Dude is combat broken in this version? Cuase it wont go to 3d combat.

it's auto-combat always (remember we are still in alpha-stage).

3D-combat will be added afterwards if enough support's on our team for doing this extremely complex&sumptous endeavour.

well all i got to say is i hope you do, becuase auto-combat sucks ...

As far as autocombat goes I think the developers made a good choice to get the base / core of the gameplay done and then do the battle sims later.

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BTW I've haven't noticed a lot of traffic on this site as far as testing & feedback goes.

I'm not really interested in competing with other people [because I'll lose in a humiliating fashion] but I am interested in doing some tests to make sure that the MP code ; TCP/IP is solid.

I know i'm getting a little ahead here because it will be the last part developed for the game, but will there be a way to group your ships in combat? I was playing BOTF1 and I was up against the Khaorons and the Rotharians who were at war with each other( I was just in the way as usual.) I had to select eace individual ship I wanted to attack the Rotharians with and specify a target. To make it more tedious I had modded the game to allow for bigger fleets. I had 200 the Khaorons had about the same and the Rotharians had about 50. This was a painstaking procedure to target the Rotharians. For some reason they both decided to attack me even though I had a treaty with both of them and they were at war with each other.All I wanted was to get to the cardees. needless to say I lost most of my fleet.

Another Questions when playing the demo BOTE I notices the computer was building 1000's of ships which is great but will that not slow the game down a lot. I was playing with just about 500 ships total and every time I clicked turn I had time to make myself something to eat or read a book before somthing happened.

Now you only have the possibility of auto-combat. That means you can't choose your ships in combat directly. You can't give special orders and so on. Maybe later there would be a GUI where you can group your ships in combat, where you can give special orders and there you can watch the combat. But I can't say when we implement these features.

In BotE you and the other empires can build more than 1000 ships. The game wouldn't slow down dramatically. Maybe a turn needs one or two seconds more to finish.

When will the Space Combat come into play for BOTE?

You seem to have cracked all the other things but what i really want now is some combat. Will it come in Aphla 5 or are we looking at some later date?

I can't speak directly for BotE as it's not my area of expertise, but my understanding of it is that - as with Supremacy - it will likely be the absolute last part of the game to be implemented.

Whilst combat is the most exciting part of the game, it is also the most complex - you don't want to program it now only to find that some other essential part of the game interferes with the combat later on. If this were the case, huge parts of the game may need to be changed - or even removed. By programming combat last, you can ensure that this doesn't happen.

There is also the fact that we are still a long way from having a complete model database - or even a working shiplist. Our existing models may also need cleaning up to ensure there aren't any crappy textures or jagged edges ruining our models. Then the shiplist needs an overhaul as we have identified a number of problems with the existing one.

The main part of the combat is the AI though - you want something that will give you a challenge no matter what your skill level is - whilst being true to the individual races. You don't want the Coalition making suicide runs and the Khaorons running from battle, for instance.

Programming AI's is a complex task, but the technologies to do so are improving all the time. The longer we wait, the better the AI will be. I know it's frustrating - you certainly aren't the only one who wants combat NOW - but seriously, the longer we wait, the better combat will be in the long run. BOTF was (From a programming point of view) crappy because it was rushed. It was never even play tested before it hit the shelves. We don't want something similar happening here, right?

Thanks for the reply. I dont want to seem that i want the combat right now in whatever state because i do want it to be the best it can be with the best AI. So waitting is ok for me.