eXplorminate – Details, episodes & analysis

Rob, William, and David speak about their experience with ARA: History Untold, as the rest of the gang chimes in with questions and more! Support this podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/eXplorminatepodcast

The gang got together and spoke about all of the recent news coming out of Gamescom, including initial reactions to Civilization 7 and the new gameplay footage of Ara: History Untold.

Ben and Drexy sit down with Richard Yorke, a strategy gamer grognard, and discuss strategy and wargames.

Rob and Ben sat down with THE DasTactic and had a great discussion with him on his YouTube origins, 4X games, and much more!

Shadow Empire is a post-apocalyptic hybrid sci-fi strategy game mixing the 4X genre with military wargaming and role-playing games. It features a highly detailed procedurally generated planet creation system that creates a wide variety of believable worlds to play on each with their own simulated economies and populations, a sophisticated logistics and supply system, procedural generation of units and one of the most detailed combat systems we've ever seen in the 4X genre.

Join Rob and Ben as they speak with Vic from VR Designs about Shadow Empire in light of its upcoming June 4th release date.

Rob takes a break this week, as Ben hosts Kirk and Eric as they talk about the recent 4X news and what they've been playing recently. 

OUTLINE:

• 00:46 - Alliance of the Sacred Suns
• 02:52 - Field of Glory: Empires Persia 550BCE- 330BCE
• 11:30 - Do people still read game manuals?
• 12:12 - What is "TortugaPower Game" category as coined by Drexy?
• 12:57 - AI War 2
• 17:46 - Total War: Warhammer 2 Greenskins update and The Warden & The Paunch DLC
• 24:52 - Shadow Empire
• 48:35 - Aurora 4X C#
• 55:55 - Armageddon Empires
• 57:28 - Solium Infernum
• 59:26 - Pax Nova and its Steam Reviews
• 1:00:51 - Emperor of the Fading Suns
• 1:06:10 - Drexy's Playing X4
• 1:06:45 - Star Sector

Rob and Ben had the awesome opportunity to sit down with Soren and Leyla Johnson of Mohawk Games and pick their brains about their newest 4X hit, Old World. Please consider supporting this channel and our site, www.eXplorminate.co, by using the "Creator Tag" EXPLORMINATE on Epic Games Store, or by contributing here: https://www.patreon.com/eXplorminate. if you plan to purchase Old World, please do so here: https://store.epicgames.com/explormin...

For a general layout of the interview, see our outline here:

OUTLINE:

• For those that don’t know, can you briefly describe Old World?
• What brought upon the idea of Old World? Was it something you always wanted to make?
• What lessons from Civ 4 did you learn and what have you done to implement them?
• Is there something you’re unhappy with right now?
• 1UPT vs Doom Stack: what are your thoughts?
• Combat in a 4X: why does it generally suck?
• Tell us more about the events? Leyla, I understand you’re writing a lot of them?
• What was the inspiration for the Orders system?
• Can you tell us about the AI and what its intentions are? How difficult is it to develop competent AI? What about AI in the late game?
• Was it the intention to keep games shorter?
• Plans for future content down the line? You supported Offworld so well, I can imagine new cultures, different geographic zones, etc.
• Have you played any recent 4X games recently?
• Any that stand out in general and if so, which ones are pushing the genre forward?
  

Join Rob, Ben, and Drexy as they discuss the news of the past couple weeks and then launch into a deep discussion of Soren Johnson's new 4X game, Old World. ----The 4Xchange #5 Outline---- Old World, Formerly "10 Crowns", Out!: A game that we're clearly a bit enamored with here at eXplorminate, Old World is set to release into Early Access at 11a EDT tomorrow, May 5th! As a gentle reminder, we'd love for those of you who plan to purchase Old World to use the creator tag "EXPLORMINATE" at checkout in the Epic Games Store or you can use THIS LINK HERE (we love you!). Pax Nova eXits Early Access!: As it entered into v1.0, Pax Nova gained a lot of content, AI improvements, pacing improvements, and much more. Rob is pretty positive on it so far, but we will have our final critical take on it within the next couple of weeks. Galactic Civilizations 3 v4.0 Opt-In Now Available!: Stardock has provided an Opt-In for their upcoming v4.0 update to their flagship 4X title. It improves how the planets look and makes a LOT of balance changes! Stellaris Dev Diaries #177 and #178 Released: #177 outlined the changes to edicts coming and #178 outlined the changes to Federation Laws and more. Godking: Master of the Rituals Updates: A few updates to this promising game have been released, including the latest Opt-In that adds a new faction and a lot of new sounds and sound effects. The updates are coming in hard and fast! AI War 2 Reached v2.031 "Faction Color Choice": Lots of improvements and updates, including full GOG compatibility. Stay tuned for a continuance of Rob's Let's Play of it. Topic of the ‘Cast: Old World First, the bad: Epic Store Memory Leak Drexy’s issues The good: Orders system Events Units have different attacks The pacing

Join the boys as they dive deep on the eXploration mechanic of 4X games and try to figure out what works, what doesn't, and what could be improved! 

