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Sins of a Solar Empire v1.1 BETA Change Log

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Sins of a Solar Empire v1.1 BETA Change Log

Now Available

from Sins Forums

The next major update for Sins of a Solar Empire is now available!  Since this update is so huge and contains several brand new technologies, we are going to be offering it as an optional beta before its final release. If you are not comfortable with running potentially very buggy software (though we've tried to minimize it), do not install this beta - wait for the final release.

This beta update is available only through Stardock's new Impulse platform. We will no longer be providing standalone patches for future versions of the game. For more information on obtaining the beta and taking part in the testing, please visit: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/319061

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Sins of a Solar Empire v1.09 (aka 1.1 beta) Changelist
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Gameplay / Balance:
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-Kol Battleship:
     -Fix for Finest Hour not applying all of its splash damage correctly.

-Marza Dreadnaught:
     -Fix for Missile Barrage not applying all of its damage correctly. (thx bailknight)
 
-Sova Carrier:
     -Embargo duration reduced from 120 secs at all levels to 60/90/120 secs.
 
-Dunov Battlecruiser:
     -Shield Restore shield points replenished reduced from 350/700/1050 to 250/500/750
     -Shield Restore AM cost reduced from 90 to 65 for all levels
     -Shield Restore cooldown reduced from 16 secs to 11 secs for all levels

-Cielo Command Cruiser:
     -Designate Target damage bonus increased from 25% to 40%.

-Radiance Battleship:
     -Cleansing Brilliance cooldown increased from 75 secs to 120 secs.

-Rapture Battlecruiser:
     -Vengeance antimatter cost decreased from 75 to 70.
     -Vengeance damage retaliated increased from 40%/80%/120% to 65%/130%/200%.
     -Units acquired with Domination will now have their orders reset.

-Domina Subjugator:
     -Suppression antimatter cost decreased from 100 to 75.
     -Suppression cooldown decreased from 40 secs to 30 secs.
     -Suppression duration increased from 40 secs to 90 secs.

-Kortul Devastator:
     -Jam Weapons antimatter cost decreased from 75 to 70.
     -Jam Weapons duration changed from 15/25/35 secs to 30/30/30 secs.
     -Jam Weapons range increased from 3500/4500/5500 to 3500/5000/7000.
     -Disruptive Strikes antimatter depletion increased from 8/10/12 to 10/20/30.
     -Disruptive Strikes ability cooldown rate penalty increased from 10%/20%/30% to 15%/30%/45%.
     -Disruptive Strikes duration increased from 10 secs to 15 secs.
     -Now costs 250 crystal as originally intended. (thx bailknight)

-Skirantra Carrier:
     -Scramble Bombers antimatter cost decreased from 100/75/50 to 80/65/50.
     -Scramble Bombers cooldown decreased from 60/60/60 secs to 60/50/40 secs.

-Antorak Marauder:
     -Subversion antimatter cost increased from 100/90/80 to 100/100/100.
     -Subversion cooldown increased from 50/45/40 secs to 75/75/75 secs.
     -Subversion ship and structure build time penalties increased from 15%/30%/45% to 50%/100%/150%.

-Vulkoras Desolator:
     -Disintegration cooldown decreased from 120 secs to 90 secs.

-Stilakus Subverter:
     -Distortion Field antimatter cost increased from 100 to 200.
     -Distortion Field duration decreased from 30 secs to 20 secs.
 
-Iconus Guardian:
     -Repulsion is now a channeling and interruptable ability.
 
-Serevun Overseer:
     -Reactive Nanite Armor cooldown increased from 2 secs to 4 secs.
 
-Illuminator Vessel
     -Frontal bank damage reduced from 58.5 to 53.5.
     -Side bank damage reduced from 30.3 to 27.25.

-Returning Armada:
     -Now costs 2500 credits, 200 Metal, 500 Crystal to activate.
     -Fleet sizes summoned increased from 25-45 to 45-90 supply.
     -Cooldown increased to 10 minutes at all levels.
     -Phase Stabilizers now have 0 max antimatter.
  
