'Space Empires V' Demo is Out!

Three of the links did not post properly. I'll try again.

WWW Link">Link

[link="http://www.strategyfirst.com/forum/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?category=9"]WWW Link

http://www.malfador.com/

It seems that I'm allowed only one link per post. Very well.

Ahh! I stil have not played the Space Empires IV demo. So many games, so little time.  

WWW Link

http://www.malfador.com/

 

 

WWW Link

Also: The above mentioned "Torrent" program can be found at www.bittorrent.com or www.utorrent.com.

Wade! where have you been? It's good to see a post that isn't about carriers!

On a topic-related note: That looks pretty snazzy, and I might even repent all the nasty things I've said about SEV and try it.

and, is it any good?

Is it still the ultimate space speadsheet simulator?

Space Empires V is a much more modern and better looking game than Space Empires IV. It has game play options and ways to play galore. This is still just a 100 turn demo with limited playable features activated. There are some notable enhancements it needs as you'll see by visiting the forums mentioned above.(Shrapnel is the most active for now.) Some being commonly mentioned are some parts of the user interface, some play options from SEIV removed/altered, and debates about the research stlye.

Malfador Machinations is well known for continually updating its games and paying close attention to what the players want. I'm sure any problems will be addressed as the game continues to evolve. The release of the full game is set for October 2006.

Visit the forums. Download the demo. Get in early to the community and contribute your mind.

(Oh, and hi Marcathonas! I've been at the mentioned forums, playing Space Empires IV and some others, working, and enjoying home life. I still play Galactic Civilizations II a little with the updates. But mostly I thought I'd try it more with the expansion. The expansion sounds like it has some features from Space Empires IV and V.)

Okay.. great.. is it any good? how does it compare to GalCIv2.. where is it better, where is it worse.. how is it more interesting.. so on and so forth.

You came here and posted about it here.. so do give some details...

http://www.boycottstarforce.net/?page_id=4

That publisher is listed as a StarForce using publisher, so too bad

Hm, that's bad, right...
How it compares to GalCiv2 I don't really know, as I havent seen much of both so far (installed GalCiv2 yesterday but it sort of refuses to run... and I played the SE IV demo a while ago);
but from what little I know of, on the minus side (for me) I'd mention that it (SE) has only jump-travel between systems (or at least, SE IV had that, don't remember seeing any note on that it should be changed, though), while on the plus side it's technologies have some more "personality" as I would say, i.e. it's not just "armour I", "armour II" and so on with just increasing effectiveness, but also some special effects that make things different (ok - maybe I'm misjudging GalCiv2 here, I can currently only take into account the techtree that was in the box )
So I'd pretty much like to get SE V (demo is downloading right now ) , but as I'm not too known with online-purchasing (yes, I'm planning to change that, but it could take me a while... ), I hope it'll hit stores here in Germany...

(oh, and I hope nobody is offended by me using rather many smileys (happened recently in another forum)... if that's considered too much in these forums, inform me of it, and I'll reduce my use of them)

Mav{shivan}
If you are having trouble running GalCiv2, start a new thread in 'Support and Bugs', including the full content of your debug.err file (which is located in your main program folder - usually C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2). Many times it is just a driver update that is needed. The debug file can be opened with Notepad - just select all, copy and paste into the post.

The Space Empires games are targeted somewhat differently than GalCiv2. They're aimed a bit more at "control and detail freaks" (of which I include myself as a part-timer). For example, GalCiv2 has its feature set carefully managed. The feature list is kept manageable for a variety of reasons: a) accessibility, balance, c) AI competence. The result is a streamlined, well balanced game, with an AI that can kick my butt on a regular basis.

