Modding Space Empire IV Gold

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2005-12-06 10:11pm

I got ahold of Space Empire IV Gold version recently. Now this is a great game, and I haven't tried it out too far, but I was wondering how to modify the game in the vein of all those downloadable mods on the Malfador homepage.

On a related note, I was wondering if I was the only one irked by the fact that you can attack ships with impunity during tactical combat, as long as it is your turn. I've frequently pulled off flawless victories solely because I waited at the edge of their targeting range until it was my turn, then swooped in and annihilated him. That kind of strategy feels less like tactical cleverness and more like exploiting a bug, to be honest. Where's the Overwatch function?

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2005-12-06 10:17pm

It should be noted that Space Empires IV and the Gold edition are now both upgradeable to the Deluxe Edition

http://www.malfador.com for more details.

The end result? No matter what version of the game you own, you can patch to the latest version for free. No need to buy a whole new game to get the added features and fixes of gold, and so on.

You can, of course, buy Deluxe seperately for a lower price than was ever offered for the original or Gold, but hey.

As for making mods, it's really just a case of modifying the text data. AI, components, research, pretty much everything uses simple .txt files to store relevant data. Just play around a bit. I'd recommend also looking for mod editors, more than a few were floating around the last time I was at the Shrapnel Forums.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2005-12-06 10:26pm

There are tons of modding FAQ's at www.shrapnelgames.com go to the forums and there's a community there... actually, here.

No I'm not irked by the fact because I never got into tactical combat. I always played simultaneous even against the AI, I got the game to play people on PBW and knew that tactical was nothing like strategic combat. And the stock AI is really stupid in SE:IV, it never uses fleets or training so they're always a pushover and they're never as efficient as you are. There are a lot of "exploits" like population trading, retroseries, technology trading, turtling, surrender. Some can be turned off or you can make house rules. But stock is really limited. Eventually you make the clone and stock becomes a bore.

Brian

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2005-12-06 11:23pm

Stock is fantastic the first few playthroughs. Then you realize that there's precisely one magic combination of research and other strategies that dominates everything else. So you turn to mods, of which there are plenty, or mod it yourself. It's so easy to mod this game that even I made mods for it. There are simple text files in the Data directory that are basically self-explanatory.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2005-12-06 11:37pm

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:Stock is fantastic the first few playthroughs. Then you realize that there's precisely one magic combination of research and other strategies that dominates everything else. So you turn to mods, of which there are plenty, or mod it yourself. It's so easy to mod this game that even I made mods for it. There are simple text files in the Data directory that are basically self-explanatory.

So... if I, for example, wanted the game to reflect something like Babylon 5, with civilisations occupying different technological tiers, that would be possible? So you can, for example, have puny races going up against Great Old Ones?

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2005-12-06 11:41pm

Quite possible. In the Star Trek mod, for instance, each race has access to a whole different set of technologies. If I remember right, there's a pretty decent B5 mod out there now that you might want to take a look at.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-12-06 11:48pm

Very decent B5 Mod. It's also very complex, with a lot of direct adaptions from the tabletop game, although the tactical simplicty of SEIV limits a lot of stuff.

Hmm. With one ST SEIV game in the works, anyone up for a second game to run in the meanwhile? Perhaps of a different mod?

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2005-12-06 11:56pm

I have a month off for winter break so why not. Although this time I'm not boss, too many wierd things to worry about like master passwords and players that nag (j/k lol you've all been great the fastest fucking submitters I've ever played with). Time is an issue though -- I am already using nearly 45 minutes per turn. Anybody who is worried about time or having exams soon should not start now (I am nearly done mine). I could take about 15 but I always worry I miss something so I go through everything two or three times, then I sit down and have a few Sun Tzu moments thinking about what you guys are up to and how I should counter it... fun stuff.

Maybe a larger galaxy with ten planets to start out. I wouldn't even mind a large galaxy, small is really boxed in and medium is too small.

Brian

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2005-12-07 01:04am

Two is too many for me to do at once. Ha! All three homonyms in one sentence. Beat that!

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2005-12-07 01:10am

I would, but with finals coming and me already playing one I can't. Not a lot of experience with any other mod than the ST one, anyway.

Edit: Oh, by the way, Eleas, while modding the way the game plays is easy, modding the way the game looks is a little more complicated. There are tons of shipsets and stuff available for download, but it's not as simple as rewriting the wordpad data files.

As for the B5 mod, it is good, but it takes a very long time for colonies to build structures if their population is low. And I have never been able to figure out the point of some of the stuff in there, like the derelict ship "worlds" that can hold zero colonists.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2005-12-07 05:39am

Never going to forget the time I played B5 Mod as a Drazi player.

