nope.
The best mix of games would be Star Trek Armada II, Homeworld, MOO and SOASE. Games without campaigns are just boring as hell to me. I damn near turned the SOASE disk into a coffee holder (I microwave old disks for 5 seconds before tossing them out) until finding out about modding. Everything StarClad advertised the game to be seems to be false advertising. Newer games are seizing on these overlooked areas.
Taken from the back cover of the Trinity Box...
Explore and Conquer Star Systems
Amass and Command Epic Fleets
... after researching for 45 minutes you might have one. 1 hour certainly, but most just spam ships. On your next game, you do it all over again because your scientists are like lobotomized chihuahuas trying to build doghouses out of peanut butter and pancakes.
Discover space anomalies and artifacts
... discover also that they don't do much but sure look pretty. All the artifacts discovered don't carry over so you're once again doing everything from scratch every game.
Fortify and develop key planets
Yeah, it's like that.
Visit distant star systems in real time
... only to discover every solar system and map looks like William S. Burroughs played marbles with the universe.
Build a Thriving Empire
Master culture and trade
... by building 3 civilian labs, research culture tower and tradeport -BUILD THEM! BUILD MORE! BUILD A TON OF THEM!
Forge Alliances and declare bounty
... which have no impact whatsoever from one game to the next because there is no true master map that shows where the hell the 3 empires are, what their borders are, that there are changes in the borders over time... NADA -it's too much like other games and this is a 4X game like that is enough of an excuse to have 40 maps that might even have the same planet names as a different map you played 3 days ago.
Research Advanced Technologies
... for over an hour before anything really exciting happens and then lose at the end of the game.
... and here we are at the MP tournament, minute 34... Player 2 just colonized a third world and is struggling to build extractors on it -once again- his economy is really suffering... OOOH! Player 1 just sent out another scout right into a pirate base and yes... players 3 and 4 have been disconnected. STAY TUNED FOR MORE ACTION!
Customize mighty capital ships
... which mean you have 4 abilities (3 that have 3 levels and 1 that has only 1 ability) so you only really choose which of the 3 to select first and all upgrades are coded so you can't do much really.
Compete online in epic multiplayer
... because you are sick of the Ai and want to become sick of people.
I just expected the game to be good.
