Aurora

[mdk31]

So Aurora is a 4X (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate or something like that) space strategy game. It's really quite fun, but quite complex.

If you've ever played Dwarf Fortress, you know just how complex it is. If you want an idea of how complex Aurora is, take DF's complexity and cube it and you have a rough approximation. You control every aspect of space craft control, right down to designing the components for your ships, and the missiles your ships will launch. Also the game itself is pretty heavily customizable, allowing you to set up custom scenarios, edit star systems, etc.

It's a pretty challenging game to understand at first, but I think it's a lot of fun. If you've got tons of patience and like this sort of game, I highly recommend it.

http://aurora.pentarch.org/index.php

 

[Rabid Potatoe]

Spreadsheets? In space?

 

[Vovolov]

Spreadsheets? In space?

Eve?

 

[mdk31]

Spreadsheets? In space?

More or less. Haha. Also little pretty colored circles.

I admit it's not for everyone. Or most people.

 

[Vulkan]

Bit of a Necro, but I started playing this a few weeks ago.

First time around, I get about 15 years in and a wormhole appears in Sol. Not a big deal... nothing seems to be coming out of it.

About a year later an extremely advanced, hostile alien ship appears and completely ****s my defensive fleet up, then proceeds to eliminate all civilian craft in my home system, bombard my colony on Mars into nothingness, and bomb the **** out of Earth.

I start a new game, about 10 years in this time, wormhole. A smaller, but still advanced ship comes out and rams two ships, destroying them, before destroying itself. Another super-ship comes through shortly after, same result as game one.

My third game, two years in I explore the first jump point, and discover a hostile alien race.

They go through the jump point, which happens to be very close to earth, destroy my defensive fleet, and then bomb the **** out of Earth. My Mars colony hadn't even started at that point.

So, yeah, bad luck so far, and yet I'm still somehow enjoying it. A glorified spreadsheet, and yet it's fun... something is wrong with me.