MetalCraze
Arcane
After the disappointment that is Endless Space which went several steps back from old MoO2 - and that's in 2012 - my bro told me to try out Distant Worlds.
And so far it seems like Victoria IN SPACE
The scale is truly impressive. This is a 10x10 sector map with 1000 stars in it. And it isn't the biggest galaxy available - it can be 50% bigger.
But that's not all. You can seamlessly zoom in and out from the galaxy view to the planetary view seeing every military and civilian ship going about their own business - very much like in Space Rangers series.
Each star may or may not have several planets. Each type of planet offers various types of resources (gathering them is done by civilians so you should only bother if you lack one and AI explorers - if enabled - didn't find it for you yet) incl. unique ones giving bonuses (similar to Civ3). You can also mine asteroid fields and gas clouds for resources.
Reapers are invading!!
Even though the game is randomly generated (through a very flexible generator) you can select an option to have a background plot too. Essentially an incoming huge invasion into a galaxy.
You can also have random encounters that may direct you to something cool or give you a unique tech or government type. Or be very hazardous. Oh and you can also build wonders - much like in Civ.
Speaking of techs - cosmic "anomalies" - e.g. supernova - can give bonuses to one of 3 big research trees present in a game if a research station is built near them. Scientist "heroes" can also give you nice bonuses, or on the other hand detract from your scientific progress if they will gain some bad trait. That goes for many other type of heroes. Upon ending one of the wars I had one of my admirals gained a "Drunk" trait.
And this is a ship designer. Scary at first glance - it's a min-maxer's wet dream. Hey you can even add a recreation hub to your military ship.
Of course you don't need to micromanage everything - by default everything is controlled by AI, which does a decent job at it, but you are free to take over anything except for civilian ships.
Oh yeah your main income comes from civilians which pay taxes. But to pay taxes they need to earn money. And to earn money they need to build ships. And they must build ships in your shipyards where you also build your fleets. Give a priority only to your ships - and money, exploration, resource and fuel transportation will suffer. And as a result so will your fleets and your empire.
Fuel? Ships need fuel. If they will not have enough they won't be able to do hyperjumps making them reach their destinations painfully slow. Without fuel troop ships won't be able to land on planets for invasions. Of course you can always bombard the planet to a stone age but doing so you reduce its quality and kill a population which otherwise can be enslaved and build you needed structures much faster. Besides some planets can't be colonized without research but if you will enslave their population - you will be able to control them.
And then there's diplomacy (4X-standard) with other races and even pirates with which you can ally and pay them to raid other races. You can send ambassador "heroes" to boost your diplomatic relations. You can send spy "heroes" on various missions to other empires too.
And apart from main empires with which you started - other minor independent races may rise to become superpowers. Or you can enslave them. Pirates can also volunteer to join your empire. There are also aliens that will simply attack, but also random alien traders that may offer you to buy something.
So whereas Endless Space taken several steps back from a 16 years old game - this game so far looks like a definite step forward.
Sure it's not as easy to get into but it also offers so much more.
And so far it seems like Victoria IN SPACE
The scale is truly impressive. This is a 10x10 sector map with 1000 stars in it. And it isn't the biggest galaxy available - it can be 50% bigger.
But that's not all. You can seamlessly zoom in and out from the galaxy view to the planetary view seeing every military and civilian ship going about their own business - very much like in Space Rangers series.
Each star may or may not have several planets. Each type of planet offers various types of resources (gathering them is done by civilians so you should only bother if you lack one and AI explorers - if enabled - didn't find it for you yet) incl. unique ones giving bonuses (similar to Civ3). You can also mine asteroid fields and gas clouds for resources.
Reapers are invading!!
Even though the game is randomly generated (through a very flexible generator) you can select an option to have a background plot too. Essentially an incoming huge invasion into a galaxy.
You can also have random encounters that may direct you to something cool or give you a unique tech or government type. Or be very hazardous. Oh and you can also build wonders - much like in Civ.
Speaking of techs - cosmic "anomalies" - e.g. supernova - can give bonuses to one of 3 big research trees present in a game if a research station is built near them. Scientist "heroes" can also give you nice bonuses, or on the other hand detract from your scientific progress if they will gain some bad trait. That goes for many other type of heroes. Upon ending one of the wars I had one of my admirals gained a "Drunk" trait.
And this is a ship designer. Scary at first glance - it's a min-maxer's wet dream. Hey you can even add a recreation hub to your military ship.
Of course you don't need to micromanage everything - by default everything is controlled by AI, which does a decent job at it, but you are free to take over anything except for civilian ships.
Oh yeah your main income comes from civilians which pay taxes. But to pay taxes they need to earn money. And to earn money they need to build ships. And they must build ships in your shipyards where you also build your fleets. Give a priority only to your ships - and money, exploration, resource and fuel transportation will suffer. And as a result so will your fleets and your empire.
Fuel? Ships need fuel. If they will not have enough they won't be able to do hyperjumps making them reach their destinations painfully slow. Without fuel troop ships won't be able to land on planets for invasions. Of course you can always bombard the planet to a stone age but doing so you reduce its quality and kill a population which otherwise can be enslaved and build you needed structures much faster. Besides some planets can't be colonized without research but if you will enslave their population - you will be able to control them.
And then there's diplomacy (4X-standard) with other races and even pirates with which you can ally and pay them to raid other races. You can send ambassador "heroes" to boost your diplomatic relations. You can send spy "heroes" on various missions to other empires too.
And apart from main empires with which you started - other minor independent races may rise to become superpowers. Or you can enslave them. Pirates can also volunteer to join your empire. There are also aliens that will simply attack, but also random alien traders that may offer you to buy something.
So whereas Endless Space taken several steps back from a 16 years old game - this game so far looks like a definite step forward.
Sure it's not as easy to get into but it also offers so much more.
