Some questions to the beta-guys and the community

[Jochen Schmidt]

Hy all,

SE4 is a very impressive game. I never heard of the SE-series, but since i downloaded the demo i can�t stop playing it.

O.k. - here are my questions:

1. PD-Weapons
Can i target with PD-weapons directly or are they only used to moving targets or by moving of the ship they are installed?

2. Analyse of ships
How is it possible to get new technology by captured ships, i scraped and after that gigving for analyse. i tried several times, but nothing happend

3. AI-Fleets
I saw only one big fleet of 7 cruisers (Phong), after that i never saw and was never atacked by such a number again. Only one or two ships maximum. Will this be changed in the full-Version? Are there really big fleets for big battles?
I saw several times, that the AI players are reacting to my attacks by sending several ships to a warpoint i was defending, but there ships sourrounded me in scattered Groups of one or two ships, so it was very easy for me to atack one group after the other with ALL my ships at once. Will this be fixed in the full Version.

4. Diplomacy

I saw that some empires, wich were at war with me had "brotherly" moods to me. Think, this is a bug wich will be fixed. But, how can i do trading of technology? They (the other empires) never do this - is it only me?? And if yes, how can i change it?

5. Tech-trees

Will there be a handbook, were i can read wich improvements per techtree is possible?

Sorry for my bad english - �hope you answer me!

Thanks a lot - Greetings from Germany

Jochen

[Comar]

I'll answer what I can. Some of this would have to be answered by Malfador.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jochen Schmidt:
Hy all,

SE4 is a very impressive game. I never heard of the SE-series, but since i downloaded the demo i can�t stop playing it.

O.k. - here are my questions:

1. PD-Weapons
Can i target with PD-weapons directly or are they only used to moving targets or by moving of the ship they are installed?

They are automatic. You cannot target them. They target and attack missles and fighters that are attacking your ship or formation.

2. Analyse of ships
How is it possible to get new technology by captured ships, i scraped and after that gigving for analyse. i tried several times, but nothing happend

When you are in the screen, check for research potential. If there is no potential ( you already have the same or more advanced tech ) then you will get nothing if you analyze it. If the ship has advanced tech, the use the analyze button, not the scrap button. If the ship is scrapped, you only get materials.

3. AI-Fleets
I saw only one big fleet of 7 cruisers (Phong), after that i never saw and was never atacked by such a number again. Only one or two ships maximum. Will this be changed in the full-Version? Are there really big fleets for big battles?
I saw several times, that the AI players are reacting to my attacks by sending several ships to a warpoint i was defending, but there ships sourrounded me in scattered Groups of one or two ships, so it was very easy for me to atack one group after the other with ALL my ships at once. Will this be fixed in the full Version.


We are in a multi player game now where the AI has a fleet of 16 cruisers and battle cruisers and is kicking us apart. It also has a couple of 6 and 7 ship fleets taking care of housekeeping on the side. I think you can say that they will have this feature.

4. Diplomacy

I saw that some empires, wich were at war with me had "brotherly" moods to me. Think, this is a bug wich will be fixed. But, how can i do trading of technology? They (the other empires) never do this - is it only me?? And if yes, how can i change it?

Make it real attractive to trade. If you want something, particularily something they don't want you to have, you have to make a very attractive offer to the AI in order for it to want to trade. They will do it, but only when it is to their benefit.

5. Tech-trees

Will there be a handbook, were i can read wich improvements per techtree is possible?

There will be a book, and, from what I understand, material available by direct download, although I could be wrong about that. I think you will have all the information you need.

Sorry for my bad english - �hope you answer me!

Your English is much , much better than my German. Glad you enjoy the game and good luck.

Thanks a lot - Greetings from Germany

Jochen

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[Jochen Schmidt]

Thank you very much for your quick answer!!!

Great, to hear that the AI is kicking - oh, i�m looking forward to hold this little game in my hand, eeeerrr, better to say to install it to my PC.

Thanks again!


