My thoughts on the concept of the SE5 Design

[TexasHawk]

Hey guys,

*Very* occasional poster, but very long-time player (since SE2). I have watched the series grow and evolve and with the release of SE5, most people ***** and moan about the AI, the bugs, etc... but I think they're missing the point.

Yes, the bugs are annoying and inexcusable but I am confident they will be fixed (reminding some of these new players that SE4 went all the way up to 1.94!) so I feel confident that SE5 will do the same.

The point I want to make is that I do not believe Aaron set out to create a game with uber-AI. Reading the type of fixes, and the type and scope of modding that can be done within the code, I think Aaron in this version set out to create more of a game *system* less than a pure, singular *game*.

Take Civ 4. Yes, it stands on its own as a fantastic computer game and its modding capabilities are probably the greatest of any major-budget game ever released. And there have been some commercial-quality TC's released, but the point is that Civ 4 was created by hundreds of people who had the time to bulletproof the AI. Aaron is not hundreds of people. So I think he made a choice - at some point during the process he sat down and designed SE5 to be whatever the players wanted it to be; he just provided the framework and the documentation.

Of course he would need to provide some semblence of a SP game for those who don't use/can't be bothered with mods, but this game was made all along for people like us - people he knew would one day create the greatest 4X game from his shell in gaming history. And this is the point I think people ultimately miss.

Now, who will create that game.....?