Topic: Sins of a Solar Empire  (Read 1786 times)

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Offline Tus-XC

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Sins of a Solar Empire
« on: February 22, 2008, 02:11:41 pm »
So i bought this game based on a review over at Toms Hardware, and I'll tell ya, its really impressive game (and now for my opinion... it doesn't do this game justice i think).  The review I read described it as a combination turn based and RTS game.  I didn't quite understand how that was possible until i bought the game and played it.  First off, the areas you play in are immence (solar systesm).  The RTS portion is on the planet level of this.  Basically this is like every other RTS, this is where you get your resources and build your structures.  It differs in that you can only build as much as your planet can support.  Further, each planet has 'paths' that can be taken to travel back and forth- the turn based portion of this.  When you zoom out and look at the field your playin on, it immense.   Jumping between systems takes alot of time, and thus the 'turn based' portion of this.  You could literally play this game from the zoomed out view, and play it like a turn base if you wanted to. 

Some of the things I like about this game.

-The way they implemented the ship system.  You can build well over a few thousand ships if you wanted to, but the thing is you are charged an upkeep for them which is some percentage of your income.  I find this really cool as you remove that 'hard cap' that most games have and literally get to pick how much you willing to pay for fleets.

-The depth.  There is so much to research it isn't funny.  For those who like to micromanage or those who love making their ships better (me) you will be in heaven here, there are just so many options to work with.

Now there are a few things that are draw backs.  On normal speed it plays slow.  for those who like turn based games, you may like this, but i found that for me to have an enjoyable expierence i had to up the speed up to fast.  To add to that, even a fast paced game on the smaller maps takes at least 4 hours to play from beginning to end.  I was playing a game on a medium map, I think i was up to almost 10 hours and was just starting to invade (granted i was playing on normal speed).  This is both a detriment and an asset i think.  The time it takes to play a game might be a turn off for web games, but for single player (or the lan type person) its nice to play something that lasts a long while... its quite satifactory to play it through for a few hours and watch your empire grow. 

Another draw back is that there is no single player campaign, a slight negative, but the game itself is quite polished with no glaring issues (besides a ship or two that won't listen...). 

I personally would recommend this game, it well worth it for the expirence.
Rob

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Offline Lepton

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Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2008, 07:09:55 pm »
I tried playing once so far against the AI and I found it all quite bewildering.  I don't play RTSes or 4X games so this is all new territory for me.  Played for a couple of hours against the AI and had to stop because I was just too confused and frustrated.  When I looked at the AI's stats, it was way ahead of me in everything.  I have never liked the constant checking and keeping track of things combined with the resource collection.  Apparently, a good deal of that has been reduced in this game but I still find it overwhelming.  Also I don't really like the camera system very much.  It interacts strangely with my trackball.  For all the graphic wonder that this game is capable of, I simply do not have the screen real estate to see anything close up nor is the game really capable of being played zoomed in which I also find frustrating.  What good are the battles if I can't see and enjoy them.  The game has gotten a lot of good critical review, but at this point I am wondering if I have been susceptible to the hype.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2008, 10:47:20 am by Lepton »


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Offline Tus-XC

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Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2008, 09:30:13 pm »
here is a screeny i took...  :)
Rob

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Offline Dash Jones

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Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
« Reply #3 on: February 29, 2008, 11:48:38 am »
Thanks for the review, I might look into it.
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Offline Sirgod

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Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
« Reply #4 on: February 29, 2008, 02:02:50 pm »
I'm seriously thinking about this next week. It's either this , Or another group of Friends have set up a Private WoW server, and Grabbing Burning Crusade. I still have WoW from many years ago.

Stephen
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Offline Hexx

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Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
« Reply #5 on: February 29, 2008, 04:27:26 pm »
You can run private WoW servers?

Huh.
Did not know that.
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Offline Age

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Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2008, 03:36:15 pm »
I hear you can mod this game for Star Trek replecing the models and what not.

Offline FPF-Paladin

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Re: Sins of a Solar Empire
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2008, 02:28:24 am »
I have SoaSE and I like it a lot, but still wish there was more depth to it.  Plenty exists, mind you but it all depends on the settings for that game.
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