System requirements? Raise the high end please...

This is a 2008 game, it should be designed for current day hardware...

from Sins Forums
Let me first off state that I KNOW the requirements have not been set in stone, but they seem to be lower that what is considered the norm these days...

Thinking about it, since the game is to be released in 2008 , I feel the system requirements should be bumped up a bit to allow having turrets fully functional along with hangers being able to be raised and lowered (TEC Carrier for Example). Swarms of fighters and bombers (30-40 at a time)... Massive fleets and defenses... And such...

As of this year the mainstream PC is becoming DUAL CORE and VISTA compliant. What does this mean, it means Most PCs will have at least 1 GB of RAM (some with 2GB and up to 4GB) and a pretty decent video card (128Mb-256Mb are standard) 320Mb, 512MB, 640Mb ,768Mb and 1GB video cards are on the market or soon will be, along with 2 cores and for the enthusiasts 4 core CPUs!

While no specific requirements have been set yet, it should at least be addressed...

Sure there might be a few people left behind, but PC gaming is EXPENSIVE, and the people who buy a game like SOASE have a average or better PC (Schem not included). Or by 2008 they probably will.

ADDITION: Let me be clear that everyone who can play the game as it is should still be able to once it is released, I just want the most possible eye candy in this game to be an option for those of us who want it.

Just some thoughts... All responses welcome! But keep it civil!

92,747 views 78 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
let me take this chance to point out that SD would never jeopardize their profits to make things better for people with shinier computers.
As of this year the mainstream PC is becoming DUAL CORE and VISTA compliant

didnt we just go over this. this is not a "mainstream PC". most PCs are still just as shitty as mine.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
I don't know anyone who has a PC as bad as yours...

And it is a main stream PC, go to any store and dual core will be pushed down your throat... By Christmas this year , I doubt you will be able to even find a single core computer anymore...

For a game that comes out next year it seems right to me. Anyway you are getting a new PC. I bet it will be a dual core system... AS it is the norm now!

And there is NO profit jeopardization, just make the game more scalable for systems that are above average. I never said don't make the game run on systems that are 2-3 years old, I am saying make it so that it looks even better if you have a top of the line system.

Right now my PC is almost 2 years old and the game runs fine on high (with 4x sampling) untill I get over 300 or so ships, then it chuggs. On a new system like Multi's the game should be doing just fine even with 300 ships!

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
And it is a main stream PC, go to any store and dual core will be pushed down your throat

thats called successful marketing.
By Christmas this year , I doubt you will be able to even find a single core computer anymore...

I don't know anyone who has a PC as bad as yours...

if only you lived in the real world.
alas, you do not.
For a game that comes out next year it seems right to me. Anyway you are getting a new PC. I bet it will be a dual core system... AS it is the norm now!

I have plenty of friends with computers, none of which are dual core. (albeit, better than mine by a bit)
I never said don't make the game run on systems that are 2-3 years old

go around and ask how many people have a computer under 2 years old.
I assure you, not many.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Everyone I know has a PC 3 years or newer. I guess I am in with a different group of people.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Everyone I know has a PC 3 years or newer. I guess I am in with a different group of people.


rich kid... BURN HIM!!!
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
lol... I am not a kid... I am 26

and wait a minute... your PC is even better than mine! look who's talking!
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

I would have to agree that this year will see many system upgrades happening, as the worst of the bugs get ironed out of the latest VISTA beta launch.

Oct 30th is going to be an exciting time as the first-gen DX10 MMO Age of Conan releases (I've already upgraded to a 640MB 8800GTS to beat the rush). Warhammer has pushed back its release date as well, rumoured to avoid "pulling a Vanguard"... which means this holiday season will see some heavy pressure on equipment upgrades in the marketplace as gamers gear up for stable DX10 eye-candy offerings.

Seriously, who among us is going to be content with a 106" HDTV screen if your video card cannot deliver a picture sharp enough to cut you off at the knees?

  
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Seriously, who among us is going to be content with a 106" HDTV screen if your video card cannot deliver a picture sharp enough to cut you off at the knees?


Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
I definitely can NOT agree with the OP. Surely a lot of upgrades will be happening by the "I must have the latest even if my kids will have nothing to wear" and "my daddy is rich" kind of people. All others will stick with our computers.

