Lithose
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StarDrive 2 on Steam
33% off for a while, just got tossed up. Wanted to make a thread specifically for this, since I really like 4x with ship design, and actual combat that makes the ship design matter more than abstractions. If you've played Star Drive 1, this game so far seems to be like that one, except everything I wished was changed? Was. It's turn based now. Some of the dumber ship module stuff was fixed. Some of the more idiotic systems were fixed (Like troop transportation literally being a click) and a host of other issues.
Ship design in the game is a 2d grid system. You get a layout of your ship with X number of squares to fill. And a bunch of modules to fill them in with. Armor, engines, power plants, capacitors (Ammo for energy weapons), munitions, shields sensors ect (You get the point.)...How you lay your ship out matters in the battle screen because directional damage is a thing--so if you're shot on your left side, and your armor modules are toast on that side, the munition will travel in and hit the first component it finds from that side (if it's one of your reactors/power plants, whole ship dies--so placement is pretty important.)...Also, the 2d battle screen is not abstracted for weaponry--it's physics based. So very fast ships can avoid slower munitions so mass vs thrust is super important. But there are specific weapon systems that track, or shoot very fast ballistics (Like flak) to handle it. Anyway, wide variety of ways to design a ship thanks to that. (No idea if the end game suffers from one design to rule them all, haven't gotten there yet.) In addition , ground combat is also a 2d battle screen. With troops you can equip and train ect. It's like a mini (And admittedly more bare bones) Xcom. But it makes planetary take over pretty cool.
The strategic screen is your standard 4x. Labor/Science/Production--Very Galc Civ 2. But it has some additions that make it interesting. Like it's trade routes are automated, you just need transports. So being low on food, if you have an extra transport, the game will automatically set up a run from a harvest planet to the low on food one (ect). The strategy screen is surprisingly deep for how simple everything is. It also ties in ship design pretty well with how they work fuel in (In your own systems, fuel doesn't run out. But go outside and you use it fast--if you run out your ship is useless and slowly crawls back to a space station. So before pushing deep into an opponents territory you either need to claim territory of your own, or build your ships with extra fuel capacity--little stuff like that makes the game pretty neat so far.)
It might all end up being shit though, for those who like 4x you know end game can turn into crap. I only have 5 hours in, so can't say for sure. But so far, if you're looking for a decent 4x to design ships in, this is fun! Going to try Gal Civ 3 and see how that is too (But I'm pretty sure it's all abstraction for ship combat.)
33% off for a while, just got tossed up. Wanted to make a thread specifically for this, since I really like 4x with ship design, and actual combat that makes the ship design matter more than abstractions. If you've played Star Drive 1, this game so far seems to be like that one, except everything I wished was changed? Was. It's turn based now. Some of the dumber ship module stuff was fixed. Some of the more idiotic systems were fixed (Like troop transportation literally being a click) and a host of other issues.
Ship design in the game is a 2d grid system. You get a layout of your ship with X number of squares to fill. And a bunch of modules to fill them in with. Armor, engines, power plants, capacitors (Ammo for energy weapons), munitions, shields sensors ect (You get the point.)...How you lay your ship out matters in the battle screen because directional damage is a thing--so if you're shot on your left side, and your armor modules are toast on that side, the munition will travel in and hit the first component it finds from that side (if it's one of your reactors/power plants, whole ship dies--so placement is pretty important.)...Also, the 2d battle screen is not abstracted for weaponry--it's physics based. So very fast ships can avoid slower munitions so mass vs thrust is super important. But there are specific weapon systems that track, or shoot very fast ballistics (Like flak) to handle it. Anyway, wide variety of ways to design a ship thanks to that. (No idea if the end game suffers from one design to rule them all, haven't gotten there yet.) In addition , ground combat is also a 2d battle screen. With troops you can equip and train ect. It's like a mini (And admittedly more bare bones) Xcom. But it makes planetary take over pretty cool.
The strategic screen is your standard 4x. Labor/Science/Production--Very Galc Civ 2. But it has some additions that make it interesting. Like it's trade routes are automated, you just need transports. So being low on food, if you have an extra transport, the game will automatically set up a run from a harvest planet to the low on food one (ect). The strategy screen is surprisingly deep for how simple everything is. It also ties in ship design pretty well with how they work fuel in (In your own systems, fuel doesn't run out. But go outside and you use it fast--if you run out your ship is useless and slowly crawls back to a space station. So before pushing deep into an opponents territory you either need to claim territory of your own, or build your ships with extra fuel capacity--little stuff like that makes the game pretty neat so far.)
It might all end up being shit though, for those who like 4x you know end game can turn into crap. I only have 5 hours in, so can't say for sure. But so far, if you're looking for a decent 4x to design ships in, this is fun! Going to try Gal Civ 3 and see how that is too (But I'm pretty sure it's all abstraction for ship combat.)
