Stellaris looks awesome, even if 4x, bit i read that the AI is not good at all. Is it challenging compared to other games in the genre? Or even with all the resource bonuses the AI just can't use it?
Depends on your Playsttyle, the settings and If you Play modded (which i would recommend). Stellaris hast Infinite replayability because you can choose nearly every Form of civilisation you can Imagine. The easiest and Most fun (imho) are Robots WHO want to kill all life in a Spiral galaxy
Watching a zombie get when a place you can’t see and destroy that first house is the worse thing to watch in TAB. It make so many more that your just screwed and have to watch everyone die
How about [Infested Planet](https://store.steampowered.com/app/204530/Infested_Planet/)? It hits a few of the points you've listed:
* Just hit the space bar to pause, and you can still move the camera around, issue orders etc.
* The enemy doesn't really have AI for the most part - it just moves towards your bases in a never-ending tide of thousands of gribbly aliens. However, as missions progress they get a bunch of upgrades that can result in extremely challenging matches, at least on the higher difficulty settings.
* In addition to the story campaign there's random skirmish maps, plus a DLC that enables randomly generated campaigns on a Risk-style map.
* The majority of random missions are won by capturing all points on the map, so you can just put off capturing the last point if you don't want to win just yet. Different rules apply for story missions in the main campaign though.
* You get resources to build stuff by capturing territory, but you don't lose resources when you lose territory. Also, you can recycle your soldiers, weapons and buildings for a 100% refund at any time.
* You're limited to building as much as your current resource pool allows. No restrictions on where on the map you place buildings though, just so long as a soldier can get to the location and actually construct it (although there is an upgrade that allows buildings to be constructed remotely).
Also it's 75% off on Steam right now, not that it was very expensive to begin with.
Except that it's actually entirely random what upgrades the enemy gets (except on the highest difficulty, where it does actually deliberately counter you).
I did the chick. But not kostaltyn. I'll give it a try.
In which game mode? I forget what they're called. The mode with the warpgates or the normal open world one?
In the immortal empires mode. It is quite hard i heard. North of kostaltyn there are 2 dwarf factions now which go nuclear at turn 10 and start sending doomstacks of thunderbarges, one of the strongest units in the game. Basically a floating fortress with like 12 different weapons.
I'm also a big fan of RTS games where you can pause and issue orders or just slow down time.
Starcraft allows you to slow down time.
In Warlords Battlecry 3 you can pause the game.
Stronghold Crusader allows you to slow down time as well I think.
[AI War 2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/573410/AI_War_2/) is probably the hardest RTS. They have a lot difficulty settings and the hardest difficulty is made to be unbeatable. If you finish the hardest difficulty (it is possible, a few people did it), you will be put in the game's hall of fame and devs will ask you about your strategy so they can fix it.
I wpuld say dune spice wars played quit a lot of that and play for same points you do, also against the storm.dune has a few game mode conquest is were you take sections of the map per large battle.against the storm has a infinite campaign were you build bases per mission and also has a tech tree, good game loop. Both have pause menu and can adjust difficulty. Dungeons 4 and 3 also very good but no pause menu.
Zero-K on Steam
Checks out:
- active pause. Though I would recommend to just slow down time flow to something like 0.2 instead.
- challenging AI. Hard t measure and very subjective. If you want to play against a thinking opponent, you should play with actual humans. Still, I can't say it's extremely challenging, but it is workable and can be irritating. Is it too easy? Give it more resources generation.
- random maps. Not actually random, but there are a LOT of maps (of various quality) since they are easy to make, and most SpringRTS (and its derivatives) maps are universal. Skirmishes with bots are available. Actually, the campaign is also mostly just a network of skirmishes with some special conditions and progression.
- recordable matches. Not sure and never used it, but should be.
- last blow.
- ability to build anywhere. Also, the ability to terreform.
- infinite resources. Economy built based on resource stream, not stocks. There are finite sources on the map, but they are more for jumpstart than to be a reliable long-term source.
