This game looks sweet. And I've never really played a 4x game before. Well wait... does Medieval Total War count? I guess it probably does.
Anyway, this game looks fun. And has space dolphins. And space monkey-lizards!
It does not count. It lacks the eXplore component.
4x is reserved for space-based strategy titles.
Oh, it has to be space based. Gotcha. Didn't realize that was part of the criteria. Well, I chalk up my ignorance to not having a decent computer for 15 years. I may have to remedy that with this title!
They are geometric shapes in space which eat resources and ships.
If you destroy one of their motherships, a bigger ship will pay you a visit later. If you manage to destroy that, pray that you do not encounter one of their even bigger ships. If you do, though, and you manage to destroy even that and think "Bollocks, can't I just kill these damn guys already?" then you might find their homeworld.
Hint: You don't want to find their homeworld.
The biggest ships don't show up if their drones can't collect enough resources. And the berserkers aren't really a threat if you have destroyers with UV lasers, battle computer, and a full ring of satellites around your world.
I love this damn game. It's weird how much I hated the demo but kept hearing about it. Then I found a copy for $20 bucks and if I didn't like the genre so much I probably wouldnt have bothered. And the funny thing is I just bought it because I wanted something to play until Sins of a Solar Empire came out and now i don't even play Sins anymore.
It would be great if you could just wipe the Von Neumanns damn home planet out. You can't colonize it and even when you bomb it glass parking lot style, they still come back later. Has anyone else had problems taking out their PK's? I can do it on auto, but even with the best fleet I can't do it myself.
Raoul Duke on
0
Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
edited May 2009
So I'm playing the Demo and I'm getting my ass kick, time after time again.
So I'm playing the Demo and I'm getting my ass kick, time after time again.
Any hints on what I should be doing?
It really depends on your problem, but generally you start losing when the computer gernerates more money than you can. That leads to falling behind in the tech race and being unable to build as many ships as your opponent.
Assuming this is your problem, I've got a few ideas on how to solve it.
1. Colonize properly. It depends on your race, but you should be snapping up every planet it is feasible to colonize. Initially they drain your economy, but once they start paying your economy really takes off. Generally you want to start by colonizing planets with a hazard rating of 250 or less. They are reasonably cheap and the hazard doesn't slow down growth too much. Try to land with multiple colonizers as well. I consider 5 colonizers to be a decent minimum. Optimal colonizing strategy is very race dependent, so I cant get too specific without knowing your preferred race.
2. Tech choice. You want to pick up tech that helps your empire grow quickly. The first three techs I research are usually Waldo Units, Gene Modification and Suspended Animation in that order. You really want to grow your industrial output and colonization ability at every opportunity, since both of those factors feed almost directly back into money.
3. Trade. I'm not sure about the scope of the current demo, but if you can reach it, do so. Its enormously expensive to set up full trade routes, but once you do you can more than double your empire income.
4. Weapons. Try to find specific weapons that work well in many situations. Research them first. I usually grab UV lasers as my workhorse destroyer age weapon. They remain relevant through the early fusion age unless someone spends the time and money to grab reflective coatings. If I'm playing Morrigi, I might go for UV beamers, because they do awesome damage when you use them on drones.
5. CnC. Once you have a few colonies and a decent number of combat ready ships, you'll need command ships to use them effectively. Research Battle Computers and build one or two destroyer CnC ships for each fleet. A fleet should be large enough to fill out the full command point supply of your CnC ship, plus support ships and a couple of reinforcements.
6. Play to your racial strengths. Each race demands a different play style for optimal success. The Hivers and Zull are the most blatant about this, but each race requires a different set of priorities. As a Human you need a strong early game, Morrigi thrive off of trade and diplomacy. Liir need to tech-rush and counter other people's designs, and Tarka should be aggressive, but not rabid. Don't try to play counter to your racial style. Choose a race with a playstyle that works for you.
A second expansion? And it's all on Steam? And soon to be all on Impulse!?
Goddamnit, I had just decided to NOT put this on my new system as I only had the base game on CD and was trying to move to digital stuff more and more.
Frak, Frell, and all the other curses in the stars, why did I have to click on this? Curse my nostalgia!
Marikir on
"Hiding in plain sight." PSN/XBL: Marikir
0
Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
edited May 2009
Thanks for the advice.
