Sword of the Stars

[SolkaTruesilver]

I just bought it.

Did I made a mistake? I love GalCiv2, Europa Universalis 3, Civ4.. Birth of the Federation...

What is better about SotS compared to those game? What is less good?

Don't spoiler anything for me please strategy-wise, I want to discover my playstyle myself :smallamused:

[DaedalusMkV]

I'll say right now, I love SoTS to death. It's my favorite space 4x, and one of those games I just keep coming back to. It's pretty different from games like GalCiv and Sid Meyer's stuff, so if that's what you were looking for it might not fit perfectly.
Pros:
-Actual, honest-to-goodness command of tactical battles. One of my biggest problems with most 4x games is the way that combats are resolved pretty much by dice rolls, meaning that tanks will regularly get beaten down by cavalry, and your massive army of doom might just lose to the barbarian warrior hiding in his cave. Not so in SoTS, which plays out more like a total war game. There's some things that take some getting used to in the tactical battles, but overall it's something I greatly appreciate.
-Randomized tech tree. Basically, much like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get in SoTS. One game you'll have access to Advanced Cloaking and Neutronium Rounds and get your railgun-wielding invisible ghost ships to crush the enemy fleet without retribution, another you'll be working with Phaser PDs and Antimatter Torpedoes to create a swarm of Destroyers dealing death from millions of miles away. I love this feature, because it means you'll have to adjust your tactics on the fly and you can't just go for the same old tired research order like in GalCiv.
-Ship design actually matters. You have less control over it than in GalCiv, but every little change can have big impacts on p[erformance. You'll see what I mean.
-Four very unique races. I mean it, they function entirely differently in pretty much every way, yet remain very well balanced.
-Kerberos kick ass. They are in constant communication with their fans at their forum, and every patch (and there are a lot) has advanced the story of the game as well as its gameplay. I wish every company had the kind of product support Kerberos do...

Cons:
-Less strategic depth than most 4x games. They had to do it to make room for the tactical battles, IMO, but there's only two win conditions in SoTS, and one will never happen. Combat-wise you've got plenty to figure out, but there's really no other way to go about the game.
-Learning curve is steep. Even if you're a veterain 4x player, start with Easy enemies. It takes a hell of a lot of effort to train your brain to think in three dimensions, among other things.
-Game sometimes gets bogged down in relatively unimportant battles. This is just a minor gripe of mine.

Prawns:
-Economics is heavily simplified over games like GalCiv. I really like not having to micromanage the taxation and trade policy of every planet in my galaxy-spanning empire, but some people might miss the micromanagement...
-Politics is likely heavily simplified. Trade has relatively little place in the game, and the only relations you can have with someone are either "at war", "not at war" and "allies".
-Planetary development simplified. Basically, a planet just develops to its maximum extent with relatively little input from you beyond whether terraforming or development of infrastructure gets priority.

I think I'll end this post here. I hope you like the game as much as I do!

[Ka-ther Fangfoot]

I have this game. It is a very different experience from other 4X games, so be prepared for something new and exciting.

For me the Pros are: Actual, honest-to-goodness 3D space map. This cannot be emphasized enough. The strategic map looks awesome.

Second, the four actually distinct races. The big difference between them is their FTL drives, but each race also has different tactical advantages, from Hiver ships being slow but packing more weapons, and I think armor, to the Lirr ships floating around the tactical map at high speed and turning around on a dime. Mainly due to the different FTL drives each race plays with a completely different strategy, so you have tons of depth from just playing the different races.

Most things that you can micromanage in other games are simplified, but in a good way, in my opinion. The one thing where I don't like the simplification as much is the ship design, but since where guns are on a ship matters, that is understandable.

Cons: The tech tree. Part of it is just the interface with it, which I find annoying, but the whole randomized tech tree itself irritates me, particularly since the tree is different for each player, and higher-tech guns matter a lot, so if that computer can get top-level beams and I am stuck with even one level lower, that causes big problems. Though admitidly, I have not played enough to be sure if important technologies like that get left out or if they just require you to research along a different line to unlock them.

