Welcome Star Legacy Development Group!

[jars_u]

I've played many of them myself and thought it was a fairly good history for the time frame it covered - couldn't really find anything comparable for 2002 - Present. But this covered some:

http://www.spacesector.com/blog/tag/4x-game/

It does show how far we have come in a lot of respects from 5.25 floppies to now. I understand the need for MA$$ appeal - good game design often I think has to be about capturing those KISS compromises without succeeding in simply making everyone unhappy.

Here is another good article about what made MOO2 the "gold standard" for many:

Master of Orion 2: The Formula behind the Success

[MarcoPolo]

MOO2 was an amazing breakthrough for Space Empire games and there is no denying that. But it isnt the pinnacle of gaming dynamics and shouldn't be touted as the best games of this genre will ever become.

I have fond memories of many 80s and early 90s games too, but I can see many ways of improving things with todays graphics and power.

Please make a game worthy of the genre shrapnel guys. Please look at some of my ideas and use them, I charge no royalties lol. Look at Hagemonia for minimal gfx styling and dont make this another spreadsheets in space borefest. I just want a wholly satisfying game.

I still think the solution for combat would be a realtime 2d plane simulation ala Gratuitous Space Battles. This being if gfx requirements are a big concern. Otherwise minimal 3d like Sins of a Solar Empire. Now lets stop posturing over simultaneous turns vs TBS and get this game up already lol

Peace guys.

[Xrati]

Speaking of 5¼ floppies, I still have the box, disk and manual for Starflight!
Wow, what a reminder that was!!!

[jars_u]

Originally Posted by MarcoPolo

MOO2 was an amazing breakthrough for Space Empire games and there is no denying that. But it isnt the pinnacle of gaming dynamics and shouldn't be touted as the best games of this genre will ever become.

I think time has a way of warping memories, X-Com is still one of my favorite games of all time and nothing in that vein has ever equaled it (Chaos Gate was close but not quite) but that doesn't mean I want to play it today. Those circumstances that made it great are gone.

I agree we should look forward - and borrow and even down right steal from the best examples available now to make SL the next gold standard.

And firing arcs too...



JK!

Here are some other interesting projects that only go to show people want a good 4X and will pay for one.

• Free Orion

• Distant Worlds

• Thousand Parsec

• Aphelion: Phoenix Rising

[Urendi Maleldil]

Hey jars, what were some of the things you really liked about X-Com?

[Xrati]

Chaos Concepts released a version a few years ago. UFO Extra-Terrestrial. They are now working on a UFO-ET 2.

I don't know about Jars, but things I liked about X-Com were:
-LOS/Fog of War was really well done.
-Jumping off roofs (LOS) to avoid getting killed by aliens.
-Lightness/darkness vision modifiers.
-Multiple positions for your soldiers.
-Enough maps/ships to keep the game interesting.

Many more. Overall it was a well developed game.

[Louist]

-destructible buildings/terrain

There hasn't been a second X-com, but it has inspired a ton of spiritual successors, even good ones.

UFO:A games have been the most polished and likely biggest budget of the pack. I love them, but a lot of people don't. The pausable real-time combat throws a lot of people off, but with the right settings it essentially plays the same. The setting is different too, as you play a group of humanity rising from an an apocalyptic attack. Good game all-around, though.

For multiplayer, there are two games that essentially take the artwork and mechanics straight out of the original. The first is UFO2000, and the second... I don't recall the name of. Something like UFO: The Two Forces. These two feel like the original mainly because they ARE in every respect that matters. Multiplayer only, though.

UFO:ET, while I wanted to love it, hit the mark for me. The game felt clunky (and not in the way I had grown used to running X-Com on a modern machine), the levels weren't terribly engaging though attacking alien bases were hectic and dangerous enough to be a fun challenge... I don't regret buying it, exactly, but I haven't had it installed in a long time either.

UFO:AI is another game that plays a little closer to the originals, but with updated graphics and reworked weaponry. It's open-source and dependent on contributors, but is very active and puts out significant updates every month.

But.... yeah, about that Star Legacy...

[Arralen]

Another one:

X-Force: Fight For Destiny

Tried it out some time ago, and it looked quite promising. According to the forum, they're nearing v1.0 release ...

[jars_u]

From what I best remember about playing X-Com

* RPG aspect of seeing your soldiers advance in skill as well as being able to customize their equipment by mission/preference
* destructible terrain and environment
* suspense/atmosphere created in a lot of the missions by things like environment (still remember loving to set things on fire to light up the night)
* always liked the tactical battles best and really thought of that as the meat of the game but the other components - base building/research/world map were meaningful without being cumbersome
* turn based - more thinking or at least planning and less button clicking (I enjoy a good RTS but that is a very different game and think "hybrid" systems are dangerous (aka bad).

[Timstone]

Threadjackers!
Makes me think about some good nightshifts X-Com though...