Stellaris VS Polaris Sector

[Bison]

Polaris won't have the $200 of DLC milking the crap out of customers like a typical paradox game?

[OJsDad]

Nay. It'll only be $50 total with sales.

[Martok]

Polaris won't have the $200 of DLC milking the crap out of customers like a typical paradox game?

Given that Polaris Sector is being published by Slitherine/Matrix, no. 

Now Stellaris, on the other hand, is being developed in-house by Paradox (just like the EU and CK games), so I wouldn't be surprised to see DLC released down the road at some point. 

Nay. It'll only be $50 total with sales.

Heh.  Given Slitherine's historical pricing policies, an understandable statement.  ;) 

I seem to recall, however, that they're aiming for a price of around $30.00 for Polaris Sector.  I might be wrong on that, but even if I am, I don't think it's going to be uber-expensive like so many other titles in S-M's portfolio. 

[shodan]

Anyone played or have recommendations on space 4x game Predestination?   It early access but looks interesting.

[Martok]

Anyone played or have recommendations on space 4x game Predestination?   It early access but looks interesting.

The general consensus has been that it's doing some neat things, but isn't ready for prime-time yet. 

[OJsDad]

So many Space 4X games in the last few years but have any of them taken the next big step in evolving the genre.  If so, I cannot think of any.  Some have had a good ideas but none have seemed to take the great leap forward.  Distant Worlds is the only one that has stuck out as coming close, but to me even it fell short.  I think I really want something that takes the component and ship design level that Aurora has with the game play of DW.  I still want someone to implement an economy like in Victoria.  Some that losing a system with either a key natural resource or industry really hurts. 

Enough of the Space 4X games.  I want a new Call to Power game.  Something will rattle Sid Meiers Civ world. 

[shodan]

Anyone played or have recommendations on space 4x game Predestination?   It early access but looks interesting.

The general consensus has been that it's doing some neat things, but isn't ready for prime-time yet.

Thank you, keeping an eye on it.

[Kushan]

OJ how do you feel Distant Worlds falls flat?

I'd like to a see games stop trying to be Civilization in space or another MOO2 remake. Give me something like an Honor Harrington game. I want a game that's got a deep lord background, that already has empires pre-established but with most of the galaxy still unexplored. Similar to what Sovereignty was going to do.

Some of my favorite Disant Wolrds games have been where I've set up a campaign with everyone starting with a small empire.

[OJsDad]

Kushan, it's been awhile since I played, so I'm probably going to miss something.

First I do like DW.  I guess the three things I could name off the top of my head are;

1.  Mob style battles.  No formations.  Not a real need to build specialized ships, ie pickets, AA, etc.  You just hope that the ships end up where they need to be.
2.  As your empire grows, the UI seems to struggle.  Kind of hard to find information quickly on planets without a lot of digging.  When you have a fleet selected, if it has too many ships, you cannot see the status on all of them.
3.  It sometimes seemed like a race though the tech tree and an endless cycle of upgrades for ships.  This loops back to point 1.  Except for cost for the upgrade, it didn't always feel like you had to make hard choices on which ships to upgrade. 

[OJsDad]

Curses Kushan, now you have me firing DW:U up again.  And looking at mods.  Is the Starfall mod any good.

[OJsDad]

I've started a new DW game.  Downloaded the Starfall mod and enjoying it quite a bit.  There are still some things I wish DW did, but it is an enjoyable game. 

[FarAway Sooner]

I enjoyed DW a lot.  It features the best innovation in a space 4x game since at least Galactic Civilization (which is so old, it's hard to remember exactly what it added to Master of Orion), and is arguably the best space 4x game in 10+ years.

For me, I ultimately gave up on it because I felt like I spent far too much time keeping the AI from licking frozen stop signs:

• Sending the flagship of my fleet, the one reclaimed Capital Ship from single-handedly chasing an enemy destroyer into the range of their home world starbase and 3 Orbital Weapons Platforms to die a quick and grisly death.
• Keeping my AI from spamming mining colonies on every planet in my empire.
• Keeping my AI from upgrading every single fleet at the same time in the middle of a war, thereby ceding 3 fledgling colonies to my heavily outgunned opponent and leaving 2 major colonies ripe pickings for pirates.
  
• Sending my carefully hoarded intelligence agents on low-value missions that would almost certainly get them killed.

I know that there are AI settings that allow you to manage #2 - #4 and I used those settings when I played, but I got tired of just how manual the work-arounds were.  Inevitably, I'd forget to tweak one little setting and then have to revert back to a save game--I hate Save Spamming.

Again, it was a great game.  I just got tired of having to manage so many things around AI that took a vacation from time-to-time.