What Sins of a Solar Empire is MISSING

What the game needs

from Sins Forums
Okay first off I have to say I love the game. I think the graphics are good enough. But the gameplay sure is addictive. With that said I think there are some minor tweaks that would vastly improve the game. First better and more planet detail. I do think they look nice but even more detail would be just awesome. I love zooming into a planet at 2560 x 1600 resolution. It "almost" looks like Im watching an episode of "The Universe". If the detail could semi - replicate the planets and solar system appearance of that show just zooming around looking at space would be worth the purchase price. Second would be improving the fleet battles. A little more movement and some quiet ship to ship chatter when zoomed all the way in would improve the immersion factor. Making the battles a little more realistic and akin to what we expect space battles too look like would take the game itself to another level. I dont think these 2 improvements would be that difficult to implement perhaps in an expansion pack and in my opinion would put the game in a class of its own. By the way Ironclad and Stardock is fast becoming one of my favorite software companies. I have bought many products from Stardock (Gal Civ II, Tweak Vista, desktop screens, ect...). Keep up the good work.
28,200 views 21 replies
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
ive been constantly asking about battle chatter for months.

the last time i asked, last week, the devs said it's still something they really want but just couldn't get to it before release.

garrett
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah I agree with what you said; I would like to see "hero" units ... like maybe fighter or bomber units that gain experience and are able to better fight against other fighters/bombers ... it feels like dumb when I have a carrier thats been in my fleet since the start and its pilots have the exact same skills as a fresh carrier that just came off the line. Of course this could be an issue with online balancing ... but it would be nice to see in those huge maps when games go on for like 15+ hours ... it adds some form of "history" to your empire

Oh and I'd like to see those "events" from GalCiv2 ... like where a box would tell you about something thats happened in your empire ... it wouldn't even have to be a moral choice style box, just an information box like from the Total War series with info like "Crews aboard empire ships unionize" ... I think small updates on events like that would make your empire feel more "alive" ... right now it gives me that sterile rts feeling where everything is the same and serves as merely a utility (except for Capital ships and thats because they have levels and a "history" to them)

Oh and post battle analysis could've been done better, bigger graph and options along the bottom to switch what we're looking at would've been nicer, and a timeline along the bottom would've been nice too...unless there is one and I don't know how to turn it on.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
I think ship chatter is important, it worked very well in homeworld and company of heroes. Obviously these games are much smaller in scale so only hearing it when you are zoomed in (as suggested) would be great and help you not get overloaded. Its one of the details that really adds immersion to a game. There are already audio notifications when a capital ship is hurt, having the ship itself report that would be pretty cool.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I would like to see "hero" units


then look at the capital ships
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
I personally think ship chatter will be annoying and would be better to allocate the resources to improve other things like effects, movements, game balancing and AI.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
The capital ships gaining experience makes it all the more pronounced that your long surviving veterans in the frigate and cruiser categories have nothing to show for it.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I'd really like to see them do the ship-to-ship chatter. That would be an awesome feature to put into it considering how much I like to zoom in to the middle of a battle. It would be nice to see more movement from the ships as well. I understand the need of it being smooth when there's a few hundred ships out on the map, but it's kind of aggrivating seeing ships stand still in a fight and not move around (Frigates and Cruisers really, I can understand Capital ships not moving a whole lot).
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
I personally think ship chatter will be annoying and would be better to allocate the resources to improve other things like effects, movements, game balancing and AI.


At this point, I think the audio could use more love.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
In terms of your other units gaining experience...I'm not asking for something like special abilities or anything ... but maybe like increased damage and it would be nice to see a "rank" of some kind next to that units name ... or some kind of graphical symbol next to the units info ... probably just Chevrons to symbolize rank
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

I personally think ship chatter will be annoying and would be better to allocate the resources to improve other things like effects, movements, game balancing and AI.


I don't think you have played CoH then, because the battle/audio voicing made that game for me.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

I don't think you have played CoH then, because the battle/audio voicing made that game for me.


I agree, I bought COH:opposing fronts through steam and there was a bug where the chatter wasn't included in the download, but all the other sounds were, and it made for a completely different (worse) experience.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
I agree that the audio could use some help. Right now I tend to play the game with music in the background (my music, not the games) because there's not really much information or amusement in the game's audio, it's good (especially the music) but repetitive and a little ship to ship chatter would be fun, doesn't even need to be synced, just put in some random 'Watch your flank Alpha 2' kinda stuff at random and battles would be much more interesting to watch :P.
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
Ship chatter and human speech in general is annoying most of the time, in my opinion. I always just turn it off, and in games where I can't turn it off, I turn the game itself off... It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't "yessir!" "OK" "I'm on it!" "yessir!" "OK" "I'm on it!" "yessir!".... repeat, repeat, repeat... damn it's annoying. The time would be better spent on things that actually add to the game.
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
Ship chatter and human speech in general is annoying most of the time, in my opinion. I always just turn it off, and in games where I can't turn it off, I turn the game itself off... It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't "yessir!" "OK" "I'm on it!" "yessir!" "OK" "I'm on it!" "yessir!".... repeat, repeat, repeat... damn it's annoying. The time would be better spent on things that actually add to the game.


Thats not what we are talking about when we say chatter. Chatter is when a unit speaks without you click on it or giving an order, its only played when you are zoomed to a certain level. Instead of a unit acknowledging your orders it is speaking about something going on around, for example if it lost shields.
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top

Ship chatter and human speech in general is annoying most of the time, in my opinion. I always just turn it off, and in games where I can't turn it off, I turn the game itself off... It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't "yessir!" "OK" "I'm on it!" "yessir!" "OK" "I'm on it!" "yessir!".... repeat, repeat, repeat... damn it's annoying. The time would be better spent on things that actually add to the game.


It does add to the game. Without any talk it gives the feeling like you're using some sort of non human fleet and if there is some sort of chatter going on, like from a ship in trouble: "*static* losing pressure in compartments b5 too c6 *static*". I think would add to immersion factor.
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
ship chatter like the style they use in the new Battlestar galactica tvshow would be awsome and would add a illusion of life and maybe make the battles more intense:)

BTW: is there anyone else that play this game and also watches stargate atlantis and have seen how like the sound from the advent battleships gun sounds and the wraith battleship sounds is? also the looks on the weponfire is very similar.
very cool graphic there

sorry for my bad english
Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
unite chatter when zoomed closeup to view battles?

world in conflict did it. so why not sins
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
Im glad everyone is in agreement with me. The ship chatter would be immersive to say the least. Then add some small attack routines for ships. I like the idea of one of the responses. Leave the capital ships stationary but bombers, fighters and light frigates should really move on an attack patter. Im sad no one mentioned the planet detail. Since no one mentioned it Im sure it wont be addressed. But I would love to see things like solar flare activies on the stars and slightly clearer detailing to the planets. Not asking to be able to see down to ground level or anything but being able to make out mountain ranges or a blurry outline of your colony on the planet would definitely add to the realism. Please Ironclad Im going to die if these things are implemented in a patch or expansion. Well not really but it sure would make me happy! :LOL:
Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top
Silverthief!! Dude that would be awesome if that was in the game. I definitely think little touches like that would just bring the entire game to life.