New Screenshots are *sick!!!*

[Hiruu]

After waiting for years for this game, and for more information other than a wallpaper, the newly posted screenshots just made be foam at the mouth even more for the game!!! Waiting until the end of the year is going to be VERY tough, but given the very sad state of the 4X game genre, there's not much choice in the matter. Be that as it may, the screenshots look REALLY good, and Space combat is a thing of beauty:

http://www.malfador.com/SE5scr007.htm

My goodness, look at the frigging station!!! WOW is all I can say, and thinking back, Hegemonia was a beautiful game, back in 2002, and I've yet to get the latest Imperium Galactica, but those games are a bit too linear, whereas SEV has been so wide open and this makes for an staggering amount of variety in ship and unit design. SEV is going to be an instant classic, but I just have to find a way to last till release date.

[Instar]

We're all looking forward to the release date, thats for sure.

[Kamog]

Yeah, I'm going to buy it immediately, the day it comes out!! I can't wait!

[David E. Gervais]

Hey, what if we all set a meeting for the release date (or the day before) and form a lineup to buy the game? Do you think the sudden appearence of a long line of fans at a computer store would be newsworthy? Only question is If the store sees the lineup and does not have enough stock, will they be able to get more games in time to satisfy the demand? It's a nice idea, but I'm afread that too many of us fans would be left in the cold when the stock runs out.

Well, it's fun to think of things like this even if it will never happen.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Exan]

Then there's no other option than to arrange a lan party where the people who didn't get their copy of SE5 could play SE5 as hotseat game.

I'm not sure if this kind of configuration is possible with Se5 or with Se4 for that matter.

Example:
Comp1.
-Jraenar
-Amonkrie
|
Comp2.
-Cue Cappa
|
Comp3.
-Sergetti
-Norak
-Abbidon

Is the above example possible in SE4/5? I've always wondered that.

[Iron Giant]

David E. Gervais said:
Hey, what if we all set a meeting for the release date (or the day before) and form a lineup to buy the game? Do you think the sudden appearence of a long line of fans at a computer store would be newsworthy?
Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif



Hmmmmm. If you did it in NYC maybe.... I'd go for sure... But I can take a bus to NYC, I wonder how many others could go?

[Gandalf Parker]

Ummmm I cant help but notice quite a few NDA's not yet received. How long before their slots are re-rolled?

Oh that was rude, forget I said that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Gandalf Parker
--
Ive conquererd castles, cities, countries, continents, worlds...
and just when I thought it was safe to sit back and rule...
they come out with
SPACE EMPIRES V

[Mephisto]

All I say is: snail-mail...

[DeadZone]

Considering that non of the European NDAs have been recieved thus far to my knowledge

Then consider that my NDA would of been in the US by Thursday of last week
Fair to say that you Yanks need to sort you postal service out

Oh, and Gandalf, if you didnt mean it then you wouldnt have posted it (or edited it removing the comment) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Gandalf Parker]

they are raising the rates soon which is supposed to help

And you are right, I coiuld have edit/canceled it. But I did mean to show regret at such rabid circling for an opening.

[Hiruu]

Is SEV going to be avialable for retail at mass marketers? I thought this was only going to be bought thru Sharpnel, or r u guys pulling my leg. Hey David, great job on the Malfador Website, it looks great, now we just need MORE screenshots, and a open beta! :-)

[David E. Gervais]

Hiruu said:
Is SEV going to be avialable for retail at mass marketers? I thought this was only going to be bought thru Sharpnel, or r u guys pulling my leg. Hey David, great job on the Malfador Website, it looks great, now we just need MORE screenshots, and a open beta! :-)



First, It has been made known in the Shrapnel Blog (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/blog) (a great feature of this Shrapnel Site) that SE5 is not being published by them. Aaron has opted to go the retail route and has chosen Strategy First as the publisher for SE5. It will be available world-wide in retail outlets.

Thanks for the kind comments on the web page, I like it too.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Hiruu]

Ooops! My bust on that one.

Space Empire IS the best 4X series out there, especially when MOO practically gived away any competitive edge with the last crap they put out to kill the franchise. Strategy First seems to be a good publisher, and I've bought quite a bit of their stuff over the years, hmmm, one thing is that they are usually cheaper than average retail ((29.99-39.99), but regarless of how much it cost, I'm pre-ordering SEV!

[Atrocities]

What do you mean there are screen shot? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Daynarr]

Mephisto said:
All I say is: snail-mail...



You have a talent for understatement. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

Look how long it took for my mail to arrive, and I paid extra to make it as speedy as possible. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

I bet that it will take even longer for CD to arrive to me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[GTKK]

The new screenshots look good, but almost a step back from the GUI of SE4 ... I'm thinking that will be modable.. so not a big deal i supose...

