r/Space4X

I played a lot of RTS over the years, especially BAR. Played a lot of Warcraft 3 as a kid. So two years ago I decided to make my own strategy game - a game with the strategic decision making of an RTS but without the stress of fast execution. Some things that bothered me back then was that players who were able to pull off the buildorder 0.2 seconds faster than the other guy got a big advantage. So I wanted to design around that in my game.

My game is about building a factory, then having that factory fight other players in async PvP.

In relation to an RTS, playing the game is about what army composition you go for. So for example, you could do a mass T1 unit rush. You could do an early air cheese. Or you could go for an economy / lategame macro build.

All this without the stress of micromanaging units, reacting quickly for what your opponent is doing, etc.

Does this land for you? Is "async PvP" something RTS players are interested in?

Any ideas on how I could make this game better?

Public Playtest II is launching this weekend.

Links:

Trailer on YT 

Steam 

Discord

Strategy gaming YouTuber quill18 shows off what he’s been working on. An aurora4x/Factorio inspired space sci fi game with Newtonian physics.

Check out the full video here ! https://youtu.be/J4fQcr9MAOE?si=OZ8lKRg48rbf7s\_s

Seems like a lot of folks are launching stuff in the Space 4X genre lately, which is both exciting from an interest standpoint, but also terrifying as someone who has been working on a web-based Space 4X MMO since 2020 😅

Something I've built in Galactic Impact, which I hope sets it apart somewhat, is a mechanism I've termed "Discoveries"; beyond the standard tech tree with its canonical branching dependencies, there are techs and even whole branches that are hidden at the outset for a new player.

Ships with "Science Skill" can conduct Research actions at locations they're exploring, gathering actual in-game data about the area: Star attributes, Planetary systems, etc. and by combining interesting 'sets' of this data, they can thematically discover some particular hidden aspect of the tech tree.

A handful of Discoveries are live now, and almost 150 others are on the roadmap. I'm expecting it to give some interesting variation to different Empires, since these aren't quite so linear as a tech tree, so the order/likelihood in which a given Empire will find each may vary.

What do y'all think? Novel? Interesting? I'd love for y'all to check it out at let me know!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4483470/Outer\_Empires\_2/

Outer Empires drops you into a persistent, player-driven galaxy with nothing but a starter ship and whatever ambition you brought with you.  What you do next is up to you.  Run trade routes between stations.  Hunt pirates ... or become one.  Stake a claim on a colony and build it into a hub of commerce.  Form alliances and wage wars over territory that actually matters.

When played Stellaris looong ago (before the constant mechanical reworks and DLC bonanza),
I liked a lot the concept of multiple FTL travel methods.

Then I was sad when they opted for Star Lanes, like almost every other space strategy game. This decision is mostly to accomplish something like "space terrain", already present in terrestrial/planetary games. Choke points and other strategic terrain considerations arise naturally in land-based games, but space is too free.

I think this was more of a loss, in creativity regards. Sure, Star Lane is an option and has its place, but it has become too ubiquitous.

As something that only lived in my memories, I was inspired by this and brought back an ("improved") interpretation of this concept to the game I am working on: HARD VOID.

This is a work in progress, but currently there are "sublight","warp","subspace", and "wormhole" travel methods, with distinctive mechanics:

• Sublight: the slowest one, cheap, but moves freely. Limited by speed and has to accelerate.
• Warp: standard movement. free movement between astros in the same universe, but can be slowed down by the universe's dark matter distribution.
• Subspace: movement is required to go between "normal" and "subspace" universes, but it's fast. Also affects the crew's minds (debuffs). Also is the main way to arrive at subspace dimensions.
• Wormhole: high freedom movement, can move between universes freely. Engines are bulky, slower, and power hungry.

What do you think about this?

If you are interested on HARD VOID:

Trailer: https://youtu.be/YWFbsyiLbp8

Latest battle demonstration: https://youtu.be/xxI0FgK6xwU

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2978460/HARD_VOID/

Website: https://hardvoid.com

Discord: https://discord.gg/teV8Jfm552

Stars In Shadow is a great space strategy game that finally got updated after 6 years... What game can you remember that was updated after sitting dormant for years?

I'm Dave :) I've been here a couple times before, showcasing my passion project Stella Nova, built in pure Rust using wgpu for rendering. It's a colony management simulator set in a procedurally generated solar system where every object follows real N-body gravitational physics. The custom engine (WarpCore) handles thousands of entities stably at once and ships under 500MB on disk!

Current functional demo systems:

Real Hohmann transfer planning for interplanetary travel
Modular station construction
Citizen AI with state machine behavior (think RimWorld, Dwarf Fortress)
Time dilation control, play with the laws of relativity- Secret programming menu (please ask)

The playable demo just went live on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4703440/Stella_Nova_Demo/

Happy to answer any architecture or other questions about the project!!

Hey everyone,

You might remember our space strategy, FTL-like, 4X-style arcade game COSMIST which is already available to wishlist on Steam.

