Skip to content

OpenSE4 0.13.0

Pre-release
Pre-release

Choose a tag to compare

View all tags
@lowlevelmetal lowlevelmetal released this 14 Oct 12:19
· 159 commits to main since this release
v0.13.0
e250c5e

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 0.12.0

This release is a feature-parity pass. Every window of the original was compared with OpenSE4's, together with the rules behind each button. About 130 differences were found and brought in line with SE4. OpenSE4's own additions stay as they were: the Learn window, mods and the SDK, the settings window and the encrypted network games.

The original's tutorial, scenarios, empires and maps

  • The original's tutorial and scenarios play again. The Learn window's Scenarios tab lists the scenarios in your install's Scenarios folder (the Tutorial too) next to the mods' scenarios. Their pages appear at the right turns. Ctrl+H shows the last page again, and in the tutorial so do the T buttons.
  • Older saved games. Saved games of the original from version 1.40 load, not just 1.95, which covers the tutorial's game.
  • Empire files (.emp). Game Setup's Add Existing lists the stock empires in your install's Empires folder and those of classic mods, beside OpenSE4's own empire files. Empires can also be saved for SE IV. OpenSE4's own empire files now keep the password, e-mail, ministers, options and type lists.
  • Map files (.map). Load Map reads the original's maps, and Save Map can write them. opense4-convert converts maps both ways.

Orders and the main window

  • Ship selection. Space, Ctrl+N, Ctrl+B and the arrows cycle through the same ships as in SE4: ships that can still move, skipping bases, mothballed ships and sentries.
  • Cloak and Decloak act at once.
  • Set Patrol adds each point as you click and ends when you click the ship itself. Enter and right-click still end it too.
  • Location keys. Waypoints are numbered 1–10. Alt+digit, Ctrl+T and Ctrl+R ask for a sector to click.
  • Names. Change Name refuses a name another object already has.
  • Remote cargo orders. Load, Drop, Launch and Recover Remotely pick the place first, then a kind of cargo, and move every design of that kind.
  • Launch / Recover window. It acts at once on the ship or colony you click, and warns when a launch can't happen.
  • Abandon Planet is now an order you can still take back in a simultaneous game.
  • Scrap window. Unmothball needs a space yard. A Scrap-window order that fails no longer clears the ship's other orders. The window gains Order By Name/Class and Select All/None.
  • Fleets. Create Fleet starts an empty fleet named Alpha Fleet, Beta Fleet and so on.
  • Stellar Manipulation picks its target after you confirm. Open Warp Point picks its destination on the Galaxy Map, and Construct asks for the planet size.
  • Galaxy Map. Notes open for any system, and an unexplored system is no longer named.
  • Quitting. Closing the game window during a game now asks first.

Colonies, construction and empire management

  • Units. Adding units asks how many, and One Turn's Worth is among the choices.
  • What queues accept follows the original. The list of what can be built is grouped under headings.
  • Colony and design types. Colony types and design types can be added and deleted.
  • Queue types belong to your empire and are saved with the game.
  • Complete AI no longer stays on behind the individual minister switches.
  • Strategies gain the Damage and Launching pages, with Drones Per Target.
  • Windows remember their tab: Designs, Empires, Colonies and Set Construction Queue.

Diplomacy and reports

  • Asking for a gift or tribute carries a package.
  • Answering from the Empires window. Communicate opened from an empire's portrait offers the answers to that empire's latest message.
  • Treaties follow the original:
    • which treaties can be proposed;
    • subjugated empires cannot sign treaties;
    • who can see which cell of the Treaty Grid.
  • Empires window. Mood, trade, tariff and pending-offer lines.
  • Comparisons are drawn from what you could see at the time.
  • Scores and Victory Conditions show what the original shows.

Combat

  • Boarding. A message reports how a boarding went.
  • Mines can be laid in battle.
  • The weapons you tick reset with each selection.
  • Next and previous piece prefer group leaders.
  • Target panel. It shows the damage each hit did.
  • Ram and Capture refuse in the original's order. Seekers and obstacles can be rammed.
  • Combat Simulator. It runs with one side.

Designs, research and intelligence

  • Intelligence projects ask for their target (a ship, planet, technology or empire), and the project's box shows it.
  • Technology Tree lists every area and exports like the original.
  • Create Design. Its size, component group and mount lists are the original's windows, and Condensed View regroups the design's components.

Setup and game flow

  • Victory. When a victory condition is met in a turn-based game, everyone plays one last turn, then the game reports it is complete.
  • Failed orders in turn-based games show a message box at once.
  • Next Player and Login To Game work as in the original. Loading a simultaneous game asks who signs in.
  • Progress window while a turn is processed.
  • Game Setup controls. The victory conditions, characteristics and caps step and limit as in the original. Create Empire checks the emperor's name, the culture and a gas giant's atmosphere.
  • The command line's fourth argument names a mod folder, as in SE4.
  • Network games play the original's sounds.

The rules each change follows are written in docs/spec/. What OpenSE4 still does differently on purpose is listed in docs/PARITY_GAPS.md.

Compatibility

0.13.0 does not play with 0.12.0. Network and e-mail games need everyone on 0.13.0 (protocol 8). 0.13.0 loads saved games from 0.12.0 and 0.11.0 (save format 9) and back to 0.7.0, but 0.12.0 cannot load 0.13.0's saves (save format 10). The computer players play somewhat differently, because some rules they use changed. Every player in a network game must have the same game-changing mods.

Downloads

File For
OpenSE4-0.13.0-windows-x86_64-setup.exe 64-bit Windows 7 SP1 to 11: the installer
OpenSE4-0.13.0-windows-x86_64.zip 64-bit Windows 7 SP1 to 11: the same programs to run from any folder
OpenSE4-0.13.0-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)
OpenSE4-0.13.0-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)
OpenSE4-0.13.0-linux-armhf.tar.gz 32-bit ARM Linux (ARMv7 with NEON) with glibc 2.34 or later (Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit)
OpenSE4-0.13.0-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/; turn it on in the Mods window), the modder's documents and examples (sdk/) and, in the zip and tarballs, PORTABLE-README.txt. 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.

  • Details still being checked: where the original's behaviour couldn't be pinned down, OpenSE4 makes a stated choice. These choices are listed as open questions in docs/spec/, for example how the original treats a mine group chosen in battle, or the default names past the tenth fleet.

  • Original .map files: reading them has only been tested with maps OpenSE4 wrote, since no map file from the original was at hand. Reports with real map files are welcome.

  • 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.

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.

Assets 8
Loading