My first play through, Human just ripped apart my dolphin ships.
Second play through I thought I was doing well, but all of a sudden this Queen Bee Bitch came out of nowhere and ripped my empire apart. Then, when I finally killed her and reclaim my lost planet.....another one came!
How quickly should I be tech up to cruisers? It seem like destroyers are mere fodders.
hot damn, this game sounds awesome. i dont know when/if i will ever have the time to put into it to make it worth a purchase, but its definitely on the list now.
KlykaDO you have anySPARE BATTERIES?Registered Userregular
edited May 2009
I kinda don't like how the game is basically all about the fleets.
I expected more colony stuff going on, like Master of Orion.
But seeing as the game is focused on multiplayer and the turns not taking 1 hour, I can see why they did it.
I still find it hilarious how many ships you can build in one round and how many fucking tankers I need.
Seriously, my fleets (as humans) had almost as many tankers as they had combat ships,just so I could get to the god damn enemy colonies!
This game looks sweet. And I've never really played a 4x game before. Well wait... does Medieval Total War count? I guess it probably does.
Anyway, this game looks fun. And has space dolphins. And space monkey-lizards!
It does not count. It lacks the eXplore component.
4x is reserved for space-based strategy titles.
I respectfully disagree with your definition. The term is often used in reference to Civilization and similar games. It's still exploration if you're exploring a single planet's surface.
Good OP, btw. I remember enjoying the demo when it came out, but not spending enough time to get a real sense of the game. Maybe I'll give it another shot.
kedinik on
I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
My first play through, Human just ripped apart my dolphin ships.
Second play through I thought I was doing well, but all of a sudden this Queen Bee Bitch came out of nowhere and ripped my empire apart. Then, when I finally killed her and reclaim my lost planet.....another one came!
How quickly should I be tech up to cruisers? It seem like destroyers are mere fodders.
Liir Destroyers are very fragile, if you are having trouble keeping them alive, try researching armor tech, You've got an 80% chance of getting the first armor tech, and it'll help a bit. To do well in combat as the Liir you have to research technology that directly counters the weapons and ships your enemies use. Look into deflectors and disruptors, as well as reflective coating and armor techs.
Against the Scilicoids or the Scilicoid queen, you need point defense tech or other fast accurate weapons. Without it, you'll take a lot of casualties. The Queen herself is vulnerable to ballistic weapons, but enough of any weapon type should do the job.
I usually tech to Fusion before I grab cruisers. If you grab the right weapons and focus your fire well in combat, destroyers should be quite effective. In AMOC I try to have Fusion out between turn 80 and 100 depending on how well I'm doing, with Cruisers coming out next. Generally Cruisers are too expensive to justify building them with slow fusion engines, but humans can get away with building early cruisers for an offensive rush because of the speed of the node drive, and Tarka can occasionally justify it because they get a discount on cruisers.
I haven't played this in a while, and ... I want to. its starting to whisper to me that it needs to be played. I want to play this with some PA people, anyone interested?
I absolutely love this game. I bought it on release, and it has never left my hard drive. It's the most replayable game I've ever owned. The random tech tree and vastly different races help with that. The game is deceptively deep.
I recommend starting as Liir or Tarkas if you have never played before. Their space travel mechanics are the most straightforward. I tend to play a research heavy game, so Liir is usually my choice as they have the biggest research bonus. Also they have a focus on bioweapons. Starting a plague on an enemy world, then watching it spread to their entire empire is all kinds of awesome.
I still find it hilarious how many ships you can build in one round and how many fucking tankers I need.
Seriously, my fleets (as humans) had almost as many tankers as they had combat ships,just so I could get to the god damn enemy colonies!
Yes, humans are the most tanker dependent race. Their ships have short ranges and they are tied to node lines. Other races don't have these constraints, and consequently use fewer tankers. Once you research refineries, you will only need a couple to serve an entire fleet.
Pro tip 1: Do not ignore trade. Especially if you play Morrigi ( they get a trade bonus). By mid game my trade income is usually double or triple my planetary income. Do note however, that not all galaxy configurations are conducive to trade. If your empire has a few very spread out planets, or only 1 planet per trade sector, it may not be worth the investment.
