Sword of the Stars

[Crandaeolon]

I've been waiting for this one too, downloaded the demo and toyed with it a bit.

First impressions are mostly positive, though some areas could use improvement. Mostly convenience-related stuff such as reviewing weapon stats from ship design screen, the ability to see ship damage in tactical battles, better tooltips and things like that. The research interface feels... wobbly and unfinished, for lack of better words. Oh, and the circling planet selector thingie is annoying. And... why a 3-D galaxy? Seems like unnecessary complexity for a fast-paced multiplayer 4X game.

Other than those, looks like a potential candidate for Total War in space. I've been waiting for a game like this since... well, since the existence of the 4X genre.

[Bob the Insane]

I tried the demo and I have mixed feelings....

I think there is more depth in there but it is pretty well concealed. It just seems ot be, build ships, research better ships, explore, colonise and conquorer (with those same ships)....

Add to this the fact that the battles seemed a little vague... No real feedback on how things where going or how effective our weapons were or whether we should use lasers or guass guns for what...

Well there you have it...

[Oaty]

Compared to Galctic civs 2 how would yas rate it if you have played both?

[Crandaeolon]

GC2 and SotS focus on entirely different things. GC2 is all about civilisation management and diplomacy, SotS concentrates on tactical fleet action. It's difficult to compare the two games, but based on the SotS demo GC2 probably "does its thing" better. However, if you like tactical battles on a 4X background, SotS is pretty much the only choice there is right now.

If they manage to iron some kinks out of the fleet battles, SotS might be a worthwhile purchase. Its economy is balanced so that churning out and maintaining a lot of ships is easy, technology comes in at a rather slow pace, and ships age well. But, it remains to be seen how much depth they can get into the battles in the full game.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

SotS is MTW in space. It r0xx0rz. The interface is suprisingly simple and easy to manage; a real plus. As Bob says, there is probably more depth to it, but seeing as its a demo limited to two of the four factions among many other settings, and there isn't much of a manual with the demo, the full player game should be more interesting.

For control, I think I read on their forums that some technology will increase your tactical options.

As for researching, the trick is to double click on a tech to zoom in and see the details, then double click again to zoom out. It's unconventional, but I like it.

Gauss cannons are short range but powerful, lasers long range and faster firing but weaker. You can see this on the research map, again, if you zoom in.

It would be nice if you could compare techs side by side, but it isn't that much work to zoom in on one, then zoom out and on to the next.

And it doesn't require an amazing graphics card!

[Crandaeolon]

For control, I think I read on their forums that some technology will increase your tactical options.

Yup, technologies do improve the interface. Imo it's silly; the interface should remain consistent. This way it's benefiting the "advanced" players more than newcomers. SotS has a strong multiplayer focus, and the designers feel that it's important to give experienced players ways to distinguish themselves with personal skill. I agree with this principle in general, it's just that they used it in a wrong place here.

As for researching, the trick is to double click on a tech to zoom in and see the details, then double click again to zoom out.

Would be better to include the details in a zoomed-out view as well, in the form of a tooltip. Or in the bar at the bottom of the screen. That would make browsing faster, an important thing in timed-turns MP games. (Again, one could argue here that veterans already remember the various technologies and don't need to zoom in to check out details.)

Gauss cannons are short range but powerful, lasers long range and faster firing but weaker.

Nope. Gauss have longer range and higher damage, but are more inaccurate than lasers.

[Zalmoxis]

Looks interesting enough and all, but I had Nexus and have lost all taste for space warship combat after losing disc two of that game, making me unable to install it. I'm going to conclude that life sucks.