Space combat looks simply astounding. And very polished, sweet stuff.

One question that comes to mind is,,, With the Stars seemingly taking up more then one 'hexagon'.. Is it still going to be possible to travel through the stars space?... Like the Previous versions.. (which was a far-fetched concept scientificly... to begin with.. but who's counting)

I wonder how much harder it will be to create shipsets now? is Malfador going to come out with specifications in the near future.. does anybody know?

[Fyron]

GTKK said:
I wonder how much harder it will be to create shipsets now? is Malfador going to come out with specifications in the near future.. does anybody know?

Starfury is a good test bench for designing ships for SE5. If your ship models work in Starfury, they will probably work in SE5. I believe you might even be able to get custom ships to work in the Starfury demo. There was quite an extensive discussion recently about making models for SF/SEV over in *this thread* (http://www.spaceempires.net/home/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=452).

[Exan]

As for making ships to Starfury just ask, I can probably give some advices. I've addded almost every ship in TPM to the mod and they are working.(more or less)

[Randallw]

Yes, I recently managed to export my own x files to starfury. It's still early days, but by exporting my tutorial head from Gmax and renaming it as one of the starfury ships I can get it in Starfury as shown by the image I include. The glow in the head seems to be from an engine glow I can't change but it at least shows it can be done. Strangely the old x files seem to need an image overlaid over the model whereas mine can just be used with their original colours. I think perhaps because Starfury is old it needed textures for old directx.

[zircher]

The DirectX material template supports both kinds. Most modeller prefer textures and UV coordinates since they can add more detail to thir model without adding extra polygons. When you use colored polygons/faces you can only apply color to the whole polygon/face and not just part of it. So, it is an artistic choice and not a limitation of earlier version of DirectX.
--
TAZ

[Randallw]

Yeah, that's the other way I thought it was. Increased frame rate as it doesn't have to refresh extra polygons created just to have colour patterns.

Edit: great, I just realised I havn't finished the tutorials in Gmax yet and now I need to learn how to make skins to save polygons http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[Mephisto]

Daynarr said:
I bet that it will take even longer for CD to arrive to me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif



To my surprise the CD arrived very fast from the States, only 4 days travel time (including the day it went to the post office).

[Hiruu]

The GUI could use some polishing, but I think the beta is going to hash out alot of those problems. A little off the topic of screenshots, but I've heard a little about the idea of individual leaders (heros), but has anybody heard of how it's going to be handled?

[Instar]

David E. Gervais said:
Hey, what if we all set a meeting for the release date (or the day before) and form a lineup to buy the game? Do you think the sudden appearence of a long line of fans at a computer store would be newsworthy? Only question is If the store sees the lineup and does not have enough stock, will they be able to get more games in time to satisfy the demand? It's a nice idea, but I'm afread that too many of us fans would be left in the cold when the stock runs out.

Well, it's fun to think of things like this even if it will never happen.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif


It would be nice to get some hype for SEV going. The problem is, we're a small community (relatively). We got to try and figure something out to make some hype.

[minipol]

I like the new gui but it doesn't look to different to me. Doesn't have to be. What i will be looking for is how many features made it int the game that make it easier to manage big empiries.
For instance, remembering positions in a lost, making upgrading ship designs easier and so on.

The 3D ships are nice but if you autocalculate a battle that's not so important

[Ron_Lugge]

Instar said:It would be nice to get some hype for SEV going. The problem is, we're a small community (relatively). We got to try and figure something out to make some hype.



Hm... Maybe we could hack nuclearpower.com? That'd get us a *lot* of attention from computer geeks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

NOTE: I am in no way suggesting that such an activity should in fact occur. Don't even think it. Just don't.

[Gandalf Parker]

Ron_Lugge said:

Instar said:It would be nice to get some hype for SEV going. The problem is, we're a small community (relatively). We got to try and figure something out to make some hype.



Hm... Maybe we could hack nuclearpower.com? That'd get us a *lot* of attention from computer geeks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

NOTE: I am in no way suggesting that such an activity should in fact occur. Don't even think it. Just don't.



Of course not! (Gandalf Parker, www.alt-hacker.org (http://www.alt-hacker.org))

On the other hand Im trying to get the "official powers" interested in doing a contest for "sales pitch" sellable designs (text and/or images) that we can put on Tshirts and Mugs and Mousepads (and Journals for the beta testers). Very easy to do (check out www.OddThotz.com/CafePress.html) (http://www.OddThotz.com/CafePress.html))

How about......

I have conquered castles, cities, countries, continents, worlds...
and just when I thought I had beaten them all...
they come out with
SPACE EMPIRES V

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Ron_Lugge said:

Instar said:It would be nice to get some hype for SEV going. The problem is, we're a small community (relatively). We got to try and figure something out to make some hype.



