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Hey all,
SoaSE was technically my first RTS though I spent all my time on it playing AIs several years ago, before I found Starcraft and all that. I keep getting e-mails about the new release, Rebellion, that comes out on the 12th of June. I'd like to get it (hopefully along with D3), and I was wondering if anyone played the first few releases. If so, would you like to play some games starting tomorrow? I have up to the latest release, Diplomacy.
If you don't know what it is, basically, its an RTS/4x (coined as "explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate") game in which you are given a system, or a number of systems, each with multiple planets. The end goal is to destroy your opponent, essentially. Multiplayer games are generally team based, with players filling certain roles depending on their spawn location within the in-game galaxy. Sadly, I didn't play enough multiplayer to give you any background. All I know is that the developer, Ironclad, has its own online system and that while the old releases were on Impulse, the new game will be on Steam.
Gameplay wise, you're given a planet, 2 builder ships, some money, a building to make ships, and 2 scout ships. The builder ships don't do anything but build. You can build from 2 trees of tech, called Logistics and Tactical structures, as well as refineries to mine from asteroids. Resources are Credits (gained from planets), Metal, and Crystal, of which the latter two are found in asteroids. They are used to spend between tech trees, which unlock from certain Logistic and Tactical buildings. Additionally, there's supply and capital ship points that unlock a higher level of supply or more capital ships from your fleet.
From your start planet, you send your scouts to check out how the system you're in looks, and from there, you take over planets, each with different kinds of resources, as you try to destroy your opponent.
3 races:
TEC (humans) with cheap, plentiful ships with high armor, generally low shields, and very good economy. Kinda like zerg. They can spread rebellion (Game mechanic based on stealing planets) and steal enemy income. TEC = Traders Emergency Coalition, basically all the humans.
Advent: weak armor, high shields, use lasers. Can spread culture (game mechanic based on buffing units in high culture areas), and units buff each other. Protoss in a way. They're psychic humans that got banned from the early TEC.
Vasari (technologically advanced aliens) with slightly more expensive, strong ships that focus on phase missiles and control of phase space (basically faster than light travel). Phase missiles have a %chance to negate shields, which Vasari units take advantage of heavily. They can use phase nodes to eliminate traveling via normal phase lanes and go directly somewhere, see the second screenshot. Also in the plot of the game (though there's no real story mode), something has driven off the Vasari from their homeland and caused them to fight over TEC planets and stuff. There was a great fanfic based on this. They're awesome, I play(ed) them.
Screenshots:
![[image loading]](http://www.gamershell.com/static/screenshots/9047/281236_full.jpg)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ibanezmf/2397707701/sizes/z/in/photostream/
The first one shows the UI, though I think its a little outdated. You can zoom in all the way to see detail of some ships like shown, or zoom out to view the whole system. The left side shows all your planets, fleets, and units at your planets. Top right shows supply, capital ships, and resources. Bottom left shows any updates from your planets, ships, research, and battles. Center left is health of what you have selected, among other things (Health, shields, and nanobots, or energy). Bottom right shows commands you can give to a ship, or a fleet of ships.
The second one (sorry you have to click) shows a more general overview, and bad macro (10k19k bank wow). The white lines are where ships can travel through unless you're using Vasari Phase Nodes, so control of key areas is important in order to bottleneck enemy fleets. Suns increase nanobot regen (or is it shield), asteroids are poor economically and have few slots for Logistic buildings but tend to have a lot of Tactical slots, leaving them great to defend certain areas. Four types of planets: Earth-like, great for economy, Volcanic/Ice, great for storing tech stuff, and Desert, kind of a mix of both. TEC wants earth like, Advent wants desert, Vasari want the latter two because of bonuses.
Overall the game's macro is really mouse based as though there are hotkeys for things, you're still gonna scroll around and move armies. Or I was really bad at RTS, I'm not sure. It's not like Starcraft, but there's not as much micro involved... Very tactical. Sorry I didn't get into fleets, but I really don't remember or rather I didn't know what the best ones were!
Recommended reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sins_of_a_Solar_Empire
http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/
Wiki is really good for mechanic stuff, forums were fun to read for strategy, etc.
How bout it?
 
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it's a really interesting game, i used to play it a lot with my dad just for fun and to relax.. i never really saw it as competitive because of its pacting and how long everything takes.
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On May 17 2012 13:13 Endymion wrote:
it's a really interesting game, i used to play it a lot with my dad just for fun and to relax.. i never really saw it as competitive because of its pacting and how long everything takes.
