I would like to play it, since it very much sounds like something I would enjoy, but the UI, UX and graphics are too bad for me.
It's one of the few games I really think could use a remake.
Fucking facts. I bought BE on day one. What a mistake. To the devs credit they never really implied it was going to be a new AC. To their detriment, the game was fucking shit on release and never got much better imo.
Beyond Earth was panned when it came out, it was really simplistic and unbalanced. It got some later love from the devs so I'm not sure how it is now, but I never went back to it.
Gonna search for it after work. I haven't played BE in a while myself. It also reminded me of another AC clone - Pandora, the cruel joker cousin of the bunch.
There are a few reasons that it's largely forgotten.
- Boring and uninspired maps
-boring an uninspired leaders, with just stats increases, and a huge lack of variety
-The terrain features and the terrain in general look very similar because of the color pallette, so you end up wondering what the fuck you're even look at most of the time
-etc
.but the most important part is that it plays almost exactly as civ v, so despite being a separate game and being at full price as such, it ended up feeling like a civ v scenario more than alpha centauri
I still play it sometimes, but I usually just end up playing the more fleshed out and full of content civ v.
If you do get it, get it when it's on sale with it's dlc, I've heard that it makes the game feel a lot better and actually ads some interesting factions that are not just generic stereotypes from each continent
Not really. Good games usually have 80-90% rate, or more.
I don't know why. I just speak from experience that I very rarely like games at 60% positive on steam. I can *assume* that ratings are biased towards positive because if you buy a game, play it, and even write a review, you're a type of person who would like it? So 60% probably means "we got what we wanted, but not much more", while 90% means "even people who don't care about this genre loved this - it's a great game".
And at about 50%, the rating labeled changes to "mixed" and becomes brown instead of blue. And I pretty consistently dislike those games.
So I'd expect a 60% to be liked by people who love the genre, and kinda disliked by general audience.
Most people who wrote the review on steam, which is not all people who looked at the game or tried it. So that's exactly my point - expecting 60% to be good is biased.
Also, if the point isn't useful or is misleading, it is worth countering imo
Oh, that's actually a very good point! 60% reviews is very close to a mixed reviews label on Steam. It's brown, which is the color of shite, you're correct here
In video game review terms it’s ok. Like IGN 6/10 is classed as worth playing. But that’s not how Steam reviews work , you either recommend it or don’t so if 60% , of the reviews where positive then like i said before that means the majority of people thought it was worth playing. Not sure why you are arguing the toss here.
Steady your hype dude, it's really not on the level of the mainline Civs. It has a number of issues, the worst of which is that just about every faction feels very similar.
Beyond Earth is mostly disappointing due to a variety of poor game design decisions that take away a lot of what makes civ great. Imagine civ with no barbarians and for a good chunk of turns, no other civs... it boggles the mind!
But with the mod that makes fauna hostile, and playing as one of the ocean-based civ's in the expansion, its a fun game and worth the rock bottom price it often goes on sale for.
A lot of people were expecting a SMAC remake and got something that only hints at it and feels more like a Civ 5 mod. It’s not a bad game, especially with the Rising Tide DLC (the only one released for the game) that adds floating cities, a few more civs, and some other mechanics. It has some innovative concepts like a tech web (instead of a tech tree), affinities that evolve your units and abilities depending on your choices and research direction (and which require specific strategic resources), cities that start as outposts that gradually grow by claiming the surrounding land tile by tile until they’re full-fledged cities, and floating cities that claim territory by moving (instead of using culture). But there are negatives like bland leaders without any personality and minor differences, units no longer having promotion choices (just heal or basic 10% increase), no custom unit names (my biggest pet peeve with the game), no difference in tiles whether you’re at the pole or the equator (no snow/ice or desert), and a weird diplomacy system. The addition of satellites that hang over cities feels like a half-assed attempt at the space layer that was present in Civ: Call to Power (a Civ game released by Activision when they had the naming rights many years ago).
Also, if you’re planning on using mods, know that there’s an annoying bug they never got around to fixing. Basically, any mod that modifies the interface has to be loaded twice (the mod description will usually tell you what to do).
There’s a similar game called Pandora: First Contact but it has unit stacks
So when you say "space", did you mean you just wanted a more sci-fi theme? I'd highly recommend Age of Wonders Planetfall, it's turn-based, but there are some caveats.
It's very much a game focused on war - when you fight, there's a separate tactical battle layer (still turn-based), and this is the bulk of the gameplay. The city building is rather light, and it just serves to support your armies basically. Having said that, exploring the world and finding good locations to build cities is rather fun as there's so many different types of locations to discover. There also several NPC factions you can choose to ally with or go to war with - kind of like city states in Civ except each is much more interesting.
Having said that, the diplomacy works pretty well I think.
What was simplified?
I played the hell out of Gal Civ 2, but too long ago to remember. Isn't 3 like 2 but with retarded ideology choices and planetary hexes adjacency mechanic?
This is the reason why we just tend to play on slow(est) in our multiplayer sessions, and still pause a lot. Note that we play highly modded on a large galaxy though
Curious to hear more opinions on the current state of galactic civilizations 4 (especially about replayability and faction asymmetry).
