Polaris Sector - another new space 4x

[solops]

I might a detailed post tomorrow. It is 5:45 AM and I have been playing for 15 straight hours and loving it. It has almost everything I want and in about the doses I want it in. Too much espionage for my taste, but I can put up with it. UI is good. Need a bit more feedback and summaries in certain areas. Some additional options and commands will help, such as in loading and unloading transports. Empire management is about as good as you can do in this type of game. The "planetary governors" do a fair job, keeping the micromanagement down. The battles are a blast and evaluating ship design is simple. If there is a serious problem, it is probably going to be the AI, which is where they all fail. It is early days for this game and if they can smooth a couple of options and boost the AI this will be cream of the crop. For my money, it beats everything out there right now with the exception of Sword of the Stars II and DW. And right now I would rather play it than either of those. As far as the graphics go. I really can't figure out what the complaints are all about. The race icons are a bit cheesy, but not that bad. I love the galaxy map. And the battle graphics are about perfect. There is a problem with the exhaust from the fighters. Everything is easily as good as DW. Any cosmetic blemishes are minor and I will not let that ruin a great game for me. Besides, you can mod the graphics. Look at what has been done for DW. Staying power is going to come down to how good the AI can manage things, which is a question mark right now.

[solops]

...There's no Empire screen so you can see planets at a glance to build, move population or whatever--just about every 4x game has one...but this one...

Actually, it does have this. It's just kind of hard to find. The economy button is on the lower, right part of the screen. Click it and it brings up a screen where you click another button (far left) where you can look at all of your planets and what they are building/doing. I don't know about moving population between them, though. I don't think that's possible but didn't think to try.
As for the rest, I don't have enough time in yet to make a call. I'm having fun so far but now you do have me worried.

You build a people mover type transport and shuffle folks around. You do not need to do much of that, but it can really be a super boost for some planets in early days or to help provide recruits for a ground troop training planet.

[Jarhead0331]

I had planned on trying to get into this over the weekend, but I was distracted by Master of Orion IV due to the new update that was released on Friday. It really improved the game and I am really enjoying it now. I'm playing as the Khan, a splinter group of terrains and I have a nice border war going with the Meklars, which are very well done as a race. I may try a game as them next.

[ghostryder]

Actually, it does have this. It's just kind of hard to find. The economy button is on the lower, right part of the screen. Click it and it brings up a screen where you click another button (far left) where you can look at all of your planets and what they are building/doing. I don't know about moving population between them, though. I don't think that's possible but didn't think to try.

Are you serious? This screen allows you to do nothing from it. If you want to view a functioning Galaxy management screen fire up Stardrive 2. here you can do everything from that screen. Fill the build que to move population not just from planet to planet but also from different parts of the planet--as in move workers from farms to industry. Here it's just a non functioning list --- and you know what the wirst thing about it is? This is a 900 star galaxy game with 9 races. Break that down in general terms- by mid game your going to have 100 planets going. Now imagine this---you actually WANT to manage your planets-so how are you to do this here? First it takes 3 clicks through 3 screens to get to this non functioning list. Then you have to directly go to planet to perform a function, and then repeat the 3 clicks to get back to the list...now do this 100 times .....and repeat about every 20 years of game time.

This cannot be passed over with an "Oh well" either. this is a pretty big Epic fail on the design part--because the game is presenting all this "freedom" but in actual practice it is forcing you to play the game on rails just one way. there is no other practical way to play other than to turn on automation. This pretty much goes for the rest of the game as well. Research looks deceptively interesting but the way the game turns out in play it boil down to you choosing which tech you want next, prioritising it and letting the game get on with churning it out. Plus you will find yourself researching the military techs early on so that you can easily man those carriers---which brings me to ship design. Combat is but rock, papers and sissors---and your ship design needs to follow that or you lose. To win constantly you need fighters. Lots of them. 200. Nothing else works. Period. End of story. And I am dead serious. The A.I. will bring them...and if you don't you lose. All the other options are a wasted effort. The only thing to note is late game you must upgrade your missles to just one---because the enemy will become immune to all others and wipe intire fleets if you do not have them. that is the extent of that.

