Messages

1201

AI War / Re: New Graphics....

« on: January 20, 2010, 11:00:25 PM »

Well they can't exactly rotate now they have a "faux" perspective

And a good animation will require placement of glow and faux lights separately as animating a 512x512 sprite will kill performance for good.... even if its just 3 frames (Which would look horribly stuttery.. just sayin)

1202

AI War / Re: Sentinel Frigate Spam

« on: January 20, 2010, 09:47:20 PM »

Yes well.. now you know how i got to 5000 viral shredders ;p

1203

After Action Reports / Re: Here we go again.....

« on: January 20, 2010, 06:49:22 PM »

or inside it Keeps em save and your losses down when no bombers are incoming

1204

AI War / Re: Community Suggestion Poll Nominations: Week of 1/17/10

« on: January 20, 2010, 06:08:17 PM »

Its not really surprising new features are the top, its either graphics/usability/gameplay that can still improve.. i don't think anyone here really wants any specific ship included if given the choice to get a properly sorting save menu (by date/name) or incremental autosaves.. though if its the directional fortress... (AI Specific Planet-related Scenarios) .. but thats again a whole new gameplay feature..

I would actually (as always) ask for modding ability but i am not sure x4000 would consider this ,p I think a overhaul by modders could lead to much more variety and thus, people playing the game for longer ;p

1205

AI War / Re: Prerelease 3.012 (Bugfixes)

« on: January 20, 2010, 03:30:07 PM »

You will reverse that opinion once you have 7k+ ships in a single battle.. ;p But even i agree that a toggle (and a toggle to toggle them OFF completely) is needed.

Actually i would still toggle them off because.. at some point of gaming one just doesn't care for these lines anymore..

1206

Off Topic / Re: What's up guys?

« on: January 20, 2010, 12:48:28 PM »

Weird forum spam bot trend. I don't really understand it.

Anyway, this one's been dealt with.

Its a scan to check which forums are easy to attack or not, how off-topic is moderated, and what kind of view numbers and reaction by mods it provokes. Or it simply is a test on a automated log-on and post script.

Well, nothing one can do, except go invite only ;p

1207

AI War / Re: reactive vs. predictive AI

« on: January 19, 2010, 08:02:16 PM »

The AI is the way it is for a reason, remember it starts with 79 worlds, and you with 1. And at Dif 7 - it can outproduce you

I am sure x4000 could make the meta and in-sector ai endlessely smarter, but then how many players could still win the game? The only way to play Player vs AI is when the ai behaves slightly dumb. If it behaved smart, you would NEVER win.

Think about this, what kind of winning chance would you have when a player would control every AI action (raids, cpr's ,alert levels and reinforcements and inner-system targets, trader actions etc.)

This tells you how smart a system with that power should be to be fun. Ie. Less smarter than a human.

1208

After Action Reports / Re: Here we go again.....

« on: January 19, 2010, 07:52:00 PM »

from my own experience it's usually best to place them so that they are just within covering range of the wormholes, often out of range of whatever comes through.

That usually works, except for those annoying high-shielding ships. My turrets then decide that they can't shoot against them

You should consider using fortresses then Not replacing your turrets but standing by at least in your homeworld for a while. It doesn't sound like a good investment, until you realize that it can repair and store, and soak up damage. So you get a free local repair ship to boot, which is helpful for repairing early raids.

1209

AI War / Re: Do you know this feeling, its why i play AI War...

« on: January 19, 2010, 03:04:20 PM »

You should then see the TF2 bots which are nearly human like and i have seen a lot of people that couldn't tell the difference between bots and humans in TF2. Imo for a complex team shooter like TF2 this means a lot. And it is even more befuddling because the bots in l4d1 and 2 are absolutely retarded. Both the Zombies and the Survivors

Of course, the bots still can't compete against exploits or highly advanced teamwork between humans... but still

I think.. the main reason big studios don't touch the AI levels of AI War is that it would depress too many people. We are long past a society were gaming means challenge.. most console kiddies only look for instant gratification. Which is what the big studios cater to.

1210

Off Topic / Re: RTS with Time manipulation

« on: January 19, 2010, 10:45:10 AM »

Ah.. i gotta thank you, if you hadn't said that i would have never checked what new games are on the spring engine! It seems the situation changed quite a bit the past year 

So yes, Spring Engine is definitely a shining beacon of hope ^^

1211

AI War / Re: Dictatorship, Bureaucracy, or Democracy

« on: January 19, 2010, 09:06:46 AM »

Yes AI war is quite a game Which is why i spend my time around here and offer suggestions ;p

And the only reason AI War is great is that x4000 follows his own idea, that is "Complexity for the sake of Complexity is bad"

I wish more developers would follow this. And DF.. definitely does not follow this. 

So yeah.. i think the System of AI War works fairly well because x4000 is active enough and has enough overview as to not engage in feature creep.

1212

Off Topic / Re: RTS with Time manipulation

« on: January 19, 2010, 08:58:04 AM »

Yeah.. i guess i am too much realist as to think this game will ever be released as a.. feature rich 3d-rts. Since i work freelance i have seen many good ideas fail because devs have no idea how to coordinate 3d art creation properly (Animation/Texture/Model) or what they can / can't do. (here is an idea, if you are Indy dev and want to make a MMO or FPS ... don't). I worked on some things that i uniquely wanted to play and they never materialized beyond alpha stage.

I am just too pessimistic that they'll find the funding needed to create the art assets (Units/Building/effects) And the maps, and the art assets of the maps..)

Spring is a nice engine.. if only they would stop making TA Clones...

1213

AI War / Re: Do you know this feeling, its why i play AI War...

« on: January 18, 2010, 11:28:26 PM »

If you under estimate dif 1 and think you can leave your homeworld undefended you are still in for a surprise though ,p

There should be an achievement for loosing on dif 1 though ;p

1214

Off Topic / Re: RTS with Time manipulation

« on: January 18, 2010, 11:18:02 PM »

So its a gimmick, 8 minutes isn't even fast food time.. hell my pizza takes 12! Why not 12 hours max? Heck, just thinking about something like that in AI war makes me giggle.. it would be so much more awesome in a long game as in AI war than in a 3D rts thats got 20minute long skirmishes.. and AI War could afford to actually create much more variability because the AI could interact with it...

Just saying.. as a online game this will (maybe) not work properly... 8 minutes becomes more a game of reaction than anything tactical.. maybe against AI and if they increase the time to infinity.. ie from game start onwards , and with much much much quicker time propagation

Besides, i think its a really bad idea to try to design such a game around a 3D-Engine... Indy devs and 3D Engines are a recipe for disaster

1215

Off Topic / Re: RTS with Time manipulation

« on: January 18, 2010, 09:00:54 PM »

Then you are never time traveling either, though If you yourself never time travel, you could never affect the future in the past. (because your present would be someone elses possible future.. )

Ah, this is a nice discussion, i haven't had one of these for a long time...

to x4000, hah   To my shame, i never really watched these movies with much interest.. when i did i already understood the basic idea that time travel can not exist. (Because of obvious flaw in the theory, energy is not unlimited and entropy exists, if we apply this to Time the obvious answer is that we can never travel foward or backwards in time. The only usable energy state of time is the "here and now" so to speak...

I think i will just never be able to suspend my disbelief when games try too hard on the time element, time as element needs to be fun so heres hoping they can do that.. and heres hoping they add someone who can model better 3d models too ,p)