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Keisari
May 24, 2011



Welcome to Sword of the Stars 2.

Sword of the Stars 2 is a sequel to Sword of the Stars (often called SotS "Prime", or just SotS1) and was released October 28th 2011. Sword of the Stars 2 is a space 4X strategy game. The release and the state the game was in is legendary. Many described their experiences about the game's condition and enjoyability with colourful descriptions involving a lot of manure, steam and piles. Basically the game was released in a pre-alpha state, with a lot of missing features and hilarious bugs like the signature of something spawning inside a star or a planet.

The state of the game now




Useful links!

:frogsiren: Daton's Mod:frogsiren:
This mod makes the game less terrible. The mod is still a work in progress and therefore can have a lot of bugs, but hey so does this lovely game itself. :downsrim:
It's still good.

Official site
Official Forums
Old SotS2 Thread
Old SotS1 Thread

SotS2 Wiki - Use this as your primary resource for information.
A very good guide how to actually play the game. Includes all races, even the expansion race.
Another guide
Rorschach's instructional LP
Rorschach's instructional videos for SotS2 (From Kerberos forums not the SA Rorschach)

:siren: Random Map Generator! :siren:


Sword of the Stars 1 Resources and Links

Trademod for SotS1 - Makes trade require less clicks.


Abyss posted:

There are a various custom maps that were designed for the SotS prime community on the kerberos forums. But since no one should be forced to scrounge through all the posts there I've zipped them up. They provide some more variety to the game once the usual map choices have been played through. If I find more I'll redo the link. Extract the files to the Maps folder located in the main SotS directory.

Map pack for SotS1

Ulsoro posted:


ACM - Which is an incredibly massive overhaul of pretty much everything from ships to research. I've barely scratched the surface of it to be honest, but it seems interesting.

Grand Campaign Mod - Another big overhaul that rebalances and adds a few things, but keeps itself a lot closer to vanilla. It has slower research, but nowhere near as slow as ACM. It also has a lot of nice quality of life thing in it, like only one sized freighter so you don't have to rebuild your trade fleet, and automatically giving you the pieces of your UI at the correct tech level, rather than making you research them like vanilla does.

Of the two I'd say I prefer Grand Campaign, but both are well worth trying out.





IRC is #sots2 at synirc

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/goonsots The Goon SotS Steam Group. Get in!

The Factions:

The Humans




The Humans in this game are suprisingly, not the "average and boring" faction. Human fleets have ridiculous strategic speed, and can therefore spread very fast in the galaxy to cherrypick on the best planets and project a lot of control over space. Their weakness is that their ships are kind of on the frail side compared to the average. Also the possibility exists that you can get "nodefucked", which means that you cannot reach places because the nodelanes human fleets travel have decided to be linked in inconvenient ways. Tech rate is average, and the chances to get certain technologies, also called "tech rolls", are average. This is a change from the previous iteration of the game, wherein Humans had a tech rate on par with the Morrigi.

The Node Drive FTL is essentially a style of movement where you need to use predetermined wormholes to move around. Only a full Morrigi warfleet with max upgrades is faster. (From ordinary stuff.)


The Morrigi



The Morrigi are the trader federation faction. Overall they are better in trade than the other factions, because they get a better trade range than others. They excel with drone technology and gain a free pair of drones on their command and support ships just for the hell of it. They love their drones so much. Their drones are also just plain better than everyone else's. Morrigi also get a moderate innate bonus to research (20%), giving them an early jump-start on technology with good tech rolls overall. Their federation is multi-racial, and they get admirals from all races.

The drawbacks of playing Morrigi are more expensive ships, poor environmental hazard tolerance and relatively slow population growth.

The Morrigi FTL is the flock drive, which means the more ships you have in a fleet the faster the fleet will go!

The Liir



Space Wizard Dolphins. Blissful and perfect.

The Tarkas



The Tarkas are the reptilian warrior race of SotS. These guys are the average race, considered most boring overall. Tarkas have pretty good warships, but their fleets are considered slower than average. Tarkas have average research speed and excellent rolls on ballistic weaponry and armor. Otherwise their rolls suck somewhat.

Tarkas use the good ol' warp drive, which means their ships always move at a constant speed no matter what. This is the primary reason it is recommended for starting players. It is only a recommendation though, if you've played 4X games before, go ahead and try any race you think is the coolest.

The Hivers



Space bugs. The Hivers have massive armor on their ships. Their ships just refuse to loving die and can take almost anything while sporting a decent amount of guns most of which are placed along the sides of the ship, meaning you'll be firing broadsides a lot. To balance this out hiver ships are really slow and have the maneuverability and accerelation of a brick on asphalt.

The Hivers do not have FTL. Their ships go in STL speeds into their destination and set up a gate. This gate they set up allow them to instantly travel to any other gate they own, essentially meaning that it is meaningless if their empire is stretched out or clustered. Later they can compensate for the STL weakness by essentially using their gates as celestial slings, that throw their ships up to 10LY from their gate, giving them a head start. This means Hivers can execute surprise attacks in the lategame just like others.

