Island Dog Island Dog

Rebellion is Upon Us: The Next Chapter of Sins of a Solar Empire Unveiled at GDC 2011

▼

Rebellion is Upon Us: The Next Chapter of Sins of a Solar Empire Unveiled at GDC 2011

from JoeUser Forums

The time of Diplomacy is over. The length of the war and differing opinions on what should be done to bring the war to an end has led to a splintering of the groups involved. The controlling powers-that-be have depleted arsenals and seemed to have exhausted all efforts of diplomacy. Trapped in a stalemate, sub-factions have rebelled and broken off the main alignments. Rebellion is upon us.

The exciting next chapter in the awesome Sins of a Solar Empire universe has arrived. A full-fledged expansion to the original, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion draws you even deeper into the galactic struggle for supremacy with appealing new factions, terrifyingly cool new ships of all sizes, enhanced lighting and particle effects for increased visual pleasure and all-new victory conditions.

“Rebellion is the first stand-alone expansion to the Sins of a Solar Empire universe,” said Brian Clair, director of publishing for Stardock. “Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion will add many new ships, refresh the visuals and integrate Impulse::Reactor features to support achievements, multiplayer leagues and much more.”

In the original award-winning Sins of a Solar Empire, developed by Ironclad Games, you are the leader of one of three civilizations embroiled in a galactic war, fighting for survival of your entire race against relentless foes. Your success will depend on your ability to manage your empire and command your vast fleets of starships to victory. Players will colonize new worlds, develop extensive trade networks, conduct research, fortify their empires with powerful starbases and fleets of ships, plus control the galaxy using the unique diplomacy system that reacts dynamically to the players’ actions.

New features of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion include:

  • New Factions: Players decide whether to become Loyalists or Rebels, which unlocks a unique new tech tree granting them new technologies and ship variants.
  • New Titan-class ships:  Massive warships for each race that dwarf capital ships, these deadly new monsters are capable of wiping out entire enemy fleets single-handedly.
  • New Capital Ships:  A new capital ship class arrives, giving players new strategic options.
  • New Corvette-class ships:  Small, highly maneuverable light ships that are adept at a variety of tasks.
  • Loyalist and Rebel versions of some of the existing Sins’ frigates and cruisers, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses.
  • Updated lighting and particle effects for enhanced visuals.
  • New Victory Conditions to allow for more variety, differing strategies and shorter game sessions.
  • Additional capital ship ability levels, for greater strategic choice.
  • Impulse::Reactor support for chat, friends, achievements and more.

For more information please visit: https://www.sinsofasolarempire.com

logo_Sins_Rebellion

1,474,160 views 447 replies
Reply #226 from Sins Forums Top

At some point people are just going to have to bite the bullet and accept that boxes are going away.

Indeed, PC gaming's time honoured advantages of higher performance and greater customisability just aren't enough anymore in this climate of "good enough" consoles available for a fraction of the price and with less knowledge of the hardware required to use. Plus, PC games come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and we all know how hard IC have bent over backwards to make Sins as compatible as possible, but other studios just plain don't do that half the time. With consoles you can almost always guarantee a good performing game because the studio only has to optimise for a single system.

The fact the PC gaming has a firmly entrenched Downloadable Market is really now its only edge in the mass market, and even that is fast receeding, I for one am a frequent user of downloadable only games, if I really want them on a physical disc, I'll burn it for posterity. I do miss the weight of the box in my hands (I died with glee when the metal cast case of Galactic Civilizations II arrived through the post all those years ago) but it's just something we must accept as a relic of a bygone age.

Quoting ZombiesRus5, reply 223

Hmm, maybe just semantics here... But, the way I've read and assumed this would mean it will NOT contain Entrenchment and Diplomacy (i.e. the separate executables). My assumption is Rebellion will be built on the Diplomacy game engine and will extend and reuse the existing assets but you won't get the two previous expansions as playable exe's with Rebellion.

Yes, it's a rule of thumb that you can't disable previous content with standalone expansions, so by that measure Rebellion would be "all or nothing" (that is, Sins Trinity, not Vanilla Sins, plus the Rebellion content) however IC may include the option to disable a particular content pack, much like you can do in Trinity, but that's their choice.

Reply #227 from Sins Forums Top

Indeed, PC gaming's time honoured advantages of higher performance and greater customisability just aren't enough anymore in this climate of "good enough" consoles available for a fraction of the price and with less knowledge of the hardware required to use. Plus, PC games come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and we all know how hard IC have bent over backwards to make Sins as compatible as possible, but other studios just plain don't do that half the time. With consoles you can almost always guarantee a good performing game because the studio only has to optimise for a single system.

