The expansion has a 2D map you can select.
Before installing the expansion, you should make sure your original is updated to the latest version. You can get the patches at GamersGate.
There is some diplo. The game I am currently in, one of the AI’s asked me to join its alliance with 2 other players. As soon as I joined, one of the players I am at war with quit the alliance. The 3rd AI quit awhile later. Just before it was removed from the universe.
The crash error can probably be fixed by updating to the latest version of directx 9. I had the same problem. The fix is described here.
There is diplomacy in the expansion (there’s some in the the original, but not much). Everyone tends to gang up on the Zuul, like races are more likely team up, and the Liir in particular are eager to sign NAPs and alliances. It’s possible to win the game by allying with everyone, but I think it’s pretty hard to pull off.
New update for BoB released today. There’s the usual numerous bug fixes and gameplay balancing tweaks. Additionally there’s a handful of new content based mainly on player feedback.
[ul][li] Weapon target queue for area of effect weapons.
[/li]> [li] Improve fleet list ship info (double-click) to include info from tooltip.
[/li]> [li] AI feelings toward you better/worse icon added to Diplomacy Screen
[/li]> [li] Other players Status with other players info added to Diplomacy Screen
[/li]> [li] Salvaging bonus for knowing the language of the race you are checking for tech.
[/li]> [li] Disc Map
[/li]> [li] Cloaked Mines
[/li]> [li] Additional Avatars and Icons
[/li]> [li] Added turn repetition to money/research donations
[/li]> [li] Added incremental notches into the trade/construction slider for trade route support.
[/li]> [li] Added subsystem that will allow for turn data to be saved at any point during a turn.
[/li]> [li] Added horizontal weapon arc displays to ship design screen.
[/li]> [li] Added Weapon Group Configuration panel to ship design screen
[/li]> [li] Added Sensor range overlay for main starmap
[/li]> [/ul]
Direct2Drive and GamersGate has the update available in their services and you can get it from all the usual download places including a direct download from the publisher.
Ah, some much needed changes in there. Excellent. I was just saying to my brother the other day (and in most games we had) how the design screen really needed to show the arcs.
But dear God, someone really needs to give the official page a kick up the arse.
Another update out today. There’s the usual laundry list of fixes and tweaks and a few new additions.
• New trade summary screen
• Improved ship maneuvers, including rolling and off-the-plane pursuit mode
• New fleet management features
• New option to toggle area-effect weapons to automatic fire
• Improved AI combat maneuvering
• A mysterious new encounter hinting at the 6th race!
Still supported, adding user driven requests and advancing the story 3 months after the expansion and over a year since the original release.
The Gamersgate patch version isn’t out yet.
shakes fist at Gamersgate
Where else can you buy it? Or does the patch work with the Direct2Drive version? The expansion never made retail, at least not in NA.
I successfully updated my GamersGate version with the patch. Dunno about D2D.
I think it was in stores in Europe. Thanks Rorschach, if the patch works with the GG version then I can try it out tonight.
Yup, patch works perfectly with gamersgate version.
Learned a good tip to help me expand: If you have researched at least 50%, you can go down low like 5% and get lots of cash. There’s a decent chance you’ll get an event that instantly finishes the research. Handy for expensive techs so you can afford to field army / colonizers.
Set max distance between stars so you can get more deepspace Liir fun.
I still haven’t figured out how to assign stuff to squads (like my maneuverable gnats). Forgot how to compress time / speed up combat
Once your current research project reaches 50% of budget the game checks each turn for tech completion. The chances are very small at 50% budget but increase all the way to automatic at 150%. You will probably get the tech under-budget as long as you put something into research and have quite a bit of patience. Putting a lot of money into research when you’re overbudget is only really useful if you want to push for the automatic completion at 150%.
Assigning ships to hotkeys works like normal during combat (CTRL-# to put selected ships in a group, # to recall) in order to set it up ahead of the battle you’ll need a CnC ship in the fleet and use the Manage Fleets screen.
CTRL-PAGEUP and CTRL-PAGEDOWN accellerates and decellerates time in combat between x1 and x8 only if you’re playing the computer. You can’t accellerate time with another non-AI player in that combat.
New patch is out for Sword of the Stars (either Born of Blood or Collector’s Edition). It’s mostly bug fixes including some errors in the custom maps, auto resolution of combat, lowered maintenance costs for bigger fleets, and fixed the outnumbering bonus.
Here’s the full list:
Fixes
1- Fix can’t colonize system after enemy gate destroyed.
2- Fixed typo in AI research table for finding a path to AI Slave tech.
3- Fixed issue where bonus command points would be assigned to all players if they had equal ship numbers.
4- Fixed issue with Hiver AI building fleets too large for empire gate capacity.
5- Addressed issue with AI sending too many freighters to sectors in some cases.
6- Fixed issue with Hiver AI slow-boating ships with old engines.
7- Fixed issue with Hiver AI slow-boating freighters to trade sectors.
8- Fixed issue where most Liir ships could not roll left.
9- Combat AI now breaks first contact hold fire when enemy planet launches a missile.
10- Combat AI now fires Detonating Torpedoes and Corrossive Missiles at enemy planet when no enemy ships remain.
11- Fix Hiver AI getting stuck and never expanding when there are too few gates.
12- Fix scaling errors in crow ruins debris art.
