Wondering What 4X Games You Play(ed)?

My previous 4X experience is a little MOO3, and about 8-9 years worth of MOO2 almost every weekend. MOO2 gets my vote as the all-time greatest PC game.

A great testament to the game is that there are still a number of folks playing it online, with new players joining every once in a while, about 11 years after the game's initial release. A few of them even participate in a ladder. The thing has taken on a life of its own, what with Lord Brazen having reverse-engineered and modified parts of the code to remove the nastier multiplayer bugs and add new features, plus a number of Europeans who have put in a lot of work modding things in the tech trees and racial definitions to give it a bit of a shot in the arm. Surprisingly, the game can be played on modern PCs via DOSbox.

Galacic Civilizations, Imperium Galactica I-II, Master of Orion I-II-III, Reach for the Stars (C64&PC), Reunion, Space Empires III-IV-V. I'm also a fan of StarControl I-II though they aren't completely fit in the 4X category.

I started out playing VGA Planets on a local BBS. I continued to play VGAP until quite recently, when I discovered Space Empires V.

VGAP had some great strategic depth, and wonderfully unique races. Unfortunately, the user experience is nothing less than awful by today's standards. There are literally hundreds of rules which aren't explained in the user interface, so if you don't memorize the documentation you'll be in trouble. Also, the various races are SO different that balance is quite difficult to measure.

On the one hand, I'd like to see some more uniqueness between the races in Space Empires. But on the other hand, I have first hand experience with the problems that can create

I hate how they are called 4x, never heard if it until Master of Orion 3 came out and makes me think of that shit.

Reach for the Stars - the origional 80s version, not the remake.
Reunion - hard to describe
Sword of the Stars - ok game but not perfect
Birth of the Federation - intersted take on Master of Orion, had a lot of great ideas and I thought MOO3 was going to be like this.
Pax Imperia 2 - good game after the patchs, too bad Blizzard sold this title to make Starcraft otherwise this would be the best 4x game ever.
MOO1 - simplistic game, but fun for its time.
MOO2 - Very fun game, played for like 6 years if not longer. Wish they would make another like this with improvements. This is probably the best space 4x game ever.
MOO3 - idk why they changed so much, they made a completely different game and something the fans didn't want. They supposidly were going with what fans wanted and suggestions, but they lied.
Galciv 1 & 2 - these games are somewhat incomplete for me. IDK how to say it.
Stars! - a good 90s PBEM game.
Spaceward Ho! - a game that i dont really care for, my first windows 95 game.
Space Empires 4 & 5 - great games but the AI is always lacking, good mods on 4 though that fixed that.

Civilization 2-4 - everyone is good, recent games have impossible to deal with end game load times.

Alpha Centauri - best 4X game ever.

There are other games that are like 4x but not exactly that i've played and liked. Lords of Magic, Heroes of Might and Magic, Age of Wonders, Total War games, and Paradox Interactive games. These have some of the qualities of "4x" games but not all.

The most dissapointing 4x game ever was Master of Orion 3, simply beacause i was waiting so long for a sequel to Master of Orion 2 and found it to be completely different and a VERY horrible game. Never have I seen a 4x game with worse reviews either, some of them were so bad it was funny.

I've played more "4x" games than this but this is all that comes to mind right now.

I agree completely. I probably logged more hours with that game than any other computer game. The variety and depth of that game was amazing.

Well, let's see...

MOO (1, 2, and some junk they called 3)
Reach for the Stars (only the original, didn't try the remake)
Starships Unlimited
Spaceward Ho!
Stars! (too bad Supernova Genesis vanished)
Galciv (recent 1 and 2, only tried the demos, didn't like them)
Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain
Into the Void
Imperium Galactica (the 1, didn't like it)
VGA Planets (played only a single game)
Ascendancy (best soundtrack ever)
Anacreon: Reconstruction 2040 (a bunch of ASCII chars, and still play it from time to time)
Space Empires (3, 4 and obviously 5)
Emperor of the Fading Suns (simply the best, if not for its unfixed bugs)
SMAC (and Alien Crossfire)
Starlords (the first and only)

As far as I can recall.

