State of 4X Space?

[Blake7]

Apologies for not finding this in search.  What is the current state of 4X space games?  Considering the Humble Bundle Stellaris Discovery bundle for $15 but are there other games recommended today over it?  A link or two to previous threads would be great, as well.

Thanks,

Blake

[Destraex]

If you are after multiplayer then Stellaris and maybe the older and more RTS like sins of a solar empire are the pinnacle.
However their are games coming along for single player that might beat stellaris.

http://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=25357.0

[Anguille]

The last space 4x coming from bigger studios (all in 2016) are all very nice

Stellaris
Master of Orion: CtS
Endless Space 2

The big advantage from Stellaris is mostly the huge Paradox fanbase because all these games are great.

Then, there are many recent indie games:

- Interstellar Space Genesis
- Stars in Shadow
- Polaris Sector

And then you still have a lot of classic games:

- Distant Worlds
- Sword of the Stars 1
- Armada 2526 Gold
- Horizon


It really depends on what you're looking for.

[Pete Dero]

^ With Distant Worlds 2 around the corner

https://www.matrixgames.com/game/distant-worlds-2


Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion receives high ratings (and has a few good total conversion mods https://www.moddb.com/games/sins-of-a-solar-empire-rebellion/mods?sort=visitstotal-desc)

[Jarhead0331]

This is a topic in which I could go on for a long time. However, I'm on the toilet on a mobile device at the moment, so I'll just say that I recently started playing a heavily modded Star Drive 1 again. The mod is called Blackbox with the combined arms add on, and it expands and fixes virtually every one of the game's mechanics. Star Drive was a flawed game, but with a lot of potential, and the blackbox mod brings it very close to realizing that potential.

One of the things I always love about Star Drive is how ship travel works. There are no set space lines initially. Ships travel through local space normally, and when traveling longer distances, they enter somewhat of a faster hyperspace mode, but it is still relatively slow and it takes time for vessels to move long distances between systems, with obvious strategic implications. However, through technology, players can actually build space lanes which speed up travel between systems. The cool thing is, these space lanes can be attacked and shut down, or raided for freighter traffic, so it's a great way to engage in piracy and attack enemy logistics. Freighters are critical because they transport industry, food and population between colonies, so attacking these lanes can have a huge impact on empire holdings, strength, etc.

Ship design is also very cool, with the ability to design ships by adding various modules. It is very similar to design in Polaris Sector, which I think has one of the strongest ship designers featured in any 4x. So there is a lot of flexibility and opportunity to design ships that fulfill a number of different and diverse roles.

Combat is great too, with a wide variety of offensive and defensive systems modeled, arcs of fire and ammo stores for ballistic/kinetic weaponry and with the mod, it looks awesome.

It's definitely worth a look. The game can be purchased for very cheap these days and the mod is free!

Now, if you really like your 4x deep, check out my threads and videos covering Aurora. In my opinion, it's one of the the most amazing 4x games ever developed, limited only by its lack of graphics, sound, etc. In terms of complexity, detail and mechanics, it's a dream come true.

[Pete Dero]

^ link to the Blackbox mod

https://www.moddb.com/mods/deveks-mod/news/venus-is-now-released
https://bitbucket.org/codegremlins/stardrive-blackbox/downloads/

[Geezer]

.... However, I'm on the toilet on a mobile device at the moment,....

Way, WAY more information than we needed!   :o

[solops]

Polaris Sector and Sword of the Stars 1 are my favorites, by far. Aurora for deep detail. All are, IMO, underappreciated because they did not come from major publishers. I prefer them much, much more than offerings such as Stellaris. I feel that SotS1 is STILL has the best tactical space battles available. I am a space 4x nut and have played everything mentioned in this thread...except the mod for Stardrive. The base game needed some help and I and going to try that mod.

[Blake7]

Thanks for all the quick replies.  I'll give Stardrive a shot with the Blackbox mod.  I might also go with Stellaris based on the deal. 

[FarAway Sooner]

I've enjoyed Endless Space 2 a lot as well.  Stellaris got a lot of time for me and I enjoyed it a lot, but midgame became a slog and ES2 just felt less generic than Stellaris.  The quests in Stellaris were "meh" for me.

Polaris Sector is a definite winner if you're into combat and tech discoveries that can really change the way a game plays (rather than just making one unit suddenly OP for the remainder of the game).

AI Wars is a very different kind of 4x space game than the others (it incorporates elements of Tower Defense and RTS), but AI Wars 2 is definitely worth a try if you're willing to play an asymmetrical 4x.

It's hard to go wrong with any of them!

[Pete Dero]

Thanks for all the quick replies.  I'll give Stardrive a shot with the Blackbox mod.  I might also go with Stellaris based on the deal.

Current price on Steam is too high (28 €). 

You might find a deal here : https://isthereanydeal.com/game/stardrive/info/  (around $6)

Cheapest over here (but some avoid Kinguin) : https://www.kinguin.net/category/6046/stardrive-steam-key  (around $2)

[Gusington]

Takes a real man to write that kind of screed on the can.

[Geezer]

Takes a real constipated man to write that kind of screed on the can.

Fixed that for you.  :P

[Gusington]

^That may be that fine line of too much detail you mentioned above.

[FarAway Sooner]

I thought, more often than not, grognards wanted a painful degree of detail?

:bd: