Fans of GalCiv 2 look here

galciv2 is really the only great 4x space game out there!.

Creating an account for a site I don't care and with the only purpose to try to annoy an idiot of the millions of idiots online? I love Gal Civ II but not so much as for such "big" effort.

I actually agree with him. GC2 is like playing a spreadsheet. But aren't we on the wrong forum to post this?

Femmefatal48 wants to bash someone as a fag? This 'fag' is too amused by the irony to bother with the external link. Plus, I'm at least as lazy as Wintersong and I really wish there was a bit more 'spreadsheet' to Elemental b/c so far it still seems like a game aimed at consoles and not PCs.

Ugh... If there was more spreadsheet in Elemental, I'd quit. I get annoyed with everything being percentage bonuses and numbers. Good 4x games need new abilities to unlock and not new percentages.

Do I want another +50% to my basket weaving ability, or do I want to nuke an enemy city by raising a volcano under it?

No. Not with that kind of language.

The best 4x game ever is Stars! and none other! Too bad it's a Windows 3.1 game :p

despite my admiration for gc2 and all the hours i've given it, i don't think it's fair to say i really love it. the game just has no atmosphere and the visual style is too cartoony. you never feel that you're exploring the infinite wonder of the cosmos; there's no scientific believability OR imagination. neither is there any sense of dread or unknown at the prospect of war with an alien race. there are too many aliens that look like squirrels, purple gems floating in space and messages like "you have discovered frazzlyboop! +10% economy!"

really, pax imperia probably owns the 4x space sim slot in my heart.

oh yeah, and the economy is a horrid mess of flawed concepts and awkward workarounds, and i know brad agrees with this.

Haha I ask for a little brotherly help from my forum brothers and sisters and this is what I GET? I put a CURSE on you all then. You shall ALL REAP WHAT YOU SOW! so it has been said, now let it be done!!

In the infamouse words of Bugs Bunny, regarding the OP...  "whatta maroon"

GC2 is not the best 4X game out there, and while I'm not a big fan of political correctness, I do kinda go outta my way to avoid using offensive terminology, and finally I am not you forum brother.

  For space Sim this one gets my WIN/WIN prize, a KEG of  , is IW2. They don't make games like they used to eh? Sigh... it's been like 10 years since Independance War 2... goes to show in gaming, Never Ever make a game that potrays the CORPs as badguys & regular everday people as the terrorists/pirates.

 Oh 4x games... doh.. HAHA. To be honest, I don't really remember the  diference between 4x, 3x and or 2x ... so on that note... EotFS (Emperor of the Fading Suns, 1986) wins my vote hands down. There has -NOT- been a single Turn based Space Empire builder like it since.

 Of course this wasnt a vote thread or whatever... just wasting time rather than play EWoM again...

PS: Heres a tip for social networking from an old druunk canuk. Don't use racial/sexual/religious slurs anymore... it's not politically correct & it makes arm chair bullies flex their "muscles". LOL

I like galciv2.  But I think I am liking Distant Worlds a whole lot more.

Ah, the Codex. The Mos Eisley of the Internet.

Agreed - having a great time with Distant Worlds much as I like GC2. So much depth and the private sector makes it feel so alive. And you can control exactly what you want to focus on and intelligently automate the rest. GC2 never had that feeling of the galaxy humming along with its own business.

Distant Worlds was reviewed very highly (8/8) by "Out of Eight" reviewer (read that a couple months ago), then recently, googled it and watched the game video. Maybe I've been spoiled by 3D graphics.. but the ships fighting each other just didnt feel right without the 3D aspect of it (I just want to have the option of rotating the view, even though while playing Elemental I play the whole game from one point of view). Now that Distant Worlds has been a success (I think, quite a lot of forum posters seem to have played it and have a positive view) maybe the developer can make it in 3D and also make the graphics better..

And polluting polls on other forums is bad.

Sorry, but Distant Words + Return of the Shakturi expansion is by far the best 4X space game out there right now. Not even close.

The developer (Codeforce) is focusing more on automation/UI fixes from what I can tell. Doesn't sound like they have plans to go 3D. To be honest, that wouldn't be a factor for me one way or the other.

Distant worlds + Return of the Shakturi is awesome, I just wish the Shakturi would show up in my game. They never seem to show up so I can't follow that story but yeah I would say that Distant worlds is one of the best. X3 Terran Conflict is quite amazing though, even though it is not exactly the same kind of game it can be played that way with some mods.

