Can you recommend a good trading strategy game?

I had a lot of fun with Age of Wonders, then ...
 
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A bit late to the party, but I'd second Patrician/Port Royale.

Merchant Prince or Machiavelli the Prince is an ancient classic where you play as a venetian trading all over the old world, buy cardinals, slander your enemies (Baldini claims the world is round, ha-ha!) and the like. MP2 is a windows remake, but I dont know how easy it is to find and this sloppy quality remake isnt worth more than 10-15 bucks IMHO.
 
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Oh, MP1 is exactly the same down to practically every detail.

The remake uses higher resolution artwork and runs in windows, but the interface and everything else (including a map that you cant zoom out on and that clearly has its roots in the 320x200 VGA days:p) is exactly the same. The only problem I had is that MP2 has been very unstable on the PCs I've tried it on, so I resorted to running MP1 in Dosbox instead. That instability and the complete lack of new features makes it feel like a fan remake rather than a new game, even if it is a remake of a pretty decent game:)
 
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In that case I am sure you got a good time out of it, the base game isnt bad. Maybe it was my old PC that simply didnt like some games, I had a few other titles that kept crashing for no good reason on that machine...
 
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human_male said:
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.
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Sorry, I missed this part. You don't need a joystick to play. I don't even own one. Some folks feel it's sacreligious to play a flying game without a joystick, but I found keyboard control to be perfectly fine for me. I believe Everything Xen, our resident X2 combat meister, preferred keyboard controls for X2 as well.
 
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dteowner said:
Sorry, I missed this part. You don't need a joystick to play. I don't even own one. Some folks feel it's sacreligious to play a flying game without a joystick, but I found keyboard control to be perfectly fine for me. I believe Everything Xen, our resident X2 combat meister, preferred keyboard controls for X2 as well.
Click to expand...

Ok, good to know. It's bound to be more fun with a joystick though isn't it? I was planning to get one anyway, especially since I found this one that works with both the PC and 360 which makes it worth the cost to me as I do most of my gaming on the 360. http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/av8rxbox.htm

But if it's playable without one I'll get the game right away and get started. I've also just noticed Mount and Blade has come right down in price at my local vendor. That has trading elements too. I played the demo and found it quite interesting but difficult to get into because of the look and feel. There's a lack of ambiance in all the locations and the items and characters have this really ugly, cartoon like look about them. But I see there's an expansion that looks like it will address those issues (and hopefully allow you to adjust how closely the camera follows the character), which will make it much more fun to play. I'm just trying to find out if the expansion requires the original or if it's stand alone.

Anyway, thanks again for all the comments.
 
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JDR13 said:
Darkstar One is pretty mediocre imo, although there is a playable demo if you want to try it. I thought it had more of an arcade feel, rather than a sim.
Click to expand...

K, I'll be sure to avoid that one then.

What about Evochron Legends? Is it good? Can you buy it in stores or is it just for download? I haven't seen it in the stores here, although that's not saying much. Most of the games you guys have mentioned aren't available here.
 
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DSO was never meant to be a sim. They wanted to go into the direction of Wing Commander or Privateer, plus a light version of Patrcian's or Port Royal's trade system.

At the GC the new IP holder Kalypso announced that Patrician 3 is in pre-production. Full production will start in September, the game will ship next year. To clarify, the English Patrician 3 is actually Patrician 2 including the massive add-on.
P3 will be a new game, pretty close to P2's game mechanics but of course with certain improvements.
 
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1 = 1
2 = 2
2 add-on = not released
2 + add-on (Gold) = 3
3 = who knows
 
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By the way, what about The Settlers ?
 
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Didn't they devolve into RTS ?
 
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I played The Settlers II through to IV and the demo of V and it was never a trading game. I did like them a lot, II and III the most...
Had tons of fun playing III online with people. Probably one of my most played games and favourite games as well.
 
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In my opinion for Settler (Die Siedler) Settlers 2 is the best of the series. I liked the cartoony style for 1,2 & 3 Whemn they went more realistic and turned it into more of a RTS than a simulation it lost its charm.

Shaf

ps. GOG just released the Settlers2 package.
 
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