[MoO] Interstellar Space Genesis (Master of Orion 2 like indie 4X game)

[Blake00]

Anyone here tried this new but retroish Master Of Orion 2 like 4X TBS game called Interstellar Space Genesis? If so was it good? Was it stable? Apparently the indie team behind it consists of a couple of guys, yet it looks pretty awesome so am thinking about trying it out now that it's on sale.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/984680/Interstellar_Space_Genesis/
https://www.gog.com/en/game/interstellar_space_genesis




.
07/11/2020 EDIT: Nearly 6mths later I've finally tried it myself and made some tour/review videos below as I had a lot of fun. If people are interested in more info I've finally just written a belated steam review with a big list of the game's pros and cons (IMO).
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198058803521/recommended/984680

Part 1

Part 2

 

[Blake00]

Have been watching this dude's video series of it and am just blown away!

 

[sherbz]

Ive not tried it but it does look interesting. I tried MOO - the new one. And i found it a bit too clunky, despite some good voice acting from Luke Hammil. In particular i didnt like the combat system - which was real time. I preferred turn based. Whats the combat like in this?

 

[Blake00]

Annoyingly the guy in that video I posted above didn't get into many fights but when he did it was definitely turn based combat!

I still haven't played the new big budget Master of Orion.. got it on steam though.. All the complaints put me off rushing to play it haha... will play it one day.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

I have played both MOI2 and ISG. They are quite similar, like if you know how to play one of them, you can quickly play the other. Basically ISG feels like a development on MOI2, taking the good and in my opinion doing it better. Here are some of the important differences:

• In ISG planets have an infrastructure value which is very important for several reasons. Infrastructure act as a multiplier upon population productivity so a pop in a planet with 10 infrastructure is 10 times as productive as an equal pop in a planet with 1 infrastructure. Each infrastructure allow 1 additional building and with each infrastructure you get to pick a planetary specialization. Planetary specialization do two things. Make the planet better at doing something, like better at building ships or buildings and produce research towards a specific technology line like weapons, but only if you are researching a weapon tech. Also if you finish all Planetary specializations you get an empire wide bonus.
• You have space culture as a resource which unlock social policies (I think that is the name), each which give a powerful benefit such as a free colony ship which is a huge investment in the early game. There are 3 social policy categories and often you get a choice between 2 policies in a category and you can only pick one and forgo to pick the other. Each social policy become more expensive than the last one so you need to pick them with care.
• There are alot less buildings but each building have a more unique role than in MOI2 and you can't build everything on each planet due to the amount of buildings a planet can support is dependent on infrastructure level. You also have powerful so called capital buildings which you can only have 1 of each type and there is also wonders which only one of each can exist in the game. Wonders not only need technology to be unlocked but also need one of the level 3 social policies, which one depend on which wonder.
• Population can't be moved and they don't work any specific job in ISG, instead what they produce depend on stuff like race, buildings and such.
• Governors and ship commanders have like 5 base attributes and also special skills and as these level up they can become really powerful, like I have had governors that made each pop in the system the govern give like +10 science. Also espionage is done by governors and ship commanders instead of spies.
• Technology, you can research everything in ISG except for a few specific techs but the tech cost depend on how many techs in the tier you already got. Also you gain or lose research point depend on which category you research depending on government, like feudalism get a bonus to their research in weapon technology but a penalty to pretty much every other technology. Planetary specalization give research points towards a specific category.
• ISG have an system of remote exploration which can reveal hidden systems as well give information of systems you already know.
• ISG have 4 strategic resources, once you find a strategic resource you get to choose between two tech paths which unlock 2 or 3 techs about that strategic resource and the more of that strategic resource you have, the more powerful the techs become.
• Ship design is mostly the same as MOI2, there are less total sub systems but many of MOI2 sub systems could be said to have been overpowered. Instead you have options like increasing ships combat speed.
• Combat is similar to MOI2, the main difference is that ships in ISG have a value called heat with can be spent on various actions, like extra speed or shoots but if the heat value go to high it can cause damage. Another difference is that shields are much less powerful because they only absorb damage once per salvo instead of absorbing per weapon, so early weapons don't become harmless as they do in MOI2.
• Co-operation seems more impactful in ISG due to the various bonuses you can get from it with technology research.
• Money can be spent on increasing research and space culture in ISG and that can make a significant impact in your research speed.