The Zuul (Also known as the "Suul'ka Horde" but gently caress that)



The Suul'ka horde is composed of a huge, huge horde of Zuul and their Suul'ka masters. In a nutshell, Zuul are an artificially created sentient biological bioweapon. Marsupials that invade the minds of their victims with space magic to steal information. Their Suul'ka masters are giant space whales with so powerful space magic they can live in space. The Zuul ships are have cheap-to-moderate cost and are somewhat on the frail side, but oh god all those guns what the hell how is it even possible to stick so many on a ship?! :psyduck: The Zuul also engage in droll activities like slavery and piracy. With somewhat poo poo tech rate and really lovely tech rolls, as a Zuul player you won't be researching much technology for quite a while. It is possible to compensate for the bad technology rolls by salvaging for technology from others. Best hazard tolerance and population growth in the game.

Zuul FTL drive is called the Bore Drive, which is a lot similiar to the Human Node FTL. The Zuul also use nodes, but instead of natural wormholes they bore these nodes themselves. The nodelines created are unstable and will collapse after a while, requiring maintenance. Zuul fleets are also a little bit slower in their nodes compared to the Humans.

The Loa

(Yes, you can actually choose this as your badge. It will be holographically projected from your ships.)

The Loa is the newest faction and race added in the latest expansion "End of Flesh". Loa are the AI rebellion from the first game that fled to the fringes of space from their former masters, and formed a new faction that's now back to give poo poo to their old owners. The Loa ships have an incredibly durable engine section, sleek form that is hard to hit from the front and a lot of guns in the front giving a good firing arc. The Loa can colonize absolutely everything that isn't a gas giant or a barren planetoid, but must eradicate all life on the planet (biosphere) before their population can grow on it's own. To balance for their incredible ships and colonization abilities, Loa ships are really loving expensive, the most expensive of all factions. They also have an extra limiting factor to their fleet size that you can increase with technology. That said, Loa fleets are still really fun, because their fleets are composed of tiny cubes that can rearrange fast. This means your fleets are shapeshifters, your colony fleet can transform into a battlefleet instantly and go meet the enemy invader. I wouldn't recommend Loa for your first game because they play so different.

The Loa FTL is essentially a mix of the Suul'ka and Hiver FTL, in that they essentially build stable nodelines that cost money and need to be maintained with money. It's also a bit on the slow side, atleast during the start.


The Patch List

Now before I mentioned about the buggy as hell release. Kerberos has been patching the game ever since, and it has been very entertaining to follow as they fix horrible bugs and introduce more hilariou bugs as they fix them. Here's some of the best bits over that time, collectively collected by the last SotS2 thread:

quote:


Divide by zero counter: 7

Critical fixes:
- The Continue Game button is now working.
+ Patched a ship repair divide-by-zero crash.
- Fixed a crash when you killed the system killer.
- Fixed circumstances under which canceling a mission might crash game.
- Fixed drones firing while docked on carrier parent.
- Fleets without admirals no longer display "Defacto" as their admiral.
- Added fix to ensure that randoms and grand menaces don't spawn if all of them were disabled.
- Fixed an end-of-combat crash caused by inserting the same combat results into the game twice.
- Disabled purple placeholder effect appearing on all turret muzzles when firing. Existing muzzle effects still display as they did before the last update.
+ Treaty and Declare War options are now available in the diplomacy screen.
+ Fixed a crash the could occur when issuing orders to a ship with no crew.
+ It is no longer possible to scrap enemy ships.
- Fixed occasional crash due to Main Menu combat
- Fixed crash that could occur when destroying weapons in combat.
- Fixed crash caused by opening battle manager at a system where platforms are available for placement.
- Fixed a bug where dissolving a fleet would lead to empty fleets.
- Fixed known issues where boarding pods and assault shuttles were not able to connect to ships
+ Fixed a crash that could be caused by not having enough admirals for starting fleets.
+ Fixed planetary missiles not firing.
+ Fixed numerous known issues with fleet pathing.
+ Fixed known issues where colony information would not disappear for a player, preventing re-colonization and causing a crash in some cases.
+ Enemy fleets no longer appear in the fleet manager.
+ Fixed an issue where ships could become stuck in a permanently spinning state.
+ Fixed the known issues where ships would not respond to controls.
+ Fixed a bug that was causing combat to be initiated when no ships were present.
+ Torpedoes now apply damage to planets.
+ Fixed a crash that could occur when clicking the research cube on
the star map.
+ Fixed a hang when more then 1 combat took place
+ Fixed biome colonizers from hurting biosphere when terraforming.
- Fixed bug where fleets were getting forced to center of the sun.
- Fixed bug where fleets could be placed inside planets.
+ Fixed the rare crash that could occur when previewing maps when creating a game.
+ Fixed the issue that was causing Hiver gates not to function until
the game was reloaded.
- A certain Suul'ka will now no longer instantly kill ships with its tentacle attacks.
- Fixed stations spawning inside planets



