New ideias / concepts / problems in / for SE4 GOLD after 1.78

[dogscoff]

Do you have 10 neutral races? I checked my pictures\raceneutral folder and I only had 6.

Whatever happened to the neo-neutral pack? (Fleye swarm and 3 other neutral races- anyone remember them?)

That was a really cool pack, but I haven't seen or heard of any updates to it in ages. I'd love to have a Gold-compatible Version.

I don't even know who produced them in the first place...

[oleg]

To get more than 5 neutrals, you need more then 5 neutrals race folders

Kyat (spel.,?, one with all star wars races) space yards have extra neutrals. Once you have these extra neutral,, you can set SEIV to generate more than 5 by editing settings.txt

[gregebowman]

The one thing I don't want to see in this game is the inclusion of hi-res graphics or anything 3D. I don't have the funds to go buy a new computer with all of the latest bells and whistles just because so many games nowadays have to have 128+ megs of ram or 16 megs for a 3D accelerator. That's one thing I do love about this game. I don't need all of that stuff to play this great game.

[Atrocities]

Actually I have 20 neutrals. 14 of them are Star Trek races that I have customized to be neutrals.

[dogscoff]

The one thing I don't want to see in this game is the inclusion of hi-res graphics or anything 3D. I don't have the funds to go buy a new computer with all of the latest bells and whistles just because so many games nowadays have to have 128+ megs of ram or 16 megs for a 3D accelerator. That's one thing I do love about this game. I don't need all of that stuff to play this great game.

Very true, well said. I am also a bit of a low-tech anarchist at heart. (although I recently sold out and invested in some tech=-)

One thing I wil add though- I don't think the 4X genre lends itself particularly well to low hardware specs. Sure, we can do without 3D graphics, but what about all that data? I mean if everything we suggested on this forum got incorporated into a future patch, the game would have to track about 4 times as many variables as it does now. And right now it tracks a LOT of variables. A large map can have 255 systems, each system has a dozen or more worlds, each world has (potentially) a population value, resource values, conditions, cargo... and that's just the planets. Anyway, all this data takes up memory. Windows can just use swap files if it runs out of real memory, but that slows things right down... future Versions of SE might run on a P200/32meg, but it will take you all night to process the AI turns=-)

[Barnacle Bill]

I don't want any new "stuff", just things fixed regarding the AI and diplomacy:

There should be a relationship between the AI agreeing to do something in response to your demand/requst and actually doing it. Really, it should just agree and do it or tell you to forget it. If it positively must be programmed to lie sometimes, then if it agreed there should be only a small change it will not.

AI or human, colonizing a system should automatically claim it. You should not be able to claim or colonize in a system if it is already claimed by a race with which you have any treaty (even NI). Any deal establishing a treaty (NI or better) should have to include resolution of all conflicting claims - for each contested system the deal proposal must either give the contested system to the adressee, or demand that the adressee give the system to the race proposing the deal. Giving a system should automatically abandon any colonies there, regardless of the population size, unless giving the planets was part of the deal.

The AI should have some sort of memory regarding its relationship with each other race, so that its actions make some sense. It should weigh both its strength vs the other race and its feelings about that race as part of decisions about treaties or declaring war. It should only declare war if it is furious. Just being furious would not be enough, though - it should also consider relative strength to the other race and its "war score" (gains/loses at the other race's hands). The "war score" be a running total which moves toward zero on its own by some amount every turn, but goes positive if it loses a ship or planet (varying by the value of what was lost) and negative if it kills/captures a ship/planet of the other race. The positive score would make the race more likely to offer or accept peace if already at war (because it is losing) and less likely to declare war (because it remembers that it lost Last time). Peace breaking out while a race's war score is positive should convert its feelings toward the race it defeated to neutral if they were below that. The idea is that the loser would tend to stay furious and eventually, as its negative war score decayed to zero, come back for a rematch.