I always just had fun with it, but I don't wanna play it all alone online haha. But seriously, 6-8 hour games. At least it has a resume function, I think!
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So that's where all the scouts went...
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My main experience of this game is playing it from 6pm to 3 am at lans with 10 friends. It's awesome.
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I remember playing this game with friends. As I recall the ultimate strategy we cam up with was putting all money/resources into either economy, or LRM upgrades. Then you just sit on the other side of the orbital well, and just obliterate anything that warps in before they have a chance to fire.
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On May 17 2012 13:48 Demonhunter04 wrote:
So that's where all the scouts went...
bw scout
![[image loading]](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080716084135/starcraft/images/thumb/d/df/Scout_SC1_Art2.jpg/200px-Scout_SC1_Art2.jpg)
advent scout
![[image loading]](http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080211060461/sinsofasolarempire/images/thumb/4/4b/Seeker.jpg/256px-Seeker.jpg)
I mean they changed some things...
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also does that mean anyone wants to play online? ^_^
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Katowice25012 Posts
I always had a soft spot for this game, largely because it came out at a time when nothing would run on my pc but this. I liked having a game that wasn't quite an RTS but also wasn't a full 4x either, it's a pleasant mix of both and my friends and I had a ton of fun marathoning it one summer.
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I played sins, and it was pretty fun. I never played versus people on any kind of ladder, I played versus some friends and stuff, but things were so slow; I don't think I could enjoy playing it on any sort of competitive level.
Hope you like the game though.
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I have a friend that plays this game and is always trying to get me to check it out. I may have to give it a try soon.
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I tried this game a few years ago. It's kinda cool, but SOOO DAAAAAAMN SLOOOOOW. (sry for caps, but it's really slow, especially when you're used to fast rts games like bw)
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I play it occasionally, its a pretty relaxing game in general, plus it looks pretty sweet when you have an enormous fleet and can smash through everything.
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I got the Game Of the Year Edition for like $25 about 2? years back. Totally worth the money, was really fun blasting planets and having giant space battles, building my empire, etc. I know some people called it the best Space RTS ever, and there's no way it's as good as the original Homeworld.
The biggest problem with it IMO was the lack of strategy. Each race has pretty much a single best army composition, and the way the vanilla game played made it so splitting off your army could be fatal as you would always lose to the bigger deathball. The fact that everything was so slow hurt the game for me too.
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I never understood the appeal of this game, and that's coming from someone who enjoys both RTS and TBS. Seems to me to have combined the worst aspects of the two genres.
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It was slow, but for a 14 year old or something like that with no RTS experience it was just fast enough!
I think the appeal is getting to make your own empire and take over everything.
On May 17 2012 15:12 Matador wrote:
I have a friend that plays this game and is always trying to get me to check it out. I may have to give it a try soon.
Wanna play?
On May 18 2012 00:13 Attican wrote:
I play it occasionally, its a pretty relaxing game in general, plus it looks pretty sweet when you have an enormous fleet and can smash through everything.
YES exactly :D especially when you have an enemy fleet attack into your fortified asteroid... and suddenly your fleet phases in!
On May 18 2012 00:42 TheToast wrote:
The biggest problem with it IMO was the lack of strategy. Each race has pretty much a single best army composition, and the way the vanilla game played made it so splitting off your army could be fatal as you would always lose to the bigger deathball. The fact that everything was so slow hurt the game for me too.
LRMS OP
On May 18 2012 05:56 cascades wrote:
I never understood the appeal of this game, and that's coming from someone who enjoys both RTS and TBS. Seems to me to have combined the worst aspects of the two genres.
I just loved the spaceships, I can't speak for others ^^. But I do agree with how relaxing it felt, with the slow pace.
I'm free from exams, let me know if anyone wants to play!
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I've got diplomacy but I'm pretty terrible. If you organize a game, hit me up.
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On May 18 2012 08:28 Coriolis wrote:
I've got diplomacy but I'm pretty terrible. If you organize a game, hit me up.
me too, it doesnt matter :D
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Pretty fun to play with friends. A bunch of friends got me into this at the end of this school year. We usually do comp stomp games. It reminded me a lot of Warcraft 3 in terms of RTS mechanics (Upkeep, capital ships). Pretty much learned by applying the most basic Starcraft strategy: If you have money build shit.
It's pretty fun once you learn the basics.
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Didn't a new one come out last month, or in March? I'm very interested in this game, whether it's like planetarion.com or like something I wouldn't like.. like Tropico. Ugh.
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EPT