-Scenario and Galaxy Generation:
     -Fixed problem with calculating star extents on smaller maps (because of min size, stars were getting vertically offset by too much). 
     -Fixed bug in galaxy generator so that inter-star connections could end up connected to one star.
     -Fix for some wonkiness with placing artifacts.  They would not show up in your artifact list because the control of the artifact had not been given to you because of ordering of planet acquisition and artifact placement.
     -Added missing starting artifacts for 2 start positions in Ancient Gifts map.
     -Spread out the stars in Ancient Gifts so more of them are in 'distant view' form when looking at a given one (for purely aesthetic reasons).
     -Fix for Implosion having wonky spawn probabilities.
     -Removed non-plural browse picture for Hyperion's Gates.
 
-TEC Research:
     -Maneuvering Thrusters max number of levels reduced from 2 to 1.
     -Rapid Development now additionally reduces costs of Logistics Capacity upgrades by 7.5% per level.
 
-Advent Research:
     -Augmented Defense Grid tactical slot bonus increased from 2 to 5 per level.
 
-Vasari Research:
     -Extreme Heat Metabolism and Sulfurous Respiration population bonuses increased from 7.5% to 15% per level.
     -Trauma Nanomedicine population loss prevented due to planet bombing increased from 10% to 20% per level.
     -Molecular Assembly structure build rate bonus increased from 5% to 40% per level.
     -Wreckage Auto-Salvage salvage percentage reduced from 8.33% to 5% per level.
 
-All frigates and cruisers now spawn with full antimatter.
-AntiLight attack type's damage modifier vs CapitalShip, Medium, Heavy and VeryHeavy armor increased from 25% to 50%.
-Carrier frigates rebalanced to have 2-3 squadrons and be relatively less expensive per squadron.
-All anti-strike craft frigates' base DPS reduced by 43%.
-AntiVeryLight attack type's damage modifier vs CapitalShip, Medium, Heavy and VeryHeavy armor increased from 25% to 50%.
-Composite attack type's damage modifier vs Medium armor increased from 100% to 125%.
-Composite attack type's damage modifier vs Heavy armor decreased from 125% to 100%.
-AntiHeavy attack type's damage modifier vs Heavy armor increased from 125% to 150%.
-Abilities can now require resources to be used instead of antimatter.
-Fix for capital ships not being able to build squads.
-Squad owners now attempt to build strike craft in all non-full squads, rather than just one squad per type it supports. This addresses the situation where squad owners w/ having all squads of the same type were losing 'production efficiency' vs those having both fighter and bomber squads. This should also improve construction for squad owners w/ 2+ squads (ie most high level capital ships).
-Caught more edge cases where buffs should perform their OnBuffFinish actions. (Fixes weirdness with various abilities).
-Duplicate buffs that get replaced by new instances of the same buff now do their OnBuffFinish actions when this happens. This should significantly improve Malice's damage output when multiple Progenitors are chain casting it on the same targets.
-Fixed bug with being to see weapon ranges of non-detected ships.
-Buffs are now removed from targets, where appropriate, if their player ownership changes.
-Fix GetExtractionIncomeBonus mistake with bonus amt.
-Better blocking of defeated players being able to use the market and bounty.
-Player resource buckets now start at 50% market price instead of 100% so there isn't so much red at the start of the game.
-Jump Field Generator artifact now also allows travel through wormholes.

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Graphics:
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-Major upgrade to the rendering and texture systems that allows the game to look even better on less powerful machines.
-18 completely redone and touched up meshes.
-Dozens completely redone and touched up mesh textures.
-Lots of new explosion effects and textures.
-A variety of minor 2d texture upgrades and/or replacements.
-New ship shader with colorsample.a swapped with datasample.r (Team and specular have reversed position).
-Non-planetary asteroids now have their own shader. (Note: this shader no longer uses the same texture channel format as the ship shader).
-Damage system changed so that dead entities update as fast as possible so the explosion effects occur at the correct time.
-New explosion system.
-The game doesn't crash if the number of persistent damage effects is close to the max.
-Upped the max number of persistent damage effects.

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Sound / Music:
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-Fix for rotation sounds disappearing when loading save games.
-Fix for losing sounds after migrating hosts.

