What about the story?

The Command and Conquer idea sort of would have been cool.  Except a campaign for Sins would really be impossible to do.

1.)  The only change would be the size of the map

2.)  How would you introduce new ships along the storyline?  I mean, being able to build Kodiaks on the first level?  (Okay, maybe they could unlock the supply tiers instead of ships, but still, it kind of messes with the mechanics of the game.

3.)  Emphasis on 2.

4.)  Okay, i could see a campaign being possible if you were given a certain number of ships at the start of the mission and that was it until the end, but it would still mess with the mechanics, i think.  (Maybe you'd get resources for winning missions and buy upgrades between them?)

I, too, was shocked that they left this wonderful story without expanding on it.  But i prefer the best gameplay i've seen yet to a campaign i'd probably play once or twice before getting bored and moving on.  I think that's part of the allure to Sins, there is a lot of room for your own storyline.

A campain would be sweet. unfortunatly... there is no plans for one that we know about (although... we would not be suprised if one showed up in sins2.  (which we are 93% sure they are working on))

A user created campain, however... would be possible... but very hard to do. It would most likely require an individual mod for each level (so you cant build novaliths on the first level... and so you dont have to reresearch lrms on the last level) and a seperate game file for each level. not to mention... you could just play the last level first if you so desired to... and the lack of campain-specific instructions... and ingame story progression. 

Now... one giant, complex map, with say... the tec owning a large, and rich, but militarilary weak and fragmented empire... and the vasari with nothing... but with a huge fleet... and the advent hidden away so that it takes them a rediculously long time to reach a wormhole that jumps into the tec's rear... and then they show up with a giant fleet... and the tec have to hold them all off from two fronts...... that would prolly not be so hard...

that would be sweet. But it would have to be epically huge. like... bizarly, ridiculously huge. Like zoom out for an hour huge.

ya it would. the hardest problem is one of boarders.... the issue is an enemy can jump to any start they want to... the only real away around this is to make sure no phase lanes to the star... or just mod long range jumps out (or make it a vasari-only lv 8 tech)

ya... i was thinking "oh, how cool would it be to have a giant map... where from the beginning you start with a single akkan out in the middle of freaking nowhere on a cruise of the galaxy (cause akkans were cruise ships)... and a marza sitting in a freshly created astroid belt after saving some random planet from being hit... and a sova with 2-3 cobalts as an escort sitting outside and harrasing a pirate base... a hoshiko sitting near a repair bay next to a backwater ice planet... the last remaining Donov locked inside a muesum... as no one uses such giant cargo-liners anymore since smaller phase drives became possible/economical.  Earth is well devloped... along with a few other core worlds, but not much else is... about 1/3 the planets are not even under your control... and a good 1/4 are underdevloped.... and the game starts when suddenly a giant fleet of say... 4 death eggs, and one of each of the other vasari capital ships and a zillion frigs show up on one outlying astroid... and there is one other... empty... complety empty desert planet... whos population will soon return."

you could even do it such that there are 3 time periods... early, middle, and late...

early is what was just described... middle is where the tec and vasari have semi-well defined battle lines ( no starbases, but the border worlds have a good mix of hanger bays, turrets, and repair bays, and moderatly sized fleets), with tec with about 2/3s the planets... (and their entire fleet along the front with the vasari...) and the advent show up in tec's undefended rear. 

and late where the galaxy is evenly divided between the three well-devloped empires, with many starbases, and huge fleets already in place, and you must break the stalemate.

At one point in time, me and shadowmastiff were planning to make a mod that introduced a campain.

But we never got around to it.

if they kept the campaign to a point where it was managable, as in once you have researched everything you dont have to research it again and again. as well, maybe break the whole campaign map down as sectors. and once a sector is locked in the other factions couldnt do anything in any other sector til the fate of that sector was decided. Of course all frontline sectors would be contested and  you might find yourself defending the same sector more then once. but really it be hard to explain the 25 year storyline unless everyone is down for timejumping from zero hour to 10 years to 25 years.

Has anyone been able to get the templates to work in GalaxyForge3?  Without that we're restricted to far more basic maps.

Also, you might need to have the same ai faction use more than one player slot.  The ai isn't good at the best of times, but it's especially poor at locked alliance play with other ai, it fails to co-ordinate at all.  A decent single player campaign might require more than just a map.

I'd prefer to prioritise an editable ai, so that players could work on their own ai, and even fight custom ai to custom ai, with observer mode, that would be fun!  Pro-scripted custom ais almost always beat all standard ais, because players spend more time on them.. 

The solution is simple : a campaign editor. I suppose i am dreaming but it would be by far the coolest feature of sins. Just imagine the incredible sci-fi stuff ones could make with such tool...

it would allow for some of us Lore writers to put it into effect.

probably my dream come true

Haha, no 'absolutely amazing' is most definitely not what I would call the back story in Sins. I think most people have written better in their lunch break! It's generic, shallow, and massively unoriginal.

To be fair, this is no criticism whatsoever as Ironclad have never made any claims that the story is the focus of the product, it's simply a good excuse for three different factions to have a good old fight. I bloody love Sins and always will but the reason for my love is the game, not the terrible story behind it.

I suppose u could do better?  Prove it.

I disagree, I think it's wonderful, just with huge holes (placed with reasons by the devs). At least, it has huge potential. The number of fan fics that have popped up from Sins proves how tantalizing the story is and how people feel the need to fill the holes so they have a complete story.

If you look for originality, yes, it is not incredible but so is Star Wars (rescue a princess, destroy a evil empire...) and it is a really good story.

what makes the background of sins that solid is the depth of its universe : when you learn about the advent backstory, the look of their ships and their voices makes sense. The same for the very crude and basic TEC ships : you feel the fleet built with haste to counter the alien attacks.

SOASE story is not incredible as there is nothing after the intro video but there is room for epic.

Star-wars isn't original, i agree.  They follow the map for a good myth perfectly.  But it was done in an epically new and exciting way.

I like how open and maliable the story is, while havng the set rules that keep it held together.