Grand Strategy Best space 4X

[luj1]

added all those. u can change vote

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Added all those except the actual best space 4X game, Master of Orion.

 

[luj1]

How is 2 not better? It has more of everything

 

[octavius]

Sometimes less is more.
For example the smaller combat screen makes ship combat less tedious. Also, less micro-management.
But I guess I need to give MoO2 another chance some time.

 

[Raghar]

Space strategies should be about micro management. And research. And management of empire. And doing detailed space combat.

 

[Raapys]

MoO1 is different enough that it's not a straight forward call. The biggest advantage MoO2 has is the excellent music and visuals, but gameplay wise I often find myself wanting the first game. It's a more compact package of the same basic elements.

EotFS could have been the best one, and probably would have if it'd been made by the MoO devs. The gameplay is too unrefined and messy to compete with the best though, and the AI is not gonna offer any challenge at all. Maybe if you doubled the development time it would have realized its potential.

 

[Serus]

No Master of Orion 1?

This poll was made by a fag. No offence luj1. However you don't know what you are talking about here. MoO is a very different game from MoO2 in terms of design priorities and it plays differently.

Also laughing at Star Control 2. You usually add a KC option as the last one. You should know that.

 

[Raghar]

MOO 1 was massive oversimplification with BIG tradeoffs caused by lack of RAM.

Also No space empires IV and V? And no Imperium Galactica 2?

 

[luj1]

However you don't know what you are talking about here

I agree

 

[Parsimonious cook]

TBH fam when you say "space 4x" I think of a game where you have space ships and build a multi-planet/system/sector empire. I genuinly wonder why is Gladius included in here (I guess for the same reason that SMAC is) - if you want to have it in such a poll you should add Shadow Empire (also a single planet sci-fi 4x) which is roughly milion times more complex and much better (it is also better than SMAC, but people dont wont to hear it so w/e), though I would probably change the name to sci-fi 4x or something, it doesnt feel right to me to put games like SMAC and MoO2 into the same cathegory (it feels kinda like saying that FreeSpace 2 and Doom are to be in the same cathegory because they are both technically first person).

 

[Joggerino]

Nice list, but you forgot Star Ruler.

 

[Zarniwoop]

TBH fam when you say "space 4x" I think of a game where you have space ships and build a multi-planet/system/sector empire. I genuinly wonder why is Gladius included in here (I guess for the same reason that SMAC is) - if you want to have it in such a poll you should add Shadow Empire (also a single planet sci-fi 4x) which is roughly milion times more complex and much better (it is also better than SMAC, but people dont wont to hear it so w/e), though I would probably change the name to sci-fi 4x or something, it doesnt feel right to me to put games like SMAC and MoO2 into the same cathegory (it feels kinda like saying that FreeSpace 2 and Doom are to be in the same cathegory because they are both technically first person).

Agreed, it always strikes me as odd that people consider Civ and Master of Orion the same genre. Kind of like how Tomb Raider and Space Quest are both "adventures" now.

And how in the ever loving fuckness is SC2 a 4X??

 

[Galdred]

How is 2 not better? It has more of everything

That is the main issue actually. MOO2 has more of everythinhg which makes you spending way too much time on the colony screens instead of taking empire wide decisions.

It has a lot of "cooler stuff" to produce and research, but it can easily turn into micromanagement hell, especially if you want to optimize (which you need to do in MP).

 

[Endemic]

It has a lot of "cooler stuff" to produce and research, but it can easily turn into micromanagement hell, especially if you want to optimize (which you need to do in MP).

The 1.5 fanpatch fixes some of that (hotkey-based build lists, for example). Remnants of the Precursors goes further, by asking you if you want to build a new improvement everywhere immediately after it is researched.

 

[what am i doing]

Going with Sins. Maybe not the best lore-wise (though it was reasonably good in that regard) but the best gameplay-wise.

 

[Irata]

Space Empires 4
Sword of the Stars

Free Orion is an open source project inspired by MoO
https://freeorion.org/index.php/Main_Page

Star Ruler 2's devs released the source code and assets to the public. It's free if you can compile it.
https://github.com/BlindMindStudios/StarRuler2-Source

 

[Demo.Graph]

Space Empires 4

IMO SE4/SE5 have the best alien races out of all planet-as-a-city 4Xs.

luj1, the poll lacks Ascendancy.

 

[Raghar]

And the poll lacks Imperium Galactica II. C'mon how can you forget on one of few games that also includes controllable ground combat, and planet surface buildings?

 

[Raghar]

Sword of the Stars

Sword of the Stars has:
1. Great space combat.
2. Tech tree that AUTOGENERATES itself at the start, thus it's bit different for each playthrough.
3. UTTERLY shitty oversimplified economy. Basically there is no empire building, only expansion.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Sword of the Stars

Sword of the Stars has:
1. Great space combat.
2. Tech tree that AUTOGENERATES itself at the start, thus it's bit different for each playthrough.
3. UTTERLY shitty oversimplified economy. Basically there is no empire building, only expansion.

It's SWORD of the stars, not Shekel of the Stars

 

[tindrli]

i wanted to vote distant worlds but a gay OP made a limit of 2

 

[Galdred]

The 1.5 fanpatch fixes some of that (hotkey-based build lists, for example). Remnants of the Precursors goes further, by asking you if you want to build a new improvement everywhere immediately after it is researched.

Remnants of the precursor is inspired by Moo1 more than 2 if I recall.
Despite being the same series, they have a quote different focus.

 

[Joggerino]

Everyone vote for star ruler. Best ship design in the history of space 4x.

 

[Joined on the 4th of July]

adding one vote for both "op is a fag" and "poll is shit"

 

[razvedchiki]

wheres galactic civilisations 2 totally unbiased OP?