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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

1,474,067 views 447 replies
Reply #126 from Sins Forums Top

without now reading all comments:

wow! this sounds very interesting. and it is a big surprise for me, I did not see it coming at all.

some content questions:

will factions be dynamic? that is, do you have to fear parts of your empire breaking off? or is it more factions to pick from, e.g. like the factions in red alert 2 or to a degree in C&C generals?

if titan ships are so powerful, will you make changes to starbases? so far, they were able to hold off decent fleets and gave the game a defense charakter in places. I thought it was not so bad to be able to fortify a front and not worry about it too much for a time being.

will corvettes be smaller or bigger than frigates?

 

now, one comment on general gameplay: my observation was that with diplomacy this became a really complex game to play. there is so much going on and all at the same time that I have trouble processing this information, even on slower game speed. I know, I asked myself for this additional complexity, but I find myself constantly neglecting e.g. diplomacy because I have not enough time for all things. I could use pause more often and adjust gamestyle, but maybe it is something where thought can be put it. currently, it is to some degree combat almost like starcraft with a lot of 4x on top.

I will write more eventually, but I am really tired now.

 

Reply #127 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Mighty, reply 125

Oooh, this honestly keeps on getting better. Any ballpark idea about the System Requirements yet? Same as Sins or slightly higher?

Don't know yet, but if you can run Trinity/Diplomacy, you should be able to run Rebellion.

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #128 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Yarlen, reply 127

Quoting Mighty Mongoose, reply 125
Oooh, this honestly keeps on getting better. Any ballpark idea about the System Requirements yet? Same as Sins or slightly higher?

Don't know yet, but if you can run Trinity/Diplomacy, you should be able to run Rebellion.

Cool cool, that's basically what I thought anyway.

Reply #129 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting DirtySanchezz, reply 120



Quoting Derek06,
reply 115
Could there be a smurf-free online with this ??????????????


Let's suppose they create a "smurf-free" online and then it devolves into high school where some players start getting harrassed by other players?  What if you don't want to hear smack talk about how you cost your team the game that you guys played last week and how badly you suck?  What if you get constantly teased online for some reason?  What if someone is harrassing you?  What if you do something to make a fool out of yourself and you want to start over with a completely new identity?  What if you started the game with a record of 12-88 in your first 100 games but now you feel you're a much better player and want to wipe the slate clean and start over since you feel that your losses in your first 80 games don't reflect your current abilities?

The flipside is that instead of 1 or 2 players being ostracized for one reason or another(generally being jackasses is the most likely cause) you let the smurfs harrass everyone else and hide behind their anonymity.  You know how many times I have had attempts to insult me tossed by random smurfs?  I have been called "gayfox" hundreds of times at least not to mention the puerile attempts at insulting me in many other ways.  All of this from smurfs that have no accountability whatsoever from the community because who knows who they even are.  Smurfing does not give me the choice not to play with someone I know to harrass people or drag out game or generally being a douche.  Personally their insults don't bother me because I am happy with my life and their feeble attempts at insults belong in junior high rather than something that will actually hurt me.  As long as there are ways to manipulate stats then there will be little true benefit to counting total games.  Certainly it will show you the truly green as grass players but past that who knows.  Fixing smurfing one way or another would certainly be a step up for online though.

 

[_]-Greyfox

 

Reply #130 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Yarlen, reply 124
No plans for moons. I was just wishing Kosc a happy bday.

Pre-order options will be available tomorrow morning (if not sooner).  We're just getting the discount stuff in place for existing Trinity/Diplomacy folks.

*has heart attack* NOOOOOOOO! Why has Ironclad forsaken that hope of mine?!

*collapses on the floor, twitching slightly*

Reply #131 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting harpo99999, reply 96
please at least enable the LAA switch when compilling please, (this is for the 64bit windows users so that they can have their larger ram space in use), in my experience it does NOT effect 32 bit windows unless they have done the steps to allow the 3gb ram space for ONE program(2gb data 1gb program,1gb windows & i/o),normal windows( 2gb for program and data 2gb windows & i/o).

harpo

 


please tell me that this has been implemented...

Would be great to see. 

Reply #132 from Sins Forums Top

Yarlen- Great because IM READY TO PREORDER! :thumbsup:

Reply #133 from Sins Forums Top

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

Gotta Have It!

