Space Empires IV

Asmodean · September 26, 2003, 11:41

Anyone playing this game?

I just found it in the discount bin in my local games shop. Got it for $6.50 (well the equivalent amount in Kroner, of course).

Any expert players out there, who can give a newbie some advice?

Asmodean

Lemmy · September 26, 2003, 17:47

uhm...did you get Gold or normal?

As for advice...Phased Polaron Beams are good, untill you get Phased Shields.

If you're behind in tech, which is unlikely since the AI isn't impressive, you can capture ships and get new techs from analyzing the ships at a shipyard.

Find the modpacks, there are some good ones out there, including one that beefs up the AI called the TDM modpack.

Ringworlds and sphereworlds are a hard to make...by the time you can make them, you've already won the game, so don't get too excited over them

If your enemy breathes another atmosphere then your own, then capture his population to use it on the planets you can't breathe on, but they can. If even 1 of the population can't breathe the atmosphere, then you'll only get 1/5th of the total space for building. Remove that 1 population, and you get to use the full potential of the planet.

Remote mining is hardly worth it, unless you have a big ship with a lot of miner equips in a high value asteroid cluster.

and check out the official SE4 forum:
http://216.167.123.13/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=23

Asmodean · September 27, 2003, 03:59

Quote:

Originally posted by Lemmy
uhm...did you get Gold or normal?

I got Gold. Thanks for the info, Lemmy.

Re: Ring and Sphereworlds. Couldn't I find myself in a situation, where the AI is also able to make ring and sphereworlds?

Asmodean

Lemmy · September 27, 2003, 05:24

The AI could have the tech, but i'm not sure if it's smart enough to make them.

DrSpike · September 27, 2003, 07:18

I played this for a bit when it was released. It didn't really grab me.........but it is probably worth $6.50.

General Ludd · September 27, 2003, 09:45

Space Empires IV is a great PBEM game. There's a site that runs games for it, but I forget the url.

Jamski · September 27, 2003, 16:01

How does it compare to say, MoO2 or GalCiv? (I assume its better than MoO3)

-Jam

Asmodean · September 27, 2003, 16:44

It's not as complex as MoO3, but it is certainly a better game, so far as I can tell.

The graphics are not that good, but the game is a couple of years old, so what can you expect?

Gameplaywise? Well it has ship design, which I like. It has a support model, that I am still trying to come to grips with, but which I like for realism (if you can talk about realism in a space game

). It also has tactical combat, sort of ala Moo or MoM. This I like a lot. And it has customization of races, which I love.

Until now, it's

Asmodean

Jamski · September 27, 2003, 19:12

SO its quite close to MoO2...

Perhaps I should add this to my list of games I MUST play someday...

-Jam

General Ludd · September 27, 2003, 20:46

Space empires IV has a ton of micromanagement, and not alot of depth - ie. it's mostly about building ships and killing your enemies. You don't get the feel of controling an actual empire with an identity, and there is not very good politics with the AI. But that changes in PBEM games, ofcourse - especially in the roleplaying games.

Sarxis · September 28, 2003, 00:43

Yeah, the PBEM was very good. Check the official forums for the community and for advice.

It makes a better sequel to MoO2 than MoO3 does.

Jamski · September 28, 2003, 11:26

My bum makes a better sequel than MoO3. Kelloggs fricking Cornflakes make a better sequel than...

/me needs to calm down *

-Jam

Asmodean · September 30, 2003, 02:35

Quote:

Originally posted by Anun Ik Oba
Yeah, the PBEM was very good. Check the official forums for the community and for advice.

It makes a better sequel to MoO2 than MoO3 does.

Actually, the more I play, the more I come to think of it as a MoO2 clone, more than a sequel. So many things are like MoO2.

But then again, so many things are different. Research is very different from MoO2. In SEIV you research tech levels, which in turn gives you access to application, components, facilities, whatever.

And it's more moddable than MoO2. I haven't tried any of the mods yet, as I want to get a feel for the vanilla game first. But I definately like this game.

Asmodean