The Hungarian 4X That Surpassed Stellaris 25 Years Ago
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 มิ.ย. 2024
- A video essay delving into Imperium Galactica 2, and what modern space 4x games like Stellaris can learn from it.
0:00 Intro
1:27 Learnability
4:52 Combat
9:52 Colony Management
13:28 Story and Event System
20:19 Aesthetics
22:22 Issues
25:35 Extinction
29:03 Conclusion
30:31 Outro - เกม
In the original disc version, you can extract game files, specifically message text(uzenetek), and inside there are Hungarian comments that reveal more about the story than what is present in the messages!
Oh snap, I might have to try and run that through google translate and check them out, great find!
@@SardonicSaysIf you haven't done that already. I might be able to help translate
@@aronmarkovits5396 If it's too much to do alone, I can help out.
@@SardonicSays If you are so into Google Translate, there is a game called 1848 and it is about the Hungarian Revolution. Quite old but still fun.
@@SardonicSays there's no need for Google translate, Hungarians on the internet love flexing their knowledge of the language because it's ridiculously hard
I'm just gonna say it. Full-fledged RTS planetary invasions single-handedly would make Stellaris like 50% better.
Hard agree
Even a planetary grid and you moving armies and conquering cities/sectors on a planet would be better than what it is now...
Maybe in lower difficulties. If I had to go through 50+ planets for a single Grand Admiral Ai war I'd kill myself.
@@sergiwhite9323 could be automated, but you can give main objectives to improve a big planetary invasion. Anything is better than todays ground combat in stellaris.
If it is something that can be automated, I feel like a feature like this would take a lot of work, and people would only play it a few times on release.
My first space 4x was Galactic Civilizations 2, and nearly 20 years later I find myself going back to it every now and then.
A solid choice for sure!
My first was Master of Orion 1. Great game.
My first 4x was Master of Magic and the space variant Master of Orion 1-2. Also Played with fragile allegiance, pax imperia, Galactic civilization 1-3, Space Empires, Imperium Galactica 1-2 also Reunion which was the precedessor of Imperium Galactica.
@@sziklamester1244 Fragile Allegiance as another childhood favorite of mine! The menu music sticks with me all these years later
@@SardonicSays My first was Stellaris - But i had experience with games such as HOI-4 which means i was quite familiar with the UI hell of Paradox.
Nexus: the Jupiter Incident being a result of a salvaged game does explain the incredibly detailed campaign map (the star system menu). This menu never serves any other purpose than to look pretty.
I can not wait for someone to pick up the mantle of Nexus. It my opinion, it was unique to the point of being in a genre of it's own.
Have I played the Homeworld series? Yes. Everspace? Starpoint Gemini? Sins of a Solar Empire? Galactica Deadlock? Starhammer? Gothic 40k? And more? Yes to all. But Nexus was DIFFERENT. It was something special.
We will never see its like again.
@@praesentius Have a go at the sword of the stars.
Its not better but does things way different you can designated your own weapons on ships and every race has their own way of carving their path through the galaxy.
Some actually drill their way to the next star since they use jump gates and such.
As for combat you're kinda limited to a max of 30 ships in a battle but you can reinforce as you lose ships.
It was one of those full 3d games before engines could actually handle the full 3d combat.
The biggest appeal to it is how very different the races are through their ships, weapons, ways of travel and diplomacy.
Its a bit of a shame that most 4x games don't make the aliens alien other then looking weird.
@@vonshroom2068 I like where your head is at! But, I'm no stranger to the Sword of the Stars series. :)
@@praesentius Didn't saw it listed hence i mentioned it.
Gratuitous space battles is a fun 2d one but you're kinda left doing the missions before doing a campaign as ship parts are locked behind the missions. Not a recommended game but a fun one if you can unlock the parts you want since even in the campaign the upgrades are only available if you unlocked the prior in the missions. I really don't know why they did that to begin with.
I started with stellaris. Just kinda dealt with it. Had a ton of online school during the pandemic to learn how it worked.
