Explosions?

Yes, and they leave behind floating debris. They explosions don't connect real well (the model just disappears rather than breaking apart), but I like 'em myself.

Also how do the graphics compare to previous space RTSes like homeworld 2, hegemonia, nexus, ect?

I noticed in some screens it looks really nice but in some other screens it just looks like homeworld 2...

The reason that some of the screens look like that is simply because they werent in high res or on lower graphics settings. On my machine, the game looks great.

I would say it has more in common with Nexus than anything else. All the models have unique styles respective of their factions, tracer fire comes out of the turrets, missiles come out of the launch bays, etc. The only thing that seems a bit canned is the fighters/bombers. They just kind of disappear when you tell them to dock. But the planet detail is much more impressive than Haegamonia (think Coruscant-style traffic criss-crossing your planet) and less cartoon-ish than Homeworld's colors.

Empire at War had the BEST capital ship deaths I've ever seen. Whole sections would break apart and the entire thing would just drift towards the planet for the rest of the fight.

Homeworld 2 weren't much better than SoaSE, as they do the same thing. A few explosions, BOOM, model goes away, all that's left is debris.

The explosions themselves aren't as epic as HW2's were though.

Yeah, explosions leave a bit to be desire, especially siege frigates. It's the same explosion for all races, just different colors, and ridiculously exaggerated explosions at that. But meh, I like it, adds silliness to an otherwise really serious game, sort of like many japanese style games (like Rogue Galaxy), serious but with cartoonishieness (yes, made it up) to it.

Its not very important, but it still surprises me that Sins has pretty awful explosions compared to what we've seen in the past....must be hard to make a decent explosion sequence since like, the majority of space sims and space RTS's habitually miss the boat here.

It would help if the explosions were at least more tightly tied to the dissapearance of the model...I never thought I'd look back on HW2's 'white-out' effect as an elegant solution to this problem but this's a little ridiculous.

As it is, I weakly rationalize that the target is imploding before exploding but somehow I don't think that's what Stardock was going for...

Sometimes I just look away when something Novas and imagine up a better explosion myself, which is not the kind of work I expect to do as a player.

Well this game does not emphasize graphics. I wouldn't mind better composition of debris as long as it wouldn't do so at the expense of gameplay. My computer is far below the recommended specs

Personally, I think the visual presentation in this game is fantastic, especially when you consider the scale of things. Being able to smoothly zoom from close in on a tiny fighter all the way out to a solar system view and back again really is quite epic.

You're right, I don't think anybody is questioning the visual presentation as a whole, - but the game's impressive scale shouldn't technically preclude some nicely done explosions...