You obviously have my vote as "yes!"

STANDING ORDERS: "Attack! Repeat: Attack!"

Yes.

Either option would be fine for me though I'm strictly an XP guy (no thanks Vista.) Would be nice to get some more 'mount' action (ie, affecting seeker speeds, rate of fire for weapons, etc) and the addition of the 'missing' se4 races (Cryslonites anyone??). But of course the best upgrade is AI, even if its just incorporating Unkown Enemies beefed up stock AI's or going completely 'Kwok' instead of 'Stock' (ie, BM). Speed of turns and AI upgrades are my main concern.

Depends on which features get implemented

I'm also using XP, so there's no motivation to pay for a patch which fixes Vista stuff.

Sorry, but someone has to vote "No".

I'm also an XP user (no interest in Vista fixes), and the "minor" (with the slash to emphasize) thing is scary. If MM is adopting the policy of charging for bugfixes, like many other companies, not with my money.

I'm with Roger. whether or not I use it depends on what the added features are. I'd be interested in funding it regardless though.

For me, it would depend on the features to be added and the bugs to be fixed. I would be most interested in additions and fixes related to combat and the simulator in simultaneous turn games (ie for PBW). Examples:

- being able to select multiple ships/units when re-positioning them (both in the combat simulator and the sector display)
- retreat functionality in the combat strategies doesn't work for all selections
- a "save" function in the combat simulator would be good to have

Is a proposal with this sort of detail in the works? I realize that the very act of coming up with a proposal is a time sink all by itself...

I would be interested. Especially if some of those non-implemented features were implemented.

UI work is definitely what SEV needs so I would vote for such an expansion. However Strategy First need to review their payment system and customer service since the last time I tried to buy something from them, I was blocked by Digital River and the query I posted in their forum didn't receive any response.

Even if it is only UI improvements I'd pay for it.

It depends on the new features/abilities implemented/made functional.
E.g. the ability:
Ability 1 Amount 1 Formula := "Mine"
for mine sweepers has no meaning at the moment. If this would be made functional, I would pay 20$ without hesitation.
As I am using Windows XP and now got quite used to the UI, I have not much interest in these changes.

Yes.

If the fixes included hard coded AI improvements. Someone should not have to write a script to get the AI to be smart enough to to do the 4Es. I also plan to NEVER own Vista so those enhancements do not concern me. Windows 7 I may own if it turns out to be more of an XP skeleton than a Vista rework...we shall see. If Windows 7 turns out to be Vista repackaged then a nice Mac version of SEV would be nice because my next computer will be an Apple. Tired of crappy PC operating systems. Mac OS is fantastic.

Loyalty above all else except honor.

no,
I must agree with Singularity's post.

Yes for me.

I think modernising (even if minor) to account for new operating systems is a must. If this franchise is to continue, then new people need to be able to purchase and use the product. If the game is limited to XP and it performs poorly in Vista or not at all in Windows 7 then that can only be bad for the series.

I would be more than willing to pay for an expansion.

Cheers

Mark

I would gladly pay $10.00 for whatever is produced to improve the game.

I am also game to pay in advance (No PayPal only please), to see it happen no matter what.

Digital Distribution would make sense for current uses, I would think.

Oh, $10.00 means only 500 of us need to pony up and it would happen.

Here is the only but...

I would not buy it if has DRM put on top of it. There is no need for a game that is this old and with a select group of committed users.

A clarification --- This idea was started by a fan over at SE.net. Offer a bounty to Aaron to upgrade the game's direct X, for in his view it would result in better playability for Vista users and longer game life after XP. He contacted Aaron and SF (not the other way around) and they have shown some interest. Due to somewhat of a divide between XP and Vista users, it looks like a compromise is being considered to throw in some fixes and address some issues in an effort to get as many players to be onboard as possible.

No.

I also agree with Singularity. However, depending on the new features I could change my mind.

Yes, i prefer to donate at least $5-10 (if they will accept webmoney) than waiting for new disc or ukranian internet stores.