Same. I liked the setting and just kind of started playing.. hahaha
Yeah, same
Moreover, I learned about the whole "global strategy" genre from stellaris
And honestly - out of all paradox strategies i played (ck2, ck3, vic2, vic3, eu4 and hoi4) imo stellaris is still the best choice as a first pdx game to play and understand core strat mechanics
That was like me and eu4. Stellaris is far more complicated tho tbh
I begun with stellaris, although it was after watching multiple full playthroughs, particularly with the Gigastructural Engineering mod.
When I was younger, I really loved playing a 4X RTS game called Haegemonia: Legions of Iron. I later learned that Digital Reality had also developed IG2. The military bases look quite similar.
It's basically IG3 as far as I'm concerned.
@@CalgarGTX it basically is. When the dev team split in two, DR reworked IG3 into Haegemonia. It was amazing, even if it could've been even greater.
I thought that it looked similar to Haegemonia.😊 Haegemonia still has the best explosions in a space strategy game.
@@Peregrin3exactly
Very few people can imagine the level of satisfaction, when for the first time ever my (Solarian - humans) line on the fleetpower graph met the Kra'hen line and then surpassed it. If you know, you know. ;)
I remember my first victory against Krahen. I was ignoring the human special tech - the stun - and I was losing. Badly. Then out of desperation I tried the stuns and oh-boy, did the tide turn... The game suddenly became easy mode.
I'll be honest, to me, non other games ever captured the feeling of this old space strategy games.
The late 90's/early 2000's were the best time in gaming. Vision/talent/graphics tech all combined in wonderful new ways. Today, games require so many resources to be a hit that few risks are taken.
Totaly agree, imperium galactica, earth 2150, free space, impirium galactica, sid meyers alpha centuary, evil genius, call to pwer 2, fronter wars, universe at war earth assault,
I somewhat disagree.
Indi games still have all the potential, that those games had and with Steam a means of distribution unheard of in those days. Indi developers take risks, go untrodden paths and deliver unique experiences. Some fail miserably, some hit like a truck.
Dave the diver, Rimworld, Project Zomboid, FTL, Manor Lords, Mount&Blade, ... the list goes on and on and on.
The biggest differences are, that back in the day, you had only a handful of games and today the sheer amount will mean that most players will never find them. Then there is the technical quality gap between AAA and indi titles, that separates somewhat successful games from possible major hits. Most casual gamers and casual buyers will not buy indi games but rather be persuaded by flashy graphics and marketing. Why else would BS like Diablo iv even make a profit? There are a dozen Diablo games out there, that all are better "Diablos" then Diablo is nowadays.
And there are big studio hits and gems like Satisfactory or Baldur's Gate only to name two of the more recent ones.
So you are correct only when it comes to major studios and then only partly.
In my eyes it is more of a "back in the day everything was better" attitude.
The computing limitations forced innovation.
It would seem so, but I think this is a bit oversimplifying. Ideas are independant of technical possibilities. There are good movies and bad movies today. You just notice those, that have an emphasis on CGI and lack substance more.
Same with games and I again stress indie games. The low budgets force developers to forgo many things that AAA+ games can afford. Now, when voice acting, cut-scenes, high-res textures, models, mocap, etc. are done at the cost of story and content, then yes, the overall quality suffers. But if the idea was sound from the get-go and the focus is on overall quality not on "what is FOTM and what will sell best" what tech-stack you can use is irrelevant.
@@christoph4977 Exactly. nowadays I pretty much only play indie titles because they're the only ones that actually try to provide innovative gameplay. The oversaturation of the market leads to very little "oxygen" for many, many excellent indie games, especially those that do not have the funds to polish all aspects (mainly graphics)
My fist 4x was Master of Orion, on a 1.44 floppy, running on a 486.
Same.
Well, maybe. If it wasn't Master of Orion, then it was Master of Magic.
@@Rainer-qc2ol Both for me, loved both, replayed them a lot over the years.
