Final Theory (2021) - Galactic Empire Building Tactical Strategy

Final Theory Gameplay with Splat! Let's Play Final Theory and check out a game where you'll build an empire on the fringes of the galaxy and work on building a doomsday device to obliterate your enemies.
Download Final Theory : store.steampow...
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[@Monticube]

Awesome video. Thank you so much for featuring the game, it means the world to us. Doing a full alpha strike is always great fun "Unleash it all !!!" :D Might be a bit early but, happy holidays to you and your community and stay safe everyone :)

[@tehwicked1]

You've done it again, brother. Been looking at this for a while and now that there's a bunch more variety I'm getting it. Great vid, great content. Best indie game overviewer on KZbin. (I know it's not a word, I'm coining it exclusively for your channel.)

[@mjnior]

I agree. I just recommend Spatter to a developer.

[@juxstapo]

I'll tack on a +1. Splatter sells me on new indie titles quicker than anything else... I dont know if that's a good thing with the time I've sunk in Vampire Survivors

[@Scr0atoriousGaming]

Sippin' coffee, heating up leftover thanksgiving turkey, and enjoying my main man Splat. You rock brotha!

[@angelmarauder5647]

Splatterer of the cat. I appreciate your sophistication. Strength and Honor.

[@atraxisdarkstar]

Thanks for the recommend, Splat. Having picked it up the other day and having played through a few campaigns, I must definitely protest both the "amazing about of customization" and also the "game does a good job of keeping ships relevant all the way through". Generally, upgrading Tiers unlocks a new ability, but upgrading abilities tends to just make ships do more of what they already do. You can lower the cooldowns on Shield Healing abilities of the Destroyer, Battlecruiser and Carrier, but you can't turn something like a Frigate into a "Heal Ship". Frigates spend the whole game basically as harassers - great at dealing with Destroyers and Carrier Corvettes, but basically useless against heavier cap ships. Choices tend to boil down more to "faster cooldowns on jump drive, or faster cooldowns on shield restoration?" That said, the game is still a lot of fun, and especially for the price, you can't go wrong!

[@LV_427]

Ah, one of the rare occasions when Splat makes a video about game that I already have in my library.

[@childrenoftolkien]

Your delivery if the introduction scroll was priceless. "There we go...". Made me spit my coffee out. Was expecting a little more gravitas but your take was perfect.

[@lucidnonsense942]

Or just use engineering to build "fleet coms stations" that give you an extra fleet move. Have it cost a bunch, forcing the player to choose between upgrades on ships or extra move in early-mid game - becoming a viable option late game. Maybe give it a range within which it grants the extra move, to stop Steam rolls.

[@Slanghappy]

Something like this.

[@Elhazzared84]

Yeah, I agree with the problem of only having the abillity to move one fleet. It kinda renders pointless having other fleets except as stationary defense points which slows down the game considerably and makes it tactically less interesting. I'd allow each fleet to move once but not allow 2 fleets to move to the same system so you can't suicide a fleet to weaken an enemy and then win with the second.

[@atraxisdarkstar]

I actually find it makes it tactically more interesting, as choosing your routes has to be done fairly carefully, and for instance having to move a fleet back onto a shipyard tile to reinforce it will probably cost you a few turns, which can be critical. I think letting each fleet move separately would speed up the game far too much. I was thinking something like allowing extra moves once an empire hits a certain number of sectors, but the game already heavily incentivises you to expand as fast as you can.

[@whiskizyo2067]

​@@atraxisdarkstar Definitely sounds like it'd be more tactical, exactly what i thought when i read the initial comment here. More like a chess game than an RTS or something. Some people don't understand the finer concepts in games, or it's too slow for them and that's ok.

[@wolframstahl1263]

The single fleet movement per turn would bug me a lot, especially when your empire gets huge. Maybe another interesting way to go about this would be: every time one faction gets defeated, all surviving factions get +1 fleet actions per turn.

[@DoomedPaladin]

The description of the plotline/motivation of the game sounded very much a, "Describe 40K, without saying 40K." but in-play it actually reminds me a lot of Homeworld, but as a board game, which isn't a bad thing. I really want to see Splatt play Homeworld...

