If you ever get the chance, play Imperium Galactica II. It's not what you're looking for (there are several other races, all with their own empires of varying size, some bigger than you), but it's so customizable that you might find it enjoyable anyway. Basically, it contains a shitload of different game mechanics (colony building, space fighting, ground fighting, research, diplomacy, spying, production, ship design, etc.), but here's the clincher: most of the game mechanics can be automated.

For instance, I don't like the space combat mechanic, so when I play the game, I automate that part of it. This means that whenever I attack someone else in space, the combat phase is simply skipped, and the game figures out who won based on fleet size, weapons strength, capabilities of captains, etc. I do like the ground combat, so I control that myself.

The customization level is extremely detailed in some respects. You prefer to handle your colonies' defenses and production facilities yourself, but don't want to micromanage the tedious things such as housing, fire departments, entertainment centers, and so on? Simply automate civilian buildings. The game will automatically build those in your colonies as needed, leaving you free to spend your time on more important matters.

You can micromanage every aspect of your empire yourself, or you can automate nearly everything, and just fly around the galaxy exploring and fighting.

They recently released an updated version of the game for iOS. I'm still hoping it'll find it's way back home to the PC eventually.

In many 4x games u can set victory conditions, number of opponents and difficulty. Just choose one Easy, peaceful AI and enjoy exploration :)
Try Space Empires series.

If you set the world to the largest setting and set your AI opponents to the minimum number (night be one) and reduce their cleverness, then you can play Warlock: Master of the Arcane much as you describe. It's my favorite of the games that have followed in Master of Magic's footsteps (fantasy, turn-based, 4x style builder). Should be able to get it cheap, now, too. Well worth it.

That does sound pretty cool, I'll definitely keep an eye out. Shame it's not available from any retailers de online.
How does Warlock measure up to MoM? MoM is pretty awesome, and a well done modern successor could be pretty great.

Now that you mention it, this is my favorite part, too.

I would think a large number of 4x titles would work, so long as they have AI 'sliders' or customizable AI. Just set the single opponent AI to its lowest 'intelligence' / aggression and that'll probably do the trick. He or she will likely just sit there in his or her little corner of the world, watching the grass grow.

Problem solved - check your PMs ; )

You are awesome, sir. :)

You might want to give Conquest of the New World a look. You can create a custom game in which there are no computer opponents. The only opposition you will face is the indigent tribes (some of which are actually friendly or neutral towards you). You can even scale the number of indigent tribes on the map if you want to minimize their impact as well.

This leaves you free to:

1) Explore the map (which is randomly generated based on your specs such as amount of water seeds, mountain seeds and plentifulness of resources) the largest setting of which is quite expansive. Oh, and you can name your discoveries, too, which isn't important but kind of neat.

2) Develop your colonial network. This aspect f the game takes a little patience as the learning curve can be a bit tough. Development of colonies has a lot to do with the terrain in which you place them. Not to say that the game is brain-cracking. It just takes a bit of experience to know how to develop a colony based on its surroundings.


http://www.gog.com/gamecard/conquest_of_the_new_world

Just as a side note of random triviality: CoNW is the game that brought me to GOG. I cannot tell you how many hours I have spent playing it, so I am bit biased towards it. While the graphics aren't great (even for the time it was made) I think it's a great game for any 4X devotees. The options for customizing the game along with the random map generation make every game a new experience.

Not quite a 4X, but Rebuild (available free online as a Flash game, or on iOS and Android) is sort of like that.

You control a blocked off section of a city under siege by a zombie horde, and have to take back as much of the surrounding area as you can. Each turn, you can send out your band of survivors to fight zombies, search for supplies, do research, secure territory, and so on.

You win by having the safe zone cover at least 30 blocks and City Hall, so the emphasis is more on eXplore and eXpand than eXterminate.

Warlock is the first game that I've found that I can play when I want to play MoM but can't bear the eye-wrenching graphics. It scratches the MoM itch for me. The biggest thing that could turn you off of Warlock, I think, is that the battles aren't strategic turn-based. They play out more like battles in Civ or Alpha Centauri or Elven Legacy (which is another great game).

Hm, that sounds interesting. Sorta Zafehouse Diaries with territory conquest?
Well, I like Civ and Alpha Centauri a lot, so that's not that big of a deal, really (though generally better to have then not). Bit of a shame in comparison to MoM though, as I liked the combat in that one. I think tactical combat suits fantasy games better since you can have all kinds of wacky units.
That sounds pretty close to what I'm thinking. I think I have it from the interplay promo, so I'll definitely give it a spin. Any recommendations for starting out learning the game?

Reunion. Alien Legacy. Outpost.

Sword of the Stars

Eador does have a tendency to kind of overshadow everything else in the genre, yes. :) Still, a modern MoM would still be awesome. I actually have a disc copy of Age O' Wonders Shadow Magic somewhere, but I haven't played it since I was like 11.
Are those good? For someone reason I don't see them mentioned much when talking about space 4x. It's all MoO and GalCiv.

I really enjoyed the first (the combat is RTS - or you can auto resolve like standard 4x). The second on the other hand I havent got to grips with yet. im sure someone will have a spare key from the recent indiegala bundle if you post on the gifting thread (if of course the idea of that doesnt repel you).
at any rate, ive spent MANY hours on the first game and really enjoyed it!