Can Anyone Recommend a Good "Builder"?

[flabbyjack]

Dear Brodexian,
Stronghold 1, seriously.
With love, flabbyjack

 

[lecrab]

In victoria 1/2 you can absolutely dominate the game with minimal war and immigration .. it's alot of fun to play a smaller country with a small variety of resources (like chile) n order to really care for your sphere of influence (SOI). You can influence war in which you don't participate just by subsiding one of the combatants. If you have monopoly on some good, for example Greater Germany coal or England cloth, you can create massive market crashes if you just stockpile that good.
Of course you can just play the Russian Empire/Great Britain/France/Greater Germany and rolfstomp everthing in your path which is not easy and you should know what you are doing before starting endless containment wars especially late game (overbloating will lead to being inferior in tech, which matters!)

Anyways, Vicky is the best true macro-economy simulator in a game i have ever encountered, especially with vrrp mod, dude that build it used pretty decent economics principles.


On another note:
Ceasar 4 is very similar to Ceasar 3 just better graphics, so you might give that one a try.

 

[catfood]

http://af.gog.com/gamecard/cultures_12?as=1649904300

If anyone is still interested.

 

[Livonya]

Is Cultures 2 much different than Cultures 1?

I just finished the campaign in Cultures 1, and while it was fun, I am not sure I want to do a whole other campaign of the same exact thing... it appears that Cultures 2 is pretty much the same game?

Are the changes that make it worth playing?

thanks.

 

[slpwnd]

Hi,

for past couple of months me and mine friend been full time developing this game which is primarily about building factories: http://www.factorio.com.

In Factorio you start from zero to build a big factory producing all sorts of things helping you survive on the alien planet. You will need to mine resources, automate production, make sure you have enough energy, research technololgies to unlock new recipes and modifications, build defenses against alien creatures, etc. The game is about strategic planning, solving little construction puzzles and watching your robotic arms (un)load transport belts full of processed ores. Also the game is a bit geeky - you can build machines crafting another machines (we call them assembling machines), setup simple programmable signals to organize flows in your factory and dispatch little flying logistic robots which transport stuff between your chests (they look like little ufos atm). Yeah building factory ain't easy.

If you like this concept then feel free to visit the web page and learn more about the game (trailer, screenshots, etc). There is also public demo available (win, osx, ubuntu linux). Game is still in development, the graphics is poor and parts of the game (especially combat) are still rather conceptual. However we (and our friends) have spent a lot of time playing the game in current state and having fun. Also, we have launched a crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo to raise funds for further development (check it out at http://www.indiegogo.com/factorio).

We appreciate any comments, suggestions, criticism and ideas you guys might have.
Here are couple of screenshots from the game:

 

[DakaSha]

So how is tropico 4 compared to.. well 1? Is it incline? Its so cheap on steam now i might pick it up.
inb4 skyway recommending new simcity comment

 

[Raghar]

Dunno I pirated it. I played it with settings immigration forbidden, and the first stuff that happened was a tornado that took communistic priest with Church.

It took me about 30 years to get population to self sufficient survivable levels and then the game ended.

 

[Horus]

Dear Brodexian,
Stronghold 1, seriously.
With love, flabbyjack

Stronghold crusader was better in my opinion.

 

[MetalCraze]

So how is tropico 4 compared to.. well 1? Is it incline? Its so cheap on steam now i might pick it up.
inb4 skyway recommending new simcity comment

They mostly didn't change anything while moving it into 3D. That's why it's the only game from Haemimont that doesn't horribly suck.

 

[KoolNoodles]

So how is tropico 4 compared to.. well 1? Is it incline? Its so cheap on steam now i might pick it up.
inb4 skyway recommending new simcity comment

Tropico 4 is very good, I enjoyed it. I can't honestly remember the differences between 3 and 4, and 1. 3 and 4 are pretty similar, 4 just improves in all areas where 3 was lacking. It's a lot of fun, polished, dictator sim. I would say it is "incline", just because it gave me the same feeling as playing the original and wasn't crappy like Tropico 2. I'd have to re-install it to give a more detailed explanation, but I played it quite a bit for a while and I like my city simulations. It replaced Anno 1404 on my HD after I had played that to death so that's saying something. It's $7.50(minus all the silly DLC, though Modern Times adds some longevity), I'd be surprised if you were disappointed in that purchase.

Also agree about Stronghold Crusader.

 

[asongforsimeon]

So how is tropico 4 compared to.. well 1? Is it incline? Its so cheap on steam now i might pick it up.
inb4 skyway recommending new simcity comment

I like it. Note, however, that the expansion has four or five overpowered i-win-button buildings. And turns the city from banana republic shit slum into glass-and-plastic dubai.

