9c5e82 No.15784236
What strategy games allow me to roleplay and fuck around on the map creating either beautiful cities or raising towns in a way that allows me to roleplay as a grand Empire without actually needing much effort to defend it? I just want to fuck around a bit in a zen garden-esque way roleplaying with my units like I was playing in a sandbox.
I know Age of Empires II is good for it but is probably better if you have someone to do it with. Minecraft although not a strategy game might give a similar feel but it feels a bit lonely without other people.
6372c1 No.15784324
The Total War and Grand Strategy games, but on a much higher scale.
Dicking around and roleplaying is what those games are best at.
8ebb95 No.15784356
>but is probably better if you have someone to do it with
No. It's never better. Fuck other people.
7fb931 No.15784367
f8f99c No.15784502
>>15784236
My main problem with AoE2 is that the biggest map size simply isn't big enough to really make highly detailed sprawling cityscapes unless you want only one city on the whole map. I heard of the Ludakris map size but never found let alone got it to work.
cf803f No.15784713
I thought Children of the Nile was good for that, you can do a fair bit without falling into a spiral but it's real slow paced. The Tropico series also comes to mind. I wish more Caesar clones weren't generally a buggy hellscape or I'd mention a few.
9c5e82 No.15784732
>>15784367
To be honest the main problem why I have not chosen this one is because I'm not that interested in creating a city. I want to rp by creating an empire.
f76c1b No.15784757
>>15784324
>Total War
Is there a way to mod the city layout and/or the buildings that can be placed in them? One thing that I always liked about Rome and Medieval 2 was how cool having new buildings affect your defensive options would be and how you could corner an invading enemy within your walls, yet I've never seen a comparison video that shows a before and after buildings gets destroyed or built.
2bd94c No.15784825
>>15784236
I've been searching for this kind of game for years and found nothing. Although I tried to make it work in Minecraft for some time, it's just too small-scale and requires the player to make every individual change and design themselves. At times I tried to get Starcraft to cooperate, because I'm a big fan of the kind of corrupt swarm thing the Zerg has going on, but it's awfully military-focused and RTS games in general (in my experience) have been pretty poor for replicating the idea. The closest I've gotten have been Civilization games on the easier difficulties, especially 5 over the better graphics. You may want to try that.
fbe0d5 No.15784847
Besides doing this in AoE2 I also did it a lot in Warcraft 3 but that one is similarly limited in case you want to create something even bigger.
Though there's a lot of 'scenery' buildings and assets from the campaigns (but mostly human-looking) which adds a lot of variety. You can even give them functions like being able to spawn units with through the map editor. And you can make units cost 0 food in order to remove their limit.
I also had a ton of fun creating my own OP heroes and units.
cf803f No.15784855
>>15784732
You sure grand strategy aren't more what you're looking for at that point? I can't think of much that covers your whole checklist. Maybe something more like the Three Kingdoms series. Some anon had a good rundown about which were best.
63a437 No.15784920
>>15784236
Damn nigga, i used to do the game, i'd just create comfy cities in the editor, spread resources and markets around to make the city feel alive.
Also playing a normal game but against very easy AI and with the slowest speed possible not slow movements, just slow construction and research etc and slowly make myself a city.
I was never into actual city builder games though, as autistic as it may sound having a game especially made for that took away a lot of what made it interesting for me.
6372c1 No.15785133
>>15784757
I think the city layouts are hardcoded, I've never seen a mod change it.
I know the buildings you make on the campaign map appear in the city during battle, but I have no idea if they simply replace a previous residential area or something else happens.
Your best bet would be to let the enemy besiege you, take screenshots of the city, then reload a previous save, destroy all or some of the structures and then play the battle again to see the difference.
f76c1b No.15785209
>>15785133
>Your best bet would be to let the enemy besiege you, take screenshots of the city, then reload a previous save, destroy all or some of the structures and then play the battle again to see the difference.
Yeah I was wondering if mods could allow you to spawn and move rebel factions of one lonely man into your defended cities and modifying their building slots and culture to see the changes. I know that some of them like Rome and Byzantium have some sort of special terrain.
c27a6e No.15785453
>>15784236
Stronghold 1 & 2
There's OpenTTD definitely worth your time, and you can set up servers and shit.