At XP right now, but I will use win 7 as soon as it ready, so i want to see my favorite game working there.
Also I hope MM will implement monsters and pirates at last.

yes I would like to see se5 work on Vista with out taking 10min. per turn
and I would upgrade

I am willing to pay but my vote is to skip the Vista/Windows 7 work until MS gets its collective ---- together. I say we fund to get UI and functionality. Worry about the OS when that area stabilizes.

So, where does it go from here?

Is MM in the mix of all this or looking on from the sidelines? It would be nice to have this move forward in a timely manner.

Thanks

EDIT: Double Post, Deleted

Yes....yes....yes

I would pay for the upgrade. Where do sign up?

Yes,

I'd be glad to have an little Expansion. Paying would and should be no problem.

Yes.

I will happily pay up to $50. I play on and off and right now I'm back to a fresh game.

-improved artificial intelligence(make them use all technologies, stellar manipulation and harnessing for example,and expand more urgently.)
-neutral empires have the ability to colonize other systems, they have lesser research and ability points.(Maybe rename them "minor" empires.)
-more systems
-more empires in a game
-missing SE4 races.
-Space monsters and pirates and treasure; some wandering, some hidden in asteroids and gas fields that might emmerge if in proximity.

-(This might be considered more major: a FTL/non-warp point/non-warp point creator movement between systems addition that comes early but is slower travel.)

-[fix minor but annoing mouse cursor lag (I use XP)]

This wil fail I think: "Either the community can raise money to help cover the costs and the upgrade would be free..."

This will succeed I think: "...or if Strategy First antes up the money first and then a nominal fee (~$5-$10?) can be charged for the patch and a new edition could be marketed and sold to new users."

Okay...hurry up Malfador Machinations. I'm impatiently waiting.

-Wade

After years of trolling the boards:

Yes! Me and my brother both.

But only if the upgrade makes multiplayer not so much of a chore (we actually quit playing because of that)

And UI improvements would be on top of our list. This would so make my day

Yes- However I would only pay for it if it provided smooth multiplayer implementation like what Civilization 4 has. No more of this PBEM and host computer crap. That said, I'd gladly pay an additional $50 for that alone.

Your post suggest that MM knows and acknowledges that the game still has many bugs, yet they don't invest time and resources to fix them.

1. I would pay for UI,
2. I would pay for extra features.

3. I'm still waiting for 1.80 and I don't plan to pay for it.
4. I'm still waiting for vista/windows 7 support and I don't plan to pay for it.

If they don't do 3 and 4 for free I won't buy another MM title ever.

Yes

Id buy it in the store (such as Gamestop) but i refuse to purchase if it has DRM and im not waiting 4 weeks for a cd to ship. I have multiple gaming computers so if i could only use it on one its not worth it for me

if it implemented new features, allowed the modders to create truly amazing mods and bolstered the AI or at least made it possibly and less difficult for modders to do so.

Pay up to 20-30 USD

I have to say I'm amazed at the complaints made by some posters. SEV was released three years ago and has still received updates (1.79 done less than a month ago). Name one other commercial game receiving this level of support after so long, without going the expansion pack route.

As for DRM, I'd agree in boycotting products having it but SEV has been one of the very few completely DRM-free games (no media check, no online check as long as you avoid Steam) so I think it reasonable to give Aaron (and Strategy First) the benefit of the doubt here, and assume (until shown otherwise) that they won't shaft their paying customers in the way that some major publishers feel able to.

i would pay for features and ui, if they are worth it ,so there has to be a feature-list first. that would be a yes from me, would pay up to 15€.

if the main things are directx support for vista/windows 7, no thanks.

As someone who asked for a feature list: with this list, even if some of the items that appear to me to be "more involved" were removed, I would be willing to contribute.

Most of the items in the UI list appear to be simple enough as to not require lots of coding time, which I would think increases the odds of success. (I wonder if saving a combat simulator setup would require a lot of effort; my guess is "no", but I'm not in a position to be confident about it.)

If we would get a good deal of Kwoks list, especially the Text box functionality and saveing of custom layouts/ships I would be willing to pay for it. Better functionality for Win7 and vista would also be good, as I would guess many players will upgrade over the next few years...

