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View Full Version : Looking for Spaceship Design games



ran88dom99
2013-03-19, 11:37 PM
I want to design and then fly or command a fleet of ships like Moo2, Galciv, SE4, Starfarer, Battleships Forever or Gimbal. Kerbal is too simulationy for me.

Grif
2013-03-19, 11:42 PM
Sword of the Stars? :smallwink:

Ellye
2013-03-19, 11:59 PM
There's Endless Space also, in the X4 genre.

And in the shooter-action-RPG genre, there's SPAZ.

Psionic Dog
2013-03-20, 05:41 PM
Aurora4x is heavy on ship design and fleet command.

Of course, the graphics there might be a problem since it visually looks like a cross between dwarf fortress and an excel spreadsheet.

Leecros
2013-03-20, 06:03 PM
I second Sword of the Stars and if you like it then Sword of the Stars 2.

Despite the bad you may have heard about Sword of the Stars 2 it's infinitely better now than it was a year ago.

TaRix
2013-03-21, 10:33 AM
How about Gratuitous Space Battles? You don't command your fleet directly, but you can 'program' them to react different ways to different situations.

Cikomyr
2013-03-21, 10:48 AM
Sword of the Star is an excellent Starship design game. A bit restrictive at times, IMHO, but clever ship design really give awesome results. You'll be proud of your own smartness when you manage great combos.

CarpeGuitarrem
2013-03-21, 10:52 AM
How about Gratuitous Space Battles? You don't command your fleet directly, but you can 'program' them to react different ways to different situations.
Yeah, this and SotS were what came to my mind. And you can customize your ships in GSB, in terms of what weapons, crew, armor, power, etc. they have.

zombie
2013-03-21, 11:43 AM
you may want to try stardrive or distant worlds. stardrive is currently in beta (you can get it from steam) and is the most fun 4x i played in years, and distant worlds is somewhat pricey but supposedly worth it 4x sometimes described as 'victoria in space'. both have meaningful ship construction but in my opinion stardrive does it much better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6zjRD-F4P4 here's a preview of stardrive, ship construction around 3rd minute

Rosstin
2013-03-21, 02:53 PM
FTL is excellent, although is less about customization and more about not dying.

Recaiden
2013-03-22, 09:30 AM
I want to design and then fly or command a fleet of ships like Moo2, Galciv, SE4, Starfarer, Battleships Forever or Gimbal. Kerbal is too simulationy for me.

Is there a reason to stop playing MoO2? :smalltongue: MoO3 is also okay on the ship-combat front, for all its flaws.


How about Gratuitous Space Battles? You don't command your fleet directly, but you can 'program' them to react different ways to different situations.
Seconded. You build ships, you have them fight other ships. Lots of strategy.

Siosilvar
2013-03-22, 09:32 AM
Is there a reason to stop playing MoO2?

Not having DOSBox (http://www.dosbox.com/). :smallwink:

CarpeGuitarrem
2013-03-22, 10:27 AM
Not having DOSBox (http://www.dosbox.com/). :smallwink:
For $2.39, GOG.com has you covered. (http://www.gog.com/gamecard/master_of_orion_1_2)

ran88dom99
2013-03-22, 10:36 AM
Thanks for all your suggestions. I am going to need to try SPAZ Aurora GSB and Stardrive. ES's design is all about strategy and its just simple overall, like Galciv2, which I should not have put in op. I still play moo2 but sometimes you need something new you know?

Sots 2's problem seems to be the over-world. Designing ships and tactical battles are fun. Any chance it could get a mission mode like Starsector (Starfarer)? Maybe there are people willing to submit savegames right before a nice big battle?

Siosilvar
2013-03-22, 10:45 AM
For $2.39, GOG.com has you covered. (http://www.gog.com/gamecard/master_of_orion_1_2)

Unlike Baldur's Gate 2, my old Master of Orion 2 disc still works, so I don't have a reason to buy it thrice.