Other fixes and changes:
- Turret fixes made to Human and Hiver Leviathans causing them to shoot through selves.
- Fixed an issue where the specters could intermittently stop moving during combat.
+ The System Killer will no longer run into stations.
+ Fixed build order removal.
+ Fixed an issue where AI ships could fly into planets when performing fly-by maneuvers.
+ Fixed a number of turret errors (placed inside ship, placed backwards, etc.)
+ Fixed known issues where Drone carriers were not attaching drones.
+ Fixed known issue where meteors could not be destroyed.
+ Fixed bug where tooltips would be one line no matter how long they where.
+ Fixed a bug where a different station would be upgraded than the one selected.
+ Fixed known issues where boarding actions were not taking over ships.
+ Rapidly clicking buttons will no longer bypass feasibility studies.
+ Turrets no longer fire missiles after the crew are killed.
+ Fixed the issue where requesting surrender of an empire could lock
out camera control.
+ Prevented Zuul ships from boring temporary node lines back from a
deep space encounter.
+ Fixed the issue where Radiant Bore ships could not create node lines.
+ Fixed an issue where infrastructure was resetting to zero each time
a planet was recolonized.
+ Fixed a crash caused by AI players attempting to ally with indy players.
+ Gate Lab upgrade requirements can now be met.
+ Zuul trade now unlocks correctly.
+ Fixed issues where missiles targeting spectres could damage a colony instead.
+ Fixed the missing news event notifying players of war declarations against them.
+ It is no longer possible to see enemy ship tool tips.
+ Fixed an issue where Leviathans were taking armor damage on the wrong side in combat.
+ Fixed a bug that was assigning unwanted modules to stations and ships.
+ Retreating ships no longer get pulled back into combat at the same location.
+ Strategic turn timer is now displayed in games that use it.
+ Fixed an issue where players were spawning too close to the star during random encounters.
+ Independent colonies no longer form on barren planetoids nor gas giants.
+ Fixed an issue that was allowing players to abandon enemy colonies.
+ Fixed an issue that was causing the AI to continually redesign thee same ship role turn after turn.
+ Restored sound.
+ Fixed unending rebellions.
+ Suul'ka now enter combat again.
+ AI no longer retires ships constantly.
+ AI now redesigns for missing ships, such as gates and bores.
+ Enemy ship construction ETA is no longer visible in system icons.
+ Targets of node cannons no longer leave empty fleets behind.
+ Colonization fleets no longer teleport on support runs.
+ Fixed issue where the star map UI was not reactivating on new turns
(AKA Black Buttons of Doom).
+ Boarded ships no longer fire at unusually high rates.
+ Fixed an issue that could cause planets to share the same orbit.
+ Can no longer retrofit ships in a system without a colony.
+ Fixed an issue that could cause the strategic AI to redesign
constructors and freighters each turn.
+ Fixed overharvesting beyond available resources.
+ The grovernment graph marker no longer moves beyond the graph bounds.
+ Stations no longer become constructed when construction fleets are absent.
+ Asteroid monitors no longer disappear from systems when research is complete.
+ Fixed a corner case that could result in ships rolling continually in combat.
+ Fixed an issue where shield generators were firing torpedoes.
+ Fixed an issue that was causing ships in combat to be equipped with
random modules where none belong.
+ Fixed cases where attached boarding pods were super-sized.
+ Fixed an issue that could cause stations under construction to appear inside planets.
+ Fixed an audio problem that was leading to framerate loss over time.
+ Fixed an issue where planets were firing missiles when they shouldn't.
- Fixed stations spawning in center of planet during rebellion.
- Fixed fleet interception teleport bug. (OP Note: The intercepting fleets teleported to deep space. Like out-of-the-galaxy deep space.)
- Fixed beam vs planet lengths.
- Fixed Hivers using up gate points while committing missions to their home systems.
- AI now repair fleets at systems.
- Fix to prevent stations from being spawned in the center of a planet.
- Fixed beams not rendering when origin is not on the screen.
- Fixed bug that allowed meteors to capture admirals.
- Fixed NPG moving in autoresolve combats
- Fixed bug causing loa to secretly pay corruption expenses
- Fixed Loa/Zuul AI colonizing non-terrestrial planets
- Fixed subverted drones attacking friendly ships after docking
- Fixed not getting research project for super novas
- Fixed Loa AI not expanding
- Display turret arcs when mouse hovers over a weapon
- Fixed CTD on profile saving caused by Anti-Virus programs (= You can now play SotS2 with your antivirus on!)
- Fixed case where "Random System" used as system name
- Fixed case where AI would prefer initial ship designs
- Fixed AI humans not using node lines
- Fix Loa gate spawning in center of sun
- Fix plagues not killing civilians
- Improve AI to prevent them from going into debt
- AI now selects the best fleet for combat, as opposed to just picking the fleet with the most health

Additions and Changes
+ Tar Baby COL added.
+ Carriers can now carry other carriers.
+ 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.
:frogsiren:- Can now deploy fleets on missions that are returning home or patrolling :frogsiren: [It took 1,5 years for this one.]
- Can now order planets in planet manager
- Mousing over weapon group in design test now shows weapon coverage
- Help prevent AI from causing their own economic collapse


Known Issues:
- Drones cannot be designed.
- Scrapping ships does not yet yield bonuses.
- System Killer auto resolve is not producing results.
- Some star systems have anomalous moon orbits.

Can my rig run it?

