For everyone who doesn't "get it" yet and can't stand it...

[Grumbold]

Originally posted by Thud
As for the alien AI problems... thats where multiplayer comes in

It would be nice if the AI could be modestly competent though, as seemed to be the case when the beta tester AAR's mentioned people taking over AI races and playing them for a bit or dropping out to let the AI run the empire they had built.

In a game where you're looking at a significant time commitment to play it would be good if you could say 'sure, play three hours on tuesday without me. I'll pick up the threads again when we resume on thursday.'

[MariOne]

Grumbold, I REFUSE a game which can only be acceptaly played thanks to USER mods.
I *expect* OFFICIAL patches for that.

(...a patch would be recognisable and referencable wherever I go.
A mod would only be recognised within a local community, or would have limited diffusion and *validity* anyway...)

[Grumbold]

Whether or not a game can be acceptably played without certain user mods depends entirely upon your personal preferences. Personally I find SMAC detestible until I alter the psi combat so that the mindworms are almost useless. Some game mods have become so universal they've been released as commercial products in their own right.

In this case, as with so many previous examples, the user community is way ahead of the developers in finding solutions to common issues, making improvements to the game and generally rushing out any new feature that somebody thinks could be cool. Of course this is only possible because the developers took the time and effort to make elements of the code easily accessible so that players could chose to tweak to enhance their gameplaying experience. Their patch will inevitably cover a lot of the ground the mods are covering now, just in a more official, documented, bug tested way. MOO3 is certainly playable without any mods its just not as positive an experience.

[Don K Hotay]

Originally posted by billybaruch1


....

#4: Designing Ships -- can this be any more tedious? Everytime you get a new tech, and this is actually something that does happen every day (every turn), you have to obsolete the old and build the new. I'll admit I'm beginning to get the hang of it, but if the computer would do this for me, that'd be good.

...

I just want to add that once dev plans are in place, and planetary/system micromanagement worries are out of the way, ship designing is the one area that requires a player's full attention. Having played this long, design is not something that I would ever want the AI to handle, except for maybe getting the basic components into a hull.

Ship technologies flowing in are boons not burdens, and they stay that way because I'm always checking in at the lab to see which ones are on the horizon, so I can design accordingly.

Versus the AI in single player, its easy to take advantage of its weaknesses by simply checking which techs are and are not available to them, and then designing ships custom tailored to assure victory in battle. In multiplayer, this is obviously a little more difficult

Quixote

[Grumbold]

The AI doesn't do a bad job of building ships when you hit autodesign either. Sure you can improve them all, but thats part of the fun. Many people would hate it if you couldn't tinker with ships and do better then the AI at trading speed for guns etc.

[The Templar]

Originally posted by Thud
So this is what my SMC has been doing all term...

I got the game yesterday. I'm not frustrated, but still micromanaging. Perhaps the frustration has yet to come.

As for the alien AI problems... thats where multiplayer comes in

Are you on crack? Who in real life could make the time committment MP would require? Even with limited turns it would be just too much.

[Don K Hotay]

Originally posted by Grumbold
The AI doesn't do a bad job of building ships when you hit autodesign either....

I've noticed that autodesign puts all emphasis on damage, and for direct fire weapons (and fighters as well), this is no good. Range, space vs. damage, and a civ's shield/armor tech. have to be taken into consideration in order to build a battleworthy "wessel" (quoting that russian star trek guy)....then we can talk about design improvements. Autodesign is for getting the basics into a ship, not for building a dependable one.

Quixote

[Grumbold]

Oh I'll never leave a design untweaked, that is true, but it is a very efficient way of ensuring you get all the latest shields, drives, scanners etc bolted into your ship. Most of the time all I have to do is halve the ship speed, tweak the point defence and maybe switch to an older weapon type that has better damage when all of its enhancer techs are taken into account. Whether or not you like the size of shield it puts in each ship is more about gameplay style.

[Arnelos]

Originally posted by Thud
So this is what my SMC has been doing all term...

I've been discovered!



Thud,

In all seriousness, I've been too busy with RL over the past several days (not the previous term... ) to post in the Civ3 boards, post here in the MoO3 section, or even PLAY MoO3

Hell, this is the first time I've sat in front of this computer in nearly 2 days.

RL can be hectic at times...