The relative strength thing should also cause the AI to slowly become more angry if it is stonger than another race (at a rate proportional to the imbalance and its own agressiveness), but not to become more friendly if it is weaker. The idea is so eventually it would become furious and declare war if it is and agressive race and stronger. This would only apply if systems claimed by the two races are joined by a warp piont.

There should also be a "grudge file" - the AI race would keep track of each system it gave up (surrendered its claim to) in a treaty that ends a war (only), and count this as a permanent bias on its feeling toward whatever race currently claims that system (and in even of war against that race, will reclaim that system). This effect will be extra strong if it is thei AI's home system. Similarly, it would have a bias for every planet populated (in whole or in part) by its species which is held by another race, and in the event of war with that race would claim any system containing such planets.

The more races an AI is at war with, the more likely it should be to make peace, and the less likely to attack someone new.

If an AI race is hemmed it (no unexplored warp points and all the explored ones lead to ststems claimed by another race), at peace, and has no breathable planet it can colonize within its own claimed systems, then it would slowly become angry at all its neighbors until it declares war on one of them. The war score and relative strength considerations would apply to that decision.

[Elowan]

My two cents:

If you're allied with an alien race - say Partners - I see no problem with colonizing a non-race-specific planet within the others system if permission is granted to do so. I suppose that you can do that now by asking (demanding) the gift of a planet?

But doing so without permission should degrade the relationship.

I also agree that if the AI agrees to something it ought to do it.

Also - plz let us position satelites in small Groups where we want to.

cha-ching.

[ August 16, 2002, 21:10: Message edited by: Elowan ]

[Baron Munchausen]

I certainly agree that the weak AI is the chief problem with the game right now. We need vastly better ways to test planets and decide what sorts of colonies they will be, and then better ways to design exactly what facilites are put on a planet and when. Some sort of check on how many and what size planets are in a system total need to be included so we stop having tiny single planets in a system all alone that have a Space Port or an Urban Pacification Center and nothing else. We also need an 'AI_IntelligenceProjects" files so we can control how Intel is used. And some way to design fleets, that is, assign how many of what sorts of ships go into a fleet.

Of the non-AI changes, I'd say that some more 'articulation' of game features is what's most needed. Too many things are still too crude. MINES for example. 'Dogpile on the rabbit' is not a believable or interesting implementation of mines in open space. We need some sort of randomization of both mine attack and mine sweeper effects. I'd still like to see several major changes for troops, too. They ought to remain loyal and fight the population when a planet rebels, for example. And they ought to be stored differently in planetary cargo so they cannot be vaporized from orbit without destroying most of the planet along with them. And speaking of 'rebellion' there ought to be some sort of defense against Ship Insurrection. Either make Boarding Parties attempt to retake the ship or invent a special 'political officer' component that enforces loyalty and has a chance to prevent or counter-act the Insurrection project.

Planets need more detail, like gravity, radiation, and temperature range. "Conditions" is bland and useless. And alien populations need to retain more of their characteristics when captured or conquered.

Vast numbers of cool ideas were/are in the text files for the game itself. When will Planetary Cloaks be implemented? Or Planetary Engines? Or Warp Gates? When will "Combat Satellite Group Size" actually DO something? How about restoring "Population Required to Operate One Facility" so those of us who want to can use it? When will the various component restrictionsrequirements for ship hulls -- other than engines, colony modules, and cargo modules -- actually work?

[capnq]

During combats (both Tactical, and Combat Replay), there is no indication as to which ship belongs to whom!

The ship dots are color coded on the display in the lower right corner; a ship will even change color if it's captured during the battle.

Ship Icons: Wow, a lot of these ship icons are DARK! Brighten them up a little!

For some of the custom shipsets, that seems to have been a deliberate decision by the artist.

One thing I'd really like to see improved is pathfinding and formation movement in combat.

[Sinapus]

Originally posted by Atrocities:
An addition to sorting that I would like to see.

Sorting my Planet Type. Rock, Ice, Gas. This would make it a lot easier when send out colony ships.

Now, can't give yourself too much of an advantage over the AI. (At least I haven't seen them send colony ships to the wrong planet...)