Not super obscure, but still nowhere near as appreciated as it should be: Alpha Centauri.
Game was way ahead of its time. No clue why the IP was left in the dirt, especially with all the attention they gave to its cousin Civilization. Putting aside the state of modern gaming, in theory I'd absolute love an Alpha Centauri 2.
I love 4X games where I can fuck around with my enemies by raising mountains to alter the local weather pattern and cause their colony to undergo a crash famine and the resulting riots as people starve to death.
Because, as much as I love the third generation of Big Name Game Devs (Sid Meiers, Will Wright, Warren Spector, Gabe Newell), they all found their meal ticket and cashed in their creative drive to get it.
That's simple, much like with how all the complexity of Civ 2 was left behind I don't think any modern games programmers have the intelligence or the patience to get through something like that. It's the same reason why we see even 4x strategy games getting frequently dumbed down.
As an example I do quite like a good grand strategy game, decided to try re-installing Stellaris which I do legally own and oh boy poking at the AI pathfinding was just annoying. It was Total War Warhammer levels of bad with cheap no fog of war scanning going on and little real design happening beyond "Go here if system is empty" so even if you tried invading deep into enemy territory the AI would go on a suicide run against you rather than retreat back to defending itself.
Compare that to older games and how much time they spent on designing their AI to be half-decent and it's easy to see why modern games are so shit now. I also can understand why even though I crap on Rimworld's AI a bit people prefer that game because there is a lot more design that's gone into that. The indie creator though clearly put some proper time into it unlike the big studios of today most modern AI design is pathetic.
In fact you can see this trend with some utter failures when they tried to turn RTS games into MOBAs or mobile games. EA did it with command and conquer where they tried to simplify the mechanics to get it onto some shitty mobile game and then there are other games that simply did away with base building elements among other things again so they could fit it onto mobile. They essentially behave as IP squatters on certain stuff too because I think it's partly that they don't want legit competition going near these franchises and potentially fucking them over.
It's the same reason why we see even 4x strategy games getting frequently dumbed down.
The main issue with modern Civ is that the AI can't play or pose a challenge within its own environment.
The bare-bones vanilla base game drops and the AI is dogshit, but also represents the pinnacle of PvE play because every subsequent DLC and game update adds new mechanics that the AI simply can't handle.
The player ends up either having to avoid new content or use house rules to keep things even remotely balanced.
I had a friend who was massively addicted to Alpha Centauri back in the day. I never got what he saw in it. I guess I was a normie gamer kid who liked Civilization.
It takes place on an alien planet, so it's not in space, but yes, it's a sci-fi game similar to Civilization. If you want in space, check out the Galactic Civilizations series, or Endless Space 2. No sci-fi, but speaking of Endless Space, Endless Legends is an excellent fantasy 4X.
For more on planet ones sci-fis, there's Civilization: Beyond Earth (which I've heard not so great things, but may have fixed some of their stuff...I hate 2K though...), as well as Age of Wonders: Planetfall. There's also some 40k stuff, like Gladius.
Civ: BE is OK. I'd personally rather play it (with mods) than Civ V/VI. Diplomacy is pretty weak (and actually worse with the expansion IMO), but you can fix nearly every other problem I had with the game (including "it's not a worthy successor to Alpha Centauri") with mods. I need to play that or the Civ IV Planetfall mod again.
It's a spinoff of Civ, in the same engine (I think) as Civ 2. One major difference I remember was that you could design your own units by mixing and matching components.
The engine is similar but there's some pretty notable differences (terrain and units mainly.) Enough that I don't think it's quite fair to call it "the same", but unlike CIv II and Civ III (for example) there's probably a lot of shared code under-the-hood.
I'd guess it was because the level of customisation involved with the units exceeded what was otherwise the norm, and therefore what normies could handle. You could create very niche design at times from cheap 1 shot planet busters to immortal legion tanks that would do fuck all damage but wall off attackers.
And then there were the worms. The tasty, tasty brain worms. Now with wings!
I loved that game as a kid. A 4X with a story and characters. I always became annoyed by the AI just doing so much better than me. It would also poorly place cities yet somehow grow them. I never understood but now I know most AI cheats in games so I assume the same is true for SMAC.
Yeah, it's been years, but I seem to recall the AI cheating was especially blatant in Alpha Centauri. Still a great game, but the AI was playing with a completely different set of rules, basically.
My guess -- and I could be completely wrong -- is that Alpha Centauri was left behind because it was an even more demanding game to create and develop for than the already layered civilization games. Combined with a narrower appeal, that of SciFi versus the expanse of human history, and it just wasn't as lucrative or appealing to continue despite the celebrity it earned with its players.
Not super obscure, but still nowhere near as appreciated as it should be: Alpha Centauri.
Game was way ahead of its time. No clue why the IP was left in the dirt, especially with all the attention they gave to its cousin Civilization. Putting aside the state of modern gaming, in theory I'd absolute love an Alpha Centauri 2.
