Title. I like games that require a lot of work to get into. Here are some of my favorites:
- Eve Online
- Dwarf Fortress
- Satisfactory
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It’s been pretty close to 30 years for me. Beautiful game, but so hard to get anywhere!
RimWorld. Easy to play, hard to master. Also Rust
Figured out RimWorld? Great, add 20 mods and learn it all again. Repeat when you get bored.
Hahaha exactly
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I don’t even remember what vanilla taste like.
Same tbh, can’t live without QOL mods
Factorio for sure. It just so satisfying to build a well oiled factory.
Can also recommend Dyson Sphere Program, little less polish than Factorio imho but it’s basically building production facilities spanning a universe.
It’s amazing how much is possible in Factorio. I don’t think any other game has given me half as many “aha!” moments from coming up with (what I think to be) a clever solution for a problem.
I approached it as a puzzle game and think that served me well. I have on the order of 200 hours and I’ve yet to try building a proper megabase.
The factory must grow
I started Kerbal Space Program this weekend. It’s pretty complicated.
There’s some book about orbital dynamics that hit the Amazon bestseller list because of Kerbal players.
I know that people to get into it seem to like the realism mods that make it even more complicated and less forgiving.
I watched some one being tutored on it and it completely lost me. The real science in that game is waaaay beyond me. Kudos to the people that get it and enjoy it though.
These games are my goto for a “complex but still fun” mood:
- X series (X3 and X4)
- Endless Space 2, Endless Legend
- Crusader Kings 2
- Stellaris
I never really understood how obtuse learning Stellaris can be. I’ve been playing it since release and have been with it through every step of its massive changes. This year I had two friends pick it up and attempting to explain the basics plus the intricacies along with slowing down my playstyle in order to explain why I do what I do was a learning experience in and of itself. I wish the new coop mode had been out when I was initially showing them the ropes. They’ve since started to to get the hang of things though and I’m proud!
In it you write JavaScript to hack things to be able to write more JavaScript to hack more things. It’s very fun. Especially if you don’t know how to write any JavaScript.
Factorio
Stellaris - Big real-time space strategy game
Dominions 5 - Fantasy turn based fantasy strategy game with tons of nations often based on real world mythology mixed with fantasy elements.
Kingdom Death: Monster - Tabletop (play on tabletop sim) game that mixes Darksouls/Monster Hunter like boss-fights with a little bit of Darkest Dungeons like colony management/attrition/madness
Kingdom Death: Monster is awesome. Love it to death. It’s also absolutely terrifying in so many ways. From learning the rules, setting up the game and obviously playing it. Unfortunately we never play it because of location. Sometimes a years goes by between sessions and we are always too overwhelmed setting everything up and getting back into the rules.
There is a pretty decent scripted tabletop simulator for Kingdom Death. Me and a couple buddies player five or six session and we were able to pick up and play pretty quickly.
I was super in to Dominions 3 back in the day, played it online a ton, won a few big games. It’s got a brutal learning curve though. Late game when the turns were on a 96 hour timer and that still felt too short…
Shenzhen I/O and TIS-100 take some getting used to.
The Witness is amazing, if you like puzzle games that take a lot of time to figure out the rules.
Dwarf Fortress of course. Other good mentions are Factorio and Rimworld, if you understand them and are done with it, install a couple hundred mods and have a whole different game!
I won’t lie the new steam release of Dwarf Fortress has helped alot but there’s still so much that’s possible and tiny little things that affect other things.
100% Stellaris (assuming it counts)
I just started this last night. Reminds me of Civ5 but in space. I’m enjoying it so far. So much stuff to do.
Victoria 2. Haven’t gotten around to trying the sequel yet, but will eventually. Been playing a bunch of Dwarf Fortress as of late too.
I played like only one real game, as Spain, and I just repeatedly took took bites out of Portugal, until my ally France turned on me. Lost some ground but was able to stop them. I should play it again.
It’s a mod, but the original long war mod for XCOM 2012 holds a very special place in my heart. You basically have to have reference material open because of how large the research trees got, along with just no ability to really in game teach you about any of the mechanical changes.
Maybe not quite as sprawling as something like a paradox game or dwarf fortress, but LW also demands you fully understand the complexities it introduces over the base game or you can find yourself in unwinnable or extremely difficult to pull out of positions, and you easily end up playing tons of missions in a doomed session if you miss, say, upgrading your interceptors enough quickly enough to pop the overseer UFO or find yourself in a massive resource pit because you sold all your elerium early and now you can’t keep up techwise.
The sequel mod for xcom2 never to grabbed my attention the same way long war 1 did.
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RimWorld and Cosmoteer.