I understand that some may feel that their recent buy isn't paying itself out because they would be able to play all the games with previous one as well. But I really hate to see them calling for measures that would disable others to play.

If a game is more content and less candy oriented or just well graphically scalable I can't see what is the problem.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
But I really hate to see them calling for measures that would disable others to play.


I 100% agree with you on this.

My point is and I don't think I made it 100% clear when I first posted. There are features present in the game that are turned off due to their heavy reliance on CPU/GPU/Memory/Whatever... These features should be an option once the game comes out. For those with the PC that can run them. There is no alienation of any one group, as it is then YOUR choice if you want to have all the bells and whistles running or not.

I just don't want features already present but disabled to remain that way once the game comes out because "at the time of the release only 5-10% of the computers at that time could play with settings on HIGH".
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
There are features present in the game that are turned off due to their heavy reliance on CPU/GPU/Memory/Whatever... These features should be an option once the game comes out. For those with the PC that can run them. There is no alienation of any one group, as it is then YOUR choice if you want to have all the bells and whistles running or not.

Ok, but that is how scalable the game is, not minimal requirements. It's not like the AI is scalable, more or less it's graphics, number of objects etc. Things I don't really care about. I don't mind if others get more out of the game because they have a better computer.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
Thats why I removed the evil words " minimal requirements " from the main part of the post... I never intended to say that I want the game to be so power hungry that it cuts off those that are just getting by playing it now, rather I want the options that are disabled open to those who have the horsepower to run them.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
double post, yet again... why does this site hate firefox on my computer?
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
lol... I am not a kid... I am 26

ok then, I'm going to propose two questions, both very personal so feel free not to respond and be indignant and whatnot

1) who payed for your computer? your parents or you?

2) how deep are you in debt?

I dont know anyone who is right out of college or in grad school who could afford something like that unless they either bury themselves in debt or get their parents to buy it. both scream very bad things.

if you did buy it with no credit then tell me where the hell you work, I want a job there.
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

lol... I am not a kid... I am 26

ok then, I'm going to propose two questions, both very personal so feel free not to respond and be indignant and whatnot

1) who payed for your computer? your parents or you?

2) how deep are you in debt?

I dont know anyone who is right out of college or in grad school who could afford something like that unless they either bury themselves in debt or get their parents to buy it. both scream very bad things.

if you did buy it with no credit then tell me where the hell you work, I want a job there.


I don't mind personal questions as I hope to be an inspiration to people.

1. I've bought and built my last 3 computers since 1999. I paid for every penny of them. And I pay in CASH/Check Always... If you want something WORK for it, and when I mean work, I mean a 60 hour week, and even a 2nd job.

2. I have over 20k in savings/401k,Roth IRA, I know how to manage money. And have my money work for me. My last computer I didn't even pay for, my interest did. Same with my next one I will be building for Christmas this year.

3. I work for a company called Siemens AG, in the USA. Starting salaries are around 40k. And if you impress they move you up the ladder quick!
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top

While the system requirements are not yet set in stone, though I think they're pretty close to the mark; we will not be artificially inflating them. Despite what some may think the vast, vast, vast majority of PCs are not state-of-the-art, they are at least 3-4 years old (believe it or not, Schem is right on this point   ). This goes back to the limiting of potential market stuff I tried to explain in the 3D thread.

Higher system requirements does not automatically mean more features in the game either. That stuff depends on development time and, more importantly, budget. All these features cost money to put into the game.  For example, with GalCiv II there were people who wanted every race to have custom building artwork on the colony management screen. However, adding that in would have meant cutting out custom ship building entirely - which is a much better feature that everyone loved. Given the choice, I think most people would rather have something that's fun.

Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
I never said to inflate them, I just hope that all the bells and whistles are possible...
Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
I'm with Kosc, my computer is NOT Vista Compliant, and its only Dual Core as a result of a bit of tinkering on my part, so it could definitely take a bumped up game, plus it would be nice to Ironclad go all out with this game.

I am not a rich kid either btw.
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
People with single-core machines and DX9 video cards +1
Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top
What is this single core you speak of?

Also did anyone see the news about the Intel Q6600 Quad core chip price drop next month to $267.xx ????? That is an insanely low price for QUAD CORE!!! (even if its not TRUE quad core...)
Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top
Meh, waste of money.
Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top

While the system requirements are not yet set in stone, though I think they're pretty close to the mark; we will not be artificially inflating them. Despite what some may think the vast, vast, vast majority of PCs are not state-of-the-art, they are at least 3-4 years old (believe it or not, Schem is right on this point   ).


