Space Empires V: The Bugs My Destination

[Jason]

<strong>[ Review ]</strong>

<p>Gamespot managed to get out the first <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/spaceempiresv/review.html?page=1&sid=6161035&part=rss&tag=gs_pc&subj=6161035" target="_blank" title="Review">review</a> of Malfador's <a href="http://www.strategyfirst.com/en/games/SpaceEmpiresV/" target="_blank" title="SE5">Space Empires V</a>. Unfortunately, they gave it an unimpressive 6.6, citing a long list of bugs as putting a damper on the game's potential.</p><blockquote><p>The technology tree is huge, but some of the resulting technologies are broken, such as the shard cannon, which is no more powerful at level 50 than it is at level one due to what appears to be an unintentional error in the underlying algorithm. The ability to set up new games with a wide range of conditions and map sizes and customized races is offset by bugs such as occasional crashes on the large maps and racial traits that are opposite of what is intended (naturally happy races are actually naturally depressed and vice versa--a bug that can produce a lot of confusion as you try to figure out why your planet is rebelling!). Fleet operational options are impressive, but ordnance appears to randomly disappear from ships within fleets. Special items such as ruins add to the variety and sense of discovery that is essential to the atmosphere of a good space-strategy game--but the ruins disappear after the first turn. And the list goes on; Space Empires V is extremely deep, and very buggy. </p></blockquote><p>We'll have our own review when Deathy gets around to it. In the meantime, does anyone else think it's as bad as Gamespot says? If so, what's the biggest problem you've had? </p><p>Spotted @ <a href="http://www.gamespot.com">Gamespot</a></p>

 

[Deathy]

Well, I haven't got it yet.

Judging from the demo, I can imagine the bugs will turn many people off the game. The demo was really an awful mess, and I'm not expecting the full version to be much better, even with the patch. 6.6 sounds about right in its current state. Anyone who buys this game is probably paying for being a beta tester. However, history (SE4) has shown that Malfador supports their games very well. And I though SE5 had a shitload of potential when I played the demo, too.

 

[YourConscience]

I am still planning to make a comparative review of GCII, SotS and SEV. I don't know when I'll have the time to do so. Also, I am waiting for the next patch to give Malfador a chance to iron out the worst bugs.

Until now the game seems like it has great potential and only the bugs offset the joy one could have with it. The bugs do so quite effectively, though.

 

[dadioflex]

I read on the Shrapnel forums that the 1.08 patch has turned the AI into even bigger pussies so I'm not even trying to play again until that's sorted out. There's a rumor that the next patch may include a 2D makeover option for the map interface which, along with the AI, would go a long way towards making me want to play this again. Kwok, I think, is working on a balance mod to make the AI more challenging (again to be found at the Shrapnel forums - which aren't even official anymore just a holdover from the SE4 days). I'm hearing good things about it but refuse to play the game until it's patched a bit more because I don't want my Space Empires groove ruined.

Releasing early and fixing a game with patches is okay when you're serving a niche audience with a niche publisher (Shrapnel) but the problem with getting your game onto store shelves with Strategy First as your publisher means initial impressions are critical. It's never good to release early but Space Empires won't have the benefit of a huge advertising push to offset bad reviews (or prevent them outright).

 

[YourConscience]

It's a fact that the AI currently is crippled. The game does sport scriptable AI, but as I understand the mechanics of the modding community, a critical minimal mass of fans is required so that enough capable modders take matters into their hands. And I don't know, when or whether this critical mass will be achieved.

Even in the scripts there are some glaring bugs (such as a function which computes the strength of ships in a system - which finally returns the strenth or the last iterated unit - according to some forum thred on www.spaceempires5.com).

That's also why I wait until at least the next patch (1.12 or so) before attempting to write a review.

Nevertheless, just building your own empire is a lot of fun. Even if you know there are no threats out there...

 

[Oarfish]

I got it from Steam at launch. It is very buggy, lots of CTD's, interface bugs and the AI is useless - enemy ship design is so bad that I can take down fleets of enemy ships with a few frigates late in the game. Commander Kwok's balance mod fixes a lot of things, but I leaving the game alone for a while until it is less frustrating.

Its too low a score, if you are scoring the game it will become in a year or so - the best 4x around by a mile. A mistake to release it to shrink wrap so early, a M&B sales model would have been a much better idea.

 

[Jason]

Gameworld Network (83%) surprisingly wasn't bothered by the bugs or AI, but they did hate the interface.

Even more vexing are the scrolling lists. The contents are somehow formatted to take up as much room as possible, meaning you will constantly be scrolling up and down them. A lot of the blame can be placed on the graphics. For example, the pictures in the research list actually double the height of each item in the list, which equals twice as much scrolling. And you’ll be doing a lot of scrolling, believe me. Nearly every menu in the game contains a scrolling list of some sort. There are a lot of other things I could say about the user interface, but I feel I’ve made my point; in many cases it hinders rather than helps, and that’s unforgivable in a game that consists mostly of menus and lists.

That aside,

Kwok, I think, is working on a balance mod to make the AI more challenging

He needs to finish the Food Empires one first.

 

[dadioflex]

I bought off Steam at launch too, despite telling myself I would wait. Kinda wishing I'd waited for normal retail so I could get a paper manual to go with it.

 

[Deathy]

As per the malfador website, the 1.13 patch has been released.

 

[Shagnak]

The only reason I haven't bothered buying it yet is that I haven't near finished with SE:IV.

I need a tardis, outside of space time, where I can finish off all these games