 

[Lorica]

Did you all find Tropic 2 that terrible? I remember liking the radically different direction it took--it wasn't just a setting change, but you had to pay attention to different mechanics. I do think that I found the difficulty curve in the main campaign to be a little tedious, but it's been years since I've played.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Hi,

for past couple of months me and mine friend been full time developing this game which is primarily about building factories: http://www.factorio.com.

In Factorio you start from zero to build a big factory producing all sorts of things helping you survive on the alien planet. You will need to mine resources, automate production, make sure you have enough energy, research technololgies to unlock new recipes and modifications, build defenses against alien creatures, etc. The game is about strategic planning, solving little construction puzzles and watching your robotic arms (un)load transport belts full of processed ores. Also the game is a bit geeky - you can build machines crafting another machines (we call them assembling machines), setup simple programmable signals to organize flows in your factory and dispatch little flying logistic robots which transport stuff between your chests (they look like little ufos atm). Yeah building factory ain't easy.

If you like this concept then feel free to visit the web page and learn more about the game (trailer, screenshots, etc). There is also public demo available (win, osx, ubuntu linux). Game is still in development, the graphics is poor and parts of the game (especially combat) are still rather conceptual. However we (and our friends) have spent a lot of time playing the game in current state and having fun. Also, we have launched a crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo to raise funds for further development (check it out at http://www.indiegogo.com/factorio).

We appreciate any comments, suggestions, criticism and ideas you guys might have.
Here are couple of screenshots from the game:

I'm sold.
Downloadin' the demo.



Also, I'd say that best builder I've played would be Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom.

 

[Borelli]

You simply cannot go wrong with Impressions Games, i recommend Caesar 3 and Pharaoh, timeless classics in the city-builder genre.

 

[hoverdog]

http://www.indiegogo.com/factorio

That is the first IGG campaign I've seen that has actually succeeded

looks great btw.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Tropico 3/4 has one huge as fuck improvement over the first one - roads.
No more workers walking to a far construction site for a year, hammering a nail and going back home because they haven't ate or slept.

 

[Misconnected]

Tropico 4 is very, very easy, but otherwise it's a great game, a proper sequel to the first Tropico, and incorporates, expands & improves on everything from Tropico 3. So... No reason to play the first 3 games.

 

[IDtenT]

You simply cannot go wrong with Impressions Games, i recommend Caesar 3 and Pharaoh, timeless classics in the city-builder genre.

Best mathematical design games ever.

 

[J1M]

Anno 1404 is the way to go here. Did not like the new anno at all. The UI in that game is horrific with a W.

Settlers is also good. I played the most recent one and although I would have VASTLY preferred a grid-based building-placement system similar to Anno, the game operates on the basis of victory points, so it is very possible to win a map without a lot of combat. And when you do wage war it is more about logistics and supply lines than anything else.

 

[J1M]

You simply cannot go wrong with Impressions Games, i recommend Caesar 3 and Pharaoh, timeless classics in the city-builder genre.

Best mathematical design games ever.

Isn't Caesar 3 the one where you can kill anything attacking your city by kiting with a couple of squads of javelin throwers?

 

[MetalCraze]

Tropico 4 is very, very easy, but otherwise it's a great game, a proper sequel to the first Tropico, and incorporates, expands & improves on everything from Tropico 3. So... No reason to play the first 3 games.

It's only as easy as you want it to be. The resource/forest sliders seem to dictate difficulty a lot.
Try starting in some desert and it becomes much harder.

 

[catfood]

You simply cannot go wrong with Impressions Games, i recommend Caesar 3 and Pharaoh, timeless classics in the city-builder genre.

Best mathematical design games ever.

Isn't Caesar 3 the one where you can kill anything attacking your city by kiting with a couple of squads of javelin throwers?

Depends on whom you're fighting against. Some civs have very fast units that can catch the javelineers. Not to mention that moving units can't (or are almost impossible to) be hit with projectiles. But for the first few campaign missions, yeah, javelins are the way to go. Of course, there's also the difficulty level to take into account. The higher it is, the more enemies you have to deal with.

 

[Borelli]

You simply cannot go wrong with Impressions Games, i recommend Caesar 3 and Pharaoh, timeless classics in the city-builder genre.

Best mathematical design games ever.

Isn't Caesar 3 the one where you can kill anything attacking your city by kiting with a couple of squads of javelin throwers?

Pfft, a true Roman city will have proper legions protecting it instead of foreign auxiliares. but yes you can
I remember once i was defending against celts, i put my legionaries in a line and javelin throwers behind them, and the celts entered a diamond formation broke through the front lines and slaughtered the ranged units i was like when did the AI suddenly get smarter?
But normally a couple of ballistas take care of everything with one shot (except elephants but they are another story). Also Carthaginians have arab names which i found lulzy.

 

[IDtenT]

Combat wasn't exactly their strong point...

 

[Borelli]

Yes the difficulty in combat was mostly economical. Attacks are timed and by that time if you need 2 legions thats 12k denarii that your city might not have. But i enjoyed seeing my legionaries fighting against other little people.