Who else is into these brick-laying, street-drawing, people-controlling sort of games? And what are your favourites?
I'm currently caught by Anno 2070, a city/resource game set in the near future when the seas have risen and you have to play as either the Tycoons (heavy industrialists who put efficiency first, and tend to pollute a lot) or Ecos (enviromentally dedicated folks who try to remain at peace with nature, but in return sacrifice efficiency) to dominate the world's last remaining spits of land. While I thought the sci-fi would swim against the style of the previous installments, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how deep the game is.
My heart remains with SimCity 4, though. Verily, t'was the pinnacle of builder games.
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Oh, yes, I've broken my head against Dorf Fortress indeed!
From time to time I gather my guts and jump back in, learning some new things before my bearded fellows get devoured by fire-breathing zombie snails.
DF is not just a game; it is a trial from the gods of nerdom.
For strategy/civilization building, I am a fan of the Civilization series, and I'm looking forward to the Civ V expansion coming out soon (Civ V itself is good now that it's been patched a few times).
Going oldskool in the same note, I've got Master of Magic on my laptop (purchased at gog.com) and have fun with that, though I'm very bad at it. I really want to try Stardock's Elemental, which is supposed to be very much inspired by MOM, but I know their initial release went poorly. I think it is/was supposed to be much improved with patches and add-ons though.
I really wish I could find a copy of Afterlife. It was an awesome game by Lucasarts where you built and managed Heaven and Hell.
I was always bad at SimCity but appreciated the design.
For sandbox/dollhouses, I am/was a big fan of the Sims. I love the building and design aspects, and I love building social experiments (especially since the later games are better about your not having to babysit them and make sure they pee and stuff) -- but not the way EA has handled it lately. It's really a shame because I loved those games for a long time and still play the Sims 3 from time to time, but I stopped buying their products last year for several reasons:
- I purchased items on the Sims store which then failed to download and unpack properly. Reported the error to customer service, only response I got was "Known issue, sucks to be you, here, have a 20% off coupon for the store that you can't download anything from."
- Although the game gets patches released constantly, there are known issues that go back to the core game and early expansions which have never actually been fixed (particularly with the World Adventures expansion)
- Want to avoid Origin
- Not paying $40 for an expansion pack, no matter how good it appears
- Definitely not paying $40 for an expansion pack whose features are half a repeat of a previous expansion and half a bunch of "social" features I will never use (but I will miss out on unlocking things in game if I don't use them), including a bunch of Facebook crap which I definitely won't use given I don't have Facebook
And it's a damned shame because the early stuff was good and worth the money usually. I've got Sims 3+World Adventures (Dungeon crawling in the Sims!)+Ambitions+Late Night and the world builder as well, and I have fun with those--I've got archeologists who explore, outdoorswomen who garden and fish and spelunk, mad scientist inventors, music bands that rock, etc. etc. Even trying to build a post apocalyptic world in the world builder. But I'm not paying them more money for stuff I don't want and stuff that doesn't work, which is sadly what the franchise has turned into since. Not to mention the bad customer service.
I'd give an arm and a leg for an indie developer to come along with their own take on a slice-of-life story building game, or a machinima maker, for that matter. If it looked any good I'd snap it up and support them in a heartbeat.
For strategy/civilization building, I am a fan of the Civilization series, and I'm looking forward to the Civ V expansion coming out soon (Civ V itself is good now that it's been patched a few times).
Ooh, I've been wary of switching to Civ V from my heavily modded version of Civ IV. What's the expansion offering?
Going oldskool in the same note, I've got Master of Magic on my laptop (purchased at gog.com) and have fun with that, though I'm very bad at it. I really want to try Stardock's Elemental, which is supposed to be very much inspired by MOM, but I know their initial release went poorly. I think it is/was supposed to be much improved with patches and add-ons though.
As a long-time fan of Master of Magic myself as well (gogo Wind-Walking Fire-Breathing Vampire-Lycanthrope Arcane-Weaponized Missile-Warping pack of heroes travelling across the world in two turns and breaking havoc on everything in their path, while you're raising volcanoes all over the map and causing the dead everywhere to raise as zombies), I wouldn't advice Elemental as a good alternative. The game has some very interesting concepts indeed (such as the whole lineages thing), but it doesn't quite follow in the footsteps of MoM.
I recently got Paradox' Warlock, which on the surface looks pretty much like a mix between Civ V and MoM, but lacks a lot of depth (though it has some very nice things, such as being able to play worlds with multiple planes of existence).
