Just 2-3 Xs? Not all four?
August 15, 2020 6:16 PM Subscribe
So, I really like 4X games (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate -- like Civ where you make your little dudes explore the world and exploit resources and then kill everybody) except that I find the "exterminate" part really boring. I really like exploring and founding my little cities and making them prosper, and researching a tech tree, but I don't like a) micromanaging my cities or b) having to fight all the other dudes. I lose interest once I've explored the world and founded all my little cities and they're all pottling along happily. Are there games that focus just on that explore-expand part? With some exploiting maybe?
As a general thing I prefer lower-key graphics, and an overhead or isometric perspective, because 3D computer games make me freaking dizzy and I generally quit early because if I want to wander around the real world I'll just, like, go clean my house, and not end up seasick for my trouble. But please suggest broadly and I can look at the graphics and decide if I can cope with them or not!
I liked Civ quite a bit but it was Civ II or III where I topped out in terms of enjoyment; after that it wanted me to do too much micromanagement. I really enjoy Polytopia on my phone except for the part where I have to kill everybody else before they destroy my lovely cities. So annoying.
I do see this was asked in 2009 and I've played a bunch of those games! Maybe you can recommend more recent ones.
As a general thing I prefer lower-key graphics, and an overhead or isometric perspective, because 3D computer games make me freaking dizzy and I generally quit early because if I want to wander around the real world I'll just, like, go clean my house, and not end up seasick for my trouble. But please suggest broadly and I can look at the graphics and decide if I can cope with them or not!
I liked Civ quite a bit but it was Civ II or III where I topped out in terms of enjoyment; after that it wanted me to do too much micromanagement. I really enjoy Polytopia on my phone except for the part where I have to kill everybody else before they destroy my lovely cities. So annoying.
I do see this was asked in 2009 and I've played a bunch of those games! Maybe you can recommend more recent ones.
Banished is a bit like this. It wore thin for me on the quick side, but has perhaps been updated since then? Peaceful/resource gathering/survival/townbuilding sim.
posted by fast ein Maedchen at 7:25 PM on August 15, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by fast ein Maedchen at 7:25 PM on August 15, 2020 [5 favorites]
See also Frostpunk, though that's pretty heavy on the grimdark (although you aren't trying to kill other people, exactly).
posted by fast ein Maedchen at 7:26 PM on August 15, 2020
posted by fast ein Maedchen at 7:26 PM on August 15, 2020
RimWorld? It's one of the few games I have more hours in that Civ.
It has a lot of the aspects you are looking for. The explore, expand and exploit pieces are all there, though in a bit of a different way than Civ. There is a lot of resource collecting, base building and a big research tree. There is not really an exterminate grind, you just continue to be attacked indefinitely until you finish. If you want to avoid the fighting entirely you can change it to a peaceful world building difficulty.
Graphics are very retro. It is quite micromanagy so maybe not a good choice if that is really a deal breaker. There is a healthy mod community which can help with some of the management aspects or expand game play options.
Astroneer is another one to look at. Has the first three characteristics and is entirely peaceful. Graphics aren't low key though. Since it is first person you have to do all the resource gathering yourself which can be a grind.
posted by Medw at 8:00 PM on August 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
It has a lot of the aspects you are looking for. The explore, expand and exploit pieces are all there, though in a bit of a different way than Civ. There is a lot of resource collecting, base building and a big research tree. There is not really an exterminate grind, you just continue to be attacked indefinitely until you finish. If you want to avoid the fighting entirely you can change it to a peaceful world building difficulty.
Graphics are very retro. It is quite micromanagy so maybe not a good choice if that is really a deal breaker. There is a healthy mod community which can help with some of the management aspects or expand game play options.
Astroneer is another one to look at. Has the first three characteristics and is entirely peaceful. Graphics aren't low key though. Since it is first person you have to do all the resource gathering yourself which can be a grind.
posted by Medw at 8:00 PM on August 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
Look into the Anno series, Anno 1800 being the most recent with some of the older ones getting remasters soon.
The essence of the game is island cities with elaborate production chains which balance island space with resources and time. Eventually you expand to other islands and continents for their rare resources, and have to manage trade routes as part of the production.
Combat... exists. But is pretty minimal and can be avoided.
posted by Wulfhere at 8:23 PM on August 15, 2020
The essence of the game is island cities with elaborate production chains which balance island space with resources and time. Eventually you expand to other islands and continents for their rare resources, and have to manage trade routes as part of the production.