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AI:
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-Improved AI ability choice and usage.
-Fix capturable resource mines from being considered damageable and causing all sorts of badness in the AI (and elsewhere).
-Fix for ships not attacking modules all the time.
-Set the correct difficulty of dropped players converted to AI.
-Improved when AI decides to build capitalships.
-AI can now build frigates in priority list if the supply usage is too low (ala patterns noticed in human build strategies).
-Fix support ship ratio to not be affected by non-combat ships (was building way too many if there were things like trade ships)
-AI now consider a repairbay more of a threat so it gets taken out at a higher priority.
-Improved AI building of tradeports and refineries.
-Further improved AI bounty logic so human players can't cheese the AI so easily.
-Auto join fleet members now inherit auto attack range.
-Autojoining a fleet now also inherits the fleet leaders settings (ex. group hyperspace state).
-Fixed bug where ships that autojoined formations would have their preorder move point overwritten by the rally point code. This meant that the last ship joined would always try to go back to factory, instead of in-formation with their fleet.
-Fix path-finding crash.

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Networking / Multiplayer:
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-Introducing the beta of Ironclad's new game networking technology "Alloy":
     -Peer-to-peer technology (very common with real-time strategy games) has been having a rough time lately due to the increasing use of Internet security software and routers.
     -Sins was no exception, with the most visible problem being the amount of technical knowledge many users needed to learn in order host multiplayer games over Ironclad Online.
     -This latest version of Sins introduces a cutting edge network technology called "Alloy" that bypasses all these problems, performs faster, more reliably, and with more stability.
     -Players should never have to worry about being able to host, configuring routers, changing port numbers, or games ending due to failed host migrations. It’s 100% hands-off.
     -Technically proficient users can always choose to disable Alloy and handle the details manually.

-Synchronization:
     -Fixed loading mods potentially causing a sync problem.
     -Robustness added to various network commands so they don't crash when out of sync.
     -Scenario files are now checked to make sure they don't differ in multiplayer games.
     -Meshes are now checksummed in order to detect sync errors faster.
     -FileArchives now keep track of their contents checksum so the game can do more accurate checks on client data to detect if the game might go out of sync while playing multiplayer.

-Ignore system added so specific players can be ignored in ICO and in-game.
-Fixed assert in GalaxyGenerator causing socket error.
-No longer attempt to whisper "in-game" to disconnected players. This way you can talk to friends over ICO who have left the game.
-Fix for losing sounds after migrating hosts.
-Players can now attach their email to their ICO account to improve future support.
-Players can now join ICO chat lobbies that have the maximum number of characters as their name.
-Previewing galaxies in ICO will no longer kick you back to the single player screen.
-No more spamming of "host has changed game settings" in the game lobby.
-Fixed false negatives being reported for ICO-game hosting.
-All clients are notified if the host changes the game settings while in the game lobby screen.
-New ICO screen for managing game hosting.
-Added a no-duplicate name algorithm to player setup due to the new chat system. There would be no way to send whispers to duplicate name players.
-ICO accounts will now be forced to logout if you attempt to login with the same account. This was supposed to be fixed in 1.05 but should now actually work.

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User Interface / HUD:
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-New Mini Underground Window
     -This new window gives you immediate access to common Underground actions without having to leave the main view. Actions include:
           -Buying and selling resources.
           -Viewing the current bounty target and the raid time remaining.
           -The ability to increment the bounty on the player with current highest bounty.
     -All these actions are now hooked up to hotkeys.
     -Opening and closing the Mini Underground Window can be done via Ctrl-Shift-X or using the User Interface options screen.

-Hotkeys:
      -New default hot key for Select Colony Ships to not conflict with Toggle Main View Icons. (Alt-G)
      -Hotkey to toggle expand/shrink the best selected Empire Tree node. (L)
      -Hotkeys added for opening up specific tabs in the global windows:
           Examples:  
                 - Research Window: Combat, Non-combat, Artifact, Fleet
                 - NPC Window: Market, Pirates
       -Escape menu screen now more accurately reports when the player is entering text so that you can switch from the network status screen to other screens with hotkeys.
       -Entities autojoining fleets (see AI changes) will now search for and join the hot key group that contains the entire fleet. This way you don't have to rebuild hot key groups as more ships get added to the fleet automatically.
       -Can now toggle between the pirate and market screens without having to close them first with hotkeys.
 
