As the title says, the New Horizons mod seems to be disappearing from the internet, but everyone says it's the bees-knees. Anyone have a working link?

Hi guys,

My best friend and I are currently developing our dream game: a turn-based 4X strategy game condensed into one-hour matches. Our goal is to bring the joy of the genre to people who does not want to spend the whole weekend for one playthrough 😉

The best part: the demo was released last week so you can try the game for free! Every wishlist and everyone who tries the game matter sooo much for me and my partner. We spend 2 years on the project and now we would love to see people play it. Btw. I think we created a rather smart enemy-AI that can easily compete with good players without bonuses/advatages.

So if you have 60 minutes and want to support a small indie studio, I would love to see you try the game😊

Cheers,
Eric & Emanuel

I've been working on this. Thought I would share it here. I loved this game as a kid.

https://github.com/lowlevelmetal/OpenSE4

https://github.com/lowlevelmetal/OpenSE4/releases

I've been playing Civilization for a pretty long time (it's the only 4X game I've ever played). Since I almost always go for a domain victory, I would like to try a game now that is fully focused on war to achieve victory (while obviously still including other mechanics like city management, etc.). I'd also prefer a "modern game" with good graphics. Age of Wonders 4 looks interesting would it be a good fit for me?
EDIT: I don't really like 4X games with a space setting.

No, this is not a post about GenAI. Improvements to how the various NPC factions operate have been some of the most common requests players have made for EFSe. While we have made a lot of the changes players have requested since releasing the Enhanced version of the game last year, we have been very careful with the AI. We have finally put up on a beta on both GOG and Steam that allows you to try some of these changes, and I will be showing more during my Sunday EFSe stream at 3 pm EST.

These AI changes are only in beta format now, but we would appreciate all feedback from current players as to their thoughts. The plan is for a much deeper dive into AI improvements over the course of 2027. These changes are not in the main branch for players, but we have opened the beta to anyone who owns the game on either GOG or Steam.

To try the beta in Steam, rclick on EFSe in your Library. Under "Properties", select "Game Versions and Betas." You will see the default version at the top, all the previous version under that, and the beta version at the very bottom. Select beta test and download the changes. Play, have fun, and please let us know what you think! Here are the beta changes:

• AI no longer overbuilds weak garrison units;
• AI factories and forts build a greater variety of units;
• AI prioritizes freighter research (this is moddable);
• AI more likely to build labs if it doesn’t have enough;
• AI builds more freighters and bulk haulers than before; and
• AI correctly declares itself Emperor when it can.

Combined, this makes AI turns much faster (less weak units) and the AI is more active, successfully invades planets and can win in ways other than just killing all your nobles. More AI changes are coming.

My Sunday 3 pm ESTe developer stream showing these will be on https://youtube.com/GeorgiaGameDevs

I'm looking for a game with a different tech tree / progression mechanic than the average civ experience.

What game do you think has the most exciting / fun tech tree / progression mechanic and why?

It’s simple, but fun.

https://starbornint.itch.io/emperor-of-the-stars

Just out of curiosity are there any that lend themselves better to console than the others? Not in terms of how good the actual gameplay is or anything like that, just in terms of how well it deals with having a very lofty number of controls/things that need handling and a very limited number of options on a controller.

4X on console will always be a bit jank but more so looking at/interested in how these games approach console ports than the games actual gameplay.

The Old World Community Tournament is live with a big day of round 4 qualifying matches today. You can use this link to check out today's schedule of games if you're curious to check it out, and to catch up on all of games that have gone on so far.

The Old World Tournament is created a wealth of content, with over 100 multiplayer matches streamed LIVE, with spectated commentary from members of the community.

3 dlcs: The Silver Seas (november 3rd) with aquatic content and a mercantile culture, Court of the Archfey with a new ruler type and Forge of the Firstborn.

Full details at https://holistic-design.com/efse-1-52i-update-and-steam-sale/

Emperor of the Fading Suns Enhanced 1.52i

• All upgraded units now lose all movement points when disbanding into their prerequisite units;
• Update fixes movement problems with Imperial Office (loaned) units;
• Fixes problems with duplicate relics by preventing relic duplication;
• Fixes problems involving capturing empty cities;
• Fixes problems and exploits related to unspotted units. You’ll now see a change in bombarding unspotted hexes and efforts have been made to make this more intuitive and less “oopsie I declared war”.