Diablo II just recently got a fresh patch along with an announcement of an upcoming free content patch, StarCraft still hasn't been abandoned. Both have expansions, but those were ages ago now too. I think some of the complaints are valid, MM/SF were over-ambitious and released a game that wasn't ready.

As for Vista/Win7 support, I understand if some individuals want to stick with XP, but the vast majority of the average folk out there don't fight the progression of technology. Vista was buggy early on, but I'm running Win7 RC1 and would never go back to the nearly decade old XP. If a game can't run on modern OS's, it's dead. Win7 does have XP emulation built in, but it doesn't have 3d graphic acceleration. Mac support might be nice, but their market share is relatively small.

Anyway, the turn based 4X genre is still nearly non-existent, so with that in mind, yeah, I'll be happy to pony up $10 for a patch/expansion. I'd really rather have SE6, but will take what I can get.

The directx problem is solved if recoded to dx 9.0c.

XP, Vista and Win7 use it in native mode. Vista and WIN7 also use dx 10 and Win7 Dx 11

XP can't use dx 10 or future dx 11 but if MM recode to dx 9, it fixes all 3 OS's and not only two.

I know this because I used to MOD Diablo 2.

Speaking of UI fixes I'd like to submit two - first that the music track played should change after two loops as opposed to repeating the same !£"$@! track for the entire turn. The second would be support for 2560x1600 resolution - SEV crashes when this is selected ("Exception in module se5.exe at 00075572. TXDirectX. StartAll - Create 3D Device.") and I have to make do with 1920x1200 instead. *sob* (reported to Malfador twice).

I would buy an expansion, and I would add a couple of features to your list here:

- Allow ship names, colony types, and such to be saved (as it was in SE4)
- Make the help text to _disappear_ after a set amount of seconds (right now you can set it to appear after a few seconds, but when it does, it stays there forever...)
- Balance the Intelligence Projects. Right now an empire can be crushed just by using Intelligence...
- Make it possible to perform several Intelligence Projects against a single empire as it was in SE4.

YES... BUT

As mentioned by Wade... need to add
Space monsters and pirates and treasure; some wandering, some hidden in asteroids and gas fields that might emmerge if in proximity.

Whether you're a fan of Star Wars; Star Trek or almost any Sci-Fi space series/novel... there's the independent space monsters; space pirates... and unique treasures.

Also depending on the features I would be willing to pre-order my $10.oo expansion even before development begins.

I hope bug fixes will keep happening even without extra payment, even if it is at slower pace.

As for paying for additional features, it depends: I'd actually like to see a plan of what would be implemented in the expansion, before I would make my call. Would it be possible for us in the forums to gather a list of features, have them check throuh it and see which ones are easy to implement, which ones are totally out etc. and create a list of what this new "improved version" would have? It is always easier to shop when you know what you are paying for.

i second that. as captain kwok opened this thread, maybe you (captain k) can check if that would work with MM/strategy first and then post an information here or start a new thread for that right away?

These features look interesting.

I would like to suggest another one: in SE4 you could select units, ships, obsolete/non obsolete with one click in the designs window. In SE5 you need to select an option and then choose. It would be nice to have it like in SE4.

so it looks good i guess, hope to see things get rolling.

what about the european version of the game, will the expansion also available for that version?
most of the european (at least the german) players have left this forum as it wasn´t very helpfull to them (nearly all stuff here is for the us version).

don´t know if strategy first has a forum for the eurpean players to contact them, but i think there would be some more potential buyers if the expansion would also work with that version.

looking forward to hear from you captain and thank you very much that you keep working on such things

My vote is yes.

This is my favorite game ever...

Hi,
Yes, with my wish list:
- I play on a laptop I and whether I use XP or W7, SE is using 100% of my CPU, thus killing my battery and maddening the ventilator. Please fix that!

- The major UI change I dream of is to be able to do some common action from the event window. For Instance, if a satellite is created, I'd be able to click on a "'launch" button; a ship would show "go to"... At the least please make so that when I double click on an event I have the item selected, and not only the sector where it is.