-Empire Tree:
       -Hotkey to toggle expand/shrink the best selected Empire Tree node.
       -Using hotkeys to toggle the expansion of an Empire Tree node now also makes it visible. Note that this isn't done when clicking the arrow to the left to prevent shifting of the Empire Tree while your cursor is interacting with it. 
       -Empire Tree now updates if paused.
       -Fix Empire Tree crash.
       -Fixed a bug in the "show selected node" algorithm.
       -Tolerance for readjusting the Empire Tree changed so that it happens when any of the entire node is outside of the window instead of only the entity selected. This is so that selecting an entity will bring the planet in view even if the planet is outside the window.
        -Changed the behavior when making an entity visible so the entire node shows up on the top of the Empire Tree instead of the bottom.
        -New algorithm for making the selected entity displayed. Now takes into account the context of the entity, for example if a ship is selected the entire planet and all of its contents are attempted to be made visible, instead of just the ship.

-Fix missing planet type descriptions from scenariodef file.
-Fix for crash when selecting player portraits.
-Pasting text into text boxes no longer only cuts of the front if the text won't fit (cuts off the end).
-Both combat and non-combat lab counts are displayed in the open research button infocard.
-Abilities that spawn units now show the duration of their spawned units in the ability infocard.
-Changed button text to show credit cost on press instead of /unit of resource.
-Added colors to text that the big market screen uses.
-Added left handed mouse support. Swapped mouse buttons will be auto-detected from the win32 api and saved as a personal setting.

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Modding:
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-Maximum number of buildable capital ship types per race increased from 5 to 9.
-Abilities can now require resources to be used instead of antimatter.
-Fixed loading mods potentially causing a sync problem.
-Caught more edge cases where buffs should perform their OnBuffFinish actions. (Fixes weirdness with various abilities).
-Fixed game from crashing when a mesh type that the engine expects to have shields is modded to not have shields.
-New convertdata can convert binary to text as well.
-As mentionned in graphics: New ship shader with colorsample.a swapped with datasample.r (Team and spec have reversed position).
-As mentionned in graphics: Non-planetary asteroids now have their own shader. (Note: this shader no longer uses the same texture channel format as the ship shader).
-Various improvements to GalaxyForge.

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Misc:
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-Fix crash bug with array out of bound values with Resource Focus.
-Fixed a crash in rendering certain string types.
-Screenshot Changes
       -Changed code for taking autoscreenshots to get rid of any render time interpolation.
       -Take screenshot on singlestep
       -Screenshot mode is disabled on shutdown so all relating settings aren't saved as off.
-Fixed bug where temp ships where messing up statistics (causing them to go negative).
-Fixed a null pointer crash.

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End
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1,719,984 views 574 replies
Reply #101 from Stardock Forums Top
Impulse is free.
You don't need it on to play Sins.
It's like Stardock Central.

Perhaps like any thing that the internet community doesn't like, somewhere somehow you will be able to find someone who has the patch online without consent. It's just the way it is. Not condoning it or anything.

Back on topic though.

Will there be new ships, capital or otherwise that is included in the update?
Reply #102 from Stardock Forums Top
So now those of us still running win2K are stuck even though we can get the game to run, now we can no longer patch it. :(
DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #103 from Sins Forums Top
If you don't have an Internet connection on your gaming rig for some reason, it's very easy to update a copy of Sins on an Internet-connected PC, archive that, and then burn it to disc.  You can then use Impulse offline to restore the updated archive on your other system.


You know this type of process to patch a game is just as ridiculous as it sounds, don't pretend that this is somehow an acceptable process to have to go through for a patch. That being said, this particular scenario doesn't affect me since I don't have any gaming machines that aren't connected to the internet.

However I still say BOO to requiring a second application for patching. I DON'T WANT YOUR DISTRIBUTION SOFTWARE ON MY PC. It's as simple as that. The fact that you seem to find it acceptable that you dictate what programs I install on my PC in order to use your product for reasons not related to technical functionality makes you equally as evil as DRM.

Even big bad Microsoft has stand alone versions of all their patches.

Very disappointing. Just went from the top of my list of gaming companies I like to the very bottom tied with Valve for the exact same reason.




Reply #104 from Sins Forums Top
Please, for the love of kittens!

FIXES NEEDED:
Allow us to designate player start points! -in sins and in galaxy forge. random placement at all times isn't the best and tbph sucks for map designers with vision.

Allow credit/crystal/metal start editing from within SINS + ability to override map defaults.

Allow starting civil/military labs or tech level.

Allow exclusion of tech.

