Star Ruler 2

Nefaro · April 17, 2015, 05:01:12 PM

Quote from: Anguille on April 16, 2015, 02:33:50 PM
Quote from: Martok on April 16, 2015, 02:31:01 PM
Uh-oh. Apparently the game isn't selling too well:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/282590/discussions/1/611703898451859330/

The devs are saying they'll need to close down the studio by the end of the year unless sales pick up. :-\
Not good....going to purchase it earlier than intended to support them...

Maybe that was the aim of their post. Push a few off the fence.

Frankly, I'd consider buying it but:
1) I'd need to be in the mood for a Space 4X at the moment and not be burnt out on them from the recent flood

and

2) The original Star Ruler didn't seem very complete and the developers decision to cut it off so abruptly injures my consideration of their future titles.

I suspect these are common reasons for other 4X players who haven't picked it up.

Anguille · April 17, 2015, 05:27:14 PM

The reason why i didn't get it yet is because the Star Ruler games are too abstrated for me. Especially the first one.

Martok · April 18, 2015, 02:16:05 PM

Quote from: Anguille on April 17, 2015, 05:27:14 PM
The reason why i didn't get it yet is because the Star Ruler games are too abstrated for me. Especially the first one.

That's part of it for me too.

In addition, I'm (oddly/ironically enough) somewhat turned off by the games' scale. Space 4x titles where you have battles comprising dozens of ships I find to be fun. Space 4x titles where battles involving hundreds/thousands of ships is the norm (even if I'm not personally directing said battles) and can have super-projects where you turn entire planets into ships I find to be overwhelming.

mikeck · April 18, 2015, 02:19:24 PM

Quote from: Martok on April 18, 2015, 02:16:05 PM
Quote from: Anguille on April 17, 2015, 05:27:14 PM
The reason why i didn't get it yet is because the Star Ruler games are too abstrated for me. Especially the first one.
That's part of it for me too.

In addition, I'm (oddly/ironically enough) somewhat turned off by the games' scale. Space 4x titles where you have battles comprising dozens of ships I find to be fun. Space 4x titles where battles involving hundreds/thousands of ships is the norm (even if I'm not personally directing said battles) and can have super-projects where you turn entire planets into ships I find to be overwhelming.

This is my problem with the game too. You have to spam, nice as fast as possible and build thousands of ships in order to even have a chance at winning which is just ridiculous.

Huw the Poo · April 18, 2015, 02:41:27 PM

Quote from: mikeck on April 18, 2015, 02:19:24 PM
...and build thousands of ships in order to even have a chance at winning which is just ridiculous.

That's an unfair complaint. You only design/build flagships. The hundreds/thousands of support ships are built entirely automatically according to the fleets you assign to each flagship. You can even tell flagships whether to refill their complement from other entities' support fleets (planets, outposts etc) or whether to just buy new ones.

(Note: You can design support ships if you like, but it isn't necessary)

RedArgo · April 18, 2015, 06:14:23 PM

Quote from: Martok on April 18, 2015, 02:16:05 PM
In addition, I'm (oddly/ironically enough) somewhat turned off by the games' scale. Space 4x titles where you have battles comprising dozens of ships I find to be fun. Space 4x titles where battles involving hundreds/thousands of ships is the norm (even if I'm not personally directing said battles) and can have super-projects where you turn entire planets into ships I find to be overwhelming.

This is one of my favorite things about MOO2, the relatively small numbers of ships. One battleship or one titan at a certain point of the game can make all the difference and I can get connected to those ships.

Sparhawk · May 10, 2015, 09:09:45 PM

Has anyone got a handle on this game yet? I've dedicated a couple of days playing it and must admit that I am challenged. This is the first space 4x I've played that compels me toward diplomacy, and my traditional gaming style has always been isolationist. The game play is so unique that it is refreshing: a multithreaded tech tree that will leave you scratching your head (I love it), a planet leveling system that will leave you with hard choices, flagships with supports that augment your fleet strength, and an in your face diplomacy system that you can't afford to ignore.

Huw the Poo · May 11, 2015, 12:44:50 AM

Quote from: Sparhawk on May 10, 2015, 09:09:45 PM
Has anyone got a handle on this game yet?

Yeah I think I know what I'm doing! I've played a couple of proper games but at the moment I'm suffering with the too-many-games-to-choose-between problem.

