Sins of a Solar Empire
Encyclopedia
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
operating systems. Sins is a real-time strategy
(RTS) game that incorporates some elements from 4X strategy games; promotional materials describe it as "RT4X." The game was released on February 4, 2008, its first content expansion titled Entrenchment was released as a download on February 25, 2009, and its second content expansion titled Diplomacy was released as a download on February 9, 2010. A package that combines the original game with the two expansions was released at that time with the name Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity.
" is specially designed with new technologies that allow it to handle very large differences in size, scale, and distance.
Certain more intangible resources include Supply Points and Capital Ship Crews. Supply Points are used up when ships are purchased, and cannot be accumulated, acting as a population cap for the player's fleet. They can be increased by researching increases in fleet logistic capacity, but this simultaneously lowers all resource income, as more resources are required to maintain larger fleets. Capital Ship Crews work like Supply Points and are needed to field capital ships (in addition to 50 fleet supply points); the number of Crews available determines how many capital ships the player can make. Thus (for example), a player in early game may be able to field no more than a small number of ships given the low Supply Point ceiling, and even fewer (as few as one) capital ships given the inherently low Capital Ship Crew ceiling; later once the player's economy has grown and new resources have become available, the player may perform Supply Point research and permanently reduce by a fraction the size of their economy in order to permanently raise the ceiling on the size of their fleet, as well as performing Capital Ship research in order to raise the ceiling on the number of capital ships their fleet can contain. Capital Ship Crew ceiling can be increased to a maximum of 16, thus giving the player the ability to construct a maximum of 16 capital ships. Supply Points ceiling can be increased to a maximum of 2000 points.
Players can construct planet-based improvements and orbital structures, the latter of which is divided into "logistical" and "tactical" structures.
Logistical structures interact with the economy in some way and include metal extractors and crystal extractors to mine metal and crystal resources respectively, making planets into resource producers; frigate factories for manufacturing frigates and cruisers; capital ship factories for constructing capital ships; trade ports for interplanetary trade to raise credits; refineries to boost crystal and metal production; broadcast or media centers to spread own cultural influence to enemy planets; as well as civilian and military research labs that are required for researching items in the tech tree and developing new technologies.
Tactical structures are defense and support structures including weapon emplacements; hangars that can launch fighter and bomber strike craft; repair stations which consume their anti-matter reserves to repair friendly ships; and phase inhibitors which prevent enemy fleets from escaping the vicinity of the planet's gravity well. Each faction can also produce a long-range 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 Vasari have the Kostura Cannon, which fires an EMP
burst warhead that disables and damages every enemy ship and structure in a planet's orbit as well as making a temporary phase stabilizer node there which allows you to jump your fleet directly to the attacked planet. The Advent have the Deliverance Engine, which spreads their cultural influence to the target and can provoke a planet-wide revolution. Each faction also boasts an additional special weapons which are race exclusive, the TEC have the Shield Generator which generates a shield to protect the planet around which it orbits; the Advent can construct the Antimatter Recharge which replenishes the anti-matter reserves of friendly ships; the advanced Vasari Empire have the Nano Weapon Jammer, which increases the cooldown time of enemy weapons, as well as the Phase Stabilizer which can enable ships to travel directly between two such structures.
Planetary development research (as opposed to orbital structures) are of six types which include infrastructure development, which increases population (and taxability) of planets; emergency facilities, which improve the survivability of populations in order to assist in staving off destruction from bombardment; and exploration, which surveys and maps planets, providing access to hidden planetary features which can have negative or positive effects on the planet (for instance, the discovery of rare resources on a planet during exploration may improve revenues from all trade conducted within the gravity well, or the discovery of pirate hideouts on a planet may harm all trade revenues), and perhaps most importantly, exploration may serve to reveal advanced technologies left by bygone civilizations; any planet can be made the capital planet of the player's empire by the change capital upgrade.
s. 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 and always have an impressive number of Logistic slots. 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 giant
s 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. Star
s 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 but they can be devastating in several occasions.
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. Pirate ships are entirely TEC vessels, most likely stolen from a certain faction. The ships are unshielded, but their numbers and strengthened hulls more than make up for the shields. The ships are almost all frigates and cruisers, though they only possess one kind of the latter.
