u/Valasty

Hello friends!

I like to occasionally play 4X games and I find the concept very appealing, but I've never found "the perfect one" for me. So maybe if I list the positives/negatives from the ones I've played you can help me figure it out? You're the experts :D

Sorry about the super long post, I have to vent some stuff out, but here's a...

tl;dr: Looking for a 4X game where I can play slow/tall and mostly pacifist, with things to do most of the time, split between enemy attacks and base management. I don't want games where enemies attacks only when much stronger. Deep tactical combat system and shorter playthroughs are also very welcome.

(please don't be too hard on me if I say something wrong, I have less than 100hrs on each of these games)

First of all, the way I like to play is to always set the difficulties on the hardest possible (or close to it) as I do enjoy a bit of suffering and tactical thinking. However, I prefer to play tall, I like to be the small guy who will be friends with everyone, but mercilessly retaliate if provoked. I also never play with mods, I usually prefer the vanilla experience as this enables achievements, but I'm slowing dipping into mods with Rimworld (also not usually DLCs as there are too many and they tend to become reeeeeally expensive).

So based on the above my main issue is the game requiring me to play wide too fast. The biggest offenders here were Civ6 and Stellaris, they seemed to very much require you to expand as much as possible, as fast as possible. CK3 was the opposite though, expanding came with it's own advantages and disadvantages, meaning that bigger kingdoms are stronger but also harder to sustain, great game design!

However, what made CK3 better on the above aspect is also what made it a bit... boring, I guess. I played a very small country surrounded by hostiles, and there wasn't much to do aside from the initial setup... no expansion, no upgrades, no buildings... almost nothing. There were very few counties and every upgrade took forever in early stages. Raiding was a decent option but required very specific timings as I was generally weaker than everyone else at first.

Fighting in general is also something that feels very poorly implemented in these games as no one will attack me unless they have a sizable advantage, and in higher difficulties it borders the bizarre as they will show up with 5x more force than even possible, so it's pretty much certain death when that happens. The fact that I like playing peacefully also doesn't help because I actually very much enjoy fighting, I just don't want to do it for no reason. Civ6 was great in this aspect because of ideologies, so sometimes you would be attacked with similar strength just because they didn't like you. Stellaris was supposed to be similar but I've never got attacked with a fair chance of relatiation, it's always overwhelming force. CK3 was a bit better in this aspect, but not by much.

I think the above are my main pet peeves, but here are some small things I would also appreciate:

• Good tactical combat system instead of just numbers comparison or simple counter mechanics.
• Procedurally generated maps instead of historical ones... I don't really care being storically accurate, I just want a fair board where everyone starts the same.
• Shorter playthroughs is also a plus... I only reached a single ending of Civ6 (I lost because of not expanding more...), CK3 has no end, and Stellaris dragged on forever even with faster settings.
• As a big fan of Battlestar Galactica and space operas in general, Stellaris could very well be my dream game... conceptially it's AMAZING.

So... does this game even exist?

Thank you in advance!