learning SE4

[Suicide Junkie]

If at all possible, playing a hotseat game would probably be a very good way to learn.
Playing tactical combat can get you a good feel for the advantages and disadvantages of the various weapons, defenses and general design theories.
Just agree to "open source" any tricks you figure out, say, 15 turns or fewer after you've used it on your opponent. That way you can both live and learn as you go.

[Gryphin]

I have had Gold for 2 weeks now, (but have played SE III and IV for years). I have only looked in the manual once. I enjoy the constant "puzzles" of not knowing how to do something. That said, yes, I wish more of the game "How To Do *fill in the blank" were described. It cost me 20 plus mines in a usless warp point to find out I could not recover them. I suspect such a manual would be an inch thick and add 10 dollars to the price.

Edit: I wish I could spell.

[ 25 March 2002: Message edited by: Gryphin ]

[Atrocities]

I started playing SEIV with the original Demo back in August 2000. The game was rather easy to learn.

As I continued to play, and after getting my copy of the full game, I began to learn a lot more. Now that GOLD is out, and yes the manual is sweet, I have even learned some more things.

Most recently the Build Que feature "Fill Que." What you do is after filling the Que the way you want it, say for colonizing a planet with 24 slots, you click the Fill Que button, Add Type, and name it. Then Cancel. Whenever you colonize a planet with 24 slots in it, you simply hit Fill Que, and then the name you gave it, and voila, your que is full. I usually name my Ques according to size and type. 18 Intel, 24 New Planet, 5 Intel, etc.

The game is easy to learn, but the feature may take you a while. My only suggestion is to recommend that you keep playing, and learn as you go as many of us have. best of luck.

[Ragnarok]

I've only had Gold for about 2 months, (if even that long), and it only took me about 3 days to figure out the basics. I'm now getting into the more detailed stuff, it's not too tough to learn if you put your mind to it. Just keep trying and you'll get it eventually.

When I got the SE4 Gold demo I had never played SE4 or SE3 I had only played SE2 along time ago, then I lost it and I got curious and went and found the Malfador web-site and found out they had SE3 and SE4 and were coming out with SE4 Gold. So untill I got the Demo I had no xp with the new interface other then SE2.. So just thought I'd bring out that even if you don't know the interface it's still not tough to learn. It's a bLast once you get it down.