Well it finally happend

pathfinder · #1 January 22nd, 2001, 04:39 PM

Good idea Atrocities, take care and good luck. Looking forward to your return.

Tampa_Gamer · #2 January 22nd, 2001, 04:40 PM

Thats OK, it happens to the best of us

. I actually finished JA:UB Last week and started (finally) on one of my Christmas presents this weekend - BG2. Wow, what a game! Anyway, I haven't been playing much of SE4 lately, spend all my time editing the AI files and playtesting.

[This message has been edited by Tampa_Gamer (edited 22 January 2001).]

geoschmo · #3 January 22nd, 2001, 08:02 PM

After playing a few large quadrant games for several hundred turns each it does start to get a little familiar. I have been spending a lot of time creating my own race and getting my website up.

All of my game time the Last couple of weeks has been trying to qualify for the twingalaxies tournament. Playing for score is different and gives it a fresh perspective. But they keep changing the rules on me. Grrrrrrrr. X(

[This message has been edited by geoschmo (edited 22 January 2001).]

Nyx · #4 January 23rd, 2001, 12:43 AM

Sorry. *Nyx looks ashamed* But people keep finding bugs with the scoring system.

If it were limited to killing the AI we'd've known 'em all from day one. But really, has anyone here ever noticed that a baseship with nothing but a master computer gives you a higher score than a dreadnaught filled up with weapons? Anyone? *sound of crickets chirping* I thought as much. Who the heck builds empty spaceships when the goal is to kill everyone in sight? Some guy made 50 million points in the 150-turn game, small map, by building and mothballing empty bases. Thankfully he knew it was a bug and reported it to us.

Be that as it may, I think we've caught all the important ones now. If there's anything else being exploited the player shouldn't be able to claim they didn't know they were cheating. It's sad that people would take advantage of bugs intentionally like that. I mean, just 'cause they're mean and ugly doesn't give you the right to pick on the poor Xi'chung... Oops, wrong sort of bug.

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Compete in the Space Empires IV World Championship at www.twingalaxies.com.

Talenn · #5 January 23rd, 2001, 05:50 AM

Yes, I've more or less burnt out on SE4 as well. I'm still playing the occasional game here and there, but mostly I'm just piddling with the data at this point.

IMO, the biggest detractors are the lack of any real Diplomacy and the 'issues' with combat and weapon balance. The Diplomacy problems reduce the game to more or less a military slugfest all the time and the combat problems make that less interesting than it could be. Together, they leave it all feeling a little bit flat after a while.

I'm very much looking for the new patches to breathe some new life into the game. IMO, it needs adjustments to the above items far more than it needs new features (TCP/IP play notwithstanding). It doesnt matter how many more 'Gadgetron VI's' are added if the game is stale before you ever get a chance to use them or if their use is simply in mop up.

All in all, I definately feel that I got my money's worth from SE4, but I know that there is so much more potential in the system that is untapped. Its a bit frustrating but I hope that it eventually get to the point where it lives up to its potential.

Talenn

nmoppa · #6 January 23rd, 2001, 09:52 AM

But also consider the fact Aaron is all the time working on improvements and the combined modders did a great job in their Mod Pack 1.0. There are a lot of feuatures in Version 1.19 to make a new game interesting enough to play. You can use mines or not, it's your decision. Not using mines while facing agressive enemies makes the game rather tough, because they go immediately for poorly defended planets (commonly the planets you use for building resources) and soon you will be facing shortage in minerals with all consequences by this. Etc. Of course I'm also looking forward to the new patch

, but in the mean time I see no reason to not playing a game. I have never seen the amount of support a "commercial" game gets (by the developers and by modders) as in case of SE IV. We should be grateful for that!

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PERHAPS THIS IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE <Worf facing another critical fight>

WendellM · #7 January 23rd, 2001, 10:14 AM

quote:
There are a lot of feuatures in Version 1.19 to make a new game interesting enough to play.

Yeah, that's one of the good things about patches: how they can revive one's interest in a game that one has sort of set aside. I must confess that I sometimes "get bored" with even good games (not exactly that, but just stop playing them because something else snags my attention). A new patch, however, brings me back to see what's been fixed/improved

.

Wendell