Can you recommend a good trading strategy game?

human_male · August 16, 2009

I'm looking for a game that I can play a long time and really keep me busy for ages. I play Medieval 2 a lot because I like building up my settlements and trading, but it gets boring because of the monotonous slog across the map, take that settlement, then that settlement until you've won sort of thing.

I saw this game called East India Company and that looked interesting but one or two mediocre reviews was enough to put me off.

I'd like something like that, trading commodoties and things like that. It'd be good if there was some combat but you're not constantly having to fight, and something that's not all charts, graphs and numbers.

Would anyone be able to recommend something like that? I'm more into sci-fi but the setting doesn't matter as long as it's a good game. And I have a fairly old computer (it was grunty when Oblivion came out but hasn't been updated since).

Thank you kindly.

Lucky Day · August 16, 2009

Starflight I and II maybe?

Gorath · August 16, 2009

Maybe Patrician 3 is an idea. Or its slightly more accessable pirate brother Port Royal 2. Both should be dirt cheap.

dteowner · August 16, 2009

X2. Probably X3, but I haven't personally played that one yet. With your hardware limitations, you might want to stick with X2 anyway. It's a stellar game that allows you to do pretty much whatever you want. Some people play it for combat flying, a few play it for the story (which you can largely ignore if you want, and it even tells you to ignore it a for a while at one point in the story), but most play it to build economic empires.

It's a bit CPU intensive as your economy gets bigger. On my old system (an Athlon XP 1700 with 1G of RAM), it would start stuttering after I uncovered most of the map and had ~50 ships running around (on scripts, I didn't have to manually control all of them). I've never had a single yip on my "new" rig (a 2-year-old Dell) when I've played.

Pladio · August 16, 2009

Patrician series are quite nice, with not too many real charts and stuff, but if you do pay attention to details it gets much easier. Patrician III does have some annoying bugs, but once you know which they are then just don't do those missions and you'll on your way.

Another game I played was Merchant Prince II, kept me busy for ages and has tons of things to do. Graphics are shit though for today's standards... I really, really liked the game though. Also, got much easier after reading the manual ...

Prime Junta · August 16, 2009

I second X2. Got badly hooked on that one, building a trading and manufacturing empire. I never got into X3, though, for a variety of reasons.

(You can safely ignore the story, it's rock stupid and very short.)

skavenhorde · August 16, 2009

Space Rangers 2. Best trading and strategy combat game in a long time.

Any of the Anno games.
http://anno.uk.ubi.com/pc/

dteowner · August 16, 2009

skavenhorde said:
Space Rangers 2. Best trading and strategy combat game in a long time.

Any of the Anno games.
http://anno.uk.ubi.com/pc/

I think I'd still vote for X2, but I've played both of these and they're excellent recommendations.

skavenhorde · August 16, 2009

I'll have to check out X2. It never really caught my attention before, but a lot of people here seem to like it.

As for Anno, I think I have Mike to thank for introducing me to that game. In a few threads here he recomended it and said something about getting his kids addicted to it

Or maybe that was you, can't really recall who it was. In any event, it is definatly a fun trading game.

dteowner · August 16, 2009

Mike and one other member got me hooked on 1701AD. They probably got you, too.

Gorath · August 16, 2009

If you liked Anno 1701, the new 1404 is a no brainer. It seems to be accepted knowledge that it's even better.

JDR13 · August 17, 2009

skavenhorde said:
I'll have to check out X2. It never really caught my attention before, but a lot of people here seem to like it.

Be prepared to have a lot of time set aside for it.

txa1265 · August 17, 2009

Gorath said:
If you liked Anno 1701, the new 1404 is a no brainer. It seems to be accepted knowledge that it's even better.

I agree - not to ruin my upcoming discussion review at VGBlogger where I look at the PC & DS versions and Matt does the Wii version ... but I definitely love Anno 1404 even better than Anno 1701! And I think I can blame Gorath for getting me into Anno in the first place!

I also like Tradewinds 2, which I'm playing on iPhone but is an older PC game taht is a blast.

Gorath · August 18, 2009

I talked you into playing Anno?!

Pladio · August 18, 2009

Lol...

I've only ever played the first ANNO, I think it's 160x ...
I never get 'into' sandbox games that much, but not that much for me means I've enjoyed playing it for at least a month or two for like 3-4 hours a day.

I probably will get the newest one after I finish GIII and play all the other games I still need to finish

dteowner · August 18, 2009

JDR13 said:
Be prepared to have a lot of time set aside for it.

It's a real time sink as JDR says, but I'm confident you'll enjoy it. It's only fair to warn you, though, that the command interface (specifically the menus) are a real pain in the butt until you get used to it. After a few hours of playing, you'll memorize keystrokes and hardly pay attention to the interface at all, but getting to that point takes a little patience.

Prime Junta · August 18, 2009

That. The early game is pretty painful in other ways, too -- you'll be doing a lot of tedious, low-yield, somewhat risky haulage until you get a ship that's capable of either hauling serious cargo or disabling and capturing some of the most common flavors of pirate. From there on out, it's fun, though.

dteowner · August 18, 2009

Although you pay a price for the tactic, I find that stripping the Express from mission 2 before you return it gives a nice bit of seed capital to make that early muddling around much less painful.

human_male · August 19, 2009

Thanks everyone. I will definitely give X2 a try. Unfortunately I don't have a joystick at the moment. The one that I want (Saitek Aviator Xbox 360 and PC compatible) isn't available here at the moment so I'll have to wait a few weeks. But I need something to play now.

But since I'll have (eventually) a brand spankin new joystick I'll be looking for good flight sim games too, so feel free to recommend them if any stick out for you.

Thanks again.

human_male · August 19, 2009

Prime Junta said:
That. The early game is pretty painful in other ways, too -- you'll be doing a lot of tedious, low-yield, somewhat risky haulage until you get a ship that's capable of either hauling serious cargo or disabling and capturing some of the most common flavors of pirate. From there on out, it's fun, though.

I like games that make you work. But I'll probably need some tips to get going.

Can you recommend a good trading strategy game?

Math and girls is hard.

Daywatch

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Math and girls is hard.

Math and girls is hard.