I think I've managed to put a finger on a feature of 4X that can make them fun or make them tedious: When dealing with adding features which give the player greater depth of control over his/her empire, it seems best to implement this added control in a design once-use many paradigm.
Example:
Letting players design a new model of ship from a variety of components, and then produce a large number of ships of this model - very cool and very fun
Letting players individually redesign and refit individual ships, thus encouraging them to drag their entire armadas back to starbase for refit every time a cool new technology comes along - tedious and not at all fun. (* see end)
Example:
Having a multitude of different planet types which permenantly affect a planets output, bonuses or other features - cool! and adds to the depth of the game
Allowing a player to continually reoptimize their planet features to a great degree, thus, encouraging them to go through all of their planets, every turn, and constantly make like teaks or just check that everything is in order - tedious!! slows gameplay for very little benefit.
To the arguement "If you don't like it, don't use it.", remember, if a feature is included in a game, serious players *will* use it even to the detriment of their own gameplay experience. Both because they will want to get everything they can out of the game, and out of fear that even if they do not use it, the computer opponents will, leaving them at some disadvantage. Thus, when developing a new 4X type game, one could focus on a plethora of computer generated specials, planets, anamolies, and phenomena, and giving the player greater ability to design new models, and new strategies. It seems that such new features could be added in relatively large numbers without making the game seem bloated and cumbersome. On the other hand, new features that require, or even allow, frequently repeated manual use, constant tweaking, or any other repeative action, should be avoided. Added freedom and versatility is not always a good thing.
Well.. just thought I's say what's on my mind..
Martin
(**) I could see arguements in favor of refitting particular very important ships. Perhaps it would be possible to allow refits in certain very rare cases. Such a procedure should be difficult, and its use should be limited by means other than expense or standard resources.
