Sins of a Solar Empire

[Jay]

ok. Thanks mate.

ps

your the firs to notice that the action actually goes with the music, that aint easy! lol

I went for the same sort of feeling here

A Different Look At CS:S

[Dreaming]

You are not serious surely?. Easy 1 on 1 on a small map is a 20minute affair.

The computer doesn't cheat unless you put it on unfair. I'd hate to think what i'd do to you if I played you online Jay

I can't quite cope with 4 lots of 2 unfair computers grouped vs me yet, but its getting closer.

Best RTS game imo since dawn of war, as for balance, the defense stuff is the same both sides. You play with what you got its the same for everyone.

TiG

Are you sure it doesn't cheat?

I only ask as earlier, it was on normal and I had more planets (upgraded, with economic research done) but according to the statistics they were getting more income and able to put out tonnes of production. It just seemed a bit unusual, it was only a small map and I had over half, yet they had more resources and were able to produce ships at a much greater rate.

Another question: Where are the best places to put defences? Next to your planets, or near where you think they'll warp in. It's unfortunate that if a force is harrassing you, they can quickly move out of range and will probably not take any losses. I've found a very effective defence technique to be carrier fleets with bombers along with hangers. Because your frigates and hangers rarely get attacked your losses are minimal, vs. an economic grinding of conventional ships where you must try to kill more of their ships in order to inflict greater costs and win slowly.

[TiG]

I've finally beaten Unfair All vs All on the Huge map. Crazy hard and thats the only AI that cheats, they get a lot of unfair resources at the start. 6Hrs 51minutes!.

1585 frigates killed

I still think that this game takes the top place in AI design in Strategy games. Its a consitent challenge at hard where it doesn't cheat, but Unfair really does push me incredibly hard.

The first 2 hours i'm sitting with enemies in half my planets most of the time, keeping up with the incoming is ridiculously hard. Rebounding from 6 planets to 3 to 6 just impossibly difficult to keep ahead of the curve of winning and keeping your current planets and hitting the next one.

TiG

[Behemoth]

My copy arrived today, had a chance to have a look at the game just now and can't get over how big it is !!

Making a lot of misstajes on the way but having fun in doing so, really is a pretty game too. Keep getting rushed with pirates though.

[kalniel]

Have they done anything about a campaign yet? Someone mentioned they would patch one in. When they do I'm getting this game

[robots]

So what's the deal with the mission times? Several people talking about 8 hours, which is about what it took me to do my first 1on1 mission too, but there is someone here who can do it in 20 minutes. Where are we going wrong? I'm sure it will get faster when we play more and realise things, but are there any good tips to get us going?

If pros can do in 20 minutes what takes us 8 hours, (on easy), there must be a lot of things we can do to speed that up.

Hmm.. Sins of a Solar Empire, Eve.. or Space Rangers 2?

Get Sins.

Eve I heard is really boring and requires lots of real time stat boosting and stuff which just sounds silly. Space Rangers 2 I really loved, and I think that provides the most fun in the shortest space of time. You are hooked in about an hour or so and you just get so sucked in, and it's so enjoyable. The problem is, it is only short term fun. After a few days it started getting tiresome for me and there is very little depth to it, so I can't see people still playing that after weeks/months.

Sins seems to take longer to become enjoyable (my first mission alone took me about 8 hours..), but there is just so much more depth to it, it is a lot more fun in the long term, and that is better I think.

Have they done anything about a campaign yet? Someone mentioned they would patch one in. When they do I'm getting this game

I don't think it really needs a campaign. It's like the Civilization games. There are endless maps you can play, each time it can be a bit different, and you take on however many enemies you want. It's a bit like C&C or other RTS's. It's all about the skirmish mode, and multiplayer. The campaign mode is just like a weird little bunch of missions which force you to do very specific things with scripted events and stuff, and it's not as realistic as a proper skirmish. If you only enjoy those types of modes though, then you might want to wait and see if they add one. I never met anyone who does like that though. Everyone I know just goes straight to the skirmish with these types of games, and the campaign is just for a rainy day kind of thing.

The game is basically Civ4 mixed with Supreme Commander, and then set in space like Homeworld or whatever. And because it does all those things, it puts all those games to shame really, in my opinion anyway.

