Need advice or suggestion for a good (specific) game engine Thread

Hello Community,

after a 1,5 years break, I decided to "restart" my modding mood... I've been in modding business for many years now (spending thousends of hours ) and I would really like to start doing something "productive" again..

The thing is, for many years there is a mod in my mind, so that I can create a sequel to one of my all time favourite games : Imperium Galactica

While I somehow was not sooo happy with the second part, I still play the first till today and I just love it... Not only this 4x Game part which no (yes, NO) company has been able to do in a good way so far, but also the embedded real time part in building and fighting on the colony, this was just genius combination, and is until today unmatched...

And when no company is doing it, i want now to try doing it myself... I can do modelling, texturing, planning, organizing, game balancing and even teamleading, but what is really really missing for just getting me started, is a game engine that provides me the basics that made Imperium Galactica so special. Not sure everyone even knows this jewel, so let me explain :

What I need is :

1)Some sort of "playground" for the starmap, where you can move ships arround. This should be timebased, so that time passes by why your colonies grow, research runs and so on. Realtime (but pausable, and a few time warp steps to make time flow faster. This has been seen in many games so far

2) The "ground playground", where you can switch to, and place buildings.. this doesn't even need too many features (just the basic : Building places, boundaries, terrain useable or not, some "time passing by" feature for while away the building time, money count etc and a few things to pretty it up, light effects, day/night, but the last too are just cosmetic... In this window / Playground it is not necessary that military building can fire or units move in realtime, it's just for building (and maybe unit) placing. Though animations should be possible, it makes that screen not so boring..

2a) Also needed, beside the build and research windows, is a window where you can outfit fleets (i.e. Cruiser Hull A, but replace it's weapons when researched and on stock after it is being build)...(also something special to Imperium Galactica)...

Now the Vital part

3) Groundcombat Playground : The ability to create ground combat in exactly the same map (1 defined per planet), that you placed in 2)... It's not necessary (and technically must be forbidden) that in this playground you can alter the building placement or buildings somehow... But here the fight takes place, so military buildings should become somewhat fixed gun units, and units can move arround... buildings are destroyable of course, and will free up the building space for 2 again.

4) SpaceCombat Playground : This can be somewhat static for planets (1 defined per planet), but it should drag over defense units, that are build in Window 1 or 2, here a individual spawn location is not so important.. it's enough when the attacker starts at point A on the map, and the defense player and it's units start on point B.. Survivor wins, and groundcombat starts when the attacker has specific units left... It's not necessary to be 3 dimensional for flight vectors (would be really confusing), but it should be isometric with 3D Models (like in Star Wars Empire at War)

Technically, the underlying engine for 3 and 4 could be somewhat identical, despite the buildings being present in Option 3 and the groundmap needs at least obstacles which block fire and movement. Also, technical Issue 2 and 3 could be combined in the same window/programmpart, and between battle and build modes just some features are turned off (though the building window should be realtime and timebased like the starmap in issue 1)

Now, while I already mentioned it, "Star Wars Empire at War" is quite close, but afaik the engine itself has it's limit in modding. I do not want starlanes for example. But while the combat (ground and Space) and building part (especially space) is quite good, the biggest problem in that game engine is that I cannot control where I create buildings on the groundmap, and this, in combination with the realtime groundcombat is exactly what mades Imperium Galactica so special and has never been copied in a suitable way so far.

So, you modders out here...Can you push me, or name me a few possible game engines so that I can check out their communities and see if one might fit for my needs ? Certainly adjustment would be needed, so I need to find coders (even harder to find than a girlfriend, and yes, I'm single ). If I find a close enough (and adjustable) engine, i can start doing detailed plans, and when I have something substantial (means content for the game) I can start modding and collecting a team.

Would be happy if some of you have an idea and could point me in some directions.

Thanks + Best regards
Starman

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