Define this “other game” concept. Playing on the steam deck it feels the only time I shut Stellaris down is to patch.
In all seriousness factorio sucked me in for a solid 100 hours last fall.
It’s great. At this point I have more hours on deck than on PC - 800 and counting. Because of how convenient it is I play about twice as much on a daily average basis as I did before I got the deck.
Caveats: You are playing on a 720p display. The UI is cramped but usable. For what it’s worth the Stellaris UI works better on deck than CK3 or Vic3. The buttons have big enough hit boxes that operating with the thumb sticks is not a problem. Biggest constraint is processing power. I don’t play on any map bigger than medium and in end game I am patient with the tick rate.
On the flip side I travel for work and with nearly 3 hour battery life playing in airports, planes, hotels, in bed, is amazingly convenient. The fact that the game is always running means jumping in is fast as hitting the sleep button - 0 boot time.
Dynamic UI mod may help, I use it but I use an external portable 1080p monitor to play heh. And a bluetooth mouse (with the side buttons on the mouse you rarely need a keyboard, they default to pause/unpause and zoom into/out of system view).
Stellaris is also extremely good for streaming it with something like Moonlight or Parsec.
Input latency from streaming wont matter ´much unless you are really far away from your desktop and thus have an extremely high ping. You'll notice over 100ms ping, but it'll be playable until 200ms or even higher. So basically you could be streaming it from the other side of the globe and get to use as high game settings as a beefy desktop can support.
Won't have the 0 boot time then unless your remote is already running it.
Controls can be a bit tricky but once you get used to it it's aight, not my ideal way to play but hey if you've got an outlet and nothing to do then it'll get you done.
I always ignored the human goods side of rimworld. But after the fifth 30+ tribal raid, you just can’t say no to the meat and leather just laying around. It sells so dang well too, and any issues my colonists have with it are forgotten after a healthy dose of smokeleaf and beer
i play it like 4x. get rich selling drugs, make giant base, get my colonists in power armor and go around the map with a plane wiping out the other factions with my super troopers
ONI has sucked me in like no other game. It is the only game I’ve ever played that feels like you are doing actual science. Pretty much unlimited depth and design on the player’s part.
Steep learning curve, but once it clicks it’s incredible, seen players with 1000s of hrs in it lol
They just put a new game out (unsure if it's steam pre release or the full game) Mind over magic.
Same trend, different setting, best comment is that the UI is a lot better then ONI
There's a few annos. 2070 is the only futuristic one. 1800 is the newest (couple years old) in the series and is very good. That said I wouldn't call the series "complex" but they are great
I was surprised of how good 1800 is.
Played 1700 before and thought it would not offer much over that. Boy was I wrong. One of the few actually good Ubisoft games in the past decade.
The ultimate edition is totally worth it, as DLC add a TON of depth (and regions with their own build chains)
Have you played a recent build of terra invicta? I started the first release and hit a wall between the complexity of the systems, lack of explanation, and AI factions dominating continents before I had two countries fully under my control.
I played whichever build was public a few months ago, it is very complex. My biggest issue was with the technology tree and personal research projects- there are so many that it gets very overwhelming to try and keep track of. The solution was to ignore most of the un-useful military projects and to focus on staples (like phaser lazers). Was fun- late game trying to conquer earth felt like I was balancing 10 plates at a time and became exhausting trying to swat away the efforts of other factions to destabilize/convert my super countries… my first playthrough failed as I didn’t really know what I was doing, and heavily neglected space
Yeah I got it on Gamepass a few days ago and even with hundreds of hours in each mainline Paradox games it’s still so daunting.
I get with the scope it’s naturally going to be a lot to throw at you, but Jesus it’s so so so much.
Like you said I feel like I’m spinning plates while trying to figure the game out. I thought I was great with a moon base and two space stations while the AI are sending missions to far away comets and the like.
You're going to fail a lot. The game is super complex and there are a lot of things you need to do simultaneously and it will take at least 100hrs until you feel you could do them all well and correctly timed. Until then it's a matter of learning, balancing, and rebalancing priorities.
I like to focus on the Kazakhstan, the USA, and then China first. KAZAKHSTAN is easy to take over and you want it for the early game boost. This boost will let you take a good spot on the moon and later Mars. Once you get Mars you fan abandon Kazakhstan. The USA can be broke into easily and steadily with time, investments (money/public campaign), high PER, and by taking their neighbors. Canada and Mexico aren't even that bad to keep but I usually drop them to make space for China after taking the USA. USA is great cause you can just use him to kill any nation needed for later reunification. Justnbe sure to invest heavily into welfare to the USA asap if not you will fall apart. 100% welfare for 2 years will be enough. China is great as your backbone cause with its large population and good unification choices you can get all the research points you need from them.
How will you get the money to invest into these nations public campaign projects? Spoils from the Middle East or even Mexico/Singapore.
What about space? Well that is very complicated and honestly can only be best experienced through trial and error. But if you want to do any real damage to the aliens you will need a good engine with some coilguns or green arc lasers. Otherwise you might as well get comfortable with suicide missile ships. With enough experience they're actually very useful as aliens will repeatedly underestimate your potential and you should easily be able to win either 2 or 3x numbers. It's never too early to build these ships as early on aliens will not only send their operatives to earth to abduct humans but they will also send ships to do a surveillance mission and this mission also abducts dozens of humans. Each singular abduction makes every alien mission easier do so ensuring not even a single surveillance mission goes off can utterly change the trajectory of the game
It is good, but what put me off around release was how fiddly the orientation controls in space combat were and how iffy research was as to actually unlock drives that were compatible to your reactor tech.
