The 4X strategy game thread has expanded to the forum

[Trar]

Civilization's the most notable example of the 4X genre, and from what I've heard, Civ 4 is still the king of that series. I heard 6 had problems, and 5 kept me occupied (still not even finished with it to be honest), so I didn't pick 6 up at all. The latest news is that the Nuclear Gandhi bug apparently was never real according to Sid Meier.

But what's this? A breath of fresh air? The people who made Endless Space and Endless Legend are set to release a historical 4X of their own, HUMANKIND, in late April. It looks neat, promising new ways to do things in a genre that's often been rather stagnant, as well as what sounds like procedural civilization generation. There's only one way to win though, and that's by accruing the most "Fame" points. There's some more info below; personally while it looks cool I'm likely not going to buy it until reviews come out.

Humankind release date, trailer, gameplay, everything we know about Amplitude's new 4X "Magnum Opus"

Find out everything we know about Humankind, the latest 4X from Amplitude Studios: release date, trailers, gameplay details, and more.

www.rockpapershotgun.com

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I don't play these games, but it's only out of self-preservation. I could lose 8 hours to a Civ in the blink of an eye back in the day, and I just can't afford that amount of time right now. Of course, I've filled that particular vacuum with factory construction games (I played like 45 hours of Factorio in February), but at least I don't immediately restart those whenever I finish one the way I do with Civ.

Anyway, the Civ I've played the most is actually the original one, followed probably by Civ 2. Civ 4 never really clicked with me, but I played one campaign of 5 and enjoyed it a lot. If I ever find myself with enough free time to go back to these games, I'll probably try Civ V with all the expansions, since no Firaxis game is ever really complete until it has a bunch of expansions.

 

[Falselogic]

Both Civ 5 and Civ 6 strayed enough from the Civ format that I was unable to play them in any meaningful way. I do like the Endless folks but I don't know...

 

[Mightyblue]

Yeah, I found out in my mid twenties that I can't play 4X games, or else I'll look up from my PC in a half-stupor and find out it's three in the morning and I have to be up for work in a few hours. Gal Civ II was my choice of poison back then though.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Civ6 is great. It's even got a clock in-game so you can't lose track of time!

 

[Trar]

A couple months ago I ended up playing Civ 5 with a bunch of mod civs and it kept crashing in the middle of my game, that got irritating enough for me to take a break from it.

 

[Fyonn]

I'm a big fan of Battle of Polytopia which is the lightest weight Civ equivalent I know of. I'm always wanting to get into 4X games, but there's such a learning curve and I could be spending that time on the learning curve for shmups or fighting games or even making games.

 

[JBear]

I typically play 4X games exactly once. I usually spend a week playing a single epically long run, run out of steam approaching the end-game, and then shelve it, content with the experience. Civ IV is the only exception, but that's because I played a ton of multiplayer, which I've never done with any other 4X game.

 

[Destil]

Civ6 is great. It's even got a clock in-game so you can't lose track of time!

Watch me.

civ 6’s climate change mechanics are sobering, you pretty much can’t do anything about it. A little too on the nose there, Civ.

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

I love 4X games particularly if they’re not that combat focused. I just like fill out a map and definitely be the most important but not only color...

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

civ 6’s climate change mechanics are sobering, you pretty much can’t do anything about it. A little too on the nose there, Civ.

I actually ADORE the climate change mechanics. I've played lots of games where I've intentionally pumped coal into the air at a rapid pace so that the climate snowballs into catastrophe. But I also beeline sea walls so that my civ is mostly unaffected by the rising sea levels, while everyone else is getting flooded and having their civs stall out progress. And losing your coastal tiles isn't the end of the world when late in the tech tree there's tons of ocean tile improvements that make building coastal cities OP af. And I can usually make it to Alpha Centauri before desertification begins really wrecking my economy.

The new-ish apocalypse mode is something else though. You've got a very limited number of turns before Earth becomes uninhabitable as the disasters begin hitting harder and faster.

 

[nataeryn]

I'm really excited about Humankind, but its a reserved optimism.
Humankind seems to be continuing the trend of increased granularity in 4x Civ type games.
I've played a ton of Civ 6 and I enjoy it, but I find Civ 6 easier to walk away from (beneficially keeping me from playing until 3 am).
Civ 1 could keep me playing because no decision required a lot of analysis. In Civ 6, there can be a big difference between a city placement that allows a +5 campus or a +2 campus or deciding which pantheon belief to follow.
Humankind looks to be continuing along the path of increased granularity. Semi-tactical battles, district based city building, picking a culture at each era. All that crunchy detail can be fun, but it also can slow down into analysis paralysis.

 

[Trar]

Yeah definitely. I've run into times in Civ 5 where I was faced with important strategy decisions to make and ended up quitting for the day instead.

 

[nataeryn]

Well, humankind is out.
I played my first game. The first time you boot it up, they dump you straight into a game once you pick an avatar. It was on a fairly low difficulty. By the medieval era, i was a full era ahead. I went Egypt>Carthage>English. Starting with a production focus is quite nice and gets the engine humming early. I started near water and was a bit low on food, so Carthage was a choice to use Cothons and Harbors to gather food from the water, but Cothons deliver on production really good too. The English choice was another attempt to solve my low food output that worked really well. At that point, i restarted on a higher difficulty.

Round two was on a higher difficulty, bigger world and slower pace. I spawned very close to an AI player and we immediately started skirmishing. The green AI player settled the Harappans first and then started coming at me with runners. I was able to pick up all 3 stars, but 4 AI got to pick before me. I was going to go Egypt agan, but decided to mix it up and took Assyrians. They didn't look good to me on paper, but they are actually really good. On higher difficulty, the independant people spawn early and start with chariots and archers. Assyrian raiders just need domestication and a source of horses and are almost as strong as chariots, so they can win with good terrain or defense. Being able to walk into an outpost or admin center and just buy it has let me claim a ton of territories and pin 3 different AIs into one or two provinces without going to war. Plus one move point has already saved me from losing one of my outposts. And all the freedom and multiculturalism of my first game is right out the window. The middle of my map is a huge rocky desert, so I'm going to have food issues again. Despite feeling like i'm doing well, the AI are right with me on era stars and fame so far

 

[TyrMcDohl]

I dig Stellaris.

 

[nataeryn]

Stellaris is a unique game for me in that I find it really fun to create a race/empire around a theme. Like if I play Civ, i'll try to use their bonuses, but i'm not trying to roleplay. I'll go to war as Gandhi. But if I'm playing as the Belters in Stellaris, there's no way i'm going down the gravity well even if its a suboptimal gameplay choice. And I like using a balanced fleet even if it is not the ideal composition..

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Its a little personally distressing that my favored playstyle is using the Barbaric Despoilers civic, and building up my empire around that.