Sure it's light on content but give it time and it could surpass Gladius. Looking forward to jumping back in this weekend.

Bonjour tous le monde désolé si un post comme celui-ci a déjà été créer, Je vous expose mon problème je viens de télécharger sur mon smartphone Winlator et aussi Master of orion 2 que j'ai télécharger illégalement désoler pour ceux que sa choque, le soucis c'est que le jeu est en anglais et en ayant un anglais faible j'aimerais bien le mettre en français pouvez-vous m'apporter votre aide s'il vous plaît ?

The PW was an incredibly ferocious, long and complex conflict that had a large impact on European late Ancient history. Are there any games that focus solely on it? I'm surprised that I have never run into one that does it.

I’m currently working on 4x board game with the theme of pre-agriculture humans expanding off earth with magic. All players will start the same, but as they play they will discover technologies and evolve their culture.

Im in the mist of designing the technology/culture cards and I’m hitting a roadblock, so I was hoping to get some feedback on techs I have so fair.

The first line in each card in the Tech, and the second line, if there is one, is the culture ability.

Hey all! (Sorry for long post)

About me:
After a year, heading into 2 years of actually playing 4X games in general. Have played Civ and EL1 in the past, like 5-7 years ago, but only a little bit because it was time consuming and it was lot to learn. I consider myself as fresh and new to this day.

I'm still having so much fun playing 4X games especially AOW4, Planetfall, ES2, Zephon etc

What I look for:
I love the Diplomacy mechanics in 4X games in general but I want to get more deeper in interacting with allies, enemies, or even on a neutral pact. I want to engage more by influencing the AI decisions and connect with them a bit more deeper. I would like it, if the AI can do those things back to me as well. I know Civ games do really well in this aspect but there only humans and no aliens, demons, cyborgs in those games. Basically Sci-fi and fantasy preferred. I'm about to play EL1 again and explore a bit more in its diplomacy civ like building empire fantasy.

One of my favourite games is still Planetfall but the diplomacy is very simple, straightforward and primarily war focus. However I love planetfall's espionage, population killing, hacking empire, disabling units and with diplomacy added to that it would be such a crazy deep meaningful game, even though it is.

I've heard games like Solium infernum has a really interesting political diplomacy backstabbing, arch angel, Devilish kind. Man that sounds brilliant but I hear its better with multiplayer. So I'll have find people in the Pacific.

Short Examples

ES2
Diplomacy is fantastic especially for my first time out in space but I feel the AI lacks in any commitment, pressure and it doesn't really trade anything with me. It lacks interaction or self-implication engagement. It Seems to only care if its losing, lol. However ES2 has one of my favourite LORE and deep meaningful factions and Minor factions populations are used like their real living sentient beings in my civilization. CIV Games does this well too if your into Historical empire playstyles.

AOW4
Does a really interesting free city, multiple pacts, good and evil alignment mechanics and how it affects your playstyles. Which interconnects well with your choices in diplomacy and how some free cities won't join you because you're too evil for their liking. This is a fantastic way to influence certain allies under your empire. But I feel like everything in AOW4 is more combat focus. While your able to gain specific Rally of the liege units, its mostly to support the war to come. However I do love the different personalities that you can customize and allow your ruler to be a Demonic Warlord, being so aggressive or being Harmonious playing a more peaceful style. Planetfall does personalities too. These all affect diplomacy, playstyle and the varieties in gameplay.

Question With an Explanation
I'm looking for a new 4X game that goes a bit more deeper in diplomacy 4X mechanics while still maintaining a strong building empire, resource management, trading system and many more 4x fundamental mechanics in a Sci-Fi or Fantasy setting. I have spent a whole year trial and error and still trialing them out. I just can't find the game that the AI interacts or tries to counter diplomatic means in a very deep engaging way. Maybe this is a problem that 4X games have. I'm not sure. Another thing, it doesn't have to have good combat, I care less for combat anyways and focus more on Empire management and I love how buildings give me specific resources done in many different ways. ES2 is a good example of this. Diplomacy and personalities of specific factions make the game so real it feels like I can relate.

Maybe you know that game I am suppose to be playing?