We’re finally ready to show our demo next month, and we’re looking for streamers who would be interested in playing our game on demo release day and during the upcoming STEAM NEXT FEST.

My question is: could you please recommend your favourite streamers who love space strategy or 4X games? Or if you are a streamer even with a super small audience feel free to contact me.

Our demo is not too long, about 20–30 minutes, but we made it as replayable as possible while we continue working on the full game, which will include a story, PvP, lots of new adventures, quests, assets, generals and more.

I would really love to hear any recommendations.

Thank you!

Hi everyone!

It’s been busy months behind the scenes at Beyond Astra. While we’ve been focusing heavily on the technical architecture and assets, we’ve released several Dev Logs on steam that we haven't shared here yet

If you’re new to the project or just catching up, here is a summary of the core news we’ve unveiled.

🏛️ The 6 Pillars of Grand Strategy

Part 1:

• Science: Research is directly fueled by exploration. More discovery = faster science.
• Religion: An active system of spread, used as a tool to destabilize other empires.
• Culture: A flexible "toolbox" driven by a strategic tourism system and your planets' rarity.

Read the full Update here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2669060/view/4669760442596130715

Part 2:

• Economy: Forget spreadsheets. We focus on City-Building and Physical Logistics. Resources travel via actual trade routes, and every citizen is simulated individually.
• Diplomacy: Your internal politics shape your external relations. You must deploy physical Envoys (Ambassadors, Spies) on the map to influence factions or sabotage rivals.
• Military: No abstract dice rolls. Combat is Physics-Based (ballistics) with tactical ship customization. We also feature a rich PvE ecosystem with hostile wildlife and massive Bosses, making exploration dangerous and rewarding.

Read the full Update here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2669060/view/542251341653738855

🌍 Forging New Worlds: Visuals & Biomes

We’ve pushed the game’s visuals toward a more realistic and immersive art style. Explore 20+ distinct biomes, from lush Tropical Atolls to scorched Volcanic hellscapes. Discover Exotic Resources that provide stacking bonuses to your cities.

Check out the Visual Evolution here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2669060/view/494970521254888621

🏗️ Latest Update: Galactic-Scale City-Building

The integration of spherical physical planets and our seamless zoom offered us an incredible opportunity to go beyond the management via menus, slots, and lists typically found in the sci-fi 4X genre. This allowed us to fully adapt and develop the core DNA of city-building on a galactic scale! In this update, we showcase the different architectural styles for your cities and provide a deep dive into what you can expect from this new level of planetary management.

Check out here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/2669060/announcements/detail/692008708393141800

Every day, the galaxy feels more alive, and we can’t wait to show you more.

Toward Astra and beyond!
Alex & Valentin

Notes taken from the blog : https://stars-in-shadow.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=535&start=15

Development Update: 13 May 2026

The hull of the Arkship groaned as the vessel was ejected from the hyperspace anomaly into the structure of real space-time. Belit Tseri reeled at her station on the bridge, struggling to maintain her footing as the shift of realities threatened to overwhelm her senses. Realspace was ordered, regular, plodding... a palpably different feel from the chaotic, frenetic flow of hyperspace. Yet distantly familiar... how long had it been? Very long indeed. A glance at her bridge officers showed them seemingly unaffected. She straightened her tunic and tried to clear her head, and set to the task at hand: homeward bound again. But what state would the galaxy be in, after so long?

Greetings, galactic despots! It has been a while... I'm told that time flows differently inside the hyperspace anomalies. Now that we are back in realspace, we have an updated build for you. It mostly includes under-the-hood changes to prepare for future updates, but there are a few new features.

Starmap Overlays
There is a new control at the top right of the strategic map screen called "Starmap Overlays" which allows you to more easily turn map UI features on and off on the fly without having to dive into the Options menu. The list of features also includes a new "Sensor Range Circles" option, which provides a visualization of your current sensor range.



Steam Cloud Saves
Support has been added for Steam Cloud saves. You can now switch between saves on your Local Machine and the Steam Cloud via a dropdown menu at the top right of the Save/Load screen.



Steam Workshop Support
A new "Additional Content" screen has been added, accessible from the Main Menu. This screen allows you to view and manage the active build version of the game, as well as mods from the Steam Workshop that you have subscribed to. Yes, this means that Steam Workshop is now supported! May the Mods be with you.



Patch Notes for 13 May 2026 (ver. r53270)
Changes and Additions
Added Additional Content Panel for Build Version and Workshop Mod management.
Added a dropdown list to the Load/Save screen to switch between Local Machine and Steam Cloud.
New top bar icon for selecting "Starmap Overlays."
Added "Show Scan Ranges" option in the Starmap Overlays list.
Added "Habitability Colors" option in the Starmap Overlays list.
Tactical UI tweak: Use SHIFT + Right Click to quickly rotate ships.
Fixes and Housekeeping Changes
Updated vscode extension protocols.
Default to high performance GPUs on hybrid laptops.
Attempt to restore Windows 7 compatibility.
Fixed a missing icon bug that could cause crashes during morale notifications.
Fixed AI logic glitch related to energy torpedo targeting.
Fix for a fleet visibility bug.
Improved mod compatibility.
Removed source of indeterminism in tactical AI behaviors.
More diplomatic events are now auto removed as a result of starting a war.
AIs should no longer declare war on empires they're unable to communicate with.
And now to find the descendants of those ancient admirals who stayed in realspace but owed me money.

https://stars-in-shadow.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=535&start=15

This is my longest run lol
I got 8 out of 10 wins, almost completed the run but last 3 guys were too tuff

Basically this is very time consuming ship builder. You create some abomination and you fight with other players ships. Its about who create more OP build. Like full-on regeneration almost every turn or just way too powerful gun.

