Good Civilization style games?

obolon84

I haven't seen it mentioned yet and I'm not sure if it's the kind of game you're looking for, but out of the similar strategy games that I've played, Europa Universalis 3 is my favorite. I also really liked Medieval: Total War, though I only played the demo of it.

eobet

bamjo wrote: »

I am enjoying Anno 1404 a lot so far. The drm sucks, no doubt about it, which is unfortunate because the game itself is rather good. It's got to be one of the best looking city builders I've ever seen. It is rather slow paced, and there's no multiplayer. The range of building choices is huge, and islands only have a few resource types on each one. Every civilian level (peasant, patrician etc) needs numerous unique resources. A supply chain for one commodity (like books or candles) can easily encompass 3 or 4 islands. Building an advanced empire is really a logistical challenge, and I haven't even touched the combat portion of the game.

So if you like somewhat slow, huge, difficult single player games you might like this one.

Anno 1701 was also by far the best looking city builder when it was released, but it actually dumbed down and removed some of the features of the earlier games in that series.

The stupid thing about 1701 is that you have to build all buildings throughout the game in basically exactly the same order, and there isn't really any variation from game to game.

Even more annoying is that the AI complains like hell and begins to threaten you if you build on any of their islands, but they can build all they want on your island. You can work around this by spending money on building warehouses which blocks all coastlines, but the diplomacy options in that game really should have been improved.

I'm not sure that Anno 1404 does anything differently.

The trend today seems to be to dumb down even strategy games. I bought the latest Settlers game (number 6?) and it didn't even have random maps! And all maps were divided into fixed territories, which essentially made what once was a fantastic traffic management sim which incorporated 3D into the actual gameplay years before 3D became mainstream, into a now linear build-and-wait affair almost completely disregarding 3D for anything but fancy graphics.

Jast

Ah, the 1602 series. I had so much fun with the first game, just building cities and conquering other islands. My best game is when I started everyone off evenly, (except the yellow AI player, who somehow got stuck on a crappy island and couldn't building anything,) and conquered everyone. I remember having an epic war with the blue player. Me and him shared the same island, and he invaded my side. I hastily built some towers, and had to build an army from scratch to protect my land. Finally I launched a counterattack, but all my men except for one artillery man were killed. I fought a guerilla war with that one guy taking down the enemy island until my reiforcements were ready, then i crushed the blue. It was awesome.

Ivar

I tried the demo for Settlers 5 (I think) and thought it was shit

Then I tried the demo for the remake of Settlers 2 instead

jahsoldier

Have been playing a bit of Empire: Total War since I bought it a few days ago. I like it... it's very very Civilization, but I like it... but could someone tell me if the battles get any more interesting? They're a bit of a bloody grind at the minute.

oddment

I saw Anno 1404 in HMV today and was soooo tempted. It was £29.99 though... I'm not sure if I'm willing to part with that much for the game. The demo was so good though, so I'm having to think it over. Maybe I'll just wait a couple of weeks until my birthday... I'll probably be getting GalCiv2 anyways, so I could maybe hang on a while and wait till the price goes down.

So there is no multiplayer for 1404, is that right? Do you think they will ever add it in?

freakish light

oddment wrote: »

So, still on for getting GalCiv2 (it's my birthday in a couple of weeks, and my fiancee says he'll get it for me, woo!), but I've tried out another game in the meantime - Anno 1404. It was a timed demo which was kind of disappointing, but I loved it and I really want it. Only problem is the DRM issue. 3 installs only? I mean, what the hell? Is there any word about this being fixed, or is there an easy way to reset installs? Also, the price of the game at the moment is a little high... anyone know of somewhere to get in at £20 or less at all? Any other anecdotes or opinions about the game would be welcome too.

No. TAGES lists this as a "feature." Unless they remove DRM at some later point in time (which is not unheard of) there isn't a way to deauthorize computers (by design) and you have to call to get more install slots (by design).

SyphonBlue

Yeah I really wish I'd known that before I paid $50 for the game. I installed it on both my computers, so that's already 2 of my 3 activations used up, which is utterly ridiculous.

Regardless of that little fun fact, however, the game is intensely fun and I've pretty much been playing it non-stop.

Drake

I just picked up the the Gal Civ II Expansion bundle off of Impulse for thirty bucks. Not a bad deal at all. I've really enjoyed Gal Civ II a lot since I've gotten it, so it's about time I grabbed the expansion packs. What I've read about them is getting me rock hard. It just may make this game my favorite Space 4X of all time. Alpha Centauri doesn't count as a Space 4X though, it's a Sci Fi 4X. I don't think anything can really dethrone SMAC, in my book.

