Space Empires IV. One of the greatest, if not THE greatest 4X space game ever. But exactly how fun are all four of those X's anyway?
Exploring? Well, maybe a little. It's fun finding out where the other people are and planning your attacks and defense. But just scouting out empty systems for future colonization? Meh, not so much. Score = .5 X
Expanding? Am I the only one not waiting breathlessly for the log report that I've started another 5 colonies this turn? Score = 0 X
Exploiting? Hmmmm, let's see. Should I build four mineral miners on this 92% mineral planet, or use it for reseearch instead? Jeez, what am I an accountant? Score = 0 X
Exterminating? Oh yeah!
Score = 1 X
So that's gives us 1.5 X all together by my count. What SE5 needs is a decent set of ministers to take care of all that other stuff. It would even be nice if you could setup a game, tell it how to run things, and then auto-run the turns up till when you make contact with someone else. Up to that point my brain is usually on auto-pilot anyway.
Just mindless wandering this evening. Feel free to disagree.