The Steamspy data on this game looks really weird. It shows there were 2,928 owners on 08/03 but only shows 807 on 08/16. Looking at the chart it looks like maybe the bottom fell out and almost everyone refunded it? I don’t know. I haven’t seen anything that looked like this before on a game with positive reviews.
I think it’s great fun and would have jumped on it with a 33% discount without hesitation. I jumped in at the 10% EA launch discount and have no regrets. And if you use a 16:10 monitor, they just added support for that ratio yesterday. At first experience, the tactical battles may seem simplistic and without much player involvement, but once you understand what’s happening, you really need to spend your energy wisely.
On the campaign map, you’re the tyrant fighting to dominate the galaxy, but are opposed by the Galactic Senate, which is trying to control the three sectors. If they manage to control any one sector with four ships, you lose. Completing missions in a sector will beat their ships back.
I’m about four missions into my first campaign and have seen a nice variety of cards, planet types, events, and abilities. You, as the tyrant, can equip three pieces of equipment (which are unlocked as rewards for completing a mission) that give you benefits during a mission. Other mission rewards include unlocking more powerful cards for your faction’s deck and Empire rewards (such as more powerful ships). After each successful mission, you choose one of two perks, whose benefits persist throughout the campaign. Each mission is rated between 1-5 stars; the more stars, the more difficult the mission. Each also has 1-2 goals, and some even have quirks, like poorer cities (planets), tech planets with greater tech income, more asteroids, etc.
After choosing your mission and equipping yourself, a sector is generated, populated by random planets and neutral forces. You have to use your fleets to conquer the planets. But the Galactic Senate is also tossing its support to the planets, changing them from neutral (gray) planets to GS (red) planets. Neutral fleets won’t move to other planets to attack your fleets and planets, but GS ones will! You also have to contend with the occasional rebellions.
After you conquer a planet (by reducing its defense to zero via rolling “d6s”), a multiple-choice event may trigger. Some of the choices may be locked; you need a specific unidentified trait to unlock them. These traits are sometimes gained by choices you make during events. So you’ll acquire traits like Hitman, Diplomat, Scientist, etc, each of which has multiple ranks. The outcome of your choice will be positive, negative, or nothing. Also, each planet may or may not have a power, like a cannon that can fire on enemy fleets within range or mercs that will add an additional die to your next invasion roll.
Toss in your hand of cards and a tyranny meter (which powers your Death Ray!), and you have a lot of options available to you. And I haven’t even discussed the tactical battles in detail! I really hope the game takes off, because it really strikes me as a labor of love.
I saw that, as well. Maybe the exclusion of 16:10 support at EA lunch drove those refunds (it did for me). But now that it’s been added, I’ll be playing it once again and hope it’ll entice others to purchase it.
What is the 5th “X” in 5X? eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate, and… eXtrapolate?
Xylophone, obviously. You gotta listen to that catchy soundtrack.
eXcellent, of course!
Thanks for the writeup, it does sound good and obviously has some fans here!
I’m just off the early access games, especially ones where it sounds like they’re planning to either not finish the game, or stay in EA as long as they can while the money rolls in, adding cruft. I prefer a solid design, then build and ship the thing.
I hear one of the races is locked/unfinished, so there’s only two? How replayable is that? I imagine they’d have to complete that regardless of funding.
If I remember correctly (still on my first campaign), two of the three factions are available to play. I can’t remember if the second one is unlocked from the start, but the devs have stated the third faction is coming.
And they’ll be here in less than 2 weeks!
No, it’ll get finished. But there’s extra stuff (whatever that is) that they will add if the game sells well/better.
Looks like 16:10 is supported now. The 5th X is eXsanguinate…
I was just playing some of this last night. So fun.
Was just thinking the other day how I have way more games than time, and now I find this thread. Watched a couple of videos and the game looks fun in a casual sort of way. Reaching for my wallet…quick talk me out of it!
Why? It’s great, random, funny, and saves every turn. Perfect for quick conquests.
Well I just saw where Ultimate General Civil War is 30% off on Steam. NOT getting both! Decisions, decisions…
Picked up Space Tyrant last night. Played the tutorial and started my first campaign. A very easy game to get into and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. Should be well worth $20, especially considering I’ll be spending 5 times that taking my family and my in-laws out for brunch this morning! :)
And of course I’m still on the fence about UG: Civil War…
What a great game. Held back by the always awful 50’s cheesy science fiction art style (note to makers of entertainment, nobody thinks the awful 50’s exploitation SF movies were good or appealing, they are a joke and a bad one, stop trying to bring it back, it was crap then and its crap now), but the game itself is fantastic. Been playing it a ton, its just the right blend of ease of use and challenge with surprisingly deep designs and a feeling of progress… Great great game, terrible terrible art theme.
Oh come on it’s menacingly adorable.
Sorry man, I think its a trash SF look. Fantastic game though. Really, this feels like a classic right out of the gate. So good! I feel like I am ALWAYS upgrading something of getting more powerful. Thats a great feeling.
Yeah, the pacing is great all around, it’s like something is always happening and choices always need to be made, which is freaking great.