Space Empires V PBW game?

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2007-06-14 09:46am

That would be it. All I could see was the name.

Kingside_Bishop · Post by **Kingside_Bishop** » 2007-06-14 12:20pm

brianeyci wrote:"What the fuck does that mean?"

Heh, I was going to use a

smiley, but when I saw that as an option, I couldn't help myself. Anyway, that reminded me of Starcraft -- you know, the CGs of all those backwater Terrans... "I think you hit some poor feller's dog, Sarge..."

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-06-14 12:50pm

Hahaha of course. Who do you think fills civil service jobs, not always the brightest and best. Could be some inbred hick with connections. Plus I'm bright and I say fuck a lot. Guy manning the subspace radio is a lackey. Not exactly the President.

Didn't mean to belittle your RP though.

ColonialAdmiral · Post by **ColonialAdmiral** » 2007-06-14 09:55pm

This is weird, I seem to have contact with 10+ races, and I've only meet one, and I don't have a treaty...

Weird...

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2007-06-14 10:12pm

Yeah, Suran sent the treaty as a research treaty, I countered and forgot to change the name. And I still can't access PBW.

Kingside_Bishop · Post by **Kingside_Bishop** » 2007-06-15 12:22am

ColonialAdmiral wrote:This is weird, I seem to have contact with 10+ races, and I've only meet one, and I don't have a treaty...

Weird...

That'd be me. That is strange. I sent you an offer of a treaty that included the exchange of comm channels, but obviously, you couldn't have accepted yet. And even if you had, you'd have more than 10 new contacts.

Space Empires V: a new surprise every time you play.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2007-06-15 12:47am

Contacts appear to be spread primarily through magic.

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2007-06-15 07:47am

If you have contact with somebody and they share communication channels, everybody they share your identity with will show up for you as well.

Kingside_Bishop · Post by **Kingside_Bishop** » 2007-06-15 09:09am

Luke Starkiller wrote:If you have contact with somebody and they share communication channels, everybody they share your identity with will show up for you as well.

That would explain it, then. I have a couple of comm sharing treaties -- with players who, no doubt, have a few comm sharing treaties with other players... who also have comm sharing treaties. And so, CA's comm was shared throughout the galaxy, far and wide.

"Hear ye, Hear ye! New empire discovered!"

ColonialAdmiral · Post by **ColonialAdmiral** » 2007-06-15 09:11am

I don't have ANY treaties at all though...

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-06-15 10:38am

Maybe the game misapplied someone else's treaty element to you. I've never heard of a case where that definitely happened, but people on the SE5 boards have given that as a possible explanation for weird bugs before.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-06-15 11:02am

What Luke is saying is that say the Romulans have your comm channel. They're the only empire to have your comm channel. Then the Romulans do a treaty to share your comm channel with everybody in the galaxy, ten different treaties with ten different empires. You don't have to have a treaty for someone to plaster your number to the entire galaxy.

Just because you don't got their number, doesn't mean they don't got yours. And once they got your number, get ready for the crank calls. I suggest Federation call display, limited time offer while quantities last. Send cheque to Vulcan.

ColonialAdmiral · Post by **ColonialAdmiral** » 2007-06-15 02:00pm

So much for wanting to build an empire in seclusion...

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-06-15 02:10pm

Just because they know your number, doesn't mean they know where you live. Just block off warp points and go all xeno.

Besides, I don't get seclusion. Thirteen empires, thirteen trading partners, thirteen wars, thirteen possibilities... what's there not to love.

I think I know where you live. Everybody, rush to the upper left corner, he's right there beyond some black holes! Sorry word spreads fast

.

ColonialAdmiral · Post by **ColonialAdmiral** » 2007-06-15 04:01pm

Hmmm....
I must create defences...

I don't care if you know where I live. Come in my house, and I shoot you. (Unless we have a Non-agression)

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-06-15 09:01pm

You can easily build an empire in seclusion. It's called singleplayer with no warp points connected and only neutral AI's.