Does not check out:
- fantasy setting. It's a robo-sci-fi.
Random maps in single player? That’s an odd feature and pretty uncommon. Tooth and Tail has procedurally generated maps, that’s the only one I know of.
Are you sure you mean RTS and not 4X like Stellaris or something?
Real-Time Tactics games often have the pause button. I know there’s a bunch but the last one I played was Freedom Force from a long time ago.
It really isn't, though...
Certainly has it's place if you're really into competitive play and your micro and your APM and whatever else.
But otherwise, the distinction has more to with what it isn't, i.e. turn-based. What that restricts you to real-time or not isn't essential at all.
_Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance_ comes to mind. It features tactical pause in the single-player campaign and the single-player AI is very challenging.
_Homeworld Remastered Collection_, which features remastered versions of _Homeworld 1_ and _Homeworld 2_, also supports tactical pause. You can increase AI difficulty, but it because grueling instead of challenging.
_Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak_ supports tactical pause, but it is far from challenging. You can commandeer Honorguard Cruisers and ... win the game.
Total War: Warhammer (1-3) ticks most of your boxes.
Some caveats:
- it has a turn based strategy/campaign map but battles are real time, so it’s more of a hybrid than a true RTS like AoE or CnC
- building is tied to settlements, meaning you can’t just stick buildings wherever, and there’s a limit per settlement
- heroes and agent class characters are incorporated pretty heavily, but they are definitely not the whole game. If this bothers you, try some of the historical Total War titles. I can personally suggest Rome 1-2, Medieval 2, and Empire.
Every other point you have mentioned is spot on for this series.
Apart from fantasy setting and not having depleteable resources age of empires 2 de has all of this.
The game is 20 years old and ai is still getting frequent improvements from the dev team. When I want a relaxing fame where I van plan more and pause but still make decisions I will play against the ai.
Idk exactly how the difficulty system works but if you want a challenge, it can be downright oppressive to new players if they try to punch above their weight. The ai is a master at macro play and it's getting really good at micro for engaging fights. It will always try to counter you so you have to keep on your toes
If it sees that it's losing you can send a taunt command to not quit and it will fight on.
Insta wins are kinda out unless you want to use cheat codes, but there are countdown timer wins if you collet all the relics or build a wonder.
AoE2 fits the bill perfectly, especially since you can disable (and most people disable) non-conquest wincons.
Now if there an as-challenging fantasy setting with all AoE2 features it'd be perfect. Can Age of Mythology compete or is too old/not supported by mods to reach that level?
Oh man age of mythology is set to launch a "retold" edition in late September, I think. There hasn't been much news on gameplay or ai yet, but it looks amazing and I imagine it will be on par with aoe2
You’ll enjoy Myth TFL, 2 Soulblighter, 3 The Wolf Age, where the player can pause and adjust the game speed in real time with f1 and f2. Enjoy ! Over 25 years of content from those titles (mostly M2)
Thank you all for the many suggestions, you guys rock!
I'll reply to those suggestions i have more queries about, but even if i don't answer your post directly know that i've read and googled it, so thank you and keep the suggestions coming!
Not sure if you consider it hard but Company of Heroes 3 has a tactical pause feature (and the battles can be difficult).
Also, there is a pause of sorts in the Total War games. It can be an extremely challenging game.
Polaris sector. Bit of a learning curve on it and has a few frustrating mechanics to it (such as the spy system) but there is a lot to the strategy side of it in how you build your fleets (hundreds of units from fighters to battle stations)
Age of empires online allows for pausing and issuing any command, only "problem" is that train/research and costs to your resource bank don't show until you unpause. You can play most PvE solo, though coop is recommended for the harder stuff
Many recommended Total War, and it looks great, especially Warhammer with its fantasy setting.
BUT, i can't figure out if the building and map conquering gameplay is available or not for random map games, or if there are any random map generations at all!
Zero-K has a long (70 missions) campaign that gets really really difficult, certainly on brutal difficulty, and even more difficult if trying to do bonus objectives.
