Resource/construction games

I'm not really sure what to call this thread, but the idea is: I'm looking for games in which what you do, at least in part, is gather a variety of resources & use them to build components of a city/civilization, and in which through research you acquire the ability to build better stuff/build old stuff more easily. I would prefer that combat isn't the main thing, or (maybe better) not a thing at all (defense would be ok, but offense is what I'd like to avoid). Can you think of really fun games like this? Like, I'm familiar with the SimCity series, but I find that I don't have enough control over what it built for me to enjoy it much (you pick the density & the game fills in the buildings for you) and there's not enough advancement in the game besides the city getting bigger for me to stay interested long-term. And there's not much resource management involved. And Civ games are great but they're mostly combat-oriented, really; you don't have enough control over your cities to make that aspect satisfying in itself.

I can spell this out more if needs be.

it sounds like what yr looking for are resource mgmt games. i really love these games although i dont mind/enjoy some combat stuff in there. feel like theres tonnes of stuff to mention that fits the vague outline of what your looking for but some thoughts:

anno 1404/dawn of discovery is basically simcity meets civ. there are some rts elements but it is a heart a resource mgmt sim. you have a fair amount of control over how your city develops, what you build, where you build it &c. you dont have perfect control over the development aspect & the games bends that part of itself to meet the needs of various missions/story/combat stuff so it may not be perfect for what you want but its crazy fun & rewarding. also the pc version is p fantastic looking imo.

if you like this then the settlers series might be something else to try. the only game in the series that ive played in depth was VI & it was p mediocre but the first few DOS games are supposed to landmarks in the genre - slow, deep and thoughtful. generally its another city-building & economic sim.

then theres stuff likeport royale which really emphasizes economic sim stuff - rather than building things your mainly trading them - the combat in this is really beside the point but developing and managing your trade routes gets fairly complicated. its a strategically deep game but its not always much fun. also w/ these type of games i never feel the same sense of accomplishment hoarding fake gp that i get from (virtually) constructing something.

also in that vein are all the business sims from railroad tycoon onwards. havent really played that much of them since rollercoaster tycoon (lol) so i cant really recommend 1 in particular. speaking of railroad tycoon there are a bunch of older games that might be interesting if hard to track down: startopia, the dungeon keeper series, the caeser series, stronghold, capitalism & colonization.

finally it probably focuses too much on grand strategy but europa universalis 3 is probably the best non-civ game @ melding all the different type of resource mgmt & political/civic strategy concerns into one comprehensive mechanic. its a really deep game and the heir to the throne expansion has been eating up a lot of my time. again its not a strict resource mgmt game but it integrates that part into the larger strategy aspect really well.

obv there are a crazy # of rts games that incorporate this stuff in interesting/fun ways but that def doesnt sound like what you want

also & i can see having absolutely no interest in this but creating civ mods & scenarios (actually really like the editing kit for civ III) can be really rewarding in the way i think u want. obv the amount of control u have is unrivaled by a game that your playing and creating an interesting mod requires the same careful planning & eye for detail that a resource mgmt game wld. & obv u get the same pleasure in building/creating/organizing.

SimCity meets Civ sounds potentially great! I should have added that economic sim is also great. Both Anno 1404 & Settlers sound excellent; in neither does combat sound central.

I played the DOS version of Colonization recently and that's kinda the baseline for what I'm talking about, though in that you don't have control over your cities aside from what manufacturing improvements you build. And there isn't a technology tree either. (I got Civ IV Complete recently, i.e. have the new Colonization too, but haven't tried it yet.)

In a way what I'd love the most would be something like Starcraft/Warcraft w/o the combat, or w/ only defensive combat; I love setting up a well-functioning base + colonies, but find rts combat too hard to control adequately (esp. tweaky combat where the individual units have special abilities that you have to control individually on the fly, & so I can't monitor other things that are happening during combat).

I thought about mentioning Roller Coaster Tycoon, which I dig (though it's been years) but would like a more city/world-like milieu rather than a bunch of ferris wheels & hot dog stands.

I played Europa Universalis 1 a long time ago but never really gave it enough chance to sink in; I'll take a look at the newest one.

Anno 1404 has been pretty fun to start with. Everything from building your little city out of the wilderness to sailing around blasting at corsairs.

This is a great idea for a topic - when I've picked up strategy games in recent years i usually find the combat a chore, and would really like an emphasis on the city building sometimes. Last bad example of this was Rome: Total War. Okay, I probably should've been able to figure it out from the name of the game, as the Civ-type stuff was pretty decent but the battling wasn't fun at all. Unfortunately, it's the kind of game where they'll let you automate the battles, but then you can't really win (while from what I've been told, once you can get a handle on the real-time combat it breaks the game more or less).

There's at least three fun Roman games: Ceasar IV, CivCity: Rome, and Glory of Rome or somesuch.

Rome: Total War is more about the RTS/tactical stuff, actually moving your battalions around and whatnot.

I would also recommend Victoria: Empire Under the Sun & its expansion, Revolutions. It's done by the Hearts of Iron/Europa Universialis guys.

does anyone have any recommendations for a good economic sim type game? ive been playing the dos version of railroad tycoon & while fun its p limited and easy

How economic are we talking? Dawn of Discovery is largely about finding resources and developing them. So, you need to find particular kinds of deposits or spices or etc. to develop your industries. It's like Civilization in some ways more more resource-specific.

RRT 3 has a greatly improved econ model.

also check Victoria: Revolutions.

I found myself playing transport tycoon a while back, had a full afternoon of it and realised that rather than the immersed zombie state I get in with thinking games, I was getting stressed and agitated. Then it dawned on me, I was basically playing a simulation of my job at that time. Never played it again. They should have called it demand and inventory planner and be done with it.

ive played dawn of disocvery wanted something at least to do with construction more of an trading/econ sim i guess?

the funny thing abt these games is how much they resemble work - even w/ rrt i set up a simple database to manage all my potential resources and needs and then compared various routes for efficiency.

is the economic stuff in victoria really good? i like the other paradox games a lot but im not really interested in any grand strategy games atm

capitalism plus / capitalism II are pretty to v. good hardcore economic simulators if you can be bothered taking the time to learn them.

would normally highly recommend vitora revolutions or victoria two but don't think you can really get away from the grand strategy aspect. Economic stuff is far better and more in-depth than EU3 but you can't really get away from all the war and diplomacy.

ive been playing europa + expansions (heir to the throne i think?) and its fun but too much time is taken up w/ stuff i dont really care about

I haven't been able to get into EUIII or V2 yet. something about the interface is grating.