after watching the video from G4 on this game and listening to someone actually give me some into of the game, I can say the game looks much more interesting than the video i saw on one of the gaming video sites. http://www.g4tv.com/pile_player.aspx?video_key=19985
Its becuase the Beta version is MUCH older than the release version which incorporated all the things the Beta players asked for over the year.
Overall gist of it: Its slower pace than a normal RTS (althought once it gets going in a large game, there will be no shortage of a vast amount of things that will need your attention), but faster than a standard 4x game creating quite an odd beast. Whats funny about people who complain its not fast enough on the smaller maps, is that its not fast becuase its on a smaller map. The less planets there are the less there is to do, the less funds your receiving, and the overall less management your partaking in. What really makes this game is the anti micro management AI. Your ships stationed to defend will do so with as much effect as any RTS player that knows how to play rock paper sciccors. You can simply order a colonizer to go to a planet thats colonizable, and it'll do its job. Your combat ships will prioriatize thier targets based on what they are best at doing. Another thing I love, its that you don't have to click individual factorys or your drones to produce things. While zoomed out to planet view, just click a planet and issue build orders, and it'll do it automatically. The amount of detail and care gone into the game itself (unlike most companys preferring graphics), just has to be seen to be belived. I know I'm adovcating for this game alot, but its for a reason ^,^;. Edit: Also, if your playing a human opponent, in a large fleet battle that draws a majority of players attention, tactics will win you a fight. Capital ships turn slowly so hitting them from behind with faster forces, and other such tactics are a big part of Sins warfare.
So you've played it? Tell me, are the planets and ships the correct scale? Because nothing spoils the suspension of disbelief in a space game more than having spaceships the size of continents and planets positioned about 50 kilometers apart (I'm looking at you Legions of Iron)
Ugh, it would drive me insane if it was to scale, thank god its not. It would take forever to get around the planets, and than again, its not that bad. The capital ships are tiny compared to planets, but still its not the usual extreme scale found in space combat games. I know for a fact the star wars Sins of a Solar Empire mod team are making it to scale, and they've got ALOT of power behind thier team. They made Warlords on Homeworld 2, which was apparently massively impressive. Personnally I can't wait till someone makes a good Battle Star Galactica mod where Humans start out with a small fleet, but powerful fleet. Cylons would be better equiped playing a cat and mouse game against the humans. They'd be able to colonize all the worlds, unlike the Humans having to make do with very few and far between worlds they can find until they find Earth which will give them the resources to win the war. Thier releasing mod tools (they've already released the map editor), so even noobys will be able to toy around (like increasing amount of shots fired to make it look insane). edit:You can make the planets are far out as you want x.x
They're spaceships, they're designed to travel stupidly big distances quickly EVE has to scale solar systems. And I-War 1/2 (best, most realistic space combat ever btw) also has proper size planets. If you like fun-but-realistic-feeling space combat games, btw, check this mod for I-War 2 out.
The thing that really ran up to me and kicked me right in my sack is the fact that you can make a HUUUUUUUUUUGE Universe, that you will not be able to beat in your entire life time... It is not realistic in the fact that 1 star can support multiple Empires; but who cares, the game is awesome... **** Who likes what race? Im in love with the Advent :p
I liek this game a lot. It's really easy to set up and go on about fighting. Once you've captured a nice amount of planets/asteroids you can focus on beating the crap out of everybody else. Setting up fleets is easy. I just wish there were more units to chose from and planetary defenses were a bit more useful. To Shizon's question: I'm more favorable to the human races. Aliens are to be shot on sight. I lost my first game on a small map, but obliterated the other races on a medium map. We should set up a game sometimes to go beat some hard CPU. Also, pirates are your friends yarr!
For you Hendar: Taken during the climax of my first match. As you can see there's five capital ships bombarding a planet. I admit, the angle doesn't do the planet/ship contrast justice; the ships are actually smaller than that, but you get the idea. Pirates did a lot of the work early on as intended. But what I didn't expect is that they actually use the credits they gain from the bounties. I marked up big time early on, and it came to bite me to the point where I lost a couple of planets. I haven't messed with the other races yet, but I'm certain TEC will remain my favorite.
oh it's so good oh it's so good oh it's so good oh it's so good oh it's so good I played for 4 hours today and had a ton of fun. I'm likely no good at all, but it's just so much fun I don't care.