Is Star Ruler any good?

[RecklessPrudence]

So I've been on a bit of a 4X kick recently, having played MoO2 with some friends and remembering how much I liked them. I bought Sword of the Stars on sale seeing some good reviews, although no review on the one review site I really respect - and hey, it was only seven bucks for the whole collection - and was disappointed. I searched here and saw that some of the opinions were similar to my thoughts, and others pointed out flaws I hadn't realised were bugging me, although some people liked it and I can see where they're coming from.

Other 4X games - GalCiv2 got good reviews and seems to have a following here, but doesn't let you control anything in combat - is that right? Sins of a Solar Empire seems to be in a similar situation as SotS, with a lot of people not liking it and some loving it, but I saw a link to something called Star Ruler that seems promising. My quick search just showed people were looking forward to it, but no posts about how good/bad/terrible it is. Anyone got an opinion on it?

It's not on sale at the moment, so it's not like I need an opinion right the hell NOW, but I would like one while I'm still in a 4X mood, so I can grab it if it's good.

Thanks!

[doom3607]

Meh. The default game isn't that great, but that's because it's still being worked on, and it's come a long way since release. Of course, they intend to make it go a long way farther, so it's still not even approaching "done". Think "Minecraft beta" levels of completeness. Playable and kinda fun, but stuff is still being added in to make the awesomeness increase further. There are a couple of really good mods that seem to be a few patches ahead of the game itself that make it much better. All in all, worth considering.

[Falarica]

Haven't played the latest patch (1.0.7.0 I think) which adds a new shipset.

Mods really improve the game with much greater component variety and overhauling the hull size limitations. My favourite is Galactic Armoury but Expanded Universe is also quite good. LAN multiplayer is extremely fun but there reaches a point where you are almost post-scarcity with regards to resources and you can build hundreds of size 1000+ ships. It all comes down to ship design. I haven't seen a game where blowing up the stars of your enemies main systems is a viable game tactic either.

That being said the game is a complete click fest, the interface isn't brilliant but is being improved and camera control can be a bit finicky at times.

If you have a question about the game I recommend you register on BlindMindStudios forum and ask the devs themselves. They are extremely active on the forum.

Also the Star Ruler developers have announced they have pulled the game from Impulse because of its takeover by GameStop.

Edit:
If you're looking for a 4X fix I'd recommend Space Empires 4/5 but views on them (especially 5) veer from hailing them as the best 4X games since MOO2 to almost worse than MOO3.

[Purple]

Space Empires 4 is the best game they made. I have not plaid SE5 but SE4 was pretty much 90% modable. You could include your own factions, make up new weapons and do anything you liked. And the best part was that the AI actually knew what it was doing (most of the time). I still play it.

[doom3607]

SEV is probably about as moddable, only with hexes not squares, real-time battles, and 3D. The only thing it's harder to do is mod in new shipsets (3D, remember). And while the stock AI is so stupid even on the higghest possible difficulty settings it was laughably easy to beat, there are mods that make them truly terrifyingly good.

[Purple]

What do you mean real-time? In SE4 all battles were real-time and controlled by the player. I think you are confusing it with GalCiv. That game just sucked all round.

[doom3607]

SE4 the battles were fought on little squares where the ships moved in turns. First you move your ships, then the AI moves its ships... In SE5 the ships just fly at each other or whatever standing orders are, you can intervene and get them to do other stuff if you want though. No little squares, they just fly around in a huge circular battle area and blast at each other every few seconds.

[Purple]

That sucks. I mean that completely takes away from the strategy. This said, is there a SE4 community out there any more? I remember back in the golden age a few (maybe as much as 5-6) years back there were like mods and multiplayer and everything. Is any of that still running or am I just a lone moder siting in my home with my custom brew?

[doom3607]

http://spaceempires.net I'm busy trying to get a Play by Commitee game for SEV going, if you have it, but they also happen to be, apparently, the largest SE community out there, 4, as well as 5.

[Falarica]

http://spaceempires.net I'm busy trying to get a Play by Commitee game for SEV going, if you have it, but they also happen to be, apparently, the largest SE community out there, 4, as well as 5.

Sign me up for that game, just let me register on SE.net.

There is also PBW2 not many games open at the moment.

The website has a ton of mods and shipsets for both SE4 and 5.

[Xon]

Star Ruler's UI is an exercise in pain. It is a lot better than frorm release, but the developer's keep making boneheaded changes which make bulk group-based management which is kinda supported a pipe-dream.

It also manages to abuse translucent elements which break on multi-gpu setups somehow. Despite it not breaking in any other game or even Windows itself. Despite being a known issue by the dev's it isn't actually documented anywhere or even indications that 90% of the UI has upped and vanished on you.

[RecklessPrudence]

How many of these allow same-box multiplayer? Or even multiplayer, period, since GalCiv2 doesn't? I'm hoping to play this with the friends I mentioned early on, and while multi-box multiplayer would be good, at the moment I think there's only two functioning computers among all of us. One of my friends, especially, is a curse upon electronics. He goes through phones at a rate of about one every three months - not from anything he does, per se - they just die.

So if we could squeeze three or four of us onto one or two computers (and yes, I know that will inevitably mean intelligence leaks, but meh) it'd be great. Once everybody's computers are back up and running we're looking at AI War, but that's real time, which I suck at. Oh, that's something, what format is the combat in these, turn-based or real-time? I can do real time combat, it's just when it's combined with real time base management that runs at the same time that I have problems - I can handle real time both if they're seperate, like Empire at War or something, but I always neglect one or the other when they're both happening at the same time. Also, obviously, real-time combat on the same box isn't going to happen.

Thanks, and I've picked up GalCiv2 on sale for $10 to try single-player.

[doom3607]

Both SEs allow hotseat multiplayer, SE4 being turn based in and out of battle, SE5 being turn based usually but real time in battles, but you can just sit back and watch the pretty explosions in those anyway.

[Gurachn]

As has been noted, the stock AI for SEV is weak, mods definitely improve it, but the game just has too much depth for the computer to handle as effectively as a human.

Where SEV really comes into its own is in Play-by-Web multiplayer.
No game I have ever played even comes close to the feeling of controling a major empire you can experience with this game.
And even years after its release it still has an extremely active modding and multiplayer community.

The games are certainly not fast (a game with a large galaxy and 8+ human empires could easily take up to a year to complete), but they definitely get intense and immersive.
In fact, I think the ponderous pacing actually adds to the experience. Managing the expansion, and security of your race, shouldnt be a quick and easy experience.

It's certainly not a game for everyone, but for those looking for a full on 4X experience with maximal options, player control and depth, its defintely worth a look.