The tactical battles. Don't get me wrong, the game needs tactical battles, especially since custom ship design even as simplified as they have it, needs tactical battles. The main problem is that I can't help but compare the tactical battles to space empires 3/4. In sword of the stars the tac battles are real time, and while they can be quite visually impressive, the ships tend to move sloooowly, especially ships that don't pop in a stiff wind, and so battles take some time. Also, due to the different FTL drives, most battles take place around planets (each star is really a planet, which is one of the more odd simplifications) and when you fight around a planet the planet is this huge thing in the middle of the tac map. Also, the fleet mechanic they use causes some interesting effects on the battles. You can only have as many ships as your fleet command will support (pro tip: get command and control before going for any real fights. It tips battles in your balance hugely, even more than better weapons.) This ends up meaning that you arrive with a big fleet and most of it is sitting around invisible and untouchable until your front line gets blown up (not if, but when, lots of ships die in this game, especially destroyers) at which point they just show up on the battlefield. For someone used to space empires where a fleet is a fleet and more ships means you can throw lots of ships at your foes, this is an annoying mechanic.

[warty goblin]

Was looking at the complete/ultimate/whatever one has all three expansions version of this on Gamersgate the other day, and found it somewhat tempting. I played the demo a while ago, and remembered being annoyed with it. Can't really remember why though.

How important are the tactical battles? I like RTS, and I like TBS, but I've yet to find a dichotemous fusion of them ala Total War that I can keep playing for very long. Mostly because there are very few times that I'm in the mood for both TBS type decision making and RTS style management.

[Timberwolf]

Ok, I've played it. The game is good although I vastly prefer Sins of a Solar Empire. here's what I found which I don't think anyone's mentioned yet.

Pro's


Design your own ships
Simple Economics
Real Time Combat if you want it
Some entertainingly over the top weapons, like the top level planet bombard tech
All weapons (aside from missiles once you get some decent tech) and ships sizes are useful.
You need to have non combat ships (such as tankers) if you are going to make a go of conquering



Cons


That wretched time limit on combat really does waste your time if you're trying to clear a seriously contested system - it means you have to come back again and again sometimes.
Everyone uses the same tech (aside from their warp drive tech, that's distinct)
Diplomacy is effectively non existent
Star Battles are fought consecutively, meaning if there's lots of battles and you want to fight them all, it takes ages to take a turn. It can get old really quickly
You can only have a rather disappointingly small number of ships at any one time. With top level CnC tech, it's 3 Dreadnoughts max. I want more than that personally.
The 3d star map can be very disorienting.
Conquest is really the only way to win
The random events (such as the flying diamonds - Von Neumann I think they're called) are so irritating I turn them off, largely because the one in my example I have yet to kill and believe me, I have had the fleet and PD net to have a very serious go before.


It looks like a mighty list of cons (largely because I have tried to explain them). The game is good, but I find Sins of a Solar Empire suits me a lot better. Being able to fight in multiple systems at once with serious fleets... Spance 4x heaven.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Damn AI!!!

Not the opponents. But the one that BECOMES you opponent... :smallfurious:

[Rockphed]

Damn AI!!!

Not the opponents. But the one that BECOMES you opponent... :smallfurious:

I remember that branch of the tech tree. Is it actually useful?

[Yardo]

Ah yes, Sword of the Stars, love that game. AI research can be very good, gives you a nice boost, but also dangerous. The AI rebellion is nasty, it's kind of a gamble if and how quick it will hit you. But trust me, there are worse things that can hapen to your space empire then a AI rebellion. Rebelling planets can be taken back. There are things out there that make it impossible to get back what is lost..... and are a lot harder to stop than a rebellion....

[Smight]

There are things out there that make it impossible to get back what is lost..... and are a lot harder to stop than a rebellion....

And no Captain Kirk to save you from them.

[SolkaTruesilver]

All right! Now that I haved played (and got beaten) about 2 times and I decided to start a game on Easy (the shame...), I think I got the hang of it.

So you can propose strategies!!! :smallbiggrin:

[SolkaTruesilver]

Oops

...

darn, I edited to my previous post rather than reply to it. Looks like it's Lost Forever...

so...