So far, the best game that tries to live up to MoM's glory is, in my opinion, Age of Wonders III. It is mechanically very similar to MoM (the combat system is really good), and while some years old already, extremely pleasing to the senses (your eyes will explode with the amount of particle effects that game has).
I really wish I could find a copy of Afterlife. It was an awesome game by Lucasarts where you built and managed Heaven and Hell.
Oh God, they exist! You are literally the second person I've ver met that also played Afterlife! Although it gets kind of repetitive once you've reached the Omnibolge/Love Dome stage more than once, the level of dark humour and unique ideas in that game made it a true gem in the world of city builders. I have fond memories of the descriptions of Hell's punishments, such as the one where the damned suffer from horrible itching in the most unreachable parts of their bodies and their hands are tied inside soft boxing gloves to they can't scratch. Or the one where you are stuck in traffic forever and there is only a single radio station playing all day.
That game was genius.
Oh, yes, I've broken my head against Dorf Fortress indeed!
From time to time I gather my guts and jump back in, learning some new things before my bearded fellows get devoured by fire-breathing zombie snails.
DF is not just a game; it is a trial from the gods of nerdom.
DF is one of those things I've always wanted to pick up and never gotten around to. Recommendations?
For strategy/civilization building, I am a fan of the Civilization series, and I'm looking forward to the Civ V expansion coming out soon (Civ V itself is good now that it's been patched a few times).Ooh, I've been wary of switching to Civ V from my heavily modded version of Civ IV. What's the expansion offering?
Check out the Website here.
In brief, it's bringing back espionage and religion, tying some of those mechanics into the city-states. There's more to it than that but the previews online can describe it better than I can.
I would say rather than "switch" from Civ IV to Civ V, keep Civ IV but check out Civ V when you have a chance. There are a lot of differences in gameplay, each with their own strengths, so I don't consider it a case of having to make one replace the other.
Going oldskool in the same note, I've got Master of Magic on my laptop (purchased at gog.com) and have fun with that, though I'm very bad at it. I really want to try Stardock's Elemental, which is supposed to be very much inspired by MOM, but I know their initial release went poorly. I think it is/was supposed to be much improved with patches and add-ons though.
As a long-time fan of Master of Magic myself as well (gogo Wind-Walking Fire-Breathing Vampire-Lycanthrope Arcane-Weaponized Missile-Warping pack of heroes travelling across the world in two turns and breaking havoc on everything in their path, while you're raising volcanoes all over the map and causing the dead everywhere to raise as zombies), I wouldn't advice Elemental as a good alternative. The game has some very interesting concepts indeed (such as the whole lineages thing), but it doesn't quite follow in the footsteps of MoM.
I recently got Paradox' Warlock, which on the surface looks pretty much like a mix between Civ V and MoM, but lacks a lot of depth (though it has some very nice things, such as being able to play worlds with multiple planes of existence).
So far, the best game that tries to live up to MoM's glory is, in my opinion, Age of Wonders III. It is mechanically very similar to MoM (the combat system is really good), and while some years old already, extremely pleasing to the senses (your eyes will explode with the amount of particle effects that game has).
Duly noted! Thanks for the advice.
I really wish I could find a copy of Afterlife. It was an awesome game by Lucasarts where you built and managed Heaven and Hell.Oh God, they exist! You are...
I do exist! Yes, a friend of mine and I used to both love it very much. Yeah, the endgame could get boring but then you could always try the scenarios and other stuff as well, or just cheat in the Deathstar.
Caesar III (& IV)
Cleopatra
Zeus
Emperor:Rise of the Middle Kingdom
Oh to have titles like those return :(
Afterlife is available on Amazon.
I know I said "I really wish I could find a copy..." but I was not really speaking literally. Yes, I know there are copies out there on the marketplace and ebay, but it's an old enough game I don't trust it to run on my computer.
The Amazon marketplace vendor entry looks sketchy -- doesn't note it's a game from 1997 or so, posts no system reqs or whatever. And it's charging $31.99 for a game from 1997, when I can buy other awesome games from the same time for $10.00 or less easily. Yeah there are some other vendors that are offering it for $7.99 or so but still. Hard to know if the disc is in good condition, etc.
What I really meant was, "I wish GOG or a similar company would sell a reliable, patched for modern-PC use, version of Afterlife." Sorry, I forget I'm in a forum of eager problem solvers and get loose with my talk sometimes.
