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[USEC_OFFICER]

@ aurora : I am aware that this game exists, but i could not find a decent "how to" yet that would explain the game to me. I like knowing -something- before even starting. For Dwarf Fortress the LP of captain duck did the trick.

Have you looked at the tutorial/walkthrough on the Aurora wiki? That helped me to understand the game, at least enough to play it.

[Ivefan]

Hmm... a Total war game long campaign perhaps?

[x2yzh9]

If you're into micromanaging, check out Supreme Ruler 2020. It makes DF look like a cakewalk.

[Deon]

You didn't comment on Fall From Heaven II and the latest modmods for it (Master of Mana, Orbis, RiFE), I recommend them for a long, fun and diverse RPG strategy. Every race is unique. Try MoM, they develop it quite extensively and it has a lot of cool mechanics even in comparison to FFHII, not to mentiont Civ IV.
http://masterofmana.com/

[Majestic7]

You are supposed to play Dom3 against live opponents. I said best PBEM ever. Some people love playing it single player though, I don't really belong to them.

Regarding Lost Empires, I found it bland and boring. I tried it with the mod fixes and uh, I guess it worked as intended, hard to say - mainly there was very little to do. Your galactic mileage may vary. I think SotS and Distant Worlds are loads better.

Oh yeah, Armada 2526 Supernova is another space 4X some people like. Again, I found it bland and boring, but everyone obviously doesn't share my opinion. 

[Metalax]

If you can find a copy, Malkari might fit what you are looking for.
http://www.strategy-gaming.com/reviews/malkari/index.shtml

[Sean Mirrsen]

Not sure about the buggyness of Lost Empires. I have no mods, and just the 1.0.7.0 patch. I found the game fairly stable and, until my old laptop broke, rather interesting. The game allows to cut colony management down to a minimum, and handles all battles automatically (though with a pretty visualizer), replacing all the usual management stuff with sheer large-scale strategy. Shame it doesn't have the same wealth of diplomatic options as GalCivII does. Or if it does have them, I never found them and/or never saw it fit to use them. I'm an omnicidal maniac when it comes to conquest, at least as long as I feel I have the upper hand.

It's kinda hard to focus on individual worlds when you're literally swimming in a sea of them though. I like that ring galaxy for a good reason - there's a clearly defined "corridor" that won't allow me to get swamped from an unexpected direction. I suck at multidirectional strategizing.

[Reelyanoob]

Master of Orion I and II. Play #1 first, I like it more, the controls are very streamlined. Go for Huge galaxy size obviously. Might be a it shortish after SEIV though.

Master of Orion III is even bigger, but had issues. I don't mind it though (after applying offiicial patches, it improved a lot, and there's a major fan-mod which is supposed to add even more)

Alpha Centauri - civ derived game, LOTS of cool stuff and wierdness.

Stworca, have you played the X-COM games? They aren't exactly sandbox, but they are pretty close to it. And they're hard, if that matters.

HAHAHA did you hear about the bug in X-Com 1 ? ALL the 5 difficulty levels were actually set to "beginner" and the game was so innovative, and difficult even on beginner that NOBODY EVER NOTICED (this is fixed obviously in some versions)

When X-Com 2 came out Microprose asked players for a "wish-list", veteran players asked for "more difficult settings".

They set the new Beginner level to the "Superhuman" settings from the original (what it was SUPPOSED to be!!), and the new hardest difficulty was like 4 levels harder than that!

X-Com 2 on Superhuman is utterly unbelievably difficult. Play the original first though, for the "classic" experience.

A tip for extending the X-Com game for as long as you can cope - find alien base, raid alien base but do not totally destroy it. Loot everything but leave at least 1 alien alive, then escape to your transport craft. You can constantly rotate squads to train rookies up this way, and BREAK THE BANK. This works even better in X-Com 2, with large two-part base missions with excellent weaponry to capture. Watch out for the lobsters, though.

I was pulling in 250 MILLION a month with this trick (25 times the normal budget) and had 4 squads training up at the same time. Normally you're hard-pressed to train a single squad at the start of the game.

btw, don't try the above at home. You WILL die, unless you know the game inside out.

[ChairmanPoo]

Dominion's AI performance improves if you use non-reclutable-independents (barring magic site ones) maps.

[Felius]

If "a few hundred solar systems to manage" and "dozens of fleets" are your cup of tea, look no further than Lost Empire: Immortals.

My favorite map:
http://dailypcgamereviews.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/lostempire-2011-01-12-13-10-11-271.jpg

That game looks awesome. Let me search google. Oh nice, it's made by paradox, so it means it should be in Gamers Gate. Oh, here it is, 10 bucks, sounds nice, everything seems alri- wait, "DRM: SecuROM"    Damn, I was looking foward it.

P.S. Linky: http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-LEI/lost-empire-immortals

Edit:

@ aurora : I am aware that this game exists, but i could not find a decent "how to" yet that would explain the game to me. I like knowing -something- before even starting. For Dwarf Fortress the LP of captain duck did the trick.
Aurora is a last resort.

You should check the fictions in the official aurora forums. Although they're kinda romanticized, they do give a pretty good hand. Also, does not take everything at once. Learn a piece of the game at a time, and even more so than DF, be prepared to lose everything you worked for. I also recommend cheating to learn certain pieces of the game. Give yourself all tech, a ridiculous amount of minerals all with 1 availability at your home planet (don't go over the hundreds millions, or it'll cause some errors), and just play around.

But yeah, it still is a horribly complex game, don't tackle it unless you really feel like it. It can be terrifically fun, but learning it is extremely painful.

[Majestic7]

Diplomatic AI in Lost Empires is psychotic. I remember having one solar system minor civilization as sort of pets, with all kinds of diplomatic broohaa. Despite all the assistance, they kept raiding me etc. There is simply no point in diplomacy, better just kill everyone. Blah. Oh and I think the last official patch removes SecuRom. In part to make it easier for modders to try and fix the game.

edit - X-Com II is crap. Mainly, many of the missions are torturously boring. There are these huge ships and you have to romp through million identical cabins to find the last alien hiding in a cupboard. Raaaaaaage. Just not worth the time and effort. X-Com and X-Com Apocalypse are epic.

[Stworca]

You don't mean Superhuman Lobsterman Tanker missions, do you? 

[engy]

Apparently they finally added Xcom AI to UFO the two Sides http://ufotts.ninex.info/.

You can finally invade Earth in Xcom.

[jester]

Sort of off the path a bit but the silent hunter series are good and fit some of your criteria.  Some of the close combat games were good on campaign mode too, not really sandbox, but differnt from much else out there and fiddly as hell in there own way

[kulik]

If you're in to wargaming then Steel panthers may be your thing. Or better Combat mission:Shock force and Combat mission: Battlefield normandy which is comming out in couple weeks.