Tactical Combat and PBEM

God Emperor · #1 May 27th, 2001, 06:20 AM

I thought I spotted a reference to tactical combat in a thread about PBEM. I havent played PBEM because I thought that it only supported Strategic combat.

Does PBEM support Tactical combat? What is involved in doing PBEM Tactical combat? (if it is possible)
Regards,
GE

Sinapus · #2 May 27th, 2001, 06:46 AM

Um... wouldn't tactical combat be a little difficult over PBEM? Mailing each combat turn and such?

Sounds frighteningly slow.

jc173 · #3 May 27th, 2001, 06:53 AM

I haven't tried PBEM either, but I was under the impression it was strategic only.

[This message has been edited by jc173 (edited 27 May 2001).]

Possum · #4 May 27th, 2001, 07:41 AM

quote:
Originally posted by God Emperor:
I thought I spotted a reference to tactical combat in a thread about PBEM. I havent played PBEM because I thought that it only supported Strategic combat.

Does PBEM support Tactical combat? What is involved in doing PBEM Tactical combat? (if it is possible)
Regards,
GE

I looked into this. Multiplayer and tactical combat are mutually exclusive, with one exception. It is possible to use tactical combat in a hotseat game.

kosh · #5 May 27th, 2001, 04:47 PM

There is a game (much weaker than SEIV) that uses an intersting twist on PBEM battles. They use something called VCR which gives you a visual battle movies when you receive your turn (to watch if you wish). It is cool and makes you feel more into the game vs dot and only a message indicating what happened in the battle.
I have not played SEIV in a PBEM game - can some shed some light on what you get in response to a battle.

Marty Ward · #6 May 27th, 2001, 05:22 PM

Being able to use Tactical combat in a hotseat game is what makes hotseat the best way to play, IMO. This type of game rally allows SE4 to show it's true potential. It is an amazing game. If tactical combat could ever be added to the PBEM or internet Version I might just have to get over my dislike of internet gaming.
You really find out how good your ship designs are when you fight someone who can learn from their mistakes, are not limited in ship design and who can devise the same nasty tactics that you can.

Fuerte · #7 May 27th, 2001, 10:22 PM

quote:
Originally posted by kosh:
There is a game (much weaker than SEIV) that uses an intersting twist on PBEM battles. They use something called VCR which gives you a visual battle movies when you receive your turn (to watch if you wish). It is cool and makes you feel more into the game vs dot and only a message indicating what happened in the battle.
I have not played SEIV in a PBEM game - can some shed some light on what you get in response to a battle.

You described SE4 there! But can SE4 be weaker than SE4...

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PBEM

God Emperor · #8 May 28th, 2001, 01:57 AM

Thanks guys.
I asked the question because I really like tactical combat (since my MOO2 days) and dont like the Strategic mode's lack of information.

Have played a couple of hot seat games with 2 or 3 players but there are 5 of us who locally would like to play together which will be very slow unless we can all do our turns pretty much at the same time....

Saxon · #9 May 28th, 2001, 09:16 AM

I remember reading an old David Drake book, where he compared being a general in the "modern", slightly futuristic universe with that in the days of the Romans. He said that anyone can run a battle when there is instant information and communication, but only the greatest generals could run a battle where you had to think of everything hours ahead of time and command your assistants appropriatly.

I agree, the tactical combat is great, but PBEM is the only way for me to tangle with other humans, so I try and think of myself as a Roman general, setting it all up ahead of time. I would never claim a game like this is realistic, but in the sense of managing an empire, it is. Bush doesn't fly the spy plane over China, he just tells some one else to do it and has to live with the results.

To play this way, you have to change everything. Weapon choice is a big one for me, the computer doesn't do anywhere as well with missles as I do. Similarly, I have to build more durable ships, as the computer tends to get them much more banged up than I do. Fortunatly, it does the same thing to my opponents...

Master Belisarius · #10 May 28th, 2001, 04:26 PM

quote:
Originally posted by kosh:
There is a game (much weaker than SEIV) that uses an intersting twist on PBEM battles. They use something called VCR which gives you a visual battle movies when you receive your turn (to watch if you wish). It is cool and makes you feel more into the game vs dot and only a message indicating what happened in the battle.
I have not played SEIV in a PBEM game - can some shed some light on what you get in response to a battle.

But currently you can see the battles, because was one of the features added to SE4 (I can not remember the patch).
And guys, you really should try to play PBEM. You can get a lot of fun (specially using the Admiral's Play by Web host).