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Star Ruler (2)

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 5:22 pm
by Scytale
Hey fellas,

Is anyone familiar with the Star Ruler 4x series? I've been keeping my eye on SR2 in particular, as a sort of a complement to my ongoing Distant Worlds crush. Any thoughts? I understand SR2 is in Early Access at the moment, which makes me extremely tetchy about it.

Doing my bit to promote it I guess, here is the website.

Re: Star Ruler (2)

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 10:19 pm
by TGS
It's... dramatically different to the first one. I haven't tried it in quite some time, but the few times I have played it I didn't really care for it. Too many odd mechanics that are supposed to make the game flow better and feel more 4x and to manage the pace better, but to me it just really doesn't work. It does some things really really well, and other things really really badly. Personally I think it just diverged a bit too far away from what made the original great, in an attempt to fill the gaps that the original had. Just like the first one though, some will love it and some will hate it. I would not discourage anyone from playing it, in fact I'd encourage everyone to give it a try. It just personally isn't my thing. Distant Worlds though... is amazing. :ugeek:

Re: Star Ruler (2)

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 2:27 am
by Cornflakes_91
I agree with TGS here, it changed too much to be able to be called star ruler 2.

The planetary resources management "tree" is a cool thing though, but the overhaul of ship design and management is just way backwards.

Its a cool game on its own, but a meh successor to SR1.

Re: Star Ruler (2)

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 2:54 am
by Scytale
Thanks guys! That's food for thought.

So it's Star Ruler 2 in name only. When you say it's a poor successor to Star Ruler, do you mean this as a bad thing, or as a descriptor - i.e. would you say SR1 is a better game?

Re: Star Ruler (2)

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 3:11 am
by Cornflakes_91
They are both fun in their own terms, they are just different games.

SR1 has more microing and detail control and engineering in ship designs.

SR2 is more macroing and even less about individual ships and research is much more abstracted.

Re: Star Ruler (2)

Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 4:10 am
by Scytale
Ok, cheers. I was going to look exclusively at SR2, but I'll consider both games now since they're so different. Thanks again!

Re: Star Ruler (2)

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 4:37 pm
by Scytale
So I got SR2 after it came off Early Access a few days ago and I love it so much. I've never seen diplomacy done so interestingly, and the planet management mechanic is strongly reminiscent of the Anno series, with its need-imported-resources-to-grow paradigm. For me, it's definitely a contender to Distant Worlds (and might surpass it! But it's early days yet.)

Also the hyperdrive jump animation is cool I like it

Re: Star Ruler (2)

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 4:41 pm
by Cornflakes_91
Scytale wrote:it came off Early Access a few days ago
oooh nice!

maybe it gets me more now :?

Re: Star Ruler (2)

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 5:06 pm
by Scytale
Cornflakes_91 wrote:
Scytale wrote:it came off Early Access a few days ago
oooh nice!

maybe it gets me more now :?
Yeah Early Access was why I didn't get it before - and I think a purchase on release day could be doing my bit to encourage developers to exit Early Access asap :P

(I like the soundtrack too, right balance between moody and cool)

Re: Star Ruler (2)

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 7:59 am
by fox
I wanted to like Star Ruler but the revelation was harsh: I suck at it :thumbdown:

I could not understand what makes a ship design effective. In battle I would discover my ships inadeguate at everything. Out of bullets, out of energy, out of armor, out of fuel, pathetically ineffective!

The epitome of it all was the day I saw my fleet of newly designed 400+ kickass ships trashed in, what, 5 minutes by a platoon of maybe 80 slightly bigger ships. The "kickass" design took me an hour of brainstorming, and I thought I had come up with something. Not even the numerical superiority could save me :oops:

One other thing I do not like is how you are forced to heavily rely on the zoom to form a picture of what is happening where. You spend more time zoomed Out observing disembodied triangles and squares than not In to look at your ships.

The coup de grace came when I saw on youtube a gameplay demo. A dude would teach you how to get your economy up and running from the early minutes, using the unmodded game.
He began by mass producing probes that he would send out in all directions. Hundreds and hundreds of probes. Then he created colony ships like it rained and turned On the auto colonization feature (or what is called) and the game basically played itself, so placing 2/3rds of the _galaxy_ under his control.
Of course they were planets without means of self-defense, but each world contributed to Economy and Research, which allowed him to produce the Darkness Armada :roll:

He has merit for having exploited the game rules to said extent, but if a game allows for such things to happen it is poorly thought-out, period.
I uninstalled Star Ruler after watching that video.

Now you say that Star Ruler 2 is different. Maybe it is for the better?
What are the differences exactly?

Re: Star Ruler (2)

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 9:05 am
by Cornflakes_91
fox wrote: I could not understand what makes a ship design effective. In battle I would discover my ships inadeguate at everything. Out of bullets, out of energy, out of armor, out of fuel, pathetically ineffective!
For out of armor i usually mount nano plating and repair bays on all my ship designs.
it helps when your ships heal up by themself.

To keep them running under any circumstances put the smallest possible emergency generator (the one that works without fuel, not solar) on the repair bay, the AI core (screw crewed ships) and, if you have one, the antimatter reactor (as it blows up when out of energy)

For fuel issues get a few levels of particle physics until you can build 0.25 size bussard collectors that can keep your main reactor (or better reactor+engines) running indefinitely.
On the right side theres a breakdown of all usages including fuel that your ship has, try to get your fuel "usage" to 0.00 or maybe even slightly positive.
use fusion/AM generators and ion engines for that.
On the top of the design window you also get shown an "ETA" of how long fuel will last in your ship, the longer the better.

If you have many energy weapons that need more energy than the steady state output of your reactor try either mounting capacitors (that you arent empty after each shot) or add emergency generators to your weapons, if your energy tech is high enough you can supply your whole ship only using emergency generators.

on out of ammo: i've never really used ammunition based ships, but iirc theres some high-tech material generator available in the base game which can generate ammunition :?
fox wrote: He has merit for having exploited the game rules to said extent, but if a game allows for such things to happen it is poorly thought-out, period.
I uninstalled Star Ruler after watching that video.
Thats not the fault of the game itself, the AI is just for the bin.

There are some mods which make the AI a lot more agressive (read: it explores and conquers as the said player) and suddenly that strategy doesnt work nearly as good as with the base game.
fox wrote: Now you say that Star Ruler 2 is different. Maybe it is for the better?
What are the differences exactly?
To me SR2's ship design has been simplified to obscurity, but its less about exponential scaling as SR1 as you have to manage planets in a more intricate supply chain

Re: Star Ruler (2)

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 11:00 am
by Cornflakes_91