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Star Ruler [Download]

Platform : Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
3.0 out of 5 stars 19
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Download size: 168 MB
Download time: 26 seconds on broadband, 6 hours, 49 minutes, 36 seconds on dial-up

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Star Ruler [Download]

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Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Research new kinds of weapons, engines, shields, and more, all of which retain their unique benefits as the game progresses, with a research web whose contents are shuffled every game at your option.

Exploit interstellar phenomena such as asteroid belts and stars and exploit them for yourself or destroy them to deny your foes. Create and destroy new worlds through advanced technological research. Match your strategy against up to 10 other opponents (online or LAN-linked). Save the game when dawn breaks and boot it back up at dusk. It isn't over until you say it is! Drop in and drop out at any point; disconnecting players will not disrupt the game!

Your weapons, your ships, your rules: Almost the entire game can be modified through Notepad! Easily add new models and particle effects to the game with “out-of-the-box” developer tools. Create new weapons in seconds; create new AI’s through scripts! The Galaxy is yours to Rule!

  • Vast, Procedurally Generated Galaxies
  • Intricate Ship Design and Exciting Combat
  • Unique Research System
  • Easy to use interface, complex gameplay
  • Multiplayer over LAN or internet for up 10 opponents

System Requirements
Minimum Specifications: OS:Win 7, Vista and XP Processor:2.5 GHz Dual Core RAM:1024 MB Hard Drive:500 MB Video Card:256 MB Additional Info:OpenGL 2.1 or better, screen resolution: 1024x768 or higher

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Customer reviews

3 out of 5 stars
3 out of 5
19 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Mountaineer
1.0 out of 5 stars Totally Disappointed
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2013
Verified Purchase
I bought this game thinking it looked like an in-depth, space strategy game. Instead I bought a program that will not work at all on Windows 7 64-bit. There are a number of threads on the official forums trying to address why some people have instant crashes, but none of the solutions work for me. This is what I get for buying from a small, indie developer. What's more is that I can't even return it! So they have my money, and I have no benefit to show for it. THANKS
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Pmax3
2.0 out of 5 stars Not a Very Good Game
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2012
Verified Purchase
the Diplomatic side of the game is very one sided - against the player - takes a long time to get any really good tech so that you can build anything a value. By then its not worth playing the game anymore

If you do not have anything better to do - then its a game to waste time on - other its not worth the money.
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Ken Bassford
3.0 out of 5 stars A Fair Entry in the 4X Genre
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2013
Verified Purchase
Pros - Good game mechanics compared to many other entries in this genre.
Cons - Boring, weak UI supplemented by overpowering strength, mundane graphics, lots of work required to get the installation working right due to poor programing practices.

I love turn based, 4X games. I own just about every one published that was half way decent (and a few that were not), usually just after release. That's why I was surprised when I found this game. My initial research prior to buying indicated that Star Ruler, while not tuned based, still fit the criteria I look for in a title. I bought the game via direct download from Amazon and installed it. Two things were immediately apparent that might turn off some gamers.

The first was that the game utilized the Spring framework for most of it's functionality. This tends to result in primitive OpenGL graphics unless you have a good programmer can work around the basic drawing functions. So if you're looking for Civ V style graphics, you're going to be disappointed. Myself personally, I support programmers who dare to bring their ideas to fruition, so this was no big thing.

