Can't get into Sins of a Solar Empire

[Jschmuck2]

Sell me on this game!

 

[ZzZGuy]

http://www.gamershell.com/download_23790.shtml

Demo.

 

[Dman877]

The first couple games will have you a little confused and under-whelmed I think. That's how it was for me. By my third round, I had the tech tree and all of the commands down. By the fifth game, I had the AI pretty well figured out. I've probably played 10 games to completion and I'm pretty much done with it now. I got about 50 hours of play time out of it so I'm happy.

Good:
Fleet battles
Early game strategy
Multiple paths to victory
Feels like you are controlling a space empire

Bad:
End game can be tedious as you hunt down every last planet and asteroid owned by your adversary
AI gives up too easily in several ways (fleets retreat too quickly, AI is slow to rebuild fleets)
Races are unbalanced, TEC have a huge advantage in long games (novalinth and planet shields)
Diplomacy system needs an overhaul
Limited jump paths between planets take away from the realism but I guess it's a necessary concession to reality
Map designer makes no sense

 

[Eeezee]

How long have you played? If you've put in > 10 hours, then I don't know if anything will be able to sell you.

I had the most fun on maps with multiple stars and multiple opponents (3 AI was about the right number for me, but more can be fun too).

Perhaps if you told us your current experience with the game, we could better help you? If you haven't done it yet, try a 4-star map with 3 computer AI on normal difficulty. It's pretty fun. If you're not into the battling AI thing, then try the online play.

 

[dlock13]

Patience.

 

[ZzZGuy]

Multiplayer.

 

[Dimmu]

Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
Multiplayer.

Seconded. How long have you played the game for, Jschmuck2? Just the demo or the full version? Details, man!

 

[Coldkilla]

MP is core. I got board of the single player vs. AI after my 3rd game.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Don't feel bad about not getting into Sins...I had high expectations and a similar dilemma of not getting into it once I played through a few campaigns in the demo.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Well, I picked up the full version a few days ago.

Maybe it's because I can't wrap my head around controlling that many things all at once. Maybe it's the lack of detail in and connection to the individual units. Looking at those red icons really doesn't do it for me.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Maybe it's because I can't wrap my head around controlling that many things all at once. Maybe it's the lack of detail in and connection to the individual units. Looking at those red icons really doesn't do it for me.

That was my main complaint as well...the combat isn't all that exciting, and you end up managing most of the game from a bird's eye view...since there really isn't a tactical component to combat, you can essentially send a fleet to an enemy system, and the AI will pretty much fight on auto-pilot...with the only strategic element being that before you invade a system, make sure you have a balanced force and more capital ships than the enemy, and you will win every time.

 

[Dman877]

Originally posted by: Starbuck1975

Maybe it's because I can't wrap my head around controlling that many things all at once. Maybe it's the lack of detail in and connection to the individual units. Looking at those red icons really doesn't do it for me.

That was my main complaint as well...the combat isn't all that exciting, and you end up managing most of the game from a bird's eye view...since there really isn't a tactical component to combat, you can essentially send a fleet to an enemy system, and the AI will pretty much fight on auto-pilot...with the only strategic element being that before you invade a system, make sure you have a balanced force and more capital ships than the enemy, and you will win every time.

If you micro-manage the fleet battles, you can defeat superior fleets pretty easily. The AI doesn't concentrate firepower.

 

[Starbuck1975]

If you micro-manage the fleet battles, you can defeat superior fleets pretty easily. The AI doesn't concentrate firepower.

Which doesn't speak highly of the AI.

I discovered another tactic that kind of ruined the game for me.

I sent a fleet to attack another faction's planet, and was fairly outnumbered by both the AI's fleet and its defensive platforms...while my fleet engaged the AI's, I snuck a colony ship past its defenses and colonized the planet...the AI, despite the threat of my fleet, turned all of their weapons on the planet??? So while the AI was busy bombarding the planet I stole from it, I picked off its fleet one by one.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: Dman877

Originally posted by: Starbuck1975

Maybe it's because I can't wrap my head around controlling that many things all at once. Maybe it's the lack of detail in and connection to the individual units. Looking at those red icons really doesn't do it for me.