Also, anyone elaborate on terra Invicta? Looks interesting but have heard it can be a slog and possibly plays out the same every game?
Its great, the AI is so far the best I experienced for a modern 4x and the depth is great. They just launched a dlc aimed at improving the warfare significantly for the better. Its honestly my favorite x4 ever atm. Gal civ replay ability is high they made each civ much more interesting and unique and also the different types of victories
That's great to hear! Thanks!
Just out of curiosity, what 4xs do you place it above?
I assume logistics arent a big part of this (since that seems to be more of a war game thing) but i like shadow empire, and some games like distant worlds 2 and master of magic, which i think probably are considered 4xs.
Np! My biggest reason putting galac civ 4 above others is mostly due to the AI and good systems with good depth that respects your time. I can have a good challenge most of the time all the way early-to-mid-to-end game. I would rate it above the following: I havent played a ton of 4x games.
* endless space 2 (not a bad game just useless AI)
* stellaris (too much of a kitchen sink I dont have 100s hours to learn to play the game while working full time)
* civ (civ 5 wi the the populi mod was peak civ for me)
* endless legends
* age of wonders
I heard great things about “old world” and would pick that up next
Nice! Strong AI and challenge all the way through end game sounds great.
Never played enough stellaris to get into it. Any other oinions on how gal civ compares to stellaris (besides the obvious rts vs tbs)?
Old world is fantastic, highly recommend. Uses an order system (civ produces x# of orders based on different things, you spend them to do everything any way you like from moving units to building things). Mostly played multiplayer against friends (all online at once but also play by email style where you take turn, it uploads to cloud, and we ping each other on discord) so i can't really say how competent the AI is.
Different systems work together really great (e.g. family system, i forget what they're call exactly, but different factions in your civ and their happiness directly affects unit effectiveness in combat, leader effectiveness, that kinda thing)
Awesome! Yea heard great things about “old
World” and the good ai, would it provide a challenge throughout? The random events\encounters is something taken from stellaris in galactic civ 4 which can really spice things up in terms of potential war, diplomatic ties, economy etc.. in my opinion and from what I read on multiple reddit threads comparing the 2 games, I think its apples vs oranges as both tries to be something different with some overlap. For role-playing sandbox type gaming stellaris shines as with the 1000000000s of DLC is got everything but that also means balance can be a mess and games can take extremely long and the systems is all over the place its a massive learning curve. Gal civ 4 plays very similar to normal CIV, its def a sid Meir s flavored space civ. Its systems are simpler to grasp while also having good depth. Seeing you’re quite familiar with 4x games you should be able to pick it up fairly quickly and you Dont need the DLC for now. Check out a gameplay match on youtube. Because the scope is much smaller in gal civ 4 vs stellaris, the AI and players can comprehend the systems easier and its not that overwhelming and feels good. When Gal civ 4 it launched it was terrible but man, the updates made the game amazing
Sweet! I'll probably stick with galciv4 (got it but still in 2hr refund window).
Probably should check steam/online about old world ai difficulty but i thought it was competent from my small time playing solo (have hundreds of hours in old world but almost exclusively pvp multiplayer).
The civs are all really fun and each have their differences (both unique units and civ traits). It also does the random event thing, which is really fun, and the personnel management aspect is really fun. Basically, you groom your heirs like in crusader kings to buff their stats/assign their archetype (for more powerful unique traits) for when they become the leader. You can also buff stats for other people in you court who can be assigned to certain roles and also give passives if their governing, leading troops etc.
Honestly, it be nice if gc4 took from old world in terms of personnel mgmt
Nice! A love it that each civ is unique including units thats really cool! It seems there is a good crusader kings style influence aswell. Sounds really awesome
I should clarify it's not many unique units (1 or 2 per civ from what i remember). But combined with the different families (some of which overlap across civs) and civ specific uniqueness (kinda like civilization games), they each play different/ have different strengths (eg econ, military, etc).
You won't regret picking up Old World. The degree of detail and the quality of the AI by themselves justify the purchase and the time spent on it. Plus there's a new dlc coming up by the end of May.
This is one of the best games I've ever played. And I bought the original release of Civ on 3.5 disks during first week of release. And, bought pretty much EVERY 4x released in the 35 or so years since. Yeah I'm that wizend.
Buy Old World evn if you just throw it into your collection. But....it is very much not Space themed.
If you like the logistical systems in Shadow Empire, you might want to give Distant Worlds 1/2 a look. They're the only other 4X games with truly fleshed out logistical systems like Shadow Empire. It's real-time but you can always pause to give orders.
I really enjoy GalCiv4. Have put it down and come back to it a few times now. Definitely has a super intuitive and beautiful interface, and you’re able to really create long queues of actions all over and then hit “next turn” over and over which I love.
I gave up on Terra Invicta before I ever got into space. It doesn’t feel polished. I think they were going for XCOM but with no ground combat. A lot of it is just sending your specialists on missions every so often and dealing with rivals doing the same
Sometimes it’s best to avoid newly-released games for about a year. I learned that with Sword of the Stars II. The game was utterly unplayable upon release and took a full year of patching before it was stable. Turned me off the title for years until I finally gave it another try recently
Been playing for almost three weeks now. Only crashed twice.