[kalniel]

Get Sins.

I got Space Rangers 2 in the end - fantastic game

Eve I heard is really boring and requires lots of real time stat boosting and stuff which just sounds silly.

That wasn't at all my experience based on the 21 day trial.

I don't think it really needs a campaign. It's like the Civilization games. There are endless maps you can play, each time it can be a bit different, and you take on however many enemies you want. It's a bit like C&C or other RTS's. It's all about the skirmish mode, and multiplayer. The campaign mode is just like a weird little bunch of missions which force you to do very specific things with scripted events and stuff, and it's not as realistic as a proper skirmish. If you only enjoy those types of modes though, then you might want to wait and see if they add one. I never met anyone who does like that though. Everyone I know just goes straight to the skirmish with these types of games, and the campaign is just for a rainy day kind of thing.

Well there are a lot of people who really enjoyed Supreme Commander's campaigns actually. Skirmish is only fun for so long and multiplayer requires giving up a few contiguous hours which isn't likely to happen these days for me.

Working on the assumption that I'm indicative of other people in my kind of situation then they could get a few more sales with a campaign. Look at C&C and you'll probably find that vast majority of players just do the campaign and nothing else.

[robots]

Fair enough, I just never met anyone who prefers the campaigns before. They are quite fun though. I loved Total Annihilation's campaign, but SupCom's annoyed me a bit because it kept just extending the map.

I much prefer this Sins game, and you can save game mid mission anyway. Although judging by that post someone earlier, it sounds like I should be able to do a mission in under half an hour if I do it right. Space Rangers 2 is fun anyway. I just played it to death and got tired of it in about a week. I always feel like that about games that require you to run trade routes manually though. I always feel like life's too short to be going from A to B over and over just for some virtual credits. It's other aspects were good though.

[kalniel]

I much prefer this Sins game, and you can save game mid mission anyway.

It's more the co-ordinating with the same players to continue on etc. that's the problem.

[Behemoth]

I thought I had a fleet big enough to go and take my map by force, but it turned out my rear end got handed to me on a plate. Was in the middle of building new ships and go invaded by pirates AND another enemy all at once.

Almost lost my capital ship through that battle.

[robots]

I'm having a hard time too, I'm also starting to find it a bit boring, which is worrying considering I only just started.

My first game took about 8 hours, and my second game I managed to get down to 5 hours. But I'm not sure how I can improve on that, and I'm not sure I will continue to like it for long like this.

It's technically much better than CIV4, but in CIV4 I felt like I was doing more. On a big map there were about 50 or so cities, and I was capturing and losing them all the time. In this, I find on the small map that there are only about 10 planets or so, and yet it still takes me about the same amount of time. Most of that time is spent micro managing stuff and building up my main force and securing the front lines and then I verrrrry gradually take new planets. Like one every half hour or so.

It's too slow for me really, and not fun enough. I am hoping that will change though as I get better. I'm not sure if the person earlier was talking about the same missions (the small random 1v1 map), but if he/she can do that in 20 minutes, I would probably fall in love with the game. Because then I would be fast enough to do a huge map, and it wouldn't take me about 6 years

Another issue I have is the battles. They seem extremely boring. The battles so far seem to be, my massive wall of ships, versus the enemy's massive wall of ships. They both face off, toe to toe, and spam each other with lazers and rockets until one army is left standing. There seems to be no skill to it and no real interaction. It's just biggest zerg army wins. At least in C&C I would be doing the same but firing emps at the same time, and then tactically bringing my planes in to take out some of the bigger targets etc. I miss that in this game.

I wonder if maybe I'm just doing it wrong, or if it's because I'm only playing it against AI at the moment.

It's more the co-ordinating with the same players to continue on etc. that's the problem.

You can continue it with the AI taking over which is something at least. But it's not as well suited for multiplayer as the traditional RTS's I suppose. It's like Civilization, they are big games. For short games, I would just play the traditional RTS's. I'm glad it has the multiplayer option though at least, that was something lacking from Space Rangers 2. Being able to play this co-op with a friend would be fun. Space Rangers 2 is better at other things though I think. I still don't know Sins well at all (only played a few missions), but based on my brief experience, I think I had more fun in Space Rangers 2. I really much more enjoyed building up and customising my super cool ship in Space Rangers 2, and then setting off to kick butt. But like I said before, it didn't last too long unfortunately. So I wonder if maybe this Sins game will last longer.

