SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Kana]

Currently I believe that ship names are taken from the ship name txt file by alphabeticaly order...or it could be random...

Would it be too difficult to have this set up so that certain ship class/type would only use a certain set of names? That way ship names would be consistant by class.

Kana

[Atrocities]

Yef said:
The ability to chose whether to play with Warp points or with free warping, like in Star wars.

This would be very nice, or have the option to have both. It has been suggested before but I think we will not see it in SE V. Warp Points are a defining feature of the Space Empires series. To have a game that would allow you to not use them is well, not space empires.

[Aris_Sung]

Hi,
I'm new here. I was just wondering if ground combat was going to be a little bit more 'beefed' up. Now I don't know too much about the process of making games, so the answer to my question could be as simple as it takes too long to make or something like that.

From my point of view, the dropping of troops and battling it out with the enemy reminds me of 18-19th century warfare, where armies would line up and shoot at each other, hoping that their superior numbers and better equipment will win the day. That was when the soldiers had inaccurate musquets. Space Empires is set in the 25th century, and weapons are definately alot more sophisticated. So shouldn't the warfare be just a tiny bit more in depth.

So here's my idea: a (space tactical combat)-like map could be used; on the map, facilities could be cities with people living in them and troops can move from city to city to weapon platform or even patrol normal land areas; then depending on how complex ground combat would want to get, you could add some areas such as forest(light foliage, normal, dense vegetation) or mountains(can only be travelled by infantry), ice floes(only light weight units can traversed), volcanos, etc. This areas could be used for hiding off/def troops, the chance of guerilla warfare, etc.

That brings me to my final point: different units. There could be unit typess such as infantry, tank, arty, helos, and fighters they already have. Each type could have different levels and then depending on size, they can only carry weapons of certain weights, so that their chosen engine can still move them. Having a map, you can move around will actually give the weapon ranges some meaning to ground combat.

Basically, we're in the 21st century and our ground combat is not standing in a line and shooting(although I'm sure the Americans would like to do that with the insurgents in Iraq right now). So if anything, 25th century combat should be the same if not 'combat evolved'.
Comments would be appreciated.

Aris

[Randallw]

It is certainly a grand idea, however Malfador would have to basically build a complete land combat game within a game. It would take twice as long to make then.

Edit: I include relevant chat transcript for your perusal.

[05:13:41-PM] Renegade13: Are you planning on having a more detailed ground combat system, and if so, can you give us some details or hints about it? By the way, thanks for taking the time to do this
[05:13:43-PM] Baron_Munchausen: Just have them _close_ formation when ships are destroyed and that would be an imporvement,
[05:14:38-PM] Malfador: To be honest, Ground Combat is still much as it was in SE4 (or will be, haven't quite written that yet). My hope was to put it in but time will be the telling factor.
[05:14:50-PM] Renegade13:
[05:15:04-PM] Malfador: At present, there's just not enough time to squeeze in something that doesn't come off as half-done.
[05:15:10-PM] ekolis: maybe at least slow it down so it takes multiple turns?
[05:15:10-PM] Fyron: Ground combat in SE4 is one of its weakest points..
[05:15:43-PM] eorg: maybe in se5 gold? like drones in se4?
[05:16:28-PM] Malfador: Yes, but one of the reasons companies don't like Space Strategies games is that its really two games in one. You have the strategic space portion, and then the tactical space combat. That's why some of the previous space strategy games have had pretty simplistic space combat sections.
[05:16:50-PM] Malfador: Having a detailed ground combat is like having a third game which is devoted to ground combat.
[05:17:04-PM] ekolis: use the space combat system with no banking ?
[05:17:08-PM] Baron_Munchausen: You could at least give us some orders/policies to issue to our ground troops, like strategies for ships.
[05:17:08-PM] Fyron: At least details such as weapon range and rate of fire should be relevant factors... It can still be simulated
[05:17:18-PM] SJ-Laptop: Even a one-dimensional march and shoot ground combat would work as a nice extension to the current zero-dimensional system.
[05:17:48-PM] ekolis: yeah - ever played Anacreon? make the ground combat look like Anacreon's space combat
[05:17:50-PM] parabolize: maybe add it as an option that can be turned off?
[05:17:52-PM] Atrocities: Would it be possible for ground combat to simply be like space combat is now with SEIV, but use ground terrian instead of space, and have both sides meet like in space combat?
[05:18:14-PM] Malfador: Yes, but a very simple one-dimensional march and shoot ground combat would look very unfinished next to the more robust areas.
[05:18:22-PM] Renegade13: good point
[05:18:32-PM] Malfador: My philosophy is that if you aren't going to make it detailed, what's the point?
[05:18:49-PM] DavidGervais: We do want the game to have a very consistant quality.
[05:19:06-PM] Fyron: SE4 has very inconistent quality in regards to ground combat

you can find the whole thing at

www.spaceempires.net

Edit 2: by the way welcome (hey I get to do it for once ). I would warn you about using phrases like americans lining people up (even if they are insurgents) and shooting them, though.

[Suicide Junkie]

Hmm... What about that old idea about allowing external programs to run combat and feed back the results?

[vanbeke]

[05:18:14-PM] Malfador: Yes, but a very simple one-dimensional march and shoot ground combat would look very unfinished next to the more robust areas. .

However, I would rather see something unfinished rather than unstarted.

[Ed Kolis]

I suppose with a powerful enough scripting engine you could do almost that... not really run outside C++ programs or anything, but write your own "external" programs in the scripting language based on "hooks" in the game:

Code:

---

// the "hook" is the function name CalcDamage

// calculates damage of a ground combat attack

function CalcDamage(Weapon weapon, Troop attacker, Troop defender, Planet planet)

{

integer range = attacker.rangeTo(defender);

// no damage if out of range

if (range > weapon.maxRange) return 0;

// get weapon type from a modder defined attribute list

else if (weapon.attributes["WeaponType"] == "Projectile") 

 return weapon.damageAtRange[range] - planet.atmosphere.density * coefficientOfDrag;

 // projectiles affected by drag

else if (weapon.attributes["WeaponType"] == "Beam")

 return weapon.damageAtRange[range] - planet.atmosphere.density * planet.atmosphere.composition["Hydrogen"]

 // beams must be powered down when there is volatile hydrogen!

else if ... // more weapon types and interesting code

else return 0; // failsafe in case weapon type is invalid

}

---

(Please note I'm completely speculating on the syntax of the scripting language; I'm just assuming it's going to look vaguely like C or Java - for all I know it could be Lua )

edit: sorry Atrocities!

[Atrocities]

I would love for there to be included in SE V, and perhaps one made for SeIV, a ONE click process the turn option. For example I am playing a PBIM (Play by Intstant Messanger) game with Intimidator and I have start SEIV (via the mod a launcher) to process the turn manually once I get his turn.

Tis a pain in the ***. It would be a lot better if all I had to do was place his plr file in the save game folder and hit RUN TURN. The turn would run and then I could send him the Game file.

[Suicide Junkie]

Wouldn't a batch file or even just a shortcut do fine for that?

I have a little LAN helper program that does something similar for two players... (point it to two files, and when both are present it processes) Uses the numlock/capslock/scroll lock lights to show which files are present.
Its mainly for when you're just spamming turns back and forth, and best when both people have access to the savegame folder, such as a shared dir on a lan.

[Aris_Sung]

Hi Randallw,

Thanks for responding to my post. I thought as much that making ground combat more complex would have that effect.

Aris

P.S. Thanks also for the warning, though you may have misinterpreted my intent. But that's ok. I'll remember to refrain from making those kinds of comments.