Author Topic: Games like Aurora  (Read 43708 times)

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Offline Vandermeer

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #45 on: April 05, 2016, 11:37:30 AM »
You mean from the game developer, or ingame?
The developer is gaining progress really slow, but is understandable. Patches come about in every 6 months, but unless what Steve does, there is rarely 'visible' change to any core mechanic. As said, I doubt there will be much more, but I always check in periods of a couple months, because I really would want something with this nice officer system to function.

Ingame speed depends entirely on you, as you can fast forward as much as you like. If you know what to do, you can play through a story mode in an afternoon I guess, though you wouldn't see all possible tech. There is also a pacing problem near the end, where the last fight is suddenly really challenging, so you need to build up fleet for forever unless you sport some unconventional attack plan.(you can chose out of a couple strategies in the end)
My few games lasted maybe around 12-20 hours though, because I always want to do and colonize everything. One time I tried to get an Neutronium plated Battleship at the end of a game. ...That added +100% game time by itself just for this, because the stuff is incredibly rare.(it's not even really worth it..)
playing Aurora as swarm fleet: Zen Nomadic Hive Fantasy
 

Offline boggo2300

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #46 on: April 05, 2016, 05:15:19 PM »
I actually played the Demo last night till I ran out of the 2 hour time limit,  then bought the game,  it's actually really engaging,  though I'm struggling with designing a light cruiser with a power plant that actually fits in the hull (bizarrely even building a cruiser with the same loadout as a Destroyer, the Cruiser ends up oversize!)

but since I've only played about 5 hours I'm still on the steep end of the learning curve,  my limitations so far seem to be getting enough low ranked officers to fill the bridge positions!
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Offline CaptainEarth

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #47 on: September 08, 2016, 09:30:20 AM »
I know it's an older topic, but if you like the Dwarf Fortress Adventure mode it's worth checking out cataclysm dark days ahead.  It's a zombie/survival game in the same style as DF and just as in depth!
 

Offline ardem (OP)

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #48 on: September 19, 2016, 11:47:33 PM »
This thread is never to die so no apologies. Still not much in the way of detail orientated games out there.

http://gazettereview.com/2016/04/games-like-dwarf-fortress/

This is the latest link but none is even close.
 

Offline sloanjh

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #49 on: May 21, 2019, 08:09:03 AM »
I can't believe no one said this one yet. Rule the Waves. It is a Naval game about 1900 on. Its turnbased for its main gameplay (where you design, research, build, etc) and has "realtime" (stop, slow, and speed up options available) tactical battles. When designing ships, you chose the main armaments, secondary and tertiary weapons, engine power, armor levels, tonnage, torpedoes, etc etc.

In case people haven't noticed, Rule the Waves 2 is out as of Friday.  It adds aircraft (both lighter and heavier than air) and the tech tree can go to 1950 (I think the last playable date is in 1972).  It's from a small (1 dev in spare time, I think) shop, so the bug report thread for v1.0 is up to ~10 pages, but they're going after them hard and I expect an update in the next few days.  Here's a link to the board:

http://nws-online.proboards.com/board/27/rule-waves-2

The game is a contrast with Aurora in some ways, in that you're playing the part of the Navy minister - you only have indirect control of budget and policies by making choices that are presented to you - your main function at this level is to design and build your fleet and deploy your forces.  In addition, the strategic timescale is a month - you move your ships to 15 zones (it takes a month of travel time to move to an adjacent zone).  Every month the system generates a tactical battle somewhere in the world, to which it assigns a random-ish OOB and drops into a pausable tactical simulation where (at hardest difficulty) you're the top admiral - the AI controls (almost) all your divisions and ships within the division.  So, although the microing associated with tracking the detailed movement of ships between battles is gone, as is detailed control of the economy.

I found out about the game from the post above, and the first one is one of the games I keep coming back to.  The second one seems to be a great improvement so far.

John
 

Offline JacenHan

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #50 on: May 21, 2019, 09:40:05 AM »
I'd also note that there is a demo available that lets you play either Britain or Japan from 1920 to 1925, if you want to try it out first.
 

Offline Black

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #51 on: May 21, 2019, 10:52:34 AM »
I was watching gameplay of RtW2 yesterday. It seems quite interesting and I will most likely pick it up.

I was considering to start new campaign in WitP:AE, but it is years since I played last time and is very time consuming, so this could be nice alternative that is a bit more suitable for my limited gaming time.
 

Offline boggo2300

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #52 on: May 26, 2019, 06:01:46 PM »
I actually bought Rule the Waves 2 and have spent the last 4 days er ruling the waves!  It's expensive but a lot of fun!  Interestingly my last game (UK 1900) I beat the French handily in two wars, was allied with the Germans, unfortunately ended up at war with the US and couldn't keep up with their BB production (mine were better, but they took on my Renown with 5!!!! BB's! then things just kept on the same until I was sacked as first lord in 1930!
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Offline ardem (OP)

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #53 on: May 28, 2019, 09:12:28 PM »
Yeah I am also looking getting RtW2, although still playing HOI4 at the moment with Road to 56 mod. After all these years, still not found the epicness that I get from Aurora from any commercial game. The idea that you can design ships, then put them into battle with real world space tactics, and then manage an empire, I am so looking forward to the new ground combat, my only dream was if it had another screen like space combat but for land combat.