[@brianhaynes7182]

I like the tactical combat and the ship customization, but on the strategic map every fleet should be able to move on each turn. As others have noted, it seems like the AI is able to move at least 2 fleets per turn.

[@kerravon4159]

Hears the term "hyper streamlined" for a 4x space game. Immediately closes the video.

[@McDadden]

Thanks for finding this gem. This is exactly the kind of game i've been looking for

[@rohenthar8449]

@Splatter I understand your wish from 25:00, but its impossible to do so, because developer is using GENERIC models that are available on internet. The same ship and stations models are used in various games, only little details are different. In this case Frigate, and Destroyer exhaust which normally is similar to F-117 exhaust, here are made in to circle, or Star Wars style.

[@kevinp7056]

Tinkering and customization? Ooh! Ooh! I'm following this one!

[@randomtvninja]

A lot of these games you cover would kill it as a Mobile game but one can only dream

[@riggerw8778]

If you french fry when you should Pizza, you're gonna have a bad time

[@daddykon2344]

Your extra move idea is good. Just make it like era based. After a number of turns, like 50. every faction can now move 2 fleets. Good vid.

[@rickytempleton4181]

My man! Keep it up sir!

[@Whatever100500]

No ,being limited to single move per turn is actually the good idea. It prevents late game snowballing, which is a very big problem for most 4x. Here fighting multiple opponents is hard even when they are individually weak, because each has own actions (including the nuke). You are also not meant to completely eradicate all 3 other factions - just suppress them enough to be the first to use FT warhead.

[@notyourdad361]

Reminds me of stellaris. The game is fun until late game is like going with all fleet together to destroy everything in the way instead using tactics or something

[@onerimeuse]

I wonder if Devs ever watch this channel? They should. Ah well. Main point. I love that little slight pan on battle victory. Very nice little touch. Love the battle pace too. I think for a... Faux X game, it's nice to see controllable battles, and not just units fighting with RNG... Brings some tactics into the grand strategy. But yeah, one fleet per turn.... Hm. Rough

[@PreacherwithoutaPulpit]

Is the move one fleet thing faction specific because I saw one of the other factions move two fleets? Looks interesting and I'm going to add it to my lists... Thanks Splat... Edit to add: It's on sale right now 11/27/21 but only has the one DLC available. I think I'll just add it to my wish list and wait for all the DLC to be available and buy it as a bundle in some future sale. Thanks again Splat...

[@gowensbach2998]

I think what it needs is the ability to deploy your ships how you want at the beginning of battle

[@awfullufwa]

26:54 "I would like to have a safe border. I think that's one of those things that every empire from the dawn of time has tried to make sure that they have; safe borders on all sides so you can kinda exhale and focus on your economy..." Poignant in this day and age. You sure you're from Cali, Splat?!?

[@bestieswithtesties]

Pretty much everyone wants strong borders. Anyone who claims otherwise is just fearmongering.

[@wojciechkolaczkiewicz2881]

@@bestieswithtesties some govs would choose own expanding over strong borders

[@Sorain1]

Folks from Cali and Texas (the sensible ones) both tend to have a real pertinent desire for strong borders.

[@hatework4282]

It seems the obvious answer is to allow each fleet to move once per turn. Early game you want more fleets to sieze more territory. later game, you probably want fewer, but larger and more powerful, fleets. Otherwise, this looks pretty good.

[@Aurinkohirvi]

I like: combat, ship customization. No silly animated races that irritate me to no end. I don't like: economy is very simple, one resource. Not much variation between systems. By some odd rule, limited fleet size and number.

[@tefras14]

So this is where the ships in the Stellaris mod Kurogane came from

[@DamsdelDrennon]

I like the fluidity of the macro management and the way movement is handled in battles, as well as the line of sight mechanic, obvious maybe but good thought of adding it in. We don't see mid or late game in the vid but it's not hard to see the validity of your comment on single fleet move, shame because the early game rhythm feels really nice.

