Game Comparrisons.

[PsychoTechFreak]

quote:

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Originally posted by Richard:
BOTF has faults but the overall game design makes it rather addictive.

...

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BOTF is still one of my Favorites (maybe 5% of the time that I spend for SEIV). But I guess the AI is cheating, I remember a game test where they have proved it, especially with Intel attacks, which makes Intel almost worthless in my opinion.

P.S.: Cheating AI; this seems to be the only way for some software developers to (almost) beat the human brain.



[This message has been edited by PsychoTechFreak (edited 02 June 2001).]

[Askan Nightbringer]

BOTF?
Baah.
Played it for a while with a mate on cheapernet but the memory leaks were horrendous and we had to save and reboot periodically. The later patches seem to fix it a bit but by then I'de mastered the AI so it didn't matter.
AI in modern games will never be great, not because of poor programming but because these new fangled games are so complex. The player will always find a tactic the AI is not good at countering.
So I think cheating is alright if it makes a game more challenging. I just wish games had more options on how you would let the computer "cheat".

So my final list for the Spacey strategy games would be -
1. SE4 (Of course)
2. Moo2
3. Moo1
4. The original Reach for the Stars (AI was hard, gotta support my countrymen too!)
5. BOTF
6. Imperium Galatica 2 (never did it for me)


Askan

[kosh]

I would like to add some other games to the list:

1. The original Imperium Galcium (not the PC Version but the C-64 Version). For its time is was great.

2. Imperium Galatica I. I thought the battle system was excellent. The rest was either avarge at best.

3. VGA Planets - stricly PBEM (my second fav. game after SEIV, nothing is like fighting other humans, graphics are ok, the battle system is very bad, simple model but somehow the game works

I was very unhappy with RFTS II (the first was a classic).
I also felt the BOTF was somehow limited, Did they ever release a patch or mods of any sort for that game.

Anyway in my humble openion my ranking:

1. SE IV
2. VGAP
3. MOO 2
4. MOO 1
5. Imp Gal (c64)
6. RFTS I / SE III
7. BOTF
8. Stars!
9. Pax Imp I(Mac)
10. Imperium Galatica 1

Somebody should compile a list, I own most of these games- it would be great to see the history of these great 4x games.

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[Atrocities]

Yes, there were several mods released for BOTF as well as two patches.

Most of which can be found at most hard core trek forum sites or links from there.

[tictoc]

Gotta say S.E.4, but also gotta say cause it's not mentioned here is Sid (the man) Meier's SMAC & SMACX they are up there with it, please don't berate me for it, it's purely a personal thing.

tic

[capnq]

quote:

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Gotta say S.E.4, but also gotta say cause it's not mentioned here is Sid (the man) Meier's SMAC & SMACX they are up there with it, please don't berate me for it, it's purely a personal thing.

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Why would anybody berate you for that? SMAC/X is another great game. I'm looking forward to the roleplaying sourcebook for it that Steve Jackson Games has licenced for GURPS as well.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[ZeroAdunn]

Bought BOTF, interesting game. Some excellent ideas but overall it was a let down. Loved their idea of turn based 3d combat. They just didn't implement it right. What would be a cool game would be a 3/4 view real time space strategy games similar to starcraft (only entirely in space, no ground fighting) with tons of maps all conected together via some sort of warp point system. (I actually began work on such a game, but I suck at game making so I gave up)

[kosh]

There is a lot of other games out there, mostly freeware, or shareware. I would love to find more about them and help them to try to be like SE IV one day
Anybody aware of a web site that tracks 4x games

[PvK]

PvK rates:
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SE4
(Beats SE3 mainly due to customizability.)
SE3
(I prefer several SE3 things to SE4 things.)
MOO2
(I prefer SE3, but it does some things better.)
Pax Imperia - Eminent Domain
(Too bad it wasn't better developed.)
Imperium Galactum (SSI / Atari 8-bit)
(Very good for its time, but limited.)
Cosmic Balance II (SSI / Atari 8-bit)
(Muahaha - linked to Cosmic Balance I for highly-detailed SFB-like tactical combat resolution... a true madman's unplayable monster game.)
Imperium (Atari ST)
(Seemed unplayable but had some very neat advanced ideas.)
Galaxy (Avalon Hill / Atari 8-bit)
(Funky BASIC game - almost elegant but spoiled by luck-based combat.)

Only briefly looked at, so I won't rate:
RFTS
BOTF
Pax Imperia I (Mac)
Imperium Galactica
MOO1
Gazillionaire

PvK