So I was thinking about games like Civilisation and Master of Orion today, and I was wondering if anyone had ever made a game like that with a multiplayer focus, 1v1 or otherwise, rather than the main mode of gaming being vs. a bunch of AI's. I assume such a game would require it to be simplified in terms of the number of units, buildings and technologies out there, but I don't think that would be an issue.

Has anyone ever heard of such a game?

(I hope this is okay to go in Sports and Games. If not, I'm fine with it being deleted and will repost it in Blogs.)

URfavHO

United States514 Posts

March 25 2013 07:37 GMT

There is a multiplayer mode for the game Total War Shogun 2. I believe it could only support 2 player coop. I am not sure if i would recommend it to anybody, but it was moderately fun.

Terranist

United States2496 Posts

March 25 2013 07:57 GMT

sins of a solar empire is as close as it gets as far as i know but it doesn't have that big of a community.

Shai

Canada806 Posts

March 25 2013 07:58 GMT

In my opinion Civilization 2 balanced amount of time you put into a turn pretty well for a 4x game and made for a great multiplayer game. I could still see myself pulling that out for some multiplayer fun. But you have pointed out a major weakness of the genre; multiplayer takes so bloody long.

Rise of Nations is an RTS which has quite a Civilization feel to it. You can try that if you like.

Otolia

France5805 Posts

March 25 2013 07:59 GMT

I recommend Endless Space if you want a 4X strategy based. Otherwise the reference is X3.

Shottaz

United Kingdom414 Posts

March 25 2013 08:48 GMT

Galactic Civilisations 2?

Edit *Multiplayer mode, not MMO. What about EVE?*

Spinfusor

Australia410 Posts

March 25 2013 09:32 GMT

Aren't most 4x's multiplayer oriented? I mean Civ and MoO are both as significant as MP games as they are SP games.

Unless you mean they have to be playable over a short session?

-Archangel-

Croatia7457 Posts

March 25 2013 09:51 GMT

I would recommend Birth of the Federation, it is a older game but it has most awesome MP out of all 4x games I tried. It still has a community. Why is it so good?
Because you can win by developing money, tech, rushing or sabotage. And for a 4x games it has a nice combat that rewards good tactics and people that know their racial advantages.

r.Evo

Germany14080 Posts

March 25 2013 10:12 GMT

AI War: Fleet Command + expansions.

Its multiplayer is co-op only but since the AI is the strongest out of any game in existence that's more of a bonus. :>

anomalopidae

Slovenia549 Posts

March 25 2013 10:13 GMT

#10

Well not sure if it exactly fits, but you can try multiplayer mode of Europa Universalis, Victoria and similar Paradox titles

mTwRINE

Germany318 Posts

March 25 2013 10:35 GMT

#11

Played quite alot Freeciv Warclient Mod. Its like Civ2 reworked by diehard fans for online play with a ton of features and balancing. Hands down the best fucking thing I ever played, but extremely hard to get into for new people. Playerbase is (was) a few dozen people playing few games a week (teambased 3on3, 4on4 etc) and you would have no clue how to play first 20+ games.

I can still load up my client, start a game and think for 30min about my first moves calculating everything. You can view the metaserverlist here: http://meta.freeciv.org/metaserver.phtml . Games start around evening CET.

karazax

United States3737 Posts

March 25 2013 21:03 GMT

#12

Not exactly what you are asking for, but if you like 4x games, the Civ like board game Through the Ages: The Story of Civilization is a lot of fun and can be played online for free at http://www.boardgaming-online.com/ on your computer in most web browsers.

No AI, but you can multiplayer up to 4. You do have to either find a tutorial
or read the board game rules to learn how to play though.

DnameIN

Poland146 Posts

March 25 2013 21:59 GMT

#13

For ultimate 4x multiplayer try Stars! (some beginner info here). No screenshots, that game have almost no graphic;) I really enjoyed playing this with my friends. Actually, few months ago I was thinking about asking on TL if there is someone up for a game... Anyone...?

