Newbie impressions

[LeTharg]

I'm new to Space Empires and to the whole 4X genre. I'm a long time gamer, primarily RPGs but also adventure and FPS (first person shooters such as Half-life). My top two favorite games are Deus Ex and Planescape Torment. I tried RTS games such as Wascraft and Starcraft but felt the real-time component detracted from the strategic and tactical side. So when I saw the review of SE4 in PC Gamer, I ordered a copy.

At this point I have played throught 3 times. 1.19 with no mods, large galaxy, AI difficulty on high, the first time with no bonus, then with low bonus and finally with high bonus. I used a medium number of AI players with neutrals and defined my own race. I won all the games easily.

I thought some might be interested in my impressions of the game as an outsider. Overall I'm having fun, am impressed with the depth and replayability of the game and feel that I more than got my money's worth (especially when compared with some games I've bought--I paid retail for Daikatana for example). I intend to keep playing. I haven't begun to explore the capabilities of the game--for example I haven't ever built a freighter, laid a mine, used a racial tech, used tactical combat, used a minister, set a formation or strategy, built a base, traded or captured a technology, used offensive intel or lots of other stuff.

And yet the game wouldn't, at this point, make my top ten list. There are two basic reasons: a clumsy and obstructive UI and the lack of tension.

I've never before played a game where I spent so much time redesigning the UI. I know MM is small and I suppose an ad hoc UI is a natural outcome of the long progression of the game but I would think an object oriented non-modal UI would be easier to implement and maintain than a pile of special cases and modalities. Easier to use too. Oh well, I got things done eventually.

Much more important to me was the lack of tension. I never once felt, in any of my three games, that my empire was in any way imperiled. The only planet I lost was a newly created colony in the middle of someone else's territory (I wondered how easy they were). The lack of tension is certainly do to the AI. When I read that the high bonus was 5X, I wondered how any one could defeat those overwhelming odds. Now I know. As you can see from the list of stuff I haven't done, I am really a novice. Any experienced human player would clobber me. Yet I defeated the AI easily using some elemetary tactical rules:
1. Secure your territory.
2. Defend the narrow places (warp points).
3. Attack with overwhelming force.
4. Pursue technological advantage (guys on horses with stirrups beat those without).
Yet the AI never did any of those things. I was amazed that even with a 5X advantage, I was technologically ahead of all the AI by turn 60. I had stealth, they didn't have (or use?) scanners. They died.

One other note, I didn't understand the AI attitudes. They would warmly urge a treaty on me one turn and then curse me and declare war the next without any change that I could detect. I know about MEE and when I hit it they all sent me nastygrams but nobody really did anything about it. When I was cooperative, they would feel "murderous" and, one masochistic empire felt "brotherly" towards me while I was systematically destroying it. I gave up on trying to work with diplomacy and just did what I wanted without regard to their bleating.

My hope is that the new patch and the mods (once adapted to the patch) will cure the major problems with the AI.

Finally, I think the best thing this game has going for it is the active and intelligent user community (along with the ability to mod it). Thanks for your efforts. I've learned a lot by reading Posts and searching this board. I plan on using the mods once the patch is out.