Previous thread: Who knows bro

==NEWS==
Civilization VII Update 1.2.2: Adds Large/Huge Maps, Town Specializations, Steam Workshop, and fixes. Released June 2025.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1295660/view/4244178222981471489

Company of Heroes 3 Opal Scorpion: New maps, cosmetics, and gameplay tweaks. Released June 23, 2025.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1677280/view/4244178222981471489

Dystopika Update: Cyberpunk city-builder gets new buildings and visuals. June 2025.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2377710/view/4244178222981471489

Broken Arrow v1.0: Modern RTS with 300+ units, 5v5 combat, and Steam Workshop. Launched June 19, 2025.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-best-Real-Time-Strategy-RTS-of-2025-New-modern-wargame-breaks-into-Steam-s-top-charts-with-v1-0-launch.850631.0.html

Cataclismo Released: RTS/city-builder hybrid with Stronghold-like mechanics. Launched May 2025.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2271130/view/4244178222981471489

Life Below Announced: Aquatic city-builder from Mechanicus publishers. Announced June 6, 2025.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/life-below/aquatic-city-builder

XCOM: Long War Rebalance Released Version 1.55.10

https://www.nexusmods.com/xcom/mods/686

== Pastebins ==
Alpha Centauri (new 14/06/22): https://pastebin.com/QgEvG3ET
Free and open source games pastebin: https://pastebin.com/8nRQckSN
Stellaris: https://pastebin.com/hPfrhazx https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Stellaris_Wiki
Stellaris DLC guide: https://rentry.org/STDLC384
Endless Space 2 + Endless Legend: https://pastebin.com/yu57huWm
Civilization: https://pastebin.com/eeL9tyaW
/cbg/: https://pastebin.com/ZSLVg9kT
Workers & Resources: https://pastebin.com/XaWF8mE6

>>529385092 (OP)
This was the previous thread >>527971419

Also:
Nebulous: Fleet Command, Update 0.5.2.9 - Modular Spacecraft: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/887570/view/532100473328502810
Plan B - v0.9.4: Grass Everywhere: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1894430/view/532101750029550577
Last Lords - Faction Spotlight, Endless Legend 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YTktAP1U8&ab_channel=EndlessUniverse

So any civ4xg, rts, citybuilder games to get during the summer sale?

>>529392171
I don't know, desu.

>>529394803
I have most games I want anyway. Bought a couple over the last 2 years which I haven't even played yet. Waiting for Bannerlord War Sails. Maybe I'll get Tiny Glade or Tlatoani.

>>529392171
Galactic Civilizations 4 if you don't have it.
Sword of the stars I complete collections going for 3 eurodollars too, you might wanna pick it up if you don't have it.

>>529392171
Call to Arms: Gates of Hell. Anno 1800, Medieval Legacy, Space Architec, Thriving City: Song, Star Traders Frontier, Pax Augusta, Roman Triumph: Survival City Builder, High Seas High Profits, Iron Village, Settlements Risings, Chaos Galaxy, Exogate Initiative, Memoria Polis, The Lost Village.
All those are full release.

I'm gonna give another try to The Lost Village

>>529397620
Already have both of them. Really liked GalCiv 4 and played a couple of games, couldn't get into Sword of the Stars.

>>529398304
Thriving City: Song seems interesting. I was following Pax Augusta a while back but it now has negative reviews, maybe I better wait for Nova Roma. I tried Chaos Galaxy, thought it was kinda meh. The story text crawl goes too fast and I hardly knew what I was doing. I'm playing skyrim right now because I'm waiting for Skyblivion. Now I've modded skyrim to make the game super hard and the end times mod gives me 180 in game days to finish the main quest. I've never finished the main quest I hope it is now exciting enough to do so.

Anyway, thanks anons for your suggestions. I think I'll keep my eye on Thriving City: Song.

What the FUCK?
Why am I only learning about this now?

>>529385092 (OP)
>https://www.pcgamesn.com/life-below/aquatic-city-builder
That link doesn't seem to work.

>>529403472
So she's a spider, so what?

>>529404528
I never saw that unit, ever!

>>529404528
*badum tss*

Man, Knights of the toxic god into cosmogensis is pretty fucking kino

>>529404528
>>529403472
That's spiderfags wife.

>>529407443
Factually wrong, my wife is an elf.
Preferably Deedlit from Record of Lodoss War, or Lucia from that veeeery old arcade game.

>>529407673
That's not bad either.

>>529407860
I wish there were more black elves like pic related, but a friend tried to explain me that drawing entirely black skin is actually extremely difficult. Hence why the anime cheated and just made her very brown instead, which displeased me.

Someone said spider wife?

