It’s a free open source game, space 4X, in the tradition of Master of Orion. Turn-based with automatic combat (if you have more powerful ships, you win, basically). Not much in the way of graphics.
I’ve been having a lot of fun with it over the weekend – a pretty casual and low-stress exploration/expansion game. Anyone play it?
No, but I may check it out now that I know about it - I’ve been looking for something to scratch my 4X itch better than Stellaris or GalCiv3…
Sword of the Staaaaars. 
I guess I probably should check that one out too, given that I own it from GOG.
Yeah, if you own it, there’s really no excuse.
The tutorial wasn’t super good when I played it, so if things make no sense, check in here.
A Let’s Play video of SotS is less than encouraging, but I’ll still find time to give it a spin at some point. I really like something with a bit more micromanagement - MoO2 is still my gold standard for Space 4x.
Ah. I haaaaated the “civ in space” Micro of MoO2. I felt like it threw away most of the good stuff from MoO1, and bogged me down in managing a bunch of planets manually.
SotS has a bit of fidgeting - there are definitely decisions to be made in how you develop new planets, but you don’t usually have to tamper with your mature worlds.
I honestly thought I was the only one who preferred MOO to MOO2. MOO2 felt like an empire simulator vs. a game. It wasn’t bad but I found it less fun than MOO.
Bump - anyone play FreeOrion yet? Perhaps the unflashiest game imaginable… but I’ve been playing it steady for a couple of weeks. I think I like the exploration the best – you can make absolutely enormous galaxies (for games, anyway… still not quite reaching the real universe) – thousands of star systems. Long load times between turns (if they’re that big), but easy to play casually, perhaps while watching TV or something.
Least flashy? You’ve clearly never played Aurora 4X.
And that’s not a knock against Aurora 4X, which has to have the deepest simulation for a 4X game. I like Aurora 4X but ultimately I find it takes too long for anything really interesting to happen because the simulation is so deep.
I’ve put FreeOrion on my list of games to check out. Currently playing Halycon 6 as they released a new patch. Great game! It is kind of like a 4X but sufficiently different that I can’t quite say that it is a 4X. It is like a rogue-like 4X-lite. Really good though.
I kind of like Free Orion, and I’ve played a couple of generations of it. But I was spoiled by Space Empires IV, which had turn-based tactical combat. I could win a prolonged war against a stronger empire if I used superior tactics.
I’ve entertained coding one for single-player mode, but I haven’t taken the time to even start.
I loved Space Empires IV back in the day. Easily one of the best Space 4X of all time. The AI was mediocre but it was still a lot of fun.
I still pull it out from time to time. Glad to know other people still remember it. 
Yeah, the AI was weak. I’ve figured out how to reliably beat it even with a much weaker empire. So, these days it kind of lacks a challenge. And until you learn how to manage formations/fleets, it’s tactical combat can be a giant pain to run.
I also loved how the crews would become more experienced, so a ship that had fought its way across the galaxy was more accurate/deadly than one with a green crew. You could mothball a ship if it became too expensive, and pull it back out later, but the crew lost its experience. Welding all of the things that SEIV had going for it combat-wise onto FreeOrion would be a lot of work.
It is too bad that Malfador Machinations fell on such hard times with SEV. They just never seemed to quite recover from the mess that was SEV. And for some reason they never released their follow up games on Steam. I’d love to know why. Their last game (I presume) “Space Captain” was decent but they just didn’t seem to be able to progress with the times as developers. SEIV was definitely their golden age.
Speaking of Malfador makes me think of Illwinter, the makers of the Dominion series. Dominion III was great. Dominion IV was ok but didn’t really push the series forward that much. Since then they’ve built a couple of Conquest of Elysium which are both pretty bad. As a studio they just don’t seem to be able to advance with the times and push their series ahead with some really good new mechanics and improvements. Dominions III (and to some degree IV) seems to be the best they can do. And it is a shame, because Dominions is amazing.
thanks fo sharing . I lov eplaying it. I’m a game addictive
Anyone else play this yet? I’m still enjoying it. I find exploring the galaxy very relaxing and satisfying.
I’ve been playing for years and am a very minor contributor. I love the ability to go in a mod the scripts and python code keep the game ever changing.
A few of my graphics are still in use but most were discarded.
They wouldn’t take my USS Ranger Force Field covered Aircraft carrier. It was perfect for the recently introduced fighter option. Maybe I’ll present it again. Of course I borrow the concept from the old Japanese cartoon that raised the Yamato and gave it a spinal mount and sent it into space.
I play it fairly often. If you have any modding questions I can probably help. The scripts are pretty straight forward. The most important scripting is under C:\Program Files (x86)\FreeOrion\default\python\universe_generation and then universe_tables.py
You’ll need to install a python editor to change it and Idle Python is a good enough choice for this. You make a back up copy. change the original and the next time you generate a galaxy it compiles the changes. If it doesn’t work restore the original.
Very cool, thanks! I’m not enough of a programmer to contribute to the game, but I’ll enjoy everyone else’s efforts.
C:\Program Files (x86)\FreeOrion\default\scripting has straight text files. These can be fun to tweak and nothing more needed then Notepad or Wordpad.
As a simple example, go to C:\Program Files (x86)\FreeOrion\default\scripting\starting_unlocks
Open *fleets.inf *in notepad and at the bottom add 1 or more of these lines:
Fleet name = “FN_COLONY_FLEET” ships = [“SD_COLONY_SHIP”]
Each of these lines adds an extra colony ship to start the game to all players.