posted 03-15-99 11:33 PM ET        

PATCH 3.0 MUST-FIXES

Or do you think it's too late for them to make any fixes? It would be nice if the information gathered could be condensed and sent to Brian via e-mail (I have his e-mail if you need that).

My #1 MUST FIX is:

posted 03-16-99 12:00 AM ET            

1) Aircraft/target priority A.I.

I agree with you on the A.I, but here are two specific points that seem to need the most work. The comp just can't use its planes/choppers, and always seems to go after supply crawlers and formers rather than important units.

2) Battle graphics

Suggest increasing sounds/animation to four different weapon styles, machine gun, laser, missile, plasma. Also change artillery from a special ability to a weapon type, and add a fire power rating - there is a lot that *could* be chanced in this part of the game. But I would definitely like to see something different occasionally from the current laser battle anytime a unit attacks anything.

3) Unit cost balancing

Needle jets are too cheap (approx. the same price as rovers). Same for choppers. I've added 40% to jets and 60% to choppers. Don't know about the rest.

4) Weapon/Defensive strengths

Currently, SMAC leads to a midgame rush mode, where once you get needle jets and chaos guns, all building ceases and you must go to war. This means that Shard weapons and choppers are usually the biggest factor in any conquest, rather than singularity lasers and gravships.

To avoid this, I'm experimenting with scaled down attack strengths for the mid range weapons (Chaos 7, Fusion 9, Shard 10). Also, sensors take 2 turns to terraform and the perimeter defense is cheaper. Combine this with the more expensive airpower, and it should be harder to sweep through an opponent's empire than it is now...

There's already a number of threads with 'ideas for patch 3.0', though. And I don't really like bit patches - I suspect something along the lines of an expansion set (gasp!) may be in order.

posted 03-16-99 12:05 AM ET            

Also, the "c" for recentering doesn't always work, so you might get the impression that the game has stopped responding properly. That would be a good 3.0 addition:

Better Unit/Base management, but I think that's been covered already.

posted 03-16-99 12:47 AM ET            

Look all of you people, stop talking down to me. I've had it with all of you who think the AI sucks. It kicks my butt all day every day, and if Firaxis improve it anymore, I'm gonna hafta take a course in, em, something to help me out. You're all so high and mighty, beating the AI, and you make me feel like a fool. If only you understood the trials and tribulations of the common person like me who gets the floor polished with their butt every game they play.

So, stop talking such technical jargon, cos it just shows how immature you all are, and how you think the world revolves around you, and how you get laid all the time, earn thousands for playtesting the game on company time, and love your PCs so much that you made your monitor into a pillow, just so you could be closer to it at night.

Get a life people, go out and breathe the air, enjoy real life away from analysing the aI to death, so that you can beat it all the time. And try ane empathise with the common person a bit more. If only you'd say "I feel your pain, and I accept it unto me", instead of talking down to me all of the time.

posted 03-16-99 12:52 AM ET            

That was brilliant stuff! My favorite line:

"...and if Firaxis improve it anymore, I'm gonna hafta take a course in, em, something to help me out..."

posted 03-16-99 04:22 AM ET            

ah, all is well in the forums as peace descends upon the troubled masses: all the factions have transcended to a higher level of co-existence. (or have they?)

yin: it's good to see that you've gotten over the initial bad blood from the jkm-incident/multiple posting/d-club zaniness. i tend to think you overreacted a little at first (followed up quickly by a few others of the self-appointed "old guard" here on the forums), but you definitely have the scalding wit and thick skin to jump into a flame war with both feet and still end up smelling like roses (wow, what a crappy sentence!).

it was also cool to see one of your (numerous, numerous )threads (de-?)evolve into an interesting discussion on korean history and american jingoism.

anyway, i was going to throw in my bit on what patch 3.0 needs but i think it's mostly been covered in previous threads and by you and the other posters here (i.e. a.i., better auto-gov/formers, easily distinguishable artillery, better mid- to end-game balancing, etc.). one minor issue is whether it's a bug that a.i. probes continue to attack the faction with the hunter-seeker algorithm.

i'll also point you in the direction of analyst, et. al's threads on the forum to see another interesting (and on topic ) discussion of the game (namely: constructive criticism for brother greg and firaxis, and transcend ironmen only...).

i'm still wary of a drone riot breaking out around here if version 3.0 doesn't pop up soon.

here's hoping for the future,
/willko.

posted 03-16-99 04:53 AM ET            

Don't scare me like that? Jesus! Have you been standing there the whole time?

