Well at least in SEIV the AI will attack you
Anyway, if you really love MoO3 you will probably not like SEIV. But it is a good alternative if you DON'T like MoO3.
My main beefs with MoO3 are the lack of micromanagement and the lack of ingame feedback/documentation. Call me a control freak if you want to, but personally I don't get a lot of fun out of clicking the turn button while the AI does my job, and I can't even really tell how good a job it does because I get no numerical breakdowns whatsoever on production, research and stuff.
Then there is the poor ship design and the realtime, pauseless combat.
The lack of feedback and ship design issues will hopefully be brought up to the standards of MoO2 with a patch, but I assume the lack of micromanagement and the realtime combat are going to stay, and I am no fan of either.
SE IV has none of these 'problems', and the AI has been improved a lot with player mods. I think it is the game for those who loved MoO2 and are disappointed in MoO3. Others may or may not like it (if you hate micromanagement its definitely not for you).
Graphics arent any better than MoO3, the galaxy and system view is actually worse while I like the menues and fluff a lot better. But I give a rats ass for graphics as long as the game is good. Which to me is true for SEIV, but not for (unpatched) MoO3.
Someone mentioned somewhere that MoO3 is the exact opposite of MoO2 in terms of game progression. The fun (at least for me) in MoO2 was to build up my empire slowly (in realtime terms) and efficiently, until I had a very solid basis, and then proceed to eventually win the game. Early-medium game is great, but endgame gets tedious. In MoO3, the early-medium game is tedious because its more the AI then the player the builds up the empire. Supposedly it starts to be fun in late game when you already have a large empire. I never got that far because that is not how I want to play a Master of Orion game. Why don't they start people out with an empire in place anyway if this is true.
Its kinda the same for me in soccer managers. I start out in a low division and eventually lead my team to championship over long years of assembling a good squad and keeping healthy finances. Once I have made it though, it starts to get boring, just like it would be boring to me to start in the highest division.
Anyway, to sum it up if you don't like MoO3 you might wanna try SEIV. Otherwise consider yourself lucky that you don't really need an alternative...
Lata
Krait