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Sword of the Stars II: Apparently all is now clear.

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Posts

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  • MegaMekMegaMek Girls like girls. Registered User regular
    The research screen in the original was shit. It was too big, when you zoomed out you couldn't see what anything was, and you had to zoom in all the fucking way for the tooltips to pop up.

    Of everything wrong with the new game, the research screen just isn't even worth bringing up. It's fine.

    Is time a gift or punishment?
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  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    Is this playable yet? Will it ever be? Is it another Master of Orion 3? I was thinking of throwing money at them and getting it on Steam just because I liked the first one so much, but... Don't really need the frustration.

  • MegaMekMegaMek Girls like girls. Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    MegaMek wrote:
    The research screen in the original was shit. It was too big, when you zoomed out you couldn't see what anything was, and you had to zoom in all the fucking way for the tooltips to pop up.

    Of everything wrong with the new game, the research screen just isn't even worth bringing up. It's fine.

    Really?

    In the original I could see everything I wanted with the mouse controls. Pan around with left mouse, zoom with the scroll wheel, and the icons were visible at a distance so you could quickly identify things.

    With the new one, I have to mouse-over/click an icon to see the description, and click separate buttons to manually go around it. I can't just quickly pan around to check out what I want to do next.

    They can change the (admittedly silly) scroll without making it as bad as SOTS 1's research screen.

    MegaMek on
    Is time a gift or punishment?
  • SokpuppetSokpuppet You only yoyo once Registered User regular
    KiTA wrote:
    Is this playable yet? Will it ever be? Is it another Master of Orion 3? I was thinking of throwing money at them and getting it on Steam just because I liked the first one so much, but... Don't really need the frustration.


    1. almost
    2. seems like it could be, possibly even in the next month or so
    3. maybe, maybe not

  • ToastCrustToastCrust Registered User new member
    Note you can also click on the tree that you want to go to, to jump straight to it. Occasionally helpful, but definitely would like to see the right-click-drag scroll reimplemented nonetheless.

  • ArghyArghy Registered User regular
    http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?568872-List-of-gamecontent-that-does-not-work-at-the-moment&s=bc86d796d1b613bd9963454972a30076

    Guys its just the wrong build honestly, everything was working just fine then somehow the code reverted to this unbalanced mess--yes hivers are intended to take 14 turns to visit a planet, come home, go back to the planet then leave a gate finally.

    Ask me about the holocaust.
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  • Vi MonksVi Monks Registered User regular
    So I'm starting up SotS 1 for the first time after picking it up during the sale, but I feel pretty lost. Does anyone have some early-game pointers, i.e. what research to focus on, how much to expand, necessary early ships, etc.? I'm not looking for a complete build through the whole game, mind you. Just a newbie guide, of sorts. The tutorials do a decent job of explaining how to do stuff, but the sheer number of options once you start up a new game is a bit mind-boggling, particularly since I don't play 4X that often.

  • YoshuaYoshua Registered User regular
    Vi Monks wrote:
    So I'm starting up SotS 1 for the first time after picking it up during the sale, but I feel pretty lost. Does anyone have some early-game pointers, i.e. what research to focus on, how much to expand, necessary early ships, etc.? I'm not looking for a complete build through the whole game, mind you. Just a newbie guide, of sorts. The tutorials do a decent job of explaining how to do stuff, but the sheer number of options once you start up a new game is a bit mind-boggling, particularly since I don't play 4X that often.

    Well the beauty of SoTS 1 is the different races all play differently, and even then there is no one way to do things. I have mostly played Hivers and Liir so those are whom I will stick to.

    For Hivers you want to start off mass producing gate ships and tankers. Send these off as scouts, occcasionally produce some offensive oriented ships that you can send to defend deployed gates. You want to deploy as many gates as you can, even if the system is of no value to you. In the meantime, I research engine and power techs and push for cruisers. Ideally after my first expansion colony I want to have biome colonizers. After a few colonies are up and running I switch gears to economy, afterwards it is whatever military techs I want to play with that game.

    With Liir I push for early cruisers while sending out tankers to scout. I don't worry much about building destroyers for defense since I can usually have cruisers by turn 11-15. After cruisers I shoot for biome colonizers (Liir almost always get these, I have only had one game where they didn't get this tech).

    Waldo units and expert systems are techs any race is going to want. Scouting is also key, but depending on race can be limited. I.e. Humans can find themselves locked into a handful of systems till they can research their node drive further. I didn't cover stations, but once you have a good economy going these are nice to have, however they are very expensive.