 

[Civinator]

It seems ISG at Steam at present is reduced from € 27,99 to € 13,99 and there was released an update some days ago. I´m reflecting about buying it.

Edit: But it seems there are only 6 races even in the updated game.

Spoiler :

 

[Blake00]

After watching that let's play series I posted above that sold it for me and I hit the button lol!

As expected it’s graphics aren’t exactly revolutionary lol but they have a certain retro aesthetic beauty I like (I loooove looking at volcanic worlds), and damn is it addictive & fun to play! I can’t eat, sleep, work.. it’s all gone to hell haha!!

I also really love how they enhanced the exploration side of things with the whole scanning system. Its quite the rush when you find a brand new star system with something awesome in it that's actually been right under your nose near your capital the whole time haha. I remember certain events used to result in brand new star systems appearing in Imperium Galactica 2 but this is way a better and bigger system to keep the discoveries coming even when you think you've been everywhere haha. The Leader development system is super cool too, actually reminds me a lot of Heroes of Might and Magic 2-3 with its primary ability increase and random 2 sub skills choices each level up. I also love that literally everything has a tool tip box with stats telling you what it does and everything its making or taking, all the numbers! Ticks all the spreadsheet gamer boxes haha.

• Population can't be moved and they don't work any specific job in ISG, instead what they produce depend on stuff like race, buildings and such.

Apparently they can be moved around to different worlds of yours if you have available Freighters but I'm yet to figure out how to do that lol. I tried a few times to move people when I had a free freighter but gave up and just sent them off to asteroids. but the game says that they can do it somehow.

.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Apparently they can be moved around to different worlds of yours if you have available Freighters but I'm yet to figure out how to do that lol. I tried a few times to move people when I had a free freighter but gave up and just sent them off to asteroids. but the game says that they can do it somehow.

There is an immigration system in which you can set planets to send or take immigrants as long as they are not at max population but what it does is it take growth, not population from the planets that send immigrants to the planets that take immigrants.

The main criticism I have heard is the game start slow but I only think that is the case if you think a 4x game must be about rapid expansion, something which ISG don't really encourage due to high cost of colony ship and long development time of planets. But I quite like the expansion rate in ISG as it feel quite natural and it encourage you to test various early game strategies instead of just rushing to expand as fast as possible. Also as the game progress you get access to special ships (don't remember what they are called) that help you set up colonies quickly, so while the game may start out slow, it speeds up quickly in the mid game.

The early game is basically about building up your starting world, even the capital buildings cost only like 2500 while a colony ship is 7500 and in one game I was forced into a war quite early when I had little more than the starting planet, but I won that war and got 2 or so more planets.

 

[Civinator]

Hello Denkt and Blake00,

is it possible to play with more than 6 races (or players) and to modify the graphics of the game (especially the spaceships)?

 

[Blake00]

Yeah weirdly you can't have more than 6 UNLESS you create extra custom races. I created my own humans (using a lot of my tradition MOO race settings heh) and right away the limit went from 6 to 7 players in the new game setup.

Your question made me curious so I just now did a test and created some more custom races and sure enough the highest player count increased as I added them to 8, 9 etc. Bit annoying though as I had to give each of them names lol. But nevertheless the capacity appears to be there for lots of AI opponents. No idea what the limit is to how many you can create and deploy.. maybe @Denkt knows?

 

[Civinator]

Blake00, thank you very much for the answer. The possibility of raising the number of players sounds good.

Did you have a look at modifying the graphics? What graphics format are the spaceships and race images. Can the race images be replaced easily by other (may be 2 D images) ?