All right! Now that I haved played (and got beaten) about 2 times and I decided to start a game on Easy (the shame...), I think I got the hang of it.

So you can propose strategies!!!

[Rockphed]

I don't know how viable this is, but Humans swarming their enemies with node missiles is hilarious. There is, quite literally, nothing they cannot do. Need to take down a planet without spending a dozen turns slowly losing dreadnoughts? Node missiles! Need to take out those dreadnought defense platforms? Node missiles! Need to take down a dreadnought that is coming at your missiles? Node Missiles! On the other hand, node missiles do take significant skill to use.

[Lord Herman]

I remember that branch of the tech tree. Is it actually useful?

Very. AI gives +50% research, and there are additional AI techs that give +50% income and +50% production. There's also an AI tech that improves your ships, but I haven't tried it.

[SolkaTruesilver]

I don't know how viable this is, but Humans swarming their enemies with node missiles is hilarious. There is, quite literally, nothing they cannot do. Need to take down a planet without spending a dozen turns slowly losing dreadnoughts? Node missiles! Need to take out those dreadnought defense platforms? Node missiles! Need to take down a dreadnought that is coming at your missiles? Node Missiles! On the other hand, node missiles do take significant skill to use.

Any Liir-specific techs? :-)

[Rockphed]

Any Liir-specific techs? :-)

I haven't really played the Liir much, sorry.

[Ka-ther Fangfoot]

Well, like all 4x games the name of the game is expand, expand, expand. And then expand some more. Expand quickly so that you find good plants before you need to fight for them. In the hiver game I have going I did not expand fast enough, and so I am behind the computers in size and stuff. (though with hiver power and some tactical skill I am slooooooooly managing to push back the dastardly humans hemming me in on both sides.) Also, if you have trouble with losing combats, make sure you get command and control ships fast.

EDIT: Ahh, ninja'd

[SolkaTruesilver]

Well, like all 4x games the name of the game is expand, expand, expand. And then expand some more. Expand quickly so that you find good plants before you need to fight for them. In the hiver game I have going I did not expand fast enough, and so I am behind the computers in size and stuff. (though with hiver power and some tactical skill I am slooooooooly managing to push back the dastardly humans hemming me in on both sides.) Also, if you have trouble with losing combats, make sure you get command and control ships fast.

EDIT: Ahh, ninja'd

False. In my 2nd game, I got behind techwise by overexpanding mid-quality worlds and crippling my economy because of it.

My suggestion is: expand carefully :smallwink:

[Ka-ther Fangfoot]

True, unlike other games you need to balance expansion vs research. What I really meant was exploration. Most recently I was playing hivers, so expansion means setting up gates in systems. But yeah, its important to know which planets to colonize. In my game I still have about one high-cost planet going at once, though my treasury is mostly hit by building dreadnoughts. Also in that game I ran into someone who was trashing my stuff until they had an AI rebellion. :smallamused:

[SolkaTruesilver]

True, unlike other games you need to balance expansion vs research. What I really meant was exploration. Most recently I was playing hivers, so expansion means setting up gates in systems. But yeah, its important to know which planets to colonize. In my game I still have about one high-cost planet going at once, though my treasury is mostly hit by building dreadnoughts. Also in that game I ran into someone who was trashing my stuff until they had an AI rebellion. :smallamused:

how can you secure easy access to ennemy's world with a hiver? I heard their ships can be crippingly slow, save for the gateships.

Can you send a gateship in a gateship? Or your exploration fleet needs to be filled with them to start with?

Oh, and my nice peace-luving dolphins just exterminated the Chosen Homeworld trough a sneak attack in the middle of their empire. Early dev of cruiser tech allowed this..