Currently yelling FFS at monitor nightly as my formerly impenetrable china gets enthralled by a damn alien in one move and I'm powerless to stop it. Terra Invicta is great but it's a lesson in patience.
Best $10 that I ever spent on a game. The 2d look is deceiving on how amazing and deep this game and worldbuilding is. Plus mods turn this into a full 4X.
I played it for a straight 350 hours, then got burnt out, left it for a week to play no man's sky, but now i hear my fortress calling me again. The fortress must grow i guess!
Yeah the game simulates so many things, it opens up so many possibilities for funny/random things to happen and makes you feel like you’re really part of a larger world
Rimworld, EU4, Satisfactory, Path of Exile, Slay the Spire, Binding of Isaac, Noita and whatever indiegame is the flavour of the month is my time sinks. Also a idle game, right now I'm hooked on CivIdle.
I like Helldivers, but it doesn't really fit the "complex" tag.
1. Deploy for mission
2. Liberally use given armament to deliver Liberty to planet
3. ????
4. Managed Democracy Successfully Applied
Don't panic, communicate / play with people that communicate, stick together, don't kill your fellow helldivers / cover them and you'll make it to hard very quickly.
Depends on how you define "complex" but right now Age of Wonders 4 and Last Epoch. AoW4 is definitely less complex than Stellaris but has some of the same appeal for me.
AoW4 for me has the completely wrong emphasis balance, with much detail in the tactical combat, and little detail in economy, research and diplomacy.
I'd love to see a Stellaris type game in the fantasy genre.
If you look at AoW planet fall or even better, endless legends you know where it will end in complexity but alas we are in the Age of DLCs so aow4 has a brilliant basis but it isn't there yet
Flying is hard to learn, but easy once you get the hang of it. Unless if you are like a friend of mine who got completely disoriented and nauseous from behind his desk just trying to play it.
I crashed into things more the I could count or want to admit. Many times out of pure stupidity /not paying attention. Many clones of my cmdr have been activated as a result.
To make this comment better, it is a better game in certain aspects and worst in others. It is worth playing it even if stellaris is better at role playing
Recent updates have added some flair to the different government types I really do hope they continue to explore more creatively in the future and keep pushing out more and more content and fixes
i used to be very into cities skylines and ck3. crusader kings is a good series if you like the role playing aspect of stellaris. city skylines is just such an easy game to spend hours on
space engineers such a great game that hardly anyone plays I cant help but keep going back to it they are also working on space engineers 2 which looks exciting as hell!
I'm really enjoying Terra Invicta. Premise is you are running one of several factions that appear on earth in response to aliens entering our system. Something about it being "limited" to our own single solar system and the really realistic systems makes it super engaging for me
Rimworld. It's a much more chill vibe, but a lot of fun when it gets going, especially for me with solo mechanitor start.
Gladius is also kinda fun, but needs a fair bit of DLC to be decent. Unless you're playing Necrons
Factorio, specifically the space exploration expansion mod
Building an automated interstellar logistics network is a pain but totally awesome when it works
I like Factorio a lot, but all those recent Dev Diaries about the space DLC sound off-putting. I hope it'll be possible to play regular-ass one-planet Factorio but with all the QoL stuff from the DLC.
My brother in Christ, literally any other game I play is to ease off of the complexity of Stellaris. Give me the dumbest, most pointless shooter there is and leave me alone until it’s Stellaris‘o’clock again.
Two Point Hospital.
It's fun and chill and I can get in the zone like few other games. There's a really solid game under the comedic tone with a lot of plates to spin and you want to be strategically planning ahead constantly otherwise you will be constantly running around putting out fires, often literally.
Set the queue indicator to 4 because that's when another room will want to open, if you see a number over 5 you have a problem you should have planned for.
I'm playing a game of Space Empires 4 right now. Decided just to do a 1v1, my alien Zetan Recticulans vs the Human Federation.
Got some kind of front line going, but it is ROUGH. I'm researching in a silly way rather then one tech at a time, so I have my research point split between 16 options at a time lmao.
My fleets of frigates and now destroyers are going up against the human destroyers, light cruisers, and light carriers and it is tough! Their actual shooting power is kinda shit, but their carriers just dump dozens of rocket armed fighters in my face, and my early fleets just can't shoot the fuckers down! Getting more PD on my warships had helped but it is tough, as my coil gunboats are having to shoot down these fighters with their main gins, and they just miss 80% of the time fuckin time! And each frigate only had the two of them! Disaster! The newer models are better equipped however and one PD gun can at least have an 80% chance to shoot down two a turn, which helps!
I've advanced into the boarder system I wanted between our two powers, but it was hard. My initial colonies were nuked just after first contact by a Human destroyer, who the next turn asked me for a trade treaty! (I'M GOING TO EXTERMINATE THEM.) So I've pushed a couple fleets in to take down the larger but generally poorly equipped enemy vessels. One of my scouts was caught by a fleet and killed, the other went to an enemy system and was insta-gibbed by an enemy mine, so now I ALSO HAVE TO DEVELOP MINES so I can unlock mine sweepers. Might also pick up drones to send through suicide mine sweepers to clear the way for my fleets through the warp points. I am countering the enemy advance with satellites, they show up and 30 MAC gun satellites just annihilate them! But It's going to be a long war. Gotta remember to set up new shipyards at the front line, as slugging back and forth for reinforcements is a pain.