Easily set planet sizes or range of diameter. (galaxy forge)
Reply #105 from Sins Forums Top
Am i the only one thinking this:Cut and run. At this point you're bleeding development time for a game that already has a dead online multiplayer. Invest in Sins of A Solar Empire 2, instead of trying to stiffle the bleeding that is SoaSE1.The game was awesomely enjoyable, and now all i can think is..."Sins 2?"I kind of agree here.Haven't played in a while so I actually don't know what the situation looks like, but obvious MP changes like the subverter nerf or the RA redesign would have been needed like 3 months ago to support an online community.Have fun


Campaign gives people something to do when not doing MP games and keeps their interest. How many people have stated they still drag out old games because of the story told by the campaign?

Reply #106 from Sins Forums Top
Campaign gives people something to do when not doing MP games and keeps their interest. How many people have stated they still drag out old games because of the story told by the campaign?
I've played Sins a bit lately, but the same old story happens:

-Generate small map
-Play for a few hours
-Get stuck/bored/tired, save game

When I fire up Sins again it's hard to get back into the old game so I'll just start over.

Rinse, Repeat.

I have yet to finish one.
Reply #107 from Sins Forums Top
PLEASE mAKE THIS AVAILABLE VIA DOWNLOAD ON THE SITE LIKE YOU ALWAYS HAVE! Impulse does not work on my computer and I don't know why. Everytime I start it up it pops up an error report message screen "Stardock Impulse has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." I really want to get this patch when it comes out and impulse hates me.
Reply #108 from Sins Forums Top
Definatly saddened over the RA changes. Although I can see the resource balancing is nice; the cooldown taken to 10 minutes? Seems a mite excessive. Wasn't it something there abouts 3 minutes? over 300% increase? (Unless my assumption on origional cooldown is wrong, then please disreguard the rest of the statement.)

Time to adapt... or pick up advent! :)
Reply #109 from Sins Forums Top
You're right. It has much more to do with "locking-in" your customers with exclusive distribution schemes instead of winning us over by improving the game.....Don't get me wrong--I think the 1.1 patch is large, extensive, and an excellent upgrade. But with these new exclusive distribution schemes, I fear that Stardock/Ironclad will lose the incentive to release good upgrades like this again, which is only bad news for all of us customers.Thus, I'd like to conclude by saying that Stardock/Ironclad, if they want to remain a good company based on creating top-notch products, should allow competition in order to guarantee that good patches/products/etc. continue to be released, instead of resorting to customer "lock-in" schemes (like Impulse-exclusive "deals") to stifle competition and thus creativity/work on their part.


That makes no sense. We're the exclusive provider of patches by the very nature of the product--the only way it wouldn't be so-called "lock in" is if we handed out the source code so other companies could make patches for the game.

The argument that requiring people to use impulse to update rather than providing standalone patches will somehow make us less likely to continue providing support just doesn't hold water. Impulse actually makes it easier for us to provide updates, and thus more likely, not less.
Reply #110 from Sins Forums Top
Lots of nice changes and that is exciting. Congrats SD and Ironclad dudes.

Carriers now appear to have a larger usefulness.

I like Impulse and I am actually using it as a launch platform.

Upgrade have always been through the Internet so if you don't have the Interent you've always had problems upgrading?? A lot of people just like to complain me thinks...
Reply #111 from Sins Forums Top
I'm very impressed with Impulse, btw, and look forward to using it as a platform for SINS upgrades. It is a very user-friendly program, and those who don't like it should at least try it :P.
Reply #112 from Sins Forums Top
You're right. It has much more to do with "locking-in" your customers with exclusive distribution schemes instead of winning us over by improving the game.....Don't get me wrong--I think the 1.1 patch is large, extensive, and an excellent upgrade. But with these new exclusive distribution schemes, I fear that Stardock/Ironclad will lose the incentive to release good upgrades like this again, which is only bad news for all of us customers.Thus, I'd like to conclude by saying that Stardock/Ironclad, if they want to remain a good company based on creating top-notch products, should allow competition in order to guarantee that good patches/products/etc. continue to be released, instead of resorting to customer "lock-in" schemes (like Impulse-exclusive "deals") to stifle competition and thus creativity/work on their part.


