Space Empires Vs. Galactic Civilisations

Quitch · #1 July 11th, 2005, 06:35 AM

I did a couple of PBEM games, but only with an online friend. I tried to understand the greater community a couple of times, but I didn't find the forum crowd particularly helpful at the time, and since I didn't follow the forums on a regular basis I didn't really know what was going on.

PBEM is good fun, but a good AI is important too for those times I just want to sit down and game!

Quitch · #2 July 11th, 2005, 06:35 AM

I have to admit, I never really played SEIV beyond one crack at the demo... maybe because making my own ship graphics was too hard. The graphics got better, my skills hadn't

I think the only thing that put me off in SEIII was as the game moved into the later stages you'd have a LOT of planets. I'd either have to tediously cycle through them, ensuring they were upgrading to the latest facilities (and since you couldn't actually upgade, destroying the old and queueing the new) so I'd turn if over to the AI Minsters (which was their purpose, was it not) but they wouldn't delete old buildings to construct newer copies. I think after a while of that I got put off... that and the fact that any race that was peaceful always utterly dominated anyone else

I ran across TDM once, though I'd forgotten the name. The AI is an element of the game that greatly interests me. I was put off by GC's simplicity after the options I had in SEIII, but the AI in SEIII was lacking in certain areas (once point defence to shoot down the AI missiles, then once I'd gone high enough in lasers I could dominate their fleets, I'd just leave the battles to the AI... tactical combat was pretty boring IMO). I much prefer to having turn after turn rather than waiting days for the next turn, though after playing with a friend I have to admit, there was a certain thril to it

How much does TDM improve on the AI? How far does it raise the bar?

Strategia_In_Ultima · #3 July 11th, 2005, 06:43 AM

In SEIV you can simply upgrade facilities from the Construction Queues screen. There's even an Upgrade All button which upgrades all old facilities on all of your planets.

Quitch · #4 July 11th, 2005, 07:14 AM

*sniff* If only SEIII had had something so beautiful...

Suicide Junkie · #5 July 11th, 2005, 12:41 PM

I'm pretty sure TDM includes an AI that likes to drop troops and capture your planets.

And they're all in general much better at designing ships and building up.

By the time TDM was put together, the community had weeded out the bad strategies and narrowed down the best ones.

Thermodyne · #6 July 11th, 2005, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Quitch said:

I think the only thing that put me off in SEIII was as the game moved into the later stages you'd have a LOT of planets.

You just were not playing the right people. 25 turns was a long game agains some. Many games were over in 7 or 8

Quitch · #7 July 11th, 2005, 01:29 PM

That would depend on the size of the galaxy and the number of players occupying it. Sure, a favourite setup may have emerged, but the fun was that you were free to setup however the hell you wanted.

Suicide Junkie · #8 July 11th, 2005, 01:35 PM

I take it then, that all your friends wanted to play gigantic maps, and you couldn't find others who preferred the small ones?

You should be able to find lots of people to play a game with your settings on PBW. ( http://pbw.cc )

Thermodyne · #9 July 11th, 2005, 02:20 PM

Number of players, yes, most of the time. Size of the Galaxy, not a problem. Starting tech set to nothing was the best defense.

Quitch · #10 July 11th, 2005, 03:23 PM

I don't think Malfador sold through Shrapnel when I was around. At least, I don't remember these forums

I tended to play the AI, but my favourite ever game was from the demo, when it became a 2v2 with only a single sector in the centre of the map linking the two halves of the galaxy. Ah, the wars that happened there...