I have been playing moo3 and enjoying it but while poking around for answers to Moo3 questions, I saw several discussions on Space Empires V. Seems very comes and deep but I seem to remember people had issues with it...can the problems be solved with mods?
Worth picking up?
IIRC it ran at about 1 frame per second on WinVista & Win7 last I heard.
I hated it. You no longer have tactical control of your ships during battle. Space Empires 4 is excellent - try it instead.
I don't care about control in tactical battles so much. I want complex design. I had read that with the balance mod, Ai in v was better? Also that with ship design elements it was more complex than 4?
I don't have a dog in the fight and I can pick up both. Just don't want to waste valuable game time
SE5 is absolutely fine as-is in my opinion, and reportedly even better with the balance mod. However I have been unable to get it working on Win7-64.
SE4 is just as deep and, although the graphics are obviously older, just as capable of scratching the itch. I vote for SE4 - fantastic game.
Ok, well I think the only way to solve this is to buy both...I think there is a bundle for like $10 or something
Mikeck,
I picked up a copy of SE5 and it included a copy of SE4. You may want to look and see if you can find a copy like that, get both for the price of one.
Mike, you're not going to regret it. If you want deep and absorbing, you've got it!
Lookie here (http://www.spaceempires.net/) for a good community and collection of resources. :)
You can find more information about Space Empires V in the dictionary, under "Tedious Interface"
Quote from: Tamas on July 12, 2013, 04:01:07 PM
You can find more information about Space Empires V in the dictionary, under "Tedious Interface"
Ever play Dominions 3? ;)
Quote from: Huw the Poo on July 12, 2013, 04:11:06 PM
Quote from: Tamas on July 12, 2013, 04:01:07 PM
You can find more information about Space Empires V in the dictionary, under "Tedious Interface"
Ever play Dominions 3? ;)
I don't think Dom 3's interface is terrible. It's not great, sure, but not something I'd refer to as being a fine example of horrid UI either.
Ok, tried both for a few minutes. SeV ran ok with one problem. To avoid screen flickering you have to run it in window mode....and the window only takes up about half my screen. Very annoying. Someone said you could edit the HUD settings file, but the lines they said to edit weren't in my file (the post was 5 years old)
Anyway, I didn't care for the graphics. It's not that they were bad...just "cartoony"
So then I tried SE IV and I like it much better. Graphics are actually better I think...even in 2D. It runs in full widescreen and generally looks a lot better. So, I will be going with SE IV I think.
Now I know there are a ton of mods...but is there a SE iV equivalent of the "tropical " mod? An all inclusive "must have"??
You'll die of old age before ever finishing a game, suffers 4X big game issues of fun at first, boring in the middle stage and completely unmanageable near the end.
Well that's what mods are for!
Second, I've never finished a 4x in my life. Once I get to the point where I know I am going to win, I start over.
C'mon man....it's Friday, don't rain on my parade
Giving up on MoO3, mikeck? Say it ain't so. I was just about to jump in, although I'm still a little unwilling to deal with a complex install / patching process.
If I can sneak in a question -- do you need both the official game patches *and* Tropical mod, or does Tropical cover everything?
I have Space Empires IV sitting on the desktop, as well as a dozen other space 4x titles, giving me the 'oh why won't you play us?' look. Not sure, but just haven't been able to muster the enthusiasm to play SE4. I keep hoping to find the 'perfect' space 4x but never seem satisfied. Could MoO3 be it? That's what I'm wondering at the moment...
If memory serves, you need the latest retail patch version, which I think is 1.2.5
Oh no...still playing Moo3! Just in the mood for some more space action. Also playing through Nexis: Jupiter Incident as well. Forgot how awesome that game is. Just when im losing interest in space games, Nasa discovers a new planet and i read about it on Space.com...them im back in the mood. Anyway, if you bought Moo3 from GoG or GG I believe it is patched up. Just install tropical.
I'm at the point in Moo3 where something is about to happen. I'm in the Senate so I have contacts, I have 5 planets and no fleet to speak of. Nothing much seems to be happening but usually that's when I get attacked.
Glad to hear it. I envy your ability to play multiple complex strategy games at once. These day I find myself hard pressed to concentrate on any one thing for any extended period of time. Still, I think I'm going to give moo3 a go. I really like the idea of deep fleet management with many different classes of ships, plus deep ship design.
I tried SEV on Windows 8 Pro 64bit and it works just fine. I'm finding a lot of older games that didn't work so good with Windows 7 seem to work ok with Windows 8. Of the two I remember liking SEIV more.
Yeah, I'm finding that a lot of issues I had with games in windows 7 were resved when I stopped installing them in the program 86 file it defaults to. So far anyway. I can run SEV, just only in windowed mode. Truthfully, I kind of like the look of SE4 a little more. To each their own.
Sandman, it's not that I can play both...I will play Moo3 for a week or so, switch to DW or something for a bit, then go back. I can't just go back and forth. It really depends what I am in the mood for. Right now Nexis is blowing me away. I had forgotten the little details like carbon scorching and thruster that actually fire correctly depending on how the ship is moving.
Tommorow I could be ready to hop back into Moo3 game for a week again
Quote from: mikeck on July 12, 2013, 06:25:23 PM
So then I tried SE IV and I like it much better. Graphics are actually better I think...even in 2D. It runs in full widescreen and generally looks a lot better. So, I will be going with SE IV I think.
Now I know there are a ton of mods...but is there a SE iV equivalent of the "tropical " mod? An all inclusive "must have"??
There's a specific SE4 mod that everyone tends to enjoy, which is also often included in other mods. I just can't recall the name of it right now. ???
Something like 'BM' or 'DM'?? (Let's hope it's the latter :P )
Nothing wrong with a good BM
I think I will try "fusion" mod
"TDM" mod???? It's included in Fusion
Quote from: mikeck on July 13, 2013, 03:14:31 PM
"TDM" mod???? It's included in Fusion
That's the one!
I knew it had an "M" in it...
I recently re-downloaded it and recall how much a pain in the ass it is because you gotta download the TDM files
plus a few other gfx/sound packs. They're not large but there are a number of different d/ls to grab for it.
Well, in the "extras" folder of SE IV "delux" edition (which is what you get from gamersgate) there are a bunch of mods including TDM. So I installed that.
I prefer Space Empires 4. I have framerate issues with SE5. Also SE4 has a charm about it that SE5 doesn't. SE4's UI all works together and almost has a 'modern retro' feel to it, SE5's actually feels dated.
Quote from: republic on July 13, 2013, 05:53:18 PM
I prefer Space Empires 4. I have framerate issues with SE5. Also SE4 has a charm about it that SE5 doesn't. SE4's UI all works together and almost has a 'modern retro' feel to it, SE5's actually feels dated.
I totally agree with this, actually. I was pretty bummed when I "upgraded" to Win7 and SE5 no longer worked, but I've been more than happy since trying SE4.
Yeah, I fixed the frame rate issues with 5 but the only way to prevent flickering on the screen is by running it in windowed mode... Which leaves 50% of my monitor unused.
SE 4 uses the whole screen (except main screen which is in a smaller window) and runs flawlessly.
I think the graphics are actually better in 4...less cartoony