I'd rather have MM work on AI as opposed to TCP/IP

sogard · #1 January 10th, 2001, 10:40 AM

As someone who has been playing a fair amount of hotseat SPACE EMPIRES IV (SE4), I am completely in the "fix tcp/ip first" crowd. The game is so good when you have a human opponant and you will never be able to create an AI (especially one that does not cheat the fun out of the game) which can give you the kind of intense and competitive game that another human player can.

Now, I realize that there are some out there that never want to have to face another human player -- they prefer to be legends in their own minds; but, what has always separated the SPACE EMPIRE games has been that the games have provided the best in space empire gaming. So please, MM, get tcp/ip enabled as soon as possible and then tweak the AIs to kingdom come. The better AIs will lure me back into solo play; but, only as practice for the real thing when I know that there is evil lurking just beyond the next known system.

Puke · #2 January 10th, 2001, 10:48 AM

what about serial play? when's the Last time you played a game with that, huh? its better than hotseat, you are face to face, but you have two keyBoards! they could make a serial / simultanious mode, that would rock! or how about MIDI mode? anyone remember the Atari ST? anyone here ever do a midi-maze party?

lets have that instead, i dont like the Internet anyway. why not IPX? I dont have an apple, but I can run appletalk as a protocol, lets have appletalk play!

woo-woo!

jowe01 · #3 January 10th, 2001, 11:24 AM

Improve the AI !!! I mean the hard-coded AI algorithms, not only the text files (moders are doing a very good work on them already).

TCP/IP is second priority. I will love to play over the net, but I remember from CIV that my counterparts never showed up again after a game had to be saved,

BTW, the serial play would be great. If TCP/IP gets implemented, I hope that this serial will be possible , too.

Master Belisarius · #4 January 10th, 2001, 04:33 PM

I go for the AI too... And I don't care if the AI cheat or not: I only want a challenging game.

I have played Moo2 Online, and I was unable to finish ONE multiplayer game! (I have played near of 10, and always somebody lost the connection, or somebody have not intentions to continue the game, or simply was very boring wait during 20 minutes per every player, to do your own moves).

But playing Moo2 against the AI, I have finished hunderd of games... Also, depending of your race and your luck, the Impossible Level could be really very challenging.

Master Belisarius · #5 January 10th, 2001, 04:33 PM

I go for the AI too... And I don't care if the AI cheat or not: I only want a challenging game.

I have played Moo2 Online, and I was unable to finish ONE multiplayer game! (I have played near of 10, and always somebody lost the connection, or somebody have not intentions to continue the game, or simply was very boring wait during 20 minutes per every player, to do your own moves).

But playing Moo2 against the AI, I have finished hunderd of games... Also, depending of your race and your luck, the Impossible Level could be really very challenging.

igoblin · #6 January 10th, 2001, 06:24 PM

I would have to disagree, TCP/IP would be great for SE4 because unlike Master of Orion 2 it has a simultaneous mode. This way everybody takes their turns at the same time so the only waiting would be if someone takes exceptionally long for their turn. You can also play with more than 2 people in simultaneous unlike turn based games.
I will probably still do play by email though because its hard to schedule times for everyone to play together. I haven't tried PBEM since the demo, I hope the bugs were fixed.
-igoblin

Daynarr · #7 January 10th, 2001, 09:45 PM

quote:
Originally posted by igoblin:
I would have to disagree, TCP/IP would be great for SE4 because unlike Master of Orion 2 it has a simultaneous mode. This way everybody takes their turns at the same time so the only waiting would be if someone takes exceptionally long for their turn. You can also play with more than 2 people in simultaneous unlike turn based games.
I will probably still do play by email though because its hard to schedule times for everyone to play together. I haven't tried PBEM since the demo, I hope the bugs were fixed.
-igoblin

IIRC MOO2 had ONLY simultaneous mode. You would give orders and when you click end turn button, they would be carried out, just like SE4 simultaneous mode. I have played several games of MOO2 on Heat.net but they would never be finished. It would just get too long and boring to wait for all of the players to finish your turns (they would get really long if a player had some large tactical combat). That is a problem with turn-based games, AFAIK.
However, I do think that SE4 should have TCP/IP multiplayer, but I believe that the majority of players will play it SE4 in singleplayer or hotseat, so AI should be addressed first. Personally, I don't have any preference, as I like to play both multi and single player games, so I would vote for both.