Minimum requirements:

OS: Windows Vista 32-bit
RAM: 2-GB RAM
Video: 512-MB DirectX 10
Display: 1024x768
HDD: 2-GB free space
CPU: Core2 Duo or equivalent
DX: February 2010 or newer (DX10)
Sound: Any Windows Vista compatible sound device, stereo speakers or head phones
Control: 2-button mouse and keyboard

Recommended:

OS: Windows 7 64-bit
RAM: 6-GB
Video: 1-GB DirectX 10/11
Display: 1650x1080 or greater
CPU: Intel i5 equivalent or better
Sound: Any Windows Vista compatible sound device, 5.1 speaker configuration for full effect
Control: 3-button mouse and keyboard




Screenshots

Keisari fucked around with this message at 07:19 on Oct 11, 2013

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Keisari
May 24, 2011

Handy tips section

I want to reserve a post for goons to share tips. The game mechanics are hard to understand and unintuitive, I'll put posts detailing some mechanics well here over time.


Trade, stimulus and supply

Rakthar posted:

Each ship has supply and an "endurance rating" in the design screen. It's right above the weapon stats, and will range from like 1T-9T (thats turns the ship can go). Different modules affect this - missiles and mass drivers will use a lot, beam weapons will use a little. The Standard command section will also reduce the usage of supply and increase the amount compared to Battle / Hammerhead command sections. If you want long endurance ships go Standard command -> Green Beamers / Fusion Cannons / Beam Weapons -> Camel modules everywhere.

You should also redesign your Supply ships turn 1 so that they don't use missiles and using the logic above. Then, when you have something you need your fleet to do, you can put in the minimum amount of supply ships that allows them to go there and do it. However, if you want them to be able to loiter longer (for instance blockade a planet for 10 turns instead of 5 before having to return) extra supply ships can help. Similarly if you want ships to be able to patrol your space for a while, an extra supply ship can help.

In terms of trade you need:
A civiliation station
Freighters
Planets set to trade output

For each Dock you build at a civilian station, you can have one Freighter service that trade route. If you build just one civ station with 3 docks for instance, that system will export 3 trade goods to nearby sectors. If you also build civ stations with docks in the other sectors then they'll be able to export goods as well.

Consider sliding your max pop to 100% on most planets, this will double your citizen count, which will increase your trade goods and amount of trade you can do, as well as increase your tax base. In exchange you'll lose a bit of resources each turn but the loss is tiny.

In true Mecron fashion, building freighters directly makes you a "Command / Authoritarian" economy, whereas using Stimulus will actually allow civilians to build and maintain the Freighters, which will really help your economy down the road. For your first few games just build the freighters yourself, but eventually you'll want to dick with it and figure out how to get the civilians to do so, which keeps the maintenance off your books.

Rakthar posted:

It will double your civ pop in exchange for like 3-6 resources a turn. Most planets start with 5000. After 100 turns the resources may drop 500, this is negligible. But the double citizen pop is a huge bonus, so most people recommend going that route.

Colonization stimulus speeds up colonization, but to build freighters you have to put money into Trade stimulus. Stimulus will default to colonization, so you need to take some of that out and put it into Trade. Note: You need quite a lot to get them to build freighters, and you need to have trade goods and stations already built.

Nessin posted:


Your range is determined by where your fleet is based. I don't know what the default is, but it's increased by Naval Station modules (and there is a view you can activate to see your ranges from all your stations). Endurance is the total number of turns you can operate beyond that range and inside that range you have no limit. You don't ever really have to worry about range, the game will not let you move somewhere you don't have the endurance to do so. A level 3 upgraded Naval Station covers a lot of territory.

It only comes into play when you're planning on spending more than a turn or two at an enemy system that is outside your range, which isn't likely to happen often.


Minor races

StringOfLetters posted:

Yup. Was that system originally protected by a bunch of amoeba-looking 'Protean pods?' That system has been 'colonized' by the proteans, all the planets are at their ideal hazard rating. They are apparently a minor species of goop stuff that has no infrastructure, language, diplomacy, or FTL, and they show up as biosphere. If you get some biosphere preservation techs before colonizing it, and keep your civ population low, you can turn them into a big generator of psi stuff for the rest of your fleet.

Fleet Stuff

Rakthar posted:

Reserve fleets don't count for squat - they have reduced maintenance costs but are basically 'mothballed' and don't do anythinig. If you want to defend a system make it a normal fleet with an admiral and assign it to patrol the system - it will do that in perpetuity if it's based there.

To manage where fleets start right click the system and choose battle manager. You need to deploy defensive fleets around the planet where you want them to start., otherwise they'll often be too far away to stop the meteors in time.

Patches don't break saves, the most recent exception was the release of the expansion.

Keisari fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Mar 14, 2013

Keisari
May 24, 2011

Repository of :kerberos:

This area of the thread contains awful quotes from what Kerberos staff has posted.

Arinn "Erinys" Dembo, ~Loremaster~ posted:

When the audience stops paying for content, they lose the ability to demand integrity. The salaries and expenses of all gaming news sites, blogs and broadcasts are paid by advertisers. And in the gaming industry at present, the advertisers are the publishers.

There is only so hard that anyone can bite the hand that feeds them.