Pro tip 2: The Liir star drive is constrained by gravity, so your ships are slower and less maneuverable around planets (also Morrigi grav boats, which they use to speed their method of star travel). So it is to your advantage to develop your sensor technology and intercept incoming fleets in deep space. Your ships will literally fly circles around enemy ships away from a gravity well.
Me and a friend play an awful lot of this game. It's one of the best space strategy games out there these days. I would love a chance to play with some PA folks.
Hivers are the best. You're slow, but your empire is like an unstoppable cancer, eating away at the galaxy. There are two types of races in this game, Hivers and fodder. Don't be the fodder.
Me and a friend play an awful lot of this game. It's one of the best space strategy games out there these days. I would love a chance to play with some PA folks.
Hivers are the best. You're slow, but your empire is like an unstoppable cancer, eating away at the galaxy. There are two types of races in this game, Hivers and fodder. Don't be the fodder.
We should get a Steam group going.
I have only once had the misfortune to fight against a hiver empire with farcasters. It was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life, but the combination of deflectors and liir maneuverability saw me through. Seriously, this game shines in multiplayer. I've played a lot of games, but this game has produced the most exhilarating moments. There's nothing quite like predicting where your enemies counterattack is coming from and sending reinforcements a single turn before the attack fleet arrives.
I think it's set as private at the moment so leave your steam id in the thread (or alternatively PM me) and I'll get you added.
DeadOnArrival on
0
Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
edited May 2009
Okay, what the fuck?
So here I am, eating my Gorilla-reptile steak.
Then all of a sudden a 'System Destroyer' came out of nowhere and rape my empire in half.
How the hell can you kill that thing? It doesnt appear to have a kill limit.
Also, does the planet always become inhabitable after you destroy the worms that live on it? I thought I was getting a planet out of my assault, but it just become inhabitable once I conquered it.
I had a Von Neumann Berserker attack my relatively undefended homeworld. That kinda sucked.
I'm sure you've all see normal Von Neumanns (Von Neumannii?) but in case you didn't know, the beserker creates tons of destroyer sized flying saucers that have shields and boarding pods (or some other mind control thing) in addition to splitting itself into polygonal chunks that begin to circle the world while focusing beams of destruction at the surface, like some sort of giant space maypole.
What few outdated destroyers I had there got shot down pretty quickly, but my shiney new HCLaser Cruiser got off like two shots before deciding to flip sides and promptly joined in on the mass destruction of my homeworld.
Then all of a sudden a 'System Destroyer' came out of nowhere and rape my empire in half.
How the hell can you kill that thing? It doesnt appear to have a kill limit.
Also, does the planet always become inhabitable after you destroy the worms that live on it? I thought I was getting a planet out of my assault, but it just become inhabitable once I conquered it.
You've got to have a lot of fodder and good tech to stand a chance against the System Killer. It heals when it destroys a system, so you should keep hitting it in deep space before it reaches another world. You destroy it like you would any other ship, it's just a bitch and a half.
And for planets, do you mean uninhabitable? They shouldn't see a big change in that regard when you capture it. The enemy might have different environmental tolerances than you, and they could have terraformed it a lot since you last saw it.
Who'd be up for a game tomorrow? I'm in the mood to invade people.
PolloDiablo on
0
Zen VulgarityWhat a lovely day for teaSecret British ThreadRegistered Userregular
edited May 2009
Hey DoA I think I'll buy this over the summer if you still will be playing.
A whole ton. Essentially they're two completely divergent schools of thought. GalCiv is all about the singleplayer, so it has a lot of involved systems, tons of diplomacy, heavy economics and research, building specific buildings, the whole nine yards.
SotS is designed for multiplayer. It's not as deep on the more abstract systems, like economy or diplomacy. You don't need to micromanage colonies to squeeze a few extra bits of production from them. Ship customization is largely only selecting what kind of sections and weapons each ship should have. Instead, it focuses on being quicker than other 4x games, and much more combat-oriented.
You fight battles in realtime. Unlike GalCiv, the ships aren't just sets of stats, their appearance and construction plays a huge role. Liir ships are more rounded, so with reflective armor lasers tend to slide right off, where they might just hit a flat Hiver armor plate. Weapons have arcs and ranges, so positioning becomes important. It works like the Total War series, your actions on the battles effect the strategic situation.