. In Entrenchment, several elements of both trees, as well as some new bits such as starbase-related technology, have been merged into the Defense tree. In Diplomacy, the diplomatic elements from the Civic tree, as well as new technology that focuses on upgrading the race's Envoy ship (a diplomatic vessel) and giving other bonuses surrounding diplomacy, for example reduced penalties for being different races and higher mission rewards, have been merged into the Diplomacy tree.
There are many different hidden artifacts that can be found by exploring colonized planets. There are a total of nine (twelve in Entrenchment) 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.
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 capital ships for no fee. There are two types of strike craft, fighters which come in squadrons of four-nine crafts and bombers in squads of three-seven. Fighters are primarily for fighting off enemy fighters, bombers and lightly armored ships, while the objective of the bomber is to attack heavily armored enemy ships and structures. Each race is capable of producing strike craft, though not all races are equally powerful in this field.
Frigates are the smallest warship that the player can build individually and represent the bulk of most fleets; they are generally reconnaissance vessels, front line combatants, long range attackers, defense ships, siege craft and colony ships. Reconnaissance ships scout the solar systems for colonizable planets, provide advance warnings for incoming enemy fleets and can be upgraded to carry out other activities. Front line and long range frigates form the mainstay combatants of fleets. Defense ships provide protection against strike craft, while siege crafts bomb planets. Colony ships are used to colonize new planets.
Cruisers are specialized ships and mostly play a support role in fleets. Carriers transport strike craft in their hangars; offensive support cruisers improve attack of friendly ships and diminish those of enemies; defensive support cruisers uprate survivability of friendly vessels and decrease those of enemies; plus each race also has a fourth class of powerful heavy combat cruisers.
Capital ships have the ability to accumulate experience and "level up" in combat. A capital ship can also be made to “level up” by training the crew of that particular vessel, this requires spending of credits. An increase in a capital ship's level gives it improvements in its offensive and defensive systems and unlocks special abilities. It periodically adds more strike craft slots for the capital ship. All capital ships carry strike craft, though in different numbers: long range attackers (dreadnoughts) gain their only squad at Level 5 of 10, while a Level 10 Halcyon-class carrier has 11. There are five general classes of capital ships, all available from start: battleships, carriers, colony ships, long range attack ships, and support vessel. The player's first capital ship is free. Others require a large amount of resources to build, equal for all classes. 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.
Non-combat ships are unarmed and unarmored, therefore making them prime targets for enemies, particularly pirate fleets. Non-combat vessels are basically the workers of the empire. They include construction ships, which build orbiting structures around a planet; trade ships, these travel to and from trade ports of different planets to raise credit; and refinery ships which travel between refineries and extractors to boost resource stockpiling. All of them are spawned for free.
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 Aluxite 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 an uncertain future.
The TEC utilize heavily armored units and focus on ballistic weapons such as missiles and gauss guns. Energy weapons are uncommon, though some ships field pulse lasers. 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 when appropriate research has been conducted.
The Advent favor cheap, lightly armored ships, preferring the elegance and sophistication of advanced shield systems over clumsy metal armor. Their weapons are exclusively based upon directed energy; laser
s and plasma weapons are prominent on every warship, and certain units have PsiTech abilities which allow the crew or some uniquely modified members of the crew to exert limited control over local phenomena, for instance in manipulating the crews of other ships or planets. Their units are very sleek and aesthetic, featuring artistically-minded spirals and organic shapes, unlike the more utilitarian designs favored by the TEC. The Advent prefer Desert planets such as the one they were exiled to, 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, and can spread culture more effectively than the others. Advent fleets, being cheap, tend to maintain large numbers of craft, but rather than treating their units as expendable, Advent prefer to use a variety of highly specialized vessels which function well in conjunctive use, and many Advent ships are designed to improve the performance of nearby allies, such as by improving shield strength, reducing weapon cool down times, or stealing antimatter from enemy ships and distributing it to allies to power their own special abilities. They are also experts in the use of extremely large numbers of strike craft, using semi-autonomous drones controlled by Anima,a set of advent who's mental powers are far greater then the normal advent population.
