Space Monsters, Super Races...please No!

[Lexx_Luthor]

Super Races:: I love Babylon~5 and everything, but please I hope there won't be Super Races popping out of Super Space and interfering with all the other races. I like the comparison with WW2 where humans had to fight for themselves...um I think. <img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley2.gif"> Or at least make these gameplay feature optional for fun factor, which means they are not needed to sim a strategy game between competing powers. Indeed, I saw it posted that sometimes some of the normal races you meet early in the Horizon game will be much more advanced than the humans when you meet them, and this should be Super enough.



One of the things that turned me off MOO2 was the monsters. For me, that was a corny Feature. And I think its a way to quickly add gameplay without having to really program the AI opponents with real "human" (for lack of a better word) behavior. I may be wrong here however. I dunno.





Thanks.

[Sobriquet]

I may be wrong here however. I dunno.



This isn't a matter of right or wrong, it's your honest opinion. I disagree with you, though. I'm not sure what mean by 'super races' and how you think they will adverseley effect gameplay, but on the matter of space monsters, I'd like their inclusion in the game. Yes, they can a 'corny' plot device, but they add a welcomed level of frustration and uncertainty.
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i am sofa king we todd it

[Lexx_Luthor]

Agreed. The monsters can be fun, but that can be accomplished with the surprise attacks by other races with superior tech you don't know they have. Or you begin to colonize a region and find somebody already there but you did not know they were there. You think its open system when its not. Same effect as the MOO~1~2 monsters but more..."human"...again, for lack of a better word. Anyway, Humans can be far more deadly and treacherous monsters than monsters. MOO~1 it didn't bother me much, mostly cos by the time the Space Crystals and Amoebas came, you had the tech to flick them off with a back hand without any distractions.



By Super Races I mean something like the MOO2 Antarans (or something) coming from another "dimension" and attacking you. Like the Vorlons or Shadows. Races that are not really part of THE GAME. That is a big issue for me. Again, one of the most astonishing ideas I have seen here is that when you meet other races near the beginning, sometimes they may be far superior, and that is good enough for a Super Race for me. No "other dimension" stuff like that needed.



Thanks. <img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley1.gif">

[Sobriquet]

Races that are not really part of THE GAME. That is a big issue for me.



On this I agree 100%. No super races for me, either! The Antarans from MOO2 were just as you described . . . "NOT PART OF THE GAME". I am all for 'cheesey, but this addon was of questionable virute at best, a complete pain in the ass at worst.



I second Lexx's comments. Keep the 'human' factor. Discrete, identifiable races. Either to be engendered as allies or turned into cosmic background radiation if they be foes.<img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley4.gif">
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i am sofa king we todd it

[Zaimat]

There aren't any super-races that interfere with the gameplay such as the antarans in MOO2 where the player had no control or interaction with. But to their credit they did give the player the option to turn it off.



There are races in Horizon much more powerful than you, a lowly new space-faring race at the beginning. That does not mean you can't work with them or avoid them or fight them and survive if you play smart.
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Horizon - Lead Designer

[DeckPrism]

Please Oh please keep the sense of mysteriousness and dangerousness that should come with venteuing into the unkown of deep dark space.

To some extent, I think monsters/guardians can do that. You go there in the beginning and you only have a few seconds of terror to appreciate how totaly out classed you are by 'something'. More advanced races can do the same thing. Some could be aggresive and force your scout to go running and you to immediately start having to deal with the new threat. Others could be even more advanced (for some later game difficulties) but simply not be interested in doing anything more than keeping you out of their space. Add some appropriate 'danger is approaching' music and viola. Also from MOO3, if they had made eXpeditions interactive with truely unknown exotic and nasty monsters out in the alleyways of the galaxy, that would have opened up a whole segment of the game and generated feel from something that turned out to be a ho-hum button click.

Edit: I'm dreaming. Hmm, if the monster was either randomized or reactive with a counter, then each time you encountered it the first time in every game it would still provoke awe. Guardians and monsters in MOO became old. Once you played the game through once, you didn't bother to attack the monster untill you knew you could take it out. But if you don't know that ahead of time... oh the horror. Frankly, I'd like to see some you could never win against, only try to sneak around. You know the saying, "Let sleeping dragons lie."
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Do not let light shine upon your opponent's mind through a hole in your body.

[jp161]

Just wondering here... How is the enemy/neutral ship scanning done? Like in Babylon 5 movie In the Beginning where they didn't really get any real info of the Minbari ships...
"- Sir! Alien ships have opened gun ports. - Are they preparing to fire? - I don't know. I can't tell. - Talk to me. Are they locked on to us? - Scanners are too powerful. I couldn't tell even if they were. They have opened all gun ports."
Is it something like this? We know the silhuette but that's about all we know...

Oh and spacemonsters might be something like "growing" or "upgrading" enities/ships.. So that they would be challencing at all times... Not just in the start... And that would also make it more difficult to know when you'd beat them. As you wouldn't get solid info.. At least not soon... Which means that either you play safe and don't go there or risk and attack.. And possibly get you ass kicked

Or some implimation on this.. I really would like to see something like that in there at least with those more advanced races.

[Artagel]

I have the same issue with the perceived 'cheesiness' of space monsters.
However, I like the idea of planets that are guarded by non-player races/things that have substantial rewards. (for example.. Phoblon B could be a system with incredible mineral and food potential, as well as possible tech upgrades, but be guarded by renegade military factions whose fleet you have to destroy to colonize. Or possibly held by smugglers you have to defeat..)
The good thing about the monsters in MOO2 was that after you defeated one, you were guaranteed goodies (worthwhile planets, free colony, tech advances.. something). This was not the case in III. Defeating a Guardian may or may not have given you and X, and the planets were more likely than not to be random and useless. Add to that the fact that in 2, there were different level monsters. You could take on the Space Eels pretty early, but didn't dare messing wth a crystal or dragon until some serious tech advances and fleet building. In 3, once you advanced to the point you could defeat a guardian, you could defeat all the other guardians..
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You have been assigned to planet Vlorch.. home of the slaughtering rat-people.

[Ravana]