I liked all of the Age of Wonder seiries, as well as the Disciples and Warlords series. If you liked MOM, I should mention again SSI's Stronghold and the Warlods series mentioned above.
I'll check'em out!
My favorite game ever is a massive mod for Civ4 called Fall From Heaven 2. It adds a complexity to the game that allows you to play over and over, although it still has many of the same issues that Civ4 vanilla has, mostly relating to the zerg tactics in combat. Still, the exploration and early nation building aspects were loads of fun, to me. I know that the mod was heavily influenced by Master of Magic, and the head of the mod's development team, Kael, was hired by Stardock after Elemental's less-than-stellar release to oversee the patches and add-ons released to improve the game.
Master Of Magic and Master Of Orion 2... Damn, I'm broken and in debts, otherwise I would go plunder GOG for MoM.
DF is one of those things I've always wanted to pick up and never gotten around to. Recommendations?
I completely get that. It took me a while to finally gather my bearings and get some progress into DF.
What helped me most was playing windowed with the DF Wiki open on the side, as one of the key elements in the complexity of the game is how unorthodox it is for handling processes we are used to do in a different manner in most games. The wiki is here: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Main_Page
The game is enormously deep, so its a good idea to start with very simple expectations of what you want to accomplish. I made the most progress when I just focused on making it through the day, rather than trying to build complex trap-ridden dungeons. You'll get there eventually.
Initially, what you want to do is learn a few basic but fundamental things (the wiki has great tutorials on this):
1.- How to give orders to your dorfs
2.- How to designate areas/rooms
3.- How to gather materials
4.- How to craft stuff
Once you get those four things, the game starts making a lot more sense, and you'll quickly pick up the pace. Army-building, trading, and the like are more advanced stuff that will take some time (seriously, making soldiers in DF can be quite a chore initially), but once you learn how to tell those little bearded fellows how to catch a fish and store it in a barrel so they don't die from starvation, the game opens up.
Also, a good graphic mod can be really handy. Although DF purist prefer the default ASCII graphics, I must admit they make my eyes bleed. The DF Forums have a section dedicated to them, as well as other mods, here: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=28829.0
DF is one of those things I've always wanted to pick up and never gotten around to. Recommendations?I completely get that. It took me a while to finally gather my bearings and get some progress into DF.
What helped me most was playing windowed with the DF Wiki open on the side, as one of the key elements in the complexity of the game is how unorthodox it is for handling processes we are used to do in a different manner in most games. The wiki is here: Dwarf Fortress Wiki
The game is enormously deep, so its a good idea to start with very simple expectations of what you want to accomplish. I made the most progress when I just focused on making it through the day, rather than trying to build complex trap-ridden dungeons. You'll get there eventually.
Initially, what you want to do is learn a few basic but fundamental things (the wiki has great tutorials on this):
1.- How to give orders to your dorfs
2.- How to designate areas/rooms
3.- How to gather materials
4.- How to craft stuffOnce you get those four things, the game starts making a lot more sense, and you'll quickly pick up the pace. Army-building, trading, and the like are more advanced stuff that will take some time (seriously, making soldiers in DF can be quite a chore initially), but once you learn how to tell those little bearded fellows how to catch a fish and store it in a barrel so they don't die from starvation, the game opens up.
Also, a good graphic mod can be really handy. Although DF purist prefer the default ASCII graphics, I must admit they make my eyes bleed. The DF Forums have a section dedicated to them, as well as other mods, here: DF Forums
Links are now linkied.
Thanks gents =)
Civilization I on up
Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri
Master of Orion I & II
Homeworld I & II
X3 - Terran Conflict
Sins of a Solar Empire
Calactic Cilizations II
Space Empires I on up
Tropico
Civ I & II - BIG time wasters
SMAC - VERY, VERY BIG time waster
MoO II - BIG time waster
X3 - Terran conflict - Big time waster
~looks at list~ Yea. I could have had my Masters in two subjects if I had not played the first three games listed.
SMAC - VERY, VERY BIG time waster
It's the quotes, man. The game is not only fun, but also pretty deep and philosophical.
Still, I usually went Morganites full efficiency, with so much "Wanton Ecological Disruption" that I end up having to build pressure domes on all my cities, forcing the council into bombarding the poles with lasers and flooding the planet enough so that there is no room for fungus.