It's pretty good isn't it? It's a shame it hasn't sold well enough to keep the dev studio afloat. They're still going to release a free DLC for it before they close, though.

W8taminute · May 11, 2015, 08:24:10 AM

I think I got how this game works and on my second attempt I survived for quite a long while before giving up. The AI does not appear to suffer any fleet command penalties and thus comes at you with wave after wave of stacks of doom. There must be some trickery the human player can do in order to keep up with the ai in terms of ship count but I haven't figured that out yet.

My best advice is to strike early and strike often to keep the ai off balance. Otherwise prepare for a war of attrition that the human player cannot easily win.

Even with this issue I find the game enjoyable if you play it with the intention of just trying to survive. Been too distracted by other games at the moment to continue my analysis of Star Drive 2 but I will revisit the game at some point. It's not going to be deleted from my hard drive.

EDIT!!! Hey guys I'm so sorry. I thought this was the Star Drive 2 thread. I don't own Star Ruler 2 but I'm not planning on getting it after I watched a couple of Let's Play/Let's Try videos. The game looks like it came from a Commodore 64 or a TRS 80. It also looks quite boring as well. It seems like you are constantly clicking on colonize planet then send fleet here and there and everywhere. I could be wrong but based on observations of other people's videos this looks like not the game for me.

JasonPratt · May 11, 2015, 11:37:06 AM

Speaking as someone who still remembers playing on a C64, and on a TI99-4a (which was somewhat like a TRS80, maybe a bit better) -- I don't recall the giant 3D fleet battles on those systems looking quite that sharp.

Or having giant 3D fleet battles at all.

Or having giant fleet battles at all.

(What I saw on the promotional video at the Steam page didn't look at all bad to me; looked very nice for a small indie game.)

JasonPratt · May 11, 2015, 11:44:59 AM

Prerelease partlcle graphics test on two fleets totaling 14,587 ships and +75K weapons, run on a Commodore 64 or a TRS 80 I can't quite tell which... ;)

sandman2575 · May 11, 2015, 12:01:42 PM

The stumbling block for me has been way SR2 trivializes colonization and expansion. The devs clearly wanted to make colonizing as streamlined and effortless as possible -- which sounds great in theory. In game, though, it has the effect of making expansion feel pretty meaningless. And as much as I appreciate what the devs were trying to do in creating a sophisticated 'chain of commodities' economy, I find I really dislike the way this is implemented. There's just something about the idea of *an entire planet* that exists purely to produce and export "Fish" or "Meat" inherently ludicrous. (The cartoony commodity icons don't help matters.)

Huw the Poo · May 11, 2015, 12:29:39 PM

Fair points, Sandman, I can't argue with those at all. As all games, it isn't to everyone's taste.

mikeck · May 11, 2015, 12:34:54 PM

Quote from: Huw the Poo on April 18, 2015, 02:41:27 PM
Quote from: mikeck on April 18, 2015, 02:19:24 PM
...and build thousands of ships in order to even have a chance at winning which is just ridiculous.

That's an unfair complaint. You only design/build flagships. The hundreds/thousands of support ships are built entirely automatically according to the fleets you assign to each flagship. You can even tell flagships whether to refill their complement from other entities' support fleets (planets, outposts etc) or whether to just buy new ones.

(Note: You can design support ships if you like, but it isn't necessary)

I don't think it's unfair. Whether they are support and auto built or not...managing 5-6 flag ships each with hundreds of support ships is over-the-top for me. Factor in the absurdity of ships the size of planets and I'm out. I Bought in a long time ago and liked it. But first time I ran into an enemg and realized that I was woefully behind in colonies and number of ships I restarted. I realize that the only way to be successful was for me to spam the heck out of colonies and build as many ships as I could which is what I didn't like the first one. That's just my opinion but I don't think it's an "unfair" complaint

That's the way the game is designed

Huw the Poo · May 11, 2015, 01:46:07 PM

You said, and I quote, "build thousands of ships in order to even have a chance at winning which is just ridiculous." So you think it's ridiculous to have two galaxy-spanning empires to field thousands of ships? Even when what it essentially boils down to is managing a mere 5 or 6 flagships - again, your words? If you think that's ridiculous I don't know what you're doing playing strategy games.