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OpenSE4 0.4.0

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@lowlevelmetal lowlevelmetal released this 01 Oct 18:07
· 561 commits to main since this release
v0.4.0
c810519

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 0.3.0

Combat

  • Battles are shown as they are fought. A battle with one of your ships now stops before the first combat turn and is fought step by step while the Strategic Combat window shows it. Reports and log entries follow when you close it. The result is exactly the same whether or not the battle is shown.
  • Ground combat round by round. The Ground Combat window plays every round with the unit counts after each. It also opens for the fight at the end of the colony owner's turn.
  • Drop Troops checks no treaty, as in the original. Troops land on the last adjacent colony of another empire, and can take an ally's colony.
  • Combat windows: the Combat Piece Report, the Tactical Orders pickers and Fast Tactical Combat now match the original.
  • Combat Simulator: it now opens the real Fleet Transfer and Cargo Transfer windows.
  • Computer pieces: drone targeting, firing range and the battle verdict now follow the original.

Colonies and orders

  • Colony cloaking. Colonies with cloaking facilities can cloak. This affects detection, combat, intelligence and the computer players. A cloaked colony keeps building, but its space yard stops working.
  • New orders:
    • Jettison Cargo drops cargo at once.
    • Convert Resources turns one resource into another at the colony's conversion rate.
    • Use Facility is now available, and Use Component now behaves as in the original.
  • Fleets and stellar manipulation: further details now follow the original. Examples are mothballed fleet members, and objects that stellar manipulation replaces.

Looks

  • The original's fonts and pointers, read from your install, with the original's text and button colours.
  • The 800×600 layout. It is chosen on small desktops, as the original does. You can also force either layout in Settings, or with --layout=800x600 or --layout=1024x768.
  • Main window:
    • The system view draws owner flags, counts, cloak markers and facility markers as the original does.
    • The Log, the Planets and Construction Queues windows, and the confirmations follow the original too.
  • Movement replay. In a simultaneous game, the movement buttons replay the turn's real 30 days.

Under the hood

  • Continuous integration. Every change is now built and tested on Linux (GCC, Clang, and the address and undefined-behaviour sanitizers) and on real Windows (Visual Studio and MinGW), including an install and uninstall test of the installer.
  • Fixed: battle placement could differ between builds made with different compilers. This mattered for network games between, for example, Windows and Linux players.

Saved games from earlier versions can't be loaded (save format 4).

Downloads

File For
OpenSE4-0.4.0-windows-x86_64-setup.exe 64-bit Windows 10 and 11: the installer
OpenSE4-0.4.0-windows-x86_64.zip 64-bit Windows 10 and 11: the same programs to run from any folder
OpenSE4-0.4.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz 64-bit Linux with glibc 2.34 or later (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 35, RHEL 9, SteamOS 3 and newer)
OpenSE4-0.4.0-SHA256SUMS.txt SHA-256 checksums of the three downloads

Every download holds three programs:

  • the game (opense4);
  • the dedicated server for network and play-by-e-mail games (opense4-server);
  • a data checker (opense4-datacheck).

Libraries, our own fonts, the manual and the lessons are built in. The game needs a GPU with Vulkan or OpenGL 3.3.

Running it

  • Windows: run the installer, then start OpenSE4 from the Start menu. You can also 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: unpack and run ./opense4, or run ./install-desktop-entry.sh once to start it from your desktop's application list.

The game looks for a Steam install of Space Empires IV Deluxe. See README.md for other locations and command-line options (opense4 --help). The title screen's Tutorial button and the in-game manual help you get started.

Known limitations

  • This is still an early build, marked as a pre-release.
  • The Windows build is tested on real Windows in CI. Our tests can't run the full game there, because that needs the original game data.
  • The lessons haven't been played through by hand yet.
  • 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.

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