short Sins of a Solar Empire questions

from Elemental Forums

Hello all,

I see a lot of talk about SoSE, but I have never played it, because, basically, I have never really liked RTSs much, basically because I'm slow. But I have heard that this game is a bit different and would like the opinion of those who have played it (whether you liked it or not).

In general, I have a lot of sympathy for Stardock products (although I belong to the "less than pleased with Elemental"-fraction so far, sorry), but IIUC, SD was merely the published, not the developer? Maybe I got that wrong and you can clue me in, sorry.

I really enjoy TBSs because I like to think, to take my time, to get up and have a coffee, and if one of my kids needs my attention, to go and help him. I found that kind of difficult with the RTSs I have played so far. Another reason why I like TBSs more is that I have found that in general, their AI is better, because (it appears to me) most RTSs I have seen so far have been geared more towards MP than SP.

So... what I am looking for is a good game that is not a click-fest AND that has good AI. From what I gather from reading things here and there, SoSE is not a click-fest, and in general, you do not need incredible reflexes to play. But if I am wrong, please clue me in.

Basically, I want to know this:

1. Good AI?

2. Can you easily change the speed of things in Single Player mode? (I mean, slow things down for an old man like me, speed them up in the boring parts)? Pausing ok?

3. Is thinking good strategic stuff more important than being fast?

4. Anything else you may add is welcome.

Thank you in advance.

18,708 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

1.Only in diplomacy

2. you can speed up, the game doesn't really go fast, except in the beginning, where you start building all of your stuff

3. Both, in the beginning of the game, you might want to be fast and get your economy and research and building up your military quickly but later in game, you should be more strategic.

4. Get the mods for the game, they bring the game to a whole new level

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

1. Good AI?
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It's *pretty* good. Like any AI in any game, eventually you will find a pattern in how it behaves and will be able to exploit it, but for an RTS the AI is, I would say, pretty great. It actually was made easier in some cases due to player requests. Originally, for example, the AI was a lot more careful with its fleets. It would rarely attack a superior force head on, and would wait and attack poorly defended planets instead. But players didn't like that they couldn't get big epic fights because the AI would just retreat if it knew it was going to lose (even though players would do the same thing), so now the AI tends to throw away its ships a bit more often.

Because it is real-time AI, though, don't expect it to be up to 4x standards. In 4x, all the number crunching by AI can be done during the player's turn, which gives it a huge amount of time to figure out the next move. In an RTS like Sins, the AI has to continually analyze the situation, which cuts down a bit on the complexity of its logic.

2. Can you easily change the speed of things in Single Player mode? (I mean, slow things down for an old man like me, speed them up in the boring parts)? Pausing ok?
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Pretty much everything has its own speed setting. There's an overall speed setting, there's research speed, culture speed, so on so forth. You can tweak them independently and come up with a scheme that works well for you. In Single Player, there's also a "speed up time" option (x2, x4, x8). Pausing is perfectly fine, and you can queue up/issue orders while the game is paused.

3. Is thinking good strategic stuff more important than being fast?
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Yes. Capital ships and support ships have various abilities, but in the majority of cases you only need to worry about capital ship abilities. Fights in Sins can last a very long time (think 5-10 minutes for big/huge sized fleets), so you get plenty of opportunity to use important abilities without being rushed. Being 5 seconds late on using one isn't going to make much of a difference.

4. Anything else you may add is welcome.
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Only that you should grab the Trinity pack. Don't bother with the base game if you somehow find it somewhere. The mini-expansions for Sins were very good, and worth every penny.

WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Thank you for these first two replies.
Just to clarify: I meant speed up or slow down the time of the game. If I understand you correctly, I can only speed it up, not slow it down? (I'm old and slow: I don't mind if things are in slow motion.)

Do I understand you correctly that there are no AI settings (that is, AI is only one level, you can't choose "hard" or something)?

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Just to clarify: I meant speed up or slow down the time of the game. If I understand you correctly, I can only speed it up, not slow it down? (I'm old and slow: I don't mind if things are in slow motion.)
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The slowest speed is.. pretty slow. You probably won't need to slow it down even more. But yes, you can only speed it up and back down to "normal", you can't slow it down below normal, but you can pause and issue orders which is arguably better.

Do I understand you correctly that there are no AI settings (that is, AI is only one level, you can't choose "hard" or something)?
End of quote

There are 2 AI settings: difficulty and playstyle. You can have a Hard Aggressive, Insane Turtler, Vicious Researcher, etc.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Thank you. I just had a look and oddly enough, cannot find it on Impulse, bizarrly enough.

EDIT sorry just not under strategy; had to sort by publisher to find it

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

1. The AI is decent, but it is significantly better in diplomacy.  It does have its flaws, and can be exploited, but so can any ai.  (the biggest flaw that the ai has is that if they are not TEC, they have a hard time taking out starbases.) 

2. there is a speed controller, the - and = (+) keys, allow speeds up to x8 regular speed.  there are also speed settings, between which change things like income, and ship speed which changes about a factor of 2. (fastest is almost 2x as fast as slow)... when ice27828 is talking about "fast", its because everyone on multiplayer plays on fastest....if you play on normal or slow, (which, is significantly more stratigic, because it takes much longer for your fleets to reach a position), I can often walk away and go get a snack and come back and everything will be ok. (try doing that in starcraft)  if you reload a game you can even change the ships speed and income settings. (cant change from epic to quick game speeds 1/2 way though a civ3/4 game)

3.  Stratigy is very important.  speed and micro helps, but most of the game is mid-level whatcounterswhat (fighters beat bombers, scouts, LRMS... lrms beat LFs, LFs beat utility...) and macro-level chess playing (economy, research, and fleet position.  once again, as speed settings decrease, the macro-level manuvering becomes more stratigic, but then again, you now have more time to micro.

4. The quantity of game hours I have gotten out of this game is rediculous.  i brought the game at the same time i brought spore.  played spore first, for about 2 weeks. rivals the worst $/time i have spent for a computer game.  I am getting close to finishing up my second year with sins... rivals the best $/time I have spent for a computer game. (civ 3 and sc3k are the other contenders)  currently trinity for 30$ where i have seen it... worth it... worth it so much.