Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

dmm · #1 March 28th, 2001, 12:54 AM

Anybody want more realistic space combat? Aren't there any twitchers out there who'd like to be able to set up the space combats in a RTS game and import the results?

Maybe I'm wierd. I like turn-based strategy, real-time strategy, and also real-time first-person (e.g., X-Wing). Is that wierd? Do I need professional help?

My kids and I thought up the ultimate computer game the other night. The only problem was, it would be so complicated that you wouldn't be able to have a real life!

AJC · #2 March 28th, 2001, 01:33 AM

Raynor - you are correct. Delphi was used for SE4. It was mentioned at a game review site that had a rather long interview with Aaron.

E. Albright · #3 March 28th, 2001, 01:54 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Kellicus:
I don't recall the name of the game, but I used to play a space game that had automated strategic ground/ship assualt combat. The company had a tatical ground combat game that would tie in and allow you to experience tatical combat if you owned both games. It was really cool.

You wouldn't be refering to Breach 2 and Rules of Engagement (or for that matter Breach 3 and Rules of Engagement 2), would you? Published by, IIRC, Omnitrends (and Impressions for B3/RE2)?

Marty Ward · #4 March 28th, 2001, 02:43 AM

I would pay getting the AI to have a coherent strategy, use all the items in the game, read troops and ship capture, and a better diplomacy model, with history, global effects, forethought.

dmm · #5 March 28th, 2001, 06:40 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Marty Ward:
I would pay getting the AI to have a coherent strategy, use all the items in the game, read troops and ship capture, and a better diplomacy model, with history, global effects, forethought.

Yes, I think you're speaking for everybody on these issues. A truly intelligent AI probably would really win a Nobel prize! But some other games have done aspects of AI better than SEIV, so we all know that it can be done. However, I've never yet played a complicated PC game that didn't have gaping flaws in the AI.

Spoo · #6 March 28th, 2001, 09:07 PM

quote:
Anybody want more realistic space combat? Aren't there any twitchers out there who'd like to be able to set up the space combats in a RTS game and import the results?

I always thought it would be neat to use "Homeworld" or "Homeworld: Cataclysm" to run the combat simulations. You'd have to find a way to pull the ship designs from se4 and put them in Homeworld, but as I recall, it is possible to mod the ships in Homeworld.

------------------
Assume you have a 1kg squirrel
E=mc^2
E=1kg(3x10^8m/s)^2=9x10^16J
which, if I'm not mistaken, is equivilent to roughly a 50 megaton nuclear bomb.
Fear the squirrel.

Atraikius · #7 March 30th, 2001, 02:03 AM

I view any games AI as being only as good as the person who wrote it. With the AI in SE4 set up to be easily modified by the players, there should be virtually limitless possibilities for it.

I think the biggest problem with the games AI levels is that so much of the modifiable files are not fully understood by the people making the modifications. When you look at the races included in the game as they were originally, they were all fairly generic, only using a few different abilities or techs from the others. As each new modification for them is made, and each generation of custon Race Styles is seen they seem to get a little better. I see this as an example that the people that are writing up the AI are getting better thus the AI gets better.

What I think is really needed is a full description of how each line that can be edited is used in the program so that settings that currently are typically left alone because thier use isn't really understood could be developed to thier full potential. This should allow tremendous strides to be taken in making new Races since every feature could be tailored specifically for the race instead of just being essentially duplicated from a similar existing race.

From a addition to the structure of the game, what I would really like to see would be an additional (or 2) combat mode line in the strategy file, with qualifications for them. Then when I was modifing a race that primarily used missiles and Anti-Proton beams, I could set the primary attack strategy to Maximum Range, set with qualifiers such as: Enemy Range > 5, and Move 50, then when that ship was involved in a battle, it would look at the enemy ships weapon range, and if the enemys range was greater than 5, it would use the Maximum weapons range strategy, otherwis it would go on to the next strategy, and the Move 50 qualifier would tell the AI that the ship should expend 50% of its movement to move into range and fire, then the remaining movement should be used to increase the range between itself and the enemy ship.