Space Empires V PBEM game

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-10-30 10:40am

Turn 3

Executes on Wednesday, November 1st at 9:00 PM PST.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-11-01 10:53am

Rah! You guys need to get on the ball so we can do a turn every 24 hours

Arthur, you no longer sending read receipts?

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-11-01 11:15am

Whoops! I forgot. Anyway, have turns for all but Player 2.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-11-01 02:07pm

I'll have that in by tonight.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-11-01 02:40pm

Turn 4

Executes on Friday, November 3rd at 9:00 PM PST.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-11-04 01:21am

Turn 5

Executes on Friday, November 5th at 9:00 PM PST. Two people didn't manage to get their turns in on time. Mind the execution times, folks. I won't wait for you.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-11-04 01:23am

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:Turn 5

Executes on Friday, November 5th at 9:00 PM PST. Two people didn't manage to get their turns in on time. Mind the execution times, folks. I won't wait for you.

Haha, that's the way to do it!

Uh, Sunday, November 5th

.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2006-11-04 01:58am

Shit, I was wondering when the new turn would be ready!

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-11-04 02:05am

GuppyShark wrote:Shit, I was wondering when the new turn would be ready!

Haha pwn3d. Were you one of the two slackers?

Anyway you know who you are. Take comfort in that my game glitched its construction queues on turn 1, and now you are 1 turn behind like me.

Is there any way to turn off Ministers or something, like in SE:IV? I don't want the AI doing stupid things like designing ships and moving them if I miss.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-11-04 02:08am

That was a satisfying 45 seconds of toying with new research options.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-11-04 02:12am

InnocentBystander wrote:That was a satisfying 45 seconds of toying with new research options.

You go on emergency build like I suggested?

.

Actually after my first turn glitched I didn't go on emergency build. Only one person followed my advice apparently and is using land rush and has 12 colonizers out heading for deep space (or figured it out themselves). Once I took a look and thought about it for a long time, and especially after my first turn glitched, I didn't use emergency build at all so I'm somewhat of a hypocrite. Oh well. May the best man win

.

Instead for me, I colonized 5 nearby worlds and immediately started building spaceyard. The amount of resources a homeworld makes is staggering, the way it is going right now it should be fine to build a yard on every single planet and still be in the black.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-11-04 02:20am

I promise myself I wouldn't look at the data files so I wouldn't waste time and learn the old fashioned way but I couldn't help myself. Then I looked at the way they applied damage. Is it true that outer hull gets damaged before inner hull?

Anyway fighters rule, I thought I would keep mentioning that. Fighters are "gitched" or balanced because they suck up supplies whenever they launch, but from a planet that's no problem. And get carrier level 7 and you can slap in massive mounted meson blasters

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-11-04 02:23am

Carrier level 7? Someone is looking far, FAR into the future, eah?

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2006-11-04 02:35am

brianeyci wrote:
GuppyShark wrote:Shit, I was wondering when the new turn would be ready!
Haha pwn3d. Were you one of the two slackers?

Anyway you know who you are. Take comfort in that my game glitched its construction queues on turn 1, and now you are 1 turn behind like me.

Yep. You and I both have perfect excuses for losing, if it comes to that.

brianeyci wrote:Is there any way to turn off Ministers or something, like in SE:IV? I don't want the AI doing stupid things like designing ships and moving them if I miss.

I had a quick look - the AI redid my research but didn't appear to make any other noticeable changes. I couldn't remember where my ships were if you held a gun to my head, so I can't guarantee they weren't flung around randomly.

I couldn't find a "Don't make changes" option.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-11-04 02:38am

Do you guys need some sort of notification, because I'll Email, IM or firebomb your houses if it means we can do more turns

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2006-11-04 02:40am

Well, Arthur posting the turns to the forum should do the trick, as it sends an Email Notification for the topic reply. I think I got the email while I was at the office last turn and wasn't able to act on it, and then forgot about it, so it's obviously not perfect.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-11-04 09:08am

Just don't click on it when you get it and can't act on it so it stays bolded. That's what I do.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-11-04 09:12am

Anyway, I don't like emergency building colonizers because it makes your homeworlds useless soon after, and I like to be able to continue to build and make minelayers, defensive fleets, etc. If you catch someone early who uses the emer. build strategy, there will be a delay between the homeworlds going offline and the new shipyards coming online to take up the slack. Also, a 2 turn colonizer is a 5 in 6 turns colonizer in this game, instead of 5 in 10, so the benefit from emergency build is not nearly as high.

I also have a residual hatred of emergency build because it used so many clicks in SE4, but now it can be done by setting a whole range of shipyards on it simultaneously.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-11-04 09:33am

As far as I can tell using queues and emergency build is a bug because it turns off the emergency build. How I managed to duplicate it in my single player... use the crane on the bottom right to turn on emergency build manually for all yards the good old SE:IV way. Then try and use the "mass add" construction button on the top and it turns emergency build off which it shouldn't do.

What does this "5 in 6 turns" thing mean. A colonizer takes two turns to make, it takes ten turns for five unless I'm missing something. Are you talking about non-simultaneous games?