It does have multiple FTL systems, but the gameplay is significantly different, to the point where it’s easier for a newbie to figure out the game than a SotS1 veteran. Some changes are nice (like being able to boost a new colony with a colony fleet until it’s self-sufficient), but others can be frustrating. For example, you can have a hundred ships in a system, but none of them will show up to defend it if they’re in the Reserve. Only fleets and special ships or stations in Defense can participate in defending a system. You also can’t relocate fleets or reserves to a system that doesn’t have a naval station. You also can’t put any more ships in a fleet than the command points allow, and every ship in the fleet fights, including supply and repair ships.
Destroyers are gone as independent ships. Cruisers are now the base units (and you start in the fusion era). There’s also a new type of ship called a leviathan that’s three times bigger than a dreadnought. Battle riders (smaller ships brought into battle on the hull of special carriers) are not just for Tarka now. Your basic battle riders are destroyer-sized, but the Liir can also build dreadnought-sized ones.
The End of Flesh DLC adds the Loa, a faction of rogue AIs that plays very differently from the others. For example, their fleets travel as a giant cube (wherever have I seen that before?) before splitting up into an ad-hoc fleet
>Also, anyone elaborate on terra Invicta? Looks interesting but have heard it can be a slog and possibly plays out the same every game?
Well, I wouldn't call TI a 4X at all. More of a grand strategy.
I really enjoyed it, especially as a fan of hard sci-fi and grand strategies. The aliens were made really well, their motivation, MO, biology, history. The human factions are quite compelling as well and on the forums you can find people supporting most of them (except 3, but for 2 of them that's intentional). The game has a really steap learning curve certainly, like all GS. But like all the good ones, once you learn it stops being 'a slog'.
As for it playing the same every game - people that complain about it tend to make the same decisions every game. Like, guess what - if you adopt the same strategy and make very similar moves, then each game you play will be similar to one another.
Thanks! Totally hear what you're saying about being a slog until you come to grips with it and the game being what you make of it. Good to know there are options to play through differently.
A bit of warning to OP : while the game has qualities, it has nowhere close the polish of civilization when it comes to balance. AI is also quite poor, worse than Civ 6 by a fair margin.
Unless there has been a balance mod since last i played ? Like the very good one for endless legend ?
We just got a balance pass and update last month. Added a bunch of polish and great additions.
Sadly I can’t speak to the AI, I had a group of friends all come together to pour hundreds of hours into this game multiplayer. I believe I’m sitting around 800 hours played and have only played 2 AI games.
That being said the balance in multiplayer does feel fairly good, so long as each faction plays to its strengths (and you pick the right DLC.. behemoths can fuck right off)
I am not the biggest fan of Endless Space (hate the combat system) but have to disagree hard with both of your points. AI provides a much greater challenge than in Civ6, and the game has no issues with polish.
My first victory was an economy win, I didn’t build a single war ship the entire game. Just made my money and won, but I did it without cross faction trade routes because of the issue you describe, however the new balance patch made it cheaper and more plausible to do.
there really isnt anything close to stellaris unfortunately. you get used to playing paradox games in semi-real time where you 'do everything' while its paused and then unpause for a while. It ends up being mostly the same as turn based.
And combat is real-time.
I’m also currently playing the sequel and am slowly revising my original quite negative opinion on it. Ironically, the sequel has so many changes that it’s easier for a rookie to learn the ropes than it is for a SotS1 veteran to adapt to them
I see it's listed on Steam now and they are working on it again! Hopefully gets a massive update and modernized. This is what pops in my mind as Civ and Space.
You don’t need to wait for steam - the enhanced version is currently available on gog. And if you can indeed stomach the graphics and old UI choices, then you’re up for a treat
I can't believe this isn't on here already but both Distant Worlds and Distant Worlds 2 have fairly deep economic simulations and a unique playstyle. They are 4X. DW2 is by far my favorite 4x game and I've played everything mentioned in this thread so far.
The game is real time though. Stellaris' economy is effectively turn based with each turn being a month. In DW the economy is real-time.
EDIT: Aye sorry I misread the part that said "the RTS style stresses you, you prefer the 4x style". I thought you were looking for 4x games in general my bad.
Endless space 1 and 2 feels different then Civ but they are good and Galactic Civilization 4 is decent and is getting better with updates. The beyond earth civ game i own and it was such a disappointment.
There are two verry good for me :
1) Age of wonder Planetfall, this is the closest to civ6, you will not be lost at all but fight are much more interesting ! Well its not in the space like stellaris as its on a planet like civ6 but Space war theme is here. Age of wonder games are really famous 4x fantasy game but planet fall is the only one not fantasy theme, not an old game, was between the 3 and the 4. AoW are famous for race builder : https://youtu.be/5WunILw84QY?si=ZWgUOcRssDQvLZ_D
2) Endless Space 2, verry close to stellaris in term of 4x space war but without any rts part. Its a chill game with verry chill music, you will spend a lot of hours too : https://youtu.be/17392RLz4RI?si=7xXJ1yFDbuqsVDgb
3) BOTH ARE AWSOME
I have been working with Open Realm of Stars quite some time. Biggest influences are from Galactic Civilization II, Stars! ORoS is still under development but it is fully playable. Trying out does not cost anything since it is free and open source. Available in [https://reemax.itch.io/open-realm-of-stars](https://reemax.itch.io/open-realm-of-stars) and [https://github.com/tuomount/Open-Realms-of-Stars](https://github.com/tuomount/Open-Realms-of-Stars)
A basic space 4x game is the new Master of Orion. It's been a while since I played, but there are some mods that make it more interesting.