Hi! I bought Humankind this week and I like it very much in the beggining, but after a couple hours of gameplay I started to find it a little boring. I tried to create a new save with a bigger world and more civs/AIs but a couple hours later it got boring again. I've watched some videos on Civ 6 and I thought I might like it, but since it's so expansive I'm afraid to buy and dislike it just like with Humankind. Should I play something else (please tell me what are good 4x games for begginings) or do I wait until Civ 6 have a sale?

I fancy buying one of these. Which would you recommend ? thanks 🙏

Edit: bought planetfall and Zephon purely for the sci fi setting. Old world will have to wait !

Hello,

Which game is fully playable only with touchscreen. I know that civ6 has the posibility. But what about other games?

Touchscreen i mean zoom with thingers etc

Thank you

Have never tried it. I have no clue how it works. Do you have to know people or are there servers and queues? How have your experiences been? Do you have to play the entire match in one go? Are you expected to play quickly? Tell me anything. I like the relaxed pace of playing a 4x alone but I'm willing to try new things.

About a week ago now I made a post to this sub talking about some of my issues with Age of Wonders 4, and why specifically I went from loving the game to finding it to be quite a mediocre game overall. After getting tons of thoughtful comments on that post, and thinking more about the game, I am back again to do another long write-up about some of the core issues with the game and why I think it fundamentally doesn't function well as a game.

tl;dr for part 2: complexity without depth, unfinished ideas problem, expansion bloat, lack of playstyle differentiation

One of the first things I feel compelled to talk about with AOW4 is that actually planning a strategy for this game is simultaneously incredibly taxing and yet unrewarding. The reason for this is that due to the ability to mix and match, one must consider every possible available strategy and synergy when attempting to devise a build. Early on, this can be as simple as "fuck it, this looks cool," which I think is where most of us were at when the game first launched. However, as time has passed and more expansions have been added, the time it takes to theorycraft a build has increased, and due to the nature of the game this is something you are encouraged to participate in. And yet as I spent 3 hours one day trying to come up with a fire-themed build, looking around at every tome and society trait trying to cobble together some sort of build for what I was attempting to do, and much to my dismay discovered that for the best fire damage build you would want Pyromancy at tier 1 (Chaos), Scrying (Astral) at tier 2 for the sundered resistance spell, and later for scaling you would want Crucible... a tier 4 Materium tome. This is the RPG equivalent of saying you need to take Wizard levels in your early levels, switch to a Summoner class for your midgame, then cap off your fire damage spell build with levels in a Fighter/tank class.

I think some people will praise this kind of design, but personally I found it frustrating more than anything else. It makes the game difficult to read, as you would likely not suspect that the best way to do fire damage is to take Materium research, which up until the tier 4 of that affinity is nothing but physical damage and gold economy upgrades, basically not something you would be interested in if attempting some kind of fire based spellcasting build. Making matters worse, the only other tome in Chaos (talking base game, there are one or two more effects added in DLCs that I can't fully remember, accentuating my issue with the game's bloat if nothing else) that has fire damage is Chaos Channeling, also a tier 4 tome, and by this point a fairly weak one. Ah, but I hear you say, they did add that Cleansing Flame tome in the latest DLC! And that's true. And the tier 4 unit in it is disgustingly powerful, and there is an effect in that tome that is one of the only irresistible effects in the entire game. Its affinity? Fire+Order. So now the best fire damage build in the game will always have a smattering of Order in it. Note, the tome of Cleansing Flame is a tier 3 tome, in which you unlock a tier 4 unit; the tome of Chaos Channeling, an arguably weaker tome that is also tier 4, unlocks the tier 3 Magma Spirit (which your little tier 1 magma spirits in Pyromancy evolve from) which can be summoned but is just not a unit you're particularly interested in ever producing since it's not a racial unit and therefore cannot receive racial transformations. You might include one or two for fun, but it's not an optimal choice by tier 4. It's more careless design, which of course is the running theme with Age of Wonders 4. For all its simplicity, no one ever had to be confused when they upgraded the Cavalry line in Civilization and unlocked a better cavalry unit only to realize it's somehow worse. Because that doesn't happen in Civ. Units that take higher tech to unlock are stronger, period. Because it's a well-designed system. And I say this as someone whose least favorite 4X game at this point is probably Civ (especially 6).