The majority of the audience for gaming journalism does not notice or care who foots the bill for their reviews, previews and interviews. They only care that they get plenty of content, and they get it for free.

There are many problems with the current system. I think the most disturbing thing about modern gaming journalism, though, is that it depends entirely on the economic health of publishers, in an industry where publishers are increasingly troubled economically.

I find it hard to believe that so many journalists in this industry are so completely blind to the writing on the wall. Even very big third party developers for the PC are breaking free of the old system whenever they can. Even very big publishers are failing. How much longer can the current business model last?

Personally, I am very surprised that more journalists do not reach out to developers like Kerberos, who are breaking free of the old system. In the future, independent developers will increasingly be in charge of their own PR and advertising budgets. Doesn't really take a genius to do the math.

--Arinn

Arinn posted:

Alpha Centauri posted:

I hope that Kerberos is making enough...
Just for your information? No, we are not.

Sword of the Stars 2 is currently unsupported by any outside source. We have said many times that any further work on this title would have to be done independently. Unfortunately, the majority of the player base of SotS Prime and SotS 2 do not support Kerberos.

Of the tens of thousands of people who own SotS 2 and the over a hundred thousand people who own SotS Prime, less than 500 were willing to step up and support us when we asked them to help fund an independent game of our own. We said very explicitly that we would need their help to continue. We gave them the chance to vote with their dollars.

Unfortunately, Sword of the Stars: The Pit is still only about 50% funded.

Sword of the Stars 2 is currently packaged and sold at a low price with nearly fifty dollars worth of free DLC content attached, including its expansion. This was a lot of work for which we will never be paid, folks. Even if the game sells a lot of copies for Paradox, our royalty is only a fraction of the total price, and any percentage of "free" = 0.

If people want more work done, we need real support. Saying "I hope Kerberos has money" doesn't really do the trick. The campaign for The Pit is ongoing. If you want us to have more money to pour into SotS 2, we need you to pledge a few dollars.

If everyone who owns SotS Prime and SotS 2 supported our independent game for just the base price, with no extra Perk at all, we would be one of the best-funded independent teams in the world. There would be more than enough time and money to do everything that players ask.

--Arinn




Mecron posted:

Sometimes people are only as confused as they choose to be. In this case the fantasy that expansions and daily, weekly or monthly support are the same thing is a nice one but it is fantasy nonetheless.

So lets try this again.

The support you are receiving right now is coming out of our own pockets. Contract work does NOT pay for support, question answering (even on holidays) or surprise evolving content like flagships. If you support ANY Kerberos Indy project then you ARE supporting these things. If you choose not to support other kerberos projects, well then you will have sent a message far clearer than any post on how you "think things should be".

'Nuff Said


"Fanfic" section

This is probably a terrible idea but I'll put... "interesting" posts here where goons fill SotS2 story plotholes or write other peculiar things you may or may not want to read.


Soylent Pudding explains why interstellar travel doesn't seem to follow Newton's laws of motion.

Soylent Pudding posted:

The Mecron-Boson is the particle responsible for the Mecron field, the universal source of :smug:. This is not found near star systems as the intense solar wind drives Mecron-Bosons away. However in interstellar space, the concentrated smugness acts as a source of drag and eventually causes all nice things to grind to a halt. When transiting deep space hiver ships must constantly burn fuel to offset this drag force. Furthermore, unusually high concentrations of Mecron-Bosons are so unbearable they have been know to cause certain species of asteroids to commit suicide against the nearest inhabited planet.

I have no words.

Denari posted:

So, how far down the rabbits hole are we going here?

Are we graduating from published fan fic to Hiver on Tarka slash behind a pay wall to fund the next expansion pack?


Arglebargle III posted:

Yessssss. :unsmigghh:

His tumescent hemipenes glistened in the light of the malfunctioning life support system. (This is of course after the scene in which the Tarka and Hivers bravely repel the Zuul boarding pods which are totally not overpowered and should not be removed from the starting techs despite the fact that their counter, point-defense, requires dozens of turns of research at default speeds) The Hiver worker's anal glands shivered end effervesced multitudinous pheremones at the approach of his masculine aura. With utmost candor, Loves His Mother said, "Please, take this ones worthless body" as Lann the Lirr-Handed flexed his muscly appendage with glee...

Mz. Dembo feel free to take what you need.

Keisari fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Oct 8, 2013

Defiance Industries
Jul 22, 2010

A five-star manufacturer


I vastly exceed the minimum requirements for the game, but it is loving plodding in combat sometimes. Is there a particular option that will make my framerate jump like shadows tend to do in some games if I turn it off?

Keisari
May 24, 2011

Defiance Industries posted:

I vastly exceed the minimum requirements for the game, but it is loving plodding in combat sometimes. Is there a particular option that will make my framerate jump like shadows tend to do in some games if I turn it off?

I recommend turning off Antialiasing and focal blur immediately, and reducing the texture detail levels.

Deadmeat5150
Nov 21, 2005

OLD MAN YELLS AT CLAN

Keisari posted:

I recommend turning off Antialiasing and focal blur immediately, and reducing the texture detail levels.

Just turning off focal blur help my system a ton and I've got a fairly beefy rig.