Each race plays completely differently, too. A Human attack can blitz in out of nowhere, since they're extremely fast and you can't intercept them in hyperspace. You can see the slower-than-light Hivers coming from a long way off, but they're able to set up gates on worlds to instantly travel between them. Which two races are fighting at the time really changes the way you need to behave on both the strategic and tactical levels.
So while GalCiv is more of an empire management game, SotS is more of a wargame.
PolloDiablo on
0
Zen VulgarityWhat a lovely day for teaSecret British ThreadRegistered Userregular
Also, does the planet always become inhabitable after you destroy the worms that live on it? I thought I was getting a planet out of my assault, but it just become inhabitable once I conquered it.
And for planets, do you mean uninhabitable? They shouldn't see a big change in that regard when you capture it. The enemy might have different environmental tolerances than you, and they could have terraformed it a lot since you last saw it.
Certain weapons will greatly affect a planets hazard. You can easily send a 0 hazard planet to the 1200s just by bombardment, especially if it has a large population for you to chew through.
Massive waves of assault shuttles will leave the planet itself pristine while only killing the population and damaging the infrastructure. Bioweapons also leave the planet intact!
I especially enjoy killing only the imperial population and reducing the planet into an inhospitable husk world. Then I send in the mining fleet while the civilian population shrieks in horror while I finish the job and suck everything dry!
How are people's experiences with boarding pods? I don't even really know how they work. How many times can you launch pods in a single battle? Can the pods be destroyed by PD? What sort of chance of success do they have? Oh and they don't work on destroyers?
How are people's experiences with boarding pods? I don't even really know how they work. How many times can you launch pods in a single battle? Can the pods be destroyed by PD? What sort of chance of success do they have? Oh and they don't work on destroyers?
Boarding Pods are single use weapons. They're vulnerable to PD, but have enough hit points to resist light laser pd. Chance of success is based on race, a pod filled with hiver warriors or a couple of packs of zuul is more likely to succeed for instance. Pods don't work on destroyers at all, but they do work on Cruisers and Dreadnoughts. Ship size is another factor in success chances, a Cruiser will have fewer marines on it than a Dreadnought.
Boarding Pods can be tricky to use, but sometimes they can help out. it's not that you are gaining a ship, it's like subtracting one of their ships to add to yours during battle. It can be a pain with certain targets though, too many PD weapons make them useless and to retreat the ships that launched them to replace them with ships with heavier firepower can be slow. I can't say I've ever tried them on destroyers, didn't really seem worth it, I'd usually use them against DN class ships.
I got this through direct 2 drive with the first expansion. Gotta say I never got into it. I love galciv and mod for soase but this game I don't enjoy. To me it's almost a twitch game. If I didn't do everything exactly right quick as lighting the entire galaxy was shitting down my throat 20 minutes in. Maybe i'll give it another go but it doesn't seem like my thing.
Sonar on
I'm building a real pirate ship. Really. Wanna help? Click here!
caffron said: "and cat pee is not a laughing matter"
This is a game built for multiplayer. What takes hours in GalCiv in terms of empire development takes minutes in SotS. It is also not very forgiving. The AI is surprisingly competent at times, though it doesn't focus enough on the long term.
And the battles are glorious. Mass driver physics are hilarious. Stormers bouncing between ships, hitting a gap in the armor, just an incredibly visceral experience where strategy matters. I love it.
It is probably the best TBS game I've played since it came out.
If there are any fellow noobs wanting to learn how to play, I started a TAR (Tactics and Action Report) on the official board to get help as a new player:
I want to like this game, I really do, but there's just something about it that bothers me. Can't really place my finger on it. It does make me wish I could find my old copy of MOO2.
As a big fan of Moo2, Gal Civ 1 & 2, and other TBS games, I found that I still enjoyed the game.
It's got enough TBS aspects to be slightly strategic (wishing for an expanded world building mode, but the simplified version in the base game is okay) in it's turn-by-turn play, but the battles involve a fair amount of tactical thought.
Having to cut your ships thrust and start turning as the humans to keep from radically overshooting your opponents; trying to minimize your damage by withdrawing forces and bringing in new ships; using different weapons; making up fleets of mixed forces, both anti-ship, anti-missile, and anti-planet taskforces; and also the joy of targeting specific points of a ship to either kill weapons or even engines; all of it combined to make the tactical portion of the game pretty fun, for me at least.
