Presentation Much like many game sin this genre, regardless of platform, graphics are simple and serviceable, never unattractive or off-putting, but never close to spectacular. Race artwork is simply nice, but none of it smashingly, stunningly sexy. Best way to illustrate the graphics is to simply not comment on them any more The UI is similarly simplistic but serviceable. It works well, is reasonably cleverly arranged and practically designed, and apart from some slight slowdowns and sluggishness (such as when dragging workers, or clicking some UI elements), and from the fact that some buttons might be just a bit too small for comfort, makes controlling the game and accessing sub-menus quick and simple. The music is good, but a tad monotonous. Sound effects are kept at a bare minimum, usually only used for ship combat, and selecting UI elements. See the confusingly named wishlist section for more on what improved presentation could bring. Auxiliary systems are done well. You can have any amount of save games/games running, and each save game is designated not only with a chosen name, but with both in-game time and real-world date and time. The help system is constantly available, and while it is a bit... rigid and plain, it gets the job done by explaining all mechanics and elements thoroughly. Gameplay This is where all possible concerns regarding presentation are forgotten, forevah and evah. Starbase Orion is a true 4X game, far more advanced than possibly any strategy title for this platform, or at least up there at the rather lonely and desolated top. All the trappings of the genre are present: espionage, smuggler runs, research of new techs, conquest of new star systems, customizing each individual planet in a system with different buildings, work priorities, research and troops, and plenty of ship-to-ship battles (see Mentionables, below). It IS still somehow byte-sized, pocket-friendly, but just barely so. A comparably large step towards computer-class game experiences on our iPhones, but with quite some way to go. Civ IV it ain't. But it leaves Civ Rev for iOS down on the ground, wistfully gazing towards the distant stars. Mentionables Ship combat deserves a special entry. It is a bit more interactive than the common mechanics for this genre (which is click to attack, watch units' STATS do battle without any further player input). First of all, the player designs the mechanics of ships herself. This is a great feature, and brings a tear to the eye to those of us who can never quite get over Alpha Centauri. She places weapon and auxiliary units in empty slots, and saves her designs. Then, before battle takes place, she directs individual ships or his whole fleet to follow different attack priorities, such as weakest enemy, closest enemy, etc, and to maintain a particular distance to opponents. The result is battles that are reminiscent of Gratuitous Space Battles, far less advanced, but with similar interactivity just before combat begins. EDIT: As pointed out by the devs, SO's combat mechanics are even more advanced than this: To my mind, it is a near-perfect hybrid. I love twitch-based combat models (and never play MMOs nor action games with auto-targeting, combat with automatic elements, etc), but in a 4X title, combat reliant on player skill means strategic and tactical choices might be nullified by the quicker mind, eye and hand. In Starbase Orion, the notably stronger fleet will probably always win the day, but at least the loosing player can inflict some extra casualties thanks to clever choices. In the case of evenly matched fleets, the better strategist will probably win most of the time. This gives us a combat system that is still wholly reliant on tactical and strategic choices, but with added interactivity. Turn compression is a strong point, since it is done well in SO. When you click the end turn button, time is accelerated until something actually happens that affects your empire, or until you stop time manually. Since the game is good at judging what events are important enough, the system feels natural, and has, so far, not cost me any lost ground thanks to inattentiveness. Custom races is another feature that promises to expand the appeal of SO. Instead of choosing from the five existing races, all with strengths and occasional drawbacks, you can choose to build a race by picking from different advantages and flaws. The player has 10 initial points to spend on advantageous racial traits, but can gain more if drawbacks are chosen. Down among the earthbound Except for the limited presentational values (plus the presence of a recurring typo, "\n\n", in the racial descriptions, and the annoying fact that the text boxes for racial traits, buildings and techs are often