No losses on my side, against about 30 destroyers (Huzzah for repair ships!). The only freaky thing is, I realised afterwhile that this sneak attack fleet has spent so long getting to its destination, they are now 3 generations old! I can't wait to send modern combat vessels into the fray :smallcool:

[DaedalusMkV]

Thoughts on tactics and ship design:
-Watch the enemy ships closely, and design to counter. It gives you a good advantage until your opponent researches to match, which is always helpful.
-Mass Drivers are highly underrated, even if you don't get Neutronium rounds. I've crushed whole fleets of destroyers with a few well-managed MD cruisers.
-Cloaking+Bio-War=Win. Fly right beside the enemy planet, decloak, shoot missiles, retreat and recloak. Planet no longer inhabited, your losses=0. I'm sure you can see the advantages. Lyr, with the highest chance of access to both cloaking and advanced bio-weapons, use this best.
-Specialize!!! Combine close ranged weapons with close ranged weapons and vice versa. A generalist ship is worth far less than a specialist.
-Minelayer Destroyers Rawk at defensive actions. I've beaten down enemies which clearly and brutally outnumbered and outmatched me thanks to the wonderful little guys.

Tech-wise, the optimal research to undertake in any given situation is one that increases economic output or decreases ship cost. The worst tech to research in any given situation is one that increases Terraforming efficiency. When colonizing planets, always put all resources into Infrastructure until it is fully developed. This decreases both cost and time for developing colonies.

Beware the Grand Menaces. No, I won't tell you what they are, because it's more fun to find out for yourself. But nothing ruins your day like a VNMS or an SK showing up at your door... In my last Human game, I was in the "Clearly dominating, stomp them down" phase of the game when the SK showed up. It was... Impressive in its ability to set my conquest back.

Finally, something a lot of people don't think about is the outnumbering bonus. If you have more ships than your opponent, your command cap is increased proportionally to how much you outnumber your opponent by. This makes things like massive fleets of Torpedo, Minelayer or Spinal Mount Destroyers very viable, and means that in the late game Cruisers definitely maintain their combat viability. There are definitely advantages to running around with a huge fleet made up of all three ship classes.

[Smight]

you can't ,until you research farcaster, so bring lots of ships and spare gates.

VN-s are not grand menace, at least not in latest game, since they show up with the other ones and have diferent mechanic, but they are certanly menace.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Hum... I was thinking of playing a Let's Play, Role-playing as the Borg.

a 8-player game, very large spherical galaxy. The player being the only Hiver specie..

The forum would be the Collective about research priority and courses of action. Probably a few rounds/messages (when something of note happens)

[DaedalusMkV]

you can't ,until you research farcaster, so bring lots of ships and spare gates.

VN-s are not grand menace, at least not in latest game, since they show up with the other ones and have diferent mechanic, but they are certanly menace.
I'm not talking about the standard VN encounter, I'm talking about the superpowered version of it. It might not, technically, be a Grand Menace, but it's definitely enough to crush your fleet of Dreadnaughts and render your colony uninhabitable. I think it's actually more dangerous than most of the actual Grand Menaces, barring possibly the SK. It also tends to reoccur heavily until destroyed, unlike the normal VN menace.

[Ka-ther Fangfoot]

how can you secure easy access to ennemy's world with a hiver? I heard their ships can be crippingly slow, save for the gateships.

Can you send a gateship in a gateship? Or your exploration fleet needs to be filled with them to start with?



Well, to take over planets with hivers I send in a Fleet of Doom (tm) with gate ships attached. I use the slowness of my ships to my advantage to make it so that there is basically only time for the first wave to engage durring the round. Then I get my gate up and can start pouring in the re-infocements. The most interesting one was one of the AI planets. They had a pile of drednoughts, and my invasion was looking iffy since they would just sit by the planet and my guys did not like to aim at them for some unknown reason. I brought in some missile guys to take them out from long range, since they just sat there. Once I took out their command ship, their reinforcements got borked and their fuel crusier came to the fore. It just ran away all the time so I finished off the planet. Now I am researching fusion drives so that I can catch it. :smalltongue:

You need to send gate ships with your exploration fleets, otherwise you will explore even slower than I did. Plus, you want to put a gate ship in every system you can because you can move a maximum number of ships related to how many gates you have, and when you start moving the big fleets the cap really comes into play.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Well, to take over planets with hivers I send in a Fleet of Doom (tm) with gate ships attached. I use the slowness of my ships to my advantage to make it so that there is basically only time for the first wave to engage durring the round. Then I get my gate up and can start pouring in the re-infocements. The most interesting one was one of the AI planets. They had a pile of drednoughts, and my invasion was looking iffy since they would just sit by the planet and my guys did not like to aim at them for some unknown reason. I brought in some missile guys to take them out from long range, since they just sat there. Once I took out their command ship, their reinforcements got borked and their fuel crusier came to the fore. It just ran away all the time so I finished off the planet. Now I am researching fusion drives so that I can catch it. :smalltongue:



You know, when you think about it, it makes sense. Who else but a bug would have as a strategy: defend your hole until allies starts pouring out of it.

