02-01-2001 11:10									#1
	Does anyone here also likes space strategy games? Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

I basically enjoy any kinds of empire building games. Prefer turn-based but can live with real time ones. I found it very hard to get quality titles in this genre these days. Anyhow, next on my list are Stars Supernova Genesis and Civ3. Hope they are good!

	03-01-2001 01:45									#2
	Support Apolyton

I like them as well.

Take a look at Space Empires IV, which got a gold rating (I believe) at Gamesdomain.com
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/malfador/


And Galactic Civilizations from StarDock. This one looks promising as well.
www.stardock.com/products/galciv

	03-01-2001 01:47									#3
	Support Apolyton

SMAC

	07-01-2001 10:21									#4
	Got spare money?

MoO2 rules!

I just purchesed SMAC from a warehouse club ($10...how can you argue with that?) and will try it as soon as I shake myself loose from Diablo 2. Again.

	07-01-2001 23:21									#5
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Would anyone who is well versed in this game genre please list all the current and soon to be released space empire games?

The only recent one I have bought is Imperium Galactica II, which despite its fantastic graphics, doesn't come close to capturing the same magic Master Of Orion II has.

Bkeela.

	08-01-2001 02:24									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

Current, as in came out within the past few months...

Space Empires IV
Reach for the Stars
Imperium Galactica II

Coming...

Master of Orion 3
http://moo3.quicksilver.com/

Galactic Civilizatons
http://www.stardock.com/products/galciv/


Stars! Supernova Genesis
http://www.crisium.com/sn/snnews.htm


That's all I can think of right now.

	08-01-2001 17:34									#7
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Thanks Kyle.

Out of them all, I think "Stars! Supernova Genesis" and "MoO3" are the most promising.

Galactic Civilizations looks nice, but I don't like the apparent impotence of the Terran race, and it being the only race you can play. It's a different concept, and It will take me a while to absorb this.

Space Empires IV looks the least appealing, especially if this is truly the Galaxy Map

Reach For The Stars doesn't impress me in the slightest. I've tried the demo, and it seems to lack the kind of magic Science Fiction universe I am hoping for.

Bkeela.

	08-01-2001 18:57									#8
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Before MOO2, I found Starflight and Starflight II to be very enjoyable. Haven't heard of an effort to create a Starflight III, though.

MOO3 will be a definite must have!!

------------------
Frodo lives!

	08-01-2001 20:27									#9
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

The graphics aren't impressive in SE4, but the game play is exellent. I have found it as good as Moo2 and I am a huge moo2 fan!

	08-01-2001 20:44									#10
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

SMAC

	09-01-2001 05:47									#12
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

The graphics in Space Empires IV aren't anything to write home about, certainly but if its anything like Space Empires III then the gameplay is excellent.

Gamespot and Cdmag.com have reviews. Gamespot review is as follows
http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/filte...,366559,00.html

They give it a 9 for gameplay, 4: graphics, 3: sound , and 10: Value and reviewers tilt. Down side is that you can only order online and i'll having trouble convincing parents to use the old credit card.

BTW does anyone have a registration code for SEIII while i'm waiting to get IV?

	09-01-2001 10:35									#13
	Tired of ads?

I don't find Galatic Civilization bad at all. Of course, I haven't played the original OS/2 game, and the information they have on the website is quite sketchy.

At any rate, this is one of the two classic Sci-Fi settings. The first one, such as MoO, is where everybody are on parity, more or less. The second one is the classic "David vs Goliath" in space. The classic GDW boardgame Imperium and the computer game Star Control 2 are both fine examples of this.

	09-01-2001 11:51									#14
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

If Stars! ever ends up being released it'll be cool. We've been waiting _forever_

------------------
- MKL
"And a sun that doesn't set but settles" - Augie March
Shameless Plug: http://www.poetic-license.org ............. All welcome.

	10-01-2001 12:11									#15
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

Reach for the Stars is all combat. Blah

Space Empires IV doesn't impress me after mucking with the demo. Then again, some people swear by it, so I gather that's just a difference in preferences.

MoO 3 doesn't sound so impressive either from what I can gather. They finally recognised some of the design mistakes made in MoO 2 though and switch to a model more closely resemble the original.

	10-01-2001 21:14									#16
	Tired of ads?

SMAC

	11-01-2001 10:05									#17
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Well Moo3 looks like they are solving some but not all of the problems of Moo2. One thing I am looking foreward to is the real time combat. Turn based combat is a joke in space strategy games, an enemy can have advantage in numbers, range, and speed and you can still kick ass because you fire first and destroy half of their ships before they get a chance to fire.

At least they say their RTS combat model will be like naval warfare, rather then some kind of frenzied click-fest melee like C&C.

	11-01-2001 21:05									#18
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

The idea of initiative is present in a lot of games. Heck, even D&D has it. There's nothing wrong with the idea itself; many games have implemented it successfully. The problem arises when the technology favours attacks too much so that a ship could overwhelm several dozen. In other words, the problem lies with balance. Introducing real-time mode is not the solution: a computer always move faster than a player can. What they need to do is to focus on balance.

	11-01-2001 21:54									#19
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

The problem is also with numbers. If I have 10 ships and you have 10 ships and my initive is just a little bit more than yours all 10 of my ships can fire first. Even if I only destroy 2-3 ships that is signifigant.

In order for turn based to be suitable you would need a kind of split turn, where you alternate based on initive. With a kind of action point system and interrupts. Actually kind of like the Xcom tactical combat system.

	12-01-2001 13:58									#20
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Birth of the Federation's space combat was a sort of hybrid turn-based/real time affair. Each combat round, you gave orders to your fleet, and the enemy did his/her orders and both acted at the same time.

	12-01-2001 20:22									#21
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

That was the only think I liked about BOTF. The only problem with it's combat was ships could kill eachother too fast. Later in the game most combats were only one round of the straight ahead strategy. I had a few good combats of many rounds of different manouvers in the early game.

	12-01-2001 23:12									#22
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

Best thing about BOTF was the screen saver.

	13-01-2001 04:17									#23
	Increase Your PM Length

Garth, did you install the patch, and activated the option that allowed individual ship initiative?

	13-01-2001 10:14									#24
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

A game that has a really good initiative system is the boardgame Starfleet Battles. Unfortunately the delicate balance didn't make it over to Starfleet Command, the computer game. Activision made it real-time, which totally killed the initiative system. Since the game is quite an intricate interwoven whole, killing off one part causes the whole system to unravel.

At any rate, the tactical combat in MoO 2 has some resemblance to SFB, but totally lacks the balance.

There's another thing I don't like about MoO 2. Ground bases and fixed installations always go last. Why can't they have computers and experience just like ships? Again, I think this is done so combat is even tipped more in favour of attackers.

	15-01-2001 20:13									#25
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Yes, I installed the patch, but very rarely do you get an alternating effect in combat. If you have better computer tech, all your ships usually have it and they all go first. I have had a few combats where we were really close and basically alternated, and that was cool.