SE5, Tell Aaron what's on your Wish List

[Loser]

Originally posted by Slick:
a carriage return is a CTRL-M.

[Keanu]
whoa....
[/Keanu]

That is the most useful thing I've heard all week. Is that in the FAQ?

Slick would have said if it were in the FAQ. Slick always lets you know if it's in the FAQ. But Slick knows it, so it must be in there somewhere...

[Lisif Deoral]

• Multiplayer save games:IMO the only way to prevent hacking (to cheat or gather information about other players) is to send the players files which contain only what they know (not the entire galaxy status as in SEIV).
  
  The .plr file should be changed to a simple list of commands ("ship 1 moves to Dornot 1,7; ship 2 renamed to MilleniumDuck; planet56 builds mineral_miner_1") - if any of the commands turn out to be illegal, they would be ignored.
  
  Saving the .plr and/or turn files in simple text format (or another easy-to-read format) might be useful but would endanger the game sales (one might develop another game client to write .plr files).
• Enemy designs archive & LR scanners
  Add the enemy designs "seen" by long-range scanners to the known enemy designs list! (I don't know if it already works this way in Gold...)
• Boolean operators
  Some sort of boolean operators and variables available when giving orders. For example:
  If an enemyship appears into range and is not part of a fleet with more than 10 ships then attack (intercept) that ship
• Giving players other roles (Warning: this is a major change!)
  Not every player needs to play an emperor/president/whatever... You might be interested in playing only the combat part, or the empire micromanagement part, etc. Right now, you can do this, but everything else will be handled by the AI - what about giving control of these aspects of the empire to another human player? (obviously useful only in a MP game!)
  
  The same model might have a lot of other interesting (and uncommon, at least in games I have played) uses:
  
  * a "federation" game, with players controlling different zones of the same empire - and able to start a secession war or betray their sovereign
  
  * being able to play something else than a true empire (for example, a galactic trading company)
  
  * varying degrees of "affiliation" of units to more than a player (and eventually also "freelance" or independent units). For example, a frigate of the Dornot System Defense Fleet usually accepts commands only from the Dornot Governor (player1). Anyway, if the Governor rebels against his emperor, the frigate might decide to remain loyal to the Empire (and pass under the control of the emperor's player). This might be called "warlord mode"...
  

[tesco samoa]

SJ I have asked it before, and no you do not sound angry.

Is what your saying 100% Fact ?

[Ed Kolis]

Originally posted by Lisif Deoral:
Not every player needs to play an emperor/president/whatever... You might be interested in playing only the combat part, or the empire micromanagement part, etc. Right now, you can do this, but everything else will be handled by the AI - what about giving control of these aspects of the empire to another human player? (obviously useful only in a MP game!)

Yes! YES!!! Like Play by Committee, only built into the game so SJ doesn't have to input everybody's orders! I imagine it would be a matter of setting up some sort of "permissions" system similar to the file system of Windows XP... whether that's feasible in a game or not I don't know

[Suicide Junkie]

Originally posted by tesco samoa:
SJ I have asked it before, and no you do not sound angry.

Is what your saying 100% Fact ?

It is 100% true that simultaneous turn battles have no input from the user during combat. You have no impact on the outcome other than your standing orders.

Making the combat system realtime does not change any of those facts.

---

Basically what you are asking for is a slide show instead of a movie for the combat replay!

[ May 24, 2003, 03:18: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[Fyron]

Originally posted by Ed Kolis:
Well, look at MOO3... I bought it almost three months ago and I've played it, what, maybe 3 times?

You can't use MOO3 as an example for anything other than how not to make a game.

[klausD]

Nice sideeffect from 3D, RT combat: it is more appealing to the general public and would hence generate more revenue for MM and Shrapnell. That in turn would be a good things for quality strategy gaming.

Well the problem is that SE is not a quality strategy game anymore if Aaron introduces anything like realtime (pauseable or not) with SEV.

It is 100% true that simultaneous turn battles have no input from the user during combat. You have no impact on the outcome other than your standing orders.

Yes this is true but what is with those many people which dont play simulataneously or with other people. As in every other serious TB strategy game there is (in chat or forums passive) also in SE a majority just playing against the computer and not against other humans. Some people in this forum tend to believe their way of playing only strategic combat, simultaneously and against humans is the only way SE is, can or should played. But out there in the the opposite is true.

tschüß
KlausD

[Ruatha]

A "Seen ship" list, all enemy sightings this turn.

[Suicide Junkie]

Some people in this forum tend to believe their way of playing only strategic combat, simultaneously and against humans is the only way SE is, can or should played. But out there in the the opposite is true.

I have been in a total of maybe 10 simultaneous game combats to date. I just love tactical, myself.
However the question was about simultaneous play.

There are many good ways to implement a realtime tactical combat engine.
The ideal one for me would be stepped orders.

Take something like the current tactical combat, and resolve each combat turn the same sort of way that simultaneous game month turns are resolved now.
EG: Order your escort to move forward 2 squares, fire missiles, then retreat 2 squares. The enemy might have orders to stay put, and fire its 0.2 reload rate meson bLaster at anything that comes in range.
Once all the orders are in, hit end turn, watch the ships move and fire.
After that, your escort has 2&1/2 turn left of reloading on its missile, the missile is flying through space, and your ship has been hit 3 times, with the shield regenerator I adding one hitpoint between each hit you took (5 hp/turn = 1 hp in the time it took the meson bLasters to reload ).

Combat step size should be moddable, or even adjustable in combat. Set it to 5 se4-turns per step while charging towards the enemy, then down to small increments while dogfighting.

[Fyron]

Well the problem is that SE is not a quality strategy game anymore if Aaron introduces anything like realtime (pauseable or not) with SEV.

You could not be any more wrong than that statement... Real time execution of combat can very easily be more strategically deep than se4's combat system (such as in SJ's post). Do not confuse real time with RTS games like Warcraft and such. Those games are a cruel abomination of strategy, and are not all that real time is.

Some people in this forum tend to believe their way of playing only strategic combat, simultaneously and against humans is the only way SE is,

Who believes that? No one I have ever spoken to believes that.

[ May 25, 2003, 07:32: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]