- Bug fix of course, I mean big ones that need a major overhaul.

- And congrat for SE5, this is my only game and I love it!

More working functions for Modding and scripting.

He ponders the dangers inherent in the advantages, and advantages inherent in the dangers. - Ts'ao Ts'ao

Crimson's SEV Site for Crimson Concept Mod, Highlighter, twitter, and Other things SEV

Well, if we get some features and bug fixes:

-Implement magazine size for weapons. Allows creationg of weapons that fire few times with short delay, and then longer delay after that(separate delay for reload and magazine reload). I want my 3 shot burst weapons.

-Seeker fix. Right now, no matter how durable the seeker is, if it is hit once by PD, it will not cause any damage when it hits target. Maybe have something in settings.txt to allow player to decide when seekers fail to detonate (damaged x%).

-Warhead fix. Special warheads seem to not work. My theory is that this is because tehy have range 10, and are fired a bit before the ship atually rams. Good defense bonus will make these warheads miss.

-Moddable treaty scripts, with flags. I'd love to have treaty offers in a file, that we could mod. Also, enable each step to have a flag that can be checked for example in intel script. No intel clause definately needs new implementation, current is like shooting yourself in the foot.

-Improved AI, of course. Specially the AI way of deciding what to use the newly colonized planet could use work. Maybe a check on if something is critically needed and if the planet fits to that purpose, then use it.

-Simple change to immigration: If planet is domed and has multiple races living there, and one of the races is breathing the atmosphere, then the other races should move out completely ASAP. This would help human players a bit (they can always do this manually), but would be a huge boost on computer players.

-Implementation of mount abilities that are not working ATM. (can't remember which they were, but I'm sure they know)

-Ability to select (for unit groups, mostly satellites) What is the center point (wormhole, plantet, base etc.), and at what radius the units are set from it. Great for satellite use. Also, if this is implemented, allowing more then 1 group of units to be made in one hex. (so some satellites can be around planet, while others are around base etc.)

I'm sure I had more... I'll think about it...

No.

Given all the comments good and bad, I agree with Singularity's comments.

Besides how many years will everyone be whining about fixing the expansion pack?

Clear yes for me

Yes for me as well. Love to see a BM AI adapted to stock. A customizable UI would be nice as well. The thing that's still a game ender for me is that the game slows then quits after trying to keep track of all those unnecessary units and ships the AIs builds (I'm trying a game that disallows units now and it is going well so far).

Another request:

End the "stack of doom" formation in real-time combat (where ships form tall vertical line formations) by enforcing a minimum distance between ships (which optionally could vary by ship type and be reduced by improved crew/fleet experience) and ensuring that height differences are factored into weapon range calculations (they don't seem to be at the moment).

Moving several ships into the same location should result in them forming a 3D sphere with the appropriate minimum distances between them.

I would pay for this. Lol I did for SEIV gold... As some of you might remember that the SE IV Gold at one time cost more money... So I have already done this once...
Every Think Kwok said +

UI
- Allow Build List to be saved and loaded for planets. -- hate late game all the time to do a standard build list for a planet...

Gameplay
Would like a ftl tech, We have the button now let us use it...
-Allow the use of Size Restrictions on Components, just like for mounts. been asking this one for a long long time.
- Burst Ability for weapons
- Burst Delay Ability for weapons(time between the shots fired in burst)
-Shot count ( limit ammo for just this weapon, as total burst that can be fired in one combat)
-allow mounts to effect shields
-allow abilities to effect shields. (such as damage reduction)
-allow some effects from weapon/components to effect the ship ( such as a Battle Jumper- Aka the Worm Whole Beam on the ship will randomly move the ship befor missiles can impact)
-allow Size of components to be set to a % of the total vehicle size.
-allow us to set a limit on the componet it self. Like ( MaxCount : = 1 ) Let us also set a range For a family group.
-Better AI on the Figuring out which Warp points are the Vital ones for the empire

Thats all I can think of now.... But these wold really add a lot to the game.