[@Agouti]

Not everything works like geology, splat. Sharp edges are everywhere in modern military vehicles - see modern tanks, ships (LCS), aircraft (F35, F117)

[@poeticartist2nv]

Thanks for the content splat, always looking forward to a new vid

[@IonoTheFanatics]

Actually engineering wise... military hardwares don't go for rounded and curved hulls unless there's a benefit worth taking (and sometimes there is, but not always). Instead the military design always favor for 2 things: 1. simplicity and ease of repair (straight panel and boxy hulls are a lot simpler to work with and repair in general than rounded hulls and curved panels) 2. usable volume (boxy hulls are a LOT simpler to manage in terms of maximizing usable volume, and usable volume is what matters for military hardwares) the military does not give a damn about 'SLEEK' and if something turns out to be 'SLEEK' then that's an accidental byproduct that came about as the hardware designer tried to meet a different objective, not the primary goal.

[@yzfool6639]

2D thinking my friend, 2D thinking. There is a reason that space stations are cylinders.

[@IonoTheFanatics]

@@yzfool6639 A civilian space station isn't exactly designed to be shot up, fixed as fast as possible and then recrewed and returned to service the next day for another fight to get shot up again.. Military hardwares, particularly ones that are expected to get shot up as they fight on the frontline on the other hand does... When something in the military is not boxy in nature... that usually means it's harder to fix, longer to fix, and more EXPENSIVE to fix and the military hates that. They will only tolerate that when that non boxy thing offer something so good that they are willing to accept the extra effort, time, and money required to use and maintain it...

[@Xenoun]

Geology erosion concepts don't apply to bullets. Wind/waves move around things and hit corners the hardest where there's the most resistance to the flow. Bullets and weapons don't flow, they punch through. There's also no friction without atmosphere so aerodynamics and friction coefficients don't apply in space.

[@yzfool6639]

Then why is armor sloped on tanks to prevent penetration? A sphere would give the most slope, would it not? The only reason that tanks aren't spheres (yet) is the volume cost of spherical objects and the fact that they have to move on a 2D surface.

[@jasonbolin151]

Right up my alley.

[@TheSwiftCreek2]

Game looks cool. When the ship was being customized the font for "Points Assigned" was just fine. The font for the buttons was terrible. It doesn't have to be the same font, but when the letters are slanted, thickened, with less space between the letters it becomes much harder to read.

[@mudcrab3420]

The 'this is your ONE turn' thing is... interesting. Plus - it makes you think VERY carefully about what you want to do. Cons - Why have I built 4 mega fleets only to watch 3 of them do NOTHING for turns on end. Once you get past about mid point of the game it makes each turn a bit of a drag, probably why I started playing other things and haven't been back to it in months. The new fleets do sound interesting... sure, DLC... but interesting...

[@bergsteiger09]

Love this channel. Definitely picking this one up.

[@oleksii685]

Interesting, thanks for the recommendation! A surprisingly good game! BTW, do Imperial ships look like concepts from The Falling Frontier, or is that just me?

[@Blefiz]

4x is not just about conquest and expansion, although it's probably the most fun part. The 4x stands for eXploration, eXpansion, eXploitation and extermination, if a game does not have all those 4x it's not called a 4x. In the classical 4x games, usually, the gameplay pace goes in order I stated, think civilization where you first go around exploring, then expanding and exploiting resources, then you focus in exterminating your enemies or in more modern iterations you focus in going for the win (cultural, religious, economic, etc.). In some not so standard 4xs, conquest and expansion are not so easily separated and in some there's no clear exploration phase, in those cases many may not consider those games as 4x since in the classical ones the phases are very well defined in normal game pace.

[@Blefiz]

@Dimitar well, I love coe, been playing it since coe3 and it's crazy combat system. But I don't consider it a 4x, at least not in the classical sense of the genre. Why? Because there's no clear expansion phase, in the colonize, expand, build new cities sense of the word, it happens coupled with the extermination phase. Of course this is just an opinion and the not so purist gamers will consider it a 4x, some people even consider classical RTS as 4x games since it has all the phases clearly defined (although I would argue that the expansion phase is not clearly defined).

[@Blefiz]

@Dimitar Yeah, I would say it's a 3.5x. Well, the expasion is supposed to be a phase in itself, since it's coupled with the extermination I don't think it counts in the classical sense of 4x, but lots of people consider coe and Dom a 4x, I don't they are, but it's just an opinion, I'm not an especialist or anything :P

[@seanwarren9357]

17:31 Now, your a man! A manny man man! 😂

[@Hjylps]

Would love to see the rest of the match on this game.

