Spaceships, Gorrammit!

Looks like Dejobaan is working on a um

thing.

http://www.dejobaan.net/dl/titan_builder_216/WebPlayer.html

Build a titan, then play to try and blow it up. Spheres, cubes, pylons, blasters and missiles available, plus a full array of size/placement and triggers (for the weapons) available. I guess kinda like Warning Forever in first person, except you get to design the bosses first.

What kind of game is Starpoint Gemini? I'm having trouble finding good info on it. Is it sort of like Space Wolves?

It makes me hot. A lot.

Nah, it's more like Starfleet Command with an RPG element in a more open world.

This doesn't look like a spaceship game to me at all. :(

You make spaceships though!

And then blow them up.

They're not SPACE ships, they're big shapey supposed ship-things that hover over a plane and shoot back at you. I see no space there.

Unrelated Stephen Peeler thread comment, he's come a long way since 2007 as a designer of seriously awesome games, but his art is still ghetto as hell! Can we make him a Kickstarter or something?

I don't have a problem with the art, especially since, so far, the game play has been exceptional.

On another note, I played an hour or so into my first game of Distant Worlds - Legends. I'm experimenting with being a starship captain -- wherein you automate everything except one ship -- and I had a BLAST. :)

AHA!

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/24/build-titans-for-drunken-robot-pornography/

It's an ORBITAL battle. RPS said so! Take that!

That didn't look orbital AT ALL! I cry shenanigans. Also, what the hell is the thing we're controlling? Is that a ship of some kind?

Sorry, I've played many, many spaceship games, sir, and this, THIS is not a spaceship game...

Not having a problem with the art != the art is good. There are tons of indy games, like SPAZ, with quite nice low budget art. Stephen's art is not quite nice. It is uggo. His games? Fantastic. His art? Fuggo.

If he needs someone to go out into the wilds of the artist-for-hire market and hunt one down for him, I am a willing predator.

Re: Distant Worlds, call me when it finds a pub who doesn't think sixty dollar price tags are a holy necessity.

I understand, but I find the art quaint. Seriously, since it's a small indie dev, I can overlook stuff like art most of the time as long as its adequate, which it is. :)

And yeah, the price is indeed a downside on DW. It was on sale over the holidays, but who knows when that'll happen again? Sigh.

Hey y'all, my first article on Distant Worlds - Legends is up:

http://www.spacegamejunkie.com/1949/distant-worlds-legends-the-voyage-begins

I hope y'all enjoy it. :)

So this is interesting. The FTL guys are putting up their game preview on ... OnLive.

Link in their twitter. They're also running a kickstarter for a measly 10k.

https://twitter.com/#!/FTLgame

I'm trying it out now. Amazing mouse lag on the service; game pretty interesting. I guess OnLive is a surefire way to prevent piracy. Ugh.

I wanna try this game, but not enough to sign up for onlive, so I threw 'em some kickstarter moneys.

Whoa, big time deja vu hopping between Qt3 and this forum.

Well, one thing that is cool is that there is a TON of info on the Kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/64409699/ftl-faster-than-light

Hey guys, wanna win a free copy of an upcoming spacey game called Zigfrak, which looks pretty cool? Then enter my spacey game poetry contest and try to write the best poem you can. The last day to enter is one week from today, 3/6/12, so you have plenty of time to come up with something awesome! Good luck!

Hey y'all, Naev has been updated with a ton of new stuff, like new missions and a new faction. Check it out.

http://blog.naev.org/2012/03/naev-0-5-1-release/

Hey guys and gals, don't forget to enter my poetry contest if you'd like a free copy of Zigfrak!

Hey y'all, my first look at Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space is up:

http://www.spacegamejunkie.com/2033/weird-worlds-the-flight-of-the-streaker

Enjoy!

Is that a new game, or is it the Weird Worlds that was released years ago? Not clear from the blog entry. I loved the Weird Worlds I played, in any case.

The game runs pretty great on the iOS (now that they fixed it up) but every time I've played the thing it almost feels too short. I kinda wish I could spend more time exploring.

Do mods works on iOS? (Phone Luddite here)
There are some that manage to extend the base game. In a sense of broadening it with new stuff that can happen, without necessarily making a single game any longer.

It's the one from 2005. The author sent me a copy, unsolicited on my part, so I figured I'd run a review of it since it's a real quick game.