The suggestion works for anyone who doesn't have the game, though I warn against too much GOG; if you're anything like me, you'll have bought so many old games that you'll never have time to play any of them.


I remember trying out a game recently that was a real-time 4X with some ship design. It had "Star" in the title, but beyond that I'm afraid I don't remember. Ship design was basically just dragging components (circles) onto the ship, and it didn't matter where they were. You could change sizes and there were some components that attached to other systems.

EDIT: Found it. It's called "Star Ruler". The demo only lets you play with 3 AI players, though.

tigerusthegreat
2013-03-22, 04:09 PM
Space Empires is a good series, 4 and 5 are really good and available on steam.

Grif
2013-03-22, 09:12 PM
Unlike Baldur's Gate 2, my old Master of Orion 2 disc still works, so I don't have a reason to buy it thrice.

The suggestion works for anyone who doesn't have the game, though I warn against too much GOG; if you're anything like me, you'll have bought so many old games that you'll never have time to play any of them.


I remember trying out a game recently that was a real-time 4X with some ship design. It had "Star" in the title, but beyond that I'm afraid I don't remember. Ship design was basically just dragging components (circles) onto the ship, and it didn't matter where they were. You could change sizes and there were some components that attached to other systems.

EDIT: Found it. It's called "Star Ruler". The demo only lets you play with 3 AI players, though.

Star Ruler is a horribly unintuitive and soulless game though, similar in vein to Endless Space. They just lack the charm of say... SotS or GalCiv.

Rockphed
2013-03-22, 10:54 PM
Aurora4x is heavy on ship design and fleet command.

Of course, the graphics there might be a problem since it visually looks like a cross between dwarf fortress and an excel spreadsheet.

Aurora might one day be a good game to play. It needs to be developed more for that. Also, it needs to get away from creator set aspect ratios. I cannot play the game because my laptop screen is not tall enough.


Star Ruler is a horribly unintuitive and soulless game though, similar in vein to Endless Space. They just lack the charm of say... SotS or GalCiv.

For all their flaws, SotS and Galciv do have lots of charm and unique flavor. Sometimes I think they have too much unique flavor.

On the other hand, their placing of humans at opposite ends of the unique spectrum makes for thought provoking moments.

Siosilvar
2013-03-22, 11:58 PM
Star Ruler is a horribly unintuitive and soulless game though, similar in vein to Endless Space. They just lack the charm of say... SotS or GalCiv.

That was definitely one of my issues with it, and why I didn't go beyond the demo. The tutorial made sense, but i couldn't fit it all together in game.

Emmerask
2013-03-23, 08:57 AM
Well star drive recently came out on steam (well preorder with beta excess to be exact),
I havenīt played it myself yet but from what Iīve seen it seems excellent especially in the ship design part.

Downside is that its completely in realtime, though it does seem to have the same depth as its round based counterparts... I do not know how manageable it is in the end then.

Once the game has multiplayer it will be an instant buy for me :smallbiggrin:

http://media.desura.com/images/games/1/17/16380/design.1.png

Cikomyr
2013-03-23, 10:11 AM
Aurora might one day be a good game to play. It needs to be developed more for that. Also, it needs to get away from creator set aspect ratios. I cannot play the game because my laptop screen is not tall enough.



For all their flaws, SotS and Galciv do have lots of charm and unique flavor. Sometimes I think they have too much unique flavor.

On the other hand, their placing of humans at opposite ends of the unique spectrum makes for thought provoking moments.

What do you mean?

zombie
2013-03-23, 12:27 PM
Well star drive recently came out on steam (well preorder with beta excess to be exact),
I havenīt played it myself yet but from what Iīve seen it seems excellent especially in the ship design part.

Downside is that its completely in realtime, though it does seem to have the same depth as its round based counterparts... I do not know how manageable it is in the end then.

Once the game has multiplayer it will be an instant buy for me :smallbiggrin:

http://media.desura.com/images/games/1/17/16380/design.1.png

well actually stardrive is turn-based... it's just that one round is 5 seconds long:). it has an active pause system, so there's no real difference that i can see.