Yeah, I kinda wished the battles were TBS as well. I miss the MoO2 combat systems with the tactical nature of combat, moving in on certain sides, taking down ships, or even raiding them for capture/sabotage. But this is fine. It all plays out well enough to make it fun. The only reason I hadn't moved it to my new laptop was the non-digital aspect. Now, that apparently isn't a reason anymore. Might have to rebuy this.
Sonar: I don't recall if it was in the first or second expansion, but at some point you got the ability to define wildly divergent starting conditions for each player. Things like AI difficulty level, economic efficiency, research efficiency, number of starting techs, number of starting colonies, starting treasury... All of those could be set differently for each player. You should be able to give yourself enough of an advantage that you can figure things out.
Reducing the Random Event chance could also help keep the galaxy from ruining you for less than perfect play.
Well, there is a demo and some tutorial videos. I think those predate the latest expansion, though. They might tide you over till you can scrape together $30.
Posts
It does not count. It lacks the eXplore component.
4x is reserved for space-based strategy titles.
Oh, it has to be space based. Gotcha. Didn't realize that was part of the criteria. Well, I chalk up my ignorance to not having a decent computer for 15 years. I may have to remedy that with this title!
The biggest ships don't show up if their drones can't collect enough resources. And the berserkers aren't really a threat if you have destroyers with UV lasers, battle computer, and a full ring of satellites around your world.
It would be great if you could just wipe the Von Neumanns damn home planet out. You can't colonize it and even when you bomb it glass parking lot style, they still come back later. Has anyone else had problems taking out their PK's? I can do it on auto, but even with the best fleet I can't do it myself.
Any hints on what I should be doing?
It really depends on your problem, but generally you start losing when the computer gernerates more money than you can. That leads to falling behind in the tech race and being unable to build as many ships as your opponent.
Assuming this is your problem, I've got a few ideas on how to solve it.
1. Colonize properly. It depends on your race, but you should be snapping up every planet it is feasible to colonize. Initially they drain your economy, but once they start paying your economy really takes off. Generally you want to start by colonizing planets with a hazard rating of 250 or less. They are reasonably cheap and the hazard doesn't slow down growth too much. Try to land with multiple colonizers as well. I consider 5 colonizers to be a decent minimum. Optimal colonizing strategy is very race dependent, so I cant get too specific without knowing your preferred race.
2. Tech choice. You want to pick up tech that helps your empire grow quickly. The first three techs I research are usually Waldo Units, Gene Modification and Suspended Animation in that order. You really want to grow your industrial output and colonization ability at every opportunity, since both of those factors feed almost directly back into money.
3. Trade. I'm not sure about the scope of the current demo, but if you can reach it, do so. Its enormously expensive to set up full trade routes, but once you do you can more than double your empire income.
4. Weapons. Try to find specific weapons that work well in many situations. Research them first. I usually grab UV lasers as my workhorse destroyer age weapon. They remain relevant through the early fusion age unless someone spends the time and money to grab reflective coatings. If I'm playing Morrigi, I might go for UV beamers, because they do awesome damage when you use them on drones.
5. CnC. Once you have a few colonies and a decent number of combat ready ships, you'll need command ships to use them effectively. Research Battle Computers and build one or two destroyer CnC ships for each fleet. A fleet should be large enough to fill out the full command point supply of your CnC ship, plus support ships and a couple of reinforcements.
6. Play to your racial strengths. Each race demands a different play style for optimal success. The Hivers and Zull are the most blatant about this, but each race requires a different set of priorities. As a Human you need a strong early game, Morrigi thrive off of trade and diplomacy. Liir need to tech-rush and counter other people's designs, and Tarka should be aggressive, but not rabid. Don't try to play counter to your racial style. Choose a race with a playstyle that works for you.
Goddamnit, I had just decided to NOT put this on my new system as I only had the base game on CD and was trying to move to digital stuff more and more.
Frak, Frell, and all the other curses in the stars, why did I have to click on this? Curse my nostalgia!
My first play through, Human just ripped apart my dolphin ships.
