OFFICIAL Strategy Gaming Thread

[Kursah]

Ashes of the Singularity Escalation 2.2 update released, the beta has been great. The balance made a lot of good changes, and AI challenge (for me at least) was increased. A lotta fun with this one! More maps, current map tweaks, balance changes, modding additions/changes, all sorts of goodies!

https://forums.ashesofthesingularity.com/482013/Escalation-22-Update/

 

[Ahhzz]

For those inclined to torture, Civ VI, $30.

 

[Kursah]

Well I'm eagerly and quietly awaiting to see what Starcraft Remastered turns out to be...and there are other threads on the legacy Starcraft 1.18 now being Free-to-Play I had a couple other games I wanted to talk about.

First is the indie 4X, Dawn of Andromeda has an official launch date of 5/4/2017. Here's their launch video.

The developer is also doing a Reddit AMA here. It is a fun gamey RTS/4X that has good pacing, graphics and UI. Does fall a little short in combat (at least in the current EA release), but is more involved than Stellaris on the control-side of things. It is similar to SoaSE in that sense. A lot of aspects are simplified, but some are done so in a decent manner...like planet development. Absolutely worth paying attention to. I've dumped quite a few hours into the EA of this and really enjoyed it.

Next is the Crusades DLC for Galactic Civilizations 3. It also drops 5/4/2017 and will cost $19.99. There has been a lot of talk about it recently, and honestly it looks to fix a lot of issues many had with the game. Brad took a break from developing Ashes Escalation to focus on this...and it looks to be worth the effort if everything I've seen is anything to go by. We'll find out soon enough if it was enough changes to make this addictive or not. One thing I wish they'd work on is combat...Brad and I discussed back and forth, and instead of implementing a half-assed interactive combat they went with AI controlled and user viewed. Which makes sense...I just like to control combat...especially in a game where you can create almost any ship you desire. They supposedly made some combat camera adjustments I look forward to...and they made some major performance enhancements which is exciting for those that were able to get to turn 200+ and started lagging out.

http://www.stardock.com/games/article/482685/preview-guide-galactic-civilizations-iii-crusade

RTS-wise I've been playing Ashes Escalation and modded PA:Titans. Been having a blast in both!

 

[Dethroy]

I wish I could dedicate as much time to gaming as you guys seemingly do...
Looking forward to the remaster of Starcraft just like @Kursah does. Although I have to admit that I am more attached to the Warcraft franchise (WC3 still being the best RTS of all times imho).

 

[Kursah]

I wish I had more time to game... usually I get 15 minutes here, 20 there...sometimes an hour. I usually spend more time talking about gaming than I do actually gaming. My kids make up the difference!

I do still have and play my copy of WC3 and Frozen Throne. That'd be a sweet game for an HD remake too IMHO... I LOVED Starcraft too...first RTS game to break me away from C&C for longer than a couple hours. I'm a SciFi geek tho.

 

[Drone]

2 new rts games War Zone Middle East and Breath of War:

 

[Dethroy]

2 new rts games War Zone Middle East and Breath of War:

War Zone Middle East looks like a poor man's C&C Generals.
Breath of War looks even worse.

 

[Drone]

^ I agree with both statements lol

It's obvious that AoE and C&C are the best. Today anyone who tries to copy that late 90s formula fails miserably. And other modern rts aren't groundbreaking either.

Shame that Generals, Tiberium Sun and Red Alert didn't get continuation they deserved. Miss them so much

 

[Dethroy]

^ I agree with both statements lol

It's obvious that AoE and C&C are the best. Today anyone who tries to copy that late 90s formula fails miserably. And other modern rts aren't groundbreaking either.

Shame that Generals, Tiberium Sun and Red Alert didn't get continuation they deserved. Miss them so much

While I wholeheartedly agree that Westwood did tremendous stuff (especially the 2 very first C&C entries Tiberian Dawn & Red Alert, Dune 2 and to a lesser extent Tiberian Sun and Generals) and single-handedly paved the way for almost every other RTS games that came after Dune 2 and C&C, I have to give the title for the best RTS of all times to Warcraft 3.

