Up to date History file from SE:IV Gold Beta

Atrocities · #1 December 5th, 2001, 08:15 AM

Thank you Richard. I love reading these revision histories. Makes one really really want this game.

TCP/IP play is going to be a very very interesting addition.

Soon Richard, your empire will be mine.

jowe01 · #2 December 6th, 2001, 02:52 AM

Sounds great !

Just where are the important AI improvements ( I have only seen 2 or 3 minor changes to minister behaviour) ? Are they in the Gold code, i.e. in Version 1.50 ? What exactly has changed ?

tesco samoa · #3 December 5th, 2001, 06:31 PM

Wow. Go away for one week and the whole world changes.

LGM · #4 December 5th, 2001, 08:31 PM

quote:

Version 1.52:
7. Fixed - The player order was incorrect in combat during a
simultaneous play game.

No More Pathes. You better at least fix this one for the non gold Version because as of 1.49 the game is unfair for multiple user play. Many of us are in multi-player games hoping this will be fixed before we get far into it. Now we can never hope to have this fixed in the non gold Version.

Except for this one issue which makes the game unfair, I really like the game. However, as long as this bug is out there, I really cannot fully enjoy it. Most players with a high ordinal position are just hanging on hoping this would be fixed.

You have given us little option between staying on the old Version and going to the gold Version. We have to buy the gold Version to get a game that will play fair for multi-player.

As a company you should at least fix bugs that render the old product unviable. If you look at at the times this order of combat has appeared in the forum, you will recognize that it is a big issue with the other players.

For me the money is really not an issue, I would want to buy the Gold Version. However, for all these games that we have invested hours playing to find out that that the low ordinal players will maintain their advantage through the rest of the game really frustrates me and I am sure many others.

Taqwus · #5 December 6th, 2001, 06:38 AM

Hmmm. As of 1.49, the following still seem to be unresolved.

- Does the colonization minister now care about supply? Relying on the minister now tends to result in pods blithely running out and going at speed 1, even when a path of equal length would go right over a resupply depot. It's viable early (when you don't know about far-away worlds) and post-stellar-harnessing (solar collector), but between those, it gets a touch dodgy.

- Will the pathfinding no longer loop if an enemy blocks it?

If a ship or fleet is to go through a warp point at W (and with an order besides attack), and an enemy fleet has just come through the other side and blocks it, the hapless wanderer will cheerfully expend all its movement points going from 1, to 2, to 1, to 3, to 1... this could make a BIG difference if the enemy fleet consists of, say, a star destroyer or something else which it is crucial to be intercepted immediately.

There may be scenarios where it makes since for the pathfinder to *not* abort when it would repeat a point without achieving another waypoint (specifically given destination/order -- e.g. original location, warp point; IOW, forwards progress), but I'm not sure what those would be.

jowe01 · #6 December 7th, 2001, 11:10 AM

I have waited 2 days but so far no answer. Let me restate my question:

SE4 Gold will support TCPIP and will otherwise add a couple of more gimmicks to an already very feature-rich game. However, I think I am not the only one to feel that the biggest disadvantage of SE4 in single-player is an AI that... well sucks (erratic diplomacy, bad pathing, bad choice of battle, bad "strategy",...)

So each time a new patch comes out, I am hungrily looking for significant AI improvements (except for one of the first patches in vain so far). The announcement of SE4 contains a claim of improvements to the AI. However, reading the history file in this threat, I can only find some very minor tweaking of minister behaviour. Is that all, or were there major AI improvements in 1.50 (the gold Version)? If yes, great, that would be a real addition to gaming fun. If no, oh well, buying SE4 gold is more of a charity (for a good and committed programmer and company, certainly) project than paying for value...

Mephisto · #7 December 8th, 2001, 02:29 AM

1.) IMHO these "minor" minister enhancements are not at all "minor".

2.) Recount the fixes and improvements, there are mayn out there, especially regarding mines. Did you ever found it boring that the AI would throw fleet after fleet into your minefield? Well, not any more. It will sweep the field but not with attack ships any more. ;-)

3.) Kamikaze, boarding and troop ships are now all activly searching for fleets.

4.) Boarding ships are now actually working.

5.) Many more features but I'm tired to type the fix list once more.