Sins of a Solar Empire

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Sins of a Solar Empire
Sins of a Solar Empire cover art
Developer(s) Ironclad Games
Publisher(s) Stardock
Engine Iron Engine
Release date(s) August 2007
Genre(s) Real-Time Strategy
Mode(s) Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Rating(s) ESRB: pending
Platform(s) Windows
Input Keyboard, Mouse, Game controller

Sins of a Solar Empire (Sins) is a computer game of the real-time strategy (RTS) genre, developed by Ironclad Games. Ironclad is expected to bridge the gap between tactical and strategic gameplay in a real-time environment for the first time. Ironclad has coined the term RT4X to describe the game's genre.[1]

Contents

[edit] Features

[edit] Seamless Blend of Epic Strategy and Tactical Combat

According to the official Sins website, the primary feature that sets Sins apart from other RTS titles is the seamless integration of a real-time epic strategy mode with real-time tactical fleet combat. Possibly for the first time in the genre players will be able to zoom back and forth from gods-eye view to individual battles, all within the same screen, in real-time.

[edit] Grand Scale

The game website states that players can conquer neighboring planets and explore distant solar systems in a "massively scaled, fully 3D environment featuring entire galaxies, orbiting planets, clusters of asteroids, space dust and radiant stars." In an interview with Talk Strategy, Ironclad director Blair Fraser suggests that the game's "Iron" engine is specially designed with new technologies that allow it to handle very large differences in size, scale, and distance. In terms of scale, various fan forum posts are comparing the game to Rome:Total War, only in space. Comparisons have also been made to the successful turn-based space game, Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords.

[edit] Conquer and Colonize Planets

Various resources can be found on a variety of different planets. Players can build ground-based and orbital structures, including cities and defense platforms. They can interact directly with planets in diverse ways, such as conquering enemy worlds through allegiance, or by forcefully "raining destruction from orbit". Forum posts suggest a number of customized options, including difficulty settings and changing the number of stars and planets in a game.

[edit] Diplomatic and Economic Strategies

The unique gameplay allows you to forge and break alliances, blockade enemy planets and, allegedly, place bounties on backstabbing ex-allies and over-powered tyrants. You can trade resources, establish trade routes, and even manipulate the commodities market.

[edit] Races

Opponents can take command of one of three unique races, each with their own style, story, ships, structures, weapons, technologies, and strategies.

  • The industrious Trader Emergency Coalition (TEC) strives to advance its antiquated war technology in order to defend its worlds.
  • Exiled for deviancy, The Advent are a Psitech empowered race bent on retribution and the acquisition of rare resources.
  • The technologically superior Vasari seek new worlds to repopulate their devastated numbers and fuel the next phase of their unending exodus.

According to an interview with Gamecloud, some members are really drawn to the clean aesthetic and original capabilities of the Advent, while others prefer the brute force tactics of the TEC. The Vasari have advanced nanotechnologies and various means of phase-space manipulation.[2] Players can choose from 10 unique logos per race, 10 different player colors, and race-specific user interfaces. Planets and ships can also be named.

[edit] Special Abilities

As battle-hardened capital ships advance in level, their core offensive and defensive systems are improved and unique special abilities are unlocked. Examples of abilities include Raze Planet, Clairvoyance, and Phase Missile Swarm.

[edit] Replay Value

According to developer posts in a fan forum, ships become increasingly more powerful and players can experiment with new special abilities and research topics. Hardcore gamers can alter difficulty settings, increase the size of the universe, and play online multiplayer. Measures were taken to ensure no ‘decided’ victories for those who obtain power early in the game. This has been a recurring issue in many RTS games. It is suggested that Sins universe has a dynamic environment and there are multiple strategies to achieve victory. Linear gameplay is typically regarded as an undesirable trait in computer games.

[edit] Graphics

Sins allegedly offers new size and scale technologies that deliver convincingly large stars and planets next to comparably small orbital structures, starships and tiny fighters. One might speculate that there will be polygon constraints in order to reasonably support massive fleets. The official website lists the following graphic specs:

  • Extensive Bumpmapping flushes out the depth and detail of almost every surface, including the plated hulls of ships and the rugged mountains, craters and coastlines of planets.
  • Per-Pixel Specular Lighting from each star shines and glints off the various metals of each ship and orbital structure, while the same light forms authentic day/night cycles on each planet.
  • Dynamic Fractal Generation finds a number of uses but most impressively with the animation and creation of realistic planetary cloud covers, and the coronas and molten surfaces of stars.
  • Post Process Bloom Filtering infuses all forms of light and energy with the appropriate amount of life, glow, and intensity, from stellar phenomena to weapons fire and more.

[edit] Music and Sound

According to Ironclad, the game's audio engine dynamically shifts musical score to compliment the game’s ebb and flow. There are over 3 CD's worth of original music, featuring multiple themes, from complacency to hopeless despair to shameless retribution.

[edit] Story

10,000 years ago the Vasari Empire ruled over countless worlds. Relentless and unstoppable, the Dark Fleet sought to eclipse ever more until a cataclysmic error brought it all to an abrupt end. With their worlds destroyed and their species all but wiped out, the survivors began a desperate race to outrun their past. 1000 years ago during the formation of Trade Order, emissaries found a single world orbiting a giant red star on the periphery of what was to become Trader Space. The people of that desert planet were eventually found to be practicing the utmost in scientific and social deviancy; ancient taboos long since assumed to be law. Shocked and disgusted, the Trader Worlds conspired to have their forgotten brethren exiled far outside the territory they were claiming as their own. 10 years ago the Trader Worlds prospered in an era of lucrative trade and relative peace. Stories of their ancestor’s wars had long since passed into the depths of the oldest archives; the methods and machines by which they conducted those affairs long since buried. Consequently, when the Vasari Exodus Fleet arrived, the outlying Trader Worlds paid dearly. In a battle for survival, the Traders find a new impetus to rediscover the ways of their savage past. Now the Exiled have returned; a transformed people calling themselves “The Advent”. With a vast fleet of advanced warships and mysterious weapons, they bring a growing number of worlds under their control. The already struggling Trader Emergency Coalition finds itself caught in a two-front war that appears utterly hopeless. The fate of the galaxy is at hand and one must rise to face the Sins of a Solar Empire. [3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://news.talkstrategy.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=877
  2. ^ http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=1842/
  3. ^ http://www.sinsofasolarempire.com/lore.html

[edit] External links

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