Sins of a Solar Empire

[tesco samoa]

Anyone play this ?

Opinions?

[Romulus68]

look here: http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=436444&page=0&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

[se5a]

that thread is way off topic, and doesn't really talking about sins

[Atrocities]

I haven't played it but according to all the game review sites, who all seem love it, the game is revolutionary.

[Fyron]

SoaSE is a strange beast; too complex to be a RTS game, but too simplistic to be a 4x game (in the classic sense). Time will tell if it can carve out a successful new(ish) niche for itself.

As for revolutionary... What about Haegemonia? Imperium Galactica 2? Homeworld? Granted HW was a smaller scale, but this is just an evolutionary step up from those games (and one down from true 4X games).

[se5a]

is there a demo yet?

[Makinus]

While the game is completelyu different from SEIV like 4x, it´s a very addictive strategy game...

Its RTS, but if you set the game speed to slow, and the research time to high it nearly became a TBS game... (i only play in these settings)

And you must get some of the mods already out there, the SINS Enhanced is the best one in my opinion, as it make the Capital Ships really powerfull (among other things, like better diplomacy), as the Capital ships are a little weak in the stock game...

Make sure to update the game to the latest patch, as the mods only work right after version 1.02...

My only gripe with the game is the low number of AI in single player, as you can have, at most, 10 players in a Huge galaxy...

In my most advanced game in a huge galaxy with 5 stars and 10 players i only meet 3 other empires and conquered about a quarter of a solar system (there is around 50 planets/asteroids/etc. in each system), and i´m having fun using only capital ships and defense structures (no frigates or cruisers), and already there are some epic battles with nearly a hundred ships, sometimes even with 3 sides fighting each other in the same system...

The game will never be as good as SEIV, but it´s really addictive, and some battle visuals are stunning... several times i just keep watching the battles, as the individual ships AI in the mod i´m using are very competent and rarely need direct orders to fight efficiently...

[tesco samoa]

I think I am going to pick this game up. Looking forward to trying it out.

[tesco samoa]

someone should make a space empires mod for it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Kana]

Played a little of this today. Overall I like the UI, and many of the concepts, unfortunately it has the main problem I have with RTS style games. Your busy trying to enjoy a portion of the game, like the graphics of the ships fighting, but then something else happens 10 systems away that needs your immediate attention. Nothing like having 20 things to do, and only one mouse and person to do it with.

Also the pirates suck. A real pain in you side, especially if you are playing a small map against one other enemy.

[rstaats10]

I saw the game at Fry's Electronics the other day while shopping for a new pc power supply. They wanted $49.99 for the collector's edition and $39.99 for the regular. A Fry's sticker covered up what was extra in the collectors's box. Something about a poster and something else? I really couldn't tell. The game looks really cool but I have enough games atm. I will probably pick it up within the year maybe at Gamestop for lower price down the road.

[Fyron]

Makinus said:
"And you must get some of the mods already out there, the SINS Enhanced is the best one in my opinion..."

Isn't it customary to provide links when you mention such mods?

[Makinus]

oops! my bad.... here goes:

http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/?forumid=443&aid=177349

Take a look in the other mods there too, as there is several interesting ones...

[Fyron]

Ah, that's much different from the "Sins Enhanced Skyboxes" mod that one can find on the official site's Mods link. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[tesco samoa]

well been playing the game for a week now.

I like it. Slow research slow game speed. Lost the first 5 games learning it. Won the last one. Too bad it did not have a 30 second turn or something...

[Atrocities]

Thats the problem with RTS, no time to manage things.

[AstralWanderer]

Does it require online activation like Stardock's other products (http://www.stardock.com/StardockActivationInfo.asp) do?

[Makinus]

Mine only asked the serial when i ordered it to update online... And i believe you need some kind of serial verification when playing multiplayer (i don´t know for sure because i don´t play multiplayer)

[AstralWanderer]

Makinus said:
Mine only asked the serial when i ordered it to update online...

Does that mean that it could have done an activation check then? The way to be sure is to see if it tries to connect online when you install or apply a (previously downloaded) update offline.

[Makinus]

AstralWanderer said:
Does that mean that it could have done an activation check then? The way to be sure is to see if it tries to connect online when you install or apply a (previously downloaded) update offline.



