Sins of a solar empire

[GlobalExplorer]

Now that I have seen more of the game I must say it looks like a fine game but I'll probably pass this over.

- This is a RTS with some 4X, but still a RTS (I hate RTS).
- It has no campaign whatsoever, just missions ( a lot of them are random ).

- Graphics and sound are really nice.

I admit I expected something more along the lines of GalCiv2 with 3D action, but this is a very much different game.

[XLjedi]

Looks interesting...

I did pick up GalCiv2 Dreadlords this past year, and frankly, got a little irritated by how grossly outmathced I was against the Dreadlord tech scale. I found the 2D battle sequences to be subpar. I was hoping for a little bit of control in the battle, perhaps Solar Empire is really the game I was looking for?

Ya just gotta support Stardock.

[GlobalExplorer]

GalCiv2 is an excellent strategy game, I would rank it as the best game I played in 2006. But no one plays the Dread Lords Campaign every one goes for the free campaign.

Concerning Sins, well, after I have seen the final product .. being and RTS, no campaign etc .. I have lost all interest in it. It has very nice graphics / sound and presumably gameplay is very good so it should be a very nice game if you are into these types of games (RTS , mission driven, no grand campaign etc).

On a side note, stardocks often praised lack-of-copy-protection distribution absolutely sucks. I just bought the two expansions for GalCiv2 only to find out that I can only install them when I have access to the internet (in order to install I must download the game every time with stardock central instead of downloading the installation files).

Still, I try to support these guys, they are making the kind of games that most big publishers have abandoned.

[XLjedi]

Originally Posted by GlobalExplorer

GalCiv2 is an excellent strategy game, I would rank it as the best game I played in 2006. But no one plays the Dread Lords Campaign every one goes for the free campaign.

Yeah, loved the strategy side... but as you mention, I've only been playing the dreadlord campaign. Great fun setting up the trade routes and building alliances and so forth, just all seems to be in vain when the dreadlords start wondering around and indiscriminately killing everything in sight. It's strange but the campaign is kinda like playing online and this one guy sneaks in with a God-mode cheat and takes delight in ruining the game for everyone else.

[GlobalExplorer]

You should really give the free campaign a chance, I am sure you will like it!

They have added a lot of surprises that will make the campaign interesting long after the mid game. For instance when one civilization gets too far advanced there might be an event that the Snati (those evil squirrels) steal all their technology and will offer it for hard cash. Really nice.

I also play with the expansions (once you order you can dl Twlights of Arnor as beta version) and there is a lot of new stuff that keeps the game interesting. There are many new features, new graphics, music etc, and with all the improvements it is really a very challenging, well rounded strategy game.

I once started a thread about GalCiv2 because I think it should be on every strategy players list. Looks like it got buried somewhere.

[XLjedi]

Update: Sins of a Solare Empire - First Impressions

My copy arrived via UPS a couple days ago... and it has consumed my life.
Short Report: Excellent, excellent game. Go buy it, now!


Longer Report:

Actually, it's exactly the game that I was hoping GalCiv2 was going to be. In my mind it has all the tech, research, trade, and diplomacy detail of the GalCiv games without the (nearly impossible to view or manage in-game) tech tree.

Don't get me wrong though... still a ton of work (and time) involved in researching that tech tree. Can't play a single mission inside of 4-5 hours. It will cause sleep deprivation. I've already had my first couple of back-to-back 3am nights.

It's hard not to comment on this game without drawing comparison to Stardock's other 4x strategy game Galactic Civilizations. To me, Solar Empire seems to be a logical progression of the 4x genre. I can't see myself wanting to go back and play GalCiv now that I have Solar Empire on the drive.

Any 4x strategy or RTS fan should definitely have this one in their library, it'll be around for awhile, and seems very ripe for the (I'm sure now busy) modding community. I think the only thing missing when comparing Solare Empire to GalCiv is the great custom ship builder in GalCiv. However, that just could be my lack of experience with the game... could be that is addressed in the mission builder or some other form of modder support and I'm just not aware of it.

I noticed the game comes pre-configured with a window for enabling mods. So that leads me to believe it must be very modder friendly. People are, of course, already mumbling about Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5 mods... should be interesting to see what unfolds with this one.

Personally, I do sorta prefer the overhead view 2D space strategy games. Ya know, 3D models moving in a limited flat layer of space. Just makes movement more sensible. I found that RTS games in XYZ space (as in the Homeworld series) can be a little annoying when trying to order fleet movement.

Noticeably (and thankfully) omitted from Solar Empire were the annoying full screen popups that announced every research breakthru in GalCiv. At first those screens were mildly amusing with the sarcastic humor... then you realize there's like a thousand of em. The tech tree in Solar Empire is much MUCH improved compared to GalCiv. It's much easier to figure out during gameplay what things you need to research in order to get to that next big toy for the fleet. You'll find that certain technologies are collapsed into a single icon that requires you to build up the research in stagies (1 of 3 complete for laser tech, for instance) rather than actually having all three layed out in a monstrously large tech tree and progressing left-to-right. The categorization and bundling of the tech icons makes it a much easier tree to view and navigate within a single screen.

The GalCiv map system which involved searching (or scanning) uncharted space for planets under fog-of-war conditions has been replaced with a branching planet-to-planet universe. As you "jump" to each planet you see connections to new unknown worlds that need exploring. This allows you to focus a lot more on building networks and fortifying certain key positions. You can still research long-distance jumps and wormholes to bypass certain blockades but you at least know at the onset of a game that you're not entirely exposed to annihilation from any/all directions.

One thing that really makes this game standout is the zooming feature. You can truly, seamlessly, zoom from light-year distances to unit-in-yer-face with a few rolls of the mouse scrollwheel. The game also seems to be pretty nimble with its underlying engine. With my system built 3-4 years ago, it runs very smoothly even with large numbers (100+) of units in play. I'm also running the game under Vista-64 without incident.

Okay... nuff said for now, I gotta get back to my space empire building...

[fatty]

Played it for about a week and didn't like it. Seemed to strip away all the features I liked about GalCiv2 and go in a direction akin to RTS games like Warcraft or Supreme Commander. Pretty linear gameplay; scout, colonize, mine, build, attack, conquer, repeat. GalCiv2 gave you so many different ways to 'slant' your empire that it was almost an RPG as much as it was a turn-based strategy. It all depends on what you like though. The pacing of those clickfest RTS games is too fast for me to learn the nuances of my units and industries and formulate effective strategies.