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[moghopper]

I'm looking for a good 4x game, but I'm not sure which to get. I've heard good things about all three.

Which do you all think is the better choice of the three?

[Knave]

Personally, I'm a really big fan of Distant Worlds (If you can get over the price tag). The AI automation features for your empire makes it so you only need to look after the things you're interested in and the game has a real nice sense of scale.

But really it depends on what you're interested in. Have you played 4x space games before? What did you enjoy?

[BigD145]

Distant Worlds or SotS. They play different. I'm partial to SotS.

[moghopper]

Personally, I'm a really big fan of Distant Worlds (If you can get over the price tag). The AI automation features for your empire makes it so you only need to look after the things you're interested in and the game has a real nice sense of scale.

But really it depends on what you're interested in. Have you played 4x space games before? What did you enjoy?

Space Empires mostly. I'm actually looking at Moo2 a bit. Might be good for some multiplayer games

[Sonlirain]

Well i don't know anything about Stardrive or SotS but Distant worlds while expensive gives you a very deep game with simulated civilian chipping tourist and various other things you barely info about in other 4x games.
The problem is the price... it's just disgustingly expensive... especially with all expansion packs (all of them are rather large but personally i don't think the sum of the parts is worth the price)

And in at least one expansion... HFS comes for a visit utterly smashing the "normal gameplay" in lieu of frantic damage control you arre almost certainly destined to fail unless you prrepared for it at least half of the game.

[EuchreJack]

You can often get Sword of the Stars for free with other games.

[BFEL]

Personally, I'm a really big fan of Distant Worlds (If you can get over the price tag). The AI automation features for your empire makes it so you only need to look after the things you're interested in and the game has a real nice sense of scale.

But really it depends on what you're interested in. Have you played 4x space games before? What did you enjoy?

Space Empires mostly. I'm actually looking at Moo2 a bit. Might be good for some multiplayer games

Moo2 is one of the best, even to this day. I definitely recommend it.

I also personally found GalCiv2 to be my favorite, though there are many people who disagree with me.
Stardrive is also a very sexy game, and getting even sexier.
Sexy is my favorite adjective.

[BigD145]

I'm fond of space being space, not flat paper. SotS has that.

[moghopper]

What about stardrive? I've heard good and bad things...

[sluissa]

I thought SotS essentially gave you flat paper once you got to the combat portion of it anyway. Nothing wrong with that. SotS does a lot of things right and has some interesting takes on the way to do other things which makes it stand out a bit, but for me, the 3D strategic map just makes things hard to navigate, while the 2d combat can seem a little simplistic, although usually satisfying once you start unlocking some techs.

Distant Worlds is a great concept, but for me, I've run into bugs, which at least one time caused me to lose all my progress in a game. (partially my fault, game crashed, autosave failed, and I was sort of just depending on the autosave) Still, I do love how it actually models civilian ships that aren't under your direct control. I've actually very successfully run a "tourism empire" where I only had a few minor warships around to take care of natural dangers(space lobsters, and the like) and the rest of my empire was geared towards building tourist stations, a moderate, but fairly successful mining branch and generally fast push colonizing and trading to make money to hire protection from outside in case of war/pirates/etc.

Love Galciv back in the day, but it was quite simplistic compared to most space 4x games. Still, that appeals to some, but for me it falls too close to the Firaxis games of similar nature and I usually just go with one of Sid's games instead.

[BigD145]

I thought SotS essentially gave you flat paper once you got to the combat portion of it anyway. Nothing wrong with that. SotS does a lot of things right and has some interesting takes on the way to do other things which makes it stand out a bit, but for me, the 3D strategic map just makes things hard to navigate, while the 2d combat can seem a little simplistic, although usually satisfying once you start unlocking some techs.

That's the point. Three dimensions is not supposed to be easy.

[sluissa]

Not hard to navigate in the "well, it's more of a challenge this way" but hard to navigate in "how do I get the fecking view to twist around so I can see it in a way that makes sense."

[BigD145]

Not hard to navigate in the "well, it's more of a challenge this way" but hard to navigate in "how do I get the fecking view to twist around so I can see it in a way that makes sense."

My statement stands! SotS did 3D fine. Just spin it around until you see it. Then prepare to be attacked.

[Wiles]

What about stardrive? I've heard good and bad things...

I imagine a lot of the bad press it has gotten stems from people feeling a bit cheated. The game was released as early access with a lot of talk of continued development. That didn't really happen, there were a few updates but nothing to the scale of what the developer talked about. Instead he started working on a new game.

It's not a bad game, I enjoyed my time with the early access version. I haven't bothered playing it much since it was officially released because not a whole lot has changed. As far as 4x games go this would be on the lightweight end, it's fun but doesn't really come anywhere near to the depth of something like Distant Worlds.

I don't really feel like I could recommend the game at 30$, you could get a lot more value for your money on other games. But it's decent enough to pick up on sale if you like space RTS/4X games.

[BFEL]

Well as I said before, I personally like Stardrive.
Maybe I would have felt cheated if I had been there for the promises and such, but I wasn't and I don't.

Also as to the whole "3Dv2D" thing I must say that while I WOULD like to have 3D, none of the 4X games I really like have it, so yeah.

Actually that brings up a nice point. What kind of things are you looking for Mr. Mog? I mean like what would make or break the game for you?
FEATURES MAN, LETS TALK FEATURES.