Good times, good times.
Univerity myself. Also, do NOT build Tree Farms, Hybrid forrests, Centauri preserves, ect. until AFTER your first two fungal blooms. Then build away. EACH one of those build AFTER the blooms increases your resistance to polution (for lack of a better term) and thus alows you to pump up your mineral count. Also, look for Velocrix's guide to SMAC. Not only is he a cool guy, he also writes a excellent guide.
Civ I & II - BIG time wasters
SMAC - VERY, VERY BIG time waster x 10 ^23
MoO II - BIG time waster
X3 - Terran conflict - Big time waster~looks at list~ Yea. I could have had my Masters in two subjects if I had not played the first three games listed.
Fixed the (time) waste level of SMAC.
It is always VERY fun building an energy park in SMAC. Those crawlers come in so handy.
The Academician's private residences shall remain off-limits to the Genetic Inspectors. We possess no retroviral capability, we are not researching retroviral engineering, and we shall not allow this Council to violate faction privileges in the name of this ridiculous witch hunt!"
Fedor Petrov, Vice Provost for University Affairs
(Heard after researching Retroviral Engineering)
Of course we'll bundle our MorganNet software with the new network nodes! Our customers expect no less of us. We have never sought to become a monopoly. Our products are simply so good that no one feels the need to compete with us. --Where do you want your Node today?
CEO Nwabudike Morgan
Accompanies the Secret Project "The Network Backbone"
I plan to live forever, of course, but barring that I'd settle for a couple thousand years. Even five hundred would be pretty nice.
CEO Nwabudike Morgan, Morganlink 3D-Vision Interview
Accompies the Secret Project "The Longevity Vaccine"
We are no longer particularly in the business of writing software to perform specific tasks. We now teach the software how to learn, and in the primary bonding process it molds itself around the task to be performed. The feedback loop never really ends, so a tenth year polysentience can be a priceless jewel or a psychotic wreck, but it is the primary bonding process--the childhood, if you will--that has the most far-reaching repercussions.
Bad'l Ron, Wakener, Morgan Polysoft
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University on my side of Alpha Centauri too. I have tendency for research-focused plays in everything that allows research... SMAC, MoM, MoO2, Civ#, you name it.
Some other great builder and 4X (seeing now that we have expanded the discussion focus!) on my list:
-Transport Tycoon Deluxe: A game where you take control of a small transport company and compete to become the biggest ever (in a massive map, might I add), using everything from coal trucks to passenger helicopters. There is a free Open Source version that greatly improves nearly every aspect of the game, as well as adding multiplayer, and is completely legal to download, called Open Transport Tycoon Delux. You can get it here: [url]http://www.openttd.org/en/[/url]
-Colonization!: A Sid Meier classic. Built on the same engine as Civilization I, here you play as either Spain, France, England, or the Netherlands in a race to explore, colonize, and exploit the new world, and eventually reach independence. A remake was made as an expansion for Civilization IV that is nearly identical to the original.
-SMAC: Civ in SPAAAAACE. Well, more exactly in ALPHAAAA CENTAURIIII. Most likely one of the best 4x games ever made, where you play as one of several factions that splintered when the UN mission to Alpha Centaury suffered an accident, each representing a particular extreme view of humanity (such as the University, which is all about research without any kind of ethical barriers, or the Spartans, which are all about militarization all day erry day).
-Master of Magic: Basically, Civ 1 meets Magic The Gathering. Here you play as a great wizard in charge of a nation, researching spells and expanding your cities in order to control the world. The game has a particularly detailed combat system and an enormous variety of creatures to play along with, as well as spells that range from simple fireballs to literal apocalypses, passing through flying cities and planar travel. My favourite 4x of all time.
-The Settlers II: An incredibly addictive game of city building and resource management, where you control a small band of castaway settlers and start turning everything in sight into some kind of usable resource in order to grow. It has that old and comfy 90's pixel sprite style that always makes me so happy.
-Emperor, Rise of the Middle Kingdom: In the same line of games like Caesar, Emperor is a city builder set in medieval China. The game has a great deal of complexity (I think it is the deepest of all the Sierra-style city builders) as well as wonderful old-school graphics.
Master Of Magic was my favorite too. Master Of Orion 2 close second.
And SMAC I want to GM as a survival/resource management/political intrigue game.