I wrote this ginormous chungus of an explanation to demonstrate an overall issue with AOW4's design with regards to roleplay and immersion as well as satisfaction from a gameplay perspective. Some tomes have a clear evolution over time, such as the Undead tomes starting with Necromancy all the way up to the tier 5 Eternal Lord. However, many, many more simply don't. Most tomes in fact are a sort of one-off idea, the kind of idea someone pitched in a meeting once and the person in charge said "sure, why not" to. The tomes themselves all follow a general theme, but overall as a package the mechanics tend to not be cohesive whatsoever. To talk about Chaos again, let me list every single thing Chaos tomes do thematically, by tome:

• fire damage, mana income province improvement
• tier 1 units are stronger and better, a draft province improvement, fire damage
• misfortune debuff, a bad tier 2 summon in a tier 2 tome
• food, draft, morale, physical damage for melee units, a support unit with regen and damage boosting for allies
• random status effects and one unit that can interact with that, a race upgrade that increases damage against enemies with status effects (damage over time effects such as Burning from fire effects are not status effects)
• bonus crit chance and enemies explode when killed, a massive giga tank unit with regeneration
• demon summoning, the ability to give racial units flight
• dragons and wyverns (DLC)
• Fire, lightning, physical damage, and a moving artillery piece with fire and physical damage (DLC)
• fire resistance and immunity, fire damage spell, battle mage and archer upgrade, a spell that summons a mob of tier 1 units (which cannot raid cities since cities must be besieged by heroes, and are useless in fights since fights cannot be larger than 18v18), summon a tier 3 fire damage caster
• your leader can join battles anywhere, you can summon a demon that does fire damage but doesn't benefit from other enhancements your units have for fire damage, a spell that gives all units haste and an extra action when killing a target
• A tome that buffs every unit type and does both fire and frost damage, has a massive dragon caster to train, with a province improvement that improves all income types (DLC)
• A tome that does fire and holy damage, and has a strong unit that can be trained (DLC)

(Note: I left out all the siege effects because... well they're mostly terrible, mostly)

For those who skimmed at least, can you see any issues here? For starters this list of abilities is all over the place. While some tomes follow the fire damage path, there's a serious issue in that the tomes themselves barely have any ways of scaling this type of damage. There is no ability that specifically reduces fire resistance, and within the Chaos tomes themselves there is no way to sunder resistance to increase the fire damage dealt against targets. Notably, the Chaos tree is also missing several types of economy scaling, notably research but also gold. It gives some draft upgrades, but not enough to really predicate a strategy off of. You can't make a fire damage build that will really cause your opponent to say, "oh shit, I should really invest in fire resistance," in a way that will make them build for that specifically. You can only spec into general resistance and damage boosts, because that's what a lot of abilities boil down to. I mention all of this without even getting into the mess that is Empire Development Trees, but suffice it to say the situation doesn't get much better there with regards to theming.

In essence, due to there being a limited number of high level tomes, as well as only a single tier 5 tome for each affinity, Triumph have created a system where any player investing in Chaos will eventually end up using Balors by the end of the game. Similarly, anyone investing in Shadow's only choice for a tier 5 tome is one that upgrades the undead. Perhaps you don't want to summon units, or perhaps you don't want to use undead but have Shadow as a primary affinity you are building around. Well... too bad. I can understand the developers not planning around every single possibility and tome combination, but it's like they didn't even review what each tree is capable of to at least make them synergize with themselves. I mean for crying out loud, there isn't even an ice damage spell in the tier 4 or 5 tomes for Shadow affinity, despite Cryomancy and Cold Dark being earlier tomes in the group! So evidently the devs wanted you to theme a faction around this concept, but then provided no tools to continue following through on it.

And so every match of Age of Wonders 4 ends up being a similar experience after a while. You'll theorycraft until you pick a theme you want, only to delve into the myriad of tomes out there and realize there isn't really a way you can do a certain kind of build. You may say to yourself that you want to try a shadow and materium build with cold damage and golems, only to realize the crux of your build is just going to be one tome in particular. It's less, "I want to make a fire damage build, what tomes can I do that with?" and more, "I'm going to make a build involving just one tome, the Cleansing Flame tome, which tomes at least partially support that and the unit it provides?"

