Management / Sim "The economy, stupid" Recommend me economic games

[Chaosdwarft]

Hello fellow Codexers,

In my futile and endless quest to find games that have interesting economic models, here are some of the ones I already tried out and recommend myself:

Victoria 2 - simulated pops that have demands and a world market.

M.U.L.E - fun "party" trading game, simple mechanics yet deep strategies

GPS / Power and Revolutions - simulating country and world economy, you can be as interventionist as you want in the economy or be a true Laissez-faire capitalist

Wallstreet Raider - fun trader simulator, wonder what it was like to be a raider in 1980s? this is the game for you.

Capitalism Plus/ 2/ Labs - at this stage I recommend to get the Labs version as it comes with good expansions. You can run almost any type of business, have a fully working stock market, marketing, R&D.

Anno series - more of a management of logistics game, the 1404 has the best overall feel and mechanics. 2070 and 1800 are honorable mentions.

Prison Architect - finally you can create your own Shawshank redemption story while trying to turn a profit. Even comes with smuggling and all.

Offworld Trading Company - develop mars (and now other solar system planets) while trying to buy out the competition. Good amount of resources available.

Railroad Tycoon series - build railroad tracks, haul those goods, make a profit like a good "robber baron".

Cities Skyline - City to Regional economy, ofc simplified but it allows your megalopolis to grow organically.

Supreme Ruler series - simulating country and world economy, a bit more " simply" than Power and Revolutions but I think they have better combat.

Interstellar Transport company - Like Railroad transport tycoon but in SPACE.

Space Rangers HD - This game is a lot of things, but it has a living and breathing economy that really fluctuates depending on both player and NPCs.

EDIT: Patrician series - Great Baltic trading game with great mechanics.

Cheers!

 

[Berekän]

EVE Online - Shit gets permanently destroyed and 90% of the things are player made so the economy's always healthy and you don't reach the outrageous levels of inflation of other MMO's. Markets have been closed down, inventories bought out to obtain the monopoly, external factors like wars have a big influence on the market... you can get rich without ever going out on your spaceship (and tbh it's the best way of doing it). Probably the closest you'll find to real life economics.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

all true. 10-15 years ago. now if you're not part of some gigantic alliance you are nothing and can do nothing.

 

[Citizen]

Machiavelli the Prince/Merchant Prince - simplistic graphics, simple gameplay, lots of micromanagement but still very fun for all your italian jew LARP needs

 

[Chaosdwarft]

Machiavelli the Prince/Merchant Prince - simplistic graphics, simple gameplay, lots of micromanagement but still very fun for all your italian jew LARP needs

ofc how could I forget the Patrician series! Patrician 3 remains my favorite overall.

 

[exe]

Is Interstellar Transport company worth trying? looks really barebones

 

[Jimmious]

AFAIK both Mount&Blade:Warband and Starsector have fully simulated economies where cities/villages/colonies/stations etc produce resources and require others and the prices fluctuate accordingly

 

[Galdred]

Port Royale series: like Patricians (made by the same dev actually), but in the Caribbean with the ability to go corsair or pirates. I really liked the first one: establish a trade outpost, make money, then take on the English and take over their ships.
X3 You can pew pew, but trading has a large place in this game
Void Destroyer 2: combat X3. Not that much trading, but selling stuff from stations and making sure your transports don't blow up in the process is still the main way to make money. Later on, you need to secure your supply lines to build the larger spaceships. Cutting your opponent supplies also reduce their combat power.
The Guild : German burgher RPG lite with a focus on establishing a merchant dynasty. The micro management is very heavy in this one.
Star Traders: Frontier: It is in the name! Dynamic supply and demand, lots of trade goods, some being contraband, and other are gated by your relations with providers. You also need to balance your cargo haul vs other modules. It is a great trading spaceship RPG IMO.

Helium Rain: X3-like focused on trading (I have not played it), but from what I had read, you win by strangling your opponent economy, then mop up with your fleet. It seems to be the space game with the highest focus on trade.
Avrox Imperium: marketed as Eve offline (no idea whether it lives up to the name or not), and definitely with a strong focus on trade.
Starship Corportation? Design starship, test them to get good ratings, and sell them (I have not played it either).

 

[Chaosdwarft]

Port Royale series: like Patricians (made by the same dev actually), but in the Caribbean with the ability to go corsair or pirates. I really liked the first one: establish a trade outpost, make money, then take on the English and take over their ships.
X3 You can pew pew, but trading has a large place in this game
Void Destroyer 2: combat X3. Not that much trading, but selling stuff from stations and making sure your transports don't blow up in the process is still the main way to make money. Later on, you need to secure your supply lines to build the larger spaceships. Cutting your opponent supplies also reduce their combat power.
The Guild : German burgher RPG lite with a focus on establishing a merchant dynasty. The micro management is very heavy in this one.
Star Traders: Frontier: It is in the name! Dynamic supply and demand, lots of trade goods, some being contraband, and other are gated by your relations with providers. You also need to balance your cargo haul vs other modules. It is a great trading spaceship RPG IMO.

