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- - A favor... (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=44192)

We are looking at an interesting, very interesting, project. What I need from the SEIV crowd, is a list of what you liked and disliked about SEIV.

Is that enough info?

Thanks.

Actually the ORIGINAL out-of-the-box SEIV felt like a demo.
But what it became was fantastic. The players mods took it from 8 to over 300 empires (different types, ship sets, etc). Player mods extended the artwork. Player mods took it from a small universe to many times larger and added many map variations. The AI was modified.

But the game internals were great. And I think the reason I loved it is the same as my love of Dominions 3 and many other games. The start-game parameters were extensive. And the empire-settings were many and varied. All of this added up to a LONG LONG time exploring all of the possible variations. Lots of replay.

Oh and I like turn-based also.

Gandalf Parker

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Brooks (Post 715401)

We are looking at an interesting, very interesting, project. What I need from the SEIV crowd, is a list of what you liked and disliked about SEIV.

Is that enough info?

Thanks.

Likes:

Ease of modability
2d graphics is fine
Not needing any 3d graphics experience

Dislikes:

Use .png instead of .bmp files
SE IV needs facility limits one per planet/system/player/game.
-needs leaders like MoO2
-needs to have way more than 255 systems (more like 1000+)
-needs more than 20 AI players
-races/abilities that only the AI can control.
-Map like Borth of the Federation. Click on star on galaxy map which will display planets.

More thoughts later...

GB

Apologies for double post...

-invasion of new race by random event
-conversion of enemy of friendly population to X resource as a special ability
-more abilities than listed in abilities.txt. Add abilities tag one (or x number) per planet, system, player, or one (or x) per game.
-Add money to game (keeping minerals, organics, and rads).

What I missed in SE IV was more possibilities to modify the AI performance. That is much better in SE V.
Second the combat was very unfair: first all defender ships fired before any of the attackers could make a single shot.
I missed a little bit the possibility to change the size of solar systems. In general more modding possibilities would be great for SE IV.
I liked very much the low computer power SE IV needed and was absolutely satisfied with the graphics!
I liked very much the huge number of ship sets available.

Two more things I liked in SE IV:
1.) Race characteristics setup by percents.
2.) Specific targeted intel projects. What I missed there were specific success chances for different intel projects, that would be modified by counter intel, race characteristic, defence facilities between 1 and 99%.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Brooks (Post 715401)

Is that enough info?

No? More details, pls. :popcorn:

Quote:

More details, pls.

Well, I'm getting some of what I wanted. This is good. Don't stop now. I guess what I am looking for, is if you could ask for SEIV 1/2 (not SEV) what would you want to see in there that isn't and what would you not be willing to live without?

Regards,

One basic request.
I know that some programmers have abit of a godhood complex (Ive admined some of those). But hopefully you have one that can recognize their limitations. Basically, ANYTHING the programmer feels is not their best area, rather than leave it short please consider opening it up for player additions. Whether that is content, graphics, sound, documentation, events, whatever. And I would rather see a game go with open or older formats even if it lessens the games features.

Also I want to put a note in for Linux. For a player base of course it goes Windows, Mac, then linux. But if this game has multiplayer capabilities please consider at LEAST a non-gui command-line switch heavy version of a host program on linux. I feel it vastly increases servers.

Not give up?
Hmmm... I guess part of what keeps me coming back to SEIV is its friendliness on my computer. Ive bought lots of the newest greatest games since then but they tend to want to take over the machine. All of the cpu, all of the memory, change the graphics mode, full screen only, take over the speaker settings, slow to load, wont drop to the taskbar quickly, wont come back quickly. Generally rather obnoxious and making it hard to split my day between work then game then some chores then some game then check email and back to the game. The fancy graphics, sound, features I get with new games are nice but SEIV fills a niche that keeps me coming back. Of course those features also mean it runs on any old machine and portables.

I have a number of games that are very old and just will not die on my machines. They are part of an initial load to every new computer. And things they have in common are extensive game setup but then its fast in, do a couple turns, drop out. That fits the way I do my day.

Oh and I dont mind long hosting times if it provides better game (such as larger maps and better AI). Even better if its a game-setting option for those who prefer faster hosting for small MP games. Long hosting times make sure I remember to take care of things in the real world.