Looking for a research/economy strategy game

[Breath_of_the_Dying]

It's hard to explain exactly what I want, but Im looking for a researched based strategy game that really gives a good sense of progression. Something with more focus on research and economy, and less on comba(but should have some combat for the research to payoff)

I'm fan of Starcraft 2, but that game is too combat focused for my research fix. Rise of nations was cool but wat to short in scale (1 session to go through all ages). Something similar to the old Xcom games wher by the end you were using badass weapons and armor against the enemies. Anno 2070 is a little too much economy focus (balance the economy) and research takes a backseat. I wasn't a fan of civ4 research because of how long it took for anything to have meaning. Do you think civ 5 fits the bill?

Some of the space games might do it too, but I havent seen much on the research aspect. Sins of a solar empire? Galactic civilizations? What recommendations do you guys have?

 

[GreenMonkey]

Master of Orion (1 or 2)! I tried Galciv...not bad, but not as much silly fun as MOO.

I'm a huge fan of Civ 4 though and 4x/TBS games.

 

[Monkey God]

Try Distant Worlds.

 

[Johnked6]

Do you think civ 5 fits the bill?

There's a demo for Civ 5 on Steam.

 

[Breath_of_the_Dying]

I take a look at these to tonight, thanks guys!

 

[thedocta45]

If you didn't like Civ4 I doubt you will like Civ5.

The pacing of the Civ research has always been fine in my book. So I'm not sure what you specificaly mean by the pacing issue. If you could elaborate.

If you have an xbox 360 you could try to pick up a copy of the 360 version of Civ, it had a much faster pace. From what my friend told me, and its a good port, a bit more simple.

On a side note you could always turn up the game speed of Civ, or start the game in a later time period to make the game progress faster. Can't rember if this is an option in Civ4, but I know you can do this in Civ5.

I'm always looking for a good 4x game. Not many have been good IMO.

SoSE seems like it could be good I just havent gotten around to play it, I have been hearing mixed reviews of Endless Space, seems to have the same issues Ascendancy had ie; AI issues.

 

[Bowhuntr11]

Yeah I have been looking for something similar...I was thinking about Anno 2070, or just maybe getting Sim City 4, only thing about that is now combat at all...

 

[darrpara]

If you like space 4x games then I would suggest Endless Space. Awesome tech tree.

 

[Monkey God]

If you like space 4x games then I would suggest Endless Space. Awesome tech tree.

Endless space does alot of things right, but the combat system is...well you will either love it or hate it. I find the rock paper scissors design and magic the gathering card system very frustrating. You can't build a ship that can handle all types of attack, or one AI who specializes in "rocks" will pwn you. You then quickly rush in a new design to deal with that AI's designs, and then another AI declares war on you and now you have to deal with all scissors. Before you can respond and build new ships, you're overrun. They still haven't dealt with AI fleet spam either. I'd avoid this one.