Sword of the Stars 2: Lords of Winter

I never liked stars!. I liked more of vga planets 3.5. I have played/owned pretty much every 4x space strategy there is.

There are still few oldies though unplayed. I could finish imperium galatica and then continue with imperium galatica 2. Also I have ascendacy on ipad and I havent played it much yet. Also there was one star trek 4xss game which name I cant remember now.

If you are a real fan of the genre then this is a good site to follow new 4xss releases:
http://www.spacesector.com/
 
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I've tried every 4X space game out there, and there's just nothing that comes close to MoO2. GalCiv2 with expansions was ok, but lacked a lot of the finer touches that SimTex understood - as well as lacking multiplayer.

MoO3 with mods is the most interesting alternative, but unfortunately there are too many issues and it's still rather dreary to look at.

MoO2 - after 15 years - still reigns supreme. Much like MoM does.

Beyond that, the best alternatives, to me, are Pax Imperia 2 and Sins of a Solar Empire - though they're both too simple to compete for real. But they're very playable and they have the vital multiplayer feature.

SotS was way too simplistic and focused way too much on the "Homeworld" gameplay. Didn't appeal to me at all, really.

Distant Worlds? No multiplayer - no go.

Space Empires? Way too obtuse and incredibly dry.

Stars!? No flavor whatsoever.

VGA Planet? None of the versions I've seen come close.

There are others that I can't remember, but they've all been inferior.
 
I cant really play moo2 anymore. I played it too much back then and the end game is too much micro (unless you just go and destroy every planet with super gun). My current favorites are Sots and Distant Worlds. Both are been updated this fall. Never liked sins of solar empire even though I tried multiple times. Galcivs ship design felt pointless and its combat is way too simple.

I actually kind of liked homeworld. In economic management sots is closer to moo1 than moo2 but Im okay with that. Ship design and tactical combat was always the most important thing for me in 4x game so I weigh them heavily.

Im not going to wait for sots2 retail to arrive anymore so tonight when Im finally at home (dating can really mess up your gaming) Im going to "loan" it to see myself. There seems to be atleast three patches for it.
 
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I cant really play moo2 anymore. I played it too much back then and the end game is too much micro (unless you just go and destroy every planet with super gun). My current favorites are Sots and Distant Worlds. Both are been updated this fall. Never liked sins of solar empire even though I tried multiple times. Galcivs ship design felt pointless and its combat is way too simple.

I actually kind of liked homeworld. In economic management sots is closer to moo1 than moo2 but Im okay with that. Ship design and tactical combat was always the most important thing for me in 4x game so I weigh them heavily.

Well, it makes sense that you would prefer SotS if those things are the most important aspects.

I'm much more into the strategic stuff, including espionage/diplomacy/research. I like tactical battles - but I find that it tends to bog down the grand strategy aspects. MoO2 battles also tended to last too long towards the end - and I agree that there's too much micromanagment when you reach mid-game and beyond.

It's not that I play MoO2 much anymore - as it's pointless as a singleplayer game once you've beaten it enough times. But I still have the occasional multiplayer session with friends (hotseat) and it's as great as it always was. But we usually have movies running in the background, and we talk and have fun on the side. It's not a game that works well if you don't have things to do when the others are taking their turn.

Im not going to wait for sots2 retail to arrive anymore so tonight when Im finally at home (dating can really mess up your gaming) Im going to "loan" it to see myself. There seems to be atleast three patches for it.

Well, based on the feedback I'm reading - it's still totally and utterly broken. You might get to see what it'll eventually be about - though you'll most likely not be happy if you expect a functional game. What I'm seeing is another "Elemental" - which is a bunch of nice ideas that are very far from working well together. My estimate would be 3-6 months until it gets to a release-ready state.

I'd recommend just forgettting about it, and checking it out next year at some point.
 
In terms of actual gameplay I'd say that my favorites were Galactic Civilization and MoO 1. In terms of coolness factor and capturing the imagination though, my favorite was definitely MoO 2. However poor balance, bugs, and awful AI kept it from being that high in actual gameplay fun for me.

I could never get into SoTS that much, and I think part of it was just the combat which I didn't enjoy that much. It was neither fast and efficient like GalCiv nor fun and tactical MoO.
 
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My first test with "loaned" version wasnt very succesful. The game always crashes onfirst turn during save operation. Not sure if its due to the nature of the "loaned" version or game itself. I applied three patches into it and it doesnt help.

The other things I noticed:

-everytime you exit some screen there is an interface lag of second or two
-you cant freely scroll around in research screen anymore. Instead you are forced to scroll by pressing two small arrow keys (very small in 52" screen)

I could never get into SoTS that much, and I think part of it was just the combat which I didn't enjoy that much. It was neither fast and efficient like GalCiv nor fun and tactical MoO.
Sots combat is actually quite tactical especially once you research more ship parts. Unless things are totally unbalanced then it matters quote a lot how you design your ships and how you fight.