too small to fit all of the text), there are a few issues that could potentially drag us back down to earth again: It is possible that some occasional turns might take a tad too long in single player, with every AI sometimes using up 2-3 seconds to make their choices, but so far, it hasn't bothered me much. Thanks to the above-mentioned turn compression, you tend to space out and wait for something potentially apocalyptic to hit your empire. I do wish the game was even more epic in scope. That we could run games that went on for even longer, in an even larger galaxy, with even more to do, possibly with some scenarios and storylines. This is mostly a concern in single player, as SO's multiplayer games will probably be longer than any other asynchronous game for iOS, but yeah, even in online multiplayer, I would not mind an even greater scope. Thanks to the rather clinical nature of the game, no story or metaplot, but lots of numbers, strategic mechanics, and carefully deliberately planned actions, the game is light on immersion. Storyline scenarious, greater variation in music and sound effects, and more detailed and contextual graphics could probably amount to a lot in this area. In space, potentially lots of people can hear you scream And, yeah, you can enjoy all of this online, asynchronically, at your own leisure, with full iOS 5 Game Center asynchronous support. And this is awesome. Just awesome. If I can't guarantee for certain that Starbase Orion is the most advanced 4X title for iOS (though it certainly cannot be far behind the potentially best), or just the most advanced strategy title in general, I am absolutely convinced there is no asynchronous multiplayer title that can come close enough even to see the exhaust burst as Starbase Orion jumps on ahead by AUs and lightyears. My primary complaint concerning iOS gaming has been, even since my first phone-that-is-a-widescreen-touchscreen-capacitive-mp3-player-that-is-a-breakthrough-internet-communication-device-that-is-all-those-three-in-one, that I am not yet playing a full version of Civ IV with asynchronous support. Among me and my few gaming pals, this has become something of a mantra. As of the release of Starbase Orion, I am officially putting that slogan to rest. Not because Starbase Orion fills the ever-present void in my heart left by not playing Civ IV 24/7 (nothing could, and thus I am doomed to walk this earth in eternal torment), but because Starbase Orion proves that iOS (and Android, and other smartphone platforms) is capable of providing an strategic online experience beyond any desktop-bound platform (enabling, thanks to its portable but always connected qualities, an entirely new paradigm shift of asynchronous online play), and also proves that PC-class depth to our mobile 4X games is but half an AU away... Put yer hyperdrive engines into hyperbole overdrive, and set your controls for the heart of the sun Chimera Games have just released the, by lightyears, AUs and Han parsecs, most in-depth and sophisticated asynchronous multiplayer game yet, and another powerful title I will now use to shove all those "casual platform" arguments down the throats and minds of any anti-smartphone gamers who might be unlucky enough to get in my way If asynchronous multigaming is indeed the paradigm shift I am eagerly and excitedly prophesying it to be, Starbase Orion is at the cutting, bleeding, by now rather gory edge of that spearhead of progress.
I was a huge MOO and MOO2 player back in the golden age... I almost feel like this is a dumb question, but since I don't see anything anywhere, I ask anyway: This does have planetary invasion mechanics similar to MOO2 yes?
Funny story it was only this morning I was talking to a friend of mines about how good it would be to have moo2 on the iPad. So after searching around I found starbase Orion it was a no brained clicky buy now. It's everything you want as a moo2 fan not overy complex but deep enough to come back to and with promise update that's a good think. Also signed up to TA to tell you all that my first 30mins of the game jumps out moo2 fans made this. Even down to hydroponic farming research. As for planetary invasion I can build troop transport ship and if the last 30min is anything to go by I'll be suprise if it's not to dissimilar. Help that help I'll go invade someone and report back
Sorta. No actual invasion, just hit a button and if you have more marines than they do you win. It works pretty well, but I'd still like to see strategic battles in there. If you like moo, this is superb. A little lighter than that, but superb.
Cannot get it.... Decided to buy... hit purchase... get unknown error... (both ipad and itunes)... really hope apple fixes it soon!! Want to play!!!!