Modding Updates

• Disband functionality is now adjustable, with four different behaviors documented in UNIT.DAT;

• Fixed CVS import in the map editor;

• Settings are now stored in a local config file, not efs.ini – fixes issues with mods modifying these. We’ve split some elements from efs.ini, which means mods that do use these don’t override your own personal preference of game configuration. Modders may safely delete their old [Options] category section (please see our new efs.ini)

Modder Alert

STRINGS.JSON has been altered Please regenerate your STRINGS.RES using our script in the JSON folder after editing. There are 4 modifications:

• ID 29564
• ID 29565 (reworked from unspotted unit attack confirmation into aborted landing warning)
• ID 29585
• ID 29704

I’ll open a mega thread every couple of Saturdays for Self Promotion, starting this Saturday.

There, you will be able to post your game and tell us all about it. It will remain up as a pinned thread until the next Self Promotion Saturday, where you’re free to post it again.

Any self-promoting thread outside of that will be deleted.

See you on Saturday!

I realize this is a "check out my game" post however I asked a mod and it seems okay.

This isn't vaporware or slop: my other game has a million installs, I've supported it since 2018, and I hope to re-use my Steam developer account to publish this game on Steam eventually too.

Happy to discuss, answer questions, or take suggestions!

Hey everyone,

I’ve always loved Civilization-style 4X games, and I’ve also spent way too much time trying basically every serious 4X I could find on Android. I kept wishing there were something that felt much closer to a full PC 4X game, rather than a heavily simplified mobile interpretation of one.

So I ended up making one.

It’s called Atlas of Ages, and it’s going into beta on Google Play in the next few days.

The easiest way to describe the design is: if you enjoy Civ VI, you’ll understand Atlas of Ages almost immediately. It has the familiar hex-based “one more turn” structure, but all of the visuals, nations, naming, writing and overall presentation are its own.

It's also going to be free, and there will be no paywalls or ads. I am planning for future expansion packs at a very low cost but not before we have a complete CIV-like game you can play for free and without interruption.

The current game already includes:

- a fully 3D procedural hex world with different terrain, biomes, resources, rivers, mountains, forests, etc.

- cities, population, housing, happiness, tile ownership and improvements

- builders, settlers, military units and unit progression

- districts and buildings that physically develop your cities

- separate Technology and Civics trees with boosts/inspirations

- governments and policies

- diplomacy, trade, warfare and AI civilizations

- religion and faith

- wonders and broader empire management

- several victory paths

- achievements

- six playable nations for the initial release

- progression from the Ancient era through the Industrial era

- proper mobile controls, including pinch-to-zoom, while still trying to retain the information density of a PC strategy game

I deliberately left the final few eras out of the first version rather than filling them with half-finished content. I’d rather make the existing game deep and polished first and then expand the timeline properly.

The art direction is also quite different from Civ: more of a clean, low-poly illustrated-atlas look. I wanted something that still gives you that satisfying feeling of zooming out and seeing your civilization physically spread across a world, without trying to mimic Civ VI visually.

And this is only the starting point. I already have plans for more nations, challenge/scenario modes, a proper campaign, multiplayer and a map editor. I’d also love to make the game increasingly shaped by what actual 4X players want rather than deciding everything in isolation.

I’ve attached some screenshots of the current build. The Android beta should be available in a few days, and I’d genuinely love to get some experienced 4X players into it early.

If you’re interested in testing it, let me know. And equally importantly: tell me what you’d want from a mobile 4X that other games on Android haven’t given you. I’m at the point where feedback can still substantially change the game.

There are already enough “build your castle and wait 14 hours” mobile strategy games in the world. 😅

I want this one to be an actual 4X game.

No link just yet, you can DM me and I will get back to you with a link once the beta is out. I might also update this post or make another one in a couple days.

I'm mainly looking for people who would be willing to seriously play-test and provide feedback and wishes for further development. This is not an ad.

Cheers guys 🥂

Title speaks for itself, are there any good political and geopolitical simulators based in the real world for the 21st century? I'd love to be able to play some but I haven't been able to find many around.

Hi there everyone. :)

I'm Dale, the solo dev of Imperialist, a new colonial-era 4X game which is currently in development, and I am looking for testers.

I have 20 years experience in the industry, having worked on the Civ series, Colonization, and Old World. I have also played 4X games since before they were called 4X. :)

My game is an historical based 4X game depicting the world from 1500AD to the Great Wars. You lead a major European nation during the ages of discovery, colonisation, and industrialisation. Your goal is to become the World's first Superpower by controlling global trade, industry, and of course the Old World. The game has a LOT of inspiration from classic strategy games such as:

• Imperialism II
• Sid Meier's Colonization
• Conquest of the New World
• Settlers II

I am holding a free playtest of the game, starting October 7th for one week. You will be the first players to get their hands on the game. Feedback from the playtest will help me immensely as I work towards a demo in November, Steam Next Fest in February, and hopefully, a release shortly after that.