Honorable mentions:
Starcraft
Homeworld
Total Annihilation
Warcraft 2
Dark Reign
Metal Fatigue
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
Battle Realms
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance

Edit: probably missed some that should be honored as well. Never got into Z though.

 

[Dethroy]

Yes, I was referring to Warcraft 3's expansion The Frozen Throne indeed.
The game still has a very dedicated active fan base and ever since the last big patch 1.28 got introduced (after 12 years), the battle.net client has seen a resurgence of active games. The professional scene is mostly playing on NetEase and W3Arena though.

Edit: Anyone remember Krush, Kill 'n Destroy (KKND)? I completely forgot about said game, but gog.com's latest sale reminded me of it again.
While it is obviously heftily borrowing from C&C, it was a fun game nonetheless imho. Couldn't resist picking it up for 1.49$.

If anyone else is interested, here is the link:
https://www.gog.com/game/krush_kill_n_destroy_xtreme

 

[RCoon]

Have played those games as well. Tiberian Sun was the game of my childhood when it comes to single player, but I agree when you say that Warcraft 3 (TFT I guess) rocks. I'm wondering if their Battle.net server is still popular and if there's still enough traffic for a good 1v1 experience.

If you're from Colorado why does your IP address say Bucharest?

 

[bogmali]

If you're from Colorado why does your IP address say Bucharest?

Good question......and it is not behind a VPN

 

[Dethroy]

If you're from Colorado why does your IP address say Bucharest?

AFAIK the Hilton's have hotels everywhere around the globe

 

[Kursah]

Been getting back into Ashes some more after a short hiatus into Elite Dangerous. Really digging this game. Each update gets better.

The recent dev journal has some good info. Modding is a priority, with them wanting to open up the entire game to modding, naval units next year, more campaign and new Juggernauts units next month. The recent balance changes and map modifications are solid IMHO.

Here's the thread in question: http://steamcommunity.com/app/507490/discussions/0/1290690669217229381/?ctp=2

Here's one quote from Brad Wardell of Stardock, aka Draginol in another thread comparing Sup Com, PA and AotSS in response to the thread:

Here's another way to look at it.

There will never be another update to PA or SupCom. By contrast, sales of Ashes go into new development of Ashes.

Source

I believe it too, the amount of work they've done to the game thus far has been good. Sometimes updates are slow to come but they always do. I really thing AotSS has a bright future.

And for Linux lovers, here's a brand new thread Draginol started asking how many are interested, get in there and say something!! Vulkan implementation is about ready!

 

[Kursah]

Over 500 replies to the Ashes Linux thread, hopefully that'll keep going and convince them to do it! And hoping that they about have a grip on Vulkan, it'll be easy that they'll wanna do it if only 500 people respond to the thread.

In other news, I've been on a Star Wars kick. Downloaded some more mods for Stellaris, but just haven't been fussed with starting a new game yet...hopefully soon tho!

Though there was a new mod for Star Wars Empire at War that caught my eye, called Empire at War Remake. Does some pretty significant updates to the game...so far I've only played it for about an hour but I really like it! Makes EaW space battles as fun to look at as they are to manage, which IMHO is pretty awesome! Check it out here, if you own the game I highly recommend it.

Though be warned, it is a pain to do to the Steam Version versus the GoG version as noted in the mod's description. Though @FordGT90Concept 's 4GB patch is what folks recommend using with the Steam version with a couple other shortcut tweaks to get it working. I have both GoG and Steam so for the sake of just playing it I haven't tried fixing the Steam version yet. But this mod requires that the 4GB patch be applied to the FoC exe and the correct shortcut params be used to activate the mod. Go do it, thank me later!!

I'm in the middle of installing the Star Wars Alliance mod for Polaris Sector. Its a mod I followed loosely during the pre-release development of Polaris Sector. While I bought that game on release day, I've dumped more hours into it now a year later than I did at release. It is slated for a new patch/content update soon but the dev isn't divulging details and the publisher (Slitherine) hasn't made any announcements yet. I figured I'd try this mod...copying the folder now, it's around 5.2GB in size. Quite a decent sized mod for a game that uses a mix of 2D sprites and 2D slices (to mimic 3D). Getting ready to try it now...the dev did a lot of modding for EaW as well and that is where a lot of the models were sources apparently. The dev says this is as close to a modernized version of the 90's SW 4X, Star Wars Rebellion as you can get. Of course there are different mechanics, he says being a fan of that game, those are pretty big words. I've been looking at SWR, but haven't bit yet. Going to see if this fits the bill.