Hm... Maybe we could hack nuclearpower.com? That'd get us a *lot* of attention from computer geeks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

NOTE: I am in no way suggesting that such an activity should in fact occur. Don't even think it. Just don't.



Nuclearpower.com has NOTHING to do with *actual* nuclear power.

[Ragnarok]

So when can we expect new screenshots? It'd be nice if perhaps once a month a couple new ones could be posted. What is the beta tester's take on this?

[Instar]

Ragnarok said:
So when can we expect new screenshots? It'd be nice if perhaps once a month a couple new ones could be posted. What is the beta tester's take on this?


Legally, beta testers can't post screenshots. Several reasons for this: beta content can change, competitive advantage, marketing, etc..
I'll wager that Aaron will post new screenshots eventually, maybe not soon or often enough to please everyone, but meh, c'est la vie.

[Renegade 13]

I suggested to Aaron today that some fans have been itching for some new screenshots...lets hope some more are put up soon. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[TNZ]

New screenshots in the SE5 Gallery.

[Randallw]

AAAH! The Jraenar are secretly Mole Men.

[Spoo]

Randallw said:
AAAH! The Jraenar are secretly Mole Men.



It's about time they put on some clothes.

[douglas]

Going in order across then down:

1. Going back to SEIII's starting tech selection method rather than just low/medium/high is a good idea, and basing it on research cost instead of number of tech levels is a great improvement. Back in SE3 with just a few extra starting tech levels, I'd take Fighters 12 and start the game with fighters boasting more shields, CS, ECM, and firepower than most ships would have for quite some time. I hope the game host can specify the amount of starting RP's arbitrarily rather than selecting from a limited number of choices.
Hmm, cultural tech, I wonder how that works.

2. I see abstract "conditions" have been broken down into concrete aspects. I wonder if races will be able to have different optimal conditions, so how good a planet is depends on the race.
Planetary damage? Is that like SEIV's 10% value decrease from glassing? I assume it will be easier to repair damage than to improve the initial conditions/value.

3. Ship design obviously taken from Starfury. I hope the possible number and positioning of weapons, shields, armor, etc. aren't significantly dependant on shipsets. Otherwise, shipset design could become just another thing that needs to be optimized to be competitive. I wonder how much of Starfury's component damage model was also carried over.

4. It's nice to have government type actually affect the game, but I was hoping for something a bit more interesting and varied than this. Each government should have its own strengths and weaknesses, not just another point on the linear progression of perfectly corresponding bonuses and penalties.
Anarchy should not be a viable choice. Without government, how is a military going to get organized? Not to mention all the other public goods and services that a government can provide. Face it, there are some things essential to any large society's wellbeing and protection that the private sector simply will not provide without government regulation. This should be represented by many penalties far larger than a mere 8%, and I can't think of any logical reason for it to give any correspondingly large bonuses.

5. Eye candy, no big deal... except that we finally get to see directly how much damage a facility can take.

6. More options for victory conditions are good, but I hope we can edit all the numbers involved directly.

7. More eye candy. Should help make it successful in retail, but I don't particularly care very much about it.

8. Load and save entire game setups! Very nice. It looks like starting positions can be specified manually without editing the map, too.

[Krsqk]

The important thing, as several of these screenshots show, is whether SEV will be fully mousewheel-friendly. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

/me goes off humming "~6 more months, ~6 more months, dum de dum,..."

[Ed Kolis]

I just hope it's wine-friendly, or at least Cedega-friendly... I don't want to jump to Windows fifteen times a day to play SE5! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

[Aiken]

Implication # N of the Murphy law: Since after SEV release forum will be filled with "How to launch it in Linux???" topics, there will be no linuxoids amongst SEV batatesters.

[Gandalf Parker]

A text-only exe that can run hosting and quit would be nice. Even better if it could run in linux. Its SOoooo much easier to do a game managing site on a linux server interfacing web, email, ftp, /etc /etc

[Ed Kolis]

aiken said:
Implication # N of the Murphy law: Since after SEV release forum will be filled with "How to launch it in Linux???" topics, there will be no linuxoids amongst SEV batatesters.



C'mon, there's gotta be ONE... didn't at least David Gervais say he had Linux on one of his machines or something?

If anything maybe they should let me join the beta test late just so we can get Linux people playing SE5, huh? Pretty please? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[Combat Wombat]

Ed Kolis said:

aiken said:
Implication # N of the Murphy law: Since after SEV release forum will be filled with "How to launch it in Linux???" topics, there will be no linuxoids amongst SEV batatesters.



