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[Idiom]

I had the sudden urge today to go out and pick up some sort of 4X space game and spend my afternoon carving an empire out of the universe.

Can anyone recommend some good 4X or 4X related space games? Fairly recent ones, specifically.

Galactic Civilizations is alright, but it's very simple. I suppose that's a plus for the AI, as the AI can actually put up a fight.
Space Empires V looks too complex for it's own good and I've heard terrible things about the AI.
MOO3 had too much unnecessary garbage added.
Any freewares?
Sins of a Solar empire was Homeworld meets Civilizations, wasn't it?

[Tormy]

Whaaat? Galciv2 ToA + latest patch = epic win.
You don't need anything else. You call that game SIMPLE?!..or you were talking about part 1.?

PS. SoSE is a space RTS. Quite good RTS in fact. 

[a1s]

um... I don't know what they did with the lastest patch, I have vanilla GalCiv2, and it's boring! I couldn't even finish the campaign, so bored I was. And I played SEIV for weeks, so I can deal with the gamestyle of 4x pretty well.

[Idiom]

Looks like a bit of a rift there in 4X fans.

GalCiv2 I played only the original. I assume with mods and the expansions it could be quite good. 60$ for everything is steep though.

SEIV and V have more options, but to a useless degree. The ship designer was good, but it doesn't matter where you put components anyway. If it doesn't matter, at least in GC you could have great control over what the ship looks like.

SoSE I heard was a 4X + Homeworld. I'm going to have to try that one, but I still want an old-fashioned plain 4X.

[a1s]

actually there are a few mods for SEV, that make it matter where you put stuff (apparently the mechanics are there, but MM decided they were confusing, or something, and decided not to use them). However, as was pointed out, AI is ridiculously bad in that game (and I have never found anyone to multi-play it with...).

[Tormy]

GalCiv2 I played only the original. I assume with mods and the expansions it could be quite good.

Yeah ToA is really awesome, you should give it a try. Also Galciv2: Endless Universe has been released in Europe, it contains all game updates so far [+ the expansions also of course]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Galactic-Civilizations-Endless-Universe-PC/dp/B001DFZ5VU
Price: £14.98 

[Virtz]

Not that I'm excusing the devs sloppy job, but there are AI mods for SEV that supposedly make it much better. I'd also suggest finding some sort of balance mod before playing it, as by default, the starting technologies feel most effective and the newer ones are practically just for style, at least with the default AI, which I never had troubles destroying with fighter swarms and they never even got to technologies which could make depleted-uranium weaponry ineffective.

Despite its short-comings, it's my favourite 4x game to date. It's got tactical space battles, tactical land battles, ships/units can have components disabled during battle, they can be captured, etc..

Not mentioned here yet, there's also a great 4x game called Emperor of the Fading Suns, which sort of plays like Panzer General (with stacking, diplomacy and resources) on land, sea and space in a WH40k/Dune sort of setting (zealous view on religion and great houses competing with eachother).

If you want it simpler than either and don't mind a few things that don't quite make sense (like having to research planetary invasion :|), then maybe you should try GalCiv2 (demo available), which sort of plays like a Civ4 in space.

[a1s]

Not mentioned here yet, there's also a great 4x game called Emperor of the Fading Suns, which sort of plays like Panzer General (with stacking, diplomacy and resources) on land, sea and space in a WH40k/Dune sort of setting (zealous view on religion and great houses competing with eachother).

I love that game! It's from '96, but I still play it occasionally. It's not really 4x though.

[Nilocy]

SEV is very good, especially online. Although its play by email its still good fun all round. Its got massive amounts of customisation which is its biggest draw in. And like Virtz said theres great land and space battles. And there are plenty mods out there which balance everything better and give it better AI.

SoaSE is also very good, but its more a real time 4x, with the exploit taken out of it.

[Brendan]

Space Empires IV was great, in my opinion, but Space Empires V is awful. The research pretty much ruins the game; every technology has 100 levels which take at least one turn to research each, and increase the effectiveness of a component by something like 0.1% each time. I guess it's meant to simulate gradual improvement over time but I just didn't feel like my research projects were going anywhere at any time...

[Idiom]

Found the balancer +AI mod for SEV, but I can't find the mod that makes ship component placement count.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I'm still keeping Remember Tomorrow on my HD, even though I rarely play it nowadays. Great ship constructor, epic battles...  nonexistant plot and non-military management. Fun game, that. Send one specially equipped Heavy Cruiser against an entire battlefleet of Destroyers... depending on the situation, either have the cruiser deploy heavy fighters mounting nuclear MIRVs, or have it toting neutrino accelerators, or just load it up with a crapload of light fighters with heavy blasters. "Crapload" as in "somewhere near 500 per ship", at later stages.

[Boksi]

I have SEV and SEIV. I agree, the modding is their greatest strength, to the detriment of other factors. Right until those factors are fixed by mods, that is.

Of course, I'm a horrible player at them, but still, they're fun.

Wait, how many SE IV/V players are here, anyway? Perhaps we could set up a PBE game or somesuch?

[CaveBacon]

I used to play both SEV and SEIV, then I found Dwarf Fortress.

[Empty]

I'm still keeping Remember Tomorrow on my HD, even though I rarely play it nowadays. Great ship constructor, epic battles...  nonexistant plot and non-military management. Fun game, that. Send one specially equipped Heavy Cruiser against an entire battlefleet of Destroyers... depending on the situation, either have the cruiser deploy heavy fighters mounting nuclear MIRVs, or have it toting neutrino accelerators, or just load it up with a crapload of light fighters with heavy blasters. "Crapload" as in "somewhere near 500 per ship", at later stages.

What is it's title? I can't google it.