I played Imperium Galactica 1, which had Red Alert-style cutscenes with actors playing various characters. The campaign was more linear but focused more on personal progression: you started out as a fleet captain with a few ships, and by the end you commanded the whole human armada against alien threats to rebuild the old galactic empire.
Unsure what the difference between "strategy" and "RTS" games are, but my experience with both/either genre was basically playing the main campaign of Age of Mythology when I was 14, and then getting Stellaris when I was 20 because it was recommended by an Extra Credits "games you might not have tried" video.
I don't think I have ever finished a game of Stellaris, I don't know how to make a good fleet, I just add ships until my numbers are big enough that my neighbors don't causus belli me cause what I really like is exploring, researching tech, thinking up a story for why my empire has the ethics/government it does, and all the little mini story encounters you can find across your galaxy.
Strategy also encompasses turn based strategy games I'd reckon, as well as other 'wider' scope strategy games like the total war series, which I wouldn't call merely an RTS.
Definitely a valid approach to focus on story first and not worry about the grognardy ship meta.
The clue is in the titles of the genres. Strategy is all encompasing. Covering any game requiring a level of strategic thinking using multiple units. Real Time Strategy is any strategy game with real time gameplay. Turn based strategy is any strategy game with turn based gameplay. Fairly simple to understand. Then you have 4X games like this and Stellaris. 4X is a genre onto itself based on the four X's that make up that genre. Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate. Nearly all 4X games are also turn based strategy games. However, this and Stellaris have real time elements. And so aren't turn based. But aren't quite Real Time Strategy games in the same way Age of Mythology or Starcraft are.
You have to remember that strategy games used to be played via EMail. Literally. You would take your turn and send the savefile via EMail to the next player. Individual rounds would go on for weeks, turn by turn. So a Real Time Strategy was an entirely new genre that played very differently! Turn-based was meant for Play-by-EMail, which strangely vanished while the turn-based nature remained. Very strange, because 5-50% of your playtime is waiting.
@@SardonicSays I personally call games like total war, which combine turn-based strategy with real-time tactics, "hybrid strategy games". I'm not sure if anyone else does something similar.
@@nathangamble125 Definitely a valid approach!
Sword of the Stars represent
Loved that one.
As a Stellaris player since day one who only had Anno as "strategy game" experience under my belt going into it, watching the dev streams back in 2016 helped a whole lot with the onboarding. And speaking of Anno, the decline of RTS elements in 4X and related genres you mentioned is very noticable in that franchise as well.
My first 4X game was Space Empires III (1997), which had an almost complete shareware version (as was the fashion of the day). It featured many of the complexities of the Stellaris base game -- colonization, worm holes between systems, economy based on specific planetary buildings, research tracks, detailed ship design, basic diplomacy. As a youth i only grasped it gradually over several games; but as a result, i much later picked up Stellaris relatively quickly. I'm convinced the creators of Stellaris played the hell out of this one.
I would recommend SE3 to anyone with a retro PC (as the interface is pure Windows) or to those who don't need strong visuals. It's on Steam for peanuts and still plays well! (though with almost no story or stimulation [except for the tactical battles, which are charmingly retro but direct])
I appreciate your ode to IG2; it seems like a remarkable experience to start off with. It's a delight to see true labors of love! And man those cutscenes look awesome.
How could you not mention Sword of the Stars? Released by Kerberos (acquired by paradox) in 2006 it had 6 playable races, each with unique ships and FTL travel methods. You also have research, ship designs and colony management. I spent countless hours playing that game.
It's in the video, just not directly mentioned.
The sequel was heartbreaking for me.
@@l0rf Yeah, I was terribly disappointed as well. It could have been such a good game.
I started playing stellaris in 2016 when a friend introduced it to me at summer camp when I was 11. The game was much simpler back then, but still complex, and I learned it with a bit of my friend teaching me the very basics and me teaching myself more in-depth stuff. I got my dad into it during the pandemic and it was much more difficult for him since the game has become much more complex.
