SE4 to SE5 - What's Different |
I thought I would start a thread to collect the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between the games. Note: everything I'm posting is based on the demo, unmodded. If any of these are wrong, feel free to post a correction.
1. No atmospheric modification facility. Don't like the atmosphere of the planet you just colonized? Deal with it. 
2. No monolith facilities. That said, with research the core three (mineral, organic, radioactive) production facilities can reach astronomical amounts.
3. Ordnance as a new type of supply.
4. Supply Depots resupply ships anywhere in the same system. Great idea! Also, ships don't seem to run out of supply nearly so often as SE4.
5. Repair is limited by kt, not number of components. It's a whole lot easier to repair damaged supply storage components than that one massive-mount weapon.
6. Construction carries over. If you have the production capacity, a planet can produce several items in one turn.
7. Everything has a maintenance cost, not just ships, but all units. No more stocking up on fighters and weapon platforms because they're "free" once built.
8. Upper limit on ship movement. Getting better engines gives a ship more supplies and reduces the number of engine components needed, but you still can't go faster than the max for that hull size. I love that my colony ships can start out at speed 10.
9. Meson Blaster is far, far superior to Anti-Proton Beam. In SE4 these were pretty close, with APB having slightly better range, but MB had better damage potential over its range. In SE5 there's no comparison. (Note: I haven't had a chance to test PPB and other advanced weapons).
10. Amount of armor is limited on ship hulls. You can only get so much protection from armor. If you want more defense, add shields.
BTW, I really like most of these changes. I'm even getting used to the UI (tho improvements should be planned, IMO).
Any others I've missed?
15? I havent noticed but do
15? I havent noticed but do the planets actually orbit their suns?
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Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum
Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe.
Minor error for #2.
Number 2 is wrong. There is Monolith Facilities in SE:V. In stock, it is available in the Stellar Manipulation tree.
Planets do not orbit the star, but do spin on their axis.
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Orbits?
Would it be feasible to put orbiting planets as an option? Or would this wreak havoc with the navigation calculations?
I thought.
I thought that the planets orbiting their suns was supposed to be a feature in this release of Space Empires.
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Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum
Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe.
I don't recall ever seeing
I don't recall ever seeing that on even a 'planned features' list, let alone an actual features list...
Maybe someone's wishlist somewhere, but beyond that *shrug*
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I think I just had an evilgasm.....
The (now official?) Space Empires 4 Mod Launcher V2.26
What about mines?
There appear to be some different warheads for mines. Anti-engine, anti-weapon, etc.
Also, is there any way to make mines a bit less useful by having shields apply when ships enter a minefield? Maybe a known minefield, or have an option in strategies where ships raise shields before entering a warp point?
(Mind you, in SE:IV I heavily depended on minefields to keep my systems from being overrun...)
Ship scales are a bit more
- Ship scales are a bit more realistic, Bases are huge compared to ships.
- Ship combat is real-time
- Combat at warp points more realistic, as warp points are a bottleneck
- You can play a part in ground combat
- A lot more control in the damage types and in-built options to enable leaky armour. This could be made into shields also I think
Your lord and master (below Foamy) LordHavoc
Regarding #4 not only is
Regarding #4 not only is supply available system wide on the plus side but a single supply base is not sufficient to resupply all ships in one turn on the down side.
#16
#16 Weapon mounts do not add longer range on units as they used to in SEIV. I don't know if this intentional, but it is critical in defending a planet with WPs.
Re: #16
Re: #16 - that's actually a bug. The mounts do have the ability to add range but it's not working.
A second problem that is a hassle is that WPs are using the centre of the planet as the base for weapons range and since the planet is so big - it eats up a big chunk of range.
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1. No Atmospheric Modification Facility?
Are you sure there is none in the game or just not in the demo.
Maybe it is one of the things that they decided to wait on the full game to implement.
Yes to Atmospheric Converters
Atmospheric Converters
Good to know that there are Atmospheric Converters in the full game.
It seems like a natural Tech for any race - Terraforming has been a part of SCI-FI forever, and I would have hated to see it removed from SEV.
Range Based on the Core of the Planet?
You mean that the Weapon Mounts on a planet base there range from the core of the planet and not the surface of the planet?
Sounds like the weapon would be firing through the planet then.
Not just Navigation Calculations
It would require more computer resources since the speed of a planets orbit is dependant (atleast in part) on the planets distance from the sun and since some of these solar systems have multiple suns of different masses, it would increase the complexity of the calculations quite a bit and probably slow the game down as you would have to keep track of the speed and orbit of every planet in the game.
Core of the Planet
I assume that the "core of the planet" range issue with WPs is a bug as well? Bottom line is that planetary defense needs to be more robust than it is today.