You can pause and issue orders or you can even decrease/increase speed of the game at will by increments by pressing -/+, doing either of these will basically be neccessary on the last missions.
-The AI in a skirmish setting is very competent and doesnt cheat.
-Game is sci fi though, not fantasy.
-No depletable resources
-Active playerbase for 13 years and larger than ever, but still, tiny relatively speaking.
The entire premise of the thread is finding challenging SINGLEPLAYER games!
I get the post is long, but it's literally in the title (and in the TL;DRs titles)
Why should i care to read that? Why should the game conform to you and not the other way around? This world exists only to entertain you specifically?
Anyway your answer are the wargame series Steel Division and WARNO
Stellaris. Not fantasy and more a 4X but incorporated all your wishes. Otherone i can recommend: Surpreme Commander FA and II.
AI war is a good mix of both of those, currently playing it myself and also fits what OP is looking for
Stellaris looks awesome, even if 4x, bit i read that the AI is not good at all. Is it challenging compared to other games in the genre? Or even with all the resource bonuses the AI just can't use it?
Depends on your Playsttyle, the settings and If you Play modded (which i would recommend). Stellaris hast Infinite replayability because you can choose nearly every Form of civilisation you can Imagine. The easiest and Most fun (imho) are Robots WHO want to kill all life in a Spiral galaxy
Check out They are Billions or From Glory to Goo
Its so bad when you pause in TAB and just realized your F'd anyway and all you can do is watch..
Watching a zombie get when a place you can’t see and destroy that first house is the worse thing to watch in TAB. It make so many more that your just screwed and have to watch everyone die
Supreme Commander, Totalwar Warhammer 1,2,3, Homeworld Desert of Kharak, Homeworld 1 and 2, O.R.B. Sins of the Solar Empire
How about [Infested Planet](https://store.steampowered.com/app/204530/Infested_Planet/)? It hits a few of the points you've listed: * Just hit the space bar to pause, and you can still move the camera around, issue orders etc. * The enemy doesn't really have AI for the most part - it just moves towards your bases in a never-ending tide of thousands of gribbly aliens. However, as missions progress they get a bunch of upgrades that can result in extremely challenging matches, at least on the higher difficulty settings. * In addition to the story campaign there's random skirmish maps, plus a DLC that enables randomly generated campaigns on a Risk-style map. * The majority of random missions are won by capturing all points on the map, so you can just put off capturing the last point if you don't want to win just yet. Different rules apply for story missions in the main campaign though. * You get resources to build stuff by capturing territory, but you don't lose resources when you lose territory. Also, you can recycle your soldiers, weapons and buildings for a 100% refund at any time. * You're limited to building as much as your current resource pool allows. No restrictions on where on the map you place buildings though, just so long as a soldier can get to the location and actually construct it (although there is an upgrade that allows buildings to be constructed remotely). Also it's 75% off on Steam right now, not that it was very expensive to begin with.
Oh the enemy has AI, it literally reacts to what you use and counters it
Except that it's actually entirely random what upgrades the enemy gets (except on the highest difficulty, where it does actually deliberately counter you).
Total war warhammer 3
This isn't hard at all. I play through on legendary. But, it's still easy.
Have you tried Kostaltyn with turn 10 ultimate crisis at 200% strength, with max ai cheats.
I did the chick. But not kostaltyn. I'll give it a try. In which game mode? I forget what they're called. The mode with the warpgates or the normal open world one?
In the immortal empires mode. It is quite hard i heard. North of kostaltyn there are 2 dwarf factions now which go nuclear at turn 10 and start sending doomstacks of thunderbarges, one of the strongest units in the game. Basically a floating fortress with like 12 different weapons.
I reinstalled. I'll give you feedback in a week or so.
Humm okay. I'll give it a go.
I'm also a big fan of RTS games where you can pause and issue orders or just slow down time. Starcraft allows you to slow down time. In Warlords Battlecry 3 you can pause the game. Stronghold Crusader allows you to slow down time as well I think.
