Stellaris

[sandman2575]

Pirate fleets in space 4x is a big pet peeve of mine. Another indication of just how great Distant Worlds is: at least they bothered to create a backstory where it made sense that the pirates were more powerful than you initially (if you start in the 'dark ages' pre-warp campaign, as I always do).

Pirates don't tangle with military naval vessels, and much less large naval fleets. The whole point of pirates is that they prey on easy targets, undefended merchant vessels. They're not looking for a fight, they're looking for easy plunder.  (Another note -- this is what pirates do in SotSII -- they warp into your system and hunt down merchant traders, and then try to get out of Dodge before your system defense fleet catches up with them -- this is the *right* way to do it!)

In so many space 4x, pirates are just an autonomous faction meant to check your early expansion. They'll gladly take on your military vessels. They seem to have no interest in actual piracy, because that's not their game function. They're military aggressors.

[FarAway Sooner]

Yeah.  I think an "after the cataclysm" setting (whether it's due to a massive alien invasion that obliterated galactic civilization, a centralized empire that fell apart, etc.) lends itself to a great provides a good rationalization for a lot of the conventions in the space 4x world:  goody huts described as ruins, pirates with some power, "independent tribe" planets, a bunch of races who all become eligible for hyper drive around the same point in time, etc.

One other thing I really liked about DW is how easy it was to immerse yourself in just developing your homeworld system and the first handful of closest stars in the early game.  The intricacy of the economy there was really gratifying to me, and about much more than just growing population in order to grow my tax base...

I also enjoyed the fact that population growth on new planets is tiny for a LONG time, meaning that you're relying heavily on your homeworld to export colonists to other inhabited planets for at least the first quarter of the game.  Man, this thread is making me want to go back and play DW again, so I can't afford to purchase either Stellaris or PS just yet!

[Pete Dero]

Paradow Stream Schedule   https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive

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[Huw the Poo]

Fuck it, I'm getting the Galaxy edition.  I must have all the shinies!

I reckon I'll probably play as the boring old Human race for my first game, just while I see how it all works.  Then my next game I'll use one of the preorder or bonus races.  How about you guys?

[undercovergeek]

always the cat people

[Huw the Poo]

always the cat people

No dwarves available then? :P

[undercovergeek]

absolutely -

1. dwarves
2. cats
3. maybe elves
4. doesnt matter

[Barthheart]

I always start with Humans.

[Jarhead0331]

Its pretty interesting. The only game that I ever had any desire to play any race other than humans, was Master of Orion, where I would frequently choose to play as the Bulrathi.

[sandman2575]

I always start with Humans.

+1  Very rare that I ever play any other race than human in space games.

The exception for me was always Sins of a Solar Empire. For whatever reason, I really dug the Advent and their sleek ships, and would even play the evil insectoid race (forget their name) because they also had some pretty bad-ass capital ships and techs.

Sins was a truly great game. Not traditional 4x of course, and no ship design (probably its biggest drawback, in my view), but just a really fun, really well designed and challenging game. And the races were cool!

(...bringing me to Pet Peeve #27 re: space 4x:  incredibly lazy aliens design. Polaris Sector does not impress in this category at all. Koala race? Gimme an effin' break...)

[Yskonyn]

I always played as the Yor in GalCiv 2. I have a weakness for AI or constructs.

In DW, however, I mostly played as the humans, or the sexy women humanoids of the Extended mod for that matter. ;)

I am not yet familliar with the races in Stellaris, but the first game will be humans for sure.

[Jarhead0331]

I always played as the Yor in GalCiv 2. I have a weakness for AI or constructs.

In DW, however, I mostly played as the humans, or the sexy women humanoids of the Extended mod for that matter. ;)

I am not yet familliar with the races in Stellaris, but the first game will be humans for sure.

One of the many, many things that really interests me about Stellaris is the list of races. they are very diverse and although broken down into common sets of species (ie. mammals, reptilian, aviary, etc.) the actual races seem to be very different from genre norms in terms of look and ability.

[undercovergeek]

looking at when quill18 met the devs and went thru the game set up, there are tonnes of choices, also all customisable

[sandman2575]

Trying to think of space 4x games that have genuinely interesting aliens -- not just the usual cut-&-paste "aliens = various Earth animal species" boringness. Also, alien races that play genuinely differently from one another.

Although I didn't spend a lot of time with it, give credit to Endless Space for coming up with some creative races. Like the "Horatio" race of clones. Mentioned the Advent from Sins-- although Sins only had 3 races, the game did a decent job of differentiating their distinctive play styles and techs.

Others? Still haven't gotten into MOO3 but some of the aliens there looked intriguing. Although I can't say the aliens in Swords of the Stars are especially creative (bug race? check. lizard race? check. bird race? check.) the game does a great job of introducing distinct play styles for the different races -- such as the unique forms of propulsion and navigation.

Distant Worlds, despite being my favorite space 4x, doesn't really do much in the way of interesting aliens. (The T-Rex race makes me roll my eyes every time I see it. I make sure they never appear in any of my games.)  Galactic Civs' races didn't do much for me either -- the Yor were cool though, as Yskonsyn points out. Races in games like Star Drive or Star Ruler seem completely forgettable to me.

[Huw the Poo]

+1  Very rare that I ever play any other race than human in space games.

The exception for me was always Sins of a Solar Empire. For whatever reason, I really dug the Advent and their sleek ships, and would even play the evil insectoid race (forget their name) because they also had some pretty bad-ass capital ships and techs.

Sins was a truly great game. Not traditional 4x of course, and no ship design (probably its biggest drawback, in my view), but just a really fun, really well designed and challenging game. And the races were cool!

(...bringing me to Pet Peeve #27 re: space 4x:  incredibly lazy aliens design. Polaris Sector does not impress in this category at all. Koala race? Gimme an effin' break...)

Yeah I always play Advent in Sins, for the reasons you mention and more; they're squadron-heavy which suits my playstyle, and those sexy, sexy voices. :)

The Vasari are the other race you're thinking of.  Some of their tech is scary.  Phase missiles - gah!  And those bastard starbases!  I'll never forget the first time I encountered one and saw it moving toward me!  :o  Man, Sins is such an awesome game.