Sword of the Stars

[Crandaeolon]

This one looks promising. A turn-based 4X space game with tactical RTS fleet battles, from the makers of Homeworld. Focus seems to be on fleet action, strategic aspects (including diplomacy) being simplified. That said, there's a large, somewhat randomized tech tree that varies between races.

Colony management is reminiscent of the first Master of Orion with simple sliders. Diplomatic options appear somewhat limited, with three levels of treaties (War, Neutral, Alliance) and the possibility to trade credits or tech points. There's also only four races, though it is possible to have multiple factions of the same race. The races have different methods of movement and varying tech trees.

The RTS portion of the game is probably a bit like Homeworld with customisable ships; a maximum of few dozen ships clashing together.

There's a multiplayer option with a maximum of 8 players over LAN or internet. Apparently the strategic part is playable in MP as well, not only RTS battles like in TW games.

Release date, according to publisher's website, is June 1, 2006.

Preview here: http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=29599

Developer's website: http://www.kerberos-productions.com/sots.shtml

With Galciv2 already released, this is shaping up to be a good year for space strategists!

[Androo]

I must admit that with the advent of GC II and the great reviews it has been getting here and elsewhere I have been completely ignoring this one. However, I didn't know that it was "...from the makers of Homeworld". Must keep an eye on it from now on- thanks for the 'heads up'.

[Crandaeolon]

From the makers of Homeworld: Cataclysm, to be specific. (Former Barking Dogs Studios iirc)

GCII and SotS focus on rather different things - SotS seems to be more focused on the "space opera" factor of having lots of large capital ships blasting each other apart and looking good while doing it, and incorporating a visually appealing, simple inferface.

GCII will probably end up being the more cerebral game - more focus on strategy, diplomacy and especially colony management.

SotS might be well suited for multiplayer, since the campaign mode appears to be simple and battles somewhat faster than in Homeworld. If I understood correctly, there are also techs to spectate others' battles, so that should help eliminate boredom while others are duking it out.

[Androo]

Yeah, my initial impression some time ago was that GC II would preemptively make this game obsolete, but considering the different aspirations of SotS, it might turn out to be a welcome complement to the former game.

[Martok]

I would be really excited about this game, except for two rather large drawbacks:

#1.) Only 4 races

#2.) You can't actually conquer enemy worlds; you can only destroy them and then re-colonize.

I realize most people won't be bothered by these two things, but for me they're fun-killers. It's a pity, because otherwise SotS looks like it would be a pretty awesome game. Ah well, at least I now have Galactic Civilizations 2 to keep me warm at night.