SE5 What are the highlights?

[Resident Alien 2]

Ok, so what are the must have features of SE 5? I have played through some turns in the demo and it appears renarkably similar to SE4, but with a new 3D layout to get used to. Nothing appears to be new and exciting ..... what should I be looking at to blow my socks off and say "must buy!!".

RA

[Atrocities]

The game is only going to get better.
It is very moddable, more so than even SE IV.
While not yet polished and fully functional it will be.
Combat is a kick in the ***
Ground combat is way way better than in SE IV
The political system is far better than SE IV
The Intel system is a note worthy mention
Better looking components
The planets rotate
The system maps give the game a real feel for size and they look good.
There are lots of reasons to buy the game. The most important one is that as time goes on the game is only going to get better. Why not be a part of the journey.

[Phoenix-D]

Features that aren't just "oh, shiny!":
-Limited LOS and having to survey new systems (leads to a problem with the game not remembering enemy units, like in SE4, but there's a settings.txt line that mostly fixes that).
-Greatly expanded modding possibilites- take a look at the date files.
-Combat. Warp-assults especially will be much more interesting: ships don't appear all at once any more! they come through the WP in a steady stream. You can tell them to go through all at once, but that risks losing some to interpentration.
-research is better, and points carry over
-contruction carries over; you can build multiple ships per turn, and multiple TYPES of items per turn.
-many of the menus are very customizable and sortable
-Alliances
-The treaty system is no longer fixed to a few treaties- you can include whatever you like in any treaty. Don't want to let your treaty partner colonize in your system? You can forbid that. Want to share intelligence, but not research? you can do that.
-the log has been improved. You can see diplomatic messages you sent, and those the enemy sent from previous turns, for example.
-Strategic combat has been improved- you can pause it, run through at different speeds, reply, etc.
-path.txt is no more. Looks like you can select mods in-game.

[Resident Alien 2]

Phoenix-D said:
Features that aren't just "oh, shiny!":
-Limited LOS and having to survey new systems (leads to a problem with the game not remembering enemy units, like in SE4, but there's a settings.txt line that mostly fixes that).
-Greatly expanded modding possibilites- take a look at the date files.
-Combat. Warp-assults especially will be much more interesting: ships don't appear all at once any more! they come through the WP in a steady stream. You can tell them to go through all at once, but that risks losing some to interpentration.
-research is better, and points carry over
-contruction carries over; you can build multiple ships per turn, and multiple TYPES of items per turn.
-many of the menus are very customizable and sortable
-Alliances
-The treaty system is no longer fixed to a few treaties- you can include whatever you like in any treaty. Don't want to let your treaty partner colonize in your system? You can forbid that. Want to share intelligence, but not research? you can do that.
-the log has been improved. You can see diplomatic messages you sent, and those the enemy sent from previous turns, for example.
-Strategic combat has been improved- you can pause it, run through at different speeds, reply, etc.
-path.txt is no more. Looks like you can select mods in-game.

Not sure if I like not seeing anything in a system when I first enter it. I arrive in a solar system in my hi tech starship and I can't see any planets?!

How's the AI?

RA

[Gandalf Parker]

Yeah that messed me up also. You have to fly around to find things. There was a green line around the area that my ship can "see". Oh yeah, the default colony ships see more than the "scout" ships I tried to build. No wonder there were no scout ships in the defult options.

[Phoenix-D]

If you really don't like the feature you can turn it off. And Gandalf, your scout ships didn't see as far because you didn't mount sensors on them. The default colony ships DO have sensors.

Can't speak for the AI so far, my test games I've only really run across neutrals for some odd reason. The other empires are THERE, but I haven't found them. That and the demo is locked to medium difficulty.

[Raapys]

With some level 10+ sensors you see about 70% of the system as soon as you enter it. It's an okay feature I think, especially considering it's completely adjustable( settings for it are in the settings.txt file).

As for the AI, I don't really have anything good to say about it thus far. In two 100-turns games I've never had a planet attacked, never had them venture into my systems, they're being really uninterested in research( which is, I'd say, more important than ever; there's so much of it now), etc.

Not sure what's wrong with it. It's like they are in 100% passive mode, and they don't really expand( at all?) either. Think the most I've seen is a colony 1 system outside their home/start-system.

[capnq]

Resident Alien 2 said: Not sure if I like not seeing anything in a system when I first enter it. I arrive in a solar system in my hi tech starship and I can't see any planets?!

That's actually kind of realistic. We're spoiled by not-to-scale media depictions of solar systems. In the real universe, you have to be really close to something (on an astronomical scale), for it to show as disk rather than just another point of light.

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/pluto.htm said: From Pluto's surface, the Sun appears as only a very bright star.

[Possum]

capnq said:

That's actually kind of realistic. We're spoiled by not-to-scale media depictions of solar systems. In the real universe, you have to be really close to something (on an astronomical scale), for it to show as disk rather than just another point of light.
[/b]

This is an excellent observation.

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/pluto.htm said: From Pluto's surface, the Sun appears as only a very bright star.

That's because Pluto is waaaaaaaaaay the **** out there

Oh, and CapnQ, all 4 of the links in your sig are broken, including the first one, to PBW. And I just checked to be sure PBW is up

[Noble713]

Raapys said:
As for the AI, I don't really have anything good to say about it thus far. In two 100-turns games I've never had a planet attacked, never had them venture into my systems, they're being really uninterested in research( which is, I'd say, more important than ever; there's so much of it now), etc.

The Amon'Krie destroyed one of my colonies, but it turns out their home system was right next door. The AI seems to research APBs, Torpedoes, and Point-Defense, but nothing really ground-breaking. How about some ground troops and transports, eh? No matter, the modders will take care of it.