I have a real problem with this system, as it does very little to facilitate real decision making by players. A fifth resource – credits – can be used to buy up additional resources to help make the big purchases. Each resource has one purpose, be that to build cities (that provide more resources), upgrade science (which improves the technology that your ships have access to), build up the cities on the planets (which also provides more resources), and directly upgrade the ships in the fleet for better armour, shields, and weaponry. Getting the influence rating all the way to four points will convince the planet to join your empire, and commit all of its resources to your cause. Winning one of these battles grants influence over the planet (one to four points of influence, depending on the difficulty of the mission). Ramping up the difficulty makes the battles more challenging, but more because the ships become obscenely powerful, rather than being strategically deep conflicts. These tactical encounters are the highlight of the Starships experience but they’re still obscenely simple affairs and the AI is incredibly easy to exploit. ![]() And you’ll need to have some spacial awareness as torpedoes only fire in a straight direction, so you’ll need to be able to herd enemies into their paths in order to take them down with your most powerful weapons. There’s a couple of tricks to take into account with these battles, such as using facing to deflect attacks (shields are at their strongest at the front), and hiding behind asteroids. These missions behave like simple tactical battles where you’ll take turns with an AI opponent to command your fleet about the place and take shots at your opponents. You’re in control of one planet, which is producing four different resources, and there’s a great expanse of space around you.įrom there you’ll settle into the game’s rhythm, where you’ll fly your fleet to an unexplored planet and attempt to complete an objective there. You’re in control of a fleet of spaceships, that are loaded with space torpedoes and laser weapons. But Starships has no depth to it whatsoever. ![]() He’s stuck his name on a couple of projects that have real value in recent years – Civilization Revolution was a clever “quick play” take on his main franchise, and games like Ace Patrol, while tactical rather than strategic in nature, show a creativity with the mechanics that manage to offer something fresh and worthy. If he keeps producing games like Starships he’ll find himself quickly forgotten. Throw in Total War’s development as a RTS with grand strategy ambitions of its own, and Meier is no longer sitting on a pedestal by himself. But then Europa Universalis happened and Civilization’s direction started to veer towards something with a more universal appeal. Back before Europa Universalis was a thing, the Civilization series was the kind of game that armchair generals with dreams of world domination would glue themselves to for weeks at a time. I am of course talking about Sid Meier, who was responsible for the Civilization franchise. That a man that has been so foundational to the strategy genre would lend his name to nonsense like this is nothing short of depressing. Sid Meier’s Starships is so poor it actually physically hurts me.
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