Most competent strategy games that get made revolve around picking bonuses that compound into themselves. You may start with a faction that gets an inherent +1 movement range and +10% damage boost for Infantry units. Well, the strategy becomes apparent and is easy to understand, while being satisfying; as you explore the tech tree, you will continue to look for upgrades for infantry units, and if your opponent knows you are playing that faction, they will invest in a strategy that counteracts an infantry-focused strategy in some way if the game allows for such. At low levels of play it's easy to have fun by taking this simple bonus with massive implications and then looking for how to strategize around it, and for high level players it is one of many considerations that will go into their overall faction selection. For example, you may pick this faction with an infantry focused bonus, but then throw off your opponent by training more archers and cavalry than infantry, or resources may preclude you from the infantry strategy entirely, forcing you to pivot to something else. That's the essence of good strategy: a flexible plan that allows you to react to your opponent and what they're doing. In Age of Wonders 4 I never got this feeling; instead, every game became a case in following an exact build as quickly as possible to reach a breaking point to where my opponents could no longer pose a meaningful threat, or at the very least with good tactics that my overall build could overcome any fight.

And I'm going to stop myself here, because this is so much about just one aspect of the game that I find irksome about AOW4, and I still have more to say, because for a game this popular I think it's worth talking this much about it in-depth. Thanks for reading and I hope those who read this long enjoyed it.

Does anyone know of a game (4x would be good, but rpg would be cool too) where there is a well-simulated market, like a tiny version of the NAsdaq, for example?

I was playing Dune: Spice Wars and was intrigued by the CHOAM market mechanics and couldn’t help but wonder if there were any similar market mechanics, perhaps with a half dozen or more “companies” to invest in. I know Galactic Civilizations 4 has a modest resource market, but it doesn’t really fluctuate or behave like a commodity market would, in my mind. Any suggestions are welcome.

My list, based on the possibility to use strategy and tactics.

1. Humankind

2. CIV5 & CIV6

(hopefully it is even better in CIV7

3. Millennia

4. ARA history untold

Please change or add!

I'm enjoying Sword of the Stars. I like the very simple economic / research / development / diplomacy system, and that the meat of the game is ship design and tactical combat. The graphics are a little old, though, obviously. Anything more modern with the same focus?

I want a game where I can just have small skirmishes outside my borders for resources or stopping scouts and not have to commit to declaring a full blown war. Any games like that? I played something like that forever ago but can't remember what it was.

What space games are you currently playing or looking forward to playing ? It has to be strategy, grand strategy or 4X !

Basically, I have the doubt is whether Aurora4x is a good game, or is simply a famous for its complexity.

I read a couple of posts these days about the "top tier" games in the genre and Aurora4x is not mentioned in any of them.

So I have the doubt, maybe the only interest in this game is the "fidelity" in simulation and the long list of complex game mechanics, the satisfaction of learning to play it.

I'm on vacation and looking for new games to try, and I'd like to know if this is worth the time.

Like the title says, I always end up dropping a game in the "learning the mechanics" phase (i.e a couple of turns into a campaign) even though right after i always end up thinking about wanting to play it again really badly but never being able to push myself to open it again. any help with this is appreciated

Don't have to be too rigid with the definitions, just curious what the opinion range looks like. The one I have my eye on is Endless Space 2, but not sure if I want to start elsewhere.

I can't remember if we called them 4X games yet, but in 98 I had this game called Warlords III and it seems it may fit into the genre.

It's been at least 25 years since I played it so detail is hazy, but I remember that you can make a very unique and powerful hero in this game.

Keep in mind, when this was out, CIV III wasn't even out yet, and wouldn't come out until 2001. So this was going up against stuff like CIV II.

Anyway it's on GOG now so I may have to buy it just to refresh my memory.

https://www.gog.com/en/game/warlords_iii_darklords_rising

Any of you blokes remember this one?

Hey,
I've been playing Empire on and off for the last five years. I've tried most mods, and they make it somewhat playable, but I think I've had my fun with that game. So here's my question: Is there a similar game? I really like the combination of a campaign and commanding battles, especially in a historical setting. I just find the game lacking and the AI too frustrating.

EDIT: I've also played Napeleon, didn't like it as much

Dear Community,

which 4x games have a mostly not cheating AI that can give you a challenge? My list so far is:

- Remnants of the Precursor (MOO1 clone) with Xilmi

- Civ 4 BtS with the Adv Mod or More Naval AI (FFH2)

- Master of Magic (classic) with the Caster of Magic mod

- From what I've read Alpha Centauri with the Thinker or Will to Power mods

- Sword of the Stars 1 had an okay AI

- Shadow empire can do unit movement fine, but it does not play by the same rules as the player

Am I missing a title or a mod?

