Game Manual

There is a PDF of the guide located in your STEAM folder
\STEAM\steamapps\common\Space Empires IV Deluxe\SE4

There is also a link to that guide in the main menu of the game

Link to Manual

How to view all tech, components and facilities

If you wish to examine all of the techs, ship components, planet facilities etc start a new game, create at least one player and select High technology.
When you start the game you will now be able to examine it all by clicking on the question mark in game.

New Game

For you first game I would recommend turning off mines as they slow the game play down.
Until your experienced turn off intelligence mission.
Turn on the ability to view all techs.

Tech

Right click on a Tech to see what it leads to.
View the tech tree to determine prerequisite techs
I tent to learn Industry and computers early on as it gives your planets access to some pretty good facilites.
Researching larger ship designs will give you greater flexibility and improved military effectiveness.

Races

Even inherently hostile races will make good allies if you have enough power to earn their respect.
Likewise peaceful races often attack you if you look weak and they need room to expand.

If you want to create a custom race don't forget to add cultural bonuses, racial characteristics and advanced traits.

Ship classes

Generally bigger is better, except when numbers are better. 8-)

Sample Ships

Terran starting ships when using Quickstart
Satellites are good for monitoring sectors you lack colonies in.
Bases are good for defending warp points or for providing construction and repair far from home. Oddly enough bases are not particularly good at defending planets as it is too easy just to go arround them. The exception to this is fighter bases where the fighter can go to the enemy.
Weapon platforms a situated on planets and are ideal for defending planets. Fill them full of long range weapons to keep your enemy at bay, beam weapons to kill fighters and point defence to kill incoming missiles.
Some later ships

Direct Fire Weapons

Dirrect fire weapons - the bread and butter of ship combat
There are also small variants which go on fighters

Specialized anti-planet weapons

Specialized direct fire weapons

Small Weapons

Fighters are remarkably effective since not many ships have weapons for combating them and those that do lack multiplex systems to make the most of what they have.

Seeking Weapons

Kill them at a distance.
A must for space stations.
Point defence is used to shoot down seeking weapons.
Recommend specalist anti-missile ships to protect your fleet. That way not every ship need waste space on anti-missile batteries.

Warheads

Warheads are fitted to ships and drones and go off when you ram something

Core Ship systems

When your bridge or computer core is gone, your ship is dead.

Shields and Armour

How to survive a battle without taking damage.
[previewimg=15880034;sizeThumb,floatLeft;SEIV - Armour.pngArmour is very versatile.

Sensors and Scanners

You can't hit what you can't see.
You only need one type of anti-cloak sensor to target cloaked ships.
Recommend specialist scout ships with long range scanners accompany your war fleet.

Engines and Supplies

Fuel and spare munitions. Without fuel even the biggest ship cannot fight.
Make sure to carry extra cargo / colonists on your colony ships.
Remember to load them aboard BEFORE leaving home.

Bays

Bays to carry fighters, spy sats, drone ships, mines etc
Recommend placing spy sats in every system to see whats happening elsewhere in the galaxy

Stellar Manipulation

Special one use components carried by ships.
Create planets, nebulas, black holes, new jump routes and destroy them.

Icons

What do all those icons mean on the colony screen

Planet Facilities

Planetary Facilities
System Facilities

Special Tech

Bio - grow your own self healing ships

Crystalurgy - an you thought digital watchers were a pretty neat idea.

Psychic Powers - crush them with your mind

Religious - God IS on our side

Temporal Manipulation - the future is looking good

Last words

Whats the point of improving your tech if you don't upgrade your planets

Goveners
You can automate a lot of the chores like exploration, shipbuilding, colonization through the use of govenors. Typically I will manually build colony ships, add colonists and then turn on the ships govenor and let the computer deal with selecting planets for colonization. The only exception is ruins which I will seek out manually as quickly as I can in order to get some free tech.

Multiplayer

Multplayer - Hotseat

Just like starting a regular game but add more human players

Under Game Setup/Game Settings - add a master password


Multiplayer TCP/IP - everyone must me on the same LAN
First we set up a connection between computers then we create races
All players must perform these tasks
With Windows Explorer create a SIEV game folder to store all your multiplayer game files
eg D:\Games\SIEV

Launch SIEV
New Game
New Game
Game Setup/Game Settings - add a master password
Game Setup/Mechanics/Play Style - select Different Machines
Game Setup/Mechanics/Turn Style - Simultaneous Movement
Game Setup/Mechanics/Multiplayer Game Filename - give it a name, I just called it
eg SIEVGameFile
Game Setup/Mechanics/Directory Path - Add a path to where your SIEV game file will be stored
eg D:\Games\SIEV
Game Setup/Mechanics/Connection Type - The Host selects TCP/IP Host
Other players select - TCP/IP Player

Goto your SIEV multiplayer game folder ie D:\games\SIEV and copy the *.gam file and email it to your friend who will install it in their SIEV Game folder
Host now selects - BEGIN GAME a new window should open

Once your connected both Host selects 'Begin Game'
Both Host and players select 'Add Empire'

Create your Empire ie choose Race/Faction, choose traits and powers
Sending .emp files are automatic.

A) Each Player then select Play Turn and plays their turn
When players finish their turn, the .plr files are automatically sent to host.

B) When everyone is done the Host will Process Turn
* .gam file will be sent automatically to players

repeated steps A & B until the game terminates.

Saving and loading

If host opts to quit at any time, the game is automatically saved. Loading is similiar to starting a new game under TCP/IP

Host loads game, confirmation about continuing to be "TCP/IP Host" pops up. "Yes" should be picked.
Host awaits connection. Players who were in that game start connecting to host.
Turn in which it was last left off will continue.



Multiplayer - Playing over the Internet
I use LogMeIn Hamachi to create a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to link my computer to my friends computer and then just start up a TCP/IP game session as normal.

Saberuneko

A useful spreadsheet from SaberNeko

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/772864877340802397/23B24CDABA2CE3AF803E420D6CC138E6ED1B0EEA/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/editguidesubsection/?id=1771720614&sectionid=3373304

[AutoMcDonough]

This guide is a good start but I find myself going to the wiki quite often to clarify things. Some explanation of fighter, drone, and mine mechanics would be good. Also setting up fleets, formations, strategies is kind of a big deal that is easily overlooked.
Also one particular thing to note about the advanced racial traits is that "Advanced Storage Techniques" makes planets seem bigger not just for storage but also more facilities.
Intelligence ops is also a thing that operates kind of differently and worth some explanation.

[Meemai]

Hello, I have been trying to post a guide here, but seems like I am not allowed, as I do not own the game on Steam (my copy is on another service).

Would you like to add the contribution below to this guide?
https://i.imgur.com/3KVEtAl.png
It basically is an spreadsheet including all data for all weapons.
Hoping this is useful.