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[Citiral]

I'm not sure if we are allowed to ask for games here, but if we are, i'm would want to ask if anyone knows a realtime 4x/realtime galactic conquest game, a bit like SPAZ(http://www.spacepiratesandzombies.com/) and starfarer (http://fractalsoftworks.com/).

I have been looking for this genre of games for a long time, and if anyone can recommend me one he will get a cookie.

Thanks in advance,

-Citiral

[Rift]

You could try star ruler, basically a realtime 4x space game.. [although you can pause/slow it down, which is useful if your say, designing ships or something]. I don't recall if theres a completely 2d option, but its not.. unmanageably 3d..
Theres also uh.. Sins of a solar empire, which is more a traditional rts, set in space... with large scale battles. It's more or less 2d... in that its galaxy-shaped, with only 1 path between solar systems [although perhaps multiple solar systems connected]


There are some full 3d-space combat games that sorta go into this vein, but as they are full 3d, don't match your criteria.

[Citiral]

3D is okay I guess, but i'm more looking for games like SPAZ where you take direct control over one ship, and plays a little bit like an RPG. (eg, level up your skills, get better ships over time,...), not a RTS game where you control massive army's and micromanage and micromanage the (ehum, please forgive me) **** out of everything.

EDIT: also, I just found this game: Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space which vaguely match my criteria, does anyone know if it's any good?

[Catastrophic lolcats]

Well I'm going to assume you mean the universe is 2d rather than the graphics being presented in 2d.

First off Star Ruler has an option to flatten the map so the universe is 2d. This was one of the things that lured me into the game since I'm not very good thinking in 3d in 4x space games. This can only be done by generating a new map with the 2d option selected so if a couple of offical single player scerinos are released you'd be forced to play in 3d.
Star ruler also has no turn based options. Persoanlly I find the turn based 4x games a bit easier to manage when you have a mighty empire but hey, it's what you're looking for.

Now I'll say a really uncommon one here since it's nice to have more choices. Star Wars: Empire at War. Know you might not be a big Star Wars fan, I know I'm not. Personally I thought the underlying mechanics would have worked better without the whole Star Wars thing but anyway.
The game is quite easily accessible  with a decent tutorial which means you won't be reading through a big thick guide on the net to find out what you're meant to be doing. The single player story mode is alright, if not a bit easy. The planets are all varied and each have their own bonuses and sometimes units. The game uses a single resource which eliminates all the micro management (assuming you don't like it).
It has it's flaws however and can't really be consider an epic example of 4x. The land battles are simple horrfic compared to the wonderfully done space battles (which was eye candy back in the day). The faction balance is a bit out the window. It's not very stragetic and is perhaps one of the most casual 4x games out there. The "universe" conquest mode can only support 2 people in multiplayer and singleplayer (I believe the expansion busted it to 3?).

In closing if your an avid 4x player you might want to mess around with Empire at War for a bit, maybe just to see Darth Vader and Obi Wan slap battle each other for a while if you like the Star Wars thing. Chances are you'll get bored of it after a few hours and it won't really change your life in anyway. It can however serve as a good introduction to the 4x series.

EDIT: Just saw your previous post. Seems like your looking more for a space sim rather than a 4x game. You could try something like Starscape which is a cheap little game thats fairly decent. I messed around with it for a little while but I didn't get hooked, seems to have quite the fanbase though.

Also skimmed through a couple of typos while I was there. I have the Whooping Cough (yes really, at my age) and I've been sucking on a little bit too much cough medicine.

[tompliss]

In the 4X type of game (but maybe too RTS-type, from what you just said) : Aurora.

In the other hand, a little indie space game : Flotilla (available on steam).
It's a dungeon crawl in space, basically (with procedurally generated space).

Also : Freelancer.
The (old?) game, where you control a ship (that you buy and equip), in space.
you can make the main quest, or side ones (randomized), be a pirate, a trader, an explorer, ...
playable with a mouse, and very arcade like !

And the known one : X3 ?
same as above, but much more a simulation one ...
with bigger and much slower ship and pace ...
and great stations, player-owned.

[Dsarker]

I love Empire at War. Land battles were mehish, like you said, but who ever bought a Star Wars game and expected its main focus to be on land battles?

[Catastrophic lolcats]

Hoth :3

[Dsarker]

Okay, I'll give you that. But I've never seriously been into the ground battles. It doesn't make sense for the Rebellion to commit to too many ground battles anyway, and the space battles are much cooler.

[MasterFancyPants]

I love Empire at War. Land battles were mehish, like you said, but who ever bought a Star Wars game and expected its main focus to be on land battles?

Star Wars: Battlefront?

Anyway, Distant Worlds (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=51575.0) is fairly realistic and has a large thread. However you are not the captain of a single ship, you just control the entire empire.

[Dsarker]

Okay, yes, but that was an FPS. Even so, the expansion put in space battles (even though they aren't all that good).

[Citiral]

Freelancer looks very interesting, i'm going to check it out. Also, does it have a big community, and it's not free, I presume?

[tompliss]

none of those i named are free

but Flotzilla (there is a Z, i think) is small indie : $5 or so,
and freelancer is quite old (but still has good graphics), so you can find it $5 on Ebay.
Freelancer has a nice community, and is moddable and has multiplayer... It feels like a little MMO, on some servers :
64 slots 24/7 servers, with a balancing mod were found 1-2 years ago, and should still be there

[Dsarker]

Freelancer still gets around on eBay? I've been having trouble finding it.


If you do find a copy, GEEEEEETEEEET
It is the BEST space combat sim I have ever played.

[Rift]

Hmm... Well, if 3d is ok, something interesting and unique is: Starshatter: The Gathering Storm, where you basically start as a pilot of a single little fighter in a space navy, and work your way up through the ranks in a dynamic-ish campaign, you can quickly lead squardrens of fighters, then captain a frigate, destroyer, cruiser, ect.. It becomes a bit rts if you become the highest ranking person in space and control the carrier, and thus can issue orders to the entire fleet.. however, even you can take poistions below your paygrade, so you can just choose not to control the carrier, and instead control say a battle group of destroyers or just one destroyer in a battlegroup... ect.

The campaign(s) are more or less wars for conquering between a couple space empires..

Theres no actual stat increases or anything, the only thing that levels up is rank.

Oh by the way, you get issued orders dynamicly in the battle n stuff... as the AI is actually in real time managing a battlefleet..

It's likely the most realistic space navy sim i've played. (realistic as to how the parts of the fleet work together, not the lasercannons)

[Croquantes]

I second Distant Worlds. It's a good game, with some unique features (plus it's realtime and 2D!).

Most notably, while you rule an Empire, dispatch ships, research and all that jazz, your empire also has a private sector scurrying about. You can't directly control the private sector, instead your citizens's spaceships go wherever they want, set up spacestations wherever they want, and usually wind up getting attacked by space monsters or pirates in a system you never even planned on expanding to.

Another great feature is the AI. You can define what level of automisation you want your Empire to have. So you can leave everything to the AI and grab something to eat, come back and see if the AI won that war, or colonised some planets. Or if you're a control freak, you can manage everything yourself, which might give you a headache once your Empire is 50+ worlds.