Like which ones, for example? I wouldn't mind trying some.

It has been a while since I last looked for mods, and surprisingly the modding community is still active.

I remember finding three mods playable of the ones I tried.
They were Even Weirder worlds, Teeming with Life, and Added Content.
One mod just added a bunch of base items/quests, while the other two somewhat extended gameplay and improved balance (successfully, unlike other mods I tried). I don't remember which did what though, and I also don't recall which one was my favourite.

Hint for everyone creating any mod for any game: I don't want a four page changelog, Put that in the download. When I visit your mod page/thread I want a short, concise description of what the mods intends to do and what it includes.
I find it mind bogglingly annoying if I have to research what a mod (for any game, this happens everywhere) actually does. It should be the very first and pretty much only thing in the first post of a mod thread.

Thanks man, I'll give these a try for some future sessions. :)

Don't play Julia. So much promise, so terribly designed...

Isn't that an adventure game thingy?

Yes

Yeah, looks stupid, no spaceship control either, so whatevs.

Hey y'all, new 4X spacey thing incoming called Endless Space

http://www.endlesspace.com/

wall of text, you have been warned.

Master of Orion 1 research system
This is the sound of technology (SWF flash sound file, should start automatically if opened in a new tab)

As I have learned again and again, few people will have the same sensation I do when hearing that sound. It's always Moo2 this, "I never really played MoO1" that. I however feel a deep love for Master of Orion 1 and hearing one of the most distinctive music pieces from it sends tingles down my spine. [trivia: One thing Beyond Good & Evil and MoO1 have in common is that they don't have boring, endlessly looping background music, but use event and location based pieces, giving the musical background so much more weight]
If people would like to engage in the discussion I might do several small bits about different things done well (and maybe not so well) in Master of Orion 1.
This one is actually dedicated to a short discussion I had on the space game junkie blog a while ago.

I considered for a while how to write my essay. Comparing it to other 4x tech systems? MoO2's only? Reviewing it? In the end I decided to write a love letter. Trying to describe how and why I think MoO1 research is the pinnacle of 4X research systems in many ways, comparing it to alternatives when necessary but generally staying focused on MoO1.

Technology in MoO1
Research in MoO1 has a few distinctive qualities. The biggest are that available technologies are random and that you invest in several technologies at once.

Overview
The different fields of research (there are six) contain a big number of individual technologies. Those technologies often come with several tiers. So there is a "range 4" tech for your ships, a "range 5" one, "range 6" etc. up until 9 in the case of propulsion range techs.

Altogether there are a total of 186 possible research projects, ranging from many unique single tier devices, over multi tiered versions of the same tech, to the bigger, less cohesive groups like beam weapons which consists of 26 types with different traits.
There are 48 distinctive technology types with completely unique abilities, all 26 beam weapons being only one of those.

About two thirds are combat based technologies like weapons, devices and design specs for ships and planetary defences, with the remaining third being economic advances.

Each field of research has a level, determining which techs are visible to the player (you don't know whether you can research something until you reached the minimum level for it), and determining the size of stuff. Every ten tech levels above the minimum reduce the size of individual devices by 25% and the size of weapons by 50%.

My Love
So, hat makes the system so great in my opinion? It's the unsurpassed influence and interaction the implementation of research provides. It's the perfect, interconnected interaction with other game elements and itself that makes it noteworthy,

<Random tech> Random technologies mean that there is no perfect research path for certain games/playstyles/races. Being both randomized and hidden means technology is an active part of a game session, like terrain, positioning or logistics. You cannot at the start of the game decide to go for a certain strategy (a swordsmen rush in Civ). Part of your strategy has to be continuously adapted depending on what technologies are available to you.
...and to your enemies!

This is the most distinctive, most important and most influential part of MoO1 tech. Compared to MoO2, or Civ the randomness makes a session so much more unpredictable, interactive and fluid.

<Tiers> Multi-tiered techs sound like a disadvantage at first. While beam weapons with different effects are distinctive enough, certain technologies are just the same effect with a higher number attached to them. Even those are intelligently implemented however.
Those cloned techs make up a string of base technologies and having several tiers of the same technology prevents an empire from getting screwed over by the random tech selection. While you might miss certain less important unique techs or certain levels of the core tech lines, you practically never miss out on a core tech line completely. You just have to make another interesting decision. Focus resources on more (and more expensive) research in the same area to push for a higher level of that core tech, accept a temporary weakness in an area until you catch up normally, or try to close the gap by other means, espionage or conquest for instance (ground combat has a chance to acquire technologies).

