What have you been playing recently? (Other than KSP)

[Slam_Jones]

Got hooked on Overwatch when they had their free weekend a while back.  It's been edging into my KSP time quite a bit lately...

(If anyone else plays, shoot me a PM and maybe we can play a few rounds together at some point )

Edited October 16, 2017 by Slam_Jones

[p1t1o]

Starpoint Gemini Warlords.

Meh, its ok. Better than the previous one, not as good as the "X" games (eg: X3:Terran Conflict).

[steve_v]

21 minutes ago, p1t1o said:

Starpoint Gemini Warlords.

Meh, its ok. Better than the previous one, not as good as the "X" games (eg: X3:Terran Conflict).

Recommend?
Love X3/TC/AP, been waiting for something similar since the X:R disappointment.
It'd be playing in wine, so I'll probably grab the "unofficial trial" to test first, but that's a bit of effort. Hows the trade/fight/build/think balance?

Reminds me, must go aggro the terrans some in my aggy... Nothing like the PSG for a bit of indiscriminate carnage.

[p1t1o]

5 minutes ago, steve_v said:

Recommend?
Love X3/TC/AP, been waiting for something similar since the X:R disappointment.
It'd be playing in wine, so I'll probably grab the "unofficial trial" to test first, but that's a bit of effort. Hows the trade/fight/build/think balance?

Reminds me, must go aggro the terrans some in my aggy... Nothing like the PSG for a bit of indiscriminate carnage.

Recommended, but its not mind blowing after X.

Its like a pretty X-lite. Actually its about the same level of pretty.

4X-wise its just not got the scope of the Xgames. Like its got factories, but you can only build a few in set places and they only generate one of the 3 "currency" resources. Its got a selection of ships+classes, but far fewer. Etc.

But the combat is different-ish and fun (Best part of the game, slightly more "naval" feel, auto-turret based, not too difficult), there are multiple ways to travel long distance, a variety of missions and the models are pretty.

X just has more of everything, but if you are looking for a decent space game that you dont have to think about as much, its a good choice.

I give it 6.8/10 - good enough to give a fix of space combat after you've gotten tired of managing an X3 career.

[Green Baron]

I binge-played X2 and X3 (the first version), i found the building part fun in the beginning. What annoyed me was that "space"-ships limp along at 100m/s (if tuned) and fly perfect straight lines between stations. I recall that X3 was more fun once i found out how to use the script language to do my own stuff, but in the end it got boring as well. It is a large open ended game but it gets repetitive, in principle the production chains of the factions are all the same, just the names and the designs change. The game can get big (like hundreds of factories and thousands of ships) but lacks a means to control all of them. Also, at some point far in the game, you are forced to fight because your sectors get overrun. You can cheat a bit by sending fleets in and let the computer do the find ("off sector fight" it was called) and building a fleet capable of doing so late game was expensive. Money was more of a matter than in KSP :-)

I quit playing when they moved to steam for drm.

But i see that it is available on GOG. For those who like to play without being watched over ;-)

 

[p1t1o]

17 minutes ago, Green Baron said:

I binge-played X2 and X3 (the first version), i found the building part fun in the beginning. What annoyed me was that "space"-ships limp along at 100m/s (if tuned) and fly perfect straight lines between stations. I recall that X3 was more fun once i found out how to use the script language to do my own stuff, but in the end it got boring as well. It is a large open ended game but it gets repetitive, in principle the production chains of the factions are all the same, just the names and the designs change. The game can get big (like hundreds of factories and thousands of ships) but lacks a means to control all of them. Also, at some point far in the game, you are forced to fight because your sectors get overrun. You can cheat a bit by sending fleets in and let the computer do the find ("off sector fight" it was called) and building a fleet capable of doing so late game was expensive. Money was more of a matter than in KSP :-)

I quit playing when they moved to steam for drm.

But i see that it is available on GOG. For those who like to play without being watched over ;-)

 

Just in case you werent already aware - Theres a coupla big total conversion mods, XRM and X-Tended, they expand the game hugely (ships, stations, missions, economy, graphics [a little], tools, stats, scripts, weapons. Its quite impressive), you might like checking them out. X-Tended for Terran Conflict is essentially a full sequel with a whole new plot and new universe whereas XRM is more a re-vamp of the base game.

lol I wouldnt worry too much about steam, theres no protection on the files, you can copy it over to a non-steam install just like KSP.

