rich12545

Along with having ai units go to get repaired when they hit 50% of hit points. Also reduce speed and attack value by a third.

Hi, couple of ideas. The starting cities are set that way for an equal start. It really works well. I agree about the artillery. But you can change it to whatever you want. I don't think arty should be capable of capturing cities or resources but opinions can vary. You can set it that way and make it so they don't attack militia.

Here are a few things you can start with. Eliminate all references to armor. Since there no bombers, the fighters are used as fighter-bombers and values need to be adjusted. Production times are too short. Oh, and a medium to large map (adjust number of players to map size) would be better imo but, again, this really needs the option for all players to start at war with each other (and best to eliminate borders).

Looks like I'm no longer the only one here who likes a simplified game. I've never played the 1900-2020 ruleset and prefer the 1940 one. This ruleset goes back to the original Empire game (Wargame of the Century) that was extremely popular 20 years ago. This is best played with an option for all countries to start at war with each other. I've suggested this option but it hasn't yet been implemented. If you want to be able to repair units, you need a building, probably a factory. Or Brit can add an option for cities to repair units. You're right about the ai but not because it's simple. The ai currently doesn't send its units in for repairs. I've suggested adding this once a unit hits 50% hit points. Also the ai doesn't handle carriers well as yet. I'm not so sure you need movement at 5x. Probably personal preference. This is an excellent addition. I'll look at it closer later when I get time.

Re air power, I've found the ai uses land air power very well. It doesn't use carriers well though and this is on Brit's list to improve.

Hey Boris. Good one. Automatic search. Aircraft too. :-)

This is what I posted on the Empire Deluxe Yahoo forum: New Empire game Just thought I'd pass this along in case anyone is interested. Empires of Steel is available at Battlefront.com. Very nice graphics, easily moddable, lots of options and a very good AI opponent. After following development for more than a year I think this is the next great Empire game. A demo is available.

Yeah, this is exactly what I've been thinking about. Reviews. How about the wargamer? And there must be a whole bunch of others. I'm going to write about it on the Empire Deluxe Yahoo site.

Hi Brit. I think the problem with sales has more to do with EoS being a unique genre than anything else. It's really a cross between two things, Empire Deluxe which is a simple 4X game and Master of Orion which is a complex 4X game. Each type has a built-in following. For example, at Matrix they just came out with Distant Worlds, a complex MOO type game that, for MOO fans, looks better. So they're all coming out of the woodwork and buying the game. They would look at EoS and scoff because it's not nearly complex enough. On the other hand Empire fans (like me) would look and think it's too complex. But since I modded EDEE extensively I was able to see the potential here with just a few changes. Most players don't have that background. If it only had the 1900-2020 program with resources, tech, diplomacy then I wouldn't be interested. I don't know of another game that's in the middle like EoS. That's my 2 cents for what it's worth and I don't have a clue how to market it better. Just being in the Battlefront stable gives you a lot.

Ok, 50% land, medium islands. Much better results. So the problem seems to be with the 60% land setting. IN 4 22 ART 5 21 TANK 1 20 FI 1 3 TB1 5 BO 1 10 TR 1 13 DE 4 4 SS 1 6 CR 4 2 BB 0 4 CA 3 2 I would do things a little differently, more FI and TB than BO. Fewer ART and more TANKs. On sea units, start with DE and SS and then go to BB, the ai seems to do this backwards. There seems to be a lot of TR for this stage of the game. But, all in all, not bad. It seems the game works much better with 50% land rather than 60%. Figures though, Empire is more a naval game than a land game. With the ai making CAs, having them work well is important. I know we've already discussed this. And, again, I think getting the ai to repair its units is important. So essentially we've been testing on different levels and imo that's why we've come up with different results. This ai vs ai thing is really cool. I'm going to play a game at 50% and islands. Looks like fun.

Ok, here's a summary for one ai side on turn 117. I can't figure out how to look at the other two sides or to copy/paste results. And it looks like they're at war with each other just recently. IN 3 46 ART 4 49 TANK 5 36 FI 2 10 TB 5 19 BO 4 33 TR 2 4 4 DE 0 0 CR 0 2 BB 2 7 First, it looks like transports are about right. Submarines aren't even in the list. Way too few sea units being produced compared to land/air. I'm wondering if you have land percentage figured in your calculation for production. That would make sense but it so it's weighted too high imo. I'm going to try a lower land percentage and look at that.

For one thing we're using different rulesets. I'm using the simple 1940 set. Don't know if that would make a difference though.

Besides making units with 50% hit points get repaired. Allow for sentried artillery to wake up to an enemy regardless if it's in a city or not. Allow for sentried fighters on an AC (or in a city) to wake up and attack bombers that come in range.

I was going to edit but too late. Re Battleships, the ai makes very few of those. So the only sea units are lots of transports and a couple of battleships.

After one ai vs ai game. Medium size map. Three players. 60% land. Large continents. No resources. 1. Early expansion is good. 2. The ai still makes too many transports. 3. The ai, other than transports, makes only battleships for sea units. 4. Proportion of land units produced to sea units is too high. 5. The ai sometimes stockpiles many land or air units in one place. There are cities with many aircraft just sitting there and cities with many land units just sitting there. Also non city areas with many land units just sitting there. This hampers expansion in the middle game on. 6. Sea based cities make too many land units. 7. Peace between nations in a non technology non resources game greatly detracts imo. I think that adding an option for starting all cities at war with each other (and eliminating borders for this option) and tweaking production will be a huge improvement. Running this test is extremely interesting and I'll do more tomorrow. Thanks for adding this feature. I can see where it's just a few changes from becoming what I know is possible.

This is an excellent update and it worked fine. Does it include ai vs ai for testing?

This will cause the ai to lose units unnecessarily. Do you think adding it is a good idea?

If a unit loses hit points due to damage, does it start looking for a repair facility at a certain point? If now, a suggestion would be that when hit points hit 50% (ie 2/4) then getting repaired becomes a priority.

Suggestion re sentry. If the sentried unit spots an enemy unit, it wakes up and attacks. This is nice for artillery especially.

Have you tried reinstalling windows? When the game first came out I had XP. There was some bug somewhere and it kept crashing. It was so bad that I had to give it up and they gave me a refund. But after installing win7 I tried the demo again and had no problem, I repurchased So it's probably something in your install or a conflict with some other software.

Try changing the compatibility to just the regular win 7. If that doesn't work, try uninstalling. Redownload the program and reinstall without a different compatibility. I have win 7 x 64 and it runs fine with a vanilla install.

Apologies. I misunderstood. I was referring to the amount of resources spread around the map. That is in the new game setup.

That can be done now. But only down to -50. It would be nice to be able to eliminate (-100) them altogether.

re Hawks no resource 1940 rule set 1. If I mod it without the factory, will the city repair units or is a building needed for that? 2. Is it possible to add a -100 for the four resources in the game resource setup for this?

For those who don't know, killerbeesoftware is the dev of the latest Empire Deluxe and salientgames is a fan site. I posted a running commentary on EoS at kbs with reviews (not very positive early on) for maybe a year. The last was a month or so ago where I gave a hearty recommendation. I don't think many go to SG anymore. I have a little clout at kbs since I was one of the major modders for EDEE for years. I also participated in a discussion in the Advanced Tactics forum at Matrix Games and recommended EoS. I know at least one person bought the game as a result. Empire/Empire Deluxe has been a favorite of mine for 20 years and I'm real happy with the latest, EoS, so will continue to participate in promoting it whenever possible.