Lost EmpireFrom EncyClanPedia
The game was a very ambitious attempt by Pollux Gamelabs, to put together all of the greatest aspects of the space 4x genre, without it being so complex, and long-drawn out that the game is inaccessible to all but the most hardcore of fans to the genre. Lost Empire also focused quite heavily on it's story, which was deeply imbued within it's game-play. Sadly, with a poorly made user interface, and an instruction manual that lacks, it didn't quite prove to be the easiest game to step into, which made delving into it's rich history difficult to do. Lost Empire features a vast universe, ranging up to 5000 stars and solar systems that you can colonize. The further out of the universe that you go, the further away the stars are from each other. So naturally, based on your choices at the custome game setup, you could be directly in the center, with up to nine other civilizations, with literally hundreds of stars surrounding your homeworld, or you and the other eight civilizations could be throw into deep space, forced to explore long-distances before any actual contact is made. This can have a very heavy impact on your strategy, forcing players to switch from a more militaristic research focus, to one that focuses entirely on resources, engine development and population or leader growth. Sadly, one of the worst aspects about Lost Empire is the fact that it's not that easy to mod, contrary to earlier claims by the developers: Pollux Gamelabs. The Technology Tree is especially difficult to work through when modding.
StoryThe game is set in the year 4620. There are seven major civilizations in space, humankind is one of them. The story is that an attack lead by an unknown evil alien race has almost destroyed the seven civilizations, and they are therefore now trying to expand furthest in order to ensure their continued survival. However, a powerful character with devious motives known as Enais is interfering with the seven civilizations and their expansion plans. Game PlayLost Empires is a traditional Space-themed 4x turn based strategy game. This means that it follows true to the basic principals of eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate. You'll find much of the early game, building an infrastructure through researching important domestic research lines, such as Mineral Prospecting or Production, as well as spreading your empire by building colony ships and sending them abroad to new stars for colonization. With each new colony, you'll be expected to research new tech lines to improve your production, as well as your speed (better engines) in colonization. As you contact new civilizations, you'll be proposed with the options of diplomatic routes, insurgency, or hack-n'-slash war. I refer to it as hack-n'-slash war, merely because like Stardocks Galactic Civilizations, you are unable to control the battles. Thankfully the battle sequences are actually pretty fun to watch. CivilizationsThe following racial descriptions are cited from the official web site[2] of Lost Empire:
Lesser Civilizations Like other 4x space strategy games, there are always major civilizations, and lesser civilizations. Unlike most other 4x games, like Stardock's Galactic Civilizations where most lesser civilizations are able to declare war on you. The ones in Lost Empire are completely docile. I find that the Lesser Civilizations play almost no part at all, except for the fact that they are there to be assimilated into your empire. All you have to do is paying a hefty price of minerals. Of course, doing this nets you more than your money's worth, by giving you a fully defensible colony the turn after you make your payment. This can be especially helpful in the quicker Multi-playered games, when you're just beginning to expand your empire. Of course, it's not always a feasible option, due to the fact that some of the lesser civilizations will cost you an arm and a leg to ally with. Victory Conditions Lost Empire is not unlike other games of the 4x strategy genre. There are many ways to win the game. Some being more fun to attain than others. Archeology (Exploration Victory)Find all ten puzzle pieces to the story. One of the best aspects about the Lost Empire game universe, involve the outcomes of archeological exploration across the galaxies. For the meager task of boosting research in the Archeology field, and sending a couple of ships to scout around the universe, you are rewarded with a vast quantity of history tidbits of how the universe fell to darkness at the hands of the Enais. Many of the histories feature currently existing civilizations, but often hints are dropped about lesser civilizations falling to the evil that the Enais have spread. You'll notice quite often plenty of references to popular Sci-Fi movies, books and television shows. Many have noticed at least a few references to the Stargate television series. This is not just an added feature to make the game look or sound better. The history tends to add up into secrets that can lead you to the ten hidden worlds of the Enais, which if each are colonized, can lead you to win the game automatically. This can be a great way to break a deadlock against an exceptionally powerful nation. (For those long games, where you turned off the easy victory requirements, leaving you to now just wish the game would end already) ScoreAchieve highest score in turn 300. Thats simple, right? What is not simple is actually winning this victory. This can actually be one of the hardest victory conditions to meet in the game of Lost Empires. It's not because the game drags on-and-on, like in other 4x strategy games, but instead, it's completely because the enemy AI can totally blow you out of the water from beginning to end when it comes to scoring. The Tritons especially are adept at this, mostly because of their bonuses to having great engines at the beginning, and planet-quality. (Microscopic Trait) - Score is naturally divided up between many different things, but I find that population, and resource production are the two best ways to jack it up fast. Therefore, the civilization that manages to spread the fastest, is the one that is going to win this victory. ConquestEliminating all opposition. Often times the enemy AI can build up much faster than you, leaving you to fight against huge armies, while you're still struggling to research the technology. Still, the AI lacks majorly in a great deal of departments, which is a common problem with multi-threaded technology trees in 4x strategy games. If anything, this is the easiest victory condition to achieve (If Domination is off) if your enemies are close to your homeworld starting location. DominationHighest amount of population and stars. To really get a challenge out of this victory condition, you will have to jack up the difficulty level. The AI is actually much better at handling domestic affairs, and production than it is at properly using it's fleets. Just keep steady, constantly build up your planetary defenses, (Especially by researching more effective missles and tank weaponry) and winning this one should be a breeze. The enemy tends to simper away after losing a few of it's major worlds. EconomyHighest production of food and minerals I'm don't quite understand why they implemented this victory condition. Often times, it relies entirely on the starting location. If you managed to eek out a half dozen inhabitable worlds with decent mineral and food production stats, and you'll be golden for an easy victory. It's simply too darned easy, even on the hardest difficulties. Turn this off for a truly challenging game. CultureBecome the highest ranking cultural society. From what I've seen, your culture rating is based on population, the number of stars, and the number of ranks each planet has in it's planetary culture (A stat that rises randomly, but can be influenced by leaders acting as mayors). You can boost this up really quickly by researching the Culture line, and by making a bunch of mayors. Of course, if you don't have the population to really skyrocket your rating, you probably won't win this one. I find it to be an easy victory to attain, since I'm an rapid expansion (REX) monkey at heart. ScienceDominate the science research. I find this to be a rather difficult victory condition. It's literally the one that takes the longest, merely because there is so much to research. The game goes rather quickly, and often times you can beat even a long game after only five or six hours, so managing to work your way through all of the technology trees to achieve this victory condition is lofty at best. If you did manage to get this vicotry, you probably were already in a position to win the game anyways, and only prolonged the game specifically to win a Science game. Homeworld KingLose your Homeworld and you lose. This is actually a very fun aspect to the game for Multiplayered matches. It forces players to make some extremely interesting decisions, and makes for some very fun tactics. People will often make huge fleets intent on rushing the homeworld of their closest neighbor, specifically to catch them off guard, and to put them out of the game completely. Considering how fast these games go in comparison to most 4x games, thats not actually an insult to other players. LeadersOne of the most unique additions to the game of Lost Empire, is the introduction of Leaders that you can assign to perform different tasks. Unlike Master of Orion II, where leaders were given a set number of abilities, and they leveled up based on how long they've worked with you, the Leaders in Lost Empire are taught their abilities through education, with maximum limits based entirely on how far you've researched their affiliated tech line. This can allow you to create your own list of leaders with skill sets that are based on your whims, and not the lucky dice roll of a computer generated program. This can allow for a very wide set of early-rush strategies, since leaders have the most impact in the early game. Strategies
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