My first contact with a Shadow Scout - I lost half my main battle fleet

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2005-12-14 07:23pm

Nephtys wrote:Very decent B5 Mod. It's also very complex, with a lot of direct adaptions from the tabletop game, although the tactical simplicty of SEIV limits a lot of stuff.

Hmm. With one ST SEIV game in the works, anyone up for a second game to run in the meanwhile? Perhaps of a different mod?

It's looking like the ST game is slowing down to one turn per two days or so, which changes the situation. If the games were staggered so that I were taking roughly one 30-45 minute turn per day, I would be up for another game.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2005-12-14 07:32pm

We could, try and get together at a set time on the weekend or something and do a pickup game with the real-time client. Something like 5 minutes a turn and maybe a couple hours with whoever has the highest score winning at the end. Stock could be fun like this.

Brian

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2005-12-14 10:09pm

I could get two committed players to a normal PBEM of say, the B5 mod.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2005-12-14 10:51pm

B5 mod would be fine, I think. I have very little experience with it, so it would be something new.That would make 5 players.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2005-12-15 12:46am

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:B5 mod would be fine, I think. I have very little experience with it, so it would be something new.That would make 5 players.

...looks like it'll be the same gang as the ST mod. I call Minbari!

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2005-12-15 12:48am

I could get in on this.

I want Earth Alliance.

Post by **Dalton** » 2005-12-15 12:50am

I'm digging that B5 thang. I call Interstellar Alliance.

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2005-12-15 02:59am

Argh! I love the game but I'm too lazy/cheap to actually register for it...

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2005-12-15 12:37pm

Same settings, no altering advanced traits, characteristics, culture or environment, 10 planet start large galaxy low technology high resources low tech cost maximum units maximum ships no computer controlled empires computer neutrals high bonus good planet? (Also no Vorlons or Shadows?)

Anybody want to create, or if nobody does I'll do it again.

I call raiders

.

Brian

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2005-12-15 01:44pm

Straha wrote:Argh! I love the game but I'm too lazy/cheap to actually register for it...

Register? What do you mean? As long as you have SEIV, you're good to go.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2005-12-15 01:45pm

brianeyci wrote:Same settings, no altering advanced traits, characteristics, culture or environment, 10 planet start large galaxy low technology high resources low tech cost maximum units maximum ships no computer controlled empires computer neutrals high bonus good planet? (Also no Vorlons or Shadows?)

Anybody want to create, or if nobody does I'll do it again.

I call raiders .

Brian

Sounds good to me. I don't know jack about B5, so I'll just take whichever race strikes my fancy after everyone else has called theirs. Hopefully there's a race that not much is known about so I can BS

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2005-12-15 01:47pm

Incidentally, are we upgrading to SEIV Deluxe for this game? If so, it would allow people who don't have Gold to play, since regular SEIV can be upgraded to Deluxe for free, but it would necessitate dual installs for players of the current ST game.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2005-12-15 02:06pm

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:Incidentally, are we upgrading to SEIV Deluxe for this game? If so, it would allow people who don't have Gold to play, since regular SEIV can be upgraded to Deluxe for free, but it would necessitate dual installs for players of the current ST game.

If there's people who want to play who don't have Gold. I don't see the point if 5 people so far all have Gold and are from the ST game.

What about guppyshark's 2 PBEM players and Straha. I don't see the advantage to PBEM at all to be frank. There's no timer and that means one person can wait for two weeks to submit a turn slowing everybody down. I'm hesitant to start a PBEM game with people I don't know. http://seiv.pbw.cc is really easy, registering is really easy it only takes 5 minutes.

Has anybody played B5 mod with the AI's, how long does it take to get a reasonable tech level, we're on turn 40 or so with ST Mod with accelerated research and nearly maxed technology, I've read horror stories about 200 turns for B5 mod to get fun.

Brian

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2005-12-15 02:48pm

I've played the B5 mod a little, and while I didn't count the number of turns it took, I can honestly say it takes a long ass time for things to heat up. The penalties to production for low populations on colonies are huge. Building a single mining/radioactives gathering facility on a new colony might take years of game time if you don't transplant people from populous worlds onto them.

As for research, it sort of depends. Some areas are pretty quick to research, like propulsion. It can really take a long time, though, especially if you don't know what the research. In a one player game as the EA, for instance, I maxed out shield tech and had jack shit to show for it. Some of the really good tech, like the Great Machine, can't be researched but has to be found.