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[lordcooper]

Waking Mars in the current Humble Indie Bundle will probably do you right.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/11/16/wot-i-think-waking-mars/

http://www.humblebundle.com/

Played a few hours of this earlier and it really is rather good.

[a1s]

Alpha centauri is $6 on GOG. Though Alien Crossfire (the expansion) you'll have to "obtain" on your own.

[lordcooper]

Alpha centauri is $6 on GOG. Though Alien Crossfire (the expansion) you'll have to "obtain" on your own.

Or not.  It's arguably a downgrade.

[a1s]

Alpha centauri is $6 on GOG. Though Alien Crossfire (the expansion) you'll have to "obtain" on your own.

Or not.  It's arguably a downgrade.

It is? I actually only owned the original (and somehow never went back to it... I think I shall.) Did it just "ruin the delicate balance" or was something actually wrong with it?

[alway]

From Dust does a reasonable job at terrain/terraforming sim, particularly the sandbox level at the end.

As a side note, similar 'games' don't really exist... yet. There is some hardcore simulation-type programs you might find if you search hard enough, but the real barrier is computational ability. We're now reaching a point where those limitations are breaking down, but that's recent enough for such simulation games to be relatively rare, as you just couldn't do high-fidelity simulation in the past. From Dust was an 'experimental' game for a reason.

... That said, this sort of thing is precisely what my personal project for next quarter will be, for precisely the reason that I want these sorts of games too and that they don't really exist.

[Caz]

I'd agree with the others who suggested SMAC. I prefer the original to the expansion but it's just a preference really. There's still no real good 'terraforming' games out there that I've found. :/

Make us something great, alway.

[Imp]

Oh, and there's Artificial Planet as well, http://aiplanet.sourceforge.net/

It's more than a bit clunky, and its mechanics are not deep, but it's deeper than Spore for sure.

[Shadowlord]

I preferred the expansion to SMAC, mainly because it added additional factions and uncapped* the resolution (with directdraw disabled in the ini).

* It was bugged in SMAC, so if you tried to run it at desktop resolution, it would be cut off with black bars. This was fixed for SMAX. Not sure if it's fixed in GoG's version or not.

[ChairmanPoo]

The only reason I played SMAX at all was for the gameplay enhacements (mostly adittional alien lifeforms). I ignored the new factions wholly.


So.... I heard UFO aftermath and aftershock sucked. Is afterlight any good?

[hemmingjay]

Great Order, I sent you a link in PM. Also, Walking Mars is on Greenlight and keys will be given out to owners when it gets approved.

[snelg]

I always liked the Populous games. That might count as a "terraforming" game.

[Niveras]

I picked up the Android Bundle myself since there were a couple other games in it that I wanted to try.

I should mention that Waking Mars doesn't really seem to be a terraforming game, at least not so far (played a few hours). It's more like a side scrolling puzzle game, and the terraforming elements are just the tools. It's not like Sim Earth, for example.

Really, I don't know too many terraforming games at all. Something like Populous or Alpha Centauri or Minecraft or From Dust are more about terrain deformation than terraforming in the usual understanding of the word. The space game elements of Spore are a lot closer to terraforming but it's just a minor element and extremely simplified.

[The13thRonin]

I really wish there was an easy way of obtaining a legitimate copy of SimEarth. Does anyone know a way?

GoG don't sell it...

[alway]

It's abandonware; just search "Abandonware simearth" to find some downloads. Though you will need DOSBOX to play it.

[Niveras]

Home of the Underdogs: Sim Earth

Not 100% sure if that's classified as 'legitimate' but no one's going to sue you for it.