Sword Of The Stars II - big fail

[vmxa1]

I went ahead and got this game, yes I heard all the problems. It has some 20-21 patches to date. That is nice to see the work being done. The problemis the game cannot be saved.

I have not had crashes that others seem to have gotten. Still it runs so very slow as many screen take seconds to load. Even going to the main menu is quite long. It is not very intutive and I played SoTs.

The real killer for me is it is not fun. Many things are far too labor intensive. Fleets recall to base after every mission, so you have to wait till they return to reassign them. This is a real drag early while trying to scout the map.

It is hard for me to keep the universe in focus. You are constantly zooming in and out. Ships have to be in a fleet ala Moo3 and have to have an admiral.

The combat is still cool, but my limited exposure was it takes more time for battles. This is not awful, but can get annoying.

Just not ready for prime time and I do not see how they can get it to run faster. I did not mention that about a dozen announced features are yet to appear in the game, some 6 months later.

[Proteus_MST]

I for my part like SotS2 and, in contrast to Stronghold 3, see the money I spent for SotS2 as well spent money, not as some kind of mispurchase.
On the other hand I like(d) MoO 3 as well (at least after the problems had been patched away) and am a regular player of Dwarf Fortress, so, I for my part, like complicatd games

But I agree that some things in the game could have been solved in a better way....
for example the display of the Tech tree.

The fleets that get recalled after every mission, fortunately are among the things that will be fixed in a future patch, after which, AFAIK, you will be able to have your fleet complete consecutive missions, as long as the target stars are within range.

They are also trying to improve the performance of the game (the performance went down after the last huge feature patch last week, so it is most likely the result of not optimised new features that were added with this patch)
(ín terms of performance during battles, especially the newly added interceptor missiles seem to be a drain on processing power)

(the official games forum here: http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forum/index.php is a good source of information about ongoing developments and problems of the game )

[vmxa1]

I also was not a hater of Moo3, AFTER a lot of mods came out. The KP forum is hard to stomach. There are very harsh to anyone even asking questions, let alone expressing some displeasure (which I did not do). They go so far as to have a sticky saving essentially not to bother them with question of how to do things, just figure it out. Paradox is a better forum for it.

That and seeing so many today posting glowing things about the game. Really it was worse than Moo3 upon release as at least Moo3 did not crash all the time. Mainly Prime has some fun, II has none. It is really hard to take the load time of the game, but that is not what kills the fun, there just is not any.

I hope you are correct, but I do not see how one speeds up the game by much at this point. I do not see where the fun will come from, other than the combat. Selecting missions to scout a planet, really. What was wrong with sending a scout and parking it in that system? Anyway maybe they or the fans can pull it off, they did for Moo3 to a degree.

[Spaced Cowboy]

VXMA1, you may want to take a peek at this...http://www.endlesspace.com/

Also, I think you might like Distant Worlds http://www.matrixgames.com/products/...Distant.Worlds, but it is pricey.

[vmxa1]

I will keep an eye on it. Distance Worlds looked good, but I cannot play Homeworld type games as I am lost in 3D space. I have tried many games like that over the years, but my spatial orientation sucks and now I am 66 so it is not going to get better. Good to see you are still around.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Nice to see that you are still around as well.

I feel the same about 3D space as well, hard to figure out what is going on, but some games are better than others at interfacing this. I prefer the 2d with a Z-bar/line method (Ascendancy).

Did you try Star Ruler? http://starruler.blind-mind.com/

I bought it on Steam, kind of interesting but not real deep.

[vmxa1]

I still play Ascendancy about once a year. I still love the sound of the Plasmatron. Not a good AI though. I think I tried Star Ruler, but I will have to take another look in case I am confusing it. One new game that look like so much fun, but not able to play it is Space Zombies and Pirates.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Here is a distant worlds Utube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAkIX78o3mk

SPAZ was not that fun IMO. More of an RPG wrapped around a arcade space shooter.

[vmxa1]

I thought this was a 3d rts game. Looks like it is mostly not 3d. Will take a close look at it, but RTS on a large scale is probably more than I am up to now adays. It may be some what like Pax II, which was an RTS though not massive.

Yeah I did not buy Spazz, but did watch some live games. Going to watch some Star Rule LP after the weekend. Trying to follow NCAA and some LoL tourneys today and tomorrow.

[vmxa1]

Just found a game called Starfarer and picked it up. It is in alpha so it is going for 10 bucks. Not a deep game, sort like space bash game. I am hoping it will let me learn to play some of the games you listed. I watched several Star Ruler youtubes and it is wild.

Colonized 1000 planets in nothing flat. Did not look like there was much for you to do as all was more or less automated. The one I watched the guy saw pirates and set a few planets to make frigates and boom 150 ship off to clear them. Then started colony ships and just a cloud of them were out. It was insane.

