Star Ruler 2

[sandman2575]

mikeck -- did you like the original Star Ruler?  just curious.  (I didn't.)

More importantly -- are the ship hulls designable -- or is it like original SR, with preset hull shapes where you essentially just add components to an abstract ship blueprint?  (SR's Ship hulls were pretty blocky and hideous -- screenies of SR2 look much more promising).

[mikeck]

mikeck -- did you like the original Star Ruler?  just curious.  (I didn't.)

More importantly -- are the ship hulls designable -- or is it like original SR, with preset hull shapes where you essentially just add components to an abstract ship blueprint?  (SR's Ship hulls were pretty blocky and hideous -- screenies of SR2 look much more promising).

I hated the first one. I felt it was gimmicky with the whole planet-sized ship crap. As for the ships, there are pre-made hulls but there seem to be a bunch of types. That said where you put engines guns armor and everything else matters in the actual battles. So by the time you're done designing even though you couldn't create the hull, you feel like you've made your own ship.

For example if you put a laser on the right side of the ship you can only fire in an arc to the right side they can't fire across the hull.. so little things like that matter.

Truthfully, I've played the game very little so I don't want to get anyone too excited, but I would just keep this one on your radar if you're in the mood for a space 4x and the ones that are out arent doing it for you

Check out a few pewpewchewchew "let's play" videos and you will get a great idea.

[sandman2575]

Thanks for the clarification.  You've put Star Ruler 2 back on my radar. I had completely forgotten about it, and to be honest, on the strength of Star Ruler (or lack thereof), I wasn't really all that interested.  But I'm definitely curious now -- and at $20, seems hard to go too wrong.  Will keep an eye on this one.
 

[Anguille]

Thanks for the clarification.  You've put Star Ruler 2 back on my radar. I had completely forgotten about it, and to be honest, on the strength of Star Ruler (or lack thereof), I wasn't really all that interested.  But I'm definitely curious now -- and at $20, seems hard to go too wrong.  Will keep an eye on this one.

Same here... O0

[mikeck]

Had an opportunity to play a little bit more. My opinion hasn't really changed except to say there's still a few things that need to be added or tightened up. So unless you've got the urge to play right now, go ahead and hold off a few months it'll still be there

[mikeck]

This is a pretty good synopsis of the "pressure" concept where your minions on the planet build things independent of your specific direction

Pressure :
Resources produce varying amounts of pressure or otherwise have their own special effect. Now, what does pressure do, exactly? Pressure means that the planet receiving the resource will attempt to build civilian structures until all of the pressure is used up. For example, titanium gives 5 labor pressure so whichever planet you export the titanium to will build industry structures (those little 1x1 factories on the planet grid) until all 5 pressure is used up. Each basic civilian factory will use 1 pressure and produce 1 labor, excluding any effects. Though those will also upgrade into another factory-type structure that uses 2 labor pressure and gives 1.5 labor which is, unfortunately, less efficient. As of right now I am uncertain what causes the buildings to upgrade into their "level 2" variants.
There are currently 6 pressure types in the game and all have their own structures for the planet's surface : Money, Labor, Influence, Research, Energy, and Defense.

All structures follow a 1 pressure : 1 production for their first building and 2 pressure : 1.5 production for the second.

Money Pressure - Causes Markets and Bazaars to be constructed. Gives you a nice influx of money to your budget. Very useful if you can find an Electronics or Textiles world early on to boost your colonization budget, as debt causes a population growth penalty. (production measured in 75k money)

Labor Pressure - Causes Industry and Enterprises to be constructed. Both produce labor/min. You can also use 9 planet slots to build a factory but civilian structures are free and, until later game, give more production for the same space.

Influence - Causes Broadcast Towers and Media Centers to be constructed. Both produce influence/min. You always want to have at least one planet that is giving you some kind of influence, as there is no influence structure the government can construct and without it you can be extremely vulnerable to diplomatic actions.

Research - Causes Universities and Tech Centers to be constructed. Research labs actually give 1 research pressure, so you get a little more for your buck. Both produce research/min. As far as startups go I really like going Capitalist and using the extra starting 300k to build a research lab: gets my research going really early on. Whether or not it is actually a net gain I have no idea.

Energy - Solar panels, there's two tiers for them as well but I cannot recall the names. They produce energy/min though possibly in higher densities than 1 : 1 for the other pressures.

Defense - Launch pads, again there's two levels though these are special. They produce support ships for free and put them in orbit around the planet or other planets in the system. You can have a planet export this production to build defenses elsewhere. (Using the usual select -> right click destination).

[Martok]

Dammit mikeck, you're kinda making me want this now.  As if I didn't have enough 4x titles on my plate (both current and pending) already...  ::) 

[sandman2575]

Yeah, I'm definitely intrigued by mikeck's assessments.

Lots of great Space 4x titles to choose from these days, but to my mind, no 'perfect' game that is completely satisfying. (There's no such thing anyway, but one always holds out hope.) Anyway, it's great to hear that there is another promising space 4x-er on the way -- especially since Star Ruler, while it had some novelty and promise, ultimately felt soulless to me.

[Huw the Poo]

Star Ruler 2 has gone gold!  The full release is March 27.  New trailer:

[Anguille]

Star Ruler 2 has gone gold!  The full release is March 27.  New trailer:

Argh...too many games coming out at the same time.....Stardrive 2 is also about to be released.

[sandman2575]

Huw, have you been playing early access?  If so, thoughts?

[Huw the Poo]

I haven't, sorry.  It's pretty much at the top of my wishlist though; there aren't many games like this available for Linux yet.  I've watched some videos and it looks bloody good.

[Yskonyn]

What are the main differences between SR and SD? I have one of them but cannot remember which. Lol!

[Anguille]

What are the main differences between SR and SD? I have one of them but cannot remember which. Lol!

Stardrive was all real-time (like Star Ruler). Everything happens on the same galactic map. Stardrive 2 however has a turn-based strategy map and looks to be fairly close to a Master of Orion game (very classic). Star Ruler 1 & 2 are full real-time games with some interesting concepts (ships creation, research, planet management etc.). I would say that Stardrive 2 will be much easier to get into as it's more familiar. Star Ruler 1 & 2 require more time imho to get into because you have more to learn.

[sandman2575]

Officially released...   anyone playing?