To all that have played both GalCiv and Space Empires IV

from Stardock Forums
The only 4X game I have ever really played was Space Empires IV which I love... I was wondering if there are any SEIV players that have also played GalCiv that can tell me what they think of GalCiv vs. SEIV...


Thanks!
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I've played both quite a bit but I'm obviously biased.

What I like about SEIV is the expandability. That's one thing we've been trying to make sure you can do in GalCiv. YOu'll be able to create your own ships, techs, improvements, wonders, star base modules, Political parties, United Planets resolutions, events, etc. and submit them to the library here for others to download.

Eventually we hope to make it so that you can choose a pre-created map.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I've played both games for many months.

I tend to find that SEIV's strengths are also it's primary weaknesses. It is huge and has soooo many options. That's great at times but often very laborious to play. It suffers from the 'you can do anything' concept, in that doing everything is often a chore. I love playing SEIV for large games which evolve over a few weeks, but often end up giving up when I get bored.

Galciv is a more immersive game. There are less details to worry about (still lots of detail though), but those that are there are carefully chosen to immerse you in a strategy feeling. You don't have to worry about tactics, ship design, limited planet space, upgrading environments. Instead you get to focus a level up on the inter-empire aspects of space exploration and conquest. I prefer Galciv (even in it's current non complete form) as I seldom ever just decide to quit. I can play a small 1-2 our game or a long 3-4 day game. Totally different feel, but each enjoyable.

Paul.
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I have to admit that, until recently, I greatly preferred SEIV. However, this is due to the number of bugs which were present in earlier builds GalCiv, bugs which often forced games to abrupt ends before a winner was decided or simply made playing less enjoyable. Now that the beta is more stable and the amount of bugs has been reduced, it's easier to see what the finished product will be like, and to have fun playtesting. It's a much closer call now as to which I like better. Plus, even when the game's "finished," Stardock will be continuing to release improvements for almost a year. The gameplay is sufficiently different that I'd recommend anyone who likes 4X games to get both.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I tried the SE IV demo and found it too cumbersome to play. I found I was micro-managing the game in the extreme, just to get it to do what I wanted to. Every little event seemed to create new problems in what each planet should construct and in what order, and I had to go to each and every planet and make changes. With GC, the governors take care of that for you. You change your social build queue in one place and it applies to all planets at the completion of their current project. If you want to discontinue construction of an outmoded ship and construct a new one, you change it in one place and it applies to all planets constructing that old ship.

Also, SE IV impressed me as your basic "shoot-em up" kind of game, and some what single dimentioned, with only a touch of the other aspects of 4X strategy play. GC truly has multiple facets to explore in developing game winning strategies.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
In my option GalCiv and SEIV couldent directly compared!
GalCiv is more like a CIV game then the usual Space 4X games.

If you go to GalCiv and think it must have at last a vew of the Key Features from SEIV then you are absolutly wrong with this game! But if you like games like CIV in a space eviroment then this is the right game for you.