Quote:
Artaud said:
I prefer the lack of a background story and the lack of a campaign. Me, I want to create my empire and rule it, without my game play shoehorned into someone else's idea of a story.
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Whoever says that a campaign or background means shoehorning? You can still have free-form play and the ability to create your own empire/race/ideology - but having a background with real in-game consequences makes it more compelling and believable.
To take another example, Alpha Centauri is a 4X where the background benefits the game (dealing with the lifeforms on Planet and the option to win the game via the Transcendence path) and the factions differ in diplomacy as well as gameplay.
With SEV, there is virtually no difference in diplomacy - all the races have the same responses (even though they have different files) and none of the racial history has any impact. Dealing with the Eee while allied with the Drushocka? No problem! Developing energy weapons also? "Hey the Drushocka ate our people with those, but we don't mind you using them... eeek!!". Indeed the only difference between SEV aliens seems to be with ship designs and weapon types.
Aside from the not-too-different aliens, you have the random events and ruins in SEV. The events are simple and could be improved upon by even basic scripting (for example having a renegade group of your own people forming a pirate base in a nearby nebula, resulting in a random loss of resources until it is destroyed). Ruins could similarly offer more than a tech grab-bag (artifacts allowing communication or limited, ultra-speed travel, access to new quadrants if researched properly or ability to contact/ influence outside races, like the Dread Lords or Antarans from other games).
Saying that imagination can cover this is a cop-out - you can dispense with SEV (and computers generally) if you choose to rely on imagination enough. Adding atmosphere (in terms of gameplay, not just the breathable stuff) can create a new dimension to SEV making it a more believable (and less antiseptic) experience. Some has been done in terms of the racial backgrounds, but this needs to be built upon further for best effect. Mods can certainly cover a lot of the ground - but the stock game needs some toning up too (after the bugfixes, UI improvements, AI enhancements, etc).