Combat... exists. But is pretty minimal and can be avoided.
posted by Wulfhere at 8:23 PM on August 15, 2020
As a lark you might like a videogame-version Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne with AI players. Also a lot of Uwe Rosenburg's works (Agricola, Caverna, etc) and inspired-by games are very much in this realm, but they're physical boardgames. You'd need to do tabletop simulator and get other people to play with you. (I think? I'm not too up on what boardgames have proper videogame versions with AI players, etc.)
posted by Mizu at 8:48 PM on August 15, 2020
posted by Mizu at 8:48 PM on August 15, 2020
You might like Off World Trading Company. It is a snappy 4X where the combat is almost entirely financial. A match takes ~30 minutes, and it has enjoyable amounts of exploring and expanding without every growing to the point of micro-management hell. I also found that its focus on finances and commodity prices really made me think in interesting ways that were different from every previous 4X I've tried.
The game has an excellent pedigree; it was designed by the same dude who designed Civ4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uACmYpyQzUo
In a similar vein, have you tried any of the various railroad games? I always find them super relaxing and chill, just connecting cities together and watching them trade and grow.
posted by Balna Watya at 10:13 PM on August 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
The game has an excellent pedigree; it was designed by the same dude who designed Civ4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uACmYpyQzUo
In a similar vein, have you tried any of the various railroad games? I always find them super relaxing and chill, just connecting cities together and watching them trade and grow.
posted by Balna Watya at 10:13 PM on August 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
Aven Colony might fit the bill--it's a city builder without fighting.
posted by Pfardentrott at 2:21 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Pfardentrott at 2:21 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
This is a bit out there, but if you enjoy the engine building side of things you might like Factorio.
posted by katrielalex at 2:30 AM on August 16, 2020
posted by katrielalex at 2:30 AM on August 16, 2020
I also like 4x games but hate the fighting. I can second the above suggestions, particularly the Anno series, I really enjoyed Anno 2070, and Offworld Trading Company. Frostpunk is also brilliant, but very bleak.
posted by sarahdal at 5:36 AM on August 16, 2020
posted by sarahdal at 5:36 AM on August 16, 2020
I enjoy similar types of games and have gotten a lot of fun out of Oxygen Not Included (I'm up to almost a thousand hours on Steam). I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes city building games and it meets all your criteria.
posted by randomnity at 9:08 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by randomnity at 9:08 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
Maybe Tropico?
There are a bunch of them, all basically the same.
You are the ruler of a banana republic and must build your island up. There's a campaign or sandbox modes. There is no real fighting (sometimes rebels attack, but you don't have to do anything about it, your standing army deals with it. It's really just another economic problem).
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:33 PM on August 16, 2020
There are a bunch of them, all basically the same.
You are the ruler of a banana republic and must build your island up. There's a campaign or sandbox modes. There is no real fighting (sometimes rebels attack, but you don't have to do anything about it, your standing army deals with it. It's really just another economic problem).
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:33 PM on August 16, 2020
The "space" stage in Spore disappointed me -- too much harassment from Space Disasters, not enough variety in colonizing. But oddly enough, the original Space prototype scratches that itch really well for me. It's super stripped-down -- more of a software toy than a full-fledged game -- but the systems it does have are really satisfying.
You start with your one home planet, which already has life. You use your shipboard scanner to ID the various flora and fauna (represented by simplified colored icons), and abduct a few samples into your cargo hold. Then you go to a suitable neighboring planet and get to terraforming. It's very reminiscent of classic SimEarth -- you use various interventions like comets and volcanos to create oceans and an atmosphere, but in time the clouds dissipate and the water boils off into space. You can only maintain the landscape by introducing the lifeforms you've collected to establish a balanced, working biosphere.
The process is simple but almost magical -- as your first algae takes hold, the atmosphere slowly stabilizes and then starts to strengthen. Soon you hit a tipping point and flowering plants bloom and thrive throughout the world, shifting the color palette from drab grey into rich greens and blues. Adding animals from varying ecological niches shades the map in different ways, letting you make some cool aesthetic choices. And once Paradise has arrived, you can construct new cities in prime locations that quickly grow into prosperous metropolises, funding further exploration. You can then buy new tools like an interstellar drive or SETI radio, and set out to find new worlds, meet simplified alien civs, fill out your lifeform encyclopedia, and practice your terraforming on a variety of new and challenging planets.
