Newbie Pre-purchase question

[onomastikon]

Hello all. I just posed a similar question in the Dom3 boards, from whence I come (link to my question at the end of an old thread). I just realized that posing the question here might make more sense.

To be brief: I've seen some screenshots and read some reviews of SE-V, and the "idea" of SE-V looks very good to me. Sadly, the reviews were almost all poor. However, main reason for the poor marks were bugs and poor AI. But that was 4 years ago, almost to the day. I would like to ask you your honest opinion: How good have the patches since then been to address these issues? I am NOT interested in playing MP (I have Dominions for that), I am ONLY interested in playing an excellent SP TBS, and hence I need a halfway decent AI (and not just an AI I can crank up to cheat a lot). In other words: Does the AI use diplomacy ok, will it build ships (IIUC you design them yourself) decently, will it research things it needs (and not just randomly), in other words: does it have a plan and attempt to follow it while reacting to what you, the player, do?

In short: Have patches improved the game to the point it should have and could have been? Or at least: Really good? I realize that a lot of what anybody can say to these questions is subjective; I am not looking for some "truth", but merely your qualified opinions. Feel free to compare to other games, if you like.

(Note: I belong to the "I cannot believe *this* is Elemental"-faction, and only have it on my harddrive because I was in beta and hence pre-ordered it.)

Thank you so much in advance for your time

[dumbluck]

While I don't own the game, I can tell you what I've heard.

There are several mods out there that do wonders for the AI and tech balance and stuff like that. For all intents and purposes, everyone treats the Balance Mod as SE5 Stock, because stock sucks so bad. There are other mods out there that have built off of the Balance Mod; they are supposed to be good too, but I don't know enough about them to comment here.

SE5 seems to be a Love It or Hate It kind of game, judging by the discussions I've seen. Considering that you can pick it up for less than $5 at retail stores (that have it in stock), you aren't risking a lot on the game if you try it.

I never tried it because I didn't like the UI, in particular the Ship Design screen and the general drop-down-menu-craziness. But I think that's really just a matter of taste more than anything. Now the demo can be used to get a feel for the UI, with the understanding that the Demo is NOT a good example of the AI you will be facing or the balance of the game.

[Suicide Junkie]

You might also consider SE4 with CBmod (link below).
No bonus makes a tough game, and you'll be crushed on your first few games.
Low bonus or team mode makes for a very tough game even for experts.

http://imagemodserver.duckdns.org/ot...bari_vs_EA.png
Combined arms, long bloody battles, and very distinct culture choices.

[onomastikon]

Thank you for these replies. I was under the impression, perhaps mistaken, that SE-V as the latest iteration of this game was the preferred choice. I have been able to locate a copy of it for 6 Euros, but have not been able find a (reasonably priced = under 25 Euros)copy of SE-IV. I'm surprised at only 2 replies, and that the first person didn't even own SEV - so that means that even with patches, the AI remains suboptimal and there are bugs? Or why do you all prefer SEiv (which I would also try to check out if I could find it)?
Thank you

[dumbluck]

I tried the demo, and I just didn't like the user interface. I didn't get to check out the decent AI in mods like Balance Mod. And quite frankly, even if the AI in Balance Mod was everything it is made out to be, even if the game balancing was PERFECT, I still don't think I could have gotten past that UI. So I never bought it.

That's my story.

[Arralen]

Sorry, I'm a bit busy these days, otherwise I would have replied earlier ...

At first, come to http://www.spaceempires.net/forums.html to discuss SE4 or SE5 ... this forum here is mostly dead, as it is only kept for "historical reasons", as Shrapnel does not have anything to do with the Space Empires series any more.

That said ...
... go, get yourself SE5.
Download Kwoks Balance Mod.
Read how to set up an AI-friendly game.
Be happy.

With Kwoks Balance Mod (always get yourself the latest version!!), the game is rather balanced (no only between players, but much more so "in itself", between different techs and tech levels etc.).
And the AI is on of the best (if not the best) that I know of!!

[onomastikon]

Thanks so much. I ordered SE-V for 6 Euros, should be here next week.
I notice that playing windowed is actually pretty stable, but my window is totally tiny. Can anyone tell me if there is a simple way to make the window in windowed mode larger? (With Dominions, you can pull it larger with the mouse.) Can I make it so that it is default 1920x1080 or close to it?? THANK YOU

[PsychoTechFreak]

Probably it does not work with some graphic drivers, but try this: In the setup screen change Display Driver to "display, primary driver" or similar (for me it is in German). That's fullscreen to me.

EDIT: Or are you talking SE IV ?

[Captain Kwok]

In the data file Hudsettings.txt in SE5's data folder, you can change the window resolution SE5 uses.

[onomastikon]

Thank you all. Arralen PMed me with detailed instructions and everything is fine. I just downloaded Kwok-san's mod and am going to immerse myself in confusion. Thank you all.