Anyone remember “Stars!”? It is one of the original 4x game that outdoes Stellaris in space colonization.
Stellaris actually was my first 4x game. The console edition specifically as I had never owned a PC prior to that
My favorite space 4x from the 90's is Ascendancy. I wish it was still purchasable, I'd snap it up in a heartbeat
I think you have to pick that one up from an abandonware site. I'm surprised it's not on GoG.
Have you checked Gog?
@@1kvolt1978 Yep, unfortunately it's not on GOG. I did find it on an abandonware site, but I'm a bit scared to download it from there for fear of installing some hacker's rootkit on my PC or something.
Theres like one torrent of it lol
1 seeder xD
I played IG2 - it was really damn good. The ability to build your own colonies, and set up fortresses and stuff for defensive planning was really damn neat
I had around 6000 hours in total in the greater Paradox library when I started on Stellaris just last month and most of the systems seemed like slightly simpler versions of stuff found in all the other games, like ship design from HoI4, the resource management of the Victoria series, etc. so it was pretty easy for me to just pick up and understand the basics in a couple hours, although I still scoured TH-cam a bit afterwards to find some videos detailing the deeper complexities, another skill I learned from when I got into EU4 and needed to do the same there. As a result, it seemed like a pretty simple, but super fun entry into the genre that I could totally use to introduce grand strategy to my friend during a free weekend. What an experience that was, almost like there was a language barrier between us. So many things I take as second nature had to be explained to him in detail and I'm more than a little ashamed of how exasperated I got a couple times. To me, it makes perfect sense if there's a system that buffs one specific industry on a planet, you want to specialize it and abuse that buff as much as possible, but to someone who hasn't played a billion hours of modifier stackers, it seemed stupid and illogical you wouldn't want to make a planet self-sufficient. Really gave me a lot of insight into just how hostile this genre really is to beginners.
Stellaris was indeed my first real 4x game
My first 4x was Stellaris and it definitely came with a learning curve but as you mentioned youtube guides helped.
Stellaris of which year's sample?
1996 to 2000 was a golden age for cutscenes in strategy games. Civ II, Alpha Centauri, Starcraft, Red Alert 1&2, and Call To Power 1&2 all did really cool things with them. I don't get why the concept was dropped, it had a huge impact on immersion.
Well pretty much all of these hit the "being bought up" hurdle where their next developer simply produces 3rd rate clones of the primary.
Call to Power 1&2 for one is why i dislike Sid Meyer so much.
He got bored after making civilazation 2 and when CtP 1&2 out shined his works he took back the IP and made CIV 3 of all things.
And because of the way he did that no CIV game ever will have space/aquatic exploration/explotation options due to rights issues.
I dunno why SId or his development team never bothered with their space exploration sims instead they just made mobile train sims instead.
Starcraft had the same issue where Blizard closed Blizard North just so they could have a share holder bonus.
Westwood being bought up by EA killed C&C, Red Alert and Generals in one slow burning process of cheap produced profit margins.
Yep add to the list Mech Commander.
I remember watching my dad play this when I was a kid. I couldn't remember the name of the game for years. Only the end of the intro cinematic. So thank you for finally putting that goddamn ear worm to rest.
Pretty sure Stellaris was my first 4X, on my third run I already had learned how to do most things, considering that first thing I did was turn VIR into 5 minerals. the learning curve isn't bad unless the player has never touched a game or lived under a rock their entire live
Yeah, I played supreme commander and that's the only thing strategy that I played before stellaris (now I have 800 hours in stellaris)
Never thought listening to someone explaining how impressive old 4X game was compared to what's available now, could be this entertaining, I personally love 4X game and its certainly enjoyable to hear someone brag about their experience.
Thanks 😄
To this day I remember emperor of the fading suns. A 4x space game that also came with a ground combat map layer that is randomly generated for every planet. I have yet to see any game do something in quite the same way, i'd love to see something as deep as stellaris combined with actual planet exploration with random gen maps. It gives you a different layer to play and explore stuff, you'd go around and invade cities, find ancient structures, maybe even unlock some ancient terrors locked in some long forgotten bunker. You had to develop your ground units and maintain them along side your space ships.
