Only two weeks until release!

You've got questions? We've got answers!

from Sins Forums

In just over two weeks, Sins of a Solar Empire will be made publicly available!  After literally years of development, the big day is just about here.

Creating an RTS with the kind of depth usually only seen in a 4X strategy game wasn't impossible, just very difficult. Thanks to the public beta, we've been able to combine the best of both worlds.  The last public beta of Sins was back in November.  Since then, a huge number of improvements and enhancements have been made to the builds. 

For every RTS player whose seen a good RTS wrecked by cheese tactics, connection problems, dropping players, rushing, or swarming, Sins is for you.  We've been there. We've read the same forums you have.

And for every 4X strategy game player who's tried a real-time strategy game only to discover it was a "click-fest" in which victory went to the guy whose memorized the perfect build order, the arcane hot keys and can micro-manage 50 units, Sins is for you. Sins is the game in which victory is based on OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act). Build your strategy and execute on it.

So ask us anything. In the meantime, below are some screenshots taken on my laptop (which I'll be using next week at G4's XPlay to demo the game live). I took these at the minimum resolution so you can see the breadth of hardware support this game has (it looks incredible on state of the art mega machines but will still play fine on your 3 or 4 year old PC).

Some screenshots and descriptions.

2008-01-20_1404 2008-01-20_1421

 

2008-01-20_1516 2008-01-20_1522

We'll follow-up this news item with another with answers to your questions. Ask away!

89,840 views 92 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Looks real good.

BTW: Say "aloha" Ms. Webb for me. In fact give her a big kiss for me. :HOT:
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
dropping players

oh I hope so, because I have spontaneous drop issues, something I reported but never got any report back about. A SD employee also noted having the same issue, but also said that IC wasnt wholly concerned about it at the moment because it was a minimalist issue :\


as for the more important stuff:
wow, that map creation system seems intense! I like the sliders!
whats "orbit radius" though...?
Object Desktop - Get all of our enhancement utilities in one suite
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
So can players now download a map from just joining the game (like starcraft)?

EDIT: Oh sweet I get G4! What date and time will this be on?
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

whats "orbit radius" though...?


Good question!

What does that control?
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
G4 has gone down the poop shoot though (:( I mean its not as good as it used to be (all cops and cheaters and MOST OUTRAGEOUS BEHAVIOR. And now X-play is like X-play of the old mixed with Cheat! and AotS. And Olivia Munn isn't hawt. I miss Sarah Lane. She was better. And Morgan Webb is uber tall, albino, and manish.)

So when you are on, do we get to see you lol? Man I wish I had a writable DVD player cuz I'd rip that to my computer and then post it here :NOTSURE:
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
what day is this XPlay? I really want my dad to dvr it at our other house, but I need to know when it is.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Oh you know what? Even if he goes in next week we'll probably have Sins already when it airs! But still whats the air date/time?
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I have a question.

One of the screenshot bubbles says "Research Fleet logistics to get more capital ship crews and more fleet points (to support more ships)"

Is this the new method of max fleet size control we were told was coming (to replace planets dictating fleet points), making it entirely done via the logistics tree now?

PS - I like the new unit portrait, can't wait to see some of the others.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Goddamn give it to me .........

By the way Frogboy = Fanboy ? ;P

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
Ive got one question. What is the release date for Australia/New Zealand? The only dates I can find for it is around mid April.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Goddamn give it to me .........

By the way Frogboy = Fanboy ?




It goes back to Brad's misspent youth when he was dreaming about developing a game called GS while in college or maybe before. Honestly it has been so long I forget just when he got that name. Maybe he will tell you if you ask him nicely.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
On the fourth screenshoot (the flakships thing) the cannon firing is pointing in a different direction than the fire comming out from it is. Is this intentional? :d And are there alot of tthings like this in the game? :) Btw, this looks like what I expected Homeworld 2 to be when I started playing it (not that it was bad). :CONGRAT:
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

Ive got one question. What is the release date for Australia/New Zealand? The only dates I can find for it is around mid April.


Because Stardock isn't publishing overseas "directly", you're going to get it a bit later than the US / Canada. Their Australian publisher was already confirmed as planning to release it in April, so your local publisher is about par for the course (of course, as close as NZ is, I imagine your just getting the Australian version).
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
We have to research for support points!?!? :(

This makes me very sad.
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
Auran is publishing in both Aus and NZ, yes.
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top

We have to research for support points!?!?

This makes me very sad.

It shouldn't. Now that it's not tied directly to the number of planets you own you'll at least have a fighting chance most of the time.

Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
Technically it is still tied to how many planets you have. The more planets, the more logistic slots, and thus the more research centers.

And what time is that X-play?

EDIT: Friday at 8 PM EST!!! Woo-hoo!
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top

Technically it is still tied to how many planets you have. The more planets, the more logistic slots, and thus the more research centers.


That was what I was thinking as well, but it's much more indirect now. You need less of a landgrab now to still maintain a proper fleet.
Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top
wait, excuse me but were we ever given explicit details about this? for all you know it might be "research to boost # of log points by 10%" or somesuch.
Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top
hmm i think there have been many changes on the internal builds. I think that the beta 4 we have is FAR and AWAY from the game thats on the inside.

What is truly amazing is the detail and new content that has been added and changed since beta 4 went out.

The multiplay lobby looks sweet! Now if there only were people who hung around in it.....
Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top
I still feel sad, supply points being tied to planets made more sense. Not that other aspects of this game do make sense, but you know maybe I thought they would break the mold with this one.

And what happens to the fleet support improvement of planets?
Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top
we havent heard anything decisive have we???
Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top
Why should that stop me from complaining?
Reply #25 from Sins Forums Top
... So the fire from flak cannons usually goes another way than the cannon fires, and if so, are there many things like this in the game? ^^ Im asking since a game can easily be crippled to play by too many minor flaws. Learnt this in the hard way. (:(