Looking for some sort of base or city building game - slow placed, relaxing

[Agony_Aunt]

Suggestions?

Not something with too much micromanagement like Cities Skylines or Cities in Motion.

Ideally Medieval or Fantasty setting, although modern or sci-fi might be ok.

Maybe something Settlers like. Or maybe more focused on bases than cities, like Ark.

First person, third person, top down, all options.

 

[Arkadiak]

What about some good old fashioned Anno? I enjoyed Anno 1404 quite a bit. It has a good mix of trade, production-chains an interesting campaign and also a littel bit of warfare. Managing all the trading-ships got a bit tedious in the end, but I enjoyed building those big cathedrals and fertilising land with those norias.

If you want sci-fi, maybe try Empyrion. It's a nice voxel-game, a mix of survival and engineering, you can build planetary bases, hovercrafts, spaceships and even spacestations in this game, and also use this stuff to kill nasty aliens or play on multiplayer servers and not as complicated as space-engineers (so they told me).

Factorio or Satisfactory, not exactly base building but factory building. For me Satisfactory is an ongoing addiction at the moment. Can't help but to go over old production chains, finding new ways to optimize.

I'd know a lot more voxel base-building games, but they are more in the survival genre, and maybe not exactly what you asked for.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

OXERGEN NOT ENCLUDED! Get IT! You do like Rimworld, don't you? Don't tell me you haven't played Rimworld! ONI is even more relaxed than Rimworld. You get a focussed game, 2D sidescroll base building, denizen progression, research tree, building furniture and industry and on top you have s solid gas, liquid and thermodynamic sim.
The dupes just don't make love to each other, so no Sims shananigens.

The latest Anno wasn't so bad, but if you want something fresh - it's ONI!

Satisfactory is decent builder in 1st person. I dunno, you can do massive factories. Massive. However, I found it's real quirk is matching world exploration nicely to the rest of the game. Might be bit better with survival.
Of the classic city builders I haven't played much since Anno. It's always the same in the end. Railway Empire. Is more about logistics, but so are Factorio and Satisfactory.

 

[Arkadiak]

And I nearly forgot about Banished. I haven't played it myself yet, but it's somewhere on my list. It's exactly what you described. A medieval city-builder.

And now I also remember Stronghold. I think it was Stronhold 2 that I played back in the days. Build your castle. Don't know if it will still hold up to current times. But somehow I have fond memories of it.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

And I nearly forgot about Banished. I haven't played it myself yet, but it's somewhere on my list. It's exactly what you described. A medieval city-builder.

And now I also remember Stronghold. I think it was Stronhold 2 that I played back in the days. Build your castle. Don't know if it will still hold up to current times. But somehow I have fond memories of it.

I've played Banished. It's got an initial hard learning curve but not much to follow up. And it is kinda unfinished. Just building stuff and managing habitats doesn't really cut it for me. I'd rather play Dwarf Fortress in ASCII mode again - tho I hear it gets a graphic update and rerelease with shiny gfx on steam some day.

 

[Astaran]

Suggestions?

Not something with too much micromanagement like Cities Skylines or Cities in Motion.

Ideally Medieval or Fantasty setting, although modern or sci-fi might be ok.

Maybe something Settlers like. Or maybe more focused on bases than cities, like Ark.

First person, third person, top down, all options.

Have you tried Conan Exiles? Fun game for base building. Plenty of DLC to pick and choose from, unfortunately only two maps yet.

If graphics aren't very high on your list of important things, 7 Days 2 Die is also fun (although the Horde night every 7 days can become a bit stressful, if you don't scale it down)

Not a dedicated builder, but I quite liked base building (and enjyoing the view) in Subnautica

 

[Arkadiak]

I've played Banished. It's got an initial hard learning curve but not much to follow up. And it is kinda unfinished. Just building stuff and managing habitats doesn't really cut it for me. I'd rather play Dwarf Fortress in ASCII mode again - tho I hear it gets a graphic update and rerelease with shiny gfx on steam some day.

Right I forgot, maybe that's why I have stayed away from Banished. Don't know about Dwarf Fortress. I am a littel afraid, it will be too much micro for me, even RimWorld was too much for me on the long run. I think Dwarfen Fortess will not be much different in this regard.

 

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Right I forgot, maybe that's why I have stayed away from Banished. Don't know about Dwarf Fortress. I am a littel afraid, it will be too much micro for me, even RimWorld was too much for me on the long run. I think Dwarfen Fortess will not be much different in this regard.

