Emperor of the Fding Suns

[dbt1949]

I know this thing is from the mid 90s and the graphics are crap but it looks pretty cool. It looks to have a steep learning curve.
Was it horrible to learn? What did you all think of the gameplay?

[Daehawk]

I always wanted to try that game but never did. Felt it was too dense for me. But it always drew me towards it with its story and style. I think I even own it now thanks to a sale or a freebie..not sure. Maybe one day Ill have the nerve to jump in.

[dbt1949]

Steam has a free demo.

[Grifman]

My memory is that it was fun in the beginning but that the game wasn’t balanced, the AI was terribly broken, and it wasn’t able to challenge you in any way. But a lot of people loved it for its setting and just being able to tinker with the game, knowing there was no challenge to it.

[LordMortis]

My memory is that it was fun in the beginning but that the game wasn’t balanced, the AI was terribly broken, and it wasn’t able to challenge you in any way. But a lot of people loved it for its setting and just being able to tinker with the game, knowing there was no challenge to it.

From reading on it, after the game was stopped being supported it was modded a lot to improve the game a lot. The question is then how much effort do you want to put in to finding the mods and if the GOG "1.5" patch includes enough of the post support fixes.

https://www.gog.com/en/game/emperor_of_the_fading_suns

[Holman]

Steam has a free demo.

It looks like that demo is for a genuinely enhanced version that will be released in the future.

If there's already a demo, hopefully it won't be too much longer, and presumably it will run on modern PCs without any need for mods or unofficial fixes.

[Max Peck]

If you try the Steam demo and like the game, it looks the full "enhanced" version is already available on GOG for cheap (and even cheaper while the winter sale is in effect). I'm not sure why it isn't for sale on Steam yet. Maybe they are waiting until they integrate Steam-specific features like achievements, etc, maybe?

https://www.gog.com/en/game/emperor_of_the_fading_suns

I own the GOG version, but it looks like I never got around to actually playing it. I should make some time to do that...

This seems to confirm that both of them are essentially the same version of the game, barring any platform-specific differences:
https://andrewgreenberg.com/2024/04/emp ... -timeline/

Emperor of the Fading Suns Timeline
HDIAndrew on April 22, 2024 — Leave a Comment

We released a free demo of Emperor of the Fading Suns Enhanced on Steam and GOG (please wishlist us on Steam and it generated a number of questions. I posted this timeline in hopes of clearing up some of the confusion.

1997: HDI released the original Emperor of the Fading Suns (EFS) 4x game, part of the Fading Suns universe. You can still get a patched version of that original strategy game on GOG.

2022: Working with a team of modders, HDI released Emperor of the Fading Suns Enhanced (EFSe), a revised version of the original game with hundreds of changes. This is actually available today as a Deal of the Day on GOG: https://www.gog.com/game/emperor_of_the_fading_suns

2022-2023: We continued working on the Enhanced version, and released some more patches that focused on improving the modding tools while also making fixes players had requested.

2024: We began working on a version that would work on Steam and with the Steam APIs.

April 19, 2024: We released a demo for the Enhanced version on Steam and GOG. This demo does not include any special Steam functionality.

Now: We are still working on the Steam version, and plan to incorporate any changes we make for that one into the GOG version. There are a number of great mods like Emperor Wars available for the game, and the modding tools are included with the paid versions of the game.

If you want to see the original changelog between the patched version of the original game and the first Enhanced version, that is here: https://items.gog.com/emperor_of_the_fa ... ngelog.pdf
Posted in Developer Diary, Fading Suns, Game Development

[baelthazar]

I spent a lot of time in my youth playing Emperor of the Fading Suns, even if I had almost no idea what I was doing. It is a HUGE game, you have space battles, ground battles, building cities, researching techs, managing roads and infrastructure, and dealing with politics and espionage. The background was something similar to Warhammer 40K - repressive human empire with a vaguely medieval/feudal and gothic feel. It has less of a learning curve than a learning cliff. I remember there must have been a book, but I feel like it wasn't overly helpful.

Yet the sense of discovery and the thematic elements were masterful. Space Opera meet Middle Ages meets Civilization meets Hex-based Wargaming. It had cool elements like researching proscribed techs meaning that the inquisitors were going to be visiting and causing trouble, likely burning your research lab.

But when it first came out it was RIDDLED with bugs. I remember researching one of the proscribed techs and getting the announcement of the inquisitor coming every turn but they just never showed up. You could never tell if something wasn't working because you didn't know what you were doing or if the code was messing up. Crashes to desktop were frequent - not something you want in a massive game where you might forget to save after taking a 10 minute turn. You had to move your planetary forces, your space forces, decide trades and tech, make political entreaties to rivals and friends, send spies, and set production. You get lost in it.

And that is the other thing - it was one of those amazingly huge games where you easily spend 10 minutes taking your turn, then another 2-5 minutes watching the PC process the computer player turns. This has become a little better with processing speed changes, but will still be an issue.

I have so many good memories. Today, I recapture those by playing Shadow Empire, for a much more contained planetary empire builder with events and the addition of some society management or Stellar Monarch I or II, which are spiritual successors of Emperor of the Fading Suns where you play the Emperor and deal with broad strokes (and no ground combat).