FreeOrion

Since this sub-forum is for discussing other strategy games, I thought I'd bring to your attention a game I've been following the development of for quite a while now: Sword of the Stars. I'll summarise some features and points regarding it here, but for more information there's the Official site, the Official forums (where devs actually answer questions regarding their game, and in the Sample Gameplay thread you can find some AARs by a fan who has a preview build, complete with screenshots), and most importantly the fan wiki which has gathered all the information available on the game from forums, interviews, etc.

To shorten the summary as much as possible: It is a turn based space 4X game with realtime combat, yet there the similarities to MoO3 end.

At a bit more length: The basic premise of the game was that the devs looked at each feature that "belongs" in a Space 4X and asked the questions: "Is it fun? If not, how can we make it fun? If we can't, why not just throw it out?" The results are something like the following:

- Star systems are abstracted to one planet per system.
- It has no buildings on planets - buildings are abstracted to an "infrastructure" level, and decreeing how fast to build up infrastructure is done by moving a slider.
- All research has some direct gameplay application. Research is conducted by spending money. There are "core" techs that everyone gets, but other techs (and extra paths between them) are determined randomly.
- Ships cost money and production capacity.
- Production capacity on a planet is a function of its population and resource level.

- There are four races in the game, with fundamental differences - not just "this race has +1 to research and -1 to production". For instance:
Each race uses a different sort of interstellar drive.
- The Tarkas use a "warp field" to move faster than light at a set speed for a given drive tech.
- The Liir use "flickerwarp" that is interfered with by gravity wells, their ships move faster the further they are from a star.
- The Humans use node drives to go down node lines from star to star. They have the fastest interstellar speed, but are constrained by the node lines. They can go "off-road" STL to reach otherwise unreachable places.
- The Hivers move STL to new stars, rather faster than humans do their STL, but once they've reached a star they can set up a Gate (assuming their Gateship made the trip without getting killed by an enemy) and from then on have 1-turn movement from any gate-capable system to any other gate-capable system.
Each race has a different slant to their ships;
- The Liir's ships are rather fragile but their flicker-warp drive means they have superior maneuverability and there's a chance that munitions will pass straight through the ship while it is "not there" due to the flicker-warp drive.
- The Hiver ships are tougher and can fit more weapons than any other race's, because they don't have a need for fitting a FTL drive.
- The Human ships have superior turret coverage, but their turrets are also more exposed, and the node rings they have to fit to their ships means their engine sections are somewhat weaker.
- The Tarkas have superior forward-facing armaments, but weaker side-, dorsal and ventral coverage.

Ship design is not "here's-a-tonnage-do-what-ye-wilt", but rather a "pick your components" thing. Each ship has a command section, mission section, and engine section. These sections have room for turrets of different sizes or special weapon mounts like fixed mounts or torpedo tubes, plus of course special items like cloaking devices, Command and Control sections, the Siege Driver weapon, and so on. There are three ship sizes: Destroyer, Cruiser, and Dreadnought, and three weapon sizes: Small, Medium and Large. A Large turret is about the same size as a Destroyer mission section, and one of the Destroyer mission sections is a "spinal mount" which allows you to fit a Large beam weapon on a Destroyer.

For more information, see my links above. Also, I'm not affilated with Kerberos Productions, though I do like their style.

I have also observed the development a bit. And I think it looks like a modern Moo1.

I almost agree with every decision they made. The only exception is that I still prefer a turnbased tactical combat. But I also doubt that there will be a game with turnbased combat in near future. So I will buy it.

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Am I allowed to post here...?

I never noticed this game before, so as I am searching for something like Moo2 or Moo3 (I like its complexity) I would like to hear the opinion of you guys!

Who played this game? Is it any good? Complexity? (Moo2 is the least!!!)
I don't like stuff where everything is "automated"/simple (Sins of a Solar...). I want to be able to control almost everything.

From a few looks this game seems to me as it is focused on combat and therefore maybe everything else is very simple?
(Master of Orion 3: The one main point i really hated was the fucked up 3D combat!)

I've played it without expansions and liked it. Friend told me that with expansions it's even better. Game is more combat oriented then MoO serial. Colony management is similar to MoO I (may a bit simpler), few sliders, no buildings. Research is also different, everything (production, research, upkeep, etc.) is expressed as money and there is slider which controls how much is spent on research. Combats are real time and with limited fleet size. Unlike MoO 3, fleet size limit is not fixed but dependent of presence of C&C ships. Also ship that can't initially enter a battle due that limit can arrive later if lose few ships in battle.

IMHO, Sins of Solar Empire is not to be compared with MoO, it has more in common with Warcraft 3 (capital ships == heroes, similar upkeep effect, 3 upgrade levels for attack and defense, etc.) than with any MoO.

Ok, so nothing for me.

Actually, you are sadly mistaken my friend. Do not be fooled by the sliders. With all the expansions, Sword of the stars: Complete collection is an EXTREMELY complex game!! The original post was made based on version 1.0... 3 expansions later... it is a game so deep and rich in complexity you could play it for 100 years and always have a different gaming experience pretty much every time! With the expansions the Zuul and Morrigi were added, trade, diplomacy, some limited spying... drone carriers, etc, etc, etc... this is what Moo 3 SHOULD have been, my friend!! Give it a go... you will NOT be dissapointed!

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Well, I search for depth, want to controle every details.
This game to me seems like concentrating on the battles, which i don't really care about.

Trade, diplomacy, spying, research... - Those are like lvls of detail how i can specialize my race/"system" to compete with others.

You seem to dislike Moo3, but I'm the exact opposite! I just love it, untill it comes to space combat -.-! (Spying and research imo should be even more complex...)
But i will take a look on it again, I will surely not buy it, just to get to know i don't like it.

Well, you can always try the demo: http://www.fileplanet.com/165574/160000 ... Stars-Demo

Please note, it's quite old... it was released just a bit after the 1st expansion, Born of Blood and just barely gives you a subtle idea about the current game after 3 expansions. Also keep in mind, this is the same core team that made Homeworld.

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I accidentaly bought the game from a steam discount... waste of (few) euros. .... back to playing Stars! --->

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I'm not a programmer... but I play one at Microsoft!

Seriously? You got the complete edition, correct? $5... correct? How was it a waste of money? Did you play the game? Was it SotS 2? Details, details...

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What a bad game.

I bought it and gave it several chances, it is to simplistic, boring. I can only agree with Pasi.

Seriously how can you tell others to give it a try when they search for the likes of Moo... - shame on you.

Because if you play the original MOO, spaceward ho!, and like games... and NOT the sequels... it's so like the original with updated graphics and a few other things... it's kinda ridiculous... oh well, guess you are a MOO 3 fanboi... good luck with that...

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I wonder why your fancy signature doesn't mention Sword of the Stars II.

Because I haven't updated it for a while?

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Sword of the stars 2 is a failure. What a messed up launch. Unfinished.

But I think the bigger problem is bad game design. There are things I just don't like.
Biggest is the extreme difficulty in moving/creating a fleet.
Seriously, you need an admiral, command ship, command points, and the other ships in your fleet. What a chore.

I'm waiting for more patches (couple of months?), then I'll give it another chance.