Stellar Monarch

+ Интересная концепция и механики - Быстро надоедает - Дорого - Нет русского Первые 20-30 ходов интересно всё. Вчитываешься в каждый пункт. Подкручиваешь экономику, балансишь совет, планируешь экспансию, переименовываешь планеты, выбираешь исследования, итд. Весь этот менеджмент занимает кучу времени и эти первые ходы ты делаешь часов за пять. Далее же интерес падает в экспоненте. Ивенты одинаковые, проблемы и решения одинаковые, развитие империи одинаковое, война одинаковая. Так же имеется пара ивентов специально втыкнутых для того, что бы активировав их из любопытства, ты профукал партию. Других языков, кроме инглиша, в игру не завезли, благо он здесь довольно простой. Резюмируя: первые часов пять это крайне залипательное творение, после же - царство однообразия и скуки. Игру порекомендую тем, кого не отпугнёт ценник, языковой барьер и слабая реиграбельность, и кого заинтересует концепция игры (ай эм зе император оф вхоле ворлд). Остальным же советую обратить внимание на иные игры жанра 4х стратегий в космосе, смело игнорируя существование Stellar Monarch.

This game seems to miss out on the fun parts of the 4x genre. Basically, I think the issue is that the designer has mistaken "removing agency from the user" for "prestigious high level planning", or whatever being the emperor is supposed to involve. A central point of the game is apparently to avoid the feeling of micromanaging an enormous empire. But instead of the player building a farm or a mine, the player tells a governor to prioritize building a mine rather than a farm. That is functionally the same thing, it just puts another layer between the player and whatever the player is trying to do. Why is there no way to tell all governors that you want more mines? Or tell governors on mining planets that you want mines, and farming planets that you want farms? What is the point of channeling so much of the player's interaction with the empire into an "audience" concept that happens every ten turns? Empire management games do well when they have random events that challenge the player to respond in a sensible way. But in this game, random events are the conduit through which the player gets to decide the makeup of the staff of advisers, generals etc. This removes agency from the player. There are other parts that are not great either, but the central concept is not executed in a way that rewards the player for playing the game.

This is a sort of automatic turn based game where as you click end turn, you get closer to winning. Eventually, when you click end turn, the game will say you have won; which is when you will turn the game off and never play it again. Unless of course you turn the difficulty up so that you do not automatically win, but even then the game has no interest in trying to stop you from winning. There's a lot of wasted potential here. You have a smattering of admirals that can automatically rally several fleets for you, handling the busywork of moving pretty much anything. Leaving you to happily press end turn until the game forces you to click the same four decisions over and over again in an "audience" so that you can keep clicking end turn. The aliens have no personality, randomly attack things near their border, and otherwise are no match for the cartoonishly xenophobic human Empire. All in all, this is a failed concept. After you read the audience messages the first time, you have experienced all of the content they have to offer and every single audience after that (which happens every 12 clicks of "end turn") you end up just replying to the story messages and ignoring what anybody else has to say since they just repeat the same choices every time. There was an expansion pack that adds a little more tech and forms of progression, as well as three additional "the Hive" factions with different portraits that randomly pop up over time. There's a very unoriginal plot point where a cyclical invasion happens from another dimension, but it just kind of happened; the enemy ships imploded instantly and I was declared guardian of the galaxy. There was absolutely no effort to it, I had max level ships and vast fleets that steamrolled the "annihilators" without casualties. There's a sequel coming, but I have no interest in it giveen the state of Stellar Monarch 1

Manage your space empire from your throne, which means you don't get your hands dirty. Characters that lead each branch of your civilization are simple yet deep enough to have to ponder on their use: They belong to a specific Faction and have three attributes summing up who they are: Corruption, Loyalty, Competence. What matters is having the right people on the good political role while keeping your own Factions on a kind of stable state. About combat: You can watch but you can't touch ^^ It's quite important to know your foes and defenses, power for counter offensives later on... Threats from the outside are numerous, from border issues to alien parasite invasions ^^ Setting the course of your own civilisation is done through tough choices using limited ressources and prioritizing. The experience is mind bending while not overwhelming, it's quite inspiring imho. Stellar Monarch is like the flip side of the Star Traders coin, those two mixed together would make the perfect full scaled Space business.

My favorite part is when your fleets randomly just stop existing and your whole game falls apart because they just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ off for half an era, super fun.

4x strategy + unique mechanics + auto explore = The idea of no micromanagement is great. Explore and build your empire by various means. Research, choose policies, manage courtiers and more. [h1][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35180752-3-point-play/] Follow our curator for similar games [/url][/h1]