13- Fix disruptor weapon icon glitch.
14- Fix overlapped system detection.
15- Fix aid not reflected expense report.
16- Fix issue where (Arrived) is incorrectly displayed for fleet ETA.
17- Fix issues with command line m/p game joining not working (for Xfire).
18- Fix known issues with CTRL waypoint stitching reporting incorrect ETA.
19- Fixed issue where memory leaks could be caused by asteroid shadows.
20- Fix end of combat crash after destroying crow ruins.
21- Fix issue where budget screen Research Traded was incorrectly reporting zero.
22- Fix Zuul CR Deflector turret embedded inside ship.
23- Fix all overlapping systems in the RealSpace custom map, and normalize some tiny/large separations between other problem pairs.
24- Fix custom map max colonies default value.
25- Fix issues with turret tracking code not aiming correctly in some cases.
26- Fix turret art errors causing gun aim to be off.
27- Fix known turret arc errors.
28- Fix issue with freighters not being evacuated from a sector when all systems in sector are eaten by Sparky.
29- Fix trade UI leaving effects behind on systems eaten by Sparky.
30- Node drive fleets are no longer lost in nodespace when only part of the fleet loses engines at a system.
31- Fix issue with the note icons for fleets getting left behind at systems.
32- Fix issue with slave output slider resetting when adjusting other output sliders.
33- Fix bug where fleet mgt screen was not assigning a command cost to some ships.
34- Fix issue where freighters were not displayed correctly in build queue.
35- Fix issue where build queue doesn’t appear for trade summary.
36- Fix news events not reporting research bonus amounts.
37- Fix autoresolve not fielding ships in the correct order.
38- Fix Zuul being affected by own infestation.
39- Fix issues with assimilation plague & Zuul infestation reports.
40- Fix nano virus not unlocking biowar sections.
41- Fix mines prematurely detonating.
42- Fix outnumber bonus calculation.
43- Fix issue with mouse wheel not working in certain text windows.
45- Fix bug where resources were not being read correctly from custom map files.
46- Fix issue with gate traffic not being updated when ships retreat from combat.
47- Fix duplicate Tarkas AI name.Changes
1- Optimized Hiver pathfinding.
2- Reduced maintenance costs of CR and DN.
3- Adjust strat AI to bring more backup command ships.
4- Spaced out imperial savings label & value.
5- Improved PD target selection to spread PD fire more intelligently over multiple targets.
6- Various tweaks to autoresolve
7- Adjustments to mining trap encounter.
8- Turn timer no longer disappears when player ends turn.
10- Increased force of implosion/grav mines.
11- Asteroids no longer pd targets.
12- Increase in ER Cruiser rangeAdditions
1- Added tech name to lab accident news event.
2- More space for save game filenames.
3- Alt+F4 can now be used to exit the app.
d2d is horribly restrictive.
Gamersgate has unlimited installs. Laptop, work computer, home desktop, no problem.
I win the necro of the day award!
I doubt anyone is playing this, but just in case anyone remembers how they played it back in the day and cares to chime in when I describe what I’m up to in a new campaign I just started then all the better.
85 star system
4 races
Playing as humans
no teams or alliances, so every man/alien for himself
disk galaxy (3D with training wheels)
Already played one campaign on 2D map just to figure out controls, had teams and my teammate basically just took over the map. But least I learned the basics more or less.
When playing humans, I tended to push pretty hard on the scouts and tankers to check as many systems as I could, but was a little picky about planets to colonize at the start. A good planet for your habitability is pretty cheap the colonize (though you always want to use multiple colonizers) but a bad planet is very expensive to get going, at least until you have better tech.
Thanks for the input, unless I get desperate due to crappy planets near me I’m trying to stick to planets between 100-200 max. I mean would love under 100 but usually don’t have that kind of luck.
I may have put in a little time…
As noted above, use the speed of the humans. They’re FAST. For research, focus early on Biotech for Suspended Animation and eventually Biological Transfer (requires Cruiser Construction), and also Point Defense under Ballistics (useful to place on your colonizers to help them survive colony traps). Armor Piercing Rounds are quite excellent early- to mid-game and underrated by many players, imho. Boosting speed is also a plus to keep up their advantage.
As for random events, I recommend leaving 4 strafe destroyers at any settled planet to defend against Von Neumann incursions; have them stand in line and knock out the little ships as they approach. If you take out the larger Von Neumann ships, that will escalate their attacks. They’ll also be half-decent to fend off incoming asteroids. Slavers, unfortunately, typically require heavier firepower to fend off without losses.
Edit - oh, and don’t forget Heavy Planetary Missiles! A cheap defense which is useful all game long.
Thanks for the advice, you’ve certainly got yourself a bit of time in this one, perhaps I should have phrased it I doubt anyone is still playing this still. ;)
But I was counting on some input because I knew there had to be some folks hanging out here that banged away on this one once upon a time who might surface to give advice.
I’ve got random events off this campaign, I figured I’ve got enough to sort.
I wanted to like this game but the controls/UI is a total nightmare.
IIRC I did manage to play out one game for a while until this unstoppable planet destroying terror showed up in my system and went nuts, but this happened after AI robots took control of over half of my worlds, so I didn’t care too much.
There was some controversy around the time of the original launch of this game if I recall correctly. The designer of the game was also an CGW columnist or something?