I think you should also check out OpenRA it can be heavily modded and they almost have TibSun and RA2 ready.
Caesar 2 & 3, you might need some widescreen fix/hack, check WSGF.
Also Zeus and Pharaoh series but Caesar are still my fav tho since I grew up with those.
Age of Wonders 1 is a wonderful game that you can play around with, check out the community maps and the map editor, but bitch to get running on win7 and on. I don't like AoW 2 and on…
Maybe you also need to look into God games like Populus and Black & White?
Then there's shit like Supreme Commander, it's the epitome of base building, but not as much for cityscapes and civil life lol.
5e752c No.15785495
>>15785453
>meme spacing
>my fav tho
>lol
c27a6e No.15785503
>>15784855
Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis? It's pretty much just looking at abstract number shit, like watching paint dry, might as well play eve online at that point.
https://youtu.be/PTfFc2O8bGg
a7a7d4 No.15785560
>>15785516
>houses up
>farms working
>industry chugging
>comfy for 10 mins
>trees get rekt
>stone gets rekt
>food production slows
>trade doesn't satisfy needs
>people don't work
>dying in miserable cold
Every time
e2a4bc No.15785563
>>15785453
Is Knights of Honor any good?
91e119 No.15785712
>>15784920
>I was never into actual city builder games though, as autistic as it may sound having a game especially made for that took away a lot of what made it interesting for me.
So what is it, for you, that made RTS games fun to build cities with, but not actual city builder games?
63a437 No.15785786
>>15785712
RTSs is what i played as a kid, thing is as a kid the combat part of the games were usually hard, so i'd have fun just building my cities and armies, eventually i realized that's what i enjoyed the most.
It's also more simple, i mean i want to just relax when i do that sort of thing, not stress about all the things in proper city builder games.
AoE2 is just perfect for what i want.
91e119 No.15785802
>>15785786
That makes sense. SimCity is still great for non-high stress city buildan, in my view.
dd2ccd No.15785811
>>15784236
>>15784236
/pol/andcraft if it's still around
0e5f18 No.15785821
>>15785453
>stronghold
This, it has a pretty comfy sandbox mode where you can just build and gather resources.
91e119 No.15785854
>>15785802
Now that I think about it, you also have a comfy God Mode in the Tropico games.
725e7d No.15785870
>>15785453
Took way too long for someone to say Stronghold, fucking hell you're all retarded.
>>15785563
No idea but it was a $1 so bought it.
b760fa No.15785878
Cleopatra. Watching the people build a pyramid stone by stone is pretty cool.
f6b6a0 No.15785947
>>15785878
would be cooler if they built it with antigravity technology like in real life
2c220f No.15785951
>>15784825
I got stuck with civ4 and the second expansion. I tried civ5 with all the DLC and no it doesn't work with me. You can't even "View City" (something present from civs 1 to 3 and replaced in civ4 by allowing you to fully zoom in, showing you a screenful of your big city. Not in civ 5).
Tried Endless Legends, it's a better game than Civ 5 but it lacks the general experience from civ4.
I guess I'll give a second chance to Stronghold and its economy campaign.
60228c No.15785969
>>15785947
They would never allow the truth to come to light like that.
2c220f No.15785977
Minecraft had potential but requires too much work and the citizens are retards (both villagers and players).
TES games show potential, they have pretty cities and talking citizens: with mods you can make them even better but you still don't have a direct way for placing buildings. It's a walk around RPG not a strategy game.
>>15785878
I've been considering playing one of these. Are they all similar? I've seen this game with roman, egyptian and greek themes. Which one is the best one to try first?
f94655 No.15786052
>>15784236
>>15785977
>Pharaoh/Cleopatra
A very fun in depth city builder with lots of cool shit to build. Warning it can get a bit challenging in the later levels requiring more planning.
>Zeus/Poseidon
Similar to the above but somewhat more simplified and easier overall. Still though it has great story campaigns and a lot of little improvements that makes it fun to play.
>Caesar IV
Similar to pharaoh in terms of complexity but with a lot of modern improvements. Sadly there are no monuments and the story missions aren't that great either so this is much more of a sandbox.