After almost 10 hrs I still find new items in shop, unlocking new stuff and new pilots. Perfect build builder. Its on Steam and got demo, I highly recommend you at least try it

AI War 2 is an asymmetric 4x where you play as the last surviving remnant of humanity after being almost entirely wiped out by an AI. Unlike basically every 4x ever, the AI doesn't cheat, and is very-intelligent.

Sending small strikes to part of your defences to bait you moving forces there, then attacking on the other side of the galaxy? Yeah it'll do that.

The game's designed in such a way that any actions you take make the AI stronger, so you need to be economical with your attacks and only take fights where you get more from it than the AI.

There's definitely a bit of a learning curve, and the UI is a little rough in places, but the in game tutorials are pretty good.

Jupiter 64-bit Port
what 64-bit gets you (vs Mars 1.51)
No more late-game out-of-memory crashes. Mars was capped at ~2 GB of RAM because the engine was 32-bit. Huge late-game empires, fleets in the hundreds, and big modded games (especially Combined Arms) would routinely run the process out of memory and crash. Jupiter has no practical ceiling - your save runs as far as your PC's RAM lets it.
Heavier mods are now livable. Combined Arms players know the drill: load it on Mars, play a few thousands turns, and the game becomes flakey. The 64-bit memory headroom is the main thing CA needed.
Modern Windows, modern runtime. XNA 3.1 redistributable is gone. The game now ships with bundled MonoGame and the .NET 8 runtime, so "fresh Windows 11 PC won't launch the game" should be a thing of the past.
Faster spatial queries under load. The native math/collision layer was rebuilt 64-bit with up-to-date compiler tooling. You'll feel it most in late-game combat with lots of ships on screen - the simulation tick stays tighter for longer.
Things to be aware of:
Some visual effects look different. Mars used SunBurn, a fancy lighting engine that was discontinued years ago. Jupiter re-implements those effects on MonoGame; most look identical, a few are simpler than they used to be.
Mars save games and Mars-compiled mods will not load on Jupiter. Saves are partitioned by design; mods need to be rebuilt against the Jupiter binaries.
It's still alpha. This is the first Jupiter release - expect bugs we haven't caught yet, especially around mods.

https://stardriveteam.itch.io/jupiter-160

Hi everyone!

We’re working on NGC-404, a 2D space strategy/RPG set in a cut-off sector where communication with Earth has been lost and factions are fighting over what remains.

The main idea is to mix a systemic space sandbox with a more personal fleet-focused feel. You don’t command endless disposable ships - you control a smaller number of valuable vessels, so losing one should actually matter.

The sector also has a living economy, with colonies depending on resources, trade access, shortages and production. We want economy, exploration, combat and logistics to affect each other instead of feeling like separate systems. All of that with multiplayer support.

I’m curious what people in this niche care about most.

A tactical 4X space strategy game where every ship you command is designed by you, every colony is shaped tile by tile, and every rival empire plays for the win.
Public demo available. Full beta access by invitation, ahead of Steam launch.
The game
Choose from 21 unique alien species - from master builders to master destroyers, master scientists to master diplomats - and forge an empire across a procedurally generated 3D galaxy. Discover star systems, colonize worlds, design custom fleets, navigate diplomacy with rival civilizations, and meet enemies in tactical space combat.
What's here
21 playable alien species, each with unique passive and active abilities, ship aesthetics, and theme music
Procedurally generated 3D galaxy with starlane navigation and fog of war
Component-based ship designer — pick weapons, shields, engines, sensors, and special devices, balanced within power reserves, shields and weapons capabilities
Hex-tile colony management with construction queues, governors to reduce player admin load
Deep technology research tree spanning, over 60 research topics each yielding multiple usable components and buildings
Tactical turn-based space combat with shields, weapons, and special devices in 3D space
Surface assault (coming soon) and planetary invasion mechanics
Diplomacy with NAPs, alliances, casus belli, technology trades, and shifting long-memory relationships
Strategic AI with five planning postures and six ship-design archetypes — opponents that adapt, plan, and design their own templates
4 victory conditions: Military Elimination, Territorial Supremacy, Capital Capture, Galactic Alliance
Full menu, save/load, polished UI, sounds, Quality of Life settings.
Built in Godot 4.5. Mac and Windows.
Beta access
Access is currently restricted to invited testers. Bug reports, feedback, and discussion happen on the Discord.

https://petroffgames.itch.io/imperium