Umm...?
Isn't the point of PRODUCING a game to have some kind of controll over your own product?
SINS has no "lock-in", it's free to update when you so choose. Can't use Impulse? That is more of a personal problem if you havn't upgraded your computer from Win 2K as some other user stated. Stardock is a business; and in order for them to stay a business they need to sell something at some point.

All of your above arguments have focused on them not giving you a direct copy of the source code and denouncing them as horrable game producing thieves. Automated upgrades are a great thing; they allow updates and fixes to go live infinetly faster then if stand alone patches were the only option. While to this point stand alones have been great to allow my laptop to upgrade for single player.

As far as your analysis of when they released patches is also incorrect. Expansions do count as patches and addons for existing games. Think for a moment: could you play the game with ONLY the expansion? If the answer is no; it's still the same product and the expansion counts as an update.

In short; quit your complaining. No one is forcing you to play this game, or to stay on these forums. If you dislike this company for their great work so much then leave! Freedom of choice at it's finest. I can not count the number of games that charge for addins, dont' give 2 cents about customer opinions, or blatently don't care about the product at all once it's released.
Reply #113 from Sins Forums Top
Absolutly great, looking forward to play the game again... :CONGRAT: 

Took a little break waiting for new features etc.
Reply #114 from Sins Forums Top
I hope someone from STARDOCK/IRONCLAD heard me, particularly kryo. Impulse would be awesome if it WORKED! I installed it and everything but every time I try to launch it it says. "Stardock Impulse has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." This should make you fix problems with this program as I can not be the only one having this problem. I can't really threat or anything since I already bought the game and you got your money from me but I can say that if this is how future things will be released will happen I will not buy from stardock as I can't even use the dam program!!!! I will post my specs in case it helps. I realize my system doesn't meet the minimum sins requirements completely but I can run sins with all settings on except bloom with high detail at 50-60fps.

OS: Windows XP Professional 32bit
PROCESSOR: Intel Pentium M 1.6ghz rated at 2.33ghz
MEMORY: 1gb ram
GRAPHICS CARD: ATI Mobility Radeon 9600/9700 64mb
INTERNET Connection: High Speed Cable (wireless connection)(maybe impulse doesn't support wireless?)
RESOLUTION: 1440 x 900 (maybe impulse doesn't support it?)
Reply #115 from Sins Forums Top
I hope someone from STARDOCK/IRONCLAD heard me, particularly kryo. Impulse would be awesome if it WORKED! I installed it and everything but every time I try to launch it it says. "Stardock Impulse has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." This should make you fix problems with this program as I can not be the only one having this problem. I can't really threat or anything since I already bought the game and you got your money from me but I can say that if this is how future things will be released will happen I will not buy from stardock as I can't even use the dam program!!!! I will post my specs in case it helps. I realize my system doesn't meet the minimum sins requirements completely but I can run sins with all settings on except bloom with high detail at 50-60fps.OS: Windows XP Professional 32bitPROCESSOR: Intel Pentium M 1.6ghz rated at 2.33ghzMEMORY: 1gb ramGRAPHICS CARD: ATI Mobility Radeon 9600/9700 64mbINTERNET Connection: High Speed Cable (wireless connection)(maybe impulse doesn't support wireless?)RESOLUTION: 1440 x 900 (maybe impulse doesn't support it?)


The "Has encountered a problem and needs to close" is actually a windows error prompt. Its about the most useless generic pice fo garbage error report out there; aside from "an unknown error has occured". Can't really help you; but it sounds more like a Windows problem. Maybe your graphics card can't handle it? Maybe the processor is a bit slow? Couldn't tell you unforunatly. :(
Reply #116 from Sins Forums Top
Have you tried contacting support about your Impulse issues, or posting in the Impulse forums where the Impulse devs watch for issues? Obviously it's an uncommon or unique issue, but if you will work with support they will get it figured out.
Reply #118 from Sins Forums Top
How does them requiring you to download the patch via Impulse lead to not producing the same quality / quantity of patches?


As mentioned before, a company has two ways to increase revenue--increase market share and/or "lock-in" its existing market share.

Option A: Increase Market Share) There are multiple ways to increase market share--make an excellent product, advertise to new customers, and/or bankrupt competitors. Seeing as how advertising to new customers will happen regardless (there are many gaming websites/critics that will do this), and Stardock bankrupting comptetitors is extremely unlikely, Stardock is strongly encouraged to make excellent products in order to make money. Or at least that is the case until you consider Option B.

