Star Traders: 4X Empires

UPDATE 2017: tooltips on tech tree now. Didn't check anything else. UPDATE 20 JULY 2015: Another game update. Still no tooltips on tech tree, no mouse on screen edge scrolling. I don't think they care about making the interface more PC-like at all. Either that or they are using some crossplatform framework which doesn't allow PC features so they -can't- make it palatable to pc users. UPDATE 19 JUNE 2015: I checked the game again to update my review. Nothing has changed except there is now a full screen option. There may be a good game inside here somewhere but I'm having trouble persevering with it due to the atrocious interface, which is exactly the same as the mobile one and makes no effort to take advantage of the PC. The game runs in a window at a set size and you can't change it. (update there is now a fullscreen option) There are no tooltips, so you have to press buttons to find out what they do then click back. This is especially annoying in the technology tree where you have to click on everything one by one to find out what it is. It's seriously tedious. There is no mouse on edge of screen scrolling. No use is made of right click. Just like a mobile game it has a "please review the game" button and another button to "more games". There's quite a long time between turns after you press next turn. Some kind of progress indicator would be reassuring. I mentioned when the game first came to PC in early/mid September 2014 that they needed as a matter of urgency to move away from the mobile interface and make a new interface for PC and I seem to remember a dev saying they would be doing just that. It's been nearly 6 months. It's clear they aren't going to do anything. The game has been written to make money on mobile and then as an afterthought they have dumped it on the pc to make some more money, but they aren't willing to actually put any work in beyond making it actually run on the pc. The worst effect from the mobile interface is the tech tree, which I mentioned earlier. There are a ton of technologies on the screen and you have to click each one to find out what it is, (like Warp Drive 1 or Spanner Throwing 3 or whatever). There's no way to know just from the icon what the tech is and clicking it takes you to a whole new screen which pretty much just says the name of the tech, then you need to click back to go back. It would be so, so easy for them to add tooltips to the tech tree and it would be remove a massive frustration from the game. They've had 6 months to do it and they haven't done it. I have no respect for the devs at all. I seriously suggest not buying this game.

8/10 - This game is quite undervalued. It seemed rather simplistic when I first started playing, like a typical ipad-game, and I didn't like it. However, it turned out to be rather deep once I got under its skin and it's got some entirely unique qualities that make this an excellent 4x. Unique 1: Your viewpoint is from that of a military umbrella-government that rule 3 human empires under martial law. This because you're fleeing home due an alien invasion. The challenge in this game then comes as much from internal strife between the 3 empires under your control and their wish to end your martial rule sooner than later, or even dominate all humans in your sector, as from deadly xenos. If you don't succeed in keeping the power of the 3 in balance you'll see a slew of detrimental effects on the planets affected by their politics, which in turn can cripple your ability to fight off external enemies. Very appealing game mechanics. Unique 2: You're calling the rest of the exodus fleet, letting them know you've settled. Your population growth doesen't come from new births but from immigration. As a result population growth is out of your control as long as you have a place to settle the newcomers. This result in a very different early game from other 4x games, where there is no value in expanding to new uninhabited worlds just to have more places to grow population. You total population growth is the same with one world per faction as with 10 worlds, as long as there is room to settle the newcomers. This make the early gameplay and expansion in general far more interesting than in other 4x. Another interesting facet of this game stem from the abilities the 3 factions afford your united realm. You get a choise of different factions to pick your 3, and they can have abilities like skilled pilots from superior millitary traditions. But if you choose to base all your united millitary from out of that faction during the game (to get the strongest millitary possible) that would lead to the millitary faction declearing war on the other defenceless ones. This means you cannot simplify your choise of factions into "roles" based on their specialty, but must maintain a more complex view of the composition. There are other less appealing game-mechanics that prevent this game from truly shining. There are some rather easy-to-find strategies that the AI simply can't handle. Some of the graphics is unappealing, not just low quality (I don't like the ship models). The fuel and logistic mechanics could be more inspired. But despite all this, Star Traders 4x remain a solid 8/10.

