Oh yeah, I’m totally playing the Complete edition on Steam. Is it even possible to only buy the original vanilla version? I’m guessing used CDs…
I have a set on hand, if needed ;)
Hahaha, nah, thank you though!
So when I said my first Tharsis session was 20 minutes? It was only 7,and felt like 20. I’m playing it now. Meh.
I saw that you’ve put up an SotS video on YouTube, Brian. Looking forward to checking it out.
Hey folks, we’re playing Starlancer in co-op tonight! If y’all would like to join us, let me know and I can help ya get the game running. It’s so awesome you can play co-op through the actual campaign. We tested it via Evolve and it worked great!
It’s so weird getting the game to run though. A legit copy with the CD in the drive won’t work on Windows 7, but apply a No-CD patch? Loads right up. SO. WEIRD.
Oh and thank you! It’s really moved into my top 5 space 4Xs, maybe even top 3. It’s sooo good.
Grifman
2928
It’s my number one, which only added to the disappointment of SOTS 2 :(
sigh - so true, so true.
As an aside, I laughed a little bit at poor Brian’s expense while watching his game to the point that I almost feel guilty. Almost.
There’s definitely a learning curve to it that I really appreciate.
And so many surprises. And really satisfying tactical combat (formations matter!). And really interesting decisions in the strategic layer. And races that play very differently. And…
Ok, it is awesome. That’s all. ;)
Totally agree. I’m normally a semi-pacifist in my 4x games (in part because AIs are often too easy to crush in war), but I love the military emphasis in SotS. The combo of great military gameplay plus the variety in racial FTL technologies plus the great spatial/territorial elements (i.e., the 3d maps and the ability to exploit systems via strip mining without bothering to colonize) are all highlights for me.
With the military, I really love that so many tech choices add to the tactical combat (adding ship modules and weapon types) and the battles are so good in part because it’s largely physics-simulation based. A lot of weapon and ship performance comes down to range, firing arcs, turret turning rates, projectile spread, rate of fire, and the range bands for projectiles (many weapons have damage drop off or increase with range). Even stuff like mass driver damage and inertial transfer is supposedly influenced by hull shape (impact angles).
SotS1 is probably my favorite space 4x, maybe even more than MOO2. My biggest gripe and suggestion for new players is to use the wiki a lot. The designers of SotS were strangely allergic to giving the player complete information (i.e., numbers), instead favoring lots of difficult-to-interpret (and sometimes inaccurate) bar charts that really fail to capture all the tactical complexity I mentioned above.
http://wiki.swordofthestars.com/sots1/Main_Page
My biggest wish for SotS2 would’ve just been small interface/graphical updates and an improved AI (since–like every 4x–the AI can’t handle certain major features like warfare or trade). I wonder if there’s any chance for a SotS3 someday…
I’ve been using that wiki a lot, and have had its author on our podcast a couple of times now. :)
A spoiler tip that I provide to all players of the game;
hidden for those who want to get surprised
Position at least 2 (you’ll want 4 if you haven’t improved your lasers, yet) destroyers with Strafe/Armor combos at every planet and set them as guards (found in the “special” tab). I personally call them VNKs (for “Von Neumann Killers”). When the Von Neumann ships come to steal your resources, let the destroyers stand their ground and blow up the small collector ships as they approach. No, you won’t destroy the mothership, but you’ll protect your planet and won’t incur the wrath of the Von Neumanns. Oh, and do NOT put missiles on these little guys, otherwise they’ll get hammered by torpedos
Yeah, the frequency of unknown menaces is one of the things I loved about SotS1. They’re similar to the monsters in MoO2 and other games of course, but I enjoyed them more for a number of reasons. I think my favorite were the Silicoid queens (is that what they’re called?) because–unlike other menaces that are mostly/completely random–you could actually see the silicoid hives on the map and see them spread from system to system, a bit like a zombie apocalypse (though in most games they’re wiped out before the infestation spreads very far).
My biggest regret with SotS1 is that I never saw most of the uber menaces (not sure why since I played a number of games on huge galaxies for 300+ turns), and I never managed to track down a certain you-know-what that was threatening the galaxy.
Yeah, the uber-menaces are EXTREMELY rare, but also extremely deadly (and fun). They also have some triggers that need to be met in order for them to show up (number of turns, massive fleets, etc.) and even then it’s really rare.
Guys, GUYS! Evochron Legacy is coming out tomorrow!! I’ve been toying with the beta and it looks soooooooo good you guys. I am silly excited for this.
I have all games from Starwraith so far, and I wasn’t even aware of Legacy. Thanks for the heads-up, I’ll get it as soon as I can!
I’m glad to hear that another Evochron game is coming out–will you be doing any videos discussing the changes in this iteration?
I hope to stream some of it today! You can see some new stuff in this video:
You can read about a lot of the changes here:
http://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegacy/about.htm
But the tl;dr version is better graphics, more varied mission types and a better quest system in general, random events, more exploration options such as derelict ships and such and just a whole lot more. I’m giddy!