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 traveled 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.
The Vasari have fewer, more expensive units that have extremely hardened hulls and some of the hardest hitting weapons in the Sins universe. They prefer to settle Volcanic worlds. Their ships utilize more advanced technology, an example being Phase Missiles, their preferred weapon system present on all capital ships, which can perform phase jumps clean "through" enemy shields. Another masterpiece is the Phase Stabilizing Node, which allows Vasari ships to travel directly between any two Nodes in one phase jump in the same solar system, eliminating the need for time-consuming sublight voyages required to enter and exit a celestial object's gravity well during transit involving multiple jumps.using wormholes or jumping between two(2) stars is the only way to get to another solar system. This unique construct allows the Vasari to link occupied worlds and bases together and quickly move forces between locations to defend against attack or attack a nearby system. In general, they have outmatched humanity in nanotechnology
and control of phase space.
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.
on planets and ships, specular lighting, dynamic fractal
generation for stars and clouds, and bloom
.
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. Through the use of this editor, the player can dictate the number of solar systems in their game, the number of planets orbiting each solar systems, and various other options. 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).
's digital service
Impulse. After both micro-expansions were released, Stardock released a final retail version with both micro-expansions included. To prevent fracturing the multiplayer community the features of the expansion packs are only available if both players have the expansions installed. If not, the features are disabled for that game.
and Stardock
announced Entrenchment. The expansion includes new weapon upgrades and defense platforms, including modular starbases. Originally scheduled for November 18, 2008, it was released on February 25, 2009.
. It was named Game Informer
s "PC Game of the Month," and was awarded a 9/10 review. The U.K. edition of PC Gamer
awarded the game a rating of 84%. GameSpot
awarded the game a 9/10, as well as an Editor's Choice award. GameSpy
awarded the game a 4.5/5, as well as an Editor's Choice award. 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.
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..." 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.
The game was awarded the title "Best Strategy Game of the Year 2008" by X-Play
and GameTrailers
, and the title "Best PC Game of the Year" by IGN
.
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. It sold 200,000 copies in its first month of release alone.
On November 16th, 2011 Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity was made available for purchase on Steam.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
computer game developed by Ironclad Games
Ironclad Games
Ironclad Games is a Canadian PC game developer. The company was founded in 2003 by former employees of Barking Dog Studios/Rockstar Games. Ironclad is located in Burnaby, British Columbia.-Titles:...
and published by Stardock Entertainment
Stardock
Stardock Corporation is a software development company founded in 1991 and incorporated in 1993 as Stardock Systems. Stardock initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but was forced to switch to Windows due to the collapse of the OS/2 software market between 1997 and 1998...
for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
operating systems. Sins is a real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
(RTS) game that incorporates some elements from 4X strategy games; promotional materials describe it as "RT4X." The game was released on February 4, 2008, its first content expansion titled Entrenchment was released as a download on February 25, 2009, and its second content expansion titled Diplomacy was released as a download on February 9, 2010. A package that combines the original game with the two expansions was released at that time with the name Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity.
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 opponents offline and other players online. Ironclad Director Blair Fraser asserted that the game's "Iron engineIron Engine
Iron Engine is a game engine developed by Ironclad Games and is used in the PC game Sins of a Solar Empire. At the moment, the engine only supports DirectX 9.0c effects, not DirectX 10 or 11.-Features:...
" is specially designed with new technologies that allow it to handle very large differences in size, scale, and distance.
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, creating a trade network, and taxing planets. Metal is the most common resource in the game, and is gathered by building extractors 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 certain advanced 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.Certain more intangible resources include Supply Points and Capital Ship Crews. Supply Points are used up when ships are purchased, and cannot be accumulated, acting as a population cap for the player's fleet. They can be increased by researching increases in fleet logistic capacity, but this simultaneously lowers all resource income, as more resources are required to maintain larger fleets. Capital Ship Crews work like Supply Points and are needed to field capital ships (in addition to 50 fleet supply points); the number of Crews available determines how many capital ships the player can make. Thus (for example), a player in early game may be able to field no more than a small number of ships given the low Supply Point ceiling, and even fewer (as few as one) capital ships given the inherently low Capital Ship Crew ceiling; later once the player's economy has grown and new resources have become available, the player may perform Supply Point research and permanently reduce by a fraction the size of their economy in order to permanently raise the ceiling on the size of their fleet, as well as performing Capital Ship research in order to raise the ceiling on the number of capital ships their fleet can contain. Capital Ship Crew ceiling can be increased to a maximum of 16, thus giving the player the ability to construct a maximum of 16 capital ships. Supply Points ceiling can be increased to a maximum of 2000 points.