Pros: -Solid and rewarding tech web that let's you focus on when you want to improve planets or ships (Mostly) which makes chosing research both a more tactical and focused process at times. -Excellent combat mechanics generated by the variation and range of ship technologies. (Hint: A POWERSHIP doesn't win wars; Armadas win wars. ;) ) -Interesting mechanic with guiding 3 individual factions makes diplomacy less of a way to 'game the system' and more of a 'system of the game' - Developers have an exemplary record of listening to their players, updating their games, and making good on any and all short-comings of the game when it's first release. If there's an aspect of the game that 'breaks' it for you, tell them, and there's a good chance they'll find a way to make it work as soon as humanly possilbe for a (mostly) 2 man dev team. ^_^ Cons: - Needs some better explanations/tutorials. This is probably not a good 'first 4x' game at present. - Some pacing issues should be addressed, but it's not really anything that I as a 4x fan havn't dealt with in any other 4x game, up until the 'final' version. So it's a con that's only a con because the game is still evolving, in my judgement. - Full screen is only enabled if you launch from the steam browser. Needs to be an in-game option. - Steep learning curve: I ended up restarting my first few games several times when I realized how drastic the early game mistakes I made were effecting my effectivity. But figuring things out was also rewarding. I can see how some would not appreciate this (but this is a function of needing more tutorial/explanation of systems)

Pretty good lightweight 4x game. First off, yes, it is a mobile port, so it does have some of the trappings of that (lack of tooltips, overly "clicky" interface, etc). There is mousewheel support, which is nice, and they have promised to add tooltips, which would make things a lot easier to navigate. On the plus side, the game has a nice big tech tree, which feeds into a large number of ship and colony upgrades. The diplomacy is kind of unique in that you are managing relationships between factions within your empire, rather than other factions. As far as I can tell, this is the only space based turn-based 4x game that has on map tactical combat, which is good or bad depending on whether you like that (personally I prefer this). The ship designer is pretty fun to use, although it could have been consolidated into fewer screens. I didn't really have any trouble picking up the game, although some things could have been explained better. Even though some things could have been better, overall, I enjoyed this game a lot.

