Yes. If you are watching massive battles in gameplay videos for the first time and wondering to yourself, "how the hell could I control this" than this post is for you...There are 8 reasons why this game is very easy to play:
1. Zoom – have you ever played a game and wished you could just pull out to see the ‘big picture’ without feeling restricted. SINS allows you to pull back as far as you like, allowing you to see as many units, structures, planets, or solar systems as you like! There is no separate map or mode. Just point and zoom
2. Icons – Every faction in the game has its own unique icon, up to 10 players, plus NPC units. At the beginning of the game you can pick a custom icon out of a large selection. When you are zoomed in close the icons appear above ships, planets, and structures so you can quickly tell who is who. When you zoom out so far that your unit can’t be seen in 3D, an icon of the unit (in your player color) appears in its place. You can do everything with these icons as you can with the actual 3D unit.
3. Color – When you are up close in battle you can see colored stripes, lights, and exhaust that help you tell enemy units from your own. You also have the option of viewing all enemies as red , friendlies as blue , and yourself as green .
4. Empire tree – while it may be a new concept to games, the empire tree is basically just a controllable navigation tree on the left side of your screen, sort of like windows explorer. It allows you to see which ships and structures are at which planets. You can expand or close the tree to your personal preference. You can select any unit or planet in the tree and give your orders without having to actually be there! There are some fancy advanced features that will make your life easier too – stacking similar units, a search function (for those pesky ships that get lost) and a ‘pin’ button that lets you choose what you want to keep in the tree.
5. Alt – Press ‘Alt’ on your keyboard and you’ll get a ton of extra information on anything you see on screen – Health bars, rank, planet names, a tactical grid, the range of your weapons, and lines to show you where your ships are moving and attacking.
6. Low Micromanagement
a. Auto-attack – any unit that can attack and also auto-attack with the click of a button. The unit AI picks targets intelligently based on the ships role, so you don’t need to worry about micromanaging every single ship the whole game.
b. Auto-abilities – ships and structures know what they are supposed to do, if you order them to do so. Your colony ship with go ahead and colonize, your scout will auto scout, and your siege ships will siege a planet. Capital ships have powerful abilities, and you want to be careful which abilities you want to automate in battle (so you don’t consume all your antimatter).
c. Fleets – grab units, click the fleet button and just command the fleet leader. You don’t have to worry about everyone; they’ll stay together AND perform their duties intelligently in the process.
d. Control groups – Select some ships, press CTRL and any number. Use that number to control the group.
e. Queuing – You can’t research and build everything at once, but you can give the orders ahead of time!
f. Moving in 3D – this is not near as intimidating as it looks. Just move as you would in a standard RTS - the game can handle the up and down for you. It isn't hard to get lost because you can always zoom out and see the big picture. Also, you can easily set multiple paths for your ships to follow.
7. Streamlined InterfaceWho wants to play a game with a third of the interface dominating the screen? We did everything possible to keep the UI sleek and intuitive, so you could have more space for combat!
a. There may be a lot going on in your empire, but there is plenty of warning for key events. Vocal alerts and large event buttons warn you when your empire may be in trouble or experiences an important milestone. At the top of the screen, a large flashing research, diplomacy, or pirate button will let you know if your research is complete, if a player wants to engage in diplomatic relations, or if bounty is placed on your head! Portraits of other players will also flash on your screen when they have an offer for you. Planet and ship icons will flash red when they are under attack.
b. The UI is context sensitive, so you only see what is relevent to what you have selected. If you can’t purchase a ship, a little icon will appear over the button to tell you want you need (ie. A research icon for 'research required' or a coin for 'credits required'.)
c. You can easily learn about anything in the game by just hovering over it, and reading the ‘infocard’ which pops up in the bottom right corner of your screen.
d. Single and Multiplayer games can be saved whenever you like. Single player games can be paused whenever you like.
8. Learning more
a. Tutorials – The game comes with some great tutorials to get you started. They explain all the controls you’ll need to know to play the game (Basic Gameplay, Basic Logistics, Advanced Interface, and Advanced Logistics)
b. Tips – Random tips will display whenever you load the game.
c. Forums/Chat – How many forums do you know of where developers hang out and answer your questions and actual implement your ideas into a game? Our commitment is more than a great game, it’s a great community. You have skilled wingmen(and women) in our publishing team, our beta testers, and many others ready to help you learn the game. Once the game is out, you’ll also be able to chat in ICO (Ironclad Online) where you can meet friends and coordinate your games.
d. Manual – The game comes with a hefty 80 page Manual. While it doesn't cover EVERYTHING, it will give all the necessary skills to play effectively. You'll probably enjoy the backstory as well If you ordered the game online you can find your PDF manual in your game folder: Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\Sins of a Solar Empire\Manual.pdf
Good rp post there sir... good... good... i think planets need women and children in their icons... or something i don't know...
the people in the ships need to be reminded what they are fighting for... not for glory or money.. but for there wives mothers and daughters.
