Armada 2526, Galactic Civilizations 2, and Sword of the Stars.

[rmielech]

After a few hundred turns of Armada, I think it certainly holds its own next to the other 4x's out there.. Definitely a close relative to MOO, and so far I'm really enjoying it. No crashes or even a burp. 

[Zakhal]

SEV - WITP in space?

For armada AI was built from beginning to support every feature (atleast thats what they claim). As for SEV they built every feature from science fiction into it without adding AI support or even thinking if AI could handle it at all.

SEV looks like a great MP game but Im all about SP so I cant play games that werent built around functional AI.

AI War

I have been looking at this myself, but since somone sayd its more RTS than sins even then Ill skip it gladly. I played so much of RTS in the 90s - almost every rts game starting from dune2 - that I burned out on them when new the century started and never recovered.

[ShotmanMaslo]

Space Empires 5 - Wow, never heard of this game before.. but it looks promising! Finally a game which combines all good features and technologies of other games into one neaty package. I like the diversity of it. For the last few months I have been "designing" a perfect space 4X strategy in my mind, and this game looks just like my dreamed up - hexagonal grid systems connected by jump nodes. What a coincidence!

Dont mind the bad AI because I understand its hard to program AI for such a diverse game, and in multiplayer this is not a problem. Also have read its fixed now by patches and mods. And I actually like the warp point FTL system, it reminds me of my favourite FreeSpace series and creates natural choke points to fight for. Also like modability. Thanx for suggestion!

..thats the way I would like Armada 2526 to be - combine all features which are good in other 4X strategies into diverse yummy package fullof possibilities. Why reinventing the wheel?

[ShotmanMaslo]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

ORIGINAL: ShotmanMaslo
What I seriously dont like about SOTS is that all races use totally different form of FTL travel. Its like they arent even a part of the same physical universe. I mean.. ..wtf? This ruins all feeling of realism and consistence for me..

I don't see why. Just look at it as manipulating the same fundamental laws of nature in different ways; if there is any way to achieve FTL travel, why not several? All of which is pretty much beside the point, of course, which is that the different modes of travel introduce variety between races and compel you to play them in different ways. Which can only be a good thing IMHO.

Well.. More ways of FTL in the universe woudnt be a problem, as long as all races can use it sooner or later, because they are part of the same universe. Races shouldnt have such important technologies different and race specific. Even if they have in the beginning, they should have ability to research/steal technology of the others. Their scientists couldnt be that stupid to not see the obvious advantage of having all three ways of FTL combined. In the end, they are almost omniscient, yet they cannot replicate what others did in the beginning of the game? Dont make me laugh.. [&:]

[Zakhal]

ORIGINAL: ShotmanMaslo

Well.. More ways of FTL in the universe woudnt be a problem, as long as all races can use it sooner or later, because they are part of the same universe. Races shouldnt have such important technologies different and race specific.[&:]

Maybe all races can research it but not in the timespan of the game. Need few hundred or thousand years more. [:D]

In fictional game its easy to invent fictional reasons.

[Wade1000]

ShotmanMaslo, good luck with SE5. I hope you get SOME enjoyment from it.
I'm not certain how active the multiplayer community is now.
I couldn't stop being bothered by it as being a space game that doesn't have FTL technology for ships. There's no "open" space travel between systems, unless you want to consider the outer perimiters of each star system as that.
The user interface is very annoying. I tried for some time to get used to it.
I played on normal level to practice knowing that the AI was bad but planned to switch to hard; and expected a major AI improvement from each update. It never came. I prefer to not use user mods. I have a few other games I play in "official" mode.

[Zakhal]

Since somone mentioned birth of federation been similar to armada and I have never played that I went to check it out. Apparently you can d/l a modden "abandonware" version from here: http://www.armadafleetcommand.com/botf/index.php

Also there is an unofficial fan-project sequel in the works called http://www.startreksupremacy.com/ . However its alpha and those projects often fail to meet the finishline.

[PDiFolco]

ORIGINAL: Zakhal

Since somone mentioned birth of federation been similar to armada and I have never played that I went to check it out. Apparently you can d/l a modden "abandonware" version from here: http://www.armadafleetcommand.com/botf/index.php

Also there is an unofficial fan-project sequel in the works called http://www.startreksupremacy.com/ . However its alpha and those projects often fail to meet the finishline.

Indeed I recently did reinstall BOTF to compare with A2526, searcged for patches and discovered this site and the tons of mods they offer - "Ultimate Mod" and "Dominion Mod" seemingly the more complete.
The overall "game level" of both games are very close : you manage whole systems with "discrete" buildings, build fleets but don't design ships, battles are semi-auto RTS, technology is simplified (ie no need to research "Ultimate Beam" and "Invincible Shields", some weapon and shield beams tech trigger the Dreadnought ship directly).

[nubbin77]

I'm really trying hard to like Armada.  I really am...  While there are some enjoyable aspects of the game,  I feel like most of Armada has been done better by other games.   I think the game most closely compares to Gal Civ.   I was really hoping this game would be Gal Civ with a tactical combat element (which it technically is).  But the tactical combat is terrible (I'm sorry, I don't want to offend anyone, but I almost feel like the game would not be disappointing to me if there were no tactical combat).   The stategic portion is pretty good, except for some odd interface decisions, but I feel overall Gal Civ has done a much better job.  And there still isn't anything else out that compares to SOTS combat at the moment.  Really hoping for a SOTS 2 in the future.
 
I buy most matrix games that come out and I expect that they will have some quirks and not be the most professionally done games, but this particular game is very disappointing for me thus far.

[Plodder]

I'm really enjoying this game, I've had a few tries of MOO3 (modded and unmodded) and GalCiv 2 but they've left me cold. Armada, however, has that "one more turn" feel that Civ 4 has. I'm not a huge fan of the RTS battles, but pausing helps, and the camera controls need work but the empire management seems to have right mix of playability and complexity.

[rmielech]

ORIGINAL: nubbin77

  I was really hoping this game would be Gal Civ with a tactical combat element (which it technically is).  But the tactical combat is terrible (I'm sorry, I don't want to offend anyone, but I almost feel like the game would not be disappointing to me if there were no tactical combat).  

Just auto-resolve it. No tactical combat.