Most 4X’s get to be a doozy in the late game. If it is a doozy because it is complex, stable, a nail-biter, and the player likes that, it is a good thing.
If it is a doozy because the game is bogging down, technically, that’s bad.
Canuck
2024
I would recommend SOTS it’s perfectly playable.
kedaha
2025
The UI has aged badly though IMO, feels almost like a late 90’s game at this stage. Still fun though!
In SOTS2 , when going to modifying a ship, has anyone gotten stuck in the editor? I get a spinning in game “circle” cursor. I can’t seem to click on anything, ESC doesn’t work, and I had to kill the game with task manager.
I also seem to be getting menu hang, and strange lack of response after giving orders or clicking next turn. (I’ll click next turn button, and it won’t actually click till 3-4 seconds after its pressed.)
I haven’t had any crashes in the editor, but that kind of a lag you’re talking about was present in earlier patches but has been significantly reduced now for most people. If you’re running into those things now and this isn’t late-late-game (I have yet to get into a very late, large game so I can’t speak to that), it sounds like something got fubared for you and it might be worth verifying the game cache integrity and restarting in case there’s a memory leak.
MikeJ
2028
There was a feature that I think I turned off that a 3 or 4 second countdown in which you could cancel your end-turn. In that case you would see a countdown though. If that’s not the case, it’s usually a few seconds before it finishes processing.
The other stuff sounds really odd though. Maybe a reinstall would help.
The end turn countdown is shown on the button. It allows you three seconds of “oh shit I forgot to attack ABORT! ABORT!”. You can turn it off in the options.
:|
It was a button countdown, epic fail on my part.
I am still getting the random hang in the ship designer. So I am defragging right now, and worst case I’ll try a re-download of the game, I’ve only played less than an hour so far.
300+ turns, no crashes or anything. turn times ok . Combat is decent, very flash…
AI is a bit uhm hesitant…and also I REALLY miss my ability to SET TEAMS.
Gotta agree. Hopefully that will be brought in when they also get the map randomizer in the mix (right now you just have to use a mod for the maps).
Maps are handmade. Randomization of system types and configuration is already in but randomization of system locations and node lines is kind of out of scope. BUT they’ve talked about releasing the graphical map editor at some point in the near future so you can make your own custom maps.
I played SotS 1 on Monday/Tuesday. I have to say; Rorschach you did an excellent job on those videos. I wish every complex game had helpful videos like that.
Then I started playing SotS 2 on Wednesday/Thursday(today) and I don’t understand a lot of the details of what’s going on but even so I have to say I like it better.
I’m finding the combat to be more enjoyable, but for most of the small battle I’m doing the auto-resolve.
I think my biggest gripe with the game is that they don’t have an instant auto-resolve. Why do I have to spend 10 seconds watching that little simulated battle, can’t I just have an option to see the final results of the battle?
Yeah I agree. I’ve been giving it a bit of time the last few days and the combat is a lot of fun once you figure out the basics. There’s a bit more micromanagement in that before each battle (at least on defense) you need to look at the battle manager and make sure your fleets are properly deployed to defend all your population centers and intercept enemy fleets before they can get in close and do damage, but the reward for that is a lot more depth in how you defend or attack a system.
It’s a bit annoying to have to load into the battle screen even on auto resolve battles, but I expect that’s to get around all the issues they had in SotS where you really needed to design fleets differently for Auto-resolve vs. Normal battles because of the vast differences in how they worked. Once they get the last few interface slowdown issues worked out I expect it will be fairly seemless.
They’ve made great strides, but I think my biggest annoyance is still the sluggish interface. It’s tolerable now, but it definitely cuts into the play time with all the short waits for screens to load.
That and I really hope they get some more hot keys added in soon. I’d really like to see something like the ‘i’ button in SotS II to cycle through idle fleets at least.
Another week, another update. Focus on UI this time around. Hotfix tomorrow, then…
r21580b
Critical fixes:
- Fixed the AI divide by zero crash.
- Fixed a crash related to swarmer interception.
- Fixed a crash related to exiting the defense manager.
- Fixed a battle rider and boarding-pod related crash.
- Fixed a System Killer related crash on turn update.
- Fixed a Suul’ka spawning and admiral-related crashes.
- Fixed a few potential crashes that could occur after random encounters.
- Fixed a potential deep space encounter crash.
- Fixed a potential crash that could occur with out-of-date planet information and fleet selection.
- Fixed a critical repair-related combat crash.
Other fixes:
- Freighters now retreat on node lines when applicable.