>>529405856
Thank you! Thank you! I'll be here all night!

>>529408306
And spider daughter.

Speaking of elves and spiders, any good fantasy RTS recently? Something kinda like Age of Wonder, but real time?
The only game I know where elves are their own faction is Warlord Battlecry.

>>529414396
If only I knew... I really want some new and good fantasy games.

>>529403472
IIRC that last patch was fucky for some reason

>>529419461
I wish Warcraft 3 was good. I'm still pissed that all the factions are actually just alliance, so you can't play elves, dwarves or humans.

Nighty night. Don't die on burger hours again.

>>529425621
I'll die just out of spite.

>>529424681
you're still pissed about a game that came out 22 years ago?

>>529425621
I'm not bumping this shit

>>529426864
>I'm not bumping this shit
Sorry, but it's your job now. I sleep - you bump.

>>529426864
I'm pissed off because it could my be favourite game, but instead, small things keep me from liking it.
It's like when you watch a show that everyone is crazy about, like Game of Thrones or whatever, but you can't enjoy it.

>wrote a massive essay about how Stellaris is braindead easy
>accidentally hit refresh

yep

Anyway game is so broken and easy that there's just no point playing it anymore imo, you only need 1 mining world and 1 generator world to support a large enough economy to beat 125x contingency. AI is practically braindead in this patch so GA no scaling is easy and pops don't even matter anymore because of how fast pop growth is/automation buildings. I feel like you need to go out of your way to make legit anti builds or actively make bad decisions in order to inject any sense of challenge back into your game.

>>529428484
Stellaris is honestly pretty shit.

>>529429079
>More news on 11.
At first the game still had promise but that shifted somewhere in the past 4 or 5 years. They've also be redoing parts that the devs presumably 'fixed/redone' in the past. The game was always shallow, most of the game mechanics that were added don't affect to much other existing mechanics so none of the fixes made the game more interesting. On top of that the ai has always been really bad.

>>529429647
Oh, I dunno about that, I played Stellaris at launch, and honestly, it was just barebones there. I streamed it to my brother, and he perfectly pinned the issue: "you spend your time waiting to have enough ressources to do anything".
I have yet that none of the DLC really fixed that, they just bloated it with feature creeps.

>>529428484
Sounds like you're not reading all the little events and renaming everything in your empire to match your ideal roleplay.

>>529430865
I can't really make an empire called "the elf rapists", can I...

>>529434106
Why not?

stellaris: bad, or good?

>>529444179
Bad. Meh if you pirate it.
It really turned to shit when they removed the free way FTL.

>>529444179
Good.
At least for one playthrough with each empire stereotype.
Then it turns into mod it into perfection game, until next update that fucks with all of your favorite mods.

>>529444871
The game's been without laneless ftl longer than it was with. It's time to let go.

>>529453629
>plez forgive
>plz forget
WRONG PLACE FOR THAT, BUDDY

WHY IS THERE NO GOOD RECENT FANTASY RTS.
I hate that warhammer rpg rulebook, it makes me want to play it.

>age of mythology's getting a Japanese DLC
Huh. Neat.

I’m planning on buying the Stellaris Starter Edition
I’ll have enough left over to get one more dlc should I get apocalypse of federation?

>>529466534
*or

>>529466534
Apocalypse, I'd say. But I'd say to not buy any DLC. Pirate them instead, but don't Paracuck money.

One day I'll try King of Dragon Pass.

Generally speaking, what’s the best origin for a normal machine intelligence? (Non-assimilator/exterminator or servitor)

>expensive, but
Are knights in AoE2 actually fucking good?!

>>529475973
knight rushes are a thing for a reason

>>529476219
Yeah, but I struggle to understand that since knights are normally countered by a trash unit.

>>529476368
>fast so can raid eco
>tanky
>very large power spike at the start of the castle age
>shreds ranged units
>counter needs to be upgraded to pikes before they pose any semblance of a threat while still being slow and vulnerable to any unit that isn't mounted
>other counter requires a monastery and huge gold investment

>>529476796
Oooh shit, yeah. I didn't think about that, but knights can outmanoeuver spearmen, they don't have to fight on.

>>529470621
resource consolidation. pretty sure it's best for rogue servitors too

Hyrule Conquest.

>>529481093
Wasn't that a total war mod?

>>529489478
Yes. But then it became a mod for 0 AD.

I've not played Stellaris since early 2018, before Megacorp and pre-two massive balance changes to how planets and shit work.
Is there a quick crash course I can review to get me up to speed for how the fuck I'm supposed to play now?

>>529504523
No.

>>529504656
Pretty please?