Looked great, but I need more hands on than that. The game was on hard level.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Yeah, star ruler is interesting, but not too deep, scale is pretty unreal, I always tone it down. Really cool in the beginning when you queue up 20 or so scouts and they just go off almost all at once.

Maybe I need to ramp up the difficulty, but there is a fine balance in the beginning when trying to work on expansion and not over run your economy. The bad part for me is that the feedback on your economy is not good, so not really knowing what you need and what is helping is not good. I do not remember a good summary screen of it.

I've been watching the play game of distant worlds that I posted, I'm still at episode 6 as they are ~ 30 minutes each. I would really like to buy this game but hard to explain the purchase to the wife since it is $80.

Looked at Starfarer a little while ago, a lot like SPAZ, so not my type.

Star ruler, on the other hand, has a free demo on STEAM and is at $19.99 right now. But you may catch it on sale for 50% off if you wait long enough.

[vmxa1]

I have the Star Ruler demo now and will give it a shot soon I hope. I do like the wave of scout going out, but it just seems so unreal. How can a brand new empires manage to spit out so many ships so soon? I have watched 3 episodes of DW so far. You need the base game and 2 addons so 80 is about right.

Not willing to dump that much either. I figure they are going to put out a complete or ult version soon with all for 39 maybe. I like Gamers Gate as they let you flag stuff for price dros and get notice when it does.

I got the Starfarer to let me get in some practice at trying to shot real time in space. Then maybe I could try one of the big games.

[Whoha]

I haven't gotten SOTS II yet, though I did get SOTS I and enjoyed it(though it isn't as convienient obviously). My computer sucks too much for it, and it will be a while before I can fix that. I get the sense that their games would be truly awesome, if only computers were 10x faster. Too bad about the forums going against discussion of game mechanics like that, it has been a while since I posted there.

If you want an insanely complicated space sim try out aurora at aurora2.pentarch.org.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Hey Whoha, long time no see. I see that you are still rolling with the Galactic Overlords Avatar...

Nice linky, but does not look like much is going on there.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Hey Whoha, long time no see. I see that you are still rolling with the Galactic Overlords Avatar...

Nice linky, but does not look like much is going on there.

[Whoha]

Hey Whoha, long time no see. I see that you are still rolling with the Galactic Overlords Avatar...

Nice linky, but does not look like much is going on there.

I've had little reason to change it, nothing really jumps out at me, and the game is about to undergo a major version change so if you are going to play it, you may want to wait until after that, this is about as graphical as it gets however, the game is spreadsheet heavy.

[Spaced Cowboy]

I did some poking around at the forums there including reading the manifesto by the developer. I did bookmark the site for future exploring. I liked stars so spreadsheet gaming not an issue as long as the content is good, especially with 4x space games

[Proteus_MST]

Downloaded it ...
DF in space seems to be unjustified ...
it has more graphics than DF

After taking the biggest hurdles regarding research, colony development and sending ships to other planets and stars I think I like it

(pity that Steve didn´t include a function to automatically turn decimal commas into decimal points (and vice versa), so I wouldn´t have to switch from german to english settings everytime I want to play it)

[vmxa1]

I looked at sevearl lets play, but they do not seem to actually play. They were all just going through the mechanics and very little of the game. Looks similar to Stars. So wish they had released Stars 2 Supernova.

[Whoha]

I looked at sevearl lets play, but they do not seem to actually play. They were all just going through the mechanics and very little of the game. Looks similar to Stars. So wish they had released Stars 2 Supernova.

Steve's Nato vs Soviets, and other campaigns, have a reasonable look at how the game is played. he also includes an up to date version of the Nato vs Soviets game in the latest version so you can poke around and look at everything there.

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/board,112.0.html
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/board,16.0.html

these two are probably the best, there are spoilers involved as well though if you want to see stuff on your own.

Also there is a lets play in progress on somethingawful, but it is bogged down with waiting for them to vote on everything.

[vmxa1]

Thanks will check it out. Got my Diablo III pre ordered, so I suspect that to bog me down in a week.

[Proteus_MST]

Is there any way to switch on/off the stopping behavior of autoturn in response to certain events (without having to do it via the database and without having to switch off the event in the filter)?

(For example, while it isn´t uninteresting to have the appearance of new officers getting displayed in the event log [and not switch it off via filter] it isn´t interesting enough for me, to have autoturn stop every time I get a new officer (which, after 2-3 upgrades of the terran military academy, happens rather regularly) ... same goes to the expansion of the various civilian colonies within the solar system ... I don´t need to take any action if civilian colonies get expanded and trust into the capabilities of my subordinates, to tax them accordingly, therefore I don´t need autoturn to stop for this event)

[Whoha]

Is there any way to switch on/off the stopping behavior of autoturn in response to certain events (without having to do it via the database and without having to switch off the event in the filter)?