(pssst... I can arrange everything we need to make it work)

Some more modern, simplified version of that game can be found here - Neptune's Pride. There was a topic on TL about this one. I have also enjoyed few games online, but it's browser game, and like most of them, you need to be ready to get up in the middle of the night, because you "need to send fleets when that other guy is sleeping" (or just to be sure that he is not doing that at the moment

).

Ps: I'm up for playing any of them if someone is wondering;)

Salivanth

Australia1071 Posts

March 26 2013 02:10 GMT

#14

I played Neptune's Pride once. Those types of games have a tendency to completely take over my life, but it was only a week or two and I didn't have anything going on at the time, so I decided to play. I got pretty into it. I was actually sleeping biphasically for a couple of days in the most volatile early stages of the game, but then my lead extended. I played the whole game expecting my ally to betray me, but he never did and settled for second place for some reason. Me, I was chasing first the whole time, never even THOUGHT about trying for second, so I was shitting bricks the whole time.

Good times.

Coppermantis

United States845 Posts

March 26 2013 03:40 GMT

#15

On March 25 2013 19:12 r.Evo wrote:
AI War: Fleet Command + expansions.

Its multiplayer is co-op only but since the AI is the strongest out of any game in existence that's more of a bonus. :>

I personally love this game, but I wouldn't call it a true 4X like, say, the Civ games are. Plus, as you said, it's limited to co-op so it may not be what you're looking for. Still a great game regardless.

Skirmjan

Italy190 Posts

March 26 2013 03:57 GMT

#16

The most fun 4X i got to play in multiplayer was/is Sword of the Stars:Complete collection, for that game has a huge tech tree, real time tactical battles/turn based empire mode,and an incredible array of options to kill your enemies (yea for Virus bombs!)
The SotS series was deliberately kept simple, planetary development is streamlined to say the least, and there's no ground combat (you usually just sterilize the planets from orbit) which is both its strenght and weakness*, but a great fun nonetheless

Probably another good bet would be SotS2 with the new expansion end of flesh, albeit probably a bit more complicated, IF that game has been fixed (should be, but at release it was basically unplayable due to massive bugs and being basically, worse than an alpha)

*I loved the ground combat and planetary building of Imperium Galactica 2, unfortunately i couldn't find any newer game like it T_T

Skratti

1 Post

September 07 2016 15:00 GMT

#17

Bumping this thread because:
- google lists it on the first page with the search "multiplayer 4x"
- There now is a multiplayer focused 4X game out there - Empires in Space

All existing turnbased 4X are focused on singleplayer, and multiplayer is just added on top.

Putting the main focus on multiplayer requires changed rules:

- The server is always running, each player may log in or log out as he wants. Without this, all players have to be online simultaneously, which is very difficult to achieve with 10+ players
- turn evaluation is fixed on certain times, regardless of the online status of players. This feature gives all players the time they need to do their moves, research, putting something in the building queue, writing ingame messages, having nearly as much time for diplomacy as they want
- values stack up for multiple turns. This one is important for games with a fixed turn evaluation, since players won't get online each turn. They might even go on vacation for a week or two, and shouldn't automatically have lost everything

The downside is of course that you can't speed up the game by any "End turn" button.
The initial few days might provide only few options to do things.

There is also one big gain by not being able to speed things up. If things boil up - a war breaks out and one has to do everything one can to defend and counterattack, things remain in suspense for a long time. If one plays alone, these turning points are quickly resolved. If one can't speed things up, this may take days to resolve...

Feel free to check out Empires in Space, it's free and does not need an installed client.
www.empiresinspace.com

If you know any other multiplayer focused, turn based 4X, please let me know.

stenole

Norway869 Posts

September 07 2016 18:51 GMT

#18

The Age of Wonders series works okay in multiplayer because it has simultaneous turns which minimizes waiting for turn based games. Another turn-based favourite of mine is Imperialism II, but it is old and it is impossible to find anyone willing to play it.

There are also a multitude of Paradox Entertainment games like Europa Universalis IV. However, deciding the game speed and how much pausing is allowed can be challenging in multiplayer.

A common drawback with the genre is that they generally take a lot of time so you sort of need to play them with friends or someone else who is willing to commit to a play schedule.

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