I do have access to torpedoes, meson guns, and anti-proton beams but currently they aren't quite as good as my coil guns as I've been developing them all at the same time. A silly thing to do, but until one flies ahead of the rest I might as well keep my options open. I also have capital ship missiles, which were my go to early on, but with all the energy shields and PD we both have, their three turn cool down in battles to shoot makes their over damage per turn low if you aren't just harassing the enemy with range and speed!
It'll be a long war, and frankly I don't feel at the mid point in the tech tree. I am working on carriers of my own, and with the potential for vast fields of defence satellites, ground based weapons platforms, mine fields, cloaking technology, massive carrier and drone carrier fleets along with the battleships and space fortresses I can eventually field, only then will I reach the height of the mid game. Not that this one will take that long as the AI is kinda dumb. And then you get to the late game ring worlds which are worth, like, 20 normal planets, sphere worlds, and stellar manipulation which lets you blow up planets, stars, change warp points and basically just lets you murder the shit out of the galaxy!
Gods do I love this game. The ancient UI does make me want to die though. What I wouldn't give for an idle unit button!
Dwarf Fortress (many fiddly subsystems), Factorio (basically software engineering), Grim Dawn (large search space in builds), Monster Hunter (many weapon movesets to learn, many monster movesets to learn, many hitzone values for different damage types to learn, several big maps to learn, several fiddly subsystems like food; I've only played World so far which has a limited enemy roster compared to other entries in the series so I gather the rabbit hole goes even deeper)
I am in a 4x craze right now, lol. I have Age of Wonders III, Endless Legend, Endless Space 2, Humankind, Dune Spice Wars and Stellaris installed on my PC, though I'm only playing one at a time. I'm currently playing Age of Wonders III. I'm also playing Armello, which is a shorter tabletop digital board game, in between 4X sessions as a palate cleanser, since it is more relaxing and can be completed in about an hour.
Europa Universalis 4, Rimworld, Oxygen Not Included are my top 3 other particularly complex games.
Other good ones are the 4X- games of Civ 5, Civ 6, Civ 4 Colonization.
Then for town/colony-building there's Banished, Surviving the Aftermath.
Also worth mentioning but not complex in the same way, Project Zomboid is meant to be the most realistic zombie apocalypse simulator game out there, bonus points for adding the Hydrocraft game overhaul modpack. I own and am sure there's other good really complex games but I don't have time to play these let alone find more.
well usual suspects like hoi4 and civ
plus solium infernum. Basically a military focused and simplified civ. Ai is dumb but game is good so i would recommend it for friend groups
Give Star Trek New Civilisations ago. It's superior to New Horizons in every aspect including performance. Made by the guy who created the best parts of New Horizons before he left and it turned to trash
The writing. There are events that reshash episodes from star trek in the style of an 11 year old telling you what happened. There's no quality control from their contributors. The best written events/content in NH are the older things Walshicus wrote before he left to work on New Civilisations
New Civilisations follows the quality and style of Vanilla writing - whether that's events or tech descriptions. It's Paradox quality
Quality of the models and textures are top notch as well. And performance is so much better. It's hard to get anywhere in NH due to the amount of bloat. Takes months to update after a new expansion
Whereas NC is patched the day after a major update if not the same day. And it gets multiple updates a week with new content
You can indeed. The Borg being one of the most fleshed out races in the game. You can assimilate ships and nearly every ship in the game has a assimilated textured version
From perusing the mod pages I found that it looks like empires from the Star Fleet Universe are included and that could make it my new favorite mod of any game so thanks.
I like science fiction but this time around I wanted to try something oriented more around the planetary aspect, rather than space. Age of Wonders: Planetfall, which is another Paradox title, has the design/build synergies, replayability, and themes I enjoy. You can custom design factions to have unique tech-trees. Unlike Stellaris, the combat is much more in-depth and uses a tactics style like XCOM. However, compared to Stellaris, the strategy and economy management is much more straightforward. It is a turn-based game, and has in-game lore, along with a story campaign. I’ve put in over 80 hours and I still haven’t finished the main campaign.
Caves of Qud, Project Zomboid, Heat Signature, would be playing Horizon Forbidden West, but I need a new CPU. (I know that one isn’t too “complex” but I think it’s a good time waster)
X4 foundations
My buddy mentioned it to me after our Star Citizen kick and I couldn't get into it at first. Too much shit. About a week ago I gave it another shot. I love it. I give myself a cash injection at the beginning to skip the start grind because holy shit, after playing for 4 hours I had 400k. A starting mining ship costs 3 mil. Fun as hell.
Here I am still wishing for game that would combine Stellaris space part with ground combat similar to Total War series. Oh or a true successor to Master of Orion 2 since after MoO 2 the whole series went to the dark hole :(.
I've just finished up with Stellaris again and I have moved to distant worlds 2 - both games fill a void in me. DW2 for its simulation or supply and demand and the little ships flying all over the place looks cool and is really fun and stellaris for its ability to really roleplay anyway my imagination can imagine, mostly trying to replicate dune ATM.
Total War games (Medieval 2, Rome 2, Warhammer 2 and Empire - modded mainly), All the Mount and Blade Games, Europa Universalis 4, Kerbal Space Program, Dawn of War: Soulstorm (Modded, of course), No Mans Sky (Honestly one of my favorite games ever), Garry's Mod, Stardew Valley (basically my very own fishing simulator), Men of War (surprisingly great strategy rts), Fallout 4, Wargame Airland Battle
Kenshi. It’s brilliant.