Option B: "Lock-in" Existing Market Share) To "lock-in" existing market share means to make a customer dependent on a vendor for products and services (which in turn creates difficulty for that customer to switch to another vendor). By design, that makes it harder for other competitors to compete (aka a barrier to market entry). This option is problematic for customers because companies don't need to spend as much effort in Option A (in this case, improving product quality) to make a profit, so there is less reason for them to do so.

In a nutshell, many companies balance between these two options. However, companies generally tend towards Option B, because it requires less work/effort on their part to make the same profit. However, because company effort is diverted away from product improvement, as sane customers we cannot support customer "lock-in" schemes. Instead, we should ensure that Stardock continues to make good patches/products/etc by only allowing them profit through good work.

But how does that apply to Stardock's Impulse specifically? Read below.

We're the exclusive provider of patches by the very nature of the product--the only way it wouldn't be so-called "lock in" is if we handed out the source code so other companies could make patches for the game.


Of course. As a developer, you have the exclusive right to patch your own game--anything to the contrary is ridiculous.

What I'm trying to point out is that Impulse, in and of itself, is a customer "lock-in" tool.

Evidence for this includes, but is not limited to:
1) a built-in store, which CANNOT BE REMOVED,
2) Impulse-exclusive "deals" (such as exclusive distribution of patches, which forces customers to either get "hooked" to Impulse or lose support for their games),
3) built-in "Impulse community" which cannot be removed (while not intrinsically bad, this is designed to make leaving Impulse/switching vendors harder, hence "lock-in")
4) functionality with many programs/applications (a good measure, but considering that those tabs can be added/removed indicates that Stardock doesn't really care about increased functionality on the customer's part, but that customers are somehow "hooked" on Impulse)

I didn't spend $50 on Sins of a Solar Empire so that I could be forced into downloading a program that automatically loads your store on my computer every time I want to update it. I spent $50 for a good game, good patches/support, and good online play. No more, no less. I certainly didn't pay for these customer "lock-in" schemes and other attempts to transform all of your customers into Stardock zombies. And considering that many of your customers--most of which don't even post on this forum--use stand-alone patches in one form or another (either from this site or from others), chances are I'm speaking on behalf of a huge majority of your customers.

Though maybe this discussion is too long-winded. Thus, I'll reference your famous "Piracy & PC Gaming" post again.

The reason why we don't put CD copy protection on our games isn't because we're nice guys. We do it because the people who actually buy games don't like to mess with it. Our customers make the rules, not the pirates. Pirates don't count. We know our customers could pirate our games if they want but choose to support our efforts. So we return the favor - we make the games they want and deliver them how they want it. This is also known as operating like every other industry outside the PC game industry.


Considering that we are your customers, and you said that you will "make the games (we) want and deliver them how (we) want it," it makes sense that you'd patch the games how we want them too. Thus, please continue releasing stand-alone patches to your games from now on. You can release on Impulse too, but not exclusively. Not if you want to be honest to your money-spending customers and give them what they paid for, no schemes attached.

Wikipedia Article on Customer "Lock-In"

Filefront SoaSe Patch Download List

Google Search of Other Sites with SoaSe Patch downloads

Piracy & PC Gaming Article
Reply #119 from Sins Forums Top
Venym, no one needs a lesson in business 101.  There is nothing shameful in making money doing what you love. Please quit raining on our parade. We are very excited to release this patch for our community. We didn't have to release this much free content this late after release. I am sorry you aren't excited as most of us are, but please don't ruin it for everyone else.
Reply #120 from Sins Forums Top
I for one am looking forward to "18 completely redone and touched up meshes", that is an unexpected and most welcome bonus beyond anything expected from a patch update.

... and if just one of them has a turret I'll eat my shorts and post the YouTube link :d (stakes are high now).

Reply #121 from Sins Forums Top
There is nothing shameful in making money doing what you love.


Of course not.

We didn't have to release this much free content this late after release.


True, you didn't, but if you didn't nobody would buy your games anymore. So making the assumption that Ironclad wants to exist beyond SoaSe, you DO have to patch it. After all, patching is a very important selling point. This is evidenced by the many patches in Starcraft, Warcraft 3, Team Fortress 2, etc. after their releases.