[@player2aj]

I recommend checking out Dominus Galaxia, similar to this in the 4X genre.

[@joshuachapman247]

Currently $3.37 on steam, actually looks pretty good. Thanks for showing this off. I think they out their ship models for free use in Stellaris as well, under Kurogane by Paragon? If that is true let me know.

[@swissmoose]

one attack per turn is all good.. but fleets should be able to admin move for more strategic sense

[@jaredcullum117]

I like the look of this game, and it's not very expensive

[@magicmanticore3536]

This seems cool

[@Murph_.]

My favorite kind of game!

[@Murph_.]

Been playing this since I saw this video. Interesting game, but I think it needs a little work I don't think the one fleet move a turn is a problem. It creates a level of strategy, IMO. I don't mind the strategy of it. However, at some point you have so many resources, it's hard to keep track. Where can I build a BattleCruiser? Where do I have a lot of Tacknium to harvest? Things like that. There should be a screen that shows you your resources so you can just click what you're looking for and the interface takes you there.

[@-BigTMoney-]

I enjoyed the game and beat it but there is a meta and when you learn it is hard not to do it and you just start rolling the enemies and the feel of threat is gone, and it does not feel like your choice matter when you can come in with 1/2 the ships and win with out a losing a ship

[@big_tasty1]

hopefully the upcoming dlc shakes up the meta but yea you're right

[@-BigTMoney-]

@@big_tasty1 I think there needs make you choose one of 4 primary weppons, like one that is good a sheld busting, one that is hull busting, 1 that does less dammabe but high rate at slipping past sheilds and one that is just all around, Just bet the game again and all I ened up doing was maxing out 2 classes of ships and the deadnought and DD, (royal) mast matces they never even drops a sheild on any of my ships. the AI need to focus fire better. I will need to play the game again the hardest setting to see if the AI focus fire or it just gets cheats.

[@Muenni]

Seems to me having 6 frigates with that +20% shield pierce in a fleet means they have a 92% chance of bypassing shields altogether. They'd also greatly increase the chance of the emp weapons on those support 'destroyers' to hit hull armour over the shield, which actually makes them worse... then again, when you're already ignoring shields, there's little reason for emp weapons to begin with. It seems paramount to always bring 6 frigates and focus on kinetic and thermal damage (though I guess other ships like cruisers would only gain the +42% chance of shield pierce). On the other hand, if the AI is not focusing said shield pierce (or cannot by faction design), upping your own shields seems king with 1% of 400 or more points being better than 2% of a weapon dealing ideally 140ish damage when bypassing the shield and full regen of that increased shield every 2 turns after the cheapest upgrade (and further shield boost abilities). This doesn't seem well balanced... At the same time the strategic map is just watching the AI taking endless uncontested space before ever even meeting you. Additional fleets can't move during the same turn, so enrichment sites > starports, I guess. I think that's my main problem with moving only one fleet per turn; otherwise it makes each turn faster and keeps your empire from simply snowballing over everything. Of course, if they keep the map so large that it takes 10-20 hours and both the strategic options and battles simplistic and repetitive, you'd actually need that snowballing effect to increase the pace to reasonable levels. But really, if they did that, the early game wouldn't be any faster or more interesting on a second playthrough and when manually doing all the battles, I'm not even sure the lategame would be all that much faster (though obviously taking fewer, but longer turns). Doesn't seem great, tbh.

[@KillerofGods]

Enrichment sites are good and you can only move once, but there are multiple front lines of attack. So you need multiple fleets to pivot as the map changes. The Empire starts spawning in fleets, there is an ability to immobilize a fleet for a couple of turns. It's basically like a game of chess but you control how to modify your pieces on the field. Eventually you will get caught in a 2-3 front war so you need fleets for defence and to decide who you will move against or defend against. But by doing so, you will leave yourself open to attack. Also starports can only manufacture one ship type and only one at a time. So having more gives you the ability to stock up on the ships you like faster. It is deceptively simple, the strategic map plays a lot like a board game. Chess being a great example and then the battles are like Warhammer.

[@Muenni]

@@KillerofGods Thanks for the insight!

