this game is awesome. i wish fights would go by faster though, or have some sort of micromanagement involved. so far i just sit my ships in range and they pew pew each other for like 5 minutes...
steep learning curve but after you get your but kicked a few times you understand teh fundamentals and it gets really fun. Like yesterday I was playing and needed to pee but was having too much fun to want to pause it. That is how you know when something is good, you almost pee your pants before you pause.
BeauJangles
Lifer
- Aug 26, 2001
- 13,941
- 1
- 0
I tried getting it from StarDock Central, but it is not working for me. I had a similar problem with GC2, because my account e-mail address and the e-mail address that I billed it to are different. I don't remember how we fixed it last time though. Does anyone know how to use the token system on SDC?
- Nov 15, 2006
- 1,855
- 0
- 0
SunnyD
Belgian Waffler
This sucks, I went to 3 stores today, not in stock. Even BestBuy, which had it in the ad for this week - the department monkey said they didn't have any in stock, didn't have any on order for the week, nor have any on order.
- Nov 15, 2006
- 1,855
- 0
- 0
There is always the digital download.
Anyway i would like to make a little correction, you CAN pause in multiplayer but only 10 times (not sure if it's per team or not).
@Perry
I really don't know. Perhaps you should wait for the demo in 3 or so weeks.
I found it was very easy to learn the game by doing a random small map 1v1 on easy. Make sure you bribe the pirates every time and you won't have many worries while you learn. And of course do the tutorials and read the manual (it's located where the "Sins of a Solar Empire.exe" is). Many people seem to start on a medium 4v4 map on normal and get schooled by the AI.
Anyway i would like to make a little correction, you CAN pause in multiplayer but only 10 times (not sure if it's per team or not).
@Perry
I really don't know. Perhaps you should wait for the demo in 3 or so weeks.
I found it was very easy to learn the game by doing a random small map 1v1 on easy. Make sure you bribe the pirates every time and you won't have many worries while you learn. And of course do the tutorials and read the manual (it's located where the "Sins of a Solar Empire.exe" is). Many people seem to start on a medium 4v4 map on normal and get schooled by the AI.
SunnyD
Belgian Waffler
Yay, found it today at Walmart. Ironically, a few cents cheaper (39.87) and comes with a bonus desktop theme. Not that that's worth much... but hey. Hopefully it won't kill my laptop...
SunnyD
Belgian Waffler
Wow, I played for about two and a half hours, and so far I likey! 1 on 1 map on normal, basically the pirates pinned right between me and the enemy, so I think I got lucky on that map to not have agression on the opposing front.
A couple things of note - looks like some sort of glitch kept sound effects from playing until I paused and did the dishes, coming back from a screen saver I was treated with interesting voice and effects.
This game is so vast, even the tech trees... I find myself trying to macromanage and it sucks! I can't keep up with all four of the 4x components!
A couple things of note - looks like some sort of glitch kept sound effects from playing until I paused and did the dishes, coming back from a screen saver I was treated with interesting voice and effects.
This game is so vast, even the tech trees... I find myself trying to macromanage and it sucks! I can't keep up with all four of the 4x components!
This game is balls to the wall awesome. I played it for about 6 hours straight yesterday, mostly just to get all the way through the tech tree. The maps are huge and there are just so many possibilities for everything. The graphics are pretty sweet too considering the scale of everything.
- Nov 15, 2006
- 1,855
- 0
- 0
Well, the devs are asking on the forums for input on what the players want in the v1.03 patch that is to be released around the end of the month. Very good sign i think.
The major thing they are planning is to increase the unit cap (cap only applies to ships). ATM the HUGE maps are not playable, you need pretty much your entire unit cap just to defend.
In the last patch they addressed the siege frigate rush by increading the unit slots siege frigates take up and decreasing their HP somewhat. It seems to have worked as people have stopped complaining about it and no one is complaining that it was too much.
In single player you can pause the game and queue up orders, 10 pauses for MP.
If you are referring to micromanaging battles, there are a few things that make it easier.
1- Make sure you are making use of the fleet option. Once a fleet is made you click the icon to select all/only ships in that fleet. The fleet will not split up and go every which direction, thus allowing for more focused fire without managing it yourself. You can also set shipyards to send the built ships to auto join your fleet by clicking the "move here" button onto the fleet icon.
2- To make easy use of capital ship abilities, set each ship to a hot key. This can be simplified by putting caps of the same type in one hotkey group, when you enable or disable auto cast of a ability it will effect all the other ships.
3- When you have huge fleet battles, only focus fire on capitals. The AI is smart enough to split your firepower just enough when facing swarms of frigates, though cruisers might be another matter.
The major thing they are planning is to increase the unit cap (cap only applies to ships). ATM the HUGE maps are not playable, you need pretty much your entire unit cap just to defend.
