Astra Exodus - Another Space 4x by Matrix/Slitherine...

Started by Jarhead0331, July 02, 2019, 12:02:26 PM

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Jarhead0331

I'm a sucker for these games, but this one looks like it might be a little too scripted and linear for me. Also looks a lot like Stars in Shadow, which never really griped me...the space battles look pretty cool with good pacing for RTS, and the modding could be interesting too if there is a strong and talented community contributing to it.

http://www.slitherine.com/news/2880/Conquer.the.galaxy!.Astra.Exodus.has.been.announced!

Quote
Astra Exodus is the new space grand strategy game with all elements you eXpect from a serious 4X. Explore the galaxy, found new colonies and try to forge strong alliances with alien races. Fight off pirates and slavers and fight real-time battles to repel invaders and conquer new worlds when all your diplomatic skills have failed.

The single-player narrative Campaign will send you up and down the four corners of the galaxy following the mysterious Legacy of the Exodus, with a series of linked missions. You can also choose the free sandbox mode and go full-alien, taking the lead of one of the other seven factions, from the winged Okli to red skinned reptiles of the Veloran Horde, each with unique traits and abilities, for endless 4x action.

A game developed from the ground up to modded. Players will be able to add or modify any faction, starship, troop, technology and everything else and boldly go where no one has been before.
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W8taminute

Astra Exodus looks pretty good.  I'll keep my eye out for this.  Need to know more about the game before making the 'must buy on day one' statement.
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airboy

Are the real-time battle elements pause-able?  If not, I'll pass.


bobarossa

Video was painful to watch.  He didn't seem to know how to play everything.  Lots of inane comments.  2 hours!   From my 10 minute skip thru it looks like it's just MOO2 with real time battles.  No feedback on combat screen.  There should at least be a health bar somewhere.

Jarhead0331

Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Labbug

Stars in Shadow is a game I return to often.

Martok

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 24, 2019, 05:18:45 PM
Stars in Shadow, anyone?
Another underrated gem (one I admittedly don't play often enough). 
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Yskonyn

Stars in the Shadow or Genesis ? Say there is only cash for one.
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Rayfer

Quote from: Yskonyn on December 25, 2019, 01:24:57 PM
Stars in the Shadow or Genesis ? Say there is only cash for one.

IMHO, and I have played both (still playing Genesis), I'd go with Genesis. I didn't like Stars in Shadows nearly as much as Genesis.

Martok

Quote from: Yskonyn on December 25, 2019, 01:24:57 PM
Stars in the Shadow or Genesis ? Say there is only cash for one.
If you're looking for a quicker, "lighter" 4x game, go with SiS. 

If you want a fuller, more in-depth space 4x experience, you want ISG. 
"Like we need an excuse to drink to anything..." - Banzai_Cat
"I like to think of it not as an excuse but more like Pavlovian Response." - Sir Slash

"At our ages, they all look like jailbait." - mirth

"If we had lines here that would have crossed all of them. For the 1,077,986th time." - Gusington

"Government is so expensive that it should at least be entertaining." - airboy

"As long as there's bacon, everything will be all right." - Toonces

al_infierno

This ticks two big boxes for me: 

1. Turn-based space 4X
2. Released by Matrix/Slitherine

I'm sure I'll pick it up as soon as it releases, even if it ends up not being great.

I have Interstellar Space: Genesis but haven't gotten around to trying it out yet.  Maybe I should pick up SiS before the sale ends.
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Jarhead0331

#14
I have press code for this and there is no embargo on videos or reviews, so here are my immediate initial impressions. You asked for it in the Friday thread.

Importantly, I have not yet tinkered with diplomacy, ship design, space combat or ground combat. I've only played a few hundred turns involving the strategic layer. This is not a full a blown review, just very early impressions.

First, I have two rigs that I could not get it to run properly on. The screen was blurred and the text on the UI was mostly illegible. I tried everything and just couldn't get either system to run this correctly. Eventually, I relented and installed it on my main simming rig, which for some reason was able to run it properly. Hard to believe this game requires a 2080ti. LoL

In any event, I do not care for the look of the game, but I knew that going into it. The bright colors, the cartoon graphics, not my thing at all. It looks so much like stars in shadow. Hard to believe the developers are not the same or related. I turned the other cheek though since this is space 4x, after all.

Exploration, colony management, research, economic management. Really nothing new jumps out at me yet. Very basic. Very simple. Very familiar. We've seen these 4x tropes over and over and over again. These concepts have all been done before, and been done better. There is really nothing notable for me to comment on yet on these aspects of the game.

I'm running the human campaign that begins with a tutorial. The first mission is to expand and destroy a pirate base. They don't tell you where the pirates are and they seem to be inhabiting two systems very close to your homeworld. So far, I've lost two invaluable colonizers by unexpectedly running into them. Not a fun way to start a tutorial.

That's when I got bored and decided to go play Mechwarrior. I'll give it another shot and see if my impressions change, but right now, I have very little motivation to play this, other than I do want to see space battles. They look kind of cool in real time. Ground combat looks an absolute bore though. Again, simple in the extreme. Very small maps. Uh, oh well...
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18