[Yardo]

Thats Hivers for you yes. Hivers are slow at the start, takes a while to get things started, as they move rather slow. Don't forget to put up gates at every world you visit, you need gates to be able to move bigger fleets around. Once you get farcasters you are almost impossible to stop, since Hiver ships tend to be realy strong.

Liir are weak shipwise, but get the most and the best techs, so research is the key. Also, their ships tend to move fast in deep space, far away from planets. Try and expand across those large empty area's of space. best way to win with Liir is cloaking and assimilation plague, build a fleet to strike at all planets at once, easy win. You just took over alomst all of the opponents planets.

Humans are rather good with those node specials, and they move rather fast to. Don't play them much though. I gather you only have the basic game, none of the expansions? Those add 2 more races and a lot of changes to the tech tree and game mechanics.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Humans are rather good with those node specials, and they move rather fast to. Don't play them much though. I gather you only have the basic game, none of the expansions? Those add 2 more races and a lot of changes to the tech tree and game mechanics.

Nah, I bought the Gold version, so I got the nifty novel and the 1st expansion.

Is the 2nd expansion worth it?

[Yardo]

Yes, and the 3rd also. (There are 3 expansions)

[SolkaTruesilver]

Please elaborate on the level of awesomeness of those expansion. What do these bring more to the game? Any hard facts that are made of great? :smallbiggrin:

[Smight]

Murder of crow bring new race to play with, and Argos Naval Yards mini expansion brings lot of new toys, like drone fighters and you can now build your own monitors and starbases.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Murder of crow bring new race to play with, and Argos Naval Yards mini expansion brings lot of new toys, like drone fighters and you can now build your own monitors and starbases.

Starbases...?

I am interested, and I wish to learn more... :smalltongue:

[Smight]

In for a penny in for a pound, if you like the game you'll like expansions, if you didn't I doubt they will change your mind, they have lots of new stuff but nothing that radically changes game play

[SolkaTruesilver]

In for a penny in for a pound, if you like the game you'll like expansions, if you didn't I doubt they will change your mind, they have lots of new stuff but nothing that radically changes game play

I think you make a very good argument.

Very well, I think I shall cough up the money. :smallbiggrin:

But seriously, people. Any of you would be interested in a Borglike Let's Play?

[Ka-ther Fangfoot]

Well, I would suggest you get to know the game before you try a let's play, unless you want some dwarf-fort style fun. :smallamused:

[SolkaTruesilver]

Well, I would suggest you get to know the game before you try a let's play, unless you want some dwarf-fort style fun. :smallamused:

Actually, that's the whole point.

It's going to be a slow game. Probably 1 "critical" turn/day(meaning, I will run turns until something important comes up, and then stop to check with the Collective). Tech development and all actions are going to be decided by the Collective.

Set on Hard. Low tech, high economy. Large galaxy, 7 opponents. No diplomacy allowed. We are the only Hiver specie.

If we die, we all die together. That is the way of the Borg.

[Ka-ther Fangfoot]

That does sound like good and dwarfy fun. Assimilate them all!

[SolkaTruesilver]

That does sound like good and dwarfy fun. Assimilate them all!

Dwarfy fun is more like having a new leader every 50 turns, no?

[Yardo]

Sounds like fun, but on hard? I have never been able to beat it on hard.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Sounds like fun, but on hard? I have never been able to beat it on hard.

That's the point. Let's see if the Collective mind of Giantitp can beat it :smallbiggrin:

[Jade_Tarem]

Love this game:

The game now features 6 species (Zuul was introduced in the first expansion, the Morrigi in the second) and a bit more in the way of ship options.