Planet orbit implementation could be simple
I see what you're saying StarHunter5, and for realistic modelling of the exact orbit speed necessary to counteract gravity, it would be difficult to implement. However, we're not necessarily looking for an exact model of the universe. Just have the length of the year for a planet depend on the planet's distance from the center of the solar system, then write out an algebraic equations for the planet X/Y location in the solarsystem as a function of the current game-turn, and write another function that converts X/Y coordinates to hex coordinates. It would take the computer a millisecond to recalculate the position of every planet each turn. It may take the computer and extra second or two on startup to perform all of the initial orbit calculations. Overall, it's very feasible to implement.
I'm with Darkshado, this would wreak havoc on pathing calculations, and it would confuse the AI tremendously. There are certain features in a game that makes things much tougher on the AI making the AI a far less challenging opponent. This, I think, is one of them.
That said, I love the idea of orbiting planets, and if warppoints would stay still while planets move, it could make for some really interesting tactics to the game waiting for that perfect time of year to invade an enemy when his homeworld is closest to your warp point). Of course, if could also be really really confusing and annoying. If it was a feature, you would want to be able to turn it on or off.
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The goggles... they do nothing!
I'm not sure it would
I'm not sure it would benefit anything actually - given that *slow* ships might then find themselves unable to catch up with planets (poor little blighters, those planets are nippy little buggers)
Only in a situation where aceleration and position are relative, rather than at the moment where they are absolute would it really work.
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I think I just had an evilgasm.....
The (now official?) Space Empires 4 Mod Launcher V2.26
They would just have to go
They would just have to go arround in the opposite direction. Really I don't know how much this would add to game play relative to the amount of programming it would require.
Since each turn is a Year
Since each turn is a Year, you would have to be able to tell a ship when to use its orders - such as going through a warp point.
In space, what is a year anyway??
Well, I do agree that the addition to game play would be limited, and there are definately problems with the idea. I imagine that if the feature existed, I would turn it on once... get really annoyed with how complicated it made everything, and promptly turn it off.
As for each turn being a year, that's not true if you look at the date at the top of the screen. Each turn is actually 0.1 years... sort of... or approximately 1 month.
Of course, this begs the question... In space with many different races starting out from many different homeworlds in entirely different star systems with different orbits... etc etc. what is a year anyhow??? I know, I know... stop thinking and just enjoy the game!!!
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The goggles... they do nothing!
Realism
Obviously you make a good point. That is why I start to laugh when peopel talk about "realism" in a game like this. unless you are talking pretty narrowly about the physics of combat or something it is all pretty much unrealistic.
I think Weber fan has
I think Weber fan has understood what I had in mind, and with regards to pathing calculations, the game could either repath the segment between planet and last warp point used on each turn (which would apply mostly to longer inter-system trips), or better yet, since these orbits would be regular, simply know, given the ship's speed, where the planet would be at ETA and path accordingly.
With that said, I don't think they're crucial to the game or need to be a high priority item. But since the game is still in devellopment, I guess its probably the best time to implement something like that.
One thing I would really like to see is control over where the other end of a warp point is going to be in the target system.
Absolutely, it would be
Absolutely, it would be great to be able to target a warp point in the recieving system. I posted that in a thread of its own actually. I would like to see a mod where a starbase works almost like a stargate so to speak, the wormhole is one way 1 time travel, and has to be reopened again from the other end to go back. And this would be done between the 2 starbases. There wouldn't necissarily be the need for naturally occuring wormholes, as the starbase is not necissary for recieving the wormhole only opening it. Open send in a colony ship with a supply ship or something like it set up a colony and creat the second starbase for 2 way travel and so on.
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Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum
Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe.
Your Right a Turn Is About a Month
Actually for "Our" year it's about 36.4 days but the main point is it is a set period of time.
In our solar system mercury may move quite a bit in that period of time, the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, let alone a planet as far out as Pluto) move so slowly that in 36.4 days you would not evan notice that they have moved at all!
As for Alien Races it very true that a year will very from race to race, however a set period of time will be the same for every race, tho what they call it will, of course, vary.
Of course while this may be interesting, it does not change how good a game this is!!!
SEV vs SEIV
I found another difference between the two games, namely in SEV attacks against planets do not take out the weapons platforms and other units before the facilities as they did in SEIV. The damage seems to be done uniformly across all facilities and units.
#8 is incorrect. The limit
#8 is incorrect. The limit is on the number of *engines* not the speed.
More:
11. Limited line of sight- ships must have sensors to see around them, and once the ship leaves, you lose sight of an area.
12. Doubled system size!
13. Directional damage (once you start hitting internals)
14. Stars, ringworlds, and sphereworlds take up multiple hexes