This title came out of early access recently, though it still needs (and is getting) some work. It was on sale this week on Steam, so I gave it a try, and I'd encourage any fan of 4X space games to do so too.
It's possibly the most ambitious 4X space game since MoO3 or the original Macintosh Pax Imperia (which has almost no relationship, sadly, to the very stupid, dumbed down, realtime "sequel" of a few years later). Doubly impressive because the developer is a single person (Daniel Dicicco).
The influence of MoO2 is obvious but heartfelt, and switching the strategic game to turn-based from the realtime of Stardrive 1 was a really really good move, making time and attention for the details that don't work in an RTS.
Seeing the patchlog, I'm pleased to see consistent progress with good priorities. The game is already playable (though some parts don't work as well as they should) and looks likely to be really "done" in another couple months. If we are lucky, Dicicco will continue working on it as a labor of love, and in a few years have something to rival Dwarf Fortress
Currently, the area most in need of polish is the ground combat. The UI is full of problems there - the camera angle isn't steep enough to see the square grid near walls and there is no wall transparency; mouse aim is very hard to judge, so it's easy to end up moving one unit when you are really trying to select another. The rules for engagement and ranged attack are not clear. There are also other purely UI problems, like the lack of edge scrolling (which is present in the strategic game). Just allowing freer camera motion, or moving the fixed camera to a steeper angle, would help a lot. So would consistent selection feedback, and allowing a click anywhere in a square to mean selecting/targeting the unit in that square.
It's possibly the most ambitious 4X space game since MoO3 or the original Macintosh Pax Imperia (which has almost no relationship, sadly, to the very stupid, dumbed down, realtime "sequel" of a few years later). Doubly impressive because the developer is a single person (Daniel Dicicco).
The influence of MoO2 is obvious but heartfelt, and switching the strategic game to turn-based from the realtime of Stardrive 1 was a really really good move, making time and attention for the details that don't work in an RTS.
Seeing the patchlog, I'm pleased to see consistent progress with good priorities. The game is already playable (though some parts don't work as well as they should) and looks likely to be really "done" in another couple months. If we are lucky, Dicicco will continue working on it as a labor of love, and in a few years have something to rival Dwarf Fortress
Currently, the area most in need of polish is the ground combat. The UI is full of problems there - the camera angle isn't steep enough to see the square grid near walls and there is no wall transparency; mouse aim is very hard to judge, so it's easy to end up moving one unit when you are really trying to select another. The rules for engagement and ranged attack are not clear. There are also other purely UI problems, like the lack of edge scrolling (which is present in the strategic game). Just allowing freer camera motion, or moving the fixed camera to a steeper angle, would help a lot. So would consistent selection feedback, and allowing a click anywhere in a square to mean selecting/targeting the unit in that square.
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