Polaris Sector - another new space 4x

[solops]

The more I play this the better I like it. It starts slow, but I kind of like that. It is not perfect, but it is already better in many respects than many of the current offerings. I have made a number of suggestions and suspect that I will have many more. The game has good micromanagement automation tools and the UI is pretty good.. I still have had no combat, though the entire galaxy seems to be going up in flames right now and my neighbors are pressing me to join one of the two growing hostile factions that are forming around me. There is so much to learn and getting familiar with a new game system takes much more than one or three games. I like the R&D. Planets seem cramped, but that may be a good thing. I am still in very early tech days. I already know that GalCIv3 will be leaving my hard drive and this will stay. The jury is still out, but starting to lean heavily toward a positive verdict.

[ghostryder]

i don't care all to much much about races or how they look (if the are birds, Koalas, or Ghostryder's badly rendered always-tabledacing-'space-vixens'-variations ;-) )

Badly rendered? My renders are always HD. My base models are well above 10,000 poly....and they don't dance on tables  >:D  I can't mention what they do under tables however.......

[GDS_Starfury]

theres a lot more to animation then HD.

[mirth]

Star wants some animated dancing goats.

[ghostryder]

He wasn't talking about animation. he was talking about rendering. I generally use MCOP for animation- so if they look funny those files must have come from a company montoring your movements

[MikeGER]

He wasn't talking about animation. he was talking about rendering....

Ehem No  :-[  ... i just wanted to be polite and a little diplomatic with the euphemism here at Grogheads ^-^

the totally unfiltered text in my cerebral cortex then was something more like:   O:-)

.... My Eyes, My Eyes ! Oh No! its still the same old shit (shit in the meaning of fecal, not the stuff someone may have inhaled when drawing the animations ;-) )  he insulted his audience with already 10 year ago on another long gone forum. Not one single iota of artistic evolution since, its so sad. I feel sorry for every electron abused in the GPU doing those calcs.
Well, his intentions are good! ...and he is not aware of it,  but unfortunately the impressions of the audience is still: "Amateurish apprentice piece of a 13yer old, trapped in a timebubble in the late sixties, channeling his inner Rus Meyer to somehow resurrect his wetdreams impressions of the fading echo glimpse of a Barbarella (Jane Fonda movie 1968) scene while familiarising himself with shareware rendering software downloaded from the internet out of boredom on a rainy afternoon" ....    

and here is the movie scene that may have let to it all... 

   ^-^

[Anguille]

The game had some very good reviews at first but most of the new reviews are not good. It seems the beta tester posted early on and now the guys who bought it on release are not that happy. It's still on my list but it just confirms my concerns about the weaknesses of the game....

[Freyland]

I agree, it seems both on Steam and even this site that opinions have a greater dichotomy than with most games.  Polarized, in fact.

[mikeck]

I don't know...I understand the lack of "things new and different" but if your like me and don't care  if it's ground-based breaking I have not found a lot to dislike.  Graphics aren't great but generally everything it does it does well. As diplomacy it has espionage and good ship design it has exploration. Not sure what people aren't liking other than lack of innovation.

By only complaint is the graphics and ship animations look old.

[solops]

I really like this game so far. And I have not seen many negative comments by people who have actually played the game. Final judgement is still a ways off, but it is definitely better than Galciv3. I just have far too much to learn about the game and the ai to make a final call on it yet. But all the major indicators are positive. I have very, very few complaints. The in-game art work is more than adequate to good.

[ghostryder]

I've been playing it the last couple days. I wouldn't say what is does it does well-because it really doesn't. You can design a ship but good luck with feedback of how it actually performs in combat. Good luck if you choose NOT to set planets on automation. 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. God help you if you decide to take a trip through a worm hole. you may never get back. The GUI is fine but there''s so much missing that should be there to help you run your empire. If you drill down to micromanage your be in hell-because there's nothing whatsoever to help you here. Your have to scroll through planet by planet....again because of a lack of an empire overview window.

After a while I simply discovered carriers with 200 fighters is unbeatable by anything else---so my fleet of carriers goes wherever i want. This is bad design because this exploit can be exploited at game start. There's no tech that really deals with fighters that well-they always win.

Knowing that I either have to cripple myself and not build them for a challenge or boot up another game.

And the worst part is the races themselves. If i must fight a cat race, why does the game only offer up missile turrents? Where's the catnip catapulp? If you gonna get stupid don't stop at the race...carry through for christ's sake. I don't need Plasma cannons to kill a roach--I need Raid motels. Combat bait pellets and if all else fails Borox Laundry detergent! They hate that stuff!

I thought a hampster in a spacesuit was as bad as it could get but have you glanced at the Vagalars? Seriously?!!!!! A damn Teddy Bear race now?!

So what is it this game does well again? you can design ships but you only need 2 to win. A carrier and the fighters it carries. Colinizing just supports more of the two ships. meet Looney Toons race, destroy...repeat and rinse. Not mildly interesting to me and even my 3 year old niece has seen better cartoons.

[jomni]

Very entertaining post. Now will anyone counter those claims?

[Yskonyn]

 

[bbmike]

...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.

[Jarhead0331]

^if you're having fun, that is all that matters. Don't let one person's opinion take that away from you.