-Colonization!: A Sid Meier classic. Built on the same engine as Civilization I, here you play as either Spain, France, England, or the Netherlands in a race to explore, colonize, and exploit the new world, and eventually reach independence. A remake was made as an expansion for Civilization IV that is nearly identical to the original.
Wasn't that one a little pocket gem!
I liked it more than Civ itself.
For really old school: Bandit Kings of Ancient China.
I could really go a good colonisation/trade seafaring game as well
(Did Anno, havent done the Sci-fi one)
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Links are now linkied.
DF is one of those things I've always wanted to pick up and never gotten around to. Recommendations?I completely get that. It took me a while to finally gather my bearings and get some progress into DF.
What helped me most was playing windowed with the DF Wiki open on the side, as one of the key elements in the complexity of the game is how unorthodox it is for handling processes we are used to do in a different manner in most games. The wiki is here: Dwarf Fortress Wiki
The game is enormously deep, so its a good idea to start with very simple expectations of what you want to accomplish. I made the most progress when I just focused on making it through the day, rather than trying to build complex trap-ridden dungeons. You'll get there eventually.
Initially, what you want to do is learn a few basic but fundamental things (the wiki has great tutorials on this):
1.- How to give orders to your dorfs
2.- How to designate areas/rooms
3.- How to gather materials
4.- How to craft stuffOnce you get those four things, the game starts making a lot more sense, and you'll quickly pick up the pace. Army-building, trading, and the like are more advanced stuff that will take some time (seriously, making soldiers in DF can be quite a chore initially), but once you learn how to tell those little bearded fellows how to catch a fish and store it in a barrel so they don't die from starvation, the game opens up.
Also, a good graphic mod can be really handy. Although DF purist prefer the default ASCII graphics, I must admit they make my eyes bleed. The DF Forums have a section dedicated to them, as well as other mods, here: DF Forums
Just to add a little more to this, After Action Reporter made an amazing dwarf fortress tutorial that will pretty much take you through your first fortress(complete with having an initial save you can use to begin with, so you are seeing the exact same area he is). The guy has recently released a book on the game and so tends to know what he is talking about. Tutorial was written in an easy to read joking style, while still being pretty step by step method to get you started,while also explaining how and why you are probably going to do things totally different next time. It really helped me get into the game.
I spent many, many hours with the old Sierra/Impressions city-building series back in the day. Caesar III was my first PC game, although the improvements in Pharaoh made it my favorite of the series. I didn't particularly care for some of the additions in Zeus, and so I skipped that one, but the change of scenery in Emperor was enough to make me overlook those gripes and lure me back in for one last hurrah.
In more recent years, I've found myself coming back to Europa Universalis III time and time again. The ability to play as almost any historical region from 1399 to 1823 and guide it over hundreds of years of (often wildly divergent, if not outright gonzo) history results in a game that lends itself surprisingly well to immersion for a product that lacks any sort of actual story. There's something about (accidentally) inheriting one's way into a United Kingdom of Great Britain, France, and Greece, or leading an Ottoman Empire that swallows up Italy just in time to inherit the renaissance, or an independent Burgundy that survives into the 19th century that tickles the alternate history buff in me.
One of the most fun things I did in SMAC was playing a One City challenge and conquering my enemies with their own forces. Boy, were my allies in love with me. I would take over a city and then either destroy it or give it to an ally. all the while I was ALSO making all the Secret projects within 10 turns or less per project.
In more recent years, I've found myself coming back to Europa Universalis III time and time again. The ability to play as almost any historical region from 1399 to 1823 and guide it over hundreds of years of (often wildly divergent, if not outright gonzo) history results in a game that lends itself surprisingly well to immersion for a product that lacks any sort of actual story. There's something about (accidentally) inheriting one's way into a United Kingdom of Great Britain, France, and Greece, or leading an Ottoman Empire that swallows up Italy just in time to inherit the renaissance, or an independent Burgundy that survives into the 19th century that tickles the alternate history buff in me.
I agree wholeheartedly. EUIII is a truly fantastic game.
One of my favourite playthroughs was when I went bananas with the Papal States:
It all started with the Pope determining that, if Jerusalem was ever to be retaken, Italy had to stand united. So through some political manipulation, the Curia managed to get the Holy Roman Empire in a bitter war with France, which gave Rome the room it needed to conquer all those tiny northern italian states that, while weak, normally have the benefaction of the Emperor. Taking the rest of the peninsula, save for some bits left for Naples, was an easy matter.
