Star Ruler 2

In the fairly distant future, the evolved form of humanity has conquered FTL and taken to the stars. Only to find many various other different races having done the same. It's a fairly typical concept, for a 4x game created, rather obviously, by a small team and with a small budget. As a space-game junkie though, that's all I needed. I bought it and played it for a fair amount of time, before eventually moving to theoretically greener pastures. Now, years later, I find myself playing this game again and enjoying it again just the same. I think it's high time I write down a few thoughts as to why that is. Star Ruler 2 generally favours an aggressive playstyle. There is a mad dash to explore and colonise as many star systems as possible early on, followed by encountering the other factions. There has to be a method to the madness though. Colonise without organising your economic base and soon the budget deficit will kill your growth and maybe your game. The military needs investment as well in order to remain competitive with the other factions. The AI is not afraid to declare war the moment they smell a weakness and things can quickly snowball from there. All this results in campaigns that can be refreshingly faster in pace and more dynamic than other competing games have to offer. The game is not afraid to innovate and take different directions. The most obvious example of that is arguably its diplomacy system. Diplomatic actions are represented as game cards that factions can acquire and play. There is a moving pile of available cards to purchase that gets frequently updated. Factions vie to generate influence, which they then use as currency for the cards. They vary from acts to name a planet and thus make it better, to forcing another faction to show their map to everyone, all the way to annexing neighbouring star systems. I'm uncertain how ideal this system is, but it sure was fun and added an interesting dimension to diplomacy. I kinda wish the game had more cards though. Another successful innovation can be found in the core economic system of the game. A very fundamental aspect of gameplay. Every planet produces a resource. Those can be basic ones, like food and water, or more advanced ones that require the planet to be developed in order to harness. Planets develop by having resources from other planets diverted towards them. Undeveloped planets not only don't produce any profit, but in fact cost maintenance. Yet they are necessary to own in order to support the more developed planets. The end result is a network of planets that feels quite realistic. It emulates the exploitation of poorer, less developed areas, in support of more developed ones. It's a system that is not only believable but also engaging. Of course not everything is that rosy and the game does have significant flaws. I wrote earlier that it was made by a small team. This can be seen by the lack of polish and generally low production values. Additionally, some of the systems present feel rather underdeveloped. The technology system for example. Even some of the more innovative concepts, like the one allowing you to design ships, can feel a bit awkward in practice. There is also a lack of balance and transparency when it comes to the various things that can be built. To its merit, the game does offer a great deal of variety, from solar satellites to ring worlds. I personally don't care too much for balance, but I would appreciate a more complete and informative user interface bringing all those nice features together. Star Ruler 2 is hardly perfect, but it still manages to be both innovative and fun. I certainly believe it deserved a better reception than the one it got. From what I understand it's hardly played these days, having been completely overshadowed by Stellaris. That is a shame. If anything Stellaris could learn a thing or two from this game. For those interested in 4x games that want to try something less well known, this is a gem. A flawed gem, certainly, but a gem nonetheless. I highly recommend it.

It just has that spark that makes the game fun.

Это тот Стелларис который мы хотели в те далекие времена, а не тот который мы имеем сейчас. Игра реализовала те самые прекрасные возможности когда ты сам выбираешь тип двигателя для покорения галактики, возможность создавать несколько галактик и расстояние меж звезд. Плюсом этот прекрасный редактор кораблей и станций, благодаря которому мы можешь собрать свой идеальный корабль запихнув в него все что угодно ( от вооружения до гражданских жилых модулей) Да есть конечно спорные моменты ввиду того что на планеты нужны поставки еды и воды и их надо больше и больше экспортировать в зависимости от лвл планеты, вроде в первой части этого не было. Да многие из ру коммьюнити пропустили ее ввиду отсутствия локализации. Но у этой старенькой прекрасной игры до сих пор остается своя фан база, да и графически она не сказать что сильно хуже того же стеллариса.

The game is not bad itself. Just as many reviewers said, it has no soul. The mechanics are interesting, but it just does not feel that you are a ruler of a Star Empire. The world just feels lifeless and artificial. I would strongly recommend at least to try this game to see whether you will like it. Also, check this great review https://steamcommunity.com/id/d996m/recommended/282590/ However, this game is definitely not for me to invest further, because I just cannot immerse in it.

They open sourced this game, check discussions, kudos.

Total mess that made the studio bankrupt. Get Star Ruler 1 with Galactic armoury mod. (Latest version has more bugs, then older version of the mod, so might want to use a older mod version of GA if you like me have a 100% lockup rate with the latest version)

I played the game only for a little while. I did like the innovative side, however I didn't feel like spending too much time in it. I found the ship building strange (not necessarily bad). The idea of stacking planets is nice. But I find it tedious for now. Perhaps it's a different time from when the game came out. The UI feels clunky but I believe i could get used to it. Combat was very uninformative. Ships fighting, but I have no clue what was happening. So why do I recommend the game? Price is VERY important here. I find the game interesting enough for a few euros and I believe one can find many many hours here, were he so inclined. So the recommendation is mostly because of the games originality. A different take on things. I have recognized some systems as appearing in more modern titles, I suspect this might have been the inspiration. Music was okay, thematic, unintrusive. Graphics were servicable. UI despite feeling clunky, did what it should, mostly.

Maybe I'm just not good at this game but no matter what I do the AI is always head of me when it comes to fleet strength and I cannot keep up no matter what I do. As a result every game of this I've played has ended in stagnation. I really wanted to like this game because it has really fun diplomacy and the supply chain system is interesting, but AI that's impossible to go up against is a huge negative for me in any strategy game.

Way better then stellaris. New and Interesting economic systems.

Для тех у кого большой монитор надо изменить dGUIScale: 1.0000 на dGUIScale: 1.6000 Ну или сами решите какое число вам подходит. Без этого разрешение будет нормальным, но менюшки все маленькие, вы же не хотите разглядывать все в микроскоп. Найти настройки с этой строчкой можно в Документы/My Games/Star ruler 2 settings .txt В нем то что вам надо.