Anyone play Stars! (OT)

Lord Maxwell · March 2, 2001, 06:47

Anyone play Stars! and spend their time eagerly awaiting the sequel Supernova?

Just curious what other 4X games people play.

Blake · March 2, 2001, 08:26

I stopped playing Stars! about a year ago, after playing it on and off for about 3 years. The reason: I got a new computer and the video card couldn't handle the cutting edge graphical demands of Stars! *sigh*. Altough Stars! has never lost it's space on my HDD, and seeing I recentley upgraded I can play Stars! again...

And yes, I eagerly await Stars! SNG. I drool in anticipation

. I sure hope it doesn't come out just before mid year exams :\

Lord Maxwell · March 2, 2001, 14:27

Those who have good memories might remember me *****ing about the bad AI in all 4X games I have ever played. There is now a slim chance that I might be satisfied at last. Stars! Supernova Genesis (see www.crisium.com) will feature an AI (that now in the beta has learning algorithms, it remains to see if it zeroes in on progressively better strategies or not, so it might still get dumped) and you can, like chess opponents, literally give it hours of computer time to think.

You will also be able to write AI scripts for yourself, but you can read more about all this in the designers notes on the site. (Which means that you could, possibly, finally trust the computer to take care of tedious micromanagement.)

I think I will blow up with anticipation.

NorthSwordsman · March 2, 2001, 19:32

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Maxwell on 03-02-2001 01:27 PM
Those who have good memories might remember me *****ing about the bad AI in all 4X games I have ever played. There is now a slim chance that I might be satisfied at last. Stars! Supernova Genesis (see www.crisium.com) will feature an AI (that now in the beta has learning algorithms, it remains to see if it zeroes in on progressively better strategies or not, so it might still get dumped) and you can, like chess opponents, literally give it hours of computer time to think.

You will also be able to write AI scripts for yourself, but you can read more about all this in the designers notes on the site. (Which means that you could, possibly, finally trust the computer to take care of tedious micromanagement.)

I think I will blow up with anticipation.

Too bad you can't rework smac/smacx with that kind of algorithm.... then it would be a SP challenge.

NS

Scipio Centaurus · March 2, 2001, 20:49

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Maxwell on 03-02-2001 01:27 PM
...You will also be able to write AI scripts for yourself, but you can read more about all this in the designers notes on the site. (Which means that you could, possibly, finally trust the computer to take care of tedious micromanagement.)

I think I will blow up with anticipation.

Last time I looked at their website, it appears that the AI most likely will not function if you choose to 'edit' game rules via the scripting language. Apparantly the AI depends on knowing what the game rules are in advance. Looks like it's one or the other, but not both.

[This message has been edited by Scipio Centaurus (edited March 02, 2001).]

Lord Maxwell · March 3, 2001, 04:19

quote:

Originally posted by Scipio Centaurus on 03-02-2001 07:49 PM
Last time I looked at their website, it appears that the AI most likely will not function if you choose to 'edit' game rules via the scripting language. Apparantly the AI depends on knowing what the game rules are in advance. Looks like it's one or the other, but not both.

I think you misunderstood me, you can write little scripts like: "Colonize this planet. When colonizing look for the starbases that is best to build colonizers and transports and offer up colonists. (And this is how you weigh starbases:...) When the colony is started it should focus on mineral growth, eventually expanding into remote mining close red stars. Mining operations should have a maximize-over-ten-years focus." You can give it all kinds of nifty parameters to play within apparently. These do not change the rules of the game, they are just helpful to you. (Just as you in the current stars! can balance minerals between two star systems by cunning orders to transports.)

You can also change the rules for the game, as they are all written in a rule description language. It's when you mess with those that the AI might get weird. But you would mostly monkey with those for pbem campaigns involving only human participatns.

The Commodore · March 4, 2001, 01:45

I loved Stars!...I look forward to SSG.

If the AIs are better,it should be perfect.