[New user] Expansions or Base Game

[etr]

So I recently bought the game, and have been playing the Mac version now that it's out. My question for those of you who have been playing for a while is whether I should just buy and start playing all the expansions, or should I play the base game first, then add the expansions later to keep the game "evolving" for me?

I can imagine it would work either way, but I'm curious whether you all think it would make more sense to hold off on the expansions.

Thanks!

BTW... the Mac version works amazingly well for how recently the port is out. I've had bad experiences with some other Mono-based stuff, so was really worried that the Mac version would feel much inferior to the PC version. I actually hardly notice any difference between the Unity Mac version and the SlimDX version under boot camp from a performance standpoint. Kudos!

[Zeba]

Hrmmm.. Tricky question that.

Imho I would say you can get a decent feel for the ai war experience with just the base game but quite frankly the devs seem to be balancing the overall game with all the expansions in mind. This isn't to say that the base game would be unbalanced or even unfun without any of the expansions but more along the lines that the base game is greatly enhanced by the expansions to the point you would never play the game without them once installed. So to give a concrete answer I would say at least get the zenith remnant as it really really fleshes out the base game and if you have another 3.99 in your pocket then go ahead and get the children of neinzul mini expansion as the hives are truely a wicked addition if you like your games extra challenging along with the very nice X style map. Plus all the income from the con expansion goes to childs play so even if you don't feel like adding in the extra difficulty by enabling hives in the setup screen you will at least feel good about donating to a worthy cause. =)

[quickstix]

If you want to buy them, I say go ahead and do it. I don't think there's a right or wrong decision here. If you feel the base game is enough for now, and it has plenty of content to make it that way, stick with it. Otherwise, do as I did and jump straight into the deep end. Maybe hold off on the minor factions though until you've seen some of the new enemy structures the expansions have to offer, otherwise you might get a little overwhelmed.

The good thing about the expansions is that you don't need to add all of the new content in your first game with them.

[Epsilon Plus]

They've added enough new content for free to the base game that, to me, it feels like it came with a "free" expansion. The new guardians and AI Plots weren't present around the 2.0 version when I started playing, and they really feel like the kind of expansion material you'd see some from another RTS. Lowering yourself into it might help you get used to everything and not overwhelm you.

[Giegue]

buy em all! disable the two expansions for a few games, then enable the zenith remnant for another game or two, then enable the neinzul.

[superking]

I personally would 100% recommend buying all the expansions and starting with 'complex' ships enabled so there is the full array of ships and structures in your games

[Baleur]

Yep thats how i usually explore new games too, i just turn on EVERYTHING and dive in head first, with as much complexity as possible turned on 
Often with hilarious results 

[keith.lamothe]

BTW... the Mac version works amazingly well for how recently the port is out. I've had bad experiences with some other Mono-based stuff, so was really worried that the Mac version would feel much inferior to the PC version. I actually hardly notice any difference between the Unity Mac version and the SlimDX version under boot camp from a performance standpoint. Kudos!

Thanks very much for letting us know about your experience there, we've gotten some crash reports on the mac side and it's been tricky to track them down.  Glad to hear it's been working well for you   Out of curiosity, have you seen any crashes and roughly what's the longest session you've played on the mac version?

[Winter Born]

I started with the base game and bought the expansions as they came. I now never play without them. The expansions do add a lot of choices from game creation right thru to AI defeat. They are not like a 2nd campaign like most RTS exp.

[etr]

BTW... the Mac version works amazingly well for how recently the port is out. I've had bad experiences with some other Mono-based stuff, so was really worried that the Mac version would feel much inferior to the PC version. I actually hardly notice any difference between the Unity Mac version and the SlimDX version under boot camp from a performance standpoint. Kudos!

Thanks very much for letting us know about your experience there, we've gotten some crash reports on the mac side and it's been tricky to track them down.  Glad to hear it's been working well for you   Out of curiosity, have you seen any crashes and roughly what's the longest session you've played on the mac version?

Ah, well, I probably haven't been playing enough to track down crashes... I've played a couple of games between 30-60 minutes and then my longest was probably about 1:40. (I keep restarting when new releases come out). Work has been heck recently, so only have a short time every night to poke around. Hope to get some more time in over the next couple of weeks. I'll let you know if I run into anything.

And I'll go ahead and purchase the expansions while I'm at it. Thanks for the feedback everyone!

[zebramatt]

You made the right choice.

 

[Zeba]

You made the right choice.

 

Indeed.

This is one of those games that gets a permanent spot on the hard drive like master of magic and many other classic strategy games. 

[Baleur]

You made the right choice.

 

Indeed.

This is one of those games that gets a permanent spot on the hard drive like master of magic and many other classic strategy games. 

Yeah, other permanent hard-drive spots for me; Sword of The Stars, Anno 1404, Distant Worlds, Children of the Nile, Age of Wonders Shadow Magic.
Never uninstall any of em, plus AI War ofc

[snelg]

The way I see it, the only reason not to get the expansions would be if you haven't tried out the game enough to tell if you like it or not. If you do, the expansions will only improve the game.