Hawriel
2013-03-24, 09:56 PM
Kinetic Void has been released for steam under the green light program.

It is a sand box ship builder game.

http://badlandstudio.com/kinetic-void/

Kane
2013-03-25, 06:01 AM
I'd second/push Sword of the Stars here.

SotS 1 is big on designing ships and crushing your enemies under barrages of high-energy annihilation. For quite a while, I considered it the be-all and end-all of 4Xing. I just started a new game last Saturday. Chugging along nicely and slowly but inevitably spreading my loving children among the stars.


SotS II is...

Uh....

Well, if you look up a review, it isn't that bad. Concept/mechanics wise, it seems like the best game ever. In practice, it needs a lot of optimization. I'd be busy trying to learn it except I can't bring myself to wait 40 seconds per turn for a 300-700 turn game.

Their ship design and combat is the alpha and omega of space RTS as far as I'm concerned. It's beautiful, full of sexy ships and weapons, and really feels like the only thing it's lacking is a map editor/skirmish mode.

(I consider the setting to be pretty cool too, though that may not be relevant here.)

The old Petroglyph 'Empire at War' was also pretty neat. No designing but good RTS starship combat, I thought.

ran88dom99
2013-03-25, 05:29 PM
Aurora might one day be a good game to play. It needs to be developed more for that. Also, it needs to get away from creator set aspect ratios. I cannot play the game because my laptop screen is not tall enough.
Very true. The instal can corrupt windows with a misclick. Having " . , " set up correctly still creates 39 type errors. Took me an hour to find the solution. Unit behavior can get retarded easily. Most things require absurd amounts of micromanagement and menu moving. And for what? The game mechanics are not complicated or nuanced. If you want a 4x with loads of complexity and micromanagement play SE4.

I read in the forums that the windows size problem can be solved in 'options' of the first menu. Edit; Aurora must be played multiplayer with a game master. Single player its useless.

Rockphed
2013-03-26, 02:43 AM
What do you mean?

What I mean is that in SotS humans have an almost unique system for moving around space. Their ships rather different, though not unique structure. Also, humans have the only useful orbital bombardment system in the game in the form of the node missile. As a note, node missiles could be used in early game versions to not only destroy enemy population, but also to destroy enemy orbital emplacements. And, they were too big to shoot down effectively.

On the other hand, while in the lore of GalCiv2 humans invented the hyperdrive, they play like average middle of the roaders. I don't recall exactly what boni they get, but I don't remember it being particularly interesting. They aren't bad, they just don't have any interesting quirks to distinguish them from anyone else. To top it off, there is a second race that looks exactly like humans.


I read in the forums that the windows size problem can be solved in 'options' of the first menu.

I found the "short windows" option. It still left me unable to read the bottom row of buttons of most screens.

Grif
2013-03-26, 02:55 AM
What I mean is that in SotS humans have an almost unique system for moving around space. Their ships rather different, though not unique structure. Also, humans have the only useful orbital bombardment system in the game in the form of the node missile. As a note, node missiles could be used in early game versions to not only destroy enemy population, but also to destroy enemy orbital emplacements. And, they were too big to shoot down effectively.
I think you mean automated payload delivery system. :smallwink: Orbital bombardment can be done by pretty much every ship in the game. That said, node missiles are hilariously gimmicky and can be shot down if you have phasers or the sort.


On the other hand, while in the lore of GalCiv2 humans invented the hyperdrive, they play like average middle of the roaders. I don't recall exactly what boni they get, but I don't remember it being particularly interesting. They aren't bad, they just don't have any interesting quirks to distinguish them from anyone else. To top it off, there is a second race that looks exactly like humans.

They have Super Diplomacy (from Dark Avatar onwards), which really means you can buddy buddy with everyone. In all other respects, yes, they're just generic middle-roaders.