OT: SE4 players thoughts on OTHER games

Puke · #1 February 7th, 2003, 12:23 AM

please, by whatever you find holy, have the merciful generosity not to discuss CIV or SMAC on this thread. debates over those take over too many threads, as it is.

I am interested in hearing SE4 players thoughts on currently released space strategy or space tactical games, or those that are due out shortly that people may have an inside track on. I have tried to leave pure space flight-sims or shooters off the list.

on the upcoming list:

GALCIV: looks like fun, focus is on politics, but seems to have a very linear political progression. I like the description of the MOO3 political system better. boasts about its AI, but is it strong because it cheats? if so, how does it cheat?

MOO3: whats not to say? whats not to read on any review site. probably just have to wait for it to come out.

S!SNG: sure, like its ever coming out.

X2:The Threat: Elite and then some! whoo-hoo. hurry up and find a publisher!

Freelancer: if you liked privateer, its more of the same, from all the pre-reviews I have read.

Elite4: oh yeah, this one will come out right after S!SNG and VGA-Planets 4. in other words, it wont come out.

Imperium Galactica 3: looks to be a super-sweet capital ship combat simulator. other than this, i dont know too much.

Star Peace (name has changed): massive multiplayer sim city in space? eh?

and on the shorter list, games currently out that I am aware of:

Starships Unlimited: seems to be very limited. the focus was supposed to be ship design and combat, but i found this to be less detailed than in SE4. If there was more to it than what was in the demo, no one ever let on.

X:beyond the frontier (with/without x-tension): sounded cool, never really looked at it. how much strategy and economics were there? or was owning space stations simply a way to make money, and the economics were not really developed?

Battlecruiser Millenium: um, whatever. if anyone can tell me that this is an outstanding game, and is very different than the rest of its predecessors, i might listen.

Homeworld and sequel: formulaic RTS in space, but with 3d. more of the same, but its pretty.

Hegimonia: gosh the picutres look cool, but i hear its more homeworld stuff with linear missions, and not much else? but it has spying and colonies and research, so how can it be mission based? I DONT UNDERSTAND!

tesco samoa · #2 February 7th, 2003, 01:19 AM

The IG3 Demo is fantastic... I hope the game is moddable so people can create their own stories...

This game is what a RTS space game should be like.

If you liked homeworld or Freespace 2 then this game will rock..

WHen playing the demo I kept thinking it was a movie...

mottlee · #3 February 7th, 2003, 01:43 AM

You mean there are OTHER games!!!

I do play (sometimes) Out Post 1 and 2 these are the only others I have

Instar · #4 February 7th, 2003, 03:12 AM

I dont know if you mean only 4X games, but Impossible Creatures looks like real fun. Ive played the demo and its great.

Aloofi · #5 February 7th, 2003, 10:07 PM

I got SE4Gold a month ago, and today its the first day i have come out of the cave.

*looks at the sky expecting to see alien transports droping armored troops*

[ February 07, 2003, 20:07: Message edited by: Aloofim ]

Lemmy · #6 February 7th, 2003, 11:41 PM

I'll comment on the ones i find worth commenting on, and also read about.

Quote:

Originally posted by Puke:

GALCIV: looks like fun, focus is on politics, but seems to have a very linear political progression. I like the description of the MOO3 political system better. boasts about its AI, but is it strong because it cheats? if so, how does it cheat?

It most certainly does not cheat, at least not in the way traditional AI's do to be good.
The difference is in the design, a traditional AI, like in SE4 or Civ, does it's thinking between player turns, and because not every players wants to wait 30 minutes for a turn, the amount of thinking an AI can do is limited by the games minimum system requirements.
However, in GalCiv, this is handled differently, it's multithreaded. The AI doesn't do it's thinking at the end of the players turn, but during it, while the player is making it's moves, the AI thinks in the background.
This gives the AI a lot more to think about things, allowing for a far better design, not necessarily more complex. How much time it actually takes, still depends on what the AI has to do, but it will not take more time then it needs, so taking more time to finish a turn will not make the game harder.

Linear political progression?
What exactly do you mean by that?

Quote:

MOO3: whats not to say? whats not to read on any review site. probably just have to wait for it to come out.

Meh...i think it's been hyped a lot, then dehyped by the cutbacks, i'll have to read some player reviews before getting excited about it again.

Quote:

X2:The Threat: Elite and then some! whoo-hoo. hurry up and find a publisher!

Yes! I've been waiting for tha game so long

I like the developers, they seem to listen to the players complaints. A while ago i've bought X-BTF (the original, found it in the bargain bin) and liked, but i had some gripes with it, that you can't for example buy stations, or own multiple ships, well guess what, the X-Tension had all those things fixed i had gripes about...too bad i can't find it anywhere nowadays.

Quote:

Freelancer: if you liked privateer, its more of the same, from all the pre-reviews I have read.

Say what you will about Microsoft, they usually deliver decent, and solid games (at least the ones i played), i have no reason to doubt Freelancer will be another one of those.

Quote:

Imperium Galactica 3: looks to be a super-sweet capital ship combat simulator. other than this, i dont know too much.

The thought of a sequel and improved Version of IG2 is tempting, but Last i read about IG3, is that it will be mission based, which is a big turn-off for me.

Quote:

X:beyond the frontier (with/without x-tension): sounded cool, never really looked at it. how much strategy and economics were there? or was owning space stations simply a way to make money, and the economics were not really developed?

Hmm, see my reply to X2

IMO X-Tension is a totally different game from X-BTF, given the major impact of the game changes.

PsychoTechFreak · #7 February 7th, 2003, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Puke:

X:beyond the frontier (with/without x-tension): sounded cool, never really looked at it. how much strategy and economics were there? or was owning space stations simply a way to make money, and the economics were not really developed?

I have played both of them for a long time, but the concept was more or less boring at the end. Most of it is economics, buying stations or remote mining of asteroids, producing different stuff and move/sell it around the galaxy either by remote control of transport ships which can be programmed with buy/sell price thresholds. The most fun of it was capturing pirate ships and sell or use them. Elite-like missions from time to time, pirate bases to destroy or to make deals with. You can live as a pirate also, every ship can be captured, best in lonely quadrants. Graphics and handling are really great! I have heard about the next generation, should be multiplayer as far as I know, but you still can not land on planets. I am not sure yet if it is worth a try.

Lemmy · #8 February 8th, 2003, 01:37 AM

Quote:

I have heard about the next generation, should be multiplayer as far as I know, but you still can not land on planets. I am not sure yet if it is worth a try.

Well, there is X-Online, which is a massive multiplayer game in a persistent universe, and X2, which is a sequel to the original X, and a singleplayer game.

Tenryu · #9 February 8th, 2003, 03:54 AM

Awaiting MOO3 impatiently.

GalCon, bought the beta. Looks pretty good.

Stars Super Nova, sigh, {gets out old copy of Stars!, lovingly dusts it off, and hopes for the best for them}

The rest of the lot not really to my liking.

Puke · #10 February 10th, 2003, 07:27 AM

regarding linear political progression in galciv:

i mean, from what i read, that you go from imperal to republic to democracy to federation. each one is better than the Last, and harder to maintain. there are no choices, you cant get different benefits from a democracy or a republic or a oligarchy. you cant choose a socialist or capitalist economy.

you dont decide anything or make any tradeoffs, you just progress from one to the next. or, in theory, move backwards if you were having a better time maintaining party power in a previous form of government.