Sins of a Solar Empire

[Yin Yang Chiken]

The offiicial forums are up and running, and a brand spanking new trailer to boot!!

Bawk!!

http://www.sinsofasolarempire.com/forums/

[Yin Yang Chiken]

Weird that this didn't show up in the Game Talk new threads....

[[DP]Ghent96]

This will be an awesome new game, PLUS the devs have been very responsive in talking with players about tons of insider info on the game. The trailer is awesome... voice acting... eh... not so much, but still overall an awesome trailer.

[Yin Yang Chiken]

Looks like it will be fun....

[PherdnutChiken]

Uh... It really does look cool guys. Any and all HW2 chikens should at least check out the trailer.

[CluckerChiken]

ITS RELEASED!! :C
*faints*

FFS how could i have missed this completly???
Gonna buy it tomorrow... and if its as good as HW1/2 ... then i'll finally be back with you guys side by side! :D
(if you like it or not!!! :))

P.S. .. cool ingame battle youtube vid -> http://youtube.com/watch?v=e2Pv7TtV8js

[Fearchiken]

Bought it and enjoying it thoroughly. The game is fantastic.

[SmuttyChiken]

Is this another pay-to-play?

[Fearchiken]

Is this another pay-to-play?


negative

[SmuttyChiken]

Awesome ... I will get it then ... it looks fairly impressive ... I have both the Homeworld games ... just never played them online ...

[SlackahChiken]

I will be taking off this weekend to get aquainted with the game!

[Fearchiken]

Its good you are setting yourself a long time frame to play this game, cause otherwise you might end up skipping work, classes, and on sleep like I have. Im on roughly 6 hours of sleep total since 2 days ago.

[SlackahChiken]

That trailer link is goof. Where is the new trailer? I can't find it!

[CluckerChiken]

try youtube... alot of links there

BTW, its not for sale yet here :(
So i'll just sit around pressing refresh

[SlackahChiken]

Couldn't wait, picked up the Collectors Edition on my way home tonight. I just spent 3 hours doing the tutorials and getting aquainted with the single player skirmishes. This is an extremely complex game. 4X Extrordinaire.


We need a Teamspeak channel set up right away please.


But I'm afraid this baby is going to burn up the sub space frequencies with all the chatter.

[Tarn]

Fear aint joking when he says to put some time aside. Took me a little less than 11 hours (not in one go) to finish a random medium map with three normal AI's.

Great game, except for when you run into a gaggle of supporting Iconian Guardians and have to deal with that fawking bubble shield they generate. When one does it it's annoying when twenty-three do it at once..... Seriously, it gets ridiculous.

[Rigid-Chiken]

Should be getting mine in the mail soon, pre-paid last year to try beta 2.
Bawk.

Rigid.

[CluckerChiken]

Ok, played it a few times now...

Mixed feelings about it.

Bad points:
1. its definatly NO Homeworld.

2. Its got NO single player campaign. its just single player skirmishes and online multiplayer games. So there is no storyline..... so whichever race you choose..you dont have a feeling of good or bad or why ur choosing that race.

3. graphics are ... simple. spaceships more or less look the same. i mean, most of the time you're playing zoomed out to far to see the detail on the ships. but when you soom in they are not that detailed.. its not really an upgrade from a game like HW2 in that department.

4. AI is simple. after 2 games i was able to predict what he would do...

5. Some ships are WAAAY imbalanced. some smaller ships are just as hard to kill as a huge battleship.

6. Though you can upgrade weapons and armor etc.. the look of the ships doesnt change.

7. Defense turrets are to weak. you can build 20 turrets and still lose your planet to 1 small ship.

8. The interface isnt all that slick. the rotating and zooming functions could use some tweaks. This game requires alot of micromanagement so those functions should work perfectly.

9. Ships dont have formations or tactics you can manipulate as users.
they just hover and shoot a bit... no tactics involved.
So just get a bigger fleet and you win.

10. It crashes alot with Vista..


Good points:
1. The upgrade system works good. not to fast, not to slow.

2. enough things to build/upgrade on and around planets. they are not just rocks in space.

3. 3 races instead of the 2 we had in HW

4. Multiplayer might be better then playing against AI...

5. .....