AtillatheBum
Oct 6, 2010

Justice ain't gonna dispense itself.
This has probably been asked in the old thread, but I'll ask anyway to satisfy my own curiosity and so other people who read the first page wont have to ask either: Is there any kind of modding potential for this game? Especially in regards to the removal of the awful fleet system? I know that would be a pretty big overhaul to most of the game, but is it possible?

I loaded the game up a few days ago just because I saw some screenshots and the trailer from the new expansion that came out and I remembered how gorgeous the game looked on the MARS 2 engine. The combat looks amazing. Unfortunately I gave up my game about 25 turns in because I just can't stand the fleet system.

LordBaxter
Sep 7, 2009

I finally managed to make everybody like me, if only for one day

AtillatheBum posted:

This has probably been asked in the old thread, but I'll ask anyway to satisfy my own curiosity and so other people who read the first page wont have to ask either: Is there any kind of modding potential for this game? Especially in regards to the removal of the awful fleet system? I know that would be a pretty big overhaul to most of the game, but is it possible?

I loaded the game up a few days ago just because I saw some screenshots and the trailer from the new expansion that came out and I remembered how gorgeous the game looked on the MARS 2 engine. The combat looks amazing. Unfortunately I gave up my game about 25 turns in because I just can't stand the fleet system.

Mecron would probably send anyone attempting to mod the fleet system out a cease and desist.

Moridin920
Nov 15, 2007

by FactsAreUseless

Keisari posted:

if you liked SotS1 a lot but didn't like the design choices they made in SotS2 it's highly likely you won't enjoy this game ever.

What are some of those design choices? Why is the fleet system making people mad?

I loved SotS and I've been purposefully staying away from and not paying attention to SotS 2 until it's more playable which I guess it is now (?).


Some of those bugs are :catstare:

Moridin920 fucked around with this message at 12:55 on Dec 5, 2012

Keisari
May 24, 2011

Moridin920 posted:

What are some of those design choices? Why is the fleet system making people mad?

I loved SotS and I've been purposefully staying away from and not paying attention to SotS 2 until it's more playable which I guess it is now (?).

Some of those bugs are :catstare:

Trying to keep it short, in essence what makes people dislike it so much is how much more micromanagement it requires to get ships moving while adding so little to the game. But that's only slightly irritating, the fleet system has it's upsides too. The absolute main gripe is that you cannot change your orders mid run, nor can you chain together missions. It produces incredibly frustrating scenarios, for example your survey fleet is going to survey a colony, but after a few turns you notice an enemy fleet is on an attack vector on your HW. At this point you'd want to tell your survey fleet to change course and patrol your Homeworld system, but the fleet just simply cancels the survey mission and absolutely has to return to base to change their clothes or something before going to defend your Homeworld, and will not negotiate about it. So far I have yet to hear an argument defending the fleet system in it's entirety other than ~realism~. Realism is important in this sci-fi strategy game with space magic you see. gently caress fun.

That is only an example of all the ridiculous ~realistic~ scenarios that happen with the current system.

Killer-of-Lawyers
Apr 22, 2008

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2020
I just pretend my military is just that inept.


That's why I only play as these guys:

Moridin920
Nov 15, 2007

by FactsAreUseless
^^^ Team America IN SPACE! That's awesome.

Alright I'll try it, I don't mind micromanagement and while I can see how those situations would be irritating as gently caress I'll give conquering the galaxy for MY QUEEEEN a shot. I am ridiculously forgiving when it's my favorite genre.

(Is the voice acting still hilarious?)

Moridin920 fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Dec 5, 2012

Ludicrous G. Gibs
Jan 28, 2012

Drinks?
As someone who hasn't really touched 4X since playing Master of Orion 2 a decade or so ago, would either of the SotS games be a good place to pick up the genre again? The lore looks really interesting, as does the way the races each have unique mechanics in play.

DrManiac
Feb 29, 2012

Ludicrous G. Gibs posted:

As someone who hasn't really touched 4X since playing Master of Orion 2 a decade or so ago, would either of the SotS games be a good place to pick up the genre again? The lore looks really interesting, as does the way the races each have unique mechanics in play.



If you don't mind a simple battle system I would really recommend Endless Space since it has a fantastic UI and is very user friendly (for a space 4x). It also doesn't have any game breaking bugs and is constantly adding new content.

Demiurge4
Aug 10, 2011

I think I'm done with singleplayer. It's just a giant slog of endless survey fleets and lovely combat ships. The AI is no threat at all in combat, it's just really stupid. I'll settle for trying to murder Keisari in MP.

I also realised today that Master of Orion 3 actually had a random tech tree. I'm temtped to install it again with fan patches but I seriously doubt it's any better than SotS2.

Flipswitch
Mar 30, 2010


Would it be possible for someone to post up like a newbie guy on playing this game? I feel a bit lost when starting it up and sort of press buttons, pass a few turns then realise I've hosed myself over somehow and close the game.

Electric_Mud
May 31, 2011

>10 THRUST "ROBO_COX"
>20 GOTO 10

Flipswitch posted:

Would it be possible for someone to post up like a newbie guy on playing this game? I feel a bit lost when starting it up and sort of press buttons, pass a few turns then realise I've hosed myself over somehow and close the game.

