i think se4 is miles above any other 4x game...
thats saying a lot in a fairly populated genre,
however, moo3 is turning me on, from what i've heard so far, but i doubt its depth will satisfy me...
the only real areas that se4 lack are in tactical battle and ai
the game mechanics and depth are the amazing part... the ai and combat depth are lacking
i've worked as a programmer in many capacities and have discussed the ai a few times with geo and of course here on the Boards... what i didn't really mention was that i used an alpha-beta pruning algorithm when i worked on programming chess when i was doing my comp.sci degree ;p
anyway, the more i get into it, the more i think that a chess brain applied to se4 ai would make it really rock... anyone else work on pruning tree algy's?
oh yeah, and the combat system needs real 3d fleet movements but in a starfleet battles like board game (which had energy usage, turn radius and speed/weapon power/shield power and hull size / inertia played an important role)
if those 2 things could be added to se5 for example, this thing could be the next hit
(at least in the strategy realm
and i mean in civ(1,2,3) sort of way ... sid look out
Cirvol
(or Hrv/Druid if any of you know me in pbw)