[Russ]

quick question, is this MMOG and if so how much a month is it?

[TiG]

Its not Russ, its just a space strategy game.

TiG

[Russ]

ah right. i might have a looksy then

[G4Z]

I Most of that time is spent micro managing stuff and building up my main force and securing the front lines and then I verrrrry gradually take new planets. Like one every half hour or so.

not sure how you do it but I generally go for one very large fleet and one defensive, I set my rally for the frigate factories and cap ship factories on my main fleet and I have it attacking most of the time. You should be able to take one planet or asteroid every 15 mins or so if your quick (I always start with the capship factory and colony capship first and select that as its first abillity then I send it straight to nearest asteroid.

Another issue I have is the battles. They seem extremely boring. The battles so far seem to be, my massive wall of ships, versus the enemy's massive wall of ships. They both face off, toe to toe, and spam each other with lazers and rockets until one army is left standing. There seems to be no skill to it and no real interaction. It's just biggest zerg army wins. At least in C&C I would be doing the same but firing emps at the same time, and then tactically bringing my planes in to take out some of the bigger targets etc. I miss that in this game.

You can micro manage the space battles and I find its much more about choosing the best combo of ships to combat your opponents selection. For example if they build lots of carriers I will counter with carriers + flak ships. You can select all the fighters by either selecting a unit holding alt or by using the bar in the right of the screen.

I wonder if maybe I'm just doing it wrong, or if it's because I'm only playing it against AI at the moment.

You can continue it with the AI taking over which is something at least. But it's not as well suited for multiplayer as the traditional RTS's I suppose. It's like Civilization, they are big games. For short games, I would just play the traditional RTS's. I'm glad it has the multiplayer option though at least, that was something lacking from Space Rangers 2. Being able to play this co-op with a friend would be fun. Space Rangers 2 is better at other things though I think. I still don't know Sins well at all (only played a few missions), but based on my brief experience, I think I had more fun in Space Rangers 2. I really much more enjoyed building up and customising my super cool ship in Space Rangers 2, and then setting off to kick butt. But like I said before, it didn't last too long unfortunately. So I wonder if maybe this Sins game will last longer.

TBH, the only multiplayer I play is co-op with my mate, less frustrating that way

[robots]

Thanks G4Z

I think some of my strategies were a bit rubbish, and I also just didn't know any way near enough. I've spent a lot of time reading the manual and reading the official forum. There is so much I learned from that..

My defence was basically wrong. I was using a few little groups of defenders on my front lines, rather than one big group like you said. I also wasn't really using the buildable static planet defences. People on the forum said I should use those, and have those hold off any attackers, and then my big defence fleet can come in and save the day. That seems to be a much better strategy. I think I just didn't realise how cheap and how useful the static defence stuff was.

I now managed to play my third game, and this time I played against a medium AI. It was a MUCH better challenge. I did so well at the start but it went wrong about half way and it ended up being a 7 hour game, when I probably could have done it in 5. I think next time, and using your advice and the advice I got on the forum, I can probably get that down to about 4.

As for the battles, it's like you said, mostly about picking the right stuff to go against whatever the enemy has. I still find it mostly like 2 walls of units firing at each other, but I did notice against a better AI, that if you lock everyone on to one target, he moves the targets around which makes all your ships have to turn which slows things down for you. One thing I wish was different, is that all the cool fireable things from the capitol ships, they all get fired automatically. I wish that was manual, and I wish you could tab between all the cap ships in your group easier. You can turn the manual firing off and do it yourself, but it all happens so fast and there is so much to focus on, it's best to leave it on auto. But it would have been more fun if they allowed us to use those more manually. Maybe I'll get to do that when I get better at the game.

I'm starting to really like it now anyway. It hasn't made me as gleeful as something like Space Rangers 2, but it has faaaar more depth, more depth than even Supreme Commander and C&C too. So I think that will be good, and I can imagine myself still playing this in a few months time.

And yeah, I'd never play multiplayer except a comp stomp with some friends.