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Only two weeks until release!

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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!

89,849 views 92 replies
Reply #26 from Sins Forums Top
uhm... no?
Reply #27 from Sins Forums Top
huh?
Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11.
Reply #28 from Sins Forums Top
The 4th screenshoot, look at the cannons angle and the fire comming out from it and you will see what I meant, ^^ heeh
Reply #29 from Sins Forums Top
My dedicated server (the Monk's [Proving Grounds] along with a public TS) will be up on release day! Sooo excited!  :d 
Reply #30 from Sins Forums Top
The 4th screenshoot, look at the cannons angle and the fire comming out from it and you will see what I meant, ^^ heeh

trust me, its not a huge deal.
yes the turrets dont move, but unless you're playing this giant space opera for the look of the ships, you'll be enamored by the more important things.

on to the next point: whoever said "only" two weeks needs to be found and promptly beaten with a bat.

/takes out his bat

here here frogboy, goooooood frogboy, come a little closer...
Reply #31 from Sins Forums Top
on to the next point: whoever said "only" two weeks needs to be found and promptly beaten with a bat.

/takes out his bat

here here frogboy, goooooood frogboy, come a little closer...


SMAAAAACK

Yeah Bullseye

Reply #32 from Sins Forums Top
A Few Questions:

1. any news on more direct negotiation with the pirates/rebels/militia? what were the main aspects (you chose to alter) of negotiation that were a problem in beta 4 (and other games)?

2. i love huge maps. whats the max number of planets we can expect to see in the final release? does it number in 100's?

3. what kind of graphics enhancement will we see? example surface damage to planets/atmosphere, damage to ships etc..

4. in terms of modding how accessable will the game be? interchanging unit abilities and more importantly creating new models and textures? (current models are great just most games are a pain when it comes to adding new ones). will you offer any post-release kits to ease the modding of the game(even at a cost)?

5. finally one i don't expect an answer for (or expect that answer to be "yes" if i did get one). any chance of seeing a planet killer ship (deathstar style)? just thinking of the possibilities of creating choke points on maps by destroying grav wells.

anyway, great job guys and really looking forward to the 4th! :-)
M

P.S good thinking dropping the security on the disk. im a pre-order digital download customer for the first time. T&C put me off purchasing any other game in this way.
Reply #33 from Sins Forums Top
whoever said "only" two weeks needs to be found and promptly beaten with a bat.


I'd agree except I don't approve of the abuse of animals - bats or frogs. :P
Reply #34 from Sins Forums Top
1. any news on more direct negotiation with the pirates/rebels/militia? what were the main aspects (you chose to alter) of negotiation that were a problem in beta 4 (and other games)?


Negotiations?
Puh-lease, they are barbaric and must be destroyed.

2. i love huge maps. whats the max number of planets we can expect to see in the final release? does it number in 100's?


You can make it as large as you please, and then some, cause the game is totally modable. I remember beta 1-2 people were able to make a stable game with over 1000(or more).

However, note that a game with roughly forty might take a week or two. Any more then that would take months.

3. what kind of graphics enhancement will we see? example surface damage to planets/atmosphere, damage to ships etc..


The game boast very high end graphical options. Well, the only limimts is your system.
Right now we can't say though, becasue most of the Beta's graphical features were just placeholders.

4. in terms of modding how accessable will the game be? interchanging unit abilities and more importantly creating new models and textures? (current models are great just most games are a pain when it comes to adding new ones). will you offer any post-release kits to ease the modding of the game(even at a cost)?


The game already has a map editor and maker, all created by the community. There are several mods in the works just with the beta and essentially everything about the game could be edited and modded.

5. finally one i don't expect an answer for (or expect that answer to be "yes" if i did get one). any chance of seeing a planet killer ship (deathstar style)? just thinking of the possibilities of creating choke points on maps by destroying grav wells.


Welllll... Now thats a deep subject.
Around Beta 3 screenshots appeared of the Novalith, the TEC superweapon. However, no further details were available besides the fact that it was rumored to be able to kill planets. Not kill kill, more like kill everything on it, and from quite a distance too.

