Sins of a Solar Empire

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Sins of a Solar Empire
Developer(s)	Ironclad Games
Publisher(s)	Stardock
Distributor(s)	Europe: Kalypso Media[1]
Engine	Iron Engine
Version	1.17 (as of June 3, 2009)
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	NA February 4, 2008
Genre(s)	4X Real Time Strategy Space simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T
Media	DVD
System requirements	See Development
Input methods	Keyboard and mouse

Sins of a Solar Empire is a science fiction real-time strategy computer game developed by Ironclad Games and published by Stardock Entertainment for Microsoft Windows computers. The game was released on February 4, 2008, and its first content expansion titled Entrenchment was released as a download on February 25, 2009. Sins is a real-time strategy (RTS) game that incorporates some elements from 4X strategy games; promotional materials describe it as "RT4X."^[2][3]

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Resources and structures 1.2 Celestial objects and anomalies 1.3 Diplomacy and bounty 1.4 Tech tree and artifacts 1.5 Units 1.6 Multiplayer 2 Races 2.1 Trader Emergency Coalition (TEC) 2.2 Advent 2.3 Vasari 3 Development 3.1 Game engine 3.2 Customization 4 Content expansions 4.1 Entrenchment 5 Reception 5.1 Sales 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Sins of a Solar Empire is a space-bound game. The playing field is a 3D web of planets and other celestial objects in the orbital plane of one or more stars. It features a sandbox mode, allowing the player to choose different types of solar systems to unlock achievements. Players can conquer neighboring planets and explore distant star systems in a "massively scaled, fully 3D environment featuring entire galaxies, orbiting planets, clusters of asteroids, space dust and radiant stars." Notably, there is no single-player campaign mode, but games can be played against AI opponents offline and other players online. Ironclad Director Blair Fraser asserted that the game's "Iron engine" is specially designed with new technologies that allow it to handle very large differences in size, scale, and distance.^[3]

[edit] Resources and structures

Sins of a Solar Empire has three main resources to gather: Credits, Metal, and Crystal. Credits are the general currency used by the three races in the game, and are gained by completing missions, collecting bounties, and taxing planets. Metal is the most common resource in the game, and is gathered by building refineries on asteroids; it is used to construct basic ships and structures. Crystal is the rarest resource, which can be mined from asteroids like Metal; it is used for advanced technology and building capital ships. A Black Market feature allows players to convert unneeded Metal and Crystal into Credits or vice-versa. Selling or buying too much of either resource can cause market prices to rise and fall dramatically.

Intangible resources include Supply Points and Capital Ship Crews. Supply Points are used up when ships are purchased, acting as a population cap for the player's ships. They can be increased by researching increases in fleet logistic capacity, but this simultaneously lowers Credit income, as more Credits are required to maintain larger fleets. Capital Ship Crews are needed to field capital ships in addition to the general fleet supply points; the number of Crews available determines how many capital ships the player can make.

Players can construct planet-based improvements and orbital structures, the latter of which is divided into "logistic" and "tactical" structures. Logistic buildings include shipyards, civic research labs, and more, while tactical buildings are defense structures ranging from Phase Inhibitors, which slow down fleeing enemy units, to turrets and strike craft hangars. Each race can also produce a superweapon that can attack other planets. The TEC has the Novalith Cannon, which fires a supermassive nuclear weapon to inflict considerable damage directly on enemy planets. The Advent has the Deliverance Engine, which fires a shot that spreads their cultural influence to the target and can provoke a planet-wide revolt. The Vasari have the Kostura Cannon, which fires an EMP burst warhead that can disable or destroy any ship or structure in a planet's orbit.

[edit] Celestial objects and anomalies

There are four types of colony-supporting planets and two types of asteroids. Terran-type planets are the most suitable for life and can support the largest total population, and also possess balanced Metal and Crystal resources. Desert-type planets support a smaller population than Terran planets but will usually have more Crystal and Metal in the area. Ice planets have the third largest population of all the types and an abundance in Crystal, but no Metal. Volcanic planets are the opposite of ice planets, and have the smallest population support and no Crystal, but an abundance of Metal. Of the asteroids, normal asteroids have a randomized amount of metal and crystal asteroids, and support only a small number of tactical and logistic slots. Dead asteroids have no resources and can only support the construction of tactical structures. The player can interact directly with planets in several ways, such as creating trading routes, by forcefully raining destruction from orbit or by spreading "culture" via propaganda platforms, which may cause the planet to revolt in the player's favor.