>>529506641
Asking nicely won't magically spawn one. Your only luck is if someone who knows one would post it. And right now, I'm the only one you get, and I haven't played Stellaris.

>>529506823
It might've if you were simply withholding to be mean, was worth a shot oh well.
About to play a long game with a friend, time to get rolled I guess.

>>529507150
Good luck faggot.

>>529504523
Just play, if you need lower the difficulty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7Be70xYq00
>empire earth spiritual remake
please be good and please don't have that dogshit cheating ai from the original

>>529508727
Mmm? Cheating AI?

>>529504523
https://youtu.be/YoEB3AQTiDI?si=J83cCHsU9QE6r_rl

https://youtu.be/taESEJeY2iQ?si=501-UrO_Ey1Z1R5d
These should be good

>>529509435
i know ai cheat in almost every strategy game but it was egregious in that game

>>529509602
I seem to remember wrong. All I can remember is the AI spamming nuclear bombers, so I'd avoid playing anything past WWI.
How bad was it?

>>529509797
you could fence the ai in with towers without any resources available to them and they'll still endlessly build units

>>529509907
Ha, I see. It's one of these that start with the "all your base are belong to us" cheat.

So how's Civ7 for a casual player? I liked Civ6 but felt like interacting with the AI nations was really lackluster compared to Civ5, like there wasn't really much to do than declare wars and maybe sometimes trade if they had a resource that you desperately needed for something. The difficulty mechanic was also so fucking lazy which I disliked.

>nah bro just get civ3 with 9000 mods it's-
didn't ask

IF BEING CAUTIOUS CAN LEAD US TO VICTORY, THEN THAT'S WHAT WE'LL DO
SUN ZOO SAID THAT, AND I'D SAY HE KNOWS A LITTLE MORE ABOUT WAR THAN YOU DO BECAUSE HE INVENTED IT!

>>529510417
>So how's Civ7 for a casual player?
Might be good? The actual tendencies of most franchise is toward casualization, so playing the lastest game of a serie is usually a good bet.

How the FUCK do I beat Grexolis in Age of Wonders 4?

...oh boy. I got killed by my own units.
Let me explain.
>battlezone 2
>you have the vehicle, and the pilot
>if the vehicle is destroyed, you're ejected
>if the pilot is killed (he has like 2 HP), you die and are kicked out of the game
>by default when the game starts, you start in a scout vehicle, with limited weapon slots (only rifle, rocket, and one special)
>for some reason, ordering a friendly vehicle to "save you" (which normally has the AI pilot leave the vehicle to let you use it) has it exploding in your face

>>529444179
Good, bad? I'm the man with the starship.

>>529522036

good morning /civ4xg/

>>529514893
what the fuck

>>529525543
Good afternoon.

I unironically had a dream last night after playing ck3 that one of my bishops suddenly had a new trait called "uses the n word frequently". It also wasn't my actual bishop in game, it was real life Orthodox bishop Kallistos Ware. I remember in the dream trying to figure out how he got it and if there was a way to actually see him say it in game.

>>529385092 (OP)
C-Beams devlog 44: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIwVHxnJw40&ab_channel=LevelCapGaming

>>529526279
Weirder than my dreams, that's for sure.

>>529526279
Wrong thread, tranny.

>>529525543
good afternoon

I CRAVE FOR ELVES

>>529539748
Calm down, spider.
Also, if you like elves and spiders so much then play dark elves in age of wonders.

>>529545662
I cannot get into Age of Wonders. Everytime I tries, it goes
>have one full stack
>can't make more because not enough mines, need to make a second town
>move out
>ZUUL passes by
>lost town
>game over

Or it goes
>have one full stack
>go out
>meet ZUUL
>loses entire army

Honestly what I want is Warrior King or AoE2 with a fantasy skin.

>>529546251
Play Age of Wonders 1.

What's the point of gaia seeders again?
I can just terraform any planet. I am playing this with cordicepts spores and the origin that spreads my colonies across the galaxy passively, so I got a planet in almost every backyard. The gaia seeders consume a ton of energy each and they permanently occupy a building slot because I cant remove them later. They consume so much energy I can rarely have one on a planet at a time, especially early on. So again, what's exactly the great upside?

>>529547160
yeah it's kinda trash, mostly because gaia worlds aren't worth the trouble

>The gaia seeders consume a ton of energy each
IIRC the council position reduces the upkeep, but obviously that competes with other positions

>>529548053
>IIRC the council position reduces the upkeep, but obviously that competes with other positions
Lmao, I just had to look that one up. Im using the hivemind version, which doesnt have that part, it has 25% XP gain for the growth node, which is basically useless because the nodes are immortal so they dont need to rush experience before they die.