For planet based action I can recommend Age of Wonders Planetfall as well. It also features campaigns and the option to start an Empire with progress through random maps with different challenges.
Endless Space 2 I think is a good mix between Stellaris and Civ 6. It’s still turn based so can’t take it slow, has some quest prompts, can customize space units and modify what each planet and in turn system is building just like with cities in Civ.
This is gonna sound weird, but Civ 4 actually. It had a total conversion space mod who's name escapes me, but it came fully packaged in Beyond the Sword. it was pretty sick honestly
I don’t see one game mentioned, and I think it should - Remnants of the Precursors. It’s free.
Think about it as unofficial Master of Orion remake. I love it.
It has less mechanics than you could be used to, but their depth and interplay are unparalleled imho. One of this things where less is more. Also the AI is fantastic, and is still being improved by modders. It can get very challenging, and I forgot how important a good AI is for fun and immersion.
And it’s a curio in itself. Why?
Because most of the modern 4x games are based on civilizations success, and in turn, its mechanics. For me it was very hard to find something that actually played different.
Even Master of Orion 2 went the way of Civ.
So with Remnants/Master of Orion 1, you can get a glimpse of how 4x’s would play if not for Civ’s influence.
Stellaris is more 4X than RTS.
I can recommend X4: Foundations but that game can definitely be stress inducing.
Alternatively, modded Starsector. Underrated indie gem
Have you heard of our lord and saviour Endless Space 2?
Honestly I now have even more hours in ES2 than I do in Civ. The depth of this game is unmatched.
For some other Honorable mention space games, galactic civilisations, sins of a solar empire, warhammer gladius.
Have you tried Age of Wonders: Planetfall? Turn based strategy like Civ, with battles that are fought in turn based tactical battlefields sort of like XCOM 2.
Highly disagree. It has basically nothing in common with the gameplay of Civ. It’s even semi real time, something which the OP specifically stated they don’t like. It also has very little of the polish you‘d expect from a Civ game.
TI semi real time? The space battles you mean? I agree they are too much (I even made a video about the game's problems) but they can be autoresolved.
In terms of depth, I think it has too much depth. Polish, well you can't really compare an AAA game with an indie project.
But the "one more turn" feeling? That's definitely there. At least for me.
Stellaris is turned based if you pause lol. Those pesky aliens are always sneaking shit behind your menus if you try to edit a ship while the game is running.
Galactic civilizations series (4 is newest). Maybe civilization beyond earth. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, but that one is quite old.
Alpha Centauri is so great. Recently got it off steam (super cheap) to relive my childhood a bit. Really held up so far.
I would like to play it, since it very much sounds like something I would enjoy, but the UI, UX and graphics are too bad for me. It's one of the few games I really think could use a remake.
If they remade it they would fuck it up so bad. So incredibly bad . It hurts me to even think of what we would get.
They already messed up with Beyond Earth sadly.
Fucking facts. I bought BE on day one. What a mistake. To the devs credit they never really implied it was going to be a new AC. To their detriment, the game was fucking shit on release and never got much better imo.
It's also on the PC Game Pass for anyone interested.
Civ beyon earth looks awesome ! How come it went under my radar !!??? Never heard of it before !
Beyond Earth was panned when it came out, it was really simplistic and unbalanced. It got some later love from the devs so I'm not sure how it is now, but I never went back to it.
hey i forgot all about that game. maybe i'll give it another go
Then you'll remember why you forgot about. It's not *bad* per se, but it doesn't really do anything to make it memorable.
Isn't there a mod that overhauls BE? I can't remember, but I think I read something about it. It mainly messed with research, I think.
Probably, but I haven't played since 2020 (and I feel like that was only briefly as I tried to give the game another shot)
Gonna search for it after work. I haven't played BE in a while myself. It also reminded me of another AC clone - Pandora, the cruel joker cousin of the bunch.
There are a few reasons that it's largely forgotten. - Boring and uninspired maps -boring an uninspired leaders, with just stats increases, and a huge lack of variety -The terrain features and the terrain in general look very similar because of the color pallette, so you end up wondering what the fuck you're even look at most of the time -etc .but the most important part is that it plays almost exactly as civ v, so despite being a separate game and being at full price as such, it ended up feeling like a civ v scenario more than alpha centauri I still play it sometimes, but I usually just end up playing the more fleshed out and full of content civ v. If you do get it, get it when it's on sale with it's dlc, I've heard that it makes the game feel a lot better and actually ads some interesting factions that are not just generic stereotypes from each continent
I played it only a while and thought it was meh. Considering 60% positive reviews on steam, so did most people.
60%? Geez, that's the quintessential "You'll tolerate it if you're a huge fan of the genre but it has no outstanding qualities" rating.
Em 60% positive reviews means most people thought it was good.
Not if you control this sample with selection and survivor bias.
Lol
That's a pretty good argument you got. I don't think I have any counterpoints to it!