That's creepy man, just creepy .

Actually, they say silence is golden. I'd probably be a much richer man if I knew how to keep my mouth shut.

posted 03-16-99 05:07 AM ET            

Shining 1: "Cost Balancing": I don't think the units need cost balancing. Needlejets and choppers sure are effective, but they do have their disadvantages: AAA defended troops are harder to kill, they have a hard time at defending against interceptors, and they can only destroy one unit in a stack without damaging the others. Also, put the Air Superiority on a rover and the attacker has their work cut out for them.

Scaling down everything will just prolong the "mad rush" period you talk about...just like it did in Civ 2 (You would eventually use gravships just as you use howitzers).

In the end the problem comes down to the AI (sorry Greg ). If you were playing against a human I'm sure you would have more trouble sweeping through their empire Perhaps if we hadn't all played civ to death then the AI would be a bit more of a challenge

I agree with the rest of your ideas though: in particular I would like to see more sounds. Perhaps not in a patch, but maybe in a _free_ expansion set

posted 03-16-99 05:15 AM ET            

dammit, if i keep responding to people my stinking profile will show more than double digits in posts and then everybody will know i'm a loser!

well, i've actually been lurking about the firaxis message boards since sid meier's gettysburg! came out, and i've watched the servers here crash many many times (and seen the dismay in the long-timer's posts when their profiles get reduced to newbie status!) it's been pretty interesting to see the die-hards and bashers flame each other out over the past months. i almost feel like that librarian guy in the dragonlance series. (d'oh, now everybody really knows i'm a loser).

at any rate, i've seen some pretty funny and interesting posts over that time, but never really felt like participating. it's weird though, to watch a social dynamic play out on a message board like this one, or say the interplay fallout/f2 boards. people stick around, start feeling like a community, get aware of each other and then a new bunch comes in and either "fits in" or "starts trouble". i think every group needs its agitators and provokers, to a certain extent, but not when that "troublesome" element starts disrupting the flow of positive effect: namely, improving smac.

now, i definitely think you fit in the former category: the people who instigate (just enough) trouble to make a difference, but hopefully not by ruining the experience of those of trying to improve the game (the denizens of this forum and firaxis itself). maybe i'm wrong. we'll see.

anyway, i hope you continue to post here because at the very least you are a decent writer with appreciable grammar skills and a sense of humor, as opposed to many of the naysayers who've plopped their bloated digits to dingy keyboards here in the past.

and with this unwieldy and unnecessarily adjectivial sentence, i will avail myself again to the shadows of the ether...
/willko

posted 03-16-99 07:38 AM ET            

Before I write, I'll just have you know that another response from you SIMPLY WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! I think four posts is enough in any man's lifetime. More than that is pure arrogance and greed...
-------------------------

Ahh, Gettysburg! Now that's a true classic. I have three games on my hard drive: Rainbow 6, SMAC (whose fate is uncertain) and Gettysburg! It's a materpiece on every score. The A.I. is downright onery. It can be adjusted a number of ways. And it will kick the flanks out of you if youse aint careful.

I defy any man to beat Gettyburg! by playing the standard "run to the middle of the map with as many guys as you can and fight" tactic. Can't be done. Only an idiot would even try. (I tried several times. Almost cried.)

Anyway, there it sits. Even though I've beaten it a few times, it's just a good place to visit when one wants a real taste of strategy and good ol' American rough-housin'.

Sid, no wonder you didn't help on SMAC. Where can you go from Gettysburg!?

[willko: I can't wait 'til all the SMAC-heads come running and tell me Sid used to come in everyday around lunch time, clear the Doritos and Mountain Dew off the table, and say: Listen, damn it! We've got to think of the fans first! If those terraformers are still doing circles by the time we go gold, somebody's ass is gonna roll.]

Anyway, I don't care what you say. Shadows just shouldn't talk.

I'd appreciate it if you not step out of line in the future.

Yours Truly,

posted 03-17-99 05:31 PM ET            

BG: If you can't beat the A.I, I suspect you should have a look at the obviously appalling and out of date way your system has been set up, rather than blaming firaxis for it. Firaxis works very hard to make this game, and inarticulate, non-constructive criticism just doesn't help...

posted 03-17-99 05:54 PM ET            

Yin26, I never properly responded to your mentioning me as a replacement for Brother Greg in one of your earlier posts. (DerekM is the same as Derek, post-crash.) I am honored to be a target, albeit a temporary, rapidly moving target, but I was shocked that you would even consider moving your sights from BG.