I love the flexibility of SE4 and Hate the user interface. I haven't bought the game but am considering it now, as I need a change from other games. I played SE3 to death and modded it a great deal - it has a UI that suits my style better (I did the Innova mod, just in case any of you might remember it - it did gain some popularity).
I checked out the SE4 gold demo again and it left me with a few detailed questions. I'd appreciate a comment on those.
1. I have a problem getting rid of the the rightclick popup info windows. It seems that I have to move the mouse to the window (it always appears in the center of the screen) and rightclick on it again to dismiss it - then move the mouse back again to complete what I was doing in the first place. Esc and Enter doesn't work. Neither does clicking or rightclicking elsewhere. Has that changed from the demo?
2. Similarly for the main game windows (F2 and onwards). I'd expect that hitting e.g. F3 with one of these open would dismiss the current window and open the design window. But it doesn't - I have to close the open window first. Has that changed?
3. The AI seems to be of the juvenile Category. Much like Civ3. An example: In a demo game, one AI offered a trade treaty, then declared war a turn or two later. They seem to know how to beat me with a stick, not how to deal with me diplomatically. As I said, much like Civ3
I know there are some AI mods out there - do they change the diplomatic aspect or do they simply make the AI more powerful?
4. I tried using ministers to construct facilities to reduce my workload. How well do they do that? Can they scrap facilities to make room for new, better ones (not just upgrade)?
In short - way too much mouse work for my taste, but lots of flexibility and opportunity for trying out different strategies.
Love and Hate
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