Those who wanna try and find out what the game is like b4 buying. Iraonclad admitted they cannot release the game and the demo at the same time as they do not have man power to do it. Plus they rather concerntrate on making sure the finish product is in shipshape form before selling it to public. I think that better than trying impress people with fancy demo but putting out a buggy game or delaying the game months later.

Besides this game been on public Beta test close to a year already with people posting about it everywhere including you-tube because they don't make the Beta tester sign a non-disclosure to prevent leaks. They intentionally leak it so that the public can judge it themselves even during Beta test. If they are so ashamed of their game that they don't wanna put a demo out before game release why do they even allow public beta test, and leak it some more.

Dude, this game won't please everyone especially those require fast action. But its definitely diffferent than you stock 4X space games.

Shacknews Review:
http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=767&page=1

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Added on February 8, 2008, 3:15 amI bought it...and just had a session and time flew by and i spent 3 hours not noticing...man Im sleepy...I'll give my review of it later...

For now...all i can saw is this game is bloody amazing!

This post has been edited by frags: Feb 8 2008, 03:15 AM

Okay so i finally after much deliberation got the game...I must say Im not disapointed at all.. anyway my review of Sins of a Solar Empire!:

So Sins of a Solar Empire as you all know is an epic RTS + 4X game(I dont quite agree on this...I'll explain later why). It is developed by Ironclad(many of whom were in the Homeworld team) and publish by Stardock(The guys that did Galactic Civilisations 2). These are not huge comapnies that pour millions into a game production and marketing but the game has been in development for a very very long time...it was supposed to have been released back in 06.

So what has happened in that 2 years of delay you ask? Well alot! Sins now is more polished and it is quite practical. WHen you think on the outset of making a 4X game real time, it would be a nightmare controlling everything...but these guys have done a great job with th UI and the gameplay that it is quite playable.

So let me get into the gist of the review. Keep in mind so far I've only done small maps of 9 planets and another one 12 planets with just a single AI opponent.


Gameplay:
-------------
Okay lets get this out of the way. There is no single player 'campaign' like with a story etc. That is disapointing but the single player skirmishes are still awesome. They have included a ton of maps and it will probably take a normal human being a long long time to finish everyone of of them. The maps are grouped into small, medium and large maps small ranging from 9 planets and large 6/7 stars 67 planets( I have not seen a larger one and imnot sure how big the map can get). You can have an endless choice to play from as each map may have their own little secret and you may find yourself developing specific strategies for each maps based on how the planets are connected to each other. So single player and multiplayer is using the same gamplay mechanic. The only thing different about it is that in multiplayer you get a lobby and play with other humans(unsurprisingly). I'll get to multi later...

So you go into single player pick the map, race your AI opponents or you can randomise it all then get into a game. You will start out on your homeworld with two contructors and a frigate constructor with no defense! So you will eventually need to build out your scouts and send them out and some defense. There are gameplay limits to things like fleet size and even building you can build that can be increased by researching or building proper things in your planet. What is really cool is that if you want to build say a light frigate, there are multiple ways for you to do that. You can click on the frigate contructor or your planet and select it. The frigate constructor still builds it but its a cool UI design that doesnt force you to look for a particular unit if you want to build a particular thing. very smart.

There are three resources in the game, credits, metal and crystal. You get credit buy selling stuff over the black market, tax, trade etc metal and crystal by mining asteroids. Credits ties to almost everything, crystal to research and metal to ship building(you still have to pay credits for each of these...you got to pay the fellow working there right!).

So whtever you can do and build is very much tied to your research tree and let me tell ya its a big one. The tree is not large its just segmented into many different research trees. There are 4 different research trees. One is Civil research tree(planet improvements etc), hostility tree(war stuff), fleet management( you unit count and capital ship), and artifact( a special tree that is connected to artifacts you find on planet) Each of this tree is dividved into a few sub categories so yeah it is big.

So you got all these thing...what you have to do is go out and expand...colonise new planets(there are a few basic types of planets and you need to research how to colonise them) and once colonised you can build stuff in their gravity well. The gravity well is this circle surrounding your planet and all action happens in them. You travel in between planets using phase lines which are these lines that connects planets.

So part from the planet building and research you also have battles....these are real time now and are not as tactical as say Company of Heroes but can be just as fun. There is no directional damage( attacking on the rear more dmage etc) and there is no targetting specific parts of a capital ship(like in empire at war you can target the engines etc). But flanking and attacking the rear does give you a very slight advantage as you attack the side of the enemy that has no guns...so you get in more shots before they fire at you. Also not forgetting those capital ships...these will be the backbone of your army...and yes there is an experience levelling thing going on where you can level them up with more experience and they get special abilities that can and will be vital in battles.