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

No I don't know how many races you can have on a map at the same time as that is not something I have tested.

 

[shmily_dana]

I bought it over the weekend. But I have not had a chance to play. Does playing against one AI on the smallest map work? Can you select your opponent(s)? In other games (like endless space), I've setup opponents with all the negatives to have a sandbox game for my first play thru.

 

[Blake00]

I bought it over the weekend. But I have not had a chance to play. Does playing against one AI on the smallest map work? Can you select your opponent(s)? In other games (like endless space), I've setup opponents with all the negatives to have a sandbox game for my first play thru.

Not sure about 1 AI on a small map but I'm probably too late if you've bought the game already as you probably experimented and figured it all out haha. Either way I think it should be fine if you disable all but two (need 1 for yourself lol) of the default races. Yup you can select your opponents, so if you want 6 terran factions going at it you can. However I've gotta say setting this stuff up is not the easiest due to some of their design decisions on the start game screen.

If people are interested in more info I've finally just written a belated steam review with a big list of the game's pros and cons (IMO).
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198058803521/recommended/984680

Also just released some videos covering my thoughts too:
Part 1

Part 2

 

[Blake00]

ISG continues to grow as the years go by... minor races added.. more main factions.. more culture perks.. more ships.. more everything haha.

Their first addon came out around the same time I did my above video tours:

Now their second addon is nearly here:

 

[tedhebert]

It's on sale ATM for $15 CAN on steam, including natural law expansion !

For a player who has played GALCIV 3 extensively, is now playing GALCIV 4, has played both Stellaris and Endless Space 2 a little, I am wondering if this game has any interest !

Would you still recommend to someone who has played these titles (and of course has played MOO and Alpha Centauri a loooonnnngggg time ago too ) ?

 

[Blake00]

It's on sale ATM for $15 CAN on steam, including natural law expansion !

For a player who has played GALCIV 3 extensively, is now playing GALCIV 4, has played both Stellaris and Endless Space 2 a little, I am wondering if this game has any interest !

Would you still recommend to someone who has played these titles (and of course has played MOO and Alpha Centauri a loooonnnngggg time ago too ) ?

Well I still haven't got to GalCiv4 (or 3 for that matter lol), Stellaris or Endless Space yet so I'm not qualified to answer that really.. but I'd say that those games would be bigger, better looking and have more depth. This is a smaller game from a much smaller indie dev team so if you not looking for something that will be bigger and better than those and you're craving a bit of a classic MOO2 experience with a few nice extras and modernization thrown in then go for it. It's a great game that punches above it's weight (considering it's essentially a MOO2 fan game) but it's still important to measure one's expectations going into it. Good guys making it too, they'll actually respond to feedback and change the game if your suggestions are feasible. They even offered me a free copy of the new addon to do a video on but I declined as I'd rather support them and buy the addon (plus I'm too busy with my Civ video & mod work to replay ISG atm).

 

[Blake00]

Looks like a new (minor) DLC is coming out for the game.. this time its a new terrains pack to make planets look even cooler. Dev has also confirmed they're working on new big 3rd addon pack DLC too. And on top of all that the game is on sale again.

Steam :: Interstellar Space: Genesis :: Interstellar Space: Genesis - Terrains Pack is Available Now!

Interstellar Space: Genesis - Terrains Pack is available now! Hello everyone! We're thrilled to present to you today a new piece of content called Interstellar Space: Genesis - Terrains Pack! One thing we've been hearing in player feedback for a while now is that the game could have more...

steamcommunity.com

 

[vmxa]

Hi Blake, a bit late here as I rarely look this far down the page. Just wondered, if you noticed the planet named after me. lol. I was a beta tester.

 

[Blake00]

Hi Blake, a bit late here as I rarely look this far down the page. Just wondered, if you noticed the planet named after me. lol. I was a beta tester.

Hah.. no I did not.. I'll have to keep an eye out for it next time I play it!