Sins of a Solar Empire...

Coming next year to a store near you...

https://www.sinsofasolarempire.com
from GalCiv2 Forums

Stardock is pleased to announce that it has teamed up with Ironclad Games to publish a new real-time space strategy game called Sins of a Solar Empire.

Sins of a Solar Empire puts the player in command of an interstellar civilization. That part no doubt sounds familiar to Galactic Civilizations fans. But unlike Galactic Civilizations, Sins is real-time.  Players colonize planets, create trade routes, negotiate treaties and build up their military might to send out epic fleets that do battle across many planets.  The game is being designed such that players do no have to baby-sit their units. The unit AI can more than take care of itself allowing players, if they wish, to focus on running their empire.

In terms of what the game play is like, probably the best analogy would be that it plays quite a bit like Homeworld meets Galactic Civilizations meets Total Annihilation. It has a truly epic feel like Galactic Civilizations, has a visual and game play feel like Homeworld but allows the player to queue up commands and build a strong strategy ala Total Annihilation. It's not about how fast you can click, it's about how good of a strategy you can put together.

Players will be able to see this for themselves this Winter in a public beta program.  In a couple weeks, players will be able to start pre-ordering the game. Users who pre-order will be able to participate in the beta.  The release date of the game was intentionally pushed all the way back to August of 2007 so that beta testers could give feedback not just about bugs and such but provide game play suggestions and feedback as well so that there is ample time to incorporate user feedback into the final game.  The goal is to create something truly special that will stand the test of time.

To learn more about the game, you can visit www.sinsofasolarempire.com (or http://sins.stardock.com). Your UserID and Password from GalCiv2.com will work there as well.

!FROGCARE!

25,212 views 38 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
you guys keep on making these good games and im going to run out of money and time...

why does something so fun have to cost me so much!  
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I like it, this has the potential to be a real genre-breaker, like Hegemonia could have been. Hopefully they keep the focus on the RTS part, though.
SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
quick question though what is exactly stardocks involvement in this project? are they actually doing any developement with ironlore or are they just helping out with the financial backing, distribution, and website?
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ironclad is developing Sins, while we're doing all the publishing/marketing/etc.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Please do not block external input from voice dictation programs like DragonDictate. I am a Galactic Civilizations II junkie because it doesn't interfere with DragonDictate in any way at all. Some games allow input, GC2 allows complete harmony with my dictation program.

Games that block external input can be real heartbreakers for me. Take Defcon: Everybody Dies by Introversion as an example. The controls are simple, nothing beyond DragonDictate. Unfortunately, I can't play it because the program blocks any outside keystrokes.

Blocking external input is a philosophical decision, not a necessary technical decision. If you can avoid the philosophical decision, you'll make an extra $50.

Not much, I know. However, when you make things accessible, they become accessible to everybody.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Awesome! It sounds like this game will be the same quailty that GCII is! Soon Stardock will be a brand name that means great space games!
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
As I said in the other thread from last night, I'm definitely psyched by this news. It's good to see a quality-looking game being published by a quality company.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Will this be available for pre-ordering, or at least ordering, with tokens at totalgaming.net?

I still can't figure out how to use tokens to pre-order the GalCiv II expansion. Maybe I'm missing something at that site.

I recall that GalCiv2 was the first game published by Stardock itself. If so, does that make SoaSE the first Stardock-published game done by outside devs?

Inquiring minds want to know.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I recall that GalCiv2 was the first game published by Stardock itself. If so, does that make SoaSE the first Stardock-published game done by outside devs?


Not counting all the indie games and older titles that are available only on line, yes.

Will this be available for pre-ordering, or at least ordering, with tokens at totalgaming.net?


It should, once we're ready to put it up there (maybe in a few weeks).

I still can't figure out how to use tokens to pre-order the GalCiv II expansion. Maybe I'm missing something at that site.


You should just need to go here and click the preorder button under '3 Tokens'.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You should just need to go here and click the preorder button under '3 Tokens'.


D'oh! (Smacks forehead).

Thanks   .

Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hmmm, looks very interesting. Might even get me to momentarily forget my eternal hatred of all things RTS just long enough to pre-order it.   

Of course, then I'd just have to play it a little bit too.   
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It seems a little odd to me in that this game coming out when it is seems like it would be competing with Dark Avatar when it is released. I'm sure Stardock doesn't want that, but I'd imagine there's some people who would only want to purchase one space strategy game in that general timeframe next year.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It seems a little odd to me in that this game coming out when it is seems like it would be competing with Dark Avatar when it is released.


DA will be out six months before Sins, so I don't think it'll be an issue. Particularly as the two take very different approaches to space strategy.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just keep us posted on when we can get the pre-order.
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I lost interest in RTS games long time ago but this one seems quite interesting.   
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I lost interest in RTS games long time ago but this one seems quite interesting.


I agree, with the first part. I'm not clear on whether or not this one will be able to break that chain. If the AI is a mess like alot of RTSs seem to get into, and no matter how much people say its not going to be a twitchfest they still seem to wind up that way.

I dunno, I'll keep an eye on it I suppose, but it looks like its geared more to MP anyway. At least that's the excuse that will pop up when people start complaining about the AI
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, I'm guessing it's not "real-time" in the RTS sense, but more like continuous time. Some preliminary reports on their forums indicate that it'll take several minutes to travel between stars, and 10 minutes to travel between galaxies. That sounds promising.

I also have a dislike for RTS games, but I'm cautiously optimistic. Old games like Harpoon (now I'm showing my age) were continuous time as well, but certainly nothing like RTS games.
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
2 questions:

- what will be the mod-compatibility of this marvelous/drool-provoking game?

- Can you make it possible to import ship designs from the GalCiv2's library? (based on simple "look")
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
No Questions....

I don't know whether most people can see thepotential of this. This si big news if you are a Homeworld I/II or GalCiv I/II fan. Really big news!

One of the things that always pained me about the homeworld series was the fact that while it was excellent and engaging it did lack scale from the standpoint of being large.

Some developers, who were fans of the Homeworld series, emulated an attempt to expand on the Homeworld idea in different ways. One of the most notable is the EVE Online MMO.

The largest problem of course is that MMO's by their nature expand concepts through large geography and time sinks- but introduce little else into the gameplay mechanics that are substantive.

Of course this is just my opinion, because I find MMO's generally ungratifying as a gameplay experience. I do play one (WoW) but mostly to spend time with my wife and friends.

Anyhow, this could be an excellent (and successful!) attempt to bring the magic of excellent turn based gaming and Homeworld style play together- resulting in (?)!

I wouldn't venture to predict what the outcome would be of this combo, but given my opinion of these two dev teams I'll buy anything they make. Period.

I'm such a fanboi of these two teams... Wow- Great news!
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
God can this be the game I have wanted for so long?!? If you guys add the shipbuilding from Galactic Civ 2, and make the realtime combat work this could be the perfect game. I don't think I can wait to 2007 to find out!!!
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The ability to customize ships - plus - real-time strategy. I would be in heaven!
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The lack of races is a downside.I like epic games with loads of different races,alliances,etc.
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Any game that plays anything like Homeworld is very welcome in my book...
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The lack of races is a downside.I like epic games with loads of different races,alliances,etc.


Its supposed to be more like homeworld, that game had only 2 "races".

Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I bet it will be a "not many races-many faction/races" feature. Less, less, less ship-designing..

Think of StarCraft

Terrans:
Confederation
Sons of Khoral
Umojan Federation (?)
Kel-Morian Protectorate (Something like that..)

so about the Zergs, and etc..

If you applied it to GalCiv2, you would have the Terrans, the Torians and the Drengins. But there would be:

-Drengins who still are in their homeworld
-Drengins who lives near the former Torian enslaved world, and allied themselves with them against their former homeworld
-Korath who plans to destroy the galaxy

-Torians who lives on their homeworld
-Torian refugees who seek revenge at all cost
-(Insert other Torian faction idea)

so about the Terrans.. Would be neat. Specially if, when you play the Terrans, you really had to deal with internal political arguments betweens internal factions