Rebellion seems extremely complex at first, but (for better or worse), it really isn’t.
Like all RTSes, your job is to extract resources from the map, convert them to force, and use that force to defeat your opponent.
Metal and crystal come from mines, which you get by conquering new planets, and cash comes from civilian sources: taxes and trade. Increase civilan populations to get more money early game, and build trade stations in adjacent systems to get money later.
Research is probably the most complicated part of the game. Basically, you accumulate either civilian or military research points by constructing the appropriate labs. Each planet can support only so many structures, so the need for more space (as well as resources) encourages you to continually expand so you can build more labs and get more advanced tech.
Also, turn the default speeds up; the game is painfully slow otherwise (you do this during the match setup, I set everything to the fastest or second fastest).
Start a small map (1 system, 8-12 planets), put your opponent on easiest difficulty, and start the game. Build your capship, expand into the nearby planets with it and your initial force. Pop out a couple military labs and get the next few ships in the research tree. Build more labs and shipyards at your new planets, build up an army, crush your opponent. You can probably do all that in around 20 minutes. Congratulations, you’re on your way to understanding Rebellion!
One of the biggest tips I can give (for once you’re more familiar with the game) is that you can and sometimes should build multiple trade stations per planet. Don’t worry too much about doing so at first, but if you find yourself in the late game with no credits, you can always add in more trade stations to boost your credit income to where you want it to be.
That aside, the advice being given here is quite good. Once you get a handle on how it plays, Sins is not a particularly complicated game. It just makes numerous demands on your attention that you aren’t prepared to deal with until you have a few games’ worth of experience under your belt.
Well, I tried again with all the advice given, and I have to say I’m getting there. I actrually colonized some planets, won some battles and did some research, albeit without any strategy whatsoever. I compared my stats to my opponent at the end and it’s clear that I have a whole lot to learn, but that was the whole point, so that’s fine!
One question: I can’t seem to find any difficulty slider, so I don’t think my opponent was on easy. I’m sure I must be missing something, and I’m sure there’s a ‘doh!’-moment incoming, but I’m going to ask anyway: where do I chance the difficulty…?
When setting up your game, you can customize your opponents. One of the icons (and there are several) are used to toggle an enemy’s difficulty level. Fell free to click all of those buttons - nothing bad will happen and you should be able to tell immediately the effect of your input.
Yep - Blips has it right. Each AI player can be set to different difficulty levels. While learning, turning the enemy down a notch or two isn’t a bad idea. Using the “Quick Start” option is also good for beginners. Just remember, everybody else gets the quick start, too.
Another suggestion is teaming yourself up with an AI buddy or two to go comp-stomping with. They can tie up an enemy while you get the hang of things, plus you can get a feel for how they manage their ships.
Oh, and the Vasari are the weirdest to play and require the most finesse, imho - I’d hold off on them until you get a better grip on how the game systems work.
Ah, thát screen, right before the start, áfter you set all the other options for the match! Didn’t look there…:-) Thanks, I knew I was missing something!
As for the quick start option: I usually don’t like that much, but in this case it might indeed be a good way to get going.
Well, if I can’t get into this game nów, I never will…
For my first capital ship, I almost always go with the race’s colony capital ship. I don’t really like carting around the slow-ass colony frigates in the early game due to the need for speed to establish your empire’s borders.
Early build queue, make sure you get your capital ship plus a small escort fleet (4 - 6 small frigates) as quickly as possible. Like most RTS games, resources are key and you need to rush out to secure asteroid systems early to get the metal and crystal flowing. Ice and Fire planets are gated, which is good, and Terran/Desert planets are mostly protected by enough NPC ships that it will be later in the game before you can take them on.
Like most games where you have champions, it’s important to level your capital ship early. Hit those asteroid systems to get your first 2 levels without much trouble. Capital ship levels make a world of difference - a level 3 colony ship will usually trounce a level 1 combat ship.
Thanks, that’s good advice. I just lost my first tesgame because I was way to slow settling other systems, so I kept getting overwhelmed with enemy fleets. Which I could still beat on easy, but any progress was out of the question at this point. Still, I’m learning, and liking the game more and more!
re: leveling your capital ships, keep in mind you can also outright purchase the first two level-ups. After I get my economy rolling and pop out a new one, I’ll do that while the ship trudges over to whatever hotspot I need it. By the time it arrives, it will be level 3 (or 4 if you get the extra tech allowing that).
I almost gave up on the original Sins as well, but I’m glad I stuck with it because I would rank it among my top 10 games of all time. Dominions 2 was another similar case. I find games that have high learning curves are often the best if you take the time to learn them and not give up. They tend to have a lot of depth and replayability, which is the case with Sins.
We just launched the second DLC pack for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. Stellar Phenomena adds new stars and planetary bodies, plus a bunch of dramatic random events to Sins for $4.99: http://bit.ly/1dL7exX
Remember how in Moo 2, on the highest difficulties, the Antarans mostly break with their alleged behavior patterns and just fucking attack you over and over?
In my current Sins game - using all expansions + micro expansions - a “remnant of the dark fleet” (or somesuch) Titan showed up at a frontier planet. It was neutral, insofar as it did not belong to an enemy. It was level 3, and it was extraordinarily pissed off. Fortunately this titan did not have what is arguably it’s most well known ability. It was the Vasari flying Wing that can eat all of your frigates and cruisers. But it did not have that ability.
I’m playing an unusual game - very large univere but underpopulated by players. So I had expanded and had a robust economy going. It took two fleets - each an Akkan capital ship backed by a couple of dozen cobalts, shurikens, and Javelins - plus a majorly updated starbase the titan allowed to build because it was distracted by all the other stuff, plus each fleet had to separately retreat to a neighboring planet to let the cap ship be repaired, plus a lot of reinforcements to each fleet from separate production worlds, to finally beat it. In a smaller/more densly populated galaxy I would surely have lost a couple of worlds to this thing. But it was quite thrilling, let me tell you.
Another event I’ve seen, several times now, is a “rebel fleet” shows up and starts harassing your planets. This one can come from anywhere; it could show up in some backwater-world far from your borders. Fleet composition is one or multiple caps and a variable number of frigates and corvettes. Deeper into games I’ve seen what I thought were larger fleets, so I’m guessing it scales. The fleets were always big enough to seriously threaten a planet (though not one with a fully upgraded star base).
Outside of those things I’m getting solar flair type stuff with varying effects. Actually, one of the things ran along my star lanes and hit like 5 planets.
