Are there any modern SciFi Strategy games that deal almost exclusively with space exploration and colonisation, with little to no combat involved?

Maybe this will help. I recently picked up Elite Dangerous and it’s pretty amazing visually. It mostly involves trading and doing little jobs to earn credits: presumably to buy a bigger, better ship. I haven’t put much time into it yet though. There is some combat (rarely) with pirate ships but I haven’t had any trouble beating them yet.

There doesn’t seem to be any kind of colonization aspect though. I don’t think you can even land on a planet.

Maybe the other two are more your style.

Kerbal Space program is worth a look too. I love that game.

Closest I could find is Star Trek bridge commander. Where some of the missions are non violent.

Kerbal Space Program Oh, the apparently grumpy one already mentioned that, but ya.

Space engineers

It’s like kerbal space program meets minecraft.

In EVE Online you can play as a non combat player, crafting, trading, exploring, and building planetary colonies to manufacture stuff for you. If you stick to high security space you’re not immune from other players trying to gank you, but the NPC space police will kill them if they attack you. So you’re never completely safe, but you’re mostly safe in high-sec. You really don’t have to do combat at all (although it’s fun), and you may have to run for your life at times from players hunting you (if you’re carrying valuable stuff). The wormhole system is really interesting. It’s a series of thousands of systems that create connections to each other and it’s always changing—always something new/unexpected at the other end. There’s no space police in wormholes though, so you’re free game for being attacked. Anyways, it’s got a free trial, so check it out if you’re interested.

Unfortunately, most space exploration games do contain combat to some degree. This is because space is not a safe place to be, in most places it is portrayed.

I found this on steam that may be what you are looking for. It does have combat, but it also looks like to be a pretty good strategy game.

If not, try checking out the 4X category on Steam. 4X games are designed to be massive strategy games.

@talljasperman I think he’s asking for a Real time or turn based strategy. Bridge Commander doesn’t fall into that category :)

@Fathdris What about Earth2025?

@talljasperman According to Wikipedia, it was shutdown on November 4, 2009.

I honestly think 4X games are the best for what the asker wants. Civilization V is a recent popular example of the genre.

Another suggestion is Endless Space.

The only downside is that 4X games do include combat, but I don’t think there is a space exploration game without combat.

Not out yet, but No Man’s Sky is right up your alley. The goal is to explore countless planets, and you can exploit the resources found on them, kill all the wildlife or…just leave everything be. Should be cool, as so far as I can tell, your goal is to explore and discover planets untouched by man.

The game boasts countless galaxies to explore, and apparently it keeps creating planets on its own as time goes on. Not sure how that works…but no one playing is guaranteed the exact same experience.

What I worry about is with so many planets to explore, too many of them will be similar.

The game also plays online, so you can find planets discovered by other players, you can fight other players if you choose, or if they choose…some wildlife can be hostile, and you can kill them. But read about half a paragraph about this game anywhere, and the goal is to explore. Not sure how the colonization works, but I think there’s supposed to be some elements of that in there.

Celestia. .. all exploring. Download for free. Also Stelerium.

This fan trailer for EVE was just uploaded: Wanderers. Even if you’re not into EVE I think you might enjoy it.