In short... i'll be waiting for the real HW3 to pop up... this one is going on the shelves again.

[Tarn]

I never thought of this game as being anything like Homeworld. It's more like a simplified GalCiv2 as an rts.

[Clepto Chiken]

Ugh disliked GalCiv 2, it was a dummy version of Galatic Imperium, which I liked that game.

[SlackahChiken]

Not a rebuttal CLuck, but...
Bad points:
1. its definatly NO Homeworld. Wasn't looking for HW3 in this game. A 4X -rts is a beast of it's own.

2. Its got NO single player campaign. its just single player skirmishes and online multiplayer games. So there is no storyline..... so whichever race you choose..you dont have a feeling of good or bad or why ur choosing that race. The manual has a brief story line for each race, and the website has more in depth background development.

3. graphics are ... simple. spaceships more or less look the same. i mean, most of the time you're playing zoomed out to far to see the detail on the ships. but when you zoom in they are not that detailed.. its not really an upgrade from a game like HW2 in that department. See #1. But all in all, to zoom in from the "cosmic" view all the way down to a small space probe, the graphics engine is still very dynamic.

4. AI is simple. after 2 games i was able to predict what he would do... I spent more than 2 hours each on a couple of botched attempts at "winging it" before I found out your infrastructure has to be balanced to succeed, let alone survive. On the one game I'm into now, I have 5 hours in and I finally got so pissed at the Pirates raids, that I quit upping the bounty on my enemies, and went after their home system and wiped them out. Only drawback is now, my enemies don't have them harassing them either. As far as the enemies go, they act like I would if I had scouts in their systems telling them when I was weak in a certain sector. Yeah, you can pretty much count on them attacking at your weak spots, but that's sort of the point in empire development.

5. Some ships are WAAAY imbalanced. some smaller ships are just as hard to kill as a huge battleship. I don't know about this statement. One of the features I really like about this game design, is your upgrades from research are dependent to the class of ship/hull/armament platform "path" you take. You may build up a fleet with many support "featured" ships in it that assist with hull points, shield restoration, interdiction, etc. The TEC Nano Robot Drones Cruisers are awesome once their full "advancement tree" has taken root. Two of the TEC Capitol ships excel at fleet support, while having a Repair Station positioned properly within the gravity well in orbit "autocasting" is a formidable method of sustaining your fleet while in battle. And again, the R&D path you take with your military and civilian infrastructure has quite a wide latitude of deployment dependencies. You could field a nerf-mobile frigate fleet, or you could launch an armada of Heavy Cruiser Class ships with support integrated vessels that would stand up to even a few capitol ships. I know in HW2 we get used to seeing superior firepower displayed instantly in terms of how fast you can rip through fleets, but this game has a much different dynamic. All in how you look at it I guess.

6. Though you can upgrade weapons and armor etc.. the look of the ships doesnt change. See #1. No, #5. But seriously, once you have certain defensive or offensive abilities enabled, you can see neat graphics exhibited by the ships as they demonstrate them. A big ass fleet battle is really kinda cool with all these going off.

7. Defense turrets are to weak. you can build 20 turrets and still lose your planet to 1 small ship. I shouldn't make such blanket statements about all races since I have only played primarily TEC, and only one skirmish with Vasari, but the military research trees for the stationary defensive platforms are much more robust once upgraded fully, but they are not intended to be stand alone elements. You can place them in coverage of mining or orbital structures, or in space lanes inside the gravity wells for anti-bombardment roles, or a little of both depending on the "geography" of your system. They will not hold off a bombardment by themselves, and only act as an insulating buffer to buy time, but I like to gravitate towards them with my fleets in order to bring any opposing ships within their range.

8. The interface isnt all that slick. the rotating and zooming functions could use some tweaks. This game requires alot of micromanagement so those functions should work perfectly. The auto-centering could definitely use some adjusting. If you hit space bar it takes you to the "cosmic" view of the selected event, ship, or planetary system, but you have to manually scroll to zoom. The rotation is very sensitive and can get out of hand real quick, but here is one thing I am spoiled about from how well it works in Homeworld.

