Recommendation

[Pz Leader]

I have never played a 4x space game before, and I am interested in trying the genre out. Which game should be my first one? I know I am in the DW forum, but I'm hoping I can still get objective answers. Thanks!

[Wade1000]

Read this thread and choose.
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2553496

[WoodMan]

I haven't played that many 4x, but I can say that Distant Worlds is a very addictive and enjoyable game.  It's quite deep (in my opinion) and is actively supported by the developer and publisher which is a major plus.  I would recommend DW over Galactic Civilizations 2, which although old is probably its biggest competition, at least I guess anyway. 

While we are on the topic of 4x games, has anybody here played Dominions 3?  I'm seriously considering buying it, I've read a bit about it and it sounds pretty good.

[Pz Leader]

Thanks Woodman. I also ran a search in the Matrix forums and came up with a lot of hits. I guess I'm not so much interested in which game is better vs each other, but which game is better for a noob to 4x games, but I'll read all the threads and try and form an opinion as to which game to get. Seems like this has been discussed in Armada 2526's forum too. I usually play WW2 games at squad level or platoon level. I also play simulations. I've been thinking of trying WiTP AE or perhaps BftB, but then DW and Armada caught my eye. I guess I'm just a little tired of WW2 games and would like to try something different, but I don't want to get in over my head since I have never played a 4x game before, ever.

[lordxorn]

PZ Leader Armdada is a great choice for beginners because in my opinion Armada is a nice updated version of the same old stuff like prior classic Moo, Space Empires, Galactic Civilizations.

Galactic Civilizations is also a good choice.

Here is a run down of the difference between the two I recommend.

Galactic Civilizations II (Complete Edition should be real cheap)
Pros
1. The AI is great
2. Game is nicely balanced
3. Graphics are great for a turn based top down
4. The ship design is unprecedented, because you can choose the standard design and mod those with different ship parts to your hearts desire. Weapons you put on it, actually take space and show on the model. Many people posted their master designs using the games in ship designer to make ships from all the famous sci-fi such as Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.
5. It is highly polished
6. Has planet management, and government options
7. Diplomacy is decent

Cons
1. The combat is basic ala Civilization style, although a little more varied because of your ship designs. The ship with the weapon that beats your design wins, there are hit points and exp.
2. The technology is so so, Laser I, II, II Mass Driver I, III, that goes against Shields I, II, Armor I, II, which translates to rock, paper, scissors type fleet battles.

Armada
Pros
1. All the good stuff from Gal Civ minus the ship design.
2. Tactical Combat

Cons
1. There are no custom ships design
2. It did nothing extra special to differentiate itself from it's predecessors.
3. The tactical combat needs more polish


1.

[Brainsucker]

I hate 4x game without custom ships design.

[lordxorn]

ORIGINAL: Brainsucker

I hate 4x game without custom ships design.

Yeah that is what mostly turns me off about Armada.

[the1sean]

Pz Leader,

There are tons of good space 4x's out there. I personally would suggest Distant Worlds to a newby space 4X'er for a few of major reasons:

1. The game has the most helpful automation features I have seen in ANY strategy game. You can choose which parts of the game to automate, leaving you to watch and learn from the AI. Also, you can take the game one step at a time. Want to dive into Espionage instead of managing your fleet? Easy, just switch around automation functions. The helper AI also has the "suggest" function. It leaves you to make the final decisions, but makes helpful suggestions every so often. This allows players new and old alike to tailor the gaming experience and tasks depending on their mood.

2. Distant Worlds has all the intricacy of a turn based strategy game, with the excitement of a real time strategy game. You can speed up or slow down time, or hit the space bar and pause the action when things get hectic. I think that this type of space 4X is ideal for newer players.

3. The Distant Worlds community is very helpful and prompt, and the developer listens to and integrates player feedback quickly. This is extremely helpful when the game's manual or Galactopedia doesnt cover a subject well enough.

4. Distant Worlds is fun! It's a blast to play, and most of the game really "makes sense". It also incorporates some of the best features of classic space 4x games, and does it well. That leads to a generally optimal experience for a new player.

[Pz Leader]

My specs on my old computer:
Dell Dimension E521 AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+
Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Integrated Graphics GPU
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Professional
Optical Drive 48X CD-RW/ DVD Combo Drive
Sound Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

Thank you for all the replies. I think I meet the minimum requirements, but not the recommended requirements. Is 1GB of memory going to be a problem running DW?

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Pz Leader

My specs on my old computer:
Dell Dimension E521 AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+
Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Integrated Graphics GPU
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Professional
Optical Drive 48X CD-RW/ DVD Combo Drive
Sound Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

Thank you for all the replies. I think I meet the minimum requirements, but not the recommended requirements. Is 1GB of memory going to be a problem running DW?

Yes, 1 GB will be slow. I'd go for about 4-6 minimum if you want to play large maps with lots of empires.

I was able to run small games on an old celeron 2.0 ghz with 2 GB of ram, but that was it...small games (400-700 stars at most). More memory can never hurt.

[Xkill]

I prefer DW even against GalCiv 2, however it is quite annoying sometimes, like when a totaly impossible error happens and crashes the game, anyways DW is more deep than other games like SE V (in my opinion) also the heavy lack of micromanagement have put the boring parts of the the game to the side, and then, focusing more on the best parts.

[JonBrave]

ORIGINAL: Shark7
Yes, 1 GB will be slow. I'd go for about 4-6 minimum if you want to play large maps with lots of empires.

What OS are you using, please?

[Baleur]

lol 4-6? I'm still runing vista 32bit (3gb ram) and i can run the largest galaxies no problem.

[Bozz]

Most of time I play on my portable computer (not sure if this is the good translation in english [:D]) which is getting very old, I have 2gb ram and most of games aren't running on it, but I tryed DW on it and its working very well, thats great because I'm barely never at home.

And I play galaxies with 1000 stars, never had any probleme since the big new patch, at the beginning I had memory issues but know its okay [:)]

[Gertjan]

I guess the word you were looking for is laptop

[vonboy]

i've only seen the game eating up around a gig of ram at the most, and that is with 1400 star 20 empire late game.....games.

i'd say with xp, 2gigs is fine. with vista and 7, probably try for 3gigs (those os's eat up more ram just by themselves, so they need extra ram for everything else)

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: JonBrave

ORIGINAL: Shark7
Yes, 1 GB will be slow. I'd go for about 4-6 minimum if you want to play large maps with lots of empires.

What OS are you using, please?

Was using XP 32 bit.

Got a new comp with plenty of power and Win 7 now.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Baleur

lol 4-6? I'm still runing vista 32bit (3gb ram) and i can run the largest galaxies no problem.

This was pre-patch 1.05.

Also, the biggest problem I might have had was the graphics card, my old comp had a GeForce 8600 GT, also known as a piece of garbage. [:@]

[Gertjan]

Really is it that bad?

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Gertjan

Really is it that bad?

If you are referring to the GeForce 8600 GT...yes it is that bad.