Alien race information poll

Q · #1 August 4th, 2002, 12:20 PM

I play a game at the moment with new races I never played with before. I now realized how much information you get at the first contact: not only the racial characteristics but also the home atmosphere and the advanced traits. IMHO this is too much information if you just see a ship on the other side of a solar system.
It would be easy for MM to hide these information (of course the best would be an option in the game settings) or to display them only if you have a (higher) treaty with that race.
What's your opinion??

Grandpa Kim · #2 August 4th, 2002, 05:02 PM

I've played Heroes of Might and Magic III. In that game you started with very little info about your opponents and gained more as time went by. If I recall correctly, the info was tied to how powerful you were.

In SEIV, I think the knowledge you gain should be graduated. Seeing a ship would give you very little. A planet, a little more and, as you suggested, more still with each treaty.

DavidG · #3 August 4th, 2002, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Q:
IMHO this is too much information if you just see a ship on the other side of a solar system.

True. But if you assume the ships have a friendly meeting at stop and chat a bit it makes sense. You would certainly know this info when you started a trade treaty with them.

Phoenix-D · #4 August 4th, 2002, 06:45 PM

"True. But if you assume the ships have a friendly meeting at stop and chat a bit it makes sense."

The problem with this idea is that if they stop in the same sector they start shooting.

Phoenix-D

Baron Munchausen · #5 August 4th, 2002, 11:46 PM

I certainly agree that the information comes in much too quickly when you meet a race. I think that 'Diplomatic Relations' or 'Diplomatic Recognition' should be a recognized treaty type and that you should need to GET this treaty before all this information on the other races becomes available, and before your information becomes available to them.

HEMAN · #6 August 5th, 2002, 12:04 AM

I agree Q 100%, also, Grandpakim
I have played Heroes of Might and Magic III, and you would need the artifact ( which i have gotton) which would show haw many troops, statis etc.In the end players would use se4 intell espeonage a lot more.

Ferengi Rules of Acquisition #48 The bigger the smile,the sharper the Knife.

Ed Kolis · #7 August 5th, 2002, 01:01 AM

Or how about if such info could be determined by Intelligence?

DavidG · #8 August 5th, 2002, 01:42 AM

The more I read this thread the more I think that the way it stands now it is already too hard to get info. There is obviously a lot more going on in the galaxy than we control or see in the game. (like were are all those mineral laiden cargo ships trading like mad?, or the super fast one man spy ship with agent 007 on it? ) If player A is trading with player B and b is trading with C it seems likely that A and C would become aware of each others presense.

dogscoff · #9 August 5th, 2002, 10:59 AM

All good points. The thing is, I think this is one of those situations where we just have to accept that doing it realistically would involve too much of an overhaul to the game.

Although I agree that you do learn too much on first contact, I personally think a lot more information should be made available about other races during the game. I really do think that systems you have visited but can't currently see should display the Last known population/ ship data about that system (with a date or something in the corner to remind you that it isn't current info) rather than going completely blank.

For example, if I have a trade alliance with someone for 10 years, you'd think all those traders and tourists would bring back some information about which planets were heavily populated, which ones were industrial/ agrarian etc. Also, space ports should be visible to traders. A research treaty might reveal some or all of the other race's research facilities, and I think a full partnership should show *all* facilities.

If another empire had a planet glassed by a third party on the other side of the galaxy, surely I'd have someone picking up their news broadcasts.

The trouble is, it would take a hell of a lot of code to do it right. There are so many variables to be taken into account, the best you can hope for is a simplified model. Maybe it will be improved for SEV, but I don't think we'll ever get perfection.

BTW, I don't think it's unreasonable that a high-tech ship would be able to determine what atmosphere another ship contained (and hence what the occupants breathed.) Even if only by blowing it up and analysing the explosion=-)

DavidG · #10 August 5th, 2002, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dogscoff:
I really do think that systems you have visited but can't currently see should display the Last known population/ ship data about that system (with a date or something in the corner to remind you that it isn't current info) rather than going completely blank.

Funny you should mention this again (well someone mentioned it before) because I was just thinking about this. Of all the features I would like to see added this is without a doubt No. 1. The thought of resourting to a pen and paper to remember stuff like this makes me shudder