Random thoughts on random SEIV stuff..

[HP Delron]

Well seeing as how it is very late... err early and i have nothing better to do i figured i might as well go on about space empires 4 some. this will contain vairous thoughts on various aspects of this great game. for the sake of anyone who might respond to this random act of posting, i will as best i can divide it up into parts by topic. *i apologize for any typos it is about 4 or 5 am and i am very tired and i gotta stay up until about 8am*

wondering about uses of intel and early intel,...
First off while i am playing, i usually wonder "should i bother to research intelligence". And usually i answer no. This often turns of to be a mistake beacuse late into the game the comps start bombarding me with crazy sabotage. So eventually i began to learn my lesson and get intelligence about the same time they did and pour it all into counter-intel. However in my most recent game i got exteremly lucky and had several breathable large and huge planets in my homesystem and those directly next to it. So just for kicks i got intelligence and dedicated one of those large planets to intelligence centers. And well no i had about 13k intelligence points and everyone else had zip. This of course was totally usuless for a few turns, until the segella(big tan-head dudes) declared war on me. SO i figured "what the heck" and stared using ship bomb, on any ship. The ship bombs not only worked, but the worked well. And needless to say those stupid looking mornons were very upset. And now to get to the point of all this, is early intel a viable strat against comps or even human players?

need adivice on Bases.
This may sound strange or even stupid buti have had extreme diffculty taking down starbases /w Big guns and fighters. The combo seems to work too well. The giant guns eat right through just about any sheilding and totally blow emissive armor away. And then the fighters go and pick off what i have left. And while i can take them down it just never at-cost. Is there anyone to easily take down big-guns and fighters without losing more in $ than your oppenent?

complaints about Quantum Reactors,
I just don't like these things. they seem a bit too all-powerful to me. they are realtivley small. And are staggringly cheap for waht they do. am i the only one who would like to see the quantum reactor replaced with a stepped reactor system, Reactors would function basiclly the same way solar panals do only not based on the sun. That is to say Reactor I would generate 500 supplies per turn. So if a ship ran out of supply it could fill up again, but only if it sat still. And even then these reactors would be more cumbersome and expensive than the current quantum reactors. As i feel supply is a very nessacry compenent of ship mangament. To be able to totatlly get rid of that aspect by popping and escort with an reactor in every fleet just seem stupid.

cloaks... it just seems odd to me that there is a variety of sensor types, but only 1 lump of cloacking decice that blocks all types. yeah theres stealth armor but thats not that much diff. I once started a mod on this idea but stopped due to laziness.but my idea wuz to make a specific cloack device or each sensor type. something EM noise generator do deafet the basic sensors all ships equiped with. And the mabey Gravitonal distorter, to deafet those gravtic sensors, and so on. Each one of these devices would be small and cheap on their own and only get expensive & large when you try and cram every single cloaking type onto a ship. This could also make the Phsycic and temporal scanners more usuful in that the countermeasures for those could be made very hard to research or very expensive or a combation of the two.

Combo Techs.

This si an idea for a mod i had in my head for a while. Basiclly if requires you to have 2 or more of the unique race techs. an example of this would be Psychic/Crystullgary. As you reasheach both catagorys of weapons you would discover say. Psychic Wave Cannon with a description somethin like this: A cannon that uses special crystals to focus and entisfy physhic waves. its just an idea but i like it


Racial point levels?

I prefer high beacuse it really allows you to make a distinct race that was real strengths and weaknesses. that can almost force you to play differently. With only low settings you mightn not see such a dramatic impact on play.

Sphereworlds.

Shouldn't they be bigger on the game map like a 3sectorx3sector thing. I mean if they are built around the star shouldn't they be bigger than the star. ANd how come some huge planets are bigger than their stars. it don't make no sense.


dang im tired just 1 more topic i guess and then its off to get a snack.


Stellar Manipulation as weapons of mass destruciton:

Does anybody ever use this? I don't it just doesn't seem cost-effective.


and jsut one more thing

BOB THE STICK FIGURE RULESE THE GALAXY!!

[ 20 February 2002: Message edited by: HP Delron ]

[Atrocities]

It is always good to see that someone else is up at the sametime as I.

About what you have said.

Earily Intel is something that has long Lasting benifits. However, you imediate benfits come from researching it. Heres what I do, I always dedicate any small moon or planet, 5 or less construction slot "after" terraforming, to Intel.

I place an atomosphere converter on these planets, and once they are breathable, I scrap the AC and build Intel structures. Later in the game, once the AI finally gets off its ***, I am prepared for them. Or, I can use my Intel on them and keep them off balance while I mount defenses. This is how I like to play, and it seems to work well for me.

As for bases, use fighters. I once lost 200 ships to a planet with 3 bases. After that I relized that fighters are a players best friend. If you know your going to attack a planet with a large base, send in as many fighters as you can. They are cheap and effective. A deadly combination.

A second way to take care of a planet, or an entire system is to build cloaked Star Killers. You send in your CSK and park it next to the systems sun. Decloak and KaBOOOOM! A new system ala cart. You then send in a planet maker and rebuild the planets. You colonize them and you have a brand new system all to yourself.

