I’ve had my eye on Star Dynasties for a while and I think that I would enjoy it. One reviewer said, “Star Dynasties is the only game that currently combines Crusader Kings and Dune in an interesting way.” And that has my interest.
What I don’t like about too many space 4x games is that I am supposed to be this omniscient ruler but I have to tell everyone every little thing that they must do. Abstracting that level of decision making and allowing me to delegate it to folks that I hope that I can trust so that I can act more like a ruler of an empire is more what I am looking for. Palace intrigue, robust negotiations with other factions/houses, big picture scheming, etc. There are plenty of other games out there where I can have space battles and pew pew.
So, now that the game has been out of early access for a while and gotten some updates and DLC, what do folks like about the game and why would you recommend it?
I played it when it came out but don’t know how it’s changed since then.
It’s definitely the closest thing to a Crusader Kings in space that I’ve seen. And it does some cool stuff that Crusader Kings could learn from – the crime and punishment system for characters is great.
For issues: the balance was off, with diplomacy being so powerful that it didn’t make sense to use the war or intrigue systems. The AI wasn’t great at responding to threats. You know you’ve won hours before the game acknowledges it. And I got bored for the same reason I get bored in Crusader Kings, I was spending too much of my time sorting menus to find stuff like dissatisfied vassals or good suitors.
It kept my attention for a while but at full price I don’t know if it’s worth it. Hopefully somebody who’s played more recently and with the DLC can comment, though.
Thanks, Brian. It seems that Cosmoteer had a pretty decent niche following already before its Steam release.
I watched a couple of gameplay videos on Youtube. The combat seems pretty simple, where people mostly seemed to stand face to face with the enemy and target points to attack. However that’s probably good for me since I couldn’t even handle Starsector’s combat during its tutorial. The ship building aspect looks really fun though.
edit: Check out the game’s twitter for the ship of the day posts. People have created some cool looking ships.
Haha! I just searched for Flight of Nova to make that exact comment.
If someone made a game that was as satisfying to fly as Flight of Nova, but with a bigger system and a business simulation on top, that would be the only thing I’d play for months.
I don’t think Flight of Nova can do it, but someone should make that game.
It looks like more than just an homage to Yamato in several places… I hope they have the gameplay to back it up and it’s not just a rip and lift of that look and feel. I am intrigued.
I know I’m late to the party, but just finished Starcom: Nexus and want to recommend it. I have been watching Shield of Tomorrow for the past month and really wanted to play a Star Trek like game. After some searching I found several people referencing Starcom. Watched some videos and wasn’t initially sold, but figured at $10 for black friday, why not give it a try. It was exactly what I was looking for. Exploring space, investigating phenomena, meeting alien civilizations. Good time.
Ending was a little abrupt, but overall I am quite pleased. I’ll have to keep an eye on his next game once it’s out of EA.
So Brian, have you looked at Spacebourne 2? I know the first one was a bit janky, and this one still has some of that but given that one guy is doing this, it looks amazing and a lot of fun. It’s coming out Jan 13, presumably EA.
