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[Mephisto]

Osiris: New Dawn. You have to unlock your crafting recipes Ark-style. Once you've got the various hallways, hubs, etc, you can make some pretty interesting habitats.

Spoiler: It's generally horror-free. Stay away from the sand. (click to show/hide)

[Parsely]

Can anybody recommend me a good survival game with a decent crafting and construction system?

No Minecraft, Terraria, or other cartoony games. I'm only after single player, nothing with online play like DayZ. I'd prefer no horror themed or zombie style survival games.

Basically I want a man-vs-nature game, where you struggle to survive against the environment, natural hazards and wildlife, and craft the tools to craft the tools to thrive despite the odds.

Definitely recommend Subnautica, as someone who loves the ocean the game is awe inspiring

[pikachu17]

I don't remember for sure, and I didn't actually play it myself, but The Long Dark is, or was, a survival game set in Canada after an apocalyptic event where technology stops working. It definitely has horror elements, but I believe it only had wild animals as enemies. Again, not absolutely sure about this.

[Urist McManiac]

Once again, I'm looking for a gaming suggestion. This time, I'm in the mood for a good survival-crafting game. I realise there's tons of those out there, but it's hard to find one which is actually interesting.

To be a little more specific about what I'm looking for...

• A sense of difficulty: Most survival games I've played so far are pretty trivial once you made it past the first few days. They offer little to no goals to strive for and merely surviving in those games turns out to be a mindless grind. What I'm looking for is a game that gives you a few challenges. A game which really stood out in this regard is The Long Dark which was very simple, yet challenging. Every day you survived was a little achievement, but you never felt like the game was unfair.
• An engaging crafting system: They more toys I get to play with, the better! In the very best case, the game I'm looking for has an extensive crafting system which goes a bit beyond 'combine A and B to get C', but I'll settle for a system which offers many resources to gather and even more things to craft them into. A good example for what I'm looking for is the crafting system in Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. Although that game - and its crafting system - has quite a few problems, it at least allows me as a player to built all manner of stuff.
• Farming (and potentially Animal Husbandry) mechanics which are core to the gameplay: I only know of a few games in which farming, gardening or raising animals really play a major role, but those few I do know keep me entertained. Once again I'm ideally looking for a game in which farming goes beyond 'put seed in ground, wait, get free stuff'. The one game whic comes to mind when talking about farming as a central gameplay mechanic is obviously Stardew Valley, but I've played that countless hours already and it's missing the survival aspects I'm currently looking for.

Basically, I'm looking for a homesteading simulator. I guess some people just enjoy being dirty peasants.

When it comes to the setting of the game, I'm pretty open. I'll admit I have a preference for medieval/high fantasy settings, whereas Sci-Fi is relatively less interesting to me, though. Likewise I do not really care about the game's graphic.

[Kagus]

Hrm. Well, UnReal World again is challenging, but the farming mechanics are only a teensy bit more involved than "plant seed, get free stuff" (mostly just the burning mechanics needed to establish farmland, and then threshing/milling/herbalism mechanics at the other end). There's no real husbandry either, as I don't believe you can breed owned animals.

There's actually a fair amount of stuff you can do with the building options, but it's rare for people to really go all-out with them because holy fuck everything is expensive. You've gotta chop and strip 6 damn trees in order to build a single tile of wall, and logs happen to weigh more than feathers.


EDIT: Project Zomboid, potentially? It's got the zombieness in it, but that can actually be turned off if you'd prefer. Very Cataclysm-like in that you can only survive via looting for so long, after which you need to have a more renewable source of food/drink available. Farming is one such option for not dying, and may be the only one long-term as I don't recall how sustainable hunting is.

The construction tools are also rather extensive.

[Urist McManiac]

Hrm. Well, UnReal World again is challenging, but the farming mechanics are only a teensy bit more involved than "plant seed, get free stuff" (mostly just the burning mechanics needed to establish farmland, and then threshing/milling/herbalism mechanics at the other end). There's no real husbandry either, as I don't believe you can breed owned animals.

There's actually a fair amount of stuff you can do with the building options, but it's rare for people to really go all-out with them because holy fuck everything is expensive. You've gotta chop and strip 6 damn trees in order to build a single tile of wall, and logs happen to weigh more than feathers.


EDIT: Project Zomboid, potentially? It's got the zombieness in it, but that can actually be turned off if you'd prefer. Very Cataclysm-like in that you can only survive via looting for so long, after which you need to have a more renewable source of food/drink available. Farming is one such option for not dying, and may be the only one long-term as I don't recall how sustainable hunting is.

The construction tools are also rather extensive.

Thanks for the suggestions! I've actually played UnrealWorld before and I'm definitely looking for something similiar. My main gripe with UW is how easy and boring it eventually becomes. Sure - it takes a little longer than other games to get there, but after you've set up your trap fence and spent the summer building your cabin, you've got little else to do than to just... exist. There's little challenge. That said, your suggestion goes in the right direction!