Players can construct planet-based improvements and orbital structures, the latter of which is divided into "logistical" and "tactical" structures.
Logistical structures interact with the economy in some way and include metal extractors and crystal extractors to mine metal and crystal resources respectively, making planets into resource producers; frigate factories for manufacturing frigates and cruisers; capital ship factories for constructing capital ships; trade ports for interplanetary trade to raise credits; refineries to boost crystal and metal production; broadcast or media centers to spread own cultural influence to enemy planets; as well as civilian and military research labs that are required for researching items in the tech tree and developing new technologies.
Tactical structures are defense and support structures including weapon emplacements; hangars that can launch fighter and bomber strike craft; repair stations which consume their anti-matter reserves to repair friendly ships; and phase inhibitors which prevent enemy fleets from escaping the vicinity of the planet's gravity well. Each faction can also produce a long-range superweapon
Superweapon
A superweapon is an extremely powerful weapon by the standards of its time and its scale. Examples include the Tsar Bomba , various superguns and other various weapons employed to give a decisive advantage over opposing countries or forces. The given advantage is usually based on intimidation and...
that can attack other planets. The TEC has the Novalith Cannon, which fires a supermassive nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
to inflict considerable damage directly on enemy planets. The Vasari have the Kostura Cannon, which fires an EMP
Electromagnetic pulse
An electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic radiation. The abrupt pulse of electromagnetic radiation usually results from certain types of high energy explosions, especially a nuclear explosion, or from a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field...
burst warhead that disables and damages every enemy ship and structure in a planet's orbit as well as making a temporary phase stabilizer node there which allows you to jump your fleet directly to the attacked planet. The Advent have the Deliverance Engine, which spreads their cultural influence to the target and can provoke a planet-wide revolution. Each faction also boasts an additional special weapons which are race exclusive, the TEC have the Shield Generator which generates a shield to protect the planet around which it orbits; the Advent can construct the Antimatter Recharge which replenishes the anti-matter reserves of friendly ships; the advanced Vasari Empire have the Nano Weapon Jammer, which increases the cooldown time of enemy weapons, as well as the Phase Stabilizer which can enable ships to travel directly between two such structures.
Planetary development research (as opposed to orbital structures) are of six types which include infrastructure development, which increases population (and taxability) of planets; emergency facilities, which improve the survivability of populations in order to assist in staving off destruction from bombardment; and exploration, which surveys and maps planets, providing access to hidden planetary features which can have negative or positive effects on the planet (for instance, the discovery of rare resources on a planet during exploration may improve revenues from all trade conducted within the gravity well, or the discovery of pirate hideouts on a planet may harm all trade revenues), and perhaps most importantly, exploration may serve to reveal advanced technologies left by bygone civilizations; any planet can be made the capital planet of the player's empire by the change capital upgrade.
Celestial objects and anomalies
There are four types of colony-supporting planets and two types of asteroidAsteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
s. 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
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
-type planets support a smaller population than Terran planets but will usually have more Crystal and Metal in the area and always have an impressive number of Logistic slots. 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
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
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 giant
Gas giant
A gas giant is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
s release pockets of unstable gases which can explode and also cause damage. Solar storms
Coronal mass ejection
A coronal mass ejection is a massive burst of solar wind, other light isotope plasma, and magnetic fields rising above the solar corona or being released into space....
are areas where all ships lose antimatter
Antimatter
In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
, which reduces the abilities ships can use. Star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
s boost ship antimatter production, but have large gravity wells that are slow to traverse. Space junk
Space debris
Space debris, also known as orbital debris, space junk, and space waste, is the collection of objects in orbit around Earth that were created by humans but no longer serve any useful purpose. These objects consist of everything from spent rocket stages and defunct satellites to erosion, explosion...
