Sins of a Solar Empire

[Colon™]

I don't see why TBS'ers need to be so wary towards RTS. Isn't Sim City real-time as well after all? Railroad & Transport Tycoon?

The game looks pretty interesting. Does it have enough of an economic model that it matters? Doesn't need to be complex, but I'd still like to have the feeling I'm controlling a mighty economy or something.

[snoopy369]

RTS is a very different game than TBS, at least as it's been made in the past. Particularly, it is much more geared towards 'fast' thinking instead of 'deep' thinking; one description is 'twitch-fest'. There's no reason it has to be this way, but it tends towards it (particularly in MP, where it's hard to imagine a system where a faster thinker wouldn't have an advantage). Even competitive Civ MP games tend towards this (blazing timer, high unit levels, hard to finish turn in time). This tends to favor the 'zerg-rush' tactics at any given level (particularly as people are impatient and want a game that ends reasonably quickly).

[Colon™]

C&C style tactical games tend toward fast-geared action, yes. There's no reason why real-time should by definition be C&C style though (or indeed, why C&C style by definition cannot be turn-based). It's a shame the preconconception got hold (you indicate yourself turn-based can be fast-geared), since it makes for less variation.

[Crossfire]

So, now that this has been out for a while, what is everyone's opinion?

[Asher]

I quite like it, though I'm not sure how deep it is.

[Sarxis]

Not really 'deep', no. But a nice new take on a space RTS.

[DRoseDARs]

I tried really hard to like it, but it just wasn't crossing past the "Meh" threshold for me.

[Spaced Cowboy]

I've tried hard to like it too, but that is real hard when it is still shrink wrapped sitting on my shelf.

[Jamski]

I downloaded this from Stardock (still no EU release, why?) and I'm rather enjoying it. I like the magpie approach the devs have used, stealing the good bits from other games. Having played Warcraft 3, Rise of Nations, Supreme Commander, Homeworld etc, I felt quite at home with the way in which the game is meant to be played.

By the way - turn gamespeed up to 2x and play online in a 4-player FFA match. You'll not be bored.

[Island Dog]

Demo is now out!

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...d_6188180.html

[Sharpe]

Just started trying it - its ok so far - decent addition to space strategy games.

Only complaints so far would be the seeming lack of a single player campaign or story (seems odd given the background given in the intro) and it might have been better if they had followed the Age of Mythology model and created 2-3 unique subfactions of each "race" to allow for more diverse situations.

[Jamski]

Multiplayer is fun, but needs option to adjust game speed. Default speed is deathly slow.

[Wiglaf]

It is immensely annoying to want to build x ship, only to realize you need y technology, which requires z military research buildings, which requires a logistics upgrade back at base, all of which cost varying amounts of different resources. The sheer amount of arbitrary **** to keep in the back of your mind prevents this from being as good as it thinks it is. It is like a girl who your friends set you up with, telling you she likes only Hugh Grant movies, giraffes and medium rare **** and if you mess any of these things up she will bite you in the ass, only in the game it actually happens every time. It'd be best in small multiplayer games with 2-3 people.

Also, hiring ten year old kids for the voiceovers was not a good move. I felt like this was Ender's game except the kid is an adult commanding kindergarteners, which just perverts the whole book for me.

[Stuie]

I keep meaning to come back to this now that the 1.3 patch is out.

I have too many games to play.

[Sandman]

After playing the demo, I agree with Wiggy. The game drips with arbitary limits on the player. Couldn't they have rolled logistical and tactical support into a planet's development stat, or something? It's like Warcraft with two kinds of farm just for the buildings.