Space Empires 5

[Nodachi]

Smarter combat strategies. Programmable perhaps? Write your own strategy using pseudocode?

I love this idea!! Almost infinite flexibility!

A lot of these ideas are great but I don't want to see this game turned into a micromanagement nightmare either. Make some "improvements" optional.

I'd hate to see the game turned into a resource hog too. 3D is fine but don't go overboard, I don't want to have to rebuild (again ) this Frankenstein computer of mine.

I'd like to see additional and more flexible abilities for modders to exploit... er, use.

But I think the most important thing would be not to rush the game to developement. I think that's what is killing a lot of games, rushing to get a product on the shelves rather than working to put a quality product on the shelves.

[Arkcon]

What I'd like to see is multiple facility sizes ... stay with me on this one.

The resupply depot should be small. The spaceport ... small or medium or big, whatever works for balance

Spaceyard? ... big
Units Only Space Yard ... small or medium

Miners, refiners and farms ... small medium and large -- each with a proportional resource production.

Now ... return to the game the ability to colonize asteroids.

Maybe a small asteroid field can only hold a small miner, or a resupply depot. Resupply at ateroids is very usefull to the AI. Everyone knows the AI can't handle black holes well -- but if there are two asteroid systems next to each other ... the AI can't cross them.

A medium asteroid file could hold the space port ... but how will you defend it? This could make asteroids more interesting.

That tiny, no atmosphere planet that only holds one facility now could be more interesting if it held a resupply base, spaceport, and a miner at 1/3 production level or do you just build an ordinary miner -- your call.

Remember, if the planets are moving from month to month -- resupply depots are much more important.

So many more ideas -- but I'll calm down for now

[Baron Munchausen]

Well, gosh. There are lots of things that people might think of as 'SE V' that could still be done in SE IV. Space monsters, for example. As far as what I expect in SE V, I can only give broad outlines because the different starting points or 'frame of reference' will influence each other and create differences that are impossible to predict.

The first simple ideas I have are to ditch the stupid attempt at a 'kewl' looking interface. We don't need a special set of mouse cursors, the default is fine. It was (and is still) a waste of MM's time to code all those custom interface elements, like the file save and load dialogs, when Windows has standard ones which work better. Deh! Go back to Windows standard interface and let people play the game in the user interface they have customized for themselves.

Gamewise, add loads more 'simulation' detail to the map. Stars should have mass and internal dynamics that determine their behavior. Star size and type should affect radiation levels in the system and the performance of solar harnessing technologies. And the climates of planets! Planets should have gravity, radiation levels, and temperature ranges as well as the present atmosphere types.

Planet usage should be more dynamic as we discussed in another thread. The same space should be used for population, facilities, and cargo space.

Population needs to be more 'true to type', keeping racial characteristics and holding to an 'attitude' towards their conquerors even after the empire they came from is completely gone.

The system map needs to grow somehow. If we have to resort to a 'windowed' system like comabt then that's what we have to do. A system ought to have a radius of at least 10 sectors. Going to a coordinate system might be better than trying to keep the little discreet squares.

Combat needs to be scaled up even further as well. The increase in damage numbers for both weapons and components allowed smaller shades of difference in combat power but ranges are still pitifully small and simple. We need to have ranges measured at 10X SE III values just like damage is.

And as we all know, the AI needs thousand different improvements. Mainly it needs a memory but it also needs to be smarter in tactical combat and in simple tasks like choosing what colonies to place in a system.

[ July 10, 2002, 16:56: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[klausD]

In SE5 I too dont wanna have any kind of

Realtime 3D and similar teenie crap.

If anybody wants to play RTS, he should goto Imperium Galactica or MOO3 (tactical combat). He should not waste his short attention span and mouse clicking talents on a great stratetic TB game series like SE.

Klaus

PS: sorry for my bad english

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
The first simple ideas I have are to ditch the stupid attempt at a 'kewl' looking interface. We don't need a special set of mouse cursors, the default is fine. It was (and is still) a waste of MM's time to code all those custom interface elements, like the file save and load dialogs, when Windows has standard ones which work better. Deh! Go back to Windows standard interface and let people play the game in the user interface they have customized for themselves.

I know the UI for SEIII was quite popular with SEIII fans, but it got knocked around quite severly everywhere else. I think the SEIV interface was an effort to shed the "Spreadsheet in Space" label that 4X games in general, and Space Empires in particular had been hung with. Yes, there are problems with it, but they are errors in execution I think, not in concept. I wouldn't say going backwards is the answer.

The UI set SEIV apart from it's predecesors, for good and bad. It gave it the look of a professional product. SEIV with the SEIII interface would have pleased many SEIII fans, but it would have given SEIV the same shareware look that SEIII had.

Of course function is more important than form, playability is more important than eye candy. But looks are important when you are trying to get reviews, and expand the user base.

Geoschmo

[ July 10, 2002, 16:04: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Iron Giant]

Nobody mentioned firing arcs? Or Shield & Armor arcs to match?

Ohhh, of all the good ideas, I like this one. I also think that the ship sizes should be *2 for each successively larger size.
Frigate 200
Destroyer 400
Light Cruser 800
Cruiser 1600

etc.

I also would like this turn based. There is pleanty of real-time 4x gaming out there, I think SE5 would fill the niche of turn based.

On the other hand... I thought that combat in Star Fleet Command was going to Rot when I found out it was going to be real time, but I was wrong, they married real-time and tactics gracefully but that is so rare its not even funny....

Any word from "offical" sources? Is SE5 a possibility????

[ July 10, 2002, 16:17: Message edited by: Iron Giant ]

[Ed Kolis]

Big ships should take up more sectors in the combat map! Like in MOO2! (And stars should be bigger than planets... say, perhaps there should be some sort of penalty for flying too close to a star...)