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zoid wrote on Tue, 04 February 2003 00:29

Anyone here have Space Empires III? Another old Stars-like game by Malfador Machinations (1997). Back then when I was playing Stars a lot, everyone began talking about this new game called Space Empires III. I tried the shareware, liked it, and registered it long ago, but have never found another person to play against.

There is a IV now, "gold" something. I tried it about a year ago. Don't play it! Stars! is much much MUCH better! Sure SEIV looks more flashy but the gameplay is nothing compared to Stars!
But probably just a matter of tast. SEIV has a lot of features/items that make you think "cool!" but once you start playing the gameplay is seriously disappointing compared to Stars!

Nobody to play against? They also have a kind of AutoHost and forum:
http://seiv.pbw.cc

Other forums:
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=foru m;f=23
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=foru m;f=59

This is also a usefull website:
http://www.malfador.com/se4.html

Oh, and what I really really disliked is that you could not save during a turn! You had to play untill the turn was finished and then save+submit! And of course once you've done your turn you get a mail from an ally asking you to do something and you can start ALL over again!! (but that might have been patched in the mean while?)

regards,
mch

[Updated on: Tue, 04 February 2003 01:52]

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Ah yes. I forgot that Space Empires IV was already on the horizon back then.

I agree Stars is a better game, especially the way the Stars allows everyone to do their turn at once, whereas SE3 forces people to do it one at a time, resulting in a much longer turnaround (5 players doing one turn a day would take 5 days to do your next turn).

However, I don't think it would be so bad in a one-on-one game. And the differences between Stars and Space Empires can be refreshing. Much less anxiety over your race design, and lots of different techs not existant in stars, and more weapons variations. Being able to retrofit ships is nice too.

Well, I guess I probably won't be finding anyone to play SE3 with me. Anyone interested in Space Empires is going to say "Don't you have SE4?" I've already been through that with the Warlords games. Got Warlords, then Warlords II, and a few months later they're pitching Warlords III so I buy that, and as soon as I do they come out with Warlords IV. Got me mad and I quit buying their game. It was always the same game with an enhancement or two, nothing major - If they weren't so damned greedy they'd have patched it into their previous release instead of releasing a "new" game every 3 months and making everyone fork out another $50 each time to stay current.

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zoid wrote on Tue, 04 February 2003 04:00

Ah yes. I forgot that Space Empires IV was already on the horizon back then. I agree Stars is a better game, especially the way the Stars allows everyone to do their turn at once, whereas SE3 forces people to do it one at a time, resulting in a much longer turnaround (5 players doing one turn a day would take 5 days to do your next turn).

Tjeez that's really bad! In SEIV at least everybody got to do their turn at the same time ...

Quote:

However, I don't think it would be so bad in a one-on-one game. And the differences between Stars and Space Empires can be refreshing. Much less anxiety over your race design, and lots of different techs not existant in stars, and more weapons variations. Being able to retrofit ships is nice too.

Yes, all "nice" but all without the depth of Stars!

Quote:

Well, I guess I probably won't be finding anyone to play SE3 with me. Anyone interested in Space Empires is going to say "Don't you have SE4?" I've already been through that with the Warlords games. Got Warlords, then Warlords II, and a few months later they're pitching Warlords III so I buy that, and as soon as I do they come out with Warlords IV. Got me mad and I quit buying their game. It was always the same game with an enhancement or two, nothing major - If they weren't so damned greedy they'd have patched it into their previous release instead of releasing a "new" game every 3 months and making everyone fork out another $50 each time to stay current.

Don't know the game but that sounds like a real rip-off! A shame!

regards,
mch

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zoid wrote on Tue, 04 February 2003 04:00

Well, I guess I probably won't be finding anyone to play SE3 with me. Anyone interested in Space Empires is going to say "Don't you have SE4?"

i have the demo of space empire III if you wanna play.

[Updated on: Mon, 25 August 2003 16:59] by Moderator

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