All turn based, of course.
The layers interacted, too. You could just bomb everything from orbit, you'd have to watch out for anti spaceship batteries, and some ground units were even capable of going to space to manhandle your spacecraft.
I loved being able to build Planetary Guns on the ground and also see them fire at the enemy in a space battle.
I've only played the first Imperium Galactica so far. The way how that game really makes you feel like you are a person in a spaceship, who rises through the ranks from someone responsible for just a few planets to the supreme commander is incredible. It manages to achive that by making the the space ship you cammand the menu while throwing events and cutscenes at you frequently until the early late game.
I have not played a game that managed to replicate this since.
Such a neat video, about a game I'd never heard of but which looks like it would have blown my mind as a nine-year-old. I was not expecting the planetside development mechanics to actually be interesting, and all the little 3D buildings are adorable!
I agree. Imperium Galactica II was very well done. I like that it has ground combat too.
Haegemonia was excellent as well. :)
Wow thanks algorithm - what a great watch.
The original Master of Orion is where I cut my teeth on a space opera 4x. Though I played much more of its sequel than the original. Imperium Galactica 2 was like my white whale for over a decade before I managed to track a copy down.
... The music used here is a total nostalgia trip for me.
That ending card with the MechCommander victory tune made me stop what I was doing for a second.
It's a bop isn't it? The mechlab theme too from that game, quite iconic!
IG2 : smashing game, still play it to this day
"better hyperdrive equals more faster" idk why but I love this sentence
FINALLY someone talks about this !!! Their combat was great for the time !
i was going to comment something about loving video essays that introduce me to weird little video games and then I looked at your sub count.
Subscribed for small creator Solidarity, Keep up the good work man
Stellaris was my first space 4x, and that was a hell of a time to learn
Bought this when it first came out and boy was it glorious, looked fantastic too. This really deserved a sequel.
10:10 Incredible. It has become such a cultural force now, you don't even need to hint at where it's from and it still lands. You love to see it!
Stellaris was my first 4X game .
Thanks to the graphics and approachable layout I learned the basics .
there was a game called "Space Empire V" by Malfolder Machination, a tiny game studio in california. It had EVERYTHING, the tech tree was ridiculous. You could design and customize and level up everything, it featured space and ground combat. You started with mondane technologies like a nuclear railgun and in the end you had ridiculous stuff like a kamikaze drone carrier stealth battleships with temporal distorition weapons and self healing bio armor. Oh and the drones were all individual sub-units you could all customize and control as well. And my most favourite part was that you really could micromanage your entire empire, but you could also activate "ministers" to automate things like espionage, construction, fleet resupply, planetary construction, unit refitting and upgrading, politics, exploration and so on. Essentially you could play the game completely afk if you wanted and only do ship designs, or battle or whatever you like.
Stellaris for me was technically my first 4X game, but the learning curve was easier for me because it wasn't the first strategy game I played, that one being Starcraft 2, which now that I realize probably made me want to try out Stellaris first than Civ
Thanks for the HDR tip!
Hungarian games is my favourite genre.
Isn't it weird that not a one has been developed for over 14 years...wonder why.
Hungary's game dev industry is pretty much dead ever since Crytek Budapest was closed. Many great Hungarian games came out in the 90's and early 2000's, but at this point it's dead aside from some crappy mobile games.
As a hungarian myself I played every race at every difficulty at least twice
I even tried it in multiplayer at a LAN party but it didn’t work out. Too long 😂
Stellaris was my first and currently only space 4x.
Played a ton of Paradox 4x though prior and honestly I feel the learning curve is fairly simple atleast for playing casually.
As it has a ton of auto upgrade chance and not to many extra unknown resources.