As for picking up the slack, that's why you have a colonizer take a planet nearby on turn 5 and start building. Two planets, so colonizers 5 and 6 would make yards. It's not a question of picking up slack, it's a question of more breathing room later on, ten turns of less but not ten turns of helplessness if it's done right.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2006-11-04 10:16am

brianeyci wrote:As far as I can tell using queues and emergency build is a bug because it turns off the emergency build. How I managed to duplicate it in my single player... use the crane on the bottom right to turn on emergency build manually for all yards the good old SE:IV way. Then try and use the "mass add" construction button on the top and it turns emergency build off which it shouldn't do.

First you mass add, then you set the queue settings while still in the same window, and it will apply it to all of them.

What does this "5 in 6 turns" thing mean. A colonizer takes two turns to make, it takes ten turns for five unless I'm missing something. Are you talking about non-simultaneous games?

Construction bleeds over in SE V. If you have a build rate of 3,500 and colony ships cost 4,000, you can stack a bunch of them. After the first turn, you'll be building 1 per turn. Similarly, you can build 2, 3, or more ships per turn if you have the construction rate for it. In SE IV, the difference between regular and emerg. build was 5 in 10 turns and 5 in 5 turns. In SE V, it's only 5 in 6 turns to 5 in 4 turns, not exactly as impressive.

As for picking up the slack, that's why you have a colonizer take a planet nearby on turn 5 and start building. Two planets, so colonizers 5 and 6 would make yards. It's not a question of picking up slack, it's a question of more breathing room later on, ten turns of less but not ten turns of helplessness if it's done right.

Agreed, you don't have to be helpless if you plan it right, but it's still not the no-brainer it was in SE IV. Especially since there are no base space yards to take up the slack.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-11-04 10:33am

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:
brianeyci wrote:As far as I can tell using queues and emergency build is a bug because it turns off the emergency build. How I managed to duplicate it in my single player... use the crane on the bottom right to turn on emergency build manually for all yards the good old SE:IV way. Then try and use the "mass add" construction button on the top and it turns emergency build off which it shouldn't do.
First you mass add, then you set the queue settings while still in the same window, and it will apply it to all of them.

Yes, but if the planet is already on emergency build and you mass add without setting the queue setting to emergency build it treats it as if you want to give a mass order to turn emergency build off which it didn't do in SE:IV if you mass added. The new way is better though, but now I sound like an old fart complaining about the good old days so I'll shut up. At least there is a way to order yards en masse to turn off emergency build now.

What does this "5 in 6 turns" thing mean. A colonizer takes two turns to make, it takes ten turns for five unless I'm missing something. Are you talking about non-simultaneous games?
Construction bleeds over in SE V. If you have a build rate of 3,500 and colony ships cost 4,000, you can stack a bunch of them. After the first turn, you'll be building 1 per turn. Similarly, you can build 2, 3, or more ships per turn if you have the construction rate for it. In SE IV, the difference between regular and emerg. build was 5 in 10 turns and 5 in 5 turns. In SE V, it's only 5 in 6 turns to 5 in 4 turns, not exactly as impressive.

Goddamn you're right. I might turn off my emergency build this turn, it's been on for one turn already.

Agreed, you don't have to be helpless if you plan it right, but it's still not the no-brainer it was in SE IV. Especially since there are no base space yards to take up the slack.

I didn't know about the bleeding. Good thing the game glitched its first turn for me. I'll shut my mouth now since I don't know shit obviously. SE:V isn't SE:IV.

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2006-11-04 01:40pm

Shit, Brian wasn't kidding about us being all packed together. That's one thing I hate. "Distribute evenly through the quadrant" means don't start players in the same system, not actually evenly distribute them.

So who's the Cerulean Simplicity?

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-11-04 04:44pm

The galaxy's actually small. There's nowhere in the galaxy you can really be isolated from everyone except the top left or the far right (the far right occupied by me).

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-11-04 05:04pm

brianeyci wrote:The galaxy's actually small. There's nowhere in the galaxy you can really be isolated from everyone except the top left or the far right (the far right occupied by me).

How do you know what the galaxy looks like..?

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-11-04 05:13pm

InnocentBystander wrote:
brianeyci wrote:The galaxy's actually small. There's nowhere in the galaxy you can really be isolated from everyone except the top left or the far right (the far right occupied by me).
How do you know what the galaxy looks like..?

I picked Ancient Race. What, you didn't get it? It's the best, you lose now.

Just joking. Earlier in the thread I mentioned I accidently glitched the game and it showed me the mini-map in the bottom left. You're using the steam version right? Start the game, load the game, login. Then click on menu, and load the game again. Instead of the password screen you get either shunted to another player's turn, or you see the entire galaxy map in the bottom left but nothing in the main window (that is no planets, no anything else) just the little pips in the bottom left. With turn 1, 2400, you see the pips in the bottom left like that but nothing in the center. The inhabited pips show up as circles and the uninhabited ones are stars, and I saw a whole cluster of circles together. For every subsequent turn, it apparently jumps to a different player's turn at random depending on the turn and you can access the turn and see the middle, although you don't get the complete mini-map.

Don't worry I didn't use it to look at anybody. Well except for turn two, I saw Tuxedo building five colony ships at once, and that was it

. And Trogdor is already playing without a password. My password's sealtest. We're going to have to do honor system until they fix the bugs anyway. Tuxedo has access to all your passwords

.

EDIT : Probably the whole game on honor system, since when we patch it might break the saved game. If you're using steam turn off "automatic updates" and better yet use the "backup game content" feature, because I see no way to revert to older versions of the patch and manual patching doesn't work.