Итак, друг, ты захотел купить себе инди 4х стратегию и приятно лампово провести денек? Мой тебе совет - иди мимо. Эта игра только прикидывается таковой. На самом деле это ужасный монстр, который затаился на этой страничке магазина в засаде, с хищным намерением взорвать задницу того несчастного, что додумается его купить. Я ничего не буду говорить про лор или какие-нибудь отсылки к другим играм от этой студии - эти игры могут быть неплохими, но даже если игра состоит из них на 99%, это не может скрасить ее ужасающую механику. Итак, начнем со старта. О, неплохо, столь щедрое начало - 3 колонизатора, скаут и два боевых корабля. Редко в какой 4х стратегии можно встретить такую щедрость в начале игры. Щас мы быстренько колонизируем аж 3 ближайшие системы и будем нагибать по заветам 4х, начиная с eXpand. Упс, ход передался? Хм, вроде нажал колонизировать, почему? Ага, в следующие два хода при колонизации двух другим систем, ты, друг, понимаешь, что приказ любому кораблю колонизировать автоматически завершает твой ход. Ты не догадался пострелять, походить, задать очередь строительства и исследований? Ну, ничего в следующий раз будешь умнее. "А пойду-ка я перезагружусь и буду внимательно следить, чтобы больше не сливать ход столь глупым способом" - скажешь ты, и тут тебя встретит еще один сюрприз - никакого сэйв/лоада, все по хардкору, как в каком-нибудь рогалике. "Но это же 4х стратегия! Что если игра вылетит в силу какого-нибудь глюка или я ошибусь мискликнув куда-нибудь?" - ничего страшного, у тебя есть автосохранение в начале каждого хода и ты быстро догадаешься как исправить свою глупую ошибку, если что (если она не автоматически завершит твой ход как с колонизатором), да и вообще - ты же любишь повторять одинаковые действия раз за разом, не зря же ты решил сыграть в инди 4х стратегию. Окей, отходим от первоначального шока, начинаем строить разные глупости в системах и летать вокруг корабликами. Вода в качестве топлива? Космокорабли летающие на реактивном паре, да? Ах да, если, топливо кончилось, корабль все равно отлично летает (что логично, да) - просто не может использовать свои абилки (назвали бы этот параметр маной и не заморачивались бы, что уж там). Ой, ты тоже пропустил начальный лор и туториал? И тоже не готов к толпе беженцев, внизапно нагрянувшей на твои 3 системы из ниоткуда? Ты наивно строил шахты и заводики, а не кучи домов на планетах с одним жителем каждая - кто ж мог знать что внизапно их количество возрастет в 3-5 раз. Загрузиться? - нет уж, сэйв/лоада нет, но ты можешь начать сначала, ты ведь ЛЮБИШЬ повторять одно и тоже раз за разом да?). Итак ты мужественно справился с бунтами и бугуртом от перенаселения (или просто начал заново и был умнее) и обнаружил вкладку Шпионаж. И оказывается, что это не про то как воровать технологии у наивных пришельцев под управлением глупого ИИ вокруг, нет. Эта вкладка нужна чтобы решать проблемы между тремя разными кланами (ты же помнишь внизапную щедрость разрабов на старте). Оказывается, в данном случае эта щедрость оборачивается очередным скрытым коварством - три клана (каждый на своем корабле колонизаторе) тебе дают вовсе не для доступа к большему разнообразию уникальных технологий или быстрого старта, нет. Три клана тебе дают, чтобы они могли с упоением сраться между собой, а у тебя, друг, была еще одна головная боль на ровном месте. Причем что эти кланы выкинут на следующий ход, предсказать невозможно - они могут на ровном месте как заключить/расторгнуть простенькое торговое соглашение, так и начать полномасштабную войну между собой, или заключить военный альянс. А ты, друг, будешь это все разгребать, чтобы это ни было (сэйв/лоада нет) и частенько это будет отнимать у тебя много много денег и еще больше ходов. "Но, должна же быть где-нибудь менюшка с показателями отношений между кланами и кнопочками повлиять на тот или иной клан" - скажешь ты. Нет и еще раз нет - ты можешь только проводить спецоперации общего толка либо разгребать ими конкретную возникшую проблему, когда ты о ней узнал - иными словами в тот момент, когда она уже наносит ощутимый вред твоей замечательной космоимперии. Также к вороху твоих проблем стоит добавить совершенно неадекватные ценники на технологии (кроме стартовых) или постройки (опять же кроме построек первой ступени), из-за чего скорость развития твоих колоний ужасающе медленная (а еще в силу общей извращенной логики этой игры улучшение постройки первой ступени до второй требует столько же очков строительства, как и строительство постройки второй ступени с нуля, а по факту, происходит еще и медленнее, тк в отличии от строительства с нуля ты не можешь купить треть постройки вложив побольше денег). А где то там за туманом войны (кстати исследованная территория скрывается с твоих глаз ходов через 5 полностью, и если ты не запомнил есть ли там системы для заселения - лети еще раз) копошатся пришельцы и пираты, которые рано или поздно придут и нагнут тебя и твои два одиноких корабля, тк разгребая проблемы указанные выше ты никак не можешь выкроить время и построить сколько-нибудь достойный космофлот. Окей, почитаем обсуждения - о, разработчик советует строить колонизаторские корабли с модулем колонизации 2 уровня чтобы строить в новой колонии улучшенный космопорт в момент колонизации, неплохо. Но ты, друг, уже неплохо развился (ценой немалых мучений и очень долгих нудных часов повторения своих ходов и перезапусков игры) и можешь с ходу построить корабли с модулем колонизации 3 уровня. Да, довольно дорого и почему то на исключительно гражданском корабле игра в конструкторе требует оставить хотя бы какое-то оружие и не свертывать боевых тренировок капитана и команды (хоть броню не заставляют ставить) и нельзя воткнуть 4 дешевых двигателя для большей скорости (как ты привык делать в других 4х космостратегиях). Но зато как быстро будут развиваться твои новые колонии! И вот ты строишь свои отличные колониальные кораблики и на всех реактивных парах несешься колонизировать все вокруг и упс! а кнопочки колонизации на этих кораблях нету (и она магическим образом не появится если подлететь к нужной системе). Модуль колонизации есть, кнопочка бессмысленной и бесполезной атаки есть, бешеная цена есть, а колонизировать нельзя (и сэйв/лоада нет, напоминаю). Если у тебя, друг, задница в этот момент не полыхнет, так что сгорит твой замечательный удобный стул под ней, ты можешь продолжить на свой страх и риск играть в эту замечательную игру и ощутить все прелести ее боевой механики (и возможно улететь в настоящий космос на своем баттхерте от ее "особенностей"). Меня на это не хватило - я лучше пойду еще раз сыграю в Conquest of Elysium 4 с его безумными неуправляемыми боями и демоническими лосями или в старую версию Eador если мне захочется сыграть в достойную инди стратегию. P.S. А еще мне очень понравилось, как щелкнув по некой неприметной кнопочке в конструкторе я увидел менюшку, предлагающую мне купить Elite версию игры. Версию, которой нет в стиме, и без ссылки на ее покупку в этой самой менюшке.

