attach them here, but they are probably included in the demo, too. What's the difference in construction to Space Empires?
@Gandalf Parker: You're wrong, since this game has NO diplomacy, and you can only win it with you military, the AI needs to be able to attack. Plus, I don't know what you're referring to exactly. If you saw those "only one attack per turn"-bug-reports for the AI: This error was fixed in version 1.09. But the main problem of the AI isn't this, but it's inability to make strategic decisions and some remaining bugs, like the inability to fire intercontinental nukes (so that they can be easily captured by players and used against the AI) and its inability to expand fleets (naval forces). It can only build one ship of each type in a single fleet, that means players always have naval supremacy, and since fleets can be used for invasions, you can figure out what that means for the AI.

[spillblood]

One thing I must add: All image files can be replaced by own files, and in the text files links to these different pictures can be specified, so the look is completely moddable, plus all unit capabilities. I think you could turn it into a fantasy or sci fi game if you wanted. Seems you can also change the placement and amount of starting forces. You see, there hasn't been much modding activity. The only mods that came out were some simple mods that changed unit values, prices or single pictures (for example a different picture for tech level 1, 2 and 3 tanks).
But the possibilities are MUCH higher.

[spillblood]

OK, here's more info for people who have downloaded the demo: It's also moddable. The files you need for changing any settings, graphics etc. are located in
...\World Supremacy Demo\GameTypes\Standard\data
These are the exact same files as in my full version. I think the demo is only restricted in turns you are able to play and in number of players etc.
So, please take a closer look at the demo again, if you don't want to buy the game.

[Gandalf Parker]

Well Aaron has created another very moddable game. So possibly some of the SEIV players will be interested in it. Modding it is what will make it worthwhile