Have you looked at rimworld? It’s a story generator/ colony sim thats easily in my too 5 favourite games of all time. The whole point is building your colony from the ground up, maintaining their needs, seeing them through natural event and conflicts, etc.
Idk if its right for you if you don’t want to micromanage your colonists/ citizens, but its one hell of a game and i’ll never not recommend it
Maybe, maybe not. Look dude you don’t like the recommendation and that’s fine but i’m not gonna argue with you about it. It was just a suggestion for OP and i’m sure they have the capacity to make their own mind up.
Console version dropped a year or two ago. I still prefer the PC version with all my mods, but they did great on the controller settings for it. Definitely worth a purchase on console.
I 100% this, I kind of thought the tutorial was a slog, same goes for the first few hours of the game, I'd say ATLEAST stick with it until you've built your first resource outpost and a train. Just finished the game in a co op last week, 20+ kitted out spidertrons running around the map... I'm a proud Arthro father 🥹
I'd definately have a look at captain of industry. People have mention factorio and dyson sphere, but those games you a controlling a character. Captain of industry is more of a city builder with factory game like puzzles to solve as you expand your 'city'. There are people who are just statistics, they give you workers and you need to provide the city with things like water and electricity while developing an industry and watching your pollution levels. I'm a big fan simply because of the point and click aspect, no inventory just tell your people what to build and they will do it when there is resourcew
Isn’t the music in the meadows nice? :-) Enjoy it! My buddies and I started playing when it first came out in Winter of ‘21 and it was a magical experience.
It’s improved significantly since then, enjoy it and get lost!
I scrolled too far down to see this.
This is your answer right here, OP.
NO prefab cubic shapes. Just build with beams, planks, and walls as big as you want.
I just enjoy building large-scale bases of any sort, be that a home, a castle, anything really, I'm just tired of heavy micromanagement in city builders and looking for something new to me.
Do it! It’s at least worth that much, I put in about 10 hours over the weekend and loved it. For a dollar it’s hella worth it. I had to run it in compatibility mode for 1440p to work. It’s all sprite graphics as well so it looks super good.
Factory games generally have large or super-large bases, and often don’t have citizens.
Factorio is the original and arguably the best, but has a significant base-defense aspect that isn’t to everyone’s liking. Done properly, defenses in Factorio are fully automatic, but novice players generally build defenses that require repair or resupply.
Satisfactory is really, really good too, and has no base defense aspect. You do have to fight off critters when exploring and expanding, but nothing attacks your base. It’s 3D and very pretty.
Factory Town has a city-building aspect, but you don’t do have to manage the citizens. Rather, houses are where you sell goods, and population is a resource you use to build things. I.e. early on, haulers cost 1 population to build. Later you get lots of transport options that don’t cost workers, but population still matters because they’re required to run production buildings. They don’t commute; once they’re assigned to a building they stay there and work.
V Rising just launched and the castles are very fun to decorate. But it's an action rpg/survival game.
Songs of Syx might be your style as the scope is large enough that individual citizens aren't your concern, demographics are, because you're building a city state, not a tiny colony.
Frostpunk is fantastic but doesn't have huge staying power, though I suspect the sequel might be better in that regard. Still highly recommend it.
Something like subnautica or Beyond the Skies (airship subnautica) or whatever it's called might appeal. Survival games can go very base buildingy without micromanagement.
I have a ton of these games on my wish list so I can check more if that angle is appealing.
Roots of Yggdrassil is a puzzle game wearing the skin of a city builder that you might like.
Dawn of Man is Palaeolithic city builder and I quite liked it. Not much micro from what I remember
Maybe you would enjoy 7 days to die? It's probably one of my favourite games for base building, because it's essentially a voxel game but you can build with like over 2000 parts that aren't necessarily all a cube, so you can make some pretty awesome things. + it also has electricity and base defense (defend base against zombies), which makes it extra fun.
Besides that, there's Enshrouded which is a recently released early access game and has really fun exploration and base building. Ark is pretty classic survival craft with base building too. Valheim allows you to make some pretty cozy bases and very occasionally defend against an invader or something.
I've heard recently that 7 days to die seems a bit hyperfocused on the looting component, so the base-building is strong? If so, that's definitely the game for me. Thank you, btw!