Second play through I thought I was doing well, but all of a sudden this Queen Bee Bitch came out of nowhere and ripped my empire apart. Then, when I finally killed her and reclaim my lost planet.....another one came!
How quickly should I be tech up to cruisers? It seem like destroyers are mere fodders.
I expected more colony stuff going on, like Master of Orion.
But seeing as the game is focused on multiplayer and the turns not taking 1 hour, I can see why they did it.
I still find it hilarious how many ships you can build in one round and how many fucking tankers I need.
Seriously, my fleets (as humans) had almost as many tankers as they had combat ships,just so I could get to the god damn enemy colonies!
I respectfully disagree with your definition. The term is often used in reference to Civilization and similar games. It's still exploration if you're exploring a single planet's surface.
Good OP, btw. I remember enjoying the demo when it came out, but not spending enough time to get a real sense of the game. Maybe I'll give it another shot.
Liir Destroyers are very fragile, if you are having trouble keeping them alive, try researching armor tech, You've got an 80% chance of getting the first armor tech, and it'll help a bit. To do well in combat as the Liir you have to research technology that directly counters the weapons and ships your enemies use. Look into deflectors and disruptors, as well as reflective coating and armor techs.
Against the Scilicoids or the Scilicoid queen, you need point defense tech or other fast accurate weapons. Without it, you'll take a lot of casualties. The Queen herself is vulnerable to ballistic weapons, but enough of any weapon type should do the job.
I usually tech to Fusion before I grab cruisers. If you grab the right weapons and focus your fire well in combat, destroyers should be quite effective. In AMOC I try to have Fusion out between turn 80 and 100 depending on how well I'm doing, with Cruisers coming out next. Generally Cruisers are too expensive to justify building them with slow fusion engines, but humans can get away with building early cruisers for an offensive rush because of the speed of the node drive, and Tarka can occasionally justify it because they get a discount on cruisers.
I recommend starting as Liir or Tarkas if you have never played before. Their space travel mechanics are the most straightforward. I tend to play a research heavy game, so Liir is usually my choice as they have the biggest research bonus. Also they have a focus on bioweapons. Starting a plague on an enemy world, then watching it spread to their entire empire is all kinds of awesome.
Yes, humans are the most tanker dependent race. Their ships have short ranges and they are tied to node lines. Other races don't have these constraints, and consequently use fewer tankers. Once you research refineries, you will only need a couple to serve an entire fleet.
Pro tip 1: Do not ignore trade. Especially if you play Morrigi ( they get a trade bonus). By mid game my trade income is usually double or triple my planetary income. Do note however, that not all galaxy configurations are conducive to trade. If your empire has a few very spread out planets, or only 1 planet per trade sector, it may not be worth the investment.
Pro tip 2: The Liir star drive is constrained by gravity, so your ships are slower and less maneuverable around planets (also Morrigi grav boats, which they use to speed their method of star travel). So it is to your advantage to develop your sensor technology and intercept incoming fleets in deep space. Your ships will literally fly circles around enemy ships away from a gravity well.
Hivers are the best. You're slow, but your empire is like an unstoppable cancer, eating away at the galaxy. There are two types of races in this game, Hivers and fodder. Don't be the fodder.
We should get a Steam group going.
I have only once had the misfortune to fight against a hiver empire with farcasters. It was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life, but the combination of deflectors and liir maneuverability saw me through. Seriously, this game shines in multiplayer. I've played a lot of games, but this game has produced the most exhilarating moments. There's nothing quite like predicting where your enemies counterattack is coming from and sending reinforcements a single turn before the attack fleet arrives.
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Pasots
I think it's set as private at the moment so leave your steam id in the thread (or alternatively PM me) and I'll get you added.
So here I am, eating my Gorilla-reptile steak.
Then all of a sudden a 'System Destroyer' came out of nowhere and rape my empire in half.
How the hell can you kill that thing? It doesnt appear to have a kill limit.
Also, does the planet always become inhabitable after you destroy the worms that live on it? I thought I was getting a planet out of my assault, but it just become inhabitable once I conquered it.
I'm sure you've all see normal Von Neumanns (Von Neumannii?) but in case you didn't know, the beserker creates tons of destroyer sized flying saucers that have shields and boarding pods (or some other mind control thing) in addition to splitting itself into polygonal chunks that begin to circle the world while focusing beams of destruction at the surface, like some sort of giant space maypole.