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    Arghy wrote:
    http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?568872-List-of-gamecontent-that-does-not-work-at-the-moment&s=bc86d796d1b613bd9963454972a30076

    Guys its just the wrong build honestly, everything was working just fine then somehow the code reverted to this unbalanced mess--yes hivers are intended to take 14 turns to visit a planet, come home, go back to the planet then leave a gate finally.

    So what are we seeing here? Did they honestly basically release a beta and are trying to finish it as we speak, or did they actually fuck up and release a beta build when they weren't supposed to? That list is fucking huge for it being an accidental build downgrade.

  • SokpuppetSokpuppet You only yoyo once Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    KiTA wrote:
    So what are we seeing here? Did they honestly basically release a beta and are trying to finish it as we speak, or did they actually fuck up and release a beta build when they weren't supposed to? That list is fucking huge for it being an accidental build downgrade.

    They honestly released a pre-beta, told people "oops, sorry guys there's been a big mistake! we accidentally released a beta version. we're uploading the CORRECT version to Steam right now. You'll have it in an hour."

    Twelve hours later when the "real" version finally showed up, it was exactly the same garbage + some shoddy DLC that had been promised to people who preordered but wasn't actually included in the release.

    They are frantically trying to turn it into a playable game, and are actually making some reasonably impressive progress. Funny what you can accomplish with a gun to your head.... still a long way to go, though.

    Sokpuppet on
  • Vi MonksVi Monks Registered User regular
    Yoshua wrote:
    Vi Monks wrote:
    So I'm starting up SotS 1 for the first time after picking it up during the sale, but I feel pretty lost. Does anyone have some early-game pointers, i.e. what research to focus on, how much to expand, necessary early ships, etc.? I'm not looking for a complete build through the whole game, mind you. Just a newbie guide, of sorts. The tutorials do a decent job of explaining how to do stuff, but the sheer number of options once you start up a new game is a bit mind-boggling, particularly since I don't play 4X that often.

    Well the beauty of SoTS 1 is the different races all play differently, and even then there is no one way to do things. I have mostly played Hivers and Liir so those are whom I will stick to.

    For Hivers you want to start off mass producing gate ships and tankers. Send these off as scouts, occcasionally produce some offensive oriented ships that you can send to defend deployed gates. You want to deploy as many gates as you can, even if the system is of no value to you. In the meantime, I research engine and power techs and push for cruisers. Ideally after my first expansion colony I want to have biome colonizers. After a few colonies are up and running I switch gears to economy, afterwards it is whatever military techs I want to play with that game.

    With Liir I push for early cruisers while sending out tankers to scout. I don't worry much about building destroyers for defense since I can usually have cruisers by turn 11-15. After cruisers I shoot for biome colonizers (Liir almost always get these, I have only had one game where they didn't get this tech).

    Waldo units and expert systems are techs any race is going to want. Scouting is also key, but depending on race can be limited. I.e. Humans can find themselves locked into a handful of systems till they can research their node drive further. I didn't cover stations, but once you have a good economy going these are nice to have, however they are very expensive.

    Sounds good. That's just the kind of stuff I was looking for, and Hivers looked pretty interesting besides. Thanks.

  • rockrngerrockrnger Registered User regular
    Sokpuppet wrote:
    KiTA wrote:
    Is this playable yet? Will it ever be? Is it another Master of Orion 3? I was thinking of throwing money at them and getting it on Steam just because I liked the first one so much, but... Don't really need the frustration.


    1. almost
    2. seems like it could be, possibly even in the next month or so
    3. maybe, maybe not

    So I guess I am still the only one who likes master of Orion 3 them?

  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    rockrnger wrote:
    Sokpuppet wrote:
    KiTA wrote:
    Is this playable yet? Will it ever be? Is it another Master of Orion 3? I was thinking of throwing money at them and getting it on Steam just because I liked the first one so much, but... Don't really need the frustration.


    1. almost
    2. seems like it could be, possibly even in the next month or so
    3. maybe, maybe not

    So I guess I am still the only one who likes master of Orion 3 them?
    Nope; I like it, too. I just wish the combat were better.

  • ArghyArghy Registered User regular
    I'm going to try and force them into a corner to give us a plausible ETA come support me!
    http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=22614&p=347814#p347814

    Ask me about the holocaust.
  • kaortikaorti Registered User regular
    Vi Monks wrote:
    Yoshua wrote:
    Vi Monks wrote:
    So I'm starting up SotS 1 for the first time after picking it up during the sale, but I feel pretty lost. Does anyone have some early-game pointers, i.e. what research to focus on, how much to expand, necessary early ships, etc.? I'm not looking for a complete build through the whole game, mind you. Just a newbie guide, of sorts. The tutorials do a decent job of explaining how to do stuff, but the sheer number of options once you start up a new game is a bit mind-boggling, particularly since I don't play 4X that often.