I had to put my serial do download the pacth.... afterwards, in the patch installation the game didn´t asked to connect or anything...

[Caduceus]

Just noticed that Sins passed the 100 000 copies sold mark. Impressive.

http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/?aid=302051

[Makinus]

While not a deep strategic game (like SEIV), it´s fun, with a huge replay value, and highly modable...

It´s just my luck that my work schedule ramped up and i´ll have to cut back in my gaming time just now...

Well, that´s the problem of being your own boss...

[Atrocities]

I am waiting for Lost Empire: Immortals. Link (http://www.paradoxplaza.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=272&Item id=224)

[Ragnarok-X]

Wow. The game already went gold and i have read or heard NOTHING about it, despite surfing the web all day ?
Either the crap is totally under my (or anyones) radar or it sucks pretty hard.

[Kana]

Can't suck, it has sold over 100000 copies so far, and is the number one rated game on gametracker poll. It is distributed by Stardock, and they don't like to release crap.

[Ragnarok-X]

I was not talking about Sins but replying to AC talking about Lost Empire: Immortals. It is well known that Sins is a sleeper hit. Many ppl are already comparing it to Civ.

[PsychoTechFreak]

Is Lost Empires turn based? I cannot find that category and heard about it for the first time too.

[Atrocities]

Lost Empire: Immortals


The turn-based space strategy genre may not be as large as it once was, but it still has a devoted following. The genre was defined early on by such games as 1993's Master of Orion and, more recently, by the Galactic Civilizations franchise. The basic formula throughout all these games is similar: start with a single planet, build fleets to explore the galaxy, colonize star systems, research new technologies, and wage war on your interstellar neighbors. Now comes Lost Empire: Immortals, a new turn-based space strategy game from Danish developer Pollux Gamelabs. This is an ambitiously big game, with galactic maps that have as many as 5,000 star systems. At the same time, it looks like it will bring an interesting new take on the genre.

-Gamespot.com Link (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/lostempireimmortals/news.html?sid=6185088&mode=recent)

[PsychoTechFreak]

Let's see. Only 6 races, ok 5,000 stars, butGalCivII-Twilight of the Arnor (http://forums.galciv2.com/?aid=170595) also has a new galaxy size above "gigantic" (18x18=324) now, Immense size should be some more than 324 stars, and there are 12 races plus one customized race...

EDIT: Immense means 484 sectors (22x22).

[Ragnarok-X]

Then again, GalCiv combat always majorly sucked balls.

[Ragnarok-X]

http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/lost-empire-immortals/857907p1.html

[AstralWanderer]

Ragnarok-X said:
Then again, GalCiv combat always majorly sucked balls.

And its tech tree is more a bush compared to SE - do you still have to research from scratch in every scenario of the new GC campaigns?

And you can't have big fleets of ships, only street gangs.

And you have a 3D ship designer that almost forces you to labour on each ship design/upgrade to avoid making them appear like a dog's breakfast.

And you have the online activation...

But to be fair, GC did come in a nice shiny box. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Xrati]

Would you guys like a little cheese with your 'whine'? I'll talk to Narf and see what he can do! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Ragnarok-X]

One thing i absoutly liked about GalCiv is the planet surface divided into grids with specials.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Fyron]

Wasn't that MOO3, not GalCiv? Or did they do something different with planets in GalCiv2?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

One thing I really like about cheese is you can eat it.

[Baron Munchausen]

Fyron said:
Wasn't that MOO3, not GalCiv? Or did they do something different with planets in GalCiv2?



MOO3 had "regions" on its planets, which is a reasonable idea, but there was no 'grid' or other display of the planet surface. Not even in ground combat. Ground combat in MOO3 was like SE IV ground combat. A mathematical model only. Apparently GalCiv is different. (I haven't played GalCiv, just heard about it.) It would be kinda nice for SE VI to have "regions" on planets so you could have a planet shared by several races and/or even several empires. Hey, if the armistice gets signed while a planet is only partly conquered, that's the way things are left -- until the next outbreak of war. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[PsychoTechFreak]

Fyron said:
Wasn't that MOO3, not GalCiv? Or did they do something different with planets in GalCiv2?


You may want to scroll down to the pictures:
http://forums.galciv2.com/?aid=170595

I have just started with GalCiv2 and its addons a few days ago.

