Malfador Machinations: New Developents: new "turn-based conquer the world strategy game."

Interesting, but I hope Aaron will keep working on SEV since some features still need fixing...

working on a new game while SEV is as it is, incomplete, is not the news I was looking to hear. Does this mean the patch process has been concluded?

MM put together patches (including localized versions) for SE4 while making StarFury and SE5, so I wouldn't say a new project precludes a patch for SE5.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

Sounds like Civ or something similiar. May be worth a look at least. Too bad more info hasn't been offered...

:drools:

Nick (bearclaw)

"You don't know the Power of the Dark Side. I must obey my Master"

HoI3 was announced a month ago, timing might not be the best.

I wondered about that, and to be honest I wouldn't expect a Malfador game to be the same. In fact I'd expect even HoI2 to be better visually, but Malfador games tend to go about things differently. Multiplayer for a start. Masters of Orion 3 was a better game visually than SEIV but that didn't mean it didn't have problems so that I grew tired of it quickly and stuck with SEIV.

I dont want to spoil things but in my opinion MM should stick to things they know - namely turn based space opera type games. The conquer the world genre is not only quite a bit worn out but also occupied by long lasting and matured francises such as Civilization, Hearts of Iron (for the turn based) etc. Building a real time engine extends over the capabilities of MM even more.

I would not mind if MM started working on SE6 now - despite SE5 beeing in questionable shape - BUT moving on to something totally diffferent seems plain wrong to me.

I didn't realise this thread failed to mention something that was raised elsewhere. In a way MM is starting to work on SEVI. Starfury was made while determining how to make the ship combat for SEV, so an idea that's come up is that designing a planet based game is a way to figure out ground combat, which can be used in SEVI.

@Randallw: I see your point but still feel uncomfortable with the development.

Yes, although I am a generally accepting of things that seems to annoy other people I am still hoping that the fact the game crashes if I play for too long will be fixed at some point, that is if it's the game's fault. I'll admit to being a bit uncomfortable. Until recently I was always willing to trust a designers judgement, until a bad experience with a game that eventually I gave up on. Still we can only hope for the best

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"Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily. "If it /is/ a good morning," he said. "Which I doubt," said he.

I'l wait for the 75th patch to see if its any good.

We are up to 1.74 already.

I'm sure he meant released patch. Yeah, I hope some patch one day makes it possible to actually play a PBW game beyond 10 game years or so, where massive amounts of ships and units actually still get processed and within reasonable time. The realist in me knows it's an inherent flaw of the game design, but I sometimes ignore my inner voice

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See my PBW game stories on http://users.pandora.be/banzaiboy/sevpbw/.

Yes, I also think so.

Fuer Grissa Ost Drauka

What is the average length of a PBW? I only played in two (both large galaxies). The first (10 players) lasted about 85 turns, the second (12 players) about 25 turns. I won in both but I was hoping for a game that would last at least twice the length of the first.

No idea about averages, but the first game I played is still open with all six players present and that one was started last January. The game is called War and Civilization 2 and there's a thread in the After Actions forum about it. The year is 2410.5 and everyone seems to have given up bothering to upload their turns. Playing a turn takes (too) many hours and combat replay files go over 100MB due to hundreds of ships slugging it out in massive battles. I can only guess at the required time for offline processing. War and Civilization 3 was a fun game with a lot more participants, but that one got stuck a lot sooner on account of an MIA admin and processing problems (there were thousands of units doing battle). Bottom line: if the admin doesn't ensure a steady pace is kept, then a game will wither and die.

PBW is a great site and practically the only reason why I still bother with SEV. Unless a future SE improves dramatically on processing and overall game speed, GUI functionality and simply making advertized functions work (alliances anyone?), this game is probably the last I'm prepared to pay money for once more.

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See my PBW game stories on http://users.pandora.be/banzaiboy/sevpbw/.