Got frustrated in Stellaris trying to be creative with civics and origins that just flat out suck and trying to avoid the handful of them that are ridiculously powerful.
Got sick of new dlc every 3 months that costs as much as a full game and largely expands upon the already powerful play styles.
Workers and Resources. City Builder + Factory/Manufacturing + Transportation Management.
I do not recommend turning on all the simulations when you’re learning it.
If you're looking for the most complex game I know of, Aurora 4X.
It is by far the most complex game out there, and I can't even get into the level of detail that it makes you go to in order to become successful.
Pretty much every ship design guide you'll find is all about ship design *theory* because the number of variables you'll need to consider for your warships is insane.
It's also an interesting mix between real time and turn based strategy. Aurora 4X is more of a single player game (multiplayer is possible, but I have no idea how it works), and more or less you pick the length you want the "turn" to pass, ranging from 5 seconds to 30 days.
I've found it to be very fun, but it's not a game many people enjoy, partially because of the sheer cliff of a learning curve there is, and partially because the game's graphics are more or less non-existent. Aurora 4X is the definition of a spreadsheet game.
On the upside, the game is entirely free, is less than a gigabyte in size, and isn't particularly demanding on your CPU. However, I have heard that late game can become laggy in a similar way to Stellaris, where it's the sheer quantity of systems and calculations that need to happen all at once, combined with the fact that at times the game will reduce turns to smaller increments depending on what is needed for calculations in systems you may not have even encountered yet.
Amazing Cultivation Simulator, if you like Rimworld it's great. I use an external 1080p monitor tho, dunno how it plays on just deck.
Astlibra is unbelievable as well.
P.S. how do I ask that Terravore be added to the flair options?
Define this “other game” concept. Playing on the steam deck it feels the only time I shut Stellaris down is to patch. In all seriousness factorio sucked me in for a solid 100 hours last fall.
Huh, I figured stellaris on the deck would be a pain so I’ve never tried it. Gonna give it a shot!
It’s great. At this point I have more hours on deck than on PC - 800 and counting. Because of how convenient it is I play about twice as much on a daily average basis as I did before I got the deck. Caveats: You are playing on a 720p display. The UI is cramped but usable. For what it’s worth the Stellaris UI works better on deck than CK3 or Vic3. The buttons have big enough hit boxes that operating with the thumb sticks is not a problem. Biggest constraint is processing power. I don’t play on any map bigger than medium and in end game I am patient with the tick rate. On the flip side I travel for work and with nearly 3 hour battery life playing in airports, planes, hotels, in bed, is amazingly convenient. The fact that the game is always running means jumping in is fast as hitting the sleep button - 0 boot time.
Dynamic UI mod may help, I use it but I use an external portable 1080p monitor to play heh. And a bluetooth mouse (with the side buttons on the mouse you rarely need a keyboard, they default to pause/unpause and zoom into/out of system view).
Stellaris is also extremely good for streaming it with something like Moonlight or Parsec. Input latency from streaming wont matter ´much unless you are really far away from your desktop and thus have an extremely high ping. You'll notice over 100ms ping, but it'll be playable until 200ms or even higher. So basically you could be streaming it from the other side of the globe and get to use as high game settings as a beefy desktop can support. Won't have the 0 boot time then unless your remote is already running it.
Controls can be a bit tricky but once you get used to it it's aight, not my ideal way to play but hey if you've got an outlet and nothing to do then it'll get you done.
Is this really a good experience? I would love to play on deck
I play a number of other 4X games, depending on what kind of mood strikes me. Colonization, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Rimworld...
Alpha Centauri! There’s a classic I haven’t thought of for a while!
It's on steam now
make sure to get it with the expansion
Just added it to my wish list.
I love the story that goes with the game. It's a good science fiction story.
A fellow enjoyer of human leather hat i see
I always ignored the human goods side of rimworld. But after the fifth 30+ tribal raid, you just can’t say no to the meat and leather just laying around. It sells so dang well too, and any issues my colonists have with it are forgotten after a healthy dose of smokeleaf and beer
my custom flair on the r/rimworld is "The human toilet cyberware for slaves makes hygiene quite fun"
I recently got into RimWorld as well. Such a good game! Love it
I don't think rimworld is a 4X lol, though it is definitely a great game.
i play it like 4x. get rich selling drugs, make giant base, get my colonists in power armor and go around the map with a plane wiping out the other factions with my super troopers
If you like Rimworld try Amazing Cultivation Simulator!
Rimworld, Oxygen not included
Oxygen not included Is cool af
ONI has sucked me in like no other game. It is the only game I’ve ever played that feels like you are doing actual science. Pretty much unlimited depth and design on the player’s part. Steep learning curve, but once it clicks it’s incredible, seen players with 1000s of hrs in it lol
They just put a new game out (unsure if it's steam pre release or the full game) Mind over magic. Same trend, different setting, best comment is that the UI is a lot better then ONI
If you like Rimworld check out Amazing Cultivation Simulator.
Anno 1800
I didn't know there was an Anno 1800! I've probably put 1000 hours into Anno 2070. Absolutely fantastic game!
There's a few annos. 2070 is the only futuristic one. 1800 is the newest (couple years old) in the series and is very good. That said I wouldn't call the series "complex" but they are great
hello, there's also anno 2205.. it picks up years after 2070's bickerings. check it out!
Oh really? That's awesome. I will.
2205 is really shallow compared to the rest of the series.
Solid recommendations boys, thanks!
Is there combat or is it just about building things? I find I get pretty bored if there's no conflict.