Stellaris was my first time doing any sort of 4x game but I had friends to tutor me every step of the way
My first 4x game who is likely first 4x game who came months before civilisation , is Supremacy: Your Will Be Done (or overlord in usa) played on my commodore 64
Well, being a massive fan of Stellaris, looks like I've got another Space 4x game to play. Thanks man.
My first space civ game was VGA planets. But Imperium Galatica I and II are the ones i remeber the having most of the fun playing back in the day. Glad that 2 is on steam.
Wow that's a title I haven't heard in a great number of years. Damn I'm old.
This game is amazing, you nailed it.
A obvious masterpiece when you consider the time, a piece of love and still a mystery to me.
I think i played that civ 4 space mod first, but stellaris was my entry point, tbf, i played it since it was released, so i was able to learn along the growing systems
Though it's an absolute nightmare to get running well these days I still love Space Empires V. The ability to design every unit from ground tanks to super carriers combined with the end game technology of reshaping the stars and planets themselves is everything I want from a 4x.
As a kid, I remember being swarmed by Kra Hen fleets with their death ray in the mid late game.
Is there a specific way to overcome that, or should I have just spammed battleships like crazy ?
Oh man upon seeing those spinny ships I got hit by massive nostalgia. A forgotten lifetime flashed before my eyes. Thank you!
I haven't thought about this game since at least a decade. What a nostalgia trip!
My first RTS/4X was Stellaris! Was definitely a steep learning curve but I was so invested in the game I didn't really feel that until I had to teach my friend the arcane convolutions of the game!
They put so much love into games back then
I learned 4k as a genre on Stellaris. I loved every agonizing second
This game ate ALL my afternoons after I came back from school. It was awesome. It even had stories, as crazy at that sounds
My first 4x game was Stellaris, and yeah, it’s a lot, but I loved the feeling of growing a space empire and learning as I go.
I role-played as the UNE and had a blast. I’ve added more dlc the more I played
Recently started “attempting” to beat grand admiral and yt tutorials has become the majority in you feed
I'd also mention Empire of the Fading Suns - it was staggeringly beautiful. And the idea of stagnant feudal star-faring society was very well implemented there. Of course, an idea of full hexagonal maps, unique and specific for every planet was a true find. Decent economy model was a cherry on the top.
a 3 front war in the year 2290 would be physically painful with full player type control, but if it is an off/on control, then it would be a great addition
Stellaris was actually my first RTS game, like ever. The learning curve was not too steep, great community resources helped me gain a foothold in the game very quickly
Stellaris was, MY FIRST RTS map strat game. I put 10 hours in, quit with tears in my eyes and bought Civ 4 and 5 instead. I came back a year later and felt more comfy about map strat games.
Indeed stellaris was my first strategy game I ever played and 3 years later I'm still playing it
pure ear candy: HERE ARE TWO UNSKIPPABLE ADS!
I always find that kind of timing funny. If a youtuber wants to show you something and exactly then an ad plays.
my first strategy game was Civ V, which I played for an amount of hours I shudder to contemplate. I got into Stellaris when it came out because scifi is my life, and I learnt everything I know about how to play it through trial, error, and experimenting with the systems. That worked for me because I enjoy it, but yeah I've tried talking friends into playing it (so I have someone to play multiplayer with) and so far no one has taken to it. I 100% understand why they get put off when they see the UI and all the damn resources and convoluted systems. I'd never considered playing another scifi 4X, since Stellaris still satisfies my craving, but watching this video make me want to try out the rest of the genre. Particularly older games like this one.
The first 4x / grand strategy game I ever played was, ok well Civ 5 was the first but compared to the rest of the genre it was night and day. My first major 4x/Grand Strategy was EU4, a friend and me got into a voice chat together and spent like 15 minutes just clicking through the different menus before playing some easy countries at low speed. In the end, experience was the biggest friend in learning the small management loops and what resources/screens need to be paid attention to.
Oh man, I'm pretty sure I played a demo of this and never got the full title. Nearly had forgotten about it.
This has the vibe of Star Wars: Empire at War, with the simple resources, ground and space combat etc
My first 4X was Ascendancy from 1995. Love the OST to this day.
