Space Empires 4

[Reinhardt]

A rather.. old game, I think I've been personally playing it for a dozen years now? BUT the 5th game in the series is not as good as the 4th. (well the political aspects of the 5th game are superior, BUT the graphics and other aspects of teh game cause a good bit of client lag)

It's a 4x game; eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate. And as the name implies, you are building and micromanaging an interstellar empire. It is fully possible to dominate the game with only a small handfull of colonies, or with thousands of planets developed and pumping out war machines. And if micromanagement isnt your style, you can assign AI ministers to run aspects of your empire for you.

Technology is researched, intelligence missions undertaken, ships and other military hardware designed and produced. Regions are defended, enemies are conquered.

The game posesses total customizability. Every graphic in the game is controlled via bitmaps. Datafiles are modded as text files. There are extensive pre-made mods, made by the community, available. As are shipsets.

Now while I expect people like Agares to be drooling over a game concept like this, who has played it, does play it, might play it?

Becuase frankly, I'd like to get an Ordo shipset made, get players together for a multiplayer game (which will take the form of a pbem setup, with game turns being processed simultaneously by the host)

[Agares Tretiak]

Oooer. Links?

[Reinhardt]

http://malfador.com/ - official webpage, really OLD design TBH, but this is the company that makes the game. location of demo, and official patches.

http://www.strategyfirst.com/ - the games publisher, where you can buy it for 9.99

http://spaceempires.net/ - not an official site, but THE major hub for shipsets, mods, discussion forums for SE4, SE5, and other games related to them.

http://pbw.spaceempires.net/ - the play by web, semi automated site that lets you play pbem style games with other players (there are mods that enhance the AI of AI players to such a degree you don't always need to play against humans for a challange)

If you end up getting it and try mods (frankly, stock feels unfinished to alot of people, which makes mods almost required), remember that mods, as downloaded, do not work together, BUT there are ways to splice mods together. It is rather simple to figure out though, if you poke around the data folder or graphics folder.