The SOTS wiki explains a great deal that people have asked about here, but I'll answer to save time, since I'm a colossal nerd and have read it already.

Research:

There are "core technologies" (About 30% of the technologies are considered core) that you *will* get every time. Beyond that, it's a dice roll, adjusted by what race you're playing as. For instance, the Liir have a greater chance of getting Assimilator Virus tech than anyone else. What happens is that when you start the game, the game rolls tech trees for everyone, starting at the base and then rolling for each tech that has a potential connection to that base. If the roll fails, then that entire branch of the tree is cut off.

Some technolgies can come from more than one source, however. For instance, Antimatter Missiles can follow from Fusion Missiles (Missile Tree) OR can be researched after you have Antimatter (Power Tree). If, during the research rolling, the trees cross like that, then the game opens up that branch of research again and keeps rolling until it hits other dead ends.

Sometimes, if you have Repair and Salvage ships at a battle, you might be able to salvage some enemy tech that you don't have. This would show up as a special project under your research screen. You cannot salvage technology that you don't have the prerequisites for, and when you do salvage something, the game will not reroll your tech trees. However, salvaging, for instance, Fusion Missiles will give you a chance to salvage Antimatter Missiles in the future, since you now meet the prerequisites.

Unique (non-stardrive) tech:

All stardrive tech is race-specific. Some other stuff is too, though it isn't much.

Habitat Station (Morrigi): The Morrigi can build a special space station called the habitat station that adds +100,000,000 to your max civilian and imperial population. This is useful as it increases productions, and potentially the number of space stations a planet can support.

Intangibility Drive (Liir): Not really a race-specific tech (and not actually a drive, as it's an advanced cloaking device), but only the Liir have a chance to get it that isn't in the single-digit percentages. Makes your ship intangible (shots pass through it) for a short time.

Also, some races are guaranteed some techs that others have to roll for. The Zuul will always have boarding pods. The Morrigi will always have combat drones. You get the idea.

Fun tech combos that I know about:

Heavy Platform Tractor Slam: If you mount tractor beams (Graviton Beams or Pulsed Graviton Beams work better) on your Heavy Defense Platforms, they will, due to their axial rotation, "roll" with whatever they happen to shoot with said beams. This includes dreadnoughts. Since the length of the beam is longer than the distance between the platform and the planet, and since contact with a planet is instantly fatal, this is a solid way to eliminate marauding dreadnoughts easily and quickly.

Excessively Durable Cruisers: Should you be fortunate enough to find yourself blessed with Meson Shields and Point Defense Phasers, utilizing both of them on the same cruiser will effectively render the cruiser indestructable to everything but ballistic weapons.

Fun facts about the rare random enemies, spoilered in case you'd rather find out for yourself:

The Von Neuman Machines have a homeworld (as of the expansions). If you have random encounters on, it's part of your galaxy.

But... you can't see it. You have to wait until the VN Construct is visible on your strategic map, and then you have to kill it. Good luck, btw, since it's like the regular VN machines on crack and can wade through dreadnoughts and torpedo fire. Once you kill it, it will reveal the location of the VN homeworld, which you can attack. The VN homeworld is a barren ball of ice surrounded by gridwork , with two VN Constructs (incomplete and inoperable, thank goodness), a bunch of VN Berserkers, and an artificial moon that looks suspiciously similar to another large, round, space station of doom. Sterilizing the area will end all VN attacks for the rest of the game.

There is a marauding enemy called the Puppeteer. It looks like an orange, ghostly dreadnoughtish thing. It has excellent short range weaponry, and a beam weapon that will chain from one ship to the next and enslave them all to the Puppeteer's will - which the Puppeteer will carry on to it's next targets. This enemy is best destroyed from a distance.

There is another marauding enemy called the System Destroyer. It's a large spire surrounded by a shell of asteroids and studded with weapons. If it is still in an inhabited system when the timer on your battle runs to zero, it will destroy the planet. For real. The planet will be removed from the strategic map like it was never there, and the SK will heal when this happens.