Even more specifically:
1) Starcraft: Brood War was released in November 30, 1998; they released a significant patch in January 2008, which is approximately 9 years later. Simultaneously, Starcraft is still a wildly popular and successful game.
2) Team Fortress 2 is releasing large patches on a regular basis (periodically adding lots of new content and new promotional videos), which is sharply boosting its sales.

I am sorry you aren't excited as most of us are, but please don't ruin it for everyone else.


Maybe I didn't make it clear earlier when I said

Don't get me wrong--I think the 1.1 patch is large, extensive, and an excellent upgrade.


but I am very excited about this patch. It is probably one of the most impressive patches I have ever seen in any game. I think all of us here are very thankful that you spent this much effort on creating a patch of this magnitude. In other words, the patch itself isn't the issue.

I'm talking about the fact that you're forcing customers to switch over to Impulse (a customer "lock-in" tool) or lose access to support/patches that they've already paid for.

I am sorry you aren't excited as most of us are ...


I don't think most of your customers (most of which don't post on this forum) are excited about being forced to either switch over to Impulse (a customer "lock-in" tool) or lose access to support/patches they've already paid for. In other words, sane customers generally don't get excited when they're being scammed.

I apologize for being repetitive, but I hope the point gets across.
Reply #122 from Sins Forums Top
I've installed Impulse, I didn't particularly want to and didn't feel I wanted the tool but it's a very small price to pay for the best post release support I've seen outside of paying a monthly fee.
It was my choice to install it and it's not a big ask either. Don't like it? Then for gods sake stop boring the rest of us with the tin foil hat ranting.
Reply #123 from Sins Forums Top
Nice updates! So uh, when can we expect an expansion?  :D 
Reply #124 from Sins Forums Top
Hi Venym,

I see where you're coming from, and I can relate and agree with many of your issues. However, at this time, when digital distribution is starting to change the face of the industry, I think it might be time to accept that when you purchase a product from a publisher you are also purchasing that that publishers Digital Distribution platform with all it's pros and cons.

I'm myself am still not entirely comfortable with the idea of being required to install a Digital distribution platform alongside the game, but in the end this is balanced by the fact that I think Digital Distribution is good for gaming. It makes it easier for smaller developers to get their content out there, easier for me to connect to interesting content, and reduces the cost of the entire enterprise.

Both the examples you cite above use their own proprietary digital distribution systems to deliver patches. Blizzard uses Battle.net. I believe SC patches are available as separate downloads (at least they used to be), but their primary delivery method is through battle.net and I wouldn't be surprised if the separate downloads suddenly disappeared.

WoW delivers all post-release content through a proprietary method. You have to install the game and connect to official Blizzard servers to access any of it. There's no way to get the content through non-proprietary means (as a standard download).


TF2 uses Steam. Steam is the grandaddy of Digital Distribution Platforms, and also incredibly restrictive, and very poorly functional. Any argument leveled here also gets leveled at TF2, Half-Life, Valve, and everybody involved in Steam. And its true, I have played a lot less TF2 than I normally would simply because Steam rubs me the wrong way.


However, if we can agree that digital distribution is a good thing, then when we make a game purchase from a company we also need to accept that company's proprietary digital distribution platform. Asking for less proprietary more interconnected digital distribution methods seems entirely reasonable, but it's a lofty goal for such a young technology.


So we're left with comparing the platform Stardock makes us use with the platforms that almost any other company will make you use. And at first glance Impulse seems less invasive, more usable, more open to third party content, better integrated into Windows, better integrated into its supported products, supports more and a winder variety of products, and is in just about every other way superior to any other platform out there. Most of all, it's very developer friendly (or so they claim), which will do nothing but improve life for us gamers.


So you can resist digital distribution in general, which I think is valid, fair, and entirely reasonable. However, if you can see that digital distribution is good for gamers, then you should also be able to that Impulse is light years superior to any other platform in use right now, and is thus in now way deserving of the acid tongue treatment you've given it here.

That's all for now.


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Reply #125 from Sins Forums Top

Also, about the patch... any word on the issue with rt. clicking a stack in the empire tree and only cuing up attack orders for the unit on top of the stack rather than the entire stack. A while ago, it was mentioned that this SHOULD work, but I can tell you for sure that it doesn't it. I was a little surprised to see it missing from the 1.1 list. Any insight into what's going on here would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.