What few outdated destroyers I had there got shot down pretty quickly, but my shiney new HCLaser Cruiser got off like two shots before deciding to flip sides and promptly joined in on the mass destruction of my homeworld.
You've got to have a lot of fodder and good tech to stand a chance against the System Killer. It heals when it destroys a system, so you should keep hitting it in deep space before it reaches another world. You destroy it like you would any other ship, it's just a bitch and a half.
And for planets, do you mean uninhabitable? They shouldn't see a big change in that regard when you capture it. The enemy might have different environmental tolerances than you, and they could have terraformed it a lot since you last saw it.
Who'd be up for a game tomorrow? I'm in the mood to invade people.
What's different from this and GalCiv?
A whole ton. Essentially they're two completely divergent schools of thought. GalCiv is all about the singleplayer, so it has a lot of involved systems, tons of diplomacy, heavy economics and research, building specific buildings, the whole nine yards.
SotS is designed for multiplayer. It's not as deep on the more abstract systems, like economy or diplomacy. You don't need to micromanage colonies to squeeze a few extra bits of production from them. Ship customization is largely only selecting what kind of sections and weapons each ship should have. Instead, it focuses on being quicker than other 4x games, and much more combat-oriented.
You fight battles in realtime. Unlike GalCiv, the ships aren't just sets of stats, their appearance and construction plays a huge role. Liir ships are more rounded, so with reflective armor lasers tend to slide right off, where they might just hit a flat Hiver armor plate. Weapons have arcs and ranges, so positioning becomes important. It works like the Total War series, your actions on the battles effect the strategic situation.
Each race plays completely differently, too. A Human attack can blitz in out of nowhere, since they're extremely fast and you can't intercept them in hyperspace. You can see the slower-than-light Hivers coming from a long way off, but they're able to set up gates on worlds to instantly travel between them. Which two races are fighting at the time really changes the way you need to behave on both the strategic and tactical levels.
So while GalCiv is more of an empire management game, SotS is more of a wargame.
GamersGate has it.
Certain weapons will greatly affect a planets hazard. You can easily send a 0 hazard planet to the 1200s just by bombardment, especially if it has a large population for you to chew through.
I especially enjoy killing only the imperial population and reducing the planet into an inhospitable husk world. Then I send in the mining fleet while the civilian population shrieks in horror while I finish the job and suck everything dry!
Boarding Pods are single use weapons. They're vulnerable to PD, but have enough hit points to resist light laser pd. Chance of success is based on race, a pod filled with hiver warriors or a couple of packs of zuul is more likely to succeed for instance. Pods don't work on destroyers at all, but they do work on Cruisers and Dreadnoughts. Ship size is another factor in success chances, a Cruiser will have fewer marines on it than a Dreadnought.
caffron said: "and cat pee is not a laughing matter"
And the battles are glorious. Mass driver physics are hilarious. Stormers bouncing between ships, hitting a gap in the armor, just an incredibly visceral experience where strategy matters. I love it.
It is probably the best TBS game I've played since it came out.
http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=11427
It's got enough TBS aspects to be slightly strategic (wishing for an expanded world building mode, but the simplified version in the base game is okay) in it's turn-by-turn play, but the battles involve a fair amount of tactical thought.
Having to cut your ships thrust and start turning as the humans to keep from radically overshooting your opponents; trying to minimize your damage by withdrawing forces and bringing in new ships; using different weapons; making up fleets of mixed forces, both anti-ship, anti-missile, and anti-planet taskforces; and also the joy of targeting specific points of a ship to either kill weapons or even engines; all of it combined to make the tactical portion of the game pretty fun, for me at least.
Yeah, I kinda wished the battles were TBS as well. I miss the MoO2 combat systems with the tactical nature of combat, moving in on certain sides, taking down ships, or even raiding them for capture/sabotage. But this is fine. It all plays out well enough to make it fun. The only reason I hadn't moved it to my new laptop was the non-digital aspect. Now, that apparently isn't a reason anymore. Might have to rebuy this.
Reducing the Random Event chance could also help keep the galaxy from ruining you for less than perfect play.
Mofucking swarm
...
I wish I had money.