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Sins of a Solar Empire Demo Released

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Sins of a Solar Empire Demo Released

Single-player demo now available at Gamespot

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/sinsofasolarempire/download_6188180.html
from GalCiv2 Forums

Ironclad Games and Stardock Entertainment are proud to announce the release of the first Sins of a Solar Empire demo!  Available at Gamespot, the single-player only demo offers a taste of the full game for those who haven't yet taken the plunge into galactic warfare.

Features:

  • Play as the Trader Emergency Coalition (TEC)
  • Learn the basics through four tutorials
  • Fight on two small scenario maps against up to two AI players
  • Conquer a randomly generated medium map against up to three AI players
  • 90 minutes of play time

If you've been waiting to check out Sins of a Solar Empire, head on over to Gamespot for the download today.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/sinsofasolarempire/download_6188180.html

43,415 views 39 replies
Reply #26 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I say the same about GalCiv 2.
End of quote


You can't "say the same" without saying more. The quote chunk you include talks about both GC2 and Sins. I have no sure idea whether you dislike one, the other, or both games.

I can guess you don't much like either of them because you say "too little micromangement" about Sins, but if that's seriously your take, I'd rather you'd started a series of threads long ago. I have a pretty serious set of conflicts between my interest in detail and my aversion to repetitive clicking, and I have some hopes that the Stardock folks can give me satisfaction in the long haul. I think someone like you could help me get more of what I want if you were more specific about what you want.
Reply #27 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Okay, first thing first. The 'Sign me in' at the bottom of the page goes to a 'Site go boom' page. I had to use the login boxes at the top of the page.

I'd like to be able to download this via SDC or BT. Because it is such a big download, http and ftp for me just disconnect halfway through (or worse, near the end).
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Reply #28 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
since it's to little micromanagement in it.
End of quote


Too little micromanagement?? I've just played the demo, and it kept my mouse very busy. Having to figure out technologies, planet improvements, building perquisites, etc all in real time is a bit overwhelming. There's a lot of stuff to keep track of, and I have troubles trying to figure out what improvements I want my planets to have and which technologies I need. It's actually a lot of stuff.
Reply #29 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This game sure looks interesting, but I haven't had this much trouble with camera control since I played the Homeworld 2 demo. Things don't seem to stay centered on the screen, and it takes forever to find the right combination of rotate/drag/zoom to get the view you want. I think I spent more time finding my ships than actually flying them.

So what's the trick this time? Gal Civ 2 has the click-drag thing instead of edge scrolling, which made me think the game was crap until I searched around the forums, and I'm guessing there's some similarly useful-but-unusual mechanic in Sins. Otherwise, I don't see how the game is even playable.
Reply #30 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, here's sorta how it feels to me: You use the scroll wheel, and the zoom follows the mouse cursor. You zoom out, place the mouse over where you want to zoom in, and zoom in. That is what I think the designers intended the primary form of navigation to be.

In addition, the camera seems to automatically "snap" to the nearest unit. Which is nice, except it's easy for it to snap onto the wrong unit.

In addition, The middle mouse button pans the view, and edge scrolling works.

The biggest thing I think would help is if the currently selected unit(s) is outside the view, that an arrow near the edge of the screen point to where it is located. I've seen that in other games, and it's something I think Sins should have.
Reply #31 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sins of a Solar Empire looks cool and all, but... I'd like to hear when that game I bought from you guys is going to be released. You know, the one I pre-ordered last year that was going to be released in december, then january, then... when?

Come on guys, 5 month delays are ok if the final product is better for it, but you've been quiet for a while now and a lot of us paid for this thing already.
Reply #32 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I say the same about GalCiv 2.
End of quote


You can't "say the same" without saying more. The quote chunk you include talks about both GC2 and Sins. I have no sure idea whether you dislike one, the other, or both games. I can guess you don't much like either of them because you say "too little micromangement" about Sins, but if that's seriously your take, I'd rather you'd started a series of threads long ago. I have a pretty serious set of conflicts between my interest in detail and my aversion to repetitive clicking, and I have some hopes that the Stardock folks can give me satisfaction in the long haul. I think someone like you could help me get more of what I want if you were more specific about what you want.
End of quote


I dislike GalCiv 2. Haven't tried Sins yet (must upgrade first) but from Brad has said and showed the focus is on macromanagement just like SupCom which makes micromanagement like in Company in Heroes and Dawn of War not worth it.

