Regarding the COV-19 virus and its effects:Things are frustrating, and confusing, and scary. People dream up conspiracy theories to help make sense of things. They're not helpful, though, and only serve to make the world more confusing and scarier.We're not going to have that here. If there's new information to be shared, share it, but cite your information to a reputablesource.

4X games owe much to Sid Meier's Civilization series, but we thought we would. Age of Wonders: Planetfall; Galactic Civilizations III; Civilization VI; Europa. That muses boldly on humanity's competitive nature versus its need to survive. Stellaris is a space-faring empire builder that blends the best of. Intrigue is the third expansion for Stardock's massive-scale space strategy game, Galactic Civilizations III. This expansion changes the game in significant ways to extend playability and introduce new dynamics, adding politics, governments, civilization crises, the GNN, elections, and the Galactic Market to the game.

And we swear to God, if anyone comes in here and starts spouting off QAnon bullshit about COVID-19 or literally anything else, you are going to get permabanned so thoroughly that your grandchildren won't be allowed to post here. It is a narrow definition, that's true. Then again, that's sort of the point - 'grand strategy' is a sub-genre within a sub-genre within a sub-genre. Video games - strategy games - 4X games - grand strategy games.

Being narrow is kind of the point, the term is there to be used in relation to other genres in its general vicinity or to denote the particular design philosophy and how it's different from others.And Stellaris was explicitly designed as a 4X-grand strategy hybrid, a sort of middle-ground creature. Makes total sense that it'd be an edge case.

I haven't played Three Kingdoms or Nobunaga's Ambition, though my impression of the former is that it's a sort of lighter strategy game. Total War definitely isn't anything I'd consider to resemble grand strategy, just a 4X-tactics game hybrid.

Civilization is sort of the quintessential 4X. Seems like a lot of grand strategy games let you paint the map if it's your thing. So it's probably not where the big difference is.Hmmm, it's tricky. If I were to differenciate 4X and grand strategy, I'd say Grand Strategy is more concerned with being some sort of simulation. It can be World War II nations, noble famillies, or uniting Sengoku Japan.

4X games are board games, you're playing against Cleopatra to see who's gonna send a colony to alpha centauri first, it's not really concerned with looking like anything realistic. That simulation thing is definitely a key difference, I feel. But don't discount the anti-map-painting thing, either. Sure, world conquest in EUIV is a thing, but it's made harder than it is in most strategy games, where world conquest is explicitly one of the victory conditions (if not the sole one). But in general, when thinking about grand strategy games as a genre, I picture a laconic voice saying 'yeaaah, it's a bit more complicated than that.'

You can play a wide variety of game types, from casual coloring to intense racing. You can even play memory-style games, keeping your mind fresh while you have fun! Play with My Little Pony dolls, search for Pegasus Derpy in colorful environments, and much more! Pick out your favorite pet, choose any color combination you wish, and get ready to play!Our pony games provide the ultimate experience for all types of gamers. Joy pony play.

Obviously, there are still compromises made between simulation and playability and fun, but overall it seeks to reduce the level of abstraction made in strategy games designed as more explicitly competitive. To this end, it tends to incorporate explicit historical special case rules to lay on top of the more generic simulation layer.As examples: in EUIV, a combination of criteria can spawn pirate republics in the area that will proceed to play their own game. Or how there's a chance of a special event firing that will combine the nations of Aragon and Castille. You'd never see in Civilization (at least in its current design philosophy) those kinds of events because they will totally screw up the balance of the game. But in grand strategy, things not being balanced against each other is also part of the point.

You don't pick Netherlands as your country in Hearts of Iron if you're planning to play an even odds game against Nazi Germany. You don't pick a minor count in Crusader Kings if you want your game to play out the same way you would as the emperor of HRE. If it helps, that's a random event, not tied to Earth, and I'd bet that screenshot came from a Materialist playthrough. The in-game text is biased in favor of your faction's ideologies, so a Spiritualist empire will get similarly dismissive flavor text towards atheists. Similarly, Xenophiles will have celebrations in the streets upon discovering alien life, while Xenophobes get riots instead.The in-game text is always written from your own faction's perspective, and will always support your faction's ideology.

Spiritualism vs. Materialism is one of the four major opposing ideology pairs you choose from at game start - the others beings Pacifism vs. Militarism, Xenophilia vs. Xenophobia, and Authoritarianism vs. Among those, you get 3 points to spend, and you can invest 1 or 2 into any single ideology, so you can be Xenophile Spiritualist Egalitarians or Fanatically Authoritarian Pacifists, etc.

If it helps, that's a random event, not tied to Earth, and I'd bet that screenshot came from a Materialist playthrough. The in-game text is biased in favor of your faction's ideologies, so a Spiritualist empire will get similarly dismissive flavor text towards atheists. Similarly, Xenophiles will have celebrations in the streets upon discovering alien life, while Xenophobes get riots instead.The in-game text is always written from your own faction's perspective, and will always support your faction's ideology.

Spiritualism vs. Materialism is one of the four major opposing ideology pairs you choose from at game start - the others beings Pacifism vs. Militarism, Xenophilia vs.

Xenophobia, and Authoritarianism vs. Among those, you get 3 points to spend, and you can invest 1 or 2 into any single ideology, so you can be Xenophile Spiritualist Egalitarians or Fanatically Authoritarian Pacifists, etc. There are 'minor' civilizations in the game. This is when you are merrily exploring the galaxy and find a star system with planets that are already inhabited but not by one of the major spacefaring races. The inhabitants of this planet cannot expand their empire beyond that system.Sol III is indeed probably Earth, but in this game they appear as a minor race rather than a starfaring AI empire.There are a variety of ways you can deal with minor civilizations in game. You can (for example) eradicate them to the last alien and then dust their ashes off the planet so you can settle it. A more peaceful method is to slowly assimilate them over time, graciously allowing them to join your Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere or whatever.The screenshot you posted is a random event that can fire while you are slowly assimilating one of these minor civilizations.

In this specific case, it's an event that adds more time to the assimilation process.The flavor text you receive depends on your own civilization's characteristics. If your civ is Spiritualist, the flavor text will gripe about naive scientists and godless heathens or something along those lines setting back the assimilation process. Sol III us specifically Earth.

In this case, I'd bet a materialist empire came across medieval Earth, tried to uplift them, and got the completely randomly triggered 'technological enlightenment delay' event, and because of medieval Earth being Spiritualist and the player faction being Materialist - opposing philosophies in-game - the flavor text blamed that discrepancy. They could have just as easily gotten the 'technological enlightenment speedup' event - the fact the event fired is not based on Earth in medieval times having the Spiritualist ethic, and it is not Earth-specific.As a real-life atheist myself (but religion-friendly, I might add), I see my own beliefs attacked quite a bit in this game, because I prefer playing Spiritualists.

Without revealing too much, Spiritualists get easier access to some of my favorite technologies, and I really like their bonuses to Unity, which lets you get access to some really cool abilities faster. For instance, Spiritualists can actually access megastructure construction a bit more easily than other factions.