[@KillerofGods]

@@Muenni Yeah just to clarify I wasn't trying to argue/disagree with you. I picked this up only because of this video. I love strategic games and picked this up despite the simplistic strategic map. But it is nice having a "simpler" strategy game to jump into once in awhile. There is a lot more going on then you'd think, with the nuke that can just wipe out an entire enemy fleet. (But then it creates a resource deposit to mine, it also destroys any circles/stations already there.) So having a starports is really nice in that you can instantly call in a fleet from your reserves. Enrichment sites a great because they build progress to the nukes and allow a bigger fleet. But with the movement so limited starports are very much needed to expand so you can have one fleet go one away and another a different way/defend. You can run into a problem where a fleet ends up being so far behind the enemy lines that it is better to scrap it for 50% of the money. So you can redeploy a different fleet later. If a fleet gets badly damaged then it becomes a problem trying to reinforce it might be too great a time sink, so you end up making due with what you got until you can capture a starport. I'd say the limitations definitely add to the complexity, but in a different sort of way from most PC strategy games. For how cheap it is, I say it is worth a pickup. Especially if they are going to add more fleets/faction options. Granted I've learned it is better to max out three or so ships than to put a little bit in everything. So it'll take multiple playthroughs to use all the ships for even just one faction. So even choosing your ship composition is a strategic choice. Although I will label that as more of a con for me since I like more ship variety and using different units as a campaign progresses. Tldr; Imo all the cons in this game definitely add more strategic depth then you would think for the game. It isn't the most complex game, but definitely has a lot of hidden potential that stem from it's very limitations.

[@Ibian666]

They didn't dare call it Final Solution.

[@jamesb7994]

War were declared.

[@AlexandreLollini]

I am going to play Spaceward Ho! again ...

[@jasonarthur5487]

Really wished it wasn’t a turn base tactical and a turn based strategic. Steam says released in 2018 and first dlc was just dropped, doesn’t sound like the developers care.

[@fhuzy]

Why does this channel keep showing up as the #1 video on main page of yt?

[@wisnudJat]

Instant buy,, 80% discount 😳🥺😏

[@guntherultraboltnovacrunch5248]

LOL @ "the Royal navy" and "imperial navy". That's like having the choice between the "U.S. Navy" and the "American Navy".

[@tiemanowo]

This game reminds me a little bit Master of Orion series

[@blacktemplar5970]

I don't know why they don't make a total war hours heresy you could do so much with that

[@doltBmB]

There's no friction in space....

[@konradurbanski5676]

I think that fantasticle should definately be a word...

[@JohnathanRitter]

Really looks like models put together by Paragon and Doc Cola on Steam. Still I am liking the game tho.

[@kevinryan9258]

some of these ships look a lot like the ones in Between the Stars.

[@battlemind]

This is a great game for casual gamers - totally doable for gamers in one sitting. Stellaris and the like are just too long for me.

[@Cuthawolf]

Huh, seems cool.

[@fast1nakus]

the UI looks like WinAmp skin from 2006

[@PaulV.]

The tactical battles in the game look great and give strong MOO vibes. However the strategic part looks too simplified for me. I am waiting for a really long time for some modern reincarnation of the original MOO that will have a deep XXXX strategy with diplomacy, research, colonization and development of planets but with similar turn based battles with customizable ship designs. Alas all the main XXXX space games of today seem to stick with real time fights.

[@SimplyBADASS-Studio]

This game reminds me on Sid Meiers Starships .. other than that its a neat game.

[@0xbaadf00d]

For me, the animations take WAY too long. I can't take another Tacknium warhead explosion. Where is the option to disable animations.

[@msolomonii9825]

I see it's currently till Dec 1st super-cheap! 80% off. Pretty much can't go wrong at $2.39

[@Leverquin]

Play Remnants of the Precursors

[@claiminglight]

Having a single fleet move is an artful way to prevent you asking the question "Why can't I attack a target with multiple fleets?". If you could move twice, you'd have to grapple with that awkward discovered issue. Further, only being able to move once forces you to make interesting choices whether to engage in multi-pronged attacking strategies vs defense considerations, it curbs zerging and makes a war on two fronts a properly scary concern. All in all, I think it give more than it takes.

[@ultramarinus2478]

Show us the new factions please :D

[@SutaSafaia]

Does this game work for peaceful turtle players who don't like to expand/conquer or is this not that type of game?

