Looking for a specific space game

[Cyborg]

Some old games have a lot of the elements I'm looking for.

1) planet crackers.
2) civilizations on these planets, secrets to be found
3) building fortresses in space

What is the most recent game that you can think of which has these qualities?

[eRe4s3r]

define.. "recent"

[BobTheJanitor]

If only AI War had planetary civilizations. Of course they're all wiped out. But two out of three ain't bad. Maybe 2 1/2 if you count asteroids/ARS/broken golems as 'secrets to be found'.

I can't really help you here, in my experience most space games just aren't that great. For me everything since Freelancer has been a letdown. And that's a shame, since that game is 8 years old.

[Cyborg]

But two out of three ain't bad.

I forget who said this, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: pick two." Meatloaf was wrong.

define.. "recent"

I was asking for the "most recent", not necessarily recent by anyone's definition.


I'm going to give an example. Tradewars 2002 : you could develop your own fortresses over time, land on multiple planets and discover secrets, and you could blow up planets. Most games I know only have planet crackers, and the extent of the civilization game comes in the form of ship fleets that randomly show up and pick a fight with you. Developing a fortress that you can invest in over time and customize, the last time I have seen that is probably stronghold, but that's not a space game and it's a relatively short game, not really a persistent world. I believe Star Wars galaxies supported it as well.

[eRe4s3r]

But unless someone knows all games ever made the most recent is going to be subjective 

Anyhow.. gonna say Star Ruler.. but its a very very complex game and can be very unforgiving.. . and I worked on it. So i ain't impartial on this one ;p

In latest version 1.1.0.0 the game has become quite fun and semi-polished, add to that the 2 big mods for this and it does what you ask more or less.. but it does other things you might not like.

I worked on the graphics (Icons/Ship Textures and Ship Models) so just so you know.. i ain't getting a cut on sales or anything ;P

For the record, i am not saying this is a perfect match with your criteria.. if you liked Trade Wars and are looking for something that just looks better and plays smoother you are out of luck. I only know of 1 other game like that, and its a excel spread-sheet more than it is a game.

[Cyborg]

But unless someone knows all games ever made the most recent is going to be subjective 

well, it would be objective. If it meets those three criteria, and because there are a finite number of games, you could determine that. Not saying it would be easy.

Anyhow.. gonna say Star Triangles*.. but its a very very complex game and can be very unforgiving.. . and I worked on it. So i ain't impartial on this one ;p

I hated it. I don't see the fortresses or the planetary civilizations. I see lots of triangles flying around. I'm guessing there is a mod involved if it adds those other things.

The problem with most of the space games is that you fly around on your ship forever. It always feels very limited and as if it doesn't really matter, because you never have a home. If you lose your ship, you just buy a new one. With planets, there is some amount of time investment and attachment. Losing those would actually feel like something, in addition to destroying them yourself. I'm not saying it has to be multiplayer, but something that has more of a universe feel to it.

[eRe4s3r]

Yeah basically you are writing about the game I want to play as well, theres 1-planet playstyles in Space Empires IV ;p But what you look sounds more like a space-RPG with planet.. maybe in the future an indy dev will do this

As for Star Ruler, with 1.1 they added an independent race and things to capture and discover (in space that is) but i agree that its not close to what you want ;p Most 4x-games are so alike nowadays too...

Sots 2 will likely not fit your description either, in fact i know of not a single game that has gameplay quite like that... (that being, what you described ;p)

[Cyborg]

yeah. I guess it really would be a space RPG, where your planet is actually a part of your role-playing experience. and you can lose it.

 I think that's kind of a game would actually be doable. trade wars was able to accomplish that. if they can do it 30 years ago, certainly it could be done now.

sword of the stars 2 has a lot of potential to scratch some of my itch, but it looks like its missing the planetary portion, and once again we have giant racial fleets doing battle. some of the battle system from the original kind of confused me, and I've been wanting to get back to it and learn it the right way. I never felt like I had true control over my ships; the ability to actually attack different segments of the ships. That's supposed to be something you are allowed to do.

In a way, dwarf Fortress is really the closest to the entire idea. trade wars has better graphics than dwarf Fortress.. Something kind of sad about that.

[keith.lamothe]

This one's still in development and I don't know if it will let you blow up planets or build fortresses:

http://www.soldak.com/Drox-Operative/Overview.html

But it may scratch related itches in terms of "space game" and "meaningful interaction with npc civs".

[Cyborg]

I just thought of something.

AVWW to generate the planets and civilizations.
AI War for the space view of the planet.

All that's missing is building fortresses, and some other 4x artifacts. You could even do that from within AVWW. It would be like some sort of super-game.

[keith.lamothe]

I just thought of something.

AVWW to generate the planets and civilizations.
AI War for the space view of the planet.

All that's missing is building fortresses, and some other 4x artifacts. You could even do that from within AVWW. It would be like some sort of super-game.

Yea, you can build up settlements and so on in AVWW; the degree to which it'll be like actual military fortresses kind of depends on how things go.  Blowing up the planet would kind of be a no-no from the "the game never tells you that you can't keep playing the same world" perspective, though I guess you could say it's already happened with all that geographical/temporal scrambling.

[Dizzard]

Maybe "Distant Worlds" is what you're looking for?

http://www.codeforce.co.nz/

I haven't played it...but it seems like it covers most of what you mentioned. There's two expansions out for the game too.

[Echo35]

Maybe "Distant Worlds" is what you're looking for?

http://www.codeforce.co.nz/

I haven't played it...but it seems like it covers most of what you mentioned. There's two expansions out for the game too.

Been looking at it, and they have a shiny new expansion, but gosh it's expensive. May just dive into it anyway, it does look good.

[Cyborg]

It does look expensive. I wonder if there is a demo.

[Echo35]

It does look expensive. I wonder if there is a demo.

I don't think so. I obtained it at one point but never got around to trying it.