All in all, unlike distant worlds, this game forces you to automate...it has nothing it really needs in true automation however, like fleet building or auto explore, here you are forced to tedious wander through multiple screens to perform the most minor task. And as the game progresses you end up hitting, "close and continue" a zillion times a minute-I kid you not.

All in all the game is like a FPS on rails. You play it the way it forces you to. You make little adjustments here or there, you degress to auto resolve on most battles as they are so mundane and the A.I. for all is worth is bonkers--friendly races will wage war and warlike races will run. I haven't seen an A.I. so broke since Space empires 5, a slightly funner game with true play freedom -

And I haven't even touched on the art-which is the games least troubles.

[bbmike]

I'm serious that there's actually an empire screen. I didn't say it was useful.

[mikeck]

I'm a few house into it. I have about 10 planets colonized and I micromanage all of them. Not sure what your saying about forced automation. I don't choose the tech. I pick 3-4 applied sciences that lead to stuff i like and set it about 60-40 applied to fundamental. That way I am always researching several things. I don't use fighters and am fine. Once you get PD and anti fighter weapons, if the AI brings fighters near you, they get ripped. They are important but i don't agree that they are a battle winner or must have mid game on. Early game yes.

It's not DW but what is. I can't fault a game for not being better than the best one around. It does some things much better and others not as much. It's definitely deeper than Moo4 which i also enjoy.

Seems I'm one of the few people that just enjoys a game for what it is and not what I think it should be. All those Moo2 fans screaming about Moo3 and 4 having Real time combat for instance. Polaris is a good game. You can automate but not forced to. The same strategies are "forced" on you as any 4x including DW: colonization, winning tech race, etc. It follows the standard 4x formula...but they all do

[panzerde]

Seems I'm one of the few people that just enjoys a game for what it is and not what I think it should be.

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+1


I try and play the game I bought, and learn its systems. I try not to buy games that I suspect aren't up my alley or are genuinely not well made. Once in awhile I get a bad one, but generally speaking I have more good games to play than I have time to play them.   O0

[mikeck]

Seems I'm one of the few people that just enjoys a game for what it is and not what I think it should be.

\


+1


I try and play the game I bought, and learn its systems. I try not to buy games that I suspect aren't up my alley or are genuinely not well made. Once in awhile I get a bad one, but generally speaking I have more good games to play than I have time to play them.   O0

Same. There are games i have and don't care for; primarily if they fail to do what they are trying to do (predestination, sovereignty). There are others that just aren't my type of game. Most though, I enjoy playing as long as it does what the devs say it does. In this case, DW is the clear 4x king. I can't fault a game for not being as good when it isn't designed to be. I've played a ton of 4xs and I like some and hate others. Next to DW and Moo3, I think Polaris is the most well balanced and deep 4x around. It has issues but so did my 2 favorites when they came out. Hell, I have been playing SOTS2 since it came out! Lots of love flying around for that game now....not so much at "release". That game was a wreck

Polaris plays well, seems deep and balanced, is stable and delivers what they claim. That's all I can really expect.

[Jarhead0331]

Total non-sequitur here, but with respect to SOTSII, one of the things I love about it is how the Ship designs really look like they have purpose. A command vessel really looks like it commands. A communication/recon vessel really looks like it communicates and recons. Same with freight, transport, colony, combat, etc. They look like they do what they are described to do. A lot of 4x games don't have this simple level of immersion. Scouts always seem to look like small fighters, etc. A scout, at least the ones that travel long distances to newly discovered star systems, should be of average size and be loaded with communication equipment, radars, etc. This is one problem with Polaris, albeit a minor one.







Here is an old short story I wrote back in October 2012 that went along with the above screenshot.