There is a marauding enemy called the Peacekeeper, which looks like one of those UFO's in comic books from the sixties. It might randomly show up in a game, and when it does it will make a lengthy announcement about how the citizens of some other star cluster have observed how savage and warlike the people of your galaxy are, and as such have sent this thing to end all warfare in your neck of the woods, so from this point on all warships are illegal to build and battles should not be fought. After that, it teleports around the strategic map at will, toward whichever end-of-round fight has the highest number of combatants. If no one is fighting any battles, it will appear in whichever system has the most warships in it. It has more health than twenty dreadnoughts (no joke), a ton of weapons and defenses (including several of the VN's disintegrator beams), and heals fully in between battles, unlike the other random encounters I've listed. I never found a way to beat it, but an alliance of three computer players managed to get their flagship fleets into the same system and beat it down with twelve dreadnoughts at a time, although I believe they lost over eighty dreadnoughts to the beast.

There's a final marauding random encounter that I know about called the Swarm Queen, which is the scariest looking of the bad guys here, and most definitely the weakest, as it can be laid low by as few as three cruisers.

Anyway, some stuff I thought I'd share.

[DaedalusMkV]

:smallsigh:

Honestly, half of the fun of SoTS is running into crazy things you didn't know were possible and new tech that you didn't know existed. I think it's more fun to learn about the Grand Menaces and VN threat for yourself, and then panic hilariously. I know I did in the first Human game I played where the System Killer showed up. That thing's bloody nasty. (Also, your info on it isn't quite right. Whenever the SK blows up a system, it fully repairs all damage. You get very little chance to stop it...)

[Jade_Tarem]

:smallsigh:

Honestly, half of the fun of SoTS is running into crazy things you didn't know were possible and new tech that you didn't know existed. I think it's more fun to learn about the Grand Menaces and VN threat for yourself, and then panic hilariously. I know I did in the first Human game I played where the System Killer showed up. That thing's bloody nasty. (Also, your info on it isn't quite right. Whenever the SK blows up a system, it fully repairs all damage. You get very little chance to stop it...)

That's a good point, I've spoilered that stuff for now. I didn't know about the SK healing. The only time I fought it, it blew up a planet almost unopposed, and then I hit it multiple times in transit.

[DaedalusMkV]

Yeah, the SK showing up was quite the event for me. My reaction was something like:
EDIT: Spoilered, because it's better that way

"Hey, what''s the wierd gray thing showing up on my Deep Scan? Never seen one of those before. At least it's heading for an enemy planet"
"Well, that's weird, I thought there was a planet there. What's the grey thing doing?"
"Holy hell, I know there were a couple of planets there the last time I looked, and there's only one more planet between it and me! Dreadnaughts, go! Fight it at the unoccupied planet so we don't have to fight it at home"
"Twenty-seven Dreadnaughts. It killed twenty-seven top-of-the-line Dreadnaughts! :smallfurious:"
"Ookay, cruisers and platforms this time. I hurt it a bit with the missile DNs last time, so here's hoping..."
":smalleek: Damage is gone. Crap. There goes a Size: 8 planet..."
"Help me, minelayer DE spam, you're my only hope! :smallfrown:"

Yep, the last one worked. I mean, I did use 120 Minelayers with Antimatter Mines, but still... I think Photonic Torpedo DE spam would have worked too. The fact that I was playing Humans did not help, since intercepting between planets with Humans is nigh impossible and losing Node Paths sucks massively. Damn thing set me back 20 or 30 turns in my plans, and if it had shown up in my space instead of enemy space I'd have lost 3 or 4 planets before mounting a decent defense.

[Smight]

a Borglike Let's Play?

here is what creator of the game thinks of borg:smallbiggrin:


I would rather eat my own leg than put anthing that made me think of the Borg in any game I work on...seriously.

[SolkaTruesilver]

here is what creator of hte game thinks of borg:smallbiggrin:

My goodness! :smalleek:

Any reason why?

[Lycan 01]

I had a few quick questions about SotS, and I figured since this was only a few weeks old, it wasn't thread necromancy to bump this.