Helium Rain: X3-like focused on trading (I have not played it), but from what I had read, you win by strangling your opponent economy, then mop up with your fleet. It seems to be the space game with the highest focus on trade.
Avrox Imperium: marketed as Eve offline (no idea whether it lives up to the name or not), and definitely with a strong focus on trade.
Starship Corportation? Design starship, test them to get good ratings, and sell them (I have not played it either).

Ah yes X3: I never got into the economy for some reason, mostly played it for the pew pew.

The Guild: I played mainly the 1st one gold edition. I tried to play the Guild2 Renaissance but it did not have the same feeling.

Starship corporation: is that game done I thought it got abandoned?

Will check the others.

 

[Catacombs]

Have you tried Rise of Industry?

 

[Chaosdwarft]

Have you tried Rise of Industry?

No I have not, it is on my wishlist though. Cheers!

 

[Galdred]

Ah yes X3: I never got into the economy for some reason, mostly played it for the pew pew.

The Guild: I played mainly the 1st one gold edition. I tried to play the Guild2 Renaissance but it did not have the same feeling.

Starship corporation: is that game done I thought it got abandoned?

Will check the others.

You are right about Starship Corportation. IT seems to fall in the good idea poorly executed bucket.
For the Guild, I also played the 1st one mostly.
If you didn't bother with X3 eco, I doubt Void Destroyer 2 would scratch your itch for eco then (it is even more focused on pew pew).


Star Traders: Frontier is definitely interesting, but it takes like forever to know what you are doing in the game.
Helium rain was made as an economic game with some pew pew ing added, so it should fit the bill.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Realms of Arkania HD

 

[Chaosdwarft]

Realms of Arkania HD

Would you care to elaborate? I have not played that game, but google revealed it is a classic fantasy RPG.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Realms of Arkania HD

Would you care to elaborate? I have not played that game, but google revealed it is a classic fantasy RPG.

Google's wrong. That game is the be-all-and-end-all of gaming. It has everything.

 

[JarlFrank]

Realms of Arkania HD

Would you care to elaborate? I have not played that game, but google revealed it is a classic fantasy RPG.

ERYFKRAD has an agenda.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

Gangsters/Mob Rule/Omerta games if you wanna try the more honest ways of making a buck.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Realms of Arkania HD

Would you care to elaborate? I have not played that game, but google revealed it is a classic fantasy RPG.

ERYFKRAD has an agenda.

Lies, I have several.

 

[Galdred]

There are also games about running a game company with super original titiles (Game Dev Tycoon/ Game Dev Studio /Mad Games Tycoon).
The first one (Game Deve Tycoon) is the most popular, the latter one seems to be the most complex.

 

[Jimmious]

Why do you disagree asfasdf ?

 

[Joined on the 4th of July]

LOGistiCAL series could be worth checking out if you really want to sample almost everything for your quest. It's about logistics, bit too puzzle-like and overall rather meh, but there are free scenarios on Steam!

 

[Papa Môlé]

I donno, I think Tropico 6 is pretty good.

 

[AgentFransis]

Trade Empires has a simple but elegant supply and demand model. A market has supply and demand buildings that contribute demand or goods over time. When a market has demand for a good it's price increases over time and when there are stockpiles the price drops. Dwellings are special demand buildings that when most their demands are met more spring up. So you can set up a market around some farms and a small town will grow until it's demands reach equalibrium with the local supply. To grow it further you need to establish trade routes supplying more food and stuff like clothes and pottery (and wathever other stuff the people of the era demand. There are scenarios for most major civs and eras from ancient mesopotamia to 19th century Britain). So it's not too hard to grow a modestly sized city but you need serious dedication to food supply infrastructure if you want to create a Rome or a Constantinople, as in reality.

AFAIK both Mount&Blade:Warband and Starsector have fully simulated economies where cities/villages/colonies/stations etc produce resources and require others and the prices fluctuate accordingly

In Starsector it's very simplistic. The only things that really affect prices are if a planet is raided or a merchant convoy is pirated. For your own colonies the revenue is very abstract and calculated as the precentage of the goods you produce out of the total produced in the sector, modified by an abstract accesibility of your colony. Basically the economy is just there so you can dump stuff you find and for your colonies to print you money.

 

[Jimmious]

In Starsector it's very simplistic. The only things that really affect prices are if a planet is raided or a merchant convoy is pirated. For your own colonies the revenue is very abstract and calculated as the precentage of the goods you produce out of the total produced in the sector, modified by an abstract accesibility of your colony. Basically the economy is just there so you can dump stuff you find and for your colonies to print you money

I see.
One amazing thing in Starsector though is how your trading of ship blueprints will massively alter the galaxy. For example selling a high-tech, advanced, super powerful battlecruiser blueprint to the pirates will have them produce the said battlecruiser after a bit and wreck some serious shit.
I find that really cool

 

[AgentFransis]

Yeah. Only Pirates do that though, as far as I know. Also if you want scarier pirates try Tahlan Shipworks - it gives the pirates some pretty cool toys.