Stars! comparison

[Atrocities]

EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro said:
You could check out Stars SG at crisium.com. Sounds cool but there hasn't been any activity or news since the summer of 2002! And Flying Squirrel Sound (does the music for the game) hasn't reordered from my company (duplicates the CD's) since January 2002. Yeah it's dead!

We brought this up on Chat today and well a search of their web site showed it was 404 down, and the only other info were a few screen shot and a statement that Empire Interactive was going to release the game in 2004. There was a shot of the box art but we all know that nothing has happned on this game since then. Too bad Shrapnel couldn't afford to help with the development costs. Might have been a great addition to their on line line up.

[boran_blok]

Stars is in some ways similar to SE but in other ways quite different. I really like the one space setup (no wormholes to connect it all) which makes it far more "realistic" imho (insofar you can use that term) and I really like a lot of the other features such as the ship movement and fuel system etc. but SEIV is very much alive and stars rather isnt.

[Randallw]

Don't get me wrong I loved Stars!, but in a way I am kinda glad supernova went bust. After 9/11 they said the economic depression meant publishers weren't interested in new games. Since S:SNG wasn't coming out I looked around (by which I mean I read the 4X game description in a games catalogue) and ordered SE4. It was expensive but I have no regrets at getting it.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Neither have we

However, if nobody's working on Stars! anymore, wouldn't it be easy, or at least possible, for Shrapnel to acquire both the rights and everything already done, stick a new studio onto it and voila?

[Hugh Manatee]

Isn't that what happenned to MoO3? And that turned out well.....

[Renegade 13]

I think aquiring the rights and work already done would be prohibitively expensive for a company of Shrapnel's size to consider.

[Rasorow]

I have played Stars! and Space Empires IV for what seems like since the dawn of time... to me Stars! is a game of logistics... making sure you have the right materials in the right place. Transportation of Minerals plays a much larger role as they have to be at the right planet at the right time. Combat... is much simpler to me in Stars! then Space Empires IV. There is less of a need for speciality ships and less variation in design and action.

Space Empires IV assumes that all planets will automatically have all the resources they need if the Empire has the quanity of resource available. It is much more sophisticated in combat. Even requiring in some situations specialty ships to make up for the lack of general ships in certain areas (point defense comes to mind - but there are others....).

Additionally as mentioned the orders are much more sophisticated and introduces diplomacy and Intel to control combat. (at least thats my use of it)

Rasorow

[Ruatha]

QuarianRex said:
Oleg:
As far as questioning the relevance of the graphs and such, please realize that you are not reading the published article, but merely a sound-bite type of summary.

As far as the soundness of the theory... well it has been known of and used for millenia. ancient herbal remedies often included noxious ingredients that, if used in the right amount, had the opposite effect of what you would otherwise expect. Another great example is the practice of using leeches as a curative. Leeches were not used out of ignorance, they were used because they worked, the barbers at the time just didn't know the actual reason why. Having several wounds, superficial though they may be, throws the immune system into action. To greater action that is required to counter the feeble leech attack. The now aroused immune system would then confront whatever other ailments there were (worms, sniffles, the black plague, etc.). Therefore leeching (and bleeding in general) became a general cure-all because, in some ways, it was.

This type of effect is especially apparent with chemicals. The japanese practice of eating blowfish (one of the most poisonous creatures in the world) is so dangerous not because it is hard to remove the edible part of the fish, that is quite easy, but because it is hard to leave in just the right amount of poison. If the corect amount of neurotoxin is left in then the dish provides a pleasant euphoria. The same goes with strichnine, a small enough amount can get you high. Same with nicotine. It is one of the most deadly poisons we know of (it is often used as rat poison) yet in small enough doses it can be pleasantly addictive (and atually acts as a memory enhancing drug due to its mimicry of the brains own neurotransmitters). In fact, neuologists often advise the victims of certain types of stroke to keep smoking (against their family doctors advice) since it may be the only thing that is allowing them to remember their own name. The possibility of cancer is an acceptible risk in such circumstances and can be dealt with when it comes.

Hmm, thats the biggest load of rubbish I've read in a long time, in so many, many ways.
I know several neurologists (am a doctor myself) and no-one would recommed anyone to smoke to enhance the memory!