I have to admit that I never heard of this game before, nor of the studio that's working on it. Then again, I could say the same thing about Sword of the Stars when I first discovered the game. It's not out yet, but if you preorder, you gain access to the open Alpha. It's a 4X game that looks really good, even in the alpha state. I haven't had a chance to actually do anything else yet but look at the tutorial and take a peek at the forums, but word of mouth is that the game is kind of a spiritual successor to Moo 2. I have to wait until tomorrow to actually play with it (too tired this evening). But just wanted to give you guys a heads up since I know that others here have mentioned either Moo2 and/or SotS as one of their favorite games.
I am pretty surprised by it too. We'll see if it's any good, I plan to take a closer look at it when I have more free time. It seems to be turnbased so it has at least that going for it
This looks quite good, and the impressions I've read from people are very positive. The game is currently in alpha and you get access if you buy it now, but "Lets just say if this is an alpha then Sword of the Stars II Release was the first internal test build." I think I'm going to take the plunge and buy it. I'll let you know what I think of it. Edit: I bought it but I probably won't be playing it until a couple days since my connection sucks and I have other stuff to download first.
Hmm, tempting. From the trailer,pics/description I'm not seeing much differences between this and SoTS and Star Ruler though. If it proves to be any different/better than those keep me posted and I'll give it another look.
Give this a read, they describe a lot more of the game. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3482750&pagenumber=1 It looks pretty distinct from both of those games.
I didn't have as much of a chance to play this as I thought I would (had a contractor in the house -- he was supposed to be there only an hour and half, but that turned into 5 or so, and then at midnight, I ended up going out to see The Avengers movie). In any case, I'm slowly getting a feel for the game -- I don't have a firm opinion yet. It IS turn base, the UI, while not immediately intuitive, is not bad either (At one point I had to quit a game in order to open up the manual) (Yeah, I know "RTFM"). The Tech tree is more like a tech web -- it's not as big or variable as the one from SotS, and I'm sure I'll need to play a lot more before I get a feel for it. There are only a couple of variations of technology, based on which side you play. I did read in the official forums that some people are arguing for a more randomized tech tree, while others are totally against that. I'm looking forward to trying out combat -- from what I've read, I haven't been able to discern yet exactly how it works, but it appears to be a bit different than anything I've seen before. I'll give more impressions of the game as I manage to spend more time with it. The good news is that at this point, I actually DO want to spend more time with it (it hasn't demoralized me the way that SotS 2 did in its first half-hour).
I had a chance to play the game a bit more, even had a combat vs. Pirates. So here's some more of my thoughts. Combat can be resolved either automatically, or manually. But Manual resolution is a bit abstract. The way it works is that you select 'battle cards' for Long, Medium and Melee ranges. There are three basic battle cards that you start with, and more are unlocked with technology. Then the combat is fought based on your selections, as the ships gradually close range. You simply observe the combat at that point, and the resolution is from a combination of a rock/paper/scissors, and probably the capabilities of your ships themselves. The one special tech that I had unlocked and used in combat seemed to be especially effective in every battle (I forget what it was called), but that may also have been because I was playing on an easy difficulty level, and I was only fighting pirates. Something else I learned (probably would have known it had I read the manual). You can have multiple planets colonized within a system, but you only require a colony ship for the first one. (I spread really slowly at first because I hadn't realized this). I may start a new game now that I understand that aspect. Or maybe not. To colonize a second planet in a system, you have to select that planet, and add 'colonize' to your build queue. You have only one build queue for your entire system. You can't build a ship at the same time as a planetary improvement or add a colony. Also, your population must be at least 2. My impressions so far -- this game is only in Alpha so take what I say with a grain of salt. It definitely needs some improvement, That said I've only encountered one actual bug so far (You can queue technologies... if and only if you select technologies along the same path, and if so, the program will override the specific path along the tech web to your goal tech. If you want anything different then the default, then you cannot actually queue up the techs). The UI is just 'ok' -- it does need some work. But that's to be expected. I'm not especially thrilled by the tech web, but that may, to some extent, have to do with my unfamiliarity with it. Still, I have to side with the people who want a bit more randomization of the technologies. The combat is something that doesn't particularly thrill me. Maybe it will grow on me. I'll have to see what direction it takes in the future. But the devs do deserve credit simply for trying something completely different. It seems like an 'ok' compromise between auto-combat and a completely tactical combat system. I do like the leaders. It adds a bit of an RPG aspect to the game. Each time a leader levels up, you get to pick a new trait for that leader, and they are kind of cool. If this was the finished product (which it definitely is not) I'd say that it was not going to replace SotS as my go-to game when I want a 4X space game fix. But it's still a fun game and different enough that I'd continue to play it. I am curious what others think about it.
I'll install it in a couple days as I said, thanks for the impressions though, that's interesting. One novel thing they're trying is having people vote on features. I don't know if it's a terrible or a brilliant idea, we'll have to see.
I have not purchased it, and cannot vote, but I think it may be the dumbest thing ever. Voting because you bought it and not even having to prove you know the game enough to decide is like tying the developers hands behind their backs and telling them to make it sparkle more or some other nonsense. Feedback is cruical. Selling the right to offer feedback is suicide for a game developer. Correct me if I am misunderstanding. I will absolutely not buy it if they are just going to give up on making a good game and do whatever the people who bought it said. I do not want big breasted women on every screen. I do not want the player character to have a massive compensational weapon they carry everywhere. I simply could not care less for such garbage. But that is exactly what will happen if they allow themselves to be run by idiots who only coughed up money.
No, you misunderstood me. Developers give out multiple choices on what they want to do, then people can vote amongst those choices. I should've clarified.
What Daynab said. Players do NOT have control over what goes into the game. But just like in any game, you can make suggestions, and the devs are welcome to use or reject those ideas. Only when the devs decide, is something put up for a vote. It's not that you are designing the game, it's that some SELECTED decisions are voted on. I think of it more as community input than actual community control. Here's a link to the "GAMES2GETHER" forums, if you are curious what's going on (I haven't actually browsed those forums yet so I can't comment on it -- but you can see for yourself): http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/forumdisplay.php?8-GAMES2GETHER-Design-Discussion
Yes, Starfarer. We should have a thread about it. David actually worked on it! he drew some (all?) the spaceships and stuff. You just reminded me I have it in fact.
Ah! An inside job! I am glad to have discovered it. It does look nice. I am not so certain I will like it or not, but it certainly looks good. And at least as good as SPaZ, if not infinitely better.
The game description reminds me of elite, but the combat is top-down instead of from the pilot seat. I don't think it's my kind of game (not a fan of that style of action combat).
If anyone is signed up with Games2Gether, please PM me. I am setting up a project which uses a similar "community involvement" model, and I'd love to hear your impressions of how well G2G is working, where it isn't working, etc.
I haven't been able to figure out how to PM you lol. I will say that so far I've only seen/participated in 2 votes under Games2Gether, and both were rather... unimportant and insignificant to me. One vote was to select one of three logos for the Hissho faction, and the other was to select one of three ship designs for a specific pirate craft. Neither one would have any impact on the game itself -- it was just a matter of aesthetic choices. Also, apparently, I received more votes because I created a thread (I'm up to 100 votes now).
