What Video Games Have You Been Playing, Part 10: Or; A Shameful Display!

[rah]

Trying to decide on my next game and after reading here, I've narrowed it down to Stellaris or Distant Worlds.
Any input would be appreciated. Thx in advance.

 

[Lexicus]

Frequent pausing is certainly part of my approach too. In fact my first swat at DW involved a guide that might well have been titled "how to turn off all automation and play like a man!" It was recommended to me on the valid grounds that knowing how things actually work is really helpful, and if you let the automation handle things you lack that knowledge. That led to massive pausing just to manage my home planet and a handful of exploration ships.

But at this point I have ten colonies in nine systems and at almost any given time at least one of them and frequently more is fending off some sort of pirate raid. If I was handling basic defenses manually I'd be on pause pretty much constantly, switching from one system to another. Judging "how big is this raid and do I need to intervene there" when the message comes in is part of the game.

Heh, I'm still not totally sure how the piracy mechanics work in this version of Stellaris. I know that piracy didn't really become a problem until after I had a fleet large enough to deal with any number of pirates that could spawn near me. In earlier versions of the game I couldn't always rely on this, and getting enough ships to deal with the "birth of piracy" was always an important consideration.

Trying to decide on my next game and after reading here, I've narrowed it down to Stellaris or Distant Worlds.
Any input would be appreciated. Thx in advance.

Stellaris is pretty cool, but it might not be the best time to get it, a major update was released just a couple of months ago and kinks are still being ironed out. At least, I hope they are - I hope Paradox doesn't screw us over and just go on to the next paid DLC without fixing the existing game...

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Trying to decide on my next game and after reading here, I've narrowed it down to Stellaris or Distant Worlds.
Any input would be appreciated. Thx in advance.

When confronting the same choice I went with Distant Worlds. My main consideration on one hand was that I know and trust Paradox, so I felt like even though it was a different setting I could expect a certain depth to Stellaris. That carried a lot of weight...but...

What tipped the balance was the array of expansions, DLCs, etc. I tend to buy games in some sort of package that seems likely to be complete...frequently because right in the title they have the word 'complete.' I bought Civ 3 complete and played it until I could buy Civ IV complete...and then for another year before I got around to installing Civ IV. If Civ V complete were to show up on GoG I'd likely buy it. Distant Worlds: Universe may not say it in the title, and it may not be perfect, but it is definitely complete.

 

[rah]

That's definitely a big plus in my book.
I spent some time pricing over the weekend neither had kick ass sales in progress so I figured I had some time to make a decision. (yeah speedy aren't I)
but then I'm still playing colonization right now trying a different type of victory over my usual speed domination game.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Heh, I'm still not totally sure how the piracy mechanics work in this version of Stellaris. I know that piracy didn't really become a problem until after I had a fleet large enough to deal with any number of pirates that could spawn near me.

The premise/setting of DW is that the galaxy, at one time, had this fairly peaceful collaboration of empires. That collapsed for <reasons>, which lead to massive die backs for civilizations everywhere. Survivors take two forms. The fledgling would be empires are just reaching the point of exploitation of their planetary resources to be re-entering space under the mistaken idea that they are making this awesome step for the first time and are of course the greatest thing the universe has ever produced...if not the only thing. The other form is clans of space-faring scavengers scrabbling to survive who lack the resources to do much research but have managed to retain a lot more than the planet dwellers have and are in the market to subjugate any survivors that are reaching a useful stage of recovery.

So, at the start as soon as your planetary fledgling spreads those wings and leaps into space it attracts the attention of the pirates and they are more than willing and able to hand you your butt. The early game is all about fending them off long enough to get remotely even in tech and military, and any efforts to expand require fighting through them for every inch...and maintaining defenses of every inch once you have it.

I'm at the point where I can successfully (usually) eliminate their shipyards and can liberate the various independent worlds they have subjugated, but it's a fight. A number of other planet based empires are also starting to provide push back on them, so the game is entering a new phase where they are more annoyance than dominant issue and conflict between empires is starting to boil. I think my neighbors jumped the gun, and I KNOW they chose the wrong neighbor to pick a fight with, but I expect there to be a whole lot of wars breaking out pretty quickly.

 

[Lexicus]

The premise/setting of DW

I like this. I always thought Civilization could be cooler if the barbarians were actually occupying the land and you had to kind of take over their stuff rather than just serving as a sort of randomly-distributed thorn in your side.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I like this. I always thought Civilization could be cooler if the barbarians were actually occupying the land and you had to kind of take over their stuff rather than just serving as a sort of randomly-distributed thorn in your side.

Yeah, I was trying to figure out an "imagine if the barbs in Civ IV were..." way of explaining it, but failed.

The greatest resource in the DW galaxy is survivor worlds.

Empires want to 'colonize' them; which amounts to rather than landing a pittance of population on a habitable world and staggering through a long growth process you land the same pittance of population on a planet that already has enough taxable citizens to immediately be a contribution. This works really well if they are another fragment of the same collapsed empire that you came from, less well if they are a not all that different species, and not at all if they are too incompatible. Landing 30,000 humanoid colonists on a not quite space-faring population of a billion humanoids they are met as a great leap forward boon and put in control of society.