This http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=37699 got posted in the last thread as a good newbie guide. I haven't actually read it and while I'm sure it's "out of date" since the expansion it probably has a lot of the good basics. It is on my list of things to read before I start playing, which will be sometime after I hear that the expansion is stable.

DarkAvenger211
Jun 29, 2011

Damnit Steve, you know I'm a sucker for Back to the Future references.
At some point once I finally figure this game out I'll probably get sick of the AI as well (are hard AI's any different?).

What time frame do multiplayer games run in? Would I need to dedicate a whole day to play a game? Normally I avoid multiplayer for games like this only because of the huge time sink that's needed. But I remember reading that you can swap in and out to leave an AI in your place while you're gone. Can you get games that span days at a time?

Ham Sandwiches
Jul 7, 2000

DrManiac posted:

If you don't mind a simple battle system I would really recommend Endless Space since it has a fantastic UI and is very user friendly (for a space 4x). It also doesn't have any game breaking bugs and is constantly adding new content.

Please don't recommend that soulless, bland, samey game in this thread :) And by that I simply mean the kind of person that wants a combat-heavy, randomized game which is what SOTS 1 / SOTS 2 are, is really unlikely to enjoy the design choices that Endless Space made.

To me, Endless Space is the epitome of polished but awful, in a very similar way to GalCiv2. Rock / Paper / Scissors combat is the absolute worst mechanic IMO and the fact that both of those games implement it is telling.

Flipswitch posted:

Would it be possible for someone to post up like a newbie guy on playing this game? I feel a bit lost when starting it up and sort of press buttons, pass a few turns then realise I've hosed myself over somehow and close the game.

In addition to that forum post, there's two other places that I used to figure out how to play the game. Rorschach's walkthrough here:
http://brokenforum.com/index.php?threads/one-year-later-lets-play-sword-of-the-stars-ii.3889/

And this guy's streams on Twitch:
http://www.twitch.tv/terrakus/videos

I recommend the 5:08:05 multiplayer match called "Friday Night Multiplayer Fun", his turn starts about 16 minutes in when everyone connects so you can fast forward to that part.

DatonKallandor
Aug 21, 2009

"I can no longer sit back and allow nationalist shitposting, nationalist indoctrination, nationalist subversion, and the German nationalist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious game balance."

DrManiac posted:

If you don't mind a simple battle system I would really recommend Endless Space since it has a fantastic UI and is very user friendly (for a space 4x). It also doesn't have any game breaking bugs and is constantly adding new content.

Endless Space is a piece of poo poo. It's what happens when you streamline a game to the point where there's no actual gameplay left.

For someone who loved Master of Orion 2 there's really no better pick up than SotS 1 (with all the expansions) - it's simple in the parts that are usually micro-hell and deep in the place that needs to be (combat).

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

Sots really seems desperate to ruin its own fun. Between the absurdly overkill random events and the rolls to see if a given tech is available it just wasn't as fun as it should have been.

Keisari
May 24, 2011

dis astranagant posted:

Sots really seems desperate to ruin its own fun. Between the absurdly overkill random events and the rolls to see if a given tech is available it just wasn't as fun as it should have been.

Actually I love the random tech tree myself. The thrill of "Oh holy gently caress I didn't roll X, what am I going to do now?" and then trying to adapt to that new situation. I think it really adds to the game.

DarkAvenger211 posted:

At some point once I finally figure this game out I'll probably get sick of the AI as well (are hard AI's any different?).

What time frame do multiplayer games run in? Would I need to dedicate a whole day to play a game? Normally I avoid multiplayer for games like this only because of the huge time sink that's needed. But I remember reading that you can swap in and out to leave an AI in your place while you're gone. Can you get games that span days at a time?

Yes, you can, but consider how loving bad the AI is in it's current state I wouldn't recommend doing that.


Also thanks Rakthar for the helpful link, I'm adding it to the OP.

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

Game strung me along with addictive spaceship tinkering for 40 minutes before crashing just before I could end turn 1. gently caress this game (again)

MisterVec
Nov 17, 2012
I have conquered the AI and it's horde of 3 cruiser "invasion" fleets and now want to try playing against for-reals people. How does one join the invite-only "A Murder of Goons" group?

Ssthalar
Sep 16, 2007

Keisari posted:

Actually I love the random tech tree myself. The thrill of "Oh holy gently caress I didn't roll X, what am I going to do now?" and then trying to adapt to that new situation. I think it really adds to the game.

It was one of the highlights in the first game as well.
It brought me into the nice situation where i got locked into basic everything and ended with me using waves upon waves of destroyers, armed with piddly little gaussguns (which by the way, did no damage to the enemy due to his absurd armor advantage and him being hiver), and yet i still won fights simply because i used the overwhelming mass of my piddly poo poo guns to push his dreadnaughts into my planets! :black101:

(I obviously lost that war :ssh: but i had fun while it lasted.)

Gyoru
Jul 13, 2004



MisterVec posted:

I have conquered the AI and it's horde of 3 cruiser "invasion" fleets and now want to try playing against for-reals people. How does one join the invite-only "A Murder of Goons" group?

