Space Empires V PBW game?

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-07-25 10:33pm

Yeah, that same reaction is what's driving me. I could spend 10 minutes slapping a turn together roughly, 30 minutes doing it smartly, or 0 minutes doing something else. Right now, it just sounds like these minutes are gonna add up to a lot of nothing, and it's bothering me. I just had a deadline moved up five days, when I had only two weeks to begin with. That kinda pushed me over the edge. With my time so short, and with so many fun games to play (like Oblivion) why am I spending it in SEV? If anything, I'd rather throw that social gaming time into STGODs.

I just hope nobody's angry with me.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2007-07-25 11:57pm

I haven't done a turn in weeks. I made some stupid newbie mistakes early on that just frustrate me now, and I've lost interest completely. The pace was too much for me, as well. It was too much work, too often.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-07-26 02:25am

Maybe I should go looking for some replacement players. Anyone dropping out should withdraw from PBW so I know who's out and who's still in. Personally, I don't share any of the sentiments expressed. Strange how different people can play in the exact same game and get vastly different levels of enjoyment from it, but it doesn't seem like a chore to me at all, I'm enjoying trying to outthink and outplan others despite a less than ideal starting location. I'm about to go to bed, so turn will be run tomorrow in the morning instead of tonight.

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2007-07-26 09:34pm

Son of a bitch!

Apparently "Don't Get Hurt" means "Damn the Torpedoes". I just lost a couple of my forward observers because they decided to charge fucking planets with their point-defense cannons.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-07-27 01:11am

Were they running from enemies on the far side of the planet? If not, it must just be a glitch. "Don't Get Hurt" usually means they run away.

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2007-07-27 10:08am

Nope, it was just a single ship of mine in each system; one of the planets had a freighter and some sats in orbit the other had a base and a single sat. In both cases my ships powered straight towards the planet instead of heading back out over the 'hyper limit'.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-07-27 11:13am

Check the don't get hurt strategy and see if it targets satellites. Check all the stuff like drop troops on planets, etc.

You can customize strategies and even make your own. I suggest all people do this rather than rely on the defaults.

AI problems are not really a serious problem to me. It's been brought up in other SE games and the conclusion is an empire can't really know exactly what each of its captains are doing or micromanage all of its captains at all times, so as long as ships generally follow the strategies assigned to them it's fine. Plus it gives a degree of randomness. I would say it'd be a disaster if an entire fleet decided to bombard a planet but a few scouts is not a serious concern.

Fixing it should be a matter of running some sims and figuring out the idiosyncrasies of the AI. Which by the way is incredible. The formation and fleet controls are advanced shit, and they actually play a role in how serious your losses are and whether your ships carry the day.

I'm still in by the way

.

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2007-07-27 12:02pm

Yeah, I looked at the setup for it and it looks like Retreat is set to "50% Lost", so if there is only 1 ship it will still bore in.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-07-27 11:10pm

I'll be tied up tonight, so turn will be run tomorrow in the early afternoon. Procrastinators rejoice!

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-07-28 05:39pm

Your turn rejected, Trogs. You didn't do any updating or version changing since the last turn, did you? Or maybe you uploaded the file from the previous turn?

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2007-07-28 08:05pm

Didn't do any updating and I don't have stream so it can't be that. I did, however, save in the middle of my last turn, so that might've been it.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-08-02 06:02pm

Attention all presidents, warlords and dictators. With people dropping like flies, I've decided the best way to stay interested is some kind of huge war. I'll make RP, no problem, but to be sure the randoms Tuxedo will pick up will play to kill. Why shouldn't we?

So from now on all bets are off. Fleet of doom is being made, and I control Keevan too so they'll be two. You can bitch about how the Federation is acting out of character, or you can get your ass in gear and get ready for the fight of a lifetime.

We are talking hundreds of ships, with maximum technology (yes, I have max anti-proton beam now and max of several other techs too.) You've been warned.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2007-08-02 09:06pm

I'm up for fighting. Just I'm gonna be gone for about 10 days on vacation next week... so that'll put a crimp there.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-08-02 10:01pm

Actually, I'll be gone too, so no crimp that wasn't there already. I'll be gone from Aug 10-18.

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2007-08-03 01:47am

brianeyci wrote:Attention all presidents, warlords and dictators. With people dropping like flies, I've decided the best way to stay interested is some kind of huge war. I'll make RP, no problem, but to be sure the randoms Tuxedo will pick up will play to kill. Why shouldn't we?

So from now on all bets are off. Fleet of doom is being made, and I control Keevan too so they'll be two. You can bitch about how the Federation is acting out of character, or you can get your ass in gear and get ready for the fight of a lifetime.

We are talking hundreds of ships, with maximum technology (yes, I have max anti-proton beam now and max of several other techs too.) You've been warned.

This is because I've finally pulled ahead of you in terms of resources and research points, isn't it?

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-08-03 09:48am

Nephtys wrote:I'm up for fighting. Just I'm gonna be gone for about 10 days on vacation next week... so that'll put a crimp there.

Real life getting in the way, when are you people going to learn galactic domination is more important than a tan and tequila?