I like Sword of the Stars, but I've got a few problems with it. For one thing, its insanely difficult. :smalleek: The enemy AI is bad enough, but when special little beasties and stuff show up at random to wipe out my fleets, it gets kinda... depressing. Is it supposed to be this hard, or do I just suck?

I've actually got a few decent tactics worked out. Usually, I'll defend my planets with 2-3 cruisers with those massive laser beams on the front of 'em, which lance right through the oncoming enemies. Surrounding these cruisers are just a butt-ton of destroyers covered in mass drivers and point-defense lasers. The mass drivers throw survivng enemies off course, and p-d lasers defend against missile and projectile attacks.

The only problem is that for some reason, the enemy fleet sometimes spawns waaaaaay off to the side of the battlefield, rather than directly in front of me. I then have no idea where they are, nor can I get to them or rearrange my fleet without breaking cohesion and getting torn apart. Are enemies supposed to spawn waaaay off to the side sometimes, or is this a glitch? And what is the best way to deal with the inadvertant out-flanking I'm suddenly forced to endure? :smallfrown:

Is it better to play out encounters, or just "auto-resolve" it when I have superior numbers? :smallconfused: I seem to always screw up when I play battles out, but I'm also not sure leaving my fate up to the roll of the dice is the best idea, either...


Also, is it possible to name individual ships? :smallbiggrin: I've heard it mentioned on other forums, but I'm not sure how to name specific ships. I can name fleets, at least, and I usually name them after the commander, like Captain Keyes or Admiral Nelson or something like that...


Any other advice for me, since I seem to suck at this game?

Also, I have the basic copy of this game - no patches or anything. Should I download the updates and everything, or are they unimportant? What all do they add, anyway?


Also...


I've heard you can fight these things called Specters. Ghost like monsters found in the... uhh... *can't recall name of hyperspace dimension* At any rate, how does this happen? I've never fought a battle in the Warp, let alone met a monster there... :smallconfused:

[SolkaTruesilver]

The only problem is that for some reason, the enemy fleet sometimes spawns waaaaaay off to the side of the battlefield, rather than directly in front of me. I then have no idea where they are, nor can I get to them or rearrange my fleet without breaking cohesion and getting torn apart. Are enemies supposed to spawn waaaay off to the side sometimes, or is this a glitch? And what is the best way to deal with the inadvertant out-flanking I'm suddenly forced to endure? :smallfrown:


Hyperspace = nodespace

I would suggest you click on the "Ships keeps distance with ennemy" automated button. Your ships will move into firing range and orient themselves to maximise firing arcs by themselves. It's not perfect, but better than having your ships stay still..

I really hate planet defense. My ships usually end up damaging my own planet way more than the ennemy :smallfrown:

[Yardo]

Let me see, yes the game is rather though, though it depends on what setting you play. Like I mentioned before, I have yet to beat it on hard. I usually play on normal, and even then it is sometimes hard to come out on top.

You only have the basic game, so I may be off on some things, been a while since I played it like that. The 3 expansions add a lot of new stuff. The random alien attacks are hard to hold of at the beginning, some of them are impossible to beat with just destroyers, or you need a lot of them and advanced techs. What kind of random attacks are you getting?

About the side spawning, as far as I know the spawn point is where the enemy comes from. It helps to keep an eye on the radar map and look where your planet missiles are going to, to find out where the enemy is. In later expansions. (Murder of Crows) you get the possibility to position you defensive fleet on the tactic map, when you get CnC ships, helps some.

I always try to play my battles manually, don't like auto resolving, I don't trust the computer to do it right. When you see an incoming enemy attack, you can usually see how many ships they have, when you right click on the flashing icon of the incoming ships on the star map. Always try to have more defending ships then they have attacking you. You get extra ships on your side joining, as reinforcements, above the normal fleet cap if you have more ships then they have.

As far as I know you can name ship designs when you set them up, but don't think you can once you have build them, I have actually never tried. I try to give my designs fancy names, that don't give their purpose away, but that is only important in multiplayer games.

Hope this helps some. If you want some more detailed info, the official forums are really good, check there I would say. There are some nice tutorials etc.