Turn processing as host on my old computer would take up to 2 & an half hours with the first Nebula Rising game(6 players). In a later game warp storm wars(8 players) I learnt a trick that speeds up processing as host, delete the combat replay file before processing...this will take a turn down from 2 hours processing to 30 mins...a serious improvement.

Game times
Nebula Rising 90 turns and took just less than a year. (6 players, large quadrant)
Warp strom wars 100 turns and took about 10 months. (8 players, large quadrant)
Nebula Storm started March 20th and is currently on turn 76. (10 players, large quadrant)
Nebula Rising II has just started & is on turn 7 (9 players, large quadrant)

and as for this new game I hope it doesn't end up some Civ clone...I might be ready to part with my money for an Alpha Centauri & Alien crossfire type game.

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Join PBW Emperor Of The Universe League Today. Follow the Link to EOTU
http://thewelloftakahlah.spaces.live.com/blog/

My Twilight wars game got up to 145 turns and did not go any farer because then the turn would not run anymore.

they should implement regular multiplayer like other games so we dont have to even use a site or transfer huge files...

I've always thought some games had their settings a little high...

Back to subject.

I hate wasting my time with the endless speculation. I think we should wait until SOME info about the game is released. Some of the other games released were not worth all of the excitement.

I wouldn't mind a take over the world turn by turn game, I'm somewhat a geek with those games, espacilly with 'Risk'

Try the Civilization series. It set the standard.

Bad news, to say the least.

Patching for SEV has been great compared to most other games, but the fact is that the game wasn't anywhere near finished when released, and it still isn't. To now hear that not only is the majority of patching done( even if he does a couple of patches with some bug fixes while making a new game, it won't be anywhere near what we'd hope for, and new features is completely out of the question ), but also that he isn't making a new Space Empires, is utterly disappointing.

Even should he pick it up again after this game( a game which really doesn't sound interesting to me, compared to SE ), it will likely be at least 3 years before we see a new SE.

We need a new 4x game series, but unfortunately most developers wouldn't consider making something as complex as SE.

Bad news, to say the least.

Patching for SEV has been great compared to most other games, but the fact is that the game wasn't anywhere near finished when released, and it still isn't. To now hear that not only is the majority of patching done( even if he does a couple of patches with some bug fixes while making a new game, it won't be anywhere near what we'd hope for, and new features is completely out of the question ), but also that he isn't making a new Space Empires, is utterly disappointing.

Even should he pick it up again after this game( a game which really doesn't sound interesting to me, compared to SE ), it will likely be at least 3 years before we see a new SE.

We need a new 4x game series, but unfortunately most developers wouldn't consider making something as complex as SE.

I disagree that the game isn't nearly finished at this time. There's only a few serious bugs that separate SE5 from being as "bug free" as SE4. The most unfinished aspect is the stock AI, which is only about 2/3rds developed as SE4. Take out a couple of references to unimplemented features and make a few UI tweaks regarding cargo lists, saving/editing layouts/queue lists, and improve text box functionality, and you'd have a pretty solid game overall.

It's disappointing that SE6 will be a couple of years away, but I can sympathize with MM wanting to work on something different. From my own experience, it's difficult to work on the same project for such a long time and still find the motivation and creativity that is required to bring it to a fruitful conclusion.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

Maybe a bit harsh, but the stock game still is very, very weak. Not just with the data files and very poor AI, but with bugs, poor design decisions, long turn processing times, graphical problems with Vista, etc.

I know, he's only one guy, and you could make lots of excuses for it all, but I'm not so much disappointed that the problems were there in the first place as I am at the potential of the game being very much lost now. This was pretty much the last 'hardcore' 4x game. Not only will this game not be sufficiently fixed, but there's not even planned a sequel. It's too bad.

Who can say what Aaron think? Maybe he would make a sequel. Maybe not. Now SE V it's not finished. It needs some more patch. If MM announce NOW a sequel, than it's bad: why working on a old game when you're working on a sequel?