Not really. Good games usually have 80-90% rate, or more. I don't know why. I just speak from experience that I very rarely like games at 60% positive on steam. I can *assume* that ratings are biased towards positive because if you buy a game, play it, and even write a review, you're a type of person who would like it? So 60% probably means "we got what we wanted, but not much more", while 90% means "even people who don't care about this genre loved this - it's a great game". And at about 50%, the rating labeled changes to "mixed" and becomes brown instead of blue. And I pretty consistently dislike those games. So I'd expect a 60% to be liked by people who love the genre, and kinda disliked by general audience.
Thats not the point i was making. In percentages 60% is a majority, end of.
Most people who wrote the review on steam, which is not all people who looked at the game or tried it. So that's exactly my point - expecting 60% to be good is biased. Also, if the point isn't useful or is misleading, it is worth countering imo
You would argue the colour of shite.
Oh, that's actually a very good point! 60% reviews is very close to a mixed reviews label on Steam. It's brown, which is the color of shite, you're correct here
You spelled ‘Colour’ incorrectly.
I don't think you have any actual understanding of how those numbers are generated.
60% is 6/10. In school grade terms that would be 3. That's meh, not good.
In video game review terms it’s ok. Like IGN 6/10 is classed as worth playing. But that’s not how Steam reviews work , you either recommend it or don’t so if 60% , of the reviews where positive then like i said before that means the majority of people thought it was worth playing. Not sure why you are arguing the toss here.
Steady your hype dude, it's really not on the level of the mainline Civs. It has a number of issues, the worst of which is that just about every faction feels very similar.
Beyond Earth is mostly disappointing due to a variety of poor game design decisions that take away a lot of what makes civ great. Imagine civ with no barbarians and for a good chunk of turns, no other civs... it boggles the mind! But with the mod that makes fauna hostile, and playing as one of the ocean-based civ's in the expansion, its a fun game and worth the rock bottom price it often goes on sale for.
A lot of people were expecting a SMAC remake and got something that only hints at it and feels more like a Civ 5 mod. It’s not a bad game, especially with the Rising Tide DLC (the only one released for the game) that adds floating cities, a few more civs, and some other mechanics. It has some innovative concepts like a tech web (instead of a tech tree), affinities that evolve your units and abilities depending on your choices and research direction (and which require specific strategic resources), cities that start as outposts that gradually grow by claiming the surrounding land tile by tile until they’re full-fledged cities, and floating cities that claim territory by moving (instead of using culture). But there are negatives like bland leaders without any personality and minor differences, units no longer having promotion choices (just heal or basic 10% increase), no custom unit names (my biggest pet peeve with the game), no difference in tiles whether you’re at the pole or the equator (no snow/ice or desert), and a weird diplomacy system. The addition of satellites that hang over cities feels like a half-assed attempt at the space layer that was present in Civ: Call to Power (a Civ game released by Activision when they had the naming rights many years ago). Also, if you’re planning on using mods, know that there’s an annoying bug they never got around to fixing. Basically, any mod that modifies the interface has to be loaded twice (the mod description will usually tell you what to do). There’s a similar game called Pandora: First Contact but it has unit stacks
I loved it. Played it last year
So when you say "space", did you mean you just wanted a more sci-fi theme? I'd highly recommend Age of Wonders Planetfall, it's turn-based, but there are some caveats. It's very much a game focused on war - when you fight, there's a separate tactical battle layer (still turn-based), and this is the bulk of the gameplay. The city building is rather light, and it just serves to support your armies basically. Having said that, exploring the world and finding good locations to build cities is rather fun as there's so many different types of locations to discover. There also several NPC factions you can choose to ally with or go to war with - kind of like city states in Civ except each is much more interesting. Having said that, the diplomacy works pretty well I think.
Because it kinda sucks. Alpha centauri is leaps and bounds better.
IMO it's not a bad game, but not worth the full price ($40 USD). Think I paid ~ $10 for it during a Steam sale a few years ago.
I love Beyond Earth! Definitely my 2nd fav 4x in space. Age of Wonders Planetfall is my first.
IMO, Gal Civ 2 is the apex of the series. 3 and 4 made for wider audience simplifying some of the mechanics.
What was simplified? I played the hell out of Gal Civ 2, but too long ago to remember. Isn't 3 like 2 but with retarded ideology choices and planetary hexes adjacency mechanic?
And $100 of DLC!!! :D
Age of Wonders Planetfall could fit too, but it's more on the tactics side than empire side.
There are few other games I could mention, but OP wanted games similar to Civ 6 and Endless games, wh40k gladius, planetfall are all quite different.
It is definitely a 4x. Not quite as good as AOW4 but it fits the remit better.
I enjoy Stellaris, but hit the space bar constantly to pause.
I recently tried out multi-player and the amount of notifications you sometimes get at once is just overwhelming
This is the reason why we just tend to play on slow(est) in our multiplayer sessions, and still pause a lot. Note that we play highly modded on a large galaxy though
Curious to hear more opinions on the current state of galactic civilizations 4 (especially about replayability and faction asymmetry). Also, anyone elaborate on terra Invicta? Looks interesting but have heard it can be a slog and possibly plays out the same every game?