Hell yeah! I am in because there are so few decent modern 4X out there and this is one of the best.

There is this one and SotS is the other, and all the others are legacy. re SotS btw Kerberos are on their third expansion and I willingly paid >$50 for those because you dont get something for nothing. Ditto SEV. If it means polishing the game and making sure it does work with Win7 DX11 and updates the graphics thoroughly for modern cards so we dont get those glitches we have seen with some setups then its worth it.

Question is whether MM are really up for it or is this going to be half hearted submission to pressure and guilt. If they are not interested then forget it, but if they are then we can find a way to finance it.

I hope that seems fair. IMHO we got here because SEV has so much content already as the end result of SEIV Gold translated into 3D, its been hard for MM to add expansions and get revenue. In retrospect they should have offered a slimmer but more polished version at the outset and then sold an expansion, but I think they can still do that if they see a commitment from a large enough community. I can totally see why the lack of zeal in the completion of SEV may be down to financial concerns with getting too little return for such a lot of work. Its natural that people wont throw money into a bottomless pit if nothing is coming out of it and that applies as much to MM as it does to the community.

My suggestion would be to enhance the content and finish to sell as an expansion like Kerberos and offer a preorder on the understanding that when pledged preorders reach a certain level eg $5000 or more then the preorders will be treated as a community commission and then either completed on trust or moneys taken into escrow and the project started and paid on completion to the satisfaction of 60% of communicating participants. That would require a definite spec for the update and some kind of pledge contact website and database.

Moreover, if it flies then MM get rewards commensurate with the size of the audience they have attracted, which they deserve and I think its an important aspect of motivation that MM feel the interest of the community in a material form.

I'm interested in an expansion.

My wish list =)
1. Win7 compability (I don't like vista!)=D
2. Save battles in simulator, Maybe adding the ability to save enemy fleets you have scouted out to the simulator.
3. Add a formation builder in game. I know there is formation builders out side the game, but it would be nice to have one integrated in to the game.
4. Make an mod and ships set program that makes it easier to add and remove mods and ship set.

I would pay up to 50 dollars for the expansion.

I wonder what is happening with this idea at this point?

Yes i would pay $10 for it to work with Vista. In a heart beat!!!!

Remember! If someone is trying to kill you, you kill them first!

I don't see Intel as unbalanced. To crush an empire with empire you need an ENORMOUS amount of intel points.

any news or feedback from MM on this topic?

I've spent $60-$70 on games I play for a day then shelf.

SEV cost me $14.99 and offers endless replayability. If an additional $10 get me a better version, then I will happily pay it.

Especially if it increases the AI abilities beyond the stock AI. (I've got everything difficulty-wise cranked to max and I'm still kicking butt on my second game - next game will include the balance mod)

So, a big YES for me.

A big yes here too... as long as some independent space monsters are added. (aka= not a player/race)

Captain Kwok... I believe many would be willing to pre_pay so the development gets rolling for this expansion. If you have a way to pass this information to the developers.

OK, I'd have to say NO right now. I'm running V1.74 because something in V1.77 caused my ships to stop moving and my planets to stop building. Why should I pay for something that may cause my game to completely shutdown? You should try to backspace sometime. Erase the program from the harddrive, not all of it, just the main program. Go find the original disk and reload the game. Reload the last usable fix. Try to remember the little tweaks you've done to make it a little more fun. Restart your last game. Oh, yeah, I'll pay $10 for that, NOT.

Unole!
Directive 721: Cover your own a$$ first. Solo

Hi Unole,

I don´t know why that is happening to you installation ( patch 1.77 ), but it is something posted that ships in survey mode stops when approching stars.

I don´t really agree with this change, but I´m really sure a small expansion will be nice for all fans of this game. And 10$ is not so much money....

Pham

Maybe you should look for the setting that says "clear orders when encountering enemies in system" to solve your ship problem. The building thing looks very unlikely to me.

----------
See my PBW game stories on http://users.pandora.be/banzaiboy/sevpbw/.

