Worst Games Of SEIV You Have Ever Played

[Fyron]

Any PBW game in which I have started in a corner... :-\

[Baal]

I used to play a lot of PBW back in like Oct 2001 and I was in second place. I wasn't friends with this guy playing with a trek set and we were sort of battling over control of a neutral empire and he had gone straight for PPB (which is ****ing cheap and I'll hate him to this day) while I had DUCs. Needless to say I got spanked because of the massive cheapness of PPBs and I thereafter quit all PBW games (I had like 4) never to return. The part that irritates me the most was that even though I left I still heard about how he was just glassing my empire. I'd doubt I'll play against humans again. It's just like Starcraft. Once players KNOW how to play there is just no point in a noob trying to get into the action.

[Fyron]

Umm... this is hardly like Starcraft. There are a lot more paths to victory than the 1 or 2 per race as seen in Starcraft. Don't let one bad experience sour your view on PBW... blindly rushing for PPB is actually a bad thing (possibly even a noob mistake ), as you can be defeated easily by someone that gets DUCs, Combat Sensors and ECM. They are a much more powerful combination than just someone using PPBs, and their ships are a lot cheaper too. Combat bonuses and ship costs are much more important than just raw damage. Of course, there are a lot more factors than just these few to consider. Comparing a strategy game to something as simplisitic as Starcraft is silly. There are a wealth of options to explore.

Of course, then there is the plethora of mods to consider that drastically change the status quo...

[ April 11, 2004, 05:12: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Atrocities]

I am thankful that I have had far more fun games than not. When SEIV becomes a job for me I will stop playing it.

I play it because I enjoy it, and I enjoy what it gives me in return, power.

[Baal]

Whatever you say, Fyron. That wasn't the first time PPBs spanked me. I actually left that game when his fleet of PPB ships completely obliterated my fleet of DUC ships. So, no, DUCs were not better. And I'm not the first here to say that PPBs are a cheap victory.

What I don't like is that unless you do every move, every research, ever colonization with precision you are dead meat like I was. That is what I was comparing to Starcraft. Starcraft you had to be precise down the the second. In this you have to be precise with every move.

This is not really a strategy game at all, it's a test of who knows what research is the best combined with the luck of finding colonizable planets. A lot of research tech is just plain useless other than to waste your time.

[Raging Deadstar]

Although PPB is quite dangerous, i've played against friends at each others houses and we disabled certain killer technologies and thats where the Fun really starts.

Also, Compared to most mods out there SEIV Gold un-modded is rather unbalanced. Try playing a mod or two and see if you enjoy that more.

[Phoenix-D]

To get PPB I, your opponent needed to research Physics twice.

In that time period you could have researched Physics once (for combat sensors), Military Science (for ECM), and had ECM I. Right there he is at a disdvantage- his ships now have a 10% decrease in their accuracy.

You can get DUC V (40 damage up to range 5) for the same price as his PPB V then. (60 at min range, 50 at max) Or gone for APB V. Your DUC ships would have had less overall damage, but DUC is cheaper and therefore faster to build and easier to maintain than PPB.

Or for that matter you could have gone Construction then Fighters for the same cost as PPB, then researched DUC while he was getting PPB. Why? Because now you have the Light Carrier, which is just about as good as the Light Cruiser, and more importantly uses the Heavy Mount. Mounts are the single most important thing in SE4- if you don't use them you WILL loose. And having a heavy mount means your weapons are now 1.5 times more effective- and better than his PPBs.

The only reason PPB can be excessively nasty is if you rely heavily on shields. If you don't its primary advantage goes away.

EDIT: or you could have gone mines. Boom, no more PPB ship, and you have 50,000 research left to boot.

Given the same amount of research for each side and taking the Carrier approach (without any fighters!):

5 DUC carriers killed 13 PPB escorts for a loss of 2 carriers, with two more damaged.

More simulations:
escorts cost 3730/100/900 and take two turns to build.
carriers cost 7900/100/525 and take three turns to build.

In a large scale engagement, that means one side fields twice as many escorts (and those escorts would have taken longer to build).

Simulator tests:
20 escorts / 10 carriers: total loss of escorts, most carriers lost: 1.
20 escorts / 9 carriers: can go either way. Best-case scenerio for the escorts: 15 destroyed. Best case for the carriers: NONE destroyed (this is more common)
20 escorts / 8 carrers: almost always results in total destruction of the escorts.

You have to get down to 6 carriers before the escorts start winning consitantly, and even then they loose around half their number most of the time.

[ April 11, 2004, 00:27: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]