How does this game compare to modern 4x's?

[Red Star, Blood Moon]

As title says. I don't mean graphics which I'm sure are going to be bad but look surprisingly good for something released at end of the 90s complete with fully 3D bases. Some elements actually make it look kind of superior to modern ones like GalCiv 3, or like it even has the potential of being as good/better than Master of Orion 2. So, how does this game really compare to all the others?

[Saracen26]

First of all. This game is real-time. So it would be best to compare it to the likes of Stellaris, Distant Worlds, Star Ruler 2 and SoaSE instead of the turn based heavyweights..

Now I've played well over 1,000 hours of this game (I've actually lost count) in the last 18 years, and although I'm biased, I will be try to be honest about it, because I do regard this my favourite PC game of all time, and nothing has ever dethroned it.

So all those games above, I would argue that if it wasn't for Imperium Galactica 2, none of them would exist today, well, they probably would. But elements of IG2 exist within all of them. This is the grandfather of Real Time Space 4X after all. For its day, this game was simply incredible, we're talking 10 years ahead of everyone else. Whilst some have finally caught up, there are indeed other games where IG2 still reigns. Breaking down the components of IG2

The Starmap - By today's standards, it's actually rather tiny. The sense of scale compared to something like Stellaris is small, and by Distant Worlds' standard IG2 is like fighting in your own Solar System when there's an entire galaxy out there. Once proficient at the game, it'll only take you a few hours to beat it from beginning to end. The Starmap is also pretty void of a lot of modern day "at a glance" information, although you can do basic colony management from this screen, move fleets etc. This wil also be the place where the camera will seemlessly zoom right in close to carry out Real Time Tactical Space Battles.

Colony Management - Arguably IG2 still does this better than any 4X game out there. It uses basic city management game mechanics to maintain the planet which will change a bunch of modifiers such as the population and it's happiness. It'll also give you the ability to open up trading, spying, and build tanks and ships more effectively through capacity. Plus will allow you to construct defences such as fortresses from land assault and planetary defence guns from invading ships in space. This is also where the Real Time Tactical Ground Battles take place, something ommited from most space 4X games.

Research - There is a tree here, and it is viewable. But good luck understanding it efficiently. The tech tree screen is rather confusing and a bit of a mess if I be honest. So in terms of research, there's a tab option built into the UI showing what's available. Most players will use this and just select a technology from a drop down menu, sorta like you would MoO2. It's easier that way. Most games do it better these days.

Design screen - This screen you'll use a fair amount. Ships and tanks that you research are modular. You'll need to swap out engines, guns, and different technologies to keep existing fleets up to date since a fleet on the star map will only warp around the galaxy as fast as your slowest ship. All this is done by drop down menu, so isn't as intricate as something like Star Ruler where you can design and construct the entire ship from scratch or even as detailed as the modular design of StarDrive / Polaris Sector.

Diplomacy - This is subjective, because no game has really done diplomacy well enough. That said IG2 does it better than some. However all circumstances will eventually lead to war. Even if you're friendly with a particular race, the AI loves to pick fights. So conquest is really your only option. However you can do some basic modifiers to slow or speed up the process. You can win through alliances as well. But if the Kra'Hen (who don't do diplomacy, only war) become the strongest race - and they often do - they'll likely destory your Allies before you can destroy them. It is kinda broken in some ways.

Spying - For me, this is one of the strongest aspects of IG2. You can counterspy, gain information, destroy buildings or ships, cause uprisings on planets, the works. Got a particularly troublesome empire? Why not take out their emporer, it's only a 1% chance. RNGesus hates you, but worth a shot. I must say I've only ever pulled this off twice, but when it happens, watching a powerful empire crumble before your eyes to no leadership has been such as satisfying feeling. This game does it well. Might not be the best compared to some games. But the gaming momens I've had and the knock on effect from successfully executing actions, is fantastic.

Trade - This is also pretty basic. In most cases you will have a trade port on planets where your main ship yard is and you will just be buying everything half decent, and in many cases, just buying any tanks you can get ahold of so in the late game, you can just auto-battle instead of carrying out every space battle and ground invasion manually, because that can become tedious. It's also a great way to make money though, better than taxes, if you know how.

AI - It's competent. On easy, it'll provide a bit of a challenge to a new player. But is no match to anyone who knows the game or has played similar games for long enough. Medium will pull no punches for the most part, and will generally have 1 or 2 stronger races who can stalemate or even defeat a somewhat competant player if they're too cocky. This is where you need sheer brute force, or a mix of diplomacy/spying to win. On Hard, it's a warmongering bastard, it cheats, and it will kill you. IG2 vets are the only ones who can do this difficulty. These days I can't defeat it, but back in the day, I'd defeat it often, but it would kick my ass just as much.

Story - The campaigns do contain heavily script driven storylines, with plenty of random events. For new players, you will hit all if not most of these. For competant players, the game won't keep up with the pace a player can complete it. But by that point we're mostly playing the skirmish mode with just the non-story events which rarely trigger.

That's the basics... Any questions?

[Red Star, Blood Moon]

I'm not fully sure what you mean with drop down menus but the thing about script driven storylines, are you saying that this game doesn't have a sandbox mode?

[Dray Prescot]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/490370/discussions/0/1738841319822353465/

You can look at my look at my discussion that I posted in the other thread, but it overlaps a lot with Saracen26 's message above in this thread.

The CD disks that came with the original game basicly give you a Campaign style game for each of 3 Races (1 CD disk per Race) with a scripted storyline and some possible variations and random events tailored to that Race. There was a 4th CD for the basic game itself in the original version. Supposedly they were thinking of producing additional CDs for other Races for scripts/story lines for thoe other Races, but I do not think that any of those were ever published (or at least that was my impression at the time).

I think that the other Races could be played, but they were not nearly so developed in their storyline and events, except as the storylines and events of the 3 main Races interacted with them, but you would probably need a multiplayer game to see those events while playing those other Races, since those storylines and events were on those seperate CDs which might not be loaded into the game unless those 3 Races were being played.

How the present version handles incorporating all of those various scripts and storylines into play by other Races is unknown to me. Ask the the new GM or players of the new version.

I think that you could (Maybe in mutiplayer mode) play the basic game using the original CD disk, but most ot the story line and events were on the separate CDs aimed at a Particular Race, the other Races were not nearly so developed in their story line and events. Mostly the other Races were there for the main 3 Races to interact with, and usually only One of those 3 Races was being played by a human, except in multiplayer mode (which I NEVER used).

added: In multiplayer Mode I think that the special CDs for the 3 main Races are NOT used. at least in the original version. I am not sure, if they are in this revised/updeated re relase versionn when you play in Multiplayer Mode, although I doubt it.