I was apparently unclear with my problem. ALL my ships stop moving wherever they are. My system, an enemy system, an unexplored system, wherever they happen to be when I upgrade to the new versions, that's where they STOP. When I started a new game, everything seems to work until about three turns after meeting the first aliens then clunk. I clear their orders and reset them for the ships, they move for that first setting then no movement after that. I'm not into micromanaging entire fleets and single ships after I've told them where to go.

Edit: I'd also like to state that this issue is NOT the game's fault. Somewhere in my scripting of my admittedly rogue empire, I must have created a variable that V1.75 - V1.77 uses for something else. I just haven't figured out what that variable is.

Unole!
Directive 721: Cover your own a$$ first. Solo

Oh my god... /facepalm

Ditto... it's like someone hacking registry keys for hardware on the OS and editing drivers for the graphics card and then downloading a Microsoft update and blaming Microsoft for the system crashing upon booting to the desktop.

Yes. Need. Better. UI.

Space Empires Wiki

- removing the "5 colonizable physical planet types"-limit
- differently-sized systems (I'd plan on using one VERY large system as "galaxy map" for FTL travel; all other systems should have normal size)
- system limit above 255 ? . . (not sure where it currently is)

Yeah those would be great.

I'd like the option to use a flat 2D display, like SEIV, instead of the fake 3D display which I always found incredibly annoying.

I don't know. I'd probably really rather see an open source epic space opera simulator. SEV is probably unfixable by one person working on their own.

If interesting features are added, I'd say "Yes", though I couldn't help in funding since I don't have PayPal (yet).
Depending on the features added, I'd say 10€ to 35€ would be acceptable.

Longtime compatibility for newer OS's is a valid point, but couldn't that be circumvented by virtualization software anyway? I do know this would slow the program down considerably, but as it is speaking of "LONGtime", that might not be the main point...

Incomplete list of features I'd be interested in (I'll update this later) :

update 1

- removing the "5 colonizable physical planet types"-limit
- a script that gets executed every (space- and ground-) combat turn or 1/10th of a combat second or such , to allow for scripting of special effects/weapons/whatever ; and accompanying %value% -references in the script-system for combat-relevant stuff . - of course, the frequency of script execution should either be moddable or choosen such that it doesn't slow down the game too much, while still keeping above the fire frequency of all or at least most weapons; so it would need to execute at least all 0.5 or 2 seconds
- possibility to combine different mounts on a single instance of a weapon
- differently-sized systems (I'd plan on using one VERY large system as "galaxy map" for FTL travel; all other systems should have normal size)
- script functions create_system, create_empire, create_ship, create_colony, add/remove_racialTrait
- system limit above 255 ? . . (not sure where it currently is)
- area-effect-weapons
- area-effect-explosions
- ability to directly influence rate at which facilities are built, independent of/additionally to happiness
- selftargetting weapons ( ->wormhole beam )
- possibility to arrange armor- and shieldtypes in layers ? . . (not sure how multiple installed shield-/armortypes currently work)
- dependency checking for:
. * racial traits depending on other racial traits (e.g. to make traits mutually exclusive like high- and low-g in MO2; or new traits opening up if some trait like "ancient species" has been chosen ; etc.)
. * starting tech points depending on racial traits (e.g. for abovementioned "ancient species"-trait)
. * racial traits depending on government or society types (sorry, I forgot my example here)
- possibility for government- and society-types to cost racial points
- working "add/remove damage type" for mounts
- abilities "is star", "is warppoint", "is colonizable", "is asteroidfield" for StellarAbilityTypes.txt or StellarObjectTypes.txt
- abilities "gets built in shipyard/on planet" for VehicleUnitTypes.txt
- ability for components to regenerate even if destroyed ; eventually this could also be an ability for ship types ( ->real organic ships ; there are for example some animals that can regenerate legs, tails etc. - one would think highly developed organic spaceships to be able to do something similar ; from the changelogs it seems organic armor already worked like this before patch 1.75, so if it's a balance issue, please put it into an additional ability)
. - if the previous point for some reason shouldn't be done, a "combat repair"-ability that triggers (self-)repair in combat would be nice; maybe even differentiate between self-repair and repairing other vessels/units, both for combat- and normal repair-abilities
- area damage in combat, with argument where the center of the area should be and flag if the firing ship itself can be damaged
. - following that, of course area damage for explosions, damage amount and area of effect being additional data fields in VehicleSizes.txt (and of course allowing for 0, to keep consistent with current behaviour)
- retrofitting of units, like mentioned missing here
- Ender's list in the original topic looks nice, especially point III
- host option to allow for neutral empires to win the game, too . (did I understand it right that they currently can't ? )
- event to rename planets and/or systems (e.g. for renaming homeworlds to fit empires like in MO2)
- ...