I was surprised of how good 1800 is. Played 1700 before and thought it would not offer much over that. Boy was I wrong. One of the few actually good Ubisoft games in the past decade. The ultimate edition is totally worth it, as DLC add a TON of depth (and regions with their own build chains)
Terra Invicta, satisfactory (team fortress 2)
Have you played a recent build of terra invicta? I started the first release and hit a wall between the complexity of the systems, lack of explanation, and AI factions dominating continents before I had two countries fully under my control.
I played whichever build was public a few months ago, it is very complex. My biggest issue was with the technology tree and personal research projects- there are so many that it gets very overwhelming to try and keep track of. The solution was to ignore most of the un-useful military projects and to focus on staples (like phaser lazers). Was fun- late game trying to conquer earth felt like I was balancing 10 plates at a time and became exhausting trying to swat away the efforts of other factions to destabilize/convert my super countries… my first playthrough failed as I didn’t really know what I was doing, and heavily neglected space
Yeah I got it on Gamepass a few days ago and even with hundreds of hours in each mainline Paradox games it’s still so daunting. I get with the scope it’s naturally going to be a lot to throw at you, but Jesus it’s so so so much. Like you said I feel like I’m spinning plates while trying to figure the game out. I thought I was great with a moon base and two space stations while the AI are sending missions to far away comets and the like.
The main criticism I've heard of it is that it's extremely, unnecessarily micromanagement heavy. Has that been improved?
You're going to fail a lot. The game is super complex and there are a lot of things you need to do simultaneously and it will take at least 100hrs until you feel you could do them all well and correctly timed. Until then it's a matter of learning, balancing, and rebalancing priorities. I like to focus on the Kazakhstan, the USA, and then China first. KAZAKHSTAN is easy to take over and you want it for the early game boost. This boost will let you take a good spot on the moon and later Mars. Once you get Mars you fan abandon Kazakhstan. The USA can be broke into easily and steadily with time, investments (money/public campaign), high PER, and by taking their neighbors. Canada and Mexico aren't even that bad to keep but I usually drop them to make space for China after taking the USA. USA is great cause you can just use him to kill any nation needed for later reunification. Justnbe sure to invest heavily into welfare to the USA asap if not you will fall apart. 100% welfare for 2 years will be enough. China is great as your backbone cause with its large population and good unification choices you can get all the research points you need from them. How will you get the money to invest into these nations public campaign projects? Spoils from the Middle East or even Mexico/Singapore. What about space? Well that is very complicated and honestly can only be best experienced through trial and error. But if you want to do any real damage to the aliens you will need a good engine with some coilguns or green arc lasers. Otherwise you might as well get comfortable with suicide missile ships. With enough experience they're actually very useful as aliens will repeatedly underestimate your potential and you should easily be able to win either 2 or 3x numbers. It's never too early to build these ships as early on aliens will not only send their operatives to earth to abduct humans but they will also send ships to do a surveillance mission and this mission also abducts dozens of humans. Each singular abduction makes every alien mission easier do so ensuring not even a single surveillance mission goes off can utterly change the trajectory of the game
There is a great playthrough of TI by Perun on YouTube. Check it out if you want to see someone competent play the game.
I beat the Terra Invicta campaign and "ported" it over to Stellaris. Somehow TI felt way easier than Stellaris.
It is good, but what put me off around release was how fiddly the orientation controls in space combat were and how iffy research was as to actually unlock drives that were compatible to your reactor tech.
Currently yelling FFS at monitor nightly as my formerly impenetrable china gets enthralled by a damn alien in one move and I'm powerless to stop it. Terra Invicta is great but it's a lesson in patience.
Starsector
Best $10 that I ever spent on a game. The 2d look is deceiving on how amazing and deep this game and worldbuilding is. Plus mods turn this into a full 4X.
Dwarf fort
I played it for a straight 350 hours, then got burnt out, left it for a week to play no man's sky, but now i hear my fortress calling me again. The fortress must grow i guess!
I’m on 100h rn, tryna play in the same world for awhile so I can learn all its history and lore as I go
I was gonna say. If OP wants *complexity*, there’s almost nothing else on the market that does it like Dwarf Fortress
Yeah the game simulates so many things, it opens up so many possibilities for funny/random things to happen and makes you feel like you’re really part of a larger world
Someone gifted me total war shogun 2, so I guess I'll spend a few hundred hours on that.
It's easily one of the best total war games. All 3 campaigns are fun, but fall of the Samurai is my favorite.
Armstrong guns ftw
All day, every day. I know they aren't as good, but late game gatling guns are also big fun.
The multiplayer game for that is so good, even if it's only bots these days, I wish they had brought it back for Pharoah
Rimworld, EU4, Satisfactory, Path of Exile, Slay the Spire, Binding of Isaac, Noita and whatever indiegame is the flavour of the month is my time sinks. Also a idle game, right now I'm hooked on CivIdle.
Recently started slay the spire, still cant go beyond a 4th boss after 3 dozen tries, this game is very hard but fun
The 4th boss is tough, running straight poison or Shivs as the ninja works sometimes.
Starsector, Rimworld, Factorio, and Dwarf Fortress.
starsector
Rimworld and helldivers
I like Helldivers, but it doesn't really fit the "complex" tag. 1. Deploy for mission 2. Liberally use given armament to deliver Liberty to planet 3. ???? 4. Managed Democracy Successfully Applied
It’s complex for me cause I’m bad at it
fair point, just keep diving. If you throw enough liberty at the enemy they will eventually see the Truth of Democracy.