This game plays like many of the older TBS games, like Alpha Centauri, and its ilk. It has a vast tree of technology that progresses pretty intuitively, but the controls and gameplay itself is rather hard to master. Once you figure out the basics and get an understanding of how the game progresses and works, It becomes easier to work through the game. It essentially centers around colonizing planets that then become their own centers of production. Each planet has a "quality rating" that determines its potential for use. Lower quality planets will end up being burdens on your empire, while high quality planets will be the center for constructing your fleets and providing income. Planets have a "resource" called population that is not so much usable, but must be managed to keep the empire from falling apart. Higher populations require more management to keep happy, but come in handy to protect planets from capture. One you figure out that you can research higher levels of buildings for your colonies, the game becomes significantly easier to manage the lower quality planets, and to capitalize off of the higher quality planets. The game generally culminates in a match to invade and bombard each others planets, with the option to completely destroy the planet (by reducing it's Quality rating), or by reducing the planet's population to zero. You have three invasion options: Bombard (which has a high chance of lowering quality), Invade {which has a low chance of lowering quality), and Scout {Which may not always lower population, but never reduces quality!). Systems recover 1 population per turn, so to actually capture a system, you have to really have a big fleet. The game is clever and addictive, and overall I suggest it to any fans of the old Sid Meyer's stuff.

There's so much to comment on that I don't even know where to start. Let's see... [list] [*] The Game was clearly designed for tablets, with PCs only an afterthought. Changing the window size or attempting to run in fullscreen mode requires a restart of the entire program, and tooltips are missing from most screens. [*] No option for anti-aliasing. This makes the graphics look very choppy on all but the most zoomed in screens. [*] The tutorial gives very little help in understanding how the game is actually played. Combat is not explained at all, and no victory condition is given. [*] The tech tree has remarkably unimaginative names (Planetary Construction 1, 2, 3, etc., Starship Consruction 1, 2, 3, etc) and no explanation what benefit any given advance will give. (benefits such as "Reactor 1, Reactor 2, etc [i]do[/i] technically exist, but similarly lack any significant indication of their role, and no further menu delving is possible to find out) [*] The "seige" mechanics are excruciatingly drawn out. It's impossible to even attempt to take an enemy's base until you have the appropriate tech (a feat in itself due to the obtuse tech tree issues listed above), and then requires specialized units incapable of performing any other tasks or combat maneuvers. And even once you do get the Invasion ships onto the field and attacking enemy bases, they actually regrow faster than you can cause damage, even with multiple ships at once. [*] Base growth is randomized, making any attempt at strategy in them useless. [*] All claims in the game synopsis about "politics," "espionage," or "trade" are simply false. There is a very bare-bones menu which seems to try to address this, but it takes dozens of turns to even reach a coin flip decision on whether a "trade agreement" will even be made, and there is no way to know what they even do. [*] Hidden game launch icon location. It may sound silly, but after relocating my Steam install folder, I was unable to reassign an icon to this game, (or the other two RPG games from Trese Brothers for that matter) leaving blank eyesore shortcuts on my desktop. No ther game in my Steam library had this issue.