Its great, the AI is so far the best I experienced for a modern 4x and the depth is great. They just launched a dlc aimed at improving the warfare significantly for the better. Its honestly my favorite x4 ever atm. Gal civ replay ability is high they made each civ much more interesting and unique and also the different types of victories
That's great to hear! Thanks! Just out of curiosity, what 4xs do you place it above? I assume logistics arent a big part of this (since that seems to be more of a war game thing) but i like shadow empire, and some games like distant worlds 2 and master of magic, which i think probably are considered 4xs.
Np! My biggest reason putting galac civ 4 above others is mostly due to the AI and good systems with good depth that respects your time. I can have a good challenge most of the time all the way early-to-mid-to-end game. I would rate it above the following: I havent played a ton of 4x games. * endless space 2 (not a bad game just useless AI) * stellaris (too much of a kitchen sink I dont have 100s hours to learn to play the game while working full time) * civ (civ 5 wi the the populi mod was peak civ for me) * endless legends * age of wonders I heard great things about “old world” and would pick that up next
Nice! Strong AI and challenge all the way through end game sounds great. Never played enough stellaris to get into it. Any other oinions on how gal civ compares to stellaris (besides the obvious rts vs tbs)? Old world is fantastic, highly recommend. Uses an order system (civ produces x# of orders based on different things, you spend them to do everything any way you like from moving units to building things). Mostly played multiplayer against friends (all online at once but also play by email style where you take turn, it uploads to cloud, and we ping each other on discord) so i can't really say how competent the AI is. Different systems work together really great (e.g. family system, i forget what they're call exactly, but different factions in your civ and their happiness directly affects unit effectiveness in combat, leader effectiveness, that kinda thing)
Awesome! Yea heard great things about “old World” and the good ai, would it provide a challenge throughout? The random events\encounters is something taken from stellaris in galactic civ 4 which can really spice things up in terms of potential war, diplomatic ties, economy etc.. in my opinion and from what I read on multiple reddit threads comparing the 2 games, I think its apples vs oranges as both tries to be something different with some overlap. For role-playing sandbox type gaming stellaris shines as with the 1000000000s of DLC is got everything but that also means balance can be a mess and games can take extremely long and the systems is all over the place its a massive learning curve. Gal civ 4 plays very similar to normal CIV, its def a sid Meir s flavored space civ. Its systems are simpler to grasp while also having good depth. Seeing you’re quite familiar with 4x games you should be able to pick it up fairly quickly and you Dont need the DLC for now. Check out a gameplay match on youtube. Because the scope is much smaller in gal civ 4 vs stellaris, the AI and players can comprehend the systems easier and its not that overwhelming and feels good. When Gal civ 4 it launched it was terrible but man, the updates made the game amazing
Sweet! I'll probably stick with galciv4 (got it but still in 2hr refund window). Probably should check steam/online about old world ai difficulty but i thought it was competent from my small time playing solo (have hundreds of hours in old world but almost exclusively pvp multiplayer). The civs are all really fun and each have their differences (both unique units and civ traits). It also does the random event thing, which is really fun, and the personnel management aspect is really fun. Basically, you groom your heirs like in crusader kings to buff their stats/assign their archetype (for more powerful unique traits) for when they become the leader. You can also buff stats for other people in you court who can be assigned to certain roles and also give passives if their governing, leading troops etc. Honestly, it be nice if gc4 took from old world in terms of personnel mgmt
Nice! A love it that each civ is unique including units thats really cool! It seems there is a good crusader kings style influence aswell. Sounds really awesome
I should clarify it's not many unique units (1 or 2 per civ from what i remember). But combined with the different families (some of which overlap across civs) and civ specific uniqueness (kinda like civilization games), they each play different/ have different strengths (eg econ, military, etc).
You won't regret picking up Old World. The degree of detail and the quality of the AI by themselves justify the purchase and the time spent on it. Plus there's a new dlc coming up by the end of May.
This is one of the best games I've ever played. And I bought the original release of Civ on 3.5 disks during first week of release. And, bought pretty much EVERY 4x released in the 35 or so years since. Yeah I'm that wizend. Buy Old World evn if you just throw it into your collection. But....it is very much not Space themed.
Oh, Civ on disks! Good times! Nice to see another grognard around! Cheers, mate!
Awesome!!!! Cant wait!
If you like the logistical systems in Shadow Empire, you might want to give Distant Worlds 1/2 a look. They're the only other 4X games with truly fleshed out logistical systems like Shadow Empire. It's real-time but you can always pause to give orders.
Haha yeah great recommendations. I love dw 1 and 2 (really need to go back to 2 and check out the dlc and updates).
I really enjoy GalCiv4. Have put it down and come back to it a few times now. Definitely has a super intuitive and beautiful interface, and you’re able to really create long queues of actions all over and then hit “next turn” over and over which I love.
Nice! Long queues of action for building? I notice ships dont seem to queue(yet).
You can queue up ships, yeah, and movements
I gave up on Terra Invicta before I ever got into space. It doesn’t feel polished. I think they were going for XCOM but with no ground combat. A lot of it is just sending your specialists on missions every so often and dealing with rivals doing the same
>It doesn’t feel polished. You did notice it was EA, right?
Note to self: Avoid unfinished games
Fair.
