No, not really. Firaxis embraced many of the fanbased communities, though, so an "official community" was really never a thing.
I don't even know why people consider "cheating" a viable gaming choice when playing against other players. To me, it's an immediate indication of bad character and a demonstration of personally unethical ideals. Some children could be exempt, a bit, from such judgement, but anyone over the age of 10 should be forming a much sounder world-view. Sadly, that's not the case these days....A significant proportion of people would cheat, because they'd assumed there'd be no way they could be unmasked.
You're missing out. Seriously. It's a wholly different experience, but a better one in many, many, ways. Each faction "feels different." That's a different quality than just "plays different." Faction leaders are meaningful and the world "feels alive." Every player not only has to deal with the other factions, but the world itself and very significant choices to be made about the future. It is @$$@$%'in awesome. It is not a classic "Civilzation Game" experience and it's all the better for it.You know, I've never played Alpha Centauri, but have heard good things about it. -
Edit:Add - I wanted to also say that there is definitely a sort of "story" in the game. It's one of the first 4X games that "evolves" story elements as you play. Also, Faction Leaders are fairly unique when compared to previous Civ games and their personalities are tailored accordingly. And, eventually units can be customized and upgraded all the way to upgrading specific bits of the unit and giving units unique looks via the same sort of "attach to null" method that Galactic Civilization used. ie: "So, you want to create a unit that's made out of a hoverbike with a big blaster canon hanging off of it? No problem! Oh, you just want to do that for only one unit? NO PROBLEM!" A lot of unique ideas in that game. There is, however, one downside at least with the version that I played - There isn't a "Music Track." Instead, it's a long droning out bit of background noise, IIRC. I think they added one, though, in a later release. But, if not, just play some nice sort of sci-fi background music. Hmm, maybe buying the X4 Music Pack would be a good choice?
That's a tall order to fill, especially if you're talking about one that is multiplayer friendly. For myself, I prefer Civ IV with some caveats. I haven't played V or VI, so can't speak to them....I challenge anyone to find a better civ-style 4x turn based wargame in the last 20 years. - If they do, I'd be delighted to play it.
One issue is critical, IMO, in all Civ games up to Civ V, in which I think they put some serious effort into combating - The "Trade" AI. In Civ IV, mods were made to attempt to correct this problem, but none of them were fully successful while still keeping Diplomacy and Trade alive in their version of the game. The problem revolved around an extremely easy way to win the game by taking advantage of how Civ's Diplomacy and Trade AI worked, specifically with how much it valued technologies. "Tech Trading" was the way a player could literally bankrupt the AI and force it to do what they wanted, whenever they wanted. I had a friend who I played multiplayer with and he used that strategy all the time. He used it so regularly that I don't think he could have played the game without using that strategy. Granted, it's "in the game" and, thus, people think it's an available strategy, but it completely breaks gameplay... For the Tech-Trading player, the game gets to the point where the AI's are reliant on the player to sell them Technology because they don't have any money to do anything else other than buy Technology from the player... The player rapes their wallets and ends the game fighting the last stack of club-wielding savages with their tanks and bombers ...
And, don't get me started on "Bomber Strategy" which is wtfstupid-OP, eventually.
That'd be cool! What you guys should really try to do is Twitch stream your games! There are bunches of people that would love to see multiplayer 4X gaming, especially Civ games! And, you'd attract some attention, maybe get some others playing, and might be able to at least finance your servers with the proceeds. Hmmm... What about a sort of "Competitive 4X Multiplayer Stream" kind of channel if you get enough members? You could leverage that to build your group membership. You'd probably have to have a few more modern additions to your playlist, but the backbone could be all those "Great Oldies" that people remember having so much fun with.If we do start a league, I'll certainly supply you with a link.
Do you want to stay in the historical "Earth" milieu, or would you be open to fantasy/sci-fi/alternative settings? There are all sorts of good choices out there, from "Dominions" series (Supports a large number of players, PBEM too I think), "Endless Legend" (not sure how it works in MP) up through "Europa Universalis" and the like....But anyway, to underline, if anyone knows of a more modern Civ style 4x 'wargame' online/PBEM I'd love to know about it.
I cut my teeth on "Empire Deluxe" back in the day.
That was a heck of a lot of multiplayer fun, all things considered. Simple play, but simple can be a lot of fun.PS - On the OT of "Playing other games" I'm about to go click "Purchase" on "Kenshi." I think my current rig will play it, but I haven't yet put one together to play X4 with. That should come in the next month or so, I think.