The HMS Ibi Victoria emerged from node space on the dark side of Signus IV, precisely 1.2 parsecs distant from the Frosted Circuit, a dense ring of frozen asteroids circling the alien planet. The Ibi Victoria was the third vessel belonging to the Templar Class of command ships, and had been proudly assigned to serve as the steward of the 3rd Terran Survey Flotilla. Vice Admiral Horatio Cochran, the commander of the modest human flotilla, bore the hopes of a dying empire on his shoulders. Under traditional circumstances, he never would have permitted his vessels to translate out of node space so close to an unknown world laying directly in the backyard of the great enemy, but these were no ordinary times. His people had been hounded through known space, pushed from their worlds and forced to flee into the great unknown of the deep void. And these; these were the lucky ones. Untold billions had been vaporized without warning, or without the opportunity to even consider escape by the cold and unremitting advance of an alien menace without apparent motivation for negotiation, quarter or mercy. This enemy was an enemy like no other, and spoke only a language of pure, unadulterated destruction.

As his vessels emerged from the warp, Vice Admiral Cochran gripped the arm rests of his command throne, nervously chewing on the end of his pipe while twirling the end of his horseshoe mustache. In moments, the Ibi Victoria's sensor suite would reboot and begin to gather data on the newly discovered system. Slowly, the powerful APY-9 strategic spaceborne early warning system began to rotate, powering up so that it could caste its signal and lift the blinding electronic fog. The cool mechanical voice of the ship's AI counted down the time remaining until the Ibi Victoria's systems would go on-line. The calm tone of the artificial female voice belied the apprehensive atmosphere pervasive on the command ship's bridge. When the countdown reached zero, the small flotilla would know instantly, whether they had succeeded in their mission, or whether they had jumped into the grip of yet another unstoppable enemy fleet. 5...4...3...2...1...

[solops]

I quit playing DW, the best 4x ever, because it got too easy to beat on all levels. One had to set up a hugely imbalanced game for it to be interesting. This game has even more of what I want than DW did, particularly the tactical battles. I have no doubt that after I learn the system and the game's idiosyncrasies it will lose its charm. That is true of every PC game I have ever had. If this game gets an AI upgrade and a few minor UI adds, it will be my all time favorite. BTW if you bring only 200 fighters to a late game fight, you might be toast. Also, build some AA platforms and they will gnaw their way through a wall of fighters. And the effectiveness of missiles can go to zero against the right ship designs,which, in turn are underpowered against other strategies....at least so far. I still have a few techs to go and I don't have BBs yet. A lot left to learn. Great fun!!!

[mikeck]

Jarhead: +1

SoTS 2 has the best ship designer and ship designs around. I probably would have stayed with it longer if colony development was deeper. Is really about the combat though. The only thing I didn't like was that there are too many bright colors...I have a thing about cartoony games. Just me.

I do love the ships though

[solops]

I probably would have stayed with it longer if colony development was deeper. Is really about the combat

+1. I really like both SotS 1and 2. Still at the top of the pile with DW.

[sandman2575]

SoTS 2 has the best ship designer and ship designs around.

Agree. I have poured countless hours into simply creating ship designs in SOTSII -- it's satisfying in a way that I haven't experienced in any other space 4X game. I also find the combat pretty damn cool. I just love striking an enemy system with a Dreadnaught and a couple of escorts and watching the thing wreak havoc. Especially love the SolForce faction for this -- the dreadnaught is basically a USS Iowa in space. (I even sometimes use the early ww2 USA roundel for the faction symbol -- just heightening the ww2 in space vibe.)

[PanzersEast]

I loved the ship design with SOTS series.   I also loved the Tech Tree with SOTS as well, thought they did that one well too.  However, with SOTS2 the AI was the biggest weaknesses of the game.  It was really not a big challenge later in the game.... I hate ship spamming, that was one of the biggest grips for me about Endless Space... I hate spam!


PE

[Beowulf]

You guys just made me install SotS II, which I had untouched in my Steam library since purchase.