This game should be renamed "Star Junkies". For one there's no trading done in this game, at least no by the players. Second the only way to keep the population of your colonnies happy is to give them a steady supply of a drug called Spice... Dune much? But that's not really what makes this game worthy of a thumb down: It's because the game is either incomplet or horribly balance. Which is sad because it has potential. For example in the tech tree, which is actually one of the cool thing about the game. You literally have to research space port level 4 before you gain access to the tech to get space port level 2, which is the next tech. There's no valid reason to downgrade your space port by the way. But the worst for me was the population management, you have none. Population growth you see is random in this game. You can colonise a world and have its population doubled the next turn, which is a roughly less then a week. Cool you might think, more people can only be a good thing. Think again, while this is one of the 4x game with the least population management I've seen in my life it is also the one with the most unforgiving consequences for overpopulation. Once a colony is overpopulated it start losing moral, when it's low enough it start sinking money like there's no tomorrow. It kind of calm down end game, but it drains a lot of the potential fun out of the game for a long while. *Edit* Add random game crashes mid-game. :( Besides that: - The combat system was ok - The ship design mechanic simple while still interesting. - The UI is simplistic, but not inherently bad. So in short there's way better 4X space game out there, way way better.

Star Traders: 4X Empires is a turn-based strategy game that immerses players in a post-apocalyptic universe where humanity's last survivors strive to rebuild their empire among the stars. As the leader of a splinter group left behind during the great Exodus, you must colonize habitable worlds, manage resources, engage in diplomacy, and defend against alien threats to restore civilization. The game offers a deep and complex 4X experience with the following core mechanics: -Exploration & Colonization: Navigate a galaxy of 25 to 90 worlds, depending on the selected map size. Establish colonies on habitable planets to expand your influence and resources. -Ship Design & Combat: Customize and build various ship types, including colony ships, exploration vessels, and warships. Engage in tactical space battles with hostile factions and alien species. -Research & Technology: Unlock a vast tech tree that influences your empire's capabilities. Research advancements in military, economy, and infrastructure to gain an edge over rivals. -Diplomacy & Politics: Manage internal factions vying for power. Use political maneuvering to maintain stability and prevent uprisings within your empire. -Espionage & Trade: Deploy spies to gather intelligence and sabotage enemies. Establish trade routes with other factions to boost your economy. The game's art style is characterized by hand-drawn graphics, offering a retro aesthetic that suits its complex gameplay. While the visuals may not be cutting-edge, they effectively convey the game's thematic elements. The soundtrack complements the game's atmosphere, providing an epic backdrop to the strategic gameplay. The music is designed to be immersive without being intrusive, enhancing the overall experience. Star Traders: 4X Empires is a robust 4X strategy game that offers a rich and challenging experience for fans of the genre. Its depth and complexity provide ample replay value, though newcomers may find the learning curve steep. The game's retro visuals and immersive soundtrack contribute to its unique charm. If you're a strategy enthusiast seeking a game that combines exploration, empire-building, and tactical combat, Star Traders: 4X Empires is a title worth exploring. Pros: -Deep and complex 4X gameplay -Extensive tech tree and ship customization -Engaging diplomacy and political systems -Regular updates and developer support Cons: -Steep learning curve -User interface may be cumbersome on mobile devices -Limited tutorials for newcomers Rating: 7/10

"We have Master of Orion at home-" Okay that joke doesn't actually work here as well as the others. While I love the Trese Brothers' games and have gone out of my way to buy all of them to support the team, this one I cannot so easily recommend. While I personally got my money's worth out of it, I can also stomach jank, and boy is this one JANK... Imagine, dear reader, playing a 4X game like Civilization, now, you're playing 3 factions at once and trying to balance their relationships playing all roles of a team game. Weird but doable. Now, imagine that... But you don't get a production queue. There's so much micro and fiddling in this game because of it. Thankfully it's turnbased so you don't have to worry about getting slapped while you take time to take your turn, but it goes from fun to tedious real quick. Thankfully, all their other games are aces, and this is the one "mixed" standout of a very positive lot.