Kind of a mute point don't you think? They never spoke of altering the range of requirements, just expanding the high end which does not affect the market reachability. It'd probably increase it, probably with very little effect tho since, as you mentioned, there arnt a lot of people here at the top .

This goes back to the limiting of potential market stuff I tried to explain in the 3D thread.


Higher system requirements does not automatically mean more features in the game either. That stuff depends on development time and, more importantly, budget.



Good point, but I wish most people would just offer this reason, no budget, rather than chalking it up to graphics vs. quality or to what system the average user has: the average user isnt a pc gamer either. The comparison is self-fulfilling nonsense, you never have to have one or the other except when budget comes into play.

All these features cost money to put into the game.  For example, with GalCiv II there were people who wanted every race to have custom building artwork on the colony management screen. However, adding that in would have meant cutting out custom ship building entirely - which is a much better feature that everyone loved. Given the choice, I think most people would rather have something that's fun.



Don't make us choose, I am sure most people would choose both good gameplay and good graphic scalability, even mid-rangers because they might still be playing in a year when they upgrade and such. But regardless, it's a balance and it seems like a few people have questioned the max settings so perhaps just take it at face value and asess whether the balance is correct at this point.

I am with the OP and LordKosc. I hope to god Multianna's demos were on a 1.5 gig machine running at 800x600 with 0x aa or af because I would be incredibly dissapointed if that was at max or close to it (yes i realize and accounted for the video degredation in the released demos.) Starting to question my order... I want long-term playability from my games and that includes graphical scalability for later on too.

Mmm, yay for my first post. Been lurking for a while and waiting for a game like this for years. Congrats on the concept and good luck on the execution.


Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top
I hope to god Multianna's demos were on a 1.5 gig machine running at 800x600 with 0x aa or af because I would be incredibly dissapointed if that was at max or close to it (yes i realize and accounted for the video degredation in the released demos.)


Thanks for watching have you seen the high quality versions?
Were made in 1280x1024 and converted to 1016x740
The reason i didnt make a 1680x1050 version is for more reasons.
One of them were the file size.
The other were so everyone could see the text in the game.

They were made on my old P4 3.5ghz 3gb ram and a geforce 7800gs+ agp.
The sound out of place is because, the pc couldnt keep up with the amount of stuff it had to do. Play the game and make 4GB files per 5min i think it was.

The graphics was set to max, but this was the VERY first video before anything was changed. Actually only a few days after the beta1 was released.

The next gameplay video, i will most likely make when beta2 is here, so we can see a change in how the game has developed.
Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top
(believe it or not, Schem is right on this point ).

I'm right most of the time, you just choose not to remember.   
They never spoke of altering the range of requirements, just expanding the high end which does not affect the market reachability. It'd probably increase it, probably with very little effect tho since, as you mentioned, there arnt a lot of people here at the top .

the psychological effect of possiblity.
want to know why most diets fail? because you can have that cookie if its there for you to eat it.
same principle applies here, if they have the capacity to work for some truly freaking amazing machines, thats what they'll do. they wont limit themselves to the lower end, thats usually why most games are relatively narrow in their difference between nescessary and recommended.

Reply #25 from Sins Forums Top
I'd like to cite the game STALKER or Half Life 1/2

Those were first person shooter games, that really pushed the threshold when it came to graphics. Sort of.

Stalker on a good system can look pretty darn good, but is still designed to run on a lower end system. The game is still good with low graphics, it's not like the game play is ruined not running it on max, but most people will work to make their game run a little better looking then their system can manage.

Half life 1 and 2 were also designed to work on low end systems and still run on modern computers looking fantastic. Admittedly Half life 1 is dated by now, but I remember playing it on a very low end system for a time, and then playing it on a high end system and seeing the spectacular difference.


I think the better question is what graphic splendor does the game currently have? What could easily be added to it? In a years time, how outdated will the graphics be and how likely will it be that systems really will be updated by then? If a year from now the game gets released some people might now buy it because it looks graphically dated. Then again, how much better could the graphics be made to look? More antaliasing? More antisopric textures?