Aurora 4X

Aurora is a freeware 4X space game designed by Steve Walmsley and released in 2004. It is constantly being updated and the latest version is V5.60.

Aurora allows the player to create a procedurally generated galaxy, consisting of detailed, accurately scaled star systems connected to each other via warp points. A player starts off as a space faring nation, discovering the secrets of Trans-Newtonian technology and uses it to expand and create an interstellar empire. Aurora is a sandbox game, with no goals, but nearly every setting can be edited in a designer mode for creating custom scenarios. The game is played in increments, where time is advanced from between 5 seconds to 30 days as chosen by the player. So it is a mix between real-time and turn based gameplay.

The game takes great attention to detail, with vast star systems many billions of kilometres wide across along with orbiting planets, moons, asteroids and secondary stars. The game also has a complex combat system, with minor features such as radar resolution, missile tracking speed, turret rotation speed and custom, programmable missiles all playing vital roles. The game also comes with a fully functioning private economy with private freighters and colony ships carrying goods and colonists between your planets.

Here is the link to the fan-made Wiki and Forums.

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This game contains examples of:

 * Asteroid Miners - Mining Moons, Asteroids and Comets is necessary for your empire to avoid a mineral crunch.
 * Beam Spam - Beams are a staple weapon for space ships.
 * Bug War - The Swarm
 * Colony Drop - One can remove all mass drivers (A device for capturing mineral payloads) from a planet via edit mode while a payload is incoming. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Deflector Shields - Shields can be designed and installed onto your ships.
 * Designityourselfequipment - Taken to an extreme, with all traits for weapons, shields and sensors being researched individually, then said components are designed and researched again for use in ship design.
 * Easy Logistics - Mixed. Ships need to have fuel, and maintenance supplies for repair as well as regular overhauls for military ships.
 * Faster Than Light Travel - Jump Points and Lagrange Points allow for instantaneous travel between star systems and each other, respectively.
 * Four X
 * Hostile Terraforming - Terraforming can add or remove any gas into a planet's atmosphere. Hilarity Ensues as well.
 * Lensman Arms Race - You can start off on a planet with another country or faction. AI aside, you probably would want to get off the planet as soon as you can.
 * Lost Technology - Some planets come with ruins that can be identified and recovered by your nation.
 * Macross Missile Massacre - Missiles can be designed to any size, from small decoy missiles to MIRV missiles. You can create mines consisting of multiple missiles that all activate when detecting an enemy. Box Launchers are also available, allowing ships to have tremendous amount of firepower at once.
 * More Dakka - There's no limit to fleet size, with the only constraining factor being ship size and computer processing speed. Having thousands of different weapons and missiles fire simultaneously is not impossible.
 * Point Defenseless - Thankfully averted. Missiles of all sizes can be destroyed but only by weapons that can track them. Lasers, guass cannons and interceptor missiles all work.
 * Running Both Sides - A main feature of the game is the ability to create multiple factions and also to change between them, giving all sides orders and directions as a form of role-playing. A notable example includes a game starting off with Nato, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, seen here.
 * Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale - Averted hard. Every system is proportioned to scale, and the system map can be magnified from a few thousand kilometres across from whole light years.
 * Space Mines - Mines can be designed to contain multiple missiles, activating upon detecting a hostile contact.
 * Terraform - Terraforming ships can change the composition of gases on any planet or moon, making it habitable for your species, or uninhabitable for your enemies.