C'mon, there's gotta be ONE... didn't at least David Gervais say he had Linux on one of his machines or something?

If anything maybe they should let me join the beta test late just so we can get Linux people playing SE5, huh? Pretty please? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif



Don't worry guys I use linux and plan to do testing with wine but keep in mind our main job is to first make sure the game works great in its intended OS. Also I am sure Fyron will do some testing in linux.

[Ed Kolis]

Yaaay! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[David E. Gervais]

FYI: I only have one computer, it's OS is Win XP Home. I never had or used Linux in my life. I think I saw a redhat machine once, but I didn't play with it.

Sorry, maybe you meant DavidG (that other guy) but I'm not sure if he is even on the Beta.

/end of information broadcast.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[atari_eric]

Nice screenshots!

Now we want more! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Q]

The ship design window looks very much like starfury. But this detailed choice where you put your components (left/right side, top or rear of the ship) would be only meaningful if the firing and damage depends as in starfury on the direction of the enemy.
Is that the case?? From the combat window I didn't have this impression.

[Fyron]

Combat Wombat said:
Also I am sure Fyron will do some testing in linux.

Fyron doesn't have Linux on a PC capable of running SEV.

[Randallw]

Judging from the position of the slider in certain pictures (such as the victory conditions) there must be a lot of options, putting aside such things as Time elapsed: 200,400 etc.

[Aiken]

atari_eric said:
Nice screenshots!

Now we want more! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Public beta to begin with http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

[bearclaw]

I'm just looking at the shipdesign window shot and I've noticed something. As was mentioned, there was a concern that the number of slots available for weapons would be limited as they are in StarFury, where you couldn't have a ship that had very few engines and be packed with weapons, for instance.

However I notice that the slots in the pic have letters in them A,I,O. And the components available also have letters next to them I,O. I would assume that means that the components can only be placed in corrisponding slots. A=Armor, I=Inner, O=Outer. So except for the few Armor slots, I would assume that the weapons must be placeable in the O slots, which there doesn't seem to be a lack of. In fact the CSM shows I,O. I'm wondering if Armor components are just A or A,O?

And I'm sure these are all moddable as well.

[bearclaw]

oh, and being able to set the stratagy for the design while creating it. I like that.

[Aiken]

True, bearclaw. It also means that QNP mods will be quite difficult to implement, if there will be no possibilty for size dependant engine's mounts.
Though, I hope that upper, middle and lower decks provide separate empty slots (???) or it will be possible to install several comps into one slot.

[Suicide Junkie]

Why would slots prevent size-dependent mounts?
Tonnage is still critical as you can see in the top left of the screenshot.

[Kamog]

How would you design a HUGE ship, like a world ship or giant star base, that has hundreds of components? The square component sLots are a fixed size so there seems to be a limit to how many slots that a ship can have. The example shows a ship with 36 component slots, and the picture of the ship already takes up most of the window. How can we have a big ship with, say, 200 slots, it won't fit in the window.

I guess we can design big ships by using more decks. The screenshot shows upper decks, middle decks, and lower decks. Does this mean we can have 10 upper decks, 10 middle decks, and 10 lower decks if we wanted?

[MightyPenguin]

http://www.bratch.co.uk/coven/console.png

I stole this picture from this screenie (http://www.malfador.com/SE5scr005.htm)... it's the combat one, for the lazier of you.

What interests me is the four icons with the stop clocks on them. The first three are play, stop and half speed, obviously, I'm not sure what the last one is supposed to represent- possibly speed up? Whatever. This implies that the combat system will be pausable real time... I'm wondering how this is going to work in multiplayer. And how manageble 200+ ship battles are going to be.

I'm sorry if this has come up before- I haven't checked these boards in months...

EDIT: Some of those images would only apply to the system wide map. Is this a hint that battle maps and system maps will be seamless or is it just poor design work?

Or can you exchange cargos and use jump points in battle (that'll give a whole new dimesion to blockade battles, anyway)...?

[Ed Kolis]

Multiplayer I think will be just like SE4; the battles will be reviewable via replays, but there won't be any sort of multiplayer realtime component to the game. At least that's what I heard (I think it was in one of Aaron's IRC chats); this was long before any of these screenshots were released and it may have changed.

[Kamog]

I like the new detailed planet information and the new ship design screen. I really look forward to experimenting with different designs and strategies and tinkering with ship and facility constructions and so on. It looks like we'll be able to do all kinds of intricate and creative things to optimize our ships and manage our resources and contructions, much more so than we can in SEIV.

When is SEV coming out, in six months or so? It's going to be a Christmas present to myself. I better start saving money to buy a faster computer, too.
Can't wait!

[Anguille]

The game is looking great...i actually love the GUI. Looking forward to buy it.