Stars In Shadow - Another Space 4X

Started by Jarhead0331, September 12, 2016, 01:06:58 PM

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Ian C

Quote from: bbmike on January 20, 2017, 11:38:02 AM
Quote from: Ian C on January 20, 2017, 11:31:10 AM
Bought this today. I love the look of it but why have they made Humans the hardest race to play? There's only one Human/Humanoid race and you start off screwed, with no home planet and even on Easy difficulty, I've had to restart four times. Any tips?

Don't start as the humans. They are designed to be difficult. Start with the Ashdar Colonials.  ;)

Thanks. I got it now. You have to colonise the best planet you get within range then scrap some ships to reduce costs. Quick-buy a farm so you don't starve and then a few other things to cut costs. Took me 6 goes to get it right. Enjoying it so far.

bbmike

I send my transport to trade duty first thing.
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Ian C

Quote from: bbmike on January 20, 2017, 01:41:40 PM
I send my transport to trade duty first thing.

Yeah, that was another thing I learned. It saved my colonies from starving, but come to think of it, even though I have 'tutorials' checked on the options, there haven't been any at all which was the main problem. I've had to learn through trial and error. What gives?

Freyland

Too many habitable planets, even when set on "rare". Really blunts the joy of exploring.

Nefaro

The one game I started awhile back, it took me a long time to figure out some specific thing.  IIRC.. how to drop colony pop units onto a planet. 

The UI just didn't seem intuitive to me in that case.  Probably have to figure it out by trial & error once again when I go back.

Martok

#35
This is a fun game.  Nowhere near as deep or complex as Stellaris or Distant Worlds, obviously, but then it's clearly not trying to be.  The devs were obviously going for a space 4x title that was easy to just jump into and play, and in this they succeeded. 

The emphasis is on ship design & combat, less so on exploration and colony/empire development.  Not that the latter is ignored or gets short shrift; it's just, well, streamlined.  The devs pretty obviously didn't want the player to get bogged down in the details of establishing & running an interstellar empire, and so they set about to make the first three X's (Explore, Expand, and Exploit) as painless as possible, without being insultingly over-simplistic.  Exploration is kept somewhat interesting by running into other entities like pirates, space monsters, and (especially coveted) independent colonies.  Building transports and then adding them to an invisible "pool" automatically puts them in your trade fleet (adding to your income), as well as automatically transporting food to colonies suffering from a shortage, which I find to be a nice (and much-appreciated) touch. 

The turn-based battles are where SiS definitely shines, and are perhaps the best I've yet seen in a space 4x title.  It's not WEGO (to my admitted frustration), but this is offset by other factors, such as faster ships getting an initiative advantage (helping to keep smaller ships relevant); also, positioning matters.  Ship design is both enjoyable and easy. 



As I said, this is not a deep game.  You're not going to find Stellaris' level of diplomatic or political depth, nor DW's economic complexity.  But for those who want to just sit down and conquer the galaxy in a couple hours (while getting to fight some fun battles along the way), Stars in Shadow is pretty good for scratching that itch. 
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Tanaka

Quote from: Martok on January 26, 2017, 04:46:16 PM
This is a fun game.  Nowhere near as deep or complex as Stellaris or Distant Worlds, obviously, but then it's clearly not trying to be.  The devs were obviously going for a space 4x title that was easy to just jump into and play, and in this they succeeded. 

The emphasis is on ship design & combat, less so on exploration and colony/empire development.  Not that the latter is ignored or gets short shrift, it's just, well, streamlined.  The devs pretty obviously didn't want the player to get bogged down in the details of establishing & running an interstellar empire, and so they set about to make the first three X's (Explore, Expand, and Exploit) as painless as possible, without being insultingly over-simplistic.  Exploration is kept somewhat interesting by running into other entities like pirates, space monsters, and (especially coveted) independent colonies.  Building transports and then adding them to an invisible "pool" automatically puts them in your trade fleet (adding to your income), as well as automatically transporting food to colonies suffering from a shortage, which I find to be a nice (and much-appreciated) touch). 

The turn-based battles are where SiS definitely shines, and are perhaps the best I've yet seen in a space 4x title.  It's not WEGO (to my admitted frustration), but this is offset by other factors, such as faster ships getting an initiative advantage (helping to keep smaller ships relevant); also, positioning matters.  Ship design is both enjoyable and easy. 



As I said, this is not a deep game.  You're not going to find Stellaris' level of diplomatic or political depth, nor DW's economic complexity.  But for those who want to just sit down and conquer the galaxy in a couple hours (while getting to fight some fun battles along the way), Stars in Shadow is pretty good for scratching that itch.

Completely agree. This game certainly comes off as barebones by just playing around a little bit it can seem that way. I am playing a 500 system game and I keep finding more and more cool things. It has a lot of hidden depth that you have to keep playing to discover but you have to really play the game to unveil it as it is not really written down anywhere..guides, manuals, wikis, etc...I always wanted a MOO2 that you could play with more than just a few systems and now I finally have it. And there are a lot of differences between the two that I really appreciate. I really like the ship design trade offs. Some smart design here! But most of all it has the MOO2 combat that we all love and miss that the new MOO never delivered!

solops

#37
I really like this game. I moved on from a couple of marathon Endless Legend sessions (great game) and I'm trying this out for the first time in many patches before I try Realpolitik. It really has that one-more-turn thing to it. The UI needs work (they know) and balancing is still going on. There are still a lot of races and "stuff" they could add, but the game is really pretty good. It is a lot like Polaris Sector in some ways. Of ALL of the recent 4x space games, this is more like MOO2 than any of the others, IF that is what floats your boat. I am not particularly looking for a MOO clone, but these guys have built a great game. Wish the combat was WEGO. I agree with the above two comments. If any of the devs read this, don't let it go to your head...you still have some polishing to do.
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Rayfer

Anyone still playing this one? Steam has it on sale 40% off $14.99.  Worth the time, effort and $$$...?

bob48

I've been tempted a few times for it - the gfx do put me off a bit though.
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Rayfer

Quote from: Labbug on June 12, 2017, 08:49:38 PM
I have found it fun but difficult.

Went on the Steam forums and found a number of 'difficulty' complaints, even when using the 'easy' difficulty level, mostly that AI empires or pirates steamroll you early on from which you can't recover.  But many posters enjoy the ship creation and turn-based, tactical ship combat aspects of the game.

Trooperc7

i found the game to be tough but fun to play.

W8taminute

I've logged 23 hours with this game and love it.  I agree with Martok, emphasis is on ship design and turn based combat.  Turn based combat in a space 4x what more do you want?   :)
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Tanaka

#44
New review from Tom Chick:

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/07/19/stars-shadows-finds-place-sun/#more-43695

Could not agree more. And now after a new balancing patch this game is even so much better! And a new DLC is on the way:

http://steamcommunity.com/games/464880/announcements/detail/1430307963817159301

Want MOO2 with better graphics and bigger maps and more stuff? Well it is finally here for me.

I am trying a new game as the Gremak slavers and having a blast. Capturing slaves and allying with pirate marauders. Striking out of nowhere with my cloaking device and close range torpedoes. There is so much more to this game than even MOO2 had. Each race is really cool and different! Not many games where I don't have a favorite and want to play all of them.

Put on some Star Wars music and I am in Space 4X heaven. This is finally the modern MOO2 I was always waiting for! But better! Yes I said it. Better than MOO2.