iOS Games Thread Catch All

In CATS I just bought another $2.00 bundle. I’m sure it’s a limited time deal. Totally worth it. You get way more than in the $5 or $7 bundle.

I had a long train trip yesterday, so I played through the tutorial of Through The Ages. My favorite part is when you run out of civic points and need to wait a turn to build a building. “Or, you can buy some gems, in the gem store, to speed things up.”

“Haha, we’re kidding, this is not THAT kind of game. You actually have to collect all the resources before building.”

I about died laughing.

Brilliant!

That anecdote made me go and check out the game, which is available on iOS, Android, *and* Steam. Blurbs say Board Game Geek calls it the second best game of all time. Now I'm even *more* curious...

I was very surprised that the tutorial translated the board game fantastically. It’s a cross of a hyper-condensed Civ boardgame with tiny deck-building and meaty worker allocation mechanics. Very polished and I wonder how I missed playing this before...

TTA is probably my favorite boardgame of all time even though I'm awful at it. Hit me up if either of you want to play a multiplayer game and beat up on me.

I've tried making my way through the TTA tutorial twice. Not sure why I haven't made it yet other than doing it at midnight probably isn't conducive to learning anything. I know I'm going to love it once I learn it.

Toss me a friend request—same name—on Through the Ages. I’m not on much but still love it.

Through the Ages is one of my top 3 iOS board games of all time, alongside Lords of Waterdeep and Ascension.

Playing a game of TTA, for me, hits a lot of the same notes as playing a game of Civilization on PC -- except the whole thing takes only around 30-40 minutes!

Star Traders: Frontiers just dropped on iOS/Android. ($6.99 USD)

Yippee!!!

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...
iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/app/star-tr...

No way! Which build? Does it say?

Just fired it up and it's build v2.4.65

So it's one update behind PC (v2.4.67).

Does raise an interesting question if the Trese Bros will keep updating the mobile versions of the game as fanatically as they've been on PC.

Star Traders' latest update on PC was six days ago and that was update #130(!). The game has been seeing balancing tweaks and new content updates a couple times a week since it launched on Steam two years ago.

Can they keep up that pace on mobile platforms? I.E. do those launchers allow for such frenzied tweaking?

Four updates on iOS since arriving on the store on December 19.

Weird.

I thought it only came out today?

I believe it was beta'd by the Kickstarter folks.

Oh, I wasn't aware. Cool.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/AnB9ogf.jpg)

https://steamcommunity.com/app/33562...

Also looks like the mobile version will be tracking 1:1 with PC.

Woohoo!

Oooh, nice. I've been curious about that game. I'll probably be more likely to put time on on mobile than PC.

And here's the really old (May 2018) RPS review for anyone like me wondering what the thing is.

As for me, I'm pretty much just playing digital Evolution by North Star Games on my iOS devices. It's strategically complex, great multiplayer, and you can play an entire AI game or multiplayer game in 15-30 minutes.

In theory I'd like to play some meatier games but last night, for instance, with as much as I enjoyed Plague Inc. when it came out, I opened up Rebel Inc. and read through the quick rules, started the tutorial, and then closed it since my brain just wants a somewhat more relaxed past time. I've got enough work and other real-life stuff that already requires my full brain.

Edit: I originally wrote "RPG" review rather than "RPS" (Rock Paper Shotgun"

Is Evolution availble for iOS now? My google skills are failing me when I search for it.

For folks who didn't back on KS or buy a key at a con, the release date is February 12 for Steam and mobile. Multiplayer is cross-platform.

https://digital.northstargames.com/b...

I can't stress this enough, if Star Traders: Frontiers at all looks interesting to you, for $7 on IOS it's outright felony theft. Buy it without a thought, enjoy it at leisure. And you will enjoy it.

Robear wrote:

I can't stress this enough, if Star Traders: Frontiers at all looks interesting to you, for $7 on IOS it's outright felony theft. Buy it without a thought, enjoy it at leisure. And you will enjoy it. :-)

Even on a small screen? I'd be playing on an iPhone6.

