Soooo.... when does the game get fun???

[bloodscarmoon]

Gotthe game, it came highly recommended because I was looking for some kinda spacey-sci-fi RPG with aliens and starship and stuff. Though I know its not an RPG, I gave it a shot. I even bought some of the extra content for more options. I hafta say, I think the starting creation stuff gave me the impression the rest of the game would be really badass. Slaver guilds, consuming other species to propagate purging an entire other race... etc. Perfect for some tyrannical species.

But... several hours in, and this game is kinda.... boring? I didn't think it was going to be a bunch of little tabs and resource management. I just wanted to be an alien and murder other aliens, ya know? What's with all the politics? Is there a mode in the game where I can skip all that and just battle things? Are there mods? cheats? I'm not really into building stuff. I just wanna make a captain, fly a starship, and destroy things.

[bloodscarmoon]

Originally posted by I. HATE. LIFE.:

I´ll be honest here. I had the same boring-feelings in the beginning. This was 2017. They added a lot of stuff since then. Yeah, when you think about DEVOURING swarm you want to see how the xeno´s are eaten alive but all you can see are some symbols in the corner. The anomalies are just a text with maybe 1 to 5 decisions you can choose from. Then maybe a special project where you can spend some research or more time with your science ship. You need to use your own imagination. Well, if you have no imagination I think you will enjoy Coll of Duty. I created fanatic pacifists snails with agriculture idyl, Fanatac materialists with technocracy, and devouring swarm and many other races that fit very good in my imagination. For example Necroids and agriculture idyll dont fit in my imagination. They are more post-apocalypse, nihilistic race that dont care anymore about life.

Well, I think you know what I mean then. I'm pretty sure at this point that this genre of game isnt for me. Not enough immersion, not enough graphics and action. I'm in no way saying its bad. The concepts are amazing. Its just not in the delivery I was looking for.

As far as Call of Duty, I'm not a fan of the franchise, tbh. And I want to play as a custom alien species. Not G.I. Generic Joe. I'm looking for a space faring game. Already tried out Mass Effect and played out KotOR years ago.

The best I can say that I'm looking for is a Space-opera version of Skyrim

[Zahk]

It gets fun once you buy all the DLCs, struggle through the first 100 years and then get to enjoy playing in real time due to it being poorly optimised! Such fun!

[Garatgh Deloi]

Originally posted by bloodscarmoon:

Id there a mode in the game where I can skip all that and just battle things?

The battles are mostly automatic. The game is more about the resource management and politics and stuff. So this game might not be ideal for you.

That said, if you have the Utopia DLC, try a genocidal empire (Fanatical Purifiers). They skip most of the diplomacy and focus on painting the map exterminating the Xeno scum (note that all the aliens will hate you).

Heck a hive minded genocidal empire might be even better since you have less resources to manage as well (Devouring Swarm, Terravore or Determined Exterminator, note that Terravore and Determined Exterminators require additional DLC while Devouring Swarm just requires Utopia like Fanatical Purifiers).

[bloodscarmoon]

Originally posted by Zahk:

It gets fun once you buy all the DLCs, struggle through the first 100 years and then get to enjoy playing in real time due to it being poorly optimised! Such fun!

Originally posted by Garatgh Deloi:

Originally posted by bloodscarmoon:

Id there a mode in the game where I can skip all that and just battle things?

The battles are mostly automatic. The game is more about the resource management and politics and stuff. So this game might not be ideal for you.

That said, if you have the DLC required, try a genocidal empire (fanatical purifiers). They skip most of the diplomacy and focus on painting the map exterminating the Xeno scum. Heck a hive minded genocidal empire might be even better since you have less resources to manage as well (devouring swarm, terravore or determined exterminator).

I actully did buy a few DLCs, figured Id go big or go home and dropped some cash to get necroids and a few other packs. Price isnt my issue with games. Finding ones with the elements I'm looking for IS.

Its just very passive, and I'm not into that. Like, I would rather take the personal role of a captain of said ship and fight the battle. I played something like that in a Star Trek MMO. But I have gotten sick of MMOs and all their lame updates and half-hearted attempts at "content" that isnt just more of the same grind quests for items I dont care about

[Prowl]

This has become my most played game now. That said I just started a progenitor hive devouring swarm game and I'm bored to tears. I struggle to get into the game when the diplomacy is blocked. All I can do is blob and it's not for me.

