4X games.

[Ubermensch]

These are a secret passion of mine. I enjoy some oldies like Alpha Centauri. Some classics, like the Civ series typically from III to V. And some newer ones like Sins of a Solar Empire and the Sword of the Stars anthalogy. I just like the idea of building an empire and ruthlessly crushing your foes until there is nothing left to conquer. Please share some of your favourites and tell us a little bit about them.

[HeyItsZeus]

I'm afraid I'm not old enough to have experienced such awesome 4X graphics!

[Violet Lilly Blossom]

MoO. Best game I have ever played.

MoO2 is a fine game as well, but much less my cup of tea.

Civ's incessant dice roll combat ruins for me what would otherwise be a decent game.

You can buy MoO and MoO2 together for six dollars a Gog. On my iPhone, so I can't easily just link it to you... But google 'Gog Master of Orion' and you should find it.

[lrh9]

4x games.

It's difficult for me to remember the four x.

eXplore, eXpand, eXterminate, ...

Oh well.

I'm currently on a Master of Orion 3 kick, but I like Space Empires V (I would if between turn processing didn't take so long.) and X3 Reunion.

I guess I'll talk about Master of Orion 3 for a minute.

In Master of Orion 3 you control a stellar empire whose citizens are one of many possible races. You start on your home planet in a solar system. You can always destroy all other empires to win the game. You can also set options to win either by becoming the head of the stellar council (Orion Senate) or you can collect five mysterious technologies by sending out search parties. An unofficial patch at http://bhruic.dyndns.org/patcher/ can enable an allied victory - meaning that a group of allies will win when all of their enemies have been destroyed. Great if you play a "peaceful" race.

Gameplay itself is somewhere between Risk and Space Empires V. While there are solar systems, they are abstract locations. You can't actually explore individual systems to find locations.

P.S. I'd also be generous and include EVE Online in my picks. While not strictly a 4x game, when you get involved with group dynamics and location and resource control it can seem a lot like a 4x game, except you play as one of the units.

[Jaysyn]

Master of Magic is my favorite 4x game. It's ancient (1994!), it's single-player only, it's buggy, it's unbalanced, & the AI is unstable to say the least, but there is just something about the synergy of the magic system, race variations & combat engine that keeps sucking me back into it after 17 years. Even after all this time there are serious bug-fixing & modding efforts underway for this classic game.

It should be mentioned that Master of Orion & Master of Orion 2 were both made by Simtex, the creators of Master of Magic & are excellent games in their own right.

Alien Crossfire & Alpha Centauri are a close third, followed by Civ IV.

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(11th March 2011 02:51)lrh9 Wrote:  X3 Reunion.

That game is more like Grand Theft Auto in space.

[Ubermensch]

(11th March 2011 02:39)Aerzia Saerules Arktuos Wrote:  MoO. Best game I have ever played.

MoO2 is a fine game as well, but much less my cup of tea.

Civ's incessant dice roll combat ruins for me what would otherwise be a decent game.

You can buy MoO and MoO2 together for six dollars a Gog. On my iPhone, so I can't easily just link it to you... But google 'Gog Master of Orion' and you should find it.

I'm pretty sure Civ doesn't use dice roll combat mechanics any more.

[Violet Lilly Blossom]

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/master_of_orion_1_2 <-- linky is good.

Haven't played Civ 5, so i don't know if it still uses dice rolls to decide its combat now.