Master of Orion 2 VS Space Empires 4

[Mánagarmr]

Yeah, GoG is great to get things running. It often involves a bit of tinkering (changing DOSBox configurations or running a config utility), but it's FAR less work doing it manually

[Histidine]

Is SEV any good?

I tried to get into SEIV, but it feels so... clunky. In particular, I tried tactical combat in the simulator and I had no idea wtf was going on lol.

[Echo35]

Is SEV any good?

I tried to get into SEIV, but it feels so... clunky. In particular, I tried tactical combat in the simulator and I had no idea wtf was going on lol.

Neither of them are particularly streamlined in any manner, but I've found the UI in V to be a lot easier on the eyes. Of course, that's if you can even play the game in the first place.

[Mánagarmr]

Just a big warning! To play SEV successfully, you really need Windows XP, as beyond XP DirectX 8 is emulated which leads to ABYSMAL performance in SEV. Trying to play it on Win7, even after excessive tweaking, is 15-20 FPS tops and very choppy mouse movement.

SEIV runs pretty much out of the box.

[Aklyon]

It might be my old gpu (This laptop has an intel graphics chip for pete's sake ) and general lack of higher-fps (DF being the exception, whee 30-500 fps~), but in Win7 64-bit I found SEV plenty playable and smooth-ish. But adjust the HUDsettings file if you have more than 768 vertical res, that way you can play in windowed mode and avoid all the irritating random white flashing, probably. (closing everything else also helps with the less flashing)

The mouse I had no problems with, but you have to use the minimize button ingame to avoid it potentially locking up if you alt-tab instead

[Lancefighter]

SEV had problems with fonts or something on vista/win7, which contributed to my dislike of it.

[Echo35]

SEV had problems with fonts or something on vista/win7, which contributed to my dislike of it.

Fonts and the DX7 thing, which there is probably a way to work around, wrappers and all that.

[eRe4s3r]

There really isn't a work around for Space Empires 5 and it's CRAP engine, which is why you will never see me recommend it. Space Empires 4 is great, complex and mostly fun (with mods) though as mentioned before, it creeps to a slow grind after turn 500 or so.

[Histidine]

Well, seems like I'm one of the lucky ones for whom SEV works with just a bit of messing around. (I wonder if running windowed helped.)

Random thoughts about 3 hours in:

• UI is definitely prettier than in IV.
• Getting to choose between strategic combat (i.e. autoresolve) and tactical combat for any battle is a nice touch, something the series has over MoO2.
• ...which is especially good because the tactical combat is opaque as hell. I have absolutely no idea how to influence the battle outcome in my favor through my actions.
• Many things require way more clicking than they should. In Alpha Centauri, if I want to upgrade all my units of a certain type to a newer version, it's two to three clicks in the Design Workshop. In SE, I have to find the ships all over the quadrant and upgrade them per planet.
  Speaking of the designer, CAN'T DROP MODULES ON TO EMPTY SPACE TO GET RID OF THEM GRAAAAAGH.
• Are there supposed to only be three types of "standard" weapon?

MoO2 is definitely still my favorite, but I think I can make this relationship work.

[Histidine]

Decided to start an alliance; it broke all my existing treaties with everyone. My former friends, who were still marked as being friendly, decided to go tear up my planets without provocation.
The loss of trade income tanked my economy, too, so I had to mothball everything just to stay afloat (Economy is totally stupid btw, all those high level trade agreements resulted in trade accounting for two-thirds of my mineral income; the huge surplus meant I couldn't stop excessing no matter what I did).

Also, tech sharing. WHYYYYYYYYYY - it breaks every 4x game it touches!

[Aklyon]

An Alliance in what? because if you're talknig about SEV alliances, they're broken.

Important things to know before starting a game

- As of 1.79 ALLIANCES ARE BROKEN. Do NOT use them.

- Setting autosave to each turn in game setup will avoid you many frustrations.

[Histidine]

... >___>
Yeah, I should probably have read that page before starting. Thanks.

[keith.lamothe]

Kind of like an announcement from your car manufacturer that

As of version 1.79, REVERSE GEAR IS BROKEN, do NOT use it.

Overall I think MoO2 is more playable than SE.  MoO1 probably even moreso, though MoO2's individual ships and more detailed planets (the city part, anyway) are nice.

SE is awesome, partly because it feels like the developer really tried to put in all the things that people ask for for a 4X.  Even being able to literally preposition all your units at a particular place battle view (in SEV, at least), just as part of a normal turn.

But packing all that stuff in there really seems to cramp out playability.  I feel like I'm interacting (carefully) with an ancient, eldritch device rather than playing a game.  Fun for a while, but ultimately the frustration that "if it would only let me express my orders more concisely, and be more responsive, this thing would be 100x as much fun" wears down my desire to keep playing it.

[Aklyon]

I think someone on bay12 said it best about SE: Its like Aurora, but with less spreadsheets and more graphics.

[eRe4s3r]

The other difference is that SE4 actually works *ducks*