Sins of a Solar Empire
 

Anyone play this ?

Opinions?

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

look here: http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...o=&fpart=1

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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).

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

is there a demo yet?

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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...

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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?

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

oops! my bad.... here goes:

http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com...amp;aid=177349

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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...

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

Does it require online activation like Stardock's other products do?

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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)

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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...

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

I am waiting for Lost Empire: Immortals. Link

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

Lost Empire: Immortals

-Gamespot.com Link

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

Let's see. Only 6 races, ok 5,000 stars, butGalCivII-Twilight of the Arnor 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).

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

Then again, GalCiv combat always majorly sucked balls.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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 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.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

New screenshots of Lost Empire: Immortals
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...ag=tabs;images

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.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

Its more like Europa Universalis in space, Kana.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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.

Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
 

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.