In the last patch they addressed the siege frigate rush by increading the unit slots siege frigates take up and decreasing their HP somewhat. It seems to have worked as people have stopped complaining about it and no one is complaining that it was too much.
In single player you can pause the game and queue up orders, 10 pauses for MP.
If you are referring to micromanaging battles, there are a few things that make it easier.
1- Make sure you are making use of the fleet option. Once a fleet is made you click the icon to select all/only ships in that fleet. The fleet will not split up and go every which direction, thus allowing for more focused fire without managing it yourself. You can also set shipyards to send the built ships to auto join your fleet by clicking the "move here" button onto the fleet icon.
2- To make easy use of capital ship abilities, set each ship to a hot key. This can be simplified by putting caps of the same type in one hotkey group, when you enable or disable auto cast of a ability it will effect all the other ships.
3- When you have huge fleet battles, only focus fire on capitals. The AI is smart enough to split your firepower just enough when facing swarms of frigates, though cruisers might be another matter.
SunnyD
Belgian Waffler
Pausing takes the fun out of it!
No, honestly, I meant MACROmanage. IE: Take the time to determine what techs I need while queuing up ships & buildings while determining if I should bounty up against the opponent while fending off enemy/pirate forces while exploring while colonizing while strategizing, etc. It truly is vast.
Here's a hint though... if you are having a hard time and need to stall agressors, hangar bays rock.
BeauJangles
Lifer
- Aug 26, 2001
- 13,941
- 1
- 0
I'd recommend one of the classics (Age of Empires is always good) or my all-time favorite: Rise of Nations.
Solar Empire is a bit more than an RTS.
LintMan
Senior member
- Apr 19, 2001
- 474
- 0
- 71
I DL'd Sins about a week ago through Stardock Central - it was a great deal - 5 tokens (at $7 each for a batch of 10), so $35. It looks like the cost went to 6 tokens right after I got it, though.
My thoughts:
- The tutorials are extremely basic, so there's quite a bit of learning curve for your first game, but it's not hard to get the hang of.
- The gameplay is essentially a 2D plane, not true 3D like the Homeworld series. Personally, given the bigger scope of Sins (multiple planets/star systems), the simplified 2D is a blessing. The 3D positioning and camera management would have been too much, on top of everything else in Sins.
- A campaign/story mode would have been nice, but the gameplay is epic enough in the "conquer the universe" sense that you make your own story, like in conquering the world in Civilization.
- Like Supreme Commander, it seems you often spend your time so far zoomed out from the action that you hardly get to enjoy all the pretty unit graphics. (But that's still a better option than those RTS's that lock your view in tightly close to your units).
- The game does have its rough spots and flaws (ie: it's charitable to call the game's diplomacy stuff "weak"), but the developer seems commited to making improvements, and Stardock has a good track record for post-release support.
- Overall, a great game that will likely get even better as the devs continue working on it.
My thoughts:
- The tutorials are extremely basic, so there's quite a bit of learning curve for your first game, but it's not hard to get the hang of.
- The gameplay is essentially a 2D plane, not true 3D like the Homeworld series. Personally, given the bigger scope of Sins (multiple planets/star systems), the simplified 2D is a blessing. The 3D positioning and camera management would have been too much, on top of everything else in Sins.
- A campaign/story mode would have been nice, but the gameplay is epic enough in the "conquer the universe" sense that you make your own story, like in conquering the world in Civilization.
- Like Supreme Commander, it seems you often spend your time so far zoomed out from the action that you hardly get to enjoy all the pretty unit graphics. (But that's still a better option than those RTS's that lock your view in tightly close to your units).
- The game does have its rough spots and flaws (ie: it's charitable to call the game's diplomacy stuff "weak"), but the developer seems commited to making improvements, and Stardock has a good track record for post-release support.
- Overall, a great game that will likely get even better as the devs continue working on it.
It isn't much like any other RTS game. Plus, it does nothing to slowly help you into the game, so it is a sink or swim game for the most part. However, it is a very slow paced game, so it may not be that bad for someone new to the RTS/4X genre. I like it, but it is a little bit more like a complex board game than a traditional RTS.
- Nov 15, 2006
- 1,855
- 0
- 0
If you want a pure RTS, company of heroes might be a better choice. My advice is to try the demo with it comes out sometimes early next month, it might be hard pill to sallow going from FPS to a real time RTS/4x, which also happens to be the first of the its kind. Sins is also slow paced, you can speed it up but you have to be at least well versed in RTS/RTT's to be able to manage everything at that speed.
@jpbelauskas
COH is one of the best RTT (real time tactical) games out there.
Civ4 is one(if not THE) of the best 4X games out there.
Sins takes the best from both and puts it together in a way that works.
