When I was a younger man, before I became the old and decrepit 24 year old before you, there was a little-known game not much unlike this one. It was fun, nerdy, made by a small yet very active company (before Microsoft got it, I guess), and had a small, dedicated community of players. Okay, not "Holy crap there are 200 people on ICO at the same time?!" small, but you get the idea. The game was Mechcommander and one of the leagues formed around it went by the name of Steel Command.
The SCL was a heavily role-played league which used Mechcommander as a vehicle to wage an enormous interstellar war between the various Battletech factions (faction websites still exist today, in all their 1998 glory). Factions would fight for territory and resources. They would commit Mechs and other resources to battles, then play out those battles in the game. There was diplomacy and even an enormous map which was manually updated to reflect faction ownership changes (this was back before the web was "dynamic"
I think a league like this would work well in Sins for a few reasons. First of all, it is asynchronous. That is, factions can schedule games or just issue orders ("Explore this planet", etc.) and won't need to randomly have a whole lot of players on at the same time (this is the main reason clans don't work right now). Secondly, Sins is very customizable, which is required for this sort of thing to work. The Map Designer is quick and dirty, but the real power lies in Galaxy Forge (assuming it gets fixed) which allows maps to be custom-tailored to battles. With this customization combined with the fact that different battles can have different supply caps, sizes and so forth, games can be long or short depending on the battle setup and include any number of other variables.
Sins games can be incredibly long, back and forth, intense experiences even though the action isn't necessarily constant -- that's what I love about it. You have to make big decisions -- do I build up and dig in or rush? Do I save that planet being attacked or do I counter? -- which can affect where you are an hour later. But what if the game didn't end in an hour, a day, or a month? What if there were an entire Universe to conquer and not just a star or two at a time?
If there's a game out now that could be used to resurrect the enormous scope and breadth of Steel Command, it is almost certainly Sins. However, this is no minor task and will require dedication and effort from many -- not to mention players! I'm not sure if we have enough people yet, but we'd have to start somewhere. This would be a considerable undertaking and I am already extremely low on free time, so I'm putting this out now to see what sort of interest there is, if any. Please provide feedback!
P.S. If you're wondering who would actually make the site for this, the answer is me. I do it for a living so we've at least got that part covered.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!
Like what you've read so far? Then check this out!
Okay folks, it seems like we have enough people interested to make an official inquiry here on the boards. The way I see it, we need a minimum of 25 people to start really getting the ball rolling in an official way on this thing. To that end, I have created a form that interested parties should fill out. It shouldn't take more than 30 seconds and will give me a way to keep track of people with serious interest.
One of the questions asks what you want your "role" to be; I have created the following roles with my recommendation of minimum numbers to fulfill in parenthesis (assumes 3 initial factions; one for each race):
Fill out the form here: http://binjured.wufoo.com/forms/sins-league-signup/
Thank you in advance!
(Entrenchment required for membership for the time being; with more players, hopefully we can have two leagues... but that's a dream for now.)
Awesome.
I will TOTALLY be cheerleading/trash talking the different sides. It will be epic on the proportions of Gilgamesh...end his little dog too.
On another note, is it possible to join up a faction for occasional games? I could probably commit to one game a week saturday night, but nothing more than that. Hell, I'd be for "substitute gamer" as well if someone had to bow out of a committed game.
Obviously I need to get a lot better first, but when the time comes...possibility?
The mock up map is posted several pages ago. We are working on Mark 2 of the map internally. Me or Xenon will post that up when we feel its past our standard.
I just wanna point out that alot of Role Playing aspects of this league we have been discussing on our fourms. The post is in our public section(the one with the rules and such). Things like planet populations, ship crews etc etc we have come up with a basic understanding on.
Back on to the map, I cant make a final map with out on a league wide base, knowing how large the factions are compared to the whole races tertiory. I have made room in our latest map for other factions even if they are for the time being NPC. When rules and such for the league and who territory is structured I can but specific number of system per faction into the map so you map makers can have your fun!
I can get a try and get fourm started up for the league. But if I do, Im gonna request that if you register you use your lore based name and such. This again is a Role Playing league we are trying to set up. Please keep that in mind. Let me know if you want me to go ahead and set it up.
How bout we have the bsic 3 factions = 33% territory each!
So that each faction starts equal and we get no fights about losing turf.
I would recommend 12 systems to start! thus 4 systems to each clan!
And one for each of us.
Samurye.
Exactly!
Internal conflicts FTW! lol
Of course.
If we ever get large enough, we need to post people to certain systems, that way, a faction cant send its BEST players out every time they go on the offense or the defense
Then how about each turn you are allowed to make one move and one random action (fortify, attack, build civilian structures)!
Let's say I move then attacka neighbouring sector!
I win I take it...wooooot turn ends here!
I fail I get kicked back 2 jumps into my territory as punishment
Sounds a little like, The Lord of the Rings, Battle for Middle Earth II. It had a game mode called war of the ring, were, each faction would start in its respective territory, and each turn they could move there armies to an adjacent spot, or fortify a territory, IE build resource structures, barracks, and fortresses, How would we put bonuses, from captured territory's victories and whatnot, INTO the game? I dont think we can mod it because you have to have the same checksum to play in-game w/ some1
just stuff to think about ya know?
https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/345788
http://thesorrowsworn.forumotion.net/
curse that white box..
Congrats on the site there, Now each faction has a "home" to plan battle, prepare for war and discuss ideas as well as have sexy parties.
YOUPI Sexy parties!!!
Also true damn the white box poster is fun though
But I personnaly don't like pink +_+
Well, It was the only i could pick that would easily show up against the black background and not make the vasari guy look like a tard lol
LOOOOOOOOOL
Just stumbled across this post (series of posts)...great idea! I have been playing Sins for about 2 months or so now and I am interested in joining the Illumina faction. Do I just need to register at their forums?
Unfortunately, I play in Japan Standard Time wihich is way out of whack from the mostly US playtimes. I hope that won:t be too much of a problem.
YES! 3 illumini!!! YOUPI! fair game!
Awesome man! I don't know you but I love you already! (figure of speech of course)
Hey, yeah you can just go ahead and register to our forums and then make a post in "The Council" Thread and your in. If you have any questions feel free to send me a PM or Naut a PM either here or on our forums. Oh btw, when ever you can, you should come up with a background/lore for your character which you will become. Aside from that, Welcome to the Unity!
Oh and dont worry about time, im a night owl when i game anyway so it would work out if you play during the day ofcourse haha.
Come up with lore for my character? Done and done! This task will occupy my time for the rest of my work day! Heading to the forums now...
Why can everyone use a pc where they work damn it! Why am I the only one that works in a warehouse...
work for dell
DAMN YOU!!!!! lol! hum just might consider that..now just gotta find a dell dealership in Quebec city! .......darn
Hello folks, I only just downloaded Sins but it looks like a lot of fun and I'd be interested in having a go at joining in with some online play. Assuming you're happy enough to bring a total newbie on board? Don't know what faction yet but I'd be leaning towards Advent and TEC from the lore side of things. I'm on Pacific time if that has any bearing?
Cheers
Always glad to see more who are interested, Were not picky on the skill level of players so everyone is welcome. Psst, Advent is waaaayyy better than TEC, but you didnt hear that from me lol ~.^
Psssttt.Vasari pawns all !
BTW nyczzz still w8ing for that project of yours..will have some time off on saturday! I'm planning on continuing our little feud
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