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 but they can be devastating in several occasions.
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.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. Pirate ships are entirely TEC vessels, most likely stolen from a certain faction. The ships are unshielded, but their numbers and strengthened hulls more than make up for the shields. The ships are almost all frigates and cruisers, though they only possess one kind of the latter.
Tech tree and artifacts
Each faction has two (three in Entrenchment, four in Diplomacy) technology trees divided between military and civic improvements. These two trees in turn branch off into three race-specific categories. The Military tree contains upgrades to armor, shields, and weapons and unlocks units and defensive structures. The Civic tree contains upgrades to resource gathering and unlocks civic buildings, radar, planetary upgrades, diplomacy upgrades, and terraformingTerraforming
Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...
. In Entrenchment, several elements of both trees, as well as some new bits such as starbase-related technology, have been merged into the Defense tree. In Diplomacy, the diplomatic elements from the Civic tree, as well as new technology that focuses on upgrading the race's Envoy ship (a diplomatic vessel) and giving other bonuses surrounding diplomacy, for example reduced penalties for being different races and higher mission rewards, have been merged into the Diplomacy tree.
There are many different hidden artifacts that can be found by exploring colonized planets. There are a total of nine (twelve in Entrenchment) 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.
Units
There are five main categories of ships in the game: strike craft, frigates, cruisers, capital ships and non-combat 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 capital ships for no fee. There are two types of strike craft, fighters which come in squadrons of four-nine crafts and bombers in squads of three-seven. Fighters are primarily for fighting off enemy fighters, bombers and lightly armored ships, while the objective of the bomber is to attack heavily armored enemy ships and structures. Each race is capable of producing strike craft, though not all races are equally powerful in this field.
Frigates are the smallest warship that the player can build individually and represent the bulk of most fleets; they are generally reconnaissance vessels, front line combatants, long range attackers, defense ships, siege craft and colony ships. Reconnaissance ships scout the solar systems for colonizable planets, provide advance warnings for incoming enemy fleets and can be upgraded to carry out other activities. Front line and long range frigates form the mainstay combatants of fleets. Defense ships provide protection against strike craft, while siege crafts bomb planets. Colony ships are used to colonize new planets.
Cruisers are specialized ships and mostly play a support role in fleets. Carriers transport strike craft in their hangars; offensive support cruisers improve attack of friendly ships and diminish those of enemies; defensive support cruisers uprate survivability of friendly vessels and decrease those of enemies; plus each race also has a fourth class of powerful heavy combat cruisers.
Capital ships have the ability to accumulate experience and "level up" in combat. A capital ship can also be made to “level up” by training the crew of that particular vessel, this requires spending of credits. An increase in a capital ship's level gives it improvements in its offensive and defensive systems and unlocks special abilities. It periodically adds more strike craft slots for the capital ship. All capital ships carry strike craft, though in different numbers: long range attackers (dreadnoughts) gain their only squad at Level 5 of 10, while a Level 10 Halcyon-class carrier has 11. There are five general classes of capital ships, all available from start: battleships, carriers, colony ships, long range attack ships, and support vessel. The player's first capital ship is free. Others require a large amount of resources to build, equal for all classes. 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.
Non-combat ships are unarmed and unarmored, therefore making them prime targets for enemies, particularly pirate fleets. Non-combat vessels are basically the workers of the empire. They include construction ships, which build orbiting structures around a planet; trade ships, these travel to and from trade ports of different planets to raise credit; and refinery ships which travel between refineries and extractors to boost resource stockpiling. All of them are spawned for free.
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. Players can set up 5v5 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.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 evil, and against the Trade Order's code. As punishment, the colony's people were forcibly removed from their world and exiled beyond Trader space.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 Aluxite 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 an uncertain future.
The TEC utilize heavily armored units and focus on ballistic weapons such as missiles and gauss guns. Energy weapons are uncommon, though some ships field pulse lasers. 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 when appropriate research has been conducted.