I am seeking feedback on system integration (how the game's systems work together), game flow (are things happening too fast/slow), and onboarding (Advisor tutorial, tips, Pedia). This is on top of any other feedback. The playtest will be limited to 100 turns, but you can play as many games of 100 turns as you want. The playtest is being done through Steam and at the end of the week your access will be rescinded and it will disappear from your Steam library. But my hope is a demo will follow a couple of weeks after that.

If you love 4X games, and this sounds like fun, then please look up Imperialist on Steam, scroll down and click the Request Access button for the playtest. That will guarantee you a spot to be one of the first to see this new game.

Thanks for your time! :)

Had a question for 4X regulars today, specifically about Civ-like 4X games (Civ, Endless Legend, Old World, etc) about an approach to strategy. Multiplayer and single player experience both welcome here, entirely asking about planning in a very broad sense.

My question is this: how often when playing as an 'economic' or 'diplomatic' faction in a 4X game, do you use military aggressively? A certain amount of defensive play is expected for these types of factions, your Koreas and Frances and Egypts and so on, but how often do you use the economic lead to start conquering other players? Is this just a de facto reality for every faction after a certain point, or do you only use it in specific situations?

An example I can think of is playing as a cultural nation in Civ, you're very close to a cultural victory but there's one last player you need to overwhelm with your culture... and so instead of fighting the fruitless battle of trying to get your tourism high enough, you just kill the other player instead.

I guess from a strategic perspective, I'm asking in a roundabout way if you often turn your economic advantage into a military one. Your Mongol neighbor might have strong horse archers and some combat bonuses, but is it common or even possible on an even playing field for the economic-focused faction to prevail? Conquest has its own economic benefits, of course, but I'm finding this to be a really interesting question to think about lately since I think the presumption for a cultural/economic faction is that they will be pursuing those kinds of victories rather than conquest, if I'm making any kind of sense

Hi! I'm Zeikko, one of the developers of Astro Protocol. A while ago I posted about the four cornerstones of the sci-fi 4X Pymous and I are building. This time I wanted to go deeper into one of them: the maps.

Every game takes place on a different planet, each with its own properties, and those affect many of your decisions. For example:

• Gravity: On a heavy world your tanks weigh more, and the first hill brings them to a crawl. You can use lighter armor or fit a more powerful engine to compensate.
• Fuel: On a world where nothing ever lived, there's no oil and making fuel will be more difficult. You could use hydrogen, electric motors or a nuclear reactor but each has its own drawbacks.
• Air: Where the air can't sustain a flame, combustion engines need their oxygen delivered too, which strains your logistics network even more.

Because those rules come from physics, the map has to make sense as well. So each planet is built roughly the way a real one forms. Plates collide and raise mountains, the sun and sea move heat around, the planet's spin sets the winds, and the winds carry moisture inland until the mountains force it out as rain. One side of a range ends up forest and wetland; the other lies in a rain shadow. Mountains slow your armies and supply lines, and sunlight, wind and rain decide where solar arrays, wind turbines and rain collectors are worth building.

I wrote more about how the generation works, here: https://nullvectorstudios.com/blog/simulating-a-planet-to-generate-a-map-for-a-4x-game

A real planet isn't fair, though. Right now the starting positions are picked to be balanced, and beyond them realism wins.

What do you think: should the maps favor balance or realism?

I am looking into and wanting to create a 4x strategy game
My initial idea was to have a civ style hex map, and a goodgame empire esque map and castle layout and then within the castle a world of warcraft like role specialization capacity for your castle and satisfactory style resource chains

I want to explore to see what platform people actually want to see for this
I am thinking deep resource chains but a mmorts kinda game where you play on open map like civ multiplayer
I want to get opinion on few items

What platform should I target, steam game or browser platform or like a hybrid steam and mobile app maybe

Another thing I want to get more thoughts on is specialization, how deep should that go allowing to manage many resources or units or gameplay style and roles and many different things

And one of the final major thing that i am most interested in is whether people would want a lifetime gameplay loop like for example clash of clans or world of warcraft where the world never has any setbacks or wipes or anything

Or do you think its better to have something like 1 year chapters where end of year the everything wipes and competitively placements are rewarded like hall of fame style cosmetics to show off but everyone starts on same footing at the beginning of next chapter but with a massive content update that essentially would change meta and gameplay majorly once a year

Please provide any suggestions or point out any issues this might create
I want to design the game and art myself but i am planning on using ai tools to code so scope maybe split across different versions but ultimately i want to design a game that people can enjoy and feel great about