(For example, while it isn´t uninteresting to have the appearance of new officers getting displayed in the event log [and not switch it off via filter] it isn´t interesting enough for me, to have autoturn stop every time I get a new officer (which, after 2-3 upgrades of the terran military academy, happens rather regularly ... same goes to the expansion of the various civilian colonies within the solar system ... I don´t need to take any action if civilian colonies get expanded and trust into the capabilities of my subordinates, to tax them acordingly)

No, you have to do that via the event filter, which is kind of a pain but workable for multi-faction starts.

[Proteus_MST]

Just tried it out...
unfortunately it doesn´t seem to work ...
I put "Filter Events" for "New Officer", as well as Officer health, updates and promotions and CIvilian Mining Colony messages.

It resulted in autoturn at one point just stopping for no (in the event log visible) reason at all.
Only after I deactivated the filters I discovered, that the reason for the stop was a new officer.

So it seems like the event filter just affects the visibility of the events, not their ability to interrupt your auto turn

[Whoha]

Just tried it out...
unfortunately it doesn´t seem to work ...
I put "Filter Events" for "New Officer", as well as Officer health, updates and promotions and CIvilian Mining Colony messages.

It resulted in autoturn at one point just stopping for no (in the event log visible) reason at all.
Only after I deactivated the filters I discovered, that the reason for the stop was a new officer.

So it seems like the event filter just affects the visibility of the events, not their ability to interrupt your auto turn

Well thats wierd, if you know how long you want to wait for you can force increments though(if the ai decides to step down the increment time value that will change however).

[Proteus_MST]

Yep,
unfortunately (at least I assume so) this would also mean that the game also doesn´t stop for really important events during this time
(like ships getting attacked, important scientists getting killed due to accident (while working on Research Projects), or Research/orders being completed)

[Whoha]

Yep,
unfortunately (at least I assume so) this would also mean that the game also doesn´t stop for really important events during this time
(like ships getting attacked, important scientists getting killed due to accident (while working on Research Projects), or Research/orders being completed)

Right, it doesn't stop. however, if you come under attack the time increment will slow, so instead of forcing 10 months, it will force 2 months, 1 day(interception possibility), 7x5 seconds(missile launches), assuming you have robust radar coverage on your fleets that are in danger. This does give up some of your ability to respond to danger however, and if you are defending a JP you'll want to have some automated defenses such as mines as your ships won't respond immediately. If you don't have said active/passive search you'll learn about the missiles when your ships blow up and it will plow through the rest of the increments.

deaths due to accidents are fairly rare though, and in 10 months not a whole lot of time is likely to be wasted, likewise research can be qued up, and you can estimate how long until it will be done, then force that # increment.

[Proteus_MST]

Yep, you´re right there, of course ... better a few 5 second sub-turns than the same number of full 1 day turns

Seems like we don´t have to worry about it anymore in 5.70 ...
dunno if Steve, by chance, stumbled upon my postings,
or if he did it of his own accord ...
either way, Steve has taken out the Autostop for messages that concern your leaders for version 5.70

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.ph....html#msg49789

[Proteus_MST]

Is there any way tro unload troops from drop modules on Shuttles into their own troop quarters?

I made a nice Boarding ship, that sonsists of enough troop quarters to carry 8 marine companies with him, as well as enough hangar space to incorporate 8 drop shuttles (small 250 tons fighter craft with one drop module each) and a small escort of 2 500 ton fighters.

Before its first assignment (boarding crippled enemy small craft that couldn´t get turned into wrecks but just disappeared after destruction [Star Swarm soldiers, as it later turned out to be]) I loaded all drop shuttles beforehand, so that I wouldn´t have to perform this lengthy process within the enemy system and boarded all crippled craft remaining with one marine company each, which only took hald of the units.
Well, thanks to me not thinking all through, I forgot to add shipos with empty< hangars, so that now my boarding fleet (which is slower than my combat fleet) sits at the jump point to the enemy system and guards a lot of small craft, while my combat fleet has freed all of its hangars and uses them to ferry star swarm soldiers to Terra.

Well, meanwhile my marines are sitting in their small drop shuttles in the roomy Hangar of the Tt Störtebeker all the time and get (understandably) grumpy, because I haven´t found a way to transfer them back from the drop shuttles into their nice roomy troop quarters aboard the ship.
I can see them listes within the task group as xth Marine-Company CDM [CDM probably Company drop module] but I havent found any order like "Unload Ground toops from Drop Modules" or "Transfer Ground troops" ... only a command for ther other way round (i.e. transfer troops into drop modules) is available.
Is there any way I overlooked or is the only way to unload troops from drop modules either via friendly colonies, of by doing boarding combat/combat drops (with no option to unload them in space)???

[Whoha]

Is there any way tro unload troops from drop modules on Shuttles into their own troop quarters?

Nope, those troops are prepped for a combat drop. find some rock to drop them on, and your troop transport can pick them back up if you're not prepared to assault someones ships/planet. As near as I can tell everyone runs into this problem, and it gets posted to the main forum every so often.