Combat in SEV

[Renegade 13]

dogscoff said:
In other words, tactical combat is out, very pretty strategic combat is in. However I could be wrong on this.

This all depends on your definition of "tactical" and "strategic" combat, but please remember that Dogscoff is not a beta tester and may have some information wrong.

I love subtlety.

[Suicide Junkie]

I can defeat superior forces in tactical combat by outmaneuvering them and outsmarting them.

That's only because you aren't playing against other humans...

Meat >> AI

I know how hard it is to give up the control (I was a tactical combat junkie for three or four years!).
But I can assure you that once you get the hang of things you can do quite a lot.
One of the hard things to learn is that you need to adjust your ship designs to fit the strategies almost as much as the strategies to fit the design. When it all comes together, though, it is amazing.

Amazing x300 ships, and x5000 fighters
http://imagemodserver.mine.nu/other/...an1_turn04.jpg

[Phoenix-D]

There have been muliple references to combat being pauseable, which is sort of pointless if the player can't control it.

Also, one of the best TBS games around, Combat Mission, has real-time combat.

Yes, you read that correctly. It stays paused, players issue orders, and then the game runs for a set period of time with no player ordering allowed. It works quite well.

[Lucifer Domine]

No, I was referring to playing other humans, SJ. Among the friends with which I play, I have the best grasp of tactics. I tend to win most of the time. The fun for them usually consists of trying to find ways to spread my resources thin by teaming up against me.

As for PBEM tactical combat, it has been a while since I've used PBEM, mainly I use hotseat. Apparently it was another game that had turn-based tactical combat that worked in PBEM games... MoO2, maybe? I know that also had PBW support. Maybe I am getting that confused and remembering networking with my brother and a few friends to play then saving the game and basically doing a few turns a night over the course of several months....

Like I said, I will give the demo a shot and see what it's like when I have access to it. I might just be over-reacting and might actually LIKE the way SEV does it, but I just am miffed at losing truly turn-based tactical combat. There are times I prefer turn-based to simultaneous for a change of pace. Feels more like a computerized board game then.

Since you mentioned strategies/designs, I am curious... is there a way to make the AI use smaller ship models instead of just sending waves of massive fleets composed entirely of its largest ship around? I like to use a mix of vessel and never truly abandon any ship size (escorts make perfect boarding shuttles). I also tend to keep a defensive fleet in every system I control (patrolling in case of cloaked ships lurking about) and all my critical planets well defended by units (obsolete models get shipped off to front lines for combat disposal and to "unimportant" colonies for SOME protection).

[Captain Kwok]

Like Douglas mentioned, there is a stepped-pause feature. This means you can halt the combat every X seconds (i.e. 1, 2, 4, 5 etc) automatically. This can be used to create essentially the same situation as traditional SE:IV tactical combat with the exception (and improvement to fairness IMO) that the ships will execute their orders and movement at the same time.

Alternatively, you may even choose to control a single ship in the combat (pretending you're its captain) while the combat runs.

[Atrocities]

Go Captain Kwok, GO! Blow them out of the stars! Your our HERO! OH NO LOOK OUT! Ohhhhhhh they got him.

[Yimboli]

reminds me of dungeon keeper! =O

[BBegemott]

Hei
Speaking about the combat... is it really 3D? I do recall watching an intro-film with upcoming SE5 features, and combat as one of them. What dissapointed me- I saw the ships moving in circles so they could use their weapons that are built in on both sides of the ship. Hey, I saw that before - in Pirates Of the Carribbean (sp sry). SE5 ships move the same like ships in POFC! Ouch. Why don't spaceships use 3rd dimmenssion? I think rotating along its own axis is much more cost efficient rather than making a big circle.
For this reason a new type of engines could be introduced- that provide rotating speed.
If 3rd dimmension in SE5 will be like it is in Starfury- sry, that's not 3D.

[Fyron]

Malfador has never claimed SE5 to have a 3D grid, just 3D rendering.

[Hunpecked]

With regard to weapons on opposite sides of the ship, you could get the same effect as 3D rotation by just allowing all weapons to engage at once, regardless of facing.