- Tuned combat sensor picking.
- The pre-combat UI now defaults to the first combat.
- The pre-combat UI now applies the correct star map effects and colors where applicable.
- Fleet information now updates correctly when ships are transferred or repaired.
- Fixed known issues where missiles were missing ships in the weapon test screen.
- Mission screens no longer show extraneous fleet lines.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the intercept mission screen from focusing on the target fleet.
- Fixed shield placement and shield status combat UI issues.
- Subjugators now carry Slave Disks.
- Quantum Capacitor and Shield Magnifier effects now work.
- The government support action no longer causes shifts for developed colonies.
- Fixed corrupt game lobby player lists.
- Zuul torpedo platforms can now be placed.
- Colonization fleets no longer teleport on support runs.
- Fixed the swapped government and research slider labels in the research screen.
- Gas giants and moons are no longer incorrectly listed as size 10.
- Fixed a bug that caused effect LODs to pile up on top of each other.
- Fixed an issue where fleets and systems would overlap in lists.
- The “war declared” turn event now correctly reflects the instigator.
- Environmental tailoring effect now works.
- Addressed an issue that was caused by retreating fleet consolidation to violate command point limits.
- Gate station construction now removes system’s deployed gate ship.
- It is no longer possible to construct gate stations without the required technology.
- Tracking weapons no longer attempt to path through planets.
- Fixed an issue that was preventing combat AI from moving ships around a planet to reach the target.
- Support missions no longer deliver twice in one turn.
- AI rebellion will no longer occur if a countering technology has been researched.
- Fixed a bug that was preventing treaties from activating.
- Targets of node cannons no longer leave empty fleets behind.
- Fixed an issue that was preventing ships at base from registering a sensor range.
- Fixed an issue that was preventing station retrofits from working in networked games.
- Fixed an issue that appeared to prevent the construction of stations at independent-controlled systems.
- Ship rolling is now synchronized over the network in combat.
- Fixed a networked combat issue that was causing the last ship in a selection to be left behind.
- Tombs are now removed when all of their drones are destroyed.
- Fixed an issue that was preventing weapon damage from being communicated correctly in networked combat.
- The game window no longer reacts to keypresses when it does not have focus.
Other changes and additions:
- Many new turn events.
- Mission lines are now in player color.
- Multiple missions can be issued from a single screen for Survey, Relocate, Colonize, Support, Patrol, Interdict, Invade and Strike.
- Construction, Upgrade and Patrol missions now have an optional rebase on completion.
- Added a Von Neumann research bounty.
- Ships waiting at base will now replenish crew and supplies.
- The colony support dialog now provides planet details.
- Combat sensor view now displays a greater variety of icons.
- Asteroid belts now jam sensors.
- Asteroid Monitors, Swarmers and Relics no longer generate encounters unless an enemy fleet is present.
- Added slave drop-off.
- Defense fleets are now available in various fleet lists.
- Added a tooltip to the psi icon on the starmap.
- Added a Liir deep space maneuvering bonus.
- Node missiles added.
- Modified the AI rebel color.
- Added evangelist admiral trait effect.
- Asteroid impacts now affect colony morale.
- Independent colonies are immediately available for diplomatic action.
- Overpopulation now affects morale.
- Added AI Virus effects.
- Increased station science module bonus.
- Fleets now have empire-based default names.
- Minelayers can now be placed with drag-and-drop interaction.
- Added colony economic ratings.
- Added open and closed systems.
- Various unresponsive turrets fixed via arc errors.
- Handful of missing text string errors corrected.
Blips
2037
Any chance of you graphically mapping out the tech tree similarly to what you did with SoTS 1?
Sorry I didn’t do it. My Photoshop skills are not that great. There’s a pretty good non-graphical reference on the wiki…
What you think of AI aggressivness? I think he fielded a bit better ships, but 300 turns into the game and I don’t see any dreads, nor does he field any good attacks, 1 fleet at a time sporadically, and this at hard…
Arkalius, one of the creators of that Tech Tree that I posted earlier, has created a Java app for SotS2: description and direct link.
This is not very pretty, nor is it in “map” format, but it’s functional and draws from the data in your game folder so it should stay up to date regardless of how many patches come down the pipe.
Haven’t had a new game get to that point yet. Ask me again in a week. :)
MikeJ
2042
I saw a dev post recently that seemed to imply that the AI difficulty is turned off right now in order to have consistent user reports. Not very satisfying.
I think you can start them off now with more systems though, to vary the challenge.