The second was that the program requires patching,... lots of patching! Worse, the patching is not documented in such a way guarantee a functional installation upon conclusion of the installation and patching. It took three tries before I succeeded in creating an installation not prone to the problems that plague many players report (judging by the support forums). If you have a Win 7, 64-bit system, you will have to create your own Start Menu shortcuts, change permissions on the installation folder and all subfolders so that the installing user has complete control (even if you have Admin privileges), and keep an eye on which dll's it wants to see; do all this before you attempt to start the game! You should start the executable up after install, but before patching the installation; don't play a game, just get to the opening screen. If it starts, this is a good sign, you should then exit and begin patching. Patching has to be done IN ORDER, without skipping any single patch. You do not have to start the game in between patches, just keep patching. If you do this, your installation should work fine. I will say that when compared to incredibly poorly programmed games like MOO III, getting this one to work relatively flawlessly is not that hard. When playing, avoid creating galaxies of over 200 star systems (I promise you, this is really large in terms of playability) and over 6 AI opponents and you will not experience the game crashing too often. Go larger and you will eventually reach a point where your game will always seize up. Being that I run on a very clean installation of Win 7 loaded on an i7 980 with 12 Gigs of RAM, it is not a matter of computing power that causes the crashes. If the game does crash, restarting at a point 2 minutes prior to the crash usually works. To give one a sense of how frequent the crashes are I'm talking about, a 170 star galaxy with 4 AI opponents will allow me to play for 4 about hours before crashing. Restarts will continue working for a similar period of time if you haven't gone too large.

While I do not like a lot of fluff or cut scenes, being that many times they are used to cover up for a bad program, this game could use some. Civilization, the gold standard for how a 4X game should function, should be looked on by the programmers for inspiration. The game mechanics are good, just not flashy.

I would say that this is an average entry in the 4X genre when compared to other games.
3 people found this helpful
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John
4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good game
Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2014
Verified Purchase
I don't play a lot of games like this so I have nothing to compare it to. The learning curve is a little steep, the spacing between systems is a little short, the tech 'tree' could be changed to an actual tree instead of a blob and the AI is inconsistent.

My first game I played on easy thinking it would actually be easy, I suggest playing your first game on the easiest setting with a poor defender. I didn't encounter enemy ships until about 3-4 hours into the game and I thought I had some great ships, they had 200k HP. The first enemy ship I ran across had 2 million HP and it was a fleet of like 20 against my handful of mosquitoes. I died and started over, died again. Set the difficulty setting to easiest and stomped the enemy. I put the setting to easier and died, this time it was my small fleet of 'uber' 2 million HP ships against the AI's huge fleet of 10 million HP ships. Ultimately I played around with ship designs and I'm holding the line. I'm in a galaxy of 80 systems, I have 10 and the AI has about 70 but with my 'secret' weapon (a fleet of 100 torpedo equiped 1.2 million HP cruisers) I can take down a small fleet of the AI's 20-50 million HP capital ships.

To make a long story short, it's a worth it game. First contact is always interesting because you never know how powerful the AI is going to be. Can't wait to build some really big ships.
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Brad Bonham
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Fun
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2013
Verified Purchase
Was looking for a RTS space game and read the reviews (You can also try out a demo I think on the SR website) and decided to purchase since it sounded like what I was looking for. Game rocks - is the full package. Fully customizable, easy controls, and somewhat easy to learn to play - just do the tutorial game and you'll get the general overview. The technology tree is complete and the ability to design your own ships is the best and kind of a game in itself! Largest drawback was dealing with the patches... took me a few installations before I could get the game to work right on my machine. Well worth it though - have spent countless hours being well entertained and have yet to grow tired of it. Am 41 years old and was just my speed I thought but told my 13 year old son about it and he ended up getting it as well and claims to enjoy it as much as I.
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xrobertcmx
1.0 out of 5 stars Wow
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2012
Verified Purchase
This game could be so good, but the camera and ship design ruin it. Had it I been able to focus on what I wanted and maybe if they had simplified the ship design. I'm sad I just wasted $18.
One person found this helpful
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Wayne J. Villines
3.0 out of 5 stars I played it before - wish I didn't play it again
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2013
Verified Purchase
When I buy games, there is one thing I don't like -- different games using the same graphics and interfaces as one that I have played before... it is like they just took the old game and gave it three or so extra bits of glitter... At least when the makers of the Casear series made Pharoah... they created new graphics and slightly different environments.... I had hoped that this would have been a return of the older quality rather than a "if they can use it so can I" rehash.

So, I have played this before and did not realize it until AFTER I bought and downloaded it...

would that there would be a good old-school quality to games coming out now with the new story flare to give new life -- especially since it seems that movies - tv shows and music are all just an alteration of the older stuff... one would hope that game makers would be the relief, but no such luck here
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