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Ascendency
Machismo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Anyone remember this game? It was my first and still favorite 4X game. Only Alpha Centauri comes close.
I recently refound my disc in a box from college. I was all smiles as I reinstalled it and loaded up a game in DosBox (Dfend front-end) and played. The music, the graphics, the scope, and the ingenuity of the races and technology feels as good as ever.
My question, ultimately:
So, Did anyone else play this game? Did anyone else like it as much as me?
Is there anything in the space 4X world as simple to play and as fun as this?
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/ascendancy
BTW, Mobygames has the WORST screenshots for this game. It skips out on the planet screens and all the other pretty and clever stuff.
Pretties!
Controversy?
Aside from the bad AI on release, the reviewer for the PCGamer review happend to have also written the strategy guide for the game. He gave it an exceedingly high score as well as the editor's choice despite it's flaws.
Personally, I am glad he gave it such high praise as I wouldn't have tried the demo otherwise.
About:
Ascendency, a 4X space strategy game. For me, it was my first and still favorite. The game features a grand scale, 3-D galaxy to explore with 3D solar systems to colonize and battle over. Ships, planets, and all objects were 2D images, rendered to be quite beautiful. Ship load outs could be configured at construction to implement your technology and strategy.
Planet building was a simple tile system where facilities were placed on the planet and produced a certain number of point in agricultural (population production), industrial (space and planet-side construction), or research output. Careful pacing had to be maintained in the build order to minimize downtime and maximize growth.
Sadly, the only real failure of the game is the poor AI. The AI can simply not cope with a rush, and even late game, the AI lacks real teeth. To Logic Factory's credit, their AI update is rather good and fixes this (those that claim it is still weak obviously haven't tried it, IMO).
Despite the poor AI, the game is still a pleasure to play. It just puts a smile on my face as my little race of people begin to spread their color on the galactic map's starlanes. It is particularly fun to crush an annoying neighbor, absorbing their planets into your vast empire.
I recently refound my disc in a box from college. I was all smiles as I reinstalled it and loaded up a game in DosBox (Dfend front-end) and played. The music, the graphics, the scope, and the ingenuity of the races and technology feels as good as ever.
My question, ultimately:
So, Did anyone else play this game? Did anyone else like it as much as me?
Is there anything in the space 4X world as simple to play and as fun as this?
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/ascendancy
BTW, Mobygames has the WORST screenshots for this game. It skips out on the planet screens and all the other pretty and clever stuff.
Pretties!
Controversy?
Aside from the bad AI on release, the reviewer for the PCGamer review happend to have also written the strategy guide for the game. He gave it an exceedingly high score as well as the editor's choice despite it's flaws.
Personally, I am glad he gave it such high praise as I wouldn't have tried the demo otherwise.
About:
Ascendency, a 4X space strategy game. For me, it was my first and still favorite. The game features a grand scale, 3-D galaxy to explore with 3D solar systems to colonize and battle over. Ships, planets, and all objects were 2D images, rendered to be quite beautiful. Ship load outs could be configured at construction to implement your technology and strategy.
Planet building was a simple tile system where facilities were placed on the planet and produced a certain number of point in agricultural (population production), industrial (space and planet-side construction), or research output. Careful pacing had to be maintained in the build order to minimize downtime and maximize growth.
Sadly, the only real failure of the game is the poor AI. The AI can simply not cope with a rush, and even late game, the AI lacks real teeth. To Logic Factory's credit, their AI update is rather good and fixes this (those that claim it is still weak obviously haven't tried it, IMO).
Despite the poor AI, the game is still a pleasure to play. It just puts a smile on my face as my little race of people begin to spread their color on the galactic map's starlanes. It is particularly fun to crush an annoying neighbor, absorbing their planets into your vast empire.
Machismo on
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Posts
So many awesome memories. Watching the Minions cutting a swath through the galaxy and having to cajole two or three other races into helping me take them out, then moving my reserve fleets in and carpet-bombing their planets with phase bombs and invasion modules was always fun, just as much as cutting a swath through the galaxy AS the Minions.
If I could just figure out the best way to impliment an un-cheatable population resource system into the SE IV/V engine (and found someone willing to do the models) I'd have written a mod to emulate Ascendency YEARS ago.
Maybe Logic Factory will make Ascendency 2. They've not updated their website in years....
How easy is Space Empires to pick up and play? It looks complicated.
A slight derail, but worth exploring. Not a 4X, IMO, as I have always seen 4X as empire builders. But that is my opinion.
Some of the planet-side stuff is SO damn good. Like the little mini-games where you trade to help pay a client's debt as they don't take your currency. Amazing stuff. Hard as nails. It was FUN to go to jail.
Too bad the RTS portion was harder than Demi Moore's abs! I only barely managed to win the tutorial battle. After a dozen tries in the main game, I still won only one of those times. Bleh. Tough game. It always felt like everyone had an advantage too.
The only problem I have with it now is that the mouse sensitivity seems set so low that I have to move the mouse one foot to get a few inches of movement on the screen. I love the game enough though that it doesn't detract me from playing.
I know what I'm going to do when I get out of here now, load up Ascendency on my new computer and play it for awhile.
Thanks for starting this thread.
PSN : Bolthorn
Interesting...when I read the thread I was surprised that you and others call Ascendancy a 4X game because it really toes the line in my opinion, but Space Rangers, while you don't necessarily build bases and what not, has all the makings of a 4X game: you don't really eXpand your own empire, but you do expand non-Dominator dominion over the known universe as well as your own reputation and, thus, you exert more and more power and control within the space as the game goes on. You don't necessarily own the world but I do feel as though you shape it to the point where you could even consider it building.
Considering the universe in Ascendancy is mostly known from the get-go and doesn't really have much in the way of true expansion or exploration, I don't really consider Ascendancy a 4X game. To me, it's more of an elaborate board game set in space with a research tree sim. I mean, the game is rather finite. Space Rangers is not.
That said, I think they are both excellent and I rather like Ascendancy more than Space Rangers if put to the fire, but I was kind of taken aback that people were calling it a 4X game and even more so that you wouldn't consider Space Rangers a 4X game.