I'll pay $10 for a decent expansion, $20 if it adds more than just compatibility and upgraded UI (eg. balances more stuff and adds new techs) and I will gladly pay $30 if it adds a more streamlined multiplayer ala Civ4 (I hate the game but like their multiplayer setup).

I will gladly pay $0 for an expansion if it comes with DRM in any form.

http://kotaku.com/5318368/valve-let-fans-fund-games-development

Seemed like an apt link.

I think a better way would be to open the source code of Space Empires 5. It could be released under a special license not permitting reuse of the code outside the project. SE5 would not be free - game would need to be purchased but code would also be available.
I think it would become less buggy and development could also be funded partially.

Reading the article on Valve's proposition still makes me wonder if asking them (MM/Strategy) to commit is too much. What are the alternatives to "please let us pay you to continue making the game we love"? What is the ultimate price for a group to buy the rights to the hard code? Is there an option through current encryption technology to allow "modders" restricted access to hard code and work modifications through an online lab where future changes could be pushed for a limited price that would cover operation of the site/equipment required to host their efforts - with a small stipend to MM?

When was a truly detailed survey of the user base conducted to determine if enough "modding" talent is present/active to take on an independent effort similar to what is done via the Apolyton Civ forums? There are other active groups doing similar efforts with Privateer etc. Modders buy in and work slowly toward a point that you can pull in beta testers and finally end in pushing a low priced product via Paypal.

Just seems that there are more options...

An interesting read

http://cuernavacajoven.com/phyreengine/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=31

A site offering engines

http://www.garagegames.com/

I would like more technology like a hyperspace drive to go to other systems without using warp points and a space-fold device that has a button in the game but nothing that uses it.

So your wishes have already been granted. Play BSG or B5W mod?

----------
See my PBW game stories on http://users.pandora.be/banzaiboy/sevpbw/.

I'd like an alternative way of implementing the "NO INTELL" clause in treaties.

In stead of setting the intell points to 0, they should be left as they are, but the intell script should check if Intell is prohibited from you, and return the offensive intell points to defense if this was the case.

Right now, the clause is not worth it ever, as it leaves you (and computer) completely at the mercy of other players who don't have the treaty, and you can't even protect yourself.

Well, I don't use most of the treaty clauses. Most just aren't useful.

Unfortunately computer players often add eitherno research or no intell to the treaties they suggest.

This completely stops their progress, or makes them unable to defend even against the simplest intell attacks.
For this reason games without intell give computer an efficiency boost, as they are not ripping one another apart with planetary sabotage

Yeah, but the AI can't handle no intel games.... It just can't figure out how to refocus.

hmm, this is realy disapointing.
if they are realy interested in making an addon for money, i would at least expect them to be a bit more ...can´t find the right word.....focused/eager/interested ...in the process.

but now we got over two weeks since the info´s have been send to them (taking the week after captain kwok´s post as the start) and no more info at all.
i realy was hopeing that SEV would a bit more alive again with this add-on idea going on.

patience, young padawan, patience

Good to know....

This project is very interesting for all the fans.

World Supremacy? What's this about?
Some Ideas for this expansion might be...allowing the trade of tech, planets, etc. for a treaty with someone would be nice.
More frequent random events! Weapon types that do damage over time.(like plague planets but with ships.)

What do you think?

Some days are good, some days are great, and some days you get ambushed by thirteen dreadnoughts on your homeworld.