SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Karibu]

Statistic how much population killed. Now you can lok how much enemy ship tonnage your ship designs have destroyed, but I would like to know how big massacer I am

[Colonel]

Statistic how much population killed. Now you can lok how much enemy ship tonnage your ship designs have destroyed, but I would like to know how big massacer I am

i would want to add an idea to this, i want to be able to keep track of all the ships i've lost and to who i lost them to

I want more use for the temproal triat perhaps be able to send ships into the future so you could have it disappear and reappear after a certian number of turns, this would allow you to build alot of ships and not pay maintance for a little while and then build up a fleet quickly

[Karibu]

Colonel's idea is good. Temporal race should be able to send a ship or a whole fleet in the future for some turns.

Also my this idea is propably presented before but I put it here anyway: Fleets within fleets. I wouldlike tidea to build specialized fleets with each of them with their own commands and tactics. THen they would gather under a mainfleet and move as one in the map. That way I could make it certain that several of my fleets appear in same spot in same time to battle.

[Randallw]

I've got a better Idea. Send warships back to previous turns. When it looks like the temporal race is about to be defeated a mighty warfleet arrives from the future where their word is law.

[dogscoff]

I've got a better Idea. Send warships back to previous turns. When it looks like the temporal race is about to be defeated a mighty warfleet arrives from the future where their word is law.

Yeah... YOu activate your "temporal reinforcements" facility and a huge fleet of your own ships blinks into existence. The snag is that you have to build all those ships within X turns (at the end of which they promptly disappear back into the past), or a temporal discontinuity destroys the facility- and the entire system it's in.

[Randallw]

Gee, I know I was only kidding and I know you were just going along with the joke, but your idea might actually work. Make it so only a planet or system with say 40B people can build the facility and make it so you can choose the number of ships you can currently make (so you could "summon 1 ship" knowing you can esily build it later, or 20 ships and hope you can get them done in "time") If for example you only have 5 SY in the system multiply it by the number of turns to the future you call to and get the maximum you can summon.

Edit: mind you theres the Bill & Ted factor
"You forget, only the ones who win can come from the future"

[Fyron]

I'm ready for the flaming =D

You have come to the wrong place if you want to be flamed my friend.

Aaron Hall stated in the IRC #se4 chat sessions yesterday that SEV will have 3D models for system objects, ships, etc. It will have pausable (can issue orders while paused so it is just like turn based combats that queue up orders and have each side act simultanously for a turn) real time combat, but the rest of the game will still be turn based. It has a scripting language being built, which will primarily be used for the AI. It might also be used for events, to make them more powerful, and to be able to make events with triggers.

[Ed Kolis]

You know, that sounds like an actually halfway decent way of balancing the temporal uber technologies!

[Antonin]

brianeyci said:
* 3D engine. SE:V does not have to turn into a RTS, but you should see 3D models superimposed on a background when viewing a specific system... and be able to travel through the system and click on planets ala homeworld would be nice, but maybe going overboard... have a highlighting option so small planets are not hard to see (in the 3D mode) ... fleets could be represented by the actual static 3D models... It does not have to be cutting edge graphics, but at least get rid of static camera angles... perhaps the two-dimensional overlay could be maintained, or even superimposed on a 3D viewscreen... for example, when you click on a planet on the grid map, the main background of the screen changes to a 3D view of the planet. The customizability of this 3D image for mods, etc could be maintained through a scripting language...

* make races come more "alive"... sounds, graphics, images, 3D customizable races similar to the current MMORPG thing where you can customize your character... you can make races come more alive without sacrificing customizability... like, you could have a screen when a player chooses a new race, he could rotate a 3D model around and choose which features to add/subtract... similar in sports games where you can customize the look of your character. Also have something where you can choose the voice of your race, and perhaps have diplomatic interactions between "talking heads"... customizability could be also maintained through downloads of new race voices, new 3D models for races, etc... and of course if you do a good job in the first place, the number of permutations for the look of your race should be endless... 3 tentacles? 2 eyes? body armor? green skin? pink skin? patterened skin?
....
IMO, you should throw out the 2D engine, and work with a 3D engine or get a license for one. (Wonder if Shrapnel Games could afford that lol) Just like Starcraft is the pinnacle of 2D Real-Time-Strategy gameplay and Fallout 2 the pinnacle of 2D isometric turn-based roleplaying, it looks like SE:IV is the pinnacle of 4x turn-based strategy. The only thing left to do is to do something truly innovative, like combine cutting edge graphics and customizability with the depth of SE:IV.

I disagree. I see no need at all for 3D graphics. I'd rather have better AI, additional commodities, new features such as governors or viceroys who could be assigned to oversee a particular sector.

A simple way to implement governors would be to make them so they provide certain modifiers for certain things. Governor Little Green Man A would provide a production boost. B would improve research, etc. They would work in much the same way as facilities that are already in the game, but would cost less in terms of resources, would provide a smaller positive modifier, and would be produced on the homeworld and sent out to the provinces. The more systems a governor is given to oversee, the smaller his/her/its positive modifier.

I don't see why some modder can't implement this now.

I don't see how focusing any programming energy on 3D graphics will make a better game. With all due respect to this poster, to me it's just eye candy. The gameplay is the thing. At least for an older gamer like me.

Through the years I've seen so much ballyhoo about 3D graphcs, and I've bought a lot of games featuring same. They look nice, but it has always been apparent that other areas are thinner because the programmers concentrated too much on creating a pretty picture.

Of course, I doubt that my opinion will mean doodly on this issue, because I doubt that many people here feel the same way. Oh well. People get all dreamy when they hear the term "3D," and that's that. It's kind of strange that people would prefer 3D combat and 3D system views to governors, new commodities, better diplomacy, a deeper economic system, etc.

But so be it. SE4 has come closer to being perfect than any game I have ever bought, and I'll still play it.

If SE5 comes out with a lot of fanfare and hype about 3D this and 3D that, I will have to take a very careful look at a demo before buying it. If there is no demo, I won't even consider buying it.

[Fyron]

SE5 will have a lot more improvement than just 3d graphics... For one thing, the diplomacy model will be greatly improved. No more rigid treaty types; we will be able to specify the exact nature of all agreements, down to what is traded, whether you can cross borders, etc. Read the chat session logs with Aaron Hall about SE5 to see a small glimpse at such new features:

http://se4irc.spaceempires.net/archives.php

Why would there be no demo? This is not some faceless corporation here... Aaron has no choice but to cater to the fans, or he won't make many sales...