Decline What after Capitalism?

[MadMaxHellfire]

Back in the day I loved Capitalism 2, right now I'm craving for something like it but even if I remember very little of it I'm taking for granted it aged poorly, especially under the interface aspect.
I want a management/tycoon game which won't ask me to repeteadly jump through fire hoops to make the simplest operations, for instance Industry Giant 2 and its absurd micro of trucks and their manteinance. That's masochistic. I tried some old Rise of Industry release and its interface sucked. Years ago I put my dirty paws on OpenTT and its interface sucked big time as well, maybe even worse, much worse.
I had my share with Game Dev Tycoon and Software Inc but they feel too basic and/or opaque.
I'm not much into amusement parks, I'm not a fan of retarded graphics (ruling out Two Points Hospital) and stuff like Project Aura and Project Hsopital seem needlessly convoluted. I dipped my toe into Aurora and got scared, I couldn't even understand how to start a game.
I'm also ruling out City Builders because I already played the main of them all to exhaustion.

Did I miss anything or am I screwed?

 

[Bester]

Communism ofc.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i thought of buying it, but it seems it's still an epic launcher exclusive.

 

[laclongquan]

Railroad Tycoon? That was favourably received around here.

 

[KazikluBey]

Back in the day I loved Capitalism 2, right now I'm craving for something like it but even if I remember very little of it I'm taking for granted it aged poorly, especially under the interface aspect.

Capitalism 2's interface is ugly as sin, but usability-wise it isn't bad. There's also the standalone expansion/sequel Capitalism Lab with a couple of DLCs and which still sees further development, with new DLCs in the works. Same interface still, though.

Railroad Tycoon 2 is good and the gameplay doesn't overstay its welcome, I think.

Patrician 3 is nice, but may fall under "repeteadly jump through fire hoops", until you automate most of the trading.

And uh. Hm.

 

[laclongquan]

OKay, Patrician 3 graphic maybe a little dated for your taste.

In which case, Port Royale 2 (and not 1) is P3's gameplay water down a bit, with modern graphic and set in Carribean Seas. The hoops you must jump through is shortened up a bit.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

graphics are not an issue if they're dated. they are if they're retarded/objectively ugly regardless of the period they're from.

 

[kris]

Communism ofc.

to many bugs.

 

[Magitex]

Offworld trading company is solid if you enjoy competitive business without fluff, it's fast and the AI is ruthless unlike every other economic game. Obviously if you haven't played OpenTTD for longer than an hour you need to go back and visit that, because it is more addictive than most of the games mentioned. You'll find the interface is actually quite good when it comes to managing multiple tasks even if it seems unapproachable to begin with.

Distant worlds is probably beyond your UI decryption skills but it has an enjoyable economic system spanning a massive galaxy with lots of competitors, it's pretty fun to play as a pirate corp with the odds stacked against you. Aurora is also really good for logistics and it's actually not very hard to play at all.. the real problem with it, is the late game slow down and constant error messages ruining what would otherwise be one of the best 4X.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

OWT felt to me like your standard rts but with just numbers instead of troops and vehicles. i don't know how much it's changed with its expansions.
distant world's interface is sort of fine, somehow, almost, even if it looks so dated and amateurish. it's the game who feels boring, with all that mandatory automation.

in the end i went back to capitalism 2, but i mastered it within two days. need moar!

 

[laclongquan]

Playing Space Rangers 2 with concentration on trading goods on market is fun. Smuggle luxury goods onto a planet that ban them is profitable and exciting.
Research planetary market prices also is very fun.

 

[Magitex]

distant world's interface is sort of fine, somehow, almost, even if it looks so dated and amateurish. it's the game who feels boring, with all that mandatory automation.

Well that was also my first thoughts on it also, what the hell do you even do in this game. Turn off the automation, basically all of it, it's not mandatory at all; there's not a lot of joy in a game that plays itself. It's probably even less entertaining than cookie clicker played in that fashion.

It's hard to beat Capitalism at what it does, unfortunately the AI is craptacular at being competitive and I don't find it much fun once you lose the competition.
Maybe try Interstellar Transport Company, it looked intelligent, I haven't gotten around to trying it yet.