Space Empires 5

[Spuzzum]

Originally posted by Arkcon:
Yikes Sorry 'bout that guys -- shoulda checked the dictionary before typing. Is military ammunition pronounced ORD-NANCE or is it still pronounced ORD-IN-ANCE despite the spelling?

It's pronounced ord-nance as it's spelled. An unwieldy word, really -- following a consonant like "rd" with another consonant is bound to cause trouble. =)

[Phoenix-D]

Here's a few:

Sensors- change these to have a range. Ideally the scanning power would drop off at range- say at 0 squares you could see through level 3 cloak, 1 square level 2, etc.

Also, I'd love to see a difference between Stealth and Cloak. Cloak could work like we have now; Stealth should be always-on and not interfere with the ship's actions or need supply (stealth would, of course, be easier to spot)

Phoenix-D

[Baron Munchausen]

Atmosphere type: Logically, atmosphere depends on the composition of the planet. The gases have to come from somewhere, and they usually come from inside the planet, although lif eon the surface can alter them as has happened with earth. We'd be a methane or carbon dioxide world without life freeing oxygen.

So, also logically, a planet ought to drift back towards its original atmosphere type when the terraforming input is removed.

Planet value: It makes sense for minerals and radioactives to be less accessible when asteroids are condensed into a solid planet than when free floating in space. It also makes sense for the mineral and radiactive value of planets to go UP when they are smashed into asteroids and the material is more accessible. Where is the value coming from when 'value improvement plants' are used after all?

It'd be cool if an AI could be taught to use remote mining, and then stellar manipulations to destroy planets it can't use so it can remote mine them. You could have some interesting conflicts with a 'ruthless' race that wants to smash planets it cannot use for mineral extraction while you want to live on them.

Scanning and range: Yes, if the system map is expanded to at least a radius of 10, or we go to a coordinate system, then scanning ought to have a real range and this 'full knowledge' of a system just because you have one ship or unit there could end.

[ July 13, 2002, 23:12: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Mephisto]

I still don't see why you all want to split the "conditions" field into different variables like gravity and radiation only to manipulate all the variables again with one facility. I do however think it would be nice to have the "conditions" field related to a race, not to all races.
The "ammo" thing would be nice IMHO and I have thought about it myself some time ago. I think "ammo" or better "military stuff" (small weapons, personnel, ship weapons...) could be the 4th resource, but could not be harvested but must be produced with the other resources. It would be stored like all the other resources and distributed over the resupply bases. Further, the actually demand for "military stuff" should exceed the possible production in a large war so that you are forced to think about building new ships or resupply your fleets. Further, an ally could actually help you in a war with delivering supplies and would not be forced to enter the war (like the US supported England in both WW). A superpower could easily fight a war through its minions this way without ever firing a single shoot itself.

[Will]

Originally posted by [K126]Mephisto:
I still don't see why you all want to split the "conditions" field into different variables like gravity and radiation only to manipulate all the variables again with one facility. I do however think it would be nice to have the "conditions" field related to a race, not to all races.

Well, conditions could be made so that each planet had a different condition for each race... but it just seems easier to me if there are a finite number of condition variables that can be compared to the different races, rather than arbitrarily assigning different conditions for each of the different races. In larger games, this could mean keeping only 5-10 variables per planet instead of 20 (if the 20-race limit stays). It also means it'd be a lot easier to introduce a new race in mid-game, if that would be supported.

Manipulating all the variables with one facility would be a very high-tech thing. Right now, humans would be analogous to a very low tech race is SEIV. The terraforming that we're capable of right now would be able to change atmosphere composition very slowly, and temperature. A race later on could change radiation levels perhaps, and atmosphere/temperature more quickly. So, closer to endgame, there could be an all-in-one facility, but for the rest of it they would probably be split into multiple facilities (probably, because someone could always mod it ).

[Captain Kwok]

In regards to planets I would like to see some of the following details added or expanded:

• Increased # of atmosphere types
• Gravity
• Conditions (Radiation/Climate etc)
• Value depending on planet type/distance from star
  

The fewer planet variables matching a race's variables would result in the planet producing a very poor colony or none at all.
In regards to ammo, I rather not have to worry about that. However, I think adding food for the population or a power source for planetary facilities might be nice.

[Arkcon]

A {bump} for David Gervais and others interested in Space Empires 5

[EDIT]
I didn't even notice I went from Second Louie to First. Well, that'll happen with all these fluff Posts of mine

[ January 24, 2003, 21:40: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

[David E. Gervais]

Thanks for bumping this thread, I'm sure Aaron will apreiciate the bump too!

Cheers!

[Rambie]

I'd like to see Armor and Sensors mean more in SE5. Battle Armor would continue past Level 3, it should be able to absorb about as much damage as shields do.

Basically, better sensors/crew skill would make for better sensor ranges. There would be two sensor ranges: Operational and Effective. Operational range is how SE4 works now, except cloaked ships would have a "to see" chance based on the level of cloak, proximity of the ships in question, size of the cloaked ship, and the on-board sensors/crew skill level.

Effective range is the next level down. You'd get the approximate size of any planets and a sensor fix, based on proximity and size of the ship(s) that were not "cloaked." Asteroid fields would be hidden at this level but you'd see Storms but not their type.

This could also bring in a better "fog of war" type situation. When planets, asteroids, storms, etc have been scanned, the type, size, value, atmosphere, and owner would be on file, but would only be updated when scanned again.

[Q]

For me the two most important points I would like to see in SE V are an improved AI and increased modability of the game. The possibilities to mod SE IV are great (especially compared to SE III), but there are still areas that could be improved (multiple weapon damage abilities, AI politics and fleet composition, multiple shield and armor levels e.g).

[ January 25, 2003, 06:42: Message edited by: Q ]