zaldar

Curious are you familiar with Austin Walker? He always had issues with the human history as a straight arrow to larger and greater things that games like Civilization seemed to propagate. I like to think of human society that way but of course reality is there are dips and valleys.

So trying to decide on a turn based 4x game to get. About to be able to get an actual up to date computer and have money to support strategy gaming again. Time to play will be limited so want to get the best one. My favorite strategy game of all time is still Sid Meir's Alpha Centauri - for both the strategic depth but honestly more so for the fact it has characters and story. I still remember the names and characters of each of the leaders (Morgan, Zackarhov, Lang, Miriam). Passed AC, Civ 6 is a favorite as is Endless Legend. On endless legend though the fact the story for each faction really ended the same didn't do it for me. Looked at Stellaris for a long time but the lack of what I consider real win conditions - say like building a ship that goes to another galaxy - puts me off. Old World I have this problem with as well. Rouge Like mechanics and randomness in my strategy games I don't think I would like so against the storm is out (though could be convinced otherwise). Looked very closely at Zephon especially after some of Rock Paper Shotguns coverage but man are the graphics old school. Thought about Age of Wonders but it seems to be several short stories rather than one long one...really want a good sci-fi one ... would love alpha centauri with updated mechanics and graphics ... sigh. Thoughts?

I will be honest the earning points to get part of the advertising revenue worries me and I would like more info about how the game plays before I can decide on interest. That said I love politics and philosophy so likely would at least look at it.

Really? Ok - now if we can just get Soren to see it ;). I agree with you about manuals by the way. I still remember reading game manuals on the way home after buying games as a child. Did a lot to lead up to anticipation... Link below - led to a lot of controversy on the site with many disagreeing. Civ fans always seem to be mechanics over story people (la sigh) and not many come from books an RPGs like I do. https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/how-to-fix-be-why-ac-is-a-classic-game-and-be-is-not.614603/

No one is ever going to see this but still felt the need to post. It hurts me that he doesn't spend much time in the book talking about the fall of Micropose. That would be what I would really want to know about. Alpha Centauri is what I would put as my best game of all time. Pirates besides being to aimless was just never a fantasy I had - stealing and murder yeah no. I actually have a long post on civfanatics about why alpha Centauri works and beyond earth does not. It came down I think to an aspect of your genre explanation actually. RPG was really a separate genre even in the time of civ 1. Putting baldurs gate or fire emblem in the same genre as say king's quest is just silly. And they certainly don't belong in the sane genre as wargames. You had strategy action, but you also had another major important component pure strategy games love to miss. STORY. And not player made really non-existent story but a high level almost book like written story. This is what made Alpha Centauri work. Factions were people and characters. Lal, Miriam, Zarakoghov not just figureheads for different bonuses as in normal civ. I still remember the first time figuring out what the mind worms and fungus really were. No gaming experience has come close for me. The game designers that were your guests make a new alpha Centauri like game (doesn't even have to be sci Fi though that rather than historical is my favorite) and you will have my money. Can link the civfanatics post if anyone wants to see it. Love to get your game designer guests thoughts on it actually - but know that is a big ask.

I really don't find the culture victory boring - but I like seeing the great works and listening to the quotes and the music. If you approach strategy games not worrying about graphics and such or thinking about them as extras I guess it would be boring. I don't play strategy games to use excel files. And wait you can steal the cealing of the cystine chapel... that is hilarious. I also don't worry about speed as much - I spend the time between turns thinking. I don't play RTS though and actively hate it. And I am sorry we don't have to give trigger warnings for using strategies in games - don't lean into the crazy babyish millennials please. Also really love to know the person whose mods for 4 you liked...as for a way forward I think they can go stories and RPG like scenarios. The tutorial shows what they can do with this very well. Go the story route of endless legend bring back RPG/strategy hybrid. Also - suggestion for topic I would love to know mods that make BE fun along with things Firaxis could do to make the game actually fun. Really want to love that game....also would be interested to see the letter paradox wrote about his problems with stellaris. Also funny having a paradox guy on to talk about Civ given that could be seen as there biggest competitor.

So just listened to this and it was great. As someone who loves things like endless space it looks like I would love this but I doubt I would have time to play it ever but will see as my life unfolds. One question did they ever play the MP game group wise they mentioned in the end of the podcast? I would love to hear about how it went if they did, and if they haven't ... I would love for them to do so.