Some things

[wr8th]

Wow... I remember IA!... barely. I added additional rules for production since it was too simplistic. Third Reich was another goodie as was Squad Leader and it's precursor, Sniper.

Yes our age is showing... I just started my fourth decade.

My son (who is 7) will probably have to fight me for the computer (he's currently addicted to AoE2) when SE4G arrives. I put out the Micro Machines models of the ST ships to entice him. Yes, I am sadistic.

[Gurduloo]

I think one thing that people are forgetting is that SEIV is not directed at the mainstream retail market. It's very much a niche product and MM very wisely kept production costs down by not hiring a small army of professional artists and animators. If they had tried to increase the game's appeal with snazzier graphics, it would not have resulted in enough extra sales to justify the added expense, since a turn based 4X game has only so many potential buyers. It would be interesting to compare the profitability of SEIV vs. a larger production game like MOO3.

[oleg]

I am still waiting for SeIV Gold to arrive and in the meantime I've wasted Last weekend playing Master of Magic. What a truly briliant game and who cares about the outdated graphics !
I regard Steve Barcia as a more inventive game designer than even Sid Mayer.

[wr8th]

Originally I had been waiting for Stars Supernova to come out, having read previews. That's been more than a year with no real updates. In fact, they still don't have a publisher, WTH! When I saw the review on SE4 in December, I came to this website only to find that it was out of print with SE4G due out in a couple months.

Since it's enroute and I have Friday off, I guess I'll be vegging that day.

[mac5732]

wr8th, "Terrible Swift Sword" most excellent game, probably one the best if not the best of the Civil War Board games. I still have it, but haven't played it in several years, also have a lot of Old SPI games. but TSS was the most popular with myself and friends. ahhh what memories.

My opinion only, Graphics in a game should be rated according to the game type, shoot-um-ups like Quake, Doom, etc graphics would be big issue as well as play, in war games like Gettysburg, Shilo etc graphics are more terrain & unit type which are important but not as much as the game play, In space games, there is only so much you can do with graphics, other then ship-sets and race portraits, Planets, suns, astroids etc will always look the same or similiar there isn't a whole lot you can do, unless you have tactical ground combat whre graphics would become a bigger concern. to me, balanced game play and challegning AI mean more then beautiful graphic images. don't get me wrong, graphics are nice to look at, but the game play is the most important at least to me. You can have the best graphics ever designed, but if game play is lousy, then you wasted your money. Its not whats on the outside but whats on the inside that really counts. Yes Graphics catch your eye on the boxs and look sharp, but they don't tell you how the game plays.

just some ideas mac

[QuarianRex]

I had a similar problem. First heard about SE4 in a review of the best space empire games of all time and decided to take a look. By that time SE4 was out of print and I had to wait for Gold (still am actually).

When talking about graphics though, I should note that the lower graphics were one of the things that DREW me to this game. I love the idea of modding and making variant shipsets and this would not be possible if I needed an advanced degree in graphical design to make something that I could be proud of. As it is, all i need to do is a little screen-capture/background-colouring/resizing and I have a workable shipset. That is something that even someone of my modest skill (with the help of ACDSee and paint) is capable of.

Uber graphics would nullify one of the games main selling points, the ability to customize it to your liking.

[EvilKnight]

like i said guys i agree that graphics arent the world of gaming and i do agree that the look doesnt always match the gameplay which i named off some games already. all im saying is that it wasnt what i expected, and and the game type does make a difference to just like Major Mac said. Hell i used to play d and d. hell most gamers (expessailly stragegy games start like that). so your saying Gryphin that you've never bought a game just because of how the box looks? I didnt say i didnt like the game now (read my ealier Posts) i liked the game over all. it was just that section where i feel it was lacking. you guys make it seem like im knocking the game, because of gameplay and im not. How many are gonna buy MOO3? i am.
new subject kinda off base but gamers to me don't judge eachother by race, reglion, sex, occupation, age, and anything else you can think of. gamers are well fir lack of a better word at the moment their own race of people, who else in the world would get on a game and talk about some of the wild stuff we talk about ( and know what we are talking about), some of the funnest things are that ive gotten mail from all over the world when i played MAnkind (in game mail system) from gamers like you and me who felt americas pain and im sure they dont want other gamers to die becuase think about what kinda of world would it be with out gamers? it was a bit off base i know but i got an in game mail yesterday on MK and a guy was talking about this. thought i'd share.