Is Civ really the only "stone age to space age" game out there?

[Shakey]

I've loved Civ since number 2 but I feel like it needs a bit of a shake-up in the same way Cities toppled SimCity. I also love the 4X genre, and while Civ is kind of the "poster child" for the genre it seems every other 4X game is either fantasy, sci-fi, or limited to a certain era on a real-world map. The only other game in ANY genre that I can think of is Rise of Nations, but aren't there any other stone-age to space-age games in the 4X genre? Even if they are tiny indie games, I just need a fresh take on it.

[Mansen]

Age of Empires, Empire Earth, Rise of Nations - Just to name a few.

[Melodic Death]

Originally posted by Mansen:

Age of Empires, Empire Earth, Rise of Nations - Just to name a few.

Age of Empires is only during Medieval times I thought. Other than that I have only played Empire Earth and Rise of Nations. There is an Empire Earth 2 and 3 as well, but never played those. You can find those on gog.com

[ashbery76]

The Call to power series.

[Mansen]

Originally posted by ashbery76:

The Call to power series.

To be fair Call to Power is just a Civ clone, initially done with licensing.

[Lego]

Call to power is really nifty though

[Mansen]

No arguments there - It had some nice features that Civ didn't.

[Nasarog]

Unfortunately. Firaxis has this part of the genre on lockdown.

[Siddha]

Originally posted by Big Perm:

Originally posted by Mansen:

Age of Empires, Empire Earth, Rise of Nations - Just to name a few.

Age of Empires is only during Medieval times I thought. Other than that I have only played Empire Earth and Rise of Nations. There is an Empire Earth 2 and 3 as well, but never played those. You can find those on gog.com

The first Age of Empires goes from stone age to Roman times
It's very old now; but was my first RTS
You are thinking of Age of Empires 2, which goes from medieval.

[Kearon]

While I would welcome someone else to try I feel like it would be a near impossible battle. Just like any MMO that tries to compete now is already 10 years behind the iterations made in WOW and they all seem to go free-to-play.

[Marfig]

Originally posted by Nasarog:

Unfortunately. Firaxis has this part of the genre on lockdown.

Pretty much. Before Civ, there wasn't anything resembling a wide scoped era simulation, and after it no one seemed interesting in copying the formula. 4x and grand strategy games seem more interested in covering specific periods of time or spanning across a more limited collection of eras.

But it needs to be said, thank goodness for that!

Civ time scale really never worked. It's one of its major selling points -- and what distinguishes it from other titles -- but has always (ever since the original) been its worst implemented feature.

Civ operates on an extremely small time scale. The decision for Civ games to be resolved in a moderate amount of time, also means that you run past different ages at the speed of light. There's no real sense of an historical evolution to your civilization and you can't build After Action Reports with an exciting alternate history novella of your civilization road to victory.

The game is better played abstractly. Its historical scale is really only there as a game mechanism that takes no part on the overall player experience. Frustration is what a player will feel if they try to play the game in an evolutionary context.

[Troy]

Originally posted by Nasarog:

Unfortunately. Firaxis has this part of the genre on lockdown.

It's interesting we don't see as many Civ clones as we do MoM and MoO clones.

[RayFowler]

Originally posted by Troy_Costisick:

Originally posted by Nasarog:

Unfortunately. Firaxis has this part of the genre on lockdown.

It's interesting we don't see as many Civ clones as we do MoM and MoO clones.

FreeCiv is a clone but, yeah, I agree.

Sid Meier has found a way to improve his game over time without alienating existing fans. It's hard to imagine a Civ-style game better than Meier's. Of course, I'm sure a lot of people used to feel the same way about SimCity...

[Mansen]

Originally posted by Imirak:

Sid Meier has found a way to improve his game over time without alienating existing fans.

Well some... There is still a portion of Civ gamers who prefer- and swear by the doomstack approach rather than doomcarpet.

[Marfig]

Originally posted by Mansen:

Well some... There is still a portion of Civ gamers who prefer- and swear by the doomstack approach rather than doomcarpet.

*raises hand*

(or an in between like Endless Legend)

[jlc2]

Originally posted by Mansen:

Well some... There is still a portion of Civ gamers who prefer- and swear by the doomstack approach rather than doomcarpet.

Just drop by Civfanatics if you need a refresher on the MUPT vs. 1UPT debate, it still comes up regularly! Personally I enjoy Civ 5 more than 4 or 3 (2 will always be my favourite), but I agree with Marfig that a system like Endless Legend's armies or GalCiv's fleets is an elegant solution to Doomstacks/Doomcarpets.

I also remember having a lot of fun with the original Age of Empires; my brutes/warriors with clubs wandering around bashing everything they could while my poor civilians stood on the bank of lakes/seas casting nets for fish! It was a relatively slow paced RTS, which wasn't a bad thing at all!