The fact the PC gaming has a firmly entrenched Downloadable Market is really now its only edge in the mass market, and even that is fast receeding, I for one am a frequent user of downloadable only games, if I really want them on a physical disc, I'll burn it for posterity. I do miss the weight of the box in my hands (I died with glee when the metal cast case of Galactic Civilizations II arrived through the post all those years ago) but it's just something we must accept as a relic of a bygone age.

Yes, it's a rule of thumb that you can't disable previous content with standalone expansions, so by that measure Rebellion would be "all or nothing" (that is, Sins Trinity, not Vanilla Sins, plus the Rebellion content) however IC may include the option to disable a particular content pack, much like you can do in Trinity, but that's their choice.[/quote]

WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #228 from Sins Forums Top

Eek, weird forum error, if the mods could tidy it up?

Reply #230 from Sins Forums Top

Question, say we end up in Beta or even when the game goes live, will it invalidate the original Trinity install since it is a full exansion that doesn't (apparently) require the original game to be installed?

Reply #231 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Yarlen, reply 206

I don't want to say just yet. I'll tell you binary stars is not happening, though.

 

Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be awesome. Looking forward to it!

Reply #232 from Sins Forums Top

You know what would make exploration fun... Space Monsters!

A man can dream, can't he?

Reply #233 from Sins Forums Top

Space Monsters wich are Big as Planets?

A bit too much i think. And Monsters need to Breath something too.

Reply #234 from Sins Forums Top

 ugg... You know I am very happy that the Captain Adama refused to do any space monster episodes.  Made the new BSG watchable.

space monsters... :thumbsdown:

 

Reply #235 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Yarlen, reply 102

The question is , will there be MOONs
Happy belated b-day, kosc!

 

Thanks Yarlen!

 

Oh and Anny,  how unfortunate to see you!  }:)

Reply #236 from Sins Forums Top

What would you all do if the Vasari were running from a giant space monster?  :grin:

 

Either the Vasari are running from some sort of nano-based tech creation similar to the Replicators from Star Gate, or perhaps something that can manipulate anti-matter as a weapon, or perhaps something which can simply decompose matter seemingly at will and aborb it... So many ideas are out there, who knows...

Reply #237 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting 1Tiberius1, reply 236
What would you all do if the Vasari were running from a giant space monster? 

 

Either the Vasari are running from some sort of nano-based tech creation similar to the Replicators from Star Gate, or perhaps something that can manipulate anti-matter as a weapon, or perhaps something which can simply decompose matter seemingly at will and aborb it... So many ideas are out there, who knows...

Two true. What would we do?

Reply #238 from Sins Forums Top

I just hope they have more threading in the game.  With the fixes for ram, the main bottleneck on large maps is the CPU.  It's kind of sad watching one core running at 100% and the other 3 at 3%.  :-(

Reply #239 from Sins Forums Top

Or watching both sit at 50% at a steady rate.

Reply #240 from Sins Forums Top

I am hoping that perhaps we can have a few more resources than just Metal and Crystal..... even just a third would be enhancing.

Spies would also be something that "should" be in the game but are not.... I wish we could steal technology or some other info/resource with perhaps an "assassinate leader" option....

Another interesting idea is a reasearch lockout... where choosing one path eliminate certain other paths up research... IE: The Advent's "belief system" restrains its other "technical" branches (or slows them down) while choosing a tech path restricts the psionic benefits of the faith system...etc....perhaps preventing you getting the super weapon or some such....   you could even balance the two "sides" so that you get most of both but not quite all... of course closing something off might also open something else as well....

 

anyways...  I am excited!

Reply #241 from Sins Forums Top

The research idea may be what they are going for. If you go along the Loyalist path (for Advent the "belief sytem") you get one set of options. Go the Rebel path ("technical") then you get another set.


New Factions: Players decide whether to become Loyalists or Rebels, which unlocks a unique new tech tree granting them new technologies and ship variants.

Loyalist and Rebel versions of some of the existing Sins’ frigates and cruisers, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses.


Reply #242 from Sins Forums Top

Is it just me or does that screen shot look like it came right out of Homeworld? If thats the new ship design then this is going to be even better then before

Reply #243 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Mighty, reply 227
The fact the PC gaming has a firmly entrenched Downloadable Market is really now its only edge in the mass market, and even that is fast receeding, I for one am a frequent user of downloadable only games, if I really want them on a physical disc, I'll burn it for posterity.

