Space Sims/Strategy Games Catch-All

misplacedbravado wrote:

Oh, wow. I remember wanting Starflight when it first came out, but never got to play it. I take it the game holds up well?

I wrote a little article hoping to explain that, actually:

http://www.spacegamejunkie.com/1175/...

Veloxi wrote:

GOOD OLD GAMES HAS STARFLIGHT 1 AND 2!!!!!!

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/starf...

GET THEM! GET THEM NOW!!! *flails*

I like yer style. All that frothing at the mouth-stuff. It reminds me of me. And I like me.

Veloxi wrote:

GOOD OLD GAMES HAS STARFLIGHT 1 AND 2!!!!!!

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/starf...

GET THEM! GET THEM NOW!!! *flails*

Crap, there goes my resolution to not buy anything during the Steam Sale.

Strangeblades wrote:

I like yer style. All that frothing at the mouth-stuff. It reminds me of me. And I like me.

Hahahahaha

Nightmare wrote:

Crap, there goes my resolution to not buy anything during the Steam Sale.

Screw that man, buy this!

Veloxi wrote:
Nightmare wrote:

Crap, there goes my resolution to not buy anything during the Steam Sale.

Screw that man, buy this!

Of course I did. I was just bemoaning the fact that GoG found a chink in my +2 Armor of Resolution.

Nightmare wrote:

Of course I did. I was just bemoaning the fact that GoG found a chink in my +2 Armor of Resolution.

Good man.

If you like Starflight this much, you should try out a bizarre roguelike called Prospector. http://code.google.com/p/rlprospector/ It's a slightly simplified Starflight with randomly generated space, solar systems and planet surfaces. Pretty wild.

Mixolyde wrote:

If you like Starflight this much, you should try out a bizarre roguelike called Prospector. http://code.google.com/p/rlprospector/ It's a slightly simplified Starflight with randomly generated space, solar systems and planet surfaces. Pretty wild.

Oh yeah, neat stuff, but I do recall dying a whole lot.

Prospector is hard. It starts you in a piddly little ship with a tiny crew and any random planet you can land on has an 80% chance of harbouring vegetarian eldritch abominations. Who conveniently decide to become carnivores when they scent human flesh.

Kind of like elephants from dwarf fortress.

Man, Starflight has aged poorly. Did people really once think that Blue text on a black background was a good idea? And to be clear, I'm not complaining about the graphics, etc. I remember how things were back in the day. Just, some of the foreground/background color choices are really hard on these old eyes.

Also, if you somehow kill the DOSBox session without saving you will need to reset and start over; GoG has a tool to allow that in the Start Menu called "Reset and Start the Game" under Tools. Otherwise, the game will not load. Also, there's a nifty little app that does the code wheel stuff for you.

Tamren wrote:

Prospector is hard. It starts you in a piddly little ship with a tiny crew and any random planet you can land on has an 80% chance of harbouring vegetarian eldritch abominations. Who conveniently decide to become carnivores when they scent human flesh.

Kind of like elephants from dwarf fortress.

There have been a few updates and one of them was to seed "easy" planets close to spawn, and they get harder as you go out. You can still die to dumb stuff close to home, though. The graphics updates are fun, too.

I started playing prospectors on a whim and its MUCH improved from its Ascii days. I started out in a little scout ship and did some good prospecting to earn cash.

Eventually I stumbled upon an abandoned troopship just drifting in space. This isn't totally unknown, I've rescued a few stranded ships by docking with them and selling fuel. This particular ship had no signs of a crew and a mushroom problem. After gunning down many a fungus I abandoned my old ship. The new one is quite powerful and is essentially the tier 3 ship with the most crew capacity. So far I haven't discovered anything too dangerous but I do know there is some nasty stuff out there like pirate bases. I'm focusing on the easy worlds and gathering cash to kit out my guys.

The game does allow savescumming which I heartily recommend. Its technically a roguelike, but the deaths you can encounter come with little to no warning and you can't really learn to avoid them.

Definitely scratches the Starflight itch, I heartily recommend it.

EDIT: So there I am walking around some random planet when suddenly a vicious mammal attacks and starts to shred my party. I was all like "AAAAAHHHHH REDSHIRTS ATTACK". After a short battle they managed to take the thing out with their gauss rifles. At that point my science dude got a chance to examine the corpse.

Flat Head
2 Compound eyes
Big Mouth
4 Horns
2 Long tails
Is a Predator
Weights 1560kg!?

That's a big predator. Also, probably very tasty.

Just noticed something amusing. Crew members can wear armour, carry one gun and a melee weapon. The game automatically gives the best melee weapons to your weakest and most expendable crew members, and the best guns and armour for your captain and his bridge team.

Star Ruler - on sale right now for $3.99. Good? Great? I need enablin' and no one is enablin' so get to enablin'!

Distant Worlds or Star Ruler. Which one is the better game? Which one should I get? Which one is prettier?

I would've recommended Distant Worlds over Star Ruler, but since you got it gifted to you already ...

Strangeblades wrote:

Distant Worlds or Star Ruler. Which one is the better game? Which one should I get? Which one is prettier?

