A Unix based version I played on university computers and shortly after a DOS freeware version were one of the first PC games I played.
Friends, on another forum I’m on, it’s come to my attention that in the space game thread over there, I was being so toxic any time anyone ever mentioned Stellaris that my toxicity was keeping people from visiting that thread about space games in general. I had no idea about how toxic I was being and apologized over there, but also wanted to say if I’ve been behaving similarly here, I’ll do better, and I apologize. Thank you.
Stellaris pitched itself as a sandbox where “every sci-fi story can happen” so I feel like it should roll with the punches
I’ve not played it in ages, did it ever get to that lofty point?
Maybe – in most sci-fi stories, are the existential threats defeated by their own bad pathfinding?
Hahahahaah likely not.
No apology needed. You have high standards and are passionate about the genre. I never took it as toxic, just profound disappointment freely expressed and FWIW I agree with you in this case.
Thank you!
Not more than other people, and only at a level where it gets grating by repetition. So, you know, average for the forum. :P
The thing that gets to me is that it gets dissed by people it isn’t aimed at, who then wonder why X isn’t more popular, when X is far less approachable trying to do things that still don’t work. But, still, you know, whatever, such is the world of gaming.
Oh please be specific with your examples. I’m dying to know what X is.
Heh.
Since you asked, one example: DW (and DW2) would be one that keeps getting compared, because it simulates all these things and makes the galaxy alive! Except I haven’t seen anyone saying the budget makes sense, rather that it happens, mistaking private economy with civilian economy, as if it makes any sense that the task of the state is to design private ships that are the only ones for sale so they can spend money to make babies happen, while leaving logistics, especially wrt war, almost completely at the whims of whoever bothers.
It doesn’t make it a bad series, it’s just a different set of puzzles to solve (there’s more, of course) that tickle different brain cells. But it’s not inviting to figure out how you get things built while you’re dealing with endless alerts about pirates and wondering if you’ve already lost within 10 minutes.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it will still grab me at some point, all abstractions collapse if you think too hard. But it’s not something you just press play and wing it, at least not if you haven’t drank and deconstructed scores of 4x over the decades, which most people haven’t.
But I also see that it would be frustrating for those who have and want another set of rules to master to look at modifier mess of Stellaris, and how the AI deals with it, and nope out. At a much more casual level, it’s what made me uninterested in what’s going on with Civ.
Is anything anyone said that stopped me from saying that point of view before? I don’t think so, I just thought I couldn’t say it right, and it would read like a snipe in S v X. YMMV on how it went.
Fair enough.
Fantastic article, thank you for sharing.
I don’t find your contributions here toxic, but it is true that the forum in general looks down on Stellaris, so those of us that like the game tend to hang out in the Stellaris thread. Which is fine–there’s no real reason to have Stellaris discussion anywhere else, that’s what threads are for.
I think maybe in your particular case, Brian, so you’re so relentlessly positive and excited about space games in general, that when you’re negative it stands out all the more. But please don’t change! I love your contributions here. And Paradox is certainly enough of a big boy to handle some criticism. You generally don’t come down hard on indie devs, which is as it should be (unless they’ve really deserved it).
Oh yeah indies get a lot more leeway from me, but I’ll still call an indie game out as shit if I think it’s shit and not worth your time, energy or money.
Yeah, and I think you (and we) can recognize the difference between a game that just didn’t pan out (maybe the solo dev was too ambitious, maybe it’s just not working out for whatever reason) and someone who’s actually acting in bad faith.
I install and launch Stellaris these days, jump into the game, boggle over the spew of UI elements and nonsense, and just uninstall.
I installed Endless Space 2 to see what’s up, but I may just have to admit to myself that the attention requirement of any 4X more complicated than Civ4 is just too much for me these days. I just don’t care like I used to, and the siren call of “One more turn!” has gone grey along with my pubes
This is why I think Old World might become the king of the 4X. It feels similar in vibe to Civ 4, but has so much more fun stuff.