4X-RTS:
Though we've entered 2018, there remains a collection of games completed before everyone binged on Steam's 2017 Winter Sale. Over the next few Mondays Awkward Mixture will examine three versions of the Sci-Fi 4X RTS genre: Star Ruler 2, Stellaris, and Sins of A Solar Empire. The whole odyssey will conclude with an article comparing the core aspects of the Space Empire genre.
Two terms: 4X
stands for four Xs: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. Why
someone called 4X instead of 4E is a question for astrologers, but in
4X games, the player controls an expansive empire, managed with
complex systems, and ending with the elimination or domination of all
enemies. Sid Meier's Civilization, Alpha Centauri, and Master Orion
are popular examples along with Galactic Civilizations (and no, EU4,
Total War, and Heroes
of Might and Magic are not 4X, regardless of what Wiki
thinks).
A more common term,
RTS (real-time strategy) means the game is not turn based, but
continually unfolding (though they generally allow pausing).
The
interstellar voyage begins with Star Ruler 2,
developed by Blind Mind Studios and
released to Early Access in 2014. A curious fact: in this age where
Wikipedia is ubiquitous, Star Ruler 2
doesn't have its own page, but can be found as a subsection of the
original Star Ruler,
released in 2010. Both earned Blind Mind Studios limited success and
they remain a small indie producer.
In
Star Ruler 2, as in
Stellaris and Sins,
the player begins with a single planet, and expands outwards to
defeat the enemies. Star Ruler
allows the player to design the universe, choosing the number of
galaxies, planets, and enemies scattered in space. There is no plot,
no scenarios, and no campaign included in Star Ruler,
but the options allowed for creating a universe, contains an
incredible variety. If one were to choose a preset game, clicking
through the menus in approval, Star Ruler
will set the player up in a single galaxy, with sixty systems, and
three races fighting for dominion.
Each
of these sixty systems are then divided up into one to four planets,
which empires can colonize. Every planets contain a single resource,
and these are divided into six categories: food, water, level I,
level II, level III, and bonus. The player will need to export these
resources from the majority of planets and concentrate them in a
minority, because planets with more resources can support an
increased infrastructure and population. A planet's development is
classified from 0 to 5, with 5 being the most developed. An empire
with developed planets are essential as they produce the real
components for victory: credits, to influence, and research.
Before
a planet can export its resource it must achieve a minimum threshold.
A planet which can produce a level I resource, needs one food and
one water before it can export its resource. A planet with a level
II resource needs the same, plus a level I resource, and one more
food. Once planets which can export, the player needs to decide
where to consolidate the imports.
A
level 0 planet has no imports. A development 1 planet requires 1
food and 1 water. A development 2 planet requires the same, plus
another food and a level I resource. A development 3 planet
additionally needs food, a level I, and a level II resource, and a
development 4 planet needs one more food, two more level I resources,
and one final II resource. And at the pinaccle, a development planet
requires one more food, two more level I resource, and two more level
II resources.
To
forge this Trantor, the player's empire must colonize sixty planets
at a minimum.
How
can one fail to mention level III and bonus resources? All
resources, in addition to their ability to influence a planet's
development, provide a minor benefit to the planet that imports it.
Maybe the resource increases research, or boost influence. As of
this moment, and the game seems finalized, level III and bonus
resources seem to serve only this function and have no influence on
planet development. (though in one of the mods, a level III resource
is required to push a planet to development 6).
Sustaining
a development 5 planet is a delicate balance in the midst of war, its
interstellar trade routes like fibers of a spider's web, with the
core planet's position so precarious, that a single snip could cause
a cascade which reduces the Coruscant to ruins. This technique is
key for disabling an enemy empire while only avoiding massive
decisive battles, and useful in separating an empire's crucial trade
routes.
The
sixty systems which compose a galaxy are connected along
predetermined lines. For an empire to trade between its planets,
these systems must be connected. Two systems under a player's
control, separated by a single neutral territory, can't import or
export their resources. Importing and exporting must trace a route
along these pre-computed lines, exclusively through allied systems.
In
galaxy wide wars, assuming one can't attack the enemy directly, there
are two strategies: attack and destroy food and water planets, as
these will be weaker, without the defenses which naturally accompany
well developed planets, or conquer systems which will leave the
enemy's empire divided. Both of these will cause the enemy's
developed planets to devolve, and deprive them of the most valuable
component, credits.
It's
easy to become bogged
down in a repetition of terms,
level
for resource type and planet development,
resource
for planet exports and the stuff
(for
lack of a better word)
which are the result of all that exporting, by which I mean: credits,
influence, energy, FTL, research, and defense. The amount of credits
the player receives depend on the development of their planets. A
level 0 planet runs in the red, while a level 1 barely breaks even.
But growth is exponential, and a even a level 3 planet can be the
source of a energetic economy, and a sizable early game navy.
Star Ruler's
web based resource system is one of its unique mechanic, but its not
the only one. Its dispensation of stuff, specifically capital, is
one unwitnessed in any RTS while also remarkably realistic. An
empire's credits are delivered as a budget to be spent over a three
minute interval. Any cash remaining after that time is invested into
one of the other secondary resources (the player chooses), and if the
player needs to spend a little more than has been allotted, they can
do so, but the cost is taken from the next budget with a bit of
interest on top.
This
three minute feature is a relaxing reinvention, which allows the
player to not constantly be smashing the buy button as they try to
continually keep spending their income, as is common with other RTS.
How many times has one played StarCraft, WarCraft
or any other of its kin, and been unable to maintain the purchasing
required to persevere? Star Ruler 2
avoids this irritating feature by re-imagining income.
Here's
a bit of advice though: spend it all! Even though any additional is
directed into a resource of the player's choice, its effect is
reduced. Instead of allowing additional cash to be funneled into
research, build research stations, instead of increasing influence,
construct buildings which will generate it.
There's
more to talk about: diplomacy, combat, ship building, technology,
war, strategies, and impressions.
That
will have to wait for next week.
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