If you liked RTT/RTS/4x, but want something uniquely different then sins fits the bill. If you loved the previous civ games, or are a die hard RTS gamer then you might want to put sins off. As i said sins blends both, but it's not like either (4x wise- faster and real time, actual battles require your attention, RTS wise- slower paced with micro management cut out a lot resulting in less fast paced and micro manageable battles BUT on par with supreme commander size battles)
oogabooga
Diamond Member
- Jan 14, 2003
- 7,806
- 3
- 81
I had a chance to sit down and play this game for a little bit
It's a bit slow (this isn't bad). I played through the first tutorial and then played a small map against an easy computer fortefier (aka let me build in peace to figure out how to play this game first). I wish they had a slightly faster pacing option as what I played was 'faster' but I don't think should be the 'fastest'.
Combat was pretty straightforward and was as hands on as I wanted to be. If I didn't want to really control it the AI would and generally it seemed did a decent job at it. Auto managing cap ship abilities is about as retarded as auto-managing hero abilities in something like warcraft III would be. Sure they still help but they aren't used to their full potential. That said you don't HAVE to manage your cap ships to win a battle, it would just make a difference if you did.
I play a good amount of RTS game and played a bit of CIV but not really crazy into either genre. This game was nice in that it did seem to blend elements from both nicely. You will not be able to get away with just building up ships and not expanding/building empire and vice versa. You don't have to micromanage every element of every aspect, but you do at least need to macromanage where you ships are and your resources.
I had laid siege and destroyed one of the easy AI's planets and at this point feel I'vel earned the game and want to try out a harder AI. I started around 7:00PM and before I knew it it was midnight! (tutorials took longer than i thought I guess?) I paid for it this morning when I had to try to get up for work on a short nights rest. I think it was worth it and I can't wait to sit down to this game again.
Just know it's not quite CIV and it's not Starcraft/TA. It's more combat-y then CIV, more CIV than SupCom/TA/Starcraft what have you for RTS.
It's a bit slow (this isn't bad). I played through the first tutorial and then played a small map against an easy computer fortefier (aka let me build in peace to figure out how to play this game first). I wish they had a slightly faster pacing option as what I played was 'faster' but I don't think should be the 'fastest'.
Combat was pretty straightforward and was as hands on as I wanted to be. If I didn't want to really control it the AI would and generally it seemed did a decent job at it. Auto managing cap ship abilities is about as retarded as auto-managing hero abilities in something like warcraft III would be. Sure they still help but they aren't used to their full potential. That said you don't HAVE to manage your cap ships to win a battle, it would just make a difference if you did.
I play a good amount of RTS game and played a bit of CIV but not really crazy into either genre. This game was nice in that it did seem to blend elements from both nicely. You will not be able to get away with just building up ships and not expanding/building empire and vice versa. You don't have to micromanage every element of every aspect, but you do at least need to macromanage where you ships are and your resources.
I had laid siege and destroyed one of the easy AI's planets and at this point feel I'vel earned the game and want to try out a harder AI. I started around 7:00PM and before I knew it it was midnight! (tutorials took longer than i thought I guess?) I paid for it this morning when I had to try to get up for work on a short nights rest. I think it was worth it and I can't wait to sit down to this game again.
Just know it's not quite CIV and it's not Starcraft/TA. It's more combat-y then CIV, more CIV than SupCom/TA/Starcraft what have you for RTS.
pontifex
Lifer
- Dec 5, 2000
- 43,806
- 46
- 91
While I don't think the game is bad, I don't see why it's being reviewed so well.
The constant pirate attacks are f-ing annoying as hell. they also come in in huge forces. It's a struggle to really keep your forces up and expand your empire. maybe the more i play it, the more i'll like it, but after playing it for a few hours today I'm not really that impressed.
The constant pirate attacks are f-ing annoying as hell. they also come in in huge forces. It's a struggle to really keep your forces up and expand your empire. maybe the more i play it, the more i'll like it, but after playing it for a few hours today I'm not really that impressed.
- Nov 15, 2006
- 1,855
- 0
- 0
I'm sorry, but you are just not good at the game.
It is not hard to defend against pirates and the "siege frigate rush". You just need a game or 2 to try out a race fully to understand how the game works, I suggest turtling up on a small random map Vs a easy AI, and ALWAYS bribe the pirates (read manual in the folder the game is installed in). This will allow you to feel the game out without suffering horribly in the process, and of course do the tutorials first.
And just to make sure, you DO know you can bribe the pirates to attack someone else of your choice?
Also expect the AI to kick your ass hard from time to time, unless you are a master of the game (they are planning on adding cheating AI option).
The manual is located in C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\Sins of a Solar Empire , where the "Sins of a Solar Empire.exe" is located.
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