>>529549078
>>529548053
So now I am asking myself, what other civic would be good to replace gaia seeders?
Lots of civics actually have growth node improvements.
Since I want to focus on lots of planets with not a lot of space in ebtween, I was thinking of:
Cultivation drones
>less load on the empire from large populations
Genesis symbiotes
>better terraforming
>wanted to go for uplifting anyway with genetic ascension path
Ascetic
>less load from pops
>bonus habitability
Wild swarm
>going to use fauna ships anyway so reducing the upkeep is vita, those fuckers eat a ton of food
Any notes?

>>529550298
>Cultivation drones
good, should be interesting with the fruitful partnership origin
>Genesis symbiotes
never used it, but I wouldn't use it as a hivemind desu
>Ascetic
it's fine but uninteresting, it's something you shift out of later. and with amenities being a non-concern in this patch, I wouldn't pick it
>Wild swarm
I don't think it's good but if you want to use space fauna you obviously need to pick it

you could take one mind and shift out of it later. I think neural vaults is better than the equivalent civic for individualists. aside from that, subspace ephapse and subsumed will are kinda basic but good civics for late game. you could take catalytic processing I suppose, food is very easy to come by in this patch

>>529551708
>I don't think it's good but if you want to use space fauna you obviously need to pick it
TBF, cordyceps is kind of a load on your empire if you dont since despite having lower energy upkeep, the food upkeep of space fauna is insane. As in: I focus almost every single planet on food and I either need to decide between having 50% navy ad max or accept that I am loosing food constantly. With planets bordering almost every single empire, frictions are high and a strong navy are the only thing preventing constantly getting pummelled. I already picked phototrophic to reduce my pops' need for food.
The others seem fine, worth a thought when I get that extra civic spot. wild swarm cant be specced out of or picked later.
DESU, I just picked cordyceps because it seemed to mesh with fruitful partnership on a meta level, but it might not be worth it, after all, maybe. I can build 30k armies just by waiting for voidworms to try their luck with me then raiding their nest. I basically swept the ancient dreadnought and the enigmatic fortress from the map by year 50.

>>529475973
knights have NEVER not been a strong unit

>>529550298
How good is wild swarm just by itself if you’re not using primal calling origin and cordyceptic drones?

>>529554992
>primal calling
Dunno, to be honest. maybe I should try that instead of Fruitful partnership? I do enjoy the fruitful playstyle tho, not having to worry about colonizing, just getting planets handed for free, etc.

why does this look AI generated?

I mean look at this

>>529558046
What game?

>>529558046
>>529558258
I think it's the art-style.
Otherwise doesn't look like AI.

Does the russian site have the biogenesis DLC? Cant find anything in the usual thread and it's not in the complete package that got updated recently.

>>529565959
yes, look at the last pages of the thread, there'll probably be a link there

>>529556002
Can you use controlled tiyanki to colonize planets if you use fruitful partnership or does it have to be wild tiyanki?

>>529566272
It has to be wild ones. But you will always have space whales in your system, so if you are besieged, you can just kill them to gain fleet strength. But that's the only circumstance you should kill them, since otherwise, you will not get new settlements.
The greatest disadvantage of using space fauna is that you cannot use modifications. So in the late game, you cannot minmax your effectiveness. a 500k fleet of fauna might lose to a 300k fleet of moderately built fleets.

Good night.

>>529569126
Where ornithopter

>>529553346
I am currently trying to find a good third tradition for my hivemind (fruiful partnership, cultivation drones and subsumed will) tree.
So far I have expansion and adaptability, with ascensionimperial perogative and interstellar dominion.
I dont know if I will go genetic or cybernetic ascension, but more likely genetic.
Should I go domination, Synchronicity (harmony) for better pop control or go for supremacy, unyielding or emnity?
With so many planets spread throughout the galaxy, I will have some friction and my planets need protection, since I cant just move my fleet throughout the empire.

>>529582217
interstellar dominion is trash, supremacy is still mandatory but it doesn't necessarily have to be your third tree. if you're gonna take enmity it should probably be second

>>529582729
Wait... youre talking as if traditions and ascensions are interchangeable.
Adaptability and expansion are traditions and really important for spreading through planets. So which one should I replace with enmity?
And if not interstellar dominion, which ascendancy should I take as second instead before I start ascending through genetics?

>>529585383
I know the difference between APs and traditions

adaptability was kinda mid but it's better in 4.0. expansion is whatever, but if you're gonna take it it should be your first tree, but discovery is a better first tree

>And if not interstellar dominion, which ascendancy should I take as second instead before I start ascending through genetics?
tech ascendancy like any normal person

>>529585921
penis

>>529588413
benis