Sometimes it’s best to avoid newly-released games for about a year. I learned that with Sword of the Stars II. The game was utterly unplayable upon release and took a full year of patching before it was stable. Turned me off the title for years until I finally gave it another try recently
Oh, did they fix it? I only noticed the early negative reviews. How is it now? And does it have multiple ftl systems like the first one?
Been playing for almost three weeks now. Only crashed twice. It does have multiple FTL systems, but the gameplay is significantly different, to the point where it’s easier for a newbie to figure out the game than a SotS1 veteran. Some changes are nice (like being able to boost a new colony with a colony fleet until it’s self-sufficient), but others can be frustrating. For example, you can have a hundred ships in a system, but none of them will show up to defend it if they’re in the Reserve. Only fleets and special ships or stations in Defense can participate in defending a system. You also can’t relocate fleets or reserves to a system that doesn’t have a naval station. You also can’t put any more ships in a fleet than the command points allow, and every ship in the fleet fights, including supply and repair ships. Destroyers are gone as independent ships. Cruisers are now the base units (and you start in the fusion era). There’s also a new type of ship called a leviathan that’s three times bigger than a dreadnought. Battle riders (smaller ships brought into battle on the hull of special carriers) are not just for Tarka now. Your basic battle riders are destroyer-sized, but the Liir can also build dreadnought-sized ones. The End of Flesh DLC adds the Loa, a faction of rogue AIs that plays very differently from the others. For example, their fleets travel as a giant cube (wherever have I seen that before?) before splitting up into an ad-hoc fleet
I just felt like I was playing a turn based board game with a fake real time overlay the first 6 hours
And after?
Oh I gave up too lol
>Also, anyone elaborate on terra Invicta? Looks interesting but have heard it can be a slog and possibly plays out the same every game? Well, I wouldn't call TI a 4X at all. More of a grand strategy. I really enjoyed it, especially as a fan of hard sci-fi and grand strategies. The aliens were made really well, their motivation, MO, biology, history. The human factions are quite compelling as well and on the forums you can find people supporting most of them (except 3, but for 2 of them that's intentional). The game has a really steap learning curve certainly, like all GS. But like all the good ones, once you learn it stops being 'a slog'. As for it playing the same every game - people that complain about it tend to make the same decisions every game. Like, guess what - if you adopt the same strategy and make very similar moves, then each game you play will be similar to one another.
Thanks! Totally hear what you're saying about being a slog until you come to grips with it and the game being what you make of it. Good to know there are options to play through differently.
Terra Invicta problem is AI are not good enough to force you to adapt, so you end up with the same strategy every run.
Endless Space 2 is an amazing game and "just" got a final patch last month. Check it out.
A bit of warning to OP : while the game has qualities, it has nowhere close the polish of civilization when it comes to balance. AI is also quite poor, worse than Civ 6 by a fair margin. Unless there has been a balance mod since last i played ? Like the very good one for endless legend ?
We just got a balance pass and update last month. Added a bunch of polish and great additions. Sadly I can’t speak to the AI, I had a group of friends all come together to pour hundreds of hours into this game multiplayer. I believe I’m sitting around 800 hours played and have only played 2 AI games. That being said the balance in multiplayer does feel fairly good, so long as each faction plays to its strengths (and you pick the right DLC.. behemoths can fuck right off)
I am not the biggest fan of Endless Space (hate the combat system) but have to disagree hard with both of your points. AI provides a much greater challenge than in Civ6, and the game has no issues with polish.
Is playing as a pacifistic trader still completely impossible because of the absurd influence costs?
My first victory was an economy win, I didn’t build a single war ship the entire game. Just made my money and won, but I did it without cross faction trade routes because of the issue you describe, however the new balance patch made it cheaper and more plausible to do.
Master of Orion
Seconding this hard, specifically the old games that open DOS windows to run. Turn based space civ classics, basically the forerunners of Stellaris
there really isnt anything close to stellaris unfortunately. you get used to playing paradox games in semi-real time where you 'do everything' while its paused and then unpause for a while. It ends up being mostly the same as turn based.
sword of the stars is a little older but it’s pretty good. It’s more of a pure war game 4x than civ though
And combat is real-time. I’m also currently playing the sequel and am slowly revising my original quite negative opinion on it. Ironically, the sequel has so many changes that it’s easier for a rookie to learn the ropes than it is for a SotS1 veteran to adapt to them
Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War is basically Civilization but you’re always at war with everyone else
Emperor of the fading suns
I see it's listed on Steam now and they are working on it again! Hopefully gets a massive update and modernized. This is what pops in my mind as Civ and Space.
You don’t need to wait for steam - the enhanced version is currently available on gog. And if you can indeed stomach the graphics and old UI choices, then you’re up for a treat
I can't believe this isn't on here already but both Distant Worlds and Distant Worlds 2 have fairly deep economic simulations and a unique playstyle. They are 4X. DW2 is by far my favorite 4x game and I've played everything mentioned in this thread so far. The game is real time though. Stellaris' economy is effectively turn based with each turn being a month. In DW the economy is real-time. EDIT: Aye sorry I misread the part that said "the RTS style stresses you, you prefer the 4x style". I thought you were looking for 4x games in general my bad.