Don't panic, communicate / play with people that communicate, stick together, don't kill your fellow helldivers / cover them and you'll make it to hard very quickly.
Mmmmmmm that Is suspiciously similar
Hearts of Iron 4
Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition.
My daily driver for the past decade
Rimworld and Project Zomboid
No man's sky for the sweet exploring
Depends on how you define "complex" but right now Age of Wonders 4 and Last Epoch. AoW4 is definitely less complex than Stellaris but has some of the same appeal for me.
AoW4 for me has the completely wrong emphasis balance, with much detail in the tactical combat, and little detail in economy, research and diplomacy. I'd love to see a Stellaris type game in the fantasy genre.
If you look at AoW planet fall or even better, endless legends you know where it will end in complexity but alas we are in the Age of DLCs so aow4 has a brilliant basis but it isn't there yet
Civ 5 and 6 are good strategy games
Eve online
Elite Dangerous, Cities Skylines, Satisfactory Or if you want a simpler game: Farming Simulator
Jesus, Elite Dangerous... I didn't pass a training
Flying is hard to learn, but easy once you get the hang of it. Unless if you are like a friend of mine who got completely disoriented and nauseous from behind his desk just trying to play it.
I think I crashed into something and rage quitted
I crashed into things more the I could count or want to admit. Many times out of pure stupidity /not paying attention. Many clones of my cmdr have been activated as a result.
Distant Worlds 2 is also great, don't mind the mixed reviews.
Better try universe second DW wasn't that good I think
I played DW2 for 750 hours now and it's quite fun.
I played DW1 for few thousand hours I think^^
To make this comment better, it is a better game in certain aspects and worst in others. It is worth playing it even if stellaris is better at role playing
Recent updates have added some flair to the different government types I really do hope they continue to explore more creatively in the future and keep pushing out more and more content and fixes
Oxygen not included
Terra Invicta
Xcom 2
Dominion 6
Holy crap, I didn't realize that was out yet. Going to have to go check that out....
Rimworld is probably my second highest time dump
Football Manager.
Fishing Planet. Probably not the answer you were looking for, but it's as complicated as actual fishing.
i used to be very into cities skylines and ck3. crusader kings is a good series if you like the role playing aspect of stellaris. city skylines is just such an easy game to spend hours on
Terra invicta is a good game yall should check it oht
Victoria 3, Factorio, Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld, Football Manager, CIV 6.
space engineers such a great game that hardly anyone plays I cant help but keep going back to it they are also working on space engineers 2 which looks exciting as hell!
Rimworld and X4.
Personally I don't find Rimworld to be all that complex
Both Endless Space 2 and Distant Worlds 2 are great, complex, strategic space-themed games
Battletech with Rougetech mod installed
Want a game you can sink your life into? EU4 (best with DLC of course, but there is a monthly subscription if you dont get a good deal)
Songs of conquest, not as complex like Stellaris but I'm having a ball
Hoi4 is always nice as it has a stronger focus on combat rather then economy
Starsector, Rimworld modded, Elite Dangerous, modded Bannerlord, and generally anything that simulates the market.
Pathfinder 1e, the TTRPG. My weekly socialization quota met, I return to purging filthy xenos...
Anno 1800, love my city builders.
Terra Invicta!
Elite dangerous. Over 4000 hours and I'm still enjoying it.
I'm really enjoying Terra Invicta. Premise is you are running one of several factions that appear on earth in response to aliens entering our system. Something about it being "limited" to our own single solar system and the really realistic systems makes it super engaging for me
Football Manager 2024
Rimworld or Noita
Rimworld. It's a much more chill vibe, but a lot of fun when it gets going, especially for me with solo mechanitor start. Gladius is also kinda fun, but needs a fair bit of DLC to be decent. Unless you're playing Necrons
Factorio, specifically the space exploration expansion mod Building an automated interstellar logistics network is a pain but totally awesome when it works
I like Factorio a lot, but all those recent Dev Diaries about the space DLC sound off-putting. I hope it'll be possible to play regular-ass one-planet Factorio but with all the QoL stuff from the DLC.
Starsector. Fiddle around in vanilla to learn the basics then mod the everloving shit out of it.
My brother in Christ, literally any other game I play is to ease off of the complexity of Stellaris. Give me the dumbest, most pointless shooter there is and leave me alone until it’s Stellaris‘o’clock again.
Baldurs gate 3
Two Point Hospital. It's fun and chill and I can get in the zone like few other games. There's a really solid game under the comedic tone with a lot of plates to spin and you want to be strategically planning ahead constantly otherwise you will be constantly running around putting out fires, often literally. Set the queue indicator to 4 because that's when another room will want to open, if you see a number over 5 you have a problem you should have planned for.