[@yzfool6639]

It's a race to create the Bomb, and no pacifist will be spared.

[@QualeQualeson]

It costs less than 2 (converted) bucks on Steam ATM, and with that price, there's not much point in talking about value. All games draw a cost from the same time pool though...

[@darkholyPL]

Splat... friction in space? Tf man, lol

[@Ty-bz7zx]

"the devs PROMISE to release 4 more full factions reALLY REALLY SOON!" Don't they all.... Pass. I really miss the glory days of gaming when full complete games were actually made THEN sold. Who would go buy a new truck with no engine or wheels...with a rumor, nothing legally binding, that you will probably get those parts later on... whenever they want to do it.

[@fendelphi]

While I generally agree with this notion, it seems that one of the DLCs have already been released(and the other 3 are on the steam page as well, with a description on what they will contain). Cant hurt to put it on wishlist/watchlist and check out the progress every now and then.

[@heatherunderhill3937]

This looks good, a 4x straight into the fighting

[@fandorgaming]

felt like a guide video than a gameplay, entertainment type video

[@Nick-yj8nj]

Kinda threshy game, indie games must have something special to be successful.

[@karljordan9115]

Games only £1.85 on steam, nothing to lose

[@Bill_Garthright]

OK,... so what you're saying is that they removed everything I actually _like_ in 4X games and left in only the stuff that doesn't interest me? Heh, heh. Seriously, that's how it looks to me. But hey, tastes vary. Other people will enjoy it, I'm sure. And I've got more games than I can play already!

[@mbielcik]

🖤

[@bruh-xb2uy]

Nice

[@albogypsy2842]

Nice combat and ships, but unfortunately not much else.

[@authoraven]

Stellaris on discont?

[@madman026]

lol no two players frigates will be the same you sir under estimate META sir

[@pmcollectorboy2929]

Please I'm begging you. Stop destroying my wallet.

[@winnie8614]

I think combat mode isn't needed in this game.

[@barblenarf]

I still play Sins of the Solar Empire. Compared to that, all these newer turn base Space Conquests games are... meh..

[@Oscuros]

Why do americans always say wriggle room like "wiggle room"? You've destroyed the alliteration in it.

[@yzfool6639]

We don't usually. Though either one means the same thing.

[@basselsak6111]

Does splattercat read comments? 🤔

[@Blefiz]

Nope

[@poeticartist2nv]

Hes said in streams that comments can be toxic and he avoids it. But can't nobody speak for him but him lol

[@markdowse3572]

@ 15:44 "... UNLEASH IT ALLLLLLLLLL !" I like the sound of that, Mr SplatterCat! I like it a lot. 😊👍 And the game LOOKS superb. This one's a beauty, I reckon! ✨ M 🦘🏏😎

[@Iridescence93]

"One faction but they'll release others as DLC". hard pass.

[@atraxisdarkstar]

I mean the base game was $2.50 on sale...

[@jasonarthur5487]

On sale. Full price is 11$ something and the other dlc haven’t released yet. And it’s been 2-3 years.

[@PushOKBest]

Is there any game similar to Space Rangers, guys?

[@paulschumacher4308]

I'm like #666! YAY!

[@balthern9729]

Play moar!!!

[@filipmaly6603]

Oh no I am the First One now!

[@Kar4ever3]

Careful with the Gengis Khan referrences. People might think it's a Waifu game.....

[@fredmercury1314]

Spaceships aren't geology. There's a reason tanks are all angles not spherical. Angles deflect projectiles, a curved surface is always flat to a projectile.

[@Tachdelan]

Curved surfaces aren't always flat to a projectile, if anything it's closer to always being angled. An angled surface isn't constant in its angle relative to the projectile.

[@Dosbomber]

@@Tachdelan Fred's statement only holds true if the spheroid is being hit dead center.

[@yzfool6639]

@@Dosbomber Which is a target area the size of an of a point...so Fred's statement is inaccurate.

[@TenPsych]

3D models of ships remind me of models from Between the Stars (saw them even in Stellaris mods on Steam) don't get it wrong, they look very high quality and cool.. However, in our time, drawing your own is so time-consuming and hard these days?