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

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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

1,474,095 views 447 replies
Reply #251 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting dedjal, reply 250
....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.
No. The balance sucked cuz they sucked at balancing. Get the Shockwave mod for it. Whole lot better.

Also, they've said nothing at all about high specialization like that in Reballion. Also, it's been said time and time again that things like multi-core support and AI scripting are completely unfeasible for Sins.

 

:fox:

Reply #252 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Maxxedmk, reply 216
I have a few questions about the new expansion.

1. Is it possible to start as a TEC Corp/race  and then become an offshoot as rebels or merge into the Alliance of TEC?

2. Will exploration get changed, as in no phase lanes, but you can only jump a certain distance before your engines or reserves need to refill. Instead of new phase lanes being shown after your ship exits phase space, you must colonize, or scout the planet/get intel of new coordinates for more planets.

3. Will planets, stars, ships finally be scaled properly to actually have it look realistic?

4. If phase lanes are removed is it possible to be able to exit phase space anywhere, or at certain distances, and build starbases there that act like a gravity well of its own.

5. Will planets get more options to interact with them better? Send troops to sabotage enemy planets, mining from planet, ships can land on them and hide them from enemies (or get repaired on the surface).

 

I'm going to say #1 is a yes, but I guess it depends on if I'm reading your question right. 2-5 are all no.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #253 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Pbhead, reply 222
*eye roll*

It will include EVERYTHING.

people without rebellion will prolly not be able to play with rebellion people... considering the whole multiplayer system is being redun.

As Pbhead states, Rebellion will include all the previous content too. ;)

Reply #254 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Yarlen, reply 252
I'm going to say #1 is a yes
Betting question was misunderstood. :-"

 

:fox:

+1 Loading…
Reply #255 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Kitkun, reply 254

Quoting Yarlen, reply 252I'm going to say #1 is a yesBetting question was misunderstood.
 

Yeah that is pretty likely

Reply #256 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting DirtySanchezz, reply 244

 Will a hackneed story and cheesey cutscenes really add that much to the Sins experience?

this is just petty, there hasn't been any test of the devs plot writing abilities, so there's no reason to complain that it MIGHT be implemented, unless you hate the very notion of stories in non-rpg games on principle, in which case there's no point in discussing it

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.

a campaign provides a single player option, regardless of how brief, as a break from repetitive single player matches and the ego filled environment of multiplayer

Reply #257 from Sins Forums Top

OMG,OMG,OMG,OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!! OH YES!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!! YOU GUYS AT IRON CLAD AND STAR DOCK HAVE JUST GIVEN ME THE BEST NEWS ALL YEAR!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply #258 from Sins Forums Top

I believe what Maxxedmk meant by the first question is "Do you split off into one of the loyalists/rebels mid-game through certain choices? (perhaps research choices), or do you choose which one you're going to be at the start?"

I assume that's how Yarlen understood it as well.

Reply #259 from Sins Forums Top

You want story?  Read the DS lore thread from the beginning.  Play on the maps made for the lore.  Re-enact our one sided battles with a friend.  ;P

Reply #260 from Sins Forums Top

I dont understand where is the Story Problem with Factions.

I dont think that there are 3 big Races which are totaly united.

 

We are Humans and alot of Factions with different Goals and different Ways to think. So this is nothing new when u are an intelligent Lifeform.

 

And at the Balancing in Zero Hours - its not a Problem that they have Factions, its a Problem that they cant balance it, kudos to the Devs for this.

Reply #261 from Sins Forums Top

I do have one questions that's been in my head.

 

Will Gas Giants be colonizeable with like orbital platforms or the such?

If yes, couldn't the gas in the giant be considers as a resource (if there are plans to add a resource)?

Reply #262 from Sins Forums Top

I assume that's how Yarlen understood it as well.

Indeed, don't think there's a lot of room for interpretation tbh, but for clarity I would compare it to the "Revolution" ability in Age of Empires 3, though in Sins I would assume you wouldn't be as limited as you are in AoE3.

Reply #263 from Sins Forums Top

Essentially at the start of Rebellion, you'll be presented with the original, loyalist and rebellion tech trees. From there you have a choice:  You can not pick a side (and miss out on a lot of the new techs/ships/pew pew) or you can choose to be a loyalist/rebel (by researching something in one of their tech trees). Once you start researching something in the loyalist/rebel tree, your choice is made for the rest of the game, which will have various repercussions.

Reply #264 from Sins Forums Top

Yarlen, will there be any sorts of advantages to NOT choosing a path (other than having the option to choose later on)?  Are you guys thinking that it's a choice players would (and should) want to make at the very start of the game or later on in the game?  If it's something you'd want to do ASAP then it's having to choose between 1 of 6 races.  If not then it becomes much more interesting since your choice of race pre-game completely prevents you from ever picking any of the other 4 races and players will then need to make a strategic choice based on game conditions.

Are you guys thinking of dividing each race's two factions on economic/military grounds?  One faction would have a better economy while the other would have a better military?

