How does this compare to Star Ruler (2)?

[SurpriseTree]

I enjoyed Star Ruler 2 quite a bit but unfortunately the studio is shutting down due to lack of funds. This looks like a similar game but the store page only tells so much. Is there anyone who has played both that and this and would be willing to give a brief description of the similarities and differences?

[Ravon[17]]

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better !

[Ravon[17]]

So the combat is pretty much the same. The ship designer is a bit more streamlined and you cant make custom sizes. The econ is better in my opinion and colonizing planets is alot more valuable then in SR2. Planet development i would say is different but not really better so I'd say that one is up to you. As for the resources in SR2 i didnt like the budget feel i mean it was nice but just different. I feel stelaris res are super important throughout all the stages of the game and can decide if you can win a war with an equal or loose it.

[Ravon[17]]

Ohh tech. Tech is better in stellaris as i love the random "deck" research as it creates variablity in the game :D

[Ogami]

Stellaris is much slower gameplay wise. For example, after my first 3 hours of play i just colonized my second world. Also everything takes much longer. In Star Ruler a newly colonized world was populated in a few minutes. Here it takes decades of the ingame time till a new colony is fully developed. Star Ruler is also very conflict oriented while you can play as a completely pacifist empire in this one. Also a lot more customization option. You can play on maps with over 1000 star systems and 50+ AI races. The game is much more political and empire building oriented then Star Ruler 2. I like Star Ruler 2 very much but Stellaris is a league above it, not just budget and presentation wise.
But Stellaris is definetly not a game for a fast match here and there. It will take some serious time commitment to finish even one game.

[SurpriseTree]

Thanks for the info. Looks like I'll be buying this once I can afford it.

[evilcherry]

I own both and I love playing both.

Star ruler 2 is basically a 4X Boardgame; think Eclipse. Stellaris is a blend of 4X and Grand strategy.

[Firgof]

I enjoyed Star Ruler 2 quite a bit but unfortunately the studio is shutting down due to lack of funds.

Our studio has not yet shut down. As we wrote, the expansion's sales would determine the studio's fate. As of yet, we've not even reached our first month of sales for Star Ruler 2's Wake of the Heralds expansion - and TotalBiscuit seems to be amicable to the idea of doing a LP if I can help him learn the ins and outs of the game - so it's too early to call.

If the expansion doesn't sell well enough then, yes, we will be shutting down after possibly launching another small DLC/update. Nobody's covering the expansion (same with SR2 itself); everybody's covering Stellaris. So it's grim, yes, but we still might be able to pull out of this nosedive if luck holds and support swells.

[ocean pollen]

I watched a youtuber lose a four-star scientist to a low-risk anomaly. He lamented this for a few minutes. He'd actually planned to pull that scientist off of surveying and put him into reseach. It was this scientist's last system to survey, his last day on the beat, before he moves up to a cozy research job in the capitol, and he just up and dies. He wasn't doing anything remotely risky. "I guess sometimes bad things happen to good people.", the youtuber finished.

This would never happen in Star Ruler 2. That's a great game, and also a great MP game. It's a big improvement on Star Ruler 1 in that it makes planets meaningful and interesting, and in that it has multiple propulsion systems, and -- everything.

OTOH in Star Ruler 2 an enemy empire can vote themselves one of your planets. That would never happen in Stellaris.

[Firgof]

That actually directly happens in Star Ruler 2. A scientist investigating a crystal anomaly goes berserk, the crystal forms into a ship that he commands, and you have a new enemy ship in that system that'll hunt down your Empire's ships. That's one of the potential endings to researching the crystal anomaly.

Only difference is in Stellaris that researcher had a namebadge and a specific purpose in the Empire; in SR2 we don't require you to cart around heads of state on your flagships to scan anomalies. SR2 is played at a bit of a higher level than Stellaris as we sweep away the smaller details to keep the experience clean and focused. It is a 4X/RTS hybrid after all.

[ocean pollen]

Originally posted by Firgof Umbra:

A scientist

An anonymous scientist that you didn't know and won't miss, vs. one of the handful of leaders of your empire, someone it'd cost 50 influence or so to replace. I remember building thousands of scouts in Star Ruler one and just telling them to fly themselves to each star in the galaxy - and then stay there, forever. The equivalent position in Stellaris is the much more meaningful Science Ship, commanded by one of your scientists, who gained experience scouting your home system out, who was the guy you called from one side of your empire to the other to take care of a particular anomaly because nobody else was as good, etc.

[TRF]

Both good games, I always think of Star Ruler 2 as more of a puzzle game as you try and get the correct chains to develop planets in the correct way.
Simliarites I think are really the multiple different jump technologies and that fleet combat is rather abstracted. Both have race and ship customisation. Anomalies that can be researched.

Differences simpler ship construction and upgrading. Leaders.
Anomalies in SR2 tend to be things while Stellaris tend to be boosters. But there seem to be some interesting stories in the stellaris ones.
Galactic card based diplomacy system way different to the time/point based system.
Planetary development different, in Stel you pick what goes where on tiles while generally SR2 you push towards. Also everything is one square in stellaris.
Random research card deck versus research web.
Stellaris you can purge and enslave. Also empire traits can change over the years.

Theres more but those are just what occur to me now and it's been a while since I played SR2, really very different games. Both good.

[Firgof]

An anonymous scientist that you didn't know and won't miss, vs. one of the handful of leaders of your empire, someone it'd cost 50 influence or so to replace. I remember building thousands of scouts in Star Ruler one and just telling them to fly themselves to each star in the galaxy - and then stay there, forever.

Aye, Starship construction in SR1 was pretty much unlimited. In SR2 it's quite different. You're not liable to have more than a handful of active fleets at any given time, despite those fleets possibly having thousands of ships inside them, as maintaining each flagship takes a significant chunk of your budget in most cases. This means you'll often have a 'dedicated research fleet' flying about, scanning anomalies. You could get your scouts to do it as well, of course, as any flagship (escorts or no) can investigate anomalies, but some of the bonuses you can grab from anomalies would be wasted on a Scout ship.

Edit: With the expansion, Scouts become much more useful as well. If you spend time scouting other people's empires, you can grab benefits from it as there's an Attitude for that amongst all the others.

[Lyle]

You can speed it up considerably with the time adjuster, and pause to issue commands and such. That makes for faster gameplay, but I find the slower pace very atmospheric and enjoyable :)