There are eight different spatial anomalies found in the game which serve as obstacles and hazards to all players. Asteroid belts are small lines of uninhabitable asteroids that cover the middle of a gravity well; the asteroids rarely hit ships but can severely damage them if they do. Gas giants release pockets of unstable gases which can explode and also cause damage. Solar storms are areas where all ships lose antimatter, which reduces the abilities ships can use. Stars boost ship antimatter production, but have large gravity wells that are slow to traverse. Space junk can be harvested for resources by ship-deployed extractors. Electron clouds negate the abilities of ships. Wormholes link between each other in a system, and once the necessary technology has been researched, they can be utilized for travel. Lastly, plasma storms are similar to solar storms, except that strike-craft can't be used in them or they are instantly destroyed.

[edit] Diplomacy and bounty

The diplomacy options of the game allow players to forge and break alliances and place bounties on their enemies or allies (depending on the game setting) without anybody knowing who placed it. Players can trade resources, establish trade routes between nations, manipulate the commodities market to hinder enemies by utilizing supply and demand, and issue optional "missions" to allies.^[3]

Some planets are inhabited by pirates, who will attack anyone that ventures near. During the game's start-up phase, players can also choose to enable "Pirate Raids" this mechanic allows players to place "bounty" on other players, with the goal of inducing the pirates to attack that player. The more bounty is placed on another player, then the larger the attacking fleet will be if the pirates choose to attack that player.^[3]

[edit] Tech tree and artifacts

Each faction has two technology trees divided between military and civic improvements. These two trees in turn branches off into three race-specific categories. The military tree contains upgrades to armor and shields and unlocks units and defensive structures. The civic tree contains upgrades to resource gathering and unlocks civic buildings, radar, planetary upgrades, diplomacy upgrades, and terraforming. There are many different hidden artifacts that can be found by exploring colonized planets. There are a total of nine artifacts, each giving the owner a unique and powerful bonus. When an artifact is discovered, all other players are notified of its location but not its type.^[3]

[edit] Units

There are four main classes of ships in the game: strike craft, frigates, cruisers, and capital ships. The strike craft is the smallest ship in the game. They can only be controlled in squads and are built in small squads in hangars, carriers, and special capital ships. Frigates are the smallest warship that the player can build individually and represent the bulk of most fleets; they are generally divided into the roles of front line, siege and long range. Cruisers are specialized ships and mostly play a support role in fleets. Capital ships have the ability to accumulate experience and "level up" in combat. An increase in a capital ship's level gives it improvements in its offensive and defensive systems and unlocks special abilities. There are five classes of capital ships one can use: battleships, carriers, colony ships, long range attack ships, and support vessel. When a capital ship is in the gravity well of a planet it slows or even stops the spread of enemy culture going to that planet. Each unit has its own abilities that can be passive or active and can affect its fleet or the enemy fleet.^[3]

[edit] Multiplayer

Players can engage in the online multiplayer mode in Sins of a Solar Empire against either a single opponent or as part of a team through the game's Ironclad Online system or by setting up a LAN game. Most online multiplayer activity occurs during European and North American evenings. Often players will set up 5v5 PUG (Pick-Up Game) matches where two captains draft the other eight players, often resulting in balanced teams and intense, competitive games. Although the game will not automatically download custom maps made with the Galaxy Forge mode, players can manually choose to download maps as needed.

[edit] Races

[edit] Trader Emergency Coalition (TEC)

The Trader Emergency Coalition's history extends back 1,000 years, when economically driven settlers banded together and established the Trade Order. Driven by a strict code of economic, moral, and behavioral principles, the Order began to aggressively expand into the rest of human space, becoming a formidable industrial and commercial force. Aside from the core principles of the Order, each member world was able to maintain its own interests and culture. During this formative period, an expedition discovered a remote colony with scientific and social practices that were considered amoral and against the Trade Order's code. As punishment, the colony's people were forcibly removed from their world and exiled beyond Trader space.^[4]