9. Ships dont have formations or tactics you can manipulate as users. they just hover and shoot a bit... no tactics involved.
So just get a bigger fleet and you win. This is one of those general statements that needs clarification. There are in fact many tactical operations selectable for a fleet in battle, as well as individual tactical abilities for individual ships and Capitals that have finite uses along with timed or "cool down" cycle uses. But in general yes, the idea is to get a big ass rampaging fleet and go marauding around the universe!

10. It crashes alot with Vista.. Happened to me once, and I don't know that it was the game. I updated the nForce chipset drivers, and it hasn't happened since.

Personally, I'm digging the shit out of this game. Takes a lot of effort and time to get used to, but it's very rewarding. The multiplayer aspects of the game are really starting to peek my interest. There are many abilities and tactics I am anxious to try out to see how they work against live players.

And if it's lke my gaming experience on most other games, then I can watch my Imperial Armada be reduced to cosmic debris as I go back to the situation room (that's drawing board for you old-schoolers) and debrief on what went wrong.

[Fearchiken]

Yep, this game certainly ain't no homeworld. It is a concoction of mostly galactic civilization with a homeworld twist.

[CluckerChiken]

Not a rebuttal CLuck, but...
Wasn't looking for HW3 in this game. A 4X -rts is a beast of it's own.

Point taken, but i was kinda looking for a "HW3" since its got some of the developers of HW1-2.
So most of my points were with HW in mind...and then the game just lacks alot of depth and look-and-feel imho.

But when ur not looking for a HW clone, then this game has indeed some good qualities :)

[SlackahChiken]

Point taken, but i was kinda looking for a "HW3" since its got some of the developers of HW1-2.
So most of my points were with HW in mind...and then the game just lacks alot of depth and look-and-feel imho.

But when ur not looking for a HW clone, then this game has indeed some good qualities :)

I hear ya. HW3 is the holy grail of space based games as far as I'm concerned. Will it ever be found!?

I am digging SOSE though because the multiplayer "rush" can take so many paths. Lot's of possibilities because races are so evenly balanced in strengths.

[Fearchiken]

Do any chikens play this game online. I've been lurking around on ironclad online and have yet to spot another chiken for how many said they bought this game. I have noticed many other homeworlders playing the game however.

[SlackahChiken]

We need a pole to see who's got it & playing it, and going to get it. I've been online everynight after 7PM CST playing a game, (because that is about all you have time for, one 6 + player game can take a couple of hours, and 10 player games, well, I haven't been able to finish one yet.

[Fearchiken]

Yeah agreed, slackah what name do you use ingame, i will add u to my friends list. I am using fearchiken

[SmuttyChiken]

Good on ya Fear ... you probably wont see many 'Chikens' online as they all seem to prefer 'non-Chiken' names these days ...

If I get this game and if I play online I will be SmuttyChiken of course ...

[Clepto Chiken]

Smutty is just jelous that some of us play other games besides Mechy

[SlackahChiken]

Yeah agreed, slackah what name do you use ingame, i will add u to my friends list. I am using fearchiken

To answer your question, but more importantly to echo Smutty's sentiment:

Good on ya Fear ... you probably wont see many 'Chikens' online as they all seem to prefer 'non-Chiken' names these days ...

If I get this game and if I play online I will be SmuttyChiken of course ...

My Ironclad online name is SlackahChiken. Only differnece is I did get the game and I am playing! :P

[SmuttyChiken]

You pair are obviously still locked up at Mrs Tweedies and don't get out much ... I have had an ongoing dig at all the Chikens that play all the non-mech games that do not use their 'Chiken' name. Druid will know what I am talking about ... you can trust a sheep shagger to know what is going on around here ... *so nervous they keep looking over their shoulders ...

Anyway I was just congratualting Fear on his name in this new to Chiken game ...

PS good on ya Slackah for the same ...

now get back to planning your escape from the pie machine ...

[CluckerChiken]

i must concure with that previous statement :(
I mainly use "Guarrand" as my ingame name since non of the games these last few years have been chiken related :(
(meaning WoW).