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.

Love It!, I'm treating the text as flavor only as similar things are stated about Capital ships in the game manual. My guess is they'll be a little sturdier with multiple targets per bank while capitals are currently limited to the 1 target per bank. The cool thing will be if the AI is able to build and use them which will help mods that have been trying to go this direction.

New Capital Ships: A new capital ship class arrives, giving players new strategic options.

Gotta Have It! How can you not like this. Maybe the vaunted Destroyer class...

# 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.

Love It! Though, I'm not really sure what this means yet. Will Corvette class ships be anti Long Range Frigates? Will scout's be retired as combat units?

Updated lighting and particle effects for enhanced visuals.

Like It! I'm not a big fan of some of the graphic mods, but a little more eye candy can't hurt.

New Victory Conditions to allow for more variety, differing strategies and shorter game sessions.

Like It! The diplomatic victory condition was meh! If the new conditions are centered more around PvP play and ending games when they "should" end then I'm all for it.

Additional capital ship ability levels, for greater strategic choice.

Gotta Have It! I want this to mean "options" when leveling like Starbases have. CapitalShips of the same class and race could play differently as they reach higher levels as differently ability choices are made. Plus the modding ramifications are juicy.

Impulse::Reactor support for chat, friends, achievements and more.

Gotta Have It! ICO needs retired and the new era of Reactor needs to begin!

 

 

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Reply #134 from Sins Forums Top

maybe some of the corvettes will be anti-bomber?

I mean... bombers now counter starbases, structures, 6 capital ships, heavy cruisers, and (maybe?) titans...

bombers already need some de-loving... idk.

Reply #135 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Pbhead, reply 134
maybe some of the corvettes will be anti-bomber?

I mean... bombers now counter starbases, structures, 6 capital ships, heavy cruisers, and (maybe?) titans...

bombers already need some de-loving... idk.

True but if LRF's had a true counter (not the soft fighter counter) then LF could target AF thus allowing fighters to properly counter bombers maybe. What counters corvettes in either scenario?

Reply #136 from Sins Forums Top

shrug.

Heavy cruisers are supposed to be the counter to LRFs... but fighters are a preety decent counter to lrms... I mean, carriers filled with fighters will destroy an equal fleet supply of LRMS...

The big thing though... is the cool down vs movement with the fighters. 

 

Heres the thing: 

When you have a MASS of fighters... they all tend to target a single lrm.  When they make a pass, it pops... and they all have to turn around to try and take on a second lrm.  Some times they are smart... but most of the time a significant portion of the potential dps of the fighters is wasted do to movement.  This means that above the quantity of fighters required to 1hko a LRM, added extra fighter carrier adds very little firepower, unless you are microing them.

I think.

Reply #137 from Sins Forums Top

Bombers already have a counter in the form of Flak frigates. Regardless of how effective you think they are (opinion varies) they're there. I think Corvettes will most likely be some form of Monitor type ship, a small lightly armoured ship with disproportionately large guns.

Reply #138 from Sins Forums Top

Heavy cruisers are supposed to be the counter to LRFs... but fighters are a preety decent counter to lrms... I mean, carriers filled with fighters will destroy an equal fleet supply of LRMS...

It's hard to get there though with LRF/AF/Bomber builds especially as LRF are "good" against almost everything.

When you have a MASS of fighters... they all tend to target a single lrm. When they make a pass, it pops... and they all have to turn around to try and take on a second lrm. Some times they are smart... but most of the time a significant portion of the potential dps of the fighters is wasted do to movement. This means that above the quantity of fighters required to 1hko a LRM, added extra fighter carrier adds very little firepower, unless you are microing them.

Ya, I get it. It's still techically a soft counter for the following reasons. Fighters counter bombers and bombers are their primary target. Fighters require micro to engage LRF when Bombers are on the field. Any amount of flak negates most fighter hords making it nearly impossible to build LF in any meaningful amount making it extremely difficult to clear the flak.

It's rare to seem someone spam only LRF and not add any AF into the mix. Although when it happens they are screwed if you micro like that.

 

Reply #139 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Yarlen, reply 124
No plans for moons. I was just wishing Kosc a happy bday.

Pre-order options will be available tomorrow morning (if not sooner).  We're just getting the discount stuff in place for existing Trinity/Diplomacy folks.

