The Future of Space Empires IV

[BlueTemplar]

Exactly.

Also there is a workaround for the square grid : diagonal movement should cost you not 1 point but 1.5 points (which is pretty close to sqrt(2)=1.44...). I wonder why Aaron never thought of it...

Hexes are still better though.

[Urendi Maleldil]

There's also no point in the map being 3d, since all the movement is 2d anyway. It just makes you have to rotate and zoom for no reason.

As for hexes, I would prefer linear movement to hexes or squares. Hexes and squares are both too artificial and mess with perspective, especially in 3d.

Hex maps were created to make movement in tabletop wargames more accurate, but SE4 is a computer game. There's plenty of computing power to calculate linear, or even arced paths based on gravitation. The hex grid just makes it seem as if Aaron was too lazy to program a proper movement system.

[Xrati]

I've made this comment before and I still beleive it holds true. SE5 is orientated toward modding, rather then playing. It's a "dream come true" for all the modders out there and a "nightmare" for players. Overall, SE5 is NOT as well balanced on both sides as was SE4!!!

The game is playable, but not as playable as SE4. The game is easliy moddable as most of the text file structure is still intact from SE4. The 3D graphics have required new picture files which lost us some great ship sets. The GUI is all but smooth! It needs a lot of work and some total overhaul in areas.

If you want to make the complexity level of a game better, you don't have to have "glitter and glitz" to do it. KISS is the key word here!

[Artaud]

capnq said:

The hexes aren't the problem, the 3D implementation is the problem. You constantly have to rotate the map to either find the selected object or figure out which hex you need to click to select it. Trying to get around this by switching to the 2D overhead map doesn't help, because the scale and orientation changes between views, so you've got to scroll around and search for the object again every time you switch between the two. The flags and status icons are sized such that you can either set them to be readable, or to not block other labels, but not both.

[/quote]

Well said. This was the most frustating thing I noticed when I began playing around with the demo. Very quickly I decided: "This is far more trouble than it's worth."

[Suicide Junkie]

The flags and status icons are sized such that you can either set them to be readable, or to not block other labels, but not both.

That's why I made the flag reduction pack.

All flags are 20% of their original area. The icons are lopped off, and replaced with "BSUP" (bases, ships, units, population) which is thin white letters on transparent.

The flags are more than big enough to tell who it is at a glance, and don't block your view. As long as there aren't two races in the same hex, it looks good. (If there are two, the other race's flag is floating way up in the sky, but that happens even with normal flags)