Is FreeOrion Good Alternative of Stellaris?

[CharlesMNeal]

Hey,

I've been playing the Stellaris for quite some time now and wanted to try something else with the same type of gameplay and mechanics, So what I wanted to ask is, is FreeOrion the best alternative of the Stellaris?

[LienRag]

Good, no.
The best, maybe.
We try our best to make it a good game (and I'm only a small part of the team, I contributed very little to the game so far) but it's still a work in progress, in alpha version.
The stable release is 0.4.10 (and we're working on 0.5.0), so very far from finished, though it is already playable.

But you can try it and see if you enjoy it, and think of way to improve it (though it may be better to try FreeOrion extensively before making suggestions, since we didn't make a real FAQ that you can refer to to avoid repeating what has already been discussed).

Feel free to ask questions, though.

[o01eg]

I suppose those are very different games at the very core. One of them is RTS and the other one is TBS.

[LienRag]

Stellaris is RTS ?
I never played it but that's not how I imagine it from all I've read about it (basically, that's it's "Europa Universalis" in space)...

I know for a fact that FreeOrion is not RTS, but would it be very difficult to have a RTS version of FreeOrion ?

[Oberlus]

Stellaris is RTS ?
I never played it

[LienRag]

?

[Oberlus]

It called my attention that you jumped in to say what is a good/bad/best alternative to Stellaris without having played Stellaris. (Also that you speak of yourself as if you where one of the developers.)

[LienRag]

1 - Stellaris is a very famous game, and famous to be good, while FreeOrion is clearly and officially in development stage. So indeed it may seem preposterous for me to have an opinion on Stellaris, but depending on how one view things one may consider that my knowledge of Stellaris is sufficient to warn a newcomer to not expect to find in the current version of FreeOrion a game as balanced and polished than Paradox Games'.

2 - I never pretended to be part of the developer team (and I don't show up on developer team visioconferences for that reason), but I do participate in the forum discussions, and there was a few times that my ideas and suggestions were considered interesting, even if the FOCS code I provided was never integrated to the game (even when I considered it to be mature enough, alas). IIRC, only two of my ideas and remarks where integrated to the game (and two bugs corrected due to my reports), which is indeed much less than yours, but still is non-zero. So I don't believe to have lied by saying that "I contributed very little to the game" - it's an important part of free software development to incite all sort of contributions from any well-meaning person that can follow a minimal set of rules (so that they can be a net gain) and to acknowledge that even very small contributions are contributions.

[Vezzra]

Stellaris is RTS ?

Yes.

I never played it but that's not how I imagine it from all I've read about it (basically, that's it's "Europa Universalis" in space)...

That's correct. And Europa Universalis is RTS too.

AFAIK, all those Grand Strategy Games from Paradox are RTS (Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, Victoria, Hearts of Iron, Stellaris)

I know for a fact that FreeOrion is not RTS, but would it be very difficult to have a RTS version of FreeOrion ?

Most likely. TBS and RTS have to be designed quite differently, especially when it comes to multiplayer, and turning one into the other is probably impossible in most cases (meaning, impossible to achieve with reasonable effort).

[LienRag]

Europa Universalis is RTS too.

Really ? I've played (not for long, and very badly, as I didn't have the manual) Europa Universalis (first of its name IIRC) a long time ago and I don't remember it being a RTS...

[Vezzra]

Really ? I've played (not for long, and very badly, as I didn't have the manual) Europa Universalis (first of its name IIRC) a long time ago and I don't remember it being a RTS...

To be honest, I can't say anything about the original EU, I've never played or even seen it. However, I own EU4, and that one is definitely RTS. I also own CK2 and Stellaris, both are RTS too.

[Bromstarzan]

Yes Free Orion is a good alternative to Stellaris once you learn the game mechanics.
In fact, it is super cool. WIth a multi-monitor setup, you feel you rule the universe - or is a victim

[LienRag]

How do you get a multi-monitor setup for FreeOrion ?
I have three monitors at work and sometimes I stay after hours to play, but never knew it was possible to use more than one screen for FreeOrion...

[Bromstarzan]

How do you get a multi-monitor setup for FreeOrion ?
I have three monitors at work and sometimes I stay after hours to play, but never knew it was possible to use more than one screen for FreeOrion...

I use SRWE (https://github.com/dtgDTGdtg/SRWE) to make a borderless dual monitor setup. Pretty straight forward.
Try it out and see if you like it.

[LienRag]

Thanks.
Seems windows-only though.
(I mean Windows, the OS, not windows, the displays)