[SlackahChiken]

I thought "Taking over the World, one game at a time" was the Chiken legacy. But, what's in a name? I'll tell you what Chiken means to some people. Years back when I first joined the flock, my daughters suitor was over to the house, and he found me playing HW2 one night while talking on TS with some of the old HW2 crew (who all used Chiken names). He noticed my in-game name and suprisedly asked, "You're a Chiken!? Man, those dudes are bad ass! My Dad knows some of them from Mech Warriors." "Everybody knows them!". Apparently his Dad is an old Mech Head, way back from the early pre-beta days.

Admittedly, that's from a segment of the flock that is probably at the heart of the Chiken mystique if you will, but the Chiken reputation doesn't necessarily transition to all the games we have a presence in. However, you might be surprised how many times one might get comments from players in different games that 'knew this guy', or 'knew that guy' that was a Chiken. So all in all, I think it's kinda cool that the 'Chiken' moniker is recognized occasionally, and that no matter what name one might use in game, if you use "Chken" on the end, at least in my mind, it carries a psychological value to it.

And besides, psychologically, I'm unstable, so it's a perfict fit!

[Fearchiken]

thx, i feel special :D.

That speech brought tears to my eyes slackah... Well maybe not, but it was still heart inspiring.

[SlackahChiken]

Thx Fearsome one! But really, this dudes dad when I met him was like nodding his head up and down, and like, "Yeah, them Chikens. Those dudes rock..." This sort of made me feel good, and even though I never played Mech, I was like,"Yeah, you know, you want to play with the Chikens, you really have to make the grade..." all bulshitting him and everything. And he was like, "Yeah, man, I know what you mean...them Chikens is tough...". I think he read through all my bullshit though, cause when he asked me how long I'd been playing Mech, I just sort of mumbled something under my breath about losing my games or something equally weak. But he did enjoy watching me get my ass kicked at Homeworld 2!

[SmuttyChiken]

The Chikens have been around for a long time in Mechy ... damn I have been a Chiken for going on four years ... it is easier to have that mystique of being good if your team has weathered the storm of so many years and never gone under like so many others ...

But Chikens ARE tough and we DO ROCK baby ... BAWK!!!

[SmuttyChiken]

Back to the original topic ... SoSE finally has been released in OZ ... I got it because I can ...

[Clepto Chiken]

YEA, now we really get to see if Smutty can play something besides Mechy lol

[Fearchiken]

Any of yall still play it online?

[Clepto Chiken]

Slackah does, I planned it, just haven't had the time. I might even try to get on this evening.

[SlackahChiken]

Let me know what time, I'll try to get on.

[Clepto Chiken]

I will be on after 8pm

[SmuttyChiken]

Well there ya go ... its an omen ... the damn game won't install ...

Says I have a fatal error ... does even start the process ...

[Clepto Chiken]

??? wierd, didn't have a problem installing mine.
Maybe you have angered the Mechy Gods.

[SlackahChiken]

Was on before we went to Iron Man showing. You can always call me and see if we can get on together.

[SmuttyChiken]

I went onto TS to ask Clepto about instalation probs ... and he musta been asleep at the key board ... so I tried to shout at him thinking maybe I could wake Stolen to really get him in the poo poos ... but that didn't work either ...

I went back to the store today and swapped it ... here's hoping this one works ...

[Clepto Chiken]

LOL, headphones were plugged in, I forgot to shutdown TS when I went to bed

[SmuttyChiken]

Well there ya go ... another omen ... would have been prob the first conversation we have ever had in 4 years ... and you went to sleep ...

[SmuttyChiken]

Done ... amazing ... got the new one home and it did the same thing ...


Well I had the demo installed didn't I ... did I miss where it said "if you have the demo installed the game want install" ...

stupid ...

Anyway I have it running now ... it will take an old phart like me an eternity to learn how to play it ... :D

[SlackahChiken]

Smutty,
Get a night where you will be up till dawn, and play the single player until you have researched every upgrade, built every ship, constructed every orbital facility, and captured every planet in a three star system. That is your "fast track" tutorial.

Then delve into the Ironclad boards, and one guy in particular, HuntigX's posts that are veritable strategy encyclopedias.

http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/303701

One of the many things I enjoy about this game is it's so well balanced. I am getting TEC strats down but in doing so, I've been learning some of the aspects of Vasari's weaknesses against TEC, as well as their Strengths. I will be learning Vasari as my next race.