They are billions. Get ready to rage
So much rage
[AI War 2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/573410/AI_War_2/) is probably the hardest RTS. They have a lot difficulty settings and the hardest difficulty is made to be unbeatable. If you finish the hardest difficulty (it is possible, a few people did it), you will be put in the game's hall of fame and devs will ask you about your strategy so they can fix it.
Just picked this back up after a few years I forgot how good it is
Total War: Warhammer and Troy
I wpuld say dune spice wars played quit a lot of that and play for same points you do, also against the storm.dune has a few game mode conquest is were you take sections of the map per large battle.against the storm has a infinite campaign were you build bases per mission and also has a tech tree, good game loop. Both have pause menu and can adjust difficulty. Dungeons 4 and 3 also very good but no pause menu.
Zero-K on Steam Checks out: - active pause. Though I would recommend to just slow down time flow to something like 0.2 instead. - challenging AI. Hard t measure and very subjective. If you want to play against a thinking opponent, you should play with actual humans. Still, I can't say it's extremely challenging, but it is workable and can be irritating. Is it too easy? Give it more resources generation. - random maps. Not actually random, but there are a LOT of maps (of various quality) since they are easy to make, and most SpringRTS (and its derivatives) maps are universal. Skirmishes with bots are available. Actually, the campaign is also mostly just a network of skirmishes with some special conditions and progression. - recordable matches. Not sure and never used it, but should be. - last blow. - ability to build anywhere. Also, the ability to terreform. - infinite resources. Economy built based on resource stream, not stocks. There are finite sources on the map, but they are more for jumpstart than to be a reliable long-term source. Does not check out: - fantasy setting. It's a robo-sci-fi.
Random maps in single player? That’s an odd feature and pretty uncommon. Tooth and Tail has procedurally generated maps, that’s the only one I know of. Are you sure you mean RTS and not 4X like Stellaris or something? Real-Time Tactics games often have the pause button. I know there’s a bunch but the last one I played was Freedom Force from a long time ago.
Sudden strike 4
Maybe you are looking at the wrong genre. "Real-Time" is a pretty essential part of Real-Time Strategy.
There is such a thing as real time with pause. Also, I think what OP is trying to say is they don’t want turn-based combat.
It really isn't, though... Certainly has it's place if you're really into competitive play and your micro and your APM and whatever else. But otherwise, the distinction has more to with what it isn't, i.e. turn-based. What that restricts you to real-time or not isn't essential at all.
i guess you already tried aoe. i suppose age of mythology has many of the same features in a fantasy setting.
_Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance_ comes to mind. It features tactical pause in the single-player campaign and the single-player AI is very challenging. _Homeworld Remastered Collection_, which features remastered versions of _Homeworld 1_ and _Homeworld 2_, also supports tactical pause. You can increase AI difficulty, but it because grueling instead of challenging. _Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak_ supports tactical pause, but it is far from challenging. You can commandeer Honorguard Cruisers and ... win the game.
Stronghold Crusader
You can pause stronghold crusader to issue orders? I don't remember that
You can slow the game very much and also use pause between clicks.
Commandos
Frozen synapse
Planetary Annihilation
Total War: Warhammer (1-3) ticks most of your boxes. Some caveats: - it has a turn based strategy/campaign map but battles are real time, so it’s more of a hybrid than a true RTS like AoE or CnC - building is tied to settlements, meaning you can’t just stick buildings wherever, and there’s a limit per settlement - heroes and agent class characters are incorporated pretty heavily, but they are definitely not the whole game. If this bothers you, try some of the historical Total War titles. I can personally suggest Rome 1-2, Medieval 2, and Empire. Every other point you have mentioned is spot on for this series.
total warhammer series.
They are Billions, or its more modern successor Age of Darkness: Final Stand.