Landing them on some other similarly developed planets they are met as 30,000 handy meals and put into the food supply for the local population of sentient insects. In such situations landing a bunch of troops is more appropriate, but that's a more daunting project.

Pirate clans want to corrupt them. They build a fortress, rule, and exploit. Eventually if they aren't interrupted they will develop one into the center of an interplanetary criminal syndicate that has pretty much the same capabilities as any other empire.

If really left to their own devices long enough they will develop the techs that your fledgling empire had to start with and declare themselves their own empire. Their late start is obviously a handicap, but it isn't like any other empire generally gets off to a roaring start, so this adds more opponents and is mostly a pain in the ass.

 

[rah]

If anyone notices it on sale, please let me know.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

If anyone notices it on sale, please let me know.

I get notices of every sale GoG puts on, and I always look through them. When it goes on sale again you will be the second to know.

 

[Lexicus]

stuff

I like the dynamism there, I was hoping to see future iterations of Civilizatinon go in this direction. Actually I thought city-states in Civ 5 were a step that way but in retrospect they turned out not to be. But some type of civ 5-like system where the barbarians can become a city-state and the city-state can become a "real" civilization (and vice-versa) would be interesting.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

If anyone notices it on sale, please let me know.

GOG and Steam both notify you if a game on your wishlist goes on sale.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I like the dynamism there, I was hoping to see future iterations of Civilizatinon go in this direction. Actually I thought city-states in Civ 5 were a step that way but in retrospect they turned out not to be. But some type of civ 5-like system where the barbarians can become a city-state and the city-state can become a "real" civilization (and vice-versa) would be interesting.

Try Civ IV; no barbs, fifty civs, aggressive AI, on a not very large map size. Should give you pretty much the effect you are looking for.

 

[cardgame]

Civ 5 has a mod that adds an actual barbarian faction and turns all their encampments into cities and thus they are both widely distributed (unlike an ordinary civ) and very aggressive. I haven't tried it personally, though.

 

[Kyriakos]

Barbarians could take over cities in civ2. They acted like hordes do in eu3: only form of action with them is to pay them out or endless war untill one side is no more.
Though in eu3 the horde iirc also can pay you to leave it alone (?)

 

[PhroX]

Been playing Stellaris too. Thought I'd try out the Barbaric Despoilers civic and it seems pretty bloody amazing under the current patch. I'm doing a pretty tall build - 100 years in I've got 8 planets, and my only conquests were two planetless systems in order to get access to a wormhole and a couple of motes. And yet my population is about 50% higher than the next best non-fallen empire, with an economy to match. Population is the most important thing in 2.2, and raiding lets me effectively have the pop growth of not just my empire, but my three neighbours too. If I want to get stronger, I don't need to waste influence on claims, or resources and time on armies, I just send a fleet into another empire (thanks to the free CB I always have...), have it sit over one of their worlds for a couple of years and bingo, another dozen or so slaves to work in the newly opened mines/fields/generators. I'm actually starting to have problems growing enough of my main species to fill out the specialist jobs I need....

 

[Spidernova]

Ace Combat 7 is a blast. Stupid superweapons, a nonsensical story, and all the crazy flying you can handle.

 

[Dachs]

Ace Combat 7 is a blast. Stupid superweapons, a nonsensical story, and all the crazy flying you can handle.

You forgot the baller music. Maybe you'll be able to remember it once you cool off...in solitary.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Try Civ IV; no barbs, fifty civs, aggressive AI, on a not very large map size. Should give you pretty much the effect you are looking for.

Hey, @Lexicus and anyone else who saw this in passing.

It does produce the 'if you want to expand you have to take the land from the "barbarians" effect.' I thought I had a pretty good start because the river I founded my capital on ran four tiles down to the sea and I managed to found a second city at the mouth of the river uncontested.

Unfortunately I took a wrong turn on the research path. I started as Napoleon (random) so had farming and the wheel. Paris had immediate access to hilltop pigs and grassland cows so I went with AH first. That worked out well as my immediate build worker had me booming out population and the settler for my port really quick. I also had a barren hilltop that I thought would be metal so I ran mining-BW-IW...and it wasn't. That was the wrong turn. I popped out another settler and built a city three tiles from Paris next to a Carthaginian copper mine hoping to flip it and frantically researched hunting-archery, but about the time my first archer appeared in Paris a neighboring Suleiman, who did have metal, marched in and started carving through my warriors like butter.

So I peaked at three cities controlling a total of thirty tiles, plus two sea tiles. The 'must expand by taking land from barbarians' definitely worked, except as it turned out I was the barbarians.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I played a tricky song in Audiosurf in ninja mono ironmode. Got both stealth and clean finish. The only one on the scoreboard who had a higher score was playing it with one of the puzzle modes. I feel good about myself almost.

 

[Lexicus]

Ouch. What difficulty was this on?