Official SE5 release date announced - September 12

[dogscoff]

Captain Kwok said:
255 is the max.

Boo! I want stupidly-giant uber galaxies with hundreds of AIs milling about. After all, we'll all still be playing se5 4 or 5 years from now, and PC tech will have advanced to make that more than manageable by then.

I thought giant galaxies had already been announced as a feature of se5..?

[Captain Kwok]

There was talk of, but for some reason or another it never happened.

[Baron Munchausen]

Captain Kwok said:
There was talk of, but for some reason or another it never happened.

This should be the official motto of SE development. There are always these grand plans and hopes, but it always falls back to what one frantic programmer can get done in the few months before he needs a new boost to his income.

[Possum]

Hmm, all this talk of the tactical engine has provoked a few questions in my alleged mind.

1. What on earth is meant by "continuous time"? Is this just somebody who doesn't like the phrase "real-time" making up a new one, or is there a difference?

2. The moment when MP SE4 lost its magic for me was when I realised that the person who created the game (at PBW) had an inherent advantage, since the ships fired in order of the players numbers. The person who created the game was always player 1, and would always fire first. At the common warp-point confrontations, this was a huge advantage.

How is SE5 going to answer this?

[Phoenix-D]

#2 is irrelevent in SE5 because the combat is in real time; ships will fire at the same time. (SE4's later patches fixed the player-order problem, BTW)

People started using "continuous" time because others heard real time and thought ALL of SE5 was like that, not just the combat.

[Captain Kwok]

Possum, in Gold/Deluxe SE:IV, the defender gets first shot - since you've just switched over.

I guess continuous can be taken as the action is occuring concurrently. Which means that order etc. does not matter.

[Raapys]

What happens if for instance engines are damaged mid-flight? Will the ships stop, or will they realistically continue to drift in the current direction?

[Captain Kwok]

Raapys said:
What happens if for instance engines are damaged mid-flight? Will the ships stop, or will they realistically continue to drift in the current direction?

They'll come to a stop... which is probably better for gameplay...

[mrscrogg]

Barnes and Noble , release date for SE V , October 17th

[Possum]

Kwok, thanks for the info, and I'm delighted to hear it