Is the SEIV->SEIV Gold upgrade worthwhile?

[Saber Cherry]

I have SEIV, and really liked it, but stopped playing after a couple of games, for 4 main reasons:

1) Excessive micromanagement (manually deploying satellites, stuff like that);
2) Poor strategic AI;
3) Some strange artifacts, like population playing a tiny role in a planet's productivity;
4) Poor tactical AI forcing most battles to be handled manually.

Is buying SEIV Gold worthwhile? Are there any mods that address some of these issues, without breaking the AI? I only like to play SP, and I saw the "Proportions Mod", which looks great, but the author says that it makes the AI worse than before, so...

If I did get SEIV Gold, is there a consensus on the best SP mod out which improves the game, without changing the theme (e.g., not a Star Wars mod)?

Thanks for any advice Insider info on the "when" and "if" of SEV would be helpful, too!

-Cherry

[ October 08, 2003, 19:05: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

[Loser]

If you don't like the game, then you don't like the game. Space Empires is very much a niche game and is not for everyone.

However, the TDM AI does great things for the AI. Unless you are in a very special hotseat situation, it will be best one day to give up on tactical combat, as it makes it fairly easy to best the AI.

I'm thinking you read PvK's very old writeup on Proportions, but I could be wrong. Can we get an update on the quality of the Proportions AI?

This is a micromanagement game. There are many, many, many ways to cut corners and shortcut your administration. Ask Fyron, he once had 26 games at once going agaisnt other humans. You know he didn't make nad remake every decision every time.

[ October 08, 2003, 19:43: Message edited by: Loser ]

[Fyron]

Proportions definitely changes the theme of the game. If you are interested in a Proportions-type mod, but want strong AIs, check out AI Campaign. It is based on Proportions, but is modified heavily to make up for a lot of AI short-comings.

TDM only alters the AI, leaving all of the stock techs, comps, etc. intact. It is a must-have.

Devnull is also a mod that gives more challenge from the AI, as there are a number of new components that it can use better, and its AIs are modded rather well. It is not too different from stock SE4, just with some neat new toys added in.

About my PBW games... confidence that the orders you issued Last turn are good and don't need to be second-guessed certainly cuts down on micro-management a lot. So does using repeat orders, the "Fill Queue" option for build queues, etc.

In Gold, you can select multiple build queues at once and order the construction of ships and/or units at multiple SYs at once. You can, for example, select 100 planets and tell them all to build the Ravager class BB. This greatly cuts down on the MM, and for this reason alone, I hate playing pre-Gold SE4.

Gold has a lot of changes (especially in the patches) that help the AI out, but it does not change the AI into a super-powerful force. You will still need TDM, Devnull and/or AIC for that.

[Cyrien]

I would agree with the below and further add that the multi-add to lots of planets at once for building is a god send. Now if only there was a feature like that for scrapping...

[Saber Cherry]

Ok, thanks for the responses!

[Puke]

the top reasons for an upgrade, are that the latest and greatest Versions of all the best mods, are written exclusively for the gold Version. people usually dont maintain old Versions. these include alot of enhancements or changes to gameplay, specifically things you noted below.

eg: porportions does make planet population a HUGE factor in productivity.

the other major reason (you may not care) is multiplayer games at PBW. most are for the gold Version of the game.