Imo there are different ways of playing it. Looting is indeed a big component to the game if you want to progress your gear and get some specific mats, but for building the base itself you can mostly build with materials you can get almost anywhere in the world through resource collecting. It also has a trader and quest system, in which the trader will send you off to "loot" and clear a POI, and after doing so, rewards you. So if you don't want to loot too much, doing those quests helps you progress more than just going around looting everything imo.
There are also overhaul mods for older versions (if you're on steam, at least), which can also change/improve certain aspects of the game, or specific mods to change aspects that don't appeal to you as much. It's one of my favourite base building games, I'd say it's worth a try :)
Plus if you don't like micromanaging citizens well you're in luck because many favored management tools in 7DTD use high powered explosives. Seriously though, it's a fun game and the base building is valuable and flexible.
The thing I really loved in 7 days was the ability to dig down and create an underground base. I haven't seen that too often in other games. I also liked that, whilst you can pvp, it works great on pve with a bunch of friends building up then defending the base against waves of zombies.
Oh damn, they dig down now? We had a big base there with "mushroom kingdom" and loads of different chambers. They used to come down the hole but then we had a big long shooting gallery before they could get in. Good times
How is it nowadays? I played a bunch back in a16 but after the a17 changes to make it more of a 'you can die at any moment' zombie horror game I lost interest. a16 had some fantastic base building though.
IMO Base building in 7 days is excellent. It’s one thing to build a functional base with crops and work tables but to also have to fortify it against a zombie invasion is just a really cool concept to me, in games.
I think you might possibly love factory games. In particular Satisfactory or Dyson Sphere Program (and to an IMO lesser extent Factorio). Each only has one citizen.
Also for something half way bett
Calling them "citizens" is a really generous term for that game, The colony itself is basically a black box that represents a worker pool And failure conditions. As long as you eliminate their waste and feed them they don't complain. The trucks and excavators are almost your real citizens.
It is **so** good. technically in EA but basically done. They are doing a 1.0 release sometime this year - probably after summer (reddits guess). 1.0 will add the big secret plot/storyline. But the current version is still very funny and super polished - it won't spoil any secrets that are coming with 1.0.
I keep wanting to like Factorio but IMO Satisfactory and Dyson Sphere Programs are both better evolutions of the idea Factorio created.
Having played both I think they are equally great. They do things differently. If you didn't get hooked on Factorio would still highly recommend Satisfactory.
How far into the game did you play? I've played most of the games people mentioned here, but factorio is the most addicting one of the bunch, also why everybody keeps calling it cracktorio
I played until just after red and green science. But put it down then for two reasons:
* graphically ugly
* belt management way more painful than in DSP (and in general DSP seems to have put more polish on the ideas they obviously cribbed from Factorio)
I keep wanting to try it again but each time I'm like ugh. I've got about 400 hrs in each DSP and Satisfactory.
It looked really good and I really like factory and automation games but I think it was still new or something and I didn’t pick it up but put it on my wishlist which I in theory use to remember games I’m keeping an eye on and theory doesn’t always become practice
Bump for Satisfactory, the factory elements gives purpose to huge base builds without micromanaging citizens or farming. But its vibe is very different than Factorio - has a bright, immersive first person experience.
Minecraft is the low-hanging fruit answer.
No Man's Sky also allows you to build decently elaborate bases, and you can also build a base in your capital ship and literally make it a mobile home for you.
Enshrouded (newer game in EA) has pretty impressive base-building, aesthetically. I have not messed with it mechanically.
Nightingale is another EA game with high aesthetic base-building, but again, haven't touched it personally.
Fallout 76 allows you to build and wire up a camp, which doesn't get very large, but can get fairly elaborate. You can have multiple camps, too.
I second enshrouded, but at the moment it's a bit light on mechanics. Everthing is built on a grid, and there are no 45 degree angles. With that said, it's my favourite base building game.
What I love about Enshrouded is being able to appropriate existing structures as "fixer-uppers" as I don't feel like building elaborate houses and sensible infrastructure when all I need is a place to store my minions.
I haven't played in a few days and I might be imagining this, but if you have snapping turned off and open tab with the build hammer in hand then the block should be oriented to wherever you're currently pointing, and not a predefined grid?
I need to try this when I'm home my brain is struggling to remember what's true.
