Post by Fayde on Sept 14, 2010 10:49:16 GMT -8
This game is a remake of Masters of Orion, which is directly responsible for inspiring Ironclad to make SoaSE.
It's a turn based game, much like the Civilization series, but it's a bit more complex, while also being more abstract (if you can imagine). Anyway, It takes a few runs to get used to the system and mechanics, but once you do, there is a huge game left to you.
I've personally be craving larger scale games lately, ones that take literally days or weeks to complete, and Free Orion scratches that itch pretty well.
An overview:
The original game was on PC decades ago, and looked like this:
Free Orion has updated the graphics with a nice interface, and some 3D aspects to it as well.
Here is a similar shot with the new graphics:
The point of the game is much like SoaSE. You are to expand, grow your empire, and destroy the other players. In face, it seriously just feels like a deeper, longer and larger version of SoaSE.
The tech-tree is MASSIVE. While there are not actual races in the game, the tech-tree is about as big as all 3 SoaSE trees combine (Including all Military, Diplomatic, Defense, all of it).
Combat is done very abstractly. If anything, it is hardly done at all. You get a message that says "There as been a battle at insertplanethere". And your ships drop health according to their defenses and the enemy weapons.
You CAN design your own ships and produce them though, which I thought was cool. In the tech-tree, you can "unlock" many different weapons, shield emitters and other devices and load them Mechwarrior-style to your different Hull types. Of course, the more powerful ships are more expensive, but it allows you to balance and decide where your ships will specialize.
Some of the interesting game play mechanics in the game is the economic aspects. You do not have "money" per say, you have points that go up or lower depending on your economic style and settings. You can set each planet in your control to focus on one of the many kinds of resources.
Food, Mining, Trade, Research and Industry are all things you can balance according to your needs. However, they do not take effect right away, you may see loss before you see gain and you have to ride it out to see where it is going. It's a very fine balance to keep.
Like I said above though, your ships do not require "250 food, 50 mining, 10 Research..." and so on. It is more like the more food you have, the faster your population grows, which means more trade, mining and research. However, if you have to much food production, you are not getting the most out of the benefits that your large population gives you.
Industry gives you so many Production Points every turn to spend on your ships, which is paid for over each turn, Research points are also in the same fashion.
Mining also effects production and spending as well, and trade... well... Dunno how that effects the game yet actually, lol.
Anyway, there are also special "Oregon Trail" types of events to keep you on your feet, which can also be prevented by researching special techs. Just last night, I had just built a Colony Ship and sent it several systems out, which took several turns. I had also set up a sort of guard with my tiny fleet to protect it, as it was bordering another players world. When I finally colonized it, the whole planet fell to famine (which is apparently common for "new-born" worlds), and killed my whole population! Unlike SoaSE, your colony ship seems to vanish once you colonize, so you have to build a colony ship for every planet you colonize. I think it has to do with the fact that the Colony ship is also a Colony Structure and lands on the planet and acts as a sort of "town center"... But that is just a guess lol.
Anyway, I would check it out. It's turn based, so you can work on it for a few minutes then put it down, or you can be like me and put 50-75 turns a sitting into it.
I am still getting used to the game, but I will post some links to help you out if you try it. The game is huge, so I am sure I've missed something:
Download:
sourceforge.net/projects/freeorion/files/
Quick Play Guide:
www.freeorion.org/index.php/V0.4_Quick_Play_Guide
It's a turn based game, much like the Civilization series, but it's a bit more complex, while also being more abstract (if you can imagine). Anyway, It takes a few runs to get used to the system and mechanics, but once you do, there is a huge game left to you.
I've personally be craving larger scale games lately, ones that take literally days or weeks to complete, and Free Orion scratches that itch pretty well.
An overview:
The original game was on PC decades ago, and looked like this:
Free Orion has updated the graphics with a nice interface, and some 3D aspects to it as well.
Here is a similar shot with the new graphics:
The point of the game is much like SoaSE. You are to expand, grow your empire, and destroy the other players. In face, it seriously just feels like a deeper, longer and larger version of SoaSE.
The tech-tree is MASSIVE. While there are not actual races in the game, the tech-tree is about as big as all 3 SoaSE trees combine (Including all Military, Diplomatic, Defense, all of it).
Combat is done very abstractly. If anything, it is hardly done at all. You get a message that says "There as been a battle at insertplanethere". And your ships drop health according to their defenses and the enemy weapons.
You CAN design your own ships and produce them though, which I thought was cool. In the tech-tree, you can "unlock" many different weapons, shield emitters and other devices and load them Mechwarrior-style to your different Hull types. Of course, the more powerful ships are more expensive, but it allows you to balance and decide where your ships will specialize.
Some of the interesting game play mechanics in the game is the economic aspects. You do not have "money" per say, you have points that go up or lower depending on your economic style and settings. You can set each planet in your control to focus on one of the many kinds of resources.
Food, Mining, Trade, Research and Industry are all things you can balance according to your needs. However, they do not take effect right away, you may see loss before you see gain and you have to ride it out to see where it is going. It's a very fine balance to keep.
Like I said above though, your ships do not require "250 food, 50 mining, 10 Research..." and so on. It is more like the more food you have, the faster your population grows, which means more trade, mining and research. However, if you have to much food production, you are not getting the most out of the benefits that your large population gives you.
Industry gives you so many Production Points every turn to spend on your ships, which is paid for over each turn, Research points are also in the same fashion.
Mining also effects production and spending as well, and trade... well... Dunno how that effects the game yet actually, lol.
Anyway, there are also special "Oregon Trail" types of events to keep you on your feet, which can also be prevented by researching special techs. Just last night, I had just built a Colony Ship and sent it several systems out, which took several turns. I had also set up a sort of guard with my tiny fleet to protect it, as it was bordering another players world. When I finally colonized it, the whole planet fell to famine (which is apparently common for "new-born" worlds), and killed my whole population! Unlike SoaSE, your colony ship seems to vanish once you colonize, so you have to build a colony ship for every planet you colonize. I think it has to do with the fact that the Colony ship is also a Colony Structure and lands on the planet and acts as a sort of "town center"... But that is just a guess lol.
Anyway, I would check it out. It's turn based, so you can work on it for a few minutes then put it down, or you can be like me and put 50-75 turns a sitting into it.
I am still getting used to the game, but I will post some links to help you out if you try it. The game is huge, so I am sure I've missed something:
Download:
sourceforge.net/projects/freeorion/files/
Quick Play Guide:
www.freeorion.org/index.php/V0.4_Quick_Play_Guide