    Well the beauty of SoTS 1 is the different races all play differently, and even then there is no one way to do things. I have mostly played Hivers and Liir so those are whom I will stick to.

    For Hivers you want to start off mass producing gate ships and tankers. Send these off as scouts, occcasionally produce some offensive oriented ships that you can send to defend deployed gates. You want to deploy as many gates as you can, even if the system is of no value to you. In the meantime, I research engine and power techs and push for cruisers. Ideally after my first expansion colony I want to have biome colonizers. After a few colonies are up and running I switch gears to economy, afterwards it is whatever military techs I want to play with that game.

    With Liir I push for early cruisers while sending out tankers to scout. I don't worry much about building destroyers for defense since I can usually have cruisers by turn 11-15. After cruisers I shoot for biome colonizers (Liir almost always get these, I have only had one game where they didn't get this tech).

    Waldo units and expert systems are techs any race is going to want. Scouting is also key, but depending on race can be limited. I.e. Humans can find themselves locked into a handful of systems till they can research their node drive further. I didn't cover stations, but once you have a good economy going these are nice to have, however they are very expensive.

    Sounds good. That's just the kind of stuff I was looking for, and Hivers looked pretty interesting besides. Thanks.

    This is important: Do not play hiver as your first race. They will teach you a bunch of bad habits, and you won't be able to wrap your mind around the other races without a lot of work. Start with Tarka, they're resilient, and are good all-around. If you ever want to play this game multiplayer, hivers are a very bad choice - other humans know how to contain them, and nobody trusts hivers an inch.

    Waldo Units and Genetic modification are the first two techs you want. After that your tech choices are dictated by your options and the size and shape of the game map. Early cruisers are popular these days, but I've always preferred to build industrial and terraforming techs while colonizing, then grab fusion once I can get it in 20 turns or less. Once I have fusion, Cruisers are next.

    Industry tech is valuable because unused industry is transformed into income, this speeds your rate of research. It also lets you build a fleet really quickly in an emergency.

    When colonizing, you want to use multiple colonizers. Five at minimum, unless the planet has extremely low hazard rating.

    It's often a good idea to choose a simple but effective weapon system to research after your first couple of techs. I really like UV lasers, but other people have had good results with sniper cannons. AP rounds would also work well.

  • DemiurgeDemiurge Registered User regular
    In general, I find green lasers to be a good starting weapon, very accurate, cheap and decent rate of fire and damage. Every race starts out differently but I definately always get pulsed fusion drives as my first tech when I play Hivers. You shave several turns off the long range journeys with it and that'll give you a great early game edge.

    DQ0uv.png 5E984.png
  • Grey PaladinGrey Paladin Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    You don't always get them (which I find annoying) but until you get to cruisers Light Emitters are the end all be all of destroyer combat. Flawless accuracy, decent damage, and splash damage almost guarantees victory in any situation where a mass of destroyers is going to run into another. You play these devils like you would play melee units in other games, charging head on. At distance the weapon is actually accurate enough to act as an improvised point defense system, though due to its rate of fire it cannot shoot down more than one missile in each salvo.

    Spreading out probably does much to counter this in multiplayer games, though I am not sure that other weapons are accurate enough at a big distance at this stage of the game to effectively hit your little swarm as you can research this tech as your first, which means you probably still win.

    Grey Paladin on
    "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
  • SokpuppetSokpuppet You only yoyo once Registered User regular
    Light Emitters are an excellent small mount for early game, but they tend to be strongest against people without much experience in Tactical.
    A mixed deployment and a bit of micro is all it really takes to shut them down.

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    rockrnger wrote:
    So I guess I am still the only one who likes master of Orion 3 them?

    Oh, I loved MOO3, it just needed one more patch, and Quicksilver's publisher (Good old Infogrames) fucked them over real long and hard in regards to THAT. I really wish we'd see some of the MOO3 concepts (that new race that assimilated the others, for example) in another 4X game.

    The crib notes version I heard was that basically they forced them to release way, way early, then told them that releasing a bugfix patch would be admitting the game wasn't perfect at release, and they couldn't have people thinking that, could they? Better to let the game just die off and do a cut and run than fix it and hope for sales to pick up.



