What makes a good 4x space game economy model?

[adamsolo]

So what makes a good 4x space game economy model?

I invite you to read my latest article: "What makes a good 4x space game economy model?" at SpaceSector.com.

 

Let me know your opinion here or in the blog forum as you prefer.

 

Cheers

Adam Solo

https://www.spacesector.com

[j'ordos]

What? No Ascendancy?

[Space Voyager]

Or Alpha Centauri? Kidding, you can't have them all...

 

Anyway, I love the article. You could go more in-depth but I know it would take much more time. In-depth as to dissect what influences the game has on the economy. Like, can you set up a trade network, build trade ships, research economy-based technologies etc. I think you have the basic SotS, right? With expansions a whole lot more came, especially in economy model.

 

But if base-game comparison was your goal, I have no objections. I kept playing GC2 after finishing SotS review. Never went back to GC after SotS:Born of Blood expansion... It brought trade-ship building, trading with other races and filling up trade routes. And A Murder of Crows brought huge population (and therefore economic) changes, like having other race's civilians on your planets or simply to overpopulate the planets and loose resources but have more trade routes for quite a long time.

 

A short rambling of my own on general space strategy game economy mechanic;

I love when a game has several economic influences. But there shouldn't be more than for instance two or three crucial/necessary ones, other influences should only offer limited impact. Also I don't like it when one otherwise non-crucial economic strategy overshadows all others in all circumstances.

 

Building structures (including economic) per planet is IMO a huge waste of time when you can have 100+ colonies. Up to 30-40 (Total War series) it can be fun. So this is very game scope dependant.