The old Emperor of the Fading Suns was the last true invasion game that was fanatstic, I wish they would remake that.

Rimworld get the closest with a lot of mods, although it is a bit more dwarf fortress lite.

Game developers are just not interesting in making complex games I guess a smaller market. Seen 9 years after this post still on the hunt LOL
 

Offline boggo2300

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #54 on: May 29, 2019, 05:24:20 PM »
I finished my first game all the way through to 1955, got to a prestige of 45 playing as US with medium fleet, 5 wars against the French for some reason, 2 against the Russians, and 1 against the UK, my final war in the 1950's was me stomping the French with my carrier heavy fleet demolishing their still Dreadnought Battleship fleet in the Caribbean (final battle I sunk 3 BB's and a BC for no losses, mwahahaha!)
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Offline Cavgunner

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #55 on: June 11, 2019, 12:32:49 AM »
So I went out and bought Rule the Waves 2 based upon this thread.  I have spent pretty much the last 3 weeks playing it, so I'd say it's worth the price.

The game has some odd mechanics, and after a few playthroughs you start to realize that capturing more territory doesn't really enhance your empire's power in the way it does in most games.  However, the ability to design your own ships is the real draw here.  This is particularly a challenge in a 1900 start, when the post-ironclad ships and technologies you start out with are hilariously bad.  As in, you probably won't be reliably hitting anything unless you're at point blank range.  Just like real history!

But then, surprise surprise, ship designs start taking on a much more modern form by 1915 or so.  By the mid 1930's, you're designing carriers and warships that look like they would be at home in World War II.  Again... just like real history!

The bigger the ship, the longer it takes to construct.  A destroyer might take around a year to build, while a modestly-sized battleship or carrier will probably take over two years to construct.  As a consequence, your newly constructed ships are always *slightly* technologically outdated.  Ship refits can be a temporary band-aid to this problem, but eventually, core technologies will have advanced so far that an old ship will no longer be competitive even with a comprehensive refit. 

For example, as Austria-Hungary I designed a class of coastal battleships featuring four 16-inch guns mounted in two forward-facing turrets.  Fifteen years later, I was able to replace these ships with a class that featured eight 16-inch guns in two forward facing-turrets (four guns per turret).  Despite being superior to their predecessors in every way- speed, armor, firepower, fire control, secondary weapons, AA defense, all of it- these newer ships weighed nearly 2,000 tons less, and were less costly to maintain too.  The issue?  They each took around 27 months to construct, and during that time I was highly, highly vulnerable.  Keeping your fleet tightly modernized AND reasonably sized without going bankrupt are core challenges of the game.

To a warship nerd like me, this is great stuff.  My only complaint is that the limited variety of in-game events become a bit dry after a few playthroughs.
« Last Edit: April 01, 2022, 11:03:11 AM by Cavgunner »
 

Offline boggo2300

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #56 on: June 12, 2019, 08:09:26 PM »
Austro-Hungary seems the hardest to play, I've run into major budget issues with them more than any other nation,  though they are nice to play defensively as they are so heavily invested in the Med.  Actually the UK is among the trickiest because of it's possessions in pretty much every zone, and the need for large tonnages on Foreign Stations  (btw putting a CV as a raider in late game wars is DA BOMB!  literally ;) )
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Online Andrew

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #57 on: October 02, 2019, 09:29:39 AM »
I find that playing Britain you really need to use historical resources or you cannot afford both a colonial fleet and a home fleet as strong as anyone else in Europe or stronger , and still by the late 40's and 50's it is only the poor AI designs that let your fleet keep up with America (which is as it should be) , if the game went on any longer the Americans would bury you.  Still smaller fleets can do well as long as your ships are better and the odds not too bad.
The most onesided battleship duels I have had are when I have developed in the 50's gunnery fire control radar which can engage when the other side cannot see me at night or in bad weather , this has resulted in some slaughters of slower AI battleships by my heavy modern dreadnoughts
 

Offline boggo2300

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #58 on: October 02, 2019, 05:28:58 PM »
It's a little counter-intuitive the more historically Naval powerhouses are actually the harder nations to play,  Italy, Austria-Hungary and to a lesser extent France and Spain are the easiest to play as they are more tightly focussed on territory and hence easier to keep those territories safe

UK and US seem to be hardest to me
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Offline Garfunkel

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Re: Games like Aurora
« Reply #59 on: October 14, 2019, 11:33:45 AM »
In a sense that's how it should be, because UK and US navies have ambitions and responsibilities on a global scale during RTW time period. The problem is that you as a player have to do it all alone, without thousands of other officers helping out.

Similarly, playing UK in Hearts of Iron is more difficult than playing Germany, for example, because as Hitler you're focusing on Europe and later Mediterranean and the Soviet Union, whereas as Churchill you have to worry about two-thirds of the world.