MOO2
Stars!
GalCiv1 (couldn't hold my attention long, dunno why)
Imperium Galatcia 2 (4x lite. Semi-interesting spy system)
Alpha Centauri
SE 3-5
Second Conflict
Ascendancy

Lots
Those I can remember
SEIII demo
SEIV
SEV
Universe
Stars
MOO2
Birth of the federation
Civ I-III
Ascendancy
Alpha centuri
Rise and Rule of ancient empires
1492
The conquest of America
All the total wars apart from medevial II
X Xtension X2 &X3
The other version of CIV the name of which I don’t recall
The original CIV board game
Lots of other board games Carcasone and similar

My favourite computer game is CIV I and I still play it from time to time on the 486 whilst its running the compiler for dbase

Master of Orion (only played this 6 mo. before MoO2 came out, really enjoyed it.
Master of Orion 2 (Played this for years and years. My favorite if I had to pick one.)
Master of Orion 3 (Train wreck)
Birth of the Federation (Better then MoO3 if you can believe it.)
Civilization: Call to Power (Enjoyed it. Thought it was from Sid Meier at first. Activision tricked me!!)
Call to Power 2
Civilization III
Civilization IV
Space Empires IV
Space Empires V

Civ I, II, III, IV, Call to Power, Call to Power II
Alpha Centauri
Medieval TW, Rome TW, Medieval 2 TW
MOO 3 Demo (tried, but is so confusing...)
Starship Unlimited
SE III, IV, V (I think that SE III is one of the best...)
Many other games, but I'm not sure they're 4x... I don't know what are the elements to make a game a 4x...

Civilisation: Call to Power / Call to Power II
SE II, III, IV Demo (I thought the SE II demo was bloody awesome)
SE V (My first full SE game)
Stars! Demo
Alpha Centauri
MOO3
GalCiv

Stars!
SEIV

Didn't wait my time with the fluff games.. just the hardcore ones for me...

Javaslinger

Well it was really Pardus (www.pardus.at) a 4x browser based game, which really got me hooked. I was looking for a sort of 4x genre browser based game or any good browser based game really, found that there were many, and found that this one was the best. I'm sure many of your 4x fans already know of and play Pardus in your spare time. I'm Masterchief.

I've also played GalCiv2 although, I didn't get into it that much. I played X3 reunion and it bored me. I recently got SEV and Moo3, while I haven't finished sitting down with Moo3 to figure out, I picked up on SEV really quick, and it's a pretty awesome game. I'm just working on refining my strategies right now.

I'd also like to play Dark Star One. It looks pretty cool.

"Don't you worry about blank, let me worry about blank!" -Phillip J. Fry

I second (third?) that. I would even say that it's THE best game ever made, especially when you play it in multiplayer.
The problem with this game is that, like most of the 4x games, it's way too complicated for any AI to handle (especially the combat part), and the PBEM system makes a full-house 7 players game impossible to manage, while a quicker 1vs1 game is not only hard to set up properly, but also misses all the diplomatic level.

"As our collective consciousness expands beyound a crucial point, we are at last ready to learn life's fondamental truth: that the life's only purpose is life itself."

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Master of Magic. Not a typical 4X type of game, but a lot of fun. I wish they'd made more of those.

Damn I was ADDICTED to that game! I really wish they came up with a sequel for it or something recent.....

So I revise my list

Master of Magic
Stars!
SEIV
SEV

Only the best...

Javaslinger

Stars! still runs on winXP. Too bad about Supernova Genesis indeed.
Starships unlimited
Civ I, Colonization, Alpha Centauri
Homeworld, HW: Cataclysm, HW II
Europa Universalis II

Damn I wish my computers could handle EUIII..... Sadness...