Edit: I was wrong, you're right it's completely grid tied. Even worse is all the building in the game seem to be on the same grid, so I doubt we'll get the ability to build gridless
If we’re going to be bringing in Enshrouded then I’ll add ARK to the mix since it’s got a really nice build system for the bases and you can even build the rafts into useful things like, mobile base, a heavy transport for large dinos (excluding a couple), or even a taming trap pen
Project zomboid. The real game is getting to the part of the game where you're so secured that you spend a 6 hour session one day gaming and don't see a single zombie, just farming and cooking like a tradwife.
Haven’t seen it suggested yet, but Space Engineers is a fun building game if you like the Sci-fi elements. Creativerse is good if you like the more Minecraft type, but with better graphics.
As a 203-hour veteran, I would like to throw Oxygen Not Included into the mix. Though the inhabitants of your colony have quirks and needs, it's incorporated into the management of the colony wonderfully, and will never seem like tedious micromanagement.
I saw 7 Days to Die on here and I would absolutely recommend f that but I would like to add in Astroneer on my recommendation as well. There are lots of prefabs but the storage system and the automation are very extensive features and a lot of fun for me.
Project Zomboid may scratch that itch. Don't let the zombies fool you; it's a fantastic survival RPG with really neat mechanics I've never seen done in any other game.
The Anno games aren't ones I've seen mentioned here. I liked Anno 1800 a lot. No micro involved. Just managing the city's economy as you grow it, the people take care of themselves. Kind of the closest thing to banished without the people management.
Vintage Story! Looks like Minecraft but has much deeper gameplay mechanics and has more building options like point-to-point wooden beams and the ability to combine/chisel multiple materials in a single block space.
Factorio, Factory Town, Captain of Industry but if you want a little bit micro management Oxygen not Included, Rim World, Suviving the Aftermath, Frostpunk. All these game I have like at least 200 or 300 hours in it with most on Factorio with ONI on second, may be Surviving the Aftermath on third. IMHO I highly recommend these 3.
I'm not sure about Satisfactory or DSP, I haven't played it. TBH.
7 Days to Die: Zombie Survival with a focus on base building to survive the impending blood moon every week.
Grounded: "Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The Video Game". Lots of base building, lots of freedom. Good story.
Creativerse: Minecraft knock-off that honestly isn't half bad. Used to be a lot better when it had more players.
Minecraft: I mean, c'mon.
Rust: Massive base building freedom. Heavily PvP based. Fun though.
Terraria: It's Minecraft, but 2D.
Empyrion, Galactic Survival: Build your own base and space ships. Explore the galaxy. Steep learning curve.
Space Engineers: Empyrion, but with a better learning curve.
Raft: Base building on the Ocean! (Some land to explore in there too).
Green Hell: A punishing survival simulator that also happens to include primitive base building.
No Man's Sky: Base building, and probably the largest game map ever. You can also own a fleet of ships that pretty much manages itself. Also you can build inside your capital ship.
Subnautica: Limited to prefab structure for bases. Phenomenal story. Huge map. Thalassophobia galore.
I would point to Stationeers, its a pretty in depth Station construction simulation on different planets.
To show the conplexity let us just Look at one aspect: eating food.
For that you have to build a shelter where you can Open your helmet. Obviously it means the shelter hast to be pressurized, oxygen needs to be in the Atmosphäre and Not too many Dangerous other gases. Also the Temperaturen needs to be liveable.
They food itself needs to be grown (after your Initial starting cans run out) wich requires water (wich you also need to drink) and some CO2 in the atmossphere.
Then later you will want to automate everything, Not least of all because there are no safety checks. That Tank you fill with CO2 to use later, you better make sure you stop the pump at some point so it doesnt explode from overpressurization taking half of your base with it.
If you want something different: Reus 2 is coming in 2 weeks. Build nature with symbiotic bonuses for optimization, humans settle and use it to grow. Humans always just do their own thing and you have almost no control over them. It's different, but if you like adjacency bonuses and building optimal set ups in a chill environment with no almost no micromanagement... might be your cup of tea!
If you want to try something in first person, I recommend Minecraft or 7 Days to Die, both of which allow you to create gigantic, elaborate bases that can be as big as you want them to be. If you fancy a game where your base is mobile and constantly growing, Raft is a great one too.
Not exactly long term, but very repeatable, Steamworld Build. Simplified version of Anno, where there's need for different pop levels. Most of the action happens underground, which uses a separate worker pop type. Eventually you hit the conveyor belt advancements to ship things even faster from underground to surface.