I can't wait to see what these expansions do for my penchant for an espionage/trade heavy play style.

Rami

So on a similar subject, what would people recommend for building games? Examples being SimCity, Caeser, Pharoh, Evil Genuis, Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park, Dwarf Fortress etc. There really aren't enough of them in the world.

The only one I can think of that I haven't tried is the Settlers series.

eobet

Rami wrote: »

So on a similar subject, what would people recommend for building games? Examples being SimCity, Caeser, Pharoh, Evil Genuis, Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park, Dwarf Fortress etc. There really aren't enough of them in the world.

The only one I can think of that I haven't tried is the Settlers series.

You neeeeeeeed to try Settlers 2 then (the original Gold version is still better than the 10th anniversary, imo). It's touted as a city building game, but really, it's one of the most advanced logistic and traffic management sims to date (certainly more challenging that Transport Tycoon and such).

You don't mention Startopia in your list, so I would add that.

Also, the first Stronghold game is amazingly detailed (which is sadly lost in all the sequels).

And again, for mindless building fun with a slight logistical challenge, try the Anno series.

But I guess this info is more fitting in another thread?

lgb

Rami wrote: »

Caeser, Pharoh

There's a "City Building Series" published by Sierra and these two are in it. Full list:

=Rome=
Caesar [1992] (free)
Caesar II [1995] (abandoned?)
Caesar III [1999]
Caesar IV [2006]

=Egypt=
Pharaoh [1999]
- Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile [2000], being an expansion for the above
Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile [2004]

=Greece=
Master of Olympus: Zeus [2000]
- Master of Atlantis: Poseidon [2001], being an expansion for the above

=China=
Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom [2002]

RiemannLives

eobet wrote: »

bamjo wrote: »

I am enjoying Anno 1404 a lot so far. The drm sucks, no doubt about it, which is unfortunate because the game itself is rather good. It's got to be one of the best looking city builders I've ever seen. It is rather slow paced, and there's no multiplayer. The range of building choices is huge, and islands only have a few resource types on each one. Every civilian level (peasant, patrician etc) needs numerous unique resources. A supply chain for one commodity (like books or candles) can easily encompass 3 or 4 islands. Building an advanced empire is really a logistical challenge, and I haven't even touched the combat portion of the game.

So if you like somewhat slow, huge, difficult single player games you might like this one.

Anno 1701 was also by far the best looking city builder when it was released, but it actually dumbed down and removed some of the features of the earlier games in that series.

The stupid thing about 1701 is that you have to build all buildings throughout the game in basically exactly the same order, and there isn't really any variation from game to game.

Even more annoying is that the AI complains like hell and begins to threaten you if you build on any of their islands, but they can build all they want on your island. You can work around this by spending money on building warehouses which blocks all coastlines, but the diplomacy options in that game really should have been improved.

I'm not sure that Anno 1404 does anything differently.

The trend today seems to be to dumb down even strategy games. I bought the latest Settlers game (number 6?) and it didn't even have random maps! And all maps were divided into fixed territories, which essentially made what once was a fantastic traffic management sim which incorporated 3D into the actual gameplay years before 3D became mainstream, into a now linear build-and-wait affair almost completely disregarding 3D for anything but fancy graphics.

The Settlers stopped being about traffic management after 2. They did away with roads and all that stuff in 3 and never really went back. Actually 6 (the current one) is very good compared to 3-4 and on par with 5.


Also, for people who mentioned Age of Wonders, it is a good series no doubt but it is not really a good successor to Master of Magic (it is much more shallow). Think of it as a good game in the style of Heroes of Might and Magic.

freakish light

Oh man, I remember Caesar II. I used to play that on my dad's computer all the time. Never could quite make it past the phase where you add aqueducts.

bamjo

Rami wrote: »

So on a similar subject, what would people recommend for building games? Examples being SimCity, Caeser, Pharoh, Evil Genuis, Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park, Dwarf Fortress etc. There really aren't enough of them in the world.

The only one I can think of that I haven't tried is the Settlers series.

That Jurassic Park game Operation Genesis (or Project Genesis, I can't remember) is a light, fun theme park type game. My favorite thing to do was build a park with no fences, and watch the feeding frenzy around the main entrance gate. Someone here did a good lets play a while ago, I'll see if I can find it.

Here it is. Good times.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=51758&highlight=Jurassic+park+genesis