That was my main complaint as well...the combat isn't all that exciting, and you end up managing most of the game from a bird's eye view...since there really isn't a tactical component to combat, you can essentially send a fleet to an enemy system, and the AI will pretty much fight on auto-pilot...with the only strategic element being that before you invade a system, make sure you have a balanced force and more capital ships than the enemy, and you will win every time.

If you micro-manage the fleet battles, you can defeat superior fleets pretty easily. The AI doesn't concentrate firepower.

I found that the AI actually does concentrate fire sometimes, usually on a capitol ship. But i dont think concentrating fire is the best idea anyways, the more damage a ship is given the higher its shield negation rate is, so when a ship is being fired on by the entire fleet it will negate around 70% of the damage taken. I think the shield negation was designed to stop concentrated firing being a valid tactic. Works to some extent, on capitols though focused firing is still the best idea.

 

[Malladine]

Originally posted by: Starbuck1975

If you micro-manage the fleet battles, you can defeat superior fleets pretty easily. The AI doesn't concentrate firepower.

Which doesn't speak highly of the AI.

I discovered another tactic that kind of ruined the game for me.

I sent a fleet to attack another faction's planet, and was fairly outnumbered by both the AI's fleet and its defensive platforms...while my fleet engaged the AI's, I snuck a colony ship past its defenses and colonized the planet...the AI, despite the threat of my fleet, turned all of their weapons on the planet??? So while the AI was busy bombarding the planet I stole from it, I picked off its fleet one by one.

This isn't true, since only siege frigates can attack a planets, plus siege frigates are very weak against ships.

If you did pick his ships off one by one while they attacked the planet that means they were all siege frigates, in which case you'd have crushed it anyway.

 

[Molondo]

For some reason it killed it for me when i found out it had no campaign.

 

[Dman877]

Originally posted by: Molondo
For some reason it killed it for me when i found out it had no campaign.

Yeah the no campaign thing is kind of a downer, especially since the intro cinematic for the game is quite intriguing.

 

[ZzZGuy]

Originally posted by: Molondo
For some reason it killed it for me when i found out it had no campaign.

Come back in a few months after the final modding tools are released (which seems to be delayed, grrrr) and the modding community has some time to work on their projects. You will see some pretty impressive stuff (including various non sins related campaigns) that will make it a totally different experience as long as the modding tools deliver what the devs have claimed.

By this time next year there should be a expansion which has been confirmed will include a campaign. If you are not excited over sins right now then it might be better to wait for the expansion where most of the bugs and balancing issues will be resolved along with new content, campaign and lots of mods.

 

[Pollock]

I just found it to be very slow, combat to be uninspiring, and pirates to be stupidly powerful. Also, whenever I made a fleet with a few capital ships and many support vessels, the support ships would ALWAYS get obliterated, and I'd have to constantly rebuild them. Capital ships were always a better investment. I just didn't enjoy it much (although that was maybe a month or two ago, and I haven't touched it since).

 

[Mide]

I didn't like it. I still don't see what all the buzz is about.

 

[EvilComputer92]

It felt more like Supreme Commander where you were just coordinating several hundred icons that individually didnt really matter in the scope of things. Far too large scale for my tastes. It seems every time an RTS tries to make itself extremely large scale it ends up sacrificing a significant amount of detail when you zoom in. You end up fighting in multiple conflicts that really don't feel like a battle, and more like a ingame computer simulation like DEFCON of whats actually going on. It kills the immersion of actually being in the thick of a space battle, something that Homeworld did very nicely.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

What I don't understand is...Why aren't more folks playing it in online multiplayer? Computer AI has always been dumb and will remain dumb for the near future. Human opponents, however, present a real challenge.

 

[Riverhound777]

Originally posted by: WhipperSnapper

What I don't understand is...Why aren't more folks playing it in online multiplayer? Computer AI has always been dumb and will remain dumb for the near future. Human opponents, however, present a real challenge.

I think the reason is why I have never really played RTS multiplayer aside from LANs. It is because I'm afraid I will get my ass completely handed to me and wont have any fun. you can thank the Starcraft freaks for this.

 

[Lithan]

Am I reading this right, demo breaks itself after 90mins? Makes me suspect the game gets boring fast and they're trying to hide that fact.

 

[phexac]

Didn't even get that game. RTS with no campaign did nt sound fun in single player, and hours-long multiplayer games are not a viable reality for me.