Retaking Holy Land was a hassle, though, with several failed expeditions both across the palestinian and egyptian coasts, as well as one full-front war against the Ottomans which costed us Sicilia for a few decades. That's when the Pope decided to re-direct efforts and pursue the conquest of a sizeable territory in North Africa, which would serve as a staging ground for a proper expedition. Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunisia eventually fell under the might of the papal armies, and after some years of rebuilding, the soldiers marched into the scorching sands of Egypt, where a bloody but ultimately succesful confrontation against the Mamluks left us on the gates of Outremer.
The taking of Jerusalem itself was surprisingly easy, but it left us with a wedge of land lodged in the middle of Islam; we made a host of sworn enemies, who soon invaded hell-bent on our destruction. Every nation from Oman to Persia sent in men in one of the greatest battles of all times, although the heathen attack pushed the rightful realms of Christendom to forget old grudges and rally together behind the Pope. Castille, Sweden, the newly formed Anglo-French Union, the Venetians, Aquileans, Dutch, Portuguese, even the orthodox Greek, ships came in hauling countless heads, and the enemy was obliterated. Soon, the light of the Papacy shone as far as the Black Sea, and as the Middle East collapsed, we eventually reached the borders of fabled India.
Alas, the hordes of the Central Asia soon grew to be a threat of unknown proportions. A timeless war had already nailed them all across Poland and Lithuania, and the Mongols had been wrestling for the heart of Europe with dismaying success. Crusades were called, but their numbers were simply too many. Soon, the Holy Roman Empire itself was on the verge of destruction, although a timely intervetion by the Burgundians saved the Emperor for certain doom. This, however, had the ill result of redirecting the Mongol wrath towards the south, were our persian holds were still being rebuilt.
War with them was long, painful, and with little spoils to be had. Eventually a stalemate was reached, with the hordes starting short-lived skirmishes every few years, until a bold internal reform turned the White Horde into a kingdom. Although tensions remained, at least their new monarch was able to keep its subjects from attacking us on a whim.
Almost a century passed, and the Curia spent most of its time and resources renovating the now-bloated realm's infrastructure. Provinces were pacified, relations with the neighbours improved, and, most importantly, the One True Faith was carefully spread to every corner of the Papal State.
This, of course, until the Spice Incident.
It is said now that the Pope was so displeased with a dish his cook prepared, that he was threatened with excommunication. Fearing for his soul, the man promised the Holy Father that he would travel all across the world to find the best ingredients and create the finest dish ever cooked. He asked for nothing but a small ship and a handful of men. His expedition took him to the far-off shores of Indonesia, where a tiny colony was created, from where spices were hauled back to Rome. The dish he then made was so blissful, that the Pope decided he needed all the spices the Far East had to offer. And so our white-and-gold ships sailed all around Africa and across the seas of India, unloading tens of thousands of men ready to conquer the endless archipielago.
By 1836, when our reccords end, the lands of the Pope extended across the entire Mediterranean basin and the Middle East; the Asian steppes and the jungles of Indochina where also ours; the myriad islands of the eastern seas and the far-off dots of land across the Pacific. Catholic revolts in Scandinavia that took place after a wave of reformation gave us a foothold in Sweden, that later grew to encompass almost the entirety of Northern Europe, and our conquistadors spread our dominion into the depths of the Amazonian jungle.
Only one great enemy, the mighty Korean Empire, stood high enough to rival us. Between both realms, three quarters of the globe were taken. Surely, the centuries to come would bring forth many a challenge....
EU III sounds really cool. I too will have to try it out... someday.
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Big fan of Builder-Games since Sim City 1 on the Commodore 64 (yes, it was a terrible version...)
On my HD at the moment (not regularily played, but my HD is comfortably large...)
- Anno 2070
- Anno 1404
- All Stronghold Games
- Children of the Nile
- CivCity Rome
- Grand Ages Rome
- Imperium Romanum
- Settlers 7
- All Tropico Games
- Tycoon City New York
- Civilization 4+5
- Warlock: Master the Arcane (a good fix for fans of Masters of Magic)
- Galactic Cicilizations II
- Sins of a Solar Empire
- HoMM V+VI
- Kings Bounty Series
- Elven Legacy Series
- All X-Games (not pure Builders/4x games, but closely related)
Most played: Tropico IV, CivCity Rome, Civilization IV+V, Galactic Civilizations II, recently: Warlock.