I'm conflicted on whatever I should recommend this game or not. Price is bit steep for what you get, but then again, you often can pick this game on deep sale. Graphics are laughable, but interface is well done with plenty of tooltips and explanations. Game is interesting and it functions at base level, but then again, base gameplay loop is not very entertaining. The major issue with this game is lack of interaction with problems what Emperor would have to face. Such game should be part text adventure which gives your Empire certain bonuses like negotiating trade deals, acquiring support of various branches and governors, etc. Your job as the Emperor should be all about consolidating power and making sure that each branch works well while occasionally throwing general orders like calling for offence on star system. This part is barely worked out as your gameplay as an Emperor has no depth, you will be clicking same few meaningless even pop ups. Quests in game also are meaningless. It should be focus from grounds up for next iteration. You are here to make big decisions, not to micromanage Empire. Second issue are fleets. They have an issue of over-inflating sectors with fleets and drain upkeep and minerals of your Empire. Game does not acknowledge that there are multiple fleets present and there are no settings at how well you expect AI to defend border worlds. "Patrol and offensive patrols" option does not work. AI will never send reinforcements to a world over which enemy fleet orbits. Neither fiddling with offensive fleets does anything. AI just will attack with a single blob of units one planet at the time. There is also no way of highlighting planets which should be considered as a priority for your fleets. You can't ask a fleet which is usually held in reserve to reinforce specific planets over what is normal. Gameplay quickly devolves on pressing conquer orders on every enemy planet nearby. Game is also poorly balanced. Outside of early game when you have resources shortage, attacking primitives means something when you can't bring up your doom fleets to bear. However, this quickly changes and AI is broken. Some primitives will attack you hard early only to become utterly passive later on. In fact, AI in general can't do anything in this game outside of sending pitiful fleets to die against your orbital lasers. Static defence is also too cheap and effective. Economy is only growing upwards, there are no considerations which would make management of Empire more important of base statistics which generates near infinite resources. For example, introducing more meaningful distance bonus which would make any worlds outside core worlds to be increasingly impossible to control in any meaningful way with flat negative modifiers. There should be options to rule your empire as feudal empire like in Crusaders Kings 2 and game should be more about you controlling an empire, but AI does all the job. You merely give it priorities and orders. This way system prosperity would matter as armies, navies and industries would be separate and any support the further it is, should be less and less effective making you to rely on AI to handle with its own distant star systems. Research is also meaningless in this game. Just research X for Y gains. Primitive system which does not befit such game. I recommend using randomised tech tree with priorities given by the Emperor. Furthermore, developer should adopt Crusader Kings 2 model with tech level varying between various geographical levels. This game also should make technology levels vary significantly between your Empire and what units each region uses. It should be made as one of gameplay focuses if a player wants technologically advanced Empire. Court and edicts system is interesting, but it is paper thin and there is no room to see how useful they are. They should become deeper, more worked out. Rebels are pointless. They are just given and they appear for no reason other than to appear. Entire system should be remade in order them to be manifestation of deeper problems. For example, you had conquered star system far away from Terra. It is backwards world ravaged by war. Then planet should get unrest bonus which could be alleviated and negated by how much you invest into sector in helping it to prosper. This should be expensive and meaningful decision preventing players from just face rolling through map without all of its conquered worlds revolting due to crush of taxation and oppression of new regime. Pirates are also meaningless. They attack randomly like all primitive races for whom AI does not function well. All minor and major races are the same. All computer players and races feel extremely similar and they do not do anything in this game. I will recommend this game, because it gives you what it promises and does not oversells itself as so many games on the market. However, this game is missing a lot and I have high expectations for the sequel.

This review is aimed at experienced 4X players. If that's not you then it probably isn't going to be much use. This isn't me putting on airs. It's simply that it's written from a particular perspective that isn't going to be relevant to a casual player of the 4X genre. One isn't any better than the other they are just different ways of experiencing games. Both are equally valid. Please don't send me any nasty Lawyer letters. With that out of the way here we go. This is a very good game for the target audience. There is however, a big proviso. It's excels when you are playing it with the difficulty settings maxed out. That's difficulty level 9 and playing the Young Empire scenario where you start with only a handful of planets and limited resources. Which is, by the way, the typical 4X start. With these settings you get a really interesting, unique and challenging 4X experience. The game really shines when it's tough. Lower the difficulty and you'll find that you'll master the game very quickly and it won't hold your interest for very long. I'm not going to delve into the inner workings of the game or discuss the interesting angles that the developer has provided on typical 4X mechanics. Watch the a few Youtubes and you'll see why it's a different and, in many ways, unique. What I will do is highlight the differences between this version of the game and the sequel. Both are good. Both suit different player personalities. I'll try to make this as clear as I can as most people reading this review are probably tossing up which version of the game to buy. If you strip the theme, systems and graphics from any game what you end up with is a, hopefully, immersive experience that present you, the player, with a series of decisions. What makes a game good is the quality and frequency of those decisions. Games can have fabulous graphics and endless interacting systems but if the decisions they throw at you are low impact or meaningless to the final outcome then they are a poor investment of your time. Games conversely can have poor graphics and relatively simple mechanics but if they present you with interesting, impactful decisions then you have found yourself a winner. All games fit somewhere on a spectrum between these two extremes. Graphics, mechanics and themes wear thin fast if they aren't backed up by good Player orientated decisions. It's the decisions that constitute the beating heart of a game. The Stellar Monarch series provide you with lots of decisions. Good ones. But those decisions are spaced out. They can at times be far apart. You are an Emperor. You are making high level decisions. Pulling levers once in a while. You may have to mindlessly bang through a lot of turns before you experience a meaningful decision. The big difference between the two versions of the game is that the first one, this one, has player controlled space fleets. They can be automated but you have the ability to directly control your entire space fleet and their composition. The second iteration of the game only has abstract, automated fleets with minimal high level player input and you have less control over their make-up. Manual control provides you with a regular stream of good decisions that pad out the gaps between all the empire-level ones. For a 4X player who likes to dig into the details this is the way to go. You have a lot of things to think about and systems to try and squeeze the most out of. On the other hand if you prefer to focus on being the Emperor and don't want to be bothered by moonlighting as your own Grand Space Admiral and can live with your decisions having a reasonable amount of air time between them then the second game in the series is the better one. The developer has, to his credit, fleshed out a few of the Empire level game systems here so that there are more good decisions to be had but, once again, on an occasional basis. So difficulty, decisions and the frequency there-off. Hope this helps.

It's like starting in the middle of a 4x generic space empires game with no real indication of what's happening at all. Or why anything happens. Just play a real 4x instead.

4X stripped to it's most basic essential elements. Simple story, simple graphics, simple commands. Simple can be good and in this case simple can be great. If you need graphics, complexity, story, details, anything more than the absolute essential basis then this game isn't for you. If you want to inject the pure essence of 4X into your gaming life then this is going to be your jam.