Good 4x games to recommend

[Fez]

True. It's often a shame when there isn't some kind of random generator for them and you get bored with the same old. A random picker for a large number of maps isn't too bad, but even then you can end up learning it all too well and then its a rush of going through the motions to the same spots.

 

[Raapys]

Dominions 3 is pretty neat, but I feel it lacks something. AI interaction perhaps? Probably a terrific game for multiplayer though.

Master of Orion 3 isn't a bad game. In fact, it's a pretty good game. It's just that most people, including myself, wanted it to be a new MoO2, which it isn't. Get the patches and the mods, and learn to use the macromanagement tools, and you have, in my opinion, probably the 2nd best '4x in space' game out there, preceded by MoO2 and followed by modded Space Empires 4. It just takes a few hours to adapt to.

Although perhaps not a true 4x as such, I'd recommend Alien Legacy for those that haven't tried it. Great story&exploration-driven semi-4x that even features C&C.

 

[mondblut]

Mass priests is great fun against the Ermor tides.

They sure are... but don't forget all those saved god points invested into rainbow mage paths. Then a couple of empowered dusk elders with random astral to spam acashic record, and you get ten times gem income as any living nation, and all kind of ways to spend it with dusk elders' random picks. Banishment doeth work not against all kinds of summoned nasties ...and then comes Foul Vapours and Burden of Time, and the game is basically over. That's the way I played since Dom1 Living nations are just so... limited with all those supplies and upkeep and lack of free god points to rainbow the pretender.

The only Ermorian bottleneck is gold to build temples and castles. But when gem income is steady, you can waste hundreds to alchemize into gold. Oh, and blood slaves are hard to come by when populace dies off, but it is hardly necessary to trample the weak fleshlings

 

[Raapys]

Yeah, Ermor is easily the coolest nation. Burden of Time, Foul Air and Utterdark completely ruins any living nations on the map.

 

[Fez]

The biggest downside to playing Ermor is multiplayer as everyone will team up to kill you and forge items and armies suited to kill undead. No one wants your death aura ruining the map and they know that if you are left to build up an army and swallow your neighbours you will be unstoppable.

 

[Korgan]

Which is just what all the crappy "epic" fantasy in your local bookstore warned you about. If there was a Horror nation, everyone would gang up on it, too, which would be even cooler. And, by the way, wouldn't it be great if the more-or-less-decent guys (no blood magic or demonology, limited necromancy) which are kind of underpowered now had their own advantage - ADVENTURERS! These could be indirectly controlled by the quests you send them on, grow in power, find artifacts, assasinate evil commanders, home in on the casters of Burden of Time/Scorching Sun, etc.
Anyway, speaking about 4x, hasn't anyone tried out Twilight of the Arnor yet? The reviews are really positive, with truly unique races and shit. Strangely enough, no torrent anywhere.

 

[JarlFrank]

What the fuck, when I install Alien Crossfire over my Alpha Centauri it always crashes to the desktop after I pick "Alien Crossfire" or "Original Game" in the main menu. Anything I can do about that?

EDIT: Nevermind, found a way to fix it.

 

[Helton]

For the sake of the guy scouring the internet years from now looking for that answer: You might want to share.

 

[JarlFrank]

For the sake of the guy scouring the internet years from now looking for that answer: You might want to share.

http://www.firaxis.com/games/game_detai ... &showcon=2

Download the XP Patch and the Alien Crossfire 1.2 patch here. Install the patches, then follow these instructions:

Windows XP Note: If you are having trouble running Alpha Centauri on Windows XP, or you have a newer system with a 64 bit processor, try the following solution after installing the Windows XP patch.

Double click on My Computer
Double click on the C: Local Drive (your Hard Drive or the drive that the game is installed to)
Double click on the Program Files Folder
Double click on the Firaxis Games Folder
Double click on the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Folder
Double click on the Alpha Centauri.ini File (The file looks like a read me text file with a little gold symbol on it).


Once the file is open in Notepad, change:

ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=0

to

ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1

Be sure to save your changes, then run the game. You may still receive the error message. If it occurs, click OK and the game will load fine.

If you have torrented Alien Crossfire, you have to apply a crack for it. You don't need a crack for Alpha Centauri, as it works without the CD, the crack is just for the expansion.