Spring RTS Engine

I'm currently playing through Star Control II. I played it once before, solving most of the puzzles, but for spoilerish reasons I could never finish it properly. This time I'm taking into account the main factor for my previously being unable to win...

Anyways, I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I'd like to play another game like this. This sort of thing isn't something I've really been a big fan of before, mostly out of ignorance that the genre exists.

Previously I've enjoyed games like the Quest for Glory series, the Space Quest series, and Space Rangers 2. These games, for the most part, all have certain elements in common:

-RPG elements such as skill leveling
-Slow-paced, limited combat elements
-Highly interesting story which puts you at the center of an epic battle of "good" vs "evil"
-Puzzle-solving, inventory management
-detective sections where you must piece together clues

Basically these are open-ended action-RPG adventures. And I don't know about very many of them... Anyone help me out? I prefer science-fiction to fantasy and I'm not afraid of old-school if it's high quality.

'The Longest Journey' comes to mind. also 'Shannara'. just of the top of my head though. Its hard to think of adventures with rpg elements. mostly the increase of ability of the protagonist is an intricate part of the story and not really rpg-like. In 'Loom' your repertoire of spells grows over the course of the game but i wouldn't call it rpg.

One can always check the Home Of The Under Dogs. thought they had disappeared a while back. I'm glad they haven't.

The Death Gate - look for it on abandonware sites. Without combat elements, but amazing, amazing. Inventory, spells, puzzles, plenty of win.

Forgot - Vangers. Is there a person who didn't play Vangers? Imo one of best games of all times. Bad thing - has trouble running under WinXP.

Well, if you want another game that's very similar to Star Control 2, pick up Lightspeed/Hyperspeed (it was released under both names). It's functionally it's Star Control 2 as a space-sim, but it's from the same age as Star Control 2, so the graphics are very dated 3D.

If you were a fan of the old X-Wing/TIE fighter games and like StarCon 2's adventure mode, it's definitely worth playing. The battleship you fly is pleasantly complicated - you've an engine-room full of parts to trade and upgrade, an arsenal of fighters/kamikaze-ships/missiles that you can pilot, a massive main-cannon, and a defense turret... and everything is done manually (so if you want to fight up-close, you manually steer the fighter while your ship is unmanned - otherwise the fighter is unmanned - a strange gameplay device, but it works).

Like Starcon 2, the game is heavily focused on exploration, trade, and diplomacy - combat is a costly obstacle that you want to avoid (but it's often hard to do). The idea is that you're a sort of save-the-human-race prospector trying to find enough resource-rich worlds (by exploration or trade) that a colony-ship carrying the entire human race can settle in the new cluster.

Has 2 complete adventures - Hyades, which is the easy mode, and Cerebrus, which is the hard mode. I finished Hyades a couple of times, and never finished Cerebrus, but I watched my brother do it.

i feel i have misunderstood your request. and still don't really get it.
but to rectify my mistake i want to name Startopia. imagine Theme Hospital in a space station, but it doesn't only need a hospital but all kinds of facilities. R&D and trading are more important than combat.
Also want to name Fragile Alliance. its an asteroid mining themed game with a lot of R&D, trade, and planning space attacks in case diplomacy fails. The games lack a single protagonist and the epic struggle element, but they are great titles, open ended, and in space.

Diablo 2? Gothic3 (maby G2)

probably some of my favourite games have been like that; with an element of strategy and rpg and action all mixed in together.

Castlevania SotN for ps2 is possibly one of the best games of all time; its a sidescroller action rpg.

out of curiousity, why can't you beat sc2?

out of curiousity, why can't you beat sc2?

* Spoiler Below - highlight to read *
I would assume that he was caught by the game's built-in, hidden time limit. Hate those things.
* End spoiler *

Castlevania SotN for ps2 is possibly one of the best games of all time; its a sidescroller action rpg.

I also highly recommend SotN. It has a great blend of action and RPG-style skill-building. There's not much of a story, but the game is fun enough to play that you won't miss it. The closest analogue I can think of is Super Metroid.

SC2 is a game that is hard to find a similar game to. Pretty much executes all parts of the game right while others usually excel in one area and fail in all others.

RogerN got it...

Fortunately, it allowed me an opportunity to snatch up that Rosy Sphere at a bargain price.

Unfortunately, I no longer had any real need for it.

Frungy frungy frungy!


...Yeah it really caught me off-guard. I was really taking it easy for much of the game, just enjoying the universe, taking in the genius of it all.

Earlier today, I finished the game (for real this time) and despite my prior knowledge of how a lot of things need to play out, by the time I'd finished all the quests and stuff, I was still better than half way through 2559.

In the future I might do one more playthrough once I've forgotten a few of the details, but this time not rely so heavily on my flagship. With over 60,000 RUs saved up by the time I no longer had need of them, I guess I could've afforded to fight a few battles old-school, where I'm actually at risk of losing more than just crew.

The Ur-Quan have got to have the greatest voice effects since Darth Vader, seriously. So cold, calculating, and logical, and yet at the same time positively growling with intent to kill. Like Revy!

Really, once you've got enough RUs to deck out your flagship with full thrusters, you don't need to sweat the RUs so much - you can outrun everything in hyperspace other than the occaisional Probe.

The average upgrade costs more than a single Cruiser, and really Spathi Eluders can handle just about any foe in the game quite well.

Still, on my first playthrough I finished the game after the "thing" had started to happen.