Over the following millennium, the Trade Order prospered and humanity entered a new golden age. Warfare was forgotten, with disputes settled in courts and starships devoted entirely to trade. After nearly a thousand years of peace, the Vasari Empire arrived and brought the defenseless Trade Order to its knees within months. After the fall of its ruling dynasty, the Trade Order suspended its agenda and reorganized itself into the Trader Emergency Coalition, which harnessed the collective resources of the Trader worlds for military production to fend off the Vasari. A decade into the war, the colony that the Trade Order had exiled centuries ago returned as the Advent, a society of powerful psychics with advanced technology. Seeking revenge for the crime against their ancestors, the Advent opened a second front, leaving the TEC with two enemies to fight and uncertain future.^[4]

The TEC utilize heavily armored units and focus on ballistic weapons such as missiles and gauss guns. They prefer to colonize Terran or Earth-like planets which have high population limits, and can research population bonuses for colonies on these planets. Due to their past focus on trade and resource gathering, the TEC is able to produce ships and structures cheaper and faster in their tech tree. The TEC's late game research, Pervasive Economy and Foreign Sabotage, gives the faction income from all enemy expenditures and drastically decreases enemy empires' ship production rates. They also have the ability to initiate rebel insurgency strikes on enemy empires (and even pirates) when appropriate research has been conducted.

[edit] Advent

The Advent was originally a collectivist religious sect of humans who sought spiritual fulfillment on the edge of human space long before the rise of the Trade Order. Over time, they made significant advances in psionic techniques through neurochemicals and implants, and created a socitey called "The Unity." When they were discovered by the Trade Order, their practices were branded perversions, and the sect was exiled from Trader space. As the years passed, the sect continued their research unabated, developing "Psitech" and other technologies that greatly surpassed anything the Trade Order had produced. A millennium after their humiliation, the sect returned as the Advent to wreak revenge on the Traders and unite humanity under The Unity.^[4]

The Advent favor cheap, lightly-armored ships, preferring the elegance of shielding systems over heavy metal armor. Their weapons are almost exclusively energy-based; lasers and plasma weapons are prominent on every warship, and certain units have psionic special abilities. Their units are very sleek and clean in shape, unlike the more utilitarian designs favored by the TEC. The Advent prefer Desert planets due to their history, and can research population bonuses for those worlds. Being evangelistic, they can research culture-spreading buildings, in this case Temples of Communion, before either of the other two races.

[edit] Vasari

The Vasari are the only alien race in the game. The Vasari Empire was once the strongest in the galaxy, formed by peacefully assimilating primitive races and brutally crushing more advanced ones, turning the populations of both into "valued citizens." 10,000 years before the events of the game, the Vasari began to lose contact with their central worlds. Believing the cause to be rebellion and sabotage, a contingent of the Vasari Dark Fleet was deployed to restore order, but was never heard from again. More worlds went dark, even the Vasari homeworld. In their desperation, the entire Dark Fleet was sent on a blind assault on whatever was attacking the Empire. Only a single, heavily-damaged warship emerged, discovered by a small Vasari colony on the Empire's edge.^[4]

Finding the ship's crew had been driven mad with fear, the colony decided to evacuate to a star system outside of the Empire, leaving a warning beacon behind. When contact with that beacon was lost, the colony fled, never to see Vasari space again. For the next 10,000 years, the Vasari refugee fleet travelled from system to system, stopping only to rebuild their population and gather resources; the beacons they have left behind have continued to fall silent. Now, the Vasari are engaged in a war with the Trader Emergency Coalition over the resources of the human systems, and as their mysterious enemy relentlessly pursues them, the Vasari find themselves running out of time.^[4]

The Vasari have fewer, more expensive units that have extremely hardened hulls, and prefer to settle Volcanic worlds. Their ships utilize more advanced technology than the human factions, an example being Phase Missiles, which can penetrate enemy shields. Another advantage is the Phase Stabilizing Node, which allows Vasari ships to travel directly between any two Nodes in one phase jump, eliminating the need for time-consuming sublight voyages required to enter and exit a celestial object's gravity well during transit involving multiple jumps. This unique construct allows the Vasari to link occupied worlds and bases together and quickly move forces between locations.

