Space Empires 4/5

[Tregonsee (OP)]

Has anyone ever tried Space Empires 4 or 5?  I like turn-based games (4 supposedly is that way) or RTS games where you can slow the speed or even stop it, look at the map, maybe even make some changes, and then start it up again.  The original Railroad Tycoon was this way.  Any ideas on these two games?

[Erik L]

I've played them. But not within the last year or so. They are fun as I recall, but tended towards repetitiveness in the late mid-game and end-game.

[SteveAlt]

I've played them. But not within the last year or so. They are fun as I recall, but tended towards repetitiveness in the late mid-game and end-game.

I played SE IV but not V. It was fun (and plainly based on Starfire) but I agree with the point about late game repetitiveness

Steve

[sloanjh]

I've played them. But not within the last year or so. They are fun as I recall, but tended towards repetitiveness in the late mid-game and end-game.

I played SE IV but not V. It was fun (and plainly based on Starfire) but I agree with the point about late game repetitiveness

Steve

I've got them both.  V moved to a more "real-time" combat model than IV, which I view as a good thing.  I normally like turned-based games, but the combat in V had the same feel as in Aurora of going from hex-based to full 2D movement.  The other VERY big improvement in V is that it's a lot harder to figure out the weapons load out of the enemy ships - I found myself getting surprised (i.e. wandering into weapons envelope) much more frequently.

OTOH, in both cases once I put them down I really didn't want to start up a new campaign months later (which happens to me with a lot of games).

John

[Tregonsee (OP)]

A question about Space Empire 5- can you slow speed or stop during strategic movement/decision-making?  I understand not being able to stop actual battle, but if I cannot slow things down and look at it, I don't want to play it.

So would I like Space Empire  5 in that respect?

[Brian Neumann]

At the strategic level SE5 is turn based.  Once you are in combat you can adjust the speed or even pause it.  I don't think you can do anything while it is paused, but one of the options is to slow it way down where you have a chance to adjust things without a lot changing.  Hope that helps.

Brian

[Tregonsee (OP)]

Great, that is prretty much what I was looking for.  On their website they have a package of Space Empires 4 and 5, ORB, and some other game for 29.95.  The only problem is that it seems to be download only.  Has it always been that way (download instead of a physical copy)?

[mavikfelna]

I used to have SE III, and back in those days they were download only. But I believe they did release a retail box version of IV. I don't think it sold well so they may well have gone back to download only.

--Mav

[schroeam]

SE V was out in a boxed version a while ago, and they have always had it available as a downloadable.

[ShadoCat]

I've played SEIV for years.  I really like it.  

I started playing SEV not too long ago.  V has better graphics and more options but the UI is less useful than the previous version.  It seems to take one more click to do everything than it did in IV.  Also, why take the time to decide where to put the items on the ship.  AFAIK, there is not game effect based on item placement.

[Tregonsee (OP)]

So does SE V allow you to stop/pause the game?  I really don't like RTS games unless you can stop to check things out and even make some strategic decisions before letting the game go again, or even make it really slow so you dont miss anything.

[Hawkeye]

So does SE V allow you to stop/pause the game?  I really don't like RTS games unless you can stop to check things out and even make some strategic decisions before letting the game go again, or even make it really slow so you dont miss anything.

I wouldn´t call SE V a RTS.

The strategic part is turn based, only the battles are realtime and yes, you can pause the battle and give orders to your ships and stuff.

It´s kind of like the old masterpiece UFO, only reversed, there the strategic part was realtime (though you could put speed to REAL TIME, i.e. 1 second = 1 second in gametime, when the game went on for quite a few years gametime) and the combat was turn based


Hawkeye, Germany

[Ed Smoker]

I have all of the SE series from 1 to 5 and I was a beta tester for 5. It does get a bit boring if you keep playing the base game right out of the box. To help break that up and make the game more enjoyable you should try to download and install one of the game modifications (called Mods) which make changes to the game. These changes can range from minor tweaks to better game balance all the way up to entire changes in play. The basic mechanics remain the same so you don't have to learn the basic operations over when applying a major mod. If you want to install a mod you may need to download the component enhancement pack which greatly increases the images used for stellar objects, planet facilities, and ship components. All of this is free so don't fret about it. I had been working on a Starfire Mod but ended up dropping the project due to lack of community support, concerns that Marvin may come across the mod and cry copyright infringement, and most of all because of the complexity of getting the AI scripted to use the Starfire ship components correctly. I got as far as creating two initial versions which needed testing. The first was a full blown Starfire like game and the second was more of a hybrid Starfire and Space Empires mod. I almost forgot. There are different ship sets which you can download. Each ship set has all the models needed to play and they can be used with the base game or any game mod you may download. I have seen ones for Babylon 5, Star Wars, and Star Trek just to name a few.

[Tregonsee (OP)]

I was able to get a new disk of SE V at a used book store for $7.95, haven't tried it yet.

[rmcrowe]

Sorry, guys.  There does not seem to be a "Cancel" option when you hit "Post Reply" by mistake.  Eric?