Getting Burned Out

Atrocities · #1 October 28th, 2001, 01:12 AM

It has been nearly a year since I got my full copy of SEIV, and lot has happened in that time. I have made 15 ship sets, 13 published, 4 web sites, one still up thank god, and have played countless hours of SEIV.

Today, something inside of me just said enough. I need to take a break from this game for a while. I simply am just burned out on it. I love it endearingly, and will not "stop" playing it. I just need to take sometime away from it for a while.

I will still play my PBW game, and post here, but I think I will avoid playing a single player game for a long long time. The game has many things to offer, however, one thing the game does not have is, and what I need, is game play excitement. I know how to get the AI to surrender even giving the AI the best possible advantages. Regardless, I own the game by turn 200, and the rest of the game is spend exploring and populating. Might as well all it SimSpace at that point. All I am doing is building infastructure.

I have done it all, I have hiked the cost of research to god levels, added many new classes of ships, beefed up the AI to max, and still, I always win by turn 200. Simply put, the human ability to reason and direct efforts is so far beyond any AI that by turn 200, I have simply out paced the AI in research and intel.

The rest is mopping up.

Given this, I have literally lost interest in playing Single Player. DON'T count Single player out, its just that I have played it for over a year, and know it inside and out. I just need to step away for a while and redevelop my interest. (Usually takes about a month)

I am still interested, and excited about PBW, and egarly await my Turn notice. Right now, I am dead Last.

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New Age Ship Yards

"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats! They invade our space and we fall back -- they assimilate entire worlds and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here -- this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" -- Captain Picard STNG

Borg Breen Species 8472 Cardassian Dominion STNG Ferengi Klingon Romulan
Trek Movie era TOS Illuminati Starwolf

Lemmy · #2 October 27th, 2001, 02:41 PM

i felt the same way about single player a while back and heven't played it for a few weeks now, i haven't even installed se4 since i formatted 2 weeks ago....
But with the new patch out, i'm starting to feel like playing again. Or i'll just wait for civ3....Hey, wait a minute, what a coincidence, civ3 is almost coming out, and you decide not to play SE4 SP for a while...

[This message has been edited by LemmyM (edited 27 October 2001).]

Deathstalker · #3 October 27th, 2001, 05:10 PM

Burned out??? Not yet, but I can see within 6 months playing less (or when I get a new computer that can handle a more complex program....Baldurs Gate II xp pack, Master Of Orion III, whenever it comes out etc.)

PBW still takes up a large part of my day (larger after the wedding!) and I try to play single player as much as possible.(AI testing, mod testing and just plain fun, I have never actually finished a game single player yet...turn 150 is about as high as I have gotten.) Heck it took 3 years for Moo2 to bore me, and over a year for Moo1! It's the 'randomness' that I really like in these type of games.

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"We are all...the sum of our scars"....(paraphrased) Matt. R. Stover-'Blade of Tyshalle'.

"Human existance is all imagination...Reality is no more than a simple agreement among its participants that this is where we shall meet, and these are the rules that we shall abide by."- Kevin McCarthy/David Silva "The Family:Special Effects"..

Instar · #4 October 27th, 2001, 06:44 PM

Just on a side note, some games I can't wait for are Civ3, Sims Online, and Neverwinter Nights. Maaaaan they look kicking!
SE4 is going to remain a fav of mine for a long while though... Even if i dont have enough time to play it.

Rich04 · #5 October 27th, 2001, 07:59 PM

I use single player to test stuff out like Deathstalker. I find it useful when I encounter game settings I have never used before on PBW. I fire up the machine and play 50-60 turns in that enviroment. I have found that strategy can vary considerably with different game settings and helps me to adapt my playing style.

Aristoi · #6 October 27th, 2001, 09:38 PM

I can agree with that. I don't play the single player anymore, and I havn't for a few months, at least. It almost becomes like playing Dragon's Lair, where you just have to know the right moves and the AI folds.

The thing that I always find frustrating is that the AI seems to be completely oblivious to the kind of damage he is doing to a player. He never knows when to press an attack. I once had an AI take me to the ropes, and then just walk away and he didn't return for nearly a year in any force. By then I has a huge fleet and cleaned him up. Yet I was nearly defenseless before. Alas.

To make up for it, I just play about 5 PBW games. Even the greenest of players are at least suprisingly unpredictable.