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[Neonivek]

Space Empires 3. Because you can cut yourself off from all the other star systems in the galaxy by closing the wormholes between them, then devote 10 years to buildinga fleet of cloaked robot kamikaze ships armed with system destroying sun exploder bombs, then unleash them upon the rest of civilization.

Thank god AdBlock can block avatars, or else I probably would've quit this forum. Something about that avatar is just so disturbing. I'm still cringing right now thinking about it.

Honestly I've reported a person before on this site for having an avatar too disturbing. I don't think it went through.

As for Fenrif's picture... Yeah if I wasn't so sure it was a faked avatar I'd be deeply disturbed to, and by that I mean yes... I am deeply disturbed by it.

Though it can be faked with lunch meat.

[GMichelIV]

Dominions 3 is by far my favorite multiplayer 4X, particularly with some of the mods.

Im just getting into Dominions 3, what can you recommend?

[SalmonGod]

Fenrif's avatar is a rather famous photo manipulation.  I've seen it floating around the internet for at least 6 years.  No lunch meat.  Just photoshop.

It's even featured prominently on this Gizmodo article about the history of photoshop.

Spoiler: A thumbnail doesn't do the image justice (click to show/hide)

[Hanzoku]

Honestly, I think Moo3 gets a bad rap, though it does need mods to render it playable. One thing it does really well is let you play the macro-game, not the micro-game. I rarely complete many 4x games from that era because of their overwhelming focus on micro-management. This is fine in the early game when you only have a few planets you need to control. But when your empire has expanded to 50+ colonies and multiple armadas, I really can't be bothered to set up and manage the production queue of each new colony and the continued expansion of my established planets while also planning and executing a multi-system offensive including invasion and occupation of the enemy colonies.

MOO3 does a good job of taking a lot of the pressure off the 'back end' of your empire building so you can focus more on... well, empire building.

[Neonivek]

Fenrif's avatar is a rather famous photo manipulation.  I've seen it floating around the internet for at least 6 years.  No lunch meat.  Just photoshop.

It's even featured prominently on this Gizmodo article about the history of photoshop.

Spoiler: A thumbnail doesn't do the image justice (click to show/hide)

Ahh yes a LOT less disturbing now that I can see it in full.

I originally thought it was a person who was in an meat slicer accident. Since while it is small it is somewhat black.

[MonkeyHead]

Has nobody mentioned "Stars!" yet? Granted, its kind of old and the AI is limited, but the amount of race customisation is incredible (if you can imagine it you can model it) and when played against other humans (designed for play by email) it is incredible, with a 4 or more player game on a medium to large map taking months if not years to play. It has a solid tech tree, a decent diplomacy engine for multiplayer, flexible ship design, and plenty of varied grand strategical approaches to follow.

[RedKing]

Oh yeah....I used to have some killer PBEMs of Stars!. Still have the original CD in my collection.

I was always massively fond of playing Alternate Reailty races (you don't colonize worlds, but instead live in giant space stations over those worlds, with scanner range that increases organically as your population maxes up.)

It was pretty awesome to have your empire blanketed by Baby Death Stars. Although it meant an entire colony could go poof in one battle.

[Lorgath]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Endless Space. It's definitely a light 4x game,  but I have found it to be enjoyable enough to have lost a good deal of Christmas to it. I have heard people complain about the combat, however.

[puke]

Honestly, I think Moo3 gets a bad rap, though it does need mods to render it playable. One thing it does really well is let you play the macro-game, not the micro-game.

I'll second this, especially with the "chocolate" mod pack and patches it becomes a really great game.  It isnt MOO exactly, but it is a different Macro style gameplay.  Feels much more like you are in strategic command of an empire and less like you're an omnesciant micromanager.

Space Empires 3. Because you can cut yourself off from all the other star systems in the galaxy by closing the wormholes between them, then devote 10 years to buildinga fleet of cloaked robot kamikaze ships armed with system destroying sun exploder bombs, then unleash them upon the rest of civilization.

You could do this in SE4 also, I think the "stellar manipulation" features there were even more advanced than in 3, you could build ring and sphere-worlds, destroy and construct planets, asteroids, and nebulae.  It was missing the deep-space and asteroid colonization of STARS!, and due to engine limitations I dont think you could even mod it in.  They were supposed to fix that in SE5 but I'm not sure how it ended up working out.  I only looked at it for a fairly short while.

Like everyone else, I've got a soft spot for SMAC.  It wasn't a "4X in Space" as much as it was a sci-fi Civ on another planet -- but I liked the research tree in that it was possible to pursue transcendence without colonizing the stars.  I'm a fan of the accelerating technology models (rather than a plateau of stability based on current silicon limits and state models) and I think its a bit crazy that a civilization could be building massive stellar constructions without having transformed into something altogether unrecognizable.

On the other hand, anachronistic space opera is awfully fun to play.

[aristabulus]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Endless Space. It's definitely a light 4x game,  but I have found it to be enjoyable enough to have lost a good deal of Christmas to it. I have heard people complain about the combat, however.

I gave it a whirl when it had the free weekend on Steam.  Even filing ES on the light end of the spectrum, it felt half-baked.  The devs seem very committed to evolving the game into more than it is, and they've got some good design ideas, so I'm keeping an eye on it.  I'll likely buy it somewhere down the road, but probably not until the planned paid expansion is released.

The only consistent complaint I've heard re: ES's combat is having to suffer through the animations to choose your combat cards...  but that got resolved in a recent patch, iirc.

[Frumple]

Dominions 3 is by far my favorite multiplayer 4X, particularly with some of the mods.

Im just getting into Dominions 3, what can you recommend?

I remember the warhammer ones actually being kinda' decent. There's also some kind of unofficial rebalance patch or something like that, which is a good idea. Then a few spell diversity mods or somethin' along those lines, additional heroes and magic sites, also good. Check the official Dom3 forum, I do believe there's a consolidated mod thread or two on there where you can see what's available. There's a good spread to choose from.

And yeah, Dom 3 is pretty incredible. It's got its problems (price point being the major stickler for me, unfortunately), but it does a lot of things really well and can be intensely satisfying. I hear the multiplayer shenanigans get pretty awesome, too.

[Torham]

Definitely Star Ruler. Although I may have a biased view, since I have just finished making a custom shipset for it
You can see a few screens here http://forums.blind-mind.com/index.php?topic=5543.0.