Jonman wrote:
Robear wrote:

I can't stress this enough, if Star Traders: Frontiers at all looks interesting to you, for $7 on IOS it's outright felony theft. Buy it without a thought, enjoy it at leisure. And you will enjoy it. :-)

Even on a small screen? I'd be playing on an iPhone6.

Yeah, there are some games that, even on a XS Max are too small to play. I found even Civ6 to be hard to play. Of course, I can't stand the UI that replaces the home button and the notch gets in the way of some games menus but that's a different issue.

I have not tried it on a phone, I'd stick to iPad or Kindle Fire. Sorry for not making that clear.

Robear wrote:

I have not tried it on a phone, I'd stick to iPad or Kindle Fire. Sorry for not making that clear.

But it's that good on an iPad? I haven't seen Goodjers freak out over an iOS game like this in a long time.

Yes. It's the same as on the pc, and it's fantastic on pc. This is Trese Brothers at their best.

You can check the thread for the game, but it's reminiscent of Space Rangers 2, only highly polished and focused. Lots of story, but with card and character skill based encounters of all sorts to handle combat, exploration, spying, bounty-hunting, trading and so much more. It's got that "you and your ship against the universe" feel to it, where you have to recruit and manage the right crew, deal with attackers of all sorts while flying missions, and protect yourself from faction politics and pirates and other enemies of opportunity.

I love it and having it portable now is a wonder of modern life.

Edit - the one thing is, they are still hot and heavy with the updates and new features. They just finished upgrading Captains, and now they are working on ship types, equipment and capabilities, so that the AI will be able to "build" ships for encounters that are actually well put together. All this work leads to the next big feature set - Fighters and Carriers as playable ships! And there's more after that.

So I'm actually not playing right now, because I am waiting for the new features. Although I lie, I just started a game on the iPad, so I guess I'll play it through, but there's a lot of replayability, so... I'm good either way, I guess.

HP Lovesauce indicates that it works on phones. He said they struggled to get the interface to fit, but made it work.

Pocket Tactics review of Star Traders Frontiers.

For those not in the know, Star Traders: Frontiers is an open-world/sandbox style sci-fi RPG where you, as a ‘Star Trader’ and captain of your very own ship, must try to make a living in a hostile and unforgiving universe. It can be considered the spiritual (if not direct) sequel to the original Star Traders RPG released in 2011. You can customise your captain however you want in terms of looks and starting traits/stats which will effect what kind of playstyle to try and follow. There's also a range of basic ship types to get you going, and more can be unlocked through playing.

Frontiers started life as a PC game (which enjoyed a successful Kickstarter), so this is a port of a title that’s been available on Steam since its Early Access launch in November 2017. The game launched into 1.0 in August last year, and since then has received countless free content updates big and small. It’s a state of affairs that will expand to include the mobile version, which is excellent for the game’s longevity on all platforms.

The sheer diversity within the game is its strongest asset. A key gameplay pillar is naturally trading – there are plenty of basic and lucrative trade goods to found all over the game’s world. Buy low, sell high and there are ratings available to give you an indication on how good the price is (although, don’t take it as bible – some of the lower rated goods can yield better profits if you find the right buyer). Beyond this, there’s variations on the trading game such as smuggling and black market trading and of course you could turn into a pirate and just steal everyone else’s goods. You can also ignore commerce completely and go down a more military-focused route, or even make a living chasing down rumours, exploring dangerous wildlands and fighting alien monstrosities.

So this is essentially Star Citizen but actually exists?

No, not Star Citizen, but a very tasty RPG. Check out the pics in the various reviews.

OK, I just got it this morning and I've been playing it inbetween every build while I work, I'm totally sucked into the main storyline already. This game is amazingly dense for a mobile game (because it's not, really, I guess...)

It's rather tiny on my iPhone X but playable.