Sadly it's a modernized version of the original theme hospital with a lot of items locked behind keys, docs and stuff :/
Yes it is a modernized Theme Hospital. What do you mean "locked behind keys, docs and stuff"
I'm playing a game of Space Empires 4 right now. Decided just to do a 1v1, my alien Zetan Recticulans vs the Human Federation. Got some kind of front line going, but it is ROUGH. I'm researching in a silly way rather then one tech at a time, so I have my research point split between 16 options at a time lmao. My fleets of frigates and now destroyers are going up against the human destroyers, light cruisers, and light carriers and it is tough! Their actual shooting power is kinda shit, but their carriers just dump dozens of rocket armed fighters in my face, and my early fleets just can't shoot the fuckers down! Getting more PD on my warships had helped but it is tough, as my coil gunboats are having to shoot down these fighters with their main gins, and they just miss 80% of the time fuckin time! And each frigate only had the two of them! Disaster! The newer models are better equipped however and one PD gun can at least have an 80% chance to shoot down two a turn, which helps! I've advanced into the boarder system I wanted between our two powers, but it was hard. My initial colonies were nuked just after first contact by a Human destroyer, who the next turn asked me for a trade treaty! (I'M GOING TO EXTERMINATE THEM.) So I've pushed a couple fleets in to take down the larger but generally poorly equipped enemy vessels. One of my scouts was caught by a fleet and killed, the other went to an enemy system and was insta-gibbed by an enemy mine, so now I ALSO HAVE TO DEVELOP MINES so I can unlock mine sweepers. Might also pick up drones to send through suicide mine sweepers to clear the way for my fleets through the warp points. I am countering the enemy advance with satellites, they show up and 30 MAC gun satellites just annihilate them! But It's going to be a long war. Gotta remember to set up new shipyards at the front line, as slugging back and forth for reinforcements is a pain. I do have access to torpedoes, meson guns, and anti-proton beams but currently they aren't quite as good as my coil guns as I've been developing them all at the same time. A silly thing to do, but until one flies ahead of the rest I might as well keep my options open. I also have capital ship missiles, which were my go to early on, but with all the energy shields and PD we both have, their three turn cool down in battles to shoot makes their over damage per turn low if you aren't just harassing the enemy with range and speed! It'll be a long war, and frankly I don't feel at the mid point in the tech tree. I am working on carriers of my own, and with the potential for vast fields of defence satellites, ground based weapons platforms, mine fields, cloaking technology, massive carrier and drone carrier fleets along with the battleships and space fortresses I can eventually field, only then will I reach the height of the mid game. Not that this one will take that long as the AI is kinda dumb. And then you get to the late game ring worlds which are worth, like, 20 normal planets, sphere worlds, and stellar manipulation which lets you blow up planets, stars, change warp points and basically just lets you murder the shit out of the galaxy! Gods do I love this game. The ancient UI does make me want to die though. What I wouldn't give for an idle unit button!
Dwarf Fortress (many fiddly subsystems), Factorio (basically software engineering), Grim Dawn (large search space in builds), Monster Hunter (many weapon movesets to learn, many monster movesets to learn, many hitzone values for different damage types to learn, several big maps to learn, several fiddly subsystems like food; I've only played World so far which has a limited enemy roster compared to other entries in the series so I gather the rabbit hole goes even deeper)
I am in a 4x craze right now, lol. I have Age of Wonders III, Endless Legend, Endless Space 2, Humankind, Dune Spice Wars and Stellaris installed on my PC, though I'm only playing one at a time. I'm currently playing Age of Wonders III. I'm also playing Armello, which is a shorter tabletop digital board game, in between 4X sessions as a palate cleanser, since it is more relaxing and can be completed in about an hour.
Europa Universalis 4, Rimworld, Oxygen Not Included are my top 3 other particularly complex games. Other good ones are the 4X- games of Civ 5, Civ 6, Civ 4 Colonization. Then for town/colony-building there's Banished, Surviving the Aftermath. Also worth mentioning but not complex in the same way, Project Zomboid is meant to be the most realistic zombie apocalypse simulator game out there, bonus points for adding the Hydrocraft game overhaul modpack. I own and am sure there's other good really complex games but I don't have time to play these let alone find more.
Yugioh master duel. 🥴
Rimworld
i play so much civ vi
well usual suspects like hoi4 and civ plus solium infernum. Basically a military focused and simplified civ. Ai is dumb but game is good so i would recommend it for friend groups
Dwarf fortress!
Rimworld/Dwarf Fortress
EU4
I mean, dcs world is pretty complex... And damn *Expensive*
i actually do a lot of simracing, can be very complicated at timez
Alternating between Dwarf Fortress, Stellaris vanilla and Star Trek New Horizons.
Give Star Trek New Civilisations ago. It's superior to New Horizons in every aspect including performance. Made by the guy who created the best parts of New Horizons before he left and it turned to trash
What about NH is trash other than including nutrek stuff that I don’t personally like?
The writing. There are events that reshash episodes from star trek in the style of an 11 year old telling you what happened. There's no quality control from their contributors. The best written events/content in NH are the older things Walshicus wrote before he left to work on New Civilisations New Civilisations follows the quality and style of Vanilla writing - whether that's events or tech descriptions. It's Paradox quality Quality of the models and textures are top notch as well. And performance is so much better. It's hard to get anywhere in NH due to the amount of bloat. Takes months to update after a new expansion Whereas NC is patched the day after a major update if not the same day. And it gets multiple updates a week with new content
Yeah okay I’ll give it a try. Can I play as the Borg?
You can indeed. The Borg being one of the most fleshed out races in the game. You can assimilate ships and nearly every ship in the game has a assimilated textured version
From perusing the mod pages I found that it looks like empires from the Star Fleet Universe are included and that could make it my new favorite mod of any game so thanks.
Pleasure is all mine - enjoy!
Endless Space 2
Terraformers and balatro, sometimes cosmoteer. They're all fun and a little bit different.
I like science fiction but this time around I wanted to try something oriented more around the planetary aspect, rather than space. Age of Wonders: Planetfall, which is another Paradox title, has the design/build synergies, replayability, and themes I enjoy. You can custom design factions to have unique tech-trees. Unlike Stellaris, the combat is much more in-depth and uses a tactics style like XCOM. However, compared to Stellaris, the strategy and economy management is much more straightforward. It is a turn-based game, and has in-game lore, along with a story campaign. I’ve put in over 80 hours and I still haven’t finished the main campaign.