Yay!!!  So there will be a discount for Diplomacy owners.

Will there be some sort of additional discount for pre-ordering?  Do you guys have any estimate on when the first Beta will be available?

Reply #140 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Yarlen, reply 127
Don't know yet, but if you can run Trinity/Diplomacy, you should be able to run Rebellion.

What if I only have 2 GB of RAM on my computer?  I hope you guys will put a lot of effort into reducing the CPU and RAM demands so that more people can get better performance, including on laptops.

Reply #141 from Sins Forums Top

you only have 2 gig?  please tell me your talking about a netbook or something...

Reply #142 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting DirtySanchezz, reply 140



Quoting Yarlen,
reply 127

Quoting Mighty Mongoose, reply 125
Oooh, this honestly keeps on getting better. Any ballpark idea about the System Requirements yet? Same as Sins or slightly higher?
Don't know yet, but if you can run Trinity/Diplomacy, you should be able to run Rebellion.


What if I only have 2 GB of RAM on my computer?

Well, RAM is really cheap right now... Just bought 4 more high speed DDR3 ram from microcenter for $80 bucks. Could have gotten a hair slower for 50-60 bucks. Given half the RAM is reserved for the OS (32 bit) it's worth having 4 gigs to free up more for gaming.

Reply #143 from Sins Forums Top

Webellion?  Execute them all, centuwion!

So what happened to whatever was chasing the Vasari?  Did it give up?  Maybe it got bored, if it's intended prey han't invented anything useful in over 10000 years apart from how to get more mileage out of Scramble Bombers.  I suppose if it involves a type of madness, rebellion could be a first sign?

More seriously though, this could be an opportunity to rewrite the Sins lore, which hasn't really done a great deal for the franchise so far.

What you need is an explanation for why three different cultures have set up a base in a star system or star cluster at roughly the same time, why they can't detect any of the other orbital bodies without sending a scout and why their technology is limited at the start.

So- the various rival empires have long known of an inaccessible cloud containing a star or stars, but their instruments could not determine anything more.  They suspect from some of their readings that it was once the home of an ancient dominant culture.  However they also discover that a temporary discontinuity in space-time (the dimensional cascades) will allow them to send a very limited exploration party to the system, equipped with the minimum necessary to begin a colony on a terrestrial planet revealed to them by means of its beacon- or warning.  The exploration party discover that their instruments will not penetrate the space cloud even from the inside, but they can detect phase lanes radiating away into the unknown.

How about that for a first sketch?  Not really in keeping with a Rebellion theme, but then neither are super-giant starships.. they seem more Late Imperial than Rebel to me?  At least it covers how the game is played out though?

Lastly, to all those who claimed that the Unity could never be broken when I raised the topic many moons ago- ha. 

Reply #144 from Sins Forums Top

I don't usually post, but when I do I like to post in epic threads with epic news.

Like this one.

Keep Sinning my friends.

Reply #145 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Yarlen, reply 124
No plans for moons. I was just wishing Kosc a happy bday.

Pre-order options will be available tomorrow morning (if not sooner).  We're just getting the discount stuff in place for existing Trinity/Diplomacy folks.

 

:drool:

 

I get paid tomorrow! Time to preorder this and Portal 2

Reply #146 from Sins Forums Top

Oh hey guys a new Sins expansion has been announced, time to make stupid suggestions and ridiculous requests for the next 10 pages.

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Reply #147 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Swiss, reply 146
Oh hey guys a new Sins expansion has been announced, time to make stupid suggestions and ridiculous requests for the next 10 pages.
Amen.

 

:fox:

Reply #148 from Sins Forums Top
I don't know if this has been asked but is Ironclad the developer? All post as far as I can see are from Stardock which is the publisher...they could farm out Sins to a outside developer.
Reply #149 from Sins Forums Top

This has just been nagging me all day, should I go out and get Trinity now? Or will this be like Dawn of War II: Retribution, where nothing is carrying over so there's no reason to get the first 2 games? 'Cause if all I get is a discount, then I'll just wait until it comes out, and enjoy the full experience of all 5 factions and all the ships.

Reply #150 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Swiss, reply 146
Oh hey guys a new Sins expansion has been announced, time to make stupid suggestions and ridiculous requests for the next 10 pages.

good plan.