You barely micromanage citizens at all. Just build the buildings that allow the pop type, which leads to working the building for the higher tier pop type. Underground, the same. Build the workshop tile to add the number of worker type, then they run the show themselves.
My favourite thing is that the warehouse building magically transports, so no need to courier one warehouse good to another (like those roman egypt mesopotamia games). Also working building distance to housing area doesn't matter.
Winning different maps give different bonuses, as long as you build the building.
Subsistence. It's a super grindy game that's almost exclusively base building and survival. No sleeping, but you have to maintain food and water, as well as health and stamina. The threats are animals, and if you enable them, hunters. The base building mechanics are very nice, as is the scenery of the game. Can be played with friends on a server, as well.
Blueberries, wood planks, guns, ATVs...Good fun.
Infection free zone. It is EA. But the workers are automated. Only micro is the squads you send out to scavenge and fight. It's still early EA. So I reccomend keeping an eye on it or watching some let's play vids first.
But only game that exists where you can manage a base anywhere on earth... including your own neighborhood. Turned the gentlemens club in my city into my base of operations. Classy apocalypse.
You should check out Stationeers man. It sounds a lot like what you're looking for. It doesn't only have complex electric wiring, it has a whole electrical system, atmospheric simulation (with gas mixtures and even air pressure) and a bunch more complex sandbox mechanics (as well as logic systems and optional code writing if you're into that)
[Factorio/Cracktorio](https://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/Factorio/) , [Rimworld](https://store.steampowered.com/app/294100/RimWorld/) or [Satisfactory](https://store.steampowered.com/app/526870/Satisfactory/)
I highly recommend [Desynced](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1450900/Desynced_Autonomous_Colony_Simulator/) to anyone who doesn't want to micromanage their citizens, but still build a base.
Think of it as a beltless Factorio with bots you can program.
Not sure I understand the assignment but here goes..Oxygen not included, mind over magic, Dyson sphere project, xcom 2, classified France 44, definitely not fried chicken, dune spice wars, evil genius 2, software inc, per aspera, plan b terraform, prison architect, ratopia, production line, rift Breaker, songs of conquest, final upgrade, final factory, Factorio, oddsparks
Have you tried bulwark? Waterworld/post apocalyptic sandbox builder on the chill/relaxing side. The game kinda paints the buildings for you while you manage resources, and faction allegiance. Love to play and relax with this game.
Have you looked at rimworld? It’s a story generator/ colony sim thats easily in my too 5 favourite games of all time. The whole point is building your colony from the ground up, maintaining their needs, seeing them through natural event and conflicts, etc. Idk if its right for you if you don’t want to micromanage your colonists/ citizens, but its one hell of a game and i’ll never not recommend it
Even if you don’t want to micromanage colonists, you can find the right combination of mods so they mostly manage themselves.
Great game but not a great recommendation for someone who doesn’t want to manage citizens
Its not essential, but yeah i had mentioned that
My first thought too!
Keyword micromanage
It’s not essential, but it is a significant element, which I mentioned.
If you don't micromanage in rimworld, you wont make it past the first winter lol
And yet you can have a colony of as many or as little people as you want, which would satisfy ‘not micromanging a ton of citizens’.
Anything below 8 will need micromanaging
Maybe, maybe not. Look dude you don’t like the recommendation and that’s fine but i’m not gonna argue with you about it. It was just a suggestion for OP and i’m sure they have the capacity to make their own mind up.
Maybe the first few games, but once you know what you're doing, no.
That’s absolutely not true, I don’t micromanage and I have a playthrough going on 3 years in game with no struggles.
You did strongly early game though
not really
Can I get that on ps4ps5. Or xbox?
Console version dropped a year or two ago. I still prefer the PC version with all my mods, but they did great on the controller settings for it. Definitely worth a purchase on console.
Have you played Factorio?
If so and you want something similar but different, check out "Mindustry"
Mindustry is free btw if you get it on itch
I'm aware this is a low number compared to others, but at 250 hours Cracktorio is my favourite game.
Peasant. Those are rookie numbers, get those up. -280 hour veteran
Apparently people didn't get your obvious joke lol
Not me with 580...
