Strategic combat has more bugs than my backyard!

[CW]

After another hour on the simulator I can't stop myself from asking, has the strategic combat portion of the game even been beta-tested? You have got that "fleet for player" screen that is only barely working; ships that ignore orders, shooting at planets when they are told NOT to; ships running to the corner when they are not supposed to etc. What's even more strange, I ran the simulator in strategic mode a few times in a row without changing anything, the ships would behave entirely differently - the ships were told NOT to shoot at anything that doesn't move (planets, sats, mines etc) - the first time they dutifully chased after the target ship; the second time they chased after the ship then switched target to the planet mid-way and got themselves killed; then from the third time on they would just go for the planet and ignore the ship! I can reproduce the sequence again by exiting and re-entering the simulator. Adding in a not-very-smart AI and you have got one big frustrating mess for the player. I hope MM works on it FAST, in the main-stream market this is the sort of thing that really turns people away. Considering that I spent quite a bit more money on SEIV than a normal off-the-shelf retail game I would really like to have some justification for my cash.

[CW]

One more thing - I have noticed that 4 of my ships just don't want to get into a fleet. If I put them into a fleet and come back after doing something else, I would usually find them being "independent" again. Last turn I left them after giving the orders, executed the turn and found them exactly where they were originally as independents.

I should also add that none of the ministers are turned on, and this strange phenomenon is only happening to these 4 ships.


[This message has been edited by CW (edited 28 August 2001).]

[tesco samoa]

And what a pain it is to add units to a simulator. Try testing a new designed weapons platform.

Here is what you have to do.

1. design it
2. Built it on a planet.
3. Add that planet to the simulation.


What happens if you want to test say 10 or 20 weapons platforms?

Hope you have a good 10 to 40 turns to waste before you can try them out.

Yes I agree with you 100% The combat aspect of the game has to be cleaned up before it makes us stop playing the game.

Puts a damper on the game

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L? GdX $ Fr C++ SdT T+ Sf* Tcp+ A M++ MpTM ROTS Pw+ Fq+ Nd Rp++ G+

[CW]

Actually you can test WPs without building them. What's stopping you from choosing them in the "change cargo" screen? It works for me.


[This message has been edited by CW (edited 28 August 2001).]

[CW]

Another thing needs fixing: I have noticed that you can only add planets from one of your home systems in the simulator, and you can't even fill it all the way up with population. In the beginning of my first PBW game my only planet in that particular system (one of my 3 homeworlds) was wiped out in the first few turns, and I was stucked without a planet to test things on in the SIMULATOR! How ironic!

[tesco samoa]

try that when you have not built any weapons platforms.

I will retry it. 1.41 Version.

I will start a new game and that will be the first thing i will do.

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L? GdX $ Fr C++ SdT T+ Sf* Tcp+ A M++ MpTM ROTS Pw+ Fq+ Nd Rp++ G+