Best 4X strategies

Which 4X strategies do you like the most?

 

Of those I've played (only pre-2001 ones):

1. Master of Orion
2. Alpha Centauri

 

I wonder why we never saw a proper sequel to Alpha Centauri. Firaxis kept pumping Civ sequels after acquiring rights to the later.

 

EA owns the rights to it.

Also current day firaxis is shit (Civilization: Beyond Earth and Civilization 6 being proof) and Brian Reynolds is working elsewhere.

 

I heard that Civ 5 was really bad too. I have not played anything newer than Civ 4.

 

Aurora 4X, aka Space Spreadsheet Simulator.

Civ 5 is fine. Civ 6 is the one that's shit.

 

What makes it so bad?

 

Rimworld is that in a way. But mostly with a single colony focus.

 

I liked what I played of AoW, and there's plenty I wanna try, but inevitably when I think 4X I think Civ.

It's new.

Been thinking about trying to get into IV (or III?), only got into the series with V.

 

Master of Orion 2
Alpha Centauri
Endless Legend
Colonization (original)

P.S: Colonization is the Victoria of Civ series.

 

Civ4 + check out Dune and FFH mods
Eador Genesis New Horizons
Master of Magic
Master of Orion 1+2
Dominions 5
Endless series

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Birthright Gorgon's Alliance

 

Civ 4 with mods. There's tons of mods, all with different flavor and focus. I'm a fan of the kitchen sink mod Caveman 2 Cosmos, but Fall From Heaven 2 is also great, and the Rhye's And Fall series focuses on historical campaigns with dynamic spawning of new civs as history progresses.

Master of Orion 2 is still the best space 4X.

 

The first game is far superior due to being better designed systemically, it was very elegant. While you could say many positive things about the sequel it ruined that in favour of coming closer to Civilization.

Isn't Rimworld just Prison Architect with the prison exchanged for a planetary colony?

 

Definitely underselling it. Dwarf Fortress is the usual comparison point tbh.

 

Not familiar with Prison Architect, but the main difference is probably the external attacks on your colony or attacking other settlements yourself. This is done with RTwP combat. There is also a tech tree, trade, alliances, etc.

 

DF is definitely superior. Rimworld, while having its own merits, is just DF with a normie-friendly UI.

 

And it's scifi instead of fantasy. Though funnily enough, you basically start with neolithic tech and there are tribes that are the same.

 

Accessible interfaces aren't a negative tbh.

 

Careful with that 'tbh' tic, comrade, once you've gotten into the habit it's quite hard to stop using it tbqh.

Prison Architect is what it sounds like (a game where you plan, build and then manage a prison) and was made by the lads at Introversion, behind niche classics such as Uplink, Darwinia and DEFCON. Rimworld pretty much ripped off the art-direction wholesale, but I've not yet found the time to play it so I only assumed that the game mechanics were very similar also. What I was getting at was if the game isn't more about management than 4X, but from what you describe it certainly does sound different from PA. One of the things I rather enjoyed in Alpha Centauri was the ecology simulation, anything like that in the game? Or is it too small scale for that sort of thing?

 

An overbearing mother and long summers alone (read: online) have already long ruined me, tbbbhhhh.

I really liked Introversion back in the day, but PA has failed to keep me attentive, so much as vaguely nauseous. It's 'context' just feels too abhorrent today.

 

There is basically a whole planet generated and you can choose where you want to be - arctic, temperate, mountains, jungle, etc. This choice has quite a lot of influence on the game style, eg. what wildlife there is to hunt or domesticate, how easy it is to grow food and what grows there, how often you get disease or environmental disasters, etc.

I just checked the screenshots of PA and yeah, Rimworld pretty much ripped off the art direction from them. But it works, so why reinvent the wheel?

What is weird in Rimworld is that the main way to recruit more people is through capturing them and then convincing them to join you. So you have to hope that your people do not kill the attackers with the best stats but only incapacitate them, which happens only about 10-20% of the time.

 

I can get that. I felt the same about their nuclear war game. Fun thing with the volume turned down, but bleh, the theme wore on me after a short while.

 

Alpha Centaury~ Nothing else. Tried Civ4 back in the days but it only has better (read, not pixelated) graphic. Once you are used to the freedom of SMAC you are just tired of everything else.

 

Top Tier:
Alpha Centauri (without Alien Crossfire)
Master of Magic
Civ 4:BTS (FFH2 mod)
Master of Orion 2

Second Tier:
Civ 3
Colonisation (original)
Galactic Civilisations 2

Third Tier:
Colonisation (new)
Civ 2
Space Empires 5
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic

Warlocks 2​

 

What makes the top tier so great?