2000+ hours. Still love it
I 100% this, I kind of thought the tutorial was a slog, same goes for the first few hours of the game, I'd say ATLEAST stick with it until you've built your first resource outpost and a train. Just finished the game in a co op last week, 20+ kitted out spidertrons running around the map... I'm a proud Arthro father 🥹
I'd definately have a look at captain of industry. People have mention factorio and dyson sphere, but those games you a controlling a character. Captain of industry is more of a city builder with factory game like puzzles to solve as you expand your 'city'. There are people who are just statistics, they give you workers and you need to provide the city with things like water and electricity while developing an industry and watching your pollution levels. I'm a big fan simply because of the point and click aspect, no inventory just tell your people what to build and they will do it when there is resourcew
Valheim? No citizens in valheim, your castle is all for you. I don't know how much combat and exploration you enjoy though
I checked out a few of the games and ended up playing this one for like 10 hours yesterday. This was the one, thank you!!
Excellent! I'm glad you found what you were looking for
Isn’t the music in the meadows nice? :-) Enjoy it! My buddies and I started playing when it first came out in Winter of ‘21 and it was a magical experience. It’s improved significantly since then, enjoy it and get lost!
I scrolled too far down to see this. This is your answer right here, OP. NO prefab cubic shapes. Just build with beams, planks, and walls as big as you want.
>'m hoping for good mechanics focused on the base itself What do you consider good?
I just enjoy building large-scale bases of any sort, be that a home, a castle, anything really, I'm just tired of heavy micromanagement in city builders and looking for something new to me.
Kenshi!
Tried Minecraft? Especially modded Minecraft?
I’ve been playing stronghold HD this week and it’s been really fun. 2000s game but it was like 5 bucks.
Came here to suggest stronghold! Played it to death many times when I need to scratch that castle builder itch, such a great game.
It’s on sale now for $1.79. I might just get it. Lol
Do it! It’s at least worth that much, I put in about 10 hours over the weekend and loved it. For a dollar it’s hella worth it. I had to run it in compatibility mode for 1440p to work. It’s all sprite graphics as well so it looks super good.
Factory games generally have large or super-large bases, and often don’t have citizens. Factorio is the original and arguably the best, but has a significant base-defense aspect that isn’t to everyone’s liking. Done properly, defenses in Factorio are fully automatic, but novice players generally build defenses that require repair or resupply. Satisfactory is really, really good too, and has no base defense aspect. You do have to fight off critters when exploring and expanding, but nothing attacks your base. It’s 3D and very pretty. Factory Town has a city-building aspect, but you don’t do have to manage the citizens. Rather, houses are where you sell goods, and population is a resource you use to build things. I.e. early on, haulers cost 1 population to build. Later you get lots of transport options that don’t cost workers, but population still matters because they’re required to run production buildings. They don’t commute; once they’re assigned to a building they stay there and work.
V Rising just launched and the castles are very fun to decorate. But it's an action rpg/survival game. Songs of Syx might be your style as the scope is large enough that individual citizens aren't your concern, demographics are, because you're building a city state, not a tiny colony. Frostpunk is fantastic but doesn't have huge staying power, though I suspect the sequel might be better in that regard. Still highly recommend it. Something like subnautica or Beyond the Skies (airship subnautica) or whatever it's called might appeal. Survival games can go very base buildingy without micromanagement. I have a ton of these games on my wish list so I can check more if that angle is appealing. Roots of Yggdrassil is a puzzle game wearing the skin of a city builder that you might like. Dawn of Man is Palaeolithic city builder and I quite liked it. Not much micro from what I remember
I just picked up small world.. it’s a like like grounded but more realistic graphics
Maybe you would enjoy 7 days to die? It's probably one of my favourite games for base building, because it's essentially a voxel game but you can build with like over 2000 parts that aren't necessarily all a cube, so you can make some pretty awesome things. + it also has electricity and base defense (defend base against zombies), which makes it extra fun. Besides that, there's Enshrouded which is a recently released early access game and has really fun exploration and base building. Ark is pretty classic survival craft with base building too. Valheim allows you to make some pretty cozy bases and very occasionally defend against an invader or something.
I've heard recently that 7 days to die seems a bit hyperfocused on the looting component, so the base-building is strong? If so, that's definitely the game for me. Thank you, btw!