Playing Strategies : -
Keep in mind, however, that these technologies are a supplement to accretion Civilian Infrastructure on a accustomed planet, not a backup for it. Terran planets accept the accomplished accustomed citizenry cap, and the TEC is by itself assertive to accomplishment this the most. The Vasari accept the added end of the spectrum, authoritative the almost bordering (because of their low citizenry cap) Volcano worlds stronger.The Vasari accept a akin 2 technology that enhances the bulk of citizenry advance on all their planets. This does not change the best tax bulk of a planet, but does affect how bound a planet alcove that best tax rate.Credits are aswell acclimated to pay pirates to arrest somebody abroad instead of you. A assets can be accessible for that purpose, but bethink that you should be able to acquisition the charlatan abject of a arrangement aboriginal and plan defenses accordingly. With practice, there should be actual few times if you feel you accept to abstain a Charlatan advance by spending money. The Advent has an bend on agreement bounties with their Persuasive Offers Akin 1 Technology that increases the bulk of anniversary acclaim spent on bounty.Finally, credits can be acclimated to buy Basal Address acquaintance levels. This is advantageous in the midgame if you wish anew purchased basal ships to accept at atomic one akin beneath their belt afore sending them into battle. The bulk appropriate is acceptable too ample for aboriginal in the game. To use this feature, bang on the training button in the Basal Ship's adeptness alternative window. Anniversary band has a technology to admission the best trainable level, with the Vasari advancing ancient (Level 3) and the TEC advancing in last.MetalMetal is becoming by architecture ability extractors on Metal Asteroids. These are not begin orbiting Ice planets, but are accessible about all others and generally abounding about agitable worlds. Metal plays some role in researching, but takes a aback bench to clear in that attention -- akin 1 technologies do not even crave metal to research. Metal finds its primary use in architecture ships. The a lot of basal of Light Frigates in the bold still requires metal to build, and abounding times the metal amount of Frigates will outweigh the clear cost. If you wish to accumulate a abiding fleet, you will charge to attending for metal.Each band can admission their metal abstraction bulk by 40% through technologies. The TEC has the ancient opportunity, with their metal abstraction technology getting akin 1. The Vasari are the endure to aerate this technology, but amalgamate their metal abstraction and clear abstraction technologies for greater analysis efficiency.CrystalCrystal funds analysis and some of the added antimatter-based address types. If you wish to get anywhere in this bold research-wise, you will wish to accept a abiding clear income. The changed of metal, clear is begin about Ice planets and absent from Agitable planets. The Advent has the latest antecedent admission to clear assembly accessory (level 3 as compared to akin 2 for TEC/Vasari).Neutral AsteroidsNeutral Asteroids can be begin wherever a non-colonizable planet is. While you cannot achieve there, assertive ships can expend Antimatter in adjustment to abduction these aloof asteroids. TEC uses their Protev Colony Frigate, Advent uses their Missionary Vessel, and the Vasari use their advance unit, the Jikara Navigator. This puts the Vasari at a audible advantage in abduction aloof asteroids -- both the TEC and the Advent accept to resort to slow, breakable ships that may not even be congenital if a colonizing basal address is used. Having a fast assemblage to go and appropriate aloof asteroids can be a big leg up at the alpha of the game.Enjoy ,
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Do, or do not. There is no "try".
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I want a sins guide I can buy at gamestop so I can have it in my collection and show my kids how awesome games used to be before the vasari invaded us.
great post (:
So is this more like homeworld or like Starcraft (click fest?)
Homeworld. Its not as much as a click fest as homeworld. The unit AI even does a kind of decent job fighting battles itself, for those who like watching their battles more than clicking 1 million times per minute.
spoken like a true addict LOL
While you don't have to micro-manage early, it becomes more critical late in the game as abilities and fleet sizes(imagine having 200+ ships on each side in the same gravity well) ramp up (especially with the titans) and you have to be more creative with how you destroy ships. A problem with the UI is that when you start getting in to massive battles, it becomes difficult to issue bulk orders to groups to destroy other groups of a certain type of ship. Contrary to what the OP says, the AI is not very intelligent at all when selecting targets, or in deciding when to use an ability with a lengthy cooldown. If you want to get the most out of these things, you absolutely must micro-manage to some degree.