Reply #265 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting DirtySanchezz, reply 264
Are you guys thinking of dividing each race's two factions on economic/military grounds?  One faction would have a better economy while the other would have a better military?
It better be more complex than that.

 

:fox:

Reply #266 from Sins Forums Top

Awesome so we get a larger tech tree to mod. Yay! (well hopefully more pages to mess around with if not more lvls.)

 

Also will you expand the interface just a tad? Like more buttons for planets so we can mod in more ship? Like a 3x5 instead of the current 2x5? (abilites/command button area) It would help out all the modders if we could play with that. Perticurally for planets.

Reply #267 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting DirtySanchezz, reply 264
If not then it becomes much more interesting since your choice of race pre-game completely prevents you from ever picking any of the other 4 races and players will then need to make a strategic choice based on game conditions.

This is what it sounds like. You start with the regular factions, but once you decide to research somethink restricted to Loyalists/Rebels, you can't do anything with the other. Sounds a bit like Governements from Rise of Nations, though I hope the choices won't be announced until your new super Kodiaks start tearing the enemy apart. :P

Quoting NovaCameron, reply 266
Awesome so we get a larger tech tree to mod. Yay! (well hopefully more pages to mess around with if not more lvls.)

Not just a larger tech tree. This should finally make it possible to do exclusive techs (I.e. if you research tech A you can't get tech B ). Dawn of Victory managed to do this with a lot of work I hear, but now the AI should be able to handle this feature and it will be easier for the rest of us to implement. Plus any new bonuses they decide to add will be avaliable as well.

Reply #268 from Sins Forums Top

When I had Sins of a Solar Empire I said it was a good game.

-_-

When I got the two expansions I said it was one of my favorite games.

^_^

Now I say it is the BEST GAME!

:grin:

Reply #269 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Yarlen, reply 263
Essentially at the start of Rebellion, you'll be presented with the original, loyalist and rebellion tech trees. From there you have a choice:  You can not pick a side (and miss out on a lot of the new techs/ships/pew pew) or you can choose to be a loyalist/rebel (by researching something in one of their tech trees). Once you start researching something in the loyalist/rebel tree, your choice is made for the rest of the game, which will have various repercussions.

So would that, by my count, bring the total factions up to nine? The 3 originals + 2 variations of each etc.

Reply #270 from Sins Forums Top

This is the best news ever!  WoOoOooO!  I can't wait...  *drool*

Reply #271 from Sins Forums Top

I know one of the things we're really looking to add are scenarios.  While fun in SP, they could really enhance MP.  For example, you could have a scenario where the first player to own three particular colonies wins the scenario.  There's a lot of different interesting winning conditions that could be made for people who want shorter games or even more epic games (depending on the scenario).

Reply #272 from Sins Forums Top

^^^


:drool:

Reply #273 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Polistes, reply 214

Quoting DarkSide73, reply 201SINS DONT NEED A CAMPAIGN - I HAVE THE SAME CAMPAIGN SCENARIO EVERYTIME I PLAY.

THE DEFILERS (ALL OTHER RACES) HAVE LAID CLAIM TO WORLDS THAT SHOULD RIGHTFULLY UNDER MY GRIP.  ITS MY JOB AS RULER OF THE COMBINED FORCES OF THE DARKSIDE TO  SUBJEGATE THESE UPSTARTS BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY AND CLAIM THE UNIVERSE AS MY OWN.

 

Seriously - that is the only mission I need.  Nothing beats watching the map slowly become my color and hearing the cries of my enemies as they re crushed beneath the heals of  my forces.

 

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.

 

IMO, a more flexable option would be to include or have directly on the side at the time of launch a sort of GalaxyForge, but include neutrals that can be captured/given instantly and AI that follows specific guidelines (no build, attack X planet at Y time with only Z ships) so users can create their own scenerios or download ones that others have created for story or challenge purposes. It would add depth and challenge those who want to sharpen skills or gather more user information about the Sins universe.

Reply #274 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 271
I know one of the things we're really looking to add are scenarios.  While fun in SP, they could really enhance MP.  For example, you could have a scenario where the first player to own three particular colonies wins the scenario.  There's a lot of different interesting winning conditions that could be made for people who want shorter games or even more epic games (depending on the scenario).

This sounds like a great idea--adding more game types.  Any chance for a "Capital Ships only" mod similar to the one Annatar made?

Reply #275 from Sins Forums Top

I have an idea for a scenario type modeled after one of the games in Unreal Tournament.  Domination.  There is a planet with (say) 500 max hit points equidistant between all the other players in the map.  The goal of the game is to maintain ownership of the planet longer than anyone else (or any other team).  The game host could set the length of the game (stop after 30 minutes and add up the points) or it could be set to stop when a player or team reaches a set number of points.  Let 1 point be generated for every 15 seconds of ownership, say.  Maybe the host could also choose the amount of hit points on the target planets.  This could be expanded to maps where two or three planets need to be dominated, etc.

A Domination game type might be wild and crazy fun or it could be a gasser.  Only way is to try it.  I suspect that it would be wild-and-crazy fun.