Space Empires goes the other route - the one of "featuritis" (that's not a criticism, just an observation). It's difficult to find things that AREN'T included in Space Empires games. For example, all of the following things are present in SEV:

- Fighters and carriers.
- Mines.
- Armed satellites.
- Unmanned drones.
- Ground units.
- Planetary weapons platforms.
- Extremely detailed ship design. There are tons of special purpose components you can research (even turnings ships into mobile ship construction yards, mobile mining platforms, etc.).
- Ship ramming (and the ability to design ships with suicide warheads in them, if that's your thing).
- Bizarre weapons like tractor beams, repulsors, engine-overloading weapons, computer viruses, etc.
- Detailed design (as detailed as ship design itself) for all of the fighters/mines/satellites/drones/units/platforms mentioned above. There are even 3 hull sizes of each.
- Tactical space and ground combat (previously turn/grid based, now in real-time for Space Empires V).
- Ship capture.
- Cloaking ships (and ships designed to detect cloaking ships).
- Planetary invasion.
- WMDs (researching Stellar Manipulation ultimately lets you create/destroy planets, stars, black holes, and warp points).
- Conquering and ruling of alien races (with planetary populations thus composed of racial mixes).
- An "infinite" tech tree (there are something like 6000 tech levels that can be researched - you'll never do them all in any single game).
- Race-specific branches of the technology tree, like organic, crystalline, psychic, temporal and religious technologies.
- Extremely detailed espionage.
- Diplomatic treaties that can get incredibly detailed. Here are just some of the more unusual items that can be included in treaties: 1) One or both empires is prohibited from making treaties with anyone else, 2) One or both empires is prohibited from performing things such as: planetary bombardment, viral weapons, planetary destruction, solar destruction, black hole creation, nebula creation, ship cloaking, 3) Empires will share intelligence operations, including reports on enemy ship designs, etc.
- Extremely moddable.

Of course all of this comes at a price - and a pretty hefty price at that...

- With all of the above detail, there are pages and pages of information to digest when running your empire. This has earned it the derogatory nickname Space Spreadsheets.
- The interface has always been somewhat of a... challenge... to use.
- It's impossible to have all these features as well-balanced as a game like GalCiv2
- The AI has no hope of getting its head wrapped around all this, and just has to blunder its way through things.
- Also, the development "team" on it is basically just one person, plus a few associated artists, modellers, etc. As a result, the polish quality of it isn't what something like Stardock can manage. The post-release support is extremely good though.

One aspect I'm looking to try out with SEV is multiplayer. It can be played not only via network "live" but also PBEM. I have fond memories of playing VGAPlanets and Stars PBEM games, and I want to try one with SEV. That way you can play against humans, and get involved in all sorts of diplomacy, etc.

Anyway, I'm a fan of both GalCiv2 and Space Empires. I'd hate to have to give up either. SE is definitely not everyone's cup of tea though.


-Cauldyth

I've been playing the demo a lot this afternoon.

How does it compare with GalCiv II?

#1 It's a lot lot lot lot more complicated. Its user interface doesn't help with that complexity which gives it a big learning curve.

#2 The graphics are about equal to mid 1990s. If graphics matter, you won't like this game.

#3 It has a lot of play options. The multplayer in SE IV was very good if you were into very long drawn out games. I bet SE V will be as good. The single player isn't fun for me. SE V's painful interface is actually worse than SE IV's for me.

#4 The pacing of the game is really lacking in the demo. You start out with nothing. Nothing. You have to design your own first colony ship from scratch and designing ships was, for me, a chore. You get no ships for starters. No sort of direction on what you should be doing or why.

#5 The game has a lot more potential depth and by that I mean you have a lot more options than you do in GalCiv II. Does that translate into fun? Depends on the player. My guess is that most GalCiv II people will not find the depth enjoyable because a lot of it seems like arbitrary work for the sake of having more displays and read outs in order for fans to say "Look, we have depth".

Conclusions:

I am really startled by the poor presentation of the game. This is a game that is being listed at $39.95 which is the same price as GalCiv II so it is fair to compare the value. The sound in the game is painful. The graphics painful. The user interface is painful. The only thing it has going for it is multiplayer and I am not sure how many people outside die hards will find it fun enough to play.

Try the demo for yourself.


What year is this? 1994?

This is not fun for me. I don't like cryptic ship design where I feel like I'm doing busy work.

Main UI. So many options.

- Also, the development "team" on it is basically just one person, plus a few associated artists, modellers, etc. As a result, the polish quality of it isn't what something like Stardock can manage. The post-release support is extremely good though.

One thing I want to make sure people are aware of is that the GalCiv II team consisted of 3 full-time developers and 2 full-time artists.  5 people. There were other people occasionally in there but it was a pretty small team too (plus this is our second iteration, as opposed to 5th <g>).