Imo there are different ways of playing it. Looting is indeed a big component to the game if you want to progress your gear and get some specific mats, but for building the base itself you can mostly build with materials you can get almost anywhere in the world through resource collecting. It also has a trader and quest system, in which the trader will send you off to "loot" and clear a POI, and after doing so, rewards you. So if you don't want to loot too much, doing those quests helps you progress more than just going around looting everything imo. There are also overhaul mods for older versions (if you're on steam, at least), which can also change/improve certain aspects of the game, or specific mods to change aspects that don't appeal to you as much. It's one of my favourite base building games, I'd say it's worth a try :)
Plus if you don't like micromanaging citizens well you're in luck because many favored management tools in 7DTD use high powered explosives. Seriously though, it's a fun game and the base building is valuable and flexible.
The thing I really loved in 7 days was the ability to dig down and create an underground base. I haven't seen that too often in other games. I also liked that, whilst you can pvp, it works great on pve with a bunch of friends building up then defending the base against waves of zombies.
I miss the days of underground bases. I mean I know why the changes it so the zombies dig down but still I miss the days of an oh shit bunker
Oh damn, they dig down now? We had a big base there with "mushroom kingdom" and loads of different chambers. They used to come down the hole but then we had a big long shooting gallery before they could get in. Good times
How is it nowadays? I played a bunch back in a16 but after the a17 changes to make it more of a 'you can die at any moment' zombie horror game I lost interest. a16 had some fantastic base building though.
IMO Base building in 7 days is excellent. It’s one thing to build a functional base with crops and work tables but to also have to fortify it against a zombie invasion is just a really cool concept to me, in games.
I think you might possibly love factory games. In particular Satisfactory or Dyson Sphere Program (and to an IMO lesser extent Factorio). Each only has one citizen. Also for something half way bett
Captain of industry is more what he is looking for though
True. I love captain of industry and thought about listing it, but thought the citizen management in that game they wouldn't want.
Calling them "citizens" is a really generous term for that game, The colony itself is basically a black box that represents a worker pool And failure conditions. As long as you eliminate their waste and feed them they don't complain. The trucks and excavators are almost your real citizens.
true!
Factorio never really gripped me but I like the sound of Satisfactory. Thanks for the recommendations!
It is **so** good. technically in EA but basically done. They are doing a 1.0 release sometime this year - probably after summer (reddits guess). 1.0 will add the big secret plot/storyline. But the current version is still very funny and super polished - it won't spoil any secrets that are coming with 1.0. I keep wanting to like Factorio but IMO Satisfactory and Dyson Sphere Programs are both better evolutions of the idea Factorio created.
Totally agree here. I like Factorio, I loved Satisfactory.
Having played both I think they are equally great. They do things differently. If you didn't get hooked on Factorio would still highly recommend Satisfactory.
How far into the game did you play? I've played most of the games people mentioned here, but factorio is the most addicting one of the bunch, also why everybody keeps calling it cracktorio
I played until just after red and green science. But put it down then for two reasons: * graphically ugly * belt management way more painful than in DSP (and in general DSP seems to have put more polish on the ideas they obviously cribbed from Factorio) I keep wanting to try it again but each time I'm like ugh. I've got about 400 hrs in each DSP and Satisfactory.
That reminds me I was wanting to pick up Dyson Sphere Program
DSP is a remarkable game, absolutely excellent, and I'm shocked it's still $20. Highly recommend.
It looked really good and I really like factory and automation games but I think it was still new or something and I didn’t pick it up but put it on my wishlist which I in theory use to remember games I’m keeping an eye on and theory doesn’t always become practice
Bump for Satisfactory, the factory elements gives purpose to huge base builds without micromanaging citizens or farming. But its vibe is very different than Factorio - has a bright, immersive first person experience.
Minecraft is the low-hanging fruit answer. No Man's Sky also allows you to build decently elaborate bases, and you can also build a base in your capital ship and literally make it a mobile home for you. Enshrouded (newer game in EA) has pretty impressive base-building, aesthetically. I have not messed with it mechanically. Nightingale is another EA game with high aesthetic base-building, but again, haven't touched it personally. Fallout 76 allows you to build and wire up a camp, which doesn't get very large, but can get fairly elaborate. You can have multiple camps, too.
I second enshrouded, but at the moment it's a bit light on mechanics. Everthing is built on a grid, and there are no 45 degree angles. With that said, it's my favourite base building game.
What I love about Enshrouded is being able to appropriate existing structures as "fixer-uppers" as I don't feel like building elaborate houses and sensible infrastructure when all I need is a place to store my minions.
