Sins of a Solar Empire

Thaed

I picked this up today because the idea of a 4x RTS in space was very intriguing to me. I'm going through the tutorial right now. The graphics are a bit disappointing, but the game has potential. It's sort of a Master of Orion meets Age of Empires. I'm not ready to say it's a must buy yet, but it has potential. Anyone else playing it?

Andrew

I'm going to purchase it when I get my new computer. That would be tomorrow. I've heard very good things about it.

Kiey

I've heard good things about the game, and have been tempted to get it, but I don't think that I have time for a game like this.

Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)

Tycho says it's awesome. If I wasn't poor and wasting my free time on forums and Dwarf Fortress, I would pick it up.

thaneofcawdor

I bought it the day it was released, based mostly on Tycho's endorsement - I tend to agree with him on pretty much everything game related. I haven't played it much yet, but what little I have played has been impressive. Definitely evokes the classics like MOO. Only problem is, games tend to go for hours and hours, although that may have something to do with my defensive play style.

Apreche

Hmm, screenshots remind me a lot of Gal Civ 2, which I was not a fan of.

RedShirt

Is there much of a single player game? The opinion I saw indicated it was targeted for multiplayer and only has a limited single player mode.

Linkigi(Link-ee-jee)

Hmm, screenshots remind me a lot of Gal Civ 2, which I was not a fan of.

Really? I have the demo installed, and I find the game to be funny and enjoyable. And funny, too.

RedShirt

Incidentally, Stardock is the publisher for both Galactic Civilization and Sins of a Solar Empire. It may or may not be the same developers working on it, but it could be Stardock had input on the design (causing them to look similar).

Andrew

I picked it up today. It is daunting at first, but after my first game I feel I have a much better handle on how to play.

thaneofcawdor

I'm locked in a two player game where the (single star) map is divided evenly in half, with a massive pirate base in the middle, and every 10 minutes the pirates launch potentially devastating raid. The only way to not be the victim of it is to engage in a economically crippling bidding war with the other player, the loser becoming the pirate's target. To compound the problem, I have no idea how I'm going to get past the 100 or so pirate vessels in that system to attack my enemy without destroying my economy building a larger fleet. I'm trying to use propaganda to damage the loyalty of his fringe systems, and perhaps to start a campaign of asymmetric warfare, hopefully to gain a foothold in his half of the map. But it's taking sooooo long.

RedShirt

Build up your capital ships, then let the pirates attack. Have the radar in order to see where they are heading. Their ships have no shields as far as I can tell. You can also build up a ton of scout ships and send them to their doom to lower the bounty against you.

thaneofcawdor

Well, I finally beat that map. All it took was armour and shields research, some capital ships and plenty of frigates. It was quite the visual treat to watch my fleet destroy the pirates. After that, the enemy fell quite quickly.

Apreche

I was reading this article and this game came up. I seemed to remember there being a thread on it in the forum, and sure enough, here it is. I decide to do a bit more research into the game, and this is what it says at the top of their FAQ.

Q: What kind of strategy game is Sins of a Solar Empire?

A: It is a real-time strategy game that is designed to combine the depth of a turn-based game. It focuses on letting players build a strategy instead of how fast they can click on things.

I'll be trying the demo mighty soon.

Apreche

I played all the tutorials and tried one normal game in the demo just now. It really seems like this is a high quality game. On paper, this game has a lot of stuff going for it. Like they say, it's an RTS that doesn't give victory to the person who clicks fastest. It definitely fits an empty space in gaming somewhere between Starcraft and Master of Orion.

However, I just don't see myself playing this very much. Even if I bought this game, I don't think I would play it very often. I just don't have the time or patience for something like this anymore.

I think one problem that games like this often have is that while the tutorials are good, they don't go far enough. I understood everything I learned in the tutorials. Despite that, when I started a "real" game it felt like I was being thrown in a raging river with only barely knowing how to swim. The tutorials really need to scale up to much more complicated game scenarios, or the non-tutorial game needs to scale down. There's a big gap in the learning curve, and while I'm sure I could figure it out, patience and time are lacking while desire to learn is very low.

However, if you like the Master of Orions, and you want strategy, but are fed up with normal RTSes, this game is pretty hot.

WallyBman

I picked it up last pay day, and I've been playing it a LOT.

RedShirt

Note, first capital ship is free.