I haven't played the demo yet. I just want to make sure when people inevitably do comparisons that GalCiv isn't turned into some game made by a "big team" with "lots of resources".  As Xan pointed out, they're sold for the same price and had comparably sized resources to make it I suspect.

The fact it has multiplayer is definitely something it has going for it and I look forward to trying it out and possibly playing multiplayer. I'll definitely be buying it.

Moosetek13 - Yes, its quite possible a driver (or .dll) issue... I'll see if the patch helps and look for the support-forum if not.

Cauldyth - Yup, I'd include myself in that group, too . Would like to see at least a few of these points in GC2... but you're right in that this also has some disadvantages. Hope I'll enjoy GC2, too .

Xan - Ok, these screens really do look less user-friendly then the SE IV demo (or at least then what I have in mind of it) . Though I do hope that that's just a first impression... will have to see what the demo does.

Frogboy - Hey, don't underestimate yourself... Both SE IV / V and GC2 seem a lot better to me then the products of some larger companies - MO3, for instance (sad, but true) .

One thing I want to make sure people are aware of is that the GalCiv II team consisted of 3 full-time developers and 2 full-time artists. 5 people. There were other people occasionally in there but it was a pretty small team too (plus this is our second iteration, as opposed to 5th

Oops, thanks for the correction. That makes it all the more impressive what you guys and gals pulled off!

I'll be picking up SEV for sure (and Dark Avatar, and Dominions 3, and Medieval 2...) and hopefully get into an epic PBEM game of it.


-Cauldyth

The AI in SEIV was awfull and I expect the same to be true in SEV, so the single player experience is poor. SEV is targetted for multiplayer; I'm glad GalCiv2 targetted single player.

Okay.....

Good reviews guys...

I do not care about multi player... if I wanted interaction with other people... I wouldn't use a game... so AI has to be important. I like good graphics. I like sound. I live in the year of our lord 2006, the those have to account for something. I am curious and I will keep my eyes open, but with 1.3 (some surprised ai behavior in each game I have played).. and the future modability of Gal CIv II (I do not consider it truely moddable yet.. too much hardcoding).. I just don't know. I am also curious about Moo3 with all the special patches and mods and stuff that S1geno keeps talking about.. mauybe someday he will post a link to all of them and I will check them out.

There is that other space game from the homeworld team... but I wait and see.

Space Empires sounds like it has potential... but I am a GC2 man.... through and through (for now).

Space Empires V is supremely moddable. Far more than GalCiv II is. And it has a good community of modders out there who can do everything from enhance the AI to customize the graphics. So it has a lot of potential in those areas.

GalCiv's AI is not scripted so it makes it difficult to make it moddable.  I do think the game is very moddable as well (outside the AI). But in the future, I would like to make future games far more open ended in terms of modding.

Frogboy... You know I love this game, and I am NOT a modder (even an amateur one), but when the number of playable races is hard coded, minor behavior is hard coded, tech tree behavior is hardcoded, ship style/design is hard coded... I would think modability is not so huge.

UI.. and the other stuff non-withstanding.

Now if there was a simple way to take...

Alien A, and add custom text to it, and add ship styles imported from other games.. and custom techtrees etc... The modability would be higher.

Again, I am NOT a modder, I do not know how or even want to try. I am just making an observation.


On the other hand, your continued support. Your open ears and continued interest in the needs of the community makes you and your company unique. Not because something is/isn't moddable. SE and other games like it, might be moddable (a whole lot) but a community of people that DO NOT work for the company... GalCiv2, Is constantly being improved though the integration of Feedback ideas from the community by THE ORIGINAL PROGRAMMERS of the game.


That is more than most will ever understand.

Thank you.

Alien A, and add custom text to it, and add ship styles imported from other games.. and custom techtrees etc... The modability would be higher.

You can do this already.

You could create a true Star Wars or whatever mod that replaces all the races, each with its own technology tree and have its own ships. It does this today. 

The races are all just text files.

The graphics modles use .x files (open standard).

The graphics themselves are .png's

And the UI is .dxpack (DesktopX).

The ONLY thing that is hard-coded and I"m not even sure that's the case is the # of civilizations and that has to do with the UI being locked to displaying N players.  B.

There are Babylon5 5, Star Wars, Star Trek, and other mods already around.

I guess it is time for me to learn how to mod then.

We shall see how poorly my mods are.