Anybody using Ground Combat/Units??

[wingte]

Well.. IG II was intended to be an Online game so the AI would have been irrelavent.

Wingte

[quote]Originally posted by Narlotep:
[b]Wingte,

IGII Ground Combat looked good, but several reviews dinged the AI's ability to use ground units. As I'm a solo player that killed it for me.

[Fionn]

It's just a matter of personal taste but IG2 left me rather cold, good ground combat or not.

It certainly has its strong points but it lacks the depth and versatility of SE4. IG2 seemed flat to me in some important ways and I found it hard to get interested in the prepackaged empires, especially the warrior race who can't even access the diplomatic functions. I find the "flavor" of SE4 much more involving, especially when it comes to the customization abilities.

Maybe if I was at all interested in multiplayer gaming, it'd be different, but I think I've already spent more time playing the demo Version of SE4 than I spent playing the full release Version of IG2.

I spotted a couple of copies of IG2 on the bargain wall at a shop today. It'd be a decent cheap buy but I wish I hadn't bought it at the full price!

[Noble713]

No, by far the best ground combat in a 4X game can be found in SSI's Star General. Planetary invasions are fought using the Panzer General game engine (unfortunately also used for the space portion of the game), with a variety of unit types including AFVs (tanks), mobile artillery, anti-tank infantry, flying spotters, fighters, and bombers. It was great, as invasions of larger planets required several space turns (with 10 ground turns per space turn), and you usually needed to keep the planet blockaded.

quote:

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Originally posted by wingte:
The best "ground combat" in a "space game" is IG II.

Wingte

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[General Hawkwing]

One experience I had with ground combat went as follows:
I had defeated the planet's space station and had destroyed the 3 weapon platforms. (The planet's cargo showed 0 platforms.)I then brought my troop ship in and dropped them to capture the planet. When it went to the ground combat screen, the planet defenses showed the weapon platforms (still at 0) and ZAP one combat tick and all my troops were gone.
I would think that destroyed platforms whould not have counted in the combat. Is this a bug?
Please note that this all occurred within one 30 turn combat.
BTW I then used my attack ships to wipe the planet clean, that'll show 'em.

[Klauss]

"In my opinion, I believe that MM did the right decision: the core of the game is the
"Galactic Conquest" not the "Planetary Conquest".

But the most important bodies in the galaxy are the planets.
Nobody can oversea the fact that the ground combat system is just designed plain bad.

The first group of people dont bother at all with it, because its boring, cumbersome and not balanced.
The second group which likes to plan their wars and logistics on planets too, critisize MM for this design decision (I belong to this group)
And the third group does not pay attention to the problem at all as long as there is a new fancy-fizzi-super-cool-destroy-all-enemy-ships-at-once-cannon in the game, because they think that the a space 4x game should consist of gun whamming trough the galaxy.

IMO a good 4x game should consist of much more: a trade system (like civ, boo for MM), a diplomatic system (bravo for MM) a space combat system (bravo bravo for MM), a ground combat system (boo, boo for MM)
you know what I mean.

klaus

[Jeb]

I forget the exact circumstances (comes of staying up all night playing addictive games), but I remember one combat in which a planet wound up with -1 weapons platform. IIRC, it could still somehow fire at me. Has anybody else encountered this bug?

[Iron Giant]

I, for one, don't mind the system the way it works now. I'm here for a 4x game in SPACE not a ground tactical game.

Also, MM is a very small company (if I understand correctly) and isnt in a position to do a really, really good ground combat system in ADDITION to a really, really good 4x game, right?

Lets review the other 4x games ground combat:

Moo II : you create "troop ships", fill them up with the best troops you have, then they can attack the enemy planet AFTER the space combat is done. Troop ship do nothing but carry troops and they are not part of any engagement involving the invasion, so you cannot "throw everything" at the enemy troop ship to try and destroy it. If the enemy wins the space battle, the troops land, walk from the left side of the screen to the right and whoever has the best forces wins.

Imperium Galactica: Troops are all in tanks. The tanks get to the planet inside the cargo holds of ships. You cannot build a "troop ship" because you are not allowed very many "troop holds" as compared to any ship design. There is no real way to create a large "troop ship", you have to put troops on your starships, which then can get destroyed in combat.

Once you get on the ground, there is 1 city there (suppossedly representing a planet of millions or billions of people???) that you can "tank rush". Very limited tactics available: focus your fire, try to stay at your best weapons range, etc.

In the end, neither game gave the "feel" of actually conquering a planet.

Moo2 did a little better in the fact that each planet had a "loyalty rating". If you didnt work hard to subjugate the conquered populations (through diplomacy or through stationing a garrison force), they may rebel and automatically switch back to the enemy, which added some realism, where in IG2, once you land, they are all loyal to the death for you...

What would the people here like to see? What would REALLY give the feel of conquering a whole entire planet, without becoming a whole entire game? I'm not sure I see anything that could satisfy me beyond the current system..

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