[Antonin]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Malfador Machinitions is not in any way, shape, or form like big name game developers. They actually listen to the fans, and consistently implement fan-submitted suggestions into their games. Assuming they are practical, your suggestions have a fairly good chance of making it into SE5, especially if other people request similar features.

I can practically gaurantee you that SE5 will not be aimed at the "teenybop" market. That would drive away 99% of SE4's fanbase, which would ruin MM.

I hope you're right. But I've been playing computer games for a long time--I'm in my late 40s--and have found that there are fewer and fewer games each year for people like me who are not interested in "shoot stuff, blow stuff up, make huge pretty explosions."

Most games I see in the stores today--the few that still carry computer games--are for the instant gratification, short-attention-span, pretty-picture crowd. I've watched several game franchises sink down to that level.

I have not read all the Posts in this thread, but I'm sure there are several that say "SE4 is lame! SE4 is boring! What SE5 REALLY NEEDS is, like, a 3D engine, d00d!!!" Or words to that effect.

Me, I would love to have more commodities, better diplomacy, governors of varying degrees of competence that I could name (the same way I can name ships) and appoint and fire, etc etc. I like micromanagement, but sometimes I would like to give broad powers to a governor. Assign a number of planets to him/her/it.

You know what I'm talking about. I want to be Cleon II (Asimov's Foundation series), or the Emperor in Dune. Don't you?

I have always dreamed of a computer game that was a complete but very customizable empire/government simulator. SE4 is the closest anybody has ever come. It's a game that will never leave my hard drive.