  • DemiurgeDemiurge Registered User regular
    There's been a few fan patches out, but since they don't have access to the source they cant' fix any of the core issues. I tried picking it up last year but its a pretty obtuse game.

    DQ0uv.png 5E984.png
  • rockrngerrockrnger Registered User regular
    KiTA wrote:
    rockrnger wrote:
    So I guess I am still the only one who likes master of Orion 3 them?

    Oh, I loved MOO3, it just needed one more patch, and Quicksilver's publisher (Good old Infogrames) fucked them over real long and hard in regards to THAT. I really wish we'd see some of the MOO3 concepts (that new race that assimilated the others, for example) in another 4X game.

    The crib notes version I heard was that basically they forced them to release way, way early, then told them that releasing a bugfix patch would be admitting the game wasn't perfect at release, and they couldn't have people thinking that, could they? Better to let the game just die off and do a cut and run than fix it and hope for sales to pick up.



    Without writing a novel (and boy I could) the problems with moo 3 was that they scrapped the original design.

    They started out trying to make what would eventually be Eu 3 only in space. (think a high level strategy game where a 15% bonus to taxes is a game changing event) the bosses tried it out and thought that everyone would hate it. They then tried to graft a traditional 4x game onto the frame of the original game. After a while they figured out that they would have to start from scratch and just fireballed the whole project. They wouldnt pay for more patches because they had already given up on the entire franchise.

    There are enough good ideas in moo3 to make 10 games but it just wasn't the game everyone wanted.

  • KiTAKiTA Registered User regular
    So someone linked me this with the comment "Woah, they're attempting to hide all the bug reports from prospective buyers":

    http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?666-SotS-Bug-Reporting

    Scaremongering? I was thinking of kicking them $30 if only to say I was part of the train wreck, but if they're pulling an EA or Infogrames I might wait a bit longer.

  • taliosfalcontaliosfalcon Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    KiTA wrote:
    So someone linked me this with the comment "Woah, they're attempting to hide all the bug reports from prospective buyers":

    http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?666-SotS-Bug-Reporting

    Scaremongering? I was thinking of kicking them $30 if only to say I was part of the train wreck, but if they're pulling an EA or Infogrames I might wait a bit longer.

    eh, paradox has always done that w/ all their published game forums, you need to enter a key for bug reports and tech support, to cut down on random people posting fake bugs to troll devs and pirates getting tech support.

    taliosfalcon on
    steam xbox - adeptpenguin
  • AlanF5AlanF5 Registered User regular
    Arghy wrote:
    ...yes hivers are intended to take 14 turns to visit a planet, come home, go back to the planet then leave a gate finally.
    Wait, are you doing Survey, then Gate? 'Cause last time I played Hivers (a few builds back) I could totally Gate, then Survey. I think the mission planner gave an inaccurate mission time like they were always slow-boating both ways, but in game the gates worked fine. Except for heading out on the Gate mission from the home base instead of gating to a system nearer to the mission and heading out from there. Point is, Survey spent one turn flying out, X turns scanning planets, and one turn flying back to base.

  • gojiro0gojiro0 Registered User new member
    Igel wrote:
    Note that you must manually start the game in 64bit mode at the moment by going to the steam/steamapps/common/sword of the stars ii/bin/x64 folder and starting sots2.exe. I was unable to start a game until I did so.

    Thank you!! I upgraded my freaking OS to play this damn game and it won't even start (just quits after Steam launch dialog box). Funny thing - Windows 7 seems to run worse than XP, is that a known thing and I'm just catching up? I loved my XP!

  • jaredburtonjaredburton Registered User regular
    Just confirming what people said, they are offering refunds. Mine was confirmed today finally, and should be given 'sometime next week'.

    Maybe I will buy this once it escapes from the belly of a whale and becomes a real game, like Pinocchio.

  • kaortikaorti Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    gojiro0 wrote:
    Igel wrote:
    Note that you must manually start the game in 64bit mode at the moment by going to the steam/steamapps/common/sword of the stars ii/bin/x64 folder and starting sots2.exe. I was unable to start a game until I did so.

    Thank you!! I upgraded my freaking OS to play this damn game and it won't even start (just quits after Steam launch dialog box). Funny thing - Windows 7 seems to run worse than XP, is that a known thing and I'm just catching up? I loved my XP!

    This is out of date now - the launcher has been patched to start the proper version of the game on 64 bit versions. As long as you've allowed steam to apply all the patches that have come out so far, this is no longer a problem. If you are still having issues, try posting about them on the tech support section of the SotS II paradox board.