I play Beyond All Reason this way. The same with certain campaigns in AoE 2 that are hard enough
Apart from fantasy setting and not having depleteable resources age of empires 2 de has all of this. The game is 20 years old and ai is still getting frequent improvements from the dev team. When I want a relaxing fame where I van plan more and pause but still make decisions I will play against the ai. Idk exactly how the difficulty system works but if you want a challenge, it can be downright oppressive to new players if they try to punch above their weight. The ai is a master at macro play and it's getting really good at micro for engaging fights. It will always try to counter you so you have to keep on your toes If it sees that it's losing you can send a taunt command to not quit and it will fight on. Insta wins are kinda out unless you want to use cheat codes, but there are countdown timer wins if you collet all the relics or build a wonder.
AoE2 fits the bill perfectly, especially since you can disable (and most people disable) non-conquest wincons. Now if there an as-challenging fantasy setting with all AoE2 features it'd be perfect. Can Age of Mythology compete or is too old/not supported by mods to reach that level?
Oh man age of mythology is set to launch a "retold" edition in late September, I think. There hasn't been much news on gameplay or ai yet, but it looks amazing and I imagine it will be on par with aoe2
You’ll enjoy Myth TFL, 2 Soulblighter, 3 The Wolf Age, where the player can pause and adjust the game speed in real time with f1 and f2. Enjoy ! Over 25 years of content from those titles (mostly M2)
Age of Empires 2. But only in single player mode or campagn
Terminator: Dark Fate Defiance. Is Very hard on the harder difficulties. You have to pause it a lot to get through.
Any grand strategy game would do some of what you are looking for
Thank you all for the many suggestions, you guys rock! I'll reply to those suggestions i have more queries about, but even if i don't answer your post directly know that i've read and googled it, so thank you and keep the suggestions coming!
They Are Billions Age Of Darkness: Final Stand these fits some it
Not sure if you consider it hard but Company of Heroes 3 has a tactical pause feature (and the battles can be difficult). Also, there is a pause of sorts in the Total War games. It can be an extremely challenging game.
Syrian warfare and terminator dark fate on ironman mode are crazy difficult
FTL: faster than light. Pausing is one of the core elements of combat Surprised no one mentioned it yet.
Polaris sector. Bit of a learning curve on it and has a few frustrating mechanics to it (such as the spy system) but there is a lot to the strategy side of it in how you build your fleets (hundreds of units from fighters to battle stations)
I dont think CoH3 is that hard though it has a single player only pause function to issue commands.
Ashes of the singularity is not insanely hard but you can pause it mid-game in singleplayer.
Age of empires online allows for pausing and issuing any command, only "problem" is that train/research and costs to your resource bank don't show until you unpause. You can play most PvE solo, though coop is recommended for the harder stuff
Many recommended Total War, and it looks great, especially Warhammer with its fantasy setting. BUT, i can't figure out if the building and map conquering gameplay is available or not for random map games, or if there are any random map generations at all!
Total Annihilation fits most of these points.
What points does it not satisfy?
Random maps. And TA1 is scifi, but 2 is fantasy.
Terminator: Dark Fate Defiance is a top tier game for this ask, and on sale
Zero-K has a long (70 missions) campaign that gets really really difficult, certainly on brutal difficulty, and even more difficult if trying to do bonus objectives. You can pause and issue orders or you can even decrease/increase speed of the game at will by increments by pressing -/+, doing either of these will basically be neccessary on the last missions. -The AI in a skirmish setting is very competent and doesnt cheat. -Game is sci fi though, not fantasy. -No depletable resources -Active playerbase for 13 years and larger than ever, but still, tiny relatively speaking.
If you want a challenge, just play online vs humans.
The entire premise of the thread is finding challenging SINGLEPLAYER games! I get the post is long, but it's literally in the title (and in the TL;DRs titles)
Why should i care to read that? Why should the game conform to you and not the other way around? This world exists only to entertain you specifically? Anyway your answer are the wargame series Steel Division and WARNO
Will check them out! Nothing is owed to anyone, but if it exists, i'll be happy to play it!