Comments on: The RPS Bargain Bucket: Something Else

By: Malibu Stacey

Malibu Stacey — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:04:05 +0000

I’d disagree (slightly). At the start of a game SotS is pretty light on the planetary management stuff but the more stuff you research (trade for example) increases the amount of effort you can put in to have your colonies running at ‘optimal’ efficiency.
You can however just not research those things or even if you do you can get by without developing the use of those technologies if you can’t really be bothered (and obviously lose out on the benefits). One of the good things about the games tech-tree is anything which is a “must have” tech as far as economics goes is either a pre-requisite to a ship or weapon tech which you’re really going to want or is tied to a ship or weapon upgrade (e.g. Waldo units give 10% reduction to ship building costs, 15% increase to your industrial output and gives you the very useful Hammerhead ship section). Also there appears to be very few, if any, pointless techs which you research just to unlock something else you actually want (everything has a use even if you’re not interested in that use particularly).

By: Railick

Railick — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:27:35 +0000

Might have to get mount and blade again, will be the 4th time I've purchased it :P

By: James

James — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:34:55 +0000

Sorry, it just isn’t. Competitive play is heavily biased towards the Brits, especially with the recent Tales of Valour.

It’s a cracking, cracking game though.

By: Vinraith

Vinraith — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:45:23 +0000

SotS is pretty sparse on colony management by design, what you want for that is Galactic Civilizations 2.

By: Oak

Oak — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:26:55 +0000

I have a debilitating condition that makes me play any RTS with base-building as if it were a city builder, so I was keen on getting Sins in the hopes that it would coddle me with all sorts of planetary management and oribital colonies and the ability to trade space widgets with moonmen. It didn’t do that, of course. No, it sent fleets of spaceships to blow all my stuff up and remind me that I am simply abominable at strategy games. I’m not holding a grudge, though. It’s a fine game, just not what I was looking for.

Sword of the Stars is sounding pretty interesting, however.

By: TCM

TCM — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:23:20 +0000

I like Sins quite a bit, but the time it takes to play intimidates me too much to play it with any kind of regularity.

I even finish off my Civ IV runs with one sitting, but that’s nigh impossible for Sins.

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:54:56 +0000

Actually, although initially Sins appealed considerably, for me the love affair was over swiftly. It just feels like about the standard amount of RTS fiddlery but with less personality and stretched over a much longer timeframe, which leaves it a bit thin on the ground to be fun for me.

By: Vinraith

Vinraith — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:43:40 +0000

Sins just felt painfully shallow to me. It’s certainly pretty, and the scale is enormous for an RTS, but there’s not much there. Then again, when they originally said it was going to be a real time 4X space game I was thinking in terms of a sort of real time Gal Civ 2, the space equivalent of Europa Universalis or the like. Sins is more of an RTS, in the Starcraft sense of the word, but with an unusually large scale and a lot more bases.

I didn’t work for me, but I seem to be the only person on Earth that didn’t enjoy it, so your mileage may vary.

Honestly, having played SotS, I can’t imagine ever going back to Sins. Turn-basedness aside, SotS is much closer to what I wanted Sins to be than Sins was: a streamlined 4X space strategy game with a focus on combat.

By: DarkNoghri

DarkNoghri — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:29:59 +0000

Also, as far as I can tell: It still uses the non-revocable 3 activation Tages DRM.

By: Dominic White

Dominic White — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:38:51 +0000

N’thing what others have said. Sword of The Stars may have started out fairly ropey, but after all the expansions and patches (I REALLY reccomend getting the all-in-one pack), it’s easily the best 4x I’ve played since Master of Orion 2. Possibly better, due to the seriously lovely combat engine.

Only gripes I have with it are that it may take a while for it to ‘click’ with you (took me a whole dedicated night of play to get the hang of things), and that some of the art/voicework are amateur hour. The backstory fluff is excellent – written by Arrin Dembo, who also wrote the backstory/setting stuff for Homeworld, Arcanum, Ground Control and a bunch of other stuff. There’s also an SoTS novel which is pretty fun stuff, which she wrote as well.

Sins of A Solar Empire is more of an RTS on a large scale with some 4x elements, wheras Sword of The Stars is on the opposite side. It’s primarily a 4x game that integrates some RTS elements very nicely.

By: Malibu Stacey

Malibu Stacey — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:33:08 +0000

This. So much.

Bought SOTS when the complete pack plus the Argos Naval Yard expansion was on a Steam sale as linked a few months ago in one of these very same Bargain Buckets. Worth every penny.
It is honestly one of the best 4X games I have played (not done Sins of a Solar Empire yet though). Each race has so much depth to them even though at first glance there may not look like much difference between the races. Playing Humans is very different to playing Liir which are very different to playing Tarka & Hivers are a whole other game altogether (haven’t started Zuul or Morrigi yet).
As Vinraith says the story is very rich. Reminds me a lot of the Babylon 5 setting.
The only thing I would change would be to add more tactical depth to the real time battles but from what I hear they’re working on a sequel in which they intend to develop it.

sinister agent – as Vinraith says get the complete pack which is the full game plus the first 2 expansion packs which add the 5th & 6th races. Argos Naval Yard you may be able to live without but from reading the manuals & patch notes you really need the first 2 expansions for it to be a ‘complete’ game. Also it’s very different to Light of Altair, it’s more like Total War in space.

By: Vinraith

Vinraith — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:14:29 +0000

Just be sure not to judge the game by the base title, the expansions add massive amounts of content. I played the original back in the day and thought it was pretty uninteresting, but the complete version is among my favorite games.