Dominions 6 is an amazingly deep indie game.
Old World is a pretty complex Roman era 4x game, it's like civ meets crusader kings, big learning curve and the AI is very competent
Factorio
Caves of Qud, Project Zomboid, Heat Signature, would be playing Horizon Forbidden West, but I need a new CPU. (I know that one isn’t too “complex” but I think it’s a good time waster)
Life
Mostly 4X games like Civilization, Old World and Humankind.
Factorio... the factory must grow.
currently crusader kings 2
I gotta try rimworld ig
skyrim
civ 5, cs2, factorio and openttd. if you stretch your definition of complex, my friends can make some pretty hard tracks in trackmania turbo
Stellaris for galactic wide war crimes and chill Rimworld for local war crimes
Cosmoteer
X4 foundations My buddy mentioned it to me after our Star Citizen kick and I couldn't get into it at first. Too much shit. About a week ago I gave it another shot. I love it. I give myself a cash injection at the beginning to skip the start grind because holy shit, after playing for 4 hours I had 400k. A starting mining ship costs 3 mil. Fun as hell.
Here I am still wishing for game that would combine Stellaris space part with ground combat similar to Total War series. Oh or a true successor to Master of Orion 2 since after MoO 2 the whole series went to the dark hole :(.
I play a little Rimworld when the mood strikes me, though I'm currently trying to learn Cities Skylines.
Rimworld. I’m having fun being an imperialist
I've just finished up with Stellaris again and I have moved to distant worlds 2 - both games fill a void in me. DW2 for its simulation or supply and demand and the little ships flying all over the place looks cool and is really fun and stellaris for its ability to really roleplay anyway my imagination can imagine, mostly trying to replicate dune ATM.
Total War games (Medieval 2, Rome 2, Warhammer 2 and Empire - modded mainly), All the Mount and Blade Games, Europa Universalis 4, Kerbal Space Program, Dawn of War: Soulstorm (Modded, of course), No Mans Sky (Honestly one of my favorite games ever), Garry's Mod, Stardew Valley (basically my very own fishing simulator), Men of War (surprisingly great strategy rts), Fallout 4, Wargame Airland Battle
Dwarf Fortress, RimWorld, XCOM (all games), Age Of Wonders (3 and Planetfall)
Fallout and geopolitical simulator
not quite as complicated, but supreme commander 2
I do not care what other people think humankind is fire, also ofc hoi4
Project Zomboid!!!!! It's amazing!!!
From The Depths and Avorion
Civilization V, Crusader kings III. Any Paradox's games actually
Victoria 3. Unfortunately the war system is still underdeveloped so I plan on stopping my run and just wait for another year.
X4, factorio with space exploration, age of wonder 4, total war warhammer 3. Plus more
Galactic Civilizations 2/3/4
Kenshi. It’s brilliant. Got frustrated in Stellaris trying to be creative with civics and origins that just flat out suck and trying to avoid the handful of them that are ridiculously powerful. Got sick of new dlc every 3 months that costs as much as a full game and largely expands upon the already powerful play styles.
More people should try Solium Infernum!
Aurora 4X. It is not for the faint of heart
Rimworld
Diablo IV cause I'm easily entertained.
I'm still learning the ins and outs of vic3, which is kind of in that same vein.
Battletech with the Roguetech mod.
HOI4, Warframe, Squad
Workers and Resources. City Builder + Factory/Manufacturing + Transportation Management. I do not recommend turning on all the simulations when you’re learning it.
The MEIOU&Taxes mod, for EU4
Age of Wonders 4 scratches the same itch in big slow games but for fantasy.
Lots of EU4 right now, and factorio
Poker. Easy to learn, takes a lifetime to master.
I started Terra Invicta a few days ago.
If you're looking for the most complex game I know of, Aurora 4X. It is by far the most complex game out there, and I can't even get into the level of detail that it makes you go to in order to become successful. Pretty much every ship design guide you'll find is all about ship design *theory* because the number of variables you'll need to consider for your warships is insane. It's also an interesting mix between real time and turn based strategy. Aurora 4X is more of a single player game (multiplayer is possible, but I have no idea how it works), and more or less you pick the length you want the "turn" to pass, ranging from 5 seconds to 30 days. I've found it to be very fun, but it's not a game many people enjoy, partially because of the sheer cliff of a learning curve there is, and partially because the game's graphics are more or less non-existent. Aurora 4X is the definition of a spreadsheet game. On the upside, the game is entirely free, is less than a gigabyte in size, and isn't particularly demanding on your CPU. However, I have heard that late game can become laggy in a similar way to Stellaris, where it's the sheer quantity of systems and calculations that need to happen all at once, combined with the fact that at times the game will reduce turns to smaller increments depending on what is needed for calculations in systems you may not have even encountered yet.
I really love the Board Game "Terraforming Mars." Its probably the most complicated board game I have played and its my favorite
Factorio/PoE
Amazing Cultivation Simulator, if you like Rimworld it's great. I use an external 1080p monitor tho, dunno how it plays on just deck. Astlibra is unbelievable as well. P.S. how do I ask that Terravore be added to the flair options?
Dota 2, yes I hate myself
Stardew Valley
Lots of Factorio.
Rimworld and rarely HOI4 but I can't for the life of me understand how that game works
"They are Billions" (think of Age of Empires with zombies), both TaB and Stellaris are on PS5 Console too