>>15785969
Actually that method show is anachronistic we are now pretty sure that they were built using an internal ramp.
f94655 No.15786065
>>15786052
whoops forgot my image
60228c No.15786079
Adding to what >>15786052 said, keep in mind your units like engineers randomly decide to go one way or the other when they can turn left and right in a road. This can be useful for planning the city if you want to reduce the number of support structures you need.
Also you can get them on https://www.old-games.com/download/6590/pharaoh-and-cleopatra there's a link to the others at the bottom.
f366f0 No.15786094
>>15784236
(((HD edition)))
2f7462 No.15786142
>>15786065
>internal ramp
>for building
Ridiculous. That ramp was clearly intended for soapbox racing.
93fe5a No.15786265
>>15785453
>Stronghold
>OpenTTD
>Caeser
>Populous
>Black & White
Who are you, anon? How can you make such great post? You are too good for this place.
>>15785495
Kill yourself nigger faggot young man.
6de3a7 No.15786366
>>15784236
Majesty? Children of the Nile? I mean, that's literally what you do ingame.
a30dcb No.15786492
>>15784236
I have spent countless hours over the years doing exactly that in stronghold 1 & crusader. SH2 isn't a terrible game either but it gets boring rather quickly unless you download some custom maps which is where SH games shine the brightest. Be sure to listen to the ingame music too, it's beautiful and fits the atmosphere perfectly.
ca74b0 No.15788089
f94655 No.15789166
>>15788089
Dwarf fortress is neither beautiful nor zen like. It requires extensive planning and even small mistakes or minor oversights can completely wreck your game.
c27a6e No.15789179
>>15788089
Factorio and RimWorld also then.
I've heard great things about Anno series but never played them.
c801d2 No.15789220
>>15786492
Curious about Stronghold games, are only the first two games worth playing? Are there any combat in these preferably not?
c27a6e No.15789301
>>15789220
There is an economic campaign without combat
4e20c7 No.15789680
>>15789301
>>15789220
Also economic scenarios and sandbox.
a30dcb No.15789683
>>15789220
Non-combat gameplay is just as prevalent in stronghold as the combat side is. I don't know if the site is still alive but i think it was called stronghold haven and it had a massive amount of custom maps to extend your play time for hundreds of hours if you'd like. SH2 is still a nice game but without custom maps it becomes boring rather quickly. Visually still looks great though
a30dcb No.15790293
>>15790013
Oh shit it's still alive and well. I must've played a few hundred custom maps from that site, would recommend if you get hooked on stronghold and want more out of it
228cdd No.15790587
>>15786366
>>15789179
Seconding Majesty (plus Northern Expansion, dont bother with 2) and the Anno series. I only played 1404 but it hit all the right buttons. I'm in the same boat as you OP, I also prefer the economic/building/management side of RTS.
The Settlers is also good. I only played 4 many years ago and the gameplay was great, but the graphics are very cartoony, if that sort of thing bothers you. I can't speak for any other installments of the series unfortunately.
a5be1f No.15790613
>>15785977
>Minecraft had potential but requires too much work and the citizens are retards (both villagers and players)
I want a city building game where I can play as one of the citizens helping to improve it.
dd6e03 No.15790697
>>15786052
>easier
The magic world. I only played classic RTS like warcrafts, AoE1 & Homeworld1 (the remake) so I guess I can do it. I was told that Zeus had more battles than Pharaoh, though.
dd6e03 No.15790707
>>15790013
>Legosaur
cool name
>>15790613
I know there are thousands of Minecraft mods, I'll have to check the city builder options. Would be great if villagers had construction jobs, one could sell you the building of roads that connected it with the closest city to the north, another could make second stories or additional specific buildings and ask you for the stone and wood.
aa936d No.15800555
>>15786142
I was going to say the the Egyptians probably didn't invent soapboxes making that theory wrong, but if you look at a sarcophagus and put 4 chariot axle/wheels on it, that would probably work.
And if you die when racing, they just scrape what remains of you back into the sarcophagus racer, find a lid and bury you somewhere.
9a3ea1 No.15800629
>>15785516
>proxy.duckduckgo.png
1d7e6c No.15801406
>>15785209
>>15785133
Call of Warhammer: Beginning of The End Times and the LOTR mod changes the city layouts
1d7e6c No.15801414
people always forgets about his gem