[bloodscarmoon]

Originally posted by Prowl:

This has become my most played game now. That said I just started a progenitor hive devouring swarm game and I'm bored to tears. I struggle to get into the game when the diplomacy is blocked. All I can do is blob and it's not for me.

i have no interest in being diplomatic. I pretty much never take that approach when a game offers options. I like open-world stuff where you can just kinda go off on your own and avoid the main plot, create a fully customized character and just lose yourself in being a murder hobo.

but in this case... in space. lmao

My most played Game is Star Traders: Frontiers. And thats ultimately what Im looking to find something like, just with alien races and better character custoization. but I have so far been very unsuccessful in that venture

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by sloshalot:

However Stellaris is still a 4x strategy rpg.

Stellaris is not an rpg. Its inaccurate descriptions like this that make someone like OP who clearly isnt into these kinds of games (4x or management) fall into a trap.

Originally posted by bloodscarmoon:

Well, yeah.. I'm pretty sure it isnt really what I thought it was. It's been a long road of searching that strayed me over here. I was originally looking for a Spacey sci-fi RPG with lots of character customization. Something that let you fly a ship, but was more third-person shooter-ish. Like Mass Effect... only y'know, a game I haven already tried and shrugged off. Less focused and streamlined on a central story. Open-world space opera.

Games like that dont really exist. Open world never really picked up with sci-fi aside from a few games where flying the ship is all you do and space is the ''open world''.
Maybe something like no man's sky or mass effect: andromeda are the closest thing, but I havent played either game so I dont know if they are any good.

Its weird that you mention knights of the old republic tho, as aside from being sci-fi its almost entirely opposite to what your looking for? Its not open world with a heavy focus on a central story. Its comparable to mass effect.

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by bloodscarmoon:

Its just very passive, and I'm not into that. Like, I would rather take the personal role of a captain of said ship and fight the battle. I played something like that in a Star Trek MMO.

That reminds me of Starfleet Academy and Klingon Academy. As well as a bunch of other star trek games. All of them being very old. (around 20-25 years old)
Too bad they dont make games like those anymore. FPS, ship sims, strategy games, combinations of different genres. There were a lot of great star trek games back then.

Not sure what happend to the sci-fi genre, but aside from some outliers it hasnt been too interesting in the past 20+ years. Focus has been a lot more on ''realistic'' or fantasy games. (or ''near future still on earth only'' sci-fi)

[bloodscarmoon]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Originally posted by sloshalot:

However Stellaris is still a 4x strategy rpg.

Stellaris is not an rpg. Its inaccurate descriptions like this that make someone like OP who clearly isnt into these kinds of games (4x or management) fall into a trap.

Originally posted by bloodscarmoon:

Well, yeah.. I'm pretty sure it isnt really what I thought it was. It's been a long road of searching that strayed me over here. I was originally looking for a Spacey sci-fi RPG with lots of character customization. Something that let you fly a ship, but was more third-person shooter-ish. Like Mass Effect... only y'know, a game I haven already tried and shrugged off. Less focused and streamlined on a central story. Open-world space opera.

Games like that dont really exist. Open world never really picked up with sci-fi aside from a few games where flying the ship is all you do and space is the ''open world''.
Maybe something like no man's sky or mass effect: andromeda are the closest thing, but I havent played either game so I dont know if they are any good.

Its weird that you mention knights of the old republic tho, as aside from being sci-fi its almost entirely opposite to what your looking for? Its not open world with a heavy focus on a central story. Its comparable to mass effect.

I only mention KotOR and Mass Effect because someone inevitably suggests them. So im just getting ahead of myself in that regard. In truth, the game that most resembles what I'm looking for is Star Traders: Frontiers.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/335620/Star_Traders_Frontiers/

I'm just looking for something like it with playable alien species included, and with better character creation options

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by bloodscarmoon:

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Stellaris is not an rpg. Its inaccurate descriptions like this that make someone like OP who clearly isnt into these kinds of games (4x or management) fall into a trap.



Games like that dont really exist. Open world never really picked up with sci-fi aside from a few games where flying the ship is all you do and space is the ''open world''.
Maybe something like no man's sky or mass effect: andromeda are the closest thing, but I havent played either game so I dont know if they are any good.

Its weird that you mention knights of the old republic tho, as aside from being sci-fi its almost entirely opposite to what your looking for? Its not open world with a heavy focus on a central story. Its comparable to mass effect.

I only mention KotOR because someone inevitably suggests it. So im just getting ahead of myself in that regard. In truth, the game that most resembles what I'm looking for is Star Traders: Frontiers.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/335620/Star_Traders_Frontiers/

I'm just looking for something like it with alien species included, and with better character creation options

There is a game I know that's similar to that, but it's not really all that great if you're playing by yourself. It's called PULSAR: Lost Colony.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/252870/PULSAR_Lost_Colony/

It's kinda like Star Trek, really, but "boiled down" to just a few key positions. There's little ship customization (you have a few ships you can have that have different slots for weapons and whatnot), but it does let you customize the AI. However, again, it's far better with other people - RPing is the purpose here.

