Would an auto turn feature...

Atrocities · #1 June 2nd, 2001, 12:13 AM

I was wondering if it would be possible to incorperate an automatic turn feature into the game. One that could be set to perform a turn automatically at pre-specified intervals.

That way the game could be ongoing while your away.

Perhaps have a setting that simply prevents combat or allows for INTERCEPTION of enemy ships and automatically calculates the combat's victor.

Ok, its a pipe dream, but still is it possible from a game play and programing stand point? Would you like a feature like this, yes or no, and why?

Suicide Junkie · #2 June 2nd, 2001, 12:31 AM

quote:
I was wondering if it would be possible to incorperate an automatic turn feature into the game. One that could be set to perform a turn automatically at pre-specified intervals.
That way the game could be ongoing while your away.

Wha?

Would this be for a PBEM game or something?
And what exactly do you want from it? Just to have a general "plan" for the AI that plays your turn for you, like "Secure Ikyak system, attack Yoshri system"?

Atrocities · #3 June 2nd, 2001, 12:33 AM

No actually SJ, I was think more along the lines of it being a solo play feature. Your ships would intercept any enemy ships within a sector, and engage them. The victor would be calculated and the game would continue. Perhaps a feature to implent would be one that pauses the game if YOUR fleet is destroyed within any one system.

#4 June 2nd, 2001, 01:09 AM

Do you want to PLAY a game or RUN a simulation ?? I tried letting the ministers take over in one of my games when only an AI neutral was left in one system (set as systems to avoid and no AI politics/attack). I wanted all the planets colonized to get my racial points up, but did not want to spend a week doing all the micro management. It ran a couple of turns then locked up. Interrupt showed as SE IV task not responding. So I guess if you have a big (>300-500 colonies) empire the AI chokes on it anyway.

Dracus · #5 June 2nd, 2001, 01:25 AM

How would you handle planets/suns exploding?
You can write a macro that will click the end turn button and all the ok pop up window buttons. But the Ai can not handle or respond this. So auto running your game could result in you losing a system or two.

dmm · #6 June 4th, 2001, 11:49 PM

quote:
Originally posted by rdouglass:
Why don't you try setting all players to 'computer controlled'? That would work wouldn't it? (Your game probably would go quite fast though...)

I think that's what he wants, but you can't do it now because there'd be no way to stop it! So he wants something like: make this player computer-controlled for X turns, or until Z event occurs.

I think that something simple like that wouldn't take much recoding, but you'd have to live with the consequences of turning your empire over to your idiot nephew while you took a well-earned sabbatical from conquering the galaxy.

You could kind-of do that now, if you plan ahead. Instead of finishing off an enemy, leave him with one crippled ship and demand subjugation. Then, any time you want a rest, make yourself that player and turn your empire over to the AI. You can't walk away, though, because you still have to keep hitting the end turn button.

rdouglass · #7 June 5th, 2001, 01:40 AM

Why don't you try setting all players to 'computer controlled'? That would work wouldn't it? (Your game probably would go quite fast though...)

capnq · #8 June 5th, 2001, 05:01 PM

quote:
he wants something like: make this player computer-controlled for X turns, or until Z event occurs [...] You could kind-of do that now, if you plan ahead. Instead of finishing off an enemy, leave him with one crippled ship and demand subjugation. Then, any time you want a rest, make yourself that player and turn your empire over to the AI.

If you want a rest from managing your empire, why not just save the game and go do something else for a while? The only use I've been able to think of for an autoplay feature is testing a modded AI's mid- and late game strategy without playing out the early game manually. (And it's taken me this long to think of that use.)

------------------
Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[This message has been edited by capnq (edited 05 June 2001).]