EDIT: More seriously, going all lone wolf is not something I would recommend toward the mid and late game. 3 empires vs. 1 empire = you lose, especially since defenses in SE 5 aren't nearly as good as in SE 4 due to the real time combat. You can only put 100 sats and 100 mines on a warp point, which later ships can smash through without much worry, and massed fighters and / or bases are only cost effective if there's only one way into your territory. Otherwise, a mobile defense force can project power better, but ships defending don't have any intrinsic edge over ships attacking. Of course, if you stay out of galactic politics, maybe people will be too embroiled in wars to notice your territory is ripe for the taking, but that's not a gamble I'd choose to make.

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2007-06-16 08:20pm

What the fuck?

Did one or two of your planets actually rebel and secede Brian? I thought that was just for the RP, but now I see two new factions with 1 planet each and an even more pathetic population than me. I assume that these new factions will be controlled by the AI, right?

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-06-16 08:41pm

Yeah that's right you dicks, fear the wrath of of the Echetex Commonwealth and the Vu'Ghozixush Confederation (both Vulcan words, what you didn't realize?)

.

If anybody ever makes it to Earth, the Federation's breaking apart into fifty different empires (as long as Starfleet's soundly defeated of course.) So nobody try it, lest I spam you to death with 10 meg turns!

Kingside_Bishop · Post by **Kingside_Bishop** » 2007-06-17 01:17am

That's an interesting deterent...

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2007-06-17 01:19am

Kingside_Bishop wrote:That's an interesting deterent...

Except AI governments are hideously incompetent and would likely war with each other.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-06-17 01:24am

Three words.

Mega. Evil. Empire.

Now that I'm invulnerable to conventional attack, I'm free to isolate you each one by one and pursue my plans for galactic domination. First up the Chinese rice farmers. I know you got your ears stuck in a rice picking machine, but that's no excuse. Then the fucking French. After that, you'll all fall in line. Yes, you will.

Yes, you will.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2007-06-17 01:41am

How is that a deterent? Oh no, you're going to break up your empire into lots of easy to squish pieces? The horror!

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-06-17 01:50am

Empires are like pirates. So the more of them there are the more powerful they get. It's only when you got ninjas, preferably one ninja, when it's a problem.

On the serious side, fixed defenses utterly suck midgame to late. Anybody contemplating turtling should strike up a good deal with the Federation. We'll tell the galaxy if you're getting invaded, and even send aid dollars. Starbases don't work, because ships form up all together and mass their firepower while starbases are spread apart. As far as I can tell I can't use the mouse scroll wheel to place objects on top of each other like I did in Star Trek Armada, or stack them together like ships sometimes do fighting on point-blank strategy.

The exception might be a death world. Load up on cargo facility on a huge planet. Fill it with billions of people, and weapons platforms with a very good long ranged direct fire weapon and enough point defense. The people are your meat shields. If you get planetary shielding, even better. But anybody who's read their Sun Tzu would just bypass such a death star.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2007-06-17 01:57am

What the fuck are you talking about? What can a bunch of single world empires do?

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-06-17 02:24am

Trying to make a joke.

If you want to be serious, no, one-off empires are not a threat. They were only created for RP, so I could have a neutral zone with the Hiigarans. One-off empires are only "threatening" in the sense this is a bit of an RP game, and you can dump worlds in your enemy's backyard and deny all responsibility for them. Five worlds with shipyards and weapons platforms and satellites, once you have a high enough technology level so the AI doesn't have to worry about research (the AI is rather stupid and makes tons of no research treaties), could make a rogue fleet. They could blow up colonizer, glass worlds, use biological weapons, without any ramifications to yourself at all if you RP it right as war by proxy. The Americans used Saddam, the Federation could use the Maquis, and maybe the Romulans the Remans. But in a strictly game mechanics sense, yes, it makes more sense to keep an empire together.