Nothing has been heard of the other factiosn super weapons though. So its up in the air at the moment. But I wouldnt expect any actual planet killers cause it would totally be a game breaker.
Reply #35 from Sins Forums Top
the game already has an issue with choke points, that would only exacerbate the issue.
Around Beta 3 screenshots appeared of the Novalith, the TEC superweapon. However, no further details were available besides the fact that it was rumored to be able to kill planets. Not kill kill, more like kill everything on it, and from quite a distance too.

Nothing has been heard of the other factiosn super weapons though. So its up in the air at the moment. But I wouldnt expect any actual planet killers cause it would totally be a game breaker.

1) we know the novalith does damage to the populace, not the planet
2) we know the other factions have superweapons.
Reply #36 from Sins Forums Top

But I wouldnt expect any actual planet killers cause it would totally be a game breaker.


nah not a game-breaker. make it so the thing can't jump and can be attacked en-route...imagine trying to protect it mid way through a jump-line with the enemy appearing all around it. although this brings about more questions as to whether all ships can move non-phasespace and can they be detected whilst doing so :-S.

guess its a can of worms with regards to game-play.
Reply #37 from Sins Forums Top
the game already has an issue with choke points, that would only exacerbate the issue.


Not really, with the extended gravity well, unless a system is fortefied with a mobile fleet it is very easy to skip over planets.
Reply #38 from Sins Forums Top
yes, but that fleet will be torn apart by an even mildly experienced player, its still a chokepoint. thats of course assuming you werent stupid enough to trust your entire frontline planet to point defenses :\
guess its a can of worms with regards to game-play.

yes, and you induce more chokepoints which is a pain.
nah not a game-breaker. make it so the thing can't jump and can be attacked en-route...imagine trying to protect it mid way through a jump-line with the enemy appearing all around it

nope, cannot happen.
Reply #39 from Sins Forums Top
Yea, unless they like never fix the bug where ships can travel outside of phase space.
Reply #40 from Sins Forums Top

the game already has an issue with choke points, that would only exacerbate the issue.


Not really, with the extended gravity well, unless a system is fortefied with a mobile fleet it is very easy to skip over planets.


But, we know nothing about how big the grav well will be, and how much of it will be suited for building in.
I asume this is what is meant by "Orbit radius", but we don't know what the ranges of defenses and buildability will be, so we can't really say anything about unguarded defenses.
Reply #41 from Sins Forums Top
soo, I saw this video of beta 3 and noticed that ships are actually moving very fast, what is the ships speed like in beta 4, and what is it like in the final version? :)
Reply #42 from Sins Forums Top
what is the ship speed like... there is no way to answer that... i would have to know what you are looking for...
what is it in the final version... BUNNIES!... ELLIPSIS!
Reply #43 from Sins Forums Top
Accelerate to ludicrous speed?
Reply #44 from Sins Forums Top
erh, I dont know, I think that they seem to move a bit fast at close range compared to Homeworld 2. Looked kinda silly and not so "spacy" styled if you ask me (im refering to light frigates in Beta 3). Also, are there any formations/formation moves in this game? Again the light frigates seemed to just chunk together. :/
Reply #45 from Sins Forums Top
You can alter the game speed.  You can create/break fleets in the game.
Reply #46 from Sins Forums Top
Well, this all looks interesting, I have placed my preorder :D So, will there still be community activity regarding patching post-release? :d

And any possibility you will develop Homeworld 3? ;)

Edit: sry, it is possible that I have mistaken the light Frigates with Scout Frigates when regarding the speed of the units :x! Hope I didnt make anyone sweat their brain for no reason ;p
Reply #47 from Sins Forums Top
What are the minimum requirements?
Like, with everything turned all the way down, could a Geforce fx5500 run Sins?
Reply #49 from Sins Forums Top
Do you anticipate your download servers being able to handle the load on launch day? I know I'll be checking often for availability. ;)
Reply #50 from Sins Forums Top
too bad u cant pre-order it via pay-pal it will cause alot of pressure as mentioned on the download servers...

u can bet i'll be getting the digital version as soon as they release it :D