This really reminds me of Star Wars: Empire at War, which was not only my first space 4k but it was also the first pc game I have any memory of playing.
Stellaris was my first strategy and space 4x game surprisingly it wasn't that rough to learn, there where a few runs where I was unsure what I was doing at the same time I got a hang of it quite quickly, but maybe that's just because the other genres I play like rougelikes have prepared me for games such as stellaris
First 4x space game I played was indeed Stellaris. First time I played it, I had no idea what was happening and I fell off a few minutes after. Some time later I came back and it all just kinda clicked. I just started learning more and more as I played. I've done a lot of other playthroughs since the first but I still remember that one more than any other. First playthrough ended with me being destroyed by a spiritualist fallen empire. I tried to salvage it by running to the edge of the galaxy and start again on a small ice planet I'd found there. I was quickly followed by the FE and finished off. What a ride.
I've got 2k hours in stellaris and I forget how stuff works all the time, so many systems tacked on over the decade, so much pop micromanagement. And I've been playing since before utopia! I can't imagine trying to learn it fresh.
Imperium Galactica 2 made me fall in love with 4x Games, at a time I didn't even know what 4x games were!
Craziest title id ever seen
Stellaris was my first space 4x game for sure, but I played it on release when it was much simpler than it is today... and also, I had extensive RTS experience beforehand so I understood basebuilding, movement, combat and composition already.
i literally started off with Stellaris as my first game, but I had someone to guide me through it which helped with the learning curve. now i have 800+ hours in it 💀
Amazing
Imperium Galactica 2 was great back then, but I started with Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. That was the real GOAT.
So funny thing: Stellaris was actually my second strategy game, the first one being CIV6 without the two major DLCs. It wasxquite the steep learning curve and it took me about 100 hours to actually understand most mechanics. It probably would have been easier to learn it by using online-tutorials, but learning by doing is more fun
I loved Imperium Galactica 2!
the game was like an city builder,RTS, and some more.
Stellaris was my first 4x strategy game. Absolutely fell in love with it, despite watching my empires crumble quite a few times before I got the hang of it.
Imperium Galactica was my first. IG2 was okay as it gave some but also took some of the charm. Played many 4X since but none of them came close to the joys the IGs gave me. I wish I could create a spiritual successor to IGs one day.
Stellaris was my first stategy game, luckily i had a friend that i asked 200 questions every second for 5 hours to get the hang of it
Stellaris was my first grand strategy, and my first Paradox. Was gifted it at the age of 12, and it hooked me.
It reminds me of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Although I haven't played it myself, even many years after its release, it left a deep impression on me with its atmosphere. Researching technologies and building wonders there were accompanied by quotes about the world from one of the faction leaders, or voiced videos. Each leader represented a certain philosophy about the world and man's place in it. There was a sense of self-discovery among people in the distant future.
When the developers tried to make a new space game, it was seriously lacking this atmosphere.
MoO was one of my faves 12 years ago
I never really played any strategy game before stellaris, my friends got me into it and I learned by myself on console stellaris, so it was indeed my first strategy game.
Also great video
This gives off some "Alien Legacy" vibes, which is also a long forgotten pearl.
Bro forgot about Distant Worlds
My first Space 4x game was stellaris; mind you prior to stellaris I have played Hoi 4 and before that CIV 4.
The progression of playing the games in that order helped make it fairly easy to grasp for the most part. I cant imagine someone having never had played a strategy game starting with stellaris however.
One of the few 4x space games I still go back to. Most tend to get boring pretty quick once you realise just how shallow they are. I'm still waiting for something as deep, yet just as tight and focused, as master of orion 2
There is one thing that needs to be mentioned about the ships. Its not just aesthetics, the different species prefer different strategies so the ships have varying number of hard-points on them. Some can house more missiles and less heavy weapons and vice versa. Thou in my experience this only really mattered in multiplayer where it helped if you fitted your ships whit more shields or missile jammers depending on who you were fighting against.