Advent
The Advent were originally a pseudo-religious race of humans who sought spiritual release and escape on the frontier of human space during the great interstellar wars that preceded the rise of the Trade Order. Over time, their culture evolved a socially liberal, highly laissez-faire attitude towards the use of biological enhancers such as synthetic neurochemicals and "cerebral integration technologies" as means toward self-actualization, resulting in a burgeoning collective mentality calling itself the "Unity". When their society was discovered by the market analysis teams of the nascent Trade Order, their collectivist practices were branded as perverse deviations, and the advent was exiled from Trader space. Over centuries of exile in far-flung regions of the galaxy, the advent continued to plumb the depths of biological mutability and post-humanity, developing powerful "PsiTech" tools, which enabled them through unknown means a measure of psychic manipulation over local physical phenomena, as well as other technologies far surpassing anything the Trade Order had conceived of. A millennium after their betrayal, they have returned as the "Advent" to visit vengeance on the Traders and bring humanity together under the peace of the Unity.The Advent favor cheap, lightly armored ships, preferring the elegance and sophistication of advanced shield systems over clumsy metal armor. Their weapons are exclusively based upon directed energy; laser
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
s and plasma weapons are prominent on every warship, and certain units have PsiTech abilities which allow the crew or some uniquely modified members of the crew to exert limited control over local phenomena, for instance in manipulating the crews of other ships or planets. Their units are very sleek and aesthetic, featuring artistically-minded spirals and organic shapes, unlike the more utilitarian designs favored by the TEC. The Advent prefer Desert planets such as the one they were exiled to, 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, and can spread culture more effectively than the others. Advent fleets, being cheap, tend to maintain large numbers of craft, but rather than treating their units as expendable, Advent prefer to use a variety of highly specialized vessels which function well in conjunctive use, and many Advent ships are designed to improve the performance of nearby allies, such as by improving shield strength, reducing weapon cool down times, or stealing antimatter from enemy ships and distributing it to allies to power their own special abilities. They are also experts in the use of extremely large numbers of strike craft, using semi-autonomous drones controlled by Anima,a set of advent who's mental powers are far greater then the normal advent population.
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 their ancient Vasari homeworld. In their desperation, the entire Dark Fleet was sent on a blind assault on whatever was assaulting the Empire's core planets. Only a single, heavily damaged warship emerged, discovered by a small Vasari colony on the Empire's edge.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 traveled 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.
The Vasari have fewer, more expensive units that have extremely hardened hulls and some of the hardest hitting weapons in the Sins universe. They prefer to settle Volcanic worlds. Their ships utilize more advanced technology, an example being Phase Missiles, their preferred weapon system present on all capital ships, which can perform phase jumps clean "through" enemy shields. Another masterpiece is the Phase Stabilizing Node, which allows Vasari ships to travel directly between any two Nodes in one phase jump in the same solar system, eliminating the need for time-consuming sublight voyages required to enter and exit a celestial object's gravity well during transit involving multiple jumps.using wormholes or jumping between two(2) stars is the only way to get to another solar system. This unique construct allows the Vasari to link occupied worlds and bases together and quickly move forces between locations to defend against attack or attack a nearby system. In general, they have outmatched humanity in nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
and control of phase space.
Development
Sins of a Solar Empire, like Stardock's Galactic Civilizations II: Dread LordsGalactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords
Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords is a 4X turn-based strategy computer game by Stardock...
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.
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 mappingBump mapping
Bump mapping is a technique in computer graphics for simulating bumps and wrinkles on the surface of an object. This is achieved by perturbing the surface normals of the object and using the perturbed normal during lighting calculations. The result is an apparently bumpy surface rather than a...
on planets and ships, specular lighting, dynamic fractal
Fractal
A fractal has been defined as "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole," a property called self-similarity...
generation for stars and clouds, and bloom
Bloom (shader effect)
Bloom is a computer graphics effect used in computer games, demos and high dynamic range rendering to reproduce an imaging artifact of real-world cameras. The effect produces fringes of light around very bright objects in an image, obscuring fine details...
.
