Yeah I backed that one, can’t wait.
I’m NOT claiming ownership of any of these, but here’s a collection I use (use the zip folder to replace your Maps folder in the game directory … er, after it’s been unzipped, that is):
edit - note that when using custom maps, certain map selection features get disabled (distance between and number of stars, namely, as these are fixed). However, you’ll still be able to mess around with planet size, randoms, etc…
Matt_W
6250
That does look promising. I’ll keep an eye on it. Thanks!
Doesn’t sound like you are really looking for a 4x game with some of the detail you are asking about.
Matt_W
6252
I guess not? Then again, what do you call that kind of high level economic/military sim?
Have you tried Distant Worlds with a pre-warp start? You might like it.
Kerbal Space Force Program?
I guess, I don’t see what role gravity, Kessler, g’s and radiation would play in a high level economic military sim (emphasis on the high level part). That sounds like stuff more relevant to a ship based sim.
Kolbex
6256
It matters because going from one place to another in Actually Existing Space is not at all like a submarine just pointing its nose in a given direction and hitting the throttle.
Regardless, @Matt_W it sounds like maybe you’d enjoy Helium Rain. I haven’t played it, but it sounds somewhat like what you’re looking for.
Matt_W
6257
Realistic transit times and trajectories for goods and personnel. Kessler means that combat in orbit could make an orbit unusable in the future. g’s place a limit on the kinds of combat maneuvering that can be done, and thus the kinds of combat you’d be likely to see. An SPE pulse could sterilize all in-transit ships at random times.
If you’re having to plan transit times and trajectories for delivery of goods and personnel, you’re no longer in a high level 4x game. And combat maneuvering in most 4X games again is rather simplistic because they are 4x games - it’s like saying Civ 5 should force you to calculate g force for aircraft units or fuel use for tank units. And most players don’t want random SPE pulses (whatever those are - google was no help :) ) because that’s not really interesting to manage or have to account for.
A lot of things matter in real life that shouldn’t be in 4X games.
But I do agree that it sounds like Helium Rain is what he is looking for.
Matt_W
6261
So different people like different things.
It’s more like saying that Civ 5 should account for the distance between cities and the relative speeds of the units traversing between. Planets aren’t fixed in space. Trajectories between them aren’t straight lines. The most efficient trajectories are, in fact, among the longest, and the difference in efficiency between the longest and shortest trajectories is astronomical.
I’m happy that games like Masters of Orion exist. I own several of them. It would be nice, in addition to those fun fantasy-sci-fi games, if we could also have a space-based military-economic sim that reflected what it would actually be like to do this stuff in space. I think there’s plenty of considerable interest there. If nothing else, it would be a unique take on the genre.
Matt_W
6262
I’ll have to check out Helium Rain. It looks like it has exactly the sort of scale I’m looking for. I can’t tease out whether the physics are realistic though. But a slow build, solar scale, trading and economic sim might be just what I’m looking for.
Yeah, I’d think something like a trading/econ sim would be a better fit. I don’t see how you have a 4X space game without FTL, being as that would render interstellar empires functionally impossible.
Kolbex
6264
I think in the cockpit stuff it is a lot like Independence War or Rogue System, and for longer distance stuff you just use a map, but the transit times between “nodes” are realistic? Pretty sure it all takes place in one solar system, which is not, I believe, ours.
Matt_W
6265
Couldn’t you have an empire spanning a single solar system? Imagine a dense solar system with several planets in its habitable zone and rich mineral resources on the other planets. Each planet isn’t a single faction, but is divided up geographically into multiple nations with shifting claims on various regions of space, etc. An empire could easily span areas on mulitple worlds, the mining resources of moons and asteroids, terraforming colonies, far-flung research and communications outposts, etc.
That’s an interesting idea, but I’m not sure it’s a space 4X since there couldn’t be much in the way of exploration - by the time you’ve got a civilization spanning multiple planets they’re definitely going to know where everything in the solar system is. Mind you, it’s a strategy game I’d probably buy, I’m just not sure what to call it. :)
Just play this and Catan at the same time