[AstralWanderer]

GalCiv 2's ground combat consists of displaying two numbers (attacker and defender) and counting them down at different rates. Whoever reaches zero first is the loser.

You see a vaguely representative picture of a battlefield, but to my mind it is more simplistic than SEIV. You can choose a tactic (more effective ones cause more planetary damage) but that's it.

As for planets, the grid setup looks nice at first - but you can only develop each square in one of 4 ways (boosting population, production, influence or research) with some unique options available later on. The 1995 game Ascendancy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascendancy_(computer_game)) provides more options to consider in planet development (connectivity, free population, special facilities).

It's a pity since the grid could make ground combat more interesting (allow an attacker to choose a landing point, allow defenders to create fortifications on key squares) and the planet development aspect could be beefed up by including proximity (similar/complementary facilities closer together work better) and connectivity (require everything to be adjacent or connected on non-breathable worlds) but at the moment it is more glitz than substance.

[Ragnarok-X]

Fyron:
http://www.stardock.com/media/twilight/index.8.jpg




In all honesty, i still love MoO3. I liked how each planet had a biosphere with temperature, atmosphere, heat, surface type etc. All modifying the ability of your race to colonize and develope the world.
I really like space combat as well. Forming squads of ships which will fire their stuff. And orbital bases...that was awesome.

Ground Combat was likely the best model i have seen at this point. There is no way you can compare it to SE, Baron.

Each species had several distinct abilites for fighting better/weaker on underground, air, surface etc. Plus their were like 20 abilites (strength, endurance, to-hit, lifepoint etc etc). In addition, there were 7-8 different troop types, (milita, marines, headquarters, agents, tank, battleoids etc) all boosting different aspect and all more or less suited for different terrain.

In addition, attacker and defender could each select one of about 20-25 different tactics (prone, sweep, fall back, full-assault etc etc) which had different combat power modifiers depending on the combination of attacker/defender tactic. And when winning a ground combat you gradually conquered regions of the planet. And you could place military DEAs on a planet and they would work like military bases, holding the invasion for at least one turn per military DEA.

MoO3 was so bugged, but awesome. It still is my favourite 4/5X game. I can only assume its full potential.

[PsychoTechFreak]

Alas, it is hard to become acquainted with MoO3. I try it every now and again, but there are so many overwhelming details in it, that I do not see the wood for the trees. Plus the fact that there are not too many fans around anymore, it is a pity.

Recently I have heard from one of the mod designers of http://www.ultima-orion.de/ they plan to work on the German fan patch mod again. But they say ver 0.87 already is way better playable than vanilla.

[Kana]

New screenshots of Lost Empire: Immortals
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/lostempireimmortals/images.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=tabs&tag=tabs;im ages

Also there is a video link as well.

From the looks of it, it is a cross between the new Sins, GalCiv, and some Space Empires. There are many elements of the three evident in the video.

Looks good, can't wait.

[Ragnarok-X]

Its more like Europa Universalis in space, Kana.

[Caduceus]

Looks there is a demo out for Lost Empire, today.

[Atrocities]

http://www.paradoxplaza.com/lostempire/ Demo can be downloaded from here

[Randallw]

I have just been trying the demo. It's interesting. There are a few intriguing elements but it's a bit confusing. Probably be easier if I tried more than just the first tutorial. I'm going to try it some more but at the moment I'm not really leaning towards buying it. In the hours I might have playing it I need to play my SE5 turns.

[Ragnarok-X]

Due to the nice €/$ i decided to buy the game online. It costs 45 $ and is a 900 mb download.

The game feels more like a real slow RTS and reminds me a bit of Warcraft since each species can get up to one capital ship very early. These capitals act as hero units and can level up, granting new abilities to the vessel. Each unoccupied system contains a planet, a few new asteroids (ressources) and usually neutral ships. They act as creap, aka free experience for your capital hero.
The game is very, very moddable. Each species (3 in total) has unique visuals and a unique techtree.

All in all i think the game is pretty enjoyable, but you really cant compare it to Space Empires or Master of Orion since its more realtime than turn-based.

I would suggest playing it though, it has some nice ideas and whoever is into all kinds of fancy space technology/theory will likely enjoy it.