SEV DEMO IS OUT!

[Ragnarok-X]

Wow, you are probably the biggest fanboy i have ever seen. I can guarantee if SEV is being tested, and the release is identical to the demo we are facing, most online sites will give it 3/5 stars, maybe partly 2/5. In percent, i assume it will be in the high 60s, just maybe able to breach 70. Not that im going by reviews, but the vast majority does, since SEV is no mainstream game with loads of advertising and previews etc.

And im not talking about the mainstream-sides like IGN or Gamespy. I feel even the Wargamer will not like it.

There is no way it will receive even 80% in its current state.

I need to laugh though. You cant be serious.

it is extremly playable and works

[StarDragon]

This thread reminded me of bugs/discrepencies I forgot to post in the other thread..

Ditto On the facilities/building qeues. My major question is , if it ain't broke why change it? I see no "enhancement" by the chages, only a lowering of quality/ease of use.

I cringe by the implication that what we see now is basicly the release version minus "stuff".

I miss all the build icons and status icons of my planets, it makes things harder to remember as to what I have on each particular planet until I click on it..

Bring back more SE4 features PLEASE!!!. SE4 was (and still is) a great game and although I like the majority of the window dressing, the interfaces and ways of doing things has becoem harder, more complicated and overall less enjoyable.

On a final note, who ever made the Terran Dread is blind... I extracted the model to make a render and it's out of porportion. Either it was meant to be that way(asymetrical), or just sloppy 3d work. I corrected it and mirrored the relevant parts.

That reminds me, what are the polygon limits for adding NEW ships (or components)to the game? IS that even a limiting factor? (I'm thinking ahead of translating some WIP mods I have for SE4 and improving them for SE5).

Do SE4 mods work with SE5, or even just parts of them?

[wilhil]

When I said +80% I am talking simply about playability. Graphics, 3d and all that never goes in to my reviews (and I have done a few professionally before) I simply rate based on the ammount of fun I have when playing, compare with features of other games within the same genre, and everything else.

If I was writing a professional review I would say it was a bloody good space strategy game with minor flaws hence 80%-85%. The only thing preventing more is due to the fact it takes ages to get to certain features and certain views in the tables/filters are annoying, but still, all the features are there which is why it gets it. if they were re organised to make it easy to get to the features, then the gameplay would be a lot smoother.

When I do a review, I always take in to consideration a lot of other factors, one being the developer/s and past titles, by the way SEIV was supported, I think the features will be included, it will just take some time.

Honestly, if the tables are putten in like in SEIV and the other things I said.... if I was asked to review the game, I would of easily and honestly given it a 90%-95%. if it was out of 5, being a niche game, it would never get a 5, but when all the other factors are considered, it would probably easily get a 4/5

I would say more, but I am not being paid to review it!

[Noble713]

StarDragon said:
That reminds me, what are the polygon limits for adding NEW ships (or components)to the game? IS that even a limiting factor? (I'm thinking ahead of translating some WIP mods I have for SE4 and improving them for SE5).

In another thread Captain Kwok recommended no more than 300-500 polys, I think. On the subject of polys, I wonder how efficient/inefficient the 3d engine is. In ground battles with several dozen troops on the screen the game starts to chug. I can play Rome:Total War with hundreds of infantry, all with far more polys than SE5's units (plus animations!) with no problem.

[Raapys]

Rome's units doesn't have individual AI though, and there's some pretty heavy LOD. Not sure if SEV even has LOD? That's not scratching the fact that Rome probably had ten times as much resources put into the engine.

Oh, one thing that's been annoying me to no end in SEV regarding combat is how it's not possible to zoom further out. So many games have this issue when switching to 3D.

[Captain Kwok]

The zoom amounts can be changed in settings.txt, although the demo settings file is probably locked.

[Raapys]

Ah, that's good to know. I'll see if it's possible in the demo as well.

[Quitch]

I'm a SEIII player. I worshipped at the idol of SEIII and loved it to bits... in part because the graphics were easy to customise so I could make my own ship design even though I suck at art, but mainly because the game was massively customisable and deep, yet the interface (and more importantly the advisers) kept it managable. There were niggles, like contructions ministers failing to scrap obsolete buildings, but I loved it.


For some reason I never picked up SEIV. I think it's because the demo was limited to 100 turns, so I didn't really get a chance to fall in love again. I have happy memories of the SEIII demo and the epic war I had going, with my empire and another allied against two others (not forced, came about as part of the game) and only a couple of sectors linking our two halves of the galaxy. I lost count of the number of cruisers which died in those sectors.

So, having missed IV I was happily looking forward to V. The fact that the AI was going to be easier to tweak was a massive bonus, since I'm an offline gamer. I'd played Galactic Civilisations 2, but it all seemed a little empty and souless, where as SEIII had truly random races and enough treaties to keep things interesting. I was ready to rejoin the world of SE.

Yet the above has me deeply concerned. I'm actualy stunned that SEV hasn't moved beyond text windows for the tutorial, and that the damn things are flipping tiny! Not to mention that they don't work with the scroll wheel. It also sounds like much of the customisation for which I live is gone...

I am worried and am seriously considering getting SEIV gold, along with that improved AI mod.

[Raapys]

Actually, the customization is higher than ever, from what I've gathered. Heck, now it's even possible to make wormholes that can only allow certain ship-sizes. The problem with this incarnation of Space Empires is, to me, purely the GUI, which is very awkward, illogical and tedious.

[Phoenix-D]

settings.txt is not locked in the demo.

The wormhole sizes thing does NOT work as far as I can tell. Quitch: if you've only played SEIII..SE5's customization is going to blow you out of the water.