I'll also give Project Zomboid a try. I believe I tried a demo of it half a decade ago and it was actually quite fun, but it struck me more as an Action-RPG than anything else.

[Jimmy]

If you don't mind very basic 3D graphics (circa 1990s level), one of the most detailed and challenging survival-crafting-farming simulation games I've played is a mod of an indie game.

Stranded - Survivalist Mod

Pros:
Free
Resource gathering focus (woodcutting, clay gathering, mining, stone cutting, fishing, hunting)
Extensive crafting system (cooking, tanning, carpentry, smelting, smithing)
Farming/animal husbandry system (wheat, grapes, potatoes, hemp, sheep, chickens)

Cons:
Dated graphics
Steep learning curve
No tutorial (in-game documentation but requires you to RTFM)

...and finally, the entire game runs on a mod script that uses a tick counter which can lag horribly on some older systems. Ironically despite the very basic graphics, unless you have a modern system capable of running a massive mod script smoothly, you'll likely encounter significant lag spikes during gameplay.

That being said, it's a fun game if you can get into it. I've probably sunk hundreds of hours into this one, and keep coming back regularly to try again.

[Urist McManiac]

If you don't mind very basic 3D graphics (circa 1990s level), one of the most detailed and challenging survival-crafting-farming simulation games I've played is a mod of an indie game.

Stranded - Survivalist Mod

Pros:
Free
Resource gathering focus (woodcutting, clay gathering, mining, stone cutting, fishing, hunting)
Extensive crafting system (cooking, tanning, carpentry, smelting, smithing)
Farming/animal husbandry system (wheat, grapes, potatoes, hemp, sheep, chickens)

Cons:
Dated graphics
Steep learning curve
No tutorial (in-game documentation but requires you to RTFM)

...and finally, the entire game runs on a mod script that uses a tick counter which can lag horribly on some older systems. Ironically despite the very basic graphics, unless you have a modern system capable of running a massive mod script smoothly, you'll likely encounter significant lag spikes during gameplay.

That being said, it's a fun game if you can get into it. I've probably sunk hundreds of hours into this one, and keep coming back regularly to try again.

Wow... Stranded. I didn't know that game still... exists. Thanks for the suggestions, though! I'll give it a try if merely for the trip to nostalgia city.

[Stench Guzman]

Looking for bad role playing games, preferably made before 2000 or so.  Console or PC but not browser based stuff.

[Il Palazzo]

Define 'bad'.

[Kagus]

Challenge of the Five Realms, from 1992. I own it, but I've never played it. I therefore can't really speak to its "bad"ness. All I can offer are these two compelling arguments for its purchase:

Spoiler: Fig.1 (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Fig.2 (click to show/hide)

EDIT: Regarding the "hardcore survival" from earlier, I don't think it's very crop-focused, but the uncreatively-named Dino System looks like it could have some merit. It's apparently very much in the "hardcore" camp in regards to difficulty, but if that's not what you're looking for at the moment then you can also play in God Mode and just watch/manipulate the environment and dynamic ecosystem.

Graphic Content Warning: A triceratops sprite vibrating energetically on top of another triceratops sprite. The miracle of life.

[Iduno]

Looking for bad role playing games, preferably made before 2000 or so.  Console or PC but not browser based stuff.

The Japanese Final Fantasy 2 is...interesting. You need to gain skill in things by doing them repeatedly (including losing HP/MP to get more, and leveling spells), and has a rudimentary keyword system for talking to NPCs (learn about a word, then you can ask any NPC about it, even though only the one you learned it from and 1-2 other NPCs will know what you're talking about - rudimentary). I kind of wish they're re-used the ideas in a better way, like when they made FF5 based on FF3 using the jobs system that they sometimes still use.

[itisnotlogical]

Looking for bad role playing games, preferably made before 2000 or so.  Console or PC but not browser based stuff.

There's Quest 64 for the Nintendo 64. It's just bland and boring.

There's also the infamously bad Hydlide series. It's appeared on the NES, various Sega consoles, and Japanese PCs. The final entry, Virtual Hydlide, was on the Saturn I believe.


Are Ultimas 7, 8 and Underworld 2 any good? Failing that, are there any more modern RPGs that effectively capture the feeling of those games?

[Il Palazzo]

While I wouldn't call it modern, more like less old (a Morrowind's contemporary), Arx Fatalis feels pretty much like a sequel to the Ultima Underworlds.

[Kagus]

While I wouldn't call it modern, more like less old (a Morrowind's contemporary), Arx Fatalis feels pretty much like a sequel to the Ultima Underworlds.

The devs did call it a spiritual successor to UU.