<t>To begin with, all three games SMAC/X, SEIV and STUN are WELL worth the money.<br/>
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STUN:dG (IMHO) is the FIRST to get boring. Its quite fun, but after the third or fourth game, it simply becomes pure repetition.<br/>
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SMAC/X (IMHO) is one of the very few games that I will suddenly ...

<r>SEIV Gold is Space Empires IV Gold (version).<br/>
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You can find all you ever wanted to know at <URL url="http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi."><s>[url]</s>http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi.<e>[/url]</e></URL><br/>
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Its a very old school game, turn ...

<t>Like STUN:DG, SEIV is an "independent" I think if you look at their forums you'd be Stunned (pun) at how active their fan base is. However, I say vote with your wallet and buy the Gold version. <br/>
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My one quibble with SMAC was the games never got to the last hull (the one after the tank ...

<r>Greetings:<br/>
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<I><s>[I]</s>I've been thinking about purchasing SE IV but would like to learn more about it. To give an idea of my taste in games, let's just say I've been flamed by FPS adicts for saying that Alpha Centauri is one of the greatest PC games ever. <e>[/I]</e></I> <br ...

<t>Andrew,<br/>
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My two cents would be:<br/>
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1) Ability to either transfer crews to larger ships or upgrade the ships to larger hulls (which makes less sense). I get attached to the scouts I start with, but find it absurd that even "super scouts" can so easily trash cruisers in the late ...

<t>I certainly don't debate that combat was ORIGINALLY funner in STUN than in SE IV, and it mostly retained its charm the second, third, fourth, and fifth games. But after that, the limited tech tree started showing its ugly head.<br/>
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There was a comment about SE IV having 20:1 staff ratio, I ...

<t>Unknown Enemy et al.,<br/>
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I'm not debating your like or dislike of SE IV. <br/>
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However, a "normal" game of SE IV (single player) takes 20 - 100 hours of real time. So, if you get bored after a few hours, you really haven't gotten to what I consider the meat of the game.<br/>
<br ...

<t>Comparing these two products isn't as simple as you think.<br/>
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SE IV is designed to take WEEKS to play. You can control or do almost anything you have ever thought of in science fiction.<br/>
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STUN plays very fast, and, I think, ultimately lacks depth. That doesn't mean that it wasn't ...

Did you send him a communication requesting Federation? I've never seen that fail if both sides are at 100 percent.

<t>I wrote the original post when I had only played a few games. Then, I thought that in the early game, where you're clawing up the tech tree and colonies are very expensive and take a long time to mature into something useful, a starbase would be a very effective addition to the game.<br/>
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1 ...

<t>IMHO,<br/>
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Jump gates vastly corrupt the game balance. I didn't like them in MOO2, where (I think) you had to jump from gate to gate. That had the effect of making defending absurdly easy, since you could assemble your entire fleet at any point in an instant.<br/>
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Here, you can ...

<r><QUOTE><s>[quote]</s>Originally posted by Vaaish:<br/>
<B><s>[b]</s>Use colonies to shorten routes. They would serve the same purpose as the Star Bases's<e>[/b]</e></B><HR>[hr]</HR><e>[/quote]</e></QUOTE>

Shortening freighter routes was only one potential use of a star base. The reason I would ...

<t>All,<br/>
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As a long-time player of 4X games, I would like to offer this idea to the designers. Star Bases.<br/>
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I would like to see some moderate additions to the resource gathering to increase complexity, but mostly to increase the opportunity for conflict.<br/>
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By allowing ...

<t>I've printed out the manual, but haven't yet found answers to these 2 questions:<br/>
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1) Some of my planets keep queuing up spies and informants without orders. Did I accidentally turn something on (and how do I turn it off)?<br/>
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2) There seems to be little improvement with the ...