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[EagleV]

A quick search didn't reveal any topic about Stars!, and I really wanted to show you this . It's an ancient 4X space sim, and as it's turnbased, it's just perfect for those lazy, hot days when you're supposed to study/work but just can't. You can play it multiplayer, but that involves sending the turn file to the person who is hosting every time . Not really a problem though, and me and some friends already played some matches.

Now for the fun part.

Every spaceship is fully customizable. That is, you get a hull with, say, 5 slots, and you can fill these as you want. Of course, most slots are 'only weapons' or 'only armor/shields' or something, but still, you can make whatever you want, depending on your opponents strong and weak points, your economy, your research, etc.

It's quite difficult to get the hang of it (See also: DF), but very addicting (again, see DF). I can't imagine nobody has tried it yet, so tell me what you think of it

EDIT: The wiki. You will need it

[Il Palazzo]

I own this, loved the brick-like manual and played this to death.
I don't really think it so great anymore, though. It's too much of a spreadsheet management and not enough of "cool stuff".

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Sounds like a simpler Space Empires V.  Oh Space Empires V, how I wish you weren't so unwieldy in your glorious bulkyness.

[EagleV]

Sounds like a simpler Space Empires V.  Oh Space Empires V, how I wish you weren't so unwieldy in your glorious bulkyness.

I've never played SEV, but for some reason I can hardly believe Stars is simpler

[Il Palazzo]

It is simpler in a sense that it's got less "fun stuff" added. SEV is in turn simpler than Stars! because it lacks all those glorious equations for e.g. mass driver damage, or ship's cloaking efficiency vs it's mass, or interception points for two fleets with ramscoop engines, of X total mass, traveling at different warp speed through a mine field consisting of Y kind of mines, etc.

On a side note, I remember there was a remake(or a sequel?) in development called Stars Supernova some few years back. They managed to get some serious work done with it, but then the project somehow died silently.

[Tilla]

Stars! was my favorite game of all time

[EagleV]

@Tilla: Was, or still is?

@Il Palazzo: I've heard about Supernova, I think it was a remake with 'better' graphics and more automatisation, and a clearer manual/tutorial.

[Taniec]

Stars! is a great game, but be prepared to get a Ph.D in math to be any good at it.

[Il Palazzo]

@Il Palazzo: I've heard about Supernova, I think it was a remake with 'better' graphics and more automatisation, and a clearer manual/tutorial.

Yeah, the art on their (now nonexistent) site was quite nice. There was also going to be a diplomatic and spying system implemented. Too bad it's gone now.

[Gunner-Chan]

I was intrested in this game at one point, but it feels like managing an empire through spreadsheets... Kinda confusing.

[Il Palazzo]

Damn, I really liked the art of Supernova:
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/015/015220/imgs_1.html

[bobmi74]

How did you get the serial for it?  The wiki says something about contacting somebody at the autohost site.  I sent an email, but should I expect a reply?

[Il Palazzo]

I bought mine from a retailer in a nice, oversized box, back in the 20th century(damn I'm old).

[EagleV]

That Supernova looks nice, even better than what I hoped for .

[Virex]

Hehe, the makers sure had humor. For example, in screen shot 29:

Enviromental Sabotage: Poison the atmosphere. Scorch the earth. Tromp on the flower beds.

It's a shame the dev teama and the publisher split up, because the publisher now has all the artwork and no intent to continue the game, while the devs have the code but they can't use it since it's deeply entwined with the artwork...