Can someone recommend a space-based 4x game?

[McMullen]

Back in my college days I briefly played a browser turn-based strategy game called Territories 3059 (or maybe it was 2039, or some other number, I can't remember). It was a bit like civilization in that you gathered resources, searched for other solar systems, and then sent expeditions to colonize them. Eventually you meet other players and the last species standing wins.

It was fun, but I'd like to play a single player analogue to that instead of an MMO where the turns come once every hour. Oddly, this is a genre I've never really looked into, and I don't know where to start.

There are Civ IV mods that kinda sort of accomplish this, but not quite what I'm looking for.

What I'd like:

*Turn-based
*Research trees
*Searching for planetary systems, preferably with telescopes rather than ships
*Resource types and concentrations that differ from planet type to planet type
*Procedurally generated galaxies/universes with several different kinds of planets
*Single player required, multiplayer optional
*Superweapons like genesis devices, star-imploders, and planet-busters
*Multiple classes of spacecraft with different roles
*Hazards like black holes
*Diplomacy options

Thanks!

EDIT: Oh, another thing was that in Territories, it took a lot of time to travel places with primitive tech or without infrastructure, and every action was a significant investment of time and resources for your civ. I like that because space really is big and expensive, and it does make sense that searching for systems with a ship as opposed to telescopes would be a waste of time. So if it could have that kind of heavy cost for every action, that would be a big plus.

 

[evilneko]

Space Empires 4 has...well, most of those things (no telescopes, sorry. And diplomacy with AIs is...dodgy). I think Space Empires 5 still comes with a free copy of SE4. It's worth the purchase price for SE4 alone. SE5 is... meh. The UI sucks, and other things are broken.

Plus, SE4 can run on virtually anything. There's a guy who runs it on an ancient 100MHz laptop.

Suggestion: Play only simultaneous mode, and get the TDM mod for better AI. There are instructions somewhere to combine it with FQM, which provides more interesting galaxies and systems, or there might be a combined packaged already made. I haven't kept track in a while. Pirates & Nomads and GritEcon are also good mods. And Carrier Battles is great.

 

[Aeshi]

It doesn't meet all the requirements (only one or two it doesn't) but Star Ruler might be worth at least a look if nothing else.

 

[shrekfan246]

Back in my college days I briefly played a browser turn-based strategy game called Territories 3059 (or maybe it was 2039, or some other number, I can't remember). It was a bit like civilization in that you gathered resources, searched for other solar systems, and then sent expeditions to colonize them. Eventually you meet other players and the last species standing wins.

It was fun, but I'd like to play a single player analogue to that instead of an MMO where the turns come once every hour. Oddly, this is a genre I've never really looked into, and I don't know where to start.

There are Civ IV mods that kinda sort of accomplish this, but not quite what I'm looking for.

What I'd like:

*Turn-based
*Research trees
*Searching for planetary systems, preferably with telescopes rather than ships
*Resource types and concentrations that differ from planet type to planet type
*Procedurally generated galaxies/universes with several different kinds of planets
*Single player required, multiplayer optional
*Superweapons like genesis devices, star-imploders, and planet-busters
*Multiple classes of spacecraft with different roles
*Hazards like black holes
*Diplomacy options

Thanks!

EDIT: Oh, another thing was that in Territories, it took a lot of time to travel places with primitive tech or without infrastructure, and every action was a significant investment of time and resources for your civ. I like that because space really is big and expensive, and it does make sense that searching for systems with a ship as opposed to telescopes would be a waste of time. So if it could have that kind of heavy cost for every action, that would be a big plus.

The three recommendations I have probably don't fit all of those requirements, but you could look into:
Galactic Civilizations and its sequel. Made by Stardock and based off of the Civ series, basically.
Sins of a Solar Empire. Also made by Stardock. It's not turn-based, but it has pretty much everything else you've asked for and you can make absolutely massive galaxies. My shortest game that I've ever completed took about six hours, when it was just me against one computer AI on the easiest difficulty.
Star Ruler. It's a lot more obtuse and a bit harder to work around, but you can do pretty much anything your mind thinks of once you get into it.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Galactic Civilizations 2? I still play it from time to time. Building custom ships is still awesome.

 

[McMullen]

First one I found on the tvtropes 4x page is Distant Worlds, which looks awesome but there's very little info on it outside the official site, which makes me wonder why no one talks about it. Anybody know anything about it?

EDIT: Galactic Civs II... wow. I like it. What was missing from it off the list of things I was looking for?

 

[Kahunaburger]

Sins of a Solar Empire is a very slow RTS that feels like a 4x in some ways. Aside from the real-time, it's pretty close to what you described.

Also, Alpha Centauri is awesome. One planet, but epic sci-fi 4x.