I played GalCiv II awhile. Love the general idea of it, and adored the space exploration and spaceship customization. Got frustrated with the tech tree, though. Research weapons, then energy weapons, then lasers 1, then lasers 2, then laser 3, then lasers 4, then laser 5, THEN plasma weapons 1, then plasma weapons 2.... and a whole huge goes on with "very tiny minimal upgrades bit by bit" for every tech there is. I'd rather research lasers ONCE but have it take longer than have to research it five freaking times.
And the campaign sort of boggled me. You go through several easy scenarios, and then suddenly get tossed into one that seems impossible to win from the get go (at the very start of the scenario, enemy ships show up with massive firepower and destroy all of your bases and defenses immediately, and there's nothing you can do about it), with none of the techs you got or ships you built from the previous chapters. Don't really understand their thinking there.
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Yeah, GalCiv II has big flaws...unfortunatly I don't get MoO2 to run on any of my PCs, so it's kind of the best option I got (and chosing research and creativity as racial traits help rushing through the boring parts of the research tree).
As for the campaign, there are games (MoO2, GalCiv2, CivWhatevernumber) where I prefer sandbox mode so much, I seldom touch the campaign anyway ;-)
Yeah, GalCiv II has big flaws...unfortunatly I don't get MoO2 to run on any of my PCs, so it's kind of the best option I got (and chosing research and creativity as racial traits help rushing through the boring parts of the research tree).
As for the campaign, there are games (MoO2, GalCiv2, CivWhatevernumber) where I prefer sandbox mode so much, I seldom touch the campaign anyway ;-)
Yeah, don't get me wrong, I think I prefer sandbox mode too. But sometimes it's fun to play through a campaign to see some of the designers' ideas in action. But GalCiv's campaign does very little to actually show off what you can accomplish.
Looking at Warlock... definitely thinking of picking it up.
Anybody know of any builder games (old or new) for the iPhone?
I love Sins of a Solar Empire, so far the beta for the next expansion is going well.
GameStop (formerly Impulse by Stardock) has a copy of MoO2, I picked mine up for $5 a while back if memory serves.
In a very similar vein to MoO2, a new turn based 4X, is Endless Space. I would best describe it as MoO4. So far I'm enjoying, no custom races though, but there will be more on actual release. It's buggy still, occasional crashes, balance issues, but it's in alpha/beta. You can "control" combat, but it's basically just rock, paper, scissors, on more than one level.
I recommend just keeping an eye on Steam/GameStop for Civ 5 to be on sale, it seems to happen every 5-6 months.
I recommend just keeping an eye on Steam/GameStop for Civ 5 to be on sale, it seems to happen every 5-6 months.
The new expansion is coming out this month so I imagine it will go on sale and/or there will be a package deal of some kind. I've gotta keep remembering to check myself. ETA: The expansion itself is up for pre-order for 10% off ($26.99 instead of $29.99) but no sale yet on Civ V.
~sighs~ I need a newer computer. Some of these games will not run (very well) on mine.
It seems a lot of those games listed above ARE old games, so your old computer should do pretty fine :)
I'm hunting for something to replace the CaesarIII/Pharoah/Emperor/CaesarIV hole; Children of the Nile seemed to get a bit of a dim report - I want to keep the city building with a hint of conquest/battle that the Impressions games had.
I also need a good trader/exploration game, whether space or historical seafaring.
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It seems a lot of those games listed above ARE old games, so your old computer should do pretty fine :)
I'm hunting for something to replace the CaesarIII/Pharoah/Emperor/CaesarIV hole; Children of the Nile seemed to get a bit of a dim report - I want to keep the city building with a hint of conquest/battle that the Impressions games had.
I also need a good trader/exploration game, whether space or historical seafaring.
For your sierra-builder fix, Children of the Nile (great, a bit dated, monuments take far too long to build), CivCity Rome (No real improvements from Caesar 2 aside from the graphics, some bugs) and Grand Ages: Rome (Beautiful, good interface, so-so combat (still as good as the combat in the caesar games)) are your best options.
For trading/exploring i would recommend anno 1404 or 1701 and x3, possibly the x3 complete box with the fan improvement packages, sins of a solar empire and galactic civilization (only the ultimate edition).
For Space, I heard good things about Stardock's Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civ 2
Sins is a good game. The battles are epic, it's well balanced and it's supported well by the developers. The downside is if you like playing big maps, the game will start to chug eventually.