For example, say you have an enemy titan parked in your gravity well and a bunch of enemy robotics cruisers hanging around healing it (in addition to a mess of other things running around, think hundreds of ships). Obviously you want to remove the ability for the enemy to repair his big guns, so you decide it's time to take out the robotics cruisers. There are a few ways to try to do this which all sort of fall flat.
1. You can attempt to shift click each ship to issue bulk attack orders. Doesn't work out so well because chasing those little bastards down - especially if you're starting to get a little frame rate drop due to all the action - is a massive pain in the ass.
2. You can attempt to use the sidebar to issue shift click attack orders. This is arguably better, but still suffers from problems. For example, any time any information in the gravity well changes, it will jump the list to the top. This is especially problematic if the list is so long you have to scroll to see the enemy fleet composition but the list keeps jumping around making it hard to impossible to get what you're after.
3. You can set stacked ships view for the sidebar, and use it. This is the easiest method to use, but it has a single caveat. If you shift-click on a stack your group will attack a single target from the group, and once destroyed will go back to automatic orders. So you have to repeatedly reissue this command each time they take a ship out.
It's a fantastic game, and none of these criticisms should stop you from playing, but the interface is definitely not perfect.
I find it too easy on normal setting and did like to play on the next level up, but since recent upgrades any level other than normal seems impossible and this has ruined my enjoyment of the game.
play against 2 normals allied against you, or a 2v3, or try out different victory types or play multiplayer against humans, or get better, hard is not impossible to beat if you avoid the biggest mistakes newbies make
The game is one of my all time favorites. At first, it is difficult to play, but the amount of time it takes to get used to it is amazingly short. The only problem I have is Steam, but that's unimportant. Personally, my thing is the Titan. Taking out two starbases without taking too much damage? Heck yeah.
The simple answer to the question is no. The game interface is created by the inbreed child of the boss probably. It truly is lacking.
"6. Low Micromanagement"
Lol, are you serious? Check out what you'd need to do just to make your ships fire optimally in Cobalts vs. Cobalts: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/453834/page/1/#3462575. I guess you never realized what [mini]game you've designed when you've added the fluctuating shield mitigation.
Or what a huge impact intense/mirco maneuvering can make to the outcome of battles with the same OOB of Gards vs. [their supposed counter] Cobalts: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/455126/page/1/
Oh and the queuing is also rather insufficient by design (even when it doesn't run into bugs like the one discussed further down the previous thread). In particular, the strafe movements require the ship to be stationary for them to initiate, but queuing orders never results in a stationary ship, so strafing movements can't be queued... and neither can be the "full stop" order, which as designed cancels the whole queue. If you could queue "full stop", I suspect you could queue strafe maneuvers too. Why is [manual] strafing necessary or important? It's one of the easiest ways to pull off the "flowerpower" maneuver with Orky, to maximize its firepower. (See https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/454588/page/1/#3469432) And, while we're at that, who thought it would be a good idea for the Orky to have fairly large blind spot on top and for the default behavior of other ships to move over the Orky, thus in its blind spot? The best way (from Orky's firepower perspective) to break that kind of position is the controversial Z-axis (vertical) maneuver, which doesn't even have a key assigned by default.
And my favorite perhaps in the "low micromanagement" department: repair platforms don't auto-cast on planetary construction frigates (even if set to auto-cast on everything else). And those pesky construction frigates can't be constructed on demand (as you probably know and as in most games), but rather you have to wait five full minutes for them to respawn while the enemy is still in the system... with just a single scout, giving the defender the proverbial runaround. So, every time you forget to manually cast repair while the enemy pounces on them, you curse yourself for the next five minutes. Or learn to live without all the stuff the little bugger could have rebuilt during all that time (the resource extractors [multiple times each one in fact at 40 or so seconds per extractor], etc.) You should really watch some skilled MP replays (e.g. Doci vs. Grimm) to see how often killing the critical construction frigates comes into play, as well as how not-so-shy-of-micromanagement=skilled players resort to leaving one or more ships behind with queued movement orders to exploit the 10X slowdown in re-spawn time of the constructor if the enemy is present. Did I mention that constructor frigates have abysmally little self-heal compared to other ships, which compounds this problem? (About 100X less.) Everything related to the little buggers and combat is anything but tons of micromanagement in actually skilled games. If Warcraft were designed like Sins, then peasants would be the true hero units.
While Sins is to be commended for departing from a fair bunch of cliches in the RTS genre, the correct statement really is brand new forms of micromanagement for you to learn (if you want to play well).
(And this forum isn't exactly low on micromanagement either; I've just removed half-dozen "strong" HTML tags from this post, which somehow got spammed in my reply because I copypasta'd the text of your bold statement. I also find it necessary to edit links here by hand fairly often because the ones obtain by clicking on posts, e.g. https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/454588/get;3469432, do not work as expected.)
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