Distant Worlds: Universe
Anybody played it? It looks vast!
hxxp: www. matrixgames. com/products/515/details/Distant. Worlds. -. Universe
I suposse it will give you good entertaining hours, but you'll get back here eventually =D
Pride of Nations by AGEOD /MatrixI can't stand playing anything by AGEOD. As a huge fan of both board games, history, and complex hard games I feel like I should love the stuff they publish but it just feels painful trying to play their stuff.
Still in development, but Paradox Stellaris seem to resemble Aurora quite a lot.
the original Grognards would not agree with youTheir agreement or lack thereof is irrelevant. Even dictionary definitions update with time, and this one isn't even that, its a cute reactionary esoteric title that got watered down with time. Especially in regard to computer games e.g. having an old computer that can't run games from the least 20years, has nothing todo with being a Grognard, only that you have limited options.
and you're about 30 years too late to argue about it's adoption by old school wargamers
There is one.
Now, when I say that I mean not only in complexity, but in theme. A true 4x space conquest galore. It is Space Empires, in two flavors: Space Empires V with Kwok's balance mod, or Space empires IV with any of its great mods. There is simply not another game that comes closer to Aurora in terms of depth and complexity, even if Aurora is still more complex. As stated in the first post, perhaps the only other reasonable comparison would be Dwarf Fortress.
I wish someone could prove me wrong showing me another complex great Space 4x. . .
War in the pacific AE is immensely complex, and immensely long. Like, LONG. One game might take 2-000 hours or more. There is a catch though, if you really want to play it, you have to play it against a human opponent via play by email. On the Matrix forums there is an entire forum full of epic AAR. It's THE ultimate strategy game. But as said, it's frakking LONG.I love that game, in many respects it put my favorite ww2 strategy series to shame (HOI), but time... I love deep games where my ass handed to me if I am not micro managing everything But some times such games can become repetitive time sink, which you "play" on auto-pilot (at that point I usually start listening to audiobooks) and you find yourself wasting hours doing the exact same thign. That why I had to limit some of those "job" games. So to me paradox games present a more content rich environment that actually keep me playing for longer.
Yeah, in the end I spent more time modding it than playingThe modder "curse" been there done that ;)
I love that game, in many respects it put my favorite ww2 strategy series to shame (HOI), but time... I love deep games where my ass handed to me if I am not micro managing everything But some times such games can become repetitive time sink, which you "play" on auto-pilot (at that point I usually start listening to audiobooks) and you find yourself wasting hours doing the exact same thign. That why I had to limit some of those "job" games. So to me paradox games present a more content rich environment that actually keep me playing for longer.
Their agreement or lack thereof is irrelevant. Even dictionary definitions update with time, and this one isn't even that, its a cute reactionary esoteric title that got watered down with time. Especially in regard to computer games e.g. having an old computer that can't run games from the least 20years, has nothing todo with being a Grognard, only that you have limited options.
when it was first applied[/b] to wargamers would have been the people it applied to..Exactly my point, time change and with it its use. I wouldn't define myself with such esoteric title, because much like private jokes its only works if you tell it to someone in the know..
I once got a 3 hour lecture when he saw a copy of AH's Panzer Leader rules in my stuffSounds familiar and in my experience the main reason for the negative association. Its like watching a tv-show with some who read the book and can't stop ranting how they did it all wrong through out the whole episode i.e it is great that we are passionate, but its important not let that suck out the fun for everyone else.
When it comes to flight games, I prefer WW1. For ground type games, WWII +
WOOHOO Blue Max FTW!!
horribly simple game but MAN was it fun
ooh haven't heard of that one, considering it's time frame does it have ways to simulate the Protected to Armoured cruiser, and the Dreadnought revolutions?
Yes it does by scientific development allowing more battleship-like designs with centerline turrets etc as things progress. Looks like it models ship building during the period about as well as you could do it in a game. Actually didn't start playing it yet, but it is on my todo-list.
ok looks interesting, gotta ask though, if you're restricted to Sol, which is actually fine by me (Triplanetary FTW!) what is a warp array?The thrusters are only combat maneuvering, and not good enough to get you do other places short of the nearby moon of a body. Ships with warp engines are needed to go to the rest of Sol, and that means that you actually cannot leave Earth for a while since you have to research all technology that leads to light cruisers, which are similar to Aurora in that they can take some other ships with their "jump engines".(Alternative: Board an alien light cruiser)
and is there a way to play it without aliens, just human factions?
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.
RTW focuses you on playing defensively when you are in a war and as the UK for example has holdings EVERYWHERE to defend you chew up so much of your fleet just giving a minimal defence to places you don't have enough to basically smite the weakling nations, now this is accurate but maybe a little over focussed as the penalties for allowing enemy fleets activity around your colonies are a little harsh and restrict you a LITTLE too much (saying this, I've now kicked total ass as the UK with a finishing prestige of 61 and 5 monster Aircraft Carriers, 45,000 ton's each
Regarding the OP, noone mentioned Stars! which was a great little game back in the day ('95).
I havent got it working on Win 10 yet and have kind of given up on it but it had a unique feature where battles were auto played and you got to watch a recording.
Otherwise the UI and graphics were in the same ballpark as Aurora but a less complex quantitative resources system and some 2D graphical elelments like quantity barsfor that.
I am sure you could get it working if you had the right environment set up.
There is a wiki page for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars!
Regarding the OP, noone mentioned Stars! which was a great little game back in the day ('95).
I havent got it working on Win 10 yet and have kind of given up on it but it had a unique feature where battles were auto played and you got to watch a recording.
Otherwise the UI and graphics were in the same ballpark as Aurora but a less complex quantitative resources system and some 2D graphical elelments like quantity barsfor that.
I am sure you could get it working if you had the right environment set up.
There is a wiki page for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars!
I remember looking at Shadow Empire when it was first released, among other things I was very impressed that a proper manual was published which is a sadly rare thing these days (Paradox and others could learn a thing or two!). I can't recall whether I declined to pick it up due to lack of time or because I had read some poor reviews about bugs or game balance - any comment on the latter as potential issues?I've played it a bit and quite enjoyed it. I'm not great at assessing balance, but on the bugs front I don't think I encountered a single one - certainly nothing that was more than a minor irritant, if that.
I remember looking at Shadow Empire when it was first released, among other things I was very impressed that a proper manual was published which is a sadly rare thing these days (Paradox and others could learn a thing or two!). I can't recall whether I declined to pick it up due to lack of time or because I had read some poor reviews about bugs or game balance - any comment on the latter as potential issues?
I am sure you could get it working if you had the right environment set up.