Outline:

The Newsworthy Stuff:

• Old World, Formerly “10 Crowns”, Formally Announced: Huge news out of Mohawk Games was the announcement of Old World, which was formerly introduced as 10 Crowns. While it plays eXtremely well and has a huge amount of potential, some players have been very open in their dislike for Old World‘s Epic Games Store eXclusivity. Early Access coming SOON!
• Age of Wonders: Planetfall – Invasions Announced: A full-sized expansion is coming to Planetfall, featuring world events, invasions, and a new race, the Shakarn, a lizard-like alien race bent on revenge! Expect more as we’re able to reveal more!
• Galactic Civilizations 3 v4.0 Dev Diary: We’re finally getting information on what v4.0 has in store for us Galactic Civilizations 3 fans! Lots of changes to how the early game will work, planet management, and more! Check the notes!
• Interstellar: Space Genesis Patched to v1.1.2: Some quality of life improvements and other bug fixes have made it into this quickly-improving game.
• Speaking of Let’s Plays, we’ve recently got our hands on the upcoming Shadow Empire, a pseudo-4X/Grand Strategy hybrid, and “Battlemode” Ben has been giving it the tutorial series!
• Alliance of the Sacred Suns v.9.1.2 has dropped: A pretty good summary of the additions can be found right here:

Fairly large patch uploaded – .9.1.2. Fixes a bunch of military-related UI and logic issues, and adds some additional functionality. Also rebalances the economy so it doesn’t crash so hard early. Check it out! #indiegame#games #gamedev #indiegamedev #unity #gamedevelopment

This Episode’s Topic: eXploration

Why is it so important?

Why is it so fun?

Good eXamples:

• Distant Worlds
• Galactic Civilizations 3
• Stellaris
• Interstellar Space: Genesis

The Weekly eXchange is dead. Long live The Weekly eXchange!

In its place is a new, non-scheduled 4X gaming podcast, "The 4Xchange". This podcast is already seeing a total revamp of its format. Instead of just news, each week we'll have a topic we dive deep in to.

This week, we bring on special guest Ray Fowler as we discuss why Master of Orion 1 is the space 4X to beat and what makes it so special.

Outline The Newsworthy Stuff:

• Interstellar Space: Genesis released v1.1 in “unstable beta” format: There are so many improvements made that it’d be hard to list them all and why should we when that link will list them all? Graphics, heroes, bug fixes and more! 
• Fort Triumph to release on April 16th: A game that Rob has played a bunch and really enjoys its “Heroes of Might and Magic meets X-Com” gameplay, it will finally exit Early Access in less than two weeks!
• Dev Diary #174 “Federations is Out, Now What?” and Dev Diary #175 “Space Fauna” for Stellaris released: Paradox has given some hints as to what comes next after Federations in #174 and then shows off some upcoming changes to space fauna in #175.
• Alliance of the Sacred Suns “Military System Part 2: The Ground Combat System” Dev Diary: A gigantic outline of what’s to come in AotSS for its ground combat system. A lot to digest and read about, but it sounds like a simple, yet effective, system for ground combat in this very promising game.
• https://youtu.be/ssine8ECV0Y: Amplitude Studios’ upcoming historical 4X, Humankind, received a new “Shaping Your Legacy” video on how you’ll obtain victory in Humankind. 
• Godking: Master of the Rituals Released: Out now in Early Access for the too-high price of $40

Discussion on Master of Orion 1 and Remnants of the Precursors:

• Why Master of Orion 1 is still very, very good:
  Simple mechanics
  Very little micromanagement
  Subtle, yet significant racial asymmetry
  The importance of fleets
  Not overly bloated
  And more...
  

Remnants of the Precursors will be available FOR FREE on Easter, April 12th, at www.RemnantsofthePrecursors.com.