.com.unity Forums
  The Official e-Store of Shrapnel Games

This Month's Specials

Bronze- Save $9.00
winSPMBT: Main Battle Tank- Save $5.00

   







Go Back   .com.unity Forums > Shrapnel Community > Space Empires: IV & V

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #31  
Old September 21st, 2010, 07:55 AM
Gandalf Parker's Avatar

Gandalf Parker Gandalf Parker is offline
Shrapnel Fanatic
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Vacaville, CA, USA
Posts: 13,736
Thanks: 341
Thanked 479 Times in 326 Posts
Gandalf Parker is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Did Space Empires V kill Space Empires?

Of course its not wrong. Its just different with its own pros and cons. Its a money-chasing template which makes many other things secondary. Shrapnel would have to change alot to pursue it.
Reply With Quote
  #32  
Old September 21st, 2010, 05:11 PM
S.R. Krol's Avatar

S.R. Krol S.R. Krol is offline
Second Lieutenant
 
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 495
Thanks: 4
Thanked 17 Times in 13 Posts
S.R. Krol is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Did Space Empires V kill Space Empires?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Azselendor View Post
Just look at the quagmire that is Duke Nukem Forever.
Actually DNF is a unique situation. For the most part they will self-funded until I believe near the end, where they then needed a cash influx from Take 2. If DNF hadn't been self-funded there's a good chance it may have actually come out years ago, since the problem was 3DR constantly tearing it down and rebuilding it every six months. A publisher would have just said, "Screw it, ship what you got." Sure, it would have tanked and would probably have been crap, but at least it would have shipped and everyone would have moved on.
Reply With Quote
  #33  
Old September 21st, 2010, 10:35 PM
Azselendor's Avatar

Azselendor Azselendor is offline
First Lieutenant
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Gettysburg Sector
Posts: 785
Thanks: 6
Thanked 5 Times in 5 Posts
Azselendor is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Did Space Empires V kill Space Empires?

It wasn't entirely self funding, Take2 poured a lot of money into its development and things came to a head recently when 3dRealms asked for another chunk of change to bring it to market. The problem with DNF's development was exactly that, the guys in charge of development kept scrapping it to go with the latest game engine or redoing entire sections of the game because of something visually neat they wanted to use from another game. Also known as Feature Creep.

Take2, which had supposedly sunk well over 30 million into the project, was fed up and naturally refused. This in turn caused 3drealms to self-destruct in a rage-quit and fold. It went to court and a few dramatic episodes later, the capable people at GearBox (many who are former 3drealm staffers) got a hold of it and they are bringing it to market now.

But the game's development was an unmitigated disaster. 10 years ago, it might've been a huge hit, but now. i don't know.
__________________
@Azselendor #BoldlyGoing
/ Space Empires // Orlando Pest Control
Reply With Quote
  #34  
Old January 5th, 2011, 10:29 PM
NTJedi's Avatar

NTJedi NTJedi is offline
General
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: az
Posts: 3,069
Thanks: 41
Thanked 39 Times in 28 Posts
NTJedi is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Did Space Empires V kill Space Empires?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Black_Knyght View Post
Firstly, SE5 was just TOO different from the previous incarnations, and had too many issues combined with an altogether new game style and awkward learning curve.
Unfortunately many game sequels take this poor direction even with successful games... instead of improving a successful game developers will create a new game. The sequel of a successful game merely needs to fix previous bugs, add more game content, improve AI design/coding, increase map sizes and add more strategy.

While it didn't happen with SE5... the biggest mistake made by game developers is the extreme focus with providing the most recent high-end graphics.
__________________
There can be only one.
Reply With Quote
  #35  
Old January 8th, 2011, 10:33 PM

DeadZone DeadZone is offline
Second Lieutenant
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: England
Posts: 488
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
DeadZone is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Did Space Empires V kill Space Empires?

Quote:
Originally Posted by NTJedi View Post

While it didn't happen with SE5... the biggest mistake made by game developers is the extreme focus with providing the most recent high-end graphics.

Disagree about the high-end graphics
It used DX8.1 which was already outdated by 5 years (and mostly replaced in the gaming market also)
Which is why many people had problems with the game in Vista, due to DX8 not being installed with it, meaning it was emulated
__________________
Reply With Quote
  #36  
Old January 11th, 2011, 03:12 AM
NTJedi's Avatar

NTJedi NTJedi is offline
General
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: az
Posts: 3,069
Thanks: 41
Thanked 39 Times in 28 Posts
NTJedi is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Did Space Empires V kill Space Empires?

Quote:
Originally Posted by DeadZone View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by NTJedi View Post

While it didn't happen with SE5... the biggest mistake made by game developers is the extreme focus with providing the most recent high-end graphics.

Disagree about the high-end graphics
It used DX8.1 which was already outdated by 5 years (and mostly replaced in the gaming market also)
Which is why many people had problems with the game in Vista, due to DX8 not being installed with it, meaning it was emulated
You obviously read my statement incorrectly. I said it "didn't" happen with SE5.
__________________
There can be only one.
Reply With Quote
  #37  
Old January 14th, 2011, 11:54 AM

DeadZone DeadZone is offline
Second Lieutenant
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: England
Posts: 488
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
DeadZone is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Did Space Empires V kill Space Empires?

I did, oops lol
__________________
Reply With Quote
  #38  
Old January 16th, 2011, 05:09 PM
gregebowman's Avatar

gregebowman gregebowman is offline
Colonel
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: tampa, fl
Posts: 1,511
Thanks: 3
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
gregebowman is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Did Space Empires V kill Space Empires?

Well, when I bought my laptop, it had Vista, and I had no problems loading up SEV and playing it. I really like SEV compared to SEIV, but I seem to be in the minority. I don't really need a grahpics hog of a game, and SEV seems to have pretty good graphics. But it plays very well on my laptop, and that's all I need to know about the issue.
Reply With Quote
  #39  
Old January 25th, 2011, 07:11 PM

Raapys Raapys is offline
First Lieutenant
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 689
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Raapys is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Did Space Empires V kill Space Empires?

I still think going 3D was a stupid move by Aaron( or publisher?). Can't even imagine how much work he must have spent on that, and then bug-fixing it and probably having to re-implement every feature from SEIV. Even if he had outside help, that's still a tremendous amount of work just to get where the previous game is already at.

And all that time and resources could instead have been used to improve upon SEIV's gameplay and updating it with some nicer 2D graphics from a decent artist. Distant Worlds is an excellent example of how 2D graphics still work just great for this type of games, being pretty much the best 4x game to come out the last decade or so, especially now with its expansion.

Sad really, as Space Empires was definitely one of the 4x games with the most potential.
Reply With Quote
  #40  
Old February 13th, 2011, 07:50 PM

frightlever frightlever is offline
Corporal
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 140
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
frightlever is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Did Space Empires V kill Space Empires?

I gotta stop posting drunk. I read this thread backwards and was surprised to discover I started it.

I love the look of Distant Worlds but my one campaign attempt left me pretty dissatisfied. I gave it a weekend but I started automating more and more until it was virtually playing itself. Mustn't have the attention span to micromanage any longer. Kind of an expensive mistake and makes me question Matrix Games demo policy. I may go back to it.

If SE5 had just stuck to 2D graphics it would have addressed the bulk of my criticism and looked far better, potentially.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:46 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©1999 - 2024, Shrapnel Games, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.