Now as you can say there is a lot of gameplay and i dont think i even scratched the surface with all of these. I dont think i can write out everything. okay so lets go onto AI...which has been what most people here want to know. The AI is impressive just like in Galciv 2! On a strategic layer the AI(if played with more than one) will gang up on powerful empires, can be sneaky by making temporary alliance and waging wars by diplomatically getting other factions into war. On a tactical side...i must say its still very good. For instance i had this experience where one of my planets was attack by an Advent ship, a Battlecruiser and a seeker and i had no defense there. So i warped in my fleet from my home planet(a capital ship and 6 light frigates). As soon as i warped in i pounded them. They were outnumbered and outclassed...Here is where it gets interesting...the enemy battlecruisers knowing its end is near actually used an ion blast(special ability) on my capital ship and disabled my capital ship! Then it ran for its life away from my planet...light frigate dont do much damage and with my capital ship temporarily disabled it managed to make its getaway! Im impressed....and thats just with one AI...and I have NOT won a single game yet...its tough...

Now something must be said about the pirates in this game. The way they impement it is a bit different. A pirate raid in this game is always immenent the question is just on whom. So there is this screen where everyone tries to put bid on other factions head(put a bounty on the heads) so that the pirate will go for the on with the highest bounty on the head. This makes the games a bit more urgency most of the time as you try to outbid your opponents and sometime you find you dont have enough credit then you have to plan for the pirate raid..it defenitely wont be to everyones liking and many might find this irritating...as of right now...there all maps in the game have pirates in them...and Ironclad has already said their next update will include news maps without pirates.

There is definetely a learning curve and you will take your time to learn it..but once you get it...its hard to out it down.

Now back to the multiplayer. This game is very long...and a short game in a small map can take 2 hours and above...not your typical RTS game length. This is what makes it not a one round only multiplayer experience like WiC is. but thats not what you get this game for. The game is fun if you play with a group of friends where you can continue your game by saving an ONLINE GAME! thats a first! As off right now...its okay...it will probably get better if you can find a dedicated group of gamers that wont drop out of a long match or will continue playing the game with ouy...so if can...get a group of friends.


Graphics
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The graphics look clean and the map has a lot of detail. Like the little vehicles thet travels over the atmosphere of your planet. The planets look awesome abd have a lot of tiny details like that. The ships look good. Overall the graphics i would say is good but not stunning like what Crysis is. But the fact that it runs smoothly is impressive.

Sound
--------
The sound in the game is excellent. Its not to the par of what Total War games are....but its still pretty dran good. With the music rising up in battles etc.

UI
---
The user interface is pure genius. The empire tree makes it easy to manage a large empire and surprisingly it actually works. For such a large game...it is surprisingly accesible.

Support
----------
In Stardock tradition...this game will be well supported by the developers for sometime. There is already plans for a 1.2 update already and mod tools and map making tools like the glaxy forge have been available for download for everyone. There will be new maps and mods for sure. The AI will also be tweaked with time.


Summary : Im really loving this game. It reminds me of Shogun Total War and the Civilisations game. Where i got hooked and played for hours without realising the time. It reminds me of Shogun because it was such a wonderful game as i have never really had anything close to that. It gives me that kinda experience. It may not be for everyone. But it is definetely for me.

9/10

Note : I dont quite agree with the RTS tag as it can confuse certain people who seem to think this is comparable to say the Starcraft type of game or COH. The game is real time but it is not like those RTS. You would be more accurate to think about this game like and actual 4X game or a Civilisation game. The game is longgggg because its is RT4X.

I'm 60% sold on this.

Eh? How did you buy it? Through stardock or local retailer?

There is no local retailer yet...Stardock store is the way to go...There have been some small first impression on the net and its many have been extremely impressed by the game...

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Added on February 8, 2008, 5:12 pmI'll take some screenshots and post it later about the different gameplay mechanics in the game...

This post has been edited by frags: Feb 8 2008, 05:12 PM

the game is freaking hard, and i hate the pirate , damn u pirate !!!!!!

so its like Master of Orion + Total War?

Hmmm...not really since total war is turn based and the battles happen as a separate thing...This ones more like Galciv + homeworld

just started downloading it from stardock, hope to play it by tonite, since i got tons of things to dl besides this

+ Supreme Commander

where? can't find any...

http://www.sinsofasolarempire.com/store.aspx

Oh boy...finally...won my first game...small map(9 planets) with a single easy AI...I know i know im a noob...but have to start from somewhere.

Anyway managed to push The bloody advent off from their home world. Bombard it with my mega fleet with 3 capital ships!


They moved very quickly to a neighbouring sector that has only asteroid and set it as their new home planet...Now i know their end is near.


The final battle...or so i think!!!


Drats!!! Damn pirate always spoiling the party!!!!!!I actually retreated and allowed the pirate tear the Advent up. These pirates didnt attack the frigate constructor and the advent kept building small ship that would pass the pirates and into my planet(their old homeworld ). So its time for me to move in and finish it off once and for all!


Took out tthose damn pirates and destroyed the frigate constructor


Finally destroyed that asteroid and exterminated the advent once and for all!!!!