[Karina]

Stellaris is afk simulator where you sit and watch numbers grow. No amount of dlcs and mods will ever change that. Try total war instead, you actually manually control units there.

[bloodscarmoon]

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

There is a game I know that's similar to that, but it's not really all that great if you're playing by yourself. It's called PULSAR: Lost Colony.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/252870/PULSAR_Lost_Colony/

It's kinda like Star Trek, really, but "boiled down" to just a few key positions. There's little ship customization (you have a few ships you can have that have different slots for weapons and whatnot), but it does let you customize the AI. However, again, it's far better with other people - RPing is the purpose here.

Thanks, I'll look into that. I'm not really a "play with others" person. But its definitely worth a peek at least

Originally posted by Esteban Failsmore:

Stellaris is afk simulator where you sit and watch numbers grow. No amount of dlcs and mods will ever change that. Try total war instead, you actually manually control units there.

I'm looking for something that lets you play as a specific starship and crew. But if it comes down to a Total War game, do they have a space-faring version? One that isnt warhammer 40k, I mean. I'm really only interested in 40k if I can be Goblins... err, Gretchin

[lethminite]

You've said no to MMOs, but it might be worth trying SWTOR anyway. You can just play it for the story, ignore most of the MMO part of it.
It's free, and the FTP part is pretty generous, even more generous if you just subscribe for a single month.

Maybe look at Warhammer 40k Spacemarine?

Another off the beat option might be everspace. No real customisation or RPG elements (other than ship upgrades), it's a roguelike where you fly a spaceship, hunt around asteroids for goodies, and fight LOTS of space pirates with different weapons.

Maybe Starlink? Still locked into a cockpit, but feels a bit more RPG. It came out with a bunch of toys, but you can just get a digital version. It's a bit heavy on fetch quests to stick for too long (ubisoft game), but I had a blast with it for a few weeks when i picked it up cheep.

or even Doom or deadspace or something? if you "just want to murder other aliens".

Deus Ex? It's kinda like Mass effect, not space, but still sci-fi.

Sticking kinda like stellaris, maybe Planetfall? lots of aliens killing each other in turn based strategy, with a bit of base building and exploration, but most things on the map really just exist to give you fights. If you bounced off stellaris this hard, I don't expect it to work out, but if money isn't much of an issue, might be worth at least looking at to see if it's worth trying.

Last long shot ideas: Metroid prime? Ratchet and clank?

Try giving us some more details about games you've played that almost scratched what you are after, or that scratched part of what you were after, but missed in some big way.
EDIT: I wrote this before OP said

Originally posted by bloodscarmoon:

I only mention KotOR and Mass Effect because someone inevitably suggests them. So im just getting ahead of myself in that regard. In truth, the game that most resembles what I'm looking for is Star Traders: Frontiers.

Threw me right off, I thought you were after specifically Kotor or Mass effect like games.
I'm not familiar with that game at all. What is it about it that makes it almost what you are after?

[Karina]

Originally posted by bloodscarmoon:

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

There is a game I know that's similar to that, but it's not really all that great if you're playing by yourself. It's called PULSAR: Lost Colony.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/252870/PULSAR_Lost_Colony/

It's kinda like Star Trek, really, but "boiled down" to just a few key positions. There's little ship customization (you have a few ships you can have that have different slots for weapons and whatnot), but it does let you customize the AI. However, again, it's far better with other people - RPing is the purpose here.

Thanks, I'll look into that. I'm not really a "play with others" person. But its definitely worth a peek at least

Originally posted by Esteban Failsmore:

Stellaris is afk simulator where you sit and watch numbers grow. No amount of dlcs and mods will ever change that. Try total war instead, you actually manually control units there.

I'm looking for something that lets you play as a specific starship and crew. But if it comes down to a Total War game, do they have a space-faring version? One that isnt warhammer 40k, I mean. I'm really only interested in 40k if I can be Goblins... err, Gretchin

FB > 40k. Try it.

[bloodscarmoon]

Originally posted by Esteban Failsmore:

Originally posted by bloodscarmoon:

Thanks, I'll look into that. I'm not really a "play with others" person. But its definitely worth a peek at least



I'm looking for something that lets you play as a specific starship and crew. But if it comes down to a Total War game, do they have a space-faring version? One that isnt warhammer 40k, I mean. I'm really only interested in 40k if I can be Goblins... err, Gretchin

FB > 40k. Try it.

I'm sorry... but what is FB, again? its a rather ambiguous set of initials