Trogdor wrote:This is because I've finally pulled ahead of you in terms of resources and research points, isn't it?

Plenty of targets besides you. I'm looking at the Davion, now completely empty, the Hiigarans, now empty or run by who has no idea how to play, and King's people, especially dangerous since they've got crystal.

Anybody putting up system gravitational facilities yet?

Kingside_Bishop · Post by **Kingside_Bishop** » 2007-08-07 09:31pm

Hey, all. An update: house hunt is going well -- I expect to be settled in less than three weeks, which is good, 'cause that's when school starts.

@ Covenant: That sucks. I was having a lot of fun playing with you, cutthroat as you are. Oh well. I'll give my friend a call -- he's actually the one who took over for that other empire -- and see if he minds running mine, as well. Sorry to have added to your problems, but thanks for helping out.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-08-08 01:43am

For the people who haven't submitted in 5-6 turns, are you still interested in eventually coming back and doing turns or should I just start kicking people so that new folks can take over? I think after it's been 10 turns with no submit, we should probably clear a person out unless I know they're coming back (like with Kingside).

Kingside_Bishop · Post by **Kingside_Bishop** » 2007-08-08 06:05pm

Yeah, I'm definitely coming back.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-08-08 08:13pm

Yeah, I'm sorry, it just drained me. My attention span is extremely short because of my schedule recently--I had a pretty nonstop period where I had to work work work. A few days ago I finished, but I was on three days and no sleep before that, so the game popping up every so often was getting more and more annoying and stressful and honestly it really needs work. Our SEIV game was pretty expansive in scale, but this one feels stupidly huge to me, and the amounts of fleets and micromanagement involved is beyond my capacity to handle properly. I felt that instead of getting angry and frustrated it was better just to withdraw, since I was starting to get angry and frustrated with the other players as well, which was uncalled for.

Anyway, I'm still recovering from that manic period of workstuff, but I'm going to stay withdrawn. What really got me into the game was Neph and the idea of making a custom shipset. Once my shipset was discovered to be somehow at the root of my issues, I really lost one of the two legs that was keeping me in the game.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-08-08 10:40pm

Tomorrow's turn will be run 1 hour early at 8 PM PDT, then we'll be on hiatus until Thursday Aug 16.

Covenant wrote:Yeah, I'm sorry, it just drained me. My attention span is extremely short because of my schedule recently--I had a pretty nonstop period where I had to work work work. A few days ago I finished, but I was on three days and no sleep before that, so the game popping up every so often was getting more and more annoying and stressful and honestly it really needs work. Our SEIV game was pretty expansive in scale, but this one feels stupidly huge to me, and the amounts of fleets and micromanagement involved is beyond my capacity to handle properly. I felt that instead of getting angry and frustrated it was better just to withdraw, since I was starting to get angry and frustrated with the other players as well, which was uncalled for.

Anyway, I'm still recovering from that manic period of workstuff, but I'm going to stay withdrawn. What really got me into the game was Neph and the idea of making a custom shipset. Once my shipset was discovered to be somehow at the root of my issues, I really lost one of the two legs that was keeping me in the game.

So don't kick you because you might still come back someday?

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-08-10 09:20am

We're now on hiatus until next Thursday. Plenty of time for everyone to perfect their strategies before Brian shows up with his supposed Galaxy Killing Fleet o' Doom (tm).

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2007-08-10 11:06am

I suppose you're happy that I've gone all evil again, time for the pissant 10th place Romulans to put together a Federation crushing coalition. Believe it or not, I didn't really want to do it, and I'm still uneasy doing it. Right beside me are 1st and 2nd place, and if they decided to crush the Federation while I went on a war they could do it and seriously put the hurt on me.

But besides all the practical problems, the RP problems leave a bad taste in my mouth. What I really wanted was another B5, and the mechanics are a lot better this time around. But the grand scope of this game and the technical problems made people drop out, and my plan to hijack Bill's charisma and popularity to destroy some galaxy wide evil hasn't worked, especially since it seems nobody can match the Federation and Suran in terms of sheer territory and resources, except other "good guys" like the Exits and the Hi-gay-ans. Even the evil galaxy controlling mind fucking octopuses now respect sentient life.

I'm not sure if I want to ditch all pretense for RP and load out for bear, like bomb worlds. But I do know one thing, I won't use RP as an excuse if I'm losing. Hey, your last RP does it mean someone's using drones as planet killers? If that's happening as far as I'm concerned all gloves are off at least with that guy and I'm making ten thousand of those little fucks.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-08-15 11:59pm

Nobody's using anti-planet warheads on drones, no. They're drones with CSM's. Not the most effective use of drones, IMO, but maybe I'll be proven wrong.

Anyway, if you've got the capability to build the fleet you say you can, now would be the time to do it. The 1st and 2nd placers' players will only be MIA for a few more turns (well, one of them) and I won't be 10th place for long.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-08-16 02:23am

By the way, just a reminder that we're going active (churning the turn) again tomorrow at normal time. I still see two active players who haven't submitted yet.