Yes people patch 1.02 is already out. More updates to come in the future.



The first official post-release update to Sins of a Solar Empire has been released. Below is what's new. You'll need to update in order to play on ICO.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gameplay / Balance:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Tutorials moving into bad states at random fixed.
-Siege frigate survivability decreased.
-Pirate raid frequency decreased slightly.
-Later stage missions to destroy ships and structures have had their expiry times increased.
-Clairvoyance: duration increased from 30, 45 60 seconds per level to 50, 100, 150 seconds.
-Guidance: cooldown changed from 20, 15, 10 seconds per level to 20 seconds at all levels.
-Guidance: ability cooldown rate changed from +20%, +35%, +50% per level to +40% at all levels.
-Guidance: duration changed 20 seconds at all levels to 15, 30, 45 seconds per level.
-Reverie: friendly units will no longer auto-acquire enemies under the effects of reverie as attack targets.
-Reverie: duration increased from 15, 20, 25 seconds per level to 20, 30, 40 seconds.
-Gravity Warhead: range decreased from 7000 to 6000 at all levels.
-Gravity Warhead: cooldown increased from 18, 16, 14 seconds per level to 25 seconds at all levels .
-Gravity Warhead: antimatter cost raised from 80 to 100 at all levels.
-Gravity Warhead: duration changed from 12 seconds at all levels to 12, 15, 18 seconds per level.
-Gravity Warhead: Speed reduction changed from 15%, 30%, 45% per level to 30%, 45%, 60% .
-Gravity Warhead: Acceleration reduction changed from 20%, 40%, 60% per level to 60%, 80%, 120%.
-Nano-Disassember: range increased from 4500 to 6000 at all levels.
-Nano-Disassember: antimatter cost decreased from 85 to 75 at all levels.
-Ion Bolt: antimatter cost increased from 65 to 85 at all levels.
-Ion Bolt: cooldown from 9, 11, 13 seconds per level to 10, 12, 14 seconds.
-Shield Projection: radius of effect increased from 2500 to 5000.
-Game update rate change hooked to - and = buttons (singleplayer only).
-Two new pirate-less maps.
-First tutorial now handles players spending their ability point before they were intended to and thus not being able to spend it when instructed.
-Phasic Transmissions research is now effective even at max fleet supply research.
-Reduced Phasic Transmissions supply bonus from 20% down to 15%.
-Stopgap fix for market exploit until new market dynamics are fully tested.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graphics:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Shield projection's bubble less opaque.
-Various new ICO art.
-Fix bug where skybox is always the same.
-New Advent bomber icons to better differentiate them from fighters.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Networking / Multiplayer:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Phantom games causing "Rejected by Host" error fixed.
-Multiplayer lobby screens now have Map Designer tab.
-Whisper functionality for ICO
-Refactored join game screen.
-Fix for not seeing friend's games.
-New chat friendly ICO font.
-ICO user names are now sorted.
-Self and friends are colored in ICO channel player list.
-Events for players entering and leaving channels.
-ICO nows preserves history when changing channels.
-ICO logged in user count now displayed. This number will only update when you change channels or login.
-Added some default lobby names.
-Reorganized numbered lobbies to increment sequentially as they fill.
-Added notification of what channel you are in.
-Fix for rare multiplayer lobby crash when host leaves a game in ICO.
-Various new ICO message strings.
-ICO server now ignores case when searching for channel names.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
UserInterface / HUD:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Added counter descriptions for all frigates and fighters.
-Game menu now mapped to F10 by default instead of Esc so people can repeatly press Esc to close any submenu they be in w/o going all the way to the escape menu.
-Fix rare bug in group selection.
-Various strings cleaned up.
-Hooked up proper double clicking to text lists so clickng on something already selected doesn't try to join a game when it shouldn't.
-Hooked up ico-player name lists (both selecting player and chat lobby player names) to double clicking.
-Added infocard keybindings for quick-select buttons.

NOTE : Save games are not compatible

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Added on February 9, 2008, 11:27 amSins review at gamespy:
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/sins-of-a-solar-e...e/850906p1.html

4.5/5!!!!

This post has been edited by frags: Feb 9 2008, 11:27 AM

Lol, it only been a week, got patch edi.
@frags : finish edi? fuyoh..

They are very dedicated to their game...Well im not finished really...just starting to get into the game...that game might have been over...but there are many more battles to come in the future...

looks damn complicated

not really if u play the tutorial lol

but serius la..., damn pirate gila gay la..

haha, yea.. first time scout their base at first 10 minutes.

i was liek WTFBBQSAUCEWITHFRIGATEANDNOCAPITALSHIP

theres liek 20-30 pirate ships at tat planet.

u need to play with the bounty, u can safely evade the pirate with around 4-5 turn while u build ur own fleet, make sure u get the free 1 capital ship and lvl it fast.

pst : the pirate really gay