A question for anyone, and maybe a suggestion for the dev. So far the game seems pretty solid, the little I've played. But I have a question? In the ship designer I've noticed some item descriptions are longer than the allotted space for them, so the descriptions are cut off. For example the "additional fuel reserve" the description reads along the lines of "provides extra space for additio..." now it's pretty clear what the item does in this case but if the problem continues with other items it could be extremelly frustrating not knowing all the details of what something does. Is there another way to see the complete item description? I was hoping a single click would show the full thing and then maybe a second click would install it, but that first click drops it right into the ship slot.
Nope, but it is a bug that will be fixed in 1.0.3, along with all other instances (racial advantages in the custom race builder, buildings, etc) of insufficient text boxes
Like: "Starbase Orion will not be switched free at any time. We want you to be able to buy the app with confidence, and this is our guarantee to you." but will it get down to US$0.99? (Soda price?) Anyway, any comparison with the Ascendancy? Glad to see the developer is aboard! BTW, when will the introductory price end?
I posted the full text for the most grievous offender (custom race attributes) here: http://www.chimerasw.com/starbaseorion/forums/showthread.php?tid=4 We'll get these fixed in v1.0.3.
Ascendency would be a legit comparison on a number of fronts, at least from what I've seen so far. I played Ascendency when it was first released on PC way back when, and loved the hell out of it. I was pretty stoked when it came to iOS not too long ago, and it's a good conversion to the iOS, however, you can tell it's a conversion, and I feel it suffers a bit from the fact that it simply wasn't built from the ground up with iOS in mind. This game has a very similar feel to it, but with a more natural feeling interface. I think fans of Ascendency, should be pleased.
Anyone have any tips for getting started? It's always the hardest part for me in these games. I almost didn't get into Civ IV because of it, and once I did, I couldn't get enough of it. I've spent the last 20 minutes just mucking about in the game, hoping to get a feel for how the game works, but it hasn't really come to me yet. EDIT: Please use the strategy thread for this. Refer to the earlier post OR use the link at start of this thread.
A few more notes/suggestions for dev Pulled myself away from SpaceChem, to get some more SBOrion in and have some comments/suggestions for the dev. First when replaying the battles it can be difficult to tell who's firing on who during a battle. Lasers fire from and hit on, the same points of both engaged ship, some kind of color coding that strongly distinguished the attacker from the target would be nice. Yes, while all your really doing is scanning through a replay of what happened in the fight, the main point of that ability in my mind is so you can effectively analyze your ships performance vs the enemy, so you can improve your chances in future combats. As it stand now, lasers just seem to be a line that pops in between the two ships with little distinction between attacker and target. Second multiple weapon systems effectiveness is shown in the damage/range graph during combat playback, and while each system has a different color, it doesn't say which weapon system is represented by which color. I was able to figure it out simply because I only had two and was familiar with the first weapon systems output, but I a key of sorts would be nice. Just changing the text color of the weapon systems name to match the line on the graph would make it nice and clear. And lastly when zoomed fully out it would be nice if the systems had representative colors, instead of everything being grey. Loving the game, and normally wouldn't bother with posts like this, but if there's any chance feedback can make it even better, I want to help. Oh one last thing, when I open things like say the option to move ships and finish making my choices, I keep wanting to just swipe down on the bar to send it away, which would feel very natural, could be a nice addition on top of having the little button.
All weapons are currently colored the same as your empire color. So, if your systems are red in the galactic map, then you should fire red lasers. If you get shields later, they will also be colored by empire. The graph shows two stats: sustained damage and burst damage. Sustained damage is the combination of all of your ammo-less weapons. Burst damage is your sustained damage combined with damage from ammo-limited weapons (such as missiles). This was a compromise on our part; we tried having a line per weapon type, but having more than two lines got messy fast. In all zoomed out views, entities are colored by their empire. In the galactic map, the grey systems are unoccupied systems. That's a good idea, will look into it.
Picked up based on the detailed reviews and dev attention to the forums. Hope to see the minor \n\n issues picked up in the next update
Am liking it a fair bit, love the animated 'highlighted item'. How do you get more colonial ships? Also, a proper tutorial would work wonders to help introduce people into the game. The help icons just give descriptions on how stuff work, but not really explain the flow of things ;P
