u/sss_riders

Hi everyone,

I thought I ask on reddit for some advice on finding myself a Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Post apocalyptic/something with imagination, games like Stellaris. I do like History games but I want monsters, Aliens, Dragons and even AI/Machines etc. All that jazz. I love Stellaris.

Things I love in Stellaris and hopefully I can find in other games

1. Exploration:
Endless amount of lore, stories and meaningful decisions. Traveling the galaxy exploring and researching anomalies is absolutely fun…! The feeling of ''what is out there?'' sparks my fingers and toes. It has a huge number of unpredictable events that feels like a new game everytime I start a match.

2. Deep Pop Customization
Pops mean everything, they have purpose, working class attributes. Welcoming Empires or refugees into your society or playing as slave Traders and forcing your pops to work through cruelty, bigotry and indiscrimination. Building Basic Robots is fun too since I'm not a machine style player but do love Cyborgs. Delegating Pops to do specific jobs while balancing their specific needs breathes life into Empire management.

3. Diplomacy and Federation
I've been playing Mostly 4x games, and I think it's safe to say Stellaris has a more intuitive, interesting, deep and dynamic Diplomacy mechanics I have ever played (Best atm!) I enjoyed Old World (Mowhowak Games) Diplomacy, espionage too and while triggering events that cause some behavioural conflicts. Both Old World and Stellaris are great at this. Diplomacy is what got me into 4X games as well.

New to Grand Strategy genre so I can only compare with 4X genres atm.

4. Politics
Surprisingly, super deep. Ruling an empire with social status, building social conducts and relationships, delegating specific work force and obeying Policy, terms of agreements and selecting specific edicts with a high upkeep cost making resource management a vital key.

It's like building an empire base on your fantasy dreams or ideas and bringing them to life.

5. Economy
Stellaris Economy is super Addictive and complex depending on your build, struggling to micromanage it, while figuring out a solution to balance your basic resources while it can hurt over time is very fun. MegaCorps is an outstanding Authority type playstyle focusing a few of my favourite things; building a strong economy, utilizing allies or commercial pacts and integrating companies and businesses to not only increase certain types of resources but to support your friendly neighbour resource as well. It’s like owning share holding stocks and working together but both benefiting in a symbiosis relationship. This is what makes Stellaris so unique, I can’t find anything else like this game.

Games that I have Tried, and I like them but may lack a few things.  

- I love Old World as I have mentioned before and I love the Random events, the conflicts between Heirs and rivalry between other nations. I litterrally want an Old World game in Fantasy/Sci-Fi, with Orcs, Draconis or Goblins, druids or something, to give me more imagination rather than accurate or pre-existing characters that rode horses but no Lizards or Aliens out of pace. (Just a vague example)

- I have AOW4 and a few DLCs but I feel this is game is more Combat Focus. It barely has many victory conditions. The High Fantasy in AOW4 is excellent but the economy imo is a bit underwhelming or too straight forward.  I don’t think it has politics that engages in some sort of Conflict. It does have quite a nice Diplomacy, vassal, Lore and character customization so it does have a few similar things like Stellaris has. I end up mostly winning based on War rather than uniting a coalition or spying on my opponents and stealing resources. I haven’t played AOW4 in a long time I think 2 years ago so things have changed that I may have miss.

- I have Total Warhammer it has one of the best Factions and all being Unique. I really want to give Total Warhammer another chance.  But I did not like the Combat, it’s too long and way too huge for me to micromanage, it felt slow and overwhelming. I think I prefer Auto Battles, but the Point of Warhammer is Large grand scale battles. Not my thing!

- Amplitude Studio Games, I have + love them, Mostly Endless Space 2 and Endless Legend 2. No need to recommend this to me 😊

I see Distant Worlds 2 might be the strongest or closest to Stellaris option. But it does look Spreadsheet Heavy or maybe overly complex/complicated in economy. I loved how Stellaris was advertising all the different factions Toxoids and Aquatics being a favourite of mine even though I haven’t got Toxoids yet. Will buy it next sales.  Distant Worlds hasn’t piqued my interest the same way Stellaris has but can look into it a bit more to see if anything interests me.

Maybe I should just stick with Stellaris. I have bought quite a bit of DLCs and each one of them has been a blast. Even the base game I thought, was impressive. Owning Federation, Galactic Paragon, Utopia maybe Overlord was a massive improvement so far and have been super excited to slowly collect more overtime. Since Combat isn’t my strength, I like games with combat, but I don’t care about spending 1hr over a single battle as it can feel a bit boring, imo.

''What should I be looking into?''
By what I have bullet pointed so far please let me know and happy to investigate your specific choices. I’ve noticed I might be more of a simulation style player because I just love simulating reality with an improvisation of imagination. Was hoping Game of thrones war of Westeros might be worth a wait but I have my doubts .

Thanks everyone for taking the time in reading my post.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

I haven't played much of it yet, just the starting. It will be my go to bed night type of game as I am currently playing 4X games atm. Trying to fit time for many games can be difficult but possible. One of the most expensive game I bought and it was well worth the wait. I think it came from Japan but the service I used was Hong Kong. These type of games I appreciate to the Max where its compulsory for me to buy the Hardcopy. This means the world to me.

