I will never understand why Aaron didn't take the best of SE IV, improve upon the UI, and go with that for SE V.
I have been cut completely out of the loop for SE VI and given the dismal sales for SE V, I wonder if there will ever be a sixth installment to the game.
I recommended a while back that they should have released SE V under a different name... Space Empires - Evolution or something.
If they do come out with a new game, that'll have to be the road they go down. To call a game Space Empires VI would be an injustice and bad marketing IMHO.
SE V had a lot of great attributes, none of which inspired me to play it. The weakness out paced the benefits thus turning off my interest in playing the game.
However SE IV still holds my interest albeit at a substantially reduced value these days.
I think, rather hope, that people will turn back toward the game once they realize that nothing new is coming out. PC gaming is on its final legs these days and the industry knows it. So most developers are focusing on console games and downsizing their PC options.
The spirit of innovation has been killed off one independent developer at a time. Gobbled up by the big evil mass marketing companies like EA games and others.
It was only 12 years ago that the spirit of radical innovation was alive and thriving, but now, the fields that were once busting with life life are but a desolate waste land. We are stuck with inferior clones of clone of sequals of great games. Gone are the inspirational "Got to have it" games that drove the industry for years. Even the PC game magazines are dead, or dying. The games of today are so lack luster filled with eye candy but no depth. Easy to play, and quick to bore are the standards of today.
Case in point, EAW, Lucas Arts aging game that could have been a lot more than it ultimately was. I played Empires At War and the expansion version and just couldn't get into them. They lacked depth. They offered nothing but ground hog day play. I grew bored with the game within hours. Same thing with GalCiv 2.
GalCiv 2 was really really boring. My God was that a dull *** game.
I tried Sins of a solar empire and a few other games but found them all to be repetitive and boring.
It is funny now that a simple basic browser game like Cyber nations holds my interest as captivity as SE IV once had. Out of all the games there are, this simple free to play game is the most appealing to me. Go figure.
One more thing I would have loved to have seen done with SE IV would have been:
11. The ability to more than one type of construction facility to the planet. One for ships, one for fighters, and one for troops. And for the AI to use them equally and build them.
12. The ability to set a requirement as to what facilities you want the AI to build and it actually would build them. As it is now, it be broken. The AI builds what the AI is hard coded to build. As it is now, I have to come up with a work around and that is proving to be impossible. (Another reason I burned out.)