I agree that DW + Return Shakturi doesn't have awesome 3D graphics.  I really would love to see DW ported to a 3D environment like  Sword of the Stars has.  Now that would be awesome.  Pax galacticia? I'll have  to check on that one.   

I,too, have never had the Shakturi show up.  i think its because i play in a small galaxy, and I  name my first Destroyer class ships, armed with T weps, "DDT<model number>"  

DDT is an effective, but highly polluting insect killing chemical.   basicaly, I go out of my way to kill / conquer bug colonies - so maybe the shak... never get a mandible-hold in my galaxies?

Hey Sethai:  I searched for pax imperia, and only found pax imperia, imminent domain, demo version.  How can i get the full version of the game?   

Never mind, it RTS, and I don't care for RTS.   Perhaps if pax Imperia, without the immanent domain was around for a PC, then Ok.. Thanks anyway...

I think Sethai best describes my attitude.  Mind you, it's one of the few games I've played multiple times and finished, but it's currently uninstalled because it feels empty, and has some put it, a spreadsheet game.  Also, I never felt like I was exploring any thing related to space, but some thing more along the lines of a bizarre plane with little to know cool space things.  I mean shoot, even that modded Civ IV game that came with BTS had intersting space stuff, from blackholes to energy clouds, etc. 

Once of this style gaming was fine.  It made the game easy to understand and play.  Sort of reminds me of DnD without monsters, background, or story.  When Elemental hit and followed this suite, major let down.  I wanted a much deeper, richer game play.  On the outside I interpreted the advertisement and providing.  Now I just feel like a palm to the forehead.  Sorry SD.  I still very much like you guys, and you currently have my loyalty, but Elemental was a big let down for me, and not just for the bugs.

Edit Note:  By the way, Sins, with the 2 expansions is another game that I can't finish.  Out of the myriad of games I've started, I've finished exactly 1.  It just starts to bore me after a bit.  It has fun combat, but that's all it has.  The intro gives the impression of some story elements, but merely explains what the universe is.  I can't build any thing really, beyond some thing akin to GC's style, +.25 metal, or +10 percent lasers.  You know, that is not entertaining to me.  I can't even refit the cannon or weapons, electronic suites, etc in my ships.  It was a bummer.

If you dislike spreadsheet games, try Sword of the Stars. And be sure to visit the forum, the writer has given out tons of extra background answering questions from fans.

GCII was fun, but the best imo is X3 which evolved to X3 Terran Conflict. So many choices, so much control, so many options, a feeling of huge universe as well as active. 

[quote="huminado"]First of all - it's a good game.

But to make it truly astoundingly GREAT, you HAVE to run the Star Wars versus Star Trek mod.  

Google around for it.  It brings the whole game completely to life with the Emperor, Wookies, 

Picard, Ferengi, Borg, Cylons and many other races, with their own very well-done ships, tech 

trees and home planets.  The whole tone of the game changed when I started playing this mod.

And because they all have unique tech trees, it can take a while to find out how to play each race. 

So playing a game as Human or Wookie is a completely different experience than playing the Borg 

or the Ferengi, and some races have overwhelming weapons in their trees but such difficult 

economies, that it gets very tricky.  

I tried repeatedly to win playing the Klingons on crippling difficulty - but so far haven't succeeded.  

Same story for Ferengi, but getting closer.  IIRC Borg are quite fun.

[quote="Overweight Manatee"] Warpdrive 1 is in fact Hyperdrive 11, the developers were just too 

embarrassed to admit that they had absolutely no creativity.[/quote]

Every tech grouping (like drives) either makes that item smaller (and maybe different price), until 

you get to the next grouping which will have a multiple of power, and cost associated with it.  I 

don't think what you said here is true, but it certainly isn't a new argument - other people in other 

forums have made the same claim - but it wasn't my experience while playing.

The downside, is that you usually wind up with ships maxed-out in a single technology, and I 

haven't seen a play-style that encourages combined arms at all.  But I might just be missing 

some subtle nuance of the game, because you can set the focus of any given ship-design.

Another downside, is that the AI is boringly conservative, and will accumulate massive fleets 

without attacking just to defend home planets.  Maybe that changes on the highest difficulties, 

not sure.[/quote]