Comments on: Thoughts: Sins Of A Solar Empire — Rebellion.

By: From Humble Origins to Galactic Conquest: Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion - GameSpeak Magazine

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 11:38:12 +0000

[…] (Image Source) […]

By: G

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 20:54:57 +0000

Forgive the thread bump, this post is very old now (perhaps your views have changed?)
So one thing is true, no game is perfect, Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion (SOASER) included.

I just wanted to bring your attention to the lore of the game. SOASER is set after Diplomacy and Entrenchment, where the attempts to find peace through diplomacy have failed. So according to the lore, it’s understandable that in game the diplomacy is weak.

SOASER players can suffer from tunnel vision, which leads to “blob battles”. The principles of war dictate a lot of what you see occurring. Concentration of force. If the AI goes for the “blob” strategy, then a SOASER player can either decide to fight fire with fire (blob fest), or use his head to counter that tactic.

The problem of spamming and the arms race is a perennial human problem. The game just gives us the sandbox to act that out.

Of course these “blobs” are fleets, the size of those fleets are dictated by the game settings – fleet size. Have a play around with those settings, see if having small fleet sizes changes your experience.

I agree that star systems are a little bland, and ships can be a little monotonous. But there is a strong modding community that has a plethora of content to change that up. The Star Trek Armada 3 mod is jaw dropping.

The only thing that I would like to see is the option to have AI take over parts of the game on your behalf. For instance an interface which allows me to assign planets, research, fleets or individual ships to AI control (like in Hearts of Iron 3), and give the AI missions and directions. This allows me to focus on smaller fleets, tactics etc. I think that would be a very positive addition.

But here is the crux of the problem; scale. With such a massive scale, the late game becomes more of a Grand Strategy Game (where it naturally disassociates from the individual “characters” of ships or even fleets) rather than a 4x game. But because SOASER requires the player to handle everything, I think late game results in (macro) information overload and so players will struggle to use the micro tactics needed to break the deadlock. This has an adverse effect on enjoyment. SOASER was not designed to be a Grand Strategy Game.

By: Gap Gen

Gap Gen — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 10:42:47 +0000

Right, I hate it when Endless Space is like “oh, I’m going to gimp your science now for no real reason, deal.”

By: Hentzau

Hentzau — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 20:18:04 +0000

It works from a purely mechanistic view, but my objection to it is that it homogenises the galaxy into a bunch of identically-sized gravity wells.

By: Hentzau

Hentzau — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 20:07:19 +0000

Having replayed Endless Space just this weekend, I can say it still lacks character. I can’t see the aliens as anything other than a collection of bonuses and penalties with a unique ship design; aside from a fuzzy hologram on the diplomacy screen you never get to see the aliens themselves. In MOO they’re depicted in charming cartoon graphics on the diplomacy screen, and even in miniature on the colony management screen so that you know that colony of Silicoids you just captured isn’t just a bunch of numbers.

Also, as ridiculous as it is I find the Space Dragon a far more entertaining random event than “-50% science for twenty turns”. Endless Space has some great tech and improvement descriptions and they’ve really done their homework on the planet types, but it’s just not enough for me.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 10:50:19 +0000

Although I agree it is blob vs blob you COULD zoom in if you wanted to so i am not too bothered by it. What I find less than stellar (sorry) is how cramped space feels.
I will never get used to small chunks of space connected by gates or warp portals, hyper space lanes or some other contrived method of fast travel. (looking at you too, X3!) To infinity and beyond? More to that gate over there and back. I prefer accelerated time. Although that makes multiplayer problematic. I find EVE has the mix spot on.

By: Aleksei Volchok

Aleksei Volchok — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 23:33:30 +0000

Please tell me: is that MOO2 of yours worth to try if? I like Endless Space, remember liking Galactic Civilizations (thought it lookes like a game about numbers-numbers-numbers). Endless space may not feel finished, but it’s coming there and races now feel very unique and interesting. What can MOO2 give me? In your praise of it you mention variability, choice… But of all of this ES now only lacks some grand events maybe, and it’s not the most important thing, isn’t it?

By: Gap Gen

Gap Gen — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 23:21:35 +0000

I think another difference is the faff. In a TBS, you can take the time to tweak the build queue on every tiny system, but in a RTS you’re asking yourself why you, Space Emperor, are having to manually place mining equipment on Asteroid Bumfuck-546N. And again, this is where boardgames excel – paring down decisions to the most essential and interesting. One of my open-ended goals is to make a relativistic 4X game, so you have no hope of controlling every system manually – you fire out fleets and try to second-guess reports coming in decades late, and your space empire is effectively you managing a network of loosely connected city states. Exactly the kind of thing Jim would hate, but eh.

By: Hentzau

Hentzau — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 20:20:17 +0000

The whack-a-mole was bloody awful. It’s a little too easy to withdraw a fleet after you’ve committed it, I think; even with warp interdictors they can jump out in seconds and they have the HP to weather the punishment you can throw at them until they do. Slowing that down would make battles more important, could open up a role for light frigates as ships that can spin up their drives quickly and make hit and run attacks, and would generally fix a lot of the single-player bumf.

By: Hentzau

Hentzau — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 20:17:47 +0000

It is, I think. It’s just that many of the more comprehensive elements you’d expect to find in a typical 4X are very light in Rebellion, such as diplomacy and infrastructure. As Gap says, it more correctly falls into the gap between classic RTS and 4X, but I’d say it’s closer to the latter.