Sorry, the FAQ is quite out of date and we'll get it all fixed up before release

The in-game Map Designer and the offline Galaxy Forge tool let you make as many solar systems and planets as your system can handle. The default maps that we provide go up to 6 systems and 102 planets. I've seen custom maps from beta testers of literally over 10,000 planets. That would be ridiculous to play but it shows what the engine can handle.

A demo will be at least a month after the retail release. If you check out the Sins forums, you can ask the beta testers about it.  Sins isn't some click-fest, twitchy RTS; it allows you to seriously think about strategy and has more depth than any RTS I'm aware of.

Yes, and Ironclad plans to continue improving it post-release as we do with GalCiv II.

A few idle thoughts on Sins from a personal perspective, been mulling over how to get the time in to learn this one properly even though I had the Betas.

IGN & Gamespy came out with reviews on Sins last week, I noticed them wondering around in an idle moment. The reviews are top notch, usual couple of parsimoanious comments justifying a reviewers time, but no major criticism. IGN video review is useful for those not yet seen it on Beta. They approach "rave" reviews in common with other comments I have seen that are now appearing in large numbers all over the place. FilePlanet starting to get player ratings - all running at 5 star.

It was interesting to see some having difficulty knowing what to call it Seems like most have settled on "RT4X" as a genre.

I suspect the sound of a Gauntlet thudding on the floor is ringing through the BoardRooms of a number of GameHouses . It will be interesting to see their response to the challenge of new Game Genre that didnt come from them. There is little doubt Sins has achieved the latter.

Traditionally I hate RTS, not my scene, been a 4X diehard for years, but Sins definitely wins me over. I am convinced we will hear more and more of Sins as diehards begin to realise this one is not just "another" game release, and that the "established" book on writing games just got re-written

The game devs must be chuffed at the initial outcome, deservedly so - well done to them

Regards
Zy

People that usually hate RTS games should probably at least wait until a demo. It has more depth and a slower pace than an RTS, but at heart it's still a "build up a bunch of units and throw it at a bunch of your enemy's units" RTS. It's not GalCiv2 in real time, closer to a larger scale hybrid of Supreme Commander/Total Annihilation and Homeworld.

It's also better MP than SP, especially considering how out and out bizarre the diplomacy system is. It's essentially "continue to do what the AI player tells you or he'll break all treaties and kill you" no matter what your history or the current situation.

Well, first the diplomacy in Sins is terrible, and second there are diplomacy models in a number of RTS's. The one that readily comes to mind is Rise of Nations.

Anyway, it's simply important for people to know, IMO, that this IS an RTS. It owes a lot to Total Annihilation, a lot to Homeworld, and at best a tiny amount to anything turn based. People that don't enjoy RTS games are going to be disappointed, especially if they come in expecting something with the depth of a turn based game. This is not Gal Civ 2 in real time and it's not EU2 in space.

I hate RTS games but Sins I totally love. In fact now that I am getting better I'm starting to crank up the speed myself and may actually dabble in multiplayer games.

All in all this is a fantastic game and once the demo comes out give it a try. I wasn't sure I'd like the game or not but I've loved it since the first game I played.

I'm with you on that . I have a gigantic meta game that has come to a standstill since I got Sins. I think a GC2 themed mod for Sins would be off the hook. Hopefully with the players playing across both games someone will come up with one. If not, I may just have to start checking out those mod tools.

Would you extrapolate on what makes the interface lousy? There is no mini-map because you don't need one. If there are too many planets for you, make a map with less planets. I have no arguement on the diplomacy. I don't hate it, but it doesn't improve the game in its current state. Yes, there are better games out there than Sins. However, Sins is still a very good game.

I'm not a big fan of Sins, even though I love both RTS and 4X games, which is not to say that it's a bad game (though it could certainly use some work, especially in the diplomacy department), but for me the problem is that it lacks the best parts of both genres; namely the action of an RTS (Rise of Nations, which is basically RTS Civilization, has a lot more action) and the depth of a 4X (Civilization, which I consider vastly inferior to GC2 in a lot of ways, has more depth).

From reading the reviews I thought Sins of a Solar Empire would be the best of both worlds condensed and refined into one awesome package, but after playing it, it feels more like the best bits from both genres have been striped out in order to accommodate the other genres style of play and all that’s left is a game with a fairly standard RTS formula that makes molasses going up hill in winter look fast (well not quite THAT bad, but you get my point, I hope).

Nvm, realized this thread was old, and it's in the "In development" area.