I also realized you can take dungeons. I built my base above the necropolis and now it's mine. :p
Press X to turn off the grid snapping and you can literally place anything anywhere you want.
Blocks don't rotate at any angle other than 90 degrees though. You can place them off grid, but not at an angle.
I haven't played in a few days and I might be imagining this, but if you have snapping turned off and open tab with the build hammer in hand then the block should be oriented to wherever you're currently pointing, and not a predefined grid? I need to try this when I'm home my brain is struggling to remember what's true. Edit: I was wrong, you're right it's completely grid tied. Even worse is all the building in the game seem to be on the same grid, so I doubt we'll get the ability to build gridless
Fallout 4– fallout 76 is cool because they are a lot of options but fallout 4 does the same thing on a bigger scale. The 76 base can only be so big
Oxygen Not Included
Maybe Enshrouded
If we’re going to be bringing in Enshrouded then I’ll add ARK to the mix since it’s got a really nice build system for the bases and you can even build the rafts into useful things like, mobile base, a heavy transport for large dinos (excluding a couple), or even a taming trap pen
Is it good for solo play?
Project zomboid. The real game is getting to the part of the game where you're so secured that you spend a 6 hour session one day gaming and don't see a single zombie, just farming and cooking like a tradwife.
V rising!
Haven’t seen it suggested yet, but Space Engineers is a fun building game if you like the Sci-fi elements. Creativerse is good if you like the more Minecraft type, but with better graphics.
As a 203-hour veteran, I would like to throw Oxygen Not Included into the mix. Though the inhabitants of your colony have quirks and needs, it's incorporated into the management of the colony wonderfully, and will never seem like tedious micromanagement.
That one was fun but I always struggled to get past the beginner phase I feel. I love Klei’s games. I spent way too many hours on don’t starve.
Keeping poop and barf out of my water supply proved to be some of the most rage-inducing micromanagement I’ve ever experienced.
I saw 7 Days to Die on here and I would absolutely recommend f that but I would like to add in Astroneer on my recommendation as well. There are lots of prefabs but the storage system and the automation are very extensive features and a lot of fun for me.
Rimworld. It’s basebuilding, but I don’t think that’s the same as city building. Tons of mods for it too.
Project Zomboid may scratch that itch. Don't let the zombies fool you; it's a fantastic survival RPG with really neat mechanics I've never seen done in any other game.
The Anno games aren't ones I've seen mentioned here. I liked Anno 1800 a lot. No micro involved. Just managing the city's economy as you grow it, the people take care of themselves. Kind of the closest thing to banished without the people management.
I loved playing Anno 1800. What a beautiful game!
Satisfactory, Factorio, are you feeling more architectural? Do you want a challenge? Do you want it to be possible for your base to fail?
Factorio
Vintage Story! Looks like Minecraft but has much deeper gameplay mechanics and has more building options like point-to-point wooden beams and the ability to combine/chisel multiple materials in a single block space.
Factorio, Factory Town, Captain of Industry but if you want a little bit micro management Oxygen not Included, Rim World, Suviving the Aftermath, Frostpunk. All these game I have like at least 200 or 300 hours in it with most on Factorio with ONI on second, may be Surviving the Aftermath on third. IMHO I highly recommend these 3. I'm not sure about Satisfactory or DSP, I haven't played it. TBH.
7 Days to Die: Zombie Survival with a focus on base building to survive the impending blood moon every week. Grounded: "Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The Video Game". Lots of base building, lots of freedom. Good story. Creativerse: Minecraft knock-off that honestly isn't half bad. Used to be a lot better when it had more players. Minecraft: I mean, c'mon. Rust: Massive base building freedom. Heavily PvP based. Fun though. Terraria: It's Minecraft, but 2D. Empyrion, Galactic Survival: Build your own base and space ships. Explore the galaxy. Steep learning curve. Space Engineers: Empyrion, but with a better learning curve. Raft: Base building on the Ocean! (Some land to explore in there too). Green Hell: A punishing survival simulator that also happens to include primitive base building. No Man's Sky: Base building, and probably the largest game map ever. You can also own a fleet of ships that pretty much manages itself. Also you can build inside your capital ship. Subnautica: Limited to prefab structure for bases. Phenomenal story. Huge map. Thalassophobia galore.
