Comparison

Starbase Orion vs Observer for Screeps

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Starbase Orion

Engage in a deep 4X space strategy experience. Explore, expand, and conquer the galaxy by colonizing worlds, designing ships, and outmaneuvering opponents in turn-based combat. Features a robust AI and multiplayer options for galactic domination.

Highlights
  • Explore new worlds
  • Expand your empire
  • Exterminate rivals
  • Design custom ships
  • Engage in turn-based combat
  • Diplomacy and espionage
  • Multiplayer via GameCenter
Features
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"The best 4X game currently available for mobile" - PocketTactics.com "This one is geek heaven" - AppAdvice.com "Master of Orion in Your Pocket” - GamePro.com "Starbase Orion has an epic-feeling" - TouchArcade.com "Starbase Orion is here, and it's glorious." - TUAW.com Explore. Expand. Exterminate. Can you defeat your friends and become the ruler of the galaxy? Starbase Orion is an old-school 4X space strategy game that draws inspiration from titles such as Master of Orion and Galactic Civilizations. Lead your empire from the birth of its space age; colonize new worlds, explore new horizons, and discover other players attempting to do the same. It is a race to the stars where only one empire can declare victory over the galaxy. New to 4X Strategy Games? No Problem Starbase Orion includes a hand tailored tutorial mission perfect for those new to the genre. It features high-quality voice acting provided by the very talented Maurice Thomas. Aged like a Fine Wine With nearly a five year life span the dedicated community of Starbase Orion players and the developer have produced twenty-four fantastic updates. Each update has introduced new features and player suggested functionality to make the game better, more strategic, and more immersive. Strong Single-Player Experience Compete against a battle-tested artificial intelligence. Our AI was derived from our entry into to 2010 Google AI contest, where it placed in the top 15% of thousands of competing intelligences. Go head-to-head against a single AI opponent, or ramp up the carnage with a 4 way free-for-all. GameCenter Multiplayer Turn-Based Games Starbase Orion was designed to provide a fantastic multiplayer experience. Launch the game, sign into GameCenter, and start a new multiplayer game. No need to coordinate play times or seek out other players. Just go play, when you want and on your terms. Choose Your Race, Or Create Your Own There are five uniques races included; Human, Draske, Vass, Cyban, and Isather. You can also create your own custom race by picking and choosing between different race characteristics. Intense Space Combat Design your ships from a variety of weapons, hull, and systems. Send them into battle against the enemy. Give them orders, then watch the battle in unfold as they duke it out in the dark expanses of space. Diplomacy, Espionage, Free Agents Direct confrontations not your cup of tea? Negotiate your way to victory through diplomatic endeavors. Confound your enemies with an army of spies. Contract one of the many power and unique leaders to help you to victory. iCloud Support Starbase Orion is built from the ground up for iOS 5. It supports iCloud so that your saved games are instantly available on all of your devices. Start a game at home on your iPad, then pick it up again the next day on your iPhone. Simple, streamlined, fantastic. Universal - You Bought the Cool Gadgets, Go Play on Them Full support for iPad, iPhone, iPod, standard and Retina displays. Play when you want, where you want. Guaranteed Pricing While it is quite common for apps to become “free for a day”, Starbase Orion is not one of those apps. The standard price for Starbase Orion is $7.99 USD; it will never run a “free for a day” campaign. Tens of thousands of players have placed their confidence in us by purchasing Starbase Orion, and this is our guarantee to you. Guaranteed Free Updates We have a lot more planned for Starbase Orion. We plan to release all updates for free, without any hidden fees or In-App Purchases.

About

Observer for Screeps

Features
Read full description

An unofficial client for the programming MMO RTS game Screeps. Requires a Screeps account and auth token to connect. Does not have features for writing/updating your Screeps codebase. Is primarily for viewing the game and some limited manual interaction. Feature highlights: - View your rooms in a unified room/map view where zooming in on a room shows the full detail and room objects and you can pan over to adjacent rooms to switch to viewing them. Zooming out switches to map detail.  - View room details by tapping the room on the map.  - View object details by tapping an object in a room. - Supports MMO and private servers. - View player profiles - View leaderboards - View console output and submit console commands. - Respawn - View room and map visuals - Flags (create, place, remove, edit) - Construction sites (create, place, remove) - Other manual interactions (destroy owned structure, activate safe mode, destroy own creep, etc) - Power creep management (view, create, upgrade) - See list of active nukes across the shards

Screenshots

Starbase Orion4 screens
Observer for Screeps4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Observer for Screeps at Free against Starbase Orion's $7.99. Starbase Orion's advantage is iOS requirement (11.2 vs 17.0). On ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Observer for Screeps is free to download; Starbase Orion costs $7.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Starbase Orion versus Observer for Screeps: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStarbase OrionObserver for Screeps
Price$7.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (329 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews81.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings329 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS11.2 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size239 MB6 MB
Age rating12+17+
DeveloperChimera Software, LLCJacob Kelly

Bugs and requests

Starbase Orion

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes and save file corruption
  • UI issues with overlapping text and unresponsive controls
  • Multiplayer matchmaking and connectivity problems

Requested features

5 requests
  • More ship classes and customization options
  • Expanded tech tree and research system
  • Deeper diplomacy and espionage mechanics
  • Manual control of ship combat
  • Improved end-game content and victory conditions

Observer for Screeps

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Starbase Orion

No in-app purchases

None

Observer for Screeps

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Starbase Orion free?
Starbase Orion costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Observer for Screeps free?
Observer for Screeps is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Starbase Orion or Observer for Screeps have ads?
Neither Starbase Orion nor Observer for Screeps shows ads.

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