Kinda apples and oranges, but I had more fun playing Distant Worlds. Star Ruler has come a long way though.

Once again, is Star Ruler only 144 mb for anyone else? And looks like sh*t and doesn't run well?

I picked up the Distant Worlds bundle as part of the Matrix sale...what a tremendous game! I love the macro level approach. All of the automation works well and lets you focus on big picture stuff and just jump in to take control when you have some specific objective or to tweak research or production.

I'm in my first game and I've transitioned from an early warmonger (I took out one of the 'rodent' races who had the misfortune of starting next to me in my star cluster) to everybody's best friend and free trade magnate. My position at the center of the galaxy helps in that respect. I've found ominous warnings about the return of the Shakturi but no sightings yet.

jakeleg wrote:

I picked up the Distant Worlds bundle as part of the Matrix sale...what a tremendous game! I love the macro level approach. All of the automation works well and lets you focus on big picture stuff and just jump in to take control when you have some specific objective or to tweak research or production.

I'm in my first game and I've transitioned from an early warmonger (I took out one of the 'rodent' races who had the misfortune of starting next to me in my star cluster) to everybody's best friend and free trade magnate. My position at the center of the galaxy helps in that respect. I've found ominous warnings about the return of the Shakturi but no sightings yet.

Which is still going on, peeps.

garion333 wrote:
jakeleg wrote:

I picked up the Distant Worlds bundle as part of the Matrix sale...what a tremendous game! I love the macro level approach. All of the automation works well and lets you focus on big picture stuff and just jump in to take control when you have some specific objective or to tweak research or production.

I'm in my first game and I've transitioned from an early warmonger (I took out one of the 'rodent' races who had the misfortune of starting next to me in my star cluster) to everybody's best friend and free trade magnate. My position at the center of the galaxy helps in that respect. I've found ominous warnings about the return of the Shakturi but no sightings yet.

Which is still going on, peeps.

Oops, thanks for the reminder. I need to get the just-released DLC. The sale goes on until Jan. 8 though.

Yup, it does, but with most other sales ending I thought it a salient point. Also, their "discounting" of the new expansion is a bit of a lie. If it's 20% off, then why isn't it $17 like the Shakturi? Hmmmmmmmmmm? Oh, because it costs 20% more. Whatevs.

Anyway, we'll see if my shoulder can handle it, but I might fire this up tonight, especially since jakeleg is kind of making me want to dive back in.

Brian, I'm requesting you do a series on Distant Worlds. More people need to play this game. I can wait until you're done with your older game series (and Archov) because I rather like those writeups, but I'd also like to see what your take is on the expansions for DW.

garion333 wrote:

Yup, it does, but with most other sales ending I thought it a salient point. Also, their "discounting" of the new expansion is a bit of a lie. If it's 20% off, then why isn't it $17 like the Shakturi? Hmmmmmmmmmm? Oh, because it costs 20% more. Whatevs.

Anyway, we'll see if my shoulder can handle it, but I might fire this up tonight, especially since jakeleg is kind of making me want to dive back in.

Brian, I'm requesting you do a series on Distant Worlds. More people need to play this game. I can wait until you're done with your older game series (and Archov) because I rather like those writeups, but I'd also like to see what your take is on the expansions for DW.

What he said. DW is perhaps the best space 4x game ever, and I think its lack of exposure has limited it to merely a cult following. We need to get the word out.

Now pardon me while I drink my Koolaid.

It's the next game I'll be covering after Avroch Alliance.

jakeleg wrote:

I picked up the Distant Worlds bundle...

Is there a bundle? I only see them listed individually. Also, you're all a bunch of damned enablers. Another 4X game is the last thing I need.

Coldstream wrote:
jakeleg wrote:

I picked up the Distant Worlds bundle...

Is there a bundle? I only see them listed individually. Also, you're all a bunch of damned enablers. Another 4X game is the last thing I need.

The sale isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so I recommend listening to this Three Moves Ahead episode before you make your decision. DW isn't for everyone.

And also, James Allen's review over at Out of Eight might, well, you'll see.

this looks interesting

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...

i get a little of a distant worlds vibe with a little more gloss and a much cooler idea for ship building.

Interesting. So with this Kickstarter stuff am I correct that you don't pay anything unless the threshold is met?

Also, from the comments I found another relevant info/news site: http://www.spacesector.com/

garion333 wrote:
Coldstream wrote:
jakeleg wrote:

I picked up the Distant Worlds bundle...

Is there a bundle? I only see them listed individually. Also, you're all a bunch of damned enablers. Another 4X game is the last thing I need.

The sale isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so I recommend listening to this Three Moves Ahead episode before you make your decision. DW isn't for everyone.

And also, James Allen's review over at Out of Eight might, well, you'll see.

Both of these are excellent. However they are both based on vanilla Distant Worlds, so keep that in mind. The game is vastly improved by the two expansions. One would be foolish not to get them all at once.

I tweeted James and requested he revisit DW with Legends, but he said that he preferred to devote his time to new, complete games rather than expansions.