Like Cap. Kwok say many times, it's better to take some times making anyhing else unrelated to SE to regain motivations, ideas and so on. If you search something you'll never find it. If you don't search it, you'll find easily.

Fuer Grissa Ost Drauka

I also hate wasting time speculating on what is going through Aaron's (or someone else's) mind. If he wants to comment, he will. It would be great but I wouldn't count on it.

Oh BTW, any info at all on the new game?

I haven't heard anything specific on the new title, but in a short e-mail I had with MM on the subject of SE6, he didn't plan on starting anything in the next year or so.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

Probably a problem with Vista

I, for one, an very happy with SEV. It has its problems, but it is much better than anything else I have played(hardcore GalCiv and GalCiv2 for years before discovering this gem.)

This will tank.

Regarding SE5:

Colonies outside current sensor range are remembered at this time.

The stock AI doesn't use stellar manipulation currently. However, the Balance Mod does along with pretty much every other component a player can use.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

The Unnamed AI mod for stock has not been updated in some time. Currently, only the BM AI has this functionality.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

I have to agree with lorq13, come on man, this game wasn't that expensive. Look at xbox 360 games they're like 60 bucks apiece and most of them are 10 - 12 hours before you've finished it. SEV has such a broad spectrum of what you can do with it. It really blows most other games away. Personally I was happy to get my copy of it early, rather than wait several months for refining to occure.

SEV, more than a feeling.

So he will be starting on SE6 in about a year or so?

It'll be whenever MM decides to start working on SE6. My own guess would be in 2010 depending on the outcome/progress of this current project.

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Those interested in SE5 receiving a bit more attention should let MM know that they are still interested in the game and are looking forward to the next patch. I suspect he hasn't heard much on the topic and might not realize there's still a lot of interest in the game.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

This simply reinforces what I have said that MM does not bother to come to the official site to even read so he has no clue that users are still here daily checking to see what is going on with the game.

It is a bit saddening to see this and know that SEV is simply at the whim of MM if he thinks there may still be interest.

I am still opposed to sending him mail to prove I am interested in the game still when all he has to do is type in www.spaceempires5.com to find out.

Hey, I'm just letting you guys know what works best for what you want based on my experience.

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

Kwok, you have been the shinning light on this forum and the person that has been the link to knowing what is going on with the game. I am not trying to poke at you in any way whatsoever.

I am simply pointing out that MM cannot be bothered to come to the official forums to even look at them and see there is still interest. I know I am the one that keeps pointing this out; but since forever he has not once come here to the best of my knowledge, and that is sad.

If I did not like the game I would have been long gone because of this one fact of, disinterest in his user base.

I'm with Faithful on this. It boggles the mind to think Aaron isn't even a little curious about what others are saying. We're supposed to show HIM some interest? Stuff it! I invite him to come down from his ivory tower and show US some interest. We're his paying customers afterall.

Let's not go crazy on assumptions here, the absence of posts does not indicate MM doesn't care or doesn't stop by to check the forums from time to time. Not everyone is a forum junkie or has the time to actively participate in threads. In fact, in my experience, they often turn into big time sinks when you've developed some project and you end up posting so much debating various aspects of your work - or at least that's what I've found with the Balance Mod, which is hardly the scope of SE5!

Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

I don't think Aaron should directly reply to any post here or anywhere else. That would leave him open to accusations of "using other people's ideas". However, it would be nice to know he has his finger on the pulse of the community by occasionally reading what is said about his game. If I were him I would want to know so I could provide a better product. Sorry about the tone of my last post but it would be nice to know he cares about his customers. He is a person, not a faceless company, and should not act like one. SE began humbly and grew with others support and could still grow even better.

Yes, I've read the same thing about Terry Pratchett. He can't visit forums about his work because if he happens to use something a fan thought up he will be open to accusations of having used their idea. Also he wouldn't have the time to do any work if he spent his time reading fans opinions, not that that's a comment on fans. I once wrote a mod and the forum for it ended up being people arguing over how it should be set up.