<Multiple Fields> Having the ability to invest in six different fields of research provides another enhancement in strategy. My beloved randomness provides a more interesting path and the multiple fields of research provide another layer in the adjustable speed of research.
Research isn't limited to how much of your GDP you pump into beaker factories. You decide when to focus on certain areas, when to spread out, when to catch up.

Those points create a gaming environment never again reached in a 4X game. I hope I could somewhat convey how much breadth, width and flexibility MoO1 research provides in contrast to other systems. How much more interactive it is concerning the players strategy and the developments within a session.

Quirks and Fringe cases and anecdotes
While I hope to have provided a general overview for the greatness of MoO1 tech, here is an example on how things actually can work out.

<Lizard Flu> I am playing the Meklar, a cyborg race that gains considerable production advantages at the cost of slower colony development. Two things make this game special. First I start in a somewhat isolated cluster of star systems, with the only connection to the centre and rest of the map soon blocked by the Sakkra empire.
Secondly, I miss out on all the early bomb techs and the Sakkra have strong planetary shields. Beam weapons have a greatly reduced effect on planetary defences and lacking bombs means I have great trouble assaulting Sakkra worlds. I have several courses of action, but the aim is clear, I need to break out of my little corner of the map.
I could focus on weapon research, hoping to reach one of the higher bomb techs. (In the end it turns out I miss all but the very last bomb tech, which would have made this tactic difficult)
I cannot capture tech (my ground invasions are prevented by planetary defences I am unable to weaken) but espionage would be an option albeit unreliable and difficult to control.
Lastly I could go for alternative techs. I could try to develop beam weapons strong enough to punch through the planetary shields and the beam weapon penalty. I could focus on missiles as weapons, which don't have the penalty and higher per hit damage.
I however chose to use an otherwise rarely used tech, biological weapons. They work like bombs, but only kill population. Everyone hates you for it, but I only have contact with the Sakkra anyway due to my cornered position. If I would use missiles I would need to force produce as many missile ships as possible to actually provide enough punch, but with bio weapons I can keep my old fleet and just supplement it with bio bombers.

In the end the whole game is coloured by this course of action. I continue to expand with bio weapons, leaving behind a wake of uninhabitable husks that are only useful after extensive and expensive terraforming. No planetary shield is able to protect the colonies of the Sakkra and later the other empires from my armada of pestilence. No amount of missile bases is enough of a defence. Once everyone is dead every world is easy to claim.

This mini-aar probably doesn't convey how much impact this game had on me as a gamer. The tech randomization not only had as much influence as the random map on my strategy, it showed me that a technology I otherwise always ignore can actually be just as strong as my favourite ones. It not only prevented a perfect "by the book" game, it provided a new challenge in a game that I thought had few remaining secrets for me.
It also provided me with one of the most unique and memorable MoO games I ever played.

In Conclusion

I am unsure whether I managed to do what I set out to. I feel this thing here is much too long, much to unwieldy to actually show other people the beauty of the MoO1 research system. On the other hand my deep affection for said system makes me want to elaborate much more, write more extensively and provide more anecdotes.
If you, dear reader, managed to finish this outpouring I would like to engage not only in a discussion of the MoO1 system, but would also love some feedback on readability and comprehensibility of the love letter itself.

I'm saving this post.

So, I want to get into a Privateer style "fly around, explore, trade stuff" sort of game. What are my options? Obviously the Privateer remake which I've tried a few times to get into, but 800x600 is pretty hard to deal with for long. I have I-War2, which should be pretty good but I notice it has no mouse control so I'd be digging my stick out. There are the X games, I suppose. Anything else?

Freelancer? Old (2004, I believe) but I had a lot of fun at the time.

I completely agree with Therlun's analysis. When I first started playing Master of Orion 2, I was disappointed with some aspects of it, and just about everything I saw wrong with it could be traced back to abandoning MoO 1's research model. I came to love the game anyway, but it would definitely have been better if they had left that part of the game alone.

Evochron Mercenary is good (if a little sparse), and has decent mouse control.