4X Empire Development

Continuing Growth Past the Early Years

Just spent a bunch of time playing Space Empires IV, and eventually ended up ceasing the game for essentially the same reason I quit playing MOO-3.

The skinny version is that it became too far between rewards. The longer version is that the fully developed planets within the core of my empire had ceased to be useful starship providers, for two main reasons:
* The distance from the core to the edge of my territories became so great that it was pointless to build starships at the center worlds. Those ships would become technologically obsolete by the time they reached the Forward Edge of the Battle Area.
* The inordinate amount of time necessary to travel to the FEBA makes any launch from the core worlds irrelevant by the time they get there. The battles are long over, and the course of the game has moved on to other areas.

It occurred to me that my empire was stifling from within. The central planets were trying to provide something for me that only worlds near the edges of my territory can actually provide. The worlds that I had spent so much effort developing should not become a dead useless core. Their superior manufacturing ability should be convertible to some other functions, some internal organs for the life of the empire's body as a whole.
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Reply #1 Top
empire" improvements. These are expensive to build (so you *need* these highly-developed core worlds) and aid your whole empire.
Reply #2 Top
worlds, but speed increases (Warp Tech) fell behind in maintaining the time to my borders. It might also have to do with worm-hole movement.
Reply #5 Top
try something like +1,+2,+3,+4... Or maybe +1,+2,+4,+8... Don't know if that is playable but it will definitely keep me up for a few nights
Reply #6 Top
A good place to look for such advanced strategies is the SEIV forum at shrapnel-games.com.

SEIV is not only a combat game. Fleet logistics and economical strategy is also important for winning - especially against a human player.
Reply #7 Top
ayed a game at huge or gigantic size? For a ship to cross the map it takes forever....
Reply #8 Top
1yr,4moHuge19216yr2yr,8mo1yr,10moGigantic33628yr4yr,8mo3yr,2mo
Reply #10 Top
ne could conceivably have up to about speed twelve.
Reply #12 Top
want to come out or are forced by something. So, I don't think SG tech is the answer.

However, all that wormhole technology now... that looks promising.
Reply #13 Top
nto different speeds based on that size.
Reply #14 Top
he shipyard build an inexpensive mine and sattelite deploying shuttlecraft, which launches those defenses as they come off the production line. The shipyard then builds the more expensive starbases where appropriate.
Reply #15 Top
of six spaces away), it keeps its movement bonus when exiting the system. If the ship stops at any planet (or "breaks" by using only a part of its movement), then it loses the move bonus and gains the move penalty.
Reply #16 Top
the strategy risk that an enemy stargate could pose.

Paul.
Reply #17 Top
even a bribe for an alliance or better relations. Changing codes every so often could keep enemy ships out of your stargates, and force you to advance to higher levels of espionage on other empires.
Reply #18 Top
also because even with Grav Accelerators and a lot of tech, it can take a long long time to cross space. (Which is fair enough, but having a way to bypass it, even a very costly way, would be nice.)
Reply #19 Top
hrough, but he would never allow and enemy to travel through.

Paul.
Reply #20 Top
for speed in GC2 you can pout more than 1 engine on a ship so 2x impulse engine (Spd 1) = 2 move/turn so an end game super engine = 9 so 2 supers at 9pts = 18 move/turn
Reply #21 Top
I like the idea of stargates. Maybe that could be another type of starbase.
Reply #22 Top
Personally, I like the idea. though obviously I don't want to see it abused, because if it's abusable, then it won't likely be included. (Yeah, I was one of the first people to build starship catapults in GC1).

First, the stargates themselves should be expensive to build. Worse than anything in GC1. Hundreds of constructors.

Second, where does it let you go? Obviously, only to another stargate. And obviously, not just to any other stargate, otherwise you're inviting invasion if you build one and you're not the only empire with one completed. So, we could have 1) go to any stargate built by you or your allies, or anyone else that has given permission. 2) go to any other stargate built by you, the owning empire. 3) only to one other stargate, stargates must be built in pairs. This last option gets interesting.

First, the rational is easy. A rift is created with two endpoints with both endpoints at the same location (building something to create the endpoints may well be another major hurdle). Then each endpoint is transported to the stargate where it will be used. This could either be done with special ships, or assumed to happen in the background. Finally, the endpoints are installed in the stargates. The whole purpose of the stargates is to maintain the delicate endpoints, which cease to exist immediately without the right support equipment, and can't be re-established without creating two more end points and transporting them again.

It makes the invasion scenario rather difficult, because capturing a stargate without someone hitting a panic button, destroying the endpoints, is difficult enough to be outside the scope of the game.

It makes building stargates not something you enter into lightly, as you can't just put one at every major industrial center. You'd need two, assuming a hub somewhere, or worse, you'd need N*2 stargates if you wanted to be able to connect directly to N other industrial centers.

Maintenance fees: In addition to making stargates expensive to build, they could be given hefty maintenance fees, either a fixed maintenance fee per starget, or a lower one, but also charge for each ship that goes through it.

In any event, building a stargate in territory that isn't completely uncontested would be considered provocation, along the same lines as starting to build a terror star but worse, and they could be very delicate things, so you wouldn't actually want to try to position one in advance of an invasion, and even your ally might get suspicious if you start building a stargate in a low value area that just happens to be close to his teritory. In the event of a system invasion, they'd probably be the first target, since they can't be used by the invader but taking it out delays reinforcements. This would pretty much restrict their use to the backbone of your empire.
Reply #23 Top
If you read the background to GC1 you will see that this is already the case. The owner of the stargate has to allow the other ships to travel through. Admitted the owner could be fooled into letting a surprise military fleet from a neutral or 'friend' through, but he would never allow and enemy to travel through.


As I recall, the stargate blueprints transmitted to the humans by the Arceans lacked an "off" button. The humans never built a stargate, though, because the invention of Hyperdrive made them obsolete. A hyperdrive-equipped ship can move through normal space faster than a stargate can send it through subspace.
Reply #24 Top
No, that's not what I remember. The humans became concerned because all of a sudden, nothing came through the gate for 2 years (that's the rationale for the AI having better knowledge of star color and such), at which point the humans disassembled their gate and started exploring for themselves.

But yes, THAT stargate technology was inferior to ships, which is why this would have to be something new.
Reply #25 Top
I know I've also had ships that were at least speed 14 in GC1 (oh yeah, gotta love race bonuses and gravity accelerators)...but yeah, HyperDrive is many times faster than stargates in the backstory. Therefore, stargates are slow, obsolete, and too expensive to maintain. Although you can assume that it would be possible to speed up the stargates, it still probably wouldn't be considered a viable solution, what with the huge cost increase for a small speed increase at best.