Looking for game suggestions. Also, Europa Universalis 3

The Game Room
1

Tons of value here, two topics in one!

OK, getting back into gaming but not so much that I want to improve my rig. Fortunately, I have not been a dedicated gamer for over 30 years, so I don’t care if the game is from 1993, 2003, 2023.

There are two types of games I enjoy:

  1. Trading simulations. Kind of prefer commodities, not stocks, but both are fine. Don’t necessarily want a business simulation (not looking to run a restaurant or build a corp or design a roller coaster). To be frank, the more spreadsheety, the better. (Is “spreadsheety” a word? It is now!) I really enjoyed Stars!, a 1993 game which was effectively a massive spreadsheet, so the more tables with figures, the better.

  2. Space fighting sims. Simple space fighting sims. Not interested in hitting CTRL-Shift-F7 so I can add 20% more power to my rear shields, I’m thinking more along the lines of Subdivision: Infinity, where I just upgrade my ship between missions and go out and kill sh…, uh, stuff. I’m 55 years old, I’m not interested in fighting my controllers like I would have been were I 15.

I was thinking Eve Online might fill both of these, but my God, it looks vast and complicated as shit. And I don’t want to spend a year, more, grinding. Ugh.

My major platforms are GOG and Steam, if that matters.

OK, so this morning bought EU3 from GOG for, like $4 or so. Definitely seems up my alley, but is also amazingly complicated - but, as an old-time Civilization player, in ways I can understand right from the bat.

Would love some advice, links, tips and tricks.

I started my first game as Philip in Burgandy (1399), really not doing much but seeing what happens as time goes by (Eventually, if you do very little, France takes over, lol), futzing with the controls and testing them out. Enjoy it, but I do have some questions:

  1. Should I spend $6 on the Collection Upgrade?:
  1. How does research work? For the life of me, I can’t find a research tree. Is there one?

Yes, I know there is a EU4. EU3 just seemed more my style. And cheaper too.

2

Paradox’s grand strategy games are the very definition of “spreadsheets with graphics.” If you like EU3, keep an eye out for their other games. The Paradox business model is very much “release one hundred million DLCs,” but their games are solid and collections go on sale fairly often.

3

Sounds like you need Starsector to me: https://fractalsoftworks.com/

It’s a very good indie 2D space sim that’s based around trading and combat (and making a space empire, but that’s pretty minimal.) The PC spec requirements are extremely minimal.

4

Thanks, Palooka! For $15, I decided why not. Will try it later this week, appreciate the suggestion. :smiley:

5

Elite Dangerous via Steam. You don’t have to PvP (open mode) if you don’t want to, you can permanently instance yourself (solo mode) or join like-minded PvE commanders (private group mode). I’m in the largest PvE private group; we got so big that the game had to split us into five (IIRC) regional subgroups.

Nine-year-old, nearly 800-post thread here:

6

I was just on Facebook, where I found this review for SpaceBourne 2. A $20 procedurally generated single player space sim which recently entered Early Access on Steam.