Pxtl wrote:Still, on my first playthrough I finished the game after the "thing" had started to happen.

I just gave up because I wanted the best outcome. I'm a bit of a perfectionist that way... all or nothing.

btw, are the squiddies' threats about the black folk killing earth for real?

Caydr wrote:

Pxtl wrote:Still, on my first playthrough I finished the game after the "thing" had started to happen.

I just gave up because I wanted the best outcome. I'm a bit of a perfectionist that way... all or nothing.

btw, are the squiddies' threats about the black folk killing earth for real?

Dunno, never happened to me, but I've read that yes, the Earth gets destroyed and you lose.

.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Space

Space adventure/rpg game, actually sounds quite like SC2 the more I read about it.

Released in Japan only at present, coming to NA in Spring 2010. Well-received and apparently has a deep story. Coming from a Japanese reviewer, that probably means that the game will be utterly thick and incomprehensible, but I still have hope.

The characters and such are 2D but your ship and battles are 3D, or at least 3D rendered. 2D characters... in a Japanese game... with a very deep, multi-path story... oh no, it's a dating sim.

Caydr wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Space

Space adventure/rpg game, actually sounds quite like SC2 the more I read about it.

Released in Japan only at present, coming to NA in Spring 2010. Well-received and apparently has a deep story. Coming from a Japanese reviewer, that probably means that the game will be utterly thick and incomprehensible, but I still have hope.

The characters and such are 2D but your ship and battles are 3D, or at least 3D rendered. 2D characters... in a Japanese game... with a very deep, multi-path story... oh no, it's a dating sim.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to that one... but the Digital Eel game with the similar name is supposed to be good, as a hyper-simplified 4X/Exploration game. An SC2 fan raved about that one.

The digital eel one is more like a time-filler. Play a game and succeed or fail within 15-20 minutes.

And yeah, spathi eluders were my income. Just stay in Vux or Ur-Quan space and kill without getting hurt at all while raking in cash.

God somehow still knowing the name of the spathi and their ship really got my nerd sense tingling.

man, SC2 is hard :/ i've never played this game before and basically know nothing about it. What exactly is my aim? All I did was gather some minerals though I dont know how to use them while doing so I've lost part of my crew... Can I recruit more members? I've taken this one-eyed guy from pluto on board but I guess there should be more. Every time I try to travel through hyper space I meet some droids(?) who beat the shit out of me tips plz

TheMightyOne wrote:man, SC2 is hard :/ i've never played this game before and basically know nothing about it. What exactly is my aim? All I did was gather some minerals though I dont know how to use them while doing so I've lost part of my crew... Can I recruit more members? I've taken this one-eyed guy from pluto on board but I guess there should be more. Every time I try to travel through hyper space I meet some droids(?) who beat the shit out of me tips plz

Go to Earth and talk to the starbase. That Ur-Quan probe that told you not to approach it? Yeah, the Ur-Quan are the bad guys. Don't do what they say.

Also, you're going to be using the Spathi Eluder and the Earthling Cruiser to fight Slylandro Probes for a while (that's the fight you keep getting your ass kicked in). Go to the Melee mode and train a bit - build a team of Earthling Cruisers and Spathi Eluders, give a computer player a bunch of Slylandro Probes, and get good at fighting them. The Eluder can take down probes easily - just keep your distance and hit him with BUTT missiles. The Cruiser is a little harder to do it with, but Cruisers are less valuable than Eluders. For the Cruiser, retreat from the enemy, coast, and fire missiles at him while coasting in the opposite direction. The AI will retreat and try to attack your rear (the battle screen is wrap-around) so then you repeat. With practice, you can keep an enemy at bay indefinitely. The only problem is when they get close, and all bets are off - your only way out is a Gravity Whip (swing past the planet to get whipped up to high speed) unless the probe has to retreat to rearm (Probes eat asteroids for fuel).

Pxtl wrote:

TheMightyOne wrote:man, SC2 is hard :/ i've never played this game before and basically know nothing about it. What exactly is my aim? All I did was gather some minerals though I dont know how to use them while doing so I've lost part of my crew... Can I recruit more members? I've taken this one-eyed guy from pluto on board but I guess there should be more. Every time I try to travel through hyper space I meet some droids(?) who beat the shit out of me tips plz

Go to Earth and talk to the starbase. That Ur-Quan probe that told you not to approach it? Yeah, the Ur-Quan are the bad guys. Don't do what they say.

Also, you're going to be using the Spathi Eluder and the Earthling Cruiser to fight Slylandro Probes for a while (that's the fight you keep getting your ass kicked in). Go to the Melee mode and train a bit - build a team of Earthling Cruisers and Spathi Eluders, give a computer player a bunch of Slylandro Probes, and get good at fighting them. The Eluder can take down probes easily - just keep your distance and hit him with BUTT missiles. The Cruiser is a little harder to do it with, but Cruisers are less valuable than Eluders. For the Cruiser, retreat from the enemy, coast, and fire missiles at him while coasting in the opposite direction. The AI will retreat and try to attack your rear (the battle screen is wrap-around) so then you repeat. With practice, you can keep an enemy at bay indefinitely. The only problem is when they get close, and all bets are off - your only way out is a Gravity Whip (swing past the planet to get whipped up to high speed) unless the probe has to retreat to rearm (Probes eat asteroids for fuel).

aha, ok, thx! will there be some basebuilding? will I set up colonies or something? will I get a greater fleet? upgrade my ship with new weapons and armor?