Edit: Thank you for your suggestions! To add them to the list:

- Old World has one of the best AIs of any 4x.

- Endless Legend has an unofficial community patch which improves the AI and makes it really competent.

- 40k Gladius apparently has very competent AI too!

- Civ 5 with the Vox Populi

Hi all, Im not really new to 4x but now i turned 36yrs and have all the games you can wish.. 4X games gave me a hype feeling to keep playing it.

I dont even know why cause previously played civ 5 yrs ago i couldn't have the patience for it. But the more i love playing board games as well this genre struck me very hard. Isee this as a really good board game.

Im not really good and still learning wich i like and still scared to play multiplayer lol.

My main game is CIV 6 (7 pre-ordered) Humankind bought on steam sale not played yet. Old World (not played yet)

So i was wondering, what do you like specifically in and about this genre and why, and what game?

Thanks for reading

Is the game worth learning these days? Does it have decent AI for hundreds of hours of play? Or would I be better off learning aurora for the long run? Ty!

I adore the genre, but i lose all motivation to play more once i win if it wasn't a real challenge to get there. So before committing time and energy once more, i'd like to discover the objectively hardest to win 4Xs, and pick my poison!... with some addendums according to taste.

CORE, CAN'T DO WITHOUT FEATURES

-) First of all, let's define "objectively". By this i mean a game that, at its highest difficulty settings, filters the great majority of its playerbase from winning. (so no "civ5 at emperor i never beat!" kind of suggestions please, since they are purely subjective.) How it achieves such a result doesn't worry me... this may sound strange, but i'm perfectly fine with asymmetric difficulty! 4Xs have notoriously bad AIs, so i'm fine with them having a boatload of advantages. Sadly, most games are still trivial to overcome even with this, so i guess a great challenge comes both from overwhelming odds and an enemy AI at least capable to threaten defeat with such means.

-) Secondly, i'd love the ability to keep playing after winning (the civ "one more turn" feature basically). As a reward for an optimal game leading to victory, i like to then relax, fill the map in my colors and cities, and then once i've done it all move on to the next map. This is very important for me, otherwise all is left is the minmaxing to achieve victory.

-) Turn based. I like to revisit old turns to see where i went wrong and improve. I also have a couple of friends with which i often traded saves in civ to see their latest failure or successes. Stellaris, for example, loses this neat possibility. I liked that game, but its AI is brain-dead, so no big loss in that regard!

OPTIONAL, BUT VERY WELCOME FEATURES

-) As for setting and graphic style, i prefer fantasy, then sci-fi, then cartoony, then "realistic humans". This is less important than the above requirements of course

-) UI that is usable is also important, Aurora for example is just sheets and windows lol, but again, the above takes precedence

-) Finally, the more variety, the better! Variety of factions, variety of maps, variety of events, variety of strategies vaiable... Variety goes a long way in keeping me hooked between playtroughs!

The closest i've found is Civ5 Vox Populi, but i'm waiting for 4UC integration to complete, no point learning civs that will soon drastically change.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions! And sorry for any typos, let me know if you need more info.

Hello r/4Xgaming!

Democraciv is a gaming community on reddit and Discord which plays Sid Meier's Civilization games using model governments. We combine gaming, roleplay, and political simulation. Our community is among the largest in the genre with ~5000 subscribers. We have persisted since 2016 and have even been featured on notable sites like Kotaku!

We are currently in the middle of our twelfth game, a game of Sid Meier's Civilization VI with the English civilization (Age of Steam Victoria).

Our community plays a single-player game of Sid Meier’s Civilization with all in-game decisions decided by a simulated government. We have everything a real government has: A constitution, elections, and political parties.

In Democraciv, there are many ways to play and have fun. For example, you can

• Run for office (federal or state)
• Create or join a political party
• Write news articles
• Play chess or diplomacy with community members
• Draft bills to be voted on by the legislature
• Join a government agency

Our government structure is a directorial republic. The legislature passes bills to guide the Executive Ministry as they play the game. There are also governors that can control specific issues in their states. The Supreme Court settles disputes between the government and its citizens.

Now is an excellent time to join. Make your voice heard in our ongoing elections!

Help us build a civilization to stand the test of time!

Links:

• r/democraciv
• Democraciv Discord
• Democraciv YouTube channel