You don’t notice it as immediately as you notice the interface user friendliness, the tech tree depth or the spaceship design complexity but more than often the hidden economic mechanics may be crucial for the game success in the long run.
Some may say that the key is in the complexity, others will defend that simpler [...]
Normally when we think of a typical space strategy game we imagine it to be PC turn-based single player, especially if we’re talking about 4x games. Reference examples of these games are Master of Orion, Galactic Civilizations, Alpha Centauri and the Space Empires series. In spite multiplayer features are sometimes offered, although somehow limited, there [...]
When reaching a planet, what its normally presented? A planet, with some characteristics presented not very well detailed. Normally colonization is made instantly and all that can be done is to start building facilities. I think more could be done to give the planets more protagonism and enhance the exploration excitement. Let us re-think the concept.
Although many space strategy gamers are already familiarized with the term “4x” I decided to create an article in order to help introduce the concept for the so many that don’t know yet what it stands for and also to clarify a bit the concept for the so many also that think they know what it stands for but are not completely sure about it (before I wrote the article I was included in this last bunch 
) – but it gets confusing sometimes, well, keep reading).
In the gaming world “4x” stands for: “eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate”. The ‘4x’ concept is well covered in [...]
When it comes to Space Games, Spaceships take the central stage. Without space ships one civilization cannot expand, cannot explore, settle, trade or sustain itself from hostile civilizations. Basically it cannot evolve. Imagine you have several star systems in your empire but no effective way to communicate between them. First this is hard to believe in the first place since how could this be? To colonize other planets you need a huge technology background and not less huge colony ships that can transport thousands of settlers. You also need scout ships or drone ships with great sensor technology to explore the vicinities. Ultimately you need war ships to defend your people from hostile races. Future space strategy gamess should pay more attention to their spaceships design concept to take into account that players will enjoy more the games if they can experience the excitement of researching and planning their spaceships more carefully. Spaceships need to have more personality, need to be much much harder to create and maintain [...]
Much of the fun in space strategyf games comes from witnessing the evolution of a society in the long run on all its different aspects: entertainment, culture, life quality, biology, production, governments, communications, materials, propulsion engines, weapons, new types of ships, etc. New technologies unlock new possibilities, new opportunities and new toys to play with.
To increase the re-playability and realistic factors a better idea would be to have complete or at least some degree of uncertainty regarding what technologies could be researched next. Think about it, there are areas to research as always but the exact technologies are still not available to choose from in the beginning.
Instead of researching, for example, the “Universal Translator” the player would be researching in the field of “Communications” and a possible breakthrough could be the “Universal Translator” but could also be “Subspace communications” or “Xeno Diplomacy Relations”. All of these possibilities could be available to unlock in a particular game but not available in the next. The exact technologies to be unlocked would depend on certain factors [...]
Since the beginning that humans face the stars ask themselves what’s out there and how wonderful and exciting it would be to discover new places and meet new races. This profound sense of wonder and insatiable curiosity drives many of us to fantasize that possibility. So what we cannot live in real life we experience in the virtual one.
Computer games in specific have been putting people in command of space faring civilizations that explore new worlds, meet new races, establish new societies and gain the ultimate knowledge of the Universe.
Like so many of you I’m a space lover in general and a computer game space strategy lover in particular. I’ve been playing computer games, and specially space strategy computer games, for a long time now. I assembled a chronological classification of what I consider to be the space strategy game landmarks, games which I’ve been playing intensely over the years. The question is what’s next and where should we go from here [...]
Recent Posts
Loading...
Loading ...Twitter: spacesector
About | Contact | Free Newsletter | Privacy Policy
Space Strategy Games Sector is proudly powered by WordPress.
Copyright © 2010 by SpaceSector.com
