How does SEIII/IV compare to Stars!

[Baron Munchausen]

Well, others have remembered more details. It's been more than a year since I played Stars! Another interesting difference between it an SE is that Stars! uses the "open space" model where SE uses a bunch of closed systems. You can travel straight from anywhere to anywhere in the Stars! map if you have the fuel. But the systems are featureless. Like the original MOO, a planet and a star are one and the same. So, you can't have multiple planets in one system. You can build a starbase, and you can build planetary defenses, again much like MOO. There are no bases away from a star/planet, though. There's no system map with planetary features at all. So, Stars! is a totally strategic game. SE has a lot of tactical elements.