I agree 100% about the Quantum Reactors. What I have done is to make them so damed expensive that to use them is cost prohibative. I also increased their size and research time. I have also been a big big big advocate of having a pre-game set up feature to disable the QR.

I like Cloaking. I think it adds a lot of flavor to the game, but your right, cloaking is not very well support when compared to sensors. I for one would like to see more options for cloaking including a cloaking system that is strictly Racial Treat activated and can not be beaten. I think that would be nice.

Combo Techs is a good idea. I think it has already been modded by someone though. That one I would have to look into.

I agree, the higher the Racial Point Level the better the game play.

I have often wondered about the size of Shpereworlds, but it is my understanding that nothing can be larger than the sector it is in because of some programing issues.

I agree, Stellar Manipulation is indeed a weapon of mass destruction as I describe above. I understand that many players that use the PBW system, an AWSOME SYSTEM, agree to not develop SM to the point that it can be used to eliminate entire star systems. A treaty of mutual destruction I guess.

I met BOB once, just before I glassed his homeworld and sent him to the great beyond.

[Q]

HP, I did somethong very similar to what you proposed for cloaking: 5 cloaking devices for each sensor ability. It works well for human players, but it turned out to be impossible to make the AI use more than one cloaking device on a ship.
And personally I think it should be generally possible to defeat any cloaking device. I didn't like the situation in SE III when you had absolutely no possibility to detect cloaked ships in a system.

[Suicide Junkie]

My Pirates & Nomads mod provides many of those features

Crossover techs (any P&N back to v1.6 or so):
- armor/engines
- shields/armor
- ALL 2-combos of Racial techs.
(Bio-crystal armor rocks )
- monoliths/resource extraction

The current PBW Version:
- Quantum reactors and Resupply depots restricted by extreme cost.

The next PBW Version:
- Limited supplies. The only way to add supplies to the game will be by using solar panels, or by building ships with supply storage (they start full).
That means bases need to be resupplied too!
- Cloaks divvied up.
Grav cloaking -> hull mass
Passive EM -> stealth armor
Active EM -> scattering armor
Psychic -> Master computers

[Phoenix-D]

"As for bases, use fighters. I once lost 200 ships to a planet with 3 bases. After that I relized that fighters are a players best friend. If you know your going to attack a planet with a large base, send in as many fighters as you can. They are cheap and effective. A deadly combination."

Unless they have point-defense bases. In that case..ow. The thing to do is bypass or outrange them. If that isn't possible, find out what they are carrying and counter it. Long-ranged heavy guns like the WMG? Get in close with APBs and pound. Use that refire-3 against it. Or use massed missles batteries and fighters. Medium range weapons, like Null-Space? Stay out of range.

And if you're really ticked at a base, but only need to kill whatever it's guarding, use Repulsor beams or wormhole beams. Sure, you'll take hits getting it, but then you get in and ZIP, away goes the base. Proceed to kill the target.

"A second way to take care of a planet, or an entire system is to build cloaked Star Killers. You send in your CSK and park it next to the systems sun. Decloak and KaBOOOOM! A new system ala cart. You then send in a planet maker and rebuild the planets. You colonize them and you have a brand new system all to yourself."

Expensive weapons though.. make sure so use em well. If you blow up a heavily populated, guarded system, your enemy probably looses much more $ than you.

"I agree 100% about the Quantum Reactors. What I have done is to make them so damed expensive that to use them is cost prohibative. I also increased their size and research time. I have also been a big big big advocate of having a pre-game set up feature to disable the QR."

Pretty easy to mod, and I've done so in TechMod. All you need to do is move them to their own tech area, then turn them off pre-game.

"I like Cloaking. I think it adds a lot of flavor to the game, but your right, cloaking is not very well support when compared to sensors. I for one would like to see more options for cloaking including a cloaking system that is strictly Racial Treat activated and can not be beaten. I think that would be nice."

Ug, no-detection cloaks would probably be pretty nasty. Force everyone to have that, unless you had some pretty severe disadvantages to that trait. The sensor/cloak thing can be modded; again Techmod does that. Gravitic sensors, for example, won't be able to detect units, but will be good against large ships. Passive cloaks are the opposite. Master Computers provide pysic cloak, etc.

"Combo Techs is a good idea. I think it has already been modded by someone though. That one I would have to look into." P&N does this. Techmod does too, but differently (opens new tech areas instead- and I haven't gotten to the racial traits yet

"I agree, the higher the Racial Point Level the better the game play." Hmmm. I disagree. Lesser traits you have to push a little harder to get what you want, and end up with more disadvantages.

"I have often wondered about the size of Shpereworlds, but it is my understanding that nothing can be larger than the sector it is in because of some programing issues." Apparently. Plus, also there's the little matter of the sphereworld making all other planets unlivable because it soaks up all the stellar radiation..

"I agree, Stellar Manipulation is indeed a weapon of mass destruction as I describe above. I understand that many players that use the PBW system, an AWSOME SYSTEM, agree to not develop SM to the point that it can be used to eliminate entire star systems. A treaty of mutual destruction I guess."

Pretty much.. though the System Gravitational Shield helps prevent that.

Phoenix-D