Most Favourite 4X Game Ever.

[Husker50]

Space Empires V and Cosmic Balance 1 & 2

[lordxorn]

ORIGINAL: impact

Well, I must say: MoO 1 (Klackon's ftw ).
However, I kind of liked many of the approaches SOTS took. I played it with all expansions, and I like how different means of space travel influence your overall strategy. The game has many weaknesses, but kind of starts being fun when you have an AI war for independence on your hand =)
But wait, there is one pretty great 4X game out there: Beyond Protocol. Tough to get your head into and the graphics are terrible, but gameplay is very very deep. I just wish that online games would stop with all that guild crap, as BP is more or less unplayable unless you are member of the biggest guild there.

I was one of the BP original players and part of the biggest guild in BP beta before it self destructed. It is definitely a great 1st try at a true 4x mmo. However I got burned out on it, because you are right about the guild thing. Plus I was tired of all the fan boys who were drinking the cool aid about the direction the game was headed.

[shinobu]

Gal Civ II

[jfpOne23]

SoaSE if that counts or Space Empires IV.

[Anguille]

Master of Orion
 
 

[EisenHammer]

MoO and SotS

[Gertjan]

You can only choose one EisenHammer . I would choose Gal Civ 2, although I've good memories about some other games which you have mentioned. Do people really still play BOTF? Does it even work with Vista or Win7?

[hadberz]

Imperium Galactum, I've played this 4x space game more then all the other 4x space games put together. It's been about 20 years since I last played it, so might be looking at it with rose colored glasses. [:)] I would also need a C64 [:)]

If we're talking PC only, DW is coming with me [:)]

[JosEPhII]

1st off, all great games that have been mentioned, hard choices.

The MoO series stands out for me, cause that's were I spent the most time.

<drum roll...ratta tat tat.....> The winner is!&nbsp; MoO]I[&nbsp; [X(]

Be kind now!

JosEPh [:D]

[martok]

ORIGINAL: Gertjan

Do people really still play BOTF? Does it even work with Vista or Win7?

Oh yes, quite a few people still play the game, as a matter of fact. You can find a lot of us hanging around ArmadaFleetCommand, which is probably the single biggest site dedicated to BOTF these days; we've got around 7000 members (albeit most of them are lurkers, of course). Feel free to join us!

The game generally seems to run fine on Vista and Windows 7 -- my best friend is able play BOTF without issues on the former -- although apparently some people have had to tinker around with the game's settings in order to get it working properly. Again, you can find more help & info over at the AFC site I linked to earlier.


Over the years, we've seen numerous excellent mods become available, which greatly extends the game's replayability. I myself am partial to the Balance of Power (BOP) mod, and to a lesser extent the Ultimate Dominion III (UDM3) mod, but that's just me. [:)]

Also, just in the last 6-12 months a few hardworking folks have found and implemented numerous bug fixes. Sadly, they still can't do anything about the memory leak problem or the AI (as they're both hard-coded), but a lot of other things have been addressed (such as the inability to contact minor races that are membered to another empire).

Finally, BOTF retains a small but active MP community. Since the demise of the game's MSN gaming zone, they've been playing matches on something called the Warzone. I've not played any MP matches on it myself, but apparently it works very well. If that's something that interests you at all, I know you would be very welcome!

[EisenHammer]

ORIGINAL: Gertjan

You can only choose one EisenHammer

MoO and then SotS.[:)]

[LarryP]

Distant Worlds, hands down. [:)]

[Tycow]

ORIGINAL: LarryP

Distant Worlds, hands down. [:)]

Ringing endorsement if I ever saw one!

[LarryP]

Yeah, probably not fair. Just like an employee entering the company contest that's for clients. [:D]

[ussugu]

My favorite... a game I still play often (like once a month while a work *blush*).......

Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain

I really enjoy the ability to mod your race.&nbsp; It makes every game different... although I usually play it the same way.&nbsp; Still fun though.

Speaking of ASCENDANCY, is that the game where the troops, when they were dying, would scream out, "Oh, my eye", "Oh, my spleen", and "Oh, my clavicle"?&nbsp; We still use those quotes while sitting around the gaming table

[Xenoform21]

ORIGINAL: jinpoint

ORIGINAL: Epsilon

"Sid Meiers": Alpha Centauri

Yes, without any competition

Thirded.

[Okim]

Fragile Allegiance

&nbsp;
That one is my favorite too, but Moo2 is my 'the best'

[ypsylon]

ORIGINAL: Gertjan
Do people really still play BOTF? Does it even work with Vista or Win7?

Of course we still playing. [:)]

Currently W7-64b, no problems, although basic BOTF could be sometimes a bit hairy stuff under Vista/W7. There are patches at AFC if you having problems with running BOTF with standard 1.02 version. And if you start tweaking trek.exe and botf.res with editor, game is even more interesting.

[Duckfang]

ORIGINAL: ussugu

Speaking of ASCENDANCY, is that the game where the troops, when they were dying, would scream out, "Oh, my eye", "Oh, my spleen", and "Oh, my clavicle"?  We still use those quotes while sitting around the gaming table

I stopped lurking just to post this.

You're talking about Deadlock. I -knew- someone else played that game! I loved it!

EDIT: And er, on topic: My favourite 4x is MoO2, followed by SotS.

[Tycow]

ORIGINAL: Okim

Fragile Allegiance

That one is my favorite too, but Moo2 is my 'the best'

You have good taste in games Okim... especially the UFO ones