Should I buy this game???

tweek · #1 February 21st, 2005, 02:13 AM

Hi everyone,

I have just played the demo (for around 50 turns). Without any effort from my side whatsoever all of the races (around 8 in total) exept one had a "partnership" agreement with me. As a result I was running a huge trade surplus. The game became a little dull as far as politics was concerned. So my first question is will diplomacy represent a greater challenge in a full version of the game? For exmaple will races delare war on me? Will they try to ally themselves with other races if thay begin to loose the war? Will the allied empires coordinate their war plans? Will AI able to effectively invade my planets? I have a humber of other question but this should be a good start.

Thanks,
Tweek

Starhawk · #2 February 21st, 2005, 02:22 AM

Yes to all of your questions, the AIs of various races are impossible to ally with because they like destroying things, things being you of course.
More races encountered and more time also brings abotu new challenges because they are less likely to stay allied with you as you become more powerful.

And YES this game is DEFINATElY worth getting!

douglas · #3 February 21st, 2005, 02:51 AM

Are you playing on easy difficulty? IIRC, besides making the AI ridiculously stupid, easy difficulty is supposed to load the galaxy with more pacifist races. I strongly recommend always playing on hard difficulty, because the AI is severely crippled on the lower difficulty levels. I consider the AI bonus setting to be the true difficulty setting.

tweek · #4 February 21st, 2005, 03:19 AM

Quote:

douglas said:
Are you playing on easy difficulty? IIRC, besides making the AI ridiculously stupid, easy difficulty is supposed to load the galaxy with more pacifist races. I strongly recommend always playing on hard difficulty, because the AI is severely crippled on the lower difficulty levels. I consider the AI bonus setting to be the true difficulty setting.

These were the settings:
Number of comp players: High
Comp player difficulty: High (I assume the higher the more difficult it is for ME)
Computer player bonus: Low (I was a bit scared setting this one to anything higher).

Can this "easyness" of getting everyone to be my "partner" might be due to the fact that my rank overall is third in the galaxy (out of 8 as far as i remember)? Maybe I am weak and thats why everybody thinks of me as a nice guy?!?

Tweek.

Fyron · #5 February 21st, 2005, 03:31 AM

If your score becomes some percentage of the 2nd place player (300% or so, but not sure on the value), then you will become the "mega evil empire." All AI races will immediately declare war on you and will refuse treaty requests.

If you play with mods such as TDM (in the full version of the game), the AIs are a lot tougher, and will declare war more often (at least, the non-peaceful ones will).

Kamog · #6 February 21st, 2005, 03:57 AM

Yup, SEIV is an excellent game with a lot of depth and replayability. Very addictive, too. The A.I.'s on the full game are much smarter than the ones in the demo. It is worth getting, absolutely!

tweek · #7 February 21st, 2005, 04:53 AM

Sweet!!!

I am convinced. I have just ordered the game.

Where do I get the latest patch from? Also which mod would you guys say is one of the best out there to try out? TDM?

Tweek

Ragnarok-X · #8 February 21st, 2005, 05:16 AM

Oh well, its pretty obvious you get this answer when asking on the official board of the game developer/publisher, which is populized by hardcore-fans, dont you agree ?

Fyron · #9 February 21st, 2005, 05:33 AM

There really isn't a "best" mod out there. You definitely want TDM, as it makes the AI much tougher without changing the game mechanics. Beyond that, it is all personal preference. There is a listing of most of the mods available on MM's website. Check it out.

http://www.malfador.com/se4mods.html

tweek · #10 February 21st, 2005, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Ragnarok-X said:
Oh well, its pretty obvious you get this answer when asking on the official board of the game developer/publisher, which is populized by hardcore-fans, dont you agree ?

I agree. However I have done a lot of research ragarding this game. My only concern was AI and how it handled diplomacy, military etc. From the demo it was relatively hard to say if the AI was strong or not which is why I created this thread. Now that my main concern has been dealt with I am happy to buy the game.

If you have some contructive critisism ragarding the above issue that you would like to share with me then please go ahead, I would really appreciate your point of view.

Tweek