Haven't tried SupCom and CoH either but will when I have upgraded (yeah, my computer is pretty old....).

If you've tried Majesty, then imagine the ability to spend a little gold to be able to manually control one hero for a short time. That would be awesome.

As you may see by now, I'm more of a Dawn of War, Diablo 2 and Age of Wonders guy instead of GalCiv 2, Civilization and SupCom guy so I'm not the typical 4x guy but from you said about "I have a pretty serious set of conflicts between my interest in detail and my aversion to repetitive clicking, and I have some hopes that the Stardock folks can give me satisfaction in the long haul" I think we like the same type of games.

I guess that a modern Master of Magic with great depth is what we're both looking for :)
Reply #33 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sins of a Solar Empire looks cool and all, but... I'd like to hear when that game I bought from you guys is going to be released. You know, the one I pre-ordered last year that was going to be released in december, then january, then... when?Come on guys, 5 month delays are ok if the final product is better for it, but you've been quiet for a while now and a lot of us paid for this thing already.
End of quote


Quiet? They released a new beta last Thursday and Brad's posted 3 dev journals since, what more do you want?

And you do realize that Sins wasn't developed by Stardock, right, just published by them?
Reply #34 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

That is a major Marketing Gaff - someone is not thinking .... people are sick of signing on everything and anything just because they showed an interest and raised their head above the parapit. That tactic throws back to early marketing days on the Internet when - as such - it was new, different etc. People didnt mind, it was all new, few sign on's etc. Now they use it so much its a Royal Pain. Test and Measure those who did sign on to get it over the following month - I'll bet you got nothing out of it.
End of quote

We did the same thing with GalCiv. Things seemed to have turned out there.

In the meantime, let me finish washing your wind shield...

Reply #35 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
By Azura by Azura by Azura! Its Frogboy! I can't believe its you, posting here, next to me...
Reply #36 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I had expected to find a Demo button in my SDC interface.
Neither I like to give my data to websites. Hope you'll add it to SDC.
Reply #37 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Interesting thing happened: The first game I played on the demo lasted 4 hours and let me conquer the entire map. It wasn't until my second game the following day that I noticed there was 90 minute limit, whereby it started affecting me. Ugh... unfortunately I've got no way of buying the game available to me.
Reply #38 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Great to see a demo finally released. I am really impressed by how much you can scale the graphics to suit old machines. I know Brad talked a lot about this before the game was released, but it is amazing to see it in action, basically being able to change a planet from a very finely detailed model down to a pixellated blob if required. It's shaped up pretty well on my 4 year old machine with rubbish GeForce 5200 graphics card. The AI seems fine as well despite what certain whiners have said, the computer players developed varied fleets and I managed to get destroyed within the 90 minute time limit on one of the scenarios, with two Normal difficulty players.

Overall, seems like a great game. I still want to hold off on purchasing until my computer is upgraded later this year so I can experience the game in all its glory. Will look at PM 2008 in the meantime since it seems to have very low required specs.
Reply #39 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
After registering using www.slopsbox.com  ;)  on gamespot all I get is

"You don't have permission to access /sd/C2ZYhbmefArZdFnJrOGcUXgOCJrDzIZfMYoKVIhBJBxDnOWOkkLXQHZMUJhAzTbhQWzyrWAtHx-eSmV48AYTD0JDaQeEZgdP/d4/gsc/strategy/sinsofasolarempire/Sins_of_a_Solar_Empire_Demo.exe on this server."


Edit : Download its working now...so everybody use and abuse of slopsbox when asked for an email for registering ! The activation email is perfectly arrived in the fake email I created and I suppose all the spam they will send after also. If later I need to return on this site and I dont remember I can create a new account easily.