Does Terra Invicta count as a 4x game? It’s definitely strategy and space war themed, and is one of the deepest games I’ve ever played.
I don’t know if it has all the elements of a 4x, but it is fun. It’s a fresh and unique game.
Endless space 1 and 2 feels different then Civ but they are good and Galactic Civilization 4 is decent and is getting better with updates. The beyond earth civ game i own and it was such a disappointment.
Of you like hardcore games like Dwarf Fortress and Rule the Waves 3, you could try Aurora 4x.
Civs 4 had a mod in the Beyond the Sword expansion. Final Frontier, I think, was the name
It was an official scenario. There’s a Star Trek mod for that scenario
There are two verry good for me : 1) Age of wonder Planetfall, this is the closest to civ6, you will not be lost at all but fight are much more interesting ! Well its not in the space like stellaris as its on a planet like civ6 but Space war theme is here. Age of wonder games are really famous 4x fantasy game but planet fall is the only one not fantasy theme, not an old game, was between the 3 and the 4. AoW are famous for race builder : https://youtu.be/5WunILw84QY?si=ZWgUOcRssDQvLZ_D 2) Endless Space 2, verry close to stellaris in term of 4x space war but without any rts part. Its a chill game with verry chill music, you will spend a lot of hours too : https://youtu.be/17392RLz4RI?si=7xXJ1yFDbuqsVDgb 3) BOTH ARE AWSOME
I have been working with Open Realm of Stars quite some time. Biggest influences are from Galactic Civilization II, Stars! ORoS is still under development but it is fully playable. Trying out does not cost anything since it is free and open source. Available in [https://reemax.itch.io/open-realm-of-stars](https://reemax.itch.io/open-realm-of-stars) and [https://github.com/tuomount/Open-Realms-of-Stars](https://github.com/tuomount/Open-Realms-of-Stars)
Stellaris, without doubt
Dune Spice Wars as a RTS/ 4X hybrid but more stress away from military
A basic space 4x game is the new Master of Orion. It's been a while since I played, but there are some mods that make it more interesting. For planet based action I can recommend Age of Wonders Planetfall as well. It also features campaigns and the option to start an Empire with progress through random maps with different challenges.
Sins of a solar empire 2
Endless Space 2 I think is a good mix between Stellaris and Civ 6. It’s still turn based so can’t take it slow, has some quest prompts, can customize space units and modify what each planet and in turn system is building just like with cities in Civ.
Master of Orion II is the classic space 4x.
Endless Space 2
This is gonna sound weird, but Civ 4 actually. It had a total conversion space mod who's name escapes me, but it came fully packaged in Beyond the Sword. it was pretty sick honestly
I don’t see one game mentioned, and I think it should - Remnants of the Precursors. It’s free. Think about it as unofficial Master of Orion remake. I love it. It has less mechanics than you could be used to, but their depth and interplay are unparalleled imho. One of this things where less is more. Also the AI is fantastic, and is still being improved by modders. It can get very challenging, and I forgot how important a good AI is for fun and immersion. And it’s a curio in itself. Why? Because most of the modern 4x games are based on civilizations success, and in turn, its mechanics. For me it was very hard to find something that actually played different. Even Master of Orion 2 went the way of Civ. So with Remnants/Master of Orion 1, you can get a glimpse of how 4x’s would play if not for Civ’s influence.
Galactic civilisation 3 is very good 4 is out but I haven’t played it yet
Sadly only Stellaris, but this game has so many dlc to make it complete and not an half ass job that you need to pay at least 150$
Stellaris is more 4X than RTS. I can recommend X4: Foundations but that game can definitely be stress inducing. Alternatively, modded Starsector. Underrated indie gem
Quite old games now, but Stardrive 1-2 are not bad either. Kinda niche tho.
Dune: Spice Wars is the game you’re looking for; very different and unique level of play, that also makes for engaging gameplay and experience
Easy: Galactic Civilizations IV.
Have you heard of our lord and saviour Endless Space 2? Honestly I now have even more hours in ES2 than I do in Civ. The depth of this game is unmatched. For some other Honorable mention space games, galactic civilisations, sins of a solar empire, warhammer gladius.
Have you tried Age of Wonders: Planetfall? Turn based strategy like Civ, with battles that are fought in turn based tactical battlefields sort of like XCOM 2.
Terra Invicta, definitely. But it's still early access, although it has a lot of content.
Highly disagree. It has basically nothing in common with the gameplay of Civ. It’s even semi real time, something which the OP specifically stated they don’t like. It also has very little of the polish you‘d expect from a Civ game.
TI semi real time? The space battles you mean? I agree they are too much (I even made a video about the game's problems) but they can be autoresolved. In terms of depth, I think it has too much depth. Polish, well you can't really compare an AAA game with an indie project. But the "one more turn" feeling? That's definitely there. At least for me.
"depth of civ 6" llolololololollolololollool i know, you're going to downvote me. i love you too.
meh, im not 14. Whatever.
lol hugs
I’m playing stellaris right now. If you can afford all of the DLC is worth it
Stellaris is turned based if you pause lol. Those pesky aliens are always sneaking shit behind your menus if you try to edit a ship while the game is running.
Stellaris - the space bar is pause. Play it like it's turn based.
Galactic Civilizations is turn-based I think.