Jochen

[Baron Munchausen]

Hello, Jochen. I'm glad you've discovered Space Empires IV. It's a good game now, but going to get better. Development is continuing even as the CDs are copied for the first commercial sales. There will probably be a "Version 1.1" early next year.

1. No, anything given the "Point-defense" power is not directly controllable by the player. These weapons always target and fire automatically. These are also the only sort of weapon that can target "seekers" (missiles) since you cannot manually target seekers in combat. So it's a good idea to have some point defense weapons on every warship or you will have no defense against missiles but running away.

2. The previous reply is correct. You need to use the "analyze" button to get technologies from captured ships, and of course you won't get any new technologies if the ship doesn't have anything that you don't already have. And, certain technologies cannot be analyzed. The techs that come from "racial traits" like organic manipulation and crystalline technologies cannot be acquired in any way if you don't have the necessary racial trait.

3. The AI has a long standing problem with knowing how to manage its fleets. It is much better than it was in the earlier Versions, but still can make mistakes like that. If you still have the games where this was happening, you ought to send them to [email protected] and describe the problem to them. They like to have the saved game to look at. It helps them figure out how to make the AI smarter.

4. This is another problem with the AI, but a trickier one. There are many hidden variables that can affect AI attitude. The way that the AI reacts to you depends on the choices you made in your empire setup as well as some random factors. If they behave REALLY illogically, like declaring war while still feeling "brotherly" then it would be a good idea to send that game to [email protected] as well, and describe the problem.

5. There is a printed manual with the game CD, and there will be a much more extensive manual in HTML on the CD. I think it will also be made available on their website so people can browse it.

As I said, the game is still in development even though the first Version is about to ship, so please report any problems you notice to malfador. They are glad to have input, especially bug reports, and are compiling all the feature requests to try to include the most requested features.

[Tomgs]

Ok I had one problem with the point defence being automatic. I do like the automatic PD generaly but if the missle is targeted at another ship and is fired within the PD range it will never go off unless you go out of range and then back into range. If the missle is targeted at the ship with the PD on it seems to work fine. I first noticed this when I had PD on satellites, since they can't move PD was useless for protecting the planet from a missle fired from within the PD range of the PD satellites. But the PD on Weapons platforms works fine because they are the target of the missles headed to the planet. I guess I don't like something that makes a better range, that I had to spend research point to get, actually work against me.

[This message has been edited by Tomgs (edited 30 October 2000).]

[Psitticine]

Err . . .

Well, I don't have the beta on this machine so I can't check but I'm pretty sure PD is shooting at missiles fired the way you're describing. Are you sure it isn't a case of the PD weaponry having fired already and the delay while you move in and out of range allowing them to "reload" for the next turn? The way they fire automatically can be a bit confusing when it comes to knowing if that shot counted as being fired *this* turn or *Last* turn.

Just my 2� . . .

[Comar]

I have had fleets engaged with missles ( usually targeted at one ship ) where all the ships in range of the missles will fire their PD until all the missles are destroyed.

I don't know about satellites as I very rarely use them.

[Tomgs]

This problem only happens if the missles are fired within the range of a PD on ships not targeted by the specific missles. You have to move the ship out of the PD range to the missle and back to get the PD to fire automatically if you don't do that they will not fire. If the missles are fired outside of the range of the PD and move into that range the PD work fine. This makes researching higher tech PD with a longer range counter productive especially if you are fighting strategically and cannot move the ships yourself.

[Tomgs]

Ok I just tested it out in a simulated battle. I was wrong the sats work fine in Version .99 it was in .56 they had a problem. The only time I couldn't get the PD to work right was if the ship didn't move during my combat phase. Even the PD on the ship with the missles targeted on it didn't fire on missles fired from one square away and let them hit. If I moved the ship even one movement the PD fired normally. So most of the problems were cured with the new Version and I didn't try them out sufficently to see they were fixed.

Hmm next time I test it first and open mouth later. Always a good idea.

[General Hawkwing]

quote:

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Originally posted by Tomgs:

Hmm next time I test it first and open mouth later. Always a good idea.

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I've been there myself.