Discussion on 4X games.

[evader]

SE is by far the best. I have tried various othergames like that(too many to mention) But Se(both III and IV) remains my favorite. Fot stratagy, depth and customizing there is just no comparison

[Gavin]

"I tried to play VGA planets once or twice. It's too clunky to be played effectively from my experience."

It was very easy to set up and play over the Internet, and played fast, and was the first game I know of that allowed custom races from popular sci-fi shows.

"I played Star Control II a bit. It's cute, but it's more of an 'adventure' game than a strategic game. The ship combat and technologies associated with ships are very limited. I have no experience with either SC I or III."

Star Control II had Xploration, one of the most realistic ever done in fact.

It didn't have any Xpansion, you had one homeworld and that was that. You had to do all the mining yourself, too, which was fun for the first 20 star systems, then you started yawning.

It did allow you to research new technology and build ships, only trick was they all had to go into your main command ship fleet.

"I've not played ANY "Star Wars" space game. And don't expect to in the future. SW games are generally arcade games, anyway. But the SW universe just doesn't excite me so I'd probably not be very interested even in a "genuine" SW 4X game."

Rebellion was horrible, the planet interface was archaic, and the only fun part, the starship combat in a 3D view with 3D rendered models, appeared thrown together and rushed into game release and lacked polish.

[Dragonlord]

Uhm, there's more to 4X games than just space-based ones...
The best strategy game ever made, for me, is still Civilization II. And in a few weeks, after 5 years of waiting, Civ III is coming out ! I can't wait...all we had is Civ clones and ripoffs in the mean time (Call to Power, etc).

From the real-time 4x games I'd say I enjoyed Age of Empires the most....looking forward to Empire Earth !

[tesco samoa]

Would battles of desteny make it any where on this list?

All time fav. 4x games

Stars, MOO, MOO2, SEIV, SEIII, Overlord, Lord of the Relms, MULE, Star Control (2).

There was another game I used to play. Cannot remember what it was called. Came out in 96. You basicaly designed your ships and sent them out on patrols etc... You could really control them. Very detailed. Mostly space combat. I will have to look in the old game boxes for the name. I have tech tree infront of me but it has no name on it.. ( remeber when games came with tech charts... what I would give to see game shiped with the manuals like from the aces series or early janes games.)

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Inter arma silent leges

[Puke]

i have said it before, i will say it again:

Imperialism I and II, by FrogCity and SSI. Games for the Thinking man. empire building and warfare, with unheard of things like solid (bordering upon god-like) diplomacy and economic modles. sharp AI (SSI meets a 4x game, you know the AI has to be good) both strategically and diplomatically. it knows all the tricks and you cant get away with dicking it about like the unfortuneate AI in space empires (and civ, and alpha centauri..)

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[chewy027]

well if we're going down that path what about Europa Universalis. That is another great game and the sequal is coming out soon to. Should be even better now. Diplomacy is awesome i especially like the way alliances are done. I think thats the way se5 should go it would make it so much more realistic and make treaties so much more important.

[Pustov 2]

Reach for the stars. (by ssi) Did not reach to far. And I have to say that the AI in space Empire IV is one of the best I'v ever seen. The best is moo. moo2 is alright but I think SEIV is better