I’m currently downloading it off Stardocks site but was wondering if anyone has started playing it yet and what your thoughts are so far? I hope to have it down and loaded later this evening.
-XT
I have never heard of this but i gotta give it props for the cool name. I think i’ll check it out.
Does it have sound in space? If it does, I’m not playing it.
Here is a Gamespy link if you are interested (it’s a preview…the game only came out today).
I’ve downloaded the game and the first thing I notice is…no manual. And the first tutorial doesn’t seem to work (though the other 4 do). The game is pretty cool graphically but there is a lot going on here that I’m missing. First game I over built on my primary planet and didn’t go out to capture additional planets so that limited the amount of research I could do (it is dependent on orbital research facilities…which take up logistics slots).
Anyway, doesn’t seem anyone else is playing so I’ll let the thread die unless someone is interested later.
-XT
I’m interested in the game but haven’t played it yet.
Well, I’ll update this then as I figure stuff out. Right atm I’m simply the punch bunny for the other races as I attempt to figure out how to play this game. 
-XT
It sounds interesting. I like the stuff they say about it being slower-paced and more conservative with unit production. I always like building up my base better than cranking out units and attacking.
I think I’ll wait for the reviews.
Yeah, I have to agree that it’s a slower pace than you would expect for a real time game. No ‘tank rush’ that I’ve seen so far…of course I’m playing it on the easiest setting.
The pirate raids are certainly annoying thus far. I think one of the other empires is buying them off and sending them at me.
-XT
I downloaded the game last night (the box should arrive tomorrow sometime) but I only got about an hour or so play time before responsabilities beckoned.
Of what little I did see, I really liked 99% of. I’m running a core duo 2.8 ghz and a Geforce 8800 GTX. The game runs smooth as silk at 1680x1050. The graphics are about what I expected for an RTS that needs to render dozens or even hundreds of ships at once. Nicely detailed but not jaw dropping, and some fo the planetary textures could be a little higher rez, but overall look very nice.
I tried out all the tutorials; they were all pretty short and sweet and gave me all the info I needed to get started at least. I did run into the tutorial bug, though I got around it by quitting and restarting the first tutorial a few times. They all worked after that.
I only got to play about 15 minutes or so against an easy AI in a small map. My impressions:
The pace of the game is slower than most other RTS I’ve played. This is good IMHO, and there are options you can tweak to make the game more fast paced if that’s what you want.
I love how the logistics of fleet control and the higher durability of units play out. In other RTS’s you send out a small army to the enemy base and hope for the best, either way it’s all over in a few seconds. In SoASE the durability of units, and the time required to warp to a different planet means strategy is key. Where do you attack from? Where do you station your reinforcements? And when do you send them in to help considering the ETA? It was really cool getting a taunt form the AI essentially telling me to kiss my planet goobye as a large fleet deployed nearby. My small defenses battled for their lives! It was so much fun when my reinforcements started popping in from hyperspace to save the day!
Space pirates where a cool addition too. You can place bounties on other players to entice pirates to attack their worlds. The AI did this to me before I figured out how it worked
So i’m impressed right now, but then again I’ve only played for about an hour, I’ll see how the rest of my game plays out tonight.
I liked the pirate raid idea, but I haven’t played thatmuch yet. I can see it getting annoying if it happens too frequently. I heard you can eliminate the pirate base on the map. Does this affect pirate bounties for the rest of the game?
I haven’t figured out how to set bounties on other races yet…they have done that to me so I have periodic pirate raids on my home worlds. The AI seems fairly intelligent so far to, even at the easy setting. Fixed defenses with a mobile force is what I’ve been using to cover the frontier worlds but you really have to watch yourself as you only have so much logistics and the drain on your economy as your fleet gets larger is really a major factor.
I finally figured out why my capital ships were always getting their asses kicked. I didn’t realize you could upgrade the ships and crew on the individual ships. Once I did that things got a little easier. It was fun to build up a powerful fleet and raid the other guys for a change! I ended up netting a world out of it (though a combination pirate raid and a major push by one of the alien races wiped it out later on…it’s currently contested as some of my own mobile fleet survived that hammer and no one can colonize it without having the planet shredded again).
My impressions so far are along the same lines as you…it runs good and looks good. There are a lot of interesting twists on the usual RTS formula in this game. It will be interesting once I figure how to do some of the things I’m glossing over atm (bounties and the diplomacy screen). It’s cool that you need to take more planets to continue to research (you need orbital weapons and civilian labs to research technologies and there are only so many logistics slots in any give planets gravity well).
-XT
I haven’t seen the pirate base yet…if it’s out there it’s in one of the unexplored systems. I sent out scout ships early but I guess the other races are in default ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ mode because every one of them got wacked.
-XT
For setting bounties, if its like the beta, there is a diplomacy button at the top next to the research button. Next to the other player/s name on the right side of the screen is the bounty button. Just click it to add money. Once you click it you can’t change your mind and take it back.
Ok…I saw that last night. I was wondering what that did. :smack: I’ll have to try that tonight. This game could be seriously addictive I’m thinking.
-XT
I’m potentially interested in this game and what I’m hearing in this thread is good stuff so far. However I’m a stickler for not buying games until I’ve read at least one review, so until then…
I checked earlier…neither GameSpy nor IGN has an ‘out of the box’ review yet. Give it a couple of days. Based on the last preview from both I’d say the review is going to be pretty good. Not a lot changed from January 30th until yesterday I’m thinking.
As of this afternoon it wasn’t on the shelves in the Best Buy up the road from my work…MMV though in your own area. By the time reviews start coming out and folks have a chance to decide I’m betting it will be on the shelves everywhere. If not you can directly download it from Stardock (I can give a link if anyone needs it). That’s where I get all of the Galactic Civ games from directly.
-XT
there is at least one: http://www.gamedaily.com/games/sins-of-a-solar-empire/pc/game-reviews/review/5553/1948/
More should come out within the next few days. The game just shipped out monday, so most people are only getting it today. I can’t wait to get home and play!
Sounds like Anacreon. I really liked that game.
lol…my thoughts exactly! I am SO not into building out this firewall…I want to head home and wack some aliens. When I finally figured out how to build up a fleet and sent it on that raid…well, it was a thing of beauty. I’m all over doing that again and maybe finding out of those pesky pirates ARE out there somewhere…and getting some payback!
-XT
If there’s enough interest maybe we can get an SDMB match going sometime this week! Anyone interested?