A couple of questions before I buy.
 

HI

Does the game come with a real manual not just pdf.?

been trying to make up my mind between dominions and SE4...

Can't seem to finish the demo download for dominions. server keeps resetting. any reccommedations?

Re: A couple of questions before I buy.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes, 134 pages of it. Pretty good by itself, but the game is complex enough that you'll need to download various guides and other docs that fans here have put together.

Get both games. If you can only afford one, get Dom. (I own both.)

Re: A couple of questions before I buy.
 

I own both also, Dominions 2 is a much better game in my opinion. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: A couple of questions before I buy.
 

I have both....SE4 is a great game....great support....just a really good game....

Dom2 is a great game....looks like it will have great support, the devs post here all the time.....just another really good game....

Now, which one to buy?

hmmmmm.....do you like Sci-Fi? Or, do you like Fantasy better? I personally don't think you can go wrong with either game....but if you like Sci-Fi better, get SE4 first....if you like Fantasy better, get Dom2 first....

BUT, get both when you can....

Chris

Re: A couple of questions before I buy.
 

-edit

Found my own answer, SE4 = Space Empire 4 right

[ February 02, 2004, 14:37: Message edited by: Smokey ]

Re: A couple of questions before I buy.
 

While I really like Dom2, I must honestly say that the docs... well... suck.

I'll not go into a long list of why they do, but suffice it to say, they include about 10% of the information you need.

The program itself does have fairly good internal documentation. Most items have a help bubble on them that at least gives you a bare minimum of information.

The long and short of it is that the FAQs and information in this forum, along with the data posted at Sunray's fan site, are the "real" docs for this game at this point.

Taken together, these docs are pretty good and I can't think of anything in the manual that is really needed beyond these.

Re: A couple of questions before I buy.
 

Bought both; SE4 before Dom before Dom II. SE4 was quite fun, but had some irritating quirks like bad pathfinding (ships burning all their movement points shuffling back and forth because a warp point was blocked by an enemy, say) and late-game micro (in particular, optimizing economy by switching to Monolith facilities was a serious pain, but made a potentially *huge* difference. Demolishing facilities to install atmosphere converters was repetitive). Good concepts, though, and very fun and varied ship designs -- I often had numerous different ship roles active simul e.g. heavy-gun/low-ROF ships, medium-gun/high-ROF ships, carriers, biowarfare, fast/armored transports, missile ships, etc and race design was also seriously nifty... and the modability's extreme. A little automation assistance would have gone a long way.
Dom II's quite fun, thematically pretty rich although it's not a plot-driven game in the sense of adventures/RPGs. Wackily high number of features, tools and methods allow varied viable playing styles; modding potential permits more. Learning curve may be a touch steep 'though as there's a lot to learn and a lot of knobs and twiddles have interacting effects.

Re: A couple of questions before I buy.
 

As the eternal diplomat I would have to say that asking here would be kindof biased. Maybe you should also ask in the SE4 forum and get the opinion of people who have both but that one instead. They probably choose to hang out there more than here (if such people exist that is) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: A couple of questions before I buy.
 

Dominions. I have bought both, and both are complex, fun games. But much of Dominions II's complexity is hidden beneath the surface, while SEIV is more openly displayed. Any 2 games of dominions 2 will be quite different, even if you strive to play by the same formula.

Besides, Stars! is way better than SEIV. So who has a beta Version of stars supernova for me ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif