New to S.E. IV & problems patching

[Fyron]

1.4? 1.5? Did you mean 1.94 and 1.95? The latest version of SE4 is 1.95, available on the main SE sites: Malfador.com, SEnet, spaceempires5.com, etc.

You can check the version of your SE4 install by opening the History.txt file in your SE4 folder. The latest version in this change log is the version of the game you have.

If you bought SEIV Deluxe, it will already be at 1.93 or 1.94, and you will not need the gigantic 1.94 patch. You just need to apply the 1.95 patch:

Patch 1.95

If, on the other hand, you have SE4 classic (1.02 was the release version, IIRC), or SE4 Gold (1.60), you will need to first apply patch 1.94, which brings those up to spec with the new MP3 based music system introduced in Deluxe:

Patch 1.94

Once you have such an installation patched to 1.94, you can apply the 1.95 patch from above.

[MarkL]

Thanks for the reply Fyron,

I have not logged in for a few days, away with work.
I have checked the history file o a fresh installation and it is 1.93. for some reason it will note accept the 1.94 patch only the 1.95 patch, but it seems to run ok so I guess I do not have to worry. I have the SEIV Deluxe version box. Even has a nice little manual, rare these days.

Cheers MarkL.

[Parasite]

I would do the tutorial and start with the basic game (maybe with TDM or Expansion packs added) Later, after it gets boring you can switch to the mods. It has not gotten boring to me yet, so I am still on the basic game, but there are a lot of interesting mod and shipsets out there.

Also there are a few "Mod Selectors" that will allow you to choose which mod to run for a game and load the appropreate files. It saves a lot of moving and manual switching.

[MarkL]

I started to try to play without doing the tutorial because I thought it was too long. My error.

I have now started and are learning more than when I trying by trial and error.

Cheers MarkL

[capnq]

The tutorial is good for learning the interface, but less good for basic strategy. (For one example, you will never start a normal game with any empty facility slots on your homeworld, the way you do in the tutorial.) Once you've finished the tutorial, I personally recommend dropping that game and starting a fresh one.

I once thought about writing a "better" tutorial myself, but never got around to it.

[Possum]

Mark,

Yeah, what everybody is implying and nobody has said bluntly is that you can patch from v1.93 directly to v1.95 in your situation.

Welcome to the community! I support the above calls for TDM Modpack. It's needed to make the AI more challenging once you learn the game a bit, but it might cause the AI to kick your butt if you install it right away!

I'd suggest you play the game box stock until you're comfortable with the mechanics, and you start finding the stock AI too easy. Then install the TDM modpack, which really just adds a bunch of new AI empires, and makes all the AI empires play in a more challenging fashion. TDM Modpack does not change the game mechanics in any way.

If you find you like stock SE4, or rather stock SE4 with TDM Modpack, you're invited to come play with us at PBW. We have a regular group there that plays stock or near-stock SE4.

And watch out for the RAGE!

[Possum]

Heh, I'm a moron. I didn't notice this thread was 60 days old.