Riftborne

Interesting take on the 4x, can't say I'm not enjoying the time I've spent playing it. Good: - Timer based simulation is an interesting mechanic. Advancing through the game is great, but also letting it run as you do stuff around the house is great too. - Looks great for a text based terminal game imo - Resource collection/upgrade loop plays well especially if you're a number goes up type of guy. Looking at economy and production mechanics through a use it or lose it type of lens is also something you don't see often in alot of in 4x's. - Plenty of flavor, corporate simulation with a stock market is a nice touch. Big reoccurring theme is many of the mechanics are simple but have a ton of depth, and are super unique. Helps the game stand out among similar games with higher graphical fidelity. Okay: - Still rough around some edges, but still getting plenty of updates from the dev. - I know it's limited by being terminal base, but UI and Docs could use some improvement. Too many clicks to get to certain actions or get a highlevel idea of what's happening. Some buttons/mechanics aren't explained too well in the guide (was struggling a bit with SPU's) Bad: - May be user error, but wasn't able to find an AI difficulty toggle and AI seemed dumb? Managed to cream the AI in classic mode pretty easily, within a few irl hours had a planet with a 1m+ pop while most other planets were under 10k? Will update review as I play it more Would recommend this game if you enjoy strategy games and are okay with the terminal UI, at any price under $15 I feel like its a steal, let alone at $8 for any fan of 4x's.

This is a really interesting game, and perfect to have open while I'm studying or working. However! I've run into two major problems which unfortunately make this a title I can't recommend. First, the advance time function is dramatically slow, taking upwards of fifteen minutes of real time to pass thirty minutes of in-game time. I've got a decent computer so I don't believe it's a hardware bottleneck. Second, it has crashed my entire computer, full on BSoD, three times while advancing time. Again, really cool game, love the style, big respect to the developer. But for some reason it just seems to hate my computer.

ignore playtime. ive put many hours in. good game. fun in the current state and likely to continue to improve

This game feels like a mix of Dwarf Fortress but also Stellaris. I like that it also feels somewhat of an idle game, so you can play this while you watch anime, or as of now the FIFA cup. Then when tasks are done you can pause and reassign and continue. If that feels like a turnoff don't be because you can easily advance time and get tasks done faster. I do wish the maps are bigger as I feel 300x300 is big but like I want massive maps. Maybe 1000x1000 and then I'd be happy spending weeks on a single save. Overall I reccomend this game to anyone who is into space and strategy games.

Ignore my playtime, I have played more hours since I launch the game directly with a terminal on Linux. I would describe this game as a 4x mmorts. While it's possible to play the game offline, the strategic aspects shine with the multiplayer component of the game. The developers are very active and are receptive to feedback, which combined with the price, makes the game worth the purchase compared to others of this genre. --- When you enter a multiplayer game of Riftborne, you will be greeted with a culture selection screen. There are currently three factions: Astrarean, Varkon, and Veil. Each culture have their own unique buildings they could construct. You will also be placed in a faction with other players. This is apparent from the screenshots on the store page. What isn't apparent is that each culture has a resource they have a discount in. For example, if you're playing an Astarean, then you will have an excess of Aurelite in your storage. Vulkron for Varkon. Deuterium for Veil. Players from other cultures will need the materials you are specialized in so that you are incentived to work with your faction members or (temporary) allies. This is the first layer of strategy that should be considered since you don't want to have an excess of one culture in a faction. The ships in each culture aren't equal and there are a variety you could include in your fleets. Veil ships are glass cannons, Vakron ships are slow and tanky, and Astarean ships are somewhere in between but have a longer build time. Light ships are fast and numerous, but heavy ships are more resource efficient than their light counterparts. Riftborne, at its core, is a team based conflict-centric game. There is only one win condition as of the time of this review, and only one faction can win. Two of the three cultures have their economies based on raiding resources from other players. This doesn't mean you have to engage in the offensive as an individual player. You could become the economic backbone of your faction and set up trade routes to feed resources to your frontline faction members. You could create an organization, issue shares and loans, and make sure your faction has access to high tier relics (activatable buffs) from the Noctmark economy. You could provide intel for your faction through a fleet of spy ships and keep track of your enemies. An organized faction should have several roles a player could focus on. Riftborne has several layers of game mechanics you can engage with. There's also the rts aspect of the game, with its timing, build orders, and strategy in general. For example: Do you want to start building your fleet the moment you spawn in and have an advantage when the protection timers drop, or do you want to focus on your economy? Do you want to rush for a level 10 Spire and grab an early mining outpost, or save your outposts slots to respond to an enemy faction? — Overall, I recommend Riftborne if you're into this specific genre of games. You're looking at several hours of content at a cheap price if the other reviews haven't made that apparent already.

Probably the first 4X-style game I've actually enjoyed, its unlike anything I've played! There is a small amount of RTFM to do, but after that it feels like the whole game opens up. Development is very active so I only see this getting better. Highly recommend if you like working with deep, interlinked systems and having access to diverse player builds. Outstanding value for the price.

Exceptionally ambitious game and just as deep, can only imagine how much larger and better this game will be in the future considering how feature rich it is right now already and its only just entered EA. Dev is super active and very passionate which is a great sign for the future.

Such a cool game! Terminal based and already quite in-depth. If you used to like browsergames like Tribal Wars, Ogame, and so on, you will like this =)

Good game with an active and responsive dev. Hopefully will continue to be improved and refined.

This game is really fun, I just wish the loading in command line bit of it was... well... different. Its very retro but it doesnt work very well. It would be a lot better if they did something like QUD does and run it in a game engine, the developer would have more options and it would work better for everyone. This will play very differently for everyone based on their operating system version and command line settings from what I can tell. Mine DOES NOT refresh correctly which makes the game just about unplayable which is disappointing to say the least. I cant see half of the menus, no settings I change seem to help and the screen refreshing correctly is a hit or a miss to say the least. I do still recommend this, its not a high cost so its worth it, but Im hoping for major quality of life improvements. Even if it stays as a true Command line game, just please make it refresh better and give us some screen options to try to fit it all into the window or something, even just making a guide to show us what we need to change would be great.