Let's talk 4X gaming and hybrids
 

For those who don't know what the term means, 4X refers to eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. These are games of strategy, generally on a grand scale and are turn based. Hybrids are basically the same thing only that there is some form of real-time strategy going on at some level. Examples would include Master of Orion, any of the Civilization series, Stellaris, Europa Univeralis, etc.

Which are your favorites, and why?

Are you a beginner looking to get into the genre?

Are there tips and tricks you would care to share?

Let's see where this goes! :-)

I enjoy the real time ones, such as stellaris (or distant worlds).

I sort of wish though that there was more depth to Stellaris economy, maybe on the lines of Victoria series, with trade between planets and systems being important.

I wouldn't count Europa Universalis as a 4X game since it doesn't have the eXploration element (you know where everything is from the start). :hmmm:

As for favorites, I couldn't give you one, but MoO 2 was nice back in the day (not so much today), Stellaris is great in that you can really play as an complete A-hole if you want. From the (IMHO) non-4X games, Europa Universalis:Rome is my favorite, it is simple but it works. Would like to see EU:Rome 2, but Paradox is not too keen on doing another one for some reason.

As for tips, I can only think of paying close attention to research in Stellaris and to understand how it works. Simply put: the more you conquer the more research costs go up. You might control half the galaxy, but that 20k less fire power enemy fleet can wipe the floor with your fleet, if your tech is behind.

I would really like a game, where it is more about setting the policy as the head of state, with complex behind the scenes modelling, and with little low level micro, because microing manually divisions etc really breaks the immersion for me.

The issue that I see with a policy focused game is that unless you have a gradually growing number of policies you either have very little engame complexity (so you can just set it at the start and forget about it) or too much early game complexity (100500 policies to set up for game start).

So I think the way to go is to allow a player to place (or change) policies either through the -crisis- events (where the player reacts to developments) or through limited ammount of player driven events (ie head of state pushing down legislation or standing orders).

The other issue is making this complex behind the scenes model, with lots of simple agents (pops), intermidietary agents (state organisations, corporations etc) and multiple layers.

@ikalugin: Yeah, I'd like to see something like that.

Europa Universalis: Rome has a bare-bones system where you as a player (if you play Republican Rome for example) can't just do everything you want policy wise. Laws that you can pass depends on the political faction of the current consul for example and diplomacy options rely on the acceptance of the senate. If you want to go to war with someone, but the majority of the senate is held by populists your consul either gets a popularity hit or if there's large enough populist majority you simply can't declare war. Such system could be made deeper by the addition of the Tribune of the Plebs, so you'd have to try and get both the Senate and the Tribune to work together to pass laws and policies you want to pass.

Without a doubt distant worlds is the best one that I've played. It's best played with automaton fully off. They've confirmed that number 2 is in development as wel.

I play MOO (Master of Orion) frequently using DOSBox.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...rion_cover.jpg

I have Master of Orion, and Ascendancy (from "Logic Factory", I think) from the dos era.
As well as one called "When Two Worlds War".

But that was Real-Time/Turn-Based 1v1 more like Command and Conquer, than MOO, or Acendancy. Ran on a 386sx25, had voice commands, but needed a special sound card for voice commands to work. I didn't have one.


Also have Master of Orion 3. I started a game, and played for several days.
But it was REALLY bogged down compared to most other 4X games.

I LIKE depth and options, but this one just took so long to *DO* anything.

I don't even think I got into space by the time I had to wipe and re-install the OS, never started another run of it. Simply didn't have the time.

I consider a 5 hour game of Chess in the real world to be a blistering pace, with lots of action and nail-biting suspense compared to Master of Orion 3.
I'm not saying a 5 hour game of Chess *IS* any of those things, but at least in 5 hours, you can get SOMETHING done.

I missed MOO2, I wanted to get it, but unfortunately it was gone by the time I had spare $.

I know I have others, but I can't think of what they are. I've still got games packed in boxes from years ago that I REALLY need to find.:yep:

Barracuda