Post a link to your Steam ID and an admin (usually me) will invite you.

MisterVec
Nov 17, 2012

Gyoru posted:

Post a link to your Steam ID and an admin (usually me) will invite you.

Given that I am a creature built from failure, forgive me if I do not do this correctly:

My steam ID is monkyfnd. I am currently sitting in the group chat if that helps.

DarkAvenger211
Jun 29, 2011

Damnit Steve, you know I'm a sucker for Back to the Future references.

Keisari posted:

Actually I love the random tech tree myself. The thrill of "Oh holy gently caress I didn't roll X, what am I going to do now?" and then trying to adapt to that new situation. I think it really adds to the game.


Yes, you can, but consider how loving bad the AI is in it's current state I wouldn't recommend doing that.


Also thanks Rakthar for the helpful link, I'm adding it to the OP.

I figured the AI wouldn't be the greatest. How long does your average multiplayer game take (say with 4 - 5 players)?

Keisari
May 24, 2011

DarkAvenger211 posted:

I figured the AI wouldn't be the greatest. How long does your average multiplayer game take (say with 4 - 5 players)?


I've only played duels so far, but the game is slower than SotS1. I'd say over a dozen hours if everyone's familiar with the mechanics. Atleast. A long time.

MisterVec posted:

Given that I am a creature built from failure, forgive me if I do not do this correctly:

My steam ID is monkyfnd. I am currently sitting in the group chat if that helps.

Taken care of.

Arglebargle III posted:

Game strung me along with addictive spaceship tinkering for 40 minutes before crashing just before I could end turn 1. gently caress this game (again)

Hahahaha oh man that is harsh.

MisterVec
Nov 17, 2012

DarkAvenger211 posted:

I figured the AI wouldn't be the greatest. How long does your average multiplayer game take (say with 4 - 5 players)?

If it's anything like the original, we all have a set amount of time for us to concurrently run our turns (usually 4 minutes or so), which isn't so bad. The down side is waiting for the other players to finish their battles between turns. You could get 10 turns done in an hour if it was relatively quiet or as few as 3 turns if things got ridiculously busy.

DatonKallandor
Aug 21, 2009

"I can no longer sit back and allow nationalist shitposting, nationalist indoctrination, nationalist subversion, and the German nationalist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious game balance."

Ssthalar posted:

It was one of the highlights in the first game as well.
It brought me into the nice situation where i got locked into basic everything and ended with me using waves upon waves of destroyers, armed with piddly little gaussguns (which by the way, did no damage to the enemy due to his absurd armor advantage and him being hiver), and yet i still won fights simply because i used the overwhelming mass of my piddly poo poo guns to push his dreadnaughts into my planets! :black101:

(I obviously lost that war :ssh: but i had fun while it lasted.)

Speaking of the wonders of kinetics pushing poo poo around, SotS 2 has a great update to the good old Thumper super-push drivers. Tumblers - all the push of the Thumper, but it's focusing into spinning the target, not just pushing it.

The Grammar Aryan
Apr 22, 2008
Can you still have everybody leave from a multiplayer game and then rejoin it later? That was one of the multiplayer features that I really liked from the original SotS.

WarLocke
Jun 6, 2004

You are being watched. :allears:
So if I pre-ordered this and gave up on it a week after 'release', should I reinstall now that it's apparently playable and has what sounds like an awesome new beep boop machine faction?

Unless I have to buy an expac for the Loa in which case gently caress that.

MisterVec
Nov 17, 2012

WarLocke posted:

So if I pre-ordered this and gave up on it a week after 'release', should I reinstall now that it's apparently playable and has what sounds like an awesome new beep boop machine faction?

Unless I have to buy an expac for the Loa in which case gently caress that.

Loa comes with the game. if you've got the original, it will magically become the Enhanced Edition on steam, using whatever dolphin magic their servers run on.

Keisari
May 24, 2011

Sots2 irc is up and working. #sots2 at synirc

Come complain with us.

MisterVec
Nov 17, 2012

Keisari posted:

Sots2 irc is up and working. #sots2 at synirc

Come complain with us.

No magic is required. Simply go to https://www.synirc.net and use the web chat.

Thyrork
Apr 21, 2010

"COME PLAY MECHS M'LANCER."

Or at least use Retrograde Mini's to make cool mechs and fantasy stuff.

:awesomelon:
Slippery Tilde

Killer-of-Lawyers posted:

I just pretend my military is just that inept.


That's why I only play as these guys:



You missed the bit where your leader is Lady Commander Shepard because one of the avatar's is that. :3:

Nevets
Sep 11, 2002

Be they sad or be they well,
I'll make their lives a hell

Are there any other good LP's out there? This one is unreadable because most of the images are broken.

Nuclearmonkee
Jun 10, 2009


So are supernovas just a giant gently caress you right now? I got a warning and it said HURRY RESEARCH THE SPECIAL PROJECT BEFORE IT EXPLODES.

There is no special project :(

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Commoners
Apr 25, 2007

Sometimes you reach a stalemate. Sometimes you get magic horses.
Why hello there, SotS2, I missed-



ohsweetjesus

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