Space Empires Vs. Galactic Civilisations

Quitch · #1 July 10th, 2005, 06:13 PM

Back in the day I was a big fan of Space Empires III, going so far as to create my own ship designs. I played the game over and over loving every second of it.

I haven't played a 4X game in a while, and coming back it seems that GC and SE are still top of the pile. I heard good things about the AI of GC, but I know SE has AI mods and more to customise...

That's just speaking from what little I know, but in my experience fans of both sides are better placed to put forward the pros and cons of their favoured game. I know that both are waiting on a new version to come out, but I wanted to know what the pros and cons of each game are and was hoping people could guide me in my search for a new 4X game. Sure, I could try them both, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who has more games than time

Strategia_In_Ultima · #2 July 10th, 2005, 07:52 PM

You mean to say you actually designed your ships?

just kidding!

As for your question, well, right now you can't buy SEIV IIRC - you'll have to wait until Strategy First starts selling them. However, there might be stray SEIV or even SEIV Gold CDs on sites like Ebay.

I've played the GalCiv1 demo once and lemme tell you one thing, that set the record for the game that survived longest on my HD! That game just sucked..... A counter-intuitive research screen, a mysteriousness about ship construction, bad GUI - in fact, the only good thing about it was that you had to research Universal Translator to be able to communicate with other races - but since you could only play as humans, that pro was pretty much negated.

SEIV:
-Is great for modding. You can make it into anything you like.
-Has got an excellent online community.
-Can be learned in just fifteen minutes but you keep discovering more and more strategies as you play the game (and talk on the forums).
-Comes with a slew of great mods. (Well, SEIV Deluxe will be - Strategy First is going to release (or so I've heard) SEIV Gold with multiple much-played mods, including but not limited to the Star Trek Mod, Adamant Mod, Pirates & Nomads etc.)

Need I say more?

Quitch · #3 July 10th, 2005, 08:10 PM

By ship design I of course meant graphics

Atrocities · #4 July 10th, 2005, 11:05 PM

Gal Civ is NOT a 4 x game. It does not have the depth that SEIV or even SEIII had. GalCiv you limited to ship pre-designed ships, plants are not system based, they are just scattered about randomly, and the focus is more on bases than on colonizing. Its a good game, but boring after the first time you play it.

Now SEIV on the other hand has demonstrated that it has infinate replayability. After nearly five years it is still going well and is being re-released in stores with Septemenber.

Now don't get me wrong, GalCiv is a good game in whatever nitch genera it has carved out for itself. I have the game and thought it was a really nice looking game, with some awsome features, but simply put I found it boring as hell.

ironman · #5 July 10th, 2005, 11:35 PM

Moo 1&2 was a great 4x game, so was stars (stars supernova) looked good too.

I have played the demo of GalCiv it was so so
GalCiv2 will be nice to try

Thermodyne · #6 July 11th, 2005, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Quitch said:
Back in the day I was a big fan of Space Empires III, going so far as to create my own ship designs. I played the game over and over loving every second of it.

I haven't played a 4X game in a while, and coming back it seems that GC and SE are still top of the pile. I heard good things about the AI of GC, but I know SE has AI mods and more to customise...

That's just speaking from what little I know, but in my experience fans of both sides are better placed to put forward the pros and cons of their favoured game. I know that both are waiting on a new version to come out, but I wanted to know what the pros and cons of each game are and was hoping people could guide me in my search for a new 4X game. Sure, I could try them both, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who has more games than time

Do any PBEM back in the SE3 days? Ever hang out at the Borg Forums?

GC is not at all like SE. Back during the Bata tests I found it to be more or less a snipe hunt with a limited AI and even more limited Bata testers.

Renegade 13 · #7 July 11th, 2005, 02:23 AM

Well comparing the two is a rather hard thing to do, since they really are very different. However, I'll try to compare them anyways

GC has a really good AI...in fact, it's too good in my opinion. I can't say with any degree of accuracy, but I think the AI cheats blatantly. They always sent their ships directly to the best planets, before I had a chance to get there, they always researched faster...it was really very frustrating. Speaking of the research, it sucks...badly. Especially compared to SEIII/SEIV.

SEIV has a lot going for it...mods, replayability, support from the community and game creator, etc. The worst part is the AI. To put it bluntly, after you've "mastered" the game, it offers no challenge really. However, the TDM modpack does make this way way way better. I can rarely beat that AI...and it doesn't cheat!!

There's much more I could say, but my time isn't infinite.

Suicide Junkie · #8 July 11th, 2005, 02:34 AM

You can play against real people in SE4. And thus, no cheating is required to get a challenge.

Quitch · #9 July 11th, 2005, 06:35 AM

I did a couple of PBEM games, but only with an online friend. I tried to understand the greater community a couple of times, but I didn't find the forum crowd particularly helpful at the time, and since I didn't follow the forums on a regular basis I didn't really know what was going on.

PBEM is good fun, but a good AI is important too for those times I just want to sit down and game!

Quitch · #10 July 11th, 2005, 06:35 AM

I have to admit, I never really played SEIV beyond one crack at the demo... maybe because making my own ship graphics was too hard. The graphics got better, my skills hadn't

I think the only thing that put me off in SEIII was as the game moved into the later stages you'd have a LOT of planets. I'd either have to tediously cycle through them, ensuring they were upgrading to the latest facilities (and since you couldn't actually upgade, destroying the old and queueing the new) so I'd turn if over to the AI Minsters (which was their purpose, was it not) but they wouldn't delete old buildings to construct newer copies. I think after a while of that I got put off... that and the fact that any race that was peaceful always utterly dominated anyone else

I ran across TDM once, though I'd forgotten the name. The AI is an element of the game that greatly interests me. I was put off by GC's simplicity after the options I had in SEIII, but the AI in SEIII was lacking in certain areas (once point defence to shoot down the AI missiles, then once I'd gone high enough in lasers I could dominate their fleets, I'd just leave the battles to the AI... tactical combat was pretty boring IMO). I much prefer to having turn after turn rather than waiting days for the next turn, though after playing with a friend I have to admit, there was a certain thril to it

How much does TDM improve on the AI? How far does it raise the bar?