I love 4X games where I can fuck around with my enemies by raising mountains to alter the local weather pattern and cause their colony to undergo a crash famine and the resulting riots as people starve to death.
It really was all downhill from there, huh.
Because, as much as I love the third generation of Big Name Game Devs (Sid Meiers, Will Wright, Warren Spector, Gabe Newell), they all found their meal ticket and cashed in their creative drive to get it.
That's simple, much like with how all the complexity of Civ 2 was left behind I don't think any modern games programmers have the intelligence or the patience to get through something like that. It's the same reason why we see even 4x strategy games getting frequently dumbed down.
As an example I do quite like a good grand strategy game, decided to try re-installing Stellaris which I do legally own and oh boy poking at the AI pathfinding was just annoying. It was Total War Warhammer levels of bad with cheap no fog of war scanning going on and little real design happening beyond "Go here if system is empty" so even if you tried invading deep into enemy territory the AI would go on a suicide run against you rather than retreat back to defending itself.
Compare that to older games and how much time they spent on designing their AI to be half-decent and it's easy to see why modern games are so shit now. I also can understand why even though I crap on Rimworld's AI a bit people prefer that game because there is a lot more design that's gone into that. The indie creator though clearly put some proper time into it unlike the big studios of today most modern AI design is pathetic.
In fact you can see this trend with some utter failures when they tried to turn RTS games into MOBAs or mobile games. EA did it with command and conquer where they tried to simplify the mechanics to get it onto some shitty mobile game and then there are other games that simply did away with base building elements among other things again so they could fit it onto mobile. They essentially behave as IP squatters on certain stuff too because I think it's partly that they don't want legit competition going near these franchises and potentially fucking them over.
The main issue with modern Civ is that the AI can't play or pose a challenge within its own environment.
The bare-bones vanilla base game drops and the AI is dogshit, but also represents the pinnacle of PvE play because every subsequent DLC and game update adds new mechanics that the AI simply can't handle.
The player ends up either having to avoid new content or use house rules to keep things even remotely balanced.
I had a friend who was massively addicted to Alpha Centauri back in the day. I never got what he saw in it. I guess I was a normie gamer kid who liked Civilization.
So it was civilization but in space? I’ve been looking for such a game
It takes place on an alien planet, so it's not in space, but yes, it's a sci-fi game similar to Civilization. If you want in space, check out the Galactic Civilizations series, or Endless Space 2. No sci-fi, but speaking of Endless Space, Endless Legends is an excellent fantasy 4X.
For more on planet ones sci-fis, there's Civilization: Beyond Earth (which I've heard not so great things, but may have fixed some of their stuff...I hate 2K though...), as well as Age of Wonders: Planetfall. There's also some 40k stuff, like Gladius.
Headed to Steam now. Thanks!
Alpha Centauri is on GOG only, I think, by the way. Oh, it's also $1.49 right now. :D
Civ: BE is OK. I'd personally rather play it (with mods) than Civ V/VI. Diplomacy is pretty weak (and actually worse with the expansion IMO), but you can fix nearly every other problem I had with the game (including "it's not a worthy successor to Alpha Centauri") with mods. I need to play that or the Civ IV Planetfall mod again.
It's also got some of the best quotes and voice-overs for the various secret projects and technologies ever seen in a video game.
Almost makes me want to crack it open again for a few hundred hours...
Cool!
It's a spinoff of Civ, in the same engine (I think) as Civ 2. One major difference I remember was that you could design your own units by mixing and matching components.
Sounds cool! Can’t wait to dive in
The engine is similar but there's some pretty notable differences (terrain and units mainly.) Enough that I don't think it's quite fair to call it "the same", but unlike CIv II and Civ III (for example) there's probably a lot of shared code under-the-hood.
I'd guess it was because the level of customisation involved with the units exceeded what was otherwise the norm, and therefore what normies could handle. You could create very niche design at times from cheap 1 shot planet busters to immortal legion tanks that would do fuck all damage but wall off attackers.
And then there were the worms. The tasty, tasty brain worms. Now with wings!
And tamable. *laughs in Deirdre*
I loved that game as a kid. A 4X with a story and characters. I always became annoyed by the AI just doing so much better than me. It would also poorly place cities yet somehow grow them. I never understood but now I know most AI cheats in games so I assume the same is true for SMAC.
Yeah, it's been years, but I seem to recall the AI cheating was especially blatant in Alpha Centauri. Still a great game, but the AI was playing with a completely different set of rules, basically.
AC was great.
also great: Master of Magic, Age of Wonders 1 and Age of Wonders Shadow Magic. Etherlords was also pretty decent.
My guess -- and I could be completely wrong -- is that Alpha Centauri was left behind because it was an even more demanding game to create and develop for than the already layered civilization games. Combined with a narrower appeal, that of SciFi versus the expanse of human history, and it just wasn't as lucrative or appealing to continue despite the celebrity it earned with its players.