I'm going to have a blast of my Digimon Life.

https://preview.redd.it/fw7wzs4sc66h1.jpg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2b50fbdb0001c217a1d95d26a40b439e96d5319

difficulty Adept

Difficulty Adept

Hello all,

Showing you the graphs is not that important.

I am proud of what Endless Legend 2 has become so far. I definitely bought this straight away on release but there were a lot of issues with the AI. I am so pleased that I have been struggling which has made the game more challenging. On release Tahuks use to dominate in Science from the beginning, now I completely suck at Science lol. Taking a look at one of the graphs showing, I came third in production. These Graphs are really nice, showing AI is competent. I did start on hero Difficulty but I have lost 3x from Necro or Dust Lord. I was then forced to play on Adept difficulty. I use to be able to play on Stellar but these minor changes has improved the game with more stability, control and progression feels evenly spread to myself as a player and with AI. I still recommend online multiplayer to really test your skills, but as a single player, I enjoy the challenges and the struggles on my own. It's made me really think about; pre-planning my structure order, Researching the right Technology early to mid, Combat is extremely tactical(Relying on Auto battles as I am doing a bit terrible) and paying more attention to lack of resources through economy.

More purpose to exploration. Back then it was so easy to grab everything and win by gaining tons of resources. Now I am contesting and fighting over territory for rare strategic resources or for some minor factions. I love that you can grab a luxury resource early like Dark horn, its been so helpful. Even Influence is expensive in the early game costing 150I to place a foundation. I am having to re-strategize how I use to play. I use to complain about how easy Hero difficulty was, now I am crying lol 😂. Which means I love it.

A side note: I still think Diplomacy could be a bit more challenging and would love it if the enemy apply more pressure, revoking and pissing you off. It would be cool if each faction leader had a personality trait where they can be a bit more aggressive, peaceful, cunning/manipulator, Altruism, or Lone wolf/Isolation etc. Though that might deter the ''Unique Faction''. Maybe like a Setting Trait. Not really a biggie, game is fine as is.
Though, I haven't tried custom faction. I will check there too, see what else has change.

Been holding off from this game because I wanted to try a new faction or check out the new Minor Faction. It doesn't look ready yet but I hope so soon. Best 4X game of the Year for me.

Hi there everyone,

I had to ask all the Digimon and non-Digimon Fans alike. I'm considering buying Digimon Next Order on my Switch, I've been contemplating and indecisive about playing the game for over a year. I miss Digimon World 01, the old days on PS1. I Miss pet simulation, farming, taking care of my Digimon, similar to Digi Devices that I use to show off at school lol. I sold all my Sony consoles. A mistake that I've done on my part. But I do have a Switch.

I'm also keen to get Time Stranger on Switch or switch 2. I've played Cyber Sleuth and yes it's a very good game. But I do feel that bonding, feeding or caring is not their strong suit. I'm also considering Monster Rancher because its another game with strong bonding and life cycle mechanics.

So my question, do you think they will continue the Digimon World/next Order with new sequels after Time Strangers DLC's or in the far future, generally speaking?

Pet Raising/simulation, bonding mechanics is what I found charming from Digimon World and Next Order seems to have just exactly that.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Hey guys,

Does anyone know if monster rancher would suit me?

I Love monster taming games with pet bonding, a strong sense of connection or building up and training monsters deeply. I like deep strategies. Evolution pathways and would be cool to watch my monsters grow up not just for damage or defense but I helped it get there with guidance. I can see that with Monster Rancher being exactly that.

I saw Monster Rancher DX 2 and I thought, the mechanics looks surprisingly Deep, strategic and requires thought, timing, preparation and intuition. The Problem is the monsters graphics and environment look like poo. I apologize for that horrible word I used. I Play a lot of sprite and 3D Monster Taming games but even Sprites look way better. Been playing Monster Crown Sin eater: the monsters are visually attractive. Same thing with Astra Bestiary. I just can't see myself buying MR DX 2. Then I saw Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher. I thought the graphics look amazing but the Monsters look like Humanoids, Men in Suit. I'm a casual Humanoid Tamer but I am a big fan of Quadrupeds, insects, Cephalopods, Invertebrates, Dinosaurs, Dragons, Wyverns etc. Godzilla Kaiju's actually has all that King Gidorah, Mothra and Desghidorah to name a few.

But..... Monster Rancher 2 in Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher i.e. Mochi and the 1 Eye monster. THEY LOOK AMAZING in Ultra Kaiju they look way better than the funny looking men in suit monsters. There's also a Geodude looking character only in MR2 I really want him because he has no legs and he shows off his muscles as if he was working out hehe.....

I really want to get into the Monsteer Rancher franchise, Even Monster Rancher 4 look visually appealing but unfortunately I sold all my Sony consoles. But if the monsters look too blocky and low Res I can't relate to it.

There is one game that is similar and I absolutely love it, which is Mamon King, but again the monsters look okayish, generic, nothing fancy about them except for the 4legged Dragons with actual 3D Textures. I was surprised they had a few of those in Mamon King. I Absolutely Love Mamon King mechanics. The gameplay can feel a bit simple imo.