Is anyone actually playing this vs actual people?

javaslinger · #1 March 19th, 2001, 02:26 AM

I love SEIV. Don't get me wrong. But the effort of playing vs humans seems ridiculous compared to Stars.

You rarely here about anyone playing other people. There aren't any well defined forums to find players easily.

If you look on the stars newsgroup, now even 5 years later, there are new games starting up daily. And if you have an actual afternoon to blowoff you can get onto an IRC channel and play real time. Even today 5 years later!

So why can't I find this with SEIV? Is it just more hidden? Or are people playing this primarily vs the AI?

What do you think the stats are? 50 -50? 25 - 75?

That's where the future of this game lies...

Ken

Aussie Gamer · #2 March 19th, 2001, 03:24 AM

I am currently in two multi-player games. As the host for both, it is not that much work at all to run the games. You just send the turns, receive the turns, process the turns and then post the new turns off again. Easy!!!

To be honest I have never seen STARS.

Considering that the game is still being ordered and most players are still learning about the game, I feel that it will take a bit of time to get up and running.

Maybe MM can get a league up and running.

raynor · #3 March 19th, 2001, 03:53 AM

How many turns per day do you play and submit in a PBEM game? Can you process a turn without the file from one of the players? Thanks.

God Emperor · #4 March 19th, 2001, 07:17 AM

Javaslinger,
I have a few friends who live nearby and who play it, but, none of us are really inspired about playing by email. We do have a hot seat game going which gives the opportunity for some social interaction, but, it is slow doing turns sequentially.

All of us are really waiting for an internet/lan Version of SE4....

Possum · #5 March 19th, 2001, 07:39 AM

I'm playing a PBEM game with Ferendra and Yan (who Posts here as lupusman). We've been going at it for what seems like months now, and we're only on turn 41.

Yes, it's slow. Yes, it's frustrating. All three of us are doing our best to keep it going as quickly as possible, but as you can see, it's still going slowly.

Umm, what more is there to say?

Dime Greenback · #6 March 19th, 2001, 09:12 AM

I am playing (and hosting) a PBEM game myself (with simultaneous turns). We started with 11 players, who are by now (turn 93 or so) whittled down to eight, mostly due to dropouts for personal reasons or due to close proximity to a more powerful neighbour...

We do a turn per day (so if you count back you can see we started this shortly after release of SE4).

Compared to Stars! it takes about the same time, except for the bit hosting business, like Aussie Gamer described it. Something like the Stars! Autohost would sure be nice, but doing this by hand is not too much trouble.

BTW, seems I have the same crowd in my game, Possum! Both Yan and Ferendra are still active in my game.

To Raynor: Yes, you can generate a turn even without files from the players. In that case the AI steps in for the missing ones. In my experience about every other day or so one player or the other seems to be unable to send his orders, so this feature is needed.

As I see it PBEM is the best way to play such games, because playing a turn at an advanced state of the game takes far too long for LAN gaming or such. Of course you need to plan for a duration of six months or so to finish a game...

Triumvir Emphy · #7 March 19th, 2001, 03:48 PM

You can process the turn with out a players file, but the AI tends to make a mess of the ship design sets, but that isn't a biggy.

As for finding games, if you over to host a game you will have people beating down your door. I offered to host3 and am still getting emails from people wanting to join.

the only hassle is email tends to less than reliable, but if the gamemaster Posts the zip file on a website or in a yahooclub it should take away that problem.

I have been thinking about running a game, where i don't play, just tweak the AI's once in a while. I found you get nicer games when i run Ai vs Human team play than cut throat, you will also have less drop out.

My biggest grip is that some hosts don't always include all the files for the game, the txt files are needed to check events and combat etc.

If the game is not fast and furious enough for you, join more than one.

Jourin · #8 March 19th, 2001, 05:46 PM

Too me, multiplayer IS hotseat, as the internet is too impersonal and too slow and not as fun to me as face to face. But then I grew up on board games. Get together with my friends and we play hotseat and we have a good time. Also hotseat is Great for playing with girlfriends, wives, and children for it lets you spend quality time with your family and still play a game. With hotseat you can have a family game day and play a computer game. You can't do that with just internet games. For me, if a game does not have hotseat, its not multiplayer, so SEIV is one of the few "multiplayer" games available for me. I did not buy CTP2 because it didn't have hotseat where CTP1 did, and I am very upset and probably won't buy MOO III because it won't have hotseat. I am REALLY enjoying the Hotseat multiplayer games.

Jason2 · #9 March 19th, 2001, 06:14 PM

I wish I had someone to play hotseat with

I find multiplayer by PBEM too be tedious and that a normal game would take about a year!

This game has incredible potential ... I envy those of you who can play hotseat. Wish my friends were as interested in strategy gaming as basketball... erk!

Nitram Draw · #10 March 19th, 2001, 06:49 PM

Hot seat is THE way to play. No more missle dance, no more bizzare tactics, no more single ship attacks. Anything you can do to the computer can be done to you!
All I can say Jason2 is find a player near you. You will be amazed how different the game plays.