Any One Still Playing This Game?

[Gandalf Parker]

I meant post real questions.

[Xrati]

The support for this site still continues. I think the new site can safely say that it received its roots here. As far as SE4 vs SE5 goes, it's a matter of personal preference! I don’t feel that it was made as “User Friendly” as it should have been. The ability to incorporate some of the work done here to the mods was good, but not without loss of some really good work. While change is supposed to be good, the ability to import more of the work done on SE4 would have made some sense, as it was one of the main reasons that people still played this game for so many years without a re-release of it.

[Atrocities]

SE IV - fun but limited by its graphics.
SE V - fun but limited by its user interface. (not the graphics, the system itself)

The games are very similar in game play but just different enough to be consider different games.

[Suicide Junkie]

IMO, SE4's graphics are superior.
They are only as big as they need to be, don't block your view, and everything is always perfectly legible.

Snappy and responsive too, since the screen only has to be drawn once instead of continuously.

SE5's pictures are bigger and prettier, and the 3D models are nice, but they don't help gameplay at all, and often make it hard to see and read things.
Oh, how I long for 2D text overlays whenever I look at the system or combat views.

[Atrocities]

I really would like to see se iv update to use 3d images for top down views in combat and system movement. The images could then be scaled to size, and wouldn't look all fuzzy when they are displayed at an angle.

Having the planets rotating in seiv and six to 9 size stars would be awesome. And ring and sphere worlds that take up 9 to 16 sectors. AWESOME.

[Artaud]

Suicide Junkie said:
IMO, SE4's graphics are superior.
They are only as big as they need to be, don't block your view, and everything is always perfectly legible.

Snappy and responsive too, since the screen only has to be drawn once instead of continuously.

SE5's pictures are bigger and prettier, and the 3D models are nice, but they don't help gameplay at all, and often make it hard to see and read things.

I agree 10000%. I can easily see myself playing SE4 for another 10 years. It's just so immersive, so DEEP and yet so easy on my computer system.

I only played the SE5 demo, but the game as a whole turned me off. The things I remember most about it were 1) that the ships were way too small and that 2) when you entered a system, you could not see what was in the system. That just made no sense at all to me.

SE5 had an entirely different feel, IMHO, and was just not very appealing. I expected the game to have more of what I loved about SE4: more resources, more techs and more (and better) political interaction. Let me create my own government. Let me appoint and fire system governors, sector governors, cabinet ministers with abilities and flaws. Let me make realistic treaties with other civilizations.

Instead, it gave us...3D graphics. Yawn. Well, I'm 50 years old and I am just not impressed by eye candy. I want more game depth. I saw SE5 for sale for $10 a couple weeks ago and still could not bring myself to buy it.

But hey, lots of people like SE5 and more power to them. I hope a lot of copies were sold. Different strokes, as they say.

[Fyron]

The second complaint is easily modded out in the Data\Settings.txt file. Set these lines to TRUE (skip the ship and unit ones, naturally), and sight will be just like it is in SE4:

Can See Star At Any Distance := TRUE
Can See Planet At Any Distance := FALSE
...
Can See Asteroids At Any Distance := FALSE
Can See Storm At Any Distance := FALSE
Can See Warp Point At Any Distance := FALSE

The next 5 reference objects that do not actually exist in the game code, so can be ignored.

=0=

Note that SE5 is about more than just a graphical upgrade; there is a lot of candy for modders too. The game still needs work to be more fun to play, though.

[Xrati]

The game still needs work to be more fun to play, though.

Fyron, I guess that's the point. When you already have a game that's fun to play. Why would you leave it for another that needs work? People expected a lot from SE5 and many were disappointed!
I expected it to surpass SE4 and really kick some arse. Maybe my expectations were too high? But with the level of play that was achieved with SE4, there was no reason not to expect that.

[Black_Knyght]

Artaud said:

I agree 10000%. I can easily see myself playing SE4 for another 10 years. It's just so immersive, so DEEP and yet so easy on my computer system.

I only played the SE5 demo, but the game as a whole turned me off. The things I remember most about it were 1) that the ships were way too small and that 2) when you entered a system, you could not see what was in the system. That just made no sense at all to me.

SE5 had an entirely different feel, IMHO, and was just not very appealing. I expected the game to have more of what I loved about SE4: more resources, more techs and more (and better) political interaction. Let me create my own government. Let me appoint and fire system governors, sector governors, cabinet ministers with abilities and flaws. Let me make realistic treaties with other civilizations.

Instead, it gave us...3D graphics. Yawn. Well, I'm 50 years old and I am just not impressed by eye candy. I want more game depth. I saw SE5 for sale for $10 a couple weeks ago and still could not bring myself to buy it.

But hey, lots of people like SE5 and more power to them. I hope a lot of copies were sold. Different strokes, as they say.

Gotta say, I agree here completely. I keep trying SE5, keep giving it a chance, and keep ending up regretting the money spent.

I had hoped for more than a flashy 3D game. There are others that come across better if that's what I wanted. And of the things that did get improved in the latest incarnation of Space Empires, they get lost in a game that quickly becomes uninteresting and frustrating the more I play.

SE4 had a way of grabbing my attention and HOLDING it that SE5 just doesn't seem to have.

[Fyron]

Black_Knyght said:
I had hoped for more than a flashy 3D game.

Luckily, it is absolutely not a "flashy 3D game." Instead, its just as deep a strategy experience as SE4, if not deeper in some ways.