 

[Ahhzz]

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/spellforce-3.234052/

Spellforce 3 released at the end of the year

 

[Jborg]

Not sure if anybody has seen this game, but I grabbed it since I felt like a new game, and while RTS is not my favorite genre. This is a serious throwback to AOE to say the least. I think im going to continue playing around. Very cool game so far.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/466560/Northgard/

15% off on steam right now too

 

[Kursah]

Ashes of the Singularity 2.3 patch just drops. Included Juggernauts...new super units, balance changes, a new campaign and reworked the old campaigns. Can't wait to fire it up after work.

Between these solid patches and Brad Wardell saying he wants this game to be a mod platform, I thing Ashes and its Oxide engine have a strong future!

http://steamcommunity.com/app/507490/discussions/0/1353742967805191186/

 

[Kursah]

Reinstalled Warcraft 3 last week just before Blizzard announced they would be releasing a remastered version. Looking forward to that and it feels good to be playing this again. Mixing it up with some AotSE, Rimworld and SW Empire at War.

The fact that WC3 still plays on modern systems, supports 1080p resolutions, and is still entertaining speaks volumes. This and Tiberian Sun were my main RTSes for years back in the early-2000's.

Today the Steam Summer Sale hits... and I see that Total War: Warhammer is on sale, so is all the DLC (still $$$$$ tho...). I'm fairly broke but am tempted to get this. I've generally steered clear of Total War though, no real reason why though...I'm sure Rome and Rome 2 would've consumed my time for eons. But I am very tempted to pick up at least the base game. Any suggestions here? Is the vanilla game worth it?

I enjoy the Warhammer games, and this does look like it could be quite fun. I'm generally more of a sci-fi and modern warfare kinda gamer, but Warhammer's fantasy works fine for me.


I have been enjoying Rimworld on and off...I kinda want something more combat oriented, though admittedly I've only played it for 20-30 minutes at a time. I do gotta say it is pretty damn cool and I'm getting the hang of managing my peeps. Just doing easy starts with 3 survivors. Working on tuning their tasks to meet their qualifications then specialties and interests, getting the basics down.

WC3 I covered above...I haven't modded yet but would like to find a good HD texture mod but at the same time I don't really feel the need to do either. I also need to work on my APM and rush tactics...my first couple skirmishes against the AI and I got my arse handed to me LOL! Embarrassing as that is, I cannot deny it.

Ashes has been pretty damn good but the new campaign is challenging...but I'm mostly playing skirmishes against the AI. I still love the battles in this game and the balancing and map polishing is just awesome IMHO. I am really quite excited for the future content and moddability of this game.

Now I wonder if I should add TW: Warhammer to the mix...

 

[BiggieShady]

If you haven't tried it yet, there's an open source project in alpha stage but completely playable, name's 0 AD (zero anno domini) ... https://play0ad.com/download/

 

[Kursah]

Interesting, I'll have to check it out. I remember hearing about it a while ago but never did check it out. The artwork reminds me of Caesar 3, which I really enjoyed. Looks like it plays a lot more like AoE, which makes sense considering the history behind it.

 

[Fx]

Kursah,

For the TW: Warhammer series, all you really need is the base game. The DLCs are ok, but not worth the extra cost. The major factions that you should play are Empire, Vampire Counts, Wood Elves and perhaps the Dwarves.

 

[Kursah]

Kursah,

For the TW: Warhammer series, all you really need is the base game. The DLCs are ok, but not worth the extra cost. The major factions that you should play are Empire, Vampire Counts, Wood Elves and perhaps the Dwarves.

Well looks like I know what my meager gaming budget is going towards then! Thank you!

 

[Drone]

Oh, boy! There will be AoE definitive edition!

 

[Drone]

Northgard trailers