SpaceSimCentral

I tend to enjoy space-based 4X games such as Birth of the Federation, Gal Civ 2, Sins of a Solar Empire, and Endless Space. However, the more I play such games, the more I notice that the "eXterminate" aspect of 4X is often an annoyance to me. I love colonizing new worlds, researching higher level technologies, building up resources, customizing the structures or abilities of each world, and really streamlining my galactic empire, but just when I start getting some really elegant construction going, some alien empire starts knocking on my door and either smashes things to pieces, or forces me to divert funding to military construction so I can fend them off. And yes, I realize that this may be a REALLY unusual attitude towards gaming (*gasp* Someone who doesn't like to fight??? Impossible!), but hey, that's me.  So what I realized is this: the game I've really been wanting to play all along is, essentially, Sim City in space. Let's call it Sim Galaxy or something. A game that will allow me to completely customize my galactic empire one lovely, micro-managed detail at a time, but without all that pesky combat complicating things. Gal Civ 2 and Endless Space so far seem to be the closest I've come to that experience, if you set up large enough galaxies with few enough (and friendly enough) enemy empires. Birth of the Federation could often play this way for hundreds of turns, but that's only because the enemy AI in that game very, very rarely attacked anyone unprovoked. So my question is, does the game I'm looking for actually exist? I was trying to Google search things, but that led me here, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. Any helpful suggestions are welcome, even if it means playing a modded game, etc. Thanks in advance!

Hi Tallera257Firstly, welcome to the SSC. As for a game to consider, one I have been watching develop for quite some time is Far Colony. You might wish to have a look at that. Here is it's website and here is it's own forum section on the SSC. Hope that helps you.

To my knowlegde, you actually mentioned one 4x aspect game which is as complete as one could wish: Endless Space. The focus is on strategy, alas it's not real-time but turn-based. It's comparable to the Masters Of Orion series but much, much more complex and with stunning grafics.I don't know about any other such game which is not boresome and where you could for sure say: "I don't know what's going to happen next". With Endless Space you don't know, it's up to you but you must be damn good to achieve your goals. Personally I don't like 4x games because you are essentially an observer, not an actor. I imagine that in Endless Space you are setting up things in the menus 90% of the time, the other 10% you just watch nice cutscenes and that's it. That's not my idea of a space game. Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong. Games I personally like:Starwraith games, Evochron Mercenary: The most versatile, but it's action only, it lacks strategy as for interacting with factionsStarwars Battlefront II: A good mix of strategy and action on the ground and in space (60-40 %)Parkan Series; good mix of space + planet actionThe Elite series for being original. Both action and strategy (though limited) Games I don't like because too naive for the genre:Top-down view space games, 3rd-person-view space games: the audience should be up to 12 years old provided there's constructive content, which means good strategy should be included (which is a rare gem).Exception: EGA Trek, a DOS game from the 90s, and only because I'm a Star Trek fan... XenonS

Sound like you are looking for a more management type of game something like Space bucks [url]http://www.mobygames.com/game/win3x/space-bucks[/url] There are two Kickstarter running at the moment you might be interested in [url]http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/3749-what-is-colonisation-moonbase-and-how-can-i-support-it/[/url] and [url]http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/3730-race-to-mars/[/url] Not a player of 4X games myself but is there no option to turn the enemy AI off?.

Thanks for all the advice from everyone who replied!  @XenonS, I actually prefer turn-based strategy games to the RTS's. I like to be able to think things through at my own pace and not feel rushed, so I actually really like that aspect of Endless Space.  @Pinback, I will definitely keep an eye on the two games you pointed out on Kickstarter, although I'm not sure either is quite what I'm looking for. I actually really like the descriptions of SpaceBucks! LOL, it's soooo old, but I might consider trying to find a copy anyway, just to try it out (I'm sure the graphics will make my eyes bleed, but wth). As I suspected based on the responses, it looks like the EXACT game I was hoping to find doesn't really exist, but I will definitely try a few of the suggestions, and keep hoping for someone to make a "single player" mod for Endless Space. If I had *any* programming know-how at all I might consider trying to do it myself, but that's just not part of my skill set.  Any other suggestions will be welcome!

"Sim Galaxy", a space-related game with the philosophy of Sim City would really be nice, the problem is: It would not sell well to make the effort worth for any developper or publisher. Maybe such projects have already died on Kickstarter, I don't know.What could interest you, although not a game, is a sort of CAT tool used by architechts and engineers to construct and make their projects view in 3D to their clients. For sure these tools are not freely available and they will cost much more than a game :)It's just an idea for your research. XenonS