Should I buy?

[kafka]

sorry, wrong thread

[Tom_Holsinger]

Ryvan, Grandpoobah may have a solution for your problem. Check out posts here and here for an explanation.

ORIGINAL: Ryvan

Not counting time spent in tactical combat, dealing with population issues takes about roughly 70% of my game time. It can be more or less depending on which race you play. The game doesn't have much micromanagement, but population is the exception. The races are not evenly balanced and your choice has a significant effect on the difficulty of the game. (More so than the actual difficulty selection.)

I think the big disconnect is that this isn't really a 4X game. It was advertised as such and a lot of people bought the game expecting the same general type of gameplay as other 4X games. Winning in this game is based on collecting points, not on warfare or expansion. In fact, expansion becomes impossible for most races as the game moves into it's later stages and warfare is generally only useful as a method to control your own population. (At one point I would say that 80% of my shipbuilding was trying to construct enough transports and fill them with enough of my people that I could suicide them at enemy fleets as a population control method.)

[Klahn]

Well, that's a bit more elegant than using my people as enemy targets.... [:D]

Thanks Grandpoobah and Tom!

[Rosseau]

FWIW, I went back to play SE IV Deluxe after Armada and had a hard time adjusting back to the crappy graphics and non-intuitive interface. It does take time to re-adjust.

SOTS is awesome, but it took quite a few expansions to get to that level.

But don't blow off Armada. It's clean, generally bug-free, easily moddable, and looks like it will be supported down the road like most Matrix games. When it comes to patches, MG is the best! 

[SeanD]

When it comes to patches, MG is the best!

It's very awesome that you said that. Thanks!

[Gertjan]

ORIGINAL: SeanD

When it comes to patches, MG is the best!

It's very awesome that you said that. Thanks!

It's very awesome that you said that. Thanks!

[:)] That sounds very promising. Any idea when we can expect the next patch (1.2)?

[sage]

ORIGINAL: linger

That's a shame...man 70% on population control is ridiculous. Guess i'll have to hold off on this then.

It's all relative. Playing on a good size map, on turn 250, I was spending like 2% of my time on population control. I just set up auto transports between worlds that needed to lose / gain population.

[Zakhal]

Armada more than filled my 4x spot. Im not hungry for 4x games anymore and am playing/doing other stuff now. Perhaps revisit in ww2 pacific is in order..

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: sage

ORIGINAL: linger
That's a shame...man 70% on population control is ridiculous. Guess i'll have to hold off on this then.

It's all relative. Playing on a good size map, on turn 250, I was spending like 2% of my time on population control. I just set up auto transports between worlds that needed to lose / gain population.

Agreed, population control takes up nowhere near 70% of my time. I occasionally setup a few repeating transport routes and routes to newly colonized systems, that's about it. It mainly serves as pressure for me to keep expanding and I have certainly started a few wars to secure more space for population.

With that said, as others have noted, modding this game is pretty easy with a text editor and adjusting the balance how you want it does not take much effort.

Regards,

- Erik

[Gertjan]

modding this game is pretty easy with a text editor and adjusting the balance how you want it does not take much effort

If this is so easy, then it should be explained in a clear manner to average (no modding) players, since it seems to be an important issue to some players. I wouldn't know how to do such things.

[Wade1000]

I believe that the vast, forum-silent majority do not mod or use mods and they do not want to. They, like me, would rather wait for official updates while continuing to try a game or while playing other games. I wish there was not such a focus by developers towards us to mod games. It only discourages the mentioned majority players.

I have seen this on other game forums also and it is usually only about 5 to 10 players that often talk about modding.

Though, I do appreciate that modding is available to those that like it.

[Rosseau]

It's true some of us have more fun modding a game than playing it. In Armada, it is easy; Gertjan, PM me and I would be happy to help.

[Warspite3]

As you can see at the start of this thread, I was on the fence several weeks ago like you but I decided to buy it based off what some people here told me. I am very happy I did, I have definitely got my money worth out this game already. From the things you mention, it fits all of that well. I have not really had a problem with the pop transport as others have complained about. If you are looking for a solid 4x game that will be a good break from all the others out there, I have to recommend 2526. To answer your question about Sword of the Stars, that one shines on tactical battles and pretty good ship design. Downside is nothing with colonies other then a couple sliders and not much diplomacy options. Best suggestion to you, I would buy both of them. You can pickup Sword of the Stars complete on Impulse (and some of the other digital sites too) for really cheap now. Man, I have all of these games and I find they all stand on their own as great games, I like them all. Sometimes, I may want to play Space Empires 5, other times GalCiv2, Armada, SotS, EaW and I also always liked Lost Empire too. This all said, in the end I feel Armada is a great addition to any 4x gamer's library so you really can't go wrong. Oh, I had to pick my eyes up off the ground the first time I seen a 1000x1000 mini map, INSANE!

ORIGINAL: Gertjan

I am also doubting whether to buy the game. Unfortunately there are no reviews yet. It seems to fulfil my necessary criteria for a good 4x space game: good diplomacy, no detailed ship design and tactical battles, focus on empire management, not on micro management (perhaps there are some issues with bureaucracy, happiness and population transport?). Does anyone of you know if Sword of the stars also fulfils these criteria?

[Gertjan]

@Warspite3

Thanks a lot for the advise. After all the info I received during the past few days I am really inclined to try the game this weekend. I don't have the time to try all the different 4X games. Furthermore, Sword of the Stars seems to be too much focused on ship design and combat, which is not my cup of tea at all (although I like to watch (nearly) automated battles such as in SoaSE).

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Anguille]

I also think that people who were hesitant should take a look at it now. Also people who bought it a year ago should revisit the game as it has improved a lot...currently in my top 5 4x space strategy games.

[martok]

^ +1 to what he said.

I admittedly wasn't too thrilled with Armada when it was first released last fall, but it's improved a lot this past year. It has definitely become one of my favorite 4x titles, and is worth checking out now.