Customization
Sins of a Solar Empire includes various features, among them a map editorLevel editor
A level editor is a software tool used to design levels, maps, campaigns, etc and virtual worlds for a video game. In some cases the creator of a video game releases an official level editor for a game, but other times the community of fans step in to fill the void...
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
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
. 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. Through the use of this editor, the player can dictate the number of solar systems in their game, the number of planets orbiting each solar systems, and various other options. 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).
Content expansions
Ironclad made two micro-expansions, both of which were available on Ironclad's website and StardockStardock
Stardock Corporation is a software development company founded in 1991 and incorporated in 1993 as Stardock Systems. Stardock initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but was forced to switch to Windows due to the collapse of the OS/2 software market between 1997 and 1998...
's digital service
Digital distribution
Online distribution, digital distribution, or electronic software distribution is the practice of delivering content without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet directly to a consumer's device. Online distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media,...
Impulse. After both micro-expansions were released, Stardock released a final retail version with both micro-expansions included. To prevent fracturing the multiplayer community the features of the expansion packs are only available if both players have the expansions installed. If not, the features are disabled for that game.
Entrenchment
On August 29, 2008 IronCladIronclad Games
Ironclad Games is a Canadian PC game developer. The company was founded in 2003 by former employees of Barking Dog Studios/Rockstar Games. Ironclad is located in Burnaby, British Columbia.-Titles:...
and Stardock
Stardock
Stardock Corporation is a software development company founded in 1991 and incorporated in 1993 as Stardock Systems. Stardock initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but was forced to switch to Windows due to the collapse of the OS/2 software market between 1997 and 1998...
announced Entrenchment. The expansion includes new weapon upgrades and defense platforms, including modular starbases. Originally scheduled for November 18, 2008, it was released on February 25, 2009.
Diplomacy
On August 26, 2009, the second micro-expansion was announced. Diplomacy expands the diplomacy side of the game, allowing players more control over who they are at war with; and making diplomatic victory possible as well as offering very real incentives for peace and cooperation including everything from increased resource rates to more firepower . The opponent AI, pacing and number of game scenarios are also improved. It was released on February 9, 2010 and is available for download on Impulse. The Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity combination package was also released on the same day.Rebellion
On March 1, 2011, the third expansion, and first stand-alone expansion was announced. Rebellion adds new factions, capital ships, variations of old ships, the all new giant Titan-class and the small Corvette class ships. The release date is yet to be announced. Pre-orders for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion are currently available.Reception
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, and an aggregate score of 87% based on 52 reviews at MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. It was named Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
s "PC Game of the Month," and was awarded a 9/10 review. The U.K. edition of PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
awarded the game a rating of 84%. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
awarded the game a 9/10, as well as an Editor's Choice award. GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
awarded the game a 4.5/5, as well as an Editor's Choice award. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
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.
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
SBS Radio
SBS Radio is a service provided by the Special Broadcasting Service '..to inform, educate and entertain Australians, especially those of non-English speaking backgrounds'. SBS Radio originally began as two stations based in Melbourne and Sydney, set up to provide pre-recorded information about the...
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..." 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.
The game was awarded the title "Best Strategy Game of the Year 2008" by X-Play
X-Play
X-Play is a TV program about video games, known for its reviews and comedy skits...
and GameTrailers
GameTrailers
GameTrailers is a media website that specializes in video game related content. It provides free access to original programming , game trailers and recorded game play. Along with standard definition , many of the video clips are offered in a higher resolution .Users can upload videos, create...
, and the title "Best PC Game of the Year" by IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
.
Sales
As of September 2008, Stardock'sStardock
Stardock Corporation is a software development company founded in 1991 and incorporated in 1993 as Stardock Systems. Stardock initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but was forced to switch to Windows due to the collapse of the OS/2 software market between 1997 and 1998...
CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
, Brad Wardell
Brad Wardell
Bradley R. Wardell , commonly known as Brad Wardell, is an American businessman, programmer and author residing in Michigan...
, 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. It sold 200,000 copies in its first month of release alone.
On November 16th, 2011 Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity was made available for purchase on Steam.
External links
- Official Sins of a Solar Empire website
- Sins of a Solar Empire wiki at WikiaWikiaWikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...