Very disappointed

Have you tried the Balance Mod ?

You may be pleasantly surprised......

Well, since you already paid for the game, how about changing a loss to a win?
Worth a try imho.

It's easy to feel that way. I did, initially. However, now I believe otherwise, and perhaps you could, also. Here's my argument as to why, put as succinctly as I can:

The game was DESIGNED to use mods. Mods aren't hacks; they are (IMHO) the admission of a one-man development team that getting all of the small-yet-significant details right, in a game as complex as this, takes a huge amount of time and effort. It requires playing the game more than it does coding it, especially if you're talking about coding an AI.

Smart call, I think. Large development teams can devote people to the design aspects of the game like that, and other people to the coding, de-bugging, and other stuff. Aaron Hall is one guy, unfortunately.

Seriously, consider giving the Balance Mod a try. It may not change your mind about anything, but an awful lot of SEV players use it, for the simple reason that it makes the game much more enjoyable.

Final thought: if you still don't find the AI to be a fulfilling opponent, you could try multiplayer. This game rocks against other humans.

Multiplayer is the way to go IMO. AI alone games are OK for a testing ground of weapons and components. The human element “rocks” as mentioned here.

Caius

I don't play AI games anymore - only play PBW.... and it is far better than single-player imho....

Kronos - strongly suggest you try playing single player with patch 1.71 and BM 1.14a - also strongly recommend playing multiplayer on PBW

I second that...and I add, once you have tasted this game against other human players there is no going back to the AI with or without a mod!

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Indeed. I might have a go at another AI game at some point but only to test a new mod coming out. Once you've played against humans the AI games lose their last bit of appeal imho. Humans will force you to play better than any AI ever could. AIs are inevitably predictable, while the human players inherently aren't.

The game rocks, forget the AI , it stinks. Play the game by email and you will be hooked. The game also works Ip. I would just enjoy what is slowly becoming a classic with all the mods. Have you seen all the ships sets? There is enough here to keep you busy for years, lol. Ive been farting around with this game about 3 months now and with the constant mods and patches it is becoming my favorite passtime. The combat sim alone is a blast. The fan base is really good and sure to keep the game going for quite a while.

You don't get to just say that you gotta tell us who you are and maybe alittle proof

A bit of a Hi-Jack:

The notion that the Balance Mod's tech tree is much shorter than stock is somewhat misleading. In terms of actual research times, it's actual quite similar to stock for the most part.

Consider the armor tech area:
Stock - 2000 base cost RPs * 100 levels = 10,098,000 RPs
BM - 10000 base cost RPs * 20 levels = 2,090,0000 RPs

Ok. So stock has 5x more RPs... but wait! Stock Research Facilities go from 500 RPs to 5450 RPs per turn - an 11x increase in production. BM Research facilities go from 500 RPs to 1000 RPs, only 2x production. Taking the midpoints of the production ranges, 100 research facilities in stock at 3000 RPs per turn provides 300,000 RPs each turn. The same 100 in BM have an output of 75,000 RPs. So the research times would 34 turns versus 28 turns - not a huge difference especially when you consider the same type of comparison with the other main defensive tech area, Shields, comes out at 34 turns for stock and 41 for BM. A wash.

- End Hi-jack

I identified these areas as the 5 main shortcomings to date:
- Long turn times
- Under developed stock AI
- UI (overall clickiness, non-condensed cargo lists, can't save layouts etc.)
- Difficulty getting TCP/IP games to work
- Wonky Alliance implementation

I suspect within the next few months these shortcomings will be increasingly targeted. At that point, it will be difficult to say outside of personal preference, that there is a significant difference between the "quality" of the games.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

But Kwok, we can only look at the superficial number of levels, since clearly the most important aspect is how many 1000s of times you have to upgrade those first ships you build!

SpaceEmpires.net | Space Empires Wiki

Do I sense a hint of sniping in that comment?

I feel the same way. You may like the unnamed mod.

SpaceEmpires.net | Space Empires Wiki

As glitchy as this game is, there's nothing else quite like it, and probably nothing ever will be.

It has a long way to go though

There is always SE4...

SpaceEmpires.net | Space Empires Wiki

Crian wrote:

there's nothing else quite like it, and probably nothing ever will be.

So true (for better and for worse...).