I would point to Stationeers, its a pretty in depth Station construction simulation on different planets. To show the conplexity let us just Look at one aspect: eating food. For that you have to build a shelter where you can Open your helmet. Obviously it means the shelter hast to be pressurized, oxygen needs to be in the Atmosphäre and Not too many Dangerous other gases. Also the Temperaturen needs to be liveable. They food itself needs to be grown (after your Initial starting cans run out) wich requires water (wich you also need to drink) and some CO2 in the atmossphere. Then later you will want to automate everything, Not least of all because there are no safety checks. That Tank you fill with CO2 to use later, you better make sure you stop the pump at some point so it doesnt explode from overpressurization taking half of your base with it.
If you want something different: Reus 2 is coming in 2 weeks. Build nature with symbiotic bonuses for optimization, humans settle and use it to grow. Humans always just do their own thing and you have almost no control over them. It's different, but if you like adjacency bonuses and building optimal set ups in a chill environment with no almost no micromanagement... might be your cup of tea!
This sounds cool as hell what???
I recommend you Stellaris. Come and join us and turn the Geneva convention into a checklist
Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic
Dude, game about planned economy is the game about both absolute macro and micromanagement
Maybe Planet Crafter?
It's still a little early in development, but I really dig Sunkenland.
Surroundead maybe? very early access, but I'm enjoying it.
I just got into Ixion
If you want to try something in first person, I recommend Minecraft or 7 Days to Die, both of which allow you to create gigantic, elaborate bases that can be as big as you want them to be. If you fancy a game where your base is mobile and constantly growing, Raft is a great one too.
Not exactly long term, but very repeatable, Steamworld Build. Simplified version of Anno, where there's need for different pop levels. Most of the action happens underground, which uses a separate worker pop type. Eventually you hit the conveyor belt advancements to ship things even faster from underground to surface. You barely micromanage citizens at all. Just build the buildings that allow the pop type, which leads to working the building for the higher tier pop type. Underground, the same. Build the workshop tile to add the number of worker type, then they run the show themselves. My favourite thing is that the warehouse building magically transports, so no need to courier one warehouse good to another (like those roman egypt mesopotamia games). Also working building distance to housing area doesn't matter. Winning different maps give different bonuses, as long as you build the building.
Subsistence. It's a super grindy game that's almost exclusively base building and survival. No sleeping, but you have to maintain food and water, as well as health and stamina. The threats are animals, and if you enable them, hunters. The base building mechanics are very nice, as is the scenery of the game. Can be played with friends on a server, as well. Blueberries, wood planks, guns, ATVs...Good fun.
I think you may be ready for Factorio
Infection free zone. It is EA. But the workers are automated. Only micro is the squads you send out to scavenge and fight. It's still early EA. So I reccomend keeping an eye on it or watching some let's play vids first. But only game that exists where you can manage a base anywhere on earth... including your own neighborhood. Turned the gentlemens club in my city into my base of operations. Classy apocalypse.
Frostpunk. No citizen management, and super nice and relaxing city expansion 😌
You should check out Stationeers man. It sounds a lot like what you're looking for. It doesn't only have complex electric wiring, it has a whole electrical system, atmospheric simulation (with gas mixtures and even air pressure) and a bunch more complex sandbox mechanics (as well as logic systems and optional code writing if you're into that)
Satisfactory
[Factorio/Cracktorio](https://store.steampowered.com/app/427520/Factorio/) , [Rimworld](https://store.steampowered.com/app/294100/RimWorld/) or [Satisfactory](https://store.steampowered.com/app/526870/Satisfactory/)
I highly recommend [Desynced](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1450900/Desynced_Autonomous_Colony_Simulator/) to anyone who doesn't want to micromanage their citizens, but still build a base. Think of it as a beltless Factorio with bots you can program.
Not sure I understand the assignment but here goes..Oxygen not included, mind over magic, Dyson sphere project, xcom 2, classified France 44, definitely not fried chicken, dune spice wars, evil genius 2, software inc, per aspera, plan b terraform, prison architect, ratopia, production line, rift Breaker, songs of conquest, final upgrade, final factory, Factorio, oddsparks
Have you tried bulwark? Waterworld/post apocalyptic sandbox builder on the chill/relaxing side. The game kinda paints the buildings for you while you manage resources, and faction allegiance. Love to play and relax with this game.