I do agree that combat is not fast. At best it took around 30-40min to finish combat for one turn in first sots. If you dont find it fun then it definetly isnt your game. :)
 
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Free DLCs this month:
Free DLCs until Nov 30th

Hi all,

First of all, we would like to thank you for sticking with us so far. Many of you have been in touch with us over this past week with praise and rage and we're doing our best to follow up with you all individually via our support. We are also reading what you are posting here and passing on information to the developers. While Kerberos are hard at work on the game, we've looked into what we can do in the meantime for everyone as a "thank you for your support".

All gamers who have bought or will buy Sots II up until November 30th will receive the following DLCs/Immersion packs: Liir & Morrigi + Hiver & Tarka + Suulka.

The DLCs will show up on your account sometime between now and November 30th (please note - you do not need to take any type of action to receive them, you will see on your account when they have arrived). It will not matter where you have purchased your copy of Sword of the Stars II, it will be the same for all.

Thank you and we'll continue to see you here on the boards.

Paradox & Kerberos
 
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I found out that the save crash was due to scandic letters in my win7 account username. I managed to play 30min before next crash and the game was addicting (I want more!). The game is hard to learn at first but the info screens are very helpful. Fleet creation was hard at first because I didnt know that command vessel is mandatory now!

I need to get a powerful game laptop so I can play this with in my gf home. Now I might have to wait a week for next chance. I was saving some vocation days for this game but considering the state of the game Im not using them yet.
 
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I like Gal Civ 2 quite a bit - especially the ability to create my own races both to play and to fight against. The complete lack of any tactical battles gets on my nerves, though. Designing nice looking ships is OK as far as it goes but I like messing with firing arcs and whatnot. SotS gives me that.

Stars! Oh man… that was QUITE some time ago. I remember playing Spaceward Ho on my brother-in-law's Mac and having a pretty good time, too.

I'm not sure how SotS is anything like Homeworld??

SotS 2 is improving by leaps and bounds but it's got a pretty big mountain to climb. Another 3 weeks and I think the game will be playable. It might be rougher than a gravel road but I think it will be possible to get through a game.
 
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Heh, 3 weeks? That turned out to be more like 3 months. Even then "playable" has to mean "at least a 10% chance of getting through a game before it eats itself." It was a full YEAR before they issued the "End of Flesh" expansion and declared an all clear. Even then the game still had a lot of problems.

Now I've started playing the game six months after the expansion and… it's working! There are still some annoying bugs running around but they are just annoying. For the first time ever, I'm more interested in what enemies are going to attack me than what bugs I'm going to stumble into that are going to kill the game.

Forum posts are stating that the enemy AI is pretty weak. That could be. I've dumbed them down so I can spend time figuring out what I'm doing. That's a pretty long process with a game as big as this.
 
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Released in 2011; playable in 2013. I held off purchase until the 'enhanced' edition and even then I still couldn't play it due to the almost daily patches invalidating my saved games. And while the bugs may be quashed it's still littered with questionable design decisions.

That said, the background lore, tech tree, ship design, and FTL variety all keep dragging me back in for one more go.
 
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After a lot of play, the mission system seems better to me now. No more sending out a scout ship to scout out a planet then just sit there in deep space for years before moving on to some other place. Ships actually have to return to a supply base to get more food/fuel/ammo now. Supply ships can extend that time.

The only new feature that has really gotten under my skin is the feasibility studies. The base concept seems fine - do the study to find out what chance you have of learning that tech. What isn't fine, IMHO, is that that percentage is itself is subject to a die roll. If they tell you there's a 60% chance to learn the technology then your real chance could be 80%, or 20%, or anything else plus or minus 50%! Realistic? Yeah, maybe, but when studies are that wild they start to become pointless.

Luckily, that little factor is conveniently stored in one of the game's XML files. I've changed it to plus or minus 5% for my next game.

The game is ridiculously deep. The weapon's list goes on forever. The different types of propulsion vastly change the game play far more than any of the 'race customization' options I've seen elsewhere. The never-can-catch-them-all, randomized tech tree makes playing even the same race a pretty different experience from game to game.

Unfortunately, it looks like the AI isn't up to the task. I'm on turn 230 and the AI still seems to be using the starting technology for its ships. They sure are spreading like wildfire, though. I wonder if they can destroy my dreadnaught fleet with wave after wave of colony and survey ships? ;)
 
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My current war with the Liir is basically a game of wack a mole with their colonizers and constructors. They're making little effort to counter attack. Also it bugs me that the AI keeps spitting their combat from their command and support cruisers in battle. It'd make sense if they had dreadnoughts, but in cruiser only fleets splitting their forces guarantees their defeat against a similar sized player fleet especially as almost half their fleets tend toward supply ships.
 
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