    Windows 7 is generally regarded as a very good operating system and a worthy successor to XP. I can't speak to your experience, but I'm very happy the upgrade to windows 7 that I've applied to my computer. I believe that it has higher hardware requirements though.

    kaorti on
  • ArghyArghy Registered User regular
    The forums are overrun with fanboys saying we dont deserve to pay for alpha and kerb can take as long as they want to release patches to complete their complete release. All voices of dissent has been crushed on their forums so i just give up. They pushed back a patch 3 days and what does this patch accomplish? nothing, just leads to more stability issues because their literally coding it from scratch.

    Getting a refund and advising everyone else who paid to do so--game companys need to learn that lying to their fans is not acceptable. This game is 30% complete and every step they take forward they need to take 3 steps back, their literally in dev cycles for almost every feature. Mercon laughed at the 3 month estimate but in truth its going to take far longer then that because they simply cant even keep up the pace of 2 patches a week. 6 months at the very least for a 80%+ feature complete stable game.

    Ask me about the holocaust.
  • SokpuppetSokpuppet You only yoyo once Registered User regular
    Arghy - welcome to last month.



    New patch is out today. Looks like they are beginning to address the unplayability of tactical - so now we can actually have spaceship battles in our spaceship battle game.

    For those bothered by the laggy UI, I've found you can drastically improve things by using the Task Manager to set mars.exe to higher priority.


  • johnwingjohnwing Registered User regular
    I really want to buy this game. But I don't know when it is fully playable guess I have to wait another month or three

  • LykouraghLykouragh Registered User regular
    Haha look Mecron is being a dick again!

    I really really hope this game becomes playable, but there's no way I'm buying a Kerberos game ever again.

  • StregoneStregone VA, USARegistered User regular
    Yeah this is sad. I was really looking forward to this game.

  • ArghyArghy Registered User regular
    I literally thought mercon was like the brother of a dev or something and the only reason he was tolerated was because he did nothing but shitpost on the forums. Now that i know theres a total manchild running the game i think i know why its having so much problems. I dont need the money now and i'm a masochist and really like the idea of SotS2 so i'm holding off on my refund--when its playable to a proper extent i'll post about it.

    Ask me about the holocaust.
  • kaortikaorti Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    Ok, trade seems to be working since the last patch. Has anyone worked out exactly how it works? Do I need multiple trade stations or just one? Where are the freighters that I'm building going? What do the import and export readouts mean?

    This thing is closing in on something that could be fun to play, I just need more feed back from the game on what kind of impact my actions are having.

    Edit: Looks like another patch is coming Wednesday.

    kaorti on
  • ArghyArghy Registered User regular
    Just thought i'd put this here so we can all once again laugh at mercon and hey he even told me to in the post!
    see the beauty of arghy's creepy lil comments? They take a normal situation and make a crisis out of it. Awesome. But when he eventually gets banned for malicious shite like this he will moan to anyone who will listen on other boards that its was only because he was a dissenting voice...Ah you gotta love the internet.

    (And now he will scurry back into the boards to find the post about the guy executung database commands into the code base so somehow justify the mayhem here. Cause ya know, all the worlds a stage)

    This was from me warning a guy who was talking about going through the game code which in general devs do not like--what the hell is wrong with mercon? I was very courteous in my warning and told him to just PM the code to them instead of posting it.

    My posts,
    Hey in his defense the devs did say their code was mysteriously blown apart so anything bad planned for him should be mitigated by that.
    Last time i saw someone go through game code the devs tried to sue him and brought to bear a whole mess of legal actions so if you do dont broadcast what your doing just PM the technical specs to the devs and give vague statements to everyone else but never actually openly admit to going through the code just for your safety.

    and my response to mercon
    Welp hostile post spotted,

    I dont know what the rules are but i've followed many a game and most of them are extremely strict about engine code and code relating to their game. In darkfall a dude got perma banned and cease and desist letters for posting game code on the forums and everquest pressed charges against another guy who tried to edit the UI.

    As evidence by your post there your not to stable when it comes to rules or just general civil behavior the last thing i wanted was some dude trying to help the game getting banned or having a lawsuit filed against him.

    Ask me about the holocaust.
  • NoughtNought Registered User regular
    OMG Arghy, why are you persecuting that nice man. What has he ever done to you!

    On a serious note, I'd be very happy if people keep posting updates on the progress of playability. I don't have the money to even buy the bugged version atm, but I hope it will be sorta fixed by the time I have spending money.

    On fire
    .
    Island. Being on fire.
  • PolloDiabloPolloDiablo Registered User regular
    Ha, that guy's such a douche.

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