To SEIV Gold or Not?

[Enigma]

Thanks for the response! Maybe I should have said more "functional graphics" instead of "better":-) Graphics are not that important to me, but these (MOO3) make me feel I am playing an old DOS game.

I think at this point the most important factor to me would be better AI since my games are going to be single player. I have the TDM modpack for SEIV. Are the AI's more challenging in Gold?

I am not trying to bag out of supporting the game, I just want to make sure it is actually a different game.

[oleg]

Originally posted by Enigma:
.. I have the TDM modpack for SEIV. Are the AI's more challenging in Gold?

.

Just one example: Suppose you choose "low AI bonus". It gives AI 2X resources it generates. But, before the latest Gold patch (1.84) AI did not "know" it and keeps its books to stay in the line with pre-bonus budget, building far less ships than it actually should. Now it is a new ball game.

[PvK]

Even if I didn't play and make mods, I think Gold really makes a big difference, for all of the improvements to the game mechanics! There are big improvements to important basic ways things work, such as defenders firing first in a battle (instead of player #1 - makes a big difference in warp-point defense!), and heaps of other stuff. Just look at the changes log for the latest Gold patch, reading down to the pre-Gold, and it should be pretty convincing!

PvK

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:

quote:

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Of course, the latest StarTrek and Bab-5 stuff is for gold..

Actually, the Babylon 5 Mod is still being developed in non-Gold se4.

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Really? I thought they were using a lot of Proportions mod stuff, which would be really hard without Gold.

PvK

[capnq]

Gold and the Gold patches also have a progressive series of minor improvements to the UI. Cumulatively, the improvements make the Classic UI feel a little tedious in comparison, at least to me.

[raynor]

Originally posted by capnq:
Gold and the Gold patches also have a progressive series of minor improvements to the UI. Cumulatively, the improvements make the Classic UI feel a little tedious in comparison, at least to me.

I will second that. There are some really nice UI improvements introduced in Gold and the Last set of Gold patches. For that reason alone, I would go ahead and upgrade.

[rdouglass]

I agree w/ all those comments about the patches. Also, the mods (at least most of them) seem to focus towards more current Versions of the game/patches.

That IMO is a worthwhile reason....