Just noticed this thread, and thought I'd offer my totally-un-asked-for opinion:
I haven't played any earlier version of it, but I purchased Space Empires V new and in the box a while ago through Amazon for under $10 (US), patched it up to the latest patch (v1.79) off of the Malfador Machinations web site, and have been toying with it off-and-on in between dabbling with Aurora.
Here's the Amazon link with reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/Space-Empires-V-Pc/dp/B000G1G9ZS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1275672383&sr=8-2From everything I have seen, it was strongly recommended to not play the standard SEV game, but to play it as a mod, primarily the highly-recommended "Captain Kwok"'s Balance Mod (currently at v1.19g), available for free at his web site:
http://www.captainkwok.net/home.phpOther than the initial tutorial, I've only been messing with the Balance Mod version, and it's been plenty of fun so far.
It may be kind of strange alternating between two large-scale space 4x TBS games like Aurora and SEV, both of which have a significant learning curve to climb, but I'm enjoying learning both games, and in many ways, they seem to kind of complement each other. They actually have several similarities in gameplay, and each offer some unique aspects that appeal to me.
Both draw heavily on similar roots -- StarFire, StarFleet Battles, etc. Both are basically the work of a signle developer. Here, it's our illustrious and benevolent host Steve, and with Space Empires, it's the developer Aaron Hall. Both games began as freeware, with the original Space Empires put out in 1993, before Aaron formed his company, Malfador Machinations, to publish the second version as a commercial offering.
SEV, like Aurora, it a very, VERY deep 4X game, and has a HUGE amount of options that can be adjusted for different gameplay. Like many games made by a small team of developers, SEV was buggy on it's initial release, but has had multiple patches that have addressed most of the problems. I've been playing a while and have not ran into any issues, at least yet.
SEV, like Aurora, has a small-but-dedicated group of fans and players who form a supportive community. However, unlike Aurora where Steve keeps the database essentially under wraps (and fully understandable why), SEV was developed with modders in mind -- most of the configuration elements of the game are in text files, and are easily tweakable.
SEV, like Aurora, puts a lot of emphasis on ship design -- they both cater to us gamers who love that aspect of the 4X games. You can set up as many specific ship designs as you like, adjusting the balance of hull sizes, weapons, engines, fighters, and so forth to make a ton of variation, and then have your ship yards construct individual ships of whichever design you want.
Both games are pretty open-ended, which allows for a maximum of Role-playing and sandbox-mode fun. Admittedly, Aurora, even more so -- with SEV, you do pick a way to "win", but Aurora will go on as long as you want it to, or I guess, until the database simply collapses under its own weight. Both games are based on warp-points uniting each system, and use the same idea of 'empire flags' showing ownership on the maps.
Both are essentially turn-based. The "real-time" battles of SEV are still heavily turn-based, with underlying mention of "rounds" and so-forth. You can set pause intervals, or hit pause at any time. There may be a little more automation to the battle tactics than I would prefer, but you can override much of it and do it all manually, or you can set it up with "strategies" and "ministers" to direct each ships, task force, and/or fleet's actions. I'm still deciding which I like better -- by nature I want to control EVERYTHING, but it's also kind of cool to set strategies and let the ships battle it out on their own using the strategies I've directed. Aurora kind of has this feel, too.
Aurora gets deeper into the economics underlying the empires, I think, but SEV also has a mix of resources that drives the economy. Maybe SEV has prettier graphics, with actual pictures of ships and such, but I like the old PnP table-game feel of Aurora, too. OK, maybe SEV gets a few bonus points because the whole screen fits on my laptop without having to scroll, but Aurora seems to have a slight edge on giving me the info I want in the least amount of mouse-clicks.
And, of course, while SEV was extremely reasonable in terms of price, Aurora is even better.