[edit] Development

System requirements

Minimum Recommended Windows Operating System Windows Vista / Windows XP Service Pack 2 CPU 1.8 GHz (single core) 2.2 GHz Dual- or Quad-Core Processor Memory 512 MB (Windows XP) 1 GB (Windows Vista) 1GB (Windows XP) 2GB (Windows Vista) Hard Drive Space 3  GB of free space Graphics Hardware 128 MB DirectX 9 3D Video Card (Radeon 9600 / GeForce FX 6600 and above) 256 MB DirectX 9 3D Video Card (Radeon X1600 / GeForce 7600 and above) Sound Hardware 100% DirectX 9.0c compliant card Network Internet connection required for multiplayer

Sins of a Solar Empire, like Stardock's Galactic Civilizations II before it, comes without any form of copy protection, but a product key registered to an Impulse account is required for updates and multiplayer. The game had a budget below one million dollars.^[5]

[edit] Game engine

Sins of a Solar Empire offers new size and scale technologies that deliver convincingly large stars and planets next to comparably small orbital structures, starships and tiny fighters. The game features bump mapping on planets and ships, specular lighting, dynamic fractal generation for stars and clouds, and bloom.^[6]

[edit] Customization

Sins of a Solar Empire includes various features, among them a map editor that allows generating maps for both single and multiplayer use by setting their general properties. Matches can also be recorded and watched, and the game supports custom modifications. Ironclad Games maintains a collection of user-created works of all three kinds. The developer has also released the editor used to create the game's scenarios and a set of the development tools. Lastly, the game keeps track of a variety of "achievements," some of which are triggered by ordinary gameplay actions (winning as a specific race, collecting enough resources), or by winning with voluntary restrictions (not building capital ships, frigates, cruisers, or strike craft).

[edit] Content expansions

Ironclad will be making three micro-expansions, all three of which will eventually be available on Ironclad's website and Stardock's digital service Impulse. Once all three micro-expansions have been released, Stardock has stated that they will be releasing a final retail version with all three micro-expansions in one. To prevent fracturing the multiplayer community the features of the expansion pack will only be available if both players have the expansions installed. If not, the features will be disabled for that game.^[7] The first expansion, Entrenchment, has already been released, and the remaining two will add new diplomacy features, new technologies, and ships.^[7]

[edit] Entrenchment

On August 29, 2008 IronClad and Stardock announced Entrenchment.^[7] The expansion includes new weapon upgrades and defense platforms, including modular starbases.^[7][8] Originally scheduled for November 18, 2008, it was released on February 25, 2009 through Stardock's digital service Impulse.^[9]

[edit] Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 87.8% (45 reviews)[11] Metacritic 88% (51 reviews)[10]
Review scores Publication Score Edge 8/10[12] Game Informer 9/10[13] GameSpot 9/10[14] GameSpy 4.5/5[15] GamesRadar 9/10[16] IGN 8.9/10[17] PC Gamer UK 84%[18]

Sins of a Solar Empire has met with generally positive reviews and received several awards. The game holds an aggregate score of 87.8% based on 45 reviews at GameRankings,^[11] and an aggregate score of 88% based on 51 reviews at Metacritic.^[10] It was named Game Informer's "PC Game of the Month," and was awarded a 9/10 review.^[13] The U.K. edition of PC Gamer awarded the game a rating of 84%.^[18] GameSpot awarded the game a 9/10, as well as an Editor's Choice award.^[14] GameSpy awarded the game a 4.5/5, as well as an Editor's Choice award.^[15] IGN awarded the game an 8.9/10, as well as an Editor's Choice award and giving it the PC game of the year award.^[17]

Much praise for the game has been directed towards the game's clever blend of RTS and 4X gameplay, the seamless zoom function, and the user-friendly Empire Tree and UI. That the game was designed to play efficiently on older as well as newer PCs has garnered considerable praise. Kane Ikin from Alchemy SBS Radio in his review said "... Sins of a Solar Empire is a game for a thinking person, it's like a really satisfying game of chess and it is not for the impatient..."^[19] Criticism has been focused on the lack of a single-player campaign, sporadic game crashes when played online, and the potentially lengthy game-play times. Following the 1.03 patch, with increased game speeds, this problem has been slightly improved, although games with six or more players can sometimes still take four hours or more.^[20]

The game was awarded the title "Best Strategy Game of the Year 2008" by X-Play and GameTrailers,^[21] and the title "Best PC Game of the Year" by IGN.^[22]

[edit] Sales

As of September 2008, Stardock's CEO, Brad Wardell, has stated that the game has sold over 500,000 units, with 100,000 of those being digital download sales, on a budget of less than $1,000,000.^[5] It sold 200,000 copies in the first month after release alone.^[23]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Sins of a Solar Empire website
• Sins of a Solar Empire wiki at Wikia

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