PC gaming still thumps consoles in the areas of online multiplayer and custom content.  Also, consoles aren't very amenable to RTS games.

Reply #244 from Sins Forums Top

I am glad that works for you... That does not work for me, or at the very least gets old very quick. I like to know whats going on and why. I like STORIES. The biggest flaw for the sins series in my opinion has been the lack of a campaign storyline.

If you want a story, why not read a book, watch a good movie, or play an RPG?  Will a hackneed story and cheesey cutscenes really add that much to the Sins experience?

That having been said, I am in favor of having a campaign and a moddable campaign editor since so many people have clamored for it.  However, I don't understand exactly what they are hoping to get out of it.  I guess I could see the value of having an enhanced and extended tutorial.

Reply #245 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting serventa, reply 242
Is it just me or does that screen shot look like it came right out of Homeworld? If thats the new ship design then this is going to be even better then before

 

Sins is inspired in part by Homeworld.  The Advent in particular share part of their lore with Homeworld, along with ship designs.  The Manifest Dominion artifact is described in Homeworld terms as well.

 

Babylon 5 is another inspiration, which comes through with the TEC faction.  This is because the Kol battleship capital is modeled after the human fleet in Babylon 5.  Some of the other caps are modeled after other real world ships and whatnot.  Sova carriers are aircraft carriers.  Akkan colonizers are cruise ships.  The Dunov is a train, possibly Soviet.  The Marza... is well, the Marza.

 

That leaves the Vasari, whose ships look kind of organic.  It could be a Babylon 5 thing again, as a number of the prominent intermediary races used bio-organic ships.  Leaving the younger races to use metal and whatnot. 

Reply #246 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah very ture there, the ship design in the past was nothing like homeworld, homeworld had a very distinct look to it, almost geometric like, while Sins seemed more modled off sci-fi series and games.

 

A marriage of the two desings would be perfect.

Reply #247 from Sins Forums Top

This new stand alone expansion just sounds like an rip-off from Command and Conquer Zero Hours. I hope that Ironclad isn't planning on presenting the same.
Diplomacy was a disappointment, no multi threading is disappointing, still bugs that needs to be fixed in Entrenchment and Diplomacy!

I will be voting with my wallet. And my wallet says no.
It might say yes if they do not copycat C&C Zero Hours and/or get support for multi cores or open up so that we can mod our own AI.

Reply #248 from Sins Forums Top

What should they copy from Zero Hours?!

I dont get it, is C&C now an Space RTS and 4X?

Reply #249 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting dedjal, reply 247
This new stand alone expansion just sounds like an rip-off from Command and Conquer Zero Hours. I hope that Ironclad isn't planning on presenting the same.
Diplomacy was a disappointment, no multi threading is disappointing, still bugs that needs to be fixed in Entrenchment and Diplomacy!

I will be voting with my wallet. And my wallet says no.
It might say yes if they do not copycat C&C Zero Hours and/or get support for multi cores or open up so that we can mod our own AI.

yes we are going to have tanks and marines running around the map

also look out for terrorists, demo dump trucks, rocket buggies and humvees

lol this one made me laugh :P

Quoting PeterPiker, reply 240
I am hoping that perhaps we can have a few more resources than just Metal and Crystal..... even just a third would be enhancing.

Spies would also be something that "should" be in the game but are not.... I wish we could steal technology or some other info/resource with perhaps an "assassinate leader" option....

there are already 4 resources (metal, crystal, credits and fleet supply)

and there are more than one way to collect 3 of them

anybody play the command and conquer there were 2 resources

total annihilation and supcom -- 2

starcraft -- 3 (crystal, gas, and supply) --you could argue a 4th for zerg (larvae)--

Reply #250 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting IHaTeD2, reply 248
What should they copy from Zero Hours?!

I dont get it, is C&C now an Space RTS and 4X?



....Uhm... No. Faction, Zero Hour had factions. Remember what was positive and negative with the factions in Zero Hour?
Do you remember that they were unbalanced, as in heavily focused on one thing, seriously lacking in another?
Some may call that balanced, and I agree. But did I pick China infantery faction? No. Did I go with the American faction that focused on their superweapon? No.

Why not?
Because that meant that the enemy knew what my focus was and thus counter, and that I lacked counter to his counter. Better to be jack of all trades.

Anyhow. that is why I say that I hope that they won't make it the same way.