Dwarf Fortress with the current UI is a VERY niche game. And if Rimworld was microintensive for you then is probably not the right thing.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

But honestly, the steampunky latest Anno was pretty good. Theme is industrial revoltuion. Steam engines, sailships, railroads. Pretty good, well presented, good production quality.

 

[Arkadiak]

Have you tried Conan Exiles? Fun game for base building. Plenty of DLC to pick and choose from, unfortunately only two maps yet.

If graphics aren't very high on your list of important things, 7 Days 2 Die is also fun (although the Horde night every 7 days can become a bit stressful, if you don't scale it down)

Not a dedicated builder, but I quite liked base building (and enjyoing the view) in Subnautica

7 Days To Die! Yes, this one I like. I loved building my mountain fortresses. Watching Zeds getting shredded in my selfmade blade-traps was quite satisfying. Also creative-mode allows for pretty much freedom to build whatever you like. There is also a big and active player community and many great multiplayer servers. Just like Empyrion it's a survival game. You'll have to eat and drink or you'll be getting into a pretty bad condition soon.

Subnautica is also nice, but I wouldn't really say it's a base builder. Well you can build underwater bases, but I think the focus is on under-water exploration and survival.

edit:
and now there pops into my mind: "They are billions"
Also a zombie apocalyptic game. But this one is more age of empires style. You build walls and living quarters and farms to sustain your army, and generators to power your tower defense and you'll have to fend off hords and hords hords of zombies. It also has that steam-punk feeling and it's quite hard. I think I needed over 20 attempts to get to the second map.

And when we are talking steam punk. There is also Frost-Punk where you build and manage a settlement in the eternal ice of this post apocalyptic frozen world. One of your main worries is to keep your generators running during the cold nights, so your poeple won't freeze to death. The game is well done, but the campaign isn't very long or hard. It's more a game for inbetween I'd say.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

What about some good old fashioned Anno?

Ubisoft. Requires uplay. Its one of the best contenders, but uplay is a no-no for me.

 

[Revenant69]

Suggestions?

Not something with too much micromanagement like Cities Skylines or Cities in Motion.

Ideally Medieval or Fantasty setting, although modern or sci-fi might be ok.

Maybe something Settlers like. Or maybe more focused on bases than cities, like Ark.

First person, third person, top down, all options.

I'm a huge fan of the Anno series.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Ubisoft. Requires uplay. Its one of the best contenders, but uplay is a no-no for me.

Yeah, but for some steam ships I#m ready to bite the sour apple. What about the other suggestions?

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Yeah, but for some steam ships I#m ready to bite the sour apple. What about the other suggestions?

Its a hard sell for me. uplay and origin... i'm really loathe to install them. I'll mull it over.

Banished looks perhaps the best candidate, but seems a bit micromanagey for my tastes.

I'm now thinking its time to check out the current state of Widelands. Its been a few years since i played it, and it is effectively the Settlers.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Its a hard sell for me. uplay and origin... i'm really loathe to install them. I'll mull it over.

Banished looks perhaps the best candidate, but seems a bit micromanagey for my tastes.

I'm now thinking its time to check out the current state of Widelands. Its been a few years since i played it, and it is effectively the Settlers.

There is another medieval builder on steam currently early access. Not sure about it's name. Maybe it crops up when calling Banished store page and looking at the "similar games" references. Banished itself I found a bit bland. There is also some soviet city builder I have mildly looked at and follow a bit. I think it's early access too. And then a postapocalyptic one which might be interesting. But that's all not really medieval.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

There is another medieval builder on steam currently early access. Not sure about it's name. Maybe it crops up when calling Banished store page and looking at the "similar games" references. Banished itself I found a bit bland. There is also some soviet city builder I have mildly looked at and follow a bit. I think it's early access too. And then a postapocalyptic one which might be interesting. But that's all not really medieval.

Northgard?

 

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Aha, found it: "Foundation". Not played it, though. Only benevolently looked at it.

 

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KoS (Katherine of Sky) plays a couple builders on her YT channel. Features girlish colourful Sims likes to ultracomplex factory builders.

 

[askavir]

Tropico 6

Currently with 50% discount on steam.

For truly casual and relaxing, Kingdoms and Castles, also on sale on steam.

 

[Arkadiak]

My wife is a huge Tropico fan. But she says Tropico 6 is not as good as 4 and 5 have been. There is no story in Part 6, you just play island after island, whilst there where story campaigns in the prior parts. I played Tropico 4 and yes, I have El Presidente in good memory, it's quite humorous too.