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I am glad I have downloaded and tried the demo. I felt I was let down after reading the glowing review of SE4 in Games Domain.
Since you can have only 100 turns, you don't get to see a whole lot of features. There are things I like about this game, unfortunately it is marred by a large number of design flaws.
The first flaw that strikes me is the interface isn't very good. Better than CtP, and maybe even better than Starfleet Command, but definitely falls short of MoO 2, let alone SMAC. Imagine that, a game 10 years old has a better interface. That says something about Steve Barcia, designer of MoO 2. There are a lot of gripes that can be lodged but the biggest one is inconsistency. For example, since the windows SE4 uses mimics that of Windows itself, you would think they behave similarly. No such luck.
The main game window has a button -- which isn't available on any other window -- on the top right hand corner that you can use to minimize the window. Most windows have a "Close" button, but not all of them do. But the close button isn't where it should be, up there on the right hand corner just like Windows. But the worst part is you can't move those windows even though they overlap. If you need to access information in a window hidden, wholly or partly, you have to close the windows that are blocking the view. You can't move them, and you can't click on the window you want to bring it on top.
Another example: on some items, but not on the others, right clicking gives you information.
This sort of thing just bugs me to no end. For a game of such complexity, having the player to fight the interface is just sheer idiocy.
There are curious restrictions and omissions. You can have only a limited number of facilities on each planet. 20 on a large rock planet such as the Earth. What?! 20 buildings on Earth? These have to be mightly gigantic buildings! I am sure this is done for game balancing, but there seems to be better -- and less artificial -- ways of going about this. Another example: you need to build storage facilities for resources, but you don't need to construct freighters to ferry them. Yet another: you can build spaceships to go through warp points and you can build domes to colonize other planets, but you don't know how to build solar collectors. This is just positively strange.
I can't say I like the game enough to shell out 60 dollars for it. Your milage may vary.
[This message has been edited by Urban Ranger (edited December 09, 2000).]
Since you can have only 100 turns, you don't get to see a whole lot of features. There are things I like about this game, unfortunately it is marred by a large number of design flaws.
The first flaw that strikes me is the interface isn't very good. Better than CtP, and maybe even better than Starfleet Command, but definitely falls short of MoO 2, let alone SMAC. Imagine that, a game 10 years old has a better interface. That says something about Steve Barcia, designer of MoO 2. There are a lot of gripes that can be lodged but the biggest one is inconsistency. For example, since the windows SE4 uses mimics that of Windows itself, you would think they behave similarly. No such luck.
The main game window has a button -- which isn't available on any other window -- on the top right hand corner that you can use to minimize the window. Most windows have a "Close" button, but not all of them do. But the close button isn't where it should be, up there on the right hand corner just like Windows. But the worst part is you can't move those windows even though they overlap. If you need to access information in a window hidden, wholly or partly, you have to close the windows that are blocking the view. You can't move them, and you can't click on the window you want to bring it on top.
Another example: on some items, but not on the others, right clicking gives you information.
This sort of thing just bugs me to no end. For a game of such complexity, having the player to fight the interface is just sheer idiocy.
There are curious restrictions and omissions. You can have only a limited number of facilities on each planet. 20 on a large rock planet such as the Earth. What?! 20 buildings on Earth? These have to be mightly gigantic buildings! I am sure this is done for game balancing, but there seems to be better -- and less artificial -- ways of going about this. Another example: you need to build storage facilities for resources, but you don't need to construct freighters to ferry them. Yet another: you can build spaceships to go through warp points and you can build domes to colonize other planets, but you don't know how to build solar collectors. This is just positively strange.
I can't say I like the game enough to shell out 60 dollars for it. Your milage may vary.
[This message has been edited by Urban Ranger (edited December 09, 2000).]
), especially that you have to worry about resupply, much more realistic than the ol'Moo2 scout ship that can circumnavagate your empire without ever getting resupplied.
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