Javaslinger

Wz up Sci-Fi bro's

Man you guys have played so many games, some I haven't even heard of.! LOL
I've got Alpha Centauri on cd. I bought it at Media Play before they closed the doors for good here in Hickory NC. it came with Command&Conquer TB-Sun I think it was the called The Conquers Collection? .. Anyway I have not played it but from what you guys have said I'll throw it in the the Luv box and give it a go.
OK heres my list.
MOO #1 - played it forever! I bought it when it hit the street and played untill MOO#2 came out !

MOO#2 - same here! But the CD got scrached and it wouldn't load into my new Luv Box.Anyone know if it will play on Win/XP? And if so where could you buy it?

MOO#3 - Man I loved The MOO's so much that I made myself figure this game out! What a Crazy interface! It was a pain but after I worked through it It was a blast! It had 1 tuff "AI". Has anyone tried to Mod it or redo it??

VGA Planets

Pax Imperium -Great game!

Reach of The Stars -This one was easy to learn & lots of fun!

Gal-Civ - Tried to get into it just couldn't.

SE V - This one has it all! If they get the "AI" kicked up IT could be one of the all time GREATS!!!!!......
Thats my take
Thanks Bro's

I've never even heard of most of the games listed so far.

Apart from the SE series, the only game that even comes close to 4X that I've played is Conquest of the New World. I think I spent as much time staring at the amusing building animations as I did actually playing the game.

Master of Orion 2 was never a lightweight game, compared to some of the..more heavier 'weighted' ones, like Stars! , it actually had just as deep strategic layer, without the spreadsheet look that made Stars! very heavy and cumbersome to use.

It was still a very cool game mind you, too bad the AI spammed you to death with colony ships .
I had to minelay my entire front of the empire to have a hope of screening them out.

my list

MOO 2 - the best 4x space game ever.
Alpha Centauri - probably the best land based one, altough CIV 4 is a good competitor.
Sword of the Stars - Damn well a good 2nd up, its really good, and works VERY well on the net unlike SE V which is more a SP game if anything

Stars ! dated and badly
Space Empires IV - V nice, but lacks polish.
Reach for the stars! doh....
GalCiv 2 - quite nice ,but I miss the tactical battles of Moo2 and SE V for that matter.

Janster

MOO2 was indoubtely the best of all. You had lots of posibilities and a lot of fun. You could create your race and hire colony and battle leaders. You had to fight against the antarans in a truly epic struggle for survival! Still love that game
Also:
* Civilization: 2 and 3 where the best. Call of power 1&2 were nice too
* GalCiv: only tried GC1+Exp. Nice, but lacks a key element: Deep spaceship combat.
* Imperium Galactica: Also nice, but lacks of something, cant say exactly what.
* Master of magic 1 was really great! A lot of pixels magically transformed into mithycal beasts, spells and castles
* Alpha centaury was really great, and with the expansion it became better. I love the variety of races and the civ-style of play.
* Homeworld, Homeworld Cataclysm and Homeworld2: while not exactly 4x games, still really great galactic epic.
* Castles: an old -really old- DOS medieval game.
* Startopia: Not a 4x game, more like a Dungeon Keeper in space, but really great. If you like space ambiented games, this is a must.

I think thats all

oh my, Startopia was indeed bloody awesome

Haha, youre right. And its a pitty, because such a great and unbeliable game aws ignored for the gamer comunity, or at least that seems to me. Hey, give Startopia a try today! you wont regret it!

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Learn to overcome the crass demands of flesh and bone, for they warp the matrix through which we perceive the world. Extend your awareness outward, beyond the self of body, to embrace the self of group and the greater race are transcendent, and to embrace them is to achieve enlightenment.

* Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Essays on Mind and Matter"

Oh, now you have started to speak OLD games over here, so I can join on also...

I (just and just) remember my first computer space game, SpaceTraders. Anybody else? It defenetly was not 1X or 2X or 3X or 4X game because it was before the whole term was invented. To be honest, it was time before even PC was invented, so I played it with mainframe (either DECSystem or PDP, which one I don't remember).

Wenla

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Before you can develop a strategy, you have to have a vision.