Well, I've decided to sink my teeth into a good 4x game for ios, and there appears to be a decent selection these days. Which one do you guys think is best? I'm looking for a game deep enough that it will waste many hours, and have my wife demanding a divorce (again), but not so complex that I have to spend my life managing a thousand production qeues and telling individual colonists when to wipe their butts. Lots of ship designs, weapons, over-the-top fleet space battles. Feel free to argue with one another respectfully, of course. Orion? Ascendancy? VTA? Distant Star? Others that might not be getting the buzz you think they deserve? Comparisons? I'd like to hear them Thanks!
Starbase Orion! This is probably the closest you can get to erm..galactic civilizations on the ios. Distant Star is a bit too simplistic for me;it really takes the micro out of micro management. =/ I haven't spent time on other 4x space strategy games so you will have to look to others for really in depth comparisons .
Thanks! As to micro-management... My concern is getting bogged down when the galaxy/empire/game gets big. See previous post about production queues and butt-wiping How is it dealt with in Orion? (No offense to those who are into the minutia of colony management). Just want to keep things moving.
If u ever played master of Orion 2 on the pc, starbase Orion is the closest game u will get to it on iOS, it's what inspired the designers. Ascendency is a great pc port also, but starbase Orion is the best 4x strategy game on iOS in my opinion
erm... I suppose it can get a bit tedious moving back and forth from quite a few screens and going through all your planets to build stuff. You can assign the build focus to research,, farming etc to make things easier though. The number of production units/buildings isn't overwhelmingly large and this makes it easy to manage your empire. Scouting and exploration are not automated so you will have to manually set targets for your ships. At the end of the day, Starbase Orion is a somewhat streamlined 4x game with a rather intuitive interface and therefore you shouldn't find the micro management aspect too much of a chore.
4x is a different genre. It stands for explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate. High complexity, no-twitch space games that involve not just combat, but economics, trade, and colonization, among other things.
@ultimo... Never played rogue planet. No, not looking for an RTS. @djflippy... Yes, I'm definitely talking 4x. I want that depth. I guess I just don't want TOO much depth, you know what I mean? Been researching. Looks like the top two are SO and Ascension. Ascension seems to have a pretty good following. Surprised that no one has offered a comparison between the two. Anybody?
http://reichardblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/crossover-master-of-orion-ii-vs-ascendancy/ Both games are good: "Same, but different" Back in the day I played much more MOO2 than Ascendancy, so I'd lean towards Starbase Orion here. I'd also say I like Distant Star as well, if you want a faster, more straightforward game (and I like it's style/presentation) Text has gotten easier to read since their last (fairly significant) update. Vincere Totus Astrum has a lot of character, but I hate it's menu system. And I have to confess that I bought 9 Colonies, but haven't had much of a chance to play it - although it's more of a 3X game. My daughter got an iPad for Christmas, have had a chance to play with these on there and it just makes me wish I had an iPad of my own.
coming from a fan of ascendancy and SO, I'd say get both, but if u just want 1, then SO. The research bar on ascendancy can be a little confusing for newcomers
Ascendancy is on sale for $.99, so I might as well get it. If I like it enough, I'll get Starbase Orion.
OK, let me make it SIMPLE. One is on sale for .99 and one is around $7. Figured out which one to get first yet? Ok, ok I'm being a wise *#!, sorry, although the price difference is real. If money is not an object, I have to bow out since I only have MOO 2 light . . . er Starbase Orion. Edit: I dont think I even qualify as a wise *&! since I missed your last post. Oh well, not my first post=fail.