It's not 100 hours of gameplay, but it's soothing and meditative, and something I return to every so often.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:24 AM on August 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
You start with your one home planet, which already has life. You use your shipboard scanner to ID the various flora and fauna (represented by simplified colored icons), and abduct a few samples into your cargo hold. Then you go to a suitable neighboring planet and get to terraforming. It's very reminiscent of classic SimEarth -- you use various interventions like comets and volcanos to create oceans and an atmosphere, but in time the clouds dissipate and the water boils off into space. You can only maintain the landscape by introducing the lifeforms you've collected to establish a balanced, working biosphere.
The process is simple but almost magical -- as your first algae takes hold, the atmosphere slowly stabilizes and then starts to strengthen. Soon you hit a tipping point and flowering plants bloom and thrive throughout the world, shifting the color palette from drab grey into rich greens and blues. Adding animals from varying ecological niches shades the map in different ways, letting you make some cool aesthetic choices. And once Paradise has arrived, you can construct new cities in prime locations that quickly grow into prosperous metropolises, funding further exploration. You can then buy new tools like an interstellar drive or SETI radio, and set out to find new worlds, meet simplified alien civs, fill out your lifeform encyclopedia, and practice your terraforming on a variety of new and challenging planets.
It's not 100 hours of gameplay, but it's soothing and meditative, and something I return to every so often.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:24 AM on August 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
Oh hey, I asked that question from 2009! I can't believe it's been 11 years!
Seconding Factorio as a great engine building game. There is combat but it's not "exterminate all the alien nests." And you can turn off combat entirely if you like.
Also seconding Oxygen Not Included. There is zero combat that I have seen.
You may also like the Paradox model of strategy games? Stellaris has combat but it's unfeasible to exterminate the whole galaxy. Instead it's more of a role-playing a stellar empire. With some of the expansions you can focus on being part of a federation of empires, or on building enormous structures like ring worlds or Dyson spheres. You can set AI's to run planets once your empire gets large enough to make keeping track of individual worlds unfun. Not quite a 3X game, but might scratch the itch.
posted by JDHarper at 7:20 AM on August 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
Seconding Factorio as a great engine building game. There is combat but it's not "exterminate all the alien nests." And you can turn off combat entirely if you like.
Also seconding Oxygen Not Included. There is zero combat that I have seen.
You may also like the Paradox model of strategy games? Stellaris has combat but it's unfeasible to exterminate the whole galaxy. Instead it's more of a role-playing a stellar empire. With some of the expansions you can focus on being part of a federation of empires, or on building enormous structures like ring worlds or Dyson spheres. You can set AI's to run planets once your empire gets large enough to make keeping track of individual worlds unfun. Not quite a 3X game, but might scratch the itch.
posted by JDHarper at 7:20 AM on August 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
Surviving Mars. A civalike with some rival factions that you can't exterminate. You can mess with them or trade with them if you like, but I got to the endgame without ever bothering. Make sure to get the version with all the expansions, since those really extend the late game.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 9:36 AM on August 17, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 9:36 AM on August 17, 2020 [3 favorites]
+1 on Astroneer. Resource gathering can be a grind but also kinda ... soothing? No combat. There are some poisonous plants that can hurt you -- although they're easily avoided -- and you can die if you're without oxygen too long or fall too far, but you then respawn at your base. I deeply enjoyed it, enough that I kept playing for a while after beating the game.
It also has multiplayer, which makes base building/research gathering waaay more efficient and fun in new ways.
posted by katieinshoes at 11:22 AM on August 17, 2020
It also has multiplayer, which makes base building/research gathering waaay more efficient and fun in new ways.
posted by katieinshoes at 11:22 AM on August 17, 2020
I got some great answers to my question about games recently! I also love the exploring/building part of Polytopia the most by far.
Don't Starve is awesome in terms of exploring the world and researching tech trees, gathering resources to build things to make other things, etc.
posted by beandip at 10:46 AM on August 24, 2020
Don't Starve is awesome in terms of exploring the world and researching tech trees, gathering resources to build things to make other things, etc.
posted by beandip at 10:46 AM on August 24, 2020
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Something like old school Sim Earth or Sim City would also seem to fit the bill, if not perhaps you can clarify.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:26 PM on August 15, 2020