OpenSE4 0.11.0

OpenSE4 is an open-source engine for Space Empires IV Deluxe. It plays the classic game on your own installed copy of Space Empires IV Deluxe and contains nothing from the original game.

OpenSE4 is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the game's publishers.

What changed since 0.10.0

This release opens OpenSE4 to modders. It also brings a new computer opponent, Hegemon, built with the new modding SDK.

Hegemon, a stronger computer opponent

Hegemon ships with OpenSE4 as a ready-to-use mod. Turn it on in the Mods window on the title screen, then choose it for computer empires in Game Setup or Quick Start. The classic computer players stay the default.

• Its own planning: Hegemon decides everything itself, with its own strategy, economy and expansion planning, research plan, ship designer, fleet operations, round-by-round battle tactics and diplomacy. It sees only what its own empire knows, like a human player.
• Against the classic computer players, at the same difficulty and bonuses, over 156 test games of 150 turns, it won 88% of them. That covers duels and 4- and 6-empire games, with simultaneous and turn-based turns.

If you want a harder game, give your opponents Hegemon.

The modding SDK

Everything a modder needs is in each download: the opense4-sdk tool, the modder's guide and reference in sdk/docs, and seven example mods in sdk/examples.

• Mods:
  • A mod is a folder or a .zip with a mod.toml.
  • Choose and order your mods in the new Mods window. Game Setup, Quick Start and the multiplayer lobby show which mods a game uses.
  • Mods are layered over your installed game, which is never changed. Classic mods made of replacement data files load too.
• Units and data: add, change or remove records in any data or AI table with patches, so several mods can be combined. New hulls and components come with their own pictures and sounds.
• Pictures and sounds: PNG with transparency, pictures larger than the classic size, OGG sound, and designs with a picture of their own.
• Computer players in Python:
  • A script player makes every decision the classic AI makes, battle rounds included, and keeps its own memory with the saved game.
  • Anything it leaves out plays exactly like the classic AI.
  • Choose each computer empire's player in setup or the lobby. An optional notes view (Ctrl+Shift+N) shows what a player is thinking.
• External bots and testing: bots can also run outside the game in regular Python with any library. The arena (opense4-sdk arena) plays many AI-against-AI games and reports the results.
• Rules scripts: Python hooks through the whole turn change the game through effects the engine checks. Mods can add their own orders, events, intelligence projects, game options, victory conditions, ability effects and scenarios.
• Interface: mods can add order buttons, panels in reports, columns in lists, pages in the Empires window, translations and key bindings.
• Safe and repeatable:
  • Scripts run in a sandbox with no access to your files, the network or the clock.
  • A failing script falls back to the classic AI and is reported in the game.
  • Games with scripts play out the same on every computer and platform.

Steam Workshop publishing waits for the Steam release; opense4-sdk pack already makes the package an upload would use.

Fixes

• Save Game: typing a name and then clicking Save, instead of pressing Enter, now keeps the typed name.

Compatibility

0.11.0 does not play with 0.10.0 or older over the network or by e-mail (protocol 7), so every player needs to update. It loads saved games from 0.7.0 to 0.10.0 (save format 9 now). Every player in a network game must have the same game-changing mods; the lobby says what differs.

Downloads

File	For
OpenSE4-0.11.0-windows-x86_64-setup.exe	64-bit Windows 7 SP1 to 11: the installer
OpenSE4-0.11.0-windows-x86_64.zip	64-bit Windows 7 SP1 to 11: the same programs to run from any folder
OpenSE4-0.11.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz	64-bit Linux on PCs with glibc 2.34 or later (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 35, SteamOS 3 and newer)
OpenSE4-0.11.0-linux-aarch64.tar.gz	64-bit ARM Linux with glibc 2.34 or later (Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit, Asahi, Ubuntu and Debian on ARM)
OpenSE4-0.11.0-linux-armhf.tar.gz	32-bit ARM Linux (ARMv7 with NEON) with glibc 2.34 or later (Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit)
OpenSE4-0.11.0-SHA256SUMS.txt	SHA-256 checksums of the downloads

Every download holds five programs:

• the game (opense4);
• the dedicated server for network and play-by-e-mail games (opense4-server);
• a data checker (opense4-datacheck);
• the saved-game converter (opense4-convert);
• the modding tool (opense4-sdk).

It also holds the Hegemon mod (mods/) and the modder's documents and examples (sdk/). Libraries, our own fonts, the manual and the lessons are built in.

Running it

• Windows: run the installer, then start OpenSE4 from the Start menu, or unpack the zip and run opense4.exe. Neither is code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may warn the first time ("More info", then "Run anyway").
• Linux, on a PC or on ARM: unpack and run ./opense4, or run ./install-desktop-entry.sh once to start it from your desktop's application list. On ARM boards without a Steam install, copy the game's files from another computer (see docs/SETUP.md).

The game looks for a Steam install of Space Empires IV Deluxe. See README.md for other locations and command-line options (opense4 --help). Modders start with sdk/docs/README.md.

Known limitations

• This is still an early build, marked as a pre-release.

• Not yet tested on real hardware:

  • Windows 7: only under Wine, with each program's imports checked against what Windows 7 provides.
  • ARM: only through emulation and native ARM test runners; the game window hasn't been opened on a real ARM graphics chip yet.

  Reports are welcome.

• Scripts run on MicroPython: in-game scripts use a built-in, sandboxed Python (MicroPython with additions), so libraries such as numpy are only available to external bots.

• Rules mods near their time limit: a rules mod that runs very close to its per-turn time limit could, rarely, replay a turn slightly differently.

• Hegemon rarely finishes off an empire within 150 turns; it wins by growing far ahead.

• Following warps: the view follows your ships through warp points in local, hotseat and e-mail games, but not yet for players who join someone else's network game.

• In network and e-mail games, every battle is resolved strategically, as in the original.

• The classic computer players hold slightly fewer colonies by turn 100 than the original's (about 15.8 against 17.0 per empire).

• Designs window: it doesn't yet remember which tab was open, as the original does.

License

OpenSE4 is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later. The Noto Sans fonts are under the SIL Open Font License. THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt in each download lists the bundled libraries and their licences, among them MicroPython and miniz.