Ah man, look at what you made me do, delurk.
"Incredibly low production value."
Mr. I don't think you understand something. Look around and find another 4X game that has come out since 2001 that beats SE IV. A game superior to SE IV which was produced by a one-man company, as moddable as SE IV, as supported as SEIV, as fan loved, and still as popular as it was when it was released in 2000. Find ONE game that has that kind of production value my friend. Just one.
Space Empires was produced by one man, not a team of programmers, and it has dominated the 4x market since its release back in Nov 2000 while all other games in the genera have failed. Gold is one of the most supported games I have ever seen if not the most supported.
Malfador has done an exceptional job with the Production Value of this game that I seriously laughed when I read your comments. Then I realized that you were serious and I felt, no I was compelled to post.
If you want a game with bad production value, go buy Masters Of Orion 3. That game had a lot of people working on it, and a lot of money thrown at it and still it is utter crap. Compare SE IV to that and even to Gal Civ, Reach for The Stars, and a couple other games that have come out since 2000 and you will soon see that SEIV is the king of the hill. Sure the graphics are dated, but at least we can add new graphics when we want. Sure the game play is not 3d, but who cares, again we can add our OWN ship designs to the game without having to be 3d engineers.
And at least our battles can have over 100 ships on each side without CRASHING like in BOTF, and Rebellion.
No if anything SE IV has higher Production Value than the Last five games for the 4x market combined.
Gal Civ is the only competition for SEIV and after playing that game for a week you will be board sh**less.
SE IV Gold is worth the $40.00 bucks more so today than when it was released. And for the record, the game may be two years old, but it is far more popular today than ever. So either buy the game for the $40.00 or get it on EBay for less, either way buy the game and see for your self otherwise, try MOO3 and enjoy.