[sh1pman]

17 minutes ago, Green Baron said:

I binge-played X2 and X3 (the first version), i found the building part fun in the beginning. What annoyed me was that "space"-ships limp along at 100m/s (if tuned) and fly perfect straight lines between stations. I recall that X3 was more fun once i found out how to use the script language to do my own stuff, but in the end it got boring as well. It is a large open ended game but it gets repetitive, in principle the production chains of the factions are all the same, just the names and the designs change. The game can get big (like hundreds of factories and thousands of ships) but lacks a means to control all of them. Also, at some point far in the game, you are forced to fight because your sectors get overrun. You can cheat a bit by sending fleets in and let the computer do the find ("off sector fight" it was called) and building a fleet capable of doing so late game was expensive. Money was more of a matter than in KSP :-)

I quit playing when they moved to steam for drm.

But i see that it is available on GOG. For those who like to play without being watched over ;-)

 

I spent hundreds of hours in X games. The problem with these games is that there isn't much to do in late game. No point in capturing sectors, the races are going to take them back anyway. Constantly respawning Xenon fleets in their sectors, so you can't clear those out either. Also clunky out-of-sector combat meaning that you lose your freighters in pirate attacks all the time. The UI is terrible as well, you have to go through like 6 different menus to give an order to your ship. Bad fleet management, stupid capship AI, failing Terran economy... I can go on and on about it

Still, X3 is the best space sim I've ever played. I hope Egosoft doesn't screw up X4.

 

[p1t1o]

14 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

I spent hundreds of hours in X games. The problem with these games is that there isn't much to do in late game. No point in capturing sectors, the races are going to take them back anyway. Constantly respawning Xenon fleets in their sectors, so you can't clear those out either. Also clunky out-of-sector combat meaning that you lose your freighters in pirate attacks all the time. The UI is terrible as well, you have to go through like 6 different menus to give an order to your ship. Bad fleet management, stupid capship AI, failing Terran economy... I can go on and on about it

Still, X3 is the best space sim I've ever played. I hope Egosoft doesn't screw up X4.

 

For me its less that there is little to do late-game, more that there is no defining "success" objective.

But those are universal problems for all open-ended or sandbox style games, KSP included.

And hence, mods, in both cases

 

Edited October 17, 2017 by p1t1o

[steve_v]

25 minutes ago, p1t1o said:

Theres a coupla big total conversion mods, XRM and X-Tended

You missed that other one (assuming you include AP mods)...

15 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

The problem with these games is that there isn't much to do in late game.

Litcube's Universe. Adds some aggressive end-game foes to spoil your pretty empire, among other things. Not quite as polished (mainly re. ship models) as X-tended, but still quite good.
 

22 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

Still, X3 is the best space sim I've ever played. I hope Egosoft doesn't screw up X4.

Ditto.
 

3 minutes ago, p1t1o said:

For me its less that there is little to do late-game, more that there is no defining "success" objective.

There is that. You could call finishing the campaigns and unlocking all the start scenarios "success", but that kinda misses the point of "sandbox" IMO.
KSP doesn't really have an end goal either, unless you count unlocking all the tech. Kinda meh, but I still play it.
Both suffer from end-game blue-balls: Once you get all the shiny stuff, there's nothing left to use it for.

[p1t1o]

Some sandbox style games offer an option to "retire" which essentially just halts the game and gives you a nice ending screen with some relevant statistics of your career on it. I like that.

 

8 minutes ago, steve_v said:

You missed that other one (assuming you include AP mods)...

For some reason, for me AP doesnt "count". Something to do with it being an "interim" game or something.

Edited October 17, 2017 by p1t1o

[steve_v]

14 minutes ago, p1t1o said:

For some reason, for me AP doesnt "count". Something to do with it being an "interim" game or something.

It's really just TC with a shorter main plot, no corporation missions, some ship rebalancing, and a bunch of quality-of-life fixes.
From the sandbox perspective, I'd say it's actually better than TC.
AP started out as an interim game, but a bunch of community content (read: plots) was added with the later patches.

[Kevin Kyle]

iRacing

Elite Dangerous

Fallout 4

[sh1pman]

1 hour ago, steve_v said:

Litcube's Universe. Adds some aggressive end-game foes to spoil your pretty empire, among other things. Not quite as polished (mainly re. ship models) as X-tended, but still quite good

Yeah, I know about LU, but I played with XRM. I like racialized weapons and ships.

It also has beam weapons and a lot more ships than vanilla game. 

But the main reason why I chose XRM is because I got scared of opposing factions from LU

[Piatzin]

.............

 

 

 

 

 

There are other games aside from KSP?

 

Whaaat???

[NSEP]

Möhnekräfte

[Chel]

I've been playing Star Wars Battlefront II from 2005. Normally, people would be bored by the game, with it's 'old' graphics, but a visual enhancement mod, a few custom maps, and some tweaking to the vehicles (more damage, more speed, etc), turns it into a great experience on a rainy, three day long weekend.

[ARS]

Stellaris, Everspace and Homeworld series (I love space games)

Does anyone know any other game that lets us command/control a space warship?

[Bill Phil]

35 minutes ago, ARS said:

Stellaris, Everspace and Homeworld series (I love space games)

Does anyone know any other game that lets us command/control a space warship?

FTL. It's alright, but a little brutal.

There are a few RTS games with space warships... Star Wars: Empire at War is a decent one. But that's multiple ships.

[Chel]

1 hour ago, Bill Phil said:

Star Wars: Empire at War

One of the best Star Wars RTS's out there. I loved how you could create giant space fleets to take over the area, and once your ground forces landed you could call for bombing runs and orbital strikes from those ships.

Not to get into this too much, but I used to create a type of impenetrable fortress around my reinforcement points. I would just hold off the attacks until my bombing run or strike was ready, send some fast moving units or activate the ability to temporarily reveal a location, and destroy the enemy base. I would then just push my attack. 

And the mods! Even for a 10 year old game, all the mods mean that there's something new to try.

[Bill Phil]

6 hours ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

One of the best Star Wars RTS's out there. I loved how you could create giant space fleets to take over the area, and once your ground forces landed you could call for bombing runs and orbital strikes from those ships.

Not to get into this too much, but I used to create a type of impenetrable fortress around my reinforcement points. I would just hold off the attacks until my bombing run or strike was ready, send some fast moving units or activate the ability to temporarily reveal a location, and destroy the enemy base. I would then just push my attack. 

And the mods! Even for a 10 year old game, all the mods mean that there's something new to try.

Oh yeah. One of my favorite mods was the Stargate one, which changed all the units. That was a fun one.

[p1t1o]

14 hours ago, ARS said:

Stellaris, Everspace and Homeworld series (I love space games)

Does anyone know any other game that lets us command/control a space warship?

I cant take credit for this, I was put onto this one by someone else on these forums - I tried it and was very impressed, and its free! (for now)

https://cosmoteer.net/index.html

 

Then there's "FTL" which is best-in-class and you should definitely take a look.

Im guessing you're thinking more "warship" than "fighter", so I'll leave out most of those.

Starpoint Gemini Warlords (which I describe above) puts you in a series of ships starting from fighter and ending in battleships, with appropriately "shippy" combat. The "X" games (eg: X3:reunion etc. also described above) also have a selection of ships from fighter to battleship (and you can own+control a whole fleet eventually). I actually think the capital ship combat is pretty well done in the X games.

Then there's Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, which is a real-time interpretation of the Warhammer 40K game, I got quite a lot out of that one, its pretty cool. Though to make it "shippy" and not too hectic (given that these are warships) I have it on "slow" the whole time. But satisfying combat. In this one you generally command a fleet of 3-5 ships, from frigates to battleships and carriers.

"Void Destroyer" is also a pretty cool real-time stategy/space shooter hybrid which is done pretty well, again a selection from fighters to capital ships.

Hmm...what else...

I have also been on a search for "starship management" games for a while, they are a fairly rare breed, I think the only other thing I have on my books right now is "Starship Theory" which is a cute indie game still in Early Access, but looks like it has some potential.

[Eldrad_Ulthran]

16 hours ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

I've been playing Star Wars Battlefront II from 2005. Normally, people would be bored by the game, with it's 'old' graphics, but a visual enhancement mod, a few custom maps, and some tweaking to the vehicles (more damage, more speed, etc), turns it into a great experience on a rainy, three day long weekend.

I have been playing battlefront 2005 a hep too. My game has over ten gigabytes worth of mods and suchlike. Good to spend a couple of hours on.

[regex]

I picked up The Signal from Tolva the other night, pretty fun walking sim/open-world shooter. Not super challenging or frustrating but why does every exploration game have to have "spooky" levels? Drives me nuts.

[Cydonian Monk]

